3 Things I Wish I Knew Before We Got Married I used to think I had my stuff together. Then I got married. Marriage is great—but it rocked everything I knew. I quickly realized my basic goal in life, prior to getting married, was to simply remain undisturbed. This “disruption” came suddenly and was disguised as a 5-foot-nothing Swedish-Filipino woman. When I decided I’d rather not live without her, I proceeded to ask her to marry me—that is, to officially invite someone who wasn’t me to be in my personal space for the rest of my life. This decision introduced my most significant experiences and most challenging experiences—none of which I would trade for the world. However, I wish I’d had a bit more insight on the front end of our marriage to help me navigate it all. According to most research, more than 50 percent of people who say “I do” will not be sleeping in the same bed eight years from now. Although happiness is often a very real byproduct of a healthy relationship, marriage has a far more significant purpose in sight. 1. 2. 3.
Women Need to Realize Work Isn't School - Whitney Johnson and Tara Mohr Academic institutions are churning out ever-more female graduates. But the very skills that propel women to the top of the class in school are earning us middle-of the-pack marks in the workplace. Indeed, a recent study found that women account for 51.4% of middle managers in the U.S. but only 4.2% of Fortune 500 CEO’s. Based on our experience, the CEO statistics will continue to improve, but only incrementally, until women recognize that the boardroom is not the schoolroom. To be successful, we must now do the very thing we were always taught not to: be disruptive. In school, being disruptive might get you sent to the principal’s office, but in business, disruption is a proven path to success, describing innovations that take root at the low end of the market, or create a new market, and then eventually upend an industry. 1. Once you find problems that need to be solved and think up solutions, start talking, and especially start persuading. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The 20-Minute Exercise To Eradicate Negative Thinking After a flurry of emails in response to my blog post on passion, I reached a disheartening realization: Passion is useless if you don’t already believe. You see, what we can achieve is limited by what we believe. Henry Ford knew this: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.” So here I was, passionately committed to become the world-class business guru, best-selling author, the speaker who fills stadiums. You’ve probably heard that voice as well. I’m making progress--my book sales are accelerating, my keynote audiences are growing, and I’m sharing the stage with people like Jack Welch and Robin Sharma--but in the back of my mind the voice pulls the reins: “You can’t do it.” Great “outthinkers” seem to overcome this voice. Belief is contagious. So what do you do when you don’t believe? Fundamentals 1. 2. 3. 4. The Model Imagine a hot air balloon being held down by four anchors. The four anchors represent evidence, logic, emotion, and social consensus.
20 Unstoppable Entrepreneurs Share Their Advice For Outstanding Success These amazingly talented male and female entrepreneurs share their most valuable advice for achieving success. There seems to be a pattern of looking past your failures and pursuing your goals with relentless persistence to reach success. Read on for some invaluable advice on how you can be successful in your business and in life. Sara Blakely (Founder Of Spanx) “When I was growing up, my dad would encourage my brother and I to fail. Gurbaksh Chahal (Author & Serial Entrepreneur) “People tend to think that in order to start a new business they have to come up with something new and dazzling, but that’s a myth – and it’s often propagated by venture capitalists. Jeff Weiner (CEO of LinkedIn) “As a child, I can’t recall a day that went by without my dad telling me I could do anything I set my mind to. Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg, Pownce & Milk) “Go build it. Caterina Fake (Founder of Flickr & Hunch) “Entrepreneurs need to start building today. Evan Williams (Founder of Blogger & Twitter) J.K.
Procrastination Is Not Laziness I was going to tackle my procrastination problem last weekend but I never got around to it. By Sunday at 5:48 p.m. I realized I had blown it again. Throughout the week I feel like I barely have enough time to cook, eat, tidy up, write an article and do the odd errand. I lean towards the weekend, when I have two whole days to finally get some work done. But the weekends go by and I never catch up. Sometimes I do sit down early in the day and pound something out, but then I give myself a well-deserved break and that’s usually the end of any productivity. I avoid taking on the real important stuff. The important stuff doesn’t get done, at least not before my procrastinatory tendencies have created an obvious, impending consequence of not doing it, like incurring a fine, really letting someone down, or getting fired. So much of what I want to do isn’t terribly difficult and wouldn’t take a lot of time to get done. Reaching critical levels To some of you this is already sounding familiar.
I'm a loser and I want to change that - now I have been a dreamer all my life. It took me until last year to figure this out, and only thanks to this community. I hardly ever tried - and when I tried, I didn't persist. It has been my goal to start a business since ever I can remember. And yet I never really tried (until last year, which resulted in abysmal failure). Likewise, I have been programming on and off since the age of 17. I don't have too much time left. HN, here I am. [EDIT] Thanks for your all your responses! The Ultimate Hack: How our newest Growth Hacker landed a job with Vidyard after 5 intense months of breaking the rules - the vidyard blog As our team continues to grow, we make it a point to hire awesome and talented people. Some come through conventional means and others, like Amar, come on board against all odds. We asked Amar to narrate the tale and our co-founders Mike and Devon to add their own perspective along the way. Mike: Amar joined us 3 weeks ago after a long trial of hunting down and applying for the “Growth Hacker” position we posted on StartupNorth. The Beginning Amar: I was out of school for more than a year with a few failed business ideas under my belt and was not having any luck getting a startup job through conventional means. The entire process required me to push myself far out of my comfort zone. I graduated from the University of Toronto in June of 2011 and spent about 6 months testing out some business ideas (they all failed). I first heard about Vidyard and their growth hacker opening on Startup North from a friend. Mike: The e-mail looked like a copy/pasted general cover letter/hire me e-mail.
How to work with software engineers - by Ken Norton By Ken Norton I’ve worked in technology for twenty years, the past thirteen as a product manager. I’ve gained somewhat of a reputation for being effective at working with software engineers. This skill has earned me a place in history as one of the three greatest product managers of all time.[1] (On this exclusive list I am joined only by Steve Jobs and Niccolò Machiavelli.) For years I’ve kept my secrets close to the vest. But no longer: today I will share with you my Ten-Step Plan for Working With Engineers. Why should you listen to me, one of the three greatest product managers of all time? 1. As a PM, expect your successes to be recognized. 2. Occasionally something will go wrong. 3. Frivolous little technical details are for the engineers, and you have much better things to be doing. 4. Software engineers write code, that’s what they do. 5. The best way to demonstrate your value to the team is by introducing process. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. There you have it. Afterword And finally...
Elon Musk: The Role of Analogy and Reasoning From First Principles in Disruptive Entrepreneurship | takingpitches In terms of getting an insight into “Tony Stark’s” head, the last 5-ish minutes of Kevin’s Rose’s Foundation interview of Elon Musk is a gem: I think its important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy…The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy…We are doing this because it’s like something else that was done..or it is like what other people are doing…slight iterations on a theme…“First principles” is a physics way of looking at the world…what that really means is that you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there…that takes a lot more mental energy…Someone could –and people do — say battery packs are really expensive and that’s just the way they will always be because that’s the way they have been in the past…They would say it’s going to cost, historically it cost $600 KW/hour. It’s not going to be much better that in the future…So first principles..we say what are the material constituents of the batteries.
What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day Remember when you used to have a period at the beginning of every day to think about your schedule, catch up with friends, maybe knock out a few tasks? It was called home room, and it went away after high school. But many successful people schedule themselves a kind of grown-up home room every day. You should too. The first hour of the workday goes a bit differently for Craig Newmark of Craigslist, David Karp of Tumblr, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, career writer (and Fast Company blogger) Brian Tracy, and others, and they’ll tell you it makes a big difference. Here are the first items on their daily to-do list. Don’t Check Your Email for the First Hour. Tumblr founder David Karp will "try hard" not to check his email until 9:30 or 10 a.m., according to an Inc. profile of him. If you need to make sure the most important messages from select people come through instantly, AwayFind can monitor your inbox and get your attention when something notable arrives. Choose Your Frog