A wise man spends all day listening to a seeker complain about the same problem over and over. One day, he tells a joke to the seeker, who laughs wildly. A moment later, the wise man tells the seeker the same joke. And a few minutes later, again. Confused, and no longer laughing, the seeker just stares. “See,” says the wise man, “you … [Read more...]
Turn fear into Opportunity
We all have an ambiguous relationship to fear. To some extent, if you’re not nervous, you’re not paying attention. Fear about financial security, for instance, can be a big motivator. But not every type of fear is productive, and some can be downright destructive. The trick is to know the difference. There is a often a healthy … [Read more...]
Why you should define your fears instead of your goals
What are you afraid of? Here’s an exercise the best-selling motivational author Tim Ferriss believes in for overcoming personal and professional obstacles. It’s called fear-setting — kind of like goal-setting, and related. Say your goal is to go back to school. Your list of fears might look something like this: I’ll run out of money and … [Read more...]
The obstacle in our path
How we deal with adversity is key to our professional success. There’s an old parable about a King who tested his subjects by placing a giant boulder in the middle of the road. He then hid in the bushes and watched as merchants, courtiers and citizens walked around the boulder, not bothering to do anything to fix the problem. You can be sure … [Read more...]
How to Sell Yourself to a Prospective Employer
How much are you worth? If you’re in the midst of a job search, you have a product to offer: yourself. Prospective employers are your customers, and you truly have to sell yourself to them. Think of a labor market as a true market. You need a competitive advantage. As Reid Hoffman writes in his book The Startup of You (a great title): “You … [Read more...]
The Power of Overcoming Adversity
Do you know the fable of the butterfly who didn’t get to struggle? It goes something like this: A man finds a cocoon and waits for the butterfly to emerge. But once a hole appears, he notices that the butterfly seems to get “stuck.” Trying to be helpful, the man uses scissors to enlarge the opening. The butterfly crawls out easily. Here’s … [Read more...]
Microsoft Study Reveals Top Three In-demand Skills
Robots might be great at crunching numbers quickly, but they don’t do empathy. In a world where automation can accomplish an increasing range of tasks, soft skills and other talents that only humans can provide are more and more important. Interestingly, the most in-demand, on-the-rise skill, according to World Economic Forum, … [Read more...]
Success and How to Get It
Do you want to know the secret to success? Richard St. John was asked this question once by a little girl, and he ran with it. Over the years, he interviewed 500 successful TED speakers — the crème de la crème of experts. And here’s the list they came up with: PASSION GOOD IDEAS PRACTICE FOCUS HARD WORK PERSISTENCE SERVICE The last … [Read more...]
Using Failure to Push You Forward
They say the light-bulb was Thomas Edison’s 1,001st experiment. The first 1,000 were duds. Whether or not this is literal fact or legend, it makes a good point we can all stand to be reminded of: It’s okay to fail. Or, as Denzel Washington said in his 2011 commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania, “fall forward.” We've all … [Read more...]
Improve Your Critical Thinking at Work
How often do we question the status quo? You might assume critical thinking comes naturally to most people, but you’d be wrong. There’s an art to it. Helen Lee Bouygues, found of the Reboot Foundation, has helped a lot of companies through dicey transitions. In her experience, when things go sideways for a company, it’s almost always because … [Read more...]
