Seth Godin - The bandwidth-sync correlation

Link to Article: Click here. Read on to have a cool analysis of the ways we handle information in our heads(?!). A pic from Seth's post (linked to his post):

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Sharpening some tools?!

Now this is 'also' a good way to look at things that happened in my German and Japanese language courses. My mind went through a series of experiences that we undergo as kids, but never notice. The experiences made me renew my methods of memorizing, practicing, implementing (in short, naturalizing) the process of learning something new. It also helped my brain to correlate seemingly unconnected events that helped me in the process of learning. The differences between Japanese and German are wide in terms of the way of communication, the mannerism used, the characters and pronunciations, and the business etiquette.

It was not a new experience to learn a new language in both cases, given the kind of experiences I have with languages in India. I speak with my wife (my significant half!) using Marathi and Hindi, with my parents in Oriya and English, and with friends in Bengali (Score - 3/5), Bahasa (Indonesian; am very weak in this though!), and with taxi folks using Kannada, Tamil, and/or Telugu (In Telugu, I know expletives, 'How are you' with related conversations, and 'I Love You!')!! Apart from this, at office, I have a team white-board called 'Words of the Day' which I maintain in Japanese and German - this was after an in-house inter-cultural training.

In all this, the point I want to say is that it creates a state of mind that allows encryption/decryption abilities to be honed. It helps improve your emotion-switching skills (which is really important in daily business communication) and also helps you increase your failure/success-handling abilities (think, how!?). It makes you look at fellows in a totally different way (remember, I said 'different'). My ears/eyes/hands and mind got together once more - probably, in this fast world, we really forget to sharpen our basic skills. This was the way I used a seemingly boring matter (for an adult) learning newer languages into something that will help me sharpen my learning speed.

The world is beautiful with (human) emotions. Even animals have emotions (think about babies too!). And I feel excited to know some stuff in sign-language as well (I love spending time with special kids.)

[See a wiki stuff on 'How to learn a new language' Disclaimer! - Don't think I agree to everything on that - everyone is unique in their disability in learning!! ]

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Theories of Entrepreneurship

Theories of Entrepreneurship

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Watch the Google Wave

Watch the google wave:

Email, instant messaging, wikis, forums, blogs, mobile, SMS... Google Wave completely obliterates business models and entire verticals of companies left and right.

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Larry Winget - Who pays your salary

Larry Winget - Who pays your salary. Used with permission. Google Videos.

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Naveen Pattnaik: Orissa Polls 2009

If you want to know more about Orissa, click here. Thanks to OrissaLinks: Chitta Baral

Jay Panda writes about the secret behind Naveen’s success

Following are some excerpts from that article:

The fact is that there is no secret formula.  There is, instead, a clean slate, commonsensical approach to politics that would sound rational to the average citizen, but often confounds hardcore politicos.  There are three key components of this new approach.  First, at the core of it, is a remarkable level of sincerity and dedication.  For a man who till the age of 50 spent lots of time in the rarefied social circles of New York, London and the south of France, Naveen Patnaik has not travelled abroad in more than a decade. And he rarely sees his personal home in Delhi either, only visiting the city a few times a year for official engagements.  This monk-like total immersion in Orissa does not go unnoticed by the public.   …

The second is a deep commitment to good governance.  This goes far beyond lip service, and includes numerous instances of risky decisions.  That is, risky by the standards of conventional wisdom, but which ultimately turned out to be huge political successes.  In the early days, every time key cabinet colleagues were dismissed for corruption, or well-connected businessmen were arrested for criminal intimidation, there were widespread predictions that the government would fall because these actions were “naïve” and “impractical” and that “too many powerful forces were being taken on.”  But instead, they resulted in sharp increases in popular support. 

Gutsy decisions were taken across the board.  The inefficient and corrupt lift irrigation corporation was broken up, unsettling thousands of employees, but it was replaced with the revolutionary pani panchayat system, where lakhs of villagers took responsibility for better management of water.  Good governance was not all about taking on entrenched vested interests.   Orissa, then broke and deeply indebted, also showed an open mind in quickly adopting the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act and the Value Added Tax (VAT) at a time when many states were opposing them tooth and nail.   

One of the most important decisions involved taking on the government of India and the powerful mining lobby.  Despite having enormous mineral reserves, Orissa had long been shortchanged by discriminatory central government policies which yielded a pittance in royalties and encouraged downstream investments to be made elsewhere.  The state government’s new value addition policy linked the grant of mining leases to investments in the downstream processing plants.  This has led to a huge surge of investment:  more capital has flowed into Orissa in the past five years than in the previous fifty-five!  The subsequent surge in state revenues has enabled many pro-poor policies. 

The third component is diligent homework and a clinical, dispassionate, political decision-making process.   This may sound obvious to the lay person, but is still not common in political parties.  Take candidate selection, for instance.  In the absence of US-style primaries, most parties even today still choose candidates by a complex process that involves intrigue, lobbying, drama, sabotage, subterranean tests of loyalty, unverifiable caste arithmetic, and even kickbacks. That often leads to sub-optimal choices.  In Orissa, a quick glance at both BJP and Congress candidates reveal some breathtakingly unsuitable names who never stood a ghost of a chance.   

Almost from the day the BJD was formed, and perhaps because its founder was unfamiliar with politics in the beginning, the party has relied on extensive surveys, opinion polls, exit polls, etc.  These have never been devised to advertise the party’s strength, but rather to assess the ground realities and highlight weaknesses.  They have always been conducted by highly rated external agencies, but quietly and only for internal party use.  When it came to candidate selection, the strict criterion of winnability was applied to all, and no amount of lobbying or political clout made any difference. 

Expressbuzz.com has an editorial on the topic and it has some suggestion for Naveen.

Every media outlet, print and screen, has been vying to find words to express suitable praise for Naveen Patnaik, the hat-trick winner in Orissa. He has been variously described as having a magician’s touch, an uncanny ability to read the Oriya mood, someone not beholden to the usual corrupt structure, a clean practitioner of governance and much more. We, too, acknowledge his feat, especially when so many of his more experienced counterparts have been exposed as inept players of blind man’s bluff. Having done so, however, we would like to take our readers back to a small news item we had published early this month, sent by a staffer from the city of Paradip. In summary, Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for renovation of the 82 km Cuttack-Paradip state highway in July 2007, promising completion in two years (cost: Rs 125 crore). Our staffer reported that 20 per cent of the promised work has been done, and there are gaping holes on the newly laid stretch; locals say the cracks began in the first week. Officials stonewalled queries, save the project director, who admitted to irregularities and said the thing would be redone.

And our point is simple: what exactly does this say of the state of Orissa’s administration and its accountability, after a decade of Naveen-rule? Obviously, very little has changed in the basic system. We make the point not to tar Patnaik in his moment of glory, but to bring both the man and our readers to earth, in order that this state of affairs be addressed. Changing a system single-handed is difficult enough at the best of times, but we suggest the state of a road project is an excellent place to start. Road specifications and how to achieve these are standardised; flaws show up very swiftly, and responsibility is easily pinned on whoever had the contract, the overseer and the person who approved the payment. Start enforcing the rules here and make a few examples; the system will begin reforming with urgency, without any more orders. Let each road project, in Orissa and elsewhere, display the contract’s details at 100 ft intervals, with information of where to complain. And ensure only that all complaints to state bodies are promptly registered and acknowledged, whether these come in writing or on telephone. And, weekly, put these up on a website. You’ll no longer require a hero in the chief minister’s chair; citizens will take charge.

Thanks to OrissaLinks: Chitta Baral

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Increase Confidence!

This is from an email forward. Thanks to whoever wrote it originally.

Is your confidence intensity is where you’d like it to be?

Many relationship issues occur from a short of of confidence or low self-esteem. little self-confidence can put in withdrawal, lack of closeness and even unfaithfulness in a relationship.

So, how can you amplify your confidence? Well, self-confidence is not a product that can be plucked from a tree or pulled from a bookshelf. You see, having advantage for ones self is all about self-love and that comes from inside. So, in numerous ways achieving self confidence is an expedition within.

However, there are various things you can do that will help to catch you the right track. To get you moving in the right path I’ve included the following “Ways to raise your Confidence”…

1. Think about a name that is confident and act, speak and walk similar to him or her. mock-up their mannerisms and activities. It works for them; it will work for you.

2. Smile a lot added. That doesn’t stand for putting a silly grin on your face! But smile when you walk down the lane, when you meet up people and generally be better-off even if you’re not feeling that way.

3. Gain knowledge from the past; don’t bang yourself up about it. It’s gone; it’s by no means coming back. Instead learn from it for next time.

4. Purchase yourself some new clothes, get your locks done, and care for yourself to something new. It will make you feel superior and will give your ego a boost.

5. Are you ready for situations? Are you prepared enough to meet up any test that may come up? Are you geared up for that meeting, that presentation, that job interview, when you meet somebody for the first time? If not, get to it.

6. Cooperate to your strengths. Know what you are excellent at and expose yourself to these opportunities at all opportunities - because you’re superior at it, you’ll enjoy it and have more poise.

7. Look up your weaknesses. Know and understand what these are and put a plan in place to improve them over time.

8. Gain knowledge of how to say no to people. Don’t be frightened, you’ve got nothing to be afraid of. Just watch the response on their face after you’ve said it the first time and there will be no going back.

9. Be positive. Gaze on the “can do” side of things rather than the “can’t do”. You’ve proficient lots in your life and you will accomplish lots additional in the future.

10. Be in charge of your opinion at all times. What is a thought? It’s just a query that you’ve asked yourself and the consideration is you’re answer. If you’re having negative thoughts, you’re probably asking a negative issue. Alter the questions to be more positive.

11. Whenever you experience a negative thought coming, discontinue, THINK, and say is this really vital in the grand scheme of things. A lot of the instance it isn’t. A lot of people in life major in minor things!

After you have done the superlative you can to address the connection issues, you can go back to the reasons you are having these discussions in the first place — the raise, help, change in job responsibility or shift you have been seeking. Only now you will find a human being with whom it is much easier to deal. Where earlier there may have only been stony silence, worry and stress, there should be extra open dialogue and difficulty sorting.

Efficient and good operational relationships are essential to productive negotiations. If they do not survive, you have to take time to expand them. It will never be trouble-free, but it is always priceless.

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B - humor

   
Thanks to Economic Times

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Managing Wikis in Business

Penny Edwards, who primarily contributes at his Wordpress Blog, did a study in 2007 about the acceptance, usability and popularity of Wikis in business environments. We are two years beyond the date that he first published his report. Now, (in agreement with Penny!) Wikis have gained remarkably more acceptance - take for example, the site for Startup Saturday Bangalore http://network.headstart.in/projects/startup-saturday-bangalore/project-home.

To quote Penny,

The study investigates how businesses can manage wikis to facilitate collaboration in the workplace. In doing so, it describes a process framework for managing wiki implementations and analyses how ‘learning organisation’ themes can aid in that process. It also considers whether a wiki can act as more than a mere technological enabler for wider information dissemination, by providing an independent mechanism whose management and widespread use can encourage organisational learning.

and later,

It also indicates that wikis have provided platforms for collaborative and emergent behaviour, enabling people to work/communicate more efficiently and effectively, learn from past experience and share knowledge/ideas in organisational contexts that are not averse to collaboration. Whilst it has not been possible to conclude whether changes to organisational learning characteristics have resulted from wikis’ fostering of such collaborative/emergent behaviour, or will become more pronounced as wikis mature, it does highlight scope for longitudinal research in this area.

Today, many organizations use wiki engines for anything you'd use a content management system for - more than likely in their intranet. Wikis are an excellent entry-level content management system because they are easy to edit, require very little training and no specialized software (other than the browser and web server). Wiki is also being used for document version management in many organizations.

"Wiki" (/wiːkiː/) is a Hawaiian word for "fast". "Wiki" can be expanded as "What I Know Is," but this is a backronym. Wikimapia, Wiki Mind Maps, MediaWiki, Educational Wikis, Social Wikis and Corporate Wikis  - we have a lot of proof that people have understood the evolution of wikis.

                                    

Penny Edwards has done a good job reviewing wikis in business - you can access the report published by him at Final Report – Managing Wikis in Business – September 2007.

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H6 G-Sec

What do you do when your team member has done a blunder and you are forced to defend him? Or when you have to handle an unofficial beer party with official guests?

From the middle of the third year of engineering to that of the fourth year, it was a mix of many such experiences when I was the General Secretary of my hostel. Before I got elected as the General Secretary (G-Sec, as they say) I had no idea that I would be contesting for such a post ever in my life. H6 expands to 'Hall of Residence 6'. At NIT Rourkela, you had six 'Halls of Residence' for men and two for the ladies. (NIT stands for National Institute of Technology. There are around 17 such universities in India.)

I had my own share of friends and enemies during my college days. But I had this habit of being in touch, and knowing details about almost everybody on the campus, including the smaller folks like security guards or the cafeteria staff. Sanjay Dutt's Kaante was released the year before we stood for election. I remember the room-to-room campaigning, printing posters with catchy phrases, raising slogans in front of the university on improvement issues, late night partying, answering people through text messages during lecture hours, and still maintaining some level of performance in the academics - I do not know how it all fitted together. We used to sing 'Jaane kya hoga raama re' on the building corridoors in the middle of the nights! We were four folks who sat together to make a strategy that no one could break - we all were elected to the board of management of the hostel. We had a cultural secretary, a sports secretary, a kitchen secretary and myself as the general secretary. As for me, there was just one more candidate who stood against me in the election - we had a good handshake once I was announced as selected.

Life changed in many ways. We used a number of discussions, both public as well as within our group, to formulate plans for improvements in H6. After years, we were most punctual in organizing the 'Independence Day' celebrations. We organized groups discussions for folks who were preparing for MBA entrance exams. There were a lot of enthusiasm generated for team outings - it was fun to handle everything from logistics to entertainment to feedback.

Being a G-Sec exposed me to newer arenas. I was able to look at the working of an education institution and a residential building with around 200 inmates. I saw the various rules made ages ago and work to revamp them with more relevant ones. There was change all around in the air. There was a change in the menu of the cafeteria, and we put a feedback system in place for folks. There was a change in the visitors policy as well, and for the first time, we had female students visit the hostel - this was banned earlier due to some archaic laws. This change was motivated by what the public felt about themselves being mature students of an university which ranked third amongst all the NITs in India and stood first for branch-specific rankings.

There was also a change in the inmate categories in the hostel - let me explain that a bit. We had residents in H6 who mostly comprised of MCA and lateral entry students. MCA stands for Master in Computer Applications and the lateral entry students were the ones who joined in the second year of engineering after completing their technical diplomas. Apart from this, we had a number of students who were 'back logged', that is they could not complete a year's course in the given time. Unlike the other hostels, there was a lack of a proper mix of students from all branches and streams in the university. This was changed when we were in. We brought in an exchange between the inmates of the various hostels and ensured that the student profile was diversified and that we had more interaction amongst students of all streams.

The cafeteria menu included 'Pakhaala' for the first time in the history of the institute. Pakhaala is a special food made in Orissa during summers - it is made by soaking boiled rice in water, and adding salt and spices. NITs have students from all over India and this was an experience that all students from outside of the state of Orissa had for the first time in their lives, and they did love it during the scorching heat of the summers.

Almost every other day of our tenure, we had some issue flare up - it was not all that peaceful. As I mentioned in the very first sentence of this write-up, there was a quarrel between one of my team mates, the kitchen secretary and one of the cooks. The food was pathetic that day and the fellow ended up getting pinned against the wall and receiving boxing shots from the students. I had to interfere in between to stop this hungama and within few minutes, someone had informed the hostel warden. While I was trying to settle things in the kitchen itself, my mobile rang with the warden on the call.

One hour of drama and then a short-lived peace - the warden took stock of the situation and put a show-cause notice to the student, asking why he should not expel him. Being expelled meant that he will lose all of his engineering career and has to start over again - something he had not thought before hitting the cook. It also meant that there will be a police record of the situation, which meant a big blur on his career graph. I could not support him for what he did and could not let the warden ruin his career as well. It was a heated discussion for two hours after which he was pardoned on the condition that he will do social work for the university and never repeat such an act. (There were a string of clauses before he was let off, including public apology to the cook.) I also advised that the cook be shifted to the adjoining hostel and replaced by the other cook there.

Another time there was a public outcry when one of the inmates hit a girl on the road while riding a bike, and both of them were in the intensive care unit of the largest hospital in the city. It was a mad crowd at the hospital gates, with people shouting slogans against the students. Well, we handled it properly, with adequate medical attention to both the patients and adequate attention to the public as well. My friends helped me a lot when I was standing in front of the mob - I just didn't want to be 'mobbed' by them!

One new thing I understood was the profile of poor students on government scholarships - my signature was required before waiving of their hostel fees and I could understand the amount of struggle these folks put in to come from stark poverty and going to become future technocrats of the world. One of such persons is still in contact with me even after six years of these events and I know he works for one of the biggest MNCs of the globe. Being in NIT, where students from all states of India are proporta

My daily work also involved coordinating with the hostel staff, security fellows, maintenance guys, contractors and suppliers. It showed the aspects of society where bribing was a way of life and I was not at all for it. It also allowed me to educate such people on how they could leverage themselves without resorting to under-the-table methods. One of the best lessons I learned was about 'when to kiss and when to kick' people. There were, at times, trade offs between what I thought and what others thought.

This way, acceptability is another thing that I learned as a G-Sec. It is not always that your ideas get accepted, but if you believe in the idea, you should know how to put it forth. As they say in Deutsch 'Der Tone macht der Musik' - it is the tone that makes the music. Another part of acceptability is to be aware and agree to others' perspectives. Seriously there's some art to it.

Each of the lessons learned during this stint was helpful in some or the other aspect of my professional life later. I could relate a lot of the characteristics of human behavior that I had observed those days, to those of my colleagues and managers. It also instilled in me, an approach to look at the bigger picture during any decision making. Managing people and their attitude is an art. It also reduces the amount of unnecessary frustration that many freshers have, at their workplace. Multi-tasking and emotion management are amongst more more things that I learned. Till date, I have organized five team outings for my colleagues at various companies and each of them has been a memorable one. Life teaches.. !

It was a mix of good and learning stuff those days - During a Governing Body meeting, I remember talking with the warden of the ladies hostel when he mentioned a funny incident: There was this girl who left the ladies' hostel mentioning that she's going to the library, and the warden spotted her kissing her boyfriend under some tree. The warden scribbled on the security logbook, right next to the entry made by the girl '..... was found in 'love' and not in the library'!

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The Dilbert Devotee

Are you one of the many fellows who really worshipped Dilbert till they themselves come to management roles? Or you haven't still been in the management role yet!

I had a manager, long time back, who used to put Dilbert strips cut out from the newspaper, on his walls. It used to be a great experience dealing with him, because he had enough sense to laugh at himself!

A Dilbert Devotee in you is born much before you get your first job. You seem to feel the same kind of feelings that every employee feels at the beginning (in fact, many of them are genuine issues). Gradually, you tend to learn more and more, till you can really laugh at the realistic issues posed by Dilbert comic strips.

Here is a Dilbert strip I found with a random search on the Internet. Please find more about Dilbert at his official blog site (click here).

Networking

Shared under a Creative Commons license

How to Network

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

You've probably heard the phrase "It's not what you know, it's who you know." In today's interconnected society, that rings true more than ever. Your talents, abilities, and experience will never take you anywhere if nobody knows you exist. In order to get what you want out of life, you need to be resourceful. Your fellow human beings are a vast resource.

Steps

1. Break your stereotypes about networking. If you're reading this article, you're probably familiar with the benefits of networking, but you've avoided doing it for a variety of reasons.
   
   • Networking can seem insincere, pretentious, or even manipulative. And if that's what you're thinking, you're probably right... about some of it. There will always be people who judge others based on image and titles, but there are also people who want to build genuine, mutually beneficial relationships. When you're networking, you're going to have to sift through the people you don't want to know to get to the people you do want to know. That's just an essential part of networking, but the good news is that with practice, you'll get better at spotting the people worth knowing.
     
   • You might think you're too shy or self-conscious to schmooze. Networking does require a degree of boldness, but with the advent of social networking sites, you can get to find others with similar interests and goals without being in a room full of people. Also, people who are shy and self-conscious tend to be a lot more open and talkative when they're doing or talking about something they're deeply interested in. If you find people who are just as obsessed with birding, origami, or manga as you are, then you'll have a much easier time establishing connections.
     
   • Networking takes time and effort. Unless you're an extroverted person who thoroughly enjoys schmoozing, it can be exhausting. Why bother? Well, one way to think of it is to imagine how much time and frustration you would save if anything you wanted or needed was just one or two phone calls away. Ultimately, a network can be an investment, with benefits that outweigh the costs.[1] You just need to stick with it and watch it grow.
     
   
   
2. Build your social network. If you hate small talk, this will be the hardest part, but you'll improve with practice. The key is to smile and take a genuine interest in other people's lives.
   
   • Strengthen your existing connections. Getting in touch with old friends, distant relatives, and people you went to school with can be a good stepping stone because you're reaching out, but you're not approaching complete strangers.[2] Give them a phone call or send them an e-mail to find out where they are and what they're doing. Tell them what you're up to.
     
   • Pursue interests and activities that mean a lot to you. The Internet has made this a whole lot easier. Check forums, listings, classifieds, and Internet mailing lists (known as "listservs") for local events or meetings that are likely to attract people with similar interests or passions.
     
   • Go to work-related conferences. Print out business cards and give out as many as you can. Ask the people you meet for their business cards, and write any details about them on the back once you have a moment to spare.
     
   
   
3. Find out who knows whom. When you're talking to people, find out what they do for a living and for fun, as well as what their spouse or significant other, nearby family members, and close friends do for work and recreation, too. It may be helpful to make note of this in your address book so you don't lose track of who does what.
   
   • Example: You meet Mary at a book club meeting and you find out that her cousin is an expert windsurfer. A few months later, your niece reveals to you that one of her life's goals is to go windsurfing. Instead of scratching your head and thinking "I know somebody mentioned windsurfing recently but I can't remember who..." you look at your address book, find "windsurfing cousin" written next to Mary's name, call her up and ask her if her cousin is available to give your niece a private lesson, that you want to give that to her as a birthday gift. Mary says "Sure!" and convinces her cousin to give you a discount. Your niece is thrilled. A month later, your car breaks down, and you remember that your niece's boyfriend is an aspiring auto mechanic...
     
   • Find the extroverts. As you continue to network, you'll find that some people are much better at it than you are - they already know everyone! You'll stand to benefit from getting to know such people first because they can introduce you to others who share your interests or goals. In other words, if you're an introvert, find an extrovert who can "set you up".
     
   
   
4. Invite people out. Going out for lunch, beer, drinks, or coffee is usually good for catching up casually. You can also invite people to do things related to your interests. If you met someone at a caving club, why don't you ask them to check out a new cave with you? The objective here is to establish a connection beyond your initial meeting. Preferably, this should be one-on-one.
   
5. Be generous. Since you're looking to create mutually beneficial relationships, a good way to kick start this is by thinking of ways in which you can help others. It's not all about contacts, job offers, and loans; you can offer compliments, good listening skills, and other less tangible (but valuable) gestures of kindness and generosity.[3] As long as you're sincere, you're establishing good relations with people and opening channels for mutual benefit. The girl who was crying on your shoulder last month might get you the job of your dreams next month. You never know, so place your bets on good karma. What goes around, comes around.
   
6. Follow up. Don't get someone's business card or e-mail address and forget about it. Find a way to stay in touch. Maintain your network. Whenever you find an article that might be of interest to them, for instance, send it on their way. If you hear about a negative event (a tornado, a riot, an electrical blackout) that happened in their vicinity, call them and make sure they're fine. Keep track of everyone's birthday and mark them on a calendar; be sure to send birthday cards to everyone you know, along with a nice note to let them know you haven't forgotten about them, and that you don't want them to forget about you.
   
7. Tap into your network. The next time you need something (a job, a date, a hiking partner) cast a wide net and see what happens. Make a few phone calls or send out an e-mail describing your situation in a friendly tone: "Hey, I'm in a bit of a pinch. I have these concert tickets for Saturday and I haven't been able to find someone to go with me. Since this is a band I love, I'd like to go with someone I know I'll have fun with. Do you know of anyone who might enjoy it with me?"
   
   • Don't ever apologize when asking for a favor or help. It can signal a lack of confidence and professionalism.[4] There's nothing to be sorry about--you're just seeing if anyone happens to be in a position to help you; you're not making demands, or forcing people to do anything that they don't want to do.
     
   
   
8. Use the Internet. Let's face it, not all of us are living in cities like New York or Los Angeles where it's easier to find someone of interest and get in touch with them personally. Social Networking has evolved over the years to become a business networking tool as well. The internet and online networking have essentially reduced distances between people to zero so that we can not only network outside of our hometown, but also from coast to coast and globally. Develop some online contacts whom you might be interested in networking with. Search for journals and professional organizations online and and use resources such as CareerCritique to find out more about the people who do certain jobs and their work life.
   

Tips

• Start small. Don't sign up for 12 meetings in one month. A sustained effort over the long run is better than making a one-time big effort and then burning out. Remember that networking requires maintenance, so don't bite off more than you can chew.
  
• It always helps to look approachable and be charming.
  
• Can't find a local club or group relating to your interests or career? Start one!
  
• You can make great contacts with politicians and their aides by volunteering in an election or being involved with their party outside of election time.
  
• Use every Internet tool at your disposal to build your social network in real life. Instant messaging applications, for instance, are sometimes better than phone calls. Internet is very useful to meet and keep contact with a very large amount of people worldwide.
  

Warnings

• If you've never networked, it'll be hard at first. Very hard. But over time, it'll get easier. Eventually you'll learn how to start a conversation with a complete stranger in a way that feels comfortable and acceptable to you.
  
• Watch out for parasites - people who'll pump you for favors and never try to help you in return. When you find one attached to you (and if you're generous, you will) turn them down as politely as you can: "No, I'm sorry, I can't do that tomorrow. I've got plans." If they try to make you feel guilty, feign an excuse to get out of the conversation and make yourself scarce to them. Don't lose your temper or act cold because that'll give them something negative to say about you when they're talking to others, like "Oh, yes I know James, he once called me a leech..." - don't let this happen to you.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Network at a Conference
  
• How to Create a Homeschool Network from Scratch
  
• How to Build a New Social Network as a Young Professional
  
• How to Have a Great Conversation
  
• How to Build a Social Life as a Senior Citizen
  
• How to Start a Social Club
  

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ http://www.businesspundit.com/how-to-network-for-introverts/


2. ↑ http://www.cio.com/article/164300


3. ↑ http://www.cio.com/article/164300


4. ↑ http://www.cio.com/article/164300

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Meetings about meetings

Credits for this post to Seth Godin 

Do you have one? Some folks are going to eight hours of meeting a day. At Ford, they used to have meetings to prepare for meetings, just to be sure everyone had their story straight.

If you're serious about solving your meeting problem, getting things done and saving time, try this for one week. If it doesn't work, I'll be happy to give you a full refund.

• Understand that all problems are not the same. So why are your meetings? Does every issue deserve an hour? Why is there a default length?
  
• Schedule meetings in increments of five minutes. Require that the meeting organizer have a truly great reason to need more than four increments of realtime face time.
  
• Require preparation. Give people things to read or do before the meeting, and if they don't, kick them out.
  
• Remove all the chairs from the conference room. I'm serious.
  
• If someone is more than two minutes later than the last person to the meeting, they have to pay a fine of $10 to the coffee fund.
  
• Bring an egg timer to the meeting. When it goes off, you're done. Not your fault, it's the timer's.
  
• The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within ten minutes of the end of the meeting.
  
• Create a public space (either a big piece of poster board or a simple online page) that allows attendees to rate meetings and their organizers on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of usefulness. Just a simple box where everyone can write a number. Watch what happens.
  
• If you're not adding value to a meeting, leave. You can always read the summary later.
  

This is all marketing. It's a show, one that lets your team know you're treating meetings differently now.

Top Three Difficulties of Working from Home

Credits for this article to Victor Rodrigues, www.greatdad.com. For the original article, click here.

While working from home brings benefits like family time, sometimes these very benefits can turn into difficulties. Here is a list of the top three difficulties faced by home entrepreneurs: 

1. Work-Life Balance 
While your work-from-home idea stemmed from your desire to balance your work and family life, working from home can tilt the balance completely towards family obligations. Attending to household chores is a full time job. If you include all these chores in your work-from-home life, you'll soon find your business crowded out. Ask any housewife, household chores never end. Organize help to take care of your household chores. The help could even come from your older kids. 

2. Lack of Workspace 
Working from home allows you to create your own comfort zone. If you have a big house, you can easily designate one room to be your workplace. If there are bigger kids, you can easily keep this room out of bounds by locking it. The problem comes if you live in a small apartment with no spare room for your workspace. You would then set up your workspace either in your bedroom, living room, or in the hallway. With bigger kids, it would be very difficult to keep your workspace protected. Setting up a system of locks and cabinets might help you resolve this issue until you move into a bigger house. 

3. Not Being Taken Seriously 
Working from home gives you the freedom to interact with people you choose. However, a home business would not instill the kind of confidence that an organization in the same business inspires. People may not take you seriously because many tend to consider home businesses as little hobbies. Home business owners should therefore project a professional business image. This can be done with the help of a professional looking website, business cards, and other arrangements associated with regular businesses. 

Use the Comments section below to share your tips, views, or experiences with other dads.

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Starting up with friends

Mistakes with friends are not things you can handle easily. Here is an article that shows some good points: click here.

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The Power of Your Speech

By Virginia Avery [Note: Virginia Avery is a communications specialist who trains and coaches businesspeople to make more profitable presentations. * Virgi...@AveryPresentations.com*]

Language expert Wilfred Funk was one of the first to study highly successful men and women to determine what they have in common. What he discovered was that they all have the ability to communicate clearly and effectively. Since then, many studies have shown the same thing. In fact, members of the "speaking" professions - lawyers, politicians, professional speakers, salespeople, and entertainers - are among the highest paid. There appears to be a high correlation between word power and earning power. The ability to speak, to persuade, and to keep an audience's attention is well rewarded.

What about you? Have you been sabotaging your own success because you feel that speaking in front of a group is something you would rather die than do? If so, it is time to do yourself a favor and learn the skills that can change your life. There is no better time than the new year to develop the confidence to speak up.

Speaking well is considered the *number one reason* for career advancement. And - no doubt about it - this is an essential business skill. Every time you meet with a client or make a presentation, your company image is affected - for better or worse. From the standpoint of public relations, your business can have no better vehicle than a well-spoken representative.

If you think about it, you'll see that your most important business - and personal - transactions involve face-to-face communications. To mention just a few: asking for and receiving a pay raise ... making a winning proposal ... promoting your new service with a speech ... and persuading others to back a cause you feel passionate about.

Communication is a complex subject. We communicate more than simply with the words we use. We communicate as much by *how* we say something as by *what* we say. We communicate through voice inflection, tone, facial expressions, body stance, and even by the way we breathe. But perhaps the most important aspect of effective communication is having the self-confidence that comes from practice.

I once consulted with a small engineering firm that was on the short list for a contract to design a project for the city of Grants Pass, Oregon. Five firms were making proposals, among them two extremely large and successful companies. Now, I know about as much about engineering as I do about nuclear physics. Nonetheless, I had my client restructure their approach, improve their visuals, and practice ... practice ... practice their presentation. And, yes, they were awarded the contract.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed: "All the great speakers were bad speakers at first." Woodrow Wilson, for instance, started out as a political science professor. He had a reserved manner and a stilted speaking style - not characteristics that make friends and influence people. Recognizing that, he deliberately and systematically set a goal for himself to become a skillful orator. And it worked. His success was so evident that when he delivered his inaugural address as the 28th President of the United States, it was said "not since Lincoln has there been a president so wonderfully gifted in the art of expression."

Biographer Joseph Tumulty wrote that by the end of Wilson's life, he "was like a great organist playing upon the heart emotions of thousands of people who were held spell-bound by what he said."

The ability to speak is one of your greatest gifts. Doing it well can transform your life. You can present yourself and your ideas hesitantly ... or you can be purposeful, direct, and confident. It's up to you.

Think, for a moment, of Socrates, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abraham Lincoln, Will Rogers, Martin Luther King, and Oprah. All of them master communicators. These diverse individuals from different times and places made history with their words. They moved others in their time, and they still move us today.

No one is born with the ability to be an expert communicator. But it's well worth the effort to develop it. Being able to speak with confidence - in any situation - can be one of the most exciting and rewarding skills you will ever have. A deep sense of satisfaction, even exhilaration, comes with knowing you have expressed yourself effectively.

Anyone (yes, even you) can deliver a presentation that will captivate an audience. But it does take preparation, planning ... and, of course, practice.

Here are some ideas to help you begin to become a master of the spoken word:

- Become aware of how you sound. Record yourself ... then listen to it as if you were listening to a stranger. What advice or suggestions would you give this person?

- Start a file of short stories that you find appealing. Tell these stories to yourself in the shower ... then to a few people ... then to a few more people ... and then to larger groups.

- Go to lectures and seminars to hear other speakers. What worked for them? What didn't?

- Beg, borrow, or buy tapes of speakers such as Earl Nightingale, Zig Zigler, and Brian Tracy. Listen to them over and over again.

- Consider joining a Toastmasters group where you can practice weekly.

- Volunteer to speak at every opportunity.

- If you want to make the most progress, and make it fast, get professional advice and coaching.

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Question the world

Everyday after he came back from school, the kid was asked a single question by his mom – What did you ask the teacher today? She made it really a fun session while asking this question and the kid felt happy explaining how he could ask clever questions to his teachers. But as time went by, he really fell short of good questions. He used to think a lot before making up a question worth asking. It was a good exercise for him everyday, though he really felt frustrated on days that he could not get a reasonably good question – his mom just smiled at these times and said, 'Look deeper and wider, sonny!'. A simple childhood game started to develop as a passion inside the child – he no longer asked questions that he knew answers of – rather, he tried to get more and more original in his thinking pattern, trying to find out every unanswered question around him. This small boy grew up to be a Nobel Prize winner in Physics (if I am not wrong, in all probability, he was Niels Bohr, the first Nobel Prize winner in Physics from Denmark! Please correct me if I am not right.)

 

What matters in the above anecdote is the fact that there is an art to observing deeper and wider around you. You get propelled towards original thinking only by asking questions. Asking relevant questions is as much an art as asking irrelevant questions is an irritation. To quote Hal Gregersen, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Leadership, "Transformational leaders ask numerous innovative questions. Research on the entrepreneurial founders at 25 of the most innovative companies in the world — places like Apple, eBay, and Amazon — reveals that they rely heavily on countless, catalytic questions to create revolutionary new ways of doing business.  Such questions help break the status quo and prompt powerful, personal action."

 

One good thing about a good leader is that (s)he not only asks good questions, but also genuinely makes an effort to answer them, even if the answer is preliminary. People who just ask questions are smart, but folks who try to see around for an answer are smarter.

 

Questions change the world.