What does it take to have it done?

Have you ever proposed an idea at work or told a friend about your newest entrepreneurial inspiration, and all you got were tons of reasons why it wouldn't work and hundreds of potential problems!!

You need to challenge them with Movement! Huh? Let me explain:

Movement is a thinking process suggested in "teach yourself to think". It ignores how seemingly impossible something is and only focus on "how do we move forward from this proposition". For example we say "cars should have square cars" , judgement would tell is it is crazy, it won't work, it will be uncomfortable, it will break down, it can't go fast etc. etc. obviously judgement won't help in getting creative ideas. so instead we accept the fact that wheels HAS TO BE square, and ask ourselves "how do we move forward from here?"

we could get movement from imagining the square wheel rolling, and as the wheel rises higher and lower, the suspension is adjusted correspondingly so the body of the car always remains the same distance from the ground. From this comes the concept of suspension that adjusts in anticipation of needs, this leads to the idea of active or intelligent suspension.

So next time when you hear "it will never work" "this is impossible", when people are focusing on problems instead of solutions, remember to challenge them with Movement!

Is this stranger a Yes or No?

How to, in a short period of time, get to know a person and decide if he fits what you are looking for.

This is the question I have been thinking about a lot lately. It is the situation you face when you interview someone for a job, look for a nanny to take care of your kids, search for a tenant for your apartment etc.

Those are all important decisions that have profound consequences, but you only have 30minutes to decide yes or no on a complete stranger. How to maximize your chance of making a good decision? I have some suggestions:

First, list the qualities that an ideal candidate will have. (More and more, I feel a person's academic credentials and past experience are less important than the quality of a person and the way he works. perhaps it's worth another post on qualifications vs quality).

Formulate double-sided questions for each quality you seek. For example, if you look for someone who respect rules, you can not of course ask him "are you someone who respect rules or do you always break rules" . You have to forumulate both as quality "are you someone who respect rules or are you someone who is flexible and can interpret rules according to circumstances?" Since both are quality, the candidate is more likely to tell the truth. or if you want you can ask "tell me an instance where you were able to be flexible and interpret rules according to the circumstance" but i don't think it is fair.

Check reference and ask good questions. I feel standard interview questions like "Tell me about a time when you...." is best asked to the reference than the interviewee himself. Because the interviewee will have a preprepared answer that shows himself in the best light. But the reference, even if he only wants to say good things about the candidate, will be unprepared and thus will give a more truthful answer Also you can try questions like "what is the one thing that you think xxx could improve on that will help his career the most"

Look closely at the way he responded to your ads. If you asked for a "quick description of yourself" in your housing ads, did he include it in his response? If you described your ideal tenant in your ads, did he respond item by item to affirm you that he is the ideal tenant? From little things you can tell if the person is self centered or can think in your shoes. this is very important. If a person is considerate, who can consider other people's needs and not just his/her own, then future conflicts can be resolved more easily.

Ask "what are the 3 most important things in an ideal job/ideal apartment for you", you can then determin if what you have to offer in fact matches what the person is looking for. I believe it's important to have a match to save troubles later.

Create minor conflict and see how they react. Only when there's a conflict of interest, can you see the true color of a person. use your creativity here :)

Adopt different presentation style to the size of audience

I am very much a big fan of simplicity in slide design -- large imagery that emphasizes the few and punchy key words/phrase. But sometimes, i have a hard time following my principles while trying to convey all my information.

When I read this article, I finally understood my dilemma! Presenting to a small audience (the "conference room" style presentation) is very different from presenting to a large one (the "ballroom" style presentation).

The large-image-punchy-headline presentation works well for the ballroom, as your main objective is to get your big idea across in a motivating and entertaining manner. But for the conference room, you need to persuade your audience to take a specific action - approve your proposal, purchase your goods/services etc.

The article suggests 3 keys to craft a succesful conference room style presentation

1) interactive. walk them through the printouts instead of lecture them using a projector. this will give the audience a chance to digest and feel they can voice their opinions. you can then address their objections right away.

2) details. you need to give the necessary details so your audience can make their decisions. But at the same time details adds credibility and persuasiveness.

3) remove distractions. The challenge is to have all this details without overwhelming the audience. remove all color and graphics that do not serve a clear purpose. design each slide so that on first glance, without reading any words on it, the audience grasp the general concept. See example below and find more layouts here:

A thought provoking question

If, tomorrow morning, you had 60% of the time and resources you needed to start making anything you wanted, what would it be? And, what would you do first?

asked the Merlin Mann at 43 folders.

Of course the "to start making anyting you wanted" can be understood in a general sense - "to start any project you wanted"

i find this an interesting and useful exercise as it forces one to first define how much time and resources does one need for this dream project. then, one has to establish priority and come up with a plan to know in what order to do things and what to do first.

What type of chart to choose for your data?

Different types of charts and diagrams show different aspects of data. So depending on your purpose, you should choose an appropriate chart/diagram. I find this diagram (from the extreme presntation method blog) to be a good starting point. download pdf version.

What is success?

Is it becoming a billionaire? is it climbing the corporate ladder and become the CEO of your company? is it getting featured on the cover of Forbes?

Earle Nightingale's simple definition of success gave me insights and inspiration. In his Strangest Secret (the first non-music record to exceed the one million mark back in the 1960's), it is simply put: success is to have a worthy goal and begin to work towards that goal.

Suddenly i understand why soemtimes i feel happy and fulfilled and other times i feel unsatisfied with myself. Goal is really important in having a sense of fulfillment. Whenever i have a goal, no matter how trivial (for example, planning my trip to thailand), i feel quite fulfilled as i search through the internet and guidebooks. I have a purpose. But on one of those days when i get back from work and don't know what to do, i read a few blogs, check my email every 5 mintues, and aimelessly surf the internet, at the end of the night i will feel really unsatisfied withmyself. i have an awful feeling that i am wasting my life.

It dawned on me that to get fulfilment for a life time, for each and every day of my life, i simply need to remind myself of my long term goal every day and do something about it everyday. Perhaps success, fullfilment and happiness is as simple as that!

Another closely related inspirational point in the Strangest Secret is: We become what we think about.

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."

"Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing."

Listen to Earle Nightingale

The strangest secret - Part 1


The strangest secret - Part 2

creativity and play

why in the world of a child everything seems possible and the possibilities seem endless, but in the world of an adult more often we see only constraints and reasons why something will not work?

We lost our creativity as we grew older as we become overly conscious of other people's judgment of us and our ideas, and as we lost our ability to "think with hands"

Watch a great presentation by Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play.