To push people outside of their comfort zones.

To push people outside of their comfort zones. You will learn very quickly that your team can accomplish much more than you think IF you push them and support them. Did you ever wonder why people hire personal fitness trainers instead of working out on their own? It’s simple. The trainer pushes them beyond their comfort zone and can get them to do much more than they thought was possible. Why do people need someone to motivate them? I am not sure, but when it’s done right that person can do much more. While it’s the same body doing the same exercises someone is putting them in a different mindset. The trainer is telling them they can do it. They believe it and that belief allows them to achieve much more. This is also effective at work. People can meet tighter deadlines. They can add more features. They can build a better customer experience. They just don’t believe they can do it because it would require them to be uncomfortable. Get them comfortable being uncomfortable with EVERYTHING they are doing. How do you do this? You understand their specific role and their particular set of skills. Ask yourself: what else can they do that is a step beyond what they are doing today that leverages those skills? Is this person tapped out in their capabilities or is the project not big enough and THAT’s what tapped out. I do this frequently at Demand Media. For instance, we had a very successful young general manager who was responsible for one of our smaller web sites. He showed that he could think outside of the box and manage differently than our more seasoned executives. What did I do? I took a chance and told him he was now running our largest property (5 times as big), and he was a little taken aback. I told him I believed he could do it and why (remember always be specific and metric driven) and that I would make sure he was successful. He was hesitant, but I kept pushing and telling him I would support him and provide the resources he needed to do it his way. He accepted and within six months, I was asking myself how I could push him more. Push and push hard. Most people don’t want to stretch beyond their skill set if it involves risking their existing position. Encourage them to “lean in” to the opportunity and discover what else they can do beyond the status quo. The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. ~ Michelangelo Most people, when left to their own devices, will choose to stay inside of their comfort zone. However, there is nothing motivating about someone doing the same thing they’ve done before, and long term they will be unhappy. So, do them a favor, do yourself a favor, and push them where they are entirely uncomfortable.

Being Human...RIchard Branson

1. Politeness Matters. As mentioned, Richard Branson was unfailingly polite. He mentioned to me that when he was a kid, if he criticized someone, his mother would make him stand in front of the mirror at home and say, "what you're seeing in others is really what you're seeing in yourself. So look in the mirror." This educated him on the key leadership habit of looking for - and then encouraging - the gifts and talents within other people. 2. Be Massively Independent. When Richard was just four years old, his mother stopped her car and instructed him to find his own way home, over many miles. When he was about 12, she told him to cycle 100 miles to Bournemouth alone, to visit a relative. He expressed to me that these childhood experiences were his mother's way of growing his self-reliance. And building the invincible inner core that has served him so well as an entrepreneur. 3. Screw It - Just Do It. What makes a great company (and great life) isn't so much the inspiring idea as the flawless execution around the big idea. As Edison once said: "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Richard shared that much of his success came from his philosophy to disregard the naysayers and those telling him his dream was impossible and just get the dream done. (Please remember: the impossible is generally just the untried). This is a man with a giant bias towards action. 4. Lavish Praise on People. I know you know this: the bigger the dream, the more important the team. Having worked with many of the best entrepreneurs in the world, I've learned that every single one of them gets that you can't do it alone. Beautiful to have a brave vision. But the real key is finding the genius-level talent to get that vision delivered into reality. And if all you know how to surround yourself with is mediocre people, you're destined to experience mediocre results. Richard is brilliant at finding the right people that bring his targets of opportunity to life. And he confirmed that once they are on his team, "I lavish them with praise." Our takeaway: relentlessly celebrate+develop+inspire your people. 5. Be a Radical Innovator. When he was a young entrepreneur with nothing more than the little college newspaper THE STUDENT, he still showed a lust for disregarding all the rules. He challenged the status quo. And disrupted what was considered normal. An example: he somehow was able to get John Lennon to do an original piece of music for him. He then put the song on a special disc and packaged it into the newspaper, right next to the interview he'd done on the rock 'n roll legend. At Virgin Records, he recruited the Sex Pistols and reinvented a whole category of music. At Virgin Atlantic, he gave passengers massages on airplanes and dropped them home in limos. And with Virgin Galactic, he's taking people into space. Very cool. Fantastically bold. At the Bucharest meeting, he told the 2500+ people in the concert hall that "sometime in your lifetime, every one of you will have visited other parts of the universe." And I believe it. 6. Build Your Brand. Richard Branson gets branding. He knows what he - and the Virgin name - stands for. Fun. Good Value. Strong customer service. And so at every possible opportunity, he evangelizes all it stands for. Oh, and he's also clearly a master of getting attention. From hot air balloon adventures that made global news to showing up at a press conference nearly naked to promote Virgin mobile, this Remarkable Entrepreneur gets the value of owning a share of our brain cells. 7. Find Your Necker Island. Get this: Branson paid roughly $300,000 for his beloved Necker Island. He and his then girlfriend Joan were visiting the Caribbean on a getaway. They fell in love with Necker - but it was about $4,000,000. But he wouldn't give up (let's never discount the power of a ridiculous amount of persistence around your most closely loved goals). A few months later, the owner needed cash. Branson made his deeply discounted offer. It has served as his retreat away from the world for many years. Here's the real point: in the world of so much noise and complexity, find your personal retreat (even if it's an aged wooded bench in a public garden) where you can withdraw to think+create+renew+rest. 8. Lucky Wins. We make luck. Enough said. 9. Don't Do It If It's Not Fun. Branson wears a smile pretty much all the time. He laughs naturally. And radiates happiness. Zero doubt: he loves his life - and all that's in it (George Clooney said he'd swap his life for Richard Branson's - much to the delight of Richard's wife). The lesson for us: life's just too short to be doing work that destroys your soul. This is the best time in the history of the world to become an entrepreneur. Find work you adore. And get busy changing with world with it. 10. With Gifts Come Responsibilities. OK, so Richard Branson's one of the richest people on the planet. But he gets that being good trumps shiny toys. He mentioned to me that, "with great wealth comes great responsibility." And so he's spending a lot of his days evangelizing Virgin Unite, his foundation that helps kids in need. Reminds me of what my amazing father taught me - using the words of the great poet Tagore - growing up: "Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Son, live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice."

How Taobao bested Ebay in China

Financial Times THE CASE STUDY March 12, 2012 8:55 pm Financial Times THE CASE STUDY March 12, 2012 8:55 pm How Taobao bested Ebay in China By Mark Greeven, Shengyun Yang, Tao Yue, Eric van Heck and Barbara Krug The story. Taobao.com was founded in 2003 by Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company, as a defensive move against its US rival Ebay, which had set up in China the previous year. The challenge. When Ebay launched in China it had global revenues of more than $2bn. As a young, domestic entity, Taobao was taking on a huge rival while also fending off many similar small competitors in the sector, where barriers to entry were low. The strategic response. Noting that Ebay in China was charging users to list products and services, Taobao allowed them to list for free in order to build a big cohort of sellers and buyers. Critical mass would eventually attract revenue-generating activities, such as online advertisements. Taobao also presented itself as very much a Chinese enterprise. For instance, the screen names of online moderators were derived from characters in popular Chinese kung-fu novels. Next, Taobao aimed to be more innovative than Ebay in customer service. In 2003 Taobao started Aliwangwang, its instant communication tool, to help buyers and sellers interact. It also introduced the online payment system Alipay a year later. Online credit card or debit card payment was very rare in China and customers usually paid cash on delivery. Alipay formed partnerships with leading Chinese banks and signed a long-term agreement with China Post, which meant customers without a debit or bank card could fund their Alipay accounts at any of its 66,000 offices. What happened. Taobao developed into a diverse e-commerce platform where businesses sell a very wide range of items to online shop owners who then sell on to consumers. At the end of 2006, Ebay shut its main website in China and formed a joint venture with Hong Kong- headquartered Tom Online. Taobao continued to build a network of ventures around its core operations. In 2007 it set up Alisoft.com, where small Taobao sellers could buy customised software from independent vendors to help with functions such as customer relations or managing inventory. In 2008 Taobao integrated Alimama.com, an online ad company with a network of more than 400,000 specialised websites where Taobao sellers could affordably post ads to reach their target audiences. These complementary ventures formed a network, with Taobao at the centre surrounded by interlinked companies. All cross-sold and cross-marketed each other’s services and offered packaged deals to Taobao sellers. As this “ecosystem” developed it attracted other businesses to use Taobao, Alipay, Alisoft and Alimama’s platforms to provide further customised services to Taobao sellers. The extent and reach of the ecosystem became too hard for rivals to replicate. By 2010 Taobao served more than 80 per cent of China’s e-commerce market, with 170m registered users and revenues of more than Rmb20bn from online advertising and fee-paying services such as shop design and sales training. Meanwhile, Ebay moved its business focus to cross-border e-commerce, where Chinese consumers sell to overseas consumers. It holds a leading position in that segment. Key lessons. How Taobao kept Ebay out of the market and became China’s dominant e-commerce platform in a relatively short space of time holds lessons for Chinese and western companies alike. First, Taobao provided services and solved problems for the smaller businesses that are the driving force behind China’s economic boom. For instance, Alipay enabled people to pay for goods and services easily. Second, Taobao set up or integrated services that complemented each other and used this ecosystem to create a bar to competition. Third, Taobao identified how to help people buy and sell. By making online shopping easy, safe and fun it helped many first-time online buyers build confidence in e-commerce. By Mark Greeven, Shengyun Yang, Tao Yue, Eric van Heck and Barbara Krug The story. Taobao.com was founded in 2003 by Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company, as a defensive move against its US rival Ebay, which had set up in China the previous year. The challenge. When Ebay launched in China it had global revenues of more than $2bn. As a young, domestic entity, Taobao was taking on a huge rival while also fending off many similar small competitors in the sector, where barriers to entry were low. The strategic response. Noting that Ebay in China was charging users to list products and services, Taobao allowed them to list for free in order to build a big cohort of sellers and buyers. Critical mass would eventually attract revenue-generating activities, such as online advertisements. Taobao also presented itself as very much a Chinese enterprise. For instance, the screen names of online moderators were derived from characters in popular Chinese kung-fu novels. Next, Taobao aimed to be more innovative than Ebay in customer service. In 2003 Taobao started Aliwangwang, its instant communication tool, to help buyers and sellers interact. It also introduced the online payment system Alipay a year later. Online credit card or debit card payment was very rare in China and customers usually paid cash on delivery. Alipay formed partnerships with leading Chinese banks and signed a long-term agreement with China Post, which meant customers without a debit or bank card could fund their Alipay accounts at any of its 66,000 offices. What happened. Taobao developed into a diverse e-commerce platform where businesses sell a very wide range of items to online shop owners who then sell on to consumers. At the end of 2006, Ebay shut its main website in China and formed a joint venture with Hong Kong- headquartered Tom Online. Taobao continued to build a network of ventures around its core operations. In 2007 it set up Alisoft.com, where small Taobao sellers could buy customised software from independent vendors to help with functions such as customer relations or managing inventory. In 2008 Taobao integrated Alimama.com, an online ad company with a network of more than 400,000 specialised websites where Taobao sellers could affordably post ads to reach their target audiences. These complementary ventures formed a network, with Taobao at the centre surrounded by interlinked companies. All cross-sold and cross-marketed each other’s services and offered packaged deals to Taobao sellers. As this “ecosystem” developed it attracted other businesses to use Taobao, Alipay, Alisoft and Alimama’s platforms to provide further customised services to Taobao sellers. The extent and reach of the ecosystem became too hard for rivals to replicate. By 2010 Taobao served more than 80 per cent of China’s e-commerce market, with 170m registered users and revenues of more than Rmb20bn from online advertising and fee-paying services such as shop design and sales training. Meanwhile, Ebay moved its business focus to cross-border e-commerce, where Chinese consumers sell to overseas consumers. It holds a leading position in that segment. Key lessons. How Taobao kept Ebay out of the market and became China’s dominant e-commerce platform in a relatively short space of time holds lessons for Chinese and western companies alike. First, Taobao provided services and solved problems for the smaller businesses that are the driving force behind China’s economic boom. For instance, Alipay enabled people to pay for goods and services easily. Second, Taobao set up or integrated services that complemented each other and used this ecosystem to create a bar to competition. Third, Taobao identified how to help people buy and sell. By making online shopping easy, safe and fun it helped many first-time online buyers build confidence in e-commerce.

Why You Need to Make Your Life More Automatic (TONY SCHWARTZ)

(original link http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/03/why-you-need-to-make-your-life.html?cm_sp=blog_flyout-_-schwartz-_-why_you_need_to_make_your_life) Why is it that three prominent books published just during the past several months focused on the subject of willpower? The first answer is that neuroscience has finally begun to open a window into the complex way our brains respond to temptation and what it takes to successfully exercise choice. Second, a raft of recent studies have shown that the capacity for self-control — even more than genetic endowment or material advantage — fuels a range of positive outcomes in life, including more stable relationships, higher paying and more satisfying work, more resilience in the face of setbacks, better health, and greater happiness. Finally, these books — Willpower, The Willpower Instinct, and The Power of Habit — are a response to an increasingly evident need. Demand in our lives is truly outpacing our capacity. The sheer number of choices we must make each day — what foods to eat, what products to buy, what information merits our attention, what tasks to prioritize — can be overwhelming. As Roy Baumeister puts it in Willpower, "Self-regulation failure is the major social pathology of our time." Each of these books provides compelling studies and fascinating stories that illustrate the challenges we face in exercising more self-control. All of them also come to the same paradoxical conclusion that I did two years ago in a book of my own, Be Excellent at Anything, and that I've often written about here. Put simply, the more conscious willpower we have to exert each day, the less energy we have left over to resist our brain's primitive and powerful pull to instant gratification. According to one study, we spend at least one-quarter of each waking day just trying to resist our desires — often unsuccessfully. Conversely, the more of our key behaviors we can put under the automatic and more efficient control of habit — by building something I call "Energy Rituals" — the more likely we are to accomplish the things that truly matter to us. How different would your life be, after all, if you could get yourself to sleep 8 hours at night, exercise every day, eat healthy foods in the right portions, take time for reflection and renewal, remain calm and positive under stress, focus without interruption for sustained periods of time, and prioritize the work that matters most? Right now, the vast majority of what we do each day occurs automatically. We're often triggered, as these authors make vividly clear, by subtle cues we're not even aware of — a smell, a visual image, a familiar sight. These cues prompt us to move away from any potential pain and discomfort, no matter how minimal, and toward immediate reward and gratification, no matter how fleeting. The primary role of our prefrontal cortex is to bias the brain towards doing the "harder" thing. Unfortunately, our rational capacity is often overwhelmed by the power of our own most visceral and primitive desires. We're often captive to our biochemistry. When the neurotransmitter dopamine is triggered, for example, what we feel is craving, not pleasure. This explains not just why we fall into a range of self-destructive addictions, but also why we don't take better care of ourselves and make wiser choices day in and day out. The solution is to learn how to co-opt the more primitive habit-forming regions of our brains, so that rather than reinforcing our negative impulses, they become the soil in which we build positive rituals that serve our long term interests. So how do you get started? The first step is simply to understand better what you are up against. That requires slowing down. Speed is the enemy of reflection, understanding and intentionality. When we slow down, we can begin to notice both what's driving us, and how to take back the wheel. Eat slower, for example, and you not only begin to notice how rarely you savor the food you eat, but also how often you eat for reasons other than hunger and how rarely you notice when you've had enough. To begin strengthening your capacity for self-observation, take two or three minutes at several designated times a day to breathe in to a count of three and out a count of six with your eyes closed. Notice the thoughts, feelings or sensations that arise, name them, and then let them pass. Return to the breath. You're training mindfulness. We each have an infinite capacity for self-deception — endless ways that the awesome power of our desires cause our prefrontal cortex to defend the indefensible and rationalize behaviors that aren't serving us well. The first step to building willpower and self-control is recognizing how little we currently have. You can't change what you don't notice. BOOKS MENTIONED HERE: Willpower by Roy F Baumeister and John Tierney The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal Ph.D. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Be Excellent at Anything by Tony Schwartz

Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? Edward Jay Epstein | Feb 1, 1982

The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value—and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems. The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control production and perpetuate the illusion of scarcity of diamonds. The instrument they created, in 1888, was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., incorporated in South Africa. As De Beers took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, it assumed many forms. In London, it operated under the innocuous name of the Diamond Trading Company. In Israel, it was known as "The Syndicate." In Europe, it was called the "C.S.O." -- initials referring to the Central Selling Organization, which was an arm of the Diamond Trading Company. And in black Africa, it disguised its South African origins under subsidiaries with names like Diamond Development Corporation and Mining Services, Inc. At its height -- for most of this century -- it not only either directly owned or controlled all the diamond mines in southern Africa but also owned diamond trading companies in England, Portugal, Israel, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. De Beers proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains, fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price every year since the Depression. Indeed, the cartel seemed so superbly in control of prices -- and unassailable -- that, in the late 1970s, even speculators began buying diamonds as a guard against the vagaries of inflation and recession. The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever -- "forever" in the sense that they should never be resold. In September of 1938, Harry Oppenheimer, son of the founder of De Beers and then twenty-nine, traveled from Johannesburg to New York City, to meet with Gerold M. Lauck, the president of N. W. Ayer, a leading advertising agency in the United States. Lauck and N. W. Ayer had been recommended to Oppenheimer by the Morgan Bank, which had helped his father consolidate the De Beers financial empire. His bankers were concerned about the price of diamonds, which had declined worldwide. In Europe, where diamond prices had collapsed during the Depression, there seemed little possibility of restoring public confidence in diamonds. In Germany, Austria, Italy, and Spain, the notion of giving a diamond ring to commemorate an engagement had never taken hold. In England and France, diamonds were still presumed to be jewels for aristocrats rather than the masses. Furthermore, Europe was on the verge of war, and there seemed little possibility of expanding diamond sales. This left the United States as the only real market for De Beers's diamonds. In fact, in 1938 some three quarters of all the cartel's diamonds were sold for engagement rings in the United States. Most of these stones, however, were smaller and of poorer quality than those bought in Europe, and had an average price of $80 apiece. Oppenheimer and the bankers believed that an advertising campaign could persuade Americans to buy more expensive diamonds. Oppenheimer suggested to Lauck that his agency prepare a plan for creating a new image for diamonds among Americans. He assured Lauck that De Beers had not called on any other American advertising agency with this proposal, and that if the plan met with his father's approval, N. W. Ayer would be the exclusive agents for the placement of newspaper and radio advertisements in the United States. Oppenheimer agreed to underwrite the costs of the research necessary for developing the campaign. Lauck instantly accepted the offer. In their subsequent investigation of the American diamond market, the staff of N. W. Ayer found that since the end of World War I, in 1919, the total amount of diamonds sold in America, measured in carats, had declined by 50 percent; at the same time, the quality of the diamonds, measured in dollar value, had declined by nearly 100 percent. An Ayer memo concluded that the depressed state of the market for diamonds was "the result of the economy, changes in social attitudes and the promotion of competitive luxuries." Although it could do little about the state of the economy, N. W. Ayer suggested that through a well-orchestrated advertising and public-relations campaign it could have a significant impact on the "social attitudes of the public at large and thereby channel American spending toward larger and more expensive diamonds instead of "competitive luxuries." Specifically, the Ayer study stressed the need to strengthen the association in the public's mind of diamonds with romance. Since "young men buy over 90% of all engagement rings" it would be crucial to inculcate in them the idea that diamonds were a gift of love: the larger and finer the diamond, the greater the expression of love. Similarly, young women had to be encouraged to view diamonds as an integral part of any romantic courtship. Since the Ayer plan to romanticize diamonds required subtly altering the public's picture of the way a man courts -- and wins -- a woman, the advertising agency strongly suggested exploiting the relatively new medium of motion pictures. Movie idols, the paragons of romance for the mass audience, would be given diamonds to use as their symbols of indestructible love. In addition, the agency suggested offering stories and society photographs to selected magazines and newspapers which would reinforce the link between diamonds and romance. Stories would stress the size of diamonds that celebrities presented to their loved ones, and photographs would conspicuously show the glittering stone on the hand of a well-known woman. Fashion designers would talk on radio programs about the "trend towards diamonds" that Ayer planned to start. The Ayer plan also envisioned using the British royal family to help foster the romantic allure of diamonds. An Ayer memo said, "Since Great Britain has such an important interest in the diamond industry, the royal couple could be of tremendous assistance to this British industry by wearing diamonds rather than other jewels." Queen Elizabeth later went on a well-publicized trip to several South African diamond mines, and she accepted a diamond from Oppenheimer. In addition to putting these plans into action, N. W. Ayer placed a series of lush four-color advertisements in magazines that were presumed to mold elite opinion, featuring reproductions of famous paintings by such artists as Picasso, Derain, Dali, and Dufy. The advertisements were intended to convey the idea that diamonds, like paintings, were unique works of art.

Being Human....Robin Sharma

As William Penn once noted: "I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again." #1. Be Real Call it being authentic. Call it being yourself. The fact is that few things are as powerful as standing in the presence of a person who is really really comfortable in their own skin. What I'm suggesting is that you speak with your unique voice and that you live under your true values and that you present the real you to the world around you. Please trust me on this one. I promise you that when you get to the last hour of your last day, you will regret having lived the life society sold you versus the life that you knew deep within was meant for you. #2. Smile Sure this sounds obvious. But what makes greatness is the daily executing around simple ideas. And if smiling during good and hard times was so easy, then why is it so hard for most people? I travel across the planet constantly. But no matter whether I'm in Qatar or Napa, Buenos Aires or Malaysia, Mumbai or Amsterdam, a quick and genuine smile to a stranger always connects. Unites. Uplifts. #3. Use People's Names The fantastic Dale Carnegie taught us well. He observed that a person's name is the sweetest sound to their ears. And yet, it's so very easy to forget to go the extra mile and remember - and then use - someone's name. World-class communicators get that when they address people by name, it brings them closer. And makes them stand out. #4. Look People In The Eye Okay. I really need to rant mildly on this one. Sure we all have our smart phones and iPods and PCs. But this new way of communicating where our mouths move while we speak to the person in front of us but our eyes stay on the screens before us sends a message to that person that they just are not that important. The best gift you can give a customer+teammate+loved one is the gift of your presence. In this age of easy digitization, giving the human being you're communicating with 1000% of your attention is a spectacular method to lead the field. So, look people in the eye. Engage with what they are saying. Make them feel special. No, make them feel--for the brief moments they interact with you - that they are the most important person in the world. #5. Be Honest Again, simple, I know. But leadership and success really does come down to the daily doing of a series of fundamentals staggeringly well. Be the most honest person you know. Let your ethics drive your behavior. And please remember, anyone can be honest when times are easy. The true measure of your leadership is how honest you are when everything's falling apart. #6. Choose Good Words I was up in the mountains last weekend. Wanted to get some breakfast. Walked into a new Italian restaurant that advertised breakfast until 11:30 am. It was 11:40. I asked the man behind the counter: "Is it possible to still get breakfast?" His instant reply: "Absolutely not." Now I understand this man wasn't trying to be rude. He was most likely unskilled with his words. Just not a great communicator. But his words had impact (as all words do). A more effective communicator could have said, "I wish we could but we've just switched over to the lunch menu. I think you'll love it. C'mon in and give it a try." It's all in the languaging. Instead, his words caused me to try his competitor. And to think that this is a restaurant that just doesn't care that much.

China will be the world’s biggest app market, and other predictions for Asia in 2012 13TH JANUARY 2012 by JON RUSSELL

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve run a series of features looking back at 2011 and forward to 2012 from a number of different angles. We have already reviewed the last year in Asia, and took some time out to get the thoughts of Bubble Motion CEO Tom Clayton on what the next twelve months could hold for the Internet in the region. For those that are not familiar with Bubble Motion, the company runs Bubbly, a voice microblogging service that allows users to send short messages from a smartphone or regular phone. The Singapore-head quartered firm has 12 million users and is particularly popular in Asia, making Clayton a well qualified pundit on the region’s tech scene. Twitter will grow substantially in key markets Asia Pacific is notable for having the world’s highest mobile penetration (registered numbers to people) and Clayton believes that mobile will help extend Twitter beyond the already strong numbers that it enjoys across the region, particularly amongst Indonesia’s 240 million population. “Thanks to limited Internet users and very mobile-centric populations, Twitter use in Indonesia will overtake the US and Brazil in number of tweet volume,” predicts Clayton, before explaining that Japan will also see more growth. Twitter is already huge in Japan, where it has partnered with leading domestic social network Mixi, but the Bubble Motion boss sees the country developer further still, becoming key to Twitter in Asia. The accelerating growth in Japan will be even more impressive, as it will contribute more revenue to the company than all other countries in Asia combined. With over 27 percent of Japanese online population and 22 percent of the Indonesian online population using the network, Twitter will be the first “foreign” social media service to really make huge inroads relative to the entrenched “Big 3″ locally” Facebook will dominate all of Asia by the end of the year Facebook is already colossal in Asia but there are some key pockets and significant markets where it is not yet dominant, while China remains a big issue for it, like many other Western firms. In our Facebook 2012 preview, we foretold that the company will begin to look at the issue of China, putting a strategy on the table in the next twelve months. While Clayton believes that no progress will be made there, unless it partners up, he does feels that Japan, Korea and Taiwan are ripe for the taking: 2012 is the year Facebook takes over the last 3 major Asian countries and dominates the sub-continent. If Facebook can buy a Chinese social network or do a joint venture in China, they may well displace all other local networks. Asia to pass 3 billion mobile users and account for half worldwide Having said that mobile is already big in Asia, the stage is set for the communications medium to develop even further across the continent and account for half of all mobile phone users worldwide, according to Clayton. He believes that “significant economic development across the region”, alongside the increasing sophistication of mobile networks — 4G is already available in Korea and soon to launch in Singapore, for example — and the increasing affordability of devices will drive higher adoption rates. But it isn’t just more users, Clayton foresees that a change in how many Asians will interact with Web is coming. Mobile broadband is growing rapidly to increase the number of Asian mobile Internet users beyond what is already a huge number: In September 2011, China alone surpassed 100M 3G subscriptions, which makes up just 10 percent of its total mobile population. India has reached 859M mobile subscriptions, and Indonesia and Japan each have well over 100M users. With such rapid growth in handheld devices, mobile phone usage far surpasses fixed-line PC usage. For example, In India there are only 70 million Internet users, but there are over 700 million mobile subscribers. Smartphone penetration will remain low but pass 500 million devices While the smartphones will grow beyond the current rate of 19 percent of Asia’s mobile market, Clayton thinks that, outside of major countries, growth will continue but at a lower rate: Singapore, Korea and Malaysia will lead the pack but the largest markets China, India and Indonesia still lag significantly with all of them in single digits in percentage terms. However, when you view it from the absolute number of smartphone devices, the numbers are significant. Taking India as an example, a 9 percent smartphone penetration would equal around 80 million devices. The American expects that smartphone ownership in ‘advanced’ Asia markets like Korea and Japan, will grow beyond 50 percent to mirror its rate in North America and across parts of Europe. It may surprise some but neither Japan nor Korea has a long history of smartphones, although Apple and Google are leading the revolution, as he reveals: Most of their phones, while packed with exhaustive features, are not technically considered smartphones, but rather very capable, feature-rich feature phones. However, iPhone and Android phones are on fire in each country and there seems to be no signs of this growth slowing anytime soon. Apps: China will become world’s biggest market, Asia will keep growing Last year, a report from Flurry found China to be the world’s second largest downloader of apps, and you can see the country’s potential by the fact that China Mobile’s own store has 149 million users. Clayton believes that the time is right for China to overtake the US to take the top spot, while Asia will continue to be an important focus as the only region posting significant growth in app downloads: While app download growth has flattened and even begun to decline in some countries in the Western world, Asia will continue to grow at a break-neck pace, as 3G deployments and coverage are solidified in the emerging markets and more and more users add data plans. Android shipments to Asia grew massively in 2011, tripling in Southeast Asia, and Clayton cites the Google-owned system as being a key part behind the growth of apps, by providing affordable devices for consumers: The MediaTek ecosystem will soon produce numerous sub-$90 Android-powered smartphones that will fuel even further Android growth in the region. Monetization of apps will remain a challenge, but we already see many app providers in the region (like our own), figuring out creative ways to solve that problem. What do you think: Do you agree with Tom Clayton’s predictions, or do you have other ideas of areas that are set to be significant this year in Asia? http://thenextweb.com/asia/2012/01/13/china-will-be-the-worlds-biggest-app-market-and-other-predictions-for-asia-in-2012/ JOIN TNW ASIA ON: OR RSS ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jon Russell is the Asia Editor of The Next Web. Jon has been commenting on and writing about Asia's internet, technology and start-up scenes since he swapped London for Bangkok in 2008. You can reach him through Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or by emailing jon@thenextweb.com.

bite the apple

Why are those 10 minutes of sleep...b4 u actually need to get up, so precious?!…. was my sister’s facebook status. Agreeing wholeheartedly, I commented, “Because you are stealing them...Always exciting to do what one is not supposed to do...!” Isnt it true? Forbidden fruit always tastes sweeter, that’s what got Adam and Eve into huge trouble. Problem is that while they were denied just that one experience and even then couldn’t resist having a taste, we have temptations galore! We encounter nays and don’ts at every turn; some imposed by law, some by society, others by those close to us, and yes, some restrictions we impose on ourselves! And now it seems it’s not just the forbidden that tempts us, but even the out-of-the-ordinary things that help break the monotony of everyday life. The world of Adam and Eve was a spanking new one with untold treasures yet to be discovered; we live in a jaded world where anything out of the ordinary excites and rejuvenates while the ordinary, everyday stuff bores. And that’s how you have people like New York Congressman Anthony Weiner and Oscar winning film director Quentin Tarantino, who are in the news not for something as mundane as having an affair, but for acts that make fellow beings sit up -- somewhat in disgust, somewhat in amusement somewhat in wonder, and yes, even envy! While public personalities like golf legend Tiger Woods met their nemesis by having multiple affairs and IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn pounced on a hotel maid and N.D. Tiwari was caught with sex workers, nothing as ordinary would do for Weiner! He got his kick by tweeting sexually explicit photos and messages of himself in an aroused state to young girls before and during his marriage! Technically, he didn’t have an extra-marital affair but to most, what he did was somehow far worse! Not to be outdone in affaires extraordinaire, Tarantino has now hit the headlines with his toe fetish. An Indian girl has revealed how the talented filmmaker sucked on her toes while pleasuring himself. Most men, though they may jeer at Tarantino, would have been curious about and fascinated by his twinkle toe act! As Mark Oppenheimer writes in Huffington Post, “There was something not weird, but too familiar about Weiner. His style might not be for everyone (to put it politely), but the impulse to be something other than what we are in our daily, monogamous lives, the thrill that comes from the illicit rather than the predictable, is something I imagine many couples can identify with. With his online flirtations and soft-porn photos, he did what a lot of us might do if we were lonely and determined to not really cheat.” Defying the law, flouting traffic rules, drinking yourself senseless, destroying public property, ringing a bell and running away – all these activities seem so exciting when teenage hormones are raging. Unfortunately for some, those hormones never do quite settle down. And Mr Hyde is always waiting just a breath away to emerge and exhibit a vastly different persona and morality from that of Dr Jekyll. Everyone is faced with the same temptations at some point or the other, and all of us have a Mr Hyde lurking within us. The difference is that while some give in to forbidden pleasures and excitement, others consider repercussions and hold on steadfast against temptation. Minor temptations such as 10 minutes of extra sleep, chocolates, rich chocolate pastries or that extra helping of food cannot harm anyone as much as temptations that have the potential to turn into public scandals and take down loved ones along with us. The worst fear of succumbing to temptations is when you end up hurting loved ones or harming yourselves. One can never really know one’s vulnerability unless actually faced with temptation. Each of us knows our strengths and weaknesses in normal conditions; but it would help to consider what exactly we are capable of doing in our vulnerable moments.We have no idea what are our friends, colleagues and neighbours capable of doing in unusual circumstances? Do loneliness and depression lead us into doing things we would never do under normal conditions? What is the worst thing that the colleague seated in the next cabin has done? Has he sexted sexy pictures of himself to women? Is he a closet gay? Is he a stalker?! Or the friend you share lunch with every day. Do you know what she is up to when nobody observes her? After all would Weiner’s friends and relatives have ever suspected he was sexting lewd photographs of himself to young girls on social networking sites? It is only by unearthing the Hyde within us and understanding him that we can strengthen Jekyll to maintain his strength and will power under all circumstances. It is only by knowing the extent to which we can fall that we can determine and establish the heights we can reach. So go on, give in to the temptation of that extra 10 minutes of eye-shut …it may even help you keep Mr Hyde under check, lest greater temptations lead you astray…

need for pursuit

One of the most often overlooked aspects of leadership is the need for pursuit. Great leaders are never satisfied with traditional practice, static thinking, conventional wisdom, or common performance. In fact, the best leaders are simply uncomfortable with anything that embraces the status quo. Leadership is pursuit – pursuit of excellence, of elegance, of truth, of what’s next, of what if, of change, of value, of results, of relationships, of service, of knowledge, and of something bigger than themselves. In the text that follows I’ll examine the value of being a pursuer… Here’s the thing – pursuit leads to attainment. What you pursue will determine the paths you travel, the people you associate with, the character you develop, and ultimately, what you do or don’t achieve. Having a mindset focused on pursuit is so critical to leadership that lacking this one quality can sentence you to mediocrity or even obsolescence. The manner, method, and motivation behind any pursuit is what sets truly great leaders apart from the masses. If you want to become a great leader, become a great pursuer. A failure to embrace pursuit is to cede opportunity to others. A leader’s failure to pursue clarity leaves them amidst the fog. Their failure to pursue creativity relegates them to the routine and mundane. Their failure to pursue talent sentences them to a world of isolation. Their failure to pursue change approves apathy. Their failure to pursue wisdom and discernment subjects them to distraction and folly. Their failure to pursue character leaves a question mark on their integrity. Let me put this as simply as I can – you cannot attain what you do not pursue. Smart leaders understand it’s not just enough to pursue, but pursuit must be intentional, focused, consistent, aggressive, and unyielding. You must pursue the right things, for the right reasons, and at the right times. Perhaps most of all, the best forms of pursuit enlist others in the chase. Pursuit in its purest form is highly collaborative, very inclusive and easily transferable. Pursuit operates at greatest strength when it leverages velocity and scale. I also want to caution you against trivial pursuits – don’t confuse pursuit with simple goal setting. Outcomes are clearly important, but as a leader, it’s what happens after the outcome that you need to be in pursuit of. Pursue discovery, seek dissenting opinions, develop your ability unlearn by embracing how much you don’t know, and find the kind of vision that truly does see around corners. Don’t use your pursuits to shift paradigms, pursue breaking them. Knowing what not to pursue is just as important as knowing what to pursue. It’s important to keep in mind that nothing tells the world more about a leader than what or who they pursue – that which you pursue is that which you value. If you message to your organization you value talent, but don’t treat people well and don’t spend time developing the talent around you, then I would suggest you value rhetoric more than talent. Put simply, you can wax eloquent all you like, but your actions will ultimately reveal what you truly value. Lastly, the best leaders pursue being better leaders. They know to fail in this pursuit is nothing short of a guarantee they’ll be replaced by those who don’t. All leaders would be well served to go back to school on what I refer to as the science of pursuitology.

The Truth about Capricons

People belonging to the Capricorn sign are born between December 22nd and January 19th. Capricorn men have strong desires to achieve power, money, status and love. Although love does appear last on the list, it is comparatively a significant part of his personality. Patience comes naturally to them, implying they wait until they find the perfection. Effectively a loner sign, Capricorns find relationships to be a challenge. Find it difficult to trust another human being. Although they appear to be a bitter people from the outside, they are more sensitive than many and just covering up to experience a sense of security. A Capricorn man wants to be appreciated praised and ego fed. Any woman who manages to successfully ensure the above will have a very loyal, dedicated and sincere partner for life. Thus proving a Capricorn man's sensitive heart and swayable emotions! By equalizing material and financial possessions with emotional security the Capricorn man mixes up the feeling sphere with the materialistic realm. Keeping the positive traits in mind, one big weakness in any relationship will be the Capricorn trying to run the show. Could be mistaken for independence but actually is nothing but desperation for control. Being so emotionally attached to their partners, Capricorns find it difficult to understand and believe that there are lessons to be learnt from their partners.

Life and Some more

The highlight of the evening was an interactive session of questions and answers with Rev. Dada, involving various facts of peace. Some of the questions and answers were – Q1: What is the price for attaining peace of mind? A: one should rejoice in the Will of God, for His will is the best, whether in pain or pleasure. With this attitude, one will be filled with peace. Sadhu Vaswani’s wise words were God upsets our plans, to set up His own. But his plans are perfect. Q2: Why is that earlier generations seemed to have lived in greater peace? A: This is so because they lived in the love and fear of God. Nowadays, there is no belief in God. We must bring God back into our lives. Q3: Are the pursuit of wealth, power and position compatible with peace? A: Keep in mind that wealth, power and position will be earned only according to the power of our Karma. Then one will always be at peace. There is irritation and frustration only because we do not understand the law of Karma. Q4: Was there a time when you experienced disturbance? A: There was a time when the slightest thing would make me upset and angry. But through God’s grace that stage has been cleansed out. We should pray to Him and beg for his Grace. We have thrown God out of our homes, schools and colleges. The vacuum thus created is filled by the devil. Q5: The Vedas mention the mantra, ‘Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. What significance does it have? A: The following is my interpretation – According to the scriptures, three important elements make up man – i. Body and senses ii. Mind iii. Speech which expresses our thoughts. Hence, Shanti being repeated thrice is once each for the above three. Peace in every aspect that makes up man. Q6: How to respond and not react? A: Vanquish the ego. Then there will be no reacting. The hurt and the pain belong to the ego. Till then there will be no peace. Q7: I am in a position of authority. If a subordinate is rude or misbehaves, what should I do? A: Do your duty. You may use some firm or even harsh words to correct the person. But your anger should emanate only from your lips, not from your heart. Q8: How can children be made to feel more peaceful? A: This great responsibility lies with the mother. She should accept the Will of God peacefully when the child is in the womb. Then those vibrations of peace will pass on automatically to the c

The inspiring story of how a single mother made it to the Harvard by Lajwanti Dsouza

This student bagged half a million US dollars in scholarships and educated herself after being left on the road with a baby to look after. Read on to find out how she did it.
For the United States, Lalita Booth is the 'homeless to Harvard' wonder. The face of hope, a much refined version of the staid rags-to-riches story -- only this time the riches is not in dollars but in educational degrees.

For us here, she makes sense because till a few years ago, she was a teenage-mother, living off scraps and out of a car. Today, she is pursuing a degree in Business Administration and Public Policy at the Harvard University. Besides, she is also the author of the book Financial Education for Lower-Income Audiences: A guide to Programme Design, Implementation and Evaluation which is found in the libraries of various US colleges and b-schools.

Her story is stirring not because she is just a cliche -- having fought all odds and emerged supreme -- but because she decided to take the more thorny route to recovery -- education.

At 17 and barely school-educated, with a baby in hand, no place to call home and no family to use as crutch, Lalita decided that the best way to beat life's miseries was to educate herself.

"I wanted my son to be proud of me and I thought no better way than to study and get myself some real degrees. Harvard was just an illusion when I stayed on the streets and went to sleep hungry. Today, I am right there," said Lalita Booth while speaking from the US.

Lalita's story makes good sense because she is also probably one of the few who has been awarded some 20 scholarships in the last five years -- worth a whopping half a million US dollars.
That her life was a mess, Lalita realised when young in Ashville N.C, her hometown.

The only child of her parents, the memories most vivid in her mind are of her parents fighting and being thrown out of homes.

With no inspiration to look up to, Lalita went the 'wild way.'

On turning 16, she legally separated from her parents. "I did that because I thought that would be the end of all my problems. I wanted to live my life my way --there was nothing much with my parents anyway," she said.

But actually, life turned only shoddier. At 17, she got married and at 18, became a mother. And her husband divorced her soon after and left to join the army.

Lalita had just nowhere to go -- her only possession was her wailing child. For a while, she just managed to live -- on scraps and whatever else she could manage. Some months later, Lalita fell in love with another man, and the three moved to Colorado. But life was still exacting and the three had to live on government assistance.

"Both of us did some low-wage jobs to keep it going but it was really tough," recalls Lalita.

And it was an episode one evening, during that phase of her life, that changed everything for Lalita.

"My son was two and I was scared of touching his diaper fearing it would be wet since I had no money for diapers. Then he asked for food and there was nothing at home. I made him sleep hungry. While he slept, I remained wide awake. I felt horrible that I brought into this world a son who I could not even feed. I had to get my life back for my son."

That evening changed Lalita's standpoint forever. Instead of simply crying over how 'cruel life was' Lalita decided to do something about it.

"I sent my son to live with my boyfriend's parents in North Carolina and within minutes of dropping him there I picked up the phone book and searched for financial planners," said Lalita.

"Whoever I called, I told them that I had no money and I needed free advice on how to earn some money to be able to get my son back and get-off government assistance. One financial planner actually helped me out. Since we were still under government assistance, I managed to keep some money aside and enrolled in a course to become a tax agent. The entrance exam is supposed to be real tough but I got through," Lalita informed.
First job
Within months, she got herself a job which gave her $32,000 per annum with the US Treasury Department. Lalita got her son back but around the same time she and her boyfriend also separated. She was back to being alone with her son, only this time, she had a little bit of money and a longing to 'educate' herself.

"I moved to Florida and enrolled in Trinity Community College since it was the cheapest college. I took a job in the grocery store in the day and went to college later. My son's education was also an emerging need then and since he is autistic I knew I had to work double hard," says Lalita.

Studying through the nights, Lalita managed a straight A grade in all the subjects and bagged the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship worth $30,000. This money helped Lalita enrol at the University of Central Florida (UCF).

There too, Lalita performed extraordinarily during the four-years. Finally she graduated in 2009 and was the College of Business Administration's Top Honour Graduate with dual degrees in Finance and Accounting.

There, she was also awarded the Order of Pegasus (highest honour at UCF) and the UCF's Alumni Association's Distinguished Student Award and became UCF's first Truman Scholar.
Days had begun to look brighter for Lalita. She had reached her mid-20s -- and what the waves of education could do to a person, was staring back at her.

"My interest was in managing finances, having learnt the hard way and I always felt that if poor people knew how to handle their money, they would be better off than where they are," Lalita told..

During college, Lalita started a non-profit organisation called Lighthouse for Dreams. The organisation which is growing in numbers even today teaches financial literacy to high schools students. Lalita says it is important that students know the clout that money holds in the world.

Life had begun to settle for Lalita who by then had an irrepressible desire to keep studying. There was no way she was going to stop -- Harvard seemed like a logical next step but an almost impossible one.

She pursued and before she knew it, was strolling along the hallowed corridors of the graduate school in Harvard, pursuing a dual degree in Public Policy and Master of Business Administration.
The Harvard experience
"The best ever. I can't tell you how good the case study method is. I can still remember lectures from a year ago as if they happened yesterday. Lecture-based teaching can be awfully boring. Case-studies bring life to everything. I look forward to lectures only because of case-studies," answers Lalita.

About extra-curricular activities, Lalita says: "Oh, there are plenty here but I don't take part in many. I have a son to go to at the end of the day. My class mates go abroad for internships but I don't because of my son."

Lalita is 30 today while her classmates are about 25-28. No one makes her feel old and they better not because what she has gained in the last decade by way of education and scholarships, none of her classmates have come anywhere close.

She enjoys every bit of classroom life, a privilege she missed while growing up.

Today, she has almost achieved what she set as a goal 12 years ago. Her son who is 12 happily announces to everyone that his mother is at Harvard. "He is truly proud of me and I feel fulfilled today,"Lalita said.
Her son, Kieren, is also heard discussing his mother's accolades in school. Be it her Harry Truman Foundation Fellowship or the Dean's Gold Medallion for Civil Service or better still the College of Business Founder's Day Award.
Forward, Lalita wants to write some more books for the helpless and poor besides continuing work with her NGO. She has become a bit of a celebrity already with newspapers and television channels keeping an account of her every new degree.

So what is the job that Lalita is looking forward to after graduation?

"I hope the Department of Treasury's Office of Financial Education create a special post for me. I would like to work there. Just earning money is not the end of everything, how to spend and use it is very important," the 30 year-old warns.

Till then Lalita, who is proud to have an Indian name (given by an Indian friend of her parents) will just continue to mount up her degrees. When asked about her success, Lalita always says: "In this world, you either have an excuse or a story. I preferred to have a story."

The fascinating story of a courier company run by deaf people!

Two years ago Dhruv Lakra started out Mirakle Couriers that is almost exclusively run by people with hearing disabilities. This is the success story of the 32-year-old entrepreneur and his company.

A few days before the country celebrated Eid, Mumbai-based entrepreneur Dhruv Lakra found himself with a rather unique problem on his hands. A Muslim gentleman who'd heard of his courier service wanted them to deliver over 3,000 Eid cards across the city.

Lakra and his team of over 50-odd people were far from ready for this. It was a challenge that few courier companies of that size could've been able to meet. Delivering so many shipments in less than two days was out of the question.

With Mirakle the challenge gets more complex -- all its delivery boys and each of its back office staff is deaf.

Sitting across the table from me, Dhruv Lakra speaks softly and in short sentences. He doesn't like to deviate from the question he's asked and seems like a man of few words.

For now though, Lakra is getting a little fidgety. He's promised me this meeting but his heart and mind are back at the office where everyone is trying to sort out the 3,000 cards that need to be delivered ASAP.

It's a little more complicated as one of the two days they have to deliver is a Sunday, the one day that the staff looks forward to. Lakra knows it will be a tough job trying to explain them the importance of making this work.

So when he returns to the office about 29 minutes later, he will have rolled up his sleeves and along with his staff would be sorting out the cards.

Surely, money is a factor why everyone is working at Mirakle Couriers.

Yet somewhere I'd like to think it isn't so much for the cash that Lakra and his men would be delivering the huge consignment that's just landed on their hands.

For the people at Mirakle it is an occasion they must rise to.

Over two years they've worked hard to build a reputation of being professional and efficient. Certainly, a measly order of 3,000 cards isn't going to ruin that.
The story of Mirakle Couriers isn't just inspiring but also fascinating -- how the seeds of a simple idea have borne fruits.

Today the company boasts of some prominent corporate houses -- including Mahindra and Mahindra, Godrej, Aditya Birla Group, Vodafone, Infomedia18 JSW, The Business India group and Tehelka among others -- as clients. But while it looks all hunky-dory from the outside it has taken two long years of hard work, patience and persistence to make it happen.

It all began in a local bus a few years ago when Lakra, having returned with an MBA from Oxford and still unsure about his future plans, happened to find a seat next to a young boy.

Much later into the journey, Lakra discovered the boy couldn't hear. They 'spoke' using a piece of paper and a pen exchanging notes. The boy, Lakra recollects, was unemployed.

While this got the then 20-something Lakra thinking about job prospects for the deaf it also struck him that the deaf are perhaps the most invisible among the differently abled people.

In a separate instance when he took a courier delivery without exchanging a single word with the delivery boy Dhruv Lakra hit upon the idea.

"Most people don't talk to courier boys. All we do is take the packet and sign the sheet," he points out adding that not being able to communicate isn't always an impediment in a courier boy's job.

If at all, this has worked to their advantage. While making a pitch to a prospective client, the folks at Mirakle use the social card.

"We tell them if you cannot employ a disabled person, outsource one of your functions to us because we employ disabled people," Lakra says.

Sometimes the pitch works; at other times it doesn't.

Even if they do sell them the idea, there are some who have their apprehensions.

"There's the concern of safety and delivery of the shipments. Some of our clients worry about their shipments getting lost. Convincing them sometimes is difficult."

That's when the big corporate houses Mirakle works with come handy. "It helps to work with big names. When people realise that we work with Mahindra and Godrej, it adds to our credibility. (Also) we're not an NGO. We are offering them a service."
Like most social entrepreneurs, Dhruv Lakra is quick to point to me that his organisation isn't an NGO and is run by the rules of business like any other.

When I ask him if he is disdainful towards NGOs he is quick to point out that he was part of one before starting out Mirakle.

"I think for our kind of business, a for-profit model works better. The thing is disability is closely linked with charity and we need to get that notion out. People also don't always take NGOs seriously and since we are a client service division it helps to be a privately run company than an NGO. Moreover as an NGO you cannot become a vendor."

It has been a difficult ride for Lakra but one that he's enjoyed nonetheless.

When he started out in 2009 with one delivery boy, he worked out of a friend's house and delivered letters himself. Then as business grew thanks to the generosity of Anu Aga of Thermax he managed to get a working space enough for six to seven people.

Today Lakra doesn't necessarily go out to deliver letters and rather focuses on managing his team.

In an interview to Rashmi Bansal in her book I have a Dream, Lakra mentions that to be able to enter the world of the deaf isn't easy.

So, over the years he's even learnt to speak sign language, which helps him bond with them better.

"I'm about 80 per cent fluent," he says.

It also helps him communicate with new recruits, most of who come from extremely poor background, have little or no education and are very, very low on self confidence.

"I knew what I was getting into was difficult but you cannot imagine their mental map," he says, his voice betraying signs of exasperation.

"The people who come to me are in their early 20s; they can't hear; some of them are barely fourth grade dropouts and have never once held a proper job. It's very difficult (to reach out to them)."

While the boys do the delivery, the back end operations are handled by the women, all of them in their 20s.

Managing an assorted team of this kind has its challenges. Lakra tells me they meet every once a week to discuss what problems the team faces and they try to overcome it. At the same time they also make sure they don't have such meetings too often.

"Initially there was a lot of handholding but now we're learning to let go because we realise they tend to get over-dependant on us. Earlier if a delivery boy said he couldn't go to an area because he wasn't familiar with it, we'd make an exception. Today we don't. At some level we've come to realise that it is after all their life and they can choose to make a difference," Lakra says.

Dhruv Lakra had a choice too. He could've been an investment banker, could've not returned from the UK after his education and could've gone for the conventional route.

Having finished his schooling in Jammu, Lakra came to Mumbai because his parents wanted him to experience the big city life. Here, he spent his college years and soon after, like most of his classmates, joined a private financial services firm.

Two years into his job, Lakra realised he wasn't cut out for it. The job went out of the window and the young fellow decided he wanted to contribute to a social cause.

"I joined Dasra (an NGO) and soon after I joined them I was sent out to Nagapattinam and Cuddalore (in Tamil Nadu). I spent almost four months working in the tsunami-affected villages," he recollects.

After working for over two years with Dasra, Lakra bagged a full scholarship to Oxford for an MBA degree in social entrepreneurship.

On returning to India, Lakra was certain he wanted to start out something on his own but had no clue till the incident in the bus happened.

In his blog, Lakra recollects the story and remembers how difficult life was for the deaf and how 'something as straightforward as a bus became a struggle'.

He writes, "It is an invisible disability. You cannot know when someone near you is deaf as there are no obvious physical attributes, and so it's totally ignored.

It is also a silent (voiceless) disability. There is very little public sympathy for the deaf, and by connection, a severe lack of government support for them in India.

Particularly when it comes to employment there are no opportunities because no one has the patience or the foresight to learn deaf language and culture. This is how Mirakle Couriers was born."

While the initial support of friends and family did help him stay afloat, it was the prestigious Echoing Green fellowship in 2009 that really gave Mirakle the thrust it always needed.

The fellowship amount of about $60,000 aims to 'accelerate social change' by investing in and supporting 'outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organisations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions'.

Over two years, the fellowship amount that is released in instalments has largely helped Mirakle grow.

Today the company has two offices -- one in South Mumbai and the other in the western suburb of Andheri and is a thriving business.

Dhruv Lakra's family that has gone through a seesaw of emotions wondering where their son would land up is now not just satisfied but also quite proud of what he does.

Mirakle Couriers has since won the Hellen Keller award for being the 'Role model supporter of increased employment opportunities for disabled people' and won the 2010 National Award for the Empowerment of People With Disabilities.

Yet sitting across the table from me, three days before Eid, Dhruv Lakra is a restless man. There's an urgent delivery of over 3,000 invitation cards that needs to be completed over the weekend.

Exactly 29 minutes into the conversation, Dhruv Lakra excuses himself and leaves. He returns to his office and joins his army of silent women and men as they work through the latest challenge thrown at them.

The Real Superman

My mom only had one eye. I hated her… She was such an embarrassment. She cooked for students and teachers to support the family.

There was this one day during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me. I was so embarrassed.

How could she do this to me? I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, ‘EEEE, your mom only has one eye!’

I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear. I confronted her that day and said, ‘ If you’re only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don’t you just die?’

My mom did not respond… I didn’t even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was full of anger. I was oblivious to her feelings.

I wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with her. So I studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study.

Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. I had kids of my own. I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts. Then one day, my Mother came to visit me. She hadn’t seen me in years and she didn’t even meet her grandchildren.

When she stood by the door, my children laughed at her, and I yelled at her for coming over uninvited. I screamed at her, ‘How dare you come to my house and scare my children!’ GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!’

And to this, my mother quietly answered, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,’ and she disappeared out of sight.

One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. So I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity.

My neighbors said that she died. I did not shed a single tear. They handed me a letter that she had wanted me to have.

‘My dearest son,

I think of you all the time. I’m sorry that I came to your house and scared your children.

I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. I’m sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you were growing up.

You see……..when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn’t stand watching you having to grow up with one eye. So I gave you mine.

I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye.

With all my love to you,

Your Mother.

Life is about you

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one
DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstanding, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.

20 Things NOT to do on a Sales Call By Geoffrey James

#1. Flirt with the admin. It may seem tempting, but unless you’ve got soap-opera-quality looks, chances are you’re only going to annoy (or even alarm) the admin, who will tell the boss. Instead: Stay polite, friendly and respectful.
#2. Talk more than you listen. Initial sales calls are all about relationship building and gathering information, which you can’t do if your mouth is moving. Instead: Get curious about the customer and ask questions.
#3. Comment on the memento. The last 372 people who came into that office remarked about the signed baseball on the desk. Ho-hum… Instead: Research the prospect and ask about the prospect’s job.
#4. Pretend to drop by. Who are you kidding? Do you think that it’s going to cushion the rejection if you pretend that it’s not a sales call? Instead: Have something important to say or sell that justifies your presence.
#5. Answer your cell phone. Ouch! Ouch! What were you thinking? How could any telephone call be more important than a real live prospect? Instead: Turn it off and leave it in your briefcase.
#6. Overstay your welcome. Your prospect has hundreds of other things that he or she could be doing, rather than spending time with you. Instead: Set a time limit for the call.
#7. Let the meeting meander. This isn’t the time for a wandering conversation that slowly gets to the point or a long series of complicated questions. Instead: Provide brief agenda of how you expect the call to proceed.
#8. Argue with the customer. If the customer doesn’t agree with an important point, arguing is only going to set that opinion in stone. Instead: ask the customer why he holds that opinion; then listen.
#9: Discuss politics or religion. Such subjects are almost always a trap into opinionated quicksand that’s hard or impossible to get out of. Instead: keep the discussion on business or neutral ground.
#10: Dive into your product pitch. Sure you’ve got something to sell, but if you pitch too soon, you’ll get pitched out the door. Instead: Ask questions to understand needs, before you pitch.
#11: Arrive late to the call. If you don’t arrive on time it tell the customer clearly that you don’t give a damn about them or their time. Instead: Always arrive 15 minutes ahead of time. If you drive to calls, get a GPS.
#12: Appear flippant or sarcastic. A good-natured laugh at a joke might be taken personally by someone watching out the window, without hearing the context. Instead: Watch your demeanor at all times.
#13: Lack requisite product knowledge. The prospect doesn’t want to hear “I need to get back to you about that”…over and over. Instead: make sure you’re trained on your current products and policies…before the call.
#14: Fail to plan the call. Sounds simple, but trying to close when should be qualifying (for example) is a lost sale. Instead: Never enter a door without first thinking about what you plan to accomplish.
#15: Be too business-like at first. Remember you’re building bridges with another human being, not just a notch in your sales gun. Instead: Smile and be friendly… but don’t get too gushy.
#16: Show up with a crowd. If you bring too many people, it will draw customer’s comments about why your costs so high Instead: Use webconferencing when you need to include additional resources.
#17: Fail to check your appearance. Don’t show up with something amiss that a quick stop in the client’s bathroom could head off. Instead: Make a quick pit stop - with a look-over - before the call.
#18: Forget the customers’ names. What could be more embarrassing than actually forgetting whom you’re talking with? Instead: Write down the names down of everyone in the room with a small table diagram.
#19: Be rude to the admin. No flirting, of course, but if you act all arrogant and superior, you’ll just antagonize the help. Instead: Be friendly and respectful of the staff - admin and otherwise.
#20: Ask personal questions. You may think that the customer is your friend, but you can easily screw up if it gets too personal. Instead: Keep the conversation focused on business issues, especially the customer’s needs.

How much do you get others to do the work?

This is probably one of the least publicized weapons of mass destruction in business model design. What could be more powerful than getting others to do the work while you earn the money?

In the bricks and mortar world IKEA gets us to assemble the furniture we buy from them. We do the work. They save money. On the web Facebook gets us to post photos, create and participate in conversations, and “like” stuff. That’s the real value of Facebook, entirely created by users, while they simply provide the platform. We do the work. They earn the sky-high valuations of their shares.

Previously mentioned Redhat crafted another smart business model based on other people’s work. Their entire business model is built on top of software developed by the open source software development community. This allowed them to substantially reduce their development costs and compete head-on with larger companies like Microsoft.

A more malicious business model in which others do the work is the one practiced by so-called patent trolls. In this model patents are purchased with the sole intention of suing successful companies to extract payments from them.

Thats my Fish

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish. If the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh. To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste. The fishing industry faced an impending crisis!
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But today, they get fresh-tasting fish in Japan .
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How did they manage? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark. The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. The challenge they face keeps them alive and fresh!
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Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired and dull? Basically in our lives, sharks are new challenges to keep us active. If you are steadily conquering challenges, you are happy. Your challenges keep you energized. Don't create success and revel in it in a state of inertia. You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.
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Take a Risk, take a chance. Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

Ek Din

Ek din aisa bhi aana hai dono Ke do mein se ek ne chale jaana hai. aisle jeena seekh le ke jeene mien taqleef na ho.
The immortal romantic lines, love beyond life. If man and woman were made for companionship why do they have to live alone once the other dies. Another one of life's wonders. I wish I was superman and could change this

10 Things Great Managers Do By Steve Tobak

There’s all sorts of rhetoric about what good bosses should and shouldn’t do these days. I guess that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, most of it’s pretty basic, generic fluff that sort of blends together after a while.
Even worse, a lot of it’s, well, utopian. It panders to what employees want to hear instead of giving truly practical and insightful advice on what makes a manager effective in the real world where business is everything and everything’s on the line.
This list is different. It’s different because, to derive it, I went back in time to the best characteristics of the best CEOs (primarily) I’ve worked for and with over the past 30 years. It’s based entirely on my own experience with executives who made a real difference at extraordinary companies.
Some were big, some were small, but all were successful in their respective markets, primarily because of the attributes of these CEOs. Each anecdote taught me a critical lesson that advanced my career and helped me to be a better leader. Hope you get as much out of reading it as I did living it.
10 Things Great Managers Do
Maintain your cool and sense of humor, especially during a crisis. When our biggest customer - and I mean big - thought I leaked a front-page story to the press, I offered to resign to save the relationship. My boss, a great CEO, gave me this serious look, like he was thinking about it, and said, “You’re not getting off that easy.” Then he broke out into a big smile.
Tell subordinates when they’re shooting themselves in the foot. Sometimes I can be pretty intimidating and I’ve had CEOs who shied away from giving it to me straight when my emotions got the better of me. Not this one guy. We’d be in a heated meeting and he’d quietly take me aside and read me the riot act. He was so genuine about it that it always opened my eyes and helped me to achieve perspective.
Be the boss, but behave like a peer. I’ve worked with loads of CEOs who let their egos get the better of them. They act like they’re better than everyone else, are distant and emotionally detached, or flaunt their knowledge and power. That kind of behavior diminishes leaders, makes them seem small, and keeps them from really connecting with people. They’re not always the most successful, but the most admired CEOs I know are genuinely humble.
Let your guard down and really be yourself outside of work. You know, teambuilding is so overrated. All you really need to do outside of work to build a cohesive team is break some bread, have some drinks, relax, let your guard down, and be a regular human being. When you get to be really confident, you can be that way all the time. That’s the mark of a great leader.
Stand behind and make big bets on people you believe in. One CEO would constantly challenge you and your thinking to the point of being abusive. But once he trusted and believed in you, he put his full weight behind you 100 percent to help you succeed. He’d stand up for you even when he wasn’t sure what the heck you were up to. And he’d give you new functional responsibilities - something up-and-coming execs need to grow. Okay, he wasn’t perfect, but who is?
Complement your subordinate’s weaknesses. I often say it’s every employee’s job to complement her boss’s weaknesses. The only reason that’s even doable is because we’ve all only got one boss. But I actually had a CEO who did that with each and every one of his staff. For example, I’m more of a big picture strategy guy and he would really hold my feat to the fire by tracking my commitments. It felt like micromanaging at first, but I eventually realized it helped me to be a more effective and strengthened the entire management team.
Compliment your employee’s strengths. It takes a strong, confident leader to go out on a limb and tell an employee what they’re great at. Why? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s hard for alpha males that primarily inhabit executive offices. Anyway, it’s important because we can’t always see ourselves objectively. Twenty years ago a CEO identified how effectively I cut through a boatload of BS to reach unique solutions to tough problems. Today, that’s what I do for a living.
Teach the toughest, most painful lessons you’ve ever learned. As a young manager at Texas Instruments, I once asked my boss’s boss for advice about a promotion I didn’t get. He told me a candid story about the hardest lesson he’d ever learned, the reason he was stuck in his job. He made himself indispensible and didn’t groom his replacement. It was painful for him to share, but it opened my eyes and made a huge difference in my career.
Do the right thing. Just about everyone says it, but I’ve only known one CEO who both preached and practiced it to the point where it became a big part of the company culture. You’d walk the halls and hear people say it all the time. He meant two things by it. When he said it to you, it meant he trusted you to do just that. He also meant it regardless of status quo or consequences. He had extraordinary faith in that phrase. Now I do too.
Do what has to be done, no matter what. It’s a rare executive who jumps on a plane at a moment’s notice to close a deal or gives an impromptu presentation when a potential investor shows up unexpectedly. It’s even more rare when he does it without asking questions or hemming and hawing about it. He just does what has to be done. That kind of drive and focus on the business is relatively common with entrepreneurs in high-tech startups - but it shouldn’t be. It’s the mark of a great manager who will find success, that’s for sure.