Gretchen Rubin: 12 Surprising And Productive Brain Exercises
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gretchen-rubin/12-surprising-and-product_b_147769.html

12 Surprising And Productive Brain Exercises - The Huffington Post

12 interesting exercises from writer/editor Dorothea Brande, who also wrote a book called "Wake Up and Live."

There are three types of amateur entrepreneurs out there, and in my young life, I’ve been every single one of them. By coming to terms with my failures, I’m more prepared to classify which type of amateur entrepreneur I am, and thus preventing myself from failing in the same way again.

Type 1 Amateur Entrepreneur: All ideas, no implementation. Type 2 Amateur Entrepreneur: Lots of ideas and half assed implementations.

When I was working as a stand-up comic, I was always warned about the rules of performing. In general, the advice was good (e.g. “Don’t be dirty.” “Talk about yourself.” “Play to the crowd.”), adhering to it made one look and sound like everybody else. It didn’t take long to quickly learn that for every guideline and rule of successful stand-up comedy, somebody has broken that rule and made a fortune off of it (e.g. Sam Kinison, Andy Kaufman). When I left stand-up, I learned that stand-up’s “rule breaking” successes transcended everything, even social media. And like in stand-up, I watched the masses collectively form “the rules,” which manifested itself as an endless stream of top tips, best practices, and expert advice. It all became mind numbing.

Success and Motivation

"Should Print Out and Bound"

Keeping up momentum in a tough market and tough times

I connected deeply with this blog post by Mark Cuban, very inspiring personally. Favorite line: "The cheaper you can live, the greater your options. Remember that."

Why follow people on twitter

Paul is a Senate hopeful and the son of former presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul.

You can find just about anyone on Twitter, and leaders are no exception. Whether you’re looking for motivational speakers, authors, social media experts, or politicians, you can find quite a few interesting personalities. Read on to learn about 100 leaders on Twitter that you can learn from.

excerpt from book by Jim Collins - How the Mighty Fall and why Some Companies Never Give In

Every institution is vulnerable, no matter how great. There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Anyone can fall, and most eventually do. But all is not gloom. By understanding the five stages of decline we uncovered in our research for How the Mighty Fall, leaders can substantially increase the odds of reversing decline before it is too late—or even better, stave off decline in the first place. Decline can be avoided. The seeds of decline can be detected early. And decline can be reversed (as we've seen with notable cases such as IBM (IBM), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Merck (MRK), and Nucor (NUE)). The mighty can fall, but they can often rise again.

overview of an upcoming book that analyzes the 5 stages to failure for a company or country.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, on how to spot the subtle signs that your successful company is actually on course to sputter—and how to reverse the slide before it's too late -- THE SILENT CREEP OF DOOM

Pick one measurable definition of success and work on it relentlessly.

To succeed, focus on one small, entry-level venue. Succeed at that over and over until you master then. Only then move up to big leagues - you'll be too good to be ignored.

read it

A new study released by enterprise wiki provider Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group shows that the brands most engaged in social media are also experiencing higher financial success rates than those of their non-engaged peers. To determine this relationship, the study focused on 100 companies from the 2008 BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands survey and the various social media platforms they used like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, and forums. Although it's difficult to prove for certain that the companies' involvement in social media has led to their increased revenues, the implication behind the new data is that it has.

La première étude qui montre qu'il y a un lien entre l'utilisation des social medias et les résultats financiers des entreprises. A montrer aux marques pour les motiver à s'impliquer dans la plateforme

Ambition makes determination, and then determination makes wealth.

This feels like it needs some more fleshing out.

good blog on determination. Indeed, if you want to create the most wealth, the way to do it is to focus more on their needs than your interests, and make up the difference with determination.

So with that caveat, here is my list of ten traits I see in great companies. This is aimed at web/tech companies but I believe it can and should be applicable to all companies.

Interesting take on what makes a great company

Yesterday I got to do one of my favorite things. Our portfolio company Etsy invited me out to their new offices in Dumbo to talk to the entire team. Since they didn't ask me to talk about anything in specific,...

Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes! Tactics are almost the cherry on top, but that's what people want: tips-'n'-tactics. Ugh. I can spot the ones who don't get it a mile away now that I've been speaking about marketing for a while. "TELL ME ABOUT TWITTER!!" Um, no. How about we talk about right behavior, and goals? And how about you get those squared away before I put you behind the controls of this howitzer. Which will be outdated, most likely, before you learn how to operate it properly.

The hierarchy of success I think it looks like this: Attitude Approach Goals Strategy Tactics Execution

"Most everyone has a style, and if you pick the wrong one, then all the strategy, tactics and execution in the world won't work nearly as well." "As far as I'm concerned, the most important of all, the top of the hierarchy is attitude. Why are you doing this at all? What's your bias in dealing with people and problems?"

"mind"

This weeks Sunday Siesta has been postponed as I have been working all weekend on this article. It’s my longest article ever at over 4500 words but I think it was worth the time and the effort.

Founder diagnoses why his startup failed. Good comments on traffic business models

Who are your users and are they really useful/real users?

Scientific studies have shown that you can destroy a child by calling them "smart." Even when they're very young, little kids know that being "smart" is what makes them special - and so, the first time they encounter something they don't understand immediately, it's a threat. Their specialness is in danger of being stripped away. And if they lose that smartness, then what are they?

You're going to live in fear, smarty. The question is, which fear?---------As long as they were in the drawer, they could be good. And I could be a good writer. If I worked at it. Which I wasn't, but that potential gave me all the glory of feeling like I might be a great writer some day without all of that icky negative feedback. Sure, I had this constant underlying fear that maybe I wasn't good enough - but I had a moderately popular journal, some folks who liked me, and wasn't that enough?

the

Not to make too much of it, but this struck a chord with me. I can identify with this.

As Larry Page astutely observes: "There is a pattern in companies, even in technological companies, that the people who do the work -- the engineers, the programmers, the foot soldiers if you will -- typically get rolled over by the management ... you end up kind of demoralized. You want to have a culture where the people who are doing the work, the scientists and the engineers, are empowered. And that they are managed by people who deeply understand what they are doing."

"Don't settle"

Google 10個の教訓

interesting article on following through with your goals

Whether you plan to cure cancer, lose weight or be the world's best parent, results of a new study suggest you'd do well to keep your mouth shut about it. And not just to avoid annoying other people. Researchers report that when dealing with identity goals — that is, the aspirations that define who we are — sharing our intentions doesn't necessarily motivate achievement. On the contrary, a series of experiments shows that when others take notice of our plans, performance is compromised because we gain "a premature sense of completeness" about the goal.

"Researchers report that when dealing with identity goals — that is, the aspirations that define who we are — sharing our intentions doesn't necessarily motivate achievement. On the contrary, a series of experiments shows that when others take notice of our plans, performance is compromised because we gain "a premature sense of completeness" about the goal." You have to pay to read the journal article but the abstract is here: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122306810/abstract

"(Take) a mother who talks about all the great things she's going to do for her kids — help them do better in school, get better test scores, give them extra training — while all the other mothers nod in approval," says Gollwitzer. "The chances are high that she won't do as much as she could to achieve those goals because she's already viewed as an ideal mother just by sharing her wonderful intentions." He explains the intentions function as a symbol of possessing the desired identity. This is evident in the statement of a "high-order goal," such as losing weight to become a healthier person, but not in planning to drop three pounds to fit into a dress.

Whether you plan to cure cancer, lose weight or be the world's best parent, results of a new study suggest you'd do well to keep your mouth shut about it. And not just to avoid annoying other people. Researchers report that when dealing with identity goals — that is, the aspirations that define who we are — sharing our intentions doesn't necessarily motivate achievement. On the contrary, a series of experiments shows that when others take notice of our plans, performance is compromised because we gain "a premature sense of completeness" about the goal.

David Dobbs tells us about a new theory in genetics called the orchid hypothesis that suggests that the genes that underlie some of the most troubling human behaviors -- violence, depression, anxiety -- can, in combination with the right environment, also be responsible for our best behaviors. Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind's phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail -- but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society's most cr

People that are genetically prone to being at risk in poor environments are also more successful in good environments

found via kottke.org

"the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success"

Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.

a bad environment and poor parenting vs the right environment and good parenting

“stress diathesis” or “genetic vulnerability” model Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people. The Atlantic Online | December 2009 |

Hanushek recently did a back-of-the-envelope calculation about what even a rudimentary focus on teacher quality could mean for the United States. If you rank the countries of the world in terms of the academic performance of their schoolchildren, the U.S. is just below average, half a standard deviation below a clump of relatively high-performing countries like Canada and Belgium. According to Hanushek, the U.S. could close that gap simply by replacing the bottom six per cent to ten per cent of public-school teachers with teachers of average quality.

Who likes me? Is everything okay? How can I become more popular? What's new? I'm bored, let's make some noise

If you want to understand why Twitter is so hot, look at those five attributes. They deliver all five, instantly.

Why people choose to visit online social sites: Who likes me?, Is everything okay?, How can I become more popular?, What's new?, I'm bored, let's make some noise

The pillars of social media site success /Seth's Blog/ - Why people choose to visit online social ... http://tinyurl.com/ddgjj6 [from http://twitter.com/jorgefsb/statuses/1380983695]

5 things that drive social interaction/why people choose to visit online social sites: * Who likes me? * Is everything okay? * How can I become more popular? * What's new? * I'm bored, let's make some noise

One of my Subject

* advertise

zen 17 Arse-kicking Strategies to Stick to Your Diet and Get Fit: Look nice and trim with sure-fire healthy .. http://tinyurl.com/com98f [from http://twitter.com/maxOz/statuses/1353556564]

’m not a big fan of “dieting” — a word that conjures up images of hunger and chewing on celery or doing some kind of fad diet — but I do believe in trying to eat a healthier diet. Don’t diet, but do stick to a healthy diet, in other words. But that’s easier said than done, as we all know. The healthy diet goes out the window around the holidays, for example, or when there’s a family party or a function at work full of unhealthy food, or when we go out to eat with friends, or when we go to a ballgame or amusement park or the beach, or when … well, you get the idea. There are lots of ways to get off a diet.

Blog article by Peter Bregman - July 2009 HarvardBusiness.org

Why we need to fail

Being intelligent is like having a knife. If you train every day in using the knife, you will be invincible. If you think that just having a knife will make you win any battle you fight, then you will fail. This believe in your own inherent ability is what will kill your startup. Success comes from the work and ability you put in becoming better than the others, and not from some brilliance you feel you may have within you.

http://www.torstensson.com/weblog/2009/08/overnight-successes-rarely-are.html

title says it all

Il fondatore di Friendfeed parla delle prospettive del suo prodotto e della ricetta per un'applicazione di successo.

My expectation is that big success takes years, and there aren't many counter-examples (other than YouTube, and they didn't actually get to the point of making piles of money just yet). Facebook grew very fast, but it's almost 5 years old at this point. Larry and Sergey started working on Google in 1996 -- when I started there in 1999, few people had heard of it yet.

Seth's Blog: Sprint!

« Learning all the time | Blog Home | Which parts are you skipping? »

Sprint! /Seth's Blog/ - The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk ... http://tinyurl.com/akjsof [from http://twitter.com/jorgefsb/statuses/1193019864]

seth godin

"Hurry, we need to write a new script for our commercial... we have fifteen minutes."

Sprinting can be helpful, but its not sustainable.

How to get a lot done (both in terms of quantity and quality) in a relative short amount of time. Not something you can do all the time, but a good idea to do periodically.

You can't sprint every day but it's probably a good idea to regularly.

success sethgodin inspiration strategy business ; The five pillars of success:See (really see) what's possibleKnow specifically what you want to achieveMake good decisionsUnderstand the tactics to get things done and to change mindsEarn the trust and respect of the people around youIt sure seems like we spend all our time on #4.

Basics from Seth Godin. The five pillars of success 1. See (really see) what's possible 2. Know specifically what you want to achieve 3. Make good decisions 4. Understand the tactics to get things done and to change minds 5. Earn the trust and respect of the people around you It sure seems like we spend all our time on #4.

1. See (really see) what's possible 2. Know specifically what you want to achieve 3. Make good decisions 4. Understand the tactics to get things done and to change minds 5. Earn the trust and respect of the people around you

See (really see) what's possible Know specifically what you want to achieve Make good decisions Understand the tactics to get things done and to change minds Earn the trust and respect of the people around you It sure seems like we spend all our time on #4.

The lower the CEO salary, the more likely it is to succeed. The CEO’s salary sets a cap for everyone else. If it is set at a high level, you end up burning a whole lot more money. It aligns his interest with the equity holders. But [beyond that], it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks. In practice we have found that if you only ask one question, ask that.

In a long-ranging discussion today at TechCrunch50, investor Peter Thiel (PayPal, Facebook, Slide) gave his thoughts on what is the best predictor of startup success. At the Founder’s Fund, one of the most important factors he likes to look at before deciding to invest in a startup is how much the CEO is paying himself. (This is also a factor that one of his investments, YouNoodle, looks at to value private startups). Says Thiel: The lower the CEO salary, the more likely it is to succeed. The CEO’s salary sets a cap for everyone else. If it is set at a high level, you end up burning a whole lot more money. It aligns his interest with the equity holders. But [beyond that], it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks. In practice we have found that if you only ask one question, ask that.

see title

Here are 21 ways to assure quality in everything you do. See where you can apply a couple of these rules to your life. In a few weeks, review the impact.

1.) You do not have enough belief in yourself. 2.) You do not measure yourself up against written goals. 3.) You are too comfortable where you are. 4.) You are lazy. 5.) You are not mixing with high achievers.

Weird analogy but some useful points.

pretty decent article on how to win the internets.

hip cookies. "Much like social media, choc chip cookies are made up of five key ingredients," he e

Some of us know what hitting the front page of Digg can do: send 20,000 - 200,000+ clicks through to a site. Some of us have even felt the blessing (or curse, depending on how you look at it) of the Digg Effect. But how much do you know about integrating social media, specifically Digg, into your site, and what the benefits of doing so can bring to publishers?

1. Sharing: If you love something, set it free 2. Integration: Don’t try to do everything yourself 3. People: People who know: ROFLCopter, LMAO, PWND, Noob 4. Platform: One to one is now one to many 5. Authenticity: Stay true to your core competency

en anglès

In fact, when you think about it, we only need to be motivated for a few short moments. Between those moments, momentum or habit or unconscious focus takes over.

"I didn't need to be motivated for long," I laughed. "Just long enough to get outside." Because once I was already in the rain, it took no discipline to keep riding. Getting started was the hard part. Like getting into a cold pool. Once you're in, it's fine. It's getting in that takes motivation.

RT @openofficespace: RT @JasonSpector: Why did so many successful entrepreneurs & start-ups come out of PayPal? Answered by Insiders - h ...

RT @hackernewsbot: Why did so many successful startups come out of PayPal? Answered by Insiders... http://bit.ly/9uRk73

First comment is the best.

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