Judging people

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I have a tendency to judge people or companies. They are all doing the best they can under the circumstances and we do not know all the circumstances to judge them. When a person acts in a particular way, he does it based on his beliefs. We take this action of the person and extrapolate […]

What does my balance sheet look like

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In order to make oodles of money, I need to have something to sell that other people want and are willing to buy and pay. What I have are my assets. I can have a physical asset (either god given, inherited, purchased or created by me) – this can include looks etc. as well as […]

Beliefs or frames of reference

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If I have put my child to sleep and am relaxing in front of the TV with a glass of well deserved Laphroig in my hand, and he comes crawling out, I get pissed off. My belief is that I need to relax. The child’s belief is that he does not want to sleep. On […]

Why are we here on earth and what is the purpose of our existence?

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It is my belief that we are here to better mankind. To me, ‘better mankind’ means to leave people who come in contact with us better than when they met us. Some of us are blessed with the means and the opportunity to improve a large section of mankind but the rest of us can […]

Why am I being passed over?

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I burned the midnight oil, I helped my colleagues finish their work in time, I fetched and carried for my boss, I made his presentations, his spreadsheets, his reports but my colleague got promoted. I thought I was indispensable. My colleague did not work as hard as me, and in my opinion he was an […]

Rome was built on the last day

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The subject is a common project management adage. It means that things get done at the last minute, even if there was enough time to plan well. It is human nature to prioritise things on the basis of the pleasure principle – personal gratification and ease of use, or the pain principle, that is avoidance […]

Professionalism

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Long time ago, I read a series of novels by Peter O’Donnell which had a team, Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin, that ran a crime network and then retired. This was the time of the Cold War and getting into the Iron Countries was next to impossible, and you were monitored constantly by the secret […]

Why is sales so distasteful?

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When I talk to MBA students about sales as a career, a distasteful look fleets across their faces. I sympathise. The image of a sales person conning you into buying something you do not need comes to mind. I did hardcore sales for 2 years and then decided never to do it again. Lo and […]

How to read a book (and make notes) effectively

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One of the problems we face is of information overload. We read books, handouts, newspapers, magazines and Internet articles and are expected to have instant recall of the right information at the right time. How do we typically read? We take a book, sit or lie, (maybe with the TV or the radio or the […]