Yesterday I met with Ramit Sethi and while we talked about a ton of things, one of the things we discussed was the people’s need to chase exclusivity (examples: be it going to a certain business school, living in a certain community/city, driving a certain car etc.) without a clear leverage plan. I agree with… Continue reading
Post Category → Distinguish
Ways to distinguish yourself – #79 Gather the right puzzle pieces
Imagine that you have a set of lego blocks – let’s say about 60 of them. What we can do with these blocks depends on our creativity, skill level, amount of time we are willing to commit and so on. Some people may create a small object and others might build something big. Each person… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #78 Think!
“Do you think?” can easily be treated as a rhetorical question. “Who does not?” The real question is “Do you really think you think?” The reason I am asking this is because, honestly, we as a society have started to reward “doers” more than we reward “thinkers” almost by a wide margin. Want proof? Here… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #77 Treat your competition with respect
Being in the Silicon Valley has many advantages – you get to listen to so many startup ideas and pitches. There is so much of energy and enthusiasm in those budding entrepreneurs. One of the simple questions I have when I hear a new pitch is “Who is your competition, now and in the future?”… Continue reading
Ways to distingish yourself – #76 Follow up
Follow up has two flavors, one in the context of communication and the other in the context of persistence: First, in the context of communication: In their book The Leaders Voice, Ron Crossland and late Boyd Clarke make an interesting observation “The biggest problem with leadership communication is the illusion that is has occurred.” This… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #75 Provide early warning signals
One of the biggest problems leaders have is that negatives on any project are not known until it’s very late – sometimes until the project is in crisis. There are several reasons why people don’t want to break the negative news early enough. A few come to mind: * You know that there are problems… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #74 Activate the catalyst: Intensity
Let’s consider a few scenarios when you are playing a game against someone: 1. You win against someone way below your skill level. Typically, you won’t enjoy that win or worse, you may not even want to play with the person again. 2. You lose against someone way above your skill level. Typically, you won’t… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #73 Watch how you say "what you do"
Long ago, I read a book called “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz. In one of the chapters Schwartz talks about the value of treating your work as important. He explains this in the form of a story of three brick layers. It’s short and simple. When asked “what are you doing?” the… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #72 Be willing to step back to move forward
First time entrepreneurs (especially if they are bootstrapping) have a first hand experience in this – they willingly step back before moving forward. I have a personal experience too. I remember this clearly – When I co-founded CIGNEX five years ago (66% pay cut, lifestyle changes, smaller office and a ton of uncertainty) everyone would… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself – #71 Expand your capacity to receive help!
I have always believed and continue to believe that we have more help than we require at any point in our life. Whenever I say that during a talk, half the people nod in agreement and the other half give me a skeptical look. While I believe in everything I said, I also want to… Continue reading