This concept is courtesy of my insightful friend Ravi Char of Musings on Information Security. Thank you Ravi. 1. Without a good zeroth impression, you may not even get a chance to make a first impressionThere is a saying “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression“. While this still holds good,… Continue reading
Post Category → Distinguish
Ways to distinguish yourself #184 – Invest your time to understand filters
Last week I was talking to a potential investor about a potential opportunity to invest. After the first sentence, the investor said “Raj, I don’t need to hear more about it. That space is not interesting for us.” We talked about other companies and one of the companies was of deep interest and we ended… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #183 – Increase your capacity to increase capacity of others
I don’t think people have a dearth of ideas or opportunities. There are literally hundreds of ideas and opportunities that people can pursue. However, there is a physical limitation on people’s capacity to execute on them. You are gold if you can enhance someone’s capacity as they pursue their life’s passion. However, when you are… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #182 – Structure yourself to get high-quality help requests
If we super-simplify what we do on a daily basis, we can say that we are 1. doing what we want to do or 2. doing what someone else wants us to do or 3. doing what we HAVE to do. In the first case, it is clear that you are totally in-charge. What kind… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #181 – Remember your friends when you don't NEED them
Think about an ATM machine. Did you remember an ATM machine today? Unless you wanted cash, you probably did not think of an ATM machine. That’s not a problem. In fact, it would be scary if you were thinking about an ATM machine when you didn’t NEED cash. This is also fine because you don’t… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #180 – Build flexibility into your future
Note: This is the 900th post on this blog. A BIG thank you to all of you – long term supporters and new readers. You can access the older posts in the archives page. Being flexible is an asset. Being quick to change is an asset. You might have heard from someone – “Don’t be… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #179 – Invent new possibilities daily
I am fortunate to get to meet a lot of bright young people who have bold dreams. Their eyes lit up when they explain how they are going to change the world. They have wonderful ideas. Sadly, many of them do not take any action on them TODAY because they are waiting for something to… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #178 – Welcome new rules
When you were just learning to write the alphabets, all you had to do to get an applause from people around you was to write the alphabets correctly. Those were the rules of the game. When you moved to school, the rules changed almost without notice. You could not get an applause just by reciting… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #177 – Be (truly) there for someone
You are busy. Everyone around you is busy. Well, may be not everyone. In fact, there are a lot of people out there who were very busy and they are not busy anymore. When they were busy, they didn’t have time for anyone. When they finally got out of their busyness, there is nobody for… Continue reading
Ways to distinguish yourself #176 – Stop believing in your own (weak) excuses
I have written and spoken about the need to keep the promises we make to ourselves earlier. By changing that one practice alone, we can change the way we live for the rest of our lives. Why is it hard to keep the promises that we make to ourselves? There are many reasons bu the… Continue reading