Karim’s posterous

For me humility is a very powerful trait. It seems that every day all we hear are people/companies/brands/colleagues telling us how amazing they are, or asking us questions to illicit a confirmation of their awesomeness from us. It gets a bit strange and a bit too much. Even when we give opinions about things I think it's good to be humble, to acknowledge genuinely that you may not be that experienced or knowledgeable. Even in a professional sense, humility can be powerful, if you really go deeper, can you really be sure what you achieve is good or great? All I think you can really say is that you enjoyed it and you poured your heart into it, you genuinely engaged with it. Taking that moment to be humble and honest, keeps our ego in check and let's us take a refreshing look at life. 

via NotCot http://www.notcot.org/post/13483/

Lifestyle design guru Tim Ferriss blogs about a Danish TV show he was in where he tried to help people incorporate the principles of his book into their daily work lives.

The program followed a employee of a Danish insurance company and a CEO of a small microbrewery with varying results. The biggest take away for me was the concise summary of Tim's main advice:

1. Change your email habits. The goal is to check email 1-2 times a day at fixed times and never first thing in the morning.
   
   
2. Have fewer, shorter meetings (never more than 20 min). Using email/phone as alternatives can work in a lot of cases.
   
   
3. Delegate more. If you're a boss, stop wasting your time on minutia, delegate to your employees.
   
   
4. Have other (non-work) activities/commitments out of work. Book this in and protect them just as you'd do for a business meeting.

 

Filed under  //   ex 9-5 man wisdom  

Kiva.org is an amazing service that provides micro-credit loans to business people all over the developing world. I tried to log-in today and make a loan myself but then I saw the amazing news that they had actually funded every single loan on the site and managed to rasie over $41 million for business people in the developing world.

This really is an amazing way for people in richer countries to help people in the developing world. Here's what I like about it:

1. You lend money through Kiva so you do get it back

2. It's perfectly transparent, you know EXACTLY how, who and where you money is being spent on

3. It's very easy to set up, just go to Kiva.org and set up an account in about 10 minutes

4. When you get the amount of money you lent paid back, you can easily re-lend it

This to me certainly is the right model for humans to help other humans out going forward, I hope all the major aid agencies and charities can take a look at how Kiva works and implement some of their techniques. Although it's quite sad, a big reason people I know don't give more charity is because of a lack of transparency, with the Kiva this isn't an issue. After all if you were giving money (lending actually) wouldn't you be more willing to give if you knew exactly who you were helping and how you helped them?

Filed under  //   Twitter  

As a casual observer of the recent developments in the ongoing popularity contest of the US presidential hopefuls, I can't help but think that the two candidates accidentally mixed up their choices for running mate.

Obama picked Joe Biden, a well entrenched 'Washington man' with  a lot of foreign policy experience. Apparently the best way to counter McCain was to dilute the Obama brand with somone more acceptable to a wider (more  convservative) base of potential voters. Nothing really unusual about this, a very typical blurring of the brand that many presidential hopefuls have undertaken in previous years. However in the current climate where so much of the US public is crying out for change, a more 'brand consistent' selection for VP would have clearily signaled Obama as absolutley the right choice for people hungry for a new politics.

McCain on the other hand, decided to take a leaf out of the Obama play book and bring in Sarah Palin, a young, aesthetically pleasing (former miss Alaska) that greatly boosts his appeal to those Americans that savoured the idea of a female (vice)president that Hillary Clinton stirred the imagination with.

Essentially you have both Candidates hedging their bets by trying to garnish their own distinct brands with a pinch of salt from the enemy's image. Now the people that really believe Obama was going to create a revolutionary change in US politics believe him a little less, and the people that stood behind McCain and the 'true grit' mentality and straight-shooting politics he espoused will question his choice of an ex-beauty paegent queen as a running mate.

Maybe they should switch their VPs quickly before they get too attached to them!

via http://pointov.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/bell/

How do you deal with the mistakes you make? Does it bother you when you realise you messed up? Do you own up to it or sweep it under the rug if no-body else has noticed? Do you take responsibility or do you try to justify the error by mentioning external factors?

Personally I've probably done all of the above, but in general I try to be generous with my when it comes down to taking responsibilities for mistakes. It usually cuts things short if you take as full responsibility for a screw-up as possible. I've seen my fair share of people that try to cover their butts by shifting blame to others and although it might sometimes work it's never admirable. 

Guy Kawasaki gives us the 'Five most important lessons' he's learned about entrepreneurship:

1. Focus on Cash-Flow
2. Make a little progress everyday
3. Try stuff
4. Ignore 'schmexperts' (the people that tell you 'this can't' be done or 'there's already too many people doing this' etc)
5. Don't ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't do

Read the full post: http://www.sun.com/solutions/smb/guest.jsp?blog=five_lessons

Filed under  //   ex 9-5 man wisdom