1. The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World
by John Elkington
2. Love Leadership
by John Hope Bryant
3. Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
by Robert Cialdini
Oct 232009
Oct 222009
because human beings are not perfect,
when you open up your heart to love
you open up your heart to be hurt.
but still, this sucks.
I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or TwitterOct 202009
“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
- Mitch Albom
I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or TwitterOct 152009
This post, a simplified transcript of what I went through yesterday, is dedicated to the awesome group of learners from RJC. :)
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Today, we are going to talk about the one of the most important factor of success. I will show you a video by Richard St John, the founder of marketing company The St. John Group who talks about the 8 secrets of success.
There are a lot of stuffs that we can discuss about in these 8 secrets, but today I am going to focus on passion and I hope that after today you will have more insights on finding your passion.
I’m not sure about you, but I’ve heard quite a bit on finding the one and only passion, which caused me quite some headache as I simply could not make up my mind on what exacting is that one thing that I am passionate about – I was passionate about many things. Then I came across this clip on the alternative view of passion.
Watch it on Academic Earth
So now, what should you do with this basket of passions? How should you choose your opportunities from these passions? From my experience with the people I have met I can suggest you 2 ways.
I learnt the first way about a couple of weeks ago from Rachel Elnaugh, who was one of the VCs from BBC Dragons’ Den. How she derives the most fulfilment from her passions is by finding her sweet spot in the passions. It can be found by drawing a diagram like this, highlighted in purple.
my circles
To create your version of circles, first draw a circle and label it as your passion number 1. Then draw another circle, overlapped with the first, and label it as passion number 2. You can go on with this process to include all your passions.
Using this model, you can choose to marry your passions with the opportunity that fits the highest degree of overlap among your basket of passions. In this case, an opportunity that meets your sweet spot will be the most ideal one.
The 2nd way is way easier, less philosophical and it is none other than being practical about it. I had the privilege to interview Ban YJ, the CEO of Stikfas last year and I asked about how he decided that he was going to get into the business of toys. He said that 4 passions – toys, comics, games and animation. How he decided on which opportunity to pursue was to simply use rejection on the 4 passions. Games and animation takes very long time before the results are known, who knows, perhaps after putting in years of effort it couldn’t take off. Comics although take a shorter production span, repetitive drawing of the same characters bore him. Thus he decided to go into toys that in his opinion, has a short production span and many variations.
I hope that the above 2 ways can help you deal with your passions and if you still can’t identity what are your passions, what you like to do and are interested in, I have another 2 ways for you.
Ban YJ suggests that you look back into your childhood. Think back on what you liked to do what fascinates you when you were a kid, when you had the least hindrances in life. Alternatively, you can try pondering about what John Hope Bryant told me.
You don’t find passion, it finds you. It is what turns you on in life, focused on what you have to give in this world. Doing this, well, turns you into a leader.
Btw JHB is the founder of operation HOPE and served vice chairman of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. An awesome and very sincere person. Go buy his new book ‘love leadership’ and add him on fb.
Before I end off this session with another clip, I want to tell you about ethics.
What is the difference between Hitler and Mandela?
Both have charisma, vision, the ability to speak well and most importantly, both have a following. So what truly sets them apart from each other? It is that Hitler focused on ‘me’, while Mandela focused on ‘we’.
I hope that when each of you continue your entrepreneurial journey, remember this phrase ‘love people, use things’, and not ‘love things, use people’.
Thank you for your attention and here is the final video by Richard again.
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I build Learnemy, an online marketplace that finds you the right instructors and classes in Singapore. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
Oct 142009
Have i said thanks,
to all you who cared.
who’s little word and time,
makes my burdens shared.
Have i said thanks,
to all you who cared.
who’s little word and time,
encourages, motivates and really
is my answered prayer.
Have i said thanks,
to all you who cared.
who makes me feel
as contented as a millionaire
Have i said thanks,
to all you who cared.
my friends,
you are a solitaire. ♥
it’s been a tired but awesome day speaking to a small group of entrepreneurial enthusiastic youths from RJC. now i know why John Wooden thinks that teaching is such an awesome job. To see potential in youths, their insecurities, confusion, curiosity and amazement; it’s priceless. it makes you want to put in effort in their lives to nurture them, helping them lead a more fulfilled life than they can ever imagine. of course i pondered, have i done a good job in that 15 mins? have they see through to my own insecurities?
when i do something out of my comfort zone, something that has never been done before; am i simply embarrassing myself?
this is where you came in. your validation encourages me. your ‘thanks’ pushes me.
when i’m down in the ruts you lift me up.
my friends, it’s my pleasure to have known you. :)
thank you.
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