True Innovator.

True Innovator has a mantra they belief in...The enemy of best is good. They are constantly getting to make things better. What others call impossible they see as probable. They live out of their imaginations. They live to challenge the commonly accepted. They assume nothing. They see no limits. To them, everything is possible.

If you want to be a leader, I have a simple suggestion: Just keep innovating. Innovate at work. Innovate at home. Innovate in your relationships. Innovate in the way you see your life and innovate the way you see the world. To become stagnant is the beginning of death. Growth, Evolution and Reinvention sustain life. Sure it can be scary. But wouldn't you rather feel your fear than play small in life?

Of course, while you innovate and refuse to be bound by the chains of complacency, there will have chances that we will still fail. Not every risk we take and not everything will work out as planned. I mean that's just life. Failure is the essential to success and the more we stretch, the further we will growth. Failure is a gift. It has been so helpful to me. It took me closer to my dreams, equipped me with more knowledge and toughened me so much that i will be prepared. Success and Failure go hand in hand, like a business partner.

Companies that don't innovate wont survive, so the key is driving this innovation. The lesson is especially important when things are going well. Though it doesn't make sense but successfully company needs to me twice as innovative as their competitors to ensure they stays at the top. Leaders that don't innovate are displaced by those willing to take risks.

So go to work each day and refuse to do the same thing you did yesterday. Keep challenging yourself to think better, do better and be better. Shake things up a bit and confront your limitations. Refuse to in mediocre, stand up for whats best and commit to being great in all you do. And then you will realise how great you have become!  

Stay Productive. Are you?

The New York Times recently ran an article about how email can make people less productive. However, misuse of email is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Here are 10 actions that you can take today that can make you at least twice as productive as your colleagues.

1. Avoid meetings that lack an agenda.

Meetings can only be productive if people know why they're meeting in the first place. An agenda provides focus and purpose. The lack of an agenda guarantees meandering conversations that dive into rat holes. They're a waste of your (and everyone else's) time.

2. Never pick up on an unknown caller.

Unless you're working in telesales or product support, there's no reason why you should ever take a call from somebody you don't know. After all, when was the last time you took an unexpected call that was truly important? Days? Weeks? Months?

3. Permanently turn off your voice mail.

A voice-mail message consumes minutes of your time (more if you have to replay) to communicate information you could absorb from an email in seconds. Explain in your outgoing message that you don't use voice mail, and instead provide your email address.

4. Hone your email program's sorting rules.

It takes time and energy to change gear to sort through (and respond to) a long list of disconnected messages. Most email programs allow you to route different types of messages into folders, where you can review and respond en masse rather than piecemeal.

5. Periodically disable email and texting.

When you must do creative work or absorb complex information, the last thing you need is your computer and phone chirping and beeping for your attention. Whatever it is, it can wait until you've finished the task at hand. Trust me.

6. Give social butterflies short shrift.

For some people, a day at work means an endless coffee klatch. They wander the halls searching for somebody, ostensibly to discuss business but really just to chat. Don't let these time leeches hobble your success. Just say no. If necessary, get rude.

7. Reward your body with high-quality fuel.

What you eat determines your energy level, and your energy level determines how much you can get accomplished. Sugary treats provide a quick energy boost but then create an even deeper dip. Heavy foods take energy to digest, leaving you with less to use.

8. Take a five-minute walking break every hour.

The human body is not designed to sit for hours at a stretch. Attempting to do so inevitably creates aches and pains that leech your energy as your body tries to compensate and heal them. So get up and move! Use a timer if you have to.

9. Make your decisions more quickly.

Most people waste an extraordinary amount of time obsessing about (and second-guessing) their decision making. However, you're always better off making a good-enough decision quickly than waiting for an imaginary best decision.

10. Completely disconnect for 12 hours every day.

If you stop pretending to be productive when you're eating and sleeping, you'll be far more productive when you're actually working. Being always available is an unfailing recipe for stress, illness, and bad decision making. Give it rest.

Branding

To win in the market space, the organisation needs to develop a magnificently cherished and well respected brand. And for you to get to professional greatness, I suggest that you work on, polish and protect your personal brand; your good name. It could take 30 years to build a great reputation and 3 seconds to lose it, just with one act of poor judgement.

Everyone into brand building these days. Law firms. Accounting enterprises. Retail organisations. And even Paris Hilton said:"I am a Brand"

This raises the question "How can we get our brand from where it now is to where we want it to be?" My answer...study the hip hop artiste!

We can read the books out there, and we can invest in getting our brand managers to world class. But I will save some money with a simple suggestion. Study the Hip Hop artiste. You'll learn all you need to learn about taking a brand to the top of the mountain. These guys are amazing.

"I'm not a businessman. I'm a business, man."

Constantly reinventing. relentlessly innovating. Endlessly improving. They have one in record that drives their name; their brand into the public consciousness and then extend their line into clothes, books, movie, colognes and etc. Study the way their build community, cement loyalty and tattoo what they stand for onto people's brain cell.

Genius

Genius is not the sole domain of a rare breed of person. Both you and I are entitled to that label and to play in that space. Here's the BIG idea: Focus on any area or skill with a relentless devotion to daily improvement and a passion for excellence and within 3 to 5 years, you will be operating at a level of competence such that people call you genius.

Focus + Daily Improvement + Time = Genius.

Michael Jordan was a basket ball genius. Was his spectacular success on court purely the result of natural gifts? Absolutely not! He took what nature gave him and ran the formula. He was branded as one of the worst player while in school! This didn't stop him. He didn't scatter his focus. He just got devoted to being brilliant at basketball. 

Thomas Edison registered a stunning 1093 patents over his lifetime and invented the light bulb as well as phonograph. He was labeled as a slow learner in school. He continued working on his passion and focused on his inventions. He improved daily. And he let time work its magic. Genius came knocking.

Know what you can excel at. Discover your talents and then work like crazy to polish them. One of the most important of all personal leadership skills is self awareness. Know what you are great at. Reflect on those abilities that others admire in you. Think of those capabilities that just come easily to you and that flow effortlessly from you. This could be a fantastic communicator or have a way with people. You might possess an extraordinary ability to execute and get things done. Perhaps your special talent lies in innovation and creativity and seeing what everyone else sees but thinking a different thought.

Find your genius point and then develop them. Put the formula in. Start today and in 3 to 5 years time people will be writing about you. Calling you a genius. Celebrating your magnificence. And I would be one of them.

Make your dent!

Leadership, as human being, is about having an impact. Making a difference. Leaving things better than you found them. What would this world of ours look like if you each of us had found our cause or life's purpose and were then passionately pursuing it.

There would be less hatred, fewer wars and more love. And we'd be united as one race. As Coretta Scott King said :"When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs used to tell his people that by showing up at their best they have the opportunity to "make a dent in the universe." Jobs definitely gets it. Sure it's important to make a profit in business. Sure you want your enterprise to be operationally excellent. Sure you want high quality products and services. And sure you need to keep innovating and growing your brand. But isn't having an impact in the world  - by helping your clients and positively influencing others - what business is ultimately about?

So, a gentle question from a man who wishes only the best for you :"What dent will you make today?
" What cause will you pursue? What contribution will you make at work, at home or in life?

Success - Up or Down?

Richard Carrion, the CEO of Puerto Rico's top bank once shared "Nothing fails like success."

Powerful thought. You, as well as your organisation are most vulnerable when you are most successful. Success actually breeds complacency, inefficicency and worst of all - arrogance.

When people and businesses get really successful, they often fall in love with themselves. They stop innovating, working hard, taking risks and begin to rest on their laurels. They go on defensive, spending their energy protecting their success rather than spending time focusing on the things that got them to the top.

The most successful you and your organisation become, the more humble and devoted to your customers you need to be. The more committed to efficiency and relentless improvement you need to be. The faster you need to play. The more value you need to add!

The moment you stop doing those, things that got you to the top is also the very moment you begin to slide down to the valley.

Change - the core to Life

In this world, everything is constantly changing. The most influential companies today maybe the most normal company in time to come. Take Microsoft for example, it used to have high influence with all the PC users, till now it still has, but the market shares drop tremendously after Mac comes in place.

Whats the reason for it? Was it because Microsoft ran out of idea for its software? or was it because their management team is weak? In this episode, we will understand more on this topic known as CHANGE. How can this simple word, bring the underdogs up to the playing field and remove the market leaders down?

Whats is the magic behind it?

When i was in School, my Physics teacher used to say, the only thing that is constant is change itself. I couldnt understand what has that got to do with Physics back then. Now, i realise, yes it has nothing got to do with Physics, but it has everything to do with life!

In this era of Technology, things move so fast. Friendster used to be the most popular thing until facebook comes out. And when Facebook was out, Friendster was totally obselete. And I mean Totally.

The things that were applicable and relevant today may not be the same thing tomorrow. The largest corporation in fact are looking at ways to re-invent themself. If you do not obselete your product, someone else would. If we still staring and admiring our achievement, someone would come by and obselete you in time to come.

Isnt that obvious? Those who are doing the same thing same way, its just a matter of time when someone would come by and snatch your pie. The maket leader wasn't brought up by staring at their achievement. They was brought up by constant invnovating, providing what the world wants and meeting to their need. They keep changing and innovating to ensure their products are in demand.


How about you? When was the last time you look at yourself and ask are you re-innovating the way you doing things? or you are still at the old times admiring your achievement while others are quietly taking over your stuff?