The Best in what?

At some point in your life, someone might have told you that, in order to succeed in what ever you're doing, you have to be the best. This is true because the best gets all the attention, profits and customers. Obviously it's hard and most often impossible for us to be the best in the world at what we do, but we should also realize that the world is a lot bigger than we think. Unless you run a multi-national company or spent 200 million to make a movie, your target doesn't have to be the world. You can be the best in your town, your niche or your price-range.

By right, the customer buys only the best products. The reality is that the customer buy the best products that he's familiar with, the one he has access to and the one he believes in. There is a best for everyone and they can be very different from each other. Mac fans will tell you that Apple makes the best computer but I'm sure not everyone agrees with that.

You can sell the cheapest steak in town, be the most responsive online drug store or the closest mart in the area. All of these can make you the best choice for someone and as long as there's enough people who consider you as their best, your business will thrive.

You should make it your goal to strive for the best in the world title if you can. Start by being the best in your town and work your way up from there.

Think smart to be smart

Do you believe that intelligence is a fixed or malleable trait? It turns out that what you think about intelligence can effect your own intelligence. Jennifer Mangels (a neuroscientist) ran a test on 2 groups of students that have their own concept of intelligence. Those who thinks that you only have a certain amount of  intelligence and you can't change it subscribed to the entity theory of intelligence. The other group sided with the incremental theory of intelligence where they believe intelligence is malleable.

They took a test and were given the answers for the error they made. Both groups of student were just as confident about their ability.

Something amazing happened when they were given a second chance on the test to correct their errors. Those who think that intelligence is malleable was able to perform better. They responded better to errors and seem to be able to learn better from mistakes.

The students that believed intelligence is fixed seems to be more uptight about failures. Since intelligence is fixed, why is there a need to improve?

If you think you are only born with a certain amount of intelligence, it's time to change that mindset. Studies show that we are born believing that intelligence is malleable. All you need to do is think that you can get smarter in order to be smarter. It's that easy.

Packing and opportunity cost

When you decide to pack in an extra pair of shoes into your luggage, the opportunity cost is that you might be able to bring a few extra shirts. Opportunity cost, first developed by John Stuart Mill, is the next best alternative that you have after you made a decision between several mutually exclusive choices. By analyzing the opportunity cost of your decisions, you can assess the true cost of your actions. Flying with a lighter bag allows you to fit in more stuff. If the courier charges more for each additional package, it would be better to find the biggest box and pack everything in.

The opportunity cost of your decisions aren't restricted to monetary or financial cost. Travelling with a more secure bag gives you a peace of mind. Not packing in prohibited items prevent you from being stopped at the immigration checkpoint.

So the next time you are travelling, try to think of the opportunity cost of every item you decide to bring with you. It might not be a good idea to bring 6 pair of shoes with you.

,

Truth about happiness

,

Daniel Kahneman, pioneer of behavioral economics, talked about the 2 ways we perceive happiness and the conflict between them. There are these notions of experiencing self and remembering self. As you probably have guessed, experiencing self is the one that live in the moment and experience our life, while the remembering self is the one that recalls the memories of our life and experience. They are the reason why being happy in your life isn't the same as being happy with your life.

When I ask you, how you are feeling now, your experiencing self will be the one responding to the question. If I ask you how was your day yesterday, your remembering self will replay your memories of the day before and answer the question. Differentiating these 2 entities is crucial to understanding what happiness is.

No one can explain this better than the man himself so I've embedded the video below. Happy watching.

What do you do?

Is your job title something general like Sales Executive or something cool like Chief Awesomeness? How often does it actually reflects what you do? The reason you hand out your name card is to let others know who you are and what you do. But more often than not, it doesn't clarify your job scope and rather raises more questions. What does a Senior Data Analyst do? Does a Sales Manager handles sales?

Wouldn't it be better if you could replace or complement your job title with a short description that actually tells people what exactly you do? Something that captures the essence of your work?

John Doe

IT Executive

Making sure the computer works for you, not the other way around.

If you can't figure out how to describe your job, try to think about what drives you to do what you do. Your motivation, purpose or passion. Personally, looking at the apps I've built (Ravejoint and Showtimes.my), the aim is to make it easier and simpler for people to find stuff (food, movie showtimes) they are looking for. I could maybe have this on my card.

TS Lim

Simplifying life, one app at a time

Given the chance to change or improve your job title, what would you do? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Emailing the right way

If it seems like you don't have enough time to reply all the emails you get, maybe you should check out this tip.

The Problem

E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.

The Solution

Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

There are 2, 3, 4 and 5 sentences policies. This should help improve your productivity by spending more time away from emailing.

Give first, take later or never

A while ago, I posted about Derek Siver's talk on the First Follower idea. It was very insightful and inspiring so naturally many urged him to develop the idea and maybe write a book about it. He responded by giving the idea away to anyone who wish to take it further. He's not the only one that gives something away without taking anything from us. Many smart marketers are using this selling by giving approach. By giving great content, ideas and insights away, they build up a reputation and goodwill among their fans and readers. Guess what happens when they put out something for sale.

1. Figure out what your gift is, and give it to them on a regular basis.

2. Make sure it’s received as a real gift, not as an advertising message

3. Then figure out exactly what it is that your trail of breadcrumbs leads back to. - Hugh MacLeod

Try to identify your gift that you can give to others. As stated by Hugh, the gift must be sincere and not accepted as marketing message. Do this at a regular basis and good things will happen for you. Remember to give first, take later or maybe never but that it's okay.

The YOU Element

Ever wonder why some people and companies succeed while others fail horribly. Why some artists command a premium on their art while others struggle to make a living. I think the answer is the YOU element. The thing that makes your art, product, service unique and can only be achieved by you alone. The thing you and your creation stands for.

When I buy something from you, I'm not just buying it for me, I'm buying to be part of a community. To be your customer and to be a part of what your brand stands for. When I buy a Macbook, it means something. It shows what I want in a laptop.

The best way for your product to be noticed is to create a Purple Cow, something that's unique and remarkable. Guess what's unique and remarkable? You!

You need to identify your gift, your special sauce, your touch that makes your creation different. The stuff that only you can pull off. When you look at drawings from Hugh Macleod, you can instantly identify him in it. It's something only he can do.

Everyone’s an artist now. - Seth Godin in Linchpin

Everything you create is art. As long as you are creating something, you are an artist. Seth Godin says anyone who put their heart and soul into their work, people who add the human element into the equation, the ones that do emotional labor are all artists. Art is something that's human, not something that's made by a machine.

Your art is also a reflection of you. Your personality, your thoughts, your values. It tells a lot about you and hopefully it's a story that others would love to hear and share with friends.

I think this applies not only on an individual level (artist, musicians) but also for companies and organization (e.g. Apple, Nike). If you're building something, you have to literally put yourself into it. As long as things you are doing have you in it, you'll be fine.

Are you a mapmaker?

In Linchpin, Seth talks about how we are trained and brought up to read maps. We expect our teachers to tell us what to study and our bosses to tell us what to do. We are taught to be map-readers and we are damn good at it. However, if you want to be indispensable, someone that is able to chart your own destiny, you need to learn how to make your own map.

You have to be someone that decides what to do next, not the one who awaits the next instruction. By creating your own map, you can create value. Value that only you can add to the equation.

Following someone's else map won't get you far. The map to success can only be drawn by you alone.

Must-know vs Nice-to-know

After being disconnected from the internet for a week, I have hundreds of unread emails and RSS feed items waiting for me. Some of you might even have thousands of them. While working my way through it, I can't help to think if there's a simpler way. A way to tell if an email or article is something you must read or something you can ignore.

A lot of things can happen in the span of a week. But most of them are really just things that are nice-to-know. These are things that you feel you should know but it don't really matter if you don't.

What you should focus on are the must-knows. The biggest thing that happened that week. Obviously, this will vary for different people so we need to categorize them.

How do you reduce the information clutter in your life? What kind of tools or filtering strategies that you apply to keep things more manageable?