samedi 16 mai 2015

Top 10 Habits That Make You Rich


1. Set Daily Goals
It’s not enough to set long-term goals, you need daily goals. At the end of each day, reflect back on what you did and how this has helped you get you one step closer to reaching your goals. Think of what you can do to improve your chances and make sure you set your goals for the next day on your To-Do list accordingly.
2. Practice Active Listening
Active listening is a skill that’s essential to any field as it can help you understand what other people need from you. For example, if you are starting up a business talking less and listening more might be the key to your success. Develop your ability to listen carefully to other people, and you will be able to learn and help those around you.
3. Take Care of Your Personal Health
Exercising and following a healthy diet is crucial to success. If you manage exercise, you can make it your daily habit so that you become more productive and get things done easier and quicker.
4. Network Regularly and Volunteer
Don’t underestimate the power of networking. Connecting with other people and offering your help are also major predictors of success and ultimately wealth. Make sure you are reaching out to others and introducing yourself so that you get yourself noticed and stand out from the crowd.
5. Watch Less TV
Most successful people avoid spending more than an hour watching TV each day. Some don’t even watch TV at all. Why? They know they could be doing something that’s more productive than wasting their time in front of a box.
6. Read Every Day
Reading can help you improve yourself, develop your knowledge and encourage you to see the world differently. Find a book you like and spend around 30 minutes a day reading it. You could also buy educational career-related materials to help you develop professionally or check news websites regularly to keep yourself up to date with news around the world. 
7. Develop Your Skills
One of the best ways to become what you are dreaming of is by developing your skills. If you want to become better at what you do either to progress career wise, get a promotion or into a job that offers a more satisfactory salary, you have to invest in your talent and develop your expertise to make sure that you will get ahead of the competition.
8. Think Positive
Positive thinking is more than a habit, is a way of life. If you learn how to eliminate negative and self-limiting thoughts, it’s much easier to keep a positive outlook on everything. Be friendly and enthusiastic and make sure you are always open to new opportunities. 
9. Save Money
Studies have shown that managing your money effectively can help you become rich. If you manage to control your expenses and save a percentage of your earnings each day, it is guaranteed you will be much richer than you used to be in no time.
10. Hang out with like-minded people
Spending time with like-mind individuals will not only you get to exchange opinions in terms of becoming rich and successful, but will also help you achieve your goals much quicker.
If you want to become rich, you will have to invest in self-development as well as planning and managing your career more effectively. Taking up these habits will not only help you achieve your goals much quicker  you will also get to enjoy the journey one step at a time.

jeudi 14 mai 2015

Find Your Life's Passion And A Career You Love

1. When You Know It’s Not Working, Quit Fast 
Many people hate their jobs and know that they want to do something different, but stay in their hated jobs for a long time nonetheless. Their main reason for not leaving is that they haven’t actually figured out what it is that they want to do. This thinking is flawed because you won’t learn or discover your ideal career or job by sitting around and thinking about it. If the current situation isn’t working, you need to find something else.
What happens when you leave even without knowing what you will do next is that, suddenly, figuring out your next steps becomes urgent. That urgency may be a bit uncomfortable, but it can also be incredibly powerful because it frees you up to invest all of your energy into finding the next thing. Finding the next thing goes from optional to required.
I personally have left several jobs prematurely, not only not knowing what I will do next, but also exited with no savings to see me through the period of not working. The very last job I left was a startup where I found myself wanting to do a lot more and the company not really needing what I wanted to give. I was at this startup for about nine months and found myself in a position where it felt that I was simply exchanging my time for money. Frustrated, I tried giving feedback to the management and eventually gave notice without much planning. To my surprise, I was offered two weeks of severance, which were much-much needed since I had no savings to hold me over.
In all cases, I found that leaving was the right thing as it forced me to keep searching for my next step with urgency and to eventually found the company I now love building.
2. Follow Your Curiosity
Even though you may not have a clear vision for your career, you are probably curious about things which may or may not be obvious to you. It’s important to follow your curiosity and uncover your less obvious interests. The reason it’s important is that those interests tap into your unique motivations that separate you from others. Pursuing them sets you on the path of unlocking who you are and your creativity. Frequently, these will be things that do not appear pragmatic and sometimes may seem downright frivolous. A classic example is Steve Jobs’ curiosity for typefaces which led him to attend a seemingly useless class on typography and to develop his design sensibility. Later, this sensibility became an essential part of Apple computers and Apple’s core differentiator in the marketplace.
A good way to tune into these interests is to ask yourself what you would do if you had a billion dollars. By my third year of college, I looked through Cornell’s entire giant catalog and couldn’t get excited about any of the classes in it. I had sampled many of the disciplines and felt that I was at a dead end. Frustrated, I finally pushed myself to think about what I would be interested in doing if money were of no concern. To my surprise, that led me to fantasize about drawing and painting. I also realized that I perceived both of these disciplines as forbidden. I believed that my parents would disapprove and that it would be a highly impractical area of study to pursue. Yet, I also realized that I was genuinely excited about fine art and took the plunge which became an important stepping stone in my path.
3. Don’t Make Money Your Primary Consideration
My first startup was in New York City. At the time, I had college loans and limited income from freelancing as a video editor, and I lived with  my dad and stepmother in New Jersey. One of the partners of my start-up invested a small amount of money into the company — just enough to do the basics, such as open a small office in Manhattan. Commuting from my parents’ house was a pain, so I brought in a sleeping bag to our office, got a gym membership and would often stay at the office overnight. It was not ideal, but alternatives, such as spending my time on making money instead of working on the startup, didn’t make sense to me.
If you’re looking to spend your life doing something you love, the best way to start is to treat financial concerns as secondary. If the practicality of what you do and how much money you earn are your primary criteria you will instantly limit your options to what’s predictable and getting to do what you love will be tough. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to pursue your curiosity, you will find yourself in the position of power and, eventually, in the position to earn money on your terms. 
Connecting to your unique interests and motivations and coming into your own authentic self, gives you power in your chosen discipline that others can’t claim. The reason for this is the unique fit of these interests to who you are. For others, what you choose to do may seem like a huge chore, but for you it won’t even feel like work. When your work fits who you are so well, you stand out as being uniquely capable and uniquely powerful. And the better you get at expressing yourself through your work, the higher your earning potential will be in that capacity.
4. Don’t Set An Artificial Ceiling For Yourself
Your professional ceiling is set by you.
At some point in the past, I hired a designer and didn't give her an official title. When I started receiving email from her I noticed that she added the word “Junior” to her designer title. I found that quite surprising since that title had never been discussed. For her, this was a way to limit the amount of responsibility she took on, as well as the expectations others would have of her. Since then, I’ve seen many examples of how people define their own ceilings and avoid responsibility and growth. If you do so by choice, I respect it. On the other hand, if you want more growth, then don’t hide behind the belief that someone else needs to empower you to do what you want to do.