There’s a general desire not to let other’s words tear us down. We want to be resilient and self-sufficient. “Ignore the haters,” we say. But at the same time, we let others build us up. We take pride in the kind words of those we interact with and we get a boost from every positive …
When we look back, it’s tough to distinguish between the behaviors that lead to success and the situations in which we are successful despite our actions. I used to think that I was successful in high school and college because I kept to myself and focused on my studies. I rarely did much talking in …
We shouldn’t need to be polite to the people closest to us. Niceties are primarily meant for strangers, or people with whom we’re trying to build a relationship. We don’t know each other well enough to say exactly what’s on our mind, so we coat our message in excessive politeness to keep from coming across …
Seth Godin likes to use what might be the single most useful phrase in sales: “you’ll pay a lot but you’ll get more than you paid for.” If you can deliver on this promise, the power is almost limitless. Maintaining low prices is one way to win market share, but unless you have the scale …
I’ve lost track of the number of people who have told me I’m crazy because I believe that I can stop hiccups on command. They say that hiccups are an “involuntary muscle spasms” and that there’s no way to intentionally prevent the spasm once hiccups start. But the next time that I get the hiccups, …
On a Monday night in historic Aachen, Germany the town square is packed. Friends and family are out in bunches hoping to enjoy a lovely summer evening together. They aren’t in a hurry. They don’t have an objective. They’re just there to enjoy life. Maybe that’s something we could all use a bit more of. …
In engineering, as in most things in life, there are several different ways to arrive at a given outcome. During one of my first mechanical engineering classes in college, I took an unusual approach to a challenging homework problem. Rather than following the strict process that had been taught in class, I followed my intuition. …
Money can be thought of as a scoreboard in life. The guy cruising around in his Ferrari and the lady pulling into her fenced-in estate can be thought of as”winning.” They likely decided that wealth was something that they wanted to pursue, and they were successful. When thought of that way, wealth is a clear …
Neil Gaiman presented a theory that there are three key aspects to succeeding in whatever you do: Being good Delivering on time Being pleasant to work with The interesting thing about his theory was that he thought you only need two of these three characteristics to do well. If you’re exceptional at what you do …
Honest, timely feedback can be some of the most valuable information that we can come across. Given our own biases, it’s almost impossible to objectively evaluate ourselves or our performance. And when we ask for feedback, people are usually hesitant to be completely honest due to fear of hurting the relationship or coming across as …