Why do underdogs triumph over mightier enemies? How does one turn a weakness into a strength?
In yet another entertaining trip of the intellect, Malcolm Gladwell’s latest volume David and Goliath tackles perennial paradoxes with much aplomb. Written in his usual captivating prose, Gladwell’s book – subtitled Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants – provides one with much food for thought while challenging conventional wisdom.
Since time immemorial, we’re told that our network of friends and family members are vital to our success. Who haven’t heard that “a friend in need is a friend indeed” or that “blood runs thicker than water”?
Well, the tables may soon be turned. At least according to innovation consultant Alan Gregerman.
Imagine that you are a smoker. You pick up a pack of cigarettes.
On the front of the pack are gory images – a hemorrhaged brain, blackened lungs, deformed baby, ugly cancerous growth – coupled with stern admonitions like “SMOKING KILLS”.
How would you react to these gruesome warnings?
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21
As a business blogger, I don’t often read fiction. However, I couldn’t resist picking up Paulo Coelho’s mega-bestseller The Alchemist after hearing so much about it from friends.
Can you make money on social media? That is probably the most asked (and least answered) question in the digital age.
While everybody (and their dog) are on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest, few businesses are able to tap onto this huge reservoir of commercial potential.
Do you know that 40% of our time at work is engaged in selling, even if we’re not in sales? Or that “Bob the Builder” can be a sales trainer?
Sprinkled with discoveries from fields such as behavioural economics, life coaching, and improv acting, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by bestselling author Daniel H. Pink scores. Interspersed with charming anecdotes on septuagenarian Fuller Brush salesperson Norman Hall (Pink’s unsung hero who was the last such salesperson), To Sell Is Human is neatly divided into three parts.
“What we have done for ourselves alone die with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal” – Albert Pike
Entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging ways to make a living. Done right, however, it can be the most rewarding, allowing one to fulfill one’s dream, vision, purpose, and mission.
This man wants you to think more clearly (courtesy of Wikimedia)
You’ve heard the saying “to err is human and forgive divine”.
What you may not know, however, is that us Homo sapiens have been hardwired over the millenia to be illogical, distorted in our perception of reality, and inaccurate in our judgements.
In other words, to err repeatedly is human.
Do you know that your five senses (sight, sound, scent, taste and touch) play a major role in what you buy?
While marketers go gaga over social technologies and their impact on digital commerce, it is often our physical perceptions of a product which influence buying decisions.
What is the secret sauce to enduring corporate innovation?
Is it the ability to introduce disruptive technologies? Are smaller companies – also known as emergents – more able to shake the market? What about religion, climate, geography, education, patents or even (gasp) luck?
