Quarter Life Crisis

I’ve had a few opportunities to learn how to communicate effectively, but rarely does anyone talk about how to build content. I just learned a tip from my friend working business development: SCIPAB.

Situation - What’s the situation?
Change - What’s changing?
Implication - What’s the implication?
Position - As a result, what’s my position?
Actions - What actions can be taken?
Benefits - What benefits will result?

So, say you need to come up with a thirty second pitch but you have no idea how to begin. You can use this format as an outline, hitting most of the important points right away.

Dan Gilbert gives an interesting talk about synthesizing happiness.

“Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.”

It’s all in your head!

Here’s a video on how to present like Steve Jobs from BNET.

” 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene is a “guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the … military principles in war.”. ^[1] It consists of discussions and examples on offensive and defensive strategies from a wide variety of people and conditions such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Lawrence of Arabia, Alexander the Great, and the Tet Offensive.^[2]The book is divided into five parts: Self-Directed Warfare, Organizational (Team) Warfare, Defensive Warfare, Offensive Warfare and Unconventional (Dirty) Warfare. ^[1] Each part contains a differing number of strategies, each in a chapter. Each chapter has a similar layout. Descriptions of battles, political and business situations are accompanied by Greene’s interpretation. There are occasional instructional sections followed by examples. All chapters end with a “Reversal” to give a brief discussion of where the strategy may not apply, a contrary view or defense. Throughout the book Mr. Greene includes quotes from a variety of sources. These are incorporated in the margins and between sections.

Although one reviewer has called the book “an indispensable book, [which] provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand,”^[3] another one found it “perplexing — if not downright unhealthy — [to publish] a book on the lessons of war for everything but war at a time when we [Canada] are, er, at war.”^[4] Yet another reviewer found the book’s coverage of military history informative, but the political tales “mostly foolish or just plain wrong”.^[5]

The author’s blog -Power, Seduction and War: The Robert Greene Blog - expands on many of the themes from the book which he commonly refers to as The WAR Book.”

This guy is an motivational speaker and author.  He has 7 children, 6 of whom have their own businesses.  He has this new book called How to Raise A Future Millionaire.

If I don’t make it, I’ll be sure to read that book so my kids can make it for me. haha

• “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” by Tim Ferriss
  
• “The 33 Strategies of War (Joost Elffers Books)” by Robert Greene
  
• “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene
  
• “Venture Capital Due Diligence: A Guide to Making Smart Investment Choices and Increasing Your Portfolio Returns” by Justin Camp

Wall Street Journal has a good article on this –

When Fretting Is in Your DNA:
Overcoming the Worry Gene

On a side note, I have been consistently reading WSJ for more than a year now. I think it is a fantastic publication and completely worth the subscription price. It is a complete paper, with market information of course as well as current events, health topics, and other interesting ideas.

Here’s lifehack.org’s take on how to get what you want with the least amount of effort.  Plausible, but not all of us are able to FOCUS on a singular objective so intently. Most of us are unable to find a clear objective to start with.

AIG Insurance Group has been running commercials describing how various parts of your life increase your lifespan (in years) –

Owning a pet (+7)
Singing (+15)
Laughing (+8)

So live longer, retire stronger. Never outlive your money.

Who knows where those numbers came from. However, all 3 activities are definitely beneficial. I think I’m going to get a dog.

1. Improve my Chinese reading ability.

Verbal abilities will only take you so far.

How? Study chinese (30 mins per day)

2. Pass the GMAT by summer

Going to need a 700+ to be a legit candidate.

How? Take the Veritas GMAT prep course (Wow, highly targeted marketing. Must have cost a lot. Kudos to facebook!)

3. Get in shape

I don’t smoke, barely drink, and am pretty thin but that doesn’t mean I’m in shape.

How? Got a nice gym downstairs that I did not have at my last apartment.

4. Continue with the personal/professional development

Starting this blog a little less than a year ago got me really focused on what I wanted to get better at and what I wanted to become.

How? Continue pushing myself to do new things and conquer my fears and insecurities.