Style and Gleam

Friday 4 September 2015

Follow my sets at Polyvore

Follow my sets at Polyvore by rakhi-pc featuring a motorcycle jacket

Dex motorcycle jacket
€70 - lordandtaylor.com

Wednesday 2 September 2015

"Words Are Cheap and Deeds Are Dear"

What is a success? To me, it is happiness and accomplishment of completing a job, whatever it is. It can be simply cooking a nice recipe, baking a cake, creating a nice painting to writing a research paper or thesis. Happiness comes from accomplishing something which we really love to do and sometimes things we are really passionate about.

I am not an ardent reader of self-help books or non-fictions. However, I must acknowledge my husband who has a huge collection and who is passionate about reading. Anirban constantly motivates me on whatever little reading I do and have done so far. One day while discussing "what success is and how to become successful in life" he gave me a book to read. It is written by Jeffrey J Fox and the book is titled as "How to Become A CEO".

Well, the book does not really talk about how to become the CEO of an organization rather it is about the "do's and don'ts" of our everyday life. Realizing and following these we all can improvise upon our personal and professional goals, our lifestyle and work style which will lead us to finally write our own success stories. Business does not literally means something to do with a corporate job or big enterprise here, but to me we can extrapolate it to any work that we love to do. If we think in these lines then we all can feel the pride of accomplishment of being successful. Each chapter ends with a take home point and I really enjoyed not only reading the book but to note down some nice and relevant "one-liners" which I am happy to share in this post.

Here it goes:

The more money you are paid, the more contribution will be expected of you.
A chance to perform is an invitation to success.
The more you make, the better you are doing.
The better your physical condition, the greater your capacity for productive, unrelenting work.
Do not mix business with pleasure.
Business is like a machine every part needs to work.
Make one good ally in your company every month.
Give more time to your family.
Plus forty-five minutes early and fifteen minutes late is an hour a day. That’s two hundred fifty hours a year or 31 days. You can get ahead quickly working one extra month a year.
Have a specific work objective for each business trip.
Always ask people for their business card; inevitably they will ask for yours.
WACADAD: Words Are Cheap And Deeds Are Dear·
Creativity without implementation is irresponsibility.
Ideas are nothing without execution.
Always plan your vacation far in advance.
People who get the job done are the ones who get the top jobs.
Demonstrate your ability to grow.
Dress for business, you do business.
People are an asset, a contributing return on investment.
You must train yourself to always be on “high receive”.
Good listeners are considered great conversationalists. Listening is equated with wisdom and intelligence.
People who know they cannot possibly know everything but are willing to work very hard to find data succeed.
Success in projects in anticlimactic. Homework preordains it.
School yourself not to panic. Tell yourself to “stay calm”. If you have ten seconds to make a decision think for nine.· Good communication is hard work.
Think for three hours, write for one.
Be a credit-maker. Give proper credit and you will become known as a credit-maker.
Courtesy is a good business. Always say “please” and “thank you”.
Don’t gossip, just work.
Look sharp and be sharp. Be up. And smile.
Tight budgets promote creativity, ingenuity, and inventiveness.
No guts, no glory.
Do not let “perfect” be the enemy of “better”.
It is the excellence of execution that will determine success or failure.
The concept does not have to be perfect, but the execution of it does.
A record of mistakes is often the memorabilia of a very successful person.
Today is very important. It is whatever you want it to be.
You must create a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily “to do” list.
Goals beget goals.
Selling is key to the enterprise.
Work the trenches, and the trenches will work for you.
Persistence, tenacity, attitude. The “Heller-sellers” have it.
To teach is to learn and to lead.
Good preparation and practice will produce a good presentation.
Work harder on the things necessary to make your idea work.

Jeffrey J Fox

I believe that readers will be able to connect with most of these points who has read the book already and also the ones who hasn't yet. I highly recommend this one as a wonderful read to all of you :)

First Impression, Lasting Impression

In this post, I have tried to provide some important points about "First Impression" or "Image" and how it eventually gets perceives as a lasting impression.

“First impressions are a constant in society …. Good ones are pleasant and long lasting, bad ones long and difficult to disprove”

-- Diego Velasquez

(Spanish painter and leading artist in the court of King Phillip IV)

First impressions are impressions that strangers form of you within the first few seconds of meeting you.
It is similar to the saying "Judging the book by its cover".
Strangers make quick first impressions and use them to derive conclusions about your overall personality.
The unforgiving thing about first impressions is that, once formed, they are imprinted on the brain practically forever, making them lasting impressions.
While good impressions are long lasting, negative impressions are particularly tough to correct.
The Amygdala of the brain forms instant first impressions based on past experience. Hippocampus region of brain stores this experience for reference in future events.
Some of us are easier to judge and some persons are better judges.
Rather than concern ourselves with whether the stranger’s first impressions are accurate, it is more practical to understand why and how we form first impressions.
An instant decision is based on a first impression.
Maximizing positive outcomes and minimizing negative outcomes decide the ability to create positive first impressions.
This further decides the future outcome or relationship with the stranger. This is the basis of Predicted Outcome Value Theory at play, introduced by Prof. Michael Sunnafrank.
Goal differs with different situations.
First impressions are extrapolated to create a prototype of your entire personality in the stranger’s mind and create a comprehensive view for them. The First impression solidifies into a lasting impression.
When we form a positive first impression of the person, we are more open to the person and invest our time and effort in creating the relationship that we predicted. On the other hand, if it was a negative first impression, we close ourselves to the person and limit our interaction, giving no chance for the relationship to form.
Creating positive powerful first impressions is an art and a science.