Developing Your Social Skills
By Cheval John
When you are attending an event, whether it is a conference, sports, etc., it is viable to know how to act in certain situations.
Just because a person pays a boat load of money does not mean they should act like a fool.
We have seen at sporting events, fans who would try to get involved with the action of the games and would end up paying the price for it.
For example, an Alabama fan went after the Oklahoma students during the team’s humiliating loss in the Sugar Bowl.
She did not stop to think that her actions would hurt her reputation in the long run.
If she was an entrepreneur or a professional, many would point to the video and then wonder if it is ideal to do business with her.
In the same manner, if a professional is traveling overseas for business, they will have to understand how the norms of the country’s culture in which they are doing business.
Kara Ronin, founder of Executive Impressions, understands the nuances of doing business in another culture.
She has lived and worked in Japan, the United States and now France.
She had to adapt to the different working norms of the countries in order to succeed.
Her experience has allowed her to teach people from corporate to university students on how to adjust to the living standards of the countries through her company, Executive Impressions.
You can take a listen below.
After listening, what are your thoughts on developing your social skills?
You can leave your comments below.
Video courtesy of Bon Blossman
How To Convince People That You Are “Insane”?
By Cheval John
Most of the people were raised to the drum of “If you want a really great and stable job, you need to gain a quality education.”
They go to high school and learn about subjects that they are not interested in.
They study really hard for the SATs and ACTs so that they can make a high enough score to get into the best universities that money can buy.
When they get over that hurdle and know that they are “college material,” they are looking through different colleges to see which ones will get them towards the goals of attaining the all illustrious degree.
If they are a five-star athlete, recruiters from major colleges are paying visits to their home to try and sell to them their school and why they should compete for them.
They are continuously counting down to the day when they are finally free from the rigors of high school and are out of their parents watchful eye.
For most, they have selected the university that they want to attend close to the day of graduation.
If they are a five-star athlete (a.k.a. football), they are making their announcement on the university of their choice in front of a large television audience dubbed as “National Signing Day” broadcasted on major national networks like ESPNU, Fox College Sports, Big Ten Network, etc.
Then that day arrives when they achieved their high school diploma and are excited about the possibilities of going to college.
Once they arrive on the college campus, reality sinks in of achieving “independence” and the opportunity to choose which major they want to study.
They put in the grueling hours of doing labs, homework, writing papers, studying for exams for the four years (six years for some) to achieve the elusive goal of a college degree.
They want to be among those who made it through the rigorous demands of the university and proclaim that they are a college graduate.
They do not want to be among the majority who failed to achieve the college degree because that would be a failure not only to themselves, but their parents who spent their hard earned money to send them to college.
If they make the 40% of people who achieve their college degrees according to this 2014 story by NPR.org, they believe they are set for life.
The day arrives when they walk across the aisle to receive their college degrees and are excited about the possibilities that are waiting for them.
When most of the college graduates achieve their first entry-level job, they are excited to start the track to promotion.
They are in the workforce earning the salary, living the “American Dream” that they grew up with.
All of a sudden, they got an epiphany that they want to strike out on their own and follow their dreams.
When they tell their family, friends, etc about the decision, they wonder if they have gone “insane.”
They are wondering why you left that great company that have the benefits to go out into the unknown world of entrepreneurship.
Most have probably tried to convince the aspiring entrepreneur that 8 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first 18 months of operation according to this Forbes article “Five Reasons 8 Out of 10 Businesses Fail” by Eric T. Wagner via Bloomblerg Businessweek.
Though they are well meaning, they try to bring you back from your “insanity” of starting a business and to reconsider your decision to become an entrepreneur.
However, you don’t relent and decide to start your very own business.
I highly suspect that Brandon Sobotka heard the same concerns from his closest friends when he started his company, “Integrity Human Performance.”
Many might not have understand his vision of helping people who are either entrepreneurs or business leaders, to increase their productivity and profitability without overworking themselves to death.
Even if you try to explain to them why you have to follow your destiny of owning a business and the desire to make the world a better place, they still believe that you are “insane.”
In their minds, the reasons are valid because you are the one who have to figure out a way everyday to make the venture work.
It makes sense to them that you are insane because you are going into unknown territory of entrepreneurship.
So what should you do if you have a tough time in convincing your friends and family of why you decided to become an entrepreneur and leave the perks of the company that provides you a “stable” salary?
Don’t waste your time explaining to them the reason why you became an entrepreneur.
What you should do is come up with creative ways to make your company a success.
When they see the results from your hard work to build your company into a profitable business the right way, they will understand to a degree your decision to become an entrepreneur.
Maybe they will get inspired by your success and decide to become an entrepreneur themselves and hopefully realize that you were not insane after all.
Sam Houston Advances In College Insider.com Tournament
By Cheval John
Sam Houston State rebounded from their Southland Conference Tournament Finals lost with a 87-71 win over the University of North Carolina-Wilmington last night during the first round of the College Insider.com Tournament at Johnson Coliseum.
In the process, the Bearkats achieved their 26th win of the season, the most ever since they moved up to the NCAA Division I almost 30 years ago.
The Bearkats shot 43.8 percent from the field and shot 47.4 percent from behind the arc.
What is even better is that Sam Houston State shot 66.7 percent from the three point line in the first half.
Most of those treys in the first half came from Lithuanian national, Aurimas Majauskas.
Majauskas came off the bench and was the main reason why SHSU’s bench outscored UNC-Wilmington’s bench 38-8.
Majauskas led all scorers with 27 points.
The Seahawks (18-14) tied the matchup at 17 with 8:04 left in the first half after Addison Spruill, who finished with 11 points, made a layup in the paint.
That was as close as UNC-Wilmington got as Sam Houston exploded on a 14-2 run, which included an ally-hoop play from Jabari Peters to Michael Holyfield, to expand their lead to 31-19.
By halftime, the Bearkats was leading 46-25.
Holyfield finished the game with a double-double (10 points and 11 rebounds) while Peters had 11 points and 6 rebounds.
Sam Houston plays host to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette this Saturday in the second round of the College Insider Tournament.
UL-Lafayette brings a 21-13 record to this matchup and also former Bearkat coach Bob Marlin in facing his former assistant, current Sam Houston coach Jason Hooten.
Hooten will try to get his 100th win of his head coaching career in this contest.
Leveling Out The “Madness” In The NCAA
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Naypong
It’s that time of year again as tonight begins March Madness.
This year’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, which consists of 68 teams, will be very intriguing because of the fact that the University of Kentucky is trying to become the first undefeated team to win the national championship since 1976 when the University of Indiana won the championship undefeated.
Though the focus will be whether they will finish undefeated or suffer a loss at the worst time that can derail their hopes of a great season, I want to chat about how as always how this whole system works.
You might have noticed in my last blog post, “Choose Yourself In Order To Earn Attention For Your Talent,” I shared how the only way for teams from mid-majors and lesser known schools to gain the same exposure as the big named schools is if they are in the NCAA tourmanent.
The sad thing is that many schools who have mediocre records are in the tournament because they are in the top conferences (SEC, Big 12, Big 10, ACC, Pac 12) and they are perceived to have played a tougher schedule than the schools who are in lesser known conferences.
So if a school in a lesser known conference had a great season, won the regular season title and then lost in the tournament, they don’t have a chance to make the tournament.
I think that in any professional sports like the NBA, anyone can make the playoffs if they had a great record and are in the top 8 of their conference.
Except for the NCAA.
If you are not in the big five conference, possibly a few mid-majors or a school like Gonzaga who have made 16 consecutive NCAA Tournaments and have given the chance for the West Coast Conference to have other at-large bid teams, then you have no shot.
Merit does not rule in most NCAA sports like football, basketball and baseball.
I suspect that the name of the game for these tournaments is money.
Of course the big name schools like the University of Texas, Notre Dame, etc. has a large fan and alumni base.
So if they are many big name schools in the tournament, that gives the NCAA a better chance to make more money because it has a bigger draw to television viewers.
It is a big reason why they are in the midst of a 14 year, near 11 billion deal with CBS/Turner Broadcasting to showcase the men’s basketball tournament.
That means the NCAA has to put out a great showcase of top talent every year in order to prove to CBS/Turner that they made the right decision to spend all of that money for them to be the exclusive home of the tournament.
Of course, many mid-majors and lesser known schools have to compete every year with the big name schools and also schedule to play these big name schools even if they are going to lose.
Not just because they want to make their team tougher, but it helps to possibly improve their Rating Percentage Index (RPI), which is one of the metrics that the NCAA selection committee uses to choose the teams who will be in the tournament.
So even if a team have a mediocre record like a 18-12 or 17-11, etc., if they are in one of the Big 5 conferences, they have a much better chance to make the national tournament even if they did not win their respective conference tournament.
It is unlikely that the system for selecting teams in the NCAA tournaments will change anytime soon.
All of what the teams in the lesser conferences can do to make the big dance is to win their respective conference tournament, schedule tougher non-conference teams in the Big 5 conferences, or advance in the tournament like Gonzaga has done in order to show the nation that their conference is not as easy as they think it is.
Perhaps, this will level out the playing field of collegiate basketball at the Division I level.
What are your thoughts on the way the NCAA basketball tournament is run? You can leave your comment below.
There Is No Silver Bullet To Success
by Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles
One of the most important lessons about achieving your dreams of being a writer, etc., is you must be persistent.
If one door closes, you must be aware that another door will open.
Sometimes we forget that lesson because we are afraid of experiencing rejection.
It is true that rejection hurts because we want to be liked by everyone.
The problem is that some people will not like you even if you are a nice person.
They will always try to find something to put you down if they see the opportunity.
If you are building an online business, you will certainly experience rejection along the way because no one has ever heard of you.
You can keep on trying to associate yourself with an A-lister within your industry in order to gain traction in your business if they mention you to their audience.
The only problem is that everyone else is trying to do the same thing in reaching out to the A-listers.
If you want to achieve success with your online business, you must put in the hard work and dedication to make your business succeed.
You also must build your audience from the ground up because you will achieve greater rewards from finding the right audience.
I was very fortunate to attend the Self-Publishing Success Academy class taught by Kimanzi Constable and Jimmy Burgess earlier this year.
The program was excellent because both of them shared with us how to achieve success with our self-published books.
They did not taught the lessons from theory, they taught from their experience on achieving their own success with their self-published books.
They also taught us that a person must build trust with the people who are the decision makers of the large websites or podcasts because if you send a generic pitch, you will end up being on their bad list for your disingenuous approach to being a contributor to their websites.
I applied one of the strategies that helped me to get on a couple of podcasts including Caryn FitzGerald’s Coffee And Coaching Podcast.
And yesterday, I “made” an appearance on “The Travel Wisdom Podcast,” hosted by Ladan Jiracek.
Mr. Jiracek, a world traveler who currently lives in India, interviews people who are also world travelers, authors, speakers, polyglots(a person who speaks three or more languages) etc.
I did my research on his podcast and felt that I could share valuable information with his audience because I had studied abroad in Mexico for a month and studied/interned abroad in Chile for 3 months.
So I sent him an e-mail about the possibility of making an appearance on his show.
I was happy when he said that he would like to interview me on his podcast.
The cool part was that I was able to interview him on my podcast, “What’s The Word?”
I can say that the lessons that Mr. Constable and Mr. Burgess taught about doing your research on the podcasts that you want to make an appearance on and the large websites you want to guest post on, helped me to make those guest podcast appearances.
I also believe that it is just the beginning of achieving my goal of financial independence because I understand that running an online business is a marathon and not a sprint.
So if you want to succeed in your online business, you must put in the hard work and dedication to succeed.
In the end, you will enjoy the success that you achieved because you did not take any shortcuts to succeed.
What are your thoughts on achieving success in your career whether it is writing, etc.?
You can leave your comments below.
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