Here is a running blog post that I update daily (well, that's the goal anyways). A challenge I've set for myself is to write a short paragraph of one thing I've learnt from reading during that day.
22/4 - The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
"The opposite of love isn't hate; it's indifference." - pg. 42
21/3 - The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman
Marketing is about getting as much attention as possible, but that doesn't mean anyone's attention. As the saying goes, "If you're trying to sell to everyone, you sell to no one." There is absolutely no point in trying to get the attention of the people that aren't interested in buying. It's most effective to direct your marketing efforts to the
18/3 - The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman
"Ideas are cheap — what counts is the ability to translate an idea into reality, which is much more difficult than recognizing a good idea." - ch. 1
The business and entrepreneurial world couldn't care less about how impressive your ideas are. Everyone has ideas. The ability to execute ideas is infinitely more valuable.
17/3 - The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman
Don't fear competition in business. The existence of your competitors means that there's a market waiting for you, so there are people who are willing to pay for your product/service. You can also take advantage of your competitors by; seeing what works and what doesn't, adopting the strategies that made them successful, and learning from their failures (without failing first-hand). Essentially, use these observations as a compass to building a successful offering.
16/3 - The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman
Understanding human psychology is crucial to the success of a business. All humans have the same 5 intrinsic factors that motivate our actions, including whether or not to purchase a business' offering.
These motivators are:
to acquire
to bond
to learn
to defend or protect
to feel
Humans are rarely logical creatures. With purchases, we first decide using our emotions, then justify using logic. This psychology is evident in the popularity of designer brands.
The reason why some women go crazy over buying a 4-figure Gucci bag is because
If you think about it, there isn't any logic in buying a 4-figure Gucci bag. You can find dozens of bags at Target that serve the exact same function as a Gucci bag, but at the fraction of the price. Nonetheless, people are willing to pay thousands on the Gucci bag, because it's the drive to acquire perceived wealth that they're buying.
14/3 - The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman
In order to have a successful business, you need to have these five pillars of a business, as expressed by Kaufman:
creates and offers a product or service that is of value
to people who need or want it
at a price they're willing to pay, in a way that
satisfies the customers' needs and expectations
provides enough revenue for the business' owners to make it worthwhile to continue operations.
Let's use the skincare company The Ordinary to demonstrate these five elements of business:
The Ordinary creates minimalistic skincare products that support skin health (1) to skin-conscious individuals (2) at a fraction of average prices in the skincare industry (3). The Ordinary satisfies the desire for clinically-effective yet affordable skincare products (4). They're able to generate profit from their skincare products by cutting costs in marketing, product packaging, and formulation development (5).
If one or more element is missing from your 'business', you don't have a business, but another type of organisation.
8/3 - The difference between being rich and being wealthy - She's on the Money
The difference between the two is that;
"the rich have lots of money, but the wealthy don't worry about money."
Not worrying about money means that if you wanted to, you could not work and still be in a financially sustainable position for a certain period of time. For example, a person who can live for 3 months without a paycheque is less wealthy than one who can live for 3 years. Nonetheless, both of these people are wealthier than the one who has a 4-figure Gucci bag but would need to go into debt immediately if they lost their job.
Gaining wealth is all about having assets that
6/3 - I Will Teach You to Be Rich - Ramit Sethi (up to pg. 92)
Like any other business, one of the priorities of banks is to make as much profit as possible. They're willing to do just about everything to make money, even if it's at the expense of your financial health.
Instead of declining a transaction when paying by debit, they'll let you go into overdraft, then tag on ridiculously high and evil overdraft fees. They'll let you make interest-only repayments on a loan and won't incentivise you to make larger repayments, so they can keep you in debt for as long as possible.
As you can see with these two examples, banks are sneaky with their operations to profit off from you.
4/3 - How Building a Portfolio Works - Praxis
It's all about showing, not telling. People are a million times more likely to believe in a claim when they can see it with their own eyes. More often than not, telling is way less convincing than showing. The same concept applies in the job market. This is why having a solid professional portfolio will help you land many more job opportunities than a generic resume.
2/3 - Introduction to Customer Success - Praxis
At the root of it all, customer success is simply about fostering positive relationships with customers and a business. This means proactively helping customers solve their problems with a business' product or service, and maximising the value they gain from the business.
Customer success roles rely heavily on interpersonal and problem solving skills.
1/3 - I Will Teach You to Be Rich - Ramit Sethi
Although you'll be your credit lender's worst customer, always pay more than the minimum repayment of your credit card. Even better, pay in full. If you pay nothing more than the minimum, you're taking the longest and most expensive route (because of interest accrued) to paying off your credit debt. Of course, credit lenders love this, so they're not going to incentivise you to pay in full. But you're going to beat them at their game by never carrying a credit balance.
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