Personal and professional development for technology professionals.
» Bringing Ideas To Life. With Love!
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 21 Mar 2007, 8:04 AM - 1 Comment
Some people want to start businesses because they want freedom. They forget that they have to pay a price for that freedom. Hubbard has a one-liner that is a gem. Here it is…
Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 20 Mar 2007, 6:32 PM - 3 Comments
Mortgagenewswatch.com was kind enough to send me a newsletter that I never subscribed to. Since it is not relevant to me and I was lazy to setup a rule to send future newsletters to “trash”, I thought I will unsubscribe. Of course, as most email newsletters, unsubscribe really does not work. The failure notice provided further instructions on how to reach the customer service – you have to fill a form or call them.
The idea is simple. You make it hard for someone to unsubscribe to your newsletter so that they may continue to be subscribers, albeit reluctantly. Then you can show advertisers that you have thousands of subscribers and charge a premium to advertise.
What they forget is that it leaves a bad taste with people as you introduced a new cost to deal with this. Time is the biggest scarcity in people’s lives. So if you are taking time away from them, you are an opportunity cost. It is hard to be liked by someone when you are a cost for them.
Have a great week ahead!
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 20 Mar 2007, 3:29 PM - Leave Comment
Yesterday I wanted to buy a Financial Calculator. I went to Frys and rather than getting lost in the place (It’s true – any geek can get lost in that place) I thought of saving time and asked someone on the floor for directions. His response “I don’t know what is a financial calculator. I don’t think we sell them here.” I gave him a puzzled look. The person seemed confused but by the way I looked at him, he must have thought it must be a common item and asked one of his colleagues – “Hey, you don’t think we carry Financial calculators. Do you?” and his colleague validated his beliefs.
I was only convinced about one thing – that these two people were not convinced about their own answer.
I walked around and asked another person about this. He was not sure either but he did something else. He said he knew where all the calculators were placed and volunteered to walk me there. I did find a Financial calculator and this person was curious enough to ask me a few questions related to the calculator. Before he left the place, he thanked me for answering his questions and said “At least next time when someone asks me, I will be better prepared.”
Hunger for knowledge is very important. The first two people took the easy route. They didn’t know what was a financial calculator which was not a problem. But they didn’t care to know. That, was a big problem.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 20 Mar 2007, 12:23 AM - 3 Comments
I want to thank all of you who sent me emails. Because this blog has not been updated (as frequently as it used to be) some of you have asked “Is everything OK with me” 
Everything is fine. Since I am more of a practitioner than an academic, I have taken a planned break to be more on the field (In English – very busy with my startup work) the last few weeks.
I am also in the middle of giving the finishing touches for my eBook “Making the most of your time.” I don’t know the exact date for the release but it should be in weeks.
More soon. Thanks again.
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 18 Mar 2007, 1:02 AM - Leave Comment
My friend (I am yet to meet him) Javier Marti has started his new venture Trendirama. He is putting together a portal where he is seeking contributions from authors about trends and future.
Check out the portal and if you are qualified and interested to write, please reach out to Javier Marti here
Have a great week ahead!
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 12 Mar 2007, 9:36 PM - Leave Comment
They wanted to showcase the real life of someone looking for a job. The protagonist, John, was on the job hunt. Every week, the show highlighted John’s various attempts and failures. After fix months, John had still not found a job. There was no drama. The show was a flop.
–
Note:
1. A mini saga is a story told in exactly 50 words. Not 49 or 51 but exactly 50.
2. You can download a photographic manifesto of Mini Sagas at ChangeThis. Here is the link – Mini Sagas: Bite-sized Wisdom for Life and Business (PDF, 2.9MB).
3. For a complete list of Mini Sagas, please visit the Squidoo lens “Mini Sagas“
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 11 Mar 2007, 9:04 PM - Leave Comment
Business Book Review is offering a 6 page summary of “Beyond Code” for free. I am sure it is for a limited time. There is no registration required. Here is the link:
Business Book Review: Beyond Code (PDF, 6 pages)
Have a great week ahead!
UPDATE (March 27, 2007): The free summary is no longer available on the site. Sorry.
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 10 Mar 2007, 11:33 AM - Leave Comment
John never thought getting deals would be a problem for his new venture. He had a big network. Twenty meetings were setup in the first six weeks. Every meeting was good. Everyone wanted to know what John was doing. No one was bold enough to give him the first deal.
–
Note:
1. A mini saga is a story told in exactly 50 words. Not 49 or 51 but exactly 50.
2. You can download a photographic manifesto of Mini Sagas at ChangeThis. Here is the link – Mini Sagas: Bite-sized Wisdom for Life and Business (PDF, 2.9MB).
3. For a complete list of Mini Sagas, please visit the Squidoo lens “Mini Sagas“
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 10 Mar 2007, 9:48 AM - 1 Comment
Fine. You got a great deal on the computer last week. For $1000, you got a bargain. But what is the “real” cost of your computer?
Since you can’t keep everything on the web, keep a copy on your PC.
Sorry. Since you can’t take your PC and you may not have web access everywhere, sync the data to your mobile device.
Since there is no guarantee anywhere, backup your data online somewhere.
Since mobile devices can’t carry a lot of data, use a Flash drive
Flash drives are dumb so use an U3 smart flash drive.
Since you need fast access to the internet, get a broadband connection.
Broadband was for the home computer but you need to access the net via your laptop. So get a wireless router.
You can do a lot with broadband and suddenly you realize that your computer needs more power – upgrade memory.
You realize that it is not just memory, you need other graphics cards – upgrade them
You realize that instead of upgrading in bits and pieces, you can just buy a new computer – there is a deal going on there so you buy a new computer
With that, ensure that you buy
1. Firewall
2. Anti Virus
3. Anti spam
4. Anti phishing
5. Access control
and several other “necessary” softwares
By the time you do this, there are new versions of software products that are available – so upgrade your computer.
When you upgrade some software, some other software on your computer may not work. So ensure that you have enough help or enough time to fix this.
I can go on. But here is my point. You can manage the technology or the technology can manage you. Most of the times, it looks like you are spending just $1000 on your computer and it is a steal. That is just the hard cost. The time you spend on the computer is the “real” investment and it is your job to get a “good return” on that investment. If you get carried away by the technology just because someone else is doing it, you may be losing more than gaining.
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 08 Mar 2007, 5:29 AM - 3 Comments
Seth Godin has a fascinating post titled “Where do you park?”
For me, this was about thoughtfulness. A few weeks ago, I got this in an email. It was from a long-time employee of Volvo and in this short snippet, he is remembering his early days at Volvo:
I wrote about being thoughtful earlier. Here is the link:
Ways to distinguish yourself #167 – Be thoughtful
Have a great day!
Posted under Main Page.
If you are from the Press or if you are from a Speakers Bureau, you can schedule a meeting with me using Jiffle.
Like Jiffle? Get it here.
Recent Comments