Personal and professional development for technology professionals.
» Bringing Ideas To Life. With Love!
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 22 Sep 2008, 5:38 AM - Leave Comment
All of us need this reminder every now and then…
Enjoy your week ahead!
What could be worse than being born without sight?
Being born with sight and no vision- Helen Keller
Hat tip: Joel Freeman
Posted under Great Quotes.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 20 Sep 2008, 4:00 AM - 5 Comments
You aim to become like someone (may be a role model, hero or just someone that you aspire to become) and start copying what they are “doing”. You soon realize that you are not getting the results that they are getting.
Simple reason – you are not them.
You simply cannot recreate everything else that is “unique” to them like
- their history
- their background
- their mindset
- their teachers
- their relationships
- their support structure (family, friends, co-workers, mentors etc.)
- their outlook on life
- their perspective
- their knowledge
I can go on but the list is VERY long.
If you even want to have a chance at this, you have to start copying their “being” rather than focusing on their “doing”.
Being, in simple terms, is who they are. AND, not just what they do.
What they do may be effective because of who they are.
If you are trying to do what they do without being who they are, chances are – you won’t get the results they are getting.
Copying “being” is not easy. But who said that you would get a premium by doing something that’s VERY easy to do 
Have a great weekend!
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Note 1: For links to the other 193 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself (PDF, Free)
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 6, 2008. This is a photographic manifesto featuring 15 of my mini sagas (stories in exactly 50 words). Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Mini Sagas – Bite Sized Lessons for Life and Business (PDF, Free)
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 19 Sep 2008, 8:55 PM - Leave Comment
“I know Bob”
You might have heard that many times. However, what they say may not be what they mean. Here are some “real meanings” for “I know Bob” in the order of decreasing influence.
So next time someone says “I know Bob” it is your responsibility to figure out what the real meaning is
Have a great weekend!
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 19 Sep 2008, 8:21 AM - 1 Comment
Sumukh has a new cycle and it’s only four days old. Two days ago, he came to me and said something is wrong with his bike. It seems like the brakes were stuck.
I went out to check what was wrong and just like he said, the brakes were stuck and the back wheel was not moving. He told that everything was fine a minute ago and suddenly it stopped working.
I meddled with the back wheel for a few minutes without having a clue as to what could have went wrong. After some time I gave up and the next day I took the bike to the shop where we had purchased it.
I thought that something must have been seriously wrong and was wondering how long will these people really take to fix it.
Of course, it didn’t take a minute for the person from the service station to fix it. In fact, nothing was really wrong. The handle of the bike had turned 360 degrees and had pulled the brake wire – almost making it seem like somebody had pressed the brake all the time. You can see that problem if you observe the photo closely
Of course, the wheels were stuck 
The solution seemed very obvious immediately after the problem was fixed.
The service person told me not to worry as they get at least one person a week with the exact same problem.
Being a fan of Peter Senge’s book on Systems Thinking “The Fifth Discipline“, the incident just proved (again) that it’s not learning alone but applying what you learn that makes a big difference.
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Note: For other 37 posts in the same series, please visit my Squidoo Lens on the same topic. Here is the link:
Squidoo Lens: Smile Please
Posted under Smile Please.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 18 Sep 2008, 9:40 PM - 1 Comment
The Mini Saga Manifesto I published at ChangeThis has a collection of 15 mini sagas. As you know, a mini saga is a story told in exactly 50 words. My attempt was to include a lesson for life and/or business within each mini saga. Obviously, it is difficult to tell a story and also say what the lesson from the story is – all within 50 words. So I decided to just tell the stories and allow the readers to interpret the lessons.
For example, mini saga #4 (“The Deal”) is shown below. As you can see, it is just a story. The lesson is left to the interpretation of the reader.
At the point of writing, I just “wished” that somebody will interpret the lessons from these mini sagas and post them somewhere. That happened today.
Michelle Awuku, founder and leadership development coach at My Factor Coaching and Consulting posted on her blog about the lessons learned from the mini sagas. Here is the link:
my factor: 15 bite-sized lessons for life and business
Thanks Michelle.
As I have always said – there is a lot of information out there. The power is really in “interpreting” that powerfully. That’s where coaches and mentors come in.
You can download the entire manifesto (for free) here:
ChangeThis – Mini Sagas: Bite Sized Lessons For Life and Business
Have a great Friday!
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 17 Sep 2008, 9:28 AM - 2 Comments
Tim will always have a special place in my heart. I still remember the first meeting with him – probably in 2000. It was at the Yahoo! cafeteria and we had lunch. Tim spoke about building relationships and of course, left a lasting impression on me. Since then we have met a number of times and the feeling never changes. There is so much to learn from him.
I had an opportunity to read the pre-release copy of his new book “Saving the World at Work” and it is simply awesome.
The topic, as Tim says, is about the “Responsibility Revolution” – how individuals and 
organizations can take more responsibility (with a slant on sustainability) and make a difference. What is VERY interesting is that the case studies prove beyond doubt that by taking more responsibility, you are not sacrificing anything – in fact, you can improve the bottom line by being more responsible.
Whether you have a small business or you are part of a large organization, you will totally enjoy the book and probably find something that you can apply immediately at work and start making a difference.
Thanks Tim for writng the book and special THANKS for being such an inspiration!
PS: My photo is here only to show support for the book (wearing the saving the world at work t-shirt). I got an email saying why I have put my photo there and not Tim’s photo
Posted under Announcement.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 16 Sep 2008, 12:34 PM - 6 Comments
Disclaimer: I am involved in iCharts as a co-founder, investor and an active board member.
iCharts was launched at the recently concluded TechCrunch50 conference.
Here are the facts:
* There are about 40 million charts online.
* If that seems a lot, compare that to 900 Billion charts that gets printed worldwide in a year.
Why the discrepancy? I think the reason is that there is no simple way to create and publish high-quality charts.
The most popular tool for creating charts is Microsoft Excel. However, Excel is not the best tool to create charts. Here are a few basic problems:
1. It is cumbersome to create charts on Excel
2. Excel created charts are not the best looking charts
3. There is no interactivity in the resulting charts. In fact, the resulting chart is an image.
4. Putting up an excel created chart online is similar to posting an image online.
5. Excel charts are not searchable (yet)
iCharts is a web-based service that makes creating and publishing interactive charts simple.
Here is a sample interactive chart created using iCharts. It took a fraction of the time it would have taken to create the same (but lower quality with no interactivity) chart using Excel. This iChart shows the medal tally from the recently concluded Olympics event.
You can see the expanded version of the iChart here.
iCharts is a free service. However, there is a premium version where you can download iCharts to embed them into office applications or in PDF documents
For a limited time (until we reach our target premium beta accounts) you can use the following code to get a premium beta account on iCharts
Invitation Code: rsettypremium6109
Welcome and experience creating and publishing interactive charts!
Posted under Announcement.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 16 Sep 2008, 6:51 AM - Leave Comment
Should your new startup have competition or no competition (you can always dream, right)
If you do have competition, the question that comes up is defensibility. What can you do to become a leader in the space and what IP (intellectual property) do you have that will put a barrier to entry for the competition?
On the other hand, if you try to do something that nobody has ever done ( almost saying you have no competition) then the question is “whether there is a market for what you are doing”. In other words, you might have built a “cat trap” but does anyone want it?
Have a great morning!
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 15 Sep 2008, 8:32 AM - 7 Comments
Focus!
A pessimist will focus on at least ONE problem in the midst of all the available opportunities.
An optimist will focus on at least ONE opportunity in the middle of all the problems.
Paul Harvey said it right – “I have never seen a monument erected to a pessimist”
Have a great day ahead!
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 13 Sep 2008, 8:46 PM - 2 Comments
My new book will be titled
BRANDTASTIC!
Personal Branding 2.0
It is a book that has been in the works for close to 3 years. I almost thought I had completed the book. However, upon discussion three people who are helping me with my book (Peter Winick, Bill Sherman and Arun Nithyanandam) I realized that I need more Personal Branding stories.
That’s where I need your help.
If you have a great personal branding story, please share it with me. Or if you are amazed by the personal brand of someone that’s close to you, please ask them to share their story.
I will use a few of them in the upcoming book and in turn help you or them extend their personal brand!
You can send an email to “explore at foresightplus dot com”
Looking forward to it.
Thank you.
Posted under Announcement.
If you are from the Press or if you are from a Speakers Bureau, you can schedule a meeting with me using Jiffle.
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