sad + happy = SADAPPY

Human psychology and behavior is predictably irrational or can be rationally predicted. I noticed an unusual behavior that sometimes people chose to be Sad because feeling sad makes them Happy. This is unusual for me, a guy to understand why someone would choose to be sad but apparently two of my friends (whom are female) agree with behavior.

They shared that sometimes they like to be sad and choose to be sad especially at night and being sad gives them some sort of unusual pleasure.

Does this provides us a glimpse into human behavior and actions sheds light on why when some people still want to focus on what is wrong in their lives rather that what is right. Because maybe on some level being sad gives them conscious/subconscious happiness

So is there a new emotion, where being sad makes you happy, thus SADAPPY?

Tom told me today, “Sometimes, I think my wife loves her dog, Snuggles, much more than she loves me.”

My friend, lets call him Tom, made a statement today, “Sometimes, I think my wife loves her dog, Snuggles, much more than she loves me.” I have been contemplating over that statement and pondered why that is. The more I thought, the more it became clear, why people love their pets, especially Dogs unconditionally because the Dog loves his owner unconditionally.

What does a Dog do, when he see’s his owner coming?
He stops whatever he is doing and looks towards his owner, even if the owner is far way. Then he leaves everything behind and runs towards the owner to greet him/her. The dog jumps on her, hugs her while wagging his tail and shows her how excited he is that she is home. He looks at her with nothing but love in his eyes, making her realize that he is just happy that she is back. He dances around in joy and follows her around the house and when she is sitting, he puts his head in her lap and lays there without asking for anything except an occasional touch of her hand.

When was the last time Tom did that for his wife; greeted her with undivided attention when she came back from work. When last time he asked his wife how was her day and brought her a cup of coffee as she returned from work or even had dinner ready for her as she arrived home.

So, what can a dog teach us about Public Relations and/or Human Relations?

• Give her your undivided attention.
• When you see her coming from a distance, get up, go there to greet her.
• SMILE big, show all your teeth.
• Ask her how was her day and just SHUTUP and listen without comments or advice.

My advice to Tom, do these 4 things and I guarantee your wife will love you more than the dog.

Homeless People: Could they be part of your next Marketing Campaign?

Here’s an idea for being philanthropic this season and also promoting your business.
Rather than printing T-shirts and having your employees wear those as advertising why not give out those T-Shirts/Jackets to homeless people. That way, they get free clothes that would keep them warm in the winter season and since they are outside all day long they wear your company T-shirts/Jackets and thus advertise your company.

I know, some of you might think as this as exploiting the homeless but I don’t see it that way. Your company can also give the homeless some gift certificates that can only be used for Food. This way, you give clothes to the homeless, gift certificates for food and your company gets advertising in return. So the homeless are working for those gift certificates and not getting them for free.

Why is a guy walking into a party with a girl more desirable to other girls than a guy entering with his guy friends?

SOCIAL PROOF: You will be amazed how far people will go to avoid the pain of thinking and brain storming. I read in an article while back that said: How well a society has modernized is directly proportional to how many daily functions a person can perform without thinking. Which does makes sense. we want everything to be automatic, we want refrigerators that should automatically recognize which grocery item is depleting and order it in advance. We want smarter TV's that should tell us which new shows to watch based on which shows we have been watching in the past.

I know you are thinking its true but what does it have to do with the title of this posting. Well here it is, one way of avoiding thinking is use social proof for certain products or people. What do I mean by that? You see TV commercials and they show a normal day to day John Doe using a product and you think, he looks like me so if he uses it, it must be right thing to do and let me try it as well. If others are doing it, them it might be the right thing to do. Thats one reason hurds of people end up investing into a stock just because its favored by majority but thats another post.

My point is, when a girl at a party (lets call her Mary) see's a guy (John) coming in with another girl (lets call her Jamie), she automatically assumes that the guy must be normal or has something special since she is with him (note that the girl does not has to be dating the guy, just her presence with the guy is influence enough). So, Mary assumes that the guy must have something on for him thats why Jamie is with him. She unconsiously looks for the social proof which comes in form of Jamie.

But if Don walks in the party with his guy friends, then he might be precieved by Mary as undesirable or at least less desirable than John since he is coming by himself, no girl then maybe something wrong with him that no one wants him.

The social proof provided by Jamie to Mary saves Mary time and pain to think and try to see if the guy is really good or not. Her assumption that since Jamie is with John, he must be something and that what I want it too. So even at subconscious levels Mary feels attracted towards John with minimal efforts from John.

Ladies, am I right or am I right?

This methodology is used by advertisers and businesses to attract more customers into buying their products. Main Idea behind it: If I see someone like me trying that product and enjoying it, it must be good so let me try it as well. eg: all informercials, sandwich makers ads, magic bullet commercial, Mac VS PC Ads, etc.

Can the ease of availability of "borrowed" copy of your company's software increase your profits?

I was having lunch with few of my friends today and we all are big Apple Inc. fans, we love the iPods and iPhones and have'em both and some of us even have 2 of them. During the conversation one of my friends mentions that he wants to buy a Macbook but only reason he has been debating on it for more than a year is because he will have to pay for every additional software that he will buy in the future. Because there are barely any "borrowed" copies of the any of Apple's software available out there.

Now I know what you are thinking, this guy is talking about "borrowed" software and its wrong blah blah but lets face it, thats the reality. We see more and more people running "borrowed" software copies out there than those companies would want. I am all about the open source and believe all software should be free to the consumer but that's for another blog entry.

Any how, this conversation got me thinking that maybe the "ease" with which these "borrowed" copies of Microsoft software's is out there, is it actually helping Microsoft, HP, Sony, Dell etc. make money.

My theory says, Yes.

And, here's why. An average John Doe has $1500-$1800 that he wants to spend on computer. He is debating either to buy Apple (which he likes due to sleek design and its sexiness) or buy HP/Dell etc with Microsoft Operating System.

On average a laptop would last him about 4-5 years. Here's what goes in his mind while making a decision: If I buy Apple, the laptop is great, love the operating system and software that it comes with but what if I need additional software during next 4-5 years, I would have to buy every piece and on average the cost runs around at least $200 (I know I am low balling it but lets give the benefit of doubt). So, within next 4 years, if I need 4 more softwares (any kind even from different vendor), I am looking at $800-$1000 in costs. WOW

On the other hand, if I get a HP or Sony or Dell laptop, then there is a very good chance that I would be able to get any "borrowed" copies of most of the windows compatible software I would need in the future and save those $800. Savings.

So, decision is made, lets use Microsoft OS based laptop and even though he would have loved Apple Macbook its just not cost effective.

This is just one example but I am sure lot of people who might have gone thru similar thinking cycle and came out with a decision to purchase Microsoft based products.

Now if you are Microsoft, does the availability is "borrowed" copies out there really affecting your sales negatively? Looks like it is converting customers for you just made a sale for you and your hardware manufacturers.

Don't ever say you will do your BEST.

When faced with a challenge, I never say I will do my best because then it constrains me and you shouldn’t either. What we think is our “best,” is based on our evaluation of our past accomplishments. It’s a collection of successes and failures, which subconsciously creates a boundary in our mind that defines what our best is. So, when you are faced with a new challenge, your mind replays your success/failure video and tells you that when you encountered a new type of challenge in the past, your success rate was so and so when you did you “best”. Therefore, for this new challenge, your “best” effort will result in this type of outcome (based on your past subconscious evaluation).

So what should you do or say to yourself when faced with new challenge? I don’t know what you should do or say to yourself, but this is what works for me. When faced with new challenge, I go all out. I jot down what needs to be done and then go out and do it. I know it sounds simple, but it works for me.

I don’t give up unless the task at hand is finished, which means, I keep going even if I have failed numerous times and even when my “best” effort tells me that “you put in your best and it can’t be done so lets move on.” I go out and try it one more time. Because every problem in this world has a solution and it is on and in you, if you can move beyond the restrains of your “best” efforts to find the solution.

Emotional Mirroring: I can feel what you are thinking

Anthony Robbins once said, Emotion is controlled by Motion. If you want to change your current state of mind (aka your emotion) change your physical bodily motion. If you want to feel happy, put a big smile on your face and that simple act of smiling will trigger neurological activity in your brain and you will begin to feel pleasant.

Our facial expressions, partially, trigger within us the feelings we display
we can simulate any feeling by intentionally setting up our facial muscle for that feeling.

Edgar Allan Poe had an intuitive grasp of this principle. He wrote, when I wish to find out how good or wicked a person is or what are his thoughts at that moment, I try to mimic the expression onto my face as accurately in accordance to the expression on his face and wait to see what thoughts and sentiments arise in my own heart as to match and correspond the expression. Daniel Goleman discusses similar views in this book Social Intelligence and refers it as "Emotional Mirroring".

If you are at work, meeting with your boss, coworker or a date or meeting someone for the first time and want to get a "feeling" of what they are thinking or feeling about you, try the Edgar Allan Poe's technique. Mimic their facial expressions and see what first few feelings arise in your mind and heart. It could give you an edge when it comes to reading people in business or in your day to day life.

Similarly, if your face radiates confidence, happiness, boldness, passion, love, care it would trigger those feelings in the person standing in front of you even if they are unaware. And they will notice at subconscious level the emotion you radiate by your facial expression.

Don't ignore the quiet kid sitting at the back in the classroom.

Day in and day out, he is sitting quietly in the back of the class room. He is considered odd, hesitates when he talks and is not the part of the in-crowd. He is quiet, shy, hesitant BUT he is observant. He knows more about the individual behavior of the rest of the students in the class than those students themselves. He notices subtle nuances that go unnoticed by others, he captures them, develops patterns and is able to get a good feel about what tickles every person in the class.

He going through life quietly without unleashing the passion and devotion towards a cause.

So, what does all this have to do with you as a marketer?

A LOT..

Because if you can give that child a purpose, make him part of you team, he will work with you and for you with devotion and passion that no other child who was part of the in-crowd can match.

Why? Because the popular kids do not have to work hard to get acceptance from others, they are popular, so they are cocky and unreceptive to others ideas and feelings but the quiet kid, who has been ignored all these years, has to work hard for every kind look and every acceptance.

And when you give him love and reason and make him part of your team, he will market your product, your company with all his heart and creativity than you can imagine.

I would rather be a Bumper Sticker

We are so busy in our lives that we dont spend time to get to know each other, to read each other. We rush through life speculating on our first impressions of others without understanding them. Because how can we, we don't have the time to spare to get to know the other person, to stop and understand them, read them in order to get better feel of who, what and how they are.

But on the other hand, driving down the road, we see a Bumper sticker on a car in front of us and we are willing to bend around, stretch and make ourselves uncomfortable in order to read what the Bumper sticker says.

Why is that we are willing to put in more effort to read a bumper sticker than to read a person thoroughly.

"There is no such thing as failure, its only Feedback" Annon

I read this quote a while ago and its been stuck in my head ever since. When I came across it for first time, I was skeptical about it but as time passed by and I thought about it and now I believe it makes perfect sense.

What is Success and Failure? Its all about perspective. Lets say, you run a marketing campaign and you don't get the results you expected and to someone looking at it from outside it might appear as a "failure." But to you, its learning experience because now you know what didn't work, now you know what NOT to do and how NOT to do it. So even though the campaign did not gave results you expected, it gave you more experience and made you better.

So, as long as we learn from our failures and disappointments and next time we do a better job resulting in better results, how can that experience be a failure, its can only be Feedback.

Michael Jordon once said, "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why i succeed."

Life doesn't teach us as we are taught in school. In school, if you are wrong or fail its catastrophic and you are looked down upon. We have to be correct and right most of the time if we are to survive the school.

But life pushes us, teases us, when we fail at something, its life telling us that "hey, this is an opportunity to learn, I want you to learn from this failure, so you can become better for the great opportunity I am going to bring for you in the future, so learn now."

So, don't be discouraged with failure, its only feedback, its there to teach you, so you get better and better. As long as you learn from the failure and improve yourself, that failure is not a failure, its a success because it has improved you as a person. Now you are better than where you were before, in terms of experience and knowledge.

"Success is the result of good decisions, good decisions are results of experience, and experience is the result of bad decisions." Tony Robbins

Be True to yourself?

You are thinking, I am true to myself, what do you mean, Be True to yourself?

Mother Teresa did not help people because she thought that is what she SHOULD do; She did what she did because she WANTED to do it. She did not do it to please others or did it so people would praise her and regard her highly. Helping others made her happy, it filled her heart with joy and thats why she did it. Every great humanitarian, artist, scientist, philosopher etc does what he/she does because it makes them happy, as simple as that.

So, what do I mean when I say, "Be True to yourself"? What I mean is that , do not pretend or change who you are in order to please others. Do not act a certain way only because you think acting that way would make others like you and would please them.

"What other people think is only what other people think. They are just as confused as your are, just as insecure, just as frightened, just as likely to make mistakes, be envious, jealous, or self deceiving and therefore, just as likely to distort what they hear and see." David Viscott

Always, remember you can not fake it long enough, sooner or later you will be caught and then your reputation will be shot down much more than what it would be if you were being yourself. So, why pretend or change ourselves merely so that others would like us.

God has made each and every one of us different, we all have special qualities that make us unique, different, vibrant, interesting. We have our own paths and that path can only be traveled if you are true to yourself, acknowledge your likes and dislikes, your strengths and weaknesses. Our differences is what makes the world interesting, attractive and colorful like a jar of Jelly Beans. Imagine if everyone was exactly the same, liked same things, the world would be such a boring place.

So, go out there, be yourself, express yourself, live your life. Remember, its your life and when you are 80 you do not want to look back and see that all those years you had lived someone else's life, wasted those precious years trying to make others happy when that time could have been spent making yourself HAPPY.
You are born to be UNIQUE and go out there and be UNIQUE.

CEO Thinks: Which is better: Two Average Employees or One Driven Employee?

You are thinking of course One Driven and Motivated employee is better than two average employees, its a no brainer.

But what you are not realizing is that when you say this,you are disregarding the fact that those two employees work for you and letting them go is not an easy proposition because even though they are average, they still fulfill their job functions and do the job they are hired for. So, how can you let them go?

Consider the following example:

You have two employees performing two different job functions:

Employee A: He performs an average job, non motivated but keeps the status-quo. He is not passionate about what he is doing but fulfills his assigned duties, nothing less, nothing more. He doesn't show any interest if there is other areas he wants to move or is passionate about. He is your 9 thru 5 ideal employee.

Employee B: He also performs an average job at his current position, not motivated about what he is doing and fulfills his job duties to a satisfactory level. BUT he is very passionate about another business area, the job functions currently performed by Employee A.
During his free time, outside the company, Employee B does reads a lot about the topics related to Employee A's job functionality, he performs those activities outside work and is clearly very good at it. He is passionate about the work, loves it and would be very good at it.

Now, the question is, should CEO keep both Employee's at their current positions and let them perform Average work OR should the CEO get rid of Employee A, who clearly is unmotivated and will not go the extra mile for the company and move Employee B to his position, who will perform exceptionally because he loves it.

What do you think?

GE's Breaththrough can put 100 DVD's on a Disc

NYtimes.com "The data is encoded in light patterns that are stored in light-sensitive material. The holograms act like microscopic mirrors that refract light patterns when a laser shines on them, and so each hologram’s recorded data can then be retrieved and deciphered."
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Do you know who is your customer?

It sounds like a simple question, but you will be surprised how many companies will miss that.

Consider following example (P.S. its my interpretation of Google but to me it makes sense)
Who is Google's Customer?
A. Companies that advertise on Google?
B. General Public that searches on Google?

Correct answer is B, Google's customer is not the companies that use Google to post their ads, not the companies that pay Google money. Google's customers are you and I, who search on Google constantly. Google understands that if it enhances the search experience of people and make them use Google as their prime search engine, the dollars will automatically flow via companies in the form of advertisements because companies would advertise where people are and if people are on Google, where else would the Ad dollars go.

So, stop what you are doing, think hard and answer the question:
Do you know who your customer is? and once you find that out, do everything you can to make their experience better, dont worry about making money, it will come. Enhance your customer's experience, go beyond their expectations and your company will succeed.

CEO Corner: "Who is more important my Employees or my Customers"

We always hear companies stress and take pride that to them "Customer" comes first and they should do anything and everything to make the "Customer" feel special and satisfied.

But in that process, lot of companies end up neglecting their Employees, is that wise? I would say NO it is not. To a CEO, his employees should come before their customers.

We live in a society where majority of products are a commodity, it is rare that a company has something special or different that is exclusively offered by them. Therefore, one of the ways companies can stand apart is via excellent customer service. A happy, satisfied and loyal Employee will go extra mile to provide extra service to the customer and switch him from a satisfied customer to a Loyal customer. And an unhappy, average employee will provide an average service.

Think about it: You are a Service company and what if your unhappy/unmotivated employee starts pissing off 1 customer/month, how much damage can it cause.

Employee satisfaction, pride, happiness makes a difference if the employee with log out at 5.00pm or stay extra hour to help the customer with their issues.

My recommendation to companies and CEO's: Take care of your employees, cherish them, nurture them, invest in their education and as they improve so will your company.

7 Awesome and free Image Editors

"As digital images get more widespread nowadays, so does the need to edit them to make them better. What happens when you are caught between the insufficient features of Microsoft Paint, and the wallet-blowing cost of Photoshop? Here are some takes on a few of the best free image editors that might come close to commercial ones in terms of functionality."
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SEO: A Six-Step Link Building Plan by Dante Monteverde

WebsiteMagazine.com "Much has changed in the world of link building. Older strategies like directory submissions, press releases, and of course buying text links are no longer as effective as they once were. What hasn’t changed is that a successful link-building campaign is the key to a winning search engine optimization strategy. Let’s review a six-step plan to start a successful link-building campaign for new websites."
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10 Ways to Improve Blog Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less

Problogger.com
This is a great post by ProBlogger and it covers the key points very well, especially Point #4. Use the link to read the rest. Enjoy

"1. Create link clusters within your blog

A link cluster is a group of links that you can point at a post or page to improve its search engine ranking. Let’s say you have a post that’s ranked for ’stupid business ideas’. Edit 10 of your other posts to create links (using ’stupid business ideas’ as the anchor text) to the ’stupid business ideas’ post and you will surely move up in Google for that keyword. This process can be implemented in about 10 minutes and can be used for any keyword your site ranks for or is trying to rank for.

2. Rework HTML title tags of trafficked posts

By watching your stats, you can often identify posts that get search traffic from a keyword, even though the keyword isn’t listed in the HTML title of the post. By editing your posts’ HTML titles to add the keywords they cover, you can strengthen the rankings and therefore the traffic that the post generates. You can easily make a difference with this method in less than 20 minutes. This method combines very well with #1.

3. Invite your readers to connect with you on StumbleUpon and Facebook

You can never ever have too many friends on SU and Facebook. Inviting existing readers to find you on these services with a post should take less than 20 minutes. "

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Hail Mary Prayer $0.07 each???

InformationAgePrayer.com
"Information Age Prayer is a subscription service utilizing a computer with text-to-speech capability to incant your prayers each day. It gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your prayers will always be said even if you wake up late, or forget."

Can cross cultural Marriages Bring Peace in the World?

As I was driving towards work this morning, dodging the traffic and trying not to hit any other cars, I stop at the red light and at that time the radio, which was just a back ground noise till then, starts talking about disruption of peace, uneasyness among India and Pakistan, friction in Arab countries and what not.

I started contemplating, why are we all fighting with each other, and the more I reflected upon it, the sooner I came to realize that since beginning of time, people have fought among themselves due to different beliefs. Different beliefs in thinking, acting, religion and so on. And for most part its due to ignorance, lack of understanding of other person's beliefs and being so protective about your own and clinging to it that we are not open to embrace others.

Then it struck me, how can I learn about other people's beliefs, culture, religion so that I become more open minded and embracive (dont know if this is a word, but you get the point).

What if our generation, brings down the religious barriers and what if we encourage CROSS CULTURAL marriages. If both spouses are from different cultures, different religions then they will get a chance to view their spouse's culture/religion first hand and learn from it. And when they have kids, they can teach them to respect and cherish other religions and cultures. A child born with both parents from different cultures/religions will be more in tuned to bring and embrace equality among humans and embrace others and hopefully bring down the barriers that cause us to fight with other countries just because they have different belief system.

What do you think, Could Cross Cultural Marriages be part of the solution to bring peace and harmony in this world???
by V