I love the World Cup. I strongly believe that no other sport brings so much of the world together as the World Cup does. It was noted on FIFA’s website that “The in-home television coverage of the competition reached over 3.2 billion people around the world, or 46.4 per cent of the global population, based…
Author: Nirmal Thapa
What’s next?
What’s your next goal? What are you most excited about in your next adventure? What’s your next challenge? What’s the next thing that’s keeping you going everyday? Have you found your next thrill?
MakerBot in Ocean’s 8
It was summer 2010. I was in Brooklyn. That summer I spent time writing blogs and participating in exhibitions to get our company, MakerBot’s flagship product, 3D printer into the hands of consumers. That was one of my most exciting summers as I saw a worldwide movement take place. The desktop 3D printing revolution was…
Best commercials of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018
We saw many advertisements during the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. Some of the ones that I really liked are:
Make an impact
Your next role should be chosen based on how much impact you will make. You must. We need more people aspiring to do the work where they can make the most impact. That’s the right thing to do. Being in a role where you are not making a difference or contributing to something bigger can…
A Second Chance: For You, For Me, And For The Rest Of Us
I stumbled upon Tim’s podcast with Catherine Hoke – The Master of Second Chances. Catherine Hoke is the founder of the non-profit Defy Ventures and its vision is to end mass incarceration by using entrepreneurship as a tool to transform legacies and human potential. I learned tons just by listening to Catherine’s conversation with Tim. Highly recommended. Looking forward to…
Ahead of the kiosks
McDonald’s is planning to add self-order kiosks to 1,000 stores each quarter.That means you”ll be most likely ordering your next happy meal from kiosks rather than placing the order with a McDonald’s employee. The benefits of self-order kiosks for customers are touted as faster service, more choices, more efficient and so forth. The unspoken truth…
Skills blog series: Language skills
Welcome to the Skills blog series- Language skills The most widely spoken languages in the world are Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic respectively. If you are a native speaker in any of the languages above, that is great. If not, then knowing one or two of them would be the way to go. Being…
What’s normal in America?
Recently I started reading the book The War on Normal People The truth about America’s disappearing jobs and why Universal Basic Income is our future by Andrew Yang, Founder of Venture for America. In the book, Andrew has a chapter titled Who is Normal in America. I found the chapter insightful and alarming-there is so much…
Starting a movement
Starting a movement means being the shirtless guy dancing all by himself when most of the crowd is sitting down. Well not just him but his first follower is equally or even more important. Derek Sivers in his Ted Talk says that the leader needs to have the guts to stand out and be ridiculed….
Investment in Nepal’s tech scene
It was 2012. I was feeling that something was brewing in Kathmandu, Nepal. There was a new wave of enthusiasm, drive and hunger to start something-among the youth. Events were happening almost every weekend. There was Startup Weekend Kathmandu, PIVOT Nepal, hackathons to name a few. The journey from 2012 to now has been long…
Showing up
A big part of success is about showing up. Showing up to work, at the meetup, the conference or anywhere you promised to be. Showing up means that you are invested, committed and want it more than anybody else. Once you show up, you take it from there. It’s your opportunity to showcase your charisma,…
Well-being teams, social media & us
Within Instagram, there is a “well-being team” that’s just focused on fighting harassment and bullying as stated by co-founder and CTO of Instagram, Mike Krieger in The Players’ Tribune interview with Harrison Barnes. According to Statista, in 2017, 81 percent of the population in the United States had a social networking profile, representing a three…
Death of an Industry: The Cultural Politics of Garment Manufacturing during the Maoist Revolution in Nepal
I recently came to learn about Mallika Shakya’s book Death of an Industry: The Cultural Politics of Garment Manufacturing during the Maoist Revolution in Nepal. I have been wanting to learn more about Nepal’s garment industry for a long time. Mallika’s book could provide insights/analysis and could be instrumental in understanding what happened to the once flourishing…
Be a humble narcissistic leader
In a research of American and Chinese companies, it was shown that humble leaders are significantly more effective than narcissistic leaders with their employees more productive and more innovative. Leaders need to have the confidence to drive their team forward and also be grounded to the reality of things. Adam Grant points out that it…
Just over the hill
Just over the hill are the beautiful and majestic mountains. That’s Mount Everest. You know the climb is steep. You’re ready mentally and physically to take upon the challenge. Nothing can completely prepare you for this moment, you just know that you have to keep going. The only way to go is forward. No excuses….
Principles For Success by Ray Dalio
I’m reading Principles: Life and Work at the moment. Almost done with the book. If you want to get an overview of what the book is about, this video is a great resource:
Skills blog series
What has helped me tremendously in my personal and professional life is developing and having the right skills to adapt to different environments. I was born in Kathmandu (Nepal) and have lived in Cairo (Egypt), New York City (US) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands). What has worked for me is having skills that are transferable, adaptive…
Will you take us to Mars?
Who’s the person in your company that takes the lead? Takes the charge to navigate the change? Has the courage to launch an initiative that he or she feels is right no matter what the outcome would be? Elon Musk was once asked by Ray Dalio on how he came to start his company, SpaceX….
What’s your anchor?
Getting up at 4am and believing that no one will outwork me. That’s Dwayne Johnson “The Rock”‘s anchor everyday. What’s yours?