Register

Author: Nirmal Thapa

Make an impact

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 make you miserable eventually. You’ll be more motivated and energized daily when you feel that you are making an impact. Chasing an intangible goal that you are extremely committed to will give your life a purpose and meaning. If your work is not making an impact from your current role, the motivation and energy will dry out and you’ll be looking for something else to do soon.

Questions to ask yourself from time to time on whether you are making an impact: Are you happy doing the work you are currently doing? Is the work you’re contributing leading to more than just profit? Is it creating more jobs, connecting more people or building better communities? How would you like to be remembered if you were to leave your job today? What would your legacy be? What are you doing to make this world a better place?

 

A Second Chance: For You, For Me, And For The Rest Of Us

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 reading Catherine’s book: A Second Chance: For You, For Me, And For The Rest Of Us

Ahead of the kiosks

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 behind this is that McDonald’s will need less employees now that the self-order kiosks have arrived.

McDonald’s CEO: Offering customers new ordering options from CNBC.

There will be fewer employees needed in each McDonald’s as the company plans to upgrade 1,000 stores with this technology every quarter for the next eight to nine quarters. That’s almost 10 or 11 stores a day. As the kiosks make things so much easier for consumers, what value can a McDonald’s employee (or any retail employee) add to the customer service experience? Not all is lost to the kiosks though. Employees can offer the best of what we humans do. Consider these scenarios: smiling with enthusiasm when a customer chooses to order the “traditional way”, showing more care to customers around the store, welcoming customers enthusiastically to the store, making customers feel wanted and catered to around the store, apologizing for any mistake(s) made in the customer service experience to name a few. Kiosks cannot do (as of now) what we humans do naturally-smile, care, respect, praise, love, apologize, connect, feel, share stories etc.

As we head towards the future we’ll have to give customers a way better reason to order from a human than a machine. If we can’t, then we’ll start to see a lot of McDonald’s around the country and globally with a location, several kiosks, robots making burger/fries and that will be your customer experience at McDonald’s.

 

 

 

Skills blog series: Language skills

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 from Nepal, most of us are familiar with Hindi and English to a certain degree (basic to advanced), thus knowing basic to moderate Chinese or Spanish is beneficial for us. Being proficient in Chinese can create a lot of job opportunities for those in the travel & hospitality industry. My one year of Spanish classes in high school has proved very helpful in my travels around Europe and US.

Knowing another language especially Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi or Arabic could be very useful in your personal or professional life. A plethora of websites and apps are now available to get you started in learning a new language. Even having some basic foreign language skills will help you when visiting another country or interacting with someone whose native language is different than yours. In the global marketplace, bilingual speakers get more job opportunities and can build rapport easily with people from different countries.

In the write up “The Value of Spanish in the Workplace”, it mentions that bilingual executives are most frequently needed in marketing, sales and general management and to serve as president or CEO. “If you see yourself doing work internationally or going into banking or trade or any other business where you’ll travel, you’ll take Spanish more seriously,” said Tom Birmingham, Korn/Ferry’s managing director of global accounts. Plenty of reasons available for you to start or hone your language skills now.

Key takeaways:

-Learn any of these languages: Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi or Arabic

-Start learning a language today

Previous Skills blog series:

–Being financially savvy

Image source: Think New Asia

What’s normal in America?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 happening in America that is not yet discussed or covered in the mainstream media. I’m glad I picked up this book and its been a good read so far. I’m half way through the book.

In the book, Andrew states “the normal American did not graduate from college and doesn’t have an associate’s degree. He or she perhaps attended college for one year or graduated from high school. She or he has a net worth of approximately $36K – about $6K excluding home and vehicle equity – and lives paycheck to paycheck. She or he has less than $500 in flexible savings and minimal assets invested in the stock market. These are median statistics, with 50 percent of Americans below these levels.” Wow. That’s eye opening.

Image source: https://www.yang2020.com/buy-the-book/

Starting a movement

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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. Additionally, Derek shares that the first follower is an underestimated form of leadership in itself and that “the first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.” Well said and beautifully shown in 3 minutes below.

Investment in Nepal’s tech scene

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 and many tech startups are able to get first mover’s advantage in the domestic market or selling their product/service abroad. Nepalese consumers are becoming more digitally savvy, mobile/internet penetration is growing and we’re noticing a rising ecommerce scene. Founded in 2011, SastoDeal recently got investment from Dolma Dolma’s website states Dolma Advisors Pvt. Ltd. is a consulting firm providing investment advice to international investors including Dolma Impact Fund – the first international private equity fund for Nepal, investing in various sectors and making sustainable and positive social and environmental impact. Stories like SastoDeal is good for the local startup ecosystem. It tells the aspiring and current tech company founders that if you need to take your growing company to another level, there are companies out there to assist you. But first you have to come up with an idea, execute it and show growth. SastoDeal took a risk and bet that ecommerce was going to become popular and culturally accepted over time throughout Nepal. Now most young consumers are shopping online from portals like SastoDeal, Daraz Nepal and Urban Girl etc. Also payment gateways are aplenty and ISP’s are providing better bandwidth at lower prices all helping boost Nepal’s digital economy.

In a lot of the startup/entrepreneurship related events that I had attended in Kathmandu in recent years, I felt that there was not many technology domain investors and funding opportunities available for tech startups. Now we might be seeing a few startups getting some investment to grow their business. If your online/mobile business is growing, the investors will find you. You have to build your business first. If you’re waiting for investors to come knocking so you can start your venture then you will be waiting forever. Start now.

Showing up

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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, knowledge and drive. Many of us have all the tools we need now-laptops, wifi-information/knowledge all in our fingertips. There’s no shortage of that. Now its far more important that ever to show up, meet and connect with people.

Well-being teams, social media & us

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 percent growth compared to the previous year. According to estimates, the number of worldwide social media users reached 2.34 billion and is expected to grow to some 2.95 billion by 2020. With this rapid growth of social media,  spending hours in social networking sites has become an integral part of our daily lives.

Having a “well-being team” focused on fighting harassment and bullying is laudable but companies have to do a lot more. A new, nationally representative Pew Research Center survey of 4,248 U.S. adults finds that 41% of Americans have been personally subjected to harassing behavior online, and an even larger share (66%) has witnessed these behaviors directed at others. With so much of our lives spent in social media sites of one form or another, companies have to proactively monitor, assess and take swift actions to minimize harassment and bullying.

Is machine learning enough to counter harassment and bullying over social media? Mike Krieger of Instagram stated in the interview that “they have been doing things like training our machine learning algorithm to try to detect bullying and harassment in comments and then make those comments go away.” Responsibility of “adapting” to social media falls on all of us-parents, teachers, friends, family members, policy makers-anyone who is directly or indirectly affected by social media. In my opinion, the bigger responsibility falls on shoulders of social media giants mainly Facebook who created a product that brings billions together daily. Social media companies should also publish reports and data on how they are countering harassment and bullying over their respective platforms. Parents will increasingly need to be digitally aware and teachers to be vigilant more than ever of their students’ behavior in and out of the classroom. StopBullying.gov is a federal government website managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is a great resource to learn from and share with others regarding the matter.

With so much user generated content, is machine learning the only answer we have to counter online harassment? Can we leave this ever important challenge to a handful of companies alone who might have a “well-being team” to save us? Or should we first go back to the fundamentals where we treated each other with respect and love whatever our differences (color, height, weight, sex etc) and then enter into the social media world? The need to frequently discuss the benefits of social media and its challenges is greatly upon us.

Resources:

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/instagram-mike-krieger-harrison-barnes
https://www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/
http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/07/11/online-harassment-2017/

Death of an Industry: The Cultural Politics of Garment Manufacturing during the Maoist Revolution in Nepal

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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.

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 industry of the country.

Her bio on South Asian University reads “I am an economic anthropologist with a PhD from LSE, and postdoctorals from Oxford and Pretoria. I work on industrialisation, socio-economic embeddedness and labour. I examined the rise and fall of readymade garment industry in Nepal between 2001 and 2011, which exposed me to the turbulent national politics rooted in the Maoist movement in Nepal during that time.” 

Looking forward to picking up the book and reading it.

Be a humble narcissistic leader

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 was not only by bringing Chris Bosh from Toronto Raptors and LeBron James from Cleveland Cavaliers to Miami Heat that helped them win back to back NBA finals (2012-2013), Shane Battier also played a key role. Although Shane had his limitations, he studied the stats of other NBA players and understood where they struggled on the floor. Every now and then he offered LeBron tips on opposing players and was able to help him become better. Role players like Shane provide a huge boost to any sports team because they are not as much under scrutiny as the superstars and have specific roles and assignments.

As a leader, you need to have the confidence and humility to lead. You can show both of these traits without looking overconfident or feeble. How? By asking questions, getting input from others with experience and knowledge of the subject at hand and not getting caught up in your own biases and assumptions. Easier said than done but its worth it.

Just over the hill

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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. No looking back. No U turns.

The steep climb is where your character is tested. You need to believe in yourself, be resilient and patient. It’s tough to navigate under these circumstances but you must. You have sacrificed so much for this moment. This moment is yours to cherish, yours to hold onto and yours only. The beautiful and majestic Mount Everest is just over the hill.

 

Principles For Success by Ray Dalio

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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 and suited to best leverage the opportunities available in each of the above cities. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will talk about the different skill sets that are very valuable to have based on my experiences so far. These skills can also help you profoundly no matter where you are currently or headed to in the near future.

Welcome to the Skills blog series-

Being financially savvy

One of the first jobs I had as a teenager was working at a magazine store. I was a cashier and worked every Saturday for most of my weekends. Having some pocket change allowed me to go to the movies, buy a few things and hang out with my friends. I learned the real value of money and had earned it from standing 6 to 8 hours to ring customers at the counter. My lunch options were McDonald’s, Subway or takeout Chinese food-things you could get for less than $5. I valued each dollar I earned and the work boosted my self esteem and confidence. For the most part of my high school, college and a short period after college, I held jobs in retail customer service and was standing 7 to 8 hours for them. Now I work on a laptop and spent most of my working hours sitting down. It’s nothing compared to the long hours spent standing, greeting and servicing customers.

Having a job even if its part-time teaches you a lot about money. You start to value it more when you have earned it and won’t spend it carelessly. It’s important to understand the value of money at an early age and I’m glad that I had part-time jobs when I was in high school. Those earlier work experiences were instrumental in helping me understand the value of hard work, money and made me financially savvy.

Key takeaways:

-Work somewhere (full time, part time, internship, volunteer doesn’t matter, just start)

-Savor the earning (feel the hard work and sweat that you put into making that first earning)

Image source: Think New Asia

Will you take us to Mars?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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. Elon answered “For a long time, I’ve thought that it’s inevitable that something bad is going to happen on a planetary scale-a plague, a meteor-that will require humanity to start over somewhere else, like Mars. One day I went to the NASA website to see what progress they were making on their Mars program, and I realized that they weren’t even thinking about going there anytime soon. I had gotten $180 million when my partners and I sold PayPal and it occurred to me that if I spent $90 million and used it to acquire some ICBMs from the former USSR and sent one to Mars, I could inspire the exploration of Mars.”

Now many of us won’t have as audacious of a goal as exploring Mars but we all have ideas, dreams and goals. Will you take that initiative in your organization to lead the big goal? How about starting it on your own because you believe so much in your idea and dream? We all need someone who has the vision and the drive to take us there. Will that be you?

What’s your anchor?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Getting up at 4am and believing that no one will outwork me. That’s Dwayne Johnson “The Rock”‘s anchor everyday.

What’s yours?

 

 

Seven Bucks

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

He had seven bucks in his pocket when he was cut from Calgary Stampeders, Canadian Football League. Thus, Dwayne Johnson “The Rock” named his production company, his advertising agency among others: 7 bucks. He keeps the hard times in front of his mind which helps him to go into these big moments with a different perspective. Additionally what has worked for him is that he keeps his back against the wall and knows that the only way to go then is forward.

With the Los Angeles Lakers, “The Rock” also shared two secrets to his success-things that have worked for him. He said you got to be the hardest workers in the room and can’t mess the opportunity up. Words of wisdom from one of the most successful actors and producers of our generation.

On Twitter, The Rock shared “Thank you owner & for having me speak to the team. I don’t have all the answers for success, but I can always share what it takes to get there. “

The Art and Science of Training

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

I started reading The Art and Science of Training by Elaine Biech.

Elaine relates the book as a recipe such as making a cake. “It’s about understanding the science behind best practices (what proportions of butter to flour to milk to sugar make the best cake) and where a little spicing up will make it taste better (adding cocoa, cinnamon, or salt).”

If you’re in the training field or aspiring to get in the field, what type of cake are you excited to make? Do you treat training as your calling or just another job that needs to get done? Are you thrilled to have the opportunity to make an impact in people’s lives everyday?

Make the most amazing cake in the world that you can be proud of.

 

 

Will you take 10 minutes to change your life?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Will Smith did. He took 10 mins and did an impromptu audition at Quincy Jones’s party for the guests. Will could have waited a week or maybe even 3 weeks to prepare. However, Quincy was adamant that Will audition at the moment and not wait any longer. Well he didn’t and after that audition, Will Smith was on his way to become The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Moral of Will’s story is ALWAYS SAY YES.

The Shaq Endorsement

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Wheaties wanted Shaq to be on the cover after he won his first championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He declined.

Wheaties wanted Shaq to be on the cover after he won his second championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He declined.

Then Shaq told his people to call Frosted Flakes or Fruit Loops and he would be happy to be on the cover of that. He turned down Wheaties because he never ate it so he said he can’t do it.

Shaq says of his brand deals  “People look at them as endorsements. I look at them as partnerships.” He added “I’m very picky. If I’m not in tuned to the product, if I don’t like the product I won’t do it.”

Superstar athletes have global influence, persuasive power and wider reach. Influencer marketing is popular than ever and their impact on consumer behavior is profound. A Forbes article cited “authenticity is the key to capture the heart of today’s consumer.” The same article also cited that “PepsiCo Gatorade and FRS refuse to hire celebrities who have never used their products or don’t like them. FRS in fact, requires each to have a true, authentic story behind their passion for the FRS products.” Endorsing products that the athletes actually use not only creates more trust among their target audience, it also tremendously benefits the brand. Authenticity is the way to go.

Wouldn’t it be nice when athletes actually use the products they endorse? How often does Beyonce drink Pepsi or LeBron eats McDonalds? Whose responsibility is to inform the consumer about the not so healthy benefits of frequently drinking Pepsi or eating at McDonalds? Or should we just leave all the decision making to consumers because ultimately in a capitalist society all they want is better choices?

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive our blogs, information on upcoming workshops and exclusive content.

Nirmal Thapa

Linkedin
Register