We all have ideas. Some are good than others. All are welcome and each perspective is unique.
Coming up with ideas (creative ideas, business ideas, problem solving ideas and others) is a form of an exercise. It’s a muscle. The more we exercise the muscle, the better we become.
How often are we exercising our “idea muscles”?
How can we help grow Nepal’s tech industry? To measure the growth of the tech industry, what are some benchmarks? Good to have some benchmarks to start out with:
Few quantifiable benchmarks can be:
Number of companies in the tech industry
Number of jobs created by the tech companies
Number of high skilled professionals in the tech industry
Number of diverse employees in the tech companies
Collective amount of taxes paid to the government by the tech industry
Few non quantifiable benchmarks can be:
Is it easier for someone starting out today to make it in Nepal’s tech industry?
Do individuals and teams have access to the tools, resources, mentorship, trainings to become successful in Nepal’s tech industry?
How can different tech companies intentionally help each other grow and navigate the dynamic tech landscape?
Are government policies and regulations helping the tech industry grow?
Anjani runs a growing small business with 5 employees and recently one of her employees received a better job offer from a competitor. Authority question : Is it Anjani, the employee who received the offer, the other 4 employees, or the competitor?
Arjoo decides to run for local elections. Authority question : Is it Arjoo, her voters, the media, her election team, or the election regulators?
Arun’s company is funded by investors and he has quarterly growth targets to meet. Authority question : Is it Arun, the investors, the company’s employees, or the company’s customers?
Atul runs a successful restaurant. Authority question : Is it Atul, his chefs, his staff, customers, food authorities, or restaurant association?
Amita has a strong social media following. Authority question : Is it Amita, her social media followers, the social media platform, investors of the social media platform, the regulators, or her internet provider?
Nowadays there are more company meetings than necessary.
Zoom meetings, Client meetings, internal sync ups, and weekly catchups fill up our calendars every week. Months go on with many meetings that serve no purpose or get results.
Meetings are not going away soon. However, effective meetings are highly valuable for everyone in attendance.
To make company meetings effective, have an agenda, start and end on time, and have clear next steps.
Shellye Archambeau, chief executive of MetricStream likes to end her meetings by asking, “Who’s got the ball?” When you’re in sports, and the ball is thrown to you, then you’ve got the ball, and you’re now in control of what happens next. You own it. It becomes a very visible concept for making sure that there’s actually ownership to make sure things get done.” – NYT’s article
Our minds are powerful and create our everyday “reality.”
We have the physical world where every living being is part of. Then there’s the subjective “reality” that’s unique to each one of us.
We create consciously, subconsciously and unconsciously and live in our own “reality.”
To be able to experience a better life or “reality” for ourselves, we have to learn to condition our minds.
If you want to experience flying first class, you have to make the decision to pay more to be there. Once you’ve experienced how flying first class feels like, our mind wants to get back to first class and will motivate you to find ways to fly first class more often.
Similar to flying first class, try experiencing better products, services and experiences and you’ll continue to find ways to attract them and live in your “best reality.”
We want Progress. Like yesterday.
It’s tempting to be thinking of achieving massive success as soon as possible.
So what does Progress actually look like (realistically)?
In Atomic Habits, James Clear says if you find yourself struggling to build a good habit or breaking a bad habit, it is often because you have not yet crossed the Plateau of Latent Potential. When you finally break through the Plateau of Latent Potential, people will call it overnight success. We tend to see the most dramatic event rather than all the work and efforts that came before that “overnight success.”
Source: James Clear
Building a company culture of curiosity in an organization takes small intentional steps.
If a team member asks a question in a group, how is that question handled?
Does the meeting organizer have an agenda and allocated time for questions?
What is the team leader’s first response to a team member’s question? Is it a straightforward answer or a thoughtful follow up question?
Does the team member feel safe and comfortable asking the question in that environment?
Who has been given the default “authority” to ask questions in that environment?
Is the meeting host intentionally seeking out questions from the participants rather than just expecting them?
Companies go through all sorts of changes in their journey.
One of the biggest and costly changes is personnel change.
When experienced employees leave the company for better opportunities, it can take some time to fill the vacancy or get someone ready internally to take that position.
The most untapped and available opportunity that companies have not considered or used is keeping in touch with the employee(s) who is about to leave or have left the company in good terms.
How about creating your Company’s Alumni Network?
The Company’s Alumni Network would consist of anyone who has left the company on good terms and wants to stay in touch with the company and its developments. Most employees have good and healthy professional relationships while working at a company and want to see their team and company succeed even if they decide to pursue other opportunities.
Similar to a college’s alumni network, the company’s alumni network will keep the previous employees engaged and updated on the company’s progress. The company can create a newsletter that is regularly circulated with the alumni network.
Imagine the short and long term benefits of a Company Alumni Network : building goodwill with previous employees, generate possible referrals for employees and new businesses, possibly bring back experienced employees who want to rejoin and much more!
There was a place called NotTooFarAway.
In NotTooFarAway, lived two groups of people.
One group lived in the city and the other group lived on the beach.
A group from a nearby place called, CuriousEyes looked at the above two groups and wondered:
Are the beach group more happy than the city group?
If the city group make more money than the beach group, who is more happy?
If the beach group visit and enjoy the city more than the city group who are too busy to enjoy the city, which group is happier?
If the city group who have the luxury to visit the beach at any time, would that make them happy?
If the beach group make more than the average salary in their region, are they happy?
If the city group make more than the average salary in their region, are they happy?
If the beach group enjoy their environment more than the city group, who is happier?
If both the beach group and the city group have the same income level, who is happy?
If neither of the group compared themselves to the other group, would that make both of them happy?
The Perfect Life is an illusion.
The illusion is fed with constant media coverages, social media feeds, popular culture, society and so on (mostly external factors).
That’s the shiny stuff that attracts our attention and feeds our ego, motivation, and hunger for more.
The Authentic Life is more real.
It’s real because you are living it daily and have more control (mostly internal factors).
Each day we can become more of who we truly are, our unique selves, and own our strengths as well as our faults.
How can entrepreneurs grow their startup?
The qualities that help entrepreneurs start their businesses might not be the same that will help take the startup to the next level.
There will still be challenges that entrepreneurs will face when they have hired all the “right people” for the different roles of the company. If the entrepreneurs continue to become heavily involved in decision making of the different functions even when they have put “right people” in those positions, the company will be limiting itself. The entrepreneurs’ efforts might actually be counterproductive then.
For entrepreneurs to grow their company, most times they themselves become bottlenecks to the growth. It’s time to switch from being an entrepreneur to becoming an empowerer (one who empowers others to do their best). If entrepreneurs have empowered other leaders in the best way possible, the company will experience growth in many ways.
We can achieve greatness by focusing our energy on helping and supporting others.
When we focus on helping others through what we can give, we put good energy into the universe.
To achieve our goals, we collaborate with people because greatness is not a sole journey or destination.
The more energy you commit into inspiring and helping others, the more you will receive in return.
How are you inspiring and helping others today?
We were new to entrepreneurship.
My friend was starting to sell custom made jewelry.
He reached out to me to help him with business development work.
One of the first purchases we made was to put an order of 1000 business cards, each.
Well we ended up using probably 50 a piece in the next few months.
Sometimes we can get caught up doing all the fancy activities that seem important at first but not doing much to increase sales or build a business!
Coffee Convoz is currently running a campaign that offers a chance for anyone based in the US to win a Himalayan Java Coffee Cup.
Himalayan Java is a pioneering coffee chain that has been serving Nepali coffee since 1999.
Coffee Convoz is a global community of Coffee and Conversations!
Awareness. Action. Automatic.
Awareness is the first component of becoming great at a skill or craft.
Once awareness is established, action is needed to intentionally practice and work on the skill or craft.
After taking consistent action to get better, the skill or craft becomes automatic.
There was an island called Without Sandals.
A budding salesperson from a nearby Town A visited the island and saw that no one at this island was wearing sandals. The salesperson went back to the town and concluded that there are no opportunities to sell any sandals because no one would wear them.
Another budding salesperson from a nearby Town B visits the island and makes the same initial observation that no one in the island was wearing sandals. The salesperson goes back to town and concludes that there is an abundance of opportunity to sell sandals in this island because everyone can wear them.
Indeed.
There’s no failure in sports. Definitely not in life!
Giannis Antetokounmpo, player for The Milwaukee Bucks eloquently explained why there’s no failure in sports after his team exited the NBA playoffs. You’re always working towards a goal. Sometimes your team will succeed and other times, your team will come up short on those goals.
There are many key insights one can derive after watching the whole video.
Some insights that stood out to me were:
–To not reach your goals when you have put in the efforts/time/energy is disappointing but should not be looked at total “failure” or a “waste.”
–To be successful, you will experience some sort of setbacks but the focus should be on getting better to achieve that goal next time.
-Ownership is key. If you are leading a team or a group, you have to take responsibility for the outcomes – good or bad.
After watching the video, what were your takeaway(s)?
For high ticket items, the sale almost always does not happen in one customer touchpoint/interaction.
(If it does, I would love to learn from you and know what worked for you.)
It happens over a period of multiple touchpoints and interactions between the buyer and seller.
Each customer touchpoint is a step closer to the final sale.
What I have seen most useful for high ticket items are that the buyer needs useful information to address questions and concerns, be clear on the value of buying from the specific seller, and a sense of urgency.
Buffalo, New York is a beautiful city serving a variety of authentic cuisines and drinks.
Some of the spots we’ve visited and recommend are:
Restaurants
NEAT – Food and service were very good. Love the ambience.
Cugino’s – Italian restaurant with tasty food and quality service.
Clay Handi – Traditional Pakistani and Indian cuisine.
Duff’s Famous Wings – Finger licking delicious wings.
Allentown Pizza – Savory pizza pies.
Bar-Bill Tavern – Delicious wings and chicken fingers.
Aloha Krab – Variety of tasty seafood.
Tandoori Hut – Authentic Indian dishes.
Nine-Eleven Tavern – Best Chicken wings in Buffalo (served on Buffalo style sauce)!
The Falafel Bar – Authentic Mediterranean food.
Coffee shops
SPoT Coffee – Good choices of coffee with nice ambience.
Jacks Corner Cafe – Delicious coffee and good service.
Owl Eyes Cafe – Nice coffee.
The Intersection Cafe – Very good coffee.
For more coffee spots around Buffalo, NY and other cities, visit Coffee Convoz
This list will be regularly updated as we visit new locations, revisit favorite restaurants or coffeeshops or just want to recommend a restaurant/coffeeshop.
If you know of a restaurant or coffeeshop that we should check out in Buffalo, New York, do let us know in the comments below.
In service focused businesses, meeting and exceeding clients’ expectations is everything.
Providing excellent client service is both an art and a science.
You can learn a lot from others’ experiences, read book(s) and blogs and watch relevant content to understand what client servicing is.
Then there’s the exciting part of actually managing clients yourselves. That’s where the fun, excitement, and value comes in.
I believe if you deeply care about helping clients become successful in whatever they do, they will sincerely feel it. You can’t fake caring!
The beauty of providing exceptional value to clients is to putting your clients’ needs above yours, being empathetic, and making sure they’re successful.
The rest will take care of themselves.
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