Once upon a time, I was very passionate about creating a better platform for writers of Nepalese origin. I pitched the idea at a Startup Weekend event, met my team members there and then eventually registered a company.
Reflecting on my startup journey, I can share some learnings.
-Move fast with your product/service idea. Develop the product or at least a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) before doing too much marketing.
-Seek help in areas that is not your domain expertise.
-Research and understand the challenges in the industry or the market you are entering.
-Understand the market size of your product/service.
In Carol S. Dweck’s groundbreaking book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she talks about the research that Jim Collins and his team did on what made companies move from being good to being great. The five-year study showed that there were several factors that distinguished the thriving companies from the others. In Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, he states that the one distinguisher that was absolutely key was the type of leader who in every case led the company into greatness. “They were self-effacing people who constantly asked questions and had the ability to confront the most brutal answers – that is, to look failures in the face, even their own, while maintaining faith that they would succeed in the end.”
Carol states that these leaders have the growth mindset and believe in human development. They are constantly trying to improve themselves and surround themselves with the most able people they can find, they look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future.
The people who care think of an idea, an initiative and pursue an action. In a startup, people who care make or break the company culture. The values or ideals that the caring person or the caring group have will carryover and reflect in their initiatives and activities within the company.
Many employees want to be part of something bigger than themselves. When an employee cares about a topic or issue very deeply, they will take action and others with similar interests follow suit. But it always starts with the one who cares enough to do something about it. Great company cultures are rarely set by the majority of bystanders.
Great company cultures start and thrive on people who care about the topic or issue. If you want to build a great company culture, find the individuals who care and give them all the resources you can to let them implement ideas and initiatives and watch them grow. There will be challenges along the way but trusting the people who are leading the culture front and encouraging them would be the way to go to building a resilient company culture for the long term. The people who don’t care enough to do more than their roles and responsibilities will be there in each company. However, the company culture will be driven by the individuals who are passionate and voluntary lead the efforts.
Airbnb’s co-founder Joe Gebbia stated that the company’s early days and exponential growth were actually fueled by a series of questions. Warren Berger’s book “A More Beautiful Question The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas” covers at length how Airbnb’s cofounders, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky went from jobless young San Franciscans with a decent apartment to leaders of the sharing economy. An excerpt from Warren’s book covering that section can be found here.
When you closely observe innovation at companies, research shows that innovative business leaders typically share certain qualities as mentioned in the “The DNA of the World’s Most Innovative Companies.” They are always asking questions, experimenting, observing and networking. While building on past successes, they keep the doors open to future innovation.
Hal Gregersen, INSEAD Senior Affiliate Professor of Leadership and Director of the Learning to Lead executive education programme says innovation starts with a question.
You certainly can. Asking questions is a skill. As with all skills, it can be learned and used everyday.
If you want to ask better questions, you can learn them if you care deeply enough about it. There are many ways to become better at asking questions. One simple technique is by starting to ask questions as you go about your day. Nothing complicated. Just start by building a habit to ask one question. Let’s take some regular day to day scenarios. If you grab a coffee and bagel from your local bakery, ask the person at the counter a question. It could be as simple as “how are you doing today?” At work, if you are in a meeting, make it a point to ask one question related to the topic of discussion. If you are in a group discussion, prepare questions and ask at least one question.
When you are working to become better at asking questions, you are essentially building a new habit. You want to look for consistency and simplicity is the key. Everyday you ask one question no matter where you are or what you are doing, you keep building the questioning muscle. Overtime you will build more confidence and have less anxiety to ask questions.
Here are some good resources that dive deeper into questions:
We are also starting our Ask Better Questions Workshop soon. If you want to learn the art and science of asking good questions, ask questions that show curiosity and empathy, and develop better relationships with your audience, this is a workshop you can join.
We’ve heard the phrase many times “Employees are a company’s greatest asset.”
Do you think most companies actually believe that phrase in their core and behave accordingly? That’s a profound statement that companies have to visit and revisit all the time. Some well established companies tout all the benefits they provide to their employees but seldom ask employees how they value each of the company’s benefits or what other benefits could be more important to them. Some companies’ benefits package reflects what their industry counterparts offer and do just enough to remain competitive employee benefits wise.
If companies wholeheartedly believe that employees are indeed a company’s greatest asset, how are they showing that they care for their employees?
In the beginning of anyone’s career, the company you choose to work for, your team, and the managers you have can shape your career trajectory. Your manager is a key facilitator to your professional growth. There is a lot of truth to the phrase that employees don’t leave companies, they leave bad managers. On the same note, some employees will stay longer at a company because of their manager, even though they can easily switch jobs, earn more somewhere else, or have a choice to do something else.
A better manager takes time to understand their team better, mentor them, challenge them, and expect the best from their team members. A better manager holds themselves to the highest standards and also expects the team to be at that same level. They appreciate their team members when they get results and coaches them where needed. Companies have managers because of their organizational structure, but becoming a better manager is their choice.
“Our grandfathers and great grandfathers built schools to train people to have a lifetime of productive labor as part of the Industrialized economy. And it worked.” – Seth Godin
Schools and colleges worked their magic and most of the graduates eventually made their way to a beautiful five day work week of 9am-5pm. Seems like a smooth system to create and produce the labor force needed to work at corporations.
Now, we live in knowledge based societies with the need for people to be more creative and independent thinkers. Schools and colleges need to evolve with time and change their roles accordingly. With the advancements in technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) automating many manual tasks that workers used to do before and the speed of change we are witnessing like never before, our workplaces are not adapting as fast as it needs to.
The forty hour work week for all the employees might not produce the best results for the company. Employees should be working during the times they are most productive because some are best during the mornings, while others could be better working during the evenings or at night time. This is not to say that each employee should create their own work schedule or that managers will have an easier time managing their team members. Employers should focus more on offering the best flexibility to their employees and evaluate them based on the results that they bring.
The Accenture Future of Work Study 2021 explored what people need to be healthy and productive as we enter a new era of work. Here are their main findings from the research report.
A majority of workers (83%) prefer a hybrid work model, but a variety of factors influence their ability to thrive, whether they’re onsite or off.
Responsible leaders must move beyond physical location to shape the future of work by giving people resources tailored to their needs.
63% of high-growth companies have already adopted a “productivity anywhere” workforce model.
Work At Your Time Of Greatest Optimum (W.A.Y.T.O.G.O) is a new paradigm for work. At the start of each new hire, the manager and HR sit together and explain the team or department’s goals and the new hire’s responsibility. The new hire is required to produce the best work within a certain time frame. The focus is on the results. Flexibility is a privilege and the new hire should understand that it can be taken away if the results are not optimal or under par. If the new hire works in a team or needs face to face interaction, it can be a virtual video or audio call. In person meetings should be done if the team is fairly new so individuals can get to know each other or as absolutely needed. This can be more easier to implement in a new startup or even a small size team within established companies. This type of work model is necessary for productivity to thrive at the highest level.
Which work model is your workplace currently following?
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight– When I went to college, there was only one company I wanted to work for after graduation and it was Nike. This was one of the reasons why I studied abroad in Amsterdam, The Netherlands which was very close to Hilversum where Nike’s European headquarters was located. At that point, I had planned to either get an internship or a field visit to Nike’s Hilversum office. Neither happened at that point but Nike has always fascinated me with its creative ads, innovative products, and the athletes it endorses. When I heard about this book, I was overjoyed and couldn’t wait to read it. I borrowed this book from a friend and finished reading it in a few days. This book is definitely one of the best memoir’s I’ve read. I loved reading about Phil’s journey of starting Blue Ribbon which later became Nike. There are so many gems inside the book-the high’s/low’s of starting a company, sacrifices made, cross-cultural challenges, among others. I could go on and on about the book but I rather you read it for yourself.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie – In 2007, I had picked up a copy of Business Week and on its last pages was the list of bestsellers. One of them was How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I read the book and it has become one of my favorite books. The book has many stories that explain the simple principles and psychology of human behavior. I would recommend this book to anyone no matter what field or life stage they are in. I believe anyone can read this book, understand the characteristics of human nature, and apply the principles to their daily life.
Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life by Jim Kwik – This was definitely a book I wanted to read soon as it was published. Once I read it, I wished I had found a book like this sooner. The book helped me become aware of our limited mental and cultural beliefs, common learning challenges, and techniques to unlock our limitless mindset. Having attended Jim’s weeklong Limitless Reading Challenge to several of his Instagram live sessions, I’ve always enjoyed hearing his insights, tips and strategies on unlocking our limitless mind.
Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio – A book that is full of management lessons and ideas that Ray followed throughout the course of his life and journey of building his investment firm, Bridgewater Associates. I first learned about Ray Dalio’s book Principles on The Tim Ferriss Show and the title on Tim’s podcast was, Ray Dalio, The Steve Jobs of Investing. I followed up with reading Principles’ reviews on goodreads which made me want to read the book even more. Some readers on goodreads had said that Principles is one of the best books they have ever read. I couldn’t wait to read it myself and see what the book was all about. Once I got this book, I finished reading it in my daily commute to work.
A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger – In my research on the art and science of questioning, I came across the book “A More Beautiful Question The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas.” I listened to several talks and podcasts that featured the author and became more interested to read the book. The book has a lot of interesting insights and detailed analysis on questioning from our environments at home, school, and in the workplace. It also makes a strong case of why the skill of asking really good questions is important now more than ever.
These days I’ve become more fascinated by the power of questions and the journey to unlock really good questions to activities, decisions, and the world around me. In my research on the art and science of questioning, I came across the book “A More Beautiful Question The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas” by Warren Berger. As soon as I got my hands on the “A More Beautiful Question” book, I started reading it and finished it recently.
A “beautiful question” is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something – and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change. – Warren Berger
I had always been fascinated how as a child we “naturally” ask a lot of questions. However, as we grow up, we don’t ask that many questions or ask enough questions at all. The book has a lot of interesting insights and detailed analysis on questioning.
“Preschool children, on average, ask their parents about 100 questions a day. By middle school, they’re pretty much stopped asking.” – “The Creativity Crisis”, Newsweek.
Warren states in the book that many educators and learning experts contend that our current system of education does not encourage, teach, or in some cases even tolerate questioning. Teachers for the most part are also constrained by the course overload that they have to cover within a certain time frame leaving little to no time for questioning. An interesting revelation was that “schools in many industrialized nations were not, for the most part, designed to produce innovative thinkers or questioners-their primary purpose was to produce workers.”
“Our grandfathers and great grandfathers built schools to train people to have a lifetime of productive labor as part of the Industrialized economy. And it worked.” – Seth Godin
We now live in knowledge based societies and need for people to be more creative and independent thinkers. The ability to ask really good questions thus has become a key skill in the world we all live in today. Growing up, our home and school environments play a huge role in helping/hurting our own questioning skills which carries over to how we work, communicate, and go about our lives. Questions are beautiful and we need them in today’s world more than ever before.
With the enormous amount of data that is being generated every minute of the day across various media platforms, it’s becoming harder than before for brands and creators to reach their targeted audience with the right message. The message, no matter how well crafted it could be can get lost in the sea of data. The audience also is overwhelmed with the amount of information that is being thrown at them and what they are exposed to on a daily basis. Compared to a few companies with financial resources to spend on ads and other forms of paid advertising, a startup or a company with limited resources would be way behind or just playing digital catchup to their much resourced counterparts.
So, as a company, how will you get your messages heard in this sea of information? With the mountain of data increasing day by day, how can content creators reach their audience? Is there a way to stand out amidst the digital noise and really connect with your audience?
We believe the answer is Authentic Storytelling. Storytelling is the use of visual, literary, auditory, or other creative media to educate, inform, entertain, or inspire an audience to take action. As a creator, you are the best person to tell the story of your brand and communicate the narrative as you wish. It’s a personal and authentic journey and you know the experiences (successes/failures and everything in between) better than anyone in the world. As a brand, your authentic reason(s) to start a company, your core values, and identity will certainly be different than anyone else out in the market and that narrative is what your audience can emotionally connect with you on. As Simon Sinek says in his book “Start with Why”, being authentic is not a requirement for success, but it is if you want that success to be a lasting success. Again, it goes back to WHY. Authenticity is when you say and do the things you actually believe. But if you don’t know WHY the organization or the products exist on a level beyond WHAT you do, then it is impossible to know if the things you say or do are consistent with your WHY. Without WHY, any attempt at authenticity will almost always be inauthentic.”
Two years ago, I was taking a podcasting workshop. One of the prompts was to pair up with a fellow workshop member and practice our podcasting skills using the tools we have. I scheduled a call with a team member and was ready to practice my newly created intro pitch and ask relevant questions to my mock podcasting guest. My team member wanted to help me by providing feedback on how I conduct the podcasting interview.
Before we started the podcast interview, my team member had a question for me. He asked “what would success look like to me once we are done with the podcasting interview?“
By asking this simple and important question, he was able to identify and focus on the type of feedback that would be helpful for my growth and podcasting career. His feedback after the mock podcast interview helped to refine my intro pitch, make the necessary changes, and hone my podcast story. Similarly, when starting a new project, working on a vision, or any activity that you will be spending considerable time and resources, I find it really helpful to ask the same question that my fellow podcasting team member asked me. This has worked for me when starting projects and especially when collaborating as part of a team. By posing this question to everyone at the beginning of the project, all team members are aware and understand what success means to the project at hand. Otherwise, each team member will have subjective interpretations of what the success is or should be.
That’s the title of a section on Kobe Bryant’s book “The Mamba Mentality How I play”. In that section, Kobe talks about how he was curious, wanted to improve, learn, and fill his head with the history of the game. He also adds that no matter who he was with and where he was at, he would fire away with question after question. That relentless curiosity about the game, strong work ethic, and becoming skilled at asking questions were some of the countless reasons Kobe finished his basketball career with 5 championships, 33,643 points, and 20 years playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
We come into this world with infinite curiosity about everything in life. Some environments help nurture that curiosity while other environments control or destroy that innate desire to learn and discover. For some people, questioning comes easily while for most of us, we don’t ask enough questions, nor do we pose our inquiries in an optimal way as stated by the Harvard Business Review article The Surprising Power of Questions. The good news is that by asking questions, we naturally improve our emotional intelligence, which in turn makes us better questioners – a virtuous cycle. As mentioned in the HBR article, the first step in becoming a better questioner is simply to ask more questions. Of course, the sheer number of questions is not the only factor that influences the quality of a conversation: The type, tone, sequence, and framing also matter.
2020 was an unprecedented year with many challenges, emotions, and narratives. We were all tested emotionally, mentally, and physically like never before. As we move towards 2021, the stories we hear, see, and especially what we tell ourselves serve as a compass and help us navigate forward.
Here are a few ways you can Unleash Your Superpower in 2021:
1. Understand how Storytelling could help you in your personal and professional journey 2. Hone your Storytelling skills 3. Attend a Storytelling workshop 4. Observe the Storytelling structure and your emotions when you watch movies, shows, and documentaries 5. Take a Storytelling course 6. Listen to podcasts on Storytelling or that tell great Stories 7. Reflect on your own journey and see what Stories have shaped you over the years 8. Maintain a journal and write regularly on the Stories you observe in your daily life 9. Be part of a supportive community and share Stories 10. Jump into any opportunity where you can share your Story
The world of Prabal Gurung is vast. He is a fashion designer, an activist, a cultural icon, a philanthropist, and an inspiration to many individuals around the world.
Prabal’s journey to the highest echelons of fashion is nothing short of a beautiful, and humbling story. Born in Singapore and raised in Nepal, Prabal was raised by his heroic single mother who encouraged him to pursue his wildest dreams. As a young boy who was constantly bullied and harassed in school, Prabal’s mother was his biggest source of strength, comfort, and inspiration.
Prabal found a home in New York City, where he could fulfill his ambitious dreams. He knew that taking a chance to study at Parsons was his decision and would live with the results if things didn’t work out. After his education at Parsons as well as his experiences at Donna Karan, Cynthia Rowley and Bill Blass, Prabal decided to launch his own label in 2009. Although 2009 was not the ideal climate to launch a fashion label because of the recession, Prabal adjusted by even collecting unemployment and downsizing his apartment.
Fast forward 10 years later, Prabal has created a luxury brand with a soul and purpose. His designs have been worn by the most influential women around the world including the former first lady Michelle Obama, Oprah, Zoe Saldana, Priyanka Chopra, The Duchess of Cambridge, Kerry Washington, Sarah Jessica Parker, Queen Rania of Jordan, Gigi Hadid, Jennifer Lawrence, Reese Witherspoon, Deepika Padukone, Gabrielle Union, Ashley Graham, Hikari Mori, Katy Perry to name a few. He also started the Shikshya Foundation Nepal in 2011, which provides comprehensive education to children in Nepal.
Bio: Prabal Gurung launched his collection in February 2009. He leads the brand with purpose and responsibility, choosing to manufacture locally in the garment district of New York City and partnering with artisans in his home country of Nepal. Follow Prabal @prabalgurung
Stephen Curry was born into a NBA family. His father, Dell Curry played in the NBA for 16 seasons. Stephen showed passion and promise for basketball from an early age. For college, Stephen wanted to play for Virginia Tech just like his father did but he was only offered a walk-on spot due in part to his slender 160-pound frame. Stephen ultimately decided to play for Davidson College who saw his potential and aggressively recruited him.
During the transition from high school to college, Stephen heard a lot of people saying that he was too small, not athletic enough, could not play defense, and not strong enough to play in the NBA. Those comments ignited Stephen at Davidson and also were similar to the comments he heard when going from college to the NBA.
At Davidson, Stephen had a phenomenal run in the NCAA tournaments and averaged about 30 ppg. In his final college season, Curry averaged 28.6 points, 5.6 assists, and 2.5 steals and was the NCAA scoring leader. He got selected by the Golden State Warriors in the 2009 NBA draft. The early years at Golden State Warriors were challenging for Stephen because of his injuries, players and coaching changes to name a few. However, with the addition of new head coach, Steve Kerr in 2014, the fate of the franchise started to change. In the 2014-2015 season, Golden State closed out the series against Cleveland Cavaliers to win their first championship in 40 years with Stephen averaging 26 points and 6.3 assists per game in the Finals. That same year he won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award.
Bio: Stephen Curry is now a three time NBA champion, two time NBA Most Valuable Player and six time NBA All Star just to name a few of his highly coveted basketball accomplishments.
Sport has the power to transform and empower us. As one of the world’s leading sports brands, it’s only natural that we want to stand on the same playing field as the fastest athletes on the planet. To achieve that, the PUMA brand is based on the very values that make an excellent athlete.
Jay Williams was a high school all-American, national player of the year, national champion at Duke, and the No. 2 overall NBA draft selection in 2002. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and was on his way to play for the renowned basketball franchise. However, an afternoon in June, 2003 changed everything for Jay. He crashed his motorcycle on a side street on the north side of Chicago and the NBA journey that was about to begin fell short.
For years, Jay struggled with depression. He took a lot of pain medication for too long and even blew out the candles for his 22nd birthday in bed. He spent years in rehabilitation and at his lowest point, he even considered suicide. During recovery, he did physical therapy every day, often twice, for two years. Once he recovered after many years, he tried to return to the NBA and did a tryout with the New Jersey Nets. Later, he joined the Austin Toros in the Development League hoping for an eventual return to the NBA. When that dream to return to the NBA did not happen, he had to search for the next chapter in his life.
The next chapter came with ESPN and ESPNU who saw Jay’s potential as an analyst. ESPN lauded Jay’s initiative for an analyst among ESPN’s youngest and his career goals included becoming the “African-American Matt Lauer.” He now says “I hope people remind me of my accident every day of my life because that means I’m a prime example of somebody who had it and lost everything and may not have gotten it back in the same capacity but still reinvented myself.”
Bio: Jay Williams is currently a very successful college basketball and NBA analyst for ESPN, and host of the ESPN+ sports business platform “The Boardroom.” In 2016, he released his memoir, “Life Is Not An Accident: A Memoir of Reinvention.” He is also a minority stakeholder in The Cabin NYC, a restaurant and bar.
Our entrepreneurial journey began when we decided we needed to work on a sustainable business. We had worked on numerous development related projects with donor agencies and now wanted to start a business that was different, creative, profitable, and offered a solution to an existing problem in the market.
We realized that a lot of people wanted to do something special for their loved ones, but did not have the time, so we decided to offer a solution, while also adding excitement in their relationships. After a lot of ideation, we decided on becoming surprise planners or surprise gift deliverers and with less than one lakh of investment, we started Offering Happiness in 2017.
The first year of business operations consisted of many ups and downs. We had started out without much market research or a concrete business model. In the initial phase, some days we got a lot of business, while other days we were not busy at all. By participating in business competitions and reaching out to mentors, we were able to hone our business model and our vision became much clearer.
Bio: Started by four co-founders, Offering Happiness is a pioneer in experiential gifting in Nepal and has delivered more than 10,000 gifts and experiences since it’s launch. Offering Happiness was the 2019 winner at Seedstars Kathmandu and were awarded the Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards (GSEA) Nepal 2019. Get happy at @offeringhappiness
