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Category: career

Any questions?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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.

For more insights into Questions, I recommend reading “A More Beautiful Question The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas” by Warren Berger.

Storytelling is your authentic superpower

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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.”

Storytelling is your authentic superpower.

What does success look like?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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.

Asking Better Questions

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

I Asked A Ton of Questions.

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.

A valuable resource on How to Ask Questions Better by Tim Ferriss

Asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. – The Surprising Power of Questions

Unleash your superpower in 2021

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

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.

Storytelling is our authentic superpower.

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

30 Stories: Stephen Curry

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

@stephencurry30 Story by @thestorieshub

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.

Image credit: Forbes

This story was first published on https://www.instagram.com/thestorieshub/

30 Stories: Jay Williams

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

@realjaywilliams Story by @thestorieshub

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.

This story was first published on https://www.instagram.com/thestorieshub/

30 Stories: Sneha Shrestha (Imagine)

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

@imagine876 Story by @thestorieshub

“You can imagine, too.”

The graffiti art form mesmerized Sneha. She had never seen American graffiti and learned more about the art form from her mentor, Rob Gibbs, a pioneer of graffiti in Boston. When she started writing in Nepali, she felt that her voice could really shine. She realized she could show who she is as a person, where she’s from, and a bit about her culture. She finds inspiration for her paintings from the vibrant traditions and cultures of Nepal, where she was born and raised. Her pieces convey a positive phrase – “You can imagine, too.” 

Although Sneha went to one of the best schools in Kathmandu, she still felt that she did not have an art experience opportunity. From her own experience growing up and realizing how important art experiences are to kids, she established Nepal’s first Children’s Art Museum. The museum provides educational and creative learning experiences and has had over 7,000 participants to date.

Bio: Sneha Shrestha (Imagine) is an artist from Nepal who paints mindful mantras meshing aesthetics of Sanskrit scriptures with graffiti influences. She has collaborated with Reebok, Neiman Marcus, and Red Bull and her work is held in the private collections of Facebook, Google, Capital One and Fidelity Investments. She is the founder of Nepal Children’s Art Museum. In 2016, she was given the key to the city by the mayor of Worcester. Follow her @imagine876

Image credit: WhereTraveler website

This story was first published on https://www.instagram.com/thestorieshub/

Perspectives on life

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

I’m always curious to hear about different perspectives on life. Perspectives are windows to how people see the world. Two people can be looking at the same thing and have two different perspectives.

Here’s a perspective that I really enjoyed listening to: Harvard Business School AASU Conference: Kasseem Dean Keynote

Some thoughts shared by Kasseem that I really liked were:

No matter what you do in life, you should always be a student. You can be a boss and a student at the same time. You can be a leader and a student at the same time because I feel that when you stop being a student you cut off all of your areas for learning.

We need to invest in ourselves more. We can tell the world about what everybody else is doing but when was the last time we looked in the mirror and made a better us.

My saying is sky is not the limit, it’s just your view.

My leadership style was transition…… transition is the most critical thing in your business because it can be the result of you making a lot of money or losing a lot of money.

The best advice always been do whatever you feel. Do whatever your heart tells you to do. Follow your passion. Follow your goals. Follow your dreams.

The billion dollar idea (in your head)

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Ideas are great. A lot of times that big startup idea might just be in your head. You feel that your idea will change everything. It could be the next big thing out there. The temptation is to hold on to the idea and not tell it to everyone because then they might go and execute it. It’s your idea and you hold on to it tightly.

I was in a similar situation many years ago and had one of those “ideas.” I debated within myself whether sharing that idea in a startup competition would be good or bad. After a while, I decided that the benefits of sharing the idea and “get it tested” was far more important than just holding on to it.

When I shared my idea at the startup competition, many people got excited about it. It gave me confidence that the idea itself was good. However, there were so many things to consider for the idea to be executed properly. I would not have been able to see the idea from different angles had I not shared it at the competition. Also we won 2nd place in that first ever Startup Weekend Competition 2013 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Vision

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Vision is a powerful thing.

A big and meaningful vision has a gravitational pull. It attracts people and can motivate them at a deeper level. In this blog, Why You Need to Create Visions (Not Just Goals) it states that Vision is your why. Vision gives something direction. It’s your desired future. 

Although words like vision, goals, and purpose are commonly used these days, having a vision and following through it can work wonders. When you write down your vision in a notebook (I prefer notebooks over notepads), it becomes real, motivating and reinforcing.

What’s your vision?

Learning about money

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

I was born in Nepal and grew up in the Nepalese culture. Growing up, most of our conversations about money focused on saving money and keeping some money aside for those “rainy” days. We didn’t talk much about investing, assets, credit, debt, credit cards etc. Schools and colleges didn’t teach us about money management either. In educational institutions, we learned about business, how to make money, how to get a good job among other things but learning about money itself was left to ourselves.

Looking back, I believe we should talk about money around the dinner table, in the classrooms and around the workplace. As an individual, learning about money should come before we get credit and debit cards. We should know how credit cards work, how to build an excellent credit score and why it’s important to build a credit history. Similarly, a credit course or even a non-credit course on personal financial management in schools and colleges will make students more smarter on managing their money. The sooner we learn about money, how to earn money, and manage money, the better for everyone.

Making a small difference

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

The vision needs to be big. However, the start and continuous progress needs to be small.

To achieve anything monumental, having a big vision is crucial. If it’s not challenging enough or interesting enough, we’ll probably get bored quickly or lose interest easily. That grand vision alone will not mean anything if the action is not there. Taking small steps towards that vision will help build momentum, keep us on track, and most probably lead to a better result.

What’s the smallest possible unit that you can work on towards the vision today?

Do what you love

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Doing what we love is important. Doing what we love is necessary. Doing what we love is needed.

What’s guaranteed after college?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Nothing.

Nothing is guaranteed after college. For current college students, preparing for the chapter after college is crucial and the planning should start as early as possible. The job market is dynamic and keeping abreast to the demands of various industries/job openings is important.

To prepare for the job market, college students should start early to look for internships and jobs. Internships will help you get your foot in the door as well as keep you ahead of other job applicants. It’s also helpful to have mentor(s) who can guide you over the course of your college career and beyond.

Klay Thompson talks financial wisdom

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Is the bike worth it?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Getting a bike (or any vehicle or any big purchase) has two sides. The benefits are easier mobility from point A to point B, saved time and money over a long period of time. The costs are its regular maintenance, fuel, insurance and tax.

For any big purchase, the benefits comes with the costs. An important thing to consider is the opportunity cost. What’s the opportunity cost to having or not having a bike? Are you investing in an asset? If the bike can save you lots of time, create other income generating opportunities from it and give you a better quality of life, why not get the bike?

Adapting to change

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

The only constant in life is change.

We’ve heard the age old adage many times. We’ve even given the same advice to others at times. Yet many of us have a hard time adapting to change. We’re wired for staying in our comfort zones and with what we know and who we know. Sometimes the cost to not adapting to change is minimal while other times it can have a big impact.

Does that mean we should be constantly changing? Not really. I believe we should be really aware of what is happening around us and evolve accordingly. For example, if you work at a startup, there could be changes in roles or functions often, and the more adaptable you are, the better. If you resist the changes happening around you, then the company or the people might just let you go since you’re not adapting to the changing environments. You have to learn to cope with the changing environment – personal or professional and evolve. It’s better for your own personal and professional growth.

Are you visible?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

There are leaders, innovators, creators, change makers and artists all around the organization. Do you have an environment where those people get noticed or do they feel like the work is not a place to showcase their skills/talent?

The initiative to create a platform can come from the organization’s side or the individual or group can start one. When the workplace welcomes people to start something based on interests, passion or impact, it’s a good sign. When a project starts internally, you will notice the leaders, managers and change agents.

What you build

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

What you build, you can be proud of it.

What you build, you put your sweat in it.

What you build, you can live with the results.

What you build, you can have no excuses.

What you build, you are the best person for it.

What are you building today?

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