Wednesday 23 April 2008

Great Success!

Last week the Business Plan Contest ended and guess what? I won the “Best New Technology Product” award for Integrain Technology!!!

It was really an amazing experience. Not only I learnt about the difficulties (cost!) of starting up a company, but also had a great time, challenging myself everyday to find new and innovative ways of making it all work. The presentation I had to give in the final round taught me a great deal as well. I learnt so much about the art of rhetoric (Yes, one of the judges could easily replace Simon Cowell on the American Idol jury board!) and about the importance of enthusiasm in presenting to others.

I would like to thank all the people that had an input to this work as well as those who supported me in what were sometimes difficult times. Thank you! You are really a great bunch!

And of course, thank you America! You are the greatest!


Click on the image to follow the link to the Keystone Innovation Zone website (sponsor of the contest)


Click on the image to follow the link to Lycoming College News website


PS. You can see my professors, Dr Bonita Kolb and Dr Mehrdad Madresehee on the left and right hand side of the picture respectively. I will miss them so much...

Monday 7 April 2008

Soft Skills – Solid Results

“It takes no genius to observe that a one-man band never gets very big” - says Charles Garfield, one of America's leading authorities on high achievement. The matter is indeed very simple: we do have to work in teams to achieve more. But as in everything in life, there is a catch. Working with others involves a great deal of extra effort, which we are no always willing to undertake or just don’t know how to do it. The truth is, in most cases our upbringing and school life is not representative of what awaits us in our professional life. This way we are by default deprived of becoming what is called “street smart”. Soft skills are one of the elements of being street smart. Soft skills determine how we interact with one another.

What to do then, to get things “right”, if for some reason you have not been blessed with mastering soft skills so far? First of all practice! “Practice what!?” you might say. Luckily, last week, Lycoming College hosted an event titled “Secrets to Success – Mastering Soft Skills”. It was a set of six 10-minute presentations delivered by the school’s students. Here are some interesting facts that should help answering this question.

Presentation I – Small Talk
Conversation Criminals (don't be one of them!):
1. The FBI Agent – asks a lot of questions, does not wait for your answer.
2. The One-Upper – always has done better than you have.
3. The Monopoliser – does not stop talking.
4. The Poor Sport – changes open ended questions into closed ones.
5. The Adviser – gives advice no matter whether you want it or not.

Presentation II – Written Communication
• Most important piece of information first.
• Emphasis is on your audience.
• Use plain English - clear and concise, free of technical terms.

Presentation III– Group Communication
• Cohesiveness is the degree to which group members want to stay in the group and are committed to the group.
• Cohesiveness leads to increased productivity.
• Competition decreases cohesiveness.

Presentation IV – Presentational Speaking
Follow the format:
A. Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
B. Tell them.
C. Tell them what you told them.

Presentation V – Arguing Constructively
Objective: find common ground, not attack.

Presentation VI – Leadership
The leader has five contributions to team effectiveness:
• Create a shared vision.
• Appropriately allocate resources.
• Build mutual trust, respect and cooperation.
• Competently motivate members of the group.
• Committed to improvement.

As you can see, soft skills do add tremendously to your life, to your self-esteem and ultimately... to your resume. Work on them now, otherwise they will come back and hunt you down in any professional setting you will find yourself in. After all, you may have the best idea but if, primo, you have nobody to help you with it, secundo you cannot communicate it to others and tertio you cannot get people to work on the idea effectively it will still be worth close to nothing, if at all. And remember, practice makes perfect!


Wednesday 2 April 2008

The Way of the Samurai

“The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi has been in my hands for a couple of days now. There is already so much I want to say with respect to what the book talks about. Nevertheless, I will refrain from doing so until actually will have finished reading. What I will do, though, is share with you a couple of quotes from it. The following are extracts from the first part of the book - The Earth Scroll.

五輪書 宮本 武蔵

“With the science of martial arts of my individual school outlined above, by diligent practice day and night the mind is naturally broadened; (…) For people who want to learn my military science there are rules for learning the art:

1. Think of what is right and true.
2. Practice and cultivate the science.
3. Become acquainted with the arts.
4. Know the principles of the crafts.
5. Understand the harm and benefit in everything.
6. Learn to see everything accurately.
7. Become aware of what is not obvious.
8. Be careful even in small matters.
9. Do not do anything useless.

(…) Once you have learnt the principle, you should not be defeated even in individual combat against twenty or thirty opponents”.

“The science of martial arts is not just a matter of reading these writings. Taking what is written here personally, do not think you are reading or learning, and do not make up an imitation; taking the principles as if they were discovered from your own mind, identify with them constantly and work on them carefully”.

Cool, isn’t?

AMAZON: The Book of Five Rings