Having a “great meeting” often means that everyone in the room agreed on a topic without debate or discomfort. Yet, most great ideas are born from conflict and differences of opinion, rather than effortlessly run meetings.

Next time you are organizing a meeting, don’t focus on making it go smoothly. Instead, pay attention to moving your business objective forward. Only invite people who truly have a stake in the goal, not those who have a territorial claim or just want to be heard.

Good results come from complex, iterative, and challenging processes. Rather than making sure your ideas and discussion fit perfectly into the hour time frame, be willing to leave the issue unresolved and have another “bad” meeting to follow up.

Source: Management Tip was adapted from “Be Brave: Have a Bad Meeting” by Dan Burrier.

Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love.

And that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking — and don’t settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

So keep looking — don’t settle.

Extracted from Steve Jobs Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

Full video, audio and text can be found here

Brands are everywhere. Just look at yourself and count the number of brands you are carrying, from shirt to jeans, from mobile to watch, from deodorant to perfume.

Multinationals spend billions every year to create more brand awareness and improve their brand equity, even that some don’t need this but they keep doing it (best example can be Marlboro).

Some brands become icons and landmarks with their logo or part of their logo, McDonald’s and their yellow arch, Nike and their swoosh, Algida and their heart, and many many more.

Now can you find the brand in the below picture?
Please do so without scrolling down to the comments.

By Marla Tabaka

Want to become more productive? Decreasing your stress levels will increase your productivity and the likelihood of living a longer, healthier life. But, you ask, I run my own business, how can I possibly decrease my stress? How can I find the time to add anything else in? And I ask you, how can you NOT? Stress is an energy zapper so reducing stress will, in essence, add time to your day because your energy levels will be higher and your focus will improve.

Here is my list of top de-stressors. Please add to the list!

  • Meditation
  • Proper Diet
  • Exercise
  • Natural Products
  • Energy Psychology
  • Change Your State
  • Kids and Pets

Read full article here

Marla Tabaka is a life and business coach who helps entrepreneurs in achieving their business and life goals faster and smarter. She serves as a Success Coach for the nationally known organization, Count-Me-In for Women’s Economic Independence and helps award recipients grow their businesses to one-million dollars and beyond.

I am crowdsourcing to name a brand that will embrace under its umbrella personal care products (shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, body cream, hair gel, etc….)

If you feel like playing a naming brainstorming game, comment on this post and you might win 1 book by picking from: The Hakawati, Blink or First Things First.
[>> All books are brand new <<]

I appreciate, no matter what name you will propose, to explain why you think it should be named under that brand.

Wherever you live, feel free to name, the book will be snail mailed to your address.

Deadline: November 30, 2010

Photo credit: Faceparty by RichardAM