The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People continues to be a best seller for the simple reason that it ignores trends and pop psychology and focuses on timeless principles of fairness, integrity, honest, and human dignity.
Social Media has taken the world by storm. And Facebook is definitely the leader of the pack in the social networks. As of 2018 Q 2, Facebook has over 2.23 billion active users. It’s a staggering number of users.
The brands around the world are tapping into Facebook for social media marketing. The social media platforms are good for brands to have an active presence on the web, interact with users and also market their new products & services.
Here we look at the most prominent brands on Facebook with the highest number of members. Here we look at how these brands are building a huge community of active followers and captivation their attention:
1.Facebook for every Phone
Not surprisingly, “Facebook for Every Phone” is the most-liked brand on Facebook. It has over 208.14 million likes on the page. When you download the Facebook mobile app, it prompts you to like the page. Facebook is the numero uno brand as it is expected to be on its network.
2.Samsung Mobile USA
Samsung Mobile has more than 156 million likes on its facebook page. Samsung is the world’s most popular brand in many countries. Samsung is a consumer tech brand with a wide range of smart phones & electronics products.
Samsung has a vibrant Facebook community and followers. Samsung page posts short videos and posts around its latest products and devices. They also use creative marketing to entice the users by building anticipation for launch of their new products by using hashtags and countdown etc.
3.Coca Cola
Coca-Cola is one of the oldest yet vibrant brands in the world. They maintain their upbeat spirit and youthful presence on Facebook too. Intriguingly, the facebook page was started by fans because Coca-Cola didn’t have official presence on FB.
Now, it is a thriving community for Coca-Cola. The company posts great content coming from fans, artists, musicians, films and conveys the essence of their brand. The visual storytelling and viral content makes it one of the most popular communities with 107+ million likes on FB.
4.Instagram
Instagram is the most popular image sharing social media network in the world. As of 2018, they have over 1 billion users in the world.
The instagram facebook community has 54 million likes. It also has very interactive user base and high engagements per post. It’s quite addictive.
Instagram posts are created with popular trends, user insights and interests. The content is visually delightful and appealing for its users.
5.Red Bull
Red Bull is a widely followed content generating brand on Facebook. The energy drink company generates great articles, feature stories and videos every day for its user community.
The company also relies on its eye catching celebrity athletes and high profile sponsorship to generate interest of their followers.
Red Bull has over 49 million facebook fans.
6.Microsoft Windows
Microsoft is the most popular enterprise company on Facebook. It has separate Facebook pages for its sub brands & products apart from its main account.
Microsoft has over thirty brands and products for its users. Microsoft also uses the platform to interact with it customers to identify new opportunities for serving its customers better.
Microsoft is a trusted brand for users around the world. Whether it is the latest happenings in the world, learning or technology, Microsoft Facebook page is a go to place for many users around the world. Microsoft has over 47.15 million fans.
7.Nike Football
Nike is often synonymous with brand building. The great Steve Jobs used to admire how Nike built their brand around compelling storytelling and honoring athletes.
Nike is still the brand to beat. When it comes to sports apparel, footwear & brand inspiration, Nike is easily on top of the world.
They have an inspirational Facebook page. It catches attention with great athlete videos.The Nike page has over 44.86 followers on Facebook.
8.Converse All Star
Converse is one of the most followed brands in the world. It is among the top 10 brands on Facebook. Converse maintains a strong digital presence with a great eCommerce portal, interactive apps, engaging content and share worthy posts.
Converse exemplifies how brands can capture the imagination in the digital era. Converse has 44.21 million followers in its facebook community.
9.Oreo
Oreo is another brand that is loved around the globe. It’s cookies and contents are popular with the users.
Oreo’s strategic posts are done creatively around its products. The images look very tempting & have call to action posts.
The posts often have fill-in-the-blank messages or questions for users. An example: “Oreo cookies make everyday a little more ______.”
With 43.15 million fans, Oreo stands among the most followed facebook brands.
10.Playstation
Playstation Facebook page has plenty of interactive previews. It also has upcoming titles for the playstations. A huge community with majority of youngsters.
The facebook page has interactive demos and videos of their most popular games. The page has over 38.57 followers and is ranked the tenth most popular brand on Facebook.
College degree is no longer an entry barrier to the top companies in the world. Google, Apple, IBM, Bank of America etc are some of the big names considering candidates without a formal college degree.
Learning and skills are not merely restricted to degrees and formal education. There are more
avenues of learning today than anyone could have ever imagined even a couple of decades ago. The stories of teen aged app developers and prodigies are now very common. In short, learning is not restricted to the confinements and boundaries of academic institutions. Learning is ubiquitous.
Some of the top IT companies have in their own ways acknowledged the changing trends in the
digital world. They realise that by including diverse workforce with niche skills, they can build great products and services.
Hard Earned Skills Create Value
Many of the top IT companies like Microsoft, Apple and Dell etc. have been built by some of the
mavericks who dropped out of college. Dropping out of college doesn’t mean they stopped learning, far from it.
Infact, people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Michael dell were so much in love with what they were doing and learning that they went with the flow and created history.
What is the reason for the amazing success stories of entrepreneurs without college degrees? It’s certainly not degrees, but devoted learning. It is building skills that made them successful in their roles and lifelong learning that continues beyond classrooms.
“When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are
exceptional human beings. And we should do everything we can to find those people,” said Google’s former SVP of People Operations Laszlo Bock.
The real world rewards you according to the value you create. For creating value, you don’t need a degree. You need to understand what it takes to excel in your role. You need to understand what you can do to bring value and your clients happy. You can do well, if you do that.
Digital World & Learning
The digital world provides so many avenues where people skills as per their needs and convenience. Education system is lagging behind the modern business needs.
How many things that you learnt in your 4 year degree are useful in your current job? Perhaps 5% or 10%, I would say. Infact, the traditional educational system needs to fast catch up with the changing times; else they will become places for tourism and leisure activities.
The value of hardwork and time is learned in a job more than college. In academic environment,
there is hardly any external pressure other than your own performance. Talented individuals who cannot afford college can work on their skills, train themselves in real world and create value.
Today companies are willing to experiment with professionals from diverse backgrounds and mix. It creates a dynamic group and vibrant culture that rewards top performers.
Results are Rewarded
The real world rewards performance and results based on learning not academics. Academics may provide an entry point, but beyond that it is what you do that makes you who you are.
Deep knowledge of the industry, specific skills and ability to produce the desired results under
pressure are valuable traits that companies are hunting for. Yes, these are certainly not guaranteed with a college degree.
Companies are looking at exceptional candidates who want to be the best in their work. Mediocre at everything is hardly appealing to anyone. The best performers are always rewarded and inch their way to the top.
Focus Areas for Companies
Although, a college degree is still a safe bet, there are other ways in which you can make your way to the top companies.
A lot of success in the digital world is owing to the experimentation and innovation of companies. With lateral entry, the focus is on hiring experts and specific skill sets. Yes, when learning is focused and practical, it oozes creativity.
These companies are looking for individuals who learn by doing, pick up niche skills, work with
enthusiasm, young, have proven expertise, innovative and are willing to experiment until they
succeed.
Conclusion
Today humans are competing with each other for jobs. In the next few years, they will have to
compete with trained robots and machines for their jobs.
Skill upgradation and learning is the only way you can stay relevant and successful in the future. Today teams collaborate across geographies and Timezones to create global products and services.
There are limitless opportunities to those with work ethic, imagination, creativity, grit and will to work hard.
Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of finance & Corporate Affairs is back in office. He resumed his duties last week on Thursday. He was recovering from a kidney transplant surgery, which kept him out of his office for three months.
Arun Jaitley has condemned Rahul Gandhi and Congress party in a series of tweets today. He was critical of Congress Party on account of the ongoing controversy in the Rafale deal.
He tweeted, “Congress Party’s false campaign launched on Rafale aircraft deal based on peddled untruth has been casting a cloud on the Inter-Governmental agreement & seriously compromising national security.”
Jaitley further slammed Rahul Gandhi on the issue of Rafale pricing. The Union Minister said, “Rahul Gandhi quoted a price of Rs.700 Cr per aircraft in Delhi and Karnataka in April and May this year. In Parliament, he reduced it to Rs.520 Cr per aircraft, in Raipur he increased it to Rs.540 Cr”
Jaitley also questioned the understanding of Congress President Rahul Gandhi on this sensitive matter. He even challenged Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party to respond to this issue immediately.
He added that the Congress’ statements on the Rafale pricing are misleading and false.
Jaitley also posed 15 questions on his Facebook blog to Rahul Gandhi. He said that the NDA government’s deal with France for purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in April, 2015 had better terms than one by the UPA government in 2007.
Jaitley also posted that before the deal was executed, the Cabinet Committee on Security had approved the transaction.
Rahul Gandhi Hits Back
Congress President Rahul Gandhi has responded in a tweet to Jaitley. He suggested setting up a joint Parliamentary committee to address this issue.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Mr Jaitley, thanks for bringing the nation’s attention back to the GREAT #RAFALE ROBBERY! How about a Joint Parliamentary Committee to sort it out?
Problem is, your Supreme Leader is protecting his friend, so this may be inconvenient. Do check & revert in 24 hrs. We’re waiting!”
Senior Congress leaders want to rake up the issue and are demanding probe into the RAFALE deal.
Congress has accused the government of helping Anil Ambani led Reliance to bag the offset contracts for the aircraft by overlooking the experienced public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
Jaitley responded to Rahul Gandhi’s demand for a joint Parliamentary committee by asking him to respond to his 15 questions. Here is the latest tweet from the Union Minister of Finance.
There is a science to how professionals can improve and raise their game to world class standards.
Deliberate and constant practice for improving oneself can go a long way in shaping your skills. Deliberate practice is something that is designed to improve a person’s competency and skills.
Several top Sports persons, musicians, athletes, and professionals devote countless hours to improve their performance and raise their standards to world class levels. Here we look at some interesting observations backed by science on how you can become world class in your field.
1.Long-term Commitment
It takes long term commitment to excel. Have you heard of Navy SEAL training? These SEALs undergo the most rigorous training on earth. They spent countless hours working hard to improve their skills. The Navy Seals spend typically 75% of their time training and 25% on the field.
The expertise in any field requires hard earned skills and competency. Whether it is the Navy SEALs, athletes, writers or top computer programmers, they all spend countless number of hours on their craft.
They learn new skills, keep themselves updated and put in the necessary time to excel in their field. There is no shortcut to success, it comes with long-term commitment.
2. Checklists are Powerful
Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande analyzed the effectiveness of checklists. He revealed some fascinating facts about how checklists can be used to improve performance of medical practitioners. This is very true and applicable in most other professions as well.
“The proportion of patients who didn’t receive the recommended care dropped from seventy per cent to four per cent; the occurrence of pneumonias fell by a quarter; and twenty-one fewer patients died than in the previous year. The researchers found that simply having the doctors and nurses in the I.C.U. make their own checklists for what they thought should be done each day improved the consistency of care to the point that, within a few weeks, the average length of patient stay in intensive care dropped by half.”
More reason for you to create your own checklists to get things right in the first place.
3.Negative Feedback
What is the most important thing for improving oneself? It is the right pointers on where to focus for improvement. In other words, it is spending time discussing the things that went wrong or areas which need improvement.
Quick and negative feedback can go a long way in improving the things you’re doing. Even the Navy SEALs spend time discussing 90% of the time discussing the negative. What they can do better next time is high on priority.
Navy SEAL commander James Water says, “On almost every real world mission I was on – even the most successful ones – we spent 90% of our post-mission debrief focusing on what we did wrong or could have done better.”
4. See Problems as Opportunities.
The harder the problems you solve, the more valuable you become. Experts in any field are known by the level of their problems they can solve.
The best professionals have a positive mindset. When confronted with hard problems, they don’t view them as threats but opportunities .
Shawn Achor, Harvard researcher, points out in his findings, “If we could move people to view stress as enhancing, a challenge instead of as a threat, we saw a 23% drop in their stress-related symptoms. It produced a significant increase not only in levels of happiness, but a dramatic improvement in their levels of engagement at work as well.”
Stress and work pressure is not bad as long as you can use it to your advantage. People who are most productive and efficient at work use stress as a positive trigger to accomplish more.
5. Time constraint.
The quality of time and focus is critical to the work you produce. Any world class professional is quality obsessed and diligent in his work. It is about using the time in the most constructive manner to maximise what you can do with it.
In other words, you are able to utilise the time in building things that ultimately earn you the respect, admiration and accolades. Dan Coyle, bestselling author of The Talent Code, said:“We learn when we’re in our discomfort zone. When you’re struggling, that’s when you’re getting smarter. The more time you spend there, the faster you learn.”
Adding strict timelines focuses you to produce quality work faster.
6. Being Optimistic
Research has shown that optimistic persons are luckier than pessimistic persons. The optimistic individuals look at the bright side of every situation and challenge. It puts things in the right perspective.
Our brains are hardwired to perform the best when they are positive. The best professionals are able to consistently deliver, because they believe their efforts will lead to success. They are unwavering in their pursuits.
The optimistic people are grateful for the things they have, they often attract right opportunities due to their outlook and attitude. They also create a positive vibe in their teams and help other members to achieve more.
7. Ability to handle failures
Failures are often indicators of progress. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
The most successful professionals in any field are constantly trying to improve themselves. They push themselves out of their comfort zones. They handle challenging tasks, fail and persist until successful.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a name that evokes great respect, admiration and love among the masses in India. He was one of India’s most beloved Prime Minister. He stood as an iconic leader who served as a statesman and led his country with greatest distinction.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on 25th December, 1924 in Gwalior. He was a member of parliament for four decades. He was elected 10 times to the Lok Sabha and 2 times to Rajya Sabha.
A great orator, poet and leader of masses, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had a charming influence on anyone and everyone he met. He was conferred with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award in 2015.
He inspired generations of Indians and people around the world. In the modern times, there has
never been a taller leader, who can embrace humanity with the highest ethics and moral standards.
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee made his first speech in Lok Sabha in 1957, he impressed the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that he predicted that Vajypayee would someday become India’s Prime Minister.
Atal Bihari Vajypayee has left us, but his immortal presence and guiding light will illumine the path of Indians. His words will continue to inspire people to strive to their highest and work selflessly towards building a greater nation.
Here we relive quotes from the greatest leader of our times and cherish his eternal memories.
1. “Victory and defeat are a part of life, which are to be viewed with equanimity.”
2. “You can change friends but not neighbours.”
3. “No guns but only brotherhood can resolve the problems.”
4. “My Lord! Never give me such heights or rudeness that I fail to embrace unknown people.”
5. “In democracy, two fools can defeat one powerful person.”
6. “India has the sanction of her own past glory and future vision to become strong – in every
sense of the term.”
7. “Poverty is multidimensional. It extends beyond money incomes to education, health care,
political participation and advancement of one’s own culture and social organisation.”
8. “Hard work never brings tiredness, it brings satisfaction.”
9. “For me, power was never an attraction.”
10. “I dream of an India that is prosperous, strong and caring. An India, that regains a place of
honour in the comity of great nations.”
Users probably will let you off the hook if your app crashes once. C’mon, the server could have randomly glitch out; the stars just happened to align. But two, let alone three or four times…a day, and you’re looking at some not just slightly annoyed but angry users.
Especially if, for instance, it happens to be a productivity app that holds the user’s business meetings, errands, and chores. Not a happy consumer if they don’t know when their next client appointment is.
After hours of work put into developing this app—prototyping, beta- and alpha-testing, you name it—the last thing you want to do is irritate, much less anger your consumer base, and endure a flood of negative reviews. To prevent this from happening, answer these 3 questions.
1. Do you use performance monitoring?
Using performance monitoring software can help you get to the main root of the problem before your target audience even knows about it. How does this work?
Let’s say there’s a bug in some of your app’s code. Before the issue has time to bubble up and cause a fiasco, your performance monitoring software will notify you. Your team debugs the code. Problem solved—it’s as simple as that.
What are you tracking?
Know that not all performance monitoring is made the same. One mistake developers can make is choosing software that only tracks a limited number of performance metrics. This, in turn, leaves you and your team blindsided to the amount of potential issues that could burst to the surface any minute.
That said, play it safe; Stackify has performance monitoring software that not only tracks error rate but request rate, CPU usage, caching, HTTP calls, among several others.
No matter what type of performance monitoring software you choose, consider getting and using it in the early phases—as well as after launch.
2. Which Device Are You Designing Your App for?
Some crashes may have to do with users using your app on different types of devices. A one-gig mobile app is going to eat up a lot of that user’s memory. It could even reach its memory limit and pull an out of memory.
What it comes down to is being considerate of which devices you’re designing your app for. Even if your app is extremely user-friendly, chances are, users are going to use eight other apps a day. Play it safe, and take memory-saving steps like downsizing large images to avoid taking up too much storage.
3. Is Your Team in Sync?
It’s easy to point to the technology when your app crashes. But guess who’s responsible for preventing bugs and 500 internal server errors? Two words: the team.
Communication is huge. Assumptions on the coding language, let alone spaces vs. tabs (don’t get us started) can lead to chaos and, yes, crashing. The point is, discuss every part of the design and development process to make sure everyone is on the same page (no pun intended).
Bonus: When in Doubt, Test
Run multiple tests daily on your app to catch those sneaky errors that fall between the code. We’re talking server/API, network, device performance tests, the works. Doing so will help reduce your crash rate and leave consumers happy. Enough said.
Final Thoughts: Aim for That 0%
Yep, we know, even big-names like Apple and Google haven’t had apps that reached this holy grail. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. At the very least, your efforts will ensure fewer crashes, and potentially even improve download rates and drive revenue.
The best apps win the hearts of their customers and are almost addictive. Nope, users never mind spending time as long as they feel a high using your app.
What do you think? Have any more tips that’ll help create a more stable app? Have you built an app with a crash rate below .25%? Let us know by commenting in the comments section below.
About Author
Wendy Dessler
Wendy Dessler is a super-connector with OutreachMama who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. She frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses her efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans. You can contact her via Twitter @outreachmama.
Warren Buffet has been admired longer than most of us have been alive. He is one of the most revered and successful people on the planet. His fan following is attributed to his simplicity, business acumen and amazing life philosophy. He is a true legend who serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. His advice and opinion have been highly soughted by people all around the world.
Warren Buffet has been one of the richest persons on the planet for several decades now. He is currently the third richest person in the world with an estimated worth of over $85 billion. Buffet is a philanthropist, he has pledged 99% of his wealth to philanthropic causes. He has been donating most of his money via Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Here we look at the 11 Rules for Success that Warren Buffett follows, learn them, implement them and make them your own:
1. Choose Simplicity over Complexity
The most successful people are able to cut through the complexity and make things really simple. Warren Buffett attributes his success to simple principles he has followed. Whether it is his investment philosophy or life, Buffett chooses simplicity over complexity.
He has been able to build his business by eliminating the complexity to create a simple and consistent framework that has guided him to unrivalled heights. He says, “I’m not interested in cars and my goal is not to make people envious. Don’t confuse the cost of living with the standard of living.”
2. Strong reputation is its own Reward
This quote from Warren Buffett sums it all about reputation. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Great reputation attracts great opportunities. People want to associate and work with professionals who have high integrity, trust worthiness and character.
3. Do what you love and stick to it
Success is never achieved overnight. It requires toil and hardwork to refine and polish your skills. The top people spend countless hours working on their craft to improve themselves. Complaining is not the solution. You have to spend your time doing things you love.
The passion and love for what you do will make you stand out from others. Greatness is never forced upon people. As Warren Buffett mentions, “We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.”
4. Set aside time for reading, learning and thinking
Most of the successful people are great learners. They are always trying to absorb knowledge to improve themselves. Warren Buffett himself reads for more than 5 hours every day. It helps him to continually refine his learning and thinking.
Successful people find time to read and learn new things. Many of these people like Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, & Jeff Bezos have hectic work lives, despite that they set aside atleast an hour every day for learning. They spend atleast five hours every week for deliberately improving themselves.
5. Associate with people who have high standards
“It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.& Warren Buffett.
Our behavior is influenced by the people with whom we associate. When you hang out with people who are better than you, it makes you better. When you are given a choice to work with someone who sets high standards and expects excellence, it will help you raise your standards too. We become what we repeatedly do. Mediocre work makes people mediocre.
6. Say No to remain Focused.
Success needs consistent efforts and focus. You can’t be successful if you want to do everything. We all have limited time and unlimited distractions. It is important to focus on the things that you want to achieve and give yourself fully to it.
As Warren Buffett puts it, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” The world’s best achievers are those who have the willpower to be focused on their goals and consistently strive in one direction.
7. Be grateful and Never forget where you started
The successful people have a sense of gratitude and humility about them. They know power, fame and riches are short lived. They are transient. They never forget where they started from and what made them successful.
Warren Buffet lives in the same house he bought in 1958 and drives his own car. It’s important for young people to realise that just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t mean, you also have to do it. Be grateful and humble, “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” Says Warren Buffett.
8. Excellence demands Patience
You cannot win in the long term by doing ordinary work. Whatever you do, needs to stand out. It needs to have quality and excellence written all over it. You can’t get other people interested in your work, unless you’re doing excellent work day in and day out.
Successful people are prepared for the long term. They invest their energies and efforts to build things that are valuable. They are prepared to grind and struggle until they get things right Instant gratification is always harmful in the long run. Successful people are always focused on the long term. When they do something, they want to create lasting and sustainable success.
9. Be willing to be different
Successful people aren’t afraid to be different. They put in efforts to build their own success story. Warren Buffett started building his business in Omaha, not Wall Street. He refused to be in a crowded place.
He chose to build his career by working hard and wasn’t perturbed by others opinion about him. If you do what everyone else is doing, there is a fair chance you will be average. The successful people are able to judge, set and follow their own standards.
10. Be Prepared & Get Things Done
Successful people are well prepared. They put in efforts to thoroughly understand things they are doing. They minimise risk of failures by being well prepared to tackle the challenges. As Buffett once remarked, “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”
Successful people never make excuses. They are resourceful; they solve problems and find ways to get things done.
Apple Inc just reaffirmed its prominence and dominance in the world. It become the first ever publicly listed US company to hit $1 trillion in market capitalization. The company now accounts for 4% of the value of S&P 500.
Apple’s stock value needed to be above $207.04 for the company to attain $1 trillion market cap. With the closing share price at $207.39 on Thursday, Apple reached the magical figure of $1 trillion. To put things in perspective, Apple’s stock market value is now greater market capitalization of Exxon Mobil, Procter and Gamble, & AT&T put together.
It may be recalled that the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett had disclosed that his company, Berkshire Hathaway had bought 75 million shares of Apple in May this year. It now owns 240.3 million Apple shares. The confidence expressed by Warren Buffett has done no harm to the Apple stock. It’s stock value is now at an all time high.
Apple is one of the most loved brands in the world. Warrant Buffet called Apple an “Unbelievable company.” It has come a long way from its founding days in the garage during 1976. A company started by the iconic Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Apple is now the most valuable brand in the world and by some distance.
Despite the early setbacks, struggles and near bankruptcy, Apple has lived on to become one of the most fascinating companies of the modern world. Steve Jobs played a huge part in rescuing the company from the brinks of failure to a modern powerhouse that commands awe. Steve passed away in 2011 and passed the reins to Tim Cook.
How does the company celebrate this great achievement? Well, by doing what they have always done, focusing on building great products, and services for their consumers.
Tim Cook sent an email to their employees lauding this milestone, however, emphasizing
on what they need to continue doing.
“Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values,” Cook said in the memo.
“Steve founded Apple on the belief that the power of human creativity can solve even the biggest challenges — and that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do,”
“Just as Steve always did in moments like this, we should all look forward to Apple’s bright future and the great work we’ll do together.” Cook wrote in the memo to Apple’s employees.
Apple has had a relentless focus on design thinking, user experience and innovation. It launched the iphone in 2007 and revolutionised the world. Apple took an unprecedented lead and surged ahead of their rival technology companies like Microsoft, Intel, & Samsung etc. The iphone gave people unimaginable computing power in their pockets.
Apple also had a string of other super successful products like Apple computer, ipods, ipads, Mac, iTunes, iOS App store, Macbook etc. These products transformed many industries and people’s lives.
Here we revisit the ‘Think Different’ commercial launched in 1997 when Apple was struggling. The video bolstered Apple’s brand and was a runaway success.
It’s not the amount of time you spend doing something, but the quality of it that determines its acceptance. In the fiercely competitive world, you cannot afford to slow down. Infact, you need to raise your game consistently to meet the growing demands. The best athletes, sportspersons, businessmen, professionals are all mindful of this fact. They put deliberate efforts to improve themselves; they take care of their brain & mental conditioning too.
In many ways, the mental sharpness and agility become the sole differentiators of the top achievers from others. The human brain is one of the most mysterious and fascinating things in the world. The increasing research into the human brain unravels interesting things on how to improve it.
While some people’s cognitive abilities decline, others seem to maintain and even improve their cognitive abilities as they age. It’s quite astonishing. Here we look at how to keep your brain young, sharp and creative:
1.Exercise Regularly
Exercise is as important for the body as it is for the brain. Exercise helps memory, thinking and brain functions through direct and indirect means. Several studies have shown that the part of the brain that controls thinking and memory (hippocampus) have larger volume in persons who exercise than others who do not.
Daily exercise such as running, biking, swimming, aerobics, strength training, yoga etc. for 20-45 minutes can have immense benefits including brain functioning. Exercise helps brain to retain its capacity and reduce its aging process. It also helps to build new cells to keep a person’s brain young and sharp.
2. Mental stimulation
Doing things that stimulate your brain is helping in keeping your brain young. It could be solving brain teasers, puzzles, painting, drawing and craft etc. When the brain is challenged with new information and stimulation, it activates synapses in the brain. The ability to recall things and focus also improves when brain is actively involved and stimulated.
3.Meditation
There are thousands of published researches and studies highlighting the benefits of meditation for human brain and mind. Our brains are constantly churning thoughts and wandering. But meditation helps one attain a state of thoughtlessness for relaxation. It not only improves the cognitive abilities, focus and memory but also makes one stress free.
As per a study conducted on the US military, it helps their troops deal with stress, improves their cognitive resilience and increases their ability to focus. Meditation helps one to reduce their thoughts and have a balanced state of mind.
4.Writing
Writing is a process of expressing oneself. It helps a person articulate their subconscious beliefs, thoughts and how they view things. The best professionals in any field are methodical. They create a systematic and organised list of their activities and then complete the tasks.
The writing process organises your thoughts and helps your brain stay focused. “Writing by hand helps keep the mind dexterous and assists in solidifying memories,” says Kelsey Poe, Director of Marketing & Sales at CMP.
5.Don’t shy away from Challenges:
Our brains and mental capacity is fluid, we build ourselves according to the challenges we handle in our life. When presented with something difficult or challenging, don’t run away from it. The more you expose yourself to difficult situations and tough assignments, the more you will grow from them.
Our brain capacities can be stretched in tough situations. It can be rewired to develop new capabilities and push your limits.
6.Be open to New Things, Learning and Experiences
The most successful people like to spend their spare time in learning. They are always trying to absorb knowledge, learn things and are open to new experiences. When the brain learns new activities, different parts of the brain get activated.
The new knowledge prevents brain from stagnation. The top professionals in any field keep themselves abreast of all the latest happenings and developments. They learn continually and it helps them see things in the right perspective.
7. Socialising and Bonding
Human beings are wired to stay connected with each other. The social interactions and relationships play a vital role in keeping a person happy. The interactions and conversations with friends and family are good for your brain.
As per Harvard health research, Strong social ties have been associated with a lower risk of dementia, as well as lower blood pressure and longer life expectancy.
8.Sleep Well
Sleep deprivation can be harmful for your mental health. It can cause stress, decline in cognition and cause stress. Regular sleep is apparently required for memory, learning and cognitive abilities of a human being. A sleep deprived person can become stressed and anxious. It’s not necessarily good in the long run.
Sleep helps body and the brain to recuperate after a day work. It reenergises the body and the brain to perform to its best capabilities.
9.Being Mindful & Focused:
It’s easy to be busy without being productive. When you work with complete focus and attention, results are achieved with ease. The most successful persons are mindful, conscious and absorbed with the things they are pursuing. Practicing mindfulness even in simplest activities like brushing your teeth, bathing, driving to work, chores, etc is helpful for improving focus.
Bill Gates used to drive a different route on the way home from work every day to stimulate his brain. It also helped him stay mindful, conscious and focused. Talk about mundane tasks.
10.Practice Mastery & Flow:
Master your craft by deliberate practices. When you achieve depth and mastery in any field, it creates lighting sensation in your brain. Great scientists, sports persons, musicians, programmers and top executives etc often experience this highly focused mental state. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, an author and psychologist, described it as flow.
He said, people are happiest when they are in a state of flow—a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. The flow is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully absorbed in what he is doing.
Your brain is one of the greatest assets of nature. You can preserve it, nourish it and make it work to its full capacity by choosing consciously. The power of a human brain is unlimited and can be tapped by stimulating it the right way.
Employee engagement is all about fostering relationships. Companies operate by the interactions of people. In today’s workforce, encouraging healthy relationships between leadership and staff has become critical to success for employees and businesses in reaching their key objectives.
Like all relationships, growing engagement takes special care and attention. The key to developing lasting relationships lies with mentoring. Mentorship is more pertinent in the digital world than ever before.
1. Mentoring Improves Business Management
Human resource professionals can play a key role in developing mentorship programs. With bona-fide data in hand, they can demonstrate the value of mentoring to leadership. Studies show that manager productivity increases almost 90% among those who have a mentor, as opposed to only 24% of administrators who do not. Productivity improvements at this level are a solid selling point for instituting programs.
2. Mentoring Increases Employee Retention
Mentees feel they work someplace that cares about them as individuals. When a mentor plays a role in developing and promoting careers, employee loyalty remains high. Workers are more likely to remain with a firm when a mentor provides them with an emotional connection.
3. It Creates Trust
In the workplace, employees need to trust that their managers will lead them in the right direction, while managers need to trust that their employees will come to them with issues. A mentoring relationship provides the ideal scenario to foster trust. Mentored employees demonstrate a higher level of engagement and productivity when trust exists.
4. A Mentor Provides Good Counsel
Work-life balance affects everyone, including managers and leadership staff. As experienced team members, they can provide invaluable advice to employees struggling to juggle the personal and professional aspects of their lives. Employees that find their best strategy for work-life balance improve productivity, and mentors can show them the way.
5. Mentorship Provides Assessment and Feedback
There is great value in constant feedback and assessment of one’s work. It provides much needed pointers and uncovers areas for improvement. With good mentors, the feedback process becomes transparent. When the expectation and goals are clear, it is easier to excel in work. The best mentors motivate and are not afraid to push their mentees so that they can
improve consistently.
6. They Help Grows Employee Skill Sets
Mentors provide knowledge backed by experience to their mentees, who in turn can offer fresh insights to mentors. By working together towards mutual advantage, knowledge and resources can expand across work groups resulting in higher overall productivity and engagement. Mentors encourage employees to measure their results, not just time spent in the office.
7. Mentoring Elevates Remote Workers
With the rise of far-flung offices and work-from-home staff, mentoring in a virtual environment can help increase retention of remote workers. Digital communication can enable mentors to work across multiple locations to foster cooperation and engagement. Remote workers often struggle to feel connected to their companies, and mentoring assures them that they are valued.
The role of a manager in worker productivity and staff retention cannot be underestimated.Studies show that about half of employees who leave their jobs cite their managers as the reason. Mentorship helps to push employees in the right direction. It is important for employees to realise how their work makes them who they are, it provides them identity and growth opportunities too.
By improving the relationship between managers and staff through mentor training and support, companies can reduce turnover and increase productivity. When people with common goals need to work together daily, they want a solid relationship that can bring them forward in their careers and the future, together.
About Author
David “Miz” Mizne is Content Marketing Manager at 15Five, performance management company. David is the main contributor and chief editor of the popular 15Five Blog. He is helping to refine and promote this new narrative around employee development via the blog.
David earned a BA in English Literature from The University of Florida and a JD from Nova Southeastern University. When he’s not developing marketing content, he enjoys hiking, reading, working on his novel, and performing impromptu puppet shows.
Every four years, the world watches the spectacle of football World Cup with amazement. The euphoria and the excitement is second to none. More than half the world is glued to the football World Cup. The 2018 football World Cup has come to an end, but not without leaving memories for a life time. It has been a fascinating World Cup, where France has stamped its authority with the Cup and Croatians have won the hearts of one & all.
This World Cup had it all, upsets, comebacks and VAR, theatrics, presidents breaking protocols and a great final to end the finale.
We take a look at 10 Most Popular Moments of the 2018 Football World Cup.
1. Belgian Comeback
The most amazing and the best counterattack of the 2018 World Cup featured just seven touches from four players. It went from one end of the field to another in just 10 seconds. It was electrifying. It completed Belgium’s unbelievable comeback from 2-0 down to 3-2 up against Japan. The player who made the goal, and won the game, didn’t even touch the ball. The Belgian player was Romelu Lukaku.
2. Toni Kroos 95th minute goal against Sweden
For 94 minutes, he was the reason for the ouster of Germany. Perhaps even the villain. Toni Kroos was the reason, why Germany was heading out of the World Cup. He scored a goal in the 95th minute and dragged Germany back from the brink, and likely into the knockout rounds. The goal ensured Germany won the game against Sweden 2-1.
3.Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick against Spain
This moment of Russia 2018 football World Cup was one of the most cherished. One of the most popular heroes of the football world, Christiano Ronaldo did his magic. When Portugal were playing against spain, portugal trailing 2-3 with a couple of minutes left in the game, Ronaldo won a clever free-kick off Gerard Pique about 25 yards from goal. He scored his hattrick and saved the day for Portugal with a 3-3 scoreline against Spain. A moment of sheer brilliance and magic.
4.Benjamin Pavard’s Incredible hit against Argentina
Which was the best goal of the tournament? The honor goes to French defender Benjamin Pavard. His was easily among the best individual goals, if not the best in the tournament. France was facing elimination, Argentina had scored two goals on either side of the break. It was then an incredible moment of football from Benjamin Pavard, who came up with a stunning goal, which paved the way for France to come back and ultimately won the game marching into the semifinals.
5.Lionel Messi’s goal against Nigeria
Lionel Messi scored the first goal for Argentina in their crucial match against Nigeria. After a rather meek start to their World Cup, Argentina were in a position to advance out of the group stage and it was their hero, uncharacteristically quiet up to this moment, who had scored a tremendous goal. However, Nigeria were too good on the day and won the game 4-2.
6. Pogba’s pass
The final match had its sheer of moments. The crowning moments in the game that mattered the most. It had its moments of beauty, charisma and triumph for France. The pass eventually led to Pogba scoring, a goal which gave France a 3-1 lead. The goal was spectacular. Pogba kept his head when the initial shot was blocked. He then hit the ball in a clinical fashion to grab the much needed third goal for France.
7. Hugo Lloris save against Uruguay
This save from the French goalkeeper was one of the most important moments. The French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris did a splendid job stretching himself in a position to save the day for his team against Uruguay. He had barely seconds to stretch himself across the net to save the header from Uruguay’s Martin Caceres at the end of the first half. Had he failed to save this goal, Uruguay would have equalised the game and the match could have gone either ways.
8.Panama’s Maiden World Cup goal
One of the most enthralling moments of the tournament was the way Panama fans celebrated their lone goal after being hammered 6-1 against England. Fans went crazy when Felipe Baloy score against England. It was their maiden World Cup goal. They were down by five goals, but that didnt deflate the spirits of their fans. A moment of celebration and elation for Panama.
9.Russia beats Spain to Surprise Everyone
Russia wasnt given much chance against Spain. They were easily the underdogs. Despite being the host nation, Russia was the lowest-ranked nation heading into the tournament. Russia sent Spain home after one of the most thrilling and unbelievable upsets in World Cup history.
10.An incredible final
The final was the fitting finale to the great football World Cup 2018. It was packed with both brilliant and controversial moments. Croatia had their share of hardluck and would have complaints about the penalty awarded to Ivan Perisic. It was a contentious moment.
But the final also had plenty of brilliance and football magic in it from both teams. The best two teams in the World Cup final. Kylian Mbappe emerged as world’s most exciting young player in the world. The 2018 World Cup gave plenty of moments to football lovers to cherish and enjoy. It will be a sporting spectacle to remember.
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