1) Be Optimistic :- By being optimistic one is always hopeful and not weak and disappointed with the day to day struggles of ones life. This creates a sense of happiness.
2) Follow your gut:- In one study, two groups of people were asked to pick out a poster to take home. One group was asked to analyze their decision carefully, weighing the pros and cons, and the other group was told to listen to their gut. Two weeks later, the group that followed their gut was happier with their posters than the group that analyzed their decisions.[2] Now, some of our decisions are more crucial than picking out posters, but by the time you're poring over your choice, the options you're weighing are probably very similar, and the difference will only temporarily affect your happiness. So next time you have a decision to make, and you're down to two or three options, just pick the one that feels right, and go with it. Never regret the decisions you make though. Just live by the 3 C's of life: choices chances, and changes. You need to make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change.
3) Make enough money to meet your basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing. In the US, that magic number is $40,000 a year. Any money you make beyond that will not necessarily make you happier. Remember the lottery winners mentioned earlier? Oodles of money didn't make them any happier. Once you make enough money to support your basic needs, your happiness is not significantly affected by how much money you make, but by your level of optimism.[3]
* Your comfort may increase with your salary, but comfort isn't what makes people happy. It makes people bored. That's why it's important to push beyond your comfort zone to fuel your growth as a person.
4) Stay close to friends and family: Or move to where other members are- so you can see them more. We live in a mobile society, where people follow jobs around the country and sometimes around the world. We do this because we think increases in salary will make us happier, but the fact is that our relationships with our friends and family have a far greater impact on our happiness than our jobs do. So next time you think about relocating, consider that you'd need a salary increase of over $100,000 USD to compensate for the loss of happiness you'd have from moving away from your friends and family. But if your relationships with your family and friends are unhealthy or nonexistent, and you are bent on moving, choose a location where you'll be making about the same amount of money as everyone else; according to research, people feel more financially secure (and happier) when they're on similar financial footing as the people around them, regardless of what that footing is.
5) Find happiness in the job you have now: Many people expect the right job or the right career to dramatically change their level of happiness, but happiness research makes it clear that your level of optimism and the quality of your relationships eclipse the satisfaction you gain from your job.[6] If you have a positive outlook, you will make the best of any job, and if you have good relationships with people, you won't depend on your job to give your life a greater sense of meaning. You'll find it in your interactions with the people you care about. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't aspire towards a job that will make you happier; it means you should understand that the capacity of your job to make you happy is quite small in comparison to your outlook on life and your relationships with people.
6) Smile: Science suggests that when you smile, whether you feel happy or not, your mood will be elevated. So smile all the time!In addition having enough money to pay the bills allows you to focus your energies on more productive aspects of your life, such as the pursuit of happiness as opposed to keeping the 'wolves from the door'.
7) Forgive: In a study of college students, it was found that an attitude of forgiveness contributed to better cardiovascular health. You could say that forgiveness literally heals your heart. While it is unknown how forgiveness directly affects your heart, the study suggests that it may lower the perception of stress.
8)Make friends who share your interests or faith: In a 2010 study by Harvard researchers published in the journal American Sociological Review, it was discovered that people who went to church regularly reported greater life satisfaction than those who didn't. The critical factor was the quality of friendships made in church. People who went to church and didn't have any close friends there were no happier than people who never went to church. When the researchers compared people who had the same number of close friends, the ones who had close friends from church were more satisfied with their lives. It's thought that the forming of friendships based on mutual interests and beliefs (and meeting consistently based on that mutual bond) is what makes the difference, so if church itself is not your thing, consider finding something else you're deeply passionate about and making friends who you can connect with regularly based on that.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
History of Israel/Jerusalem and the demand for Palestine by the Arabs
Jerusalem Unification Day will again be celebrated in Israel and throughout the world with the exception of that 7th century alternate universe: the Muslim world.
It marks 44 years since the amazing and miraculous event took place when the Jewish people’s 3,000 year old capital city was restored to the Jewish state in the 1967 Six-Day War.
For 19 long years, from 1948 to 1967, Jordan had occupied Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the eastern half of Jerusalem. Only Pakistan and Britain had ever recognized Jordan’s illegal occupation.
The British officered Jordanian Arab Legion had forced out at gunpoint the Jewish residents of the Old City and the neighboring Jewish villages: It was Apartheid and ethnic cleansing, Arab style.
The Legion went on to desecrate the Jewish graves on the ancient Mount of Olives and use the headstones as latrines. They desecrated over 50 synagogues and forbade Jewish pilgrims to worship at their holy places. They had turned the Via Delarosa, the Way of the Cross, into a filthy, sewerage strewn alley through which Christian pilgrims were forced to walk.
Jordan cut the Holy City in half with barbed wire and erected walls, complete with snipers along the dividing line who killed many Jews in the western half of the city.
There is another city today divided by Muslims. It is called Nicosia in Cyprus, a country whose northern half is still occupied by Turkey. Strangely, no international calls are heard calling for Turkey to leave or for the city to be reunited.
Another city that was divided against itself was Berlin and President Reagan called upon Soviet President Gorbachev to, “tear down this wall.”
The world applauded when the wall came down. Now President Obama and most of the same world in effect is calling upon Israel to re-divide Jerusalem. Obama is essentially calling upon Israeli Prime Minister to ‘build up a wall.’
Only when Israel was able to restore dignity and cleanliness in 1967 to all the holy places was the earlier Muslim discrimination against Jews and Christians finally brought to a long and overdue end.
But this persecution of non-Muslims is par for the Islamic world and it continues today throughout the territory foolishly given to the Palestinian Arabs as a result of the grotesquely misnamed Oslo Peace Accords.
Throughout the Middle East, Christians are fleeing from Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority itself. The only nation in the Middle East where the Christian population is growing is Israel.
The Palestinian Arabs now live under the Palestinian Authority—a territory carved out of Judea and Samaria—the Jewish people’s ancestral and biblical heartland, incorrectly called by its Jordanian name, the West Bank.
The Obama regime is today backing the Palestinian Authority’s spurious claim that the liberated areas from Arab Jordan must be forced back under the occupation and sovereignty of a future PA state.
The PA is demanding that the eastern half of Jerusalem must be given to them in order to declare it the capital of a new Arab state called Palestine.
Such an independent Arab state called Palestine has never existed in all of recorded history. Palestine has always been a geographical area just as Siberia or Patagonia is: never an independent state. Jerusalem has never been the capital city of any Arab or Muslim people.
Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of only one people in all of that same recorded history: the Jewish people. A Kingdom of Jerusalem existed under the Christian Crusaders but this was created by a motley group of European knights who had no historical roots in the land.
The Jewish Bible along with the Talmud and the Midrash tell us that the Torah, (the first five books of the Holy Bible) its light and its message, is to be broadcast to the entire world from one specific place: Jerusalem.
Each time the Torah scroll is taken from the Ark to be read during synagogue services the following prayer is always sung. “For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah (Law) and the word of God from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:1 and Micah 4:2)
In the complete Jewish Bible (the Tanach) the words Jerusalem and Zion appear 821 times with Jerusalem appearing 667 times and Zion appearing 154 times. Both Zion and Jerusalem are usually considered synonymous.
In the Christian Bible, itself an account of Jewish personalities whose lives were formed within the Jewish Judean province of Rome, as well as the Galilee, the name Jerusalem appears 154 times and Zion seven.
In the Koran, Jerusalem and Zion do not appear at all. Indeed, it was only after the Arabs, under their new banner of Islam, conquered Jerusalem in the year 638 that they invented Islamic history in and around Jerusalem.
We are told that Mohammed flew on his magic horse to a place called Al Aksa, which means simply the farthest place. Much later, and for political reasons to do with historic, temporal and spiritual Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem, did Muslims name the Holy City as their Al Aqsa.
After the Holy Temple was destroyed in the year 70 AD by Titus, Jerusalem lay stricken. But Jews still maintained a presence there and continued to suffer under Roman occupation.
The heroic Bar-Kochba Revolt broke out in 135 AD but was crushed three years later by the Roman emperor, Hadrian, who razed Jewish Jerusalem, plowed the city under, and renamed it Aelia Capitolina in part after his own name, Hadrian Publius Aelius. He built a shrine to the Roman god, Jupiter, on the site where the Holy Jewish Temple’s Holy of Holies had once stood.
From the 10th century, the Muslim Arabs still called the city various names that echoed its original Jewish origins. For instance they called it Beit al-Makdis, the Arabic version of the Hebrew name, Beit HaMikdash—House of the Sanctuary.
The Arabic name, Al-Kuds, is derived from the Hebrew, Ir Hakodesh—City of Holiness.
The Christian king, Frederick II obtained Jerusalem, along with Bethlehem and Nazareth, in a treaty with the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil. This was a lease agreement given by the Muslim ruler and meant to last some ten years. Frederick subsequently crowned himself King of Jerusalem.
But in 1244 the Muslims retook Jerusalem and the city lapsed into a long, dilapidated slumber and the Muslim shrines on the Temple Mount, which today are a focal point of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel activity, fell into disrepair and abandonment.
Only when Israeli forces in June, 1967 liberated the Temple Mount and east Jerusalem, during their defensive war against Arab aggression, did the Arab and Muslim world suddenly wake up and demand control of the city, or at least the Temple Mount and Jerusalem’s eastern half.
It is instructive to note that when the Jordanian Arab Legion occupied east Jerusalem and the Old City in 1948, after driving out its Jewish population, the Arab world again lost interest in the city.
Indeed, King Hussein, Jordan’s ruler had little interest in Jerusalem compared to his desire to build up his capital, Amman, which he considered far more important.
Between 1948 and 1967, during the illegal Jordanian Arab occupation of east Jerusalem and the West Bank, no Arab leader ever thought it important enough to visit Jerusalem except King Hussein, but he visited it rarely.
Today, Mahmoud Abbas, the successor to arch terrorist Yasser Arafat and now head of the Palestinian Authority, demands that Jerusalem be divided again as it was from 1948 to 1967 and a new Arab capital—for the first time in history—established in Jerusalem.
Not only the Muslim world, with its 57 member states, but the Europeans and President Obama pressure Israel into conceding parts of its holy capital to further placate the voracious Arab appetite and “further the peace process.”
Giving away even one inch of Jerusalem would be to spit in the face of the endless generations of Jews who have held Jerusalem as the central spiritual and physical place in Jewish history.
It would be a cataclysmic and symbolic act of betrayal of Jewish history and faith if any part of Jerusalem is lost to the Jewish people by this generation of Israelis. For Jews, Jerusalem is the spiritual and temporal heart.
It would also be a reverse for the Christian world. Only under Israeli administration has Jerusalem been open for free and unfettered worship to members of all faiths.
The prayer uttered at Passover and Yom Kippur—“Next year in Jerusalem”—must not become an empty phrase made bitter in its very utterance by abandoning much of eternal Jerusalem to placate a fraudulent Arab people called Palestinians and appease a hostile world by succumbing to an equally fraudulent peace.
It is instructive to note that in prayer, Jews in synagogues face Jerusalem while Muslims in mosques face Mecca. This Islamic practice, even on the Temple Mount, speaks volumes
Source
http://llphfreedom.blogspot.com/2011/05/jerusalem-and-judaism-are-joined-at-hip.html
It marks 44 years since the amazing and miraculous event took place when the Jewish people’s 3,000 year old capital city was restored to the Jewish state in the 1967 Six-Day War.
For 19 long years, from 1948 to 1967, Jordan had occupied Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the eastern half of Jerusalem. Only Pakistan and Britain had ever recognized Jordan’s illegal occupation.
The British officered Jordanian Arab Legion had forced out at gunpoint the Jewish residents of the Old City and the neighboring Jewish villages: It was Apartheid and ethnic cleansing, Arab style.
The Legion went on to desecrate the Jewish graves on the ancient Mount of Olives and use the headstones as latrines. They desecrated over 50 synagogues and forbade Jewish pilgrims to worship at their holy places. They had turned the Via Delarosa, the Way of the Cross, into a filthy, sewerage strewn alley through which Christian pilgrims were forced to walk.
Jordan cut the Holy City in half with barbed wire and erected walls, complete with snipers along the dividing line who killed many Jews in the western half of the city.
There is another city today divided by Muslims. It is called Nicosia in Cyprus, a country whose northern half is still occupied by Turkey. Strangely, no international calls are heard calling for Turkey to leave or for the city to be reunited.
Another city that was divided against itself was Berlin and President Reagan called upon Soviet President Gorbachev to, “tear down this wall.”
The world applauded when the wall came down. Now President Obama and most of the same world in effect is calling upon Israel to re-divide Jerusalem. Obama is essentially calling upon Israeli Prime Minister to ‘build up a wall.’
Only when Israel was able to restore dignity and cleanliness in 1967 to all the holy places was the earlier Muslim discrimination against Jews and Christians finally brought to a long and overdue end.
But this persecution of non-Muslims is par for the Islamic world and it continues today throughout the territory foolishly given to the Palestinian Arabs as a result of the grotesquely misnamed Oslo Peace Accords.
Throughout the Middle East, Christians are fleeing from Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority itself. The only nation in the Middle East where the Christian population is growing is Israel.
The Palestinian Arabs now live under the Palestinian Authority—a territory carved out of Judea and Samaria—the Jewish people’s ancestral and biblical heartland, incorrectly called by its Jordanian name, the West Bank.
The Obama regime is today backing the Palestinian Authority’s spurious claim that the liberated areas from Arab Jordan must be forced back under the occupation and sovereignty of a future PA state.
The PA is demanding that the eastern half of Jerusalem must be given to them in order to declare it the capital of a new Arab state called Palestine.
Such an independent Arab state called Palestine has never existed in all of recorded history. Palestine has always been a geographical area just as Siberia or Patagonia is: never an independent state. Jerusalem has never been the capital city of any Arab or Muslim people.
Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of only one people in all of that same recorded history: the Jewish people. A Kingdom of Jerusalem existed under the Christian Crusaders but this was created by a motley group of European knights who had no historical roots in the land.
The Jewish Bible along with the Talmud and the Midrash tell us that the Torah, (the first five books of the Holy Bible) its light and its message, is to be broadcast to the entire world from one specific place: Jerusalem.
Each time the Torah scroll is taken from the Ark to be read during synagogue services the following prayer is always sung. “For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah (Law) and the word of God from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:1 and Micah 4:2)
In the complete Jewish Bible (the Tanach) the words Jerusalem and Zion appear 821 times with Jerusalem appearing 667 times and Zion appearing 154 times. Both Zion and Jerusalem are usually considered synonymous.
In the Christian Bible, itself an account of Jewish personalities whose lives were formed within the Jewish Judean province of Rome, as well as the Galilee, the name Jerusalem appears 154 times and Zion seven.
In the Koran, Jerusalem and Zion do not appear at all. Indeed, it was only after the Arabs, under their new banner of Islam, conquered Jerusalem in the year 638 that they invented Islamic history in and around Jerusalem.
We are told that Mohammed flew on his magic horse to a place called Al Aksa, which means simply the farthest place. Much later, and for political reasons to do with historic, temporal and spiritual Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem, did Muslims name the Holy City as their Al Aqsa.
After the Holy Temple was destroyed in the year 70 AD by Titus, Jerusalem lay stricken. But Jews still maintained a presence there and continued to suffer under Roman occupation.
The heroic Bar-Kochba Revolt broke out in 135 AD but was crushed three years later by the Roman emperor, Hadrian, who razed Jewish Jerusalem, plowed the city under, and renamed it Aelia Capitolina in part after his own name, Hadrian Publius Aelius. He built a shrine to the Roman god, Jupiter, on the site where the Holy Jewish Temple’s Holy of Holies had once stood.
From the 10th century, the Muslim Arabs still called the city various names that echoed its original Jewish origins. For instance they called it Beit al-Makdis, the Arabic version of the Hebrew name, Beit HaMikdash—House of the Sanctuary.
The Arabic name, Al-Kuds, is derived from the Hebrew, Ir Hakodesh—City of Holiness.
The Christian king, Frederick II obtained Jerusalem, along with Bethlehem and Nazareth, in a treaty with the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil. This was a lease agreement given by the Muslim ruler and meant to last some ten years. Frederick subsequently crowned himself King of Jerusalem.
But in 1244 the Muslims retook Jerusalem and the city lapsed into a long, dilapidated slumber and the Muslim shrines on the Temple Mount, which today are a focal point of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel activity, fell into disrepair and abandonment.
Only when Israeli forces in June, 1967 liberated the Temple Mount and east Jerusalem, during their defensive war against Arab aggression, did the Arab and Muslim world suddenly wake up and demand control of the city, or at least the Temple Mount and Jerusalem’s eastern half.
It is instructive to note that when the Jordanian Arab Legion occupied east Jerusalem and the Old City in 1948, after driving out its Jewish population, the Arab world again lost interest in the city.
Indeed, King Hussein, Jordan’s ruler had little interest in Jerusalem compared to his desire to build up his capital, Amman, which he considered far more important.
Between 1948 and 1967, during the illegal Jordanian Arab occupation of east Jerusalem and the West Bank, no Arab leader ever thought it important enough to visit Jerusalem except King Hussein, but he visited it rarely.
Today, Mahmoud Abbas, the successor to arch terrorist Yasser Arafat and now head of the Palestinian Authority, demands that Jerusalem be divided again as it was from 1948 to 1967 and a new Arab capital—for the first time in history—established in Jerusalem.
Not only the Muslim world, with its 57 member states, but the Europeans and President Obama pressure Israel into conceding parts of its holy capital to further placate the voracious Arab appetite and “further the peace process.”
Giving away even one inch of Jerusalem would be to spit in the face of the endless generations of Jews who have held Jerusalem as the central spiritual and physical place in Jewish history.
It would be a cataclysmic and symbolic act of betrayal of Jewish history and faith if any part of Jerusalem is lost to the Jewish people by this generation of Israelis. For Jews, Jerusalem is the spiritual and temporal heart.
It would also be a reverse for the Christian world. Only under Israeli administration has Jerusalem been open for free and unfettered worship to members of all faiths.
The prayer uttered at Passover and Yom Kippur—“Next year in Jerusalem”—must not become an empty phrase made bitter in its very utterance by abandoning much of eternal Jerusalem to placate a fraudulent Arab people called Palestinians and appease a hostile world by succumbing to an equally fraudulent peace.
It is instructive to note that in prayer, Jews in synagogues face Jerusalem while Muslims in mosques face Mecca. This Islamic practice, even on the Temple Mount, speaks volumes
Source
http://llphfreedom.blogspot.com/2011/05/jerusalem-and-judaism-are-joined-at-hip.html
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Resume Tips (specially for Frequent job changers)
What would you think if a job candidate sent you a resume listing six jobs held in the last four years?
Some of you would probably have an instinctively negative reaction: "This is someone who can't make up her mind or settle down — probably a flake. In 'my day' everyone knew that you couldn't change jobs more often than once every two years."
Or would you have a more sympathetic interpretation? Perhaps that this is evidence of a candidate who is willing to take risks and seek out new opportunities?
Resumes must be truthful — if you've had six jobs in four years, you need to say that. But, ideally, whether you've had one job or ten, your resume should also tell a story. The descriptions that you choose to highlight can make a significant difference between an impression of logical exploration and mindless chaos.
Imagine a resume that listed these positions, all held within a short period of time.
1-Bubba's Bar and Grill, a neighborhood restaurant. Waitress.
2-Primrose Advertising Agency, a small agency serving biotech start-ups. Researcher.
3-Rimrock Stables, a hunter-jumper facility with over 50 horses. Stable operator.
4-Flintstone Quarry, a firm selling granite and other home countertops and tiles. General manager.
What do you think? Is this someone you'd be eager to interview? What type of position would you image this individual would be qualified to fill?
Now, consider how you'd feel about the following version of the same person's experience. Would you view this candidate differently? Would you be more or less inclined to arrange an interview? Now what position do you think this person might fill?
Waitress and apprenticing manager at Bubba's Bar and Grill — While working as a waitress, developed an interest in restaurant management. Took advantage of the owner's willingness to teach the basics of purchasing and cash management. Handled responsibility for opening and closing the restaurant two days a week.
Manager of the market research team at Primrose Advertising Agency — Conducted business research and managed the activities of a six-person team of analysts. Developed strong team management and project management skills.
Operating manager of a customer-service-oriented facility at Rimrock Stables — Managed all day-to-day operations of the business; oversaw a staff of ten, supervised the quality of all services to insure the safety and satisfaction of clients (both horses and riders), negotiated with suppliers to obtain the lowest prices, and handled all financial records and bookkeeping.
General manager of a successful, independently-owned business at Flintstone Quarry — Managed all aspects of the $15 million business, from customer acquisition (building on my advertising experience) through customer-oriented delivery of high quality products and design services. Responsible for a staff of 25 and complex customer relationships that included designers, contractors, and home owners. Increased operating margin by 5 basis points while growing revenue 10 per cent year over year.
If it's not possible to tell a story with the job descriptions themselves, tell it in the cover letter. (Yes, you do need to provide a cover letter with all resumes.)
Make sure your resume tells a logical and compelling story of the moves you've made, what you've learned, and what you've accomplished. Help the next employer draw a line to your next dream job.
Source
http://blogs.hbr.org/erickson/2012/02/the_case_of_the_rolling_stone.html
Some of you would probably have an instinctively negative reaction: "This is someone who can't make up her mind or settle down — probably a flake. In 'my day' everyone knew that you couldn't change jobs more often than once every two years."
Or would you have a more sympathetic interpretation? Perhaps that this is evidence of a candidate who is willing to take risks and seek out new opportunities?
Resumes must be truthful — if you've had six jobs in four years, you need to say that. But, ideally, whether you've had one job or ten, your resume should also tell a story. The descriptions that you choose to highlight can make a significant difference between an impression of logical exploration and mindless chaos.
Imagine a resume that listed these positions, all held within a short period of time.
1-Bubba's Bar and Grill, a neighborhood restaurant. Waitress.
2-Primrose Advertising Agency, a small agency serving biotech start-ups. Researcher.
3-Rimrock Stables, a hunter-jumper facility with over 50 horses. Stable operator.
4-Flintstone Quarry, a firm selling granite and other home countertops and tiles. General manager.
What do you think? Is this someone you'd be eager to interview? What type of position would you image this individual would be qualified to fill?
Now, consider how you'd feel about the following version of the same person's experience. Would you view this candidate differently? Would you be more or less inclined to arrange an interview? Now what position do you think this person might fill?
Waitress and apprenticing manager at Bubba's Bar and Grill — While working as a waitress, developed an interest in restaurant management. Took advantage of the owner's willingness to teach the basics of purchasing and cash management. Handled responsibility for opening and closing the restaurant two days a week.
Manager of the market research team at Primrose Advertising Agency — Conducted business research and managed the activities of a six-person team of analysts. Developed strong team management and project management skills.
Operating manager of a customer-service-oriented facility at Rimrock Stables — Managed all day-to-day operations of the business; oversaw a staff of ten, supervised the quality of all services to insure the safety and satisfaction of clients (both horses and riders), negotiated with suppliers to obtain the lowest prices, and handled all financial records and bookkeeping.
General manager of a successful, independently-owned business at Flintstone Quarry — Managed all aspects of the $15 million business, from customer acquisition (building on my advertising experience) through customer-oriented delivery of high quality products and design services. Responsible for a staff of 25 and complex customer relationships that included designers, contractors, and home owners. Increased operating margin by 5 basis points while growing revenue 10 per cent year over year.
If it's not possible to tell a story with the job descriptions themselves, tell it in the cover letter. (Yes, you do need to provide a cover letter with all resumes.)
Make sure your resume tells a logical and compelling story of the moves you've made, what you've learned, and what you've accomplished. Help the next employer draw a line to your next dream job.
Source
http://blogs.hbr.org/erickson/2012/02/the_case_of_the_rolling_stone.html
Thinking of being Promoted in China... read more
Michael Black is an American employee working in China for one of the country's oldest and most traditional consumer products manufacturers. Michael has been in China for two years and has done quite well. He's mastered the local language, been very successful in meeting his performance goals, and believes that he deserves a promotion.
Michael is a bit uneasy "tooting his own horn," but he also realizes that if he doesn't do it, no one else will.
When meeting with his boss to argue his case, Michael explains how he has met or exceeded all of his performance goals over the past two years and how he has also been a good overall contributor and team player. He explains how much he enjoys his work with the company and how excited he would be to take on the challenge of the product manager position. The conversation ended on a positive note and Michael felt very good about how it went. So good in fact, that he was completely dismayed to hear absolutely nothing back from his boss — for weeks, and then months. He was so frustrated that eventually he ended up leaving the firm.
So what went wrong? Michael seemed to be acting quite appropriately. He was confident without being boastful, clear and straightforward about his interests and goals, but also being respectful and polite towards his boss.
In fact he was indeed quite appropriate — if he were in the US. In China, however, self-promotion works quite differently, and because of his lack of knowledge about these key cultural differences, Michael was set up to fail.
What people sometimes don't realize is that although overt, direct self-promotion is a singularly American phenomenon, self-promotion itself is universal. However, the key is to understand how it is done on a local level — which means according to local cultural values and norms. For example, in China, the preferred communication style is much more indirect than in the United States. Think about how directly Michael communicated his message, saying that he has "met or exceeded his performance goals" and how "excited he would be to take on the challenge of the product manager position." In the United States, where "getting to the point" and being a "straight shooter" is culturally valued, such confidence and initiative is admired. In China, however, it would be seen as too direct — putting his boss in the uncomfortable and face-threatening position of having to deny such an overt request or acquiesce to what feels like an inappropriate demand from a lower-level employee. Finally, in addition to being overly direct, Michael's actions were also immodest. Chinese would never extol their virtues to a boss in this way.
So how can the Michaels of the world self-promote to advance their career, while also being modest, deferential and indirect at the same time? It feels impossible, but it isn't if you follow the following advice:
Tip 1: Be patient
In Chinese business culture, the best way to promote oneself is to simply do good work. The underlying idea in China is that results speak for themselves, and that employees who do good work will ultimately be recognized.
Tip 2: Develop your networks
Another effective way to promote yourself in China is to have someone else do it. Social networks, or Guanxi, in China are critical to advancing one's career and promoting oneself in the corporate setting. It's important to work on developing strong contacts with influential people who can advocate for you behind the scenes. That way, you can benefit from self-promotion without suffering the cost of doing so in a direct and immodest manner.
Tip 3: Adapt your own communication style
Learn how to self-promote in a manner that is indirect and modest. Instead of setting up a meeting with your boss, learn to self-promote in a more discreet and indirect style. Rather than presumptuously suggesting a promotion, learn how to be a modest and deferential employee — and that, in and of itself, will enhance your reputation and put you in line for positive feedback. These new behaviors may feel inauthentic at first — after all, Americans are schooled on the importance of assertiveness and self-promotion throughout their lives. However, people can and do learn to "switch" their cultural behavior, often with surprisingly effective results.
Tip 4: Find a better fit
Finally, if all else fails, change companies. Many companies and leaders in China nowadays have a more Western orientation. This is especially true for private companies founded by the younger generation of Chinese professionals with experience working or living in the West.
The overall message — no matter which foreign culture you find yourself in — is to "go local." Do your best to find out how self-promotion is handled in that local culture and adjust your behavior accordingly. By doing so, you are enhancing your ability to move seamlessly across the global economy and increasing the chances of creating positive impressions in any cultural setting.
Michael is a bit uneasy "tooting his own horn," but he also realizes that if he doesn't do it, no one else will.
When meeting with his boss to argue his case, Michael explains how he has met or exceeded all of his performance goals over the past two years and how he has also been a good overall contributor and team player. He explains how much he enjoys his work with the company and how excited he would be to take on the challenge of the product manager position. The conversation ended on a positive note and Michael felt very good about how it went. So good in fact, that he was completely dismayed to hear absolutely nothing back from his boss — for weeks, and then months. He was so frustrated that eventually he ended up leaving the firm.
So what went wrong? Michael seemed to be acting quite appropriately. He was confident without being boastful, clear and straightforward about his interests and goals, but also being respectful and polite towards his boss.
In fact he was indeed quite appropriate — if he were in the US. In China, however, self-promotion works quite differently, and because of his lack of knowledge about these key cultural differences, Michael was set up to fail.
What people sometimes don't realize is that although overt, direct self-promotion is a singularly American phenomenon, self-promotion itself is universal. However, the key is to understand how it is done on a local level — which means according to local cultural values and norms. For example, in China, the preferred communication style is much more indirect than in the United States. Think about how directly Michael communicated his message, saying that he has "met or exceeded his performance goals" and how "excited he would be to take on the challenge of the product manager position." In the United States, where "getting to the point" and being a "straight shooter" is culturally valued, such confidence and initiative is admired. In China, however, it would be seen as too direct — putting his boss in the uncomfortable and face-threatening position of having to deny such an overt request or acquiesce to what feels like an inappropriate demand from a lower-level employee. Finally, in addition to being overly direct, Michael's actions were also immodest. Chinese would never extol their virtues to a boss in this way.
So how can the Michaels of the world self-promote to advance their career, while also being modest, deferential and indirect at the same time? It feels impossible, but it isn't if you follow the following advice:
Tip 1: Be patient
In Chinese business culture, the best way to promote oneself is to simply do good work. The underlying idea in China is that results speak for themselves, and that employees who do good work will ultimately be recognized.
Tip 2: Develop your networks
Another effective way to promote yourself in China is to have someone else do it. Social networks, or Guanxi, in China are critical to advancing one's career and promoting oneself in the corporate setting. It's important to work on developing strong contacts with influential people who can advocate for you behind the scenes. That way, you can benefit from self-promotion without suffering the cost of doing so in a direct and immodest manner.
Tip 3: Adapt your own communication style
Learn how to self-promote in a manner that is indirect and modest. Instead of setting up a meeting with your boss, learn to self-promote in a more discreet and indirect style. Rather than presumptuously suggesting a promotion, learn how to be a modest and deferential employee — and that, in and of itself, will enhance your reputation and put you in line for positive feedback. These new behaviors may feel inauthentic at first — after all, Americans are schooled on the importance of assertiveness and self-promotion throughout their lives. However, people can and do learn to "switch" their cultural behavior, often with surprisingly effective results.
Tip 4: Find a better fit
Finally, if all else fails, change companies. Many companies and leaders in China nowadays have a more Western orientation. This is especially true for private companies founded by the younger generation of Chinese professionals with experience working or living in the West.
The overall message — no matter which foreign culture you find yourself in — is to "go local." Do your best to find out how self-promotion is handled in that local culture and adjust your behavior accordingly. By doing so, you are enhancing your ability to move seamlessly across the global economy and increasing the chances of creating positive impressions in any cultural setting.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Most Expensive Apartment(Flat) deal in India
In the highest deal in the country for a residential apartment, a flat in Cuffe Parade’s Jolly Maker 1, India’s richest housing society and a four-decade-old symbol of Mumbai’s affluence, was sold at the rate of Rs 1.11 lakh per sq ft. A 21st floor flat with a carpet area of 2,590 sq ft fetched Rs 29 crore on January 27.
The highest price till now was Rs 1.02 lakh psf after a 3,600 sq ft 19th floor duplex flat in Worli’s Samudra Mahal was sold for Rs 37.25 crore in 2010.
The four-bedroom apartment, with a closed garage with two car parks, was sold by the Jagwani family (which runs a jewellery business) to Ashok Patni, one of three brothers who own Patni Computers. The flat is registered in the name of Sadhana Patni, wife of Ashok.
Incidentally, all the three Patni brothers; Narendra, Ashok and Gajendra already own apartments in this sea-facing tower. Jagdish Jagwani, the seller, confirmed the sale but refused to comment on the deal. Mahesh Lalwani, society secretary and Apurva Patni, son of Ashok too refused to comment.
The deal has caused excitement in the otherwise lukewarm realty market but property experts voice caution as it is a one-off transaction.
“Auctions of such exclusive properties do not conform to market norms,” said the head of a leading property consultancy firm.
Earlier than that, the last big property deal in the city happened two and a half years ago when a 3,475 sq ft (super built-up) flat in NCPA apartments at Nariman Point was bought by a London-based NRI for Rs97,842 per sqft.
Secret behind the uniqueness of Jolly Maker 1
Imagine living in the sprawling apartment of a posh building with a panoramic view of the city, and actually getting paid to live there.
This is exactly the case with Jolly Maker 1, the exclusive but quaint complex of 175 apartments and 10 bungalows at Cuffe Parade. Comprising two 25-storey residential towers, the richest housing society in India (reserve and sinking fund is estimated to be over Rs 30 crore) is home to Subhash Chandra of Zee, the Goenka family, the Patni family, the Goa-based Salgaocar family, Dr A S Maker, the construction magnate which constructed commercial buildings in Nariman Point and the UAE Consulate. In this complex, instead of paying maintenance, the owners in this get an annual dividend of Rs 6-12 lakh.
The highest price till now was Rs 1.02 lakh psf after a 3,600 sq ft 19th floor duplex flat in Worli’s Samudra Mahal was sold for Rs 37.25 crore in 2010.
The four-bedroom apartment, with a closed garage with two car parks, was sold by the Jagwani family (which runs a jewellery business) to Ashok Patni, one of three brothers who own Patni Computers. The flat is registered in the name of Sadhana Patni, wife of Ashok.
Incidentally, all the three Patni brothers; Narendra, Ashok and Gajendra already own apartments in this sea-facing tower. Jagdish Jagwani, the seller, confirmed the sale but refused to comment on the deal. Mahesh Lalwani, society secretary and Apurva Patni, son of Ashok too refused to comment.
The deal has caused excitement in the otherwise lukewarm realty market but property experts voice caution as it is a one-off transaction.
“Auctions of such exclusive properties do not conform to market norms,” said the head of a leading property consultancy firm.
Earlier than that, the last big property deal in the city happened two and a half years ago when a 3,475 sq ft (super built-up) flat in NCPA apartments at Nariman Point was bought by a London-based NRI for Rs97,842 per sqft.
Secret behind the uniqueness of Jolly Maker 1
Imagine living in the sprawling apartment of a posh building with a panoramic view of the city, and actually getting paid to live there.
This is exactly the case with Jolly Maker 1, the exclusive but quaint complex of 175 apartments and 10 bungalows at Cuffe Parade. Comprising two 25-storey residential towers, the richest housing society in India (reserve and sinking fund is estimated to be over Rs 30 crore) is home to Subhash Chandra of Zee, the Goenka family, the Patni family, the Goa-based Salgaocar family, Dr A S Maker, the construction magnate which constructed commercial buildings in Nariman Point and the UAE Consulate. In this complex, instead of paying maintenance, the owners in this get an annual dividend of Rs 6-12 lakh.
How to Stay positive in a negative environment
Staying positive in a negative environment can change not just your business, but your entire life.
Rather than wallowing when a problem strikes, believe your business reality can be redefined. Old problems become entrepreneurial challenges as you perceive new solutions. Then, when you achieve a goal, recognize the benefits of your positive work lifestyle. Say, "Thank you!" and give away all the positivity you can as you lead your company by serving others. And amazingly, the cycle of working positive begins anew and you'll find yourself receiving even more in your business.
Give your mind a positive work-out. Think of your mind as a muscle that needs consistent strengthening. A flabby, unfit mind simply chases whatever thought about your business that enters it--or, whatever thought someone else suggests about it, positive or negative. Your mind freezes up; that is, mental scar tissue develops and you become susceptible to whatever thought shows up. Mental surgery then becomes necessary to remove the scar tissue of those negative thoughts that moved you to behave in your business in an unhealthy manner.
Why are you so susceptible? Here's how your mind works. Consider how snack commercials on TV affect you. You weren't hungry before, but suddenly you're getting up and heading to the kitchen for snack food. The power of suggestion is so strong. Your mind received the impression, activated a hunger impulse, and triggered your legs to move. You really didn't even think about it. It just happened.
But what if you focus your thoughts? What if you have made a conscious decision to cut out snacks between meals? Your mind is made up--your priority of losing weight takes precedence over the commercial's suggestion.
But maybe you're thinking, "It's not that easy to focus my thoughts, especially when it comes to my company."
Actually it is. Your mind was made to focus. Your mind focuses on something every minute of every day. The question is not if you focus your mind, but on what?
There is no denying that the world contains negative mental energy. You can't just deny the existence of negativity and expect positivity to show up. But you can decide how to focus your own energies.
Think about your choice to perceive this way. Vultures fly over the desert, looking for dead animals. Hummingbirds fly over the same desert, looking for flowers growing from a cactus or near a pond. Vultures and hummingbirds fly over the same desert, but one bird looks for death and the other looks for life.
As it is with the vulture and hummingbird, so it is with you and me. As we fly over the business landscape that surrounds us, we're looking for something. We choose what we're looking for--death or life, failures or successes, losses or leverage; the negative or the positive. Then we live our choices.
You can choose to think about your business's best qualities, not the worst; things to praise your employees about, not things to curse them for; the beautiful way in which your customers buy your products and use your services, not the ugly few who demand a refund.
For example, it is so easy for us to fill our minds with what we can't do. That's a never-ending list for me.
Right now, I could say to myself, "There's always something I can't do. Now that I think about it, there's no reason in the world I should ever think that anyone anywhere on this planet would want to read a book about working positively. I don't know why I wrote it. I wasted all this time, energy and money on a book that was supposed to bring me speaking engagements and coaching opportunities so I can transform business people's negative lives into work positive lifestyles."
See what I mean? Of course it's not just you and me who choose to focus on that "can't do" list. We all do at times. Since your mind focuses on something, anything, it will go to that never-ending list, especially in times of frustration or perceived failure.
It's so much more empowering to focus your mind on what you can do. No, you might not be able to do correctly what you're attempting on the first try. However, finding something you can do related to the task and focusing on that accomplishment creates a positive perception in your mind. That positive perception then becomes the jet fuel that releases your imagination to work on the rest of the task that presents such a challenge. With that high-octane fuel, your imagination soars to new heights of accomplishment in your business.
By exercising the positive muscle group of your mind and focusing on profit-enriching activities, pretty soon that which seemed impossible about your business becomes not only doable, but you say to yourself, "I can see my business this way all the time!"
This post originally appeared at Entrepreneur.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220676#ixzz1mJjVQioL
Rather than wallowing when a problem strikes, believe your business reality can be redefined. Old problems become entrepreneurial challenges as you perceive new solutions. Then, when you achieve a goal, recognize the benefits of your positive work lifestyle. Say, "Thank you!" and give away all the positivity you can as you lead your company by serving others. And amazingly, the cycle of working positive begins anew and you'll find yourself receiving even more in your business.
Give your mind a positive work-out. Think of your mind as a muscle that needs consistent strengthening. A flabby, unfit mind simply chases whatever thought about your business that enters it--or, whatever thought someone else suggests about it, positive or negative. Your mind freezes up; that is, mental scar tissue develops and you become susceptible to whatever thought shows up. Mental surgery then becomes necessary to remove the scar tissue of those negative thoughts that moved you to behave in your business in an unhealthy manner.
Why are you so susceptible? Here's how your mind works. Consider how snack commercials on TV affect you. You weren't hungry before, but suddenly you're getting up and heading to the kitchen for snack food. The power of suggestion is so strong. Your mind received the impression, activated a hunger impulse, and triggered your legs to move. You really didn't even think about it. It just happened.
But what if you focus your thoughts? What if you have made a conscious decision to cut out snacks between meals? Your mind is made up--your priority of losing weight takes precedence over the commercial's suggestion.
But maybe you're thinking, "It's not that easy to focus my thoughts, especially when it comes to my company."
Actually it is. Your mind was made to focus. Your mind focuses on something every minute of every day. The question is not if you focus your mind, but on what?
There is no denying that the world contains negative mental energy. You can't just deny the existence of negativity and expect positivity to show up. But you can decide how to focus your own energies.
Think about your choice to perceive this way. Vultures fly over the desert, looking for dead animals. Hummingbirds fly over the same desert, looking for flowers growing from a cactus or near a pond. Vultures and hummingbirds fly over the same desert, but one bird looks for death and the other looks for life.
As it is with the vulture and hummingbird, so it is with you and me. As we fly over the business landscape that surrounds us, we're looking for something. We choose what we're looking for--death or life, failures or successes, losses or leverage; the negative or the positive. Then we live our choices.
You can choose to think about your business's best qualities, not the worst; things to praise your employees about, not things to curse them for; the beautiful way in which your customers buy your products and use your services, not the ugly few who demand a refund.
For example, it is so easy for us to fill our minds with what we can't do. That's a never-ending list for me.
Right now, I could say to myself, "There's always something I can't do. Now that I think about it, there's no reason in the world I should ever think that anyone anywhere on this planet would want to read a book about working positively. I don't know why I wrote it. I wasted all this time, energy and money on a book that was supposed to bring me speaking engagements and coaching opportunities so I can transform business people's negative lives into work positive lifestyles."
See what I mean? Of course it's not just you and me who choose to focus on that "can't do" list. We all do at times. Since your mind focuses on something, anything, it will go to that never-ending list, especially in times of frustration or perceived failure.
It's so much more empowering to focus your mind on what you can do. No, you might not be able to do correctly what you're attempting on the first try. However, finding something you can do related to the task and focusing on that accomplishment creates a positive perception in your mind. That positive perception then becomes the jet fuel that releases your imagination to work on the rest of the task that presents such a challenge. With that high-octane fuel, your imagination soars to new heights of accomplishment in your business.
By exercising the positive muscle group of your mind and focusing on profit-enriching activities, pretty soon that which seemed impossible about your business becomes not only doable, but you say to yourself, "I can see my business this way all the time!"
This post originally appeared at Entrepreneur.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220676#ixzz1mJjVQioL
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