Category: Personal Development

Identifying Traits of Greedy People

1. Overly self-centered behavior is the first giveaway sign of greedy people. 

Greedy people are always saying “me, me, me” with very little regard for the needs and feelings of others.

2. Envy and greed are like twins. 

While greed is a strong desire for more and more possessions (such as wealth and power), envy goes one step further and includes a strong desire by greedy people for the possessions of others.

3. Lack of empathy is another sign of greedy people. 

Caring – being concerned about the feelings of others – is not part of their character. As such, they have little qualms about causing pain to others. Their inability to empathize, their lack of genuine interest in the ideas and feelings of others, and their unwillingness to take personal responsibility for their behavior and actions make them very difficult people to be with.

4. Greedy people are never satisfied.  

They look at the world as a zero-sum-game. Instead of thinking that everyone would benefit as the pie gets larger, they view the pie as a constant and want to have the biggest part. They truly believe that they deserve more, even if it comes at someone else’s expense.

5. Greedy people are experts in manipulation. 

They are highly talented in taking credit for work done by others. They can be charming, but their principal agenda is to have people around them that feed their ego.

6. Greedy people are into the short run.

They are focused on satisfying their immediate needs and leave it to others to cope with the consequences. 

For example: leaders of companies who are more interested in getting their bonuses, instead of thinking up better working conditions for the ordinary employees, or to fairly share with their employees whatever earnings the company has made.

7. In the pursuit of their material needs, they know no limits. 

Greedy people are not good at maintaining boundaries. They will compromise moral values and ethics to achieve their goals. They look for loopholes or clever ways to outsmart the rules and regulations that have been put into place to moderate this kind of behavior.

Beware of those signs and promptly act to correct them when they – or any one of those – begin to emerge in you.”

In summary, run if you identify these traits in a person: 

1. Self-centred 

2. Envious 

3. Lacks empathy 

4. Never satisfied 

5. Manipulates people 

6. Short-termistic 

7.  Know no limits

If I Wasn’t an Entrepreneur, I Would Have Been a Teacher

My personal story always used to include… “If I wasn’t an entrepreneur I would have been a teacher.”

Yesterday I was preparing for my Sales presentation (and facing an empty workshop and Zoom room) as part of the ‘Knowledge’ component of our engineering growth for entrepreneurs of scalable companies program. 

I realized I was now that ‘teacher’ or as one of my entrepreneurs I’m mentoring told me ‘guru’ in Hindi.

Mentor, Coach, Advisor, Teacher, Manager, Leader, Mother, Father or Guru. 

They are mostly the same. 

My question is “Who is the teacher and who is the student?”

Start Your LinkedIn Profile Early: Benefits for Young Entrepreneurs

Question I’m pondering here … 

Why start your LinkedIn profile and ‘CV’ after you’ve finished high school?

It’s not really ‘Entrepreneur’ friendly. 

Technically my first ‘job’ was picking up after my pet back in the early 1980’s. 

While not relevant to a LinkedIn profile, there is a need to accelerate and scale self-sufficient entrepreneurs on a flexible space to connect and collaborate from an early age. 

My first ‘Service’ rate was 5c per ‘Transaction’ from ‘Scruffy’. 

That was the first of many micro-ventures that forged my entrepreneurial mindset and I encourage my kids today. 

What was your first ‘entrepreneur’ job and rate?

Overcoming 9 Common Lacks for Success

Lack of… 

1. Information

2. Skill

3. Belief

4. Motivation

5. Wellbeing

6. Time

7. Money

8. People

9. Fear

9 simple ways to mitigate these ‘Lacks’…

1. Information: Ask an expert.

2. Skills: Get a coach to train you.

3. Belief: Speak to customers and colleagues and get their testimonials.

4. Motivation: Define and Live your ‘Why’ every day. 

5. Wellbeing: Sleep, Sweat, Breathe, Laugh, Love, Eat Clean.

6. Time: Schedule everything and go to bed early to make time.

7. Money: Budget, make, spend, save (+raise).

8. People: Hire the best people through referrals.

9. Fear: Do a ‘Fear setting’ exercise and surround yourself with people that love and believe in you.

Maximize Success with Idea Generation Exercises

Brainstorm 15 ideas in 24-hours (or 15 in 15-hours) 

Practical exercise for all founders to give their employees. Brainstorm as many ideas for the business in a Covid-19 world. It’s not about the quality or competition for the best idea. It’s about the quantity. As the best ideas come out at numbers 8-13.  

Then ask “Which of these are aligned to our Why?”

Ask “Which is the simplest, cheapest to implement with the highest likelihood of success?”

Label each idea:

🟢 Green: Have resources and can implement immediately.

🟠 Orange: Have resources but don’t know how to implement yet.

🔴 Red: Don’t have resources or know-how. 

Do the Greens.

Schedule the Oranges.

Store the Reds.

Delegate & Meet in 1-weeks time with the feedback.

The Balance of Yes and No: Decision-Making Insights

Anyone that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing or meeting will know that I’m a ‘YES’ person. 

What is a ‘YES’ person? 

Most CEO’s/founders/entrepreneurs are ‘YES’ people. Curious Optimists that Build and Connect.

However I am starting to see the importance of ‘NO’ people and the balance within teams or partnerships of ‘YES’ and ‘NO’ people and their different perspectives. 

While NO people are not negative or the antagonists, they are the important pragmatists that question the YES peoples thinking or decisions.

Their very important dark Yin to your light Yang. 

Learning to captivate more Qualities of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ people in your business and personal lives is important to making better decisions and living an interesting life. 

No matter where on the spectrum you place yourself. The key is self-awareness and to be open to saying more ‘No’s or more Yes’.

– Inspired by a chat I had with a colleague/partner whom I respect and trust and she happens to be more of a ‘No’er.😀

(Nerdy Fact: This Post has an equal number (8) of No’s to Yes’, not by design!)

The Importance of Multidisciplinary Competence in Investing

Legendary Berkshire Hathaway investor Charlie Munger speaks strongly about the importance of “Multidisciplinary Competence”. 

Broadly defined as having competence to find solutions to complex problems from several perspectives.

Through intentional curiosity, curating and engagement with your own networks.

You have the ability to increase your own competence and provide a value-adding perspective to all your future engagements and investments. 

I’m grateful to follow, be connected, message, meet, collaborate and partner with a growing diverse network of the smartest and pioneering thinkers and builders in the innovation space globally. 

From University and MBA students 

👩🏻🎓👨🏿🎓👩🏽🎓👨🏽🎓👩🏿🎓👨🏼🎓

To Founders & Entrepreneurs

👩🏿💻👨🏼💻👩🏽💻🧑🏽💻👩🏻💻🧑🏿💻

To HNWI 🤑

To Angel investors 😇

To VC’s 💵

To Corporate Intrapreneurs 👩💼👨💼

To Ecosystem Builders 👷♀️ 👷♂️

To Partners 🌍

Striving for Excellence: The Key to Leadership Success

1 of the most popular values leaders aspire to today is ‘Excellence’. 

(‘Empathy’ is emerging but that is for another post.)

Interestingly… 

“Excellence is not being the BEST but striving to be BETTER.”

Being open to listen, learn and improve drives this aka ‘Coachable’ 

Is ‘Excellence’ one of your values? 

How coachable are you?