Five top tips to starting a successful business

1. Listen more than you talk

We have two ears and one mouth, using them in proportion is not a bad idea! To be a good leader you have to be a great listener. Brilliant ideas can spring from the most unlikely places, so you should always keep your ears open for some shrewd advice. This can mean following online comments as closely as board meeting notes, or asking the frontline staff for their opinions as often as the CEOs. Get out there, listen to people, draw people out and learn from them.

2. Keep it simple

You have to do something radically different to stand out in business. But nobody ever said different has to be complex. There are thousands of simple business solutions to problems out there, just waiting to be solved by the next big thing in business. Maintain a focus upon innovation, but don’t try to reinvent the wheel. A simple change for the better is far more effective than five complicated changes for the worse.

3. Take pride in your work

Last week I enjoyed my favourite night of the year, the Virgin Stars of the Year Awards, where we celebrated some of those people who have gone the extra mile for us around the Virgin world. With so many different companies, nationalities and personalities represented under one roof, it was interesting to see what qualities they all have in common. One was pride in their work, and in the company they represent. Remember your staff are your biggest brand advocates, and focusing on helping them take pride will shine through in how they treat your customers.

4. Have fun, success will follow

If you aren’t having fun, you are doing it wrong. If you feel like getting up in the morning to work on your business is a chore, then it's time to try something else. If you are having a good time, there is a far greater chance a positive, innovative atmosphere will be nurtured and your business will fluorish. A smile and a joke can go a long way, so be quick to see the lighter side of life.

5. Rip it up and start again

If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture isn’t a success, welcome to the club! Every successful businessperson has experienced a few failures along the way – the important thing is how you learn from them. Don’t allow yourself to get disheartened by a setback or two, instead dust yourself off and work out what went wrong. Then you can find the positives, analyse where you can improve, rip it up and start again.

courtesy by:

Richard Branson

15 Great Excuses Not to Form the Fitness Habit

Why might you be putting things off? Let’s look at the justifications, and try to blast them.

1. I don’t have the time. Do 5 minutes a day. You can squeeze 5 minutes of brisk walking into your busy schedule. If you can’t, you might need to seriously rethink your priorities. Cut back on TV, Internet surfing, watching or reading the news. This 5 minutes a day (for now) will save your life. If you can’t go outside to walk due to the weather, do some pushups, air squats and lunges at home or near your desk. Start with 5 minutes of an easy exercise, and once you’ve learned to fit this into your day, you can expand to 10 minutes.
2. I have kids, dude. Yeah, me too — I have six of them. They’re awesome, and I love spending time with them. So I take them to the park and play with them, running and climbing and lifting them up (like weights) and putting them on my shoulders and running up hills. By exercising in front of them, and with them, I’m setting a good example for them that they will take into adulthood. We combine exercise and bonding time. Or split time with your spouse, or do it when they’re at school or sleeping (at night or early mornings). You owe it to your kids to get healthy and stay healthy into old age.
3. My job takes my time and energy. Mine too — at one point I was working two jobs while starting a blog/business (and writing about 20 posts a week). I know that work drains your energy and sucks up your time, but if you put fitness first, you can do both. Workout before work — it’s a great way to start your day, get some key thinking done, get energized before you start working. Or workout right after work — great way to unwind, de-stress, and perhaps spend time with your spouse or friend or kids.
4. I’m too tired. Not working out actually makes you feel more tired most of the time — in my experience and from lots of people I’ve talked to about this. When you work out regularly, you feel refreshed, energized, de-stressed, ready to take on the world. If you’re tired, just tell yourself all you need to do is lace up your shoes and get out the door — even the most tired among us can do that!
5. I’m sick or injured. If you’re really sick, with a fever or serious medical condition, exercise at this moment might not be best — rest is sometimes better. Same with serious injuries. But often you can do something with lesser illnesses and injuries, and we just let the pain or tiredness stop us. Consult a doctor if you have a serious condition, but most people who just have the sniffles can still go for a walk or do some bodyweight exercises at home.
6. My family isn’t supportive. That is definitely tough, but you have options. One of my favorite tactics is getting my family on board early — before I’ve decided to make a change, when I’m still thinking about it. I send them articles I’m reading, talk to them about things I’ve learned, why this is important to me, etc. Then when I’m ready to make a decision to change, I ask for their help deciding — and then their help implementing. Another tactic is to just ask for them to give you the space to make your own change, even if they don’t want to support you, and then find support online. Finally, sometimes you have to take responsibility for your life instead of blaming it on others, and just do what you need to do, and try to win their support and educate them along the way, even if they’re not there at first.
7. The gym is too expensive, or too far. Go walking or running outside. Doing bodyweight exercises at home or in the office is free. You can do yoga at home using free videos online.
8. It’s too hard. Start easy. Just 5 minutes of walking, or just 5 pushups. If that’s too hard, do 2 minutes of walking or 2 pushups. Starting small and only progressing gradually beats this objection every time, and is generally a good idea for other habit-change reasons as well.
9. I don’t have the right equipment/clothes. Use whatever you have. You can go walking in jeans and a T-shirt. I’ve walked and run barefoot many times. You can do bodyweight workouts in your bedroom in your underoos.
10. I’m not good at it. No one is good at it when they start out. Everyone has to learn, everyone starts somewhere. You get good at it by doing it. Do it in the privacy of your home if you’re afraid of looking stupid. Find a friend who’s a beginner and do it with them. Or do it with a trainer or a friend who’s really good at it and can show you how.
11. I don’t know how. Who cares? Get started — that’s the most important thing. You’ll learn as you go. You don’t need to read a dozen books or websites to learn something — just start, take it easy so you don’t get injured, and educate yourself as you go. If you’re worried about getting injured, do a free session with a trainer or find a friend who knows what he or she is doing.
12. I’m not strong, fast, flexible. You know how you get strong? Do strength exercises. You know how you get fast? Keep doing it. A good way to get flexible is to do yoga. Exercise solves all these problems.
13. I hate running. So don’t run! There are a thousand different ways to exercise. Walk, bike, swim, do yoga, pilates, tai chi, martial arts, strength training, bodyweight exercises, dance aerobics, kickboxing workouts, bootcamps, gymnastics, rock climbing, hiking, basketball, football, soccer, trampolines. Also, running can be fun if you start easy (walk/run intervals), go somewhere beautiful, and do it while conversing with a good friend.
14. The weather sucks (too cold, rainy, hot, etc.). Do it inside. Go to a gym or public indoor pool. Or suck it up and go outside anyway! I’ve run in torrential rain (it’s amazing), done Crossfit in freezing early morning weather, done a GoRuck Challenge with 70 lbs. of weight on my back for 13 hours in the middle of the night, the heat of midday, freezing ocean water, with sand in my shoes. It’s hella fun.
15. I’m not motivated. Bam. Motivated.

Motivation is everywhere. It’s in the mindset. It’s in the people around you doing something amazing, showing what’s possible. It’s in the idea that moving your body can be fun, joyous, miraculous, and that sitting is killing you.

You can have excuses, or you can move. Your choice.

courtesy by:

Zen habits

16 Essential Tips for Traveling with a Family

Traveling with a family is a completely different beast than traveling solo or as a couple — I’ve done both numerous times, and the two experiences don’t even seem related.

Eva and I just got back from a 3-week trip through southern Europe with five of our kids. It was a wild adventure, going through six foreign cities on foot and by train, speaking broken bits of three foreign languages, exploring cities and coastlines all day long, soaking in sun and history and wine.

We loved it. We exhausted the kids, but came back wiser, tanner, and better off for having seen more of the world and its peoples.

This post isn’t meant to give an account of our trip, but to share some of what I’ve learned about traveling with a family, in hopes that it will help other families who travel.

Here are some random things I’ve learned:

1. Pack light as hell. If you’re traveling in multiple cities, that means you’re dragging everything you pack around for miles. We each carried a tiny backpack (mine was 16 liters) with just a change of clothes, a book and a few toiletries. My packing list: a t-shirt, shorts, 2 pairs of quick-dry boxers, 2 pairs of socks, a book, deodorant, razor, toothbrush, 11″ Macbook Air. That all takes up very little space and weighs a tiny amount. In addition I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, underwear, socks and tennis shoes. There was a big contrast between us, with our small backpacks, and others who had roller luggage, big backpacks, suitcases and other heavy things they were lugging around everywhere.
2. Stay in central apartments. We avoid hotels, as we’d have to rent several rooms for our large family. It’s cheaper to rent an apartment, which also comes with a kitchen and often a washer/dryer and a living room. It’s much more comfortable. We will rent an apartment in each city we visit, and try to find ones that are central, so we can walk to the best areas from our home base, and come back for naps if necessary.
3. Walk everywhere (with some mass transit). The best way to explore a place is by foot, not car or tour bus. You cover less ground on foot, but you only really see a place when you walk it. Bikes would be next best, but not manageable for a large family. We have good walking shoes and are in good walking shape from walking around in our home city. It’s so much fun to walk through winding medieval streets, stop and drink from ancient fountains, grab a croissant or gelato whenever you like, see locals walking around, stop in a little shop if it catches your fancy, see nature up close. And it’s a good workout. We learn to use the local mass transit system a bit, when we’re in a city, so we can easily get to further areas and walk around there.
4. Get lost. You don’t really learn a place until you get lost in it. I always get a map of where we are, and try to orient myself, but I also like to put the map away for a bit and get a bit lost, so I can find my way through exploring and wrong turns. You also discover the most unexpected things when you allow yourself to get lost. Wander, explore, discover, be surprised.
5. Gelato will keep kids happy. Kids get tired walking, and bored of historical sites and museums. But if you buy them a gelato every afternoon, they perk up, and smiles suddenly appear as if from nowhere. After sampling a bunch of different gelato flavors the first few days in Rome, I discovered I always regretted not getting chocolate gelato. So I came up with a rule for myself: Always get chocolate gelato. I never regretted it for the rest of the trip.
6. Use your trip as a language course. Knowing we were going to Italy, France and Spain, we learned a bit of the languages before we left. The kids had fun learning to say hello, thank you, and where’s the bathroom, among other phrases. We never got fluent, but I think we all learned a bit about cultures and languages, and it was a great start. There’s no better way to practice a language than visiting the country.
7. Ask locals for recommendations. Guide books and the Internet are great, but the best recommendations come from people who really live there. Before we left, I asked for recommendations from locals (on Google+) and made a list. While we were in each city, I would ask locals we met for recommendations as well, and came up with some delightful discoveries.
8. Avoid tourist traps. We tried to avoid the most touristy places, though of course you can’t avoid seeing the historical sights like the Colosseum in Rome or the Duomo in Florence. But if you do go to highly touristed places, avoid the shops and restaurants that surround them. They are expensive, bad quality, and aimed at the tastes of tourists instead of locals. Walk 5-10 minutes to find something better.
9. Have something to keep kids busy on trains. I don’t mind train rides at all, but the kids get bored. So they each have some kind of device, like an iPod touch or game device, to play games, listen to music and watch movies. Not my favorite thing in the world for them to do, but so much better than complaints of being bored for several hours.
10. Naps are good. We tend to leave each morning for exploring, and then come back after a late lunch for a nap. The kids get tired walking around in the sun, and so do we. A nap of an hour (or three if you’re jetlagged) is a good thing, and we usually would head out when the day was cooling down for some evening sightseeing and dinner.
11. Buy groceries. We tend to buy cereal and yogurt and fruit for breakfast, along with coffee and maybe some things for dinner or snacks. This allows us to save money, eat something a bit healthier than pastries and pizza at least one or two meals of the day, and relax at home in the mornings and during our afternoon break. It’s one of the good things about having an apartment.
12. One or two days isn’t enough to see a place. I found 4-5 days a better number. In one or two days, you’re rushing through the major sites and don’t get to relax, or if you go at a slower pace you don’t get enough of a sample of a city to really know it. Of course, if you don’t have kids, you could spend a week or three in a good destination, but with kids I’d recommend a medium timeframe like 4-5 days.
13. Spice up the history lessons. Traveling makes history come alive. I will usually do a little research and then tell the kids stories about the sites we’re visiting. Still, they get bored with that sometimes, so you have to spice up the history with tales of wars, romances, pirates and tragic deaths. I’m not saying you should make stuff up (though I won’t tell if you do), but look for that stuff in the histories and highlight it.
14. Have relaxation days. While exploring cities by foot is great, sometimes you need a longer break than an afternoon nap. So we’d have days where we lounged around on the beach or parks most of the day instead of sightseeing, and it was a great way to recharge the batteries.
15. Wine makes things more relaxed. Eva and I would often have wine with lunch, and definitely with dinner. It made us more relaxed as we had to manage herding five kids around busy streets that we didn’t know, using languages we couldn’t speak. We smiled more, breathed easier. Also, red wine is like health food.
16. It’s a grand adventure. Things will go wrong. You’ll not only get lost, you’ll lose things, miss trains, find the place you’re going to closed. You can make the best of plans, but the truth is, you don’t control things. Life has its own plans. The key is to smile, accept the way things are, and see it all as part of your great adventure. And this is the philosophy you should convey to the kids, even before you travel, to make their experience all the more enjoyable and enlightening.

courtesy by: Leo Babauta.

Difference Between Working & Serving

One evening a scholar was addressing the participants on the concept of work culture. One of the participants asked the following question :

"I am a senior manager of Materials Department and I joined an organization 25 years ago as an Engineer Trainee and over the last 25 years I have gone through every experience in the organization.

During the initial part of my career, the job was very challenging and interesting.

However, all those exciting days are gone since I do not find my joy any more interesting because there is nothing new in my job. I am now feeling bored because I am doing a routine job.

However, Sir, I am living in the same house for over forty years, I am the son for the same parents for over forty five years, I am the father for the same children for the past ten years and the husband for the same lady for the past twenty years !( the toughest job!)

In these personal roles I do not feel bored Please tell me why I am bored of the routine in the office and not in the house?"

The response from Scholar was very interesting and convincing. He asked the executive the question:

"Please tell me for whom does your Mother cook ?"

The executive replied that obviously the mother cooks for others.

Then the Scholar said that the mother "Serves" others and because of this service mindedness, she is not feeling tired or bored. But in an office,we "Work" and not "Serve". Anything we consider, as service will not make us feel bored. That is difference between Serving and Working.

He asked the executive to consider his work as service and not merely a work !! This was a very interesting analysis!! Whenever you put a larger context around your work and see a broader meaning for your work, you will take interest in your work and it will make a very big difference in your internal energy.
Its The Attitude that Matters !!!

If you think you are working for the organization you will get frustrated. If you feel you are doing a service and getting some service charges you will feel happy. After all -doing what you like is freedom But liking what you do is happiness!

8 Things Your Employees Need Most

Forget about raises and better benefits. Those are important -- but this is what your staff really wants.

Pay is important. But pay only goes so far.

Getting a raise is like buying a bigger house; soon, more becomes the new normal.

Higher wages won’t cause employees to automatically perform at a higher level. Commitment, work ethic, and motivation are not based on pay.

To truly care about your business, your employees need these eight things—and they need them from you:

1. Freedom. Best practices can create excellence, but every task doesn't deserve a best practice or a micro-managed approach. (Yes, even you, fast food industry.)

Autonomy and latitude breed engagement and satisfaction. Latitude also breeds innovation. Even manufacturing and heavily process-oriented positions have room for different approaches.

Whenever possible, give your employees the freedom to work they way they work best.

2. Targets. Goals are fun. Everyone—yes, even you—is at least a little competitive, if only with themselves. Targets create a sense of purpose and add a little meaning to even the most repetitive tasks.

Without a goal to shoot for, work is just work. And work sucks.

3. Mission. We all like to feel a part of something bigger. Striving to be worthy of words like "best" or "largest" or "fastest" or "highest quality" provides a sense of purpose.

Let employees know what you want to achieve, for your business, for customers, and even your community. And if you can, let them create a few missions of their own.

Caring starts with knowing what to care about—and why.

4. Expectations. While every job should include some degree of latitude, every job needs basic expectations regarding the way specific situations should be handled. Criticize an employee for expediting shipping today, even though last week that was the standard procedure if on-time delivery was in jeopardy, and you lose that employee.

Few things are more stressful than not knowing what your boss expects from one minute to the next.

When standards change make sure you communicate those changes first. When you can't, explain why this particular situation is different, and why you made the decision you made.

5. Input. Everyone wants to offer suggestions and ideas. Deny employees the opportunity to make suggestions, or shoot their ideas down without consideration, and you create robots.

Robots don't care.

Make it easy for employees to offer suggestions. When an idea doesn't have merit, take the time to explain why. You can't implement every idea, but you can always make employees feel valued for their ideas.

6. Connection. Employees don’t want to work for a paycheck; they want to work with and for people.

A kind word, a short discussion about family, a brief check-in to see if they need anything... those individual moments are much more important than meetings or formal evaluations.

7. Consistency. Most people can deal with a boss who is demanding and quick to criticize... as long as he or she treats every employee the same. (Think of it as the Tom Coughlin effect.)

While you should treat each employee differently, you must treat each employee fairly. (There's a big difference.)

The key to maintaining consistency is to communicate. The more employees understand why a decision was made the less likely they are to assume favoritism or unfair treatment.

8. Future. Every job should have the potential to lead to something more, either within or outside your company.

For example, I worked at a manufacturing plant while I was in college. I had no real future with the company. Everyone understood I would only be there until I graduated.

One day my boss said, "Let me show you how we set up our production board."

I raised an eyebrow; why show me? He said, "Even though it won’t be here, some day, somewhere, you'll be in charge of production. You might as well start learning now."

Take the time to develop employees for jobs they someday hope to fill—even if those positions are outside your company. (How will you know what they hope to do? Try asking.)

Employees will care about your business when you care about them first.

Reference: http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=5570896175432740890&ids=dP4PdzoVc3sScP8NcjwPczsRdiMTdzAScj0RdPsVcP4Ve30UdzkRb3sSd3ASdz0SczgSc34ScPcTdjkIe3oVdP0Nc38MciMMejwMd3sOcPgRdP4SejwMdPkR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-ttl-0&ut=2A9ewPY7bI1581