Insight Archives | Page 7 of 8

The Unschedule: A time-management tool to beat Procrastination.

April 15, 2021 In Insight 7 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

In his illuminating book The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play, Psychologist and Author Dr. Neil Fiore write about a time-planning/management tool he called “The Unschedule.” I found the tool to effectively deal with procrastination, re-ordering your priorities, and getting things done.

The Unschedule is a weekly calender of committed recreational activities that divides the week into manageable pieces with breaks, meals, scheduled socializing, and play. In addition, it’s a record of your productive, uninterrupted work. It provides producers with a prescheduled commitment to guilt-free time for recreation, plus a realistic look at the actual time available for work.

The Tale Of Two Wolves: Which one do you feed?

April 13, 2021 In Insight 4 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

There is a great native American story between an old Cherokee and his grandson that is often attributed to the Cherokee, Lenape people, or an Eskimo fisherman. The story contains a great parable about the power of focus, mindset, and it is a great anecdote on how we can manage our thought, feelings, and action.

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside us all. He said to his grandson:

“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

John C. Bogle on Life and Leadership.

April 9, 2021 In Insight 13 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

“Life is a kind of campaign. People have no idea what strength comes to one’s soul and spirit through a good fight.” – Gutzon Borglum (sculptor of Mount Rushmore)

John C. Bogle was the founder and chief executive of The Vanguard Group and is credited with creating the first index fund. In 1999, Fortune named Bogle as “one of the four investment giants of the 20th Century.” alongside Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and George Soros. In his book, Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life, Bogle shares great insights on what it truly means to have “enough” in a world increasingly focused on status and score-keeping. He also shared his principles on Money, Business, Life, and Leadership.

On Leadership

“What, then, are the characteristics of good leadership and of good management? On that subject, I have (surprise!) strong opinions, most of them formed in the crucible of my own six decades of business experience, including four decades as a leader—nine years as chief executive of Wellington Management, 22 years as chief of Vanguard, and (if you will) now nine years running Vanguard’s admittedly tiny Bogle Financial Markets Research Center, with its crew of three plus me. So here I speak from my own broad, firsthand, and often hard-won experience.”

10 rules for building a great organization

Rule 1: Make Caring the Soul of the Organization

When I first spoke to our Vanguard crew about caring in 1989, I used these words: “Caring is a mutual affair, involving:

Coded Bias Documentary – Facial Recognition and A.I. Bias.

April 6, 2021 In Documentary 7 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Coded Bias is an American documentary film directed by Shalini Kantayya that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary includes contributions from notable Artificail Intelligence and Facial Recognition Researchers: Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, Cathy O’Neil, Deborah Raji, Zeynep Tufekci, Safiya Noble, Meredith Broussard, Virginia Eubanks, among others.

Coded Bias highlights our collective social misconception about Artificial Intelligence and Facial recognition. The documentary advocates for an urgent need for legislative protection through regulation and moderation.

Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles.

April 3, 2021 In Insight 6 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

“You can write down your corporate culture, but when you do so, you’re discovering it, uncovering it—not creating it.” – Jeff Bezos

One of the hallmarks of a great organization is that they have a strong sense of mission and well-defined culture. The 14 Amazon’s Leadership Principles are the guiding principles for executing Amazon’s core vision of becoming the world’s most customer-centric organization. If you want to know what makes Amazon thick or are interviewing for a job at Amazon, the leadership principles is the Amazonian way of getting things done and executing on the overarching vision of the organization.

In their book, Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon, former Amazonians Colin Bryar and Bill Carr writes glowing about the 14 Amazon’s Leadership Principles.

Payoneer: Get paid by Marketplaces & clients worldwide – Sign Up & Earn $USD 25

April 2, 2021 In Entrepreneurship 2 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

As a freelancer or blogger, getting paid is one thing we all try to figure out as soon as possible. Payoneer is a global payment platform that can help with that, and I have been using the platform for more than 6 years, and it’s been a great payment solution. Payoneer’s platform streamlines global commerce for millions of small businesses, marketplaces, and enterprises from 200 countries and territories.

Payoneer Account-holders can send and receive funds using an e-wallet, a virtual bank account number in a local currency, or a re-loadable prepaid MasterCard debit card. Money received can then be withdrawn to a bank account or used online / at points of sale with the Payoneer debit card.

Withdraw your funds at ATMs worldwide or make purchases online and in-store.

Public Figure Documentary -The Psychological Effects of everyday social media use.

March 20, 2021 In Documentary 3 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

The Public Figure documentary investigates the psychological effects of everyday social media use while exploring how our influencers deal with the fame, money, hate, and obsession that comes with it. The documentary features interviews with social media influencers worldwide, such as Bonang Matheba, Emmet Sparling, Thomas Sebastian Tribbie Matheson, Greg O’Gallagher, Denterio Hundon, Emma Rose, and Devour Power. The doc chronicles these influencers’ lifestyle, the effect of social media in their lives. They were interview excerpts from Sean Parker (Facebook Founding President) and Denzel Washington on the effect of too much social media use.

Stephen Schwarzman’s 25 Rules for Work and Life.

March 19, 2021 In Insight 6 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

In his book, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence, Stephen Schwarzman shares 25 rules for work and life. Schwarzman is the chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he established in 1985 with former chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers and US Secretary of Commerce Peter G. Peterson.

Success leaves clues, it is fascinating to learn from one of the smartest and forward thinking entrepreneur of our time. According Forbes, Schwarzman is the 74th richest man in the world with a net worth of $23.4 Billion Dollars as of March 2021. The rules contains lot of profound wisdom that would help every entrepreneur to navigate the roller coaster of business and the vicissitudes of life.

Live in Day-Tight Compartments.

March 18, 2021 In Insight 9 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

One of my favourite takeaway from reading, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, is the concept of living in day-tight compartment which is attributed to Sir William Osier.

In 1913, Sir William Osler delivered a speech at Yale University which he called “A way of Life”. He recommends approaching life as a series of “day-tight compartments,” which he likens to the water-tight compartments that keep a ship afloat. He suggested living in day-tight compartment as an antidote for worry, because worrying about either the past or the future is a burden that does nothing but reduce your effectiveness.

If you focus your attention on what you have to do today, then over time, a string of successful days will make for a successful life. He quotes Thomas Carlyle: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” William Osler primarily attributes his own success not to talent or intelligence, but to good habits, consistently practiced, day after day after day.

“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

Just for Today.

March 8, 2021 In Insight 3 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln

In his 1948 self-help book “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living,” Author Dale Carnegie shared an insightful program he attributed to Sibyl F. Partridge. He writes:

Just For Today

Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln said is true, that “most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals.

Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.
Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse it nor neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.
Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.
Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don’t want to do, as William James suggests, just for exercise.
Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything and not try to regulate nor improve anyone.
Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not to tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.
Just for today I will have a programme. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests, hurry and indecision.
Just for today I will have a quiet half-hour all by myself and relax. In this half-hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.
Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe that those I love, love me.

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

You cannot win an Argument.

February 27, 2021 In Insight 8 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself. -Galileo

Most of the time, we try to cajole, persuade, inspire or influence people, so we argue with them to convince them to see things from our perspective. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion.” The key is to understand a basic truth; you cannot win an argument; people change when they are ready to change. The best you can do is to help them make what was unconscious to them become conscious. As Carl Jung once quipped, ‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.’ And as Author John C. Maxwell noted:

People change when they….Hurt enough they have to
Learn enough that they want to and
Receive enough that they are able to

The Psychology of Money Recommendations by Morgan Housel.

February 27, 2021 In Insight 5 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

In his thought-provoking book, The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness, Author and Partner at Collaborative Fund Morgan Housel writes about why understanding the psychology of money is more important than finance itself. The book is based on a report he wrote in 2018: “The Psychology of Money,” where he shared the most important flaws, biases, and causes of bad behavior towards money.

“Every investor should pick a strategy that has the highest odds of successfully meeting their goals. And I think for most investors, dollar-cost averaging into a low-cost index fund will provide the highest odds of long-term success.” – Morgan Housel

In the book, he made the following recommendation on how to make better decisions with money:

Father Forgets by W. Livingston Larned

February 25, 2021 In Insight 4 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

“God himself, sir, does not propose to judge man until the end of his days.”

In his great book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Author Dale Carnegie shared a great story about a father and son, which teaches the virtue of patience with other humans and the futility of criticism. The piece originally appeared as an editorial in the People’s Home Journal and was reprinted in the book as condensed in the Reader’s Digest:

Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

V2MOM (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures).

February 7, 2021 In Insight 5 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

In his book, Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, shared a management process he developed in the early days of building Salesforce to become an industry leader, he called the process: V2MOM (vision, values, methods, obstacles, and measures).

In Behind the Cloud, he writes:

“I went out to look for help. I sought wisdom from leadership gurus, personal development gurus, and even spiritual gurus. Over time, I realized that many of these seemingly disparate sources shared striking similarities. I looked to employ these common threads in my own work, and over time I developed them into my own management process, V2MOM, an acronym that stands for vision, values, methods, obstacles, and measures”