Ahmadinejad on stage

Mr. Bollinger, the president of Columbia university, started the party welcoming the Iranian president describing with phrases like: “all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator” and described his denial of the Holocaust as: “either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated”.

What a shame. The guy him self sent an early morning email calling students and faculty to “live up to the best of Columbia’s traditions”. I wonder if he could live to those traditions or even thought about them when he uttered those embarrassing and offensive statements.

The reality sense

I always remember the sense of reality when I see people applying theories and practices which they learned in collage or read in a book. Most of the time I see those people drowned in a world of their own trying to establish and enforce their rules on the real world.

We’ve seen a lot of marketers creating a “bad perception” or even a “bad publicity” because they didn’t study the social impact of a certain campaign. We’ve seen politicians waging wars because they thought it was the right thing to do (no better example than the Bush administration).

Create your own self

The other day, I was discussing my latest post “Years of experience“ with a friend. I was surprised by the way most people are misled by the appearance.

This is one thing I hate: people tend to be passive receivers.

The human in certain phases of his life, because he doesn’t have the ability – yet – to question things, accepts certain figures and facts as unquestionable. We all did, when we were children. We took most of our beliefs, cultures, and attitudes from our ancestors without questioning.

Years of experience

 

As part of my continual process to dig the basics of things, I was continuously stopped in the last period with the word “years of experience”. I think we’re not quite getting the point of this phrase.

Companies are continuously searching for experts with long “years of experience”. This has been made a scale to measure the person’s business value and his mental ability to handle the work.

All this makes me ask: what does years of experience give the person? Well it depends.

The value of a human

Have you ever watched a movie called “Black Hawk Down“? It’s really a nice movie thrilling with action and you can’t but watch it till the last second.

However, it couldn’t stop here for me. What makes me thrilled is the way the movie makes you feel about the death of people. Or may I say the different reaction towards the death of different types of humans. But are there types of humans? Well the movie gives you this impression.

Employees: Your primary Evangelists

“Evangelist” is a term used in religion to designate true believers who try to persuade people to join their religion (mainly Christian) or, as well, any of the four writes of the bible. In the world of business, customers who are truly influenced by the culture of a brand, adopting it, carrying and defending its message in the community are called evangelists.

Think about your friend who brags about the Apple iPod and keeps criticizing other products. A neighbor so much addicted to his mini-cooper or a business associate who only flies on the friendly skies of Austrian Airlines. Those are “evangelists” who would adopt the brand as their own and spread its message to all they know.

Give me to drink Mandragora

 

Cleopatra: Give me to drink Mandragora

“Mandragora: Juice of the mandrake plant which has sleep-inducing qualities”

Cleopatra asked her maids to bring her the enchanting drink of mandragora when she was suffering the absence of her lover Antony.

But how much are people capable of tolerating harsh incidents in their lives without the “mandragora” kind of things?

Playing self-chess

Sometime ago I heard people talking about the benefits of playing chess with one’s self. At that time I thought about it as ridiculous and I didn’t give it much of my attention. But my other self kept nagging on me and wanted me to play it with him.

To be frank, me and myself didn’t quite enjoy the game, but I couldn’t nevertheless notice that it should be the hardest game ever. Although I am not an expert in the game I know that chess is a game of planning, strategies and tactics. It’s your plan versus the opponent’s plan. While you keep discovering your opponent plan during the game, you adjust your tactics accordingly and you defend and attack according to the situation of the game.