The Expert Manifesto

Go Now. Live your dream. And don't ever forget, you are here for the adventure, not the pay check.

Found via The Expert Enough Manifesto | Expert Enough.

Don’t punish everyone for one person’s mistake

Don't punish everyone for one person's mistake from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.


Fantastic talk by Derek Sivers - something all small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs must learn.

In search of Incredible

I am not sure what it is, but the universe seems to be sending me a STRONG message recently - "Don't settle for ordinary". I opened my email this morning only to find this cartoon

I open up my '3 am' notebook ( a notebook i right random ideas/words of inspiration that float into my head in the middle of the night) - only to be greeted by this:

And finally to top it all, a friend of mine sends me this image of a silly cartoon I used to watch as a child

Hahah! Looks like its time to seize the opportunities that seem to be pilling up on my plate and start making a difference in the world!

Hope you have an extra-ordinary day!!

Does Geography determine Income?

I read this fascinating paper by John Gallup, Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Mellinger in the International Regional Science Review that spoke about the concept of "GDP density". GDP density was basically calculated by multiplying GDP per capita by the number of people per square kilometre. 

Essentially it is a measure of the total amount of economic activity that takes place at different spots on our globe. The results they found were graphically represented in the form of the map below:

Not surprisingly, it looks a whole lot like those satellite pictures of the earth at night

What I found most interesting is the fact that economic activity is clearly is much more intense near oceans, or, if inland, along navigable rivers where transportation by ship is feasible. Temperate climates with adequate rainfall also seem to be extremely important, perhaps for productivity of agriculture. 


So I guess the next most logical question is does policy actually have an impact on GDP?? And are cities located closer to rivers/oceans pre-disposed to doing better (and consequently being more entrepreneurial) than those located inland??


Would love to hear your thoughts.

Super-You!

I just came across this amazing video created by Holstee and I just had to share it. Although the video is about cyclists in NYC celebrating their lives by living this manifesto, I think the lessons from the video apply to each and everyone of us. The video encourages us to take charge of our lives and become our own super-hero's. A concept I hold very very dear to me. 


I recently read this article by Nilofer Merchant where she too talks about how obsessed our society is with finding "The One'. The idea of living in the footsteps of a leader is drilled in to our heads through history-books, through religion, through sports teams and corporate cultures. We as a society love to idealise. 


And Whilst there is nothing wrong with looking outside for inspiration, very few people rarely walk to the beat of their own drum. Nilofer in her article, rightly gives the example of Steve Jobs and why he was such a charismatic person. She says "He(Steve Jobs) didn’t study other people; he followed his own passions. He didn’t seek meaning by trying to emulate someone else’s life, or even emulating the winning business practices of his day – as I’ve written before, he created a clarity of purpose for himself.  The same principle can apply to all of us.

Certainly, we need inspiration to show us examples of clear purpose. But I wonder what happens in a world where we each figure out why we do what we do and we can live and work from that place. We might refocus on our own work and the community with which we get that work done. We might learn todefine success in our own terms."

Here's hoping we all start dancing to our own tunes rather than what everyone else thinks we should be dancing too.