i'm moving on

whilst it has been great blogging at this place since i was an idealist teenager , optimistic university student to an adult juggling work and life and finding space and balance in this world

i''m moving to a new blog site http://iexperimentandblog.wordpress.com/

Is finding your passion the end story?

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"Finding my passion" the latest mantra and overused cliche used by everyone from Gen Y'' to justify inability to make decisions on anything by saying that we are assessing our options to 40 or 50 year olds  Gen Xers that venture out of their established  life path to pursue their interest.

Are we living in an escapism world where overused cliché’s like live your life to the fullest and finding your passion become the compass of our life?

When we hear stories of the  high flying executive in the corporate world dropping everything to pursue his or her passion and succeeds remarkably , don'''t you wonder  "Should  I do the same" but then again everyone have different values (Success, Security, Freedom, Adventure) that are top on their priority list. Not everyone has the same values on top of their list, hence not everyone will  make a gamble to go on the path less travelled by. 

And whilst there are great success stories of people gambling their established paths to pursue their passion, there  are often stories of people that defer  their passion for 20-30 years before they finally pursue it . Both of them are happy, so does finding your passion for the rest of life argument work?  Whilst finding your passion is a great philosophy to live by , why should finding your passion be the  gold at the end of the rainbow in life before we can feel contented and happy about life?

Shouldn't  life be about striving every single day to be better instead the premise of finding our passion to be the destination of our life  ?

What happens to the people that may not like their jobs but work hard by the sweat of their brow to bring back home a paycheque at the end of the week to support themselves and their families ? Sometimes at the expense of deferring their passion so that they can take care of their obligations to their family . What difference does that make them compared to the person that gambles it all for their passion ? Without them, who would assemble our cars,collect our garbage, keep our streets clean?

 Whilst understandably we are  working longer hours at work  , it probably  makes sense for  some of us to be combining passion with work since  we end up spending roughly 1, 920 hours and more at work every single year . And when we are interested in something and pour hours into it, we naturally excel and the cycle of fulfillment  continues.

I argue that maybe the underlying  idea of finding your passion is really about finding a way to be happy no matter what goes on in the world.Whilst living in a world of celebrities making chunk loads of money from reality shows and weddings , global warming that has messed up the weather everywhere to the impending financial doom in europe.Finding  your passion is maybe the code word for finding what makes you happy and finding what makes you happy is like having a little space in the world that is yours and yours alone. 

Its like Steve Jobs turning into Harry Potter: How do companies create mind boggling demand?

Demand makes the economy go around,people  camp outside of stores into the wee hours before a product is launched and companies dizzy on their heels trying to make as much money asap once they launch a product.

But creating demand in the market is tricky, after all what makes people buy?

How do companies create that dizzy burst of feeling and euphoria in people that are all too happy to queue outside shop for  mega selling hits like Harry Potter, Iphone and designer fashion shows?

I came across this book by Slywotzky, partner of Oliver Wyman, an international management consulting firm and nominated as the next " Peter Drucker" and his book pretty much sums up the mystery of demand and demand creating points   by  giving real life case studies of companies and their struggles and success stories on creating demand in the market. From Zipcar revolutionizing the word car sharing to Netflix to the story of Tetrapak revolutionizing the food industry.

Yes , I know my current fixation is being obsessed with stories of how ideas revolutionize the food industry anyways the interesting points he made in his book

• Making it magnetic

Creating a very good product does not automatically make the product magnetic in the eyes of the customer. Creating and capturing emotional space in the eyes and heart of the customer should be the ongoing aim of companies.

That's why companies try to sell us an experience, real life situations gone for the better after using X,Y and Z

• Fix the hassle map

In the era of the one click stop shop, customers look forward to greater simplicity and more choices and by figuring how companies can fix hassles (time wasters) that consume most of our lives provides the path of explosive demand. 

In the era of Iphone, Ipad,Mac that enhances consumers experience of seamlessly connecting to their music, photos, files, apps with lesser restrictions and sync just with one click enabling better user experience.

Its no wonder once you have a taste of what Apple has to offer, most  users turn into Apple products evangelists.

• Find the triggers

How do we convert product fence sitters , individuals that heard about the product but they don’t buy it?

Companies continually struggle to search for the factors that convert product fence sitters into buyers. And demand , yes , demand is unfortunately sometimes ruled by inertia, skepticism  and triggers for eg ( brilliant advertising , promotion, marketing) can be a tipping point/ trigger to give a little enhancing factor to the magneticism of a product.

• Build a steep trajectory 

How fast can we get better?

In the era of the copy cat Louis Vuitton and ipod, ipad , mac’s wannabes by making every opportunity to improve  that unlocks even more demand and narrows the competition gap. 

Kaizen, the continuous improvement philosophy I feel is what this chapter is gearing towards,how incremental improvements  makes companies stronger and how companies can't afford to not implement Kaizen as every little improvement= better products= happier customers

• Deaverage 

Similar philosophy of creating creating great products and understanding what certain clusters of consumers want, need, have problems with instead of creating the PERFECT product for everyone outlined by Malcolm Gladwell and Howard Maskowitz, market researcher extraordinare and my new personal hero that democratized the food industry and changed the ways how companies think about what makes consumers happy.

6 million dollars lesson in marketing

I came across Malcolm Gladwell's video on Youtube talking about Howard Maskowitz important findings in the food industry that has revolutionized the way food industry caters to us, how we have more choices in food for eg 36 spaghetti sauce, 14 types of vinegar,10 types of olive oil.



The main idea out of his talk was instead of thinking what is the PERFECT product to create to cater to EVERYONE ,we should be focusing on understanding there are clusters of consumers that if we created GREAT products for them will make them happy= increase sales



He further illustrated his point by talking about Howard Maskowitz work with Pepsi &Prego(spagghetti sauce) and in his work with Prego he found out that consumers like the following spagghetti sace

1.plain

2. spicy

3. extra chunky


This was an important finding because at that time, there were no extra chunky spaghetti sauce in the market, no one was catering to this need and Prego had followed Howard's finding and cranked up production of extra chunky spaghetti sauce


Next 10 years,they made $6million out of the extra chunky spagghetti sauce


And this changed the way the food industry thinks about making consumers happy


1. Asking consumers what made them happy approach doesnt work because sometimes consumers arent able to articulate what they want

 2.Market segmentation theory that if we embrace the diversity of consumers wants/needs/preference we begin to think of how we can better meet their needs/wants/preference and make them happy.


So what does this real life $6 million dollar lesson hold for us?


Asking people what they want may not give us the easy answer to what they truly want if they themselves are unable to articulate their needs. In an era of fast cars, one click solutions understanding that consumers are not all the same changes the way companies operate.

Is reality tv the new art form?

Amongst my reality show fix of rachel zoe and real housewives of beverly hills which i am so addicted to is watching the so you think you can dance competitions

Its amazing to see the light in the dancer's eyes when they dance

and the fluidity of their movements and the clean lines when they do the splits in midair, or their interpretation of the music which accompanies their dance piece 

I love teddy tedholm's interpretation of the "dressed up prague" song by damien rice and with the somber black suit and tie, it was a  polar opposite of his first audition which was rather whimsical

And I'm absolutely loving the interpretation by "hitman" dancing to a thousand miles, the song was unexpected for me yet refreshing to see the joy in his eyes when he danced to it, hip hop style

The human body is a beautiful thing

sometimes when i'm twisted in a pretzel, the beauty of the human body through yoga always inspires me to find comfort in discomfort

Handstands and tax modules

If i had to sum up what 2011 was for me, i'd say it was a handstands and tax modules year for me, its like the "i dont like doing this,but I'm going to do this anyway".

I think i drew different lessons these 2 breakthroughs for me involved great teachers that probably taught me to take more risks and that if i'd ever hit a learning plateau,to keep striving forward by trying to learn something new every day.

Style profile of 2011

I find my personal style has continued to evolve over the years based on interesting style muses from movies especially after i watched girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy series and i heart noomi rapace look.

It is effortless chic with  attitude, kind of like karl lagerfeld's chanel muse alter ego and her look in the movie takes androgynous on a whole new level. its like a hard and soft contrast. the leather, spikes and piercings against her hairstyle,soft cotton shirts.

Absolutely love the emo boy look, and  I wonder when guys are going to drop the spiky hair that is like a "durian" hairstyle that looks like it was glued to their heads courtesy of styling products instead of a more relaxed emo boy look?

Eat to live not live to eat....

the person  that came out with that phrase was probably either:

a) a skinny chick that was on a diet all the time

b) a boring person that didnt enjoy life

c) health nut that thrived on exclusively juices, raw food and generally a spartan diet of no refined sugar, no bleached flour and yeah you get my drift...

As a ardent fan of iron chef, "diners, drive in and dives" ,I miss  italian food all the time and I tried Papa Gino's restaurant in Lygon Street and the food is to simple and to- die - for.

 the silky  surface of pasta combined with the rich bursty taste of margharita sauce with chunks of tomato

the earthy smell of a pizza fresh from a stone oven, the crackling of the pizza crust as you run a pizza cutter on it and especially if it's a thin crusted pizza, you'd feel the less guilty as you eat more slices

and tiramisu!! its the new black... um i mean the new chocolate.

the perfect toast to every small little success in life and the anthithesis to chocolate if you have a bad day