The Pursuit of Happiness: 15 Lessons to Keep in Mind

1. The only person that can ever truly make you happy is 

yourself. Stop depending on everyone else.
 

2. People lie, stuff happens. Don’t take it too personally.

3. Want people to think you’re amazing? Start believing you are, and then they will too.

4. Smiling is the ultimate anti-depressant. Smile and laugh out loud, it doesn’t look stupid, I promise. 

5. The world is never just black and white, right or wrong, one way or another. Try and see things from as many points of view as possible. 

6. "Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final"
— Rainer Maria Rilke
 

7. Have empathy.

8. Gossip, problems of the past, events you cannot control, negative thoughts and negative people; time spent on these is time poorly wasted. 

9. When you're jealous or find yourself filled with hate for someone/something, stop. The only person its hurting is you.

10. Although the newest, most expensive material things may make you feel as if you’re a better person, they won’t hold you at night or listen to you when you need it. Make sure your priorities make sense.

11. Step outside your comfort zone- it’s when you’ll really feel alive.

12. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, the people who really matter, don’t mind

13. Let your emotions out sometimes, humans have them for a reason.

14. Celebrate the things you have. Think only positively of the things you don’t (but would like to have) and they too will come.

15. Love unconditionally ♥.

10 things we learn from Rachel Zane from SUITS

Even though we’re in the midst of a moving, shaking and gender gap-fighting generation of ladies who refuse to back down and accept the status quo, women in the workplace have it hard.

Here are 10 things we learn from Rachel Zane from SUITS.

1. You don’t have to accept anyone’s definition of you

People will  always form preconceived
notions about you. Maybe it’s the town you grew up in, your last name, your family’s high profile business or your dad’s affiliation to one of the most senior ranking law firms on the coast.
Whatever it is, people will think that they know you and because of that, they’ll make judgments on your character, your career and your choices.
The beauty of being a woman in today’s society (and hell, just being a person in general), is that you don’t have to live in line with anyone’s preconceived ideas of who you are.

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2. The path that’s well-traveled isn’t the path for everyone

You don’t have to follow the yellow brick road all the way to the career of your dreams. Chances are you’ll wind up in an office where nearly all of your colleagues traveled many a road to get where they are today—some don’t even have a clue how they got there.
Find what you’re passionate about and let that stick. Just because you didn’t get into the grad school program of your choice doesn’t mean you won’t still make it in this industry.

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3. You can be a woman and a professional

Sometimes it’s too easy to feel like you need to check the things that make you a woman at the door when you’re walking into a big meeting with clients. Spoiler alert! You don’t. It’s that consideration, concern and respect for people that make you a better professional because you’re a woman.
So don’t worry about getting attached to your employees or offering up a shoulder to cry on when a colleague has a bad day. The ability to empathize, sympathize and relate only make you more versatile.

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4. Don’t be afraid of your intelligence

It’s so easy to fall back into that assumed “bossiness” that has defined an era of women, but guess what? Owning your intelligence doesn’t push you into one box or the other. Instead, it keeps you from fitting neatly into any box.
At any level and in any industry, your intellect should be celebrated. Don’t be ashamed to put those book smarts on display – you’ve earned it.

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5. It’s okay to have a secret (or two)

We all have secrets. Sometimes they’re big ones and other times, they’re little ones – but more important than their size is the fact that they belong to us. They’re not meant to be put on display for judgment; they’re not fodder for public opinion.
Our secrets are our stories. They’re where we’ve come from, where we’re going, or maybe where we’ll never, ever go again; they’re where we keep our hopes and dreams; where we harbor the things that have hurt us, the things we’re scared of, the things we’re proudest of. And so long as they’re ours, they don’t have to be anyone else’s.

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6. Stand up for yourself

One of the hardest lessons you’ll learn in the office and out in the real world is how to stand up for yourself.
It’s easy to be pushed to the sidelines and to let people do the talking for you, but as a woman making it in a man’s world, you have to remember that you are your own advocate. So be your own advocate.

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7. If at first you don’t succeed, keep trying

Life is a game of wins and losses, so missing the mark on the first try shouldn’t be enough of a deterrent to keep you from trying again. You’re going to fail. You’re going to screw up. You won’t always get it right the first time you try, and you may not know all the answers the first time they call your name.
Guess what? It’s normal not to know everything – and it’s okay to screw up, to not get it right on the first try, to not always know the answers. The beauty is in knowing that you can screw up.

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8. Women can be fierce co-workers and friends

Want to be bossy, be the boss, wear the pants and still get along with your co-workers?
The good news is that many of the horror stories you’ve heard of women clawing their way up the corporate ladder at the expense of their female peers are probably wrong. You can expect the most from your feminine colleagues, push them harder than you’ve ever pushed before and still invite each other out for a drink once the workday is done.
It’s no longer all or nothing when it comes to getting along with your female employees.

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9. Your parents’ story doesn’t have to be yours

You don’t have to walk in the same footsteps as mom and dad and you don’t have to want everything that they want for you either. It’s okay to stray from the road that you know so well – especially if your story is destined to take you different places anyways.

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10. You can have it all

No matter what your version of “having it all is”, if you work hard enough for it, work long enough for it and put enough “oomph” behind it, you can get it, you can have it; it can be yours.
There’s no reason you shouldn’t have the high profile gig in New York, the London flat, the grad program of your dreams and still have the cross-country boyfriend; you can have the 9-9 and a family, the dream and the reality.
And don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

4 Life Lessons we Learned from MIKE ROSS of SUITS

Harvey Specter from “Suits,” is among the most evocative characters to personify the powerful, charming, ambitious, successful businessman.

He knows how to play the game and he knows how to get what he wants. He’s not afraid of a knife fight and he’s not afraid of fighting fair when the enemy’s fair, too.

However, the character of Mike Ross, is equally — if not more — interesting (although less explored). Resonating with a lot of Gen-Y’s entrepreneurs, he’s ambitious and intelligent, although a bit naive and makes the occasional mistake.

He gives value to his emotions, he attacks usual problems in unexpected ways and he overcomes obstacles to complete any task at hand.
Here are four points We’ve learned from Mike Ross:

1. Mistakes are fine.

Nobody’s perfect and Mike Ross perfectly exemplifies it. He makes mistakes. When the facts he obtains from his eidetic memory don’t allow him to forecast bad surprises, or when he wants to compromise his or Harvey’s winning position in order to help someone, he sometimes screws up. This happens to all of us in life.

However, when Mike makes a mistake, he always finds ways to recover and come out on top. Naturally, just like in the real world, this isn’t always possible.

In today’s world, where we always strive for perfection and don’t cut ourselves any slack, Mike’s character teaches us a valuable lesson: It’s not all over just because you made a mistake. Learn from it; grow stronger; become better.

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2. Always be fact-oriented.

Mike displays the importance of objective facts. The fact that he has an eidetic memory and can recall any fact, number, sentence or even document, provides for interesting twists in the show.

However, the crucial lesson is this: You need facts. Be it to defend a position, to make a claim or to defend yourself from a claim, you must always reference real information. Especially in the business world, it’s easy to make claims, to have ideas and to try approaches without validating them with real, cold-hard data.

Mike’s character, with his eidetic memory, reminds us of just how important facts are, especially when the stakes are high and the margin for error is low. Everything you say is more valuable when it’s verifiably true.

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3. Have fun and enjoy the ride.

In the world of business, especially when the stakes are high, it’s easy to become stressed, worn out, jaded. Well, it’s important that we enjoy the process, too. The hard parts will be hard and the easy ones will be easy, but at the end of the day, we still need to do all of them.
Mike is a good example of how we should all strive to enjoy the ride. He plays to win and he’s not afraid to take risks. But, he never becomes tired or affected by situations. When the team is victorious, he celebrates, and when they’re in trouble, he stops to think about how to overcome the obstacles.

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4. Win or lose, loyalty trumps everything.

On “Suits,” Mike doesn’t always win. Most of the time, him and Harvey win brilliantly, but sometimes, they crash spectacularly. Still, regardless of the outcome, they always stick together.

When someone betrays Harvey, it’s a betrayal to Mike, as well. Just as when someone does a good thing for one, it’s a good thing for the other, too.


The Harvey and Mike team sticks together through good and bad. Even in situations where Mike goes behind Harvey’s back to try an unapproved strategy or because Mike thinks Harvey’s wrong, the two work toward a common goal, and they stick together in the end.

5 ways to create an inspiring workplace

Gone are the days when employers can sit back and suck blood from their employees,

confident that the minions should be grateful just to have a job in such a glorious institution.

It’s competitive out there. If you want to attract and keep the best talent (and the best talent wins in any business), you need to be offering inspiration and fulfilment in the workplace.

You’re asking someone with perhaps many options to choose your company for their financial security and their family’s livelihood; their professional aspirations, hopes and dreams, and what might well be the single biggest contributor to their sense of worth and self-esteem.

You’re asking them to not just show up and go through the motions, but to bring every bit of drive and creativity and tenacity and awesomeness, every day. And if they’re inspired and fulfilled, then they will bring it, and a whole lot more.

Here are five ideas that we’ve applied in our business:

 

1. Share your vision

 

This is where it all starts. For your team to be inspired, they need to know what your vision for the company is, what you stand for and where you’re headed.

So get your vision documented – real and direct is better than elaborate and full of cliches. But it’s no good just sitting tucked away in your secret business plan.

Print it out in a big fat poster and stick it on the wall. Then work with each person to see where they fit in the master plan.

Inspired by a Seth Godin blog, we recently asked each person to describe what they actually did, in one sentence, in their own words. Not their job title, but what they brought to the team, customers or suppliers. This has proven to be more relevant than job descriptions which stretch to three pages.

With this clarity, find a measure that is relevant to each person and their contribution to the vision, and set goals around that – the simpler this is, the more effective it will be.

Reward the reaching of this goal. Think about rewards that validate significance and acknowledge individual commitment and effort to their peers – sometimes a little reward with a lot of acknowledgement and celebration can go a long way towards fulfilment, without inciting too much destructive competitiveness.

Think carefully before setting individual monetary rewards: you can quickly unravel a team dynamic this way. It’s a fine balance. We go for shared bonuses across the whole team for achieving company goals, and non-monetary rewards for individual achievement.

 

2. Open the lines of communication

 

More is more; not necessarily more meetings, but more effective communication. There’s a lot of bashing of meetings these days, but poor communication can be far worse than time wasting.

We actually have a lot of meetings because we’re big collaborators, but they’re on a “need to” basis, with a single agenda point most of the time. If it can be a stand-up meeting, it is, but if we have to lock ourselves in a room for half a day to really nut out some solutions, then we’re not afraid to do that either.

But it’s not just what’s going on that’s important to communicate. How are you feeling? Any big wins last week? What did you achieve? Any challenges or obstacles? What needs to happen to solve them? What is your focus for this week?

These are questions we ask of every person every week, through a nifty app called 15Five. You can plug in your organisational chart and a weekly report is automatically delivered to your managers and team leaders, giving them a great understanding on what is happening in their teams and stimulate conversation.

For us, it means nothing festers until the next performance review, people feel like they are being listened to, and we can address any people issues quickly and effectively. I highly recommend it.

 

3. Create a great space

 

The physical space that is your workplace, though prosaic, is important. You don’t have to have a funky Dropbox warehouse funhouse, but you should make an effort to create a welcoming and inspiring space.

This is about more than just bean bags and ping-pong tables (although a good coffee machine rarely goes amiss). It is about light, space, colours and configuration.

There are very few instances where boxed-in cubicles are inspiring. Isolation is rarely as productive as collaboration, so think about how people are positioned and how they work together. And shared breakout spaces should be reinvigorating, not just functional.

Giving someone the freedom to make a space work for them can be game-changing for their validation and their positivity. It’s the little things that make a big difference, so why not let your people create the workspaces that they feel comfortable in? Involving your team will also get you real buy-in – a sense of ownership. At Vinomofo, we created a volunteer workplace task force.

 

4. Have a balance of freedom

 

We’ve learned the hard way that a good culture is about balance. “Work smart not hard” is a dangerous place to be. “Work smart and hard” makes for a better culture.

It’s nice to think that starting at 8am or 9am shouldn’t be necessary, or that you can really only focus productively for four hours a day. But we found that rocking in to work whenever you want can foster sloppiness in other areas, and creates resentment from the rest of the team who do put in the hours.

It’s so important that everyone feels that the people around them are committed to giving their best, all the time.

As an employer, if we trust that someone is committed, we’re happy to extend whatever flexibility and freedoms they require to make their work life work for their home life. I don’t care if that means taking time out to get a haircut at 2pm on a Tuesday. But you can’t take advantage of this flexibility. It’s give and take. We don’t want to ask someone to work back the next day to catch up; we want them to want to.

We don’t encourage remote working as a rule – it’s a poor substitute for the high fidelity of face-to-face team collaboration, and it’s hard to build a cohesive culture when people aren’t together. Occasionally is fine, but unless you need it because you can’t get the talent where you’re physically located, get your team together.

 

5. Have fun

 

You cannot overvalue the power of laughter in the workplace. At Vinomofo, we’ve got a bit of a meme thing going on in our internal communications, and they get hysterical. It’s a small thing, but it has become part of our DNA.

Happiness is the key to everything, right? And happiness at work comes from the satisfaction of knowing you’re a part of something special, you’re giving it your all, you’re kicking goals, and you’re having fun doing it.

 

The 6 Things We Can Learn From Harvey Specter From ‘Suits’

The 6 Things We Can Learn From Harvey Specter From ‘Suits’

Most of us aspire to make something of our lives. We go to school and mindlessly listen to our teachers about what they believe is the best path for us to achieve success. Most of the time they encourage us to graduate college, get a job working for a big corporation and climb the corporate ladder.

Well my friends, it’s 2014. It’s time you take life into your own hands. No need to listen to teachers who never made it, yet want to tell you how to become successful. Take lessons from those, both real and fictional, who have actually been successful in their respective fields.

A great mentor that we can all learn something from is ‘Suits’ man, Harvey Specter. Harvey is a respected lawyer, known as ‘the best closer in New York City.’ As one of the main characters and partners in the law firm, Harvey proved to us that with certain talents and an ability to think outside the box, you can achieve a lot of success. Here are the lessons we can learn from Harvey Specter.

You will live a dull and boring life if you do not take risks.

Risk taking is a crucial factor to any person’s success. One’s ability to take calculated risks coupled with a little bit of luck can catapult anyone’s career from dull and boring, to eventful and exciting. Risks are a necessary part of life, and they bring a certain adrenaline rush to our lives. 

Of course, it is important that you understand the kind of risk you are taking because if you are blindly taking on risk without taking into consideration the consequences of your actions, you might be setting yourself up for disaster.

Playing by the rules will get you nowhere.

Social rules are enforced in order to regulate the flow of everyday actions we, as a society, take. At times these regulations may seem to hold us back more than they actually help us. It is important to understand that all rules are meant to be broken, especially when following the rules may prove to be a hindrance to achieving your goals.

Now, we’re not saying go crazy and break all the rules, but don’t be afraid to bend them if times call for you to do so. Just as you have thought about bending the rules so, has your competition. Don’t be the one left behind because you want to be a good Samaritan, while your competition is crushing you because they are cutting corners and getting the upper hand every chance they get.

Your appearance is just as important as your talent.

The first thing people realize when meeting you for the first time is the way you are dressed. Many may overlook this little detail; however, your appearance is crucial to your success. This is so because the way you present yourself has a direct correlation to the way people perceive you. You want people to take you seriously from the moment they meet you, to the moment they sign the check. It makes it easier to earn your client’s trust and eventually, their business if they feel that they can take you seriously.

 Know your competition inside and out.

When people believe in themselves, they begin to overlook certain tasks that will help them get an advantage. This means that they’re full of themselves, and in the long run, this will turn out to hurt them. No detail is too small, and no task is too menial, especially when it comes to your competition.

Life is a game of chess, and it is important to give yourself an advantage by staying a few steps ahead of the competition. Learn about your competitors and understand the moves they’ll be making before they do so. This is the only way you will be able to have the upper hand and eventually crush the the competition when the time is right.

Just because you’re a rookie doesn’t mean you have to think like one.

When entering a new industry, people usually feel intimidated by veterans just because they are new to the industry. Do not let your lack of experience hold you back. Learn from the best, and eventually, you will surpass them. Keep an open mind when it comes to being criticized. 

Although we like to think we know it all, it is important to soak up as much information from those around you as possible. Just because you’re a rookie doesn’t mean you can’t have a creative mind and think like a veteran.

Don’t announce the problem; fix it.

We live in such a fast-paced society, constrained by the hands of time. Time is never on our side, and deadlines always seem to come faster than expected. On the road to completing your projects prior to the due date, you will come across many problems. No one has time to listen to you complain about problems. You are in this position for a reason.

Your superiors felt that you were the best candidate to complete the task at hand, and this includes any problems that may occur during the project. It is important that you learn to fix the problems, instead of wasting your time explaining problems to your superiors.