Recently in Made me Think Category

or "How to find your niche", "How to be happy in business" and "The best career advice ever"

The first time I heard about this concept was from Anita Borg Institute website. It is a very useful article by Jo Miller, about finding your career niche, where she has mentioned the "hedgehog" concept. Just recently, I have rediscovered Tina Seelig's book and talks. And her talk entitled "Career Advice: Interests, Skills and Market" explains the idea in a short and funny way:

The original concept of the hedgehog was articulated by Jim Collins in his book - Good to Great:

So how do you create your own hedgehog? Start by drawing a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles and fill in appropriately. Here is my illustration of the idea:

Try it out! Find your sweet spot! And please, share with me anything that is as cool as this and I will share it with everyone! :) Here are some more related interesting links:

• Jim Collins' videos and audios on the "hedgehog" concept
• "The Entrepreneur's Hedgehog" [article] and "How to be happy in business" [article]
• The Hedgehog Concept For Success Online [video] by Gideon Shalwick

One of the best motivational video I have ever seen:

I catch myself in similar situations many times... Think I'm doing better now though. And of course my supervisor's comment to go back to studies... Supportive as well :)

Thanks to Twitter, while surfing the web, I have landed on a video recording of a very interesting, useful and inspiring webinar by Leo Babauta and Jennifer Gresham! Glad to share the notes I took.

TIPs to make your life happier and more fulfilled:

1. Understand the difference between "interest" and "passion":
   • Interests: Something that you enjoy doing, but you don't think about it all the time
   • Passion: Something that you wanna learn about, talk about, read about more and more! Answer it yourself: How many books have you read about this topic in the last month?
2. Understand if your passion is a career material or just a hobby:
   • Career passion should give you self-pride and motivation to keep going.
   • Make sure that your career passion does not involve anti-passions (stuff that you don't like doing).
   • Do your personality and strengths align with your career passion? (Do you have skills/strengths that your career requires? Can you develop them? Are you willing to do that?)
3. You can craft lots of different careers around your passion! And combine 2-3 passions in your career.
4. In order to find your perfect career choice:
   • Go wild and start the iteration process. Answer these questions:
     1. Does this career meet my definition of success? Why or why not?
     2. Does it fit my passion, personality and strengths? Why or why not?
   • For new graduates - get out there, pick something and try it out.
   • Look for a mentor!
   • Understand your priorities. (Flexibility? Travelling opportunities?)
5. Do something challenging everyday to give yourself a boost of confidence: "If you are not doing anything that does not have a risk of failing, than you are not challenging yourself enough" - Jennifer Gresham.
6. Make sure you have a community that supports and encourages you.

Related Links

1. The originar webinar is on zenhabits.net.
2. Jennifer Gresham's online career academy.
3. Jennifer Gresham's blog.

Do you think that you are super busy and don't actually have time for proper recreational activities, gym, books (and other stuff that you "should do at one point", but don't really want to do right now and will try to procrastinate as much as possible). You are most probably wrong.

The thing is that we all choose to spend too much of our time on unimportant and less rewarding activities, like watching TV, social networking and maybe just pointlessly surfing the web... It is just normal human nature.

Think... If you are not happy with that and want a change, then it is time to reevaluate your time management and make better choices. I promise, it is going to help you feel better, healthier and more confident in yourself!

Stop whining and good luck!

I've finally read The Alchemist! I would definitely recommend it to everyone :)

Sometimes we get over worried about our wasted time :X
That cartoon for kids shows how we should not try to save time on important things like SLEEPING. Contact me if you want subtitles for it.

Hmm... I don't remember myself searching for motivation before, I didn't have time to think about it and everything was just perfect. Now, I thought that the problem is in lack of motivation, but no, I have a huge list that should motivate me, but nothing happens...

What I've just realized is - stop searching for motivation, start acting! You are going to gain it, as you proceed.

Read lots of post talking about how comparing yourself to other people is bad and not right thing to do. I think that actually it is not so bad. If you think that someone is better at something - don't get discouraged! If you think that you are ahead - don't put yourself up too much... Yes, be yourself and strive for better! Competition is a way for a progress!

Are you an "orange" or "R"?

Looking through my notes, I found a price of paper with a huge black bold letter R printed on it and a memory of an inspirational lesson I've learned came to my mind. It happened a couple of years ago, when I was senior Bachelors student in Middle East Technical University in Turkey. I've been taking a Professional Development course and our prof asked us to bring one "orange" and one "R" for next class.

An "orange" is easy part - everybody was able to find it from any local grocery store, but an "R" is a different story... We've ended up having a couple of kilos of oranges and lots of different "R"s - written with every possible colour on any possible paper (actually even any possible material) with every possible writing/drawing tool, printed out, cut from different things, sewed, knitted, stitched, sticked..

After mixing all of them together in one bag, our prof asked us to find items that we brought. I've found my "R" pretty quickly, but which of these oranges is my?! o.O

Now, the question is - are you an "orange" - same as everyone, not having anything that makes you stand out from the rest, or are you an "R" - which has unique features and easily recognizable? That's applies to everything - when you send your CV and cover letter for a job offer - make it stand out, make it unique, like your "R"... Good luck, R's!