Sunday Morning Coffee

Sunday Morning Coffee: Matchups

May 13, 2012
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In sports, people often talk about the importance of matchups.  Size matchups, skill matchups, grit matchups.

In fact, any given sports team has a variety of strengths and weaknesses that together form the quality of the team.  Even though wins and losses are tracked to rank order teams, the fact of the matter is that the ‘best’ team is really just the team who matches up well against other teams more often than most.

The ‘best’ team can still easily lose to the worst performing team if the matchup works against them, which speaks to the power of matchups.

Oddly enough, the concept is rarely used outside the context of sports, even though it applies quite well to all relationships. Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: The Beauty of Uncertainty

April 29, 2012
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Theres nothing more boring than a sure thing.

Examine the various aspects of your life and our world: believe it or not you are constantly driven and motivated by  uncertainty.

If you enjoy sports, do you prefer to know the score before you watch or no?  If you like literature, do you prefer to know the plot before you read the book?  My guess is no.  Suspense is what makes things intriguing.

Life itself is made that much more precious because there is nothing certain about when it begins or when it will end.
Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: Persistence

April 22, 2012
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“Energy and persistance conquer all things”

~Benjamin Franklin

 It’s hard to ignore this quote when it comes from someone who was not just a founding father of our nation, but also one of the most well known figures in history.

Benjamin Franklin was a true variety junkie: he was an author, an inventor, a printer, a politician and more.

Franklin is most well known for discovering the conservation of electrical charge. Ironically, this quote could be about hard work or it could be about the importance of his discovery.

One way or another, Franklin’s resume suggests that he loved to try new things, and that he excelled at most of them.  Though I’m sure Ben was an exceptional, one of a kind person; keep in mind that you are too. Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: Fly a Kite

April 15, 2012
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There are some things that everyone has access to…whether you live at the bottom of the economic pyramid or the top.

As it turns out, those ‘things’ happen to be some of the most cherished by all.

Rich and poor alike play childhood games, learn about their own world, fall in love, grow old and teach the next generation.

Most of life’s big joys are shared.

In the same way, you can’t take away life’s little joys from the poor either.

If there is any difference between the laughter of children in the slums and those in San Francisco’s most sought after pre-schools, it’s the volume of it: slum kids have rich laughs.  Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: My Sister is Moving to Australia

April 1, 2012
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Yesterday, my sister (who just moved home from Prague and has the same wanderlust that I do) announced that she had received the opportunity of a lifetime and would be moving to Australia at the end of her semester.

I couldn’t believe it…mostly I was just mad because I can’t wait for her to be back here this summer.  Either way, I knew something wasn’t right, so I messaged her.

Her reply: “It’s already April over there!”

It still took a bit before it hit me: April Fools!!  Well done Megan…sneaky of you to start a day early.

While I can never quite come up with good April Fools jokes myself, it is one of my favorite holidays, especially because companies have adopted it: Every year Google pulls some funny prank; this year it was 8-bit maps.  Conan O’Brien took over Mashable today.  I love to see examples of humor used by companies. Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: Running on the Late Train

March 25, 2012
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I hate wasting time…and therefore I’m often late.  If I need to leave at 3pm, and I’m ready to go at 2:56, I won’t just leave early…instead I will find something I can get done in four minutes.  Sadly, I’m bad at time estimates and that usually means that I end up leaving late.

I also blame other life circumstances: I lived in Pakistan where being late is the norm, I went to UC Berkeley where classes actually start 10 minutes after the advertised time, and I grew up in a family of 7—one of the kids always caused us to be late (not me of course, haha).  The point is that I often find myself on the late train.

It took me years, but I finally figured out how to deal with these situations.  When you are late, your natural inclination is to stress out and rush.  It’s an instinctual reaction and it makes sense.  However, it can be ineffective.

The secret to relaxing during stressful situations is to recognize what is in your control and what isn’t. Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: Falling & Failing

March 18, 2012
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The other day I was watching an ice hockey game and the announcer said “And so & so just slipped and took a hard fall, but he’s popping right back up – falling is not a big deal for hockey players because it happens to them a hundred times a game.”

This got me thinking—how many times did I fall and have to pick myself back up again as a kid playing hockey?  I was never the best skater, except for the one summer when I somehow got put in a league with mostly kids two years younger than me (and that just isn’t fair when you’re 13), but even then falling was probably a specialty of mine.

I wonder if there is something that the act of physically falling—failing—does to the psyche of a person as they grow.  I think you learn that falling isn’t as bad as it seems.  It’s this kind of thing that gives a naïve young person the brash bold confidence of a seasoned veteran.  Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: Be a Zebra for your Friends

March 11, 2012
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Friendships spring up naturally, sometimes fade, and generally are thought of as a given.  Each of us have a few very close friends, many quasi-close friends, and then of course a billion facebook friends.

Friendships are important, sensitive and complex, but let’s remove all of those lenses for a moment and take a more corporate perspective—I think there are some important parallels.

Corporations exist because they solve a problem for their customers—a problem critical enough that people are willing to pay for it.  Literally, every day you wake up to a whole slew of problems:

A)     It’s not very fashionable to go naked, so you’ll need some clothes Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: I’m Worried

March 4, 2012
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Everyone is worried about something.

I know some of you are out there right now thinking “Nope…he’s wrong, I’m carefree as can be”.

Just admit it: something is making you the slightest bit nervous. Maybe it’s short term like whether it will be sunny tomorrow or maybe it’s long term like whether or not Mitt Romney will win the republican nomination.  You could even be worried by the fact that you know it’s almost time to do the laundry and that’s a pain (ok true story, my hamper is full).

We are all worried.

Though I was originally going to write this post about finding a way to relax, I don’t think it is truly possible. Read more »

Sunday Morning Coffee: Be Interested

February 26, 2012
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My favorite way to write this column is by settling in at my desk Sunday morning with my coffee and taking time to reflect on the week.  I think it allows me to share with you the thoughts racing around my mind and opinions that are fresh.  Here’s the story this week:

Just recently, I wrote a post titled, ‘I know, YOU don’t know’ about the 3 year old mentality that hides somewhere within all of us.  Today I want to talk about another personal mentality that is closely related.

Deep down, most of us have an ‘I’m the best’ mentality.  This isn’t actually a bad thing. In fact, a feeling of self-importance is a healthy source of confidence, values systems, and motivation, let alone self-preservation and survival.  Read more »

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