β
Whenever I am in a difficult situation where there seems to be no way out, I think about all the times I have been in such situations and say to myself, "I did it before, so I can do it again.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work β the most you will make is 5 dollars.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
If there is one trait that your brand must speak of, it is trust.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
Even though our time in this life is temporary, if we live well enough, our legacy will last forever.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
β
Your brand must communicate the value that you bring to a working relationship.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.
β
β
George Carlin
β
Today is a new day and it brings with it a new set of opportunities for me to act on.
I am attentive to the opportunities and I seize them as they arise.
I have full confidence in myself and my abilities.
I can do all things that I commit myself to.
No obstacle is too big or too difficult for me to handle because what lies inside me is greater than what lies ahead of me.
I am committed to improving myself and I am getting better daily.
I am not held back by regret or mistakes from the past.
I am moving forward daily.
Absolutely nothing is impossible for me.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
Your comfort zone is a place where you keep yourself in a self-illusion and nothing can grow there but your potentiality can grow only when you can think and grow out of that zone.
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
No one else knows exactly what the future holds for you, no one else knows what obstacles you've overcome to be where you are, so don't expect others to feel as passionate about your dreams as you do.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
If you want to keep your customers happy, start by keeping your employees happy.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
A business becomes successful when it becomes mutually beneficial for you and your customers.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
In the end, all we have to do is to be in the shoes of our audience and our product will hardly fail.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Speak with caution. Even if someone forgives harsh words you've spoken, they may be too hurt to ever forget them. Don't leave a legacy of pain and regret of things you never should have said.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Itβs bad for your business to refuse change when the technology is changing, but itβs worse for your business to fight the technology.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Remember, a business is not just your product. Itβs made up of many layers and all those other layers are also equally as important.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Your employees play an important role in writing the chapter on the success of your product.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
When you promise but donβt deliver, you start competing against yourself, against the image that you have built of your brand for your customers.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
A successful business is not built just on your expertise, it needs mastering of all the business pieces and maintaining the interconnection among them in a profitable and fruitful way.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
An effective ad brings long-term positive residual effects for your business.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Advertising is like a stock market for your business investment.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
If you want to have an effective ad, you need to work on communicating your message in the most effective way. Keep it clear, concise and non-confusing.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
When there is transparency, your employees are aware of how their work is contributing to the project which makes them become more committed to the project.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
If you want to safeguard your business against your own self, you have to learn what can lead to business failure and why.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Everything including your branding has to reinforce your message about your product.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Unrealistic profit projections are not going to win you the trust of your investors.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Youβre not in the business because you want to create value for yourselves.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Sometimes, you have to take your eyes off that sun and look at the picture as a whole, from a distance and see how they all fit together on one canvas.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
If you canβt build a team that loves your company and your product the way you do, youβre going to face a hard time bringing your idea to life.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Transparency when things are going well and even when things are going bad, keeps all your employees in the chain which makes them feel connected to the project even more.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Start paying more attention to your digital customer strategy. You donβt want any of your online actions to take a hit on your brand reputation.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
When a value is communicated well, it gives your potential customers an option to choose you over others and to stick to your brand.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Not just the organizational structure but the management style can also affect your business goals of success and growth.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Your employees shouldnβt be scared of being let go but you should be scared of them leaving you.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Your task should be to share the goals and some important instructions related to your brand image, rest how that project needs to be executed so that the goals are met is going to be your employeesβ task now.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
We always talk about competition and how easily others enter your industry and become your competitors, but the biggest threat comes from how easily your customers can switch to another brandβs products.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
For getting those customers, you need to first let them know about your business, your product and how your product is exactly what they are looking for. And for that very purpose, you have to advertise your product.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
In your career, even more than for a brand, being safe is risky. The path to lifetime job security is to be remarkable.
β
β
Seth Godin (Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable)
β
In addition to building a strong team, you also have to motivate that team when their spirits are down, show your pride in them when they perform well, and be there when they make mistakes. You have to invest in their training and start treating them as partners in your businessβ success.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
β
Your uniqueness is your greatest strength, not how well you emulate others.
β
β
Simon S. Tam
β
Your VISION and your self-willingness is the MOST powerful elements to conquer your goal
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
When it comes to your career, you must always try and allow the positive aspects of your character to dictate what happens to you. Be led by your talent, not by your self-loathing; those other things you just have to manage.
β
β
Russell Brand (My Booky Wook)
β
92% of respondents reported that a positive recommendation from a friend,
family member, or someone they trust is the biggest influence on whether they buy a product or service.
β
β
Paul M. Rand (Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business)
β
The key is to monetize your appearances so you donβt fall into the trap of having thousands of followers but no revenue. Itβs easy to be famous but broke.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Social media takes time and careful, strategic thought. It doesnβt happen by accident.
β
β
Brian E. Boyd Sr. (Social Media for the Executive: Maximize Your Brand and Monetize Your Business)
β
A professional headshot in front of a bookshelf says you're an intellectual. A professional headshot peeking though a bookshelf says you're probably under a restraining order.
β
β
Ryan Lilly
β
If you are in a position where you can reach people, then use your platform to stand up for a cause. HINT: social media is a platform.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
I assume you have a reason for manhandling my mate?β Cool words but his amusement was apparent.
βRiley likes Mercy,β she stage-whispered, trying to twist around to look at her mate. βBut she told him that hβoomph.β Riley set her on her feet without warning.
She swayed, but Judd's hands on her hips kept her upright. Pushing her hair off her face, she leaned into her sexy Psy mate and smirked at Riley. βSooo...β
βJudd.β Riley ignored her. βYou're obviously not interesting enough for my sisterβshe's got way too much time to poke her nose into other people's business.β
Judd wrapped his arms around her from behind, his chin on her hair. βI'm more interested in you and Mercy.
β
β
Nalini Singh (Branded by Fire (Psy-Changeling, #6))
β
Engaged employees are more productive, innovative, and committed to the company's success. They become passionate advocates for your brand and contribute to a positive work environment that attracts and retains top talent.
β
β
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (Board Room Blitz: Mastering the Art of Corporate Governance)
β
Being a rainmaker will have a direct impact on your bottom line and give you a lot more leverage to help the people you care about most.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Influencers are seen as thought leaders in their niche. They have privileged access to something everyone else wants: peoples attention.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Locking in your brand and pairing it with a coherent story is the first step to being a rainmaker.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
your business, and your brand must first let people know what you care about and that you care about them.
β
β
Donald J. Trump (Midas Touch)
β
When it comes to rain making that all followers are equally valuable. Some people have a lot more influence than others.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Without a clear recognition of your brand and a focus plan you can miss your mark in the middle of great success.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
The key is to use all the assets you have in establishing your brand: credentials experience and accomplishments.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
When you present your brand consistently people come to know what to expect from you and ultimately look to you for insights and leadership in your niche.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Simply put, we must show people the cost of not doing business with us.
β
β
Donald Miller (Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen)
β
Autumn is a momentum of the natures golden beautyβ¦, so the same itβs time to find your momentum of life
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
The More connections you make, the more engagement you elicit, the more value you bring. the more likely it is that your brand will be rewarded.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Try not to have a very small sample size. Because if your sample size is very small, you will end up excluding a lot of people from your studies who should form a part of it.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
A good survey design is very important for the success of your project. Make sure that you include a mix of open-ended as well as closed questions in it.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
Focus groups for business projects are kind of the same. In this, you are going to collect data from a group of your customers or potential customers rather than your friends.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
Keep learning more and more about your customers, your competitors, your brand, your target market, and business opportunities.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
The sample size is also going to depend on how well you can divide your target market into various groups. Make sure you take everything into consideration while forming your groups.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
Your traditional EDUCATION is not going to CHANGE your life but the life you are experiencing that can change you. Choose a POSITIVE life STYLE with positive ATTITUDE which could bring you a life with HAPPINESS and WISDOM
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
You ask me what it means to be irrelevant? The feeling is akin to visiting your old house as a wandering ghost with unfinished business. Imagine going back: the structure is familiar ,but the door is now metal instead of wood,the walls have been painted a garish pink ,the easy chair you loved so much is gone .Your office is now the family room and your beloved bookcases have been replaced by a brand-new television set . This is your house,and it is not. And you are no longer relevant to this house , to its walls and doors and floors ; you are not seen .
β
β
Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books)
β
Your every positive action in your life will increase your self-esteem and this self-esteem will boost you for more positive action to take you on success
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
How you think and create your inner world that you gonna become in your outer world. Your inner believe manifest you in the outside
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
Think big. Thatβs what making rain is all about.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
For your business to stand out and succeed, you have to put a primary focus on the social media space, go in big (halfway will not do), and do it better than most, right from the start.
β
β
Brian E. Boyd Sr. (Social Media for the Executive: Maximize Your Brand and Monetize Your Business)
β
If the research is done for brand awareness and the results don't show any rosy picture, then maybe you want to share those results with your marketing head who can include more brand awareness strategies in her marketing plan.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
You have to spend a lot of time with your customers and competitors to know whatβs going on in their lives. You donβt want to be the last one to know that your customersβ needs have changed and now they want to break up with your brand.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
Social media is your opportunity to reach a massive number of people with transparency, honesty, and integrity.
β
β
Brian E. Boyd Sr. (Social Media for the Executive: Maximize Your Brand and Monetize Your Business)
β
Choosing a narrow brand message gets you in the door.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Never before have you had the chance to build a personal brain like you can today.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Crafting a brain requires reflection strategic thinking and self-awareness.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
In todays 24/7 media cycles rainmakers are experts were not only visible in the media but who also leverage that media to build revenue, followers and influence
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
I was always taught them when youβre lucky enough to learn something or have some advantage you should share it.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
If you are not EXCITED enough at your present life its mean your future is not EXITING. Excitement will give you ENTHUSIASM and enthusiasm will give you a positive energetic LIFE STYLE which could give you a successful exiting lifeβ¦
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
My life after childhood has two main stories: the story of the hustler and the story of the rapper, and the two overlap as much as they diverge. I was on the streets for more than half of my life from the time I was thirteen years old. People sometimes say that now I'm so far away from that life - now that I've got businesses and Grammys and magazine covers - that I have no right to rap about it. But how distant is the story of your own life ever going to be? The feelings I had during that part of my life were burned into me like a brand. It was life during wartime.
β
β
Jay-Z (Decoded)
β
Start today creating a vision for yourself, your life, and your career. Bounce back from adversity and create what you want, rebuild and rebrand. Tell yourself it's possible along the way, have patience, and maintain peace with yourself during the process.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Past the flannel plains and blacktop graphs and skylines of canted rust, and past the tobacco-brown river overhung with weeping trees and coins of sunlight through them on the water downriver, to the place beyond the windbreak, where untilled fields simmer shrilly in the A.M. heat: shattercane, lamb's-quarter, cutgrass, sawbrier, nutgrass, jimsonweed, wild mint, dandelion, foxtail, muscadine, spinecabbage, goldenrod, creeping charlie, butter-print, nightshade, ragweed, wild oat, vetch, butcher grass, invaginate volunteer beans, all heads gently nodding in a morning breeze like a mother's soft hand on your cheek. An arrow of starlings fired from the windbreak's thatch. The glitter of dew that stays where it is and steams all day. A sunflower, four more, one bowed, and horses in the distance standing rigid and still as toys. All nodding. Electric sounds of insects at their business. Ale-colored sunshine and pale sky and whorls of cirrus so high they cast no shadow. Insects all business all the time. Quartz and chert and schist and chondrite iron scabs in granite. Very old land. Look around you. The horizon trembling, shapeless. We are all of us brothers.
Some crows come overhead then, three or four, not a murder, on the wing, silent with intent, corn-bound for the pasture's wire beyond which one horse smells at the other's behind, the lead horse's tail obligingly lifted. Your shoes' brand incised in the dew. An alfalfa breeze. Socks' burrs. Dry scratching inside a culvert. Rusted wire and tilted posts more a symbol of restraint than a fence per se. NO HUNTING. The shush of the interstate off past the windbreak. The pasture's crows standing at angles, turning up patties to get at the worms underneath, the shapes of the worms incised in the overturned dung and baked by the sun all day until hardened, there to stay, tiny vacant lines in rows and inset curls that do not close because head never quite touches tail. Read these.
β
β
David Foster Wallace (The Pale King)
β
Everyone from firefighters to sushi chefs who are experts in their fields can enter the mainstream conversation taking place on myriad media channels to voice their opinionβs and talk about their expertise.
β
β
Areva Martin (Make It Rain!: How to Use the Media to Revolutionize Your Business & Brand)
β
Sampling is directly dependent on your goal. If your goal is to increase your product quality, then you want to research those customers who have been using your products for quite some time. If you want to improve your first impression as a brand, then you can focus on those customers who are new to your brand.
β
β
Pooja Agnihotri (Market Research Like a Pro)
β
Before you can decide on your brand fonts, colors or imagery, let alone your messaging, you need to know who you're trying to attract first.
β
β
Amber Hurdle (The Bombshell Business Woman: How to Become a Bold, Brave Female Entrepreneur)
β
CONFIDENCE is not showing off your VANITY, itβs about to be HUMBLED and KIND to others what are you truly SKILLED and PROFESSIONAL aboutβ¦
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
Give yourself a great self-respect to know who you are then your confidence will shine on you
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
Brands that will survive and thrive from now on are those with C-level executives that understand the incredible opportunity new media offers them and commit to excellence in managing their social media presence.
β
β
Brian E. Boyd Sr. (Social Media for the Executive: Maximize Your Brand and Monetize Your Business)
β
Todayβs businesses canβt just use social media; they have to become social businesses, inside and out and from top to bottom. Ultimately, that is the goal of this book: to harness the power of being a social business to become the most highly recommended organization in your industry/category/niche.
β
β
Paul M. Rand (Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business)
β
Jobs and Clow agreed that Apple was one of the great brands of the world, probably in the top five based on emotional appeal, but they needed to remind folks what was distinctive about it. So they wanted a brand image campaign, not a set of advertisements featuring products. It was designed to celebrate not what the computers could do, but what creative people could do with the computers. " This wasn't about processor speed or memory," Jobs recalled. " It was about creativity." It was directed not only at potential customers, but also at Apple's own employees: " We at Apple had forgotten who we were. One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are. That was the genesis of that campaign.
β
β
Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs)
β
when you become addict in to MATERIAL things in life then the TRUE natural life start to run away from you, YES! it's can give you certain pleasure in the society but in the same time it will sabotage your true HAPPINESS of life which we could have simply with GRATITUDE and FORGIVENESS
β
β
Rashedur Ryan Rahman
β
So I got my stuff and the girl at the register puts these other things in my bag, too. Little free samples: gum and a comb and a marker pen. So I says to her, 'Look, girlie, I got false teeth and I wear a wig.' So she fishes back in my bag and takes out the comb and the gum. Left the pen in there. Anyways, I went back to the van, even though I knew it was locked. Figured I'd just wait and have a smoke. You can't smoke in the van, see? So while I'm waiting there, minding my own business, this car pulls into the handicapped space right next to us--brand-new car, white and clean, and it's got this bumper sticker on it that says, 'Life Is a Shit Sandwich.' Isn't that stupid? So this guy gets out--good-lookin' fella, in his twenties. I say to him, 'Hey, handsome, tell me something.' He takes a look at my walker and gets all panicky. 'I'm just running in for two seconds,' he says. See, he thinks I'm going to yell at him for parking in a handicapped space, but I ain't. I don't give a rat's ass about that, you see. I'd rather walk the extra ten feet than be called handicapped. Where was I?'
She amazed me. 'Life's a shit sandwich,' I said.
'Oh, yeah. Right. So that guy goes runnin' into the store and here's what I did. I fished that free pen out of the bag and marched right over there to that bumper of his. Got myself right down on the ground--and I wrote--just after the 'Life's a shit sandwich' part--I wrote, 'But only if you're a shithead.' 'Course, then I couldn't get myself back up again--had to yell over to a couple of kids at the phone booth to come pick me back up.
β
β
Wally Lamb
β
Glorious,' said Steerpike, 'is a dictionary word. We are all imprisoned by the dictionary. We choose out of that vast, paper-walled prison our convicts, the little black printed words, when in truth we need fresh sounds to utter, new enfranchised noises which would produce a new effect. In dead and shackled language, my dears, you *are* glorious, but oh, to give vent to a brand new sounds that might convince you of what I really think of you, as you sit there in your purple splendour, side by side! But no, it is impossible. Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia. Dead words defy me. I can make no sound, dear ladies, that is apt.' 'You could try,' said Clarice. 'We aren't busy.' She smoothed the shining fabric of her dress with her long, lifeless fingers. 'Impossible,' replied the youth, rubbing his chin. 'Quite impossible. Only believe in my admiration for your beauty that will one day be recognized by the whole castle. Meanwhile, preserve all dignity and silent power in your twin bosoms.
β
β
Mervyn Peake (Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1))
β
Eric had fang showing.
"Hello, Eric," Quinn said calmly. His deep voice rumbled along my spine. "Sookie, you look good enough to eat." He smiled at me, and the tremors along my spine spread into another area entirely. I would never have believed that in Eric's presence I could think another man was attractive. I'd have been wrong to think so.
"You look very nice, too," I said, trying not to beam like an idiot. It was not cool to drool.
Eric said, "What have you been telling Sookie, Quinn?"
The two tall men looked at each other. I didn't believe I was the source of their animosity. I was a symptom, not the disease. Something lay underneath this.
"I've been telling Sookie that the queen requires Sookie's presence at the conference as part of her party, and that the queen's summons supercedes yours," Quinn said flatly.
"Since when has the queen given orders through a shifter?" Eric said, contempt flattening his voice.
"Since this shifter performed a valuable service for her in the line of business," Quinn answered, with no hesitation. "Mr. Cataliades suggested to Her Majesty that I might be helpful in a diplomatic capacity, and my partners were glad to give me extra time to perform any duties she might give me."
I wasn't totally sure I was following this, but I got the gist of it.
Eric was incensed, to use a good entry from my Word of the Day calendar. In fact, his eyes were almost throwing sparks, he was so angry. "This woman has been mine, and she will be mine," he said, in tones so definite I thought about checking my rear end for a brand.
β
β
Charlaine Harris (Definitely Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #6))
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In a crisis, do not remain calm, do not look for the nearest exit, do not stick your head in the sand; do agitate, do make things worse, do run screaming through the street, and do refuse to return to business as usual. Business as usual is what created this mess in the first place. Business as usual has meant that businesspeople and corporate fat cats run/ruin the world and artists are out of luck; it has meant that education, spirituality, sexuality all must function on a business model and every attempt to make changes is greeted with a pragmatic question about whether changing things will also mean making money. Making money cannot be the goal of the new feminism. Putting women in positions of power is not what gaga feminism wants. What gaga feminism wants cannot be easily summarized, but it is not an independent bank account, not a profitable nonprofit; mama does not want a brand new bag. Mama wants revolution.
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J. Jack Halberstam (Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Queer Ideas/Queer Action))
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There is no greater suffering than constantly measuring yourself and coming up short, except perhaps the realization that your suffering is hurting others. But where do we learn these things? Because, really, they are learned. We don't come crying out of the womb because of our birth weight or because we have no money in this brand new world. We learn to measure and we learn to attach our self-worth to those measurements.
These patterns we're stuck in aren't just painful for us, they're also distracting us. Every day, the gap between rich and poor grows while the people of developed societies do nothing, because we are too busy worrying about looking good. We're distracted, but not because we've chosen to be. Being distracted by our illusory inadequacy keeps us from changing the world. And believe me, we all have the power to change the world. If we only make the time. If we only free some head space.
If you can't learn to love yourself for yourself (and how could you with such a paradoxical motivation?)... then do it for us. Do it for the world. We need you. We need your mind. We need your attention. We need your thoughts.
Change your focus, and you will (not can, but will) change the world. You already matter. You just have to realize it for yourself.
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Vironika Tugaleva
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Like our other needs, meaning is an inherent expectation. Its denial has dire consequences. Far from a purely psychological need, our hormonees and nervous systems clock its presence or absence. As a medical study in 2020 found, the "presence [of] and search for meaning in life are important for health and well-being." Simply put, the more meaningful you find your life, the better your measures of mental and physical health are likely to be.
It is itself a sign of the times that we even need such studies to confirm what our experience of life teaches. When do you feel happier, more fulfilled, more viscerally at ease: when you extend yourself to help and connect with others, or when you are focused on burnishing the importance of your little egoic self? We all know the answer, and yet somehow what we know doesn't always carry the day.
Corporations are ingenious at exploiting people's needs without actually meeting them. Naomi Klein, in her book No Logo, made vividly clear how big business began in the 1980s to home in on people's natural desire to belong to something larger than themselves. Brand-aware companies such as Nike, Lululemon, and the Body Shop are marketing much more than products: they sell meaning, identification, and an almost religious sense of belonging through association with their brand.
"That pressuposes a kind of emptiness and yearning in people," I suggested when I interviewed the prolific author and activist. "Yes," Klein replied. "They tap into a longing and a need for belonging, and they do it by exploiting the insight that just selling running shoes isn't enough. We humans want to be part of a transcendent project.
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Gabor MatΓ© (The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture)
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Every pregnancy results in roughly two years of lost menstruation. If you are a manufacturer of menstrual pads, this is bad for business. So you ought to know about, and be so happy about, the drop in babies per woman across the world. You ought to know and be happy too about the growth in the number of educated women working away from home. Because these developments have created an exploding market for your products over the last few decades among billions of menstruating women now living on Levels 2 and 3. But, as I realized when I attended an internal meeting at one of the worldβs biggest manufacturers of sanitary wear, most Western manufacturers have completely missed this. Instead, when hunting for new customers they are often stuck dreaming up new needs among the 300 million menstruating women on Level 4. βWhat if we market an even thinner pad for bikinis? What about pads that are invisible, to wear under Lycra? How about one pad for each kind of outfit, each situation, each sport? Special pads for mountain climbers!β Ideally, all the pads are so small they need to be replaced several times a day. But like most rich consumer markets, the basic needs are already met, and producers fight in vain to create demand in ever-smaller segments. Meanwhile, on Levels 2 and 3, roughly 2 billion menstruating women have few alternatives to choose from. These women donβt wear Lycra and wonβt spend money on ultrathin pads. They demand a low-cost pad that will be reliable throughout the day so they donβt have to change it when they are out at work. And when they find a product they like, they will probably stick to that brand for their whole lives and recommend it to their daughters.
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Hans Rosling (Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think)
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In the stillest hour of the night, as I lay half asleep, my seven selves sat together and thus conversed in whispers:
First Self: Here, in this madman, I have dwelt all these years, with naught to do but renew his pain by day and recreate his sorrow by night. I can bear my fate no longer, and now I rebel.
Second Self: Yours is a better lot than mine, brother, for it is given to me to be this madman's joyous self. I laugh his laughter and sing his happy hours, and with thrice winged feet I dance his brighter thoughts. It is I that would rebel against my weary existence.
Third Self: And what of me, the love-ridden self, the flaming brand of wild passion and fantastic desires? It is I the love-sick self who would rebel against this madman.
Fourth Self: I, amongst you all, am the most miserable, for naught was given me but odious hatred and destructive loathing. It is I, the tempest-like self, the one born in the black caves of Hell, who would protest against serving this madman.
Fifth Self: Nay, it is I, the thinking self, the fanciful self, the self of hunger and thirst, the one doomed to wander without rest in search of unknown things and things not yet created; it is I, not you, who would rebel.
Sixth Self: And I, the working self, the pitiful labourer, who, with patient hands, and longing eyes, fashion the days into images and give the formless elements new and eternal forms- it is I, the solitary one, who would rebel against this restless madman.
Seventh Self: How strange that you all would rebel against this man, because each and every one of you has a preordained fate to fulfil. Ah! could I but be like one of you, a self with a determined lot! But I have none, I am the do-nothing self, the one who sits in the dumb, empty nowhere and nowhen, while you are busy re-creating life. Is it you or I, neighbours, who should rebel?
When the seventh self thus spake the other six selves looked with pity upon him but said nothing more; and as the night grew deeper one after the other went to sleep enfolded with a new and happy submission.
But the seventh self remained watching and gazing at nothingness, which is behind all things.
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Kahlil Gibran
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THREE COMMUNICATION LESSONS FROM THE MOST FASCINATING BRANDS Β Β Β Β Β Β 1.Β Β Β Donβt focus on how you are similar to others, but how you are different. Leading brands stand out by sharpening their points of difference. The more clearly and distinctly a brand can pinpoint its differences, the more valuable it becomes. If a brand can carve out a very clear spot in peopleβs minds, the product or service ceases to be a commodity. As weβll see in Part II, different personality Advantages can be more valuable than similar ones. 2.Β Β Β Your differences can be very small and simple. The reality is, most products are virtually indistinguishable from their competitors. Yet a leading brand can build a strong competitive edge around very minor differences. Similarly, you donβt need to be dramatically different than everyone elseβyour difference can be minute, as long as it is clearly defined. The more competitive the market, the more crucial this becomes. 3.Β Β Β Once you βownβ a difference, you can charge more money. People pay more for products and people who add distinct value in some way. And just as customers pay more for fascinating brands, employers pay higher salaries for employees who stand out with a specific benefit. If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, your clients and customers will have a higher perceived value of your time and services if they can clearly understand why you are different than your competitors. The more crowded the environment, the more crucial these lessons become.
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Sally Hogshead (How the World Sees You: Discover Your Highest Value Through the Science of Fascination)