What Should I Do Next with My Life? New Ways to Define Success

What Should I Do Next with My Life? New Ways to Define Success

Sep 24, 2013 

Wharton professor G. Richard Shell‘s new book, Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success, encourages readers to embrace major transitions in life, from college to a first job, from one career to the next or from work to retirement. Based on a popular course Shell teaches at Wharton, the book departs from the conventional “how to succeed” formula by challenging readers to define success for themselves.

An edited version of the transcript appears below.

Knowledge@Wharton: You are well known for your work in negotiation and persuasion, so why write a book about success?

Shell: It’s been a long journey. The materials on success actually preceded the materials on negotiation and persuasion. I’ve been interested in success since I was in my 20s, and it also feeds into a passion I have in my teaching to help students and executives bring more self awareness to their career choices, whatever they are. The subject of success allows me to do that directly. Read more of this post

How to keep your indie soul; it can be a challenge for small, independent brands to maintain their spirit as they expand

September 25, 2013 4:25 pm

How to keep your indie soul

By Ian Sanders

Independent mindset: Dorian Waite of restaurant Honest Burgers

It is Monday lunchtime in London’s Soho and there is a line of people waiting outside Honest Burgers on Meard Street. There is plenty of choice for a lunchtime burger in Soho but Honest, a three-restaurant business that launched in Brixton market in 2010, is popular. The business seeks to differentiate itself through an independent spirit; having worked for chain restaurants in the past, co-founder Dorian Waite says he is striving for a different approach. “A lot of big businesses seem happy to deceive their customers,” he says. “Everything’s built around making money, not giving people what they want. We felt there was an opportunity to turn that on its head.” Read more of this post

Ben Graham: The Einstein of Money

Ben Graham: The Einstein of Money

by ValueWalk StaffSeptember 24, 2013

In 1934, Benjamin Graham revolutionized the investment world with the publication of his book Security Analysis. “The Value Bible,” as modern investors affectionately call it, contained Graham’s accumulated wisdom from years of evaluating and expertly buying/selling stocks in an unprecedented, but radically successful, manner. In fact, Graham defied all contemporary investing strategies in such a way that Warren Buffet, cited as the third richest man in the world, would credit Graham as the predominant influence on his investment strategy in an article published over 70 years after Security Analysis. Read more of this post

A massive statue of Buddha believed to be over 1,000 years old was shown to the media for the first time at the Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province

2013-09-25 19:48

1,000-year-old Buddha open to public

Baek Byung-yeul

Tourists take photos of the “Maebul” or the rock-carved standing Buddha at the Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. The temple unveiled the ninth-century statue prior to the opening of the 2013 Tripitaka Koreana Festival, which kicks off today for 46 days.
/ Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

HAPCHEON, South Gyeongsang Province — A massive statue of Buddha believed to be over 1,000 years old was shown to the media for the first time Wednesday at the Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. The temple, which also keeps the “Tripitaka Koreana,” a 13th-century collection of Buddhist texts recorded on 80,000 woodblocks, and listed as a UNESCO Cultural Heritage, will unveil the statute to the public from Thursday to Nov. 10 to promote its annual “Tripitaka Koreana Festival.”
The sculpture, carved on a spread of rock located deep behind the temple complex, has been accessed only by monks since its creation in the 9th century, perhaps around the time when Haeinsa was built during the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-935 A.D.). It’s one of the country’s largest “maebul,” or rocked-carved standing Buddha statues, measuring 7.5-meters in height and 3.1 meters in width, and is a designated national treasure. “The Cultural Heritage Administration has been strictly limiting pedestrian access to the 2.7-kilometer trail (on the slopes of Mt. Gaya) that connects the statue with the temple. Permission for public access is temporary and only between 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” said an official from the temple. “The trail has been protected as a revered place for monks who regularly visit the statue for prayer, so we would like to request visitors to be extra considerate. There will be security guards placed around the statue and Haenisa monks will serve as guides.” The Tripitaka Koreana Festival, which was inaugurated in 2011, offers a variety of cultural events that organizers say can be enjoyed by all people. Tickets cost 4,000 won for children, 6,000 won for middle and high school students and 8,000 won for adults. It will open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, call (055) 211-6251 or visit its official English webpage at www.tripitaka-festival.com/english.do.

Jesus was the world’s first tweeter: Vatican

Jesus was the world’s first tweeter: Vatican

Wednesday, September 25, 2013 – 22:26

AFP

ROME – Jesus Christ was the world’s first tweeter because his pronouncements were “brief and full of meaning”, Vatican cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said Wednesday. Christ “used tweets before everyone else, with elementary phrases made up of fewer than 45 characters like ‘Love one another'”, said Ravasi, the Vatican’s equivalent of a culture minister. “A bit like in television today, he delivered a message through a story or a symbol,” Ravasi said at a conference with Italy’s leading newspaper editors. The cardinal emphasised the importance of clergy making full use of modern-day computer technology. “If a cleric, a pastor is not interested in communication, they are defying their duty,” he said. The Vatican has stepped up its presence on the Internet in recent years, initially under Benedict XVI and now under Pope Francis, who has more than three million followers on Twitter in English alone. Francis has also resorted to more traditional media, cold-calling ordinary faithful who have written to him and writing lengthy letters on religious issues that have appeared in the Italian press.

The Benefits of Negative Feedback

The Benefits of Negative Feedback

by John Butman  |   9:00 AM September 16, 2013

I recently gave a lunchtime “author’s talk” at Children’s Hospital in Boston and, although I thought the talk went well, somebody in the audience didn’t like it at all. On the evaluation form, the person in question wrote a single word in the comment box: CONFUSING. Thank you, whoever you are. While everybody else gave me good marks and said nice things, which I appreciated, my critic forced me into self-examination. Was he the only one forthright enough to speak up, or was he the only one not paying enough attention to get it? What was confusing? The ideas? The presentation? Read more of this post

How The Founders Of Warby Parker Disrupted The Eyewear Industry By Going Against Their Original Idea

How The Founders Of Warby Parker Disrupted The Eyewear Industry By Going Against Their Original Idea

KAMELIA ANGELOVA AND ROBERT LIBETTI SEP. 25, 2013, 3:47 PM 2,248 1

This is the eighth post of the “Inspired to Strive” series, in which business leaders share their stories of success. “Inspired to Strive” is sponsored by CIT. See more posts in the series »

When Neil Blumenthal and his friends started Warby Parker, they wanted to disrupt the optical industry. But they never expected to do it so quickly. In three years, Warby Parker has built a recognizable brand with over 300 employees managing a successful online business and retail stores and showrooms in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Despite the fast-changing company dynamics, the four co-founders – Andrew Hunt, Jeffrey Raider, David Gilboa and Blumenthal – came up with ways to keep each other in check, and to make sure they made collective decisions about the direction of the company. We interviewed Blumenthal about the strategies his team used to get exposure and expand the company, and how betting against their original idea about an online-only business has paid off tremendously.

13 Everyday Phrases That Actually Came From Shakespeare

13 Everyday Phrases That Actually Came From Shakespeare

CHRISTINA STERBENZ SEP. 25, 2013, 11:20 AM 16,428 8

Just the mention of William Shakespeare makes some people cringe. Even I’ll admit his writing seems daunting at times. Whether a fan or not though, you probably use many of Shakespeare’s phrases on a regular basis. Here’s a list of 13 popular, albeit strange, sayings The Bard coined. In fact, we say or write some of these so often, they’ve become clichés.

1. “Green-eyed monster”

Meaning: jealousy.

In “Othello,” Iago describes jealousy as a monster which devours its source.

“Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on” (Act 3, Scene 3).

In this case, Iago uses romance as an example. He thinks a man would rather know his wife is cheating than suspect her without proof. Read more of this post

Why Ferrari Chief Has Mellowed; Montezemolo’s Passion Is Still There, but He Takes a Philosophical Approach

September 25, 2013, 4:55 p.m. ET

Why Ferrari Chief Has Mellowed

Montezemolo’s Passion Is Still There, but He Takes a Philosophical Approach

JOSHUA ROBINSON

Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo in the team’s pit during the third practice session of the Italian Grand Prix at the Monza circuit on Sept. 7.

MARANELLO, Italy—For the past 22 years, a third of the company’s history, Ferrari SpA has been in the hands of chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. A successful, outspoken businessman who is often mentioned in discussions of high-level Italian politics—but hasn’t held public office—he is about as close as you can get to Italian royalty these days. But Formula One is still in his blood. Montezemolo, after all, was appointed Ferrari’s sporting director in 1974 by Enzo Ferrari himself. And, during his tenure, the team won two world titles. Now, from his office overlooking a constant parade of supercars, he isn’t quite as obsessed as he was. There was a time, he said, where he could only think, “If Ferrari comes second, it’s a disaster. It’s a disaster! We are obliged to win.” Read more of this post

Kansetsu Hashimoto’s Chinese rebellion: From the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867), Japanese art began to shift its fundamental cultural orientation from China to Europe

Kansetsu Hashimoto’s Chinese rebellion

BY MATTHEW LARKING

SEP 25, 2013

A detail of Kansetsu Hashimoto’s ‘Southern Country’ (1914) | HIMEJI CITY MUSEUM OF ART

From the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867), Japanese art began to shift its fundamental cultural orientation from China to Europe. Kansetsu Hashimoto, however, (1883-1945) initially abjured, and this had much to do with his upbringing Read more of this post