Just seven days ago we launched our first internal wiki!

Yeah!  I am very excited because this is truly the next step in the evolution of the company.  The wiki is going to be a lot of fun and will become a huge asset for MindValley.  We have BIG plans to "wikify" all of our processes and to dramatically increase knowledge sharing inside MindValley.  In other words, MindValley now has a big shared  brain.

The other interesting thing about the wiki is that it was initially proposed and pushed forward from the bottom up just like Business Week had predicted:

"Wikis, blogs, and other tools will arrive in the workplace whether companies are ready or not, as younger employees tend to develop their own self-organized networks (learn more)

Well, I guess Business Week got that story right! 

Overall, I am very excited about the wiki because it will greatly help in making the organization run much smoother.  What I also love about the wiki model is that it is so organic.  Everyone is a contributor and if anyone has any ideas to make things better they don't need to ask, they can directly take action and implement them. 

Maybe it was one of these flash of genius, which come into your mind while sitting on the toilet or having a shower (we all have these moments, right?).

Eventually it all happened out of an adrenaline flush of excitement (that sometimes happens in the office for different reasons). Or one day Nika, our designated Video Editor, was sick of always putting other people into the right light.

Suddenly she decided to step out of the shadow... Watch

"I am an AIESECer" starring MindValley's Nika (>> she is one of US <<)

Got the message? Now don't panic if you did not understand everything - it is in Polish! Even we at MindValley needed an extra round of watching it - though we manage to get Nika's message everyday:

This video is for all of you out there somewhere, who are willing to rock the world. This message goes to everybody interested in extraordinary experiences across borders. This video encourages you to take action.

Obviously this video's intention spread pretty fast: just a few days after its launch it had been rated among YouTube's top-watched videos.

I can appease you - so far Nika is still the lovely and unboastful girl next door Despite her broadcast success no appearance of star allures...

Socialrank has launched! Hallo - everybody in the office:

has OFFICIALLY launched!!!

Of course, people working at MindValley are aware of this BIG THING called Socialrank. It has been secretly happening for quite a while now inside magnificent brains behind our locked office doors.

It is just that everybody at MindValley is sooo involved in one of the many big things happening everyday at MindValley that sometimes we need to wave with a fence post (as we call it in Germany) to make everyone aware of really REALLY outstanding things you want them to celebrate with you.

Here you go - our fence post:

October 1st was supposed to be a remarkable day in Socialrank history. At the end of an exhausting day I mobilized my last energy reserve and cheered at Caroline. She turned to me, looking exhausted and relaxed at the same time like I picture a mother holding her child after being in labor for quite a while (just still inspired by my last blog post - sorry Caroline...).

Since a selected group of bloggers, next to the (of course likewise selected) MindValley staff, have been invited two weeks ago for an early preview on 30 Socialrank Websites all of us already embosomed our favorite socialrank niche pages.

Me personally - I can't remember what I did first thing in the morning when I woke up and simultaneously went online. Nowadays I check the hottest post on productivityzen.com that could help me making my day (with a 93,7% chance).

So from now on Jiangti will do less nightly excursions to the office, I hope. At three AM in the morning after Mike & Michelle's wedding party I caught him on his way to the office solving freaking socialrank coding problems.

Wow... this is passion - people!!! It brings me back to the mother in labor picture, but let's blank this out for a second.

I asked Jiangti recently about his sleeping habits: "Just like a baby." he replied. (I guess I will save my comment on that )

I have read countless business books and articles on getting things done over the years and once in a while I come agross a new gem, a new insight that just hits me like a rock. 

As I was listening to some lessons from Bill Bartmann, one of the most successful serial entrepreneurs I have ever met, I had one of these moments.  What Bill had to say might be common sense but the insights are so profound they have changed the way I work and think about work ever since. 

Here is what Bill had to share:

To achieve extraordinary results, you must stop doing ordinary things.  

Why do I like this quote so much?

Because I have noticed that it is very easy to just "get busy."  I can think of many occassions where I just "got busy."  However, instead of making a list of tasks to do and asking myself which tasks are "extraordinary" I would be "too busy" to ask myself these hard questions and just plow ahead.  Well, it turns out that one never runs out of work.  Anyone can always find more things that have to get done.  So, the key truly is to focus on the stuff that matters, the extraordinary things that can help one to become extraordinarily successful. 

How do you know if what you are working on the right tasks?  Just ask yourself:

"Will doing this help me achieve extraordinary results?" OR

"If I keep doing this day in and day out will it help me achieve extraordinary results?"

If the answer is no, then find the items that will truly help you get to the vision that you have set out to achieve.  Now, this does not mean that one no longer has to do the little grunt work.  However, everday it is worth identifying 3-4 items that can really help move the business or project forward and making enough time to work on those. 

JibJab.com, the hit comedy site, launched a new service that allows you to upload your friends and family into their comedy paradies. We experimented by uploading members of the MindValley Team.

We present to you:

Math Camp Massacre!

and

Unnecessary Force

It was business as usual on a Tuesday morning, half past ten local time, Kuala Lumpur.

Vishen - for some time hidden in the brainroom - opened the door with a dynamic cant. He took a footstep out of the room, threw his arms high up in the air and shouted out loud with a kind of shaky, nearly squeeky voice:
"Vishen 2.0 just launched!"

Eyes wide open and a huge grin in his face he was standing there - obviously as clueless and overwhelmed by the situation as the rest of the office crowd.

The noise level immediately went down to zero. Everybody stopped talking. Nearby colleagues tried to exchange some deranged looks. Shrug of shoulders worked a circuit and question marks mirrored in everybody's faces.

3 mill. seconds of creepy silence had to pass by before seldom-caught-speechless Vishen gave it a second shot: "Guys- I am a father!"

Ahhhh... hands started clapping and the crowd, hardly in control over cheering about the good news, was willing to bombard the new-born father with all their questions: Heigh, weight, name, hair length, eye color, first word, most successful business plan - all the interesting questions, you know?!

But no chance. Vishen locked himself in the brainroom again for a decent amount of time.

Until today we are not so sure what happened in there. Though rumors started that Talat's super-douper-crazy algorithm was able to identify some of Vishen's hottest ideas on dealing with unexpected expected events.

For the rest of the day Vishen basically was faster than his shadow, obviously more intoxicated by coffein and adrenalin than (even for Vishen) usual.

When we finally had the chance to get rid of our questions he shared his insights with us by saying that it was simply like launching a website you have never ever seen before.

There it was - the glow in his eyes, the sparkle of incredible fatherhood joy.

Finally - as three days had passed by, Vishen was in charge of the camera and he invited us for an early preview.

Vishen 2.0 (aka Hayden Lakhiani) says: Hello World!

Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.

- Jedi Master Yoda -