MindValley Blog

I received an email today, random stuff really. But just as if the universe wanted to tell me something, the lesson I learned in the past three weeks hit me hard. And here I use the main ideas from the email and elaborate them a bit further…

You might already have heard about the fact that extraordinary results come from doing something different… from challenging the status quo and shaking things up. So for quite a while now I have been trying to figure out what that really means… what does get me on a path to innovation, extraordinary progress and extreme success? Here are five things that I stumpled upon over and over again

1) Uniqueness

The ultra successful companies and people are aware of their difference. In fact they even use it to their full advantage. As long as I tried to please most people it did not only hurt myself, it also made me look beige. I am different - so what?! Being afraid that by being polar will alienate your friends, family or market is like killing your most valuable sales point. Only if you are true to yourself you start attracting the most specific group of people around you. The kind of people that make each other feel comfortable and focus their power on the facts and energy that can move mountains.

I don’t want a one size fits all, “canned” solution. I don’t want to be surrounded by people who want that. “Meike, you are annoying sometimes”, someone told me. “I know.” I answered. Maybe this is also because I am never to afraid to

2) Ask Better Questions

Many people think that super successful people have all the answers. Maybe - but they didn’t get them from just divine intervention or from guessing. They get the answers from asking better questions.

Finding what to do takes asking hard questions to yourself, your friends, your co-workers, boss, peers and family. I read that average people tend to shy away from asking the tough questions because they are afraid of the answers they might get. I was compared to not going to the doctor because being nervous about what he might find out. Most successful people face new challenges head-on, ask the tough questions and tackle them regardless of the answers. If that makes me annoying - that’s good…

3) Take Risk

Risk tolerance is a success trait that is hard to ignore. You know about the saying: “no risk - no fun”. That makes so much sense… Who takes great risk can loose a lot… can also win a lot. Now don’t go overboard with risk. Hedge your bets with high quality information and research. Put the work and time necessary to plan for and research the viability of a risky decision. This way, risk becomes calculated and you won’t loose it all…

And in case you don’t win (simply because life isn’t a wishing list) you might understand that with every failure comes a learning experience. Make it a lesson leaned experience and gain extremely valuable information from you mistakes and failures. Do so by analyzing the situations and extract as many lessons as possible from the disaster. Then synthesize this information and create better plans for going forward. The super successful people don’t wallow in the misery of their failures and stick their head in the sand to hide. They pick themselves back up and move ahead again. This time armed with new information.

4) Fight

… as if you were right. But listen as if you were wrong. Most average people try to avoid confrontation at all costs. They hate to cause trouble, make a scene or have to get in someone’s face. This happens even to the point of missing out on something they are entitled to, paid for or are owed just so they don’t have to confront the situation. They’re happier practicing avoidance than strength. The overachievers on the other hand don’t follow that thinking. They make it a point to engage in battle to get what they want, deserve or are passionate about.

The successful people are not afraid to hurt some feelings and be open, honest and blunt about what they think, want or need from anyone. They are willing to fight for what they believe in, their passion and their ideas. This is a leadership quality that allows them to achieve more, accomplish more and have others working for them and with them to accomplish everything they need to give achieve high degree of success and happiness in life.

Truth been told: that all reads very easy but is hard to actually turn into action. It is true though. Think about it. A few weeks ago Khailee sent me an article about practicing brutally honesty. And I can tell you: it feels darn good…

5) Leverage Time

We all have the same amount of time in a day. Some people just do more with it than others. I am not talking about the g-t-d tricks or force of being extra efficient 24/7. I believe that just doesn’t feel natural to everybody. The “Trumps” of the world know the value of time and how to leverage it to get more accomplished. The average person thinks about time as a renewable resource not a precious raw material to

success.

So the next time, why don’t you leverage time and stop trading it for dollars? Stop buying into a tit for tat mentality when it comes to the exchanging of time for money. Instead create systems that you build one time that work for you for eternity. Do it like the super successful and seek out and get involved with opportunities that are scaleable and deliver returns for long periods of time. Action and ideas are the currency of the rich.

So the next time everybody jumps off the bridge… at least think twice before you jump, too.

Meike, who is an AIESEC trainee that just joined MindValley a few months ago, created a great video of her experience at MindValley so far that I wanted to share with you. 

Meike initially created the video to share her experience with other AIESEC members in Germany but I thought some of you might also like to take a peek at what work has been like for her at MindValley. 

Thank you Meike for creating this video.  It’s great having you part of the team!   You rock!

I came across this You Tube video today about another web 2.0 bubble that was simply too good not to share.  It is very telling about the mood in Silicon Valley these days.  Here in KL it’s business as usual.

Things which are too good to be true most certainly are.

If you run into a friend and he is telling you that he was so good off, feeling fantastic… so yippee-yeah, things could not be better - you are suspicious.

I know what I am talking about… trust me. By nature I am getting overly excited about ANYTHING in the span of a second. Therefor I am used to people taking me not seriously and dealing with me like I had a few screws loose (which, of course, I don’t!!!).

As likely as the majority out there rather uses to give a positive feedback and beat around the bush with the things that no one really likes to hear, let me keep Mindvalley in perspective for a second.

After working at Mindvalley for three months now (and mostly living experiences to the max - good ones as well as challenging ones) I had a conversation with myself. The honeymoon phase is supposed to be over by now.

Since we are not holding hands each day dancing around in circles, always loving each other, no one’s blowing sugar into our a** or swamping the office air with serotonin:

• What makes me overcome a challenging experience or a rough workday?
• Why do I still keep on fighting for every idea to become reality although I had to give up on some already?
• What defines my lust for greeting the day with immediate thoughts about the projects I am assigned to, although at the same time I had been close to jumping out of the 12th floor office window because of it?

Comparing Mindvalley to former employers I used to work for (e.g. a worldwide recognized financial service company ) I pointed out some things they have in common.

Both of them care for their employees. Both of them are striving for happy, healthy and satisfied staff. Both identified the priceless and super productive value of working with people who are potentially deeper in line with themselves.

So… what makes the difference than at Mindvalley?

Speed: At Mindvalley ideas quickly turn into reality because there are no crusted operational procedures at work, no installment of supervisors, supervisors for the supervisors, area-, regional-, subregional Manager. Getting-things-done counts more than a five-step accreditation plan.

Personal Responsibility: At Mindvalley the words “It’s up to you” are given a totally new meaning. This is where I can see myself drowning like a lead sinker and rising like a star at the same time. Here I am allowed to fail first and encouraged to straighten it out afterwards.

Help: Asking for help and advise from the assigned specialists working over here is not embarrassing - it is highly recommended. Of course, not everything is working perfectly. Not every word and every thought is garnished with a sugared cherry. It can become stressful, messy and sometimes ugly.

What I want to say here: The whole life does not equal a wish-list. You need to feel passion and personal commitment for the thing you spend most of your daytime with, don’t you? So…

…if it was not fun anymore, why would I still be playing?

Who doesn’t love a ‘Happy Hour’? When Cocktails are available for half of their price or girls get free entrance into a club.

On Friday we had another form of ‘Happy Hour’ - a ‘Happy Office Hour’.

Though I am very grateful to always expect the unexpected, this was the kind of unexpected joy that hit the mark.

Early in the morning people acted a bit irritated when opening the fridge and found it stocked up with all kinds of cans of beer (Ginger beer, root beer, vanilla beer or real beer…)

Later that day smooth tunes emerged from the couch corner of our office. The already halfway through the weekend brains were ordered back into space and time. All sorts of cans hissed open and we had our hassle free sit back, relax and talk about announcements, braking the records, or differences between cheap Ferrero Rocher imitation and the original indulgence.

Once the party started all the good news put us just into the right mood to extend our little ‘Happy Office Hour’ and turned it into a ‘Happy Office Night’. So a whole crowd followed our master of words and music DJ John and his band B4C into their Hall of Fame’s victory gig…

There you could see even the supposed-to-sit-stiff-in-the-back-of-the-office programmers moving their hips ;-)

Talking about movement:

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
~ Henry Ford

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 -

The world’s average number of marriages per 1000 people is 6.5, according to the United Nations Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, 2001.

If I count all my family members (even the over 70 and under 12 year olds), add close friends, random pick-ups, all my kindergarten fellas I had a crush on and party flirts so far, I might not even come close to 1000 acquaintances.

Well, maybe… however, I call myself a darling of fortune these days - I received my third wedding invitation this year.

Mike and Michelle tied the knot!!!

As I picture the happy couple my heartbeat immediately rises and a rush of adrenaline floods my body.

I am not a drama queen (in its original sense) nor am I exaggerating. Simply I allow myself at least a glimpse of romance in these hectic days of the 21st century.

One day, or more precisely, 25 hours, before the official ceremony took place I asked Mike, “Are you nervous?” Since I am used to the whole pre-marriage stress after attending two marriages earlier this year, I expected at least a trace of panic or serious concern.

Mike simply leaned back in his chair, gave me a surprised look (for this obviously weird question) and a counterquestion: (more…)

I created these comics over the weekend for fun. They do not represent actual events, just pokes fun at them ;P

Last week, a few of us emerged from our caves to meet other members of the species. We were searching for cool people who may share similar interests.

And we found a few! :)

There were many web geeks, photographers and cool people at the 24 hours of Flickr party in KL.

Edu, Lou, Meike (our most recent hire from Germany), Khailee (me), Effa (my friend), Tim, and the dude captured by my muscular arm is Muid Latif, I’m a big fan of his artwork. He is one of Malaysia’s leading new media artists.

Jiangti (our lead developer) and I also had a good chat with Jason, who manages communications in Southeast Asia for Yahoo!. We explored the possibility of Hack Days in KL… whoopee!

Jiangti got to meet other web application developing creatures too! Like Tate. Who coincidentally organized a Worlds Debating Tournament I participated as a judge in. This was like, 3 years ago?

They decided to talk in acronyms so I left.

Overall it was really refreshing to meet like-minds in KL! The internet is the most exciting thing ever, and I rarely get to share this with other people, apart from my colleagues.

I’m sure in Silicon Valley you could talk about web2.Ohhnotagain with like, the bus driver. But Malaysia is not the same… it can get lonely here if you don’t proactively go out of your way.

Like this dude on the left.

His name is Edmund. He is pictured here socializing, like the rest of us.

Just want to clarify that he is not part of MindValley.

But he is “staying” with us for one month for a “brain exchange”. He’s an interesting internet marketer in his own right, and a really smart 20 year old for that matter. He’s helping us out on a top secret project.

Hence the disguise. Oh what the hell here’s his blog.

See more photos of the event. Good fun.

We were also at another event before this, organized by theMalaysian Multimedia Development Corporation.

Special thanks to John and the team at Hatchlings for the invite!

It was really nice to meet them! They’re all around my age, and have gotten funding for their game development company. Very interesting bunch.

I also met Jeff, who runs a mobile game development company which is getting listed in the HongKong next year, and Charles, a senior tech journalist.

I asked Charles if he knew any other exciting, interesting companies or people based in Malaysia, and he suggested a few… (few being the keyword)

Overall it was free food free booze a very encouraging experience.

Being based in Malaysia isn’t THAT lonely, I’m sure the community will grow!

All this has inspired me to organize some meetups too. Any ideas who we should invite?

Will you come? ;)