Valuable Advice from John McCall MacBian

John McCall MacBian was the founder and former president and CEO of Trader Classified Media. He recently wrote an article which I've gone back and re-read many times. The following is a summary:

  • You will probably best succeed if you "be a big fish in a small pond, and jump from pond to pond."
  • Limit your ego to below your capabilities. Ego interferes with progress, since people who behave like kings are slow to adapt.
  • Your best career and life choices will be found at the intersection of what you like to do and what you are good at.
  • Thunderstorms were really rays of light guiding us to a bright future.
  • Environment is our major shared challenge where business should focus on sustainable green solutions.
I'd encourage you to read his article and see how you can apply them to achieve your success.

Guiding Principles from Year 2010

Year 2010 is a special year for me. I've gone through some significant changes during this year. As it draws to an end, I'd like to summarize what I have learned in this year. They will serve as guiding principles in my life.

1. It's OK to leave an unhealthy situation. In most time, you are only stuck "mentally".

2. A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. (Proverbs 22:1)

3. What goes around comes around (in positive way). Offer helps to others and you'll likely get the helps from them.

4. Build the relationship first and do business second. Similar to previous point, you can't go wrong with that.

5. Your actions speak much louder than your words.

6. If you fail to trust others, they won't trust you either.

7. If you are the only one see an issue, you could be the issue. If many see the same issue, it's a REAL issue. Before making conclusion, validate it with others.

8. We are more productive in "zone" and chosen places, not necessarily in the office. I found myself work better at a coffee shop in the morning.

9. Participate in meaningful causes and contribute to them with actions, they will empower your life.

10. Remember "The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman". Are we trying to find the answer to the wrong question in our life?

Despite all the predictions about the economy of upcoming year, the year 2011 will be a great year and let's make it so.

Fred Wilson: 10 Ways to Be Your Own Boss

Fred Wilson: 10 Ways to Be Your Own Boss from 99% on Vimeo.


You can find more good entrepreneur information on Fred Wilson's blog.

Photoelectric Flashlight: Product and Leadership Lessons


Thanks to my wife for drawing this cartoon.  There are two lessons to learn in this cartoon.
  1. If a product does not function well for its intended purpose, such as a printer that requires outside help to print, it's a product failure
  2. A leader should be showing the vision and lead the way. If he requires other people to "carry" him to form the vision and lead, it's a leadership failure.

Multi-tasking and Space-saving Furniture

Superior design. Multi-tasking furniture that are usable and save space!

Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah

We are doing an in depth study of the book of Nehemiah lately and I have discovered a lot of leadership lessons from the book. It reveals to me some leadership qualities we need to acquire in order to become great leaders.

Great leaders have great EQ (emotional quality), particularly empathy. Emotion usually follows by actions. If a person doesn't have any emotional response, he usually won't take any action.
  • Nehemiah heard of the mournful and desolate condition of Jerusalem, and was filled with sadness of heart. At length the king observed his sadness of countenance and asked the reason of it. Nehemiah explained this to the king, and obtained his permission to go up to Jerusalem.
Great leaders choose solitude to access situations and plans.
  • On his arrival in Jerusalem, Nehemiah began to survey the city secretly at night, and formed a plan for its restoration. While he surveyed the city, he did not tell what God was putting on his heart to do for Jerusalem. The official do not know where he had gone or what he had been doing.
Great leaders set goals and expectations, then follow through.
  • Nehemiah announced a plan after assessing the situations which he carried out with great skill and energy, so that the whole wall was completed over an astounding 52-day span.
Great leaders focus on the goals even when there are oppositions. Oppositions and nay sayers are always there when you set out to do great work. Despite all the rumors and attackers, leaders always look at the end goals.
  • Nehemiah then asked God to battle their enemies for them. He depended on God to fight the battle. God gave him a work to do, and he would not be distracted from it.
Great leaders take time to reflect and usually choose confrontation instead of compromise.
  • Nehemiah was very angry when he heard the outcry and complaints about wrong doing of his officials. After taking time for reflection, he called a meeting and confronted the wrong doing with his people.
Great leaders lead by example and would choose self-scarification to accomplish a higher goal.
  • Nehemiah was a great example of putting the work of God ahead of his own personal interest. He certainly had the right to tax the people for his support (others had done it before him), but he didn't take that right because it wouldn't help the work of God.
  • Nehemiah, in his own life, lived the way he told the nobles and rulers to live - to not take personal advantage of another’s need. He did what every godly leader must do: he never expected more of his followers than he expected of himself.
Great leaders have generosity and look after others.
  • Nehemiah not only did not take when he could have; he also gave when he didn’t have to. He received a lot of food from the king’s provisions, which he could have sold for his own profit. Instead, he gave them away to be the example of generosity - feeding as many as 150 people regularly.
While writing this post, I found a web page that contains 35 lessons on Godly Leadership from Nehemiah by Dr. Neil Chadwick. It's definitely a better read than mine.

Untangling Social Media Networks

Do all of these social media networks make you dizzy? Do you have the feeling that you are lost in a maze of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, Four Square etc? Posts are everywhere and sometimes they are repeating the same things. It may annoy your followers and friends and eventually you will get ignored. It doesn’t have to be this way when you know how to simplify and untangle the links that join social media networks together.

I’d like to show you one simple way to link the connections between your social media accounts so that you do less work and still spread your efforts to these social media channels.

  1. Blog – This is where you provide value to others by sharing your view point, expertise and experience.  Blogging is also a great way to get organic traffic from search engines and allows others to reference to your posts.
  2. Twitter is the springboard and the broadcaster of your social media networks.  Connect your blog to your twitter accounts to make your blog automatically send messages to other social channels you have.
  3. LinkedIn has partnered with Twitter. When you set your Twitter name in your LinkedIn account, your tweets will automatically update your LinkedIn status. You can also add your blog’s RSS feed to one of the link in your LinkedIn profile and add Blog Link app to your LinkedIn account to share your blog posts with your connections.
  4. Facebook – I don’t think I need to explain much about Facebook. For me, it’s primarily for my personal network of family, relatives and close friends. By connecting your Twitter announcements to Facebook, it can automatically add your twitter to your Facebook status.
  5. Google Buzz is the newcomer but not many people understand it yet. To make it work, you’ll want to create your own Google Profile. You then connect your Twitter account to your Google profile and Google Buzz to broadcast your status to your Buzz connection. The Buzz network usually consists of family and friends who use Gmail as their personal email platform. One feature of Google Buzz is that it allows you to share the items from your Google Reader and Blogger account through Buzz network.
Following are the tools that you can use to make the job of untangling your social media network easier:

HootSuite is a powerful tool to manage all your social media accounts. It can post messages to  multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Four Square accounts. It also can connect with your WordPress and RSS.

DISQUS Comments: When you install DISQUS Comments on your blog, it replaces your regular comment forms. Your visitors can then use one of the social media accounts they already have to post comments. It will authenticate their identity to ensure quality comments. It will prevent opening up the blog to spam.

WordPress to Twitter plugins: There are a number of plugins to allow you to connect and broadcast your blog to your Twitter account. Most of them will also allow you to connect to shorten URL app and properly layout your tweets.

Everyone is talking about how to leverage and harness the power of social media but it can appear quite overwhelming. By taking simple steps to ensure the proper linkage of the connections, you can do less AND reap the benefits of the social media networks.