source: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/original-thinking/the-value-and-purpose-of-networking-26750
by Dennis Stevenson
Several weeks ago I wrote a very popular series of posts on networking (see here and here and here). This seems to really resonate with people. To collect further insight on this topic, I posted a question on Linked In Answers entitled Do You Network without looking for a Job?
My main purpose in asking this question was to collect input from my extended network on why they network - beyond getting a job.
I've been posting in a blog about reasons to network. It does not have to be all about getting a new job (although, networking is helpful there). What things have you done to network? What benefits have you gotten from networking?
A dozen people answered the questions. I picked the 4 that most clearly laid out good reasons, and with permission post them here.
Michael Peterson said:
The reasons I network probably echo many people:
1.To connect with colleagues, both old a new. I have connections with some great, wonderful people from all around the globe.
2.To “pre-position” resources. For myself, this is a two way street. By connecting with someone, I am making myself available to answer their questions and support them, they, in turn are available to help me. This also helps me develop as a professional. I also connect with other people that may have a need in the future that I can help with. Most of the time that accomplished by talking about problems, solutions, ideas, etc.
3. To be able to market myself and find a new role. I would be remiss if I didn’t include this, even though it is not my primary purpose. I think we are entering an era where the concept of “branding” is no longer the sole domain of the employer and industry recognized gurus.
Employees that are bright and competent can display their abilities and develop what I would call a personal employee brand (perhaps on the way to being a guru). This in turn, can result in finding a position (or a position finding you) more quickly.
I especially like the recognition in point #2 that "pre-positioning resources" is a two-way street. The fundamental principle of networking is helping someone else first. That is what builds reputation and good will.
Mia Nance said:
I keep in touch with colleagues from previous jobs. Often we all move on to other jobs and sometimes industries, but you never know. For instance, I'm hoping for a promotion, which means I get to backfill my position. I have a former colleague that is looking for a new job and he's a perfect fit for my current job. Networking works both ways for employers and employees. If this person accepts the job, I have brought satisfaction to both my company and my client.
Again, networking to benefit someone else first. Think about the service to an employer, as well as the reputation to be gained from moving on and bringing on a great resource to fill the hole that was created. This is a great approach to networking.
Erika Flora blogger and principal consultant at Creative Enterprise Solutions said:
I think the absolute best time to network is when you're NOT looking for a job. If you only decide to "start" networking when you need something, it's too late. Rather, you should start building relationships and helping other people at every opportunity. That way, when you are looking for a job, you have a ton of friends that you can call on to help you out. Many of the jobs I have had in my career were found by reaching out to friends and acquaintances. I completely ascribe to the theory that networking is not something you do, but rather something you live. Here is a link to some benefits I have seen and ideas I have implemented in my own life.
Networking is about building relationships and friendships that may never provide specific value back to me. Then again, they may be tremendously valuable. I don't know in advance. In the mean time, I just try to be of service.
Ian McAllister said:
If to you "networking" is only undertaken when you went a job, then clearly - you don't get it (networking) and won't get the best job.
Your network can bring your plans to fruition - finding you experts, learning experiences, people with complimentary skills, ideas, and eventually: realisation. You can apply those to both job hunting and business development, sales or ideas for your existing corporate job - just about anything you want to apply it to.
Networks are also passive - they don't react best immediately, they react best over a period of time to a constant tune. The key in networking is to have a plan - know what you want and what you can offer, and communicate that: then passive energy works for you.
If all networking is to you is finding a job when you need one then - you just don't get it! Networks can be career builders, but that's like viewing them as Job Centres
Networking can be of value to you in your current job. It can provide you with access to the kinds of resources you need right now. It needn't be something that is exclusively geared toward a job change situation. Perhaps networking can get you promoted and avoid the need to look elsewhere...
I would like to thank all the people who answered the question, and especially Erika, Mia, Michael and Ian for their great responses. I hope this gives you some further insight to the purpose and role of networking in the life of a professional - IT or otherwise.
--------------------------
source: http://coachchuck.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/what-is-the-purpose-of-networking/
by Audeliz Perez
There are some people who think logically and say to themselves, “I’m at a business networking event, who can I sell to? Who might refer me so that I might be able to sell? Who should I contact after the networking event so that I can get more business?”
In my example above, more business is clearly on the mind, but I think one should take a lighter approach and think to oneself something like this:
“I’m going to the event to meet other business owners that might need my help; I’m going to the event to make a genuine connection with someone who might need my services; I’m going to the event to learn from other success business owners; I am going to the event to learn from other successful business owners.”
There’s a thin line between marketing and networking. When you approach an event as “I’m here to see how much business can I get”, you’re too focused on sales and marketing, when you should focus on building long-sustainable business relationships. At this time, as I type this, we are experiencing hard economic times and it is natural to want to maintain. We are so focused on simply surviving that we are missing the overall point of Networking, which is getting to know the other person.
That’s my two cents and maybe I should have more of a sale’s pitch in mind when I attend these events, but I tend to warm up to people after the thrid contact. So, I focus on what I’m good at: Making connections and building rapport.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Networking Events - 7 Good Questions to Ask
source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Networking-Events---7-Good-Questions-to-Ask&id=90669
By Andy Britnell
No matter how confident you may be, the experience of entering a room full of strangers can be nerve-racking and leave you grasping for something to say. I believe the best route is actually the easiest - we all know that people like talking about themselves, so why not ask questions designed to draw them out a little more than standard shop talk?
Here are a selection I have found to be useful in establishing a connection with someone who at first glance appears to have nothing in common with me at all.
1. How did you come to be in your line of work? Often people fall into their job through a chance encounter or a stroke of luck - these stories are often interesting, and recounting them will bring your new contact alive in a way that a straightforward discussion about current business never does.
2. Describe to me your dream customer. You will learn much about their motivation and goals by listening carefully to this.
3. What changes are happening, or can you predict happening, within your industry? Tap into a source of inside information here - it may well have implications for your own business or give you ideas on doing things differently. It is easy to get into habitual patterns of thought without realising it. A totally different perspective can really sharpen you up.
4. What do you regard as your greatest achievement in business to date? Another great way of breaking the ice and getting to know someone better.
5. What do you love about your work? Someone else's business will come alive for you if you listen to them describing their favourite activities.
6. Are there things you wish you could change? A natural follow-on from the above.
7. How would you like people to describe your contribution to your industry? This gets away from day-to-day business and allows them to discuss their deeper aspirations if they wish.
Any of these questions will provide you with a more enjoyable and memorable encounter, and with luck will ensure you are remembered likewise.
Andy Britnell is an executive coach who works with high achievers in both the private and public sectors who wish to fulfil more of their potential by thinking and behaving more effectively.
By Andy Britnell
No matter how confident you may be, the experience of entering a room full of strangers can be nerve-racking and leave you grasping for something to say. I believe the best route is actually the easiest - we all know that people like talking about themselves, so why not ask questions designed to draw them out a little more than standard shop talk?
Here are a selection I have found to be useful in establishing a connection with someone who at first glance appears to have nothing in common with me at all.
1. How did you come to be in your line of work? Often people fall into their job through a chance encounter or a stroke of luck - these stories are often interesting, and recounting them will bring your new contact alive in a way that a straightforward discussion about current business never does.
2. Describe to me your dream customer. You will learn much about their motivation and goals by listening carefully to this.
3. What changes are happening, or can you predict happening, within your industry? Tap into a source of inside information here - it may well have implications for your own business or give you ideas on doing things differently. It is easy to get into habitual patterns of thought without realising it. A totally different perspective can really sharpen you up.
4. What do you regard as your greatest achievement in business to date? Another great way of breaking the ice and getting to know someone better.
5. What do you love about your work? Someone else's business will come alive for you if you listen to them describing their favourite activities.
6. Are there things you wish you could change? A natural follow-on from the above.
7. How would you like people to describe your contribution to your industry? This gets away from day-to-day business and allows them to discuss their deeper aspirations if they wish.
Any of these questions will provide you with a more enjoyable and memorable encounter, and with luck will ensure you are remembered likewise.
Andy Britnell is an executive coach who works with high achievers in both the private and public sectors who wish to fulfil more of their potential by thinking and behaving more effectively.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
How To Be A Billionaire
source: http://news.sg.msn.com/forbes/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3888341
Have you dreamed of becoming a billionaire?
Based on the response I've gotten to my recent article "Three Myths About Starting Your Own Business," many people have. They imagine having wealth like the founders of Google and Apple, so they can fly to their own chateaus on the French Riviera in a Gulfstream IV or maybe even a Boeing 737. They picture making it onto the Forbes Rich List and buying diamonds from Tiffany.
What does it take to get that rich? Are billionaires completely different from you and me? My firm, the China Market Research Group, decided to see if we could answer those questions and if there were any secrets we could learn from them. Over the last five years we interviewed secretive real estate tycoons in China who own companies through proxies for fear of being too high-profile, Internet pioneers in the U.S. who party with rock stars, multigenerational conglomerate tycoons in India and retail heirs in Europe who hit the Alps to ski. In all, we interviewed about a dozen billionaires and several dozen people worth more than $100 million. We had fun doing it, too, from gambling at racetracks in Hong Kong to chomping on biscuits in Boston.
While almost everyone we interviewed said luck and timing played a role in their success, we found some other similarities in their responses, too. Most of the truly rich, perhaps surprisingly, are not that different from you and me. They have the same fears about their children and their health, and the same desires. But we did find some differences.
We narrowed those differences down to three secrets of the truly rich that most of the people we talked to said had helped them get to where they are:
The first secret of the truly rich is that they are never afraid to fail. Most of our interviewees told us that at one point they had had a choice to either stick to an easy, secure route or take a calculated risk. To reach the truly heights of wealth, some risk is needed. If you look for security in a job or are scared to try something different, you won't get far in the pursuit of true wealth.
Even when they had failed--and every single one of them had at least once--the truly rich said they had used those experiences to learn from their mistakes and get back in the saddle. They had avoided the real failure of letting a bad experience destroy their optimism and their passion.
An Internet executive told us how his net worth had surpassed $1 billion during the dot-com bubble. He had partied with Elton John and jetted around the world on in his own Gulfstream. His net worth collapsed when the bubble burst. Instead of letting failure and financial difficulty stop him, he went out and tried again. He learned from his mistakes and created another tech company that actually had a business model and didn't rely merely on eyeball hits and being cool. The result? He just sold his last company for several hundred million dollars. He has that jet back, but he isn't resting on his laurels at the beach. Instead, he has started yet another company.
The second secret of the truly rich is that they look creatively at problems to find new revenue sources. The people we interviewed often told us of how they looked at problems from different angles and liked to go against the grain. They recognized that everyone else believing or doing something didn't make it right. But being a contrarian for the sake of being contrary was no solution either. They knew they always had to think critically when analyzing any problems.
Have you dreamed of becoming a billionaire?
Based on the response I've gotten to my recent article "Three Myths About Starting Your Own Business," many people have. They imagine having wealth like the founders of Google and Apple, so they can fly to their own chateaus on the French Riviera in a Gulfstream IV or maybe even a Boeing 737. They picture making it onto the Forbes Rich List and buying diamonds from Tiffany.
What does it take to get that rich? Are billionaires completely different from you and me? My firm, the China Market Research Group, decided to see if we could answer those questions and if there were any secrets we could learn from them. Over the last five years we interviewed secretive real estate tycoons in China who own companies through proxies for fear of being too high-profile, Internet pioneers in the U.S. who party with rock stars, multigenerational conglomerate tycoons in India and retail heirs in Europe who hit the Alps to ski. In all, we interviewed about a dozen billionaires and several dozen people worth more than $100 million. We had fun doing it, too, from gambling at racetracks in Hong Kong to chomping on biscuits in Boston.
While almost everyone we interviewed said luck and timing played a role in their success, we found some other similarities in their responses, too. Most of the truly rich, perhaps surprisingly, are not that different from you and me. They have the same fears about their children and their health, and the same desires. But we did find some differences.
We narrowed those differences down to three secrets of the truly rich that most of the people we talked to said had helped them get to where they are:
The first secret of the truly rich is that they are never afraid to fail. Most of our interviewees told us that at one point they had had a choice to either stick to an easy, secure route or take a calculated risk. To reach the truly heights of wealth, some risk is needed. If you look for security in a job or are scared to try something different, you won't get far in the pursuit of true wealth.
Even when they had failed--and every single one of them had at least once--the truly rich said they had used those experiences to learn from their mistakes and get back in the saddle. They had avoided the real failure of letting a bad experience destroy their optimism and their passion.
An Internet executive told us how his net worth had surpassed $1 billion during the dot-com bubble. He had partied with Elton John and jetted around the world on in his own Gulfstream. His net worth collapsed when the bubble burst. Instead of letting failure and financial difficulty stop him, he went out and tried again. He learned from his mistakes and created another tech company that actually had a business model and didn't rely merely on eyeball hits and being cool. The result? He just sold his last company for several hundred million dollars. He has that jet back, but he isn't resting on his laurels at the beach. Instead, he has started yet another company.
The second secret of the truly rich is that they look creatively at problems to find new revenue sources. The people we interviewed often told us of how they looked at problems from different angles and liked to go against the grain. They recognized that everyone else believing or doing something didn't make it right. But being a contrarian for the sake of being contrary was no solution either. They knew they always had to think critically when analyzing any problems.
Friday, January 8, 2010
A German’s View of Islam
November 10, 2009 by Jerry McDaniel
source: http://illinoisconservative.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/a-germans-view-of-islam/
The following letter is a true example of what can happen. For those of us who say “well it could never happen here” do not bet on it. We believe in our way of life but everything we see and hear point to a different direction; a direction that most of us would not be happy with. For example do we really want to become a country that promotes socialism. When prominent leaders in England are warning us that we do not want that, that is when we should start to pay attention to the directions our government is going.
Please read the following letter. It is an example of what can happen when we just sit back and let it happen.
~J. Rippy
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” — Samuel Adams
A German’s View on Islam
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. “Very few people were true Nazis,” he said, “but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”
We are told again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ’silent majority,’ is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China ’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.
And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were ‘peace loving’?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts–the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this and think about it, and send it on – before it’s too late.
Emanuel Tanay, M.D.
Ann Arbor , MI 48104
source: http://illinoisconservative.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/a-germans-view-of-islam/
The following letter is a true example of what can happen. For those of us who say “well it could never happen here” do not bet on it. We believe in our way of life but everything we see and hear point to a different direction; a direction that most of us would not be happy with. For example do we really want to become a country that promotes socialism. When prominent leaders in England are warning us that we do not want that, that is when we should start to pay attention to the directions our government is going.
Please read the following letter. It is an example of what can happen when we just sit back and let it happen.
~J. Rippy
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” — Samuel Adams
A German’s View on Islam
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. “Very few people were true Nazis,” he said, “but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”
We are told again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ’silent majority,’ is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China ’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.
And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were ‘peace loving’?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts–the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this and think about it, and send it on – before it’s too late.
Emanuel Tanay, M.D.
Ann Arbor , MI 48104
Monday, December 28, 2009
A time to shop, a time to stop | Oniomaniac (Shopperholic)
source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/health/view/1027455/1/.html
By Eveline Gan. TODAY | Posted: 29 December 2009 0808 hrs
SINGAPORE : Now that the high from the manic festive shopping has ebbed, you suddenly realised that your bank account has less money than your kid cousin's piggy bank.
Not a big deal, you tell yourself, as you laugh off your wallet-busting sprees.
But in some cases, compulsive spending can be a big deal, said experts TODAY spoke to. Take Geraldine (not her real name), a former shopping addict, for instance.
Her shopping sprees started out quite innocently. Whenever she felt stressed or unhappy, she would engage in "retail therapy". Over time, it spiralled out of control. The 28-year-old eventually maxed out six of her credit cards and racked up a debt of about S$80,000.
Compulsive spenders like Geraldine are not unheard of. Associate Professor Munidasa Winslow, a specialist in psychiatry at Raffles Hospital and whose clinical interest includes addiction problems, sees about one such case each month.
"Oniomania (the technical term for shopping addiction) tends to be compulsive, and there usually is a reason for it," he said.
Most oniomaniacs tend to always have "a larger presenting problem" such as marital issues, said Ms Jane Wong, a counsellor at My Counselling Room. She sees about five cases each year.
Over at Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS), assistant director Tan Huey Min said they are seeing more cases of bad debts as a result of overspending.
Of the 714 cases CSS counselled last year, 61.6 per cent cited overspending - as a result of shopping for branded goods or simply spending more than one can afford to - as one of the main causes of their indebtedness. In 2006, this group made up only 42.2 per cent of the total number of cases counselled.
Ms Tan added that most of them are between the age of 30 and 40, and owe an average of S$80,000 although their monthly take-home pay is only about S$2,500.
Assoc Prof Winslow explained that with this form of compulsive spending, the behaviour "is driven by the need to emotionally numb out unpleasant feelings or forget their problems".
I can't stop myself!
As with any kind of addiction behaviours, the spending binges often start out as "normal activities".
"But when it (shopping and spending) is taken to the extreme and becomes compulsive, and the person cannot stop despite knowing that they should, then it becomes more than a lifestyle. It affects both the person and those around them, just like other forms of addiction, such as gambling," said Assoc Prof Winslow.
While they may enjoy the adrenaline-pumping euphoria with each spending binge, the feeling never lasts long.
Typically, said Ms Wong, a compulsive spender would end up buying items they have no intention to use, and they can't explain why they need them.
"Even if they do explain (why they made the purchase), they may feel embarrassed and give irrational reasons."
At some point in time, the credit cards bills would also "start piling up somewhere in the closet", added Ms Wong.
While most oniomanics Assoc Prof Winslow sees are women, the condition is not unheard of in men.
One of the most serious cases Ms Tan has seen at CCS was a father of three. He was a Singapore permanent resident in his mid-30s and had a monthly take-home income of close to S$6,000.
He chalked up a debt of S$120,000 in a period of three years due to a lavish lifestyle of buying gifts for the family, fine-dining and offering financial help to relatives.
Breaking the cycle of addiction
Assoc Prof Winslow said it is important for spending addicts to break the cycle of addiction with professional help. This would also help identify and nip other accompanying mental problems, such as depression or anxiety, in the bud.
"Once you realise your shopping is going out of control, or you are spending to adjust your moods rather than buying rationally within your means, then it may be time to seek counsel," he said.
It is also important that the family does not bail out the person too quickly - as with gambling problems.
"If there are no consequences, the addiction behaviour repeats itself," said Assoc Prof Winslow.
For Geraldine, the road to recovery has been arduous.
Her psychiatrist has identified that her shopping addiction was her way of coping with stress from her hectic job and relationship problems.
She was given anti-depressants to help cope with the stress and improve her sleep. A credit counsellor also helped work out a financial repayment plan to control her spiralling credit card debt.
Although Geraldine is not yet debt-free, her debts are now manageable. Through the incident, she has also learnt healthier ways to deal with her emotions.
- TODAY
By Eveline Gan. TODAY | Posted: 29 December 2009 0808 hrs
SINGAPORE : Now that the high from the manic festive shopping has ebbed, you suddenly realised that your bank account has less money than your kid cousin's piggy bank.
Not a big deal, you tell yourself, as you laugh off your wallet-busting sprees.
But in some cases, compulsive spending can be a big deal, said experts TODAY spoke to. Take Geraldine (not her real name), a former shopping addict, for instance.
Her shopping sprees started out quite innocently. Whenever she felt stressed or unhappy, she would engage in "retail therapy". Over time, it spiralled out of control. The 28-year-old eventually maxed out six of her credit cards and racked up a debt of about S$80,000.
Compulsive spenders like Geraldine are not unheard of. Associate Professor Munidasa Winslow, a specialist in psychiatry at Raffles Hospital and whose clinical interest includes addiction problems, sees about one such case each month.
"Oniomania (the technical term for shopping addiction) tends to be compulsive, and there usually is a reason for it," he said.
Most oniomaniacs tend to always have "a larger presenting problem" such as marital issues, said Ms Jane Wong, a counsellor at My Counselling Room. She sees about five cases each year.
Over at Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS), assistant director Tan Huey Min said they are seeing more cases of bad debts as a result of overspending.
Of the 714 cases CSS counselled last year, 61.6 per cent cited overspending - as a result of shopping for branded goods or simply spending more than one can afford to - as one of the main causes of their indebtedness. In 2006, this group made up only 42.2 per cent of the total number of cases counselled.
Ms Tan added that most of them are between the age of 30 and 40, and owe an average of S$80,000 although their monthly take-home pay is only about S$2,500.
Assoc Prof Winslow explained that with this form of compulsive spending, the behaviour "is driven by the need to emotionally numb out unpleasant feelings or forget their problems".
I can't stop myself!
As with any kind of addiction behaviours, the spending binges often start out as "normal activities".
"But when it (shopping and spending) is taken to the extreme and becomes compulsive, and the person cannot stop despite knowing that they should, then it becomes more than a lifestyle. It affects both the person and those around them, just like other forms of addiction, such as gambling," said Assoc Prof Winslow.
While they may enjoy the adrenaline-pumping euphoria with each spending binge, the feeling never lasts long.
Typically, said Ms Wong, a compulsive spender would end up buying items they have no intention to use, and they can't explain why they need them.
"Even if they do explain (why they made the purchase), they may feel embarrassed and give irrational reasons."
At some point in time, the credit cards bills would also "start piling up somewhere in the closet", added Ms Wong.
While most oniomanics Assoc Prof Winslow sees are women, the condition is not unheard of in men.
One of the most serious cases Ms Tan has seen at CCS was a father of three. He was a Singapore permanent resident in his mid-30s and had a monthly take-home income of close to S$6,000.
He chalked up a debt of S$120,000 in a period of three years due to a lavish lifestyle of buying gifts for the family, fine-dining and offering financial help to relatives.
Breaking the cycle of addiction
Assoc Prof Winslow said it is important for spending addicts to break the cycle of addiction with professional help. This would also help identify and nip other accompanying mental problems, such as depression or anxiety, in the bud.
"Once you realise your shopping is going out of control, or you are spending to adjust your moods rather than buying rationally within your means, then it may be time to seek counsel," he said.
It is also important that the family does not bail out the person too quickly - as with gambling problems.
"If there are no consequences, the addiction behaviour repeats itself," said Assoc Prof Winslow.
For Geraldine, the road to recovery has been arduous.
Her psychiatrist has identified that her shopping addiction was her way of coping with stress from her hectic job and relationship problems.
She was given anti-depressants to help cope with the stress and improve her sleep. A credit counsellor also helped work out a financial repayment plan to control her spiralling credit card debt.
Although Geraldine is not yet debt-free, her debts are now manageable. Through the incident, she has also learnt healthier ways to deal with her emotions.
- TODAY
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Why we can never rest: a year in the life of Twitter
Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6968440.ece
From The Sunday Times
December 27, 2009
ON June 15, our technicians told me to add a note to our website, writes Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter.
The note warned users of a planned maintenance session that meant our service would be inaccessible while we carried out an overdue system upgrade.
Immediately, we began to see a reaction in the form of tweets. Then came the emails. Then came the phone calls. Even the US State Department contacted us. The message was loud and clear: Twitter cannot rest while there is unrest in Iran.
However, if this maintenance was not done quickly, our operations team feared that the service might go down for days.
With the whole team on edge, my colleague Jessica Verrilli and I called our head of operations to convince him to do what was deemed extremely difficult if not impossible — reschedule the maintenance.
A few more phone calls and we had a consensus to postpone the work despite the risk. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time we had to ask our engineers to perform the impossible. In the space of a year, user accounts had grown by a factor of 10 while our 45-strong team remained crowded into a loft space in San Francisco’s industrial SoMa district.
The work was moved and the maintenance was eventually successful. In the days that followed, our service became inextricably linked to the Iranian election protests in hundreds of media reports on television, online, and in the newspapers.
Requests to discuss the tumult flooded in from everywhere but we did not engage. We chose instead to issue a simple statement on Twitter’s blog.
While it is our job to keep the service running, it was not the appropriate time or circumstance to put ourselves into the same conversation with people who were risking their lives on the streets of Tehran. The experience remains a humbling one that would define the year for Twitter and also underscore the motivation behind a decade of effort leading up to this point.
My co-founder Evan Williams and I have spent the past 10 years developing large systems that allow people to express themselves and communicate openly. We are united in our belief that software has the ability to augment humanity in productive and meaningful ways.
Although we are already a few years into our latest collaboration, this has been the year the world took note of a simple service that has profound promise. For us, it has been a year during which we realised that no matter how sophisticated the algorithms get, no matter how many machines we add to the network, our work is not about the triumph of technology, it is about the triumph of humanity.
Many people have assumed that Twitter is just another social network, some kind of micro-blogging service, or both. It can be these things but primarily Twitter serves as a real-time information network powered by people around the world discovering what’s happening and sharing the news. The Iranian election was the most discussed issue on Twitter in the final year of a decade defined by advancements in information access.
In the new year, Twitter will begin supporting a billion search queries a day. We will be delivering several billion tweets per hour to users around the world. These are figures we did not anticipate when we founded the company in 2007.
Looking back, the year is a blur, but that one summer morning remains fixed in my memory because it is a powerful reminder of why we find it meaningful to develop technology.
From The Sunday Times
December 27, 2009
ON June 15, our technicians told me to add a note to our website, writes Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter.
The note warned users of a planned maintenance session that meant our service would be inaccessible while we carried out an overdue system upgrade.
Immediately, we began to see a reaction in the form of tweets. Then came the emails. Then came the phone calls. Even the US State Department contacted us. The message was loud and clear: Twitter cannot rest while there is unrest in Iran.
However, if this maintenance was not done quickly, our operations team feared that the service might go down for days.
With the whole team on edge, my colleague Jessica Verrilli and I called our head of operations to convince him to do what was deemed extremely difficult if not impossible — reschedule the maintenance.
A few more phone calls and we had a consensus to postpone the work despite the risk. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time we had to ask our engineers to perform the impossible. In the space of a year, user accounts had grown by a factor of 10 while our 45-strong team remained crowded into a loft space in San Francisco’s industrial SoMa district.
The work was moved and the maintenance was eventually successful. In the days that followed, our service became inextricably linked to the Iranian election protests in hundreds of media reports on television, online, and in the newspapers.
Requests to discuss the tumult flooded in from everywhere but we did not engage. We chose instead to issue a simple statement on Twitter’s blog.
While it is our job to keep the service running, it was not the appropriate time or circumstance to put ourselves into the same conversation with people who were risking their lives on the streets of Tehran. The experience remains a humbling one that would define the year for Twitter and also underscore the motivation behind a decade of effort leading up to this point.
My co-founder Evan Williams and I have spent the past 10 years developing large systems that allow people to express themselves and communicate openly. We are united in our belief that software has the ability to augment humanity in productive and meaningful ways.
Although we are already a few years into our latest collaboration, this has been the year the world took note of a simple service that has profound promise. For us, it has been a year during which we realised that no matter how sophisticated the algorithms get, no matter how many machines we add to the network, our work is not about the triumph of technology, it is about the triumph of humanity.
Many people have assumed that Twitter is just another social network, some kind of micro-blogging service, or both. It can be these things but primarily Twitter serves as a real-time information network powered by people around the world discovering what’s happening and sharing the news. The Iranian election was the most discussed issue on Twitter in the final year of a decade defined by advancements in information access.
In the new year, Twitter will begin supporting a billion search queries a day. We will be delivering several billion tweets per hour to users around the world. These are figures we did not anticipate when we founded the company in 2007.
Looking back, the year is a blur, but that one summer morning remains fixed in my memory because it is a powerful reminder of why we find it meaningful to develop technology.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Top 10 Flawed HR Assumptions...
source: http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/bob-suttons-top-10-list--------flawed-suspect-and-incomplete-assumptions--about-managing-people---------1-hr-ought.html
by Bob Sutton
Bob Sutton’s Top 10 List
Flawed, Suspect, and Incomplete Assumptions about Managing People
1. HR ought to be all about spotting, hiring, and breeding individual talent (HR could pack a bigger wallop by focusing on teams and networks more).
2. HR should focus on finding, hiring, and developing the very best people (Bad is stronger than good – about 5 times stronger -- so screening-out, reforming, expelling the very worst people is more crucial to collective performance).
3. Find some great superstars and pay them whatever is necessary to keep them happy… and certainly a lot more than everyone else (The best organizations pay higher than competitors, but have more compressed pay).
4. Competition makes people, teams, and companies stronger (Unless people and teams are rewarded for undermining one another rather than helping each other… dysfunctional internal competition is one of the most pervasive problems in American firms).
5. Harmony and having a shared vision are crucial to success (Perhaps for routine work; but creativity depends on battling over ideas. Part of HR’s job should be to teach people how to “fight as if they are right, and listen as if they are wrong”).
6. The key to success is copying practices used by the best companies. (The best companies may be succeeding despite rather than because of their HR practices).
7. Every company needs a great performance review system. (Are they really worth the time and effort? Do they do more harm than good?).
8. Taking a leadership position brings out the best in people. (This is a dangerous half-truth. Giving people power over others turns them into self-centered jerks).
9. The most important thing HR can do is to find and develop great senior leaders (Having an organization with a high proportion of good bosses is probably more important).
10. The best organizations have the best people, “the people make the place.” (There are huge differences in talent, but the best organizations typically have the best systems and not necessarily the best raw talent).
Robert Sutton, Stanford University (www.bobsutton.net)
Singapore Human Capital Summit
30 September 2009
by Bob Sutton
Bob Sutton’s Top 10 List
Flawed, Suspect, and Incomplete Assumptions about Managing People
1. HR ought to be all about spotting, hiring, and breeding individual talent (HR could pack a bigger wallop by focusing on teams and networks more).
2. HR should focus on finding, hiring, and developing the very best people (Bad is stronger than good – about 5 times stronger -- so screening-out, reforming, expelling the very worst people is more crucial to collective performance).
3. Find some great superstars and pay them whatever is necessary to keep them happy… and certainly a lot more than everyone else (The best organizations pay higher than competitors, but have more compressed pay).
4. Competition makes people, teams, and companies stronger (Unless people and teams are rewarded for undermining one another rather than helping each other… dysfunctional internal competition is one of the most pervasive problems in American firms).
5. Harmony and having a shared vision are crucial to success (Perhaps for routine work; but creativity depends on battling over ideas. Part of HR’s job should be to teach people how to “fight as if they are right, and listen as if they are wrong”).
6. The key to success is copying practices used by the best companies. (The best companies may be succeeding despite rather than because of their HR practices).
7. Every company needs a great performance review system. (Are they really worth the time and effort? Do they do more harm than good?).
8. Taking a leadership position brings out the best in people. (This is a dangerous half-truth. Giving people power over others turns them into self-centered jerks).
9. The most important thing HR can do is to find and develop great senior leaders (Having an organization with a high proportion of good bosses is probably more important).
10. The best organizations have the best people, “the people make the place.” (There are huge differences in talent, but the best organizations typically have the best systems and not necessarily the best raw talent).
Robert Sutton, Stanford University (www.bobsutton.net)
Singapore Human Capital Summit
30 September 2009
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