Motivated Innovation

A few minutes ago, I did a quick browse of my Facebook home page, clicking "Like" on some status updates that I liked and providing positive encouragement for someone who was having a rough day.  "Dislike" button? Nope, not present. Conducting a quick Google search, I learned from Paul Sawers'  article  from The Next Web that Firefox actually does have a "Dislike" button add-on, but Facebook itself certainly does not.  In acknowledging this, Sawers makes a key observation about why Facebook has no reason to add a dislike button: social media is deeply rooted in building up network relationships and spreading positive spirit . In creating a positive, accepting atmosphere, Facebook gives companies, charities, and other causes room to promote themselves and their works, of which people can show support by clicking the "Like" button. In turn, Facebook can sell the surrounding ad space to make revenue. The power of positive thinking ...

***Note: This is a re-post of a blog post I originally shared elsewhere on 9/18/2009. Thank you to those who granted me permission to re-share the content of this post.*** Good afternoon all!  How are you???  Things have been pretty hectic on my end.  Unfortunately, I had to leave early from an HR/Marketing internship I had at Aflac.  It was a great place to work at with awesome people, but I just did not have the time and energy to balance the job with my studies and my assistantship. In the past, I had done a pretty good job with balancing my time amongst numerous activities, commitments, and other opportunities.  However, in this instance I found that I might be trying to take on too much.  As such, I sat down and made a spreadsheet with time estimates for my weekly and semester commitments.  In doing so, I realized that there literally was not enough time in my weekly schedule to honor all of my commitments.  Had I not taken the t...

*formerly posted on "Welcome, International Students!" blog Hello to everyone around the world! How are you doing today? I have been thinking about what to write about in this post for our new blog and decided to talk about searching for a job. In American slang, we sometimes call this "the job search". For example: "How is the job search going?" I will provide you with some background information and two stories of my experiences in searching for a job. One is a bad experience, while the other is a good experience. Background: Current Economic Struggles Currently, the United States is one of many countries having economic struggles. This means that companies' financial statuses are not as good as they were several years ago. This also means that career and job opportunities are not as easy to get as they were several years ago. Both domestic and international job candidates are having a harder time getting invited for interviews and pre-employ...

Hours ago, a friend of mine posted a thought-provoking blog post about happiness and success . In his blog post, he commented on Shawn Achor's TED video "The happy secret to better work" . (As I learned today, TED stands for "Technology, Entertainment, and Design.") He also notes that further explanation of Achor's video can be found in Jessica Stillman's article on  Inc.com . In his video, Achor addresses the philosophy that success leads to happiness. This philosophy is embedded in our education system and our workplace. (It is even embedded in the culturally inspiring concept of the 'American dream'.) Day in and day out, we reiterate that happiness comes from success. As Achor notes, the flaw in this logic is that we lock our ourselves (and, in turn, our peers and others) in what becomes an endless cycle of chasing after moving targets, or worse yet, unobtainable goals. Happiness becomes perpetually out of reach. Although we are trying to ...