Keep Moving On and Breathe

Hey there,

Lately I have not found the words to write, but today triggered me. I saw a big man strolling around with a baby carriage and playing with his little boy making all sounds. The little guy bursted into laughther everytime his father did something to make him smile and lifted him high. Sunshine does a person good and I whondered: what does my future hold?

Lately I am asking that question multiple times, everytime to be remembered that the future is TODAY and not tomorrow. I believe people can change but that everybody has a certain set of characteristics (DNA, upbringing, you name it) which are instilled in a person. I will take myself as a example:

After taking some time to myself, I find myself having trouble letting go. This can be a person, cause or situation but when it does not sit right with me, I keep troubling myself with it. What I learned about this is that I always want the best for people and when something does not go how I see it can go then I get worried. I try to control the situation or force things to go my way. Even in my research that I am doing, situations do no always go as to my planning. What I take away from this is, is that when you start forcing something (especially creativity) you end up with the wrong results.

I believe that I have a promising future but I work for it everyday and try to enjoy my soon-to-be final days as a student. Even though this scares me a little at moments, I try to take it as it comes and enjoy every moment.

This is not a character flaw, even though it can come across, but a internal desire to bring out the best results and outcomes for everybody. This does not relate to my own personal well being but how I look at everybody around me and see where I can lend a hand or even a few words. Yes, I do screw up and can not be everywhere but a few sincere kinds words go a long way.

Each year I watch this video: Life Lessons by Madea and I am reminded about the fact to take a close look at the people around me. I can honestly say that I do not have many friends, but I have a few roots and I place my trust in them. To stay positive towards them, to share my thoughts whatever they may be and encourage them to follow their dreams.

As doing so I am reminded that I need to do the same by keep moving on and just Breathe...

This song always lends a hand and makes me smile: Sam Cooke

The Come Up

Dear all,


I have been looking for a focus of my blog and some of you read about my experiences, my research, some lifestyle posts but today I defined what I will write about. It may come as a surprise but my posts will be about:

• Lifestyle, fashion is something I love;
• My research endeavors, I have to read up on Social Contagion, but I want to become an knowledgeable expert on this subject and the advantages of the application of Serious Gaming for business purposes and in education;
• My life lessons, I draw inspiration from Paulo Coelho, Rudyard Kipling (the man who wrote Jungle Book, one of my favorites), Maya Angelou and many others. It is not that I want to be a writer, but one is what he talks about so that makes me guy who loves to write. 

Babysteps before a big leap. As Oscar Wilde put it:

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Sincerely,

Stefanos

Learning to be a Satisficer

Another day at Seats2Meet 030: today was one of the coolest and most awakening interviews I had in a long time. I had the pleasure to meet Kim van Velzen which is the general manager of the CDEF Holding which the concept of Seats2Meet belongs to. 
Officially it was an interview and with interviews for job positions a person has expectations. I had several great experiences with working at Seats2Meet and having a crowd of people around me which are, for the most part, open for conversation. However, the position which I am interested in was already occupied so this led me to a conversation (during the interview) about expectation management. 


Let's say you visit a great restaurant and you have a wonderful dinner. Even the person serving you is utmost attentive and kind an during the dinner you look to your significant other and say that you really enjoy being here and this must be a great place to work. The association between having a pleasurable experience somewhere leads to the assumption that it also must be a great place to work. This can be the case, but experiencing one thing and actually working at the place where you had the experience can be quite different. In my case of today: i will have to prove myself again from scratch which I am always interested in and can start fresh in an exciting organization.


What happened was: I projected my pleasurable experiences on my focus of potentially working there. I made this inference due to positive associations and experiences. During my days of moving towards my graduation I think a lot of what my next step is and how important that choice is because it might affect my whole career. For one part, this is true because choices involve other choices but the modern marketplace is a conspiracy to confuse, to trick the mind that believing that every choices (how small they might be) are actually extremely significant. I know people who actually others that they already should be a millionaire because they are approaching 30, the thing is: i am not kidding!


I personally believe that when everybody does the thing that they love or are naturally good at, which can be the same thing or not, a lot of people would be happier.
Rather then always focusing on maximizing, i would rather set criteria for adequacy, rather then to identify an optimal solution.
Most of the time we do not know the outcomes of our undertakings in life, we can rarely evaluate all outcomes with adequate precision.


What I gained from this cool conversation was a good lesson in expectation management, some personal insights and this blog which will remind to always be myself during any conversation. In the meantime, I’m going to continue my quest for self-improvement, reminding myself to be less of a maximizer and more of a satisficer

Lean & Mean

Today I was in Utrecht at Seats2Meet for a conversation with Vincent about allowing me to put out my survey amongst it's online community of professionals and entrepreneurs: Mindz.

The goal of the meeting was to make the survey fit to be distributed amongst it's members. He pointed some details which allows me to gather data which could make a different in my research and provide valuable insights in how a platform is adopted, being used and how informations spreads on it about services, products and of course the development of the platform itself since they are giving it a 'facelift'.

We both came to the conclusion that this could provide benefits for Mindz as well as for my research. What caught my attention was that Seats2Meet is all about meeting new people, connect and share stories. When I came in, I did not went looking for Vincent or went to their desk but just grabbed myself a coffee, unfolded my Macbook and grabbed a chair and after a short while Vincent popped up as well.


Realizing that I did not  go for the desk immediately but just took a seat in a relaxed manner, made me think about Identification. Seats2Meet pulls it of to make such a strong association between meeting people and connect that everytime I walk in, I feel welcome and talk with everybody around me. Well, most of the time ;)


How about that for a 'Touch point'!


What I did today:

• Made another step towards graduation;
• Received valuable feedback in making the most out of my survey;
• Finally enjoyed a nice dinner while having some laughs ;)

Thanks to a friend who showed me this after sharing my day>>

Can YOU smell it!! 

Backpack v.s Man Bag

For some weeks I am looking for a cool backpack. They have to be big enough to fit my Moleskine, laptop and several other articles that I carry along with me. I love leather bags but since my old Eastpak died on me with several holes in it, it is time for something different. One brand that caught my eye some time ago is Stockholm-based bag brand Sandqvist.

The brand was build in 2004 by Anton Sandqvist and includes products for everyday use combining style and durability. Their collection includes leather laptop bags and backpacks made from Canvas. Their Inspiration wall is definitely worth checking out!
Since my Eastpak made itself quite usefull, this specific model caught my eye as well as:

Eastpak Floyd

Checking out the Sandqvist collection of this year I came across this old school model featuring brown leather and made out of heavy navy blue canvas. This one definitely goes on my list!





 


Something to reach for!
Straight out of Japan by Yoshida Porter, this one is a keeper! This item can outlive your grandfather, hold your 15inch laptop and a water bottle for those difficult hours. For the shoppers, Nalden his blog is the place to be! My search continues on to find the Perfect Backpak.

Setting Priorities

Today I had an interesting meeting at Seats2Meet  with one of the founders of the business concept after enjoying a good lunch! While I walked away from this conversation, I realised that I had not made really clear what it is that I wanted out of the meeting. For me personally, it was meeting a new person and telling a part of my current undertakings and my dream. However, these intentions did not really came across correctly as I wanted them to. It is okay to go into meetings with an open mind, but what I learned today again is that when you are straight forward in such meetings that that is more appreciated then lacking details.

I always try to be prepared for any question and to be myself whether it is an interview in a big company or a entrepreneur who heard it all. In my opinion, the key to always be prepared is to just be yourself. This can work out differently, for different persons so you are warned but the key is to be authentic. You only get one chance for a first impression!

My first priority is to finish my academic undertaking, after that there is lots more to explore. Therefore, what I did today:

• Found out that you have to treat each person, situation, business conversation as a single chance to make the impression you want to last;
• Be myself, also when it comes to meeting people who can help my business ideas;
• Read up on volunteer work in India, China and in Rotterdam;
• Finished my surveys for my thesis and publicizing them this week and start measurements.

Nobody said it was going to be easy creating my own job and finding my way but I have my positive attitude, oversight and insight into the material at hand and good people around me.

Sincerely,

Stefanos

Inspire Series

Today I sat down for a minute in one of the buildings of the Erasmus University, overlooking the whole campus while enjoying a nice Espresso. Actually I am pretty lucky that all my hard work got me so far that I can sit here, almost as a graduate, and overthink how I got so far. I was reminded of an MBA-student, in his thirties, who left Nigeria to come to Rotterdam and get his MBA in Business Administration. As the world becomes a global village, he is a nice example of how one can pack up and head in a whole new direction. This moment led me to the idea of also sharing the stories, encounters and conversations I have with people who inspire, achieve and work hard and from whose endevaours I draw lessons from.

Sir Ken Robinson

I will post these stories, pictures, random encounters and inspirational moments under the Inspire Series. This will also include encounters while I travel and pictures or can be a story of a personal hero of mine.

On to the next one!