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What is the trade-off?

In Life 8 Mins Read By

There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.- Thomas Sowell

Life is a fight for territory; we are always trading off something for yet another thing: your Work or Your Marriage, Your Mental Health, or Mindless scrolling on social media. Unfortunately, there is always a trade-off. The question is not if you are trading off something; instead, the question is, what are you trading off?

Take, for instance, you run a not-for-profit organization, but you are attending conferences all year round, all over the world. The trade-off would probably be less time working on your project. Another example is social media/instant messaging, picking up your phone every 15 minutes to check the latest updates for the dopamine rush. Still, the trade-off is either having less face to face conversations or having less time to work on your goals. You get the drift, most times you cannot have it all.

trade-off /ˈtrād ˌôf/ noun : a balance achieved between two desirable but incompatible features; a compromise.

In her 2014 Dartmouth Commencement Speech, Shonda Rhimes delivers a very compelling speech on trade-offs:

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Top Inspirational Songs to Lift Your Spirit Up

In Motivation 9 Mins Read By

Life can be tough, whatever would go wrong would always go wrong (Murphy’s Law); when things go wrong like they often go wrong, don’t go wrong with it. The key is to know yourself and what works for you during these trying times we all go through. Music can be a very great tool/Anchor to get your spirit in sync with what the universe is trying to teach you.


Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.– Plato

Music preference is subjective just like the list below, songs resonate with people differently depending on what you going through. A lot of these songs could help you get through these trying times – no matter what you going through, hang in there as this too shall pass.

No matter what you going through, hang in there as this too shall pass.

In no particular order, here are some great inspirational songs to lift your spirit during trying times:

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Book Summary -The Leadership Gap by Lolly Daskal.

In Book Summaries 11 Mins Read By

 Leaders are encouraged to see themselves not as failures who who need to be fixed, but as successful people finding their potential to be even better.

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Lolly Daskal draws on her experience studying human behavior in the context of business, she created a unique methodology based on seven leadership archetypes—the rebel, the explorer, the truth-teller, the hero, the inventor, the navigator, and the knight.

The archetypes provide an accessible construct for deeper awareness and  personal growth. Understanding which role you embody—when and why—has tremendous value for a leader who seeks to optimize performance.

 Seeing yourself in each of these archetypes will help you leverage what you do brilliantly well and, by contrast, learn where and why you tend to fail. There are real “leadership gaps” that impede the success of even the most talented executives.

Here are my favorite takeaways from reading, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness by Lolly Daskal:

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Top Quotes on Personal Responsibility

In Quotes 3 Mins Read By

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. – Erica Jong

The moment you come to the realization that no one is coming to the rescue, whatever would go wrong would go wrong, quit blaming anyone for your challenges & tribulations; and you take full responsibility for your life that is when your life finally changes.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.― Henry Ward Beecher

Here are top quotes on taking full personal responsibility for your life:

  • There are two primary choices in life: To accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them. – Dr. Denis Waitley
  • Until you accept responsibility for your life, someone else runs your life – Orin Woodward
  • You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.- Jim Rohn

Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility in the final analysis. The one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility. – Michael Korda

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Taking Full Responsibility for your Life

In Life 9 Mins Read By

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it. – LOU HOLTZ

Taking full responsibility for your life, your actions, your failures, your successes, is one of the major keys to success. It involves quitting the blame game, quit blaming the government, your spouse, your parents, your frenemies, your enemies, internet trolls et al. Whatever would go wrong usually would go wrong (Murphy’s Law) but when things go wrong like they often do, do not go wrong with it or blame anyone.  It is easy to stay positive when things are going right, the challenge is how you would react when things don’t go the way you want it to happen.

The Blame Game precedes you and I as it was said to have started in the Garden of Eden, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake but the snake did not have a leg to stand on.

The concept of sin in most religions enables blaming as the doctrine goes: Whenever you do something wrong, you would be punished, commit a sin and the consequence is punishment. Hence this leads to people blaming others for their actions in other to avoid punishment. The number one culprit we blame for our irresponsible action is satan(devil), you hear the familiar word: ” It is the work of Devil “.

Until you accept responsibility for your life, someone else runs your life – orin Woodward

Taking full responsibility is not an easy task especially when you have not been brought up/groomed like that. We are in a world where we are constantly comparing ourselves to each other, in a social media age where it is always green at the other side, The day that changes your life is when you take 100% (Full) responsibility for your life.

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. – J.K.Rowling

To help you navigate the 100% responsibility journey, here are some great insights from top minds:

In the Seasons of Life, Jim Rohn share the following insight:

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NO BLAMING, NO COMPLAINTS, NO EXCUSE.

In Life 7 Mins Read By

Never make excuses. Your friends don’t need them and your foes won’t believe them. ―John Wooden

We all fall into the trap at one point or the other blaming, complaining, and making excuses. Most times we are not even aware we are doing it, we say we are venting, sharing our frustrations, “a problem shared is a problem halved“. Most of the times, the people we are complaining to can not really do anything about our problems but we still share it with them, guess at times it feels good but most times after sharing the problem with them, it either gets worst with their ill given advice or you still don’t have the solution.

Most of the time, we do complain about the things we can change such as a toxic work environment, a bad relationship, money problems, to people who can not really do anything about it. We hardly complain about for example gravity because we have accepted it: whatever goes up must come down. Life happens to all of us but the only way to change any situation is to DO something about it: Fix It, Solve it. Where Energy goes attention goes, what you focus on expands.

Never tell your problems to anyone…20% don’t care and the other 80% are glad you have them. – Lou Holtz Jr.

Author Will Bowen. in his book, A Complaint Free World, shares the following story:

There is an old story of two construction workers sitting down to eat lunch together. The first worker opens his lunch box and complains, “Yech! A meatloaf sandwich.… I hate meatloaf sandwiches.” His friend says nothing. The following day, the two meet up again for lunch. Again the first man opens his lunch box, looks inside, and, this time more agitated, says, “Another meatloaf sandwich?

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Book Summary: Essentialism by Greg McKeown

In Book Summaries 8 Mins Read By

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

THE WISDOM OF LIFE CONSISTS IN THE ELIMINATION OF NON-ESSENTIALS. —Lin Yutang

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Essentialism by Greg McKeown is a very great book about living by design, not by default. The book goes in depth on how to relentlessly pursue less and concentrate on what really matters. As an Essentialist, you need to focus on the few things that are really essential, think of the trade-offs, say no more often and EXECUTE.

Here are my favourite take aways from reading – Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less:

The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It doesn’t mean occasionally giving a nod to the principle. It means pursuing it in a disciplined way. The way of the Essentialist isn’t about setting New Year’s resolutions to say “no” more, or about pruning your in-box, or about mastering some new strategy in time management. It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?“

Am I investing in the right activities?

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

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Lessons Learned from Dan Brown’s Masterclass Session on Writing Thrillers

In Masterclass 7 Mins Read By

Dan Brown is the author of numerous notable novels, including The Da Vinci Code, which has become one of the bestselling novels of all time as well as the subject of intellectual debate among readers and scholars. Brown’s novels are published in 56 languages around the world with over 200 million copies in print.

The son of a mathematics teacher and a church organist, Brown was raised on a prep school campus where he developed a fascination with the paradoxical interplay between science and religion. These themes eventually formed the backdrop for his books.

Here are my favourite takeaways from watching Dan Brown’s Masterclass.com Session on Writing Thrillers:

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Book Summary – The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger

In Biographies 9 Mins Read By


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In The Ride of a Lifetime, Bob Iger shares the lessons he learned while running Disney and leading its 220,000-plus employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership,

The ride of a lifetime book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as the lowliest studio grunt at ABC. It’s also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the Star Wars mythology.

Managing your own time and respecting others’ time is one of the most vital things to do as a manager

Bob Iger is one of my favourite business executive of all time and the Walt Disney Company, a paragon of excellence. In the book, Bob shares a lot of insights such as: fostering curiosity, pursuit of excellence, integrity, taking full responsibility for your actions, decisiveness and candor, I find the Ride of a lifetime by Bob Iger to be a very good read and I would highly recommend it.

Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.

Here are some of my favourite take-aways from reading the Ride of a lifetime by Bob Iger:

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Book Summary -The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

In Book Summaries 9 Mins Read By

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What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller is one of the most important books have ever read. I keep going back to it because it contains lots of gems, anecdotes, insights and strategies on living a more productive life by focusing on ONE thing.

Here are my favourite take aways from Reading the ONE Thing by Gary Keller:

Going Small

“Going small” is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It’s a tighter way to connect what you do with what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.

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The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List: The 99 Best Business Books

In List 9 Mins Read By

You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.”Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon), Good Will Hunting

I absolutely enjoy recommendations/lists for a lot of activities and I absolutely love the Personal MBA list which is a project designed to help you educate yourself about advanced business concepts.

The Personal MBA features the very best business books available, based on over ten years and thousands of hours of research. So skip business school and the $150,000 loan: you can get a world-class business education own your own at very low cost by reading the best business books.

The Personal MBA List is curated by Bestselling Author Josh Kauffman and he also authored a book with the same title, The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business.

I have been following the Personal MBA List for quite a while and I have read some of the books on the list. I would be reading more books from the list this year and am looking forward to sharing the insights gained from the books as I read them.

“If I read a book that cost me $20 and I get one good idea, I’ve gotten one of the greatest bargains of all time.”Tom Peters, bestselling business author

Here are the 99 business books The Personal MBA officially recommends;

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The Slow Media Manifesto

In Productivity 6 Mins Read By

I first got to know about the Slow Media Manifesto after reading “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport. The Slow Media Manifesto argues that in an age in which the digital attention economy is shoveling more and more clickbait toward us and fragmenting our focus into emotionally charged shards, the right response is to become more mindful in our media consumption:

Early in 2010, a trio of Germans (Benedikt Köhler, Sabria David and Jörg Blumtritt) with backgrounds in sociology, technology, and market research posted online a document titled “Das Slow Media Manifest.” The English translation reads: “The Slow Media Manifesto.“

Slow Media is a movement focusing on the pace of media production and consumption in the digital age. It advocates for alternative ways of making and using media that are more intentional, more enjoyable, longer lasting, better researched/written/designed, more ethical, and of higher quality overall.

Slow Media developed in response to complex media formats and instant communication methods characteristic of digital culture, in which “high volumes of information are updated in real-time and are perpetually at your fingertips.

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You are not your Job Description.

In Life 8 Mins Read By

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.


Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. ― Bruce Lee

How do you answer the question: What do you do? Do you answer with your present/past Job Description(s). For Example:

The above responses are what have done in the past/presently doing but they are not who I am because I am constantly re-inventing myself like we should all be doing. We need to constantly be in Permanent Beta Mode.

Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes. – J.K.Rowling

In the The Start-up of You, Reid Hoffman notes:

Technology companies sometimes keep the beta test phase label on software for a time after the official launch to stress that the product is not finished so much as ready for the next batch of improvements. Gmail, for example, launched in 2004 but only left official beta in 2009, after millions of people were already using it.

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Book Summary – Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear.

In Book Challenge 8 Mins Read By

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Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.― Carl Jung

In the book Atomic Habits by Author James Clear shares the step-by-step plan for building better habits, why tiny atomic changes can make a big difference in forming good and breaking bad habits. The book is rich with insights, examples, anecdotes, and real-life scenarios and is easy to connect with.

The book expands on the concepts earlier shared by Charles Duhigg, in his book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Atomic Habits are tiny changes with marginal gains, 1% improvement, tiny incremental changes which if sustained for a long period of time leads to significant changes.

Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement. At first, these tiny routines seem insignificant, but soon they build on each other and fuel bigger wins that multiply to a degree that far outweighs the cost of their initial investment.

The basic premise of the book is that small incremental changes lead to long term result. Here are some the ways have been using the atomic habits to enhance my productivity:

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Book Summary – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team By Patrick Lencioni

In Book Summaries 12 Mins Read By

“A fractured team is just like a broken arm or leg; fixing it is always painful, and sometimes you have to rebreak it to make it heal correctly. And the rebreak hurts a lot more than the initial break, because you have to do it on purpose.”

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team book explores the fundamental causes of organizational politics, cohesion, and team failure. The book details many pitfalls that teams face as they seek to “grow together.”

According to the book, organizations fail to achieve teamwork because they unknowingly fall prey to five natural but dangerous pitfalls, called the Five Dysfunctions:

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