Crónicas del camino

During this part of the year when we use to think over and define new goals and objectives, I am taking advantage of my divergent passion of writing (some times I have a lot of interest on doing it, sometimes I don't. Right now I do) to recap the 10 biggest lessons that I learnt on 2014 (which in my case, is actually the best year that I ever have so far). 1. There is always an opportunity for improving and growing.  Why? This year I figured out from many sources that we are coded by default on a shortage mind culture (limited resources) and if we want to succeed, we have to broke this paradigm daily. Over the history, the icons that were able to make historical milestones and change the course of humanity, demonstrate that they can go farther and actually when that happen, other followers achieve the same. So.. Of course we can go farther! The main barrier are ourselves.  On a personal perspective, this lesson also remembers me that I am not perfect, that this...

Vatican City in 2 different years and events During the Latin American congress of the banking industry that I attended  ( CL@B ), I got the chance of learn about the different trends and challenges of the financial industry in this part of the world, from a technology perspective and of course, one of the main topics was related with mobility. Even that this topic was developed from a business perspective, most of the speakers share an important number of critical facts related with the current behavior of the society based on our habits.  The most shocking fact for me was related with how many times and average Smartphone user watch the screen of his/her device in a day... 10 times, maybe 20 or 50? No, 200! If we split that amount in an average active 16 hours that we have in a day, we are talking about 12 times and hour, which means that every 5 minutes we are watching the Smartphone screen.  Even that the technology is opening a huge ...

After a short think over that I did about the different personal and professional ventures that I started this year, I finally decide to put on hold a post graduate program that I have been taking. Even that it wasn't an easy decision, for some reason some many "argues" came from nowhere just when I start feeling that this study was not giving me what I was expecting of it. As a consequence of this decision, I recover my Friday afternoon and Saturday morning schedule (at that time I use to have class) and, taking advantage of the discipline that I gain to wake up early on Saturday, I start to retake breakfasts meetings with an important friend and colleague that invite me to participate in a business idea that he has. On the first session, during the conversation that we were having, my friend told me that even that this business idea wasn't looking for taking part of my workday schedule, it must be an important priority and then, he share an interesting though ab...

We have started the second month of the second semester of this year, and most of us are submerged in our daily routine, forgetting all the goals and expectations that we defined at the beginning of this year. What happened with all of that improvements, ambitions and intentions that we eagerly defined on January 1st? Unfortunately (and actually as I mentioned it in a previous post), 90% of us doesn't even remember at this time what were his/her proposes. Why this happen? In my opinion is because of the lack of persistence.  Even that we live in an unequal world, we could affirm that something that most of humans share or have in common are the eager and desire to do something. However, the key to materialize that illusion into action lies on the persistence.  Its obvious that the achieving of this skill or capability is challenging and even that its hard to define cookbook to accomplish it, I would like to share with you a couple of ideas based on my own personal exp...

A few days ago, I was looking for a car wash with some sort of urgency, because after a long trip that we had with my girlfriend, the car put a little bit dirty. After a few attempt's, I finally  locate one, at a parking lot of a building where I was going to have a meeting with a customer. There, the service is provided by Julio (A person that I perceived as  humble, honest and a good worker). After I came back to pick up my car, I saw a scratch that I haven't see before at the front-right side of the car, (a small one actually) and  I ask him for it, since that scratch was not there. He started behaving prevented and in some manner rude, arguing that the scratch was there when he received the car. I stayed calm and I talked to her manager (by phone) because he suggested that. After I explain the situation to her, she told me that we should meet next day in person, and she also mention that Julio was not authorized to drive customer's cars (and in this case, he did)....

Until last weekend (and as part of my own initiative of watching the top 250 movies according to IMDb) I watched The Godfather. Besides being pleasantly surprised by the plot and the story in general, I identified while I was watching it, 7 interesting Strategic and Business lessons. Even that this is a classic 40 year old movie, the most interesting fact is that all the lessons can be applied nowadays because they actually keep their validity. Is important to mention that this lessons are not oriented to analyze the  movie from a moral perspective. 1. First of all, listening. Who pays attention only to their reality is doomed to failure In the entire movie the character that presents the biggest transformation is without any doubt, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino),  which starts as a noble public server and ends as the family business manager (The godfather). And even that this conversion reflects how us as human beings are influenced by ego, something that always...

Continuing with my own review of the supporting ideas described in the Art of Possibility, this week's supporting idea is the #7. Accept everything as is Analyzing this idea from a professional perspective ( and even more if you work on a sales role), the execution of this supporting idea could be the difference between an average performance and the high performance. Many studies state that most of us use to invest 80% of our time performing, 20% of the activities that we should be doing, because we tend to procrastinate the relevant and complicated ones. And actually, to reinforce this improperly prioritizing method, we generate self-arguments based on the guilt and guiltiness principle that consist on delegate to other (people and facts) our lack of resources to perform our daily tasks. To be more specific, this arguments use to be the complaints and "but" sentences that we repeat daily when we are referring to the tasks and objectives that we define and are impos...

Continuing with my own review of the supporting ideas described in the Art of Possibility, this week's supporting idea is the  #6.  Don't take yourself so serious Based on the fact that we (as human beings) trend to measure everything (based on a scarcity thinking) and as a consequence, we also trend to push ourselves while promoting stress and nonconformity thoughts day by day. And what can we do to avoid this negative behavior? As easy as it sounds in the tittle of this supporting idea, we should not take ourselves so serious. I know it sounds obvious but even with that, most of us have a hard time trying to do it. What I've learned is that  the first baby step in this initiative is to smile. I encourage you to set it as a daily goal to remember to yourself that even in the toughest time, you can find an space to smile to yourself or to another person. Another simple but powerful daily exercise is to remind to yourself at night (better if it is before you start ...

Continuing with my own review of the supporting ideas described in the Art of Possibility, this week's supporting idea is the  #5.  Leading from any chair. In my personal opinion, this supporting idea is oriented to provide two different types of practical advices, depending on the role that you play at in your organization (or in any dimension of your personal life): If you are a team leader: Leading based on different perspectives If you are not a team leader: Perform and exercise leader activities, even without having a manager title. Leading  based on different perspectives invites team leaders to manage his/her team based on the vision, objectivity and opinion of all the team members. Even if this concept sounds quite obvious,  there is a highlighted trend on team leaders and managers that use to apply their "power" in an authoritative manner, turning it in a stubbornness state that locks the construction of a high performance team, based on their visi...

Continuing with my own review of the supporting ideas described in the Art of Possibility, this week's supporting idea is the  #4.  Be a Contributor Most of us must accept that we live or have lived a society life. With this concept I mean that we live according to the guidelines that our society and our family told us to live. For that reason we start and finish our school and high school studies and them we find a job or start a college degree that will help us to find a better job. What really a few do (some in an earlier stage than others), is to take conscience of this and to move outside this "society path" to live the life that they really want to life.  To be honest, this isn't an easy task and actually requires to develop the self-awareness skill. In order to provide a specific tool to improve this skill, the book's authors propose a simple but useful approach that is based on an adjustment to your mindset: Perceive yourself as a Contributor.  T...

As part of my personal goals for this year, I'm trying to improve my "organized skills". To be honest, since my childhood this hasn't been one of my qualities and at that time the excuse was that as a Child I had the right to be disorganized but in the past few years the excuse was just a matter of time "I don't have enough time". All this introduction is oriented to analyze that last quote "I don't have enough time". How many times we repeat this sentence to ourselves? This new era of technology, telecommunications and mobility has been performing significant improvements in terms on time but in contrast, we have increased our complaint of how short is everyday and the things that we are unable to do because we don't have enough time. Applying one of the most important lessons learnt on 2013, I tried to start with small but constant habits oriented to be more organized. To be more specific, I start doing my bed all days (yes! last ...

Continuing with my own review of the supporting ideas described in the Art of Possibility, this weeks supporting idea is the #3. Giving an A Based on the basics of supporting ideas #1 and #2 , the authors describe how we use to measure people's development and how this interferes when you want to draw their highest potential. This cultural behavior starts at school when teachers measures our development based on grades. As a teacher, the author explains how he decided to test a different approach with one of his class. At the beginning of  the class, he told everybody that they will receive an A (Highest note at that academy) at the end of the class with just one condition: Each student will write a letter at the end of the class, explaining why they deserve that grade. During the rest of the chapter, the author share some of the students letters while he describe how this successful approach not only draw the highest potential of all the class but also how most of them elevate...

Trying to diversify my blog posts based on another material that has inspired me in the last months, I would like to share with you one of the greatest book that I've read last year. This book came to me by "accident" (I actually believe that everything happens for a reason) when one of my peers of the company that I was working for, talk about it. I not only feel connected with this books tittle " The Art of Possibility "(Art + Possibility in a single title is a really amazing word-mix to create a motivational quote), but also for the authors (this is the first book that I read that has been written by a married couple) and the practical supporting ideas that they share based on their own life experience . In order to share these supporting ideas with an intention, I will post weekly 1 or 2 of them with some ideas of how we can apply them so let's get started! Supporting idea #1 and #2 - "It's all invented anyway" and " move beyond ...

After I finish by far, the best week in my life at Robin's Sharma Titan Summit in Toronto, I flight back to my country full of ideas, initiatives and at the same time, a little confuse on how to start. Putting in practice one of the main ideas of the training (Big achievements belong to small but constant habits), I take a "week off" to re-adapt myself to my daily reality, leaving behind all the notes and books that I received as part of the training.  Then, I decided to start reading one of the books that I haven't had read from Robin but (according to most of the people that I met at that training) is one of his best: The Leader who had no title. I have to confess that I didn't feel connected to a book for so many months until I started to read this masterpiece. With connected I mean that this book (and its simplicity) invite me to read it really concentrated (I must confess that I am not good at it) without thinking in time or in any other distractions. I ...

The new year is seen as a time of rebirth , reflection and renewal. In fact, it is a custom to use this time to define the goals and objectives of that year that is beginning . Is this bad? - Not at all ! Having a time of reflection and projection is always a good thing. However, the real challenge is to  maintain  and persist with that initiative during the entire 365 days of the year.  I (like many), use to define new goals and objectives at this time . But I am also considering (product experience different workouts , exercises and conversations with others ) some improvements that I'd like to share for those who want to use them. In addition, I designed a simple template to apply them that I also like to share ( Maybe someone works for you ) . Before that, I would like to list some of the main ideas that I have been collecting and using to complement traditional planning . Although the are simple and logical ideas ( when you read them you might...