What happens when you realise your path is entrepreneurship rather than employment? Lindsay takes up the challenge and shares an account of her journey as it unfolds…
I consider that work to set up the Mirror Mirror business began properly in September 2016.
And now here we are. Eight months later. All set up … and a first client.
You might read that and think – ok great, you’re on your way.
By: Anja Uitdehaag
The first thing we do if we want to find out more about a first date, a potential employer or a new colleague is googling the person concerned. And what we’ll discover is his/her personal brand.
A ‘personal brand’ is in many ways synonymous with our reputation. It refers to the way we are seen by the world, including clients, investors, peers, boss, friends, etc.
If you are not conscious of what your personal brand is and not deliberately branding yourself, the outside world is branding you.
Thus, if you are quiet you could be branded as passive; if you’re too caring of others’ feelings you might be branded as weak; if you’re too open to learning new things, you may be branded as naïve; and, perhaps most unfairly, if you’re aggressively proactive, you could very well be branded as “mannish.”
FEM-PROFILE
ALEKSANDRA POPOVSKA was born in south of Serbia in 1975, in a family of Macedonian emigrants and has been living and working in Holland since 2004. She studied Music Pedagogy and Theory at the Faculty of Music in Skopje ( Ss.Cyril & Methodius University in Skopje. She also holds a Bachelor of Music Performance and Production and European Master Media in Arts from the Utrecht School of Arts. In 2010, she completed her Mphil studies in Voice Performance and Applied Composition at the University of Portshmouth, UK. Since 2000 she was devoted to research and practice of Macedonian traditional music which influenced her music career and later work as well. With the ensamble Dragan Dautovski Quartet she performed hundreds of concerts across Europe.
Besides her activities as a vocalist and composer, she teaches music in various schools and music centers (Korenhuis- Den Haag, American International School Den-Haag, Grace Music International).
Aleksandra speaks about the importance of creative self-reflection and learning.
Which 3 words would describe who you are?
Creativity, diligence, dedication. Continue reading
By: Matheen
In 2015, I’ve been medically and clinically diagnosed as living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Depression, Anxiety Disorder, and Paranoia. I’m currently taking medication for my mental illnesses. I also go for my monthly counselling with a registered Psychiatrist. My family and a few close friends do not feel sorry for me — instead, they have been supportive; they have shown understanding and compassion. In social media, I often posts articles about mental illness and encourage others not to make fun of people living with mental illness — it’s not cool to joke about someone and label them as “retarded”, “abnormal”, “paranoid”, “mental”, or even casually using “OCD” as if having it means you’re cool and fashionable to have it; au contraire, you are so not cool if you are guilty of such actions. I always think that one should always put oneself on other people’s shoes to be able to comprehend and empathize. Simply put, how would you like it if someone labeled you as such?
What happens when you realise your path is entrepreneurship rather than employment? Lindsay takes up the challenge and shares an account of her journey as it unfolds…
Yes, as everyone says – it is pretty tough getting a new venture off the ground. Although we’ve had very encouraging responses since we started spreading the word in January, as just blogged on LinkedIn, two team runs were organized but then postponed at the last minute, due to one thing or another. So disappointing.
Written by: matheen
Most of the time, singletons were pitied for being alone in life. Don’t ever pity your singleton friends — they may be alone, but trust me, they’re not lonely. I know this because I’m a proud singleton by choice! Having learned from two failed relationships, I refuse to settle for less. Modern single women nowadays — are a far cry from Bridget Jones — whose live revolves around finding The One. We’re more focused on our own well-being. We’re not bothered with our status in life — we’re smarter and wiser because we’re done with crappy dates and staying in bad relationships. We spend our time working on ourselves, growing as individuals. It’s not being selfish; it’s living your life in the best possible ways. Being single means you’re strong enough to enjoy life without depending on others!
FEMPROFILE
Anna Zubytska is Sales Director of Danone Dairy in Ukraine. She holds EMBA degree from Central European University and has 17 years of leadership and business management experience developed in multinational FMCG environment in Europe. In her today’s interview, Anna speaks about her approach to individual development and life in general, which helps her to keep learning, growing, discovering and having fun J
Life motto
So far, my live and personal growth has been advancing this way due to my belief, that the outer world is full of opportunities. Seeing the world big allows us growing and gaining new experiences, insights, enriching our lives with joy, satisfaction and new levels of mastery.
According to a 2010 study in the journal Psychological Science, “women have a lower threshold for what constitutes offensive behavior,” and hence are more likely to see a need for an apology in everyday situations.
Women apologize more, and they seem to do so to be compliant and empathetic.
Should women “man up?”
Could apologizing be holding women back at work?
View one: Continue reading
What happens when you realise your path is entrepreneurship rather than employment? Lindsay takes up the challenge and shares an account of her journey as it unfolds…
It’s 10.00am and I have a skype call lined up with a friend of a friend called Rekha Kent. Rekha moved out to Kenya 5 years ago with her family and went through her own journey of starting a new business from scratch out there. I was referred to her because was getting into a bit of a panic about how long things were taking to get going. I fully expected she’d provide me with some much needed, comforting reassurance.
How you decorate your office does say something about you and can be a conversation starter when unfamiliar people visit you, so it is worth considering what subtle messages you want to convey and the topics you are happy to discuss with strangers.
We spend a lot of time at work and research has shown that people perform better when they work in a pleasant environment, clean offices, with natural light, plants, comfortable furniture etc. (see, for example, http://smartbusinesstrends.com/tips-creating-healthy-efficient-positive-work-environment/) and are able to customize their work space to some degree. In fact, we see a lot of firms (Hubspot, Dropbox, Skype, Evernote, AirBnB etc. http://mashable.com/2014/01/09/playful-workspaces/) that design work spaces that reflect the company culture and often provide ‘play’ areas as well as quiet spaces to give their employees the freedom to move between different work environments that suit their needs and moods.
Help you to succeed in life and work 