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Beyond the Rhetoric
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The official blog of Michael Kwan, freelance writer based out of Vancouver, Canada.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'success'
Sunday Snippet: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” Most people, myself included, are not terribly familiar with the name Albert Szent-Gyorgyi. It’s not exactly the kind of name that come...
Sunday Snippet: Anna Quindlen
“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.” Anna Quindlen is perhaps best known for her work writing for the New York Times and later with News...
Covering Up Your Mistakes
They say that to err is human. We all make mistakes, but we all seem to deal with them in different ways. Some people may feel inclined to cover up their mistakes, possibly for fear of embarrassment or punishment, but this may not be the best approac...
A Diplomatic Approach to Bad Clients
As is the case with any other kind of business, freelance writers like me will inevitably encounter difficult customers. It can be very easy to lose your cool and get into a shouting match with these so-called “bad” clients, but this may ...
Then Why Not Work Less?
As is the norm with most of my working days, I found myself sitting in front of the computer the other day, chatting with a few people on Twitter. Naturally, we covered a range of topics, but I mentioned that there always seems to be so much to do. I...
Baby Steps or Giant Leaps?
Reminder: My contest to win E3 Expo 2009 swag, including a copy of Battlefield 1943, ends tomorrow morning. Have you entered? As you make your way through life, there are many different paths that you can choose to take. Some of these will look...
How Not to Suck in Life: Course Outline
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with Lesley Chang wherein we decided that it could be very funny if someone decided to offer a course in how not to suck in life. We tossed around a few ideas about what could be included in this course, who woul...
Remember to Acknowledge Your Success
As I was reading Saving the World at Work by Tim Sanders last night, I came across an interesting statistic. (This is on page 136, if you’re reading along at home.) According to a recent Gallup poll, 70 percent of American workers hate their jo...
Business Strategy: Do Well By Doing Good
While the title of this post may sound grammatically awkward, this is not another edition of Grammar 101. Instead, we’re taking a look at a rather unconventional business strategy that may not sound perfectly viable from the get-go. As counter...
Playing to Win, Playing to Last
A couple of weeks ago on The Celebrity Apprentice, Annie Duke discussed the difference between playing to win and playing to last. While the analogy comes from the world of poker, the underlying philosophy can easily be applied to nearly every facet ...
Is Success a Zero Sum Game?
For one person to win, must another person lose? For one person to find success, does another person have to fail? This is not a conundrum faced by all people, but as our priorities shift to helping others, some people may feel that they are striving...
Internal or External Locus of Control
Are you the puppeteer or are you the puppet? Are you the one pulling the strings or are you having your strings pulled? Whether or not you are consciously aware of it, your perspective can greatly affect how you approach life. Is your destiny pre-det...
