If you can do them all, you are one web2.0 super cool urban-geek.

• Instead of doing things silently, record whatever you are doing on Twitter, Facebook and other status sharing services so that your friends know, in case they are bored and have no thing else to do. If you get used to it, you can even make your own slice-of-life novel out of your tweets!
• Instead of reading newspapers and printed books, read them with the Amazon Kindle.
• Instead of reading comics, magazines and color printed books, read them with the Apple iPad.
• Instead of listening to the radio, go to NPR (National Public Radio), Last.fm and several other online radio services. To listen to radio on the go, just use any mobile device that has 3G capability.
• Instead of buying music CD, go to iTunes Store to purchase and download songs, or go to Spotify to listen to music for free.
• Instead of going to a store to buy gifts for your friends’ birthdays, purchase some virtual gifts and send to them on Facebook. If you prefer physical gifts, there are plenty of online stores where you can find unique gifts for your friends, such as Etsy.
• Instead of looking at a recipe book to cook a great meal, it’s faster and easier to browse through social cooking sites such as Allrecipes, TastyPlanner. Remember to take pictures of your cooking and share on Flickr!
• Instead of taking notes of school lectures on the paper, record the whole thing with a hand camera and upload to YouTube. Oh, and do you know that you can add notes into your online videos with YouTube? There are also some online video sharing services that allow you and your friends to make notes on the same video.
• Instead of asking friends for advices about dating, finding new music etc, post them on Yahoo Answer or Mahalo Answer and invite your friends to answer them there. You’ll love the game point ranking system of these services.
• Instead of taking sleeping pills, read CSS tutorials until your mind unconciously tells you that it needs to rest. w3schools is a good place to start. Remember to bookmark your progress on Twitter!

Suppose you were chosen to represent your company to make a presentation in front of hundreds of people, at a big event or competition. Suppose you have never done it before… How can you overcome your introvert self and gather enough courage to deliver a good speech?

One of the biggest fears inside each human being is the fear of public speaking. There are several reasons for you to feel like vomiting whenever you think about having to talk in front of a crowd. First of all, the intimidation one can feel from being looked at by so many people at once. Second of all, the expectation one set for him/herself before going on the stage. Physical condition or the amount of practices also contribute to the overall performance…

But that’s normal. Almost everyone gets cold sweat before giving a public presentation. Anyhow, be assured that by following these 10 guidelines, you can conquer the fear inside and shine at any public speaking event:

1. Plan carefully. Understand how much time you have for the presentation. Write down every key points you want to deliver to the audience. Prepare and polish sentences to support those key points.
2. If the presentation includes visual support (e.g PowerPoint), make sure that each slide has fonts bigger than 20. It’s also important to find and use nice graphics in the presentation, too.
3. Familiarize yourself with public speaking by watching videos of famous public speakers. A few examples would be Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Barrack Obama…
4. Practice the presentation 10 times a day. 2 when wake up, 5 during the day and 3 before going to bed. For better result, multiply the numbers by 5 or 10.
5. Learn about body language and notice how your body moves in front of the mirror when practicing the speech.
6. Keep your body as healthy as possible. Eat healthy food, sleep 8 hours a day, do exercises 1 hour daily,
7. Before the presentation, familiarize yourself with the stage before the audiences come inside the hall.
8. If there are other people presenting before you, ignore them and go walk around outside. This would help calm you down and prevent you from being distracted by the others’ speaking.
9. Before going on the stage, breath deeply and keep this thought in your mind: “I love my audience. I will make sure they have a good time listening to me.” You have made a lot of effort for this day, so just go out there and have do it like you have always been practicing.
10. After the presentation, if there is any difficult question that makes you scratch your head, the first thing to say is “That’s a (very) good question.”. After that, either you can or cannot answer the question, it’d be all ok. You have acknowledge how important the issue is; that’s what matters most.

Having applied the above rules before, I was able to win an award at Mindtrek Startup Launchpad 2008 for my team. At a personal perspective, that was a big leap in self-development for me. I’m not yet a professional public speaker, but I’m confident about such future. And should there be any public speaking event, I’d know that I can perform well with sufficient preparation. The same goes to you, too. Good luck!

Looking at the management of a company, an outsider’s perspective can be far different from that of an insider. People tend to paint roses on success stories, but few can imagine the hardship those insiders have to overcome.

The more famous a company is, the more people from the outside think differently about its management comparing to those who are in the inside. Even the insiders have to talk and act so that their company’s image can stay positive in the eyes of the public.

There can be countless of magazine articles and books writing about how great a successful enterprise or celebrated individual has been. However, it’s just one side of a coin. On the other side, there can be also negative emotions, struggles, confusion or even frustration…

People don’t just laugh at challenges bravely or conquer their fear easily at a blink of an eye. They also have hard times, disappointments, disagreements… In order to understand fully how innovation and management work in a company, we need to look at both sides of the story.