Microtrends by Mark J. Penn with E. Kinney Zalesne

Many books that I've read focuses on the big things that drive our world and society today. These are things that we can see happening to us everyday, and things that hardly escape the media's attention. I like this book - Microtrends - because it draws our attention to the myriad of things that happen below the radar. Penn calls these things microtrends if they are adopted by 1% of the population, which he calls the "magic number".

The proliferation of Microtrends is a reflection of the increasing access we have to self-expression. It is also a product of the flat world. Information and knowledge is now widely available to almost everyone, and with more selection, people have much more themes to chose from and incorporate into their lives. It is also much easier now to find commonality and brethrens amongst the world populace that one can identify with. This allows critical masses to form, which in turn switches on the virtuous cycle (or vicious cycle for negative trends such as terrorism) for more people to be brought into the trend.

I like that Penn focused alot of his book on the implications of these Microtrends, particularly what it means in terms of impact to society and businesses. Someone with a keen sense can pick out Microtrends early (before they explode) and quickly capitalise on the business opportunity in serving this group of trenders. But to do so would mean that I'd have to be actively plugged into all the trends that's going on around the world. Or that I'd need to have alot of luck to be at the right place at the right time to get hit by the right idea. I think the certainty of the former makes it a more attractive option.

Overall, what does it mean for me? On a personal note, I'm certainly glad that I live in an era where I can see all the colours and richness of the world for what it is ... it is more exciting to be immersed in a sea of multi-coloured strands of ideas than to be swimming in an orderly school of fishes. (This IS a very bad analogy, but it is getting late. Hahah.) As for my business aspirations, this means that there is potentially alot more opportunities out there ... but to spot these trends early and accurately, I would have to be sufficiently exposed to a wide range of ideas. I think the key to this is to talk to people. Taxi drivers, security ppl in guardhouses (xm would know why i said this!), people in the coffeeshop, friends who work in banks, law firms, IT companies, etc. And the other is to read widely. All in all, this coincides with what I believe is the crucial success factor in the knowledge economy today - knowledge (duh! hahaha), or more specifically, the accumulation and speedy access to quality knowledge.

Containers we live in ...

Sometimes I like to think that we live within containers.
Containers that we grow into and grow used to. Containers that whose form we take when we appear to the world.

When someone says that you are the brightest amongst yr peers, your container changes its shape and prolly gets a little bigger. And you learn how to grow into it. By studying harder, by reading more, or simply by believing that you can. You become better than before.
When you get promoted and get called say a "Director", the new responsibilities, coupled with the newfound validation of yr abilities by the higher authorities, drive you to perform at a higher level than you did previously.
Through other ppl's expectations, our container gets shaped.

But what's really stopping us from moulding our containers ourselves, even if it were just a little bit each day? Why can't I believe that I can do things better today than I can yesterday, or simply allowing my dreams to take on gargantuan proportions so that my abilities can grow to match them? What's stopping me from thinking like a CEO just because I think I might actually be that good?

Instead of growing into our existing containers, we all shd grow our containers just a little bit, every single day. The rest will take care of itself. Do I have the courage to dream big?

What have I done to enlarge my container today?

Kouzes and Posner - The Leadership Challenge

This book has been acclaimed as one of the better books on leadership out there. And indeed it is. There is so much information and anecdotes inside there that I couldn't quite remember even more than half of them after I was done with the book.

What impressed me about the book was that it gave very practical advice. Instead of just airy-fairy concepts on leadership, the authors took pains to translate almost every single idea into an anecdote or example. Most of which are real cases.

The main ideas can be distilled into five categories:

• Model the Way
• Inspire a Shared Vision
• Challenge the Process
• Enable Others to Act
• Encourage the Heart

Actually, there is little point in me trying to expand on any of these points! It would take up too many pages. And I think I missed out on alot of the points because I was speedreading. So any attempt to elaborate won't do the book justice.

But if I could just say one impt lesson learnt. The whole book is very very very very people-centric. Alot of it is centred on the person that is being led. How do you motivate him, serve him and groom him. I really do like this idea of servant leadership. It brings leadership back to earth, to what it is all about - the people.