What kind of person are you? Do you have dreams? Do you believe in them? Do you tell the truth? Are you persistent enough to accomplish your goals? These are the questions you should ask yourself if you decide to take on the path to success.

Phil Gerbyshak of Slacker Manager gives a great list of quotes from famous and successful people, which I find very inspiring and I decided to share with you those who touched me the most. He calls them “management quotes” but I think these are inspirational thoughts for life itself.

The first people had questions and they were free. The second people had answers, and they became enslaved.

Wind Eagle, American Indian Chief

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.

Herbert Agar

It is never too late to be who you might have been.

George Eliot

I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life.  The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.

Mark Twain

For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action.  You just have to find it.  When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Mary Kay Ash

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Edison

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Harry S. Truman

I wish you all to reach the success you imagine!

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I’ve always loved reading books and I have always found my inspiration there. It doesn’t matter if they were novels or non-fiction books – I’ve learned a lot from them and they’ve had a great impact on my way of thinking and on my entire life.

My fellow blogger Dimitar Nikolov has shared his top 10 list of life-changing books and has tagged me to do the same. The meme was started by Rayna Tzvetkova (in English) and I was so inspired by this idea that I created my own book store. It is the ultimate place where you can find the books I like and I highly recommend. There are not so many books there for now since I have read most of the books in my life in Bulgarian and they are not sold by Amazon but I am going to add there more titles regularly so please, visit it from time to time and take a look at the books listed there.

It is very difficult for me to select only 10 books because my life is constantly changing and there have been always books that have driven the change. At least the change in my mind. So I will share with you some titles and authors that have inspired me through time in different areas of my life.

Software development and Project management

I started my career as a software developer and at the time I thought I was pretty good at writing software. What was my surprise when my brother brought me Steve McConnell‘s books Code Complete and Rapid Development! It was a true revelation! After reading them I finally understood that software development is not writing code for fun but a real industry with its own business rules and if you want to be a true professional you have to know them and follow them.

The software industry is very indicative of the importance of the people who work there. There are still a lot of people who think that making software is technical work and they are very, very wrong. Making software is a very delicate business of making some people work together as a team. Thinking of them as of replaceable parts of a big machine brings Death March projects which are prectable failures. The software development world invented the word Peopleware, which is how you manage and motivate a team of creative people.

Business and Entrepreneurship

I worked as an employee for about 20 years. I have always dreamed to start my own business but I was always afraid to jump into the deep waters justifying myself that I didn’t have enough money, connections, partners, or ideas. At the end of my career I was a regional manager of an U.S. software development company in Bulgaria. Then the company bankrupted and we were all laid off. Then I realized that it was exactly the right moment to start working for myself.

Fortunately, I had some savings so I didn’t worry about the incomes at the beginning. But I was still afraid – I had no one around me to follow as example. Then I started reading books on starting up your own business, how to develop it and how to market it. Guy Kawasaki‘s books Rules For Revolutionaries and The Art of the Start are still like Bibles to me along with Seth Godin‘s The Bootstrapper’s Bible, Unleashing the Ideavirus, and The Dip.

Personal Growth

The next step in my personal development was to realize that the most important thing in life is to open your heart, to accept and enjoy all the good things that happen to you, and to learn from the bad things because this is what makes your life worthwhile and makes you happy.

I came to realize that there is a tight relationship between the quality of your (spiritual) life and your wellfare. When I feel happy and my soul is free then my business goes better and I am getting richer. When I am angry with the world and I feel miserable then my customers run away from me. The book Beyond Code by Rajesh Setty is the perfect example of this statement and this is the reason why I put it in this category. Although intended for IT professionals, this book teaches us how to be better people and thus being more successful profesionals. And books like The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, and Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina really changed my life for better.

Novels

Of course, as a normal person, I read and find inspiration in novels as well as the non-fiction books. There are books which I can open at any time at any page and start reading them with great pleasure because they are full of life, love, forgivable sins, and a little mystery. Such books are Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I will be glad if the following people join this meme and share their list of life-changing books: Rajesh Setty, Liz Strauss, Steve Pavlina, Dessy Boshnakova, Polly Kozarova, Craig Brown, Pawel Brodzinski,  Pavel Donchev, and Nikolay Yordanov.

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I watched recently on the TV the film Ambulance Girl where Kathy Bates‘ character said these remarkable words about fear:

Fear is like a hologram. It seems real, filled with substance. And then, when you go beyond it, you realize there is nothing there. It’s all an illusion.

I had many fears in my life (and I still have some) and words like these give me the strength to make the first steps towards my goals. I realized that there is only one thing that can help you overcome the fear – action. When you start doing what you want you become able to throw aside the chains of fear that were nailing you to the ground.

I think we need to recall such words more often when the fear of what might happen paralyzes our mind.

By the way, the film is very good. It is a drama-comedy about a couple who are afraid of change and their fear starts to ruin their relationship. Kathy Bates is my favorite American actress and in this film she is also the director.

Don’t forget – Fear is like a hologram…

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You surely have helped someone at some time. And surely somebody has helped you. But how important is the help that you gave in your eyes today? And how important is the help that you received today? Rajesh Setty raises these questions in his blog and explains that there is a research which shows that in time the help that we gave seems more and more important to us and the help that we received seem less important. It means that people who receive help tend to forget it in time.

I started thinking about myself – how do I expect my help to be appreciated? To be honest, I really don’t remember much cases when I have done a great favor to anyone. It doesn’t mean that I haven’t helped anyone – it means that I really help without thinking of any appreciation or reward for my help. Maybe I just don’t think my help to the others is such a big deal.

I only remember one case when my help seemed to be completely forgotten. A colleague of mine collapsed in the office and I was the only one around. When he fell he swallowed his tongue and stopped breathing. I pulled his tongue out so he could breathe and then asked the other co-workers to call the ambulance. The guy had something like a heart attack – I am not quite sure because after the ambulance took him he started a very long treatment and he didn’t come to the office for many months. When we saw each other after that we talked shortly about his condition and his recovery bu never about the stroke.

During that time I felt like I’ve done something very important and deep in my heart I expected to see some form of appreciation. At least I saved his live! If I hadn’t pulled his tongue out he would have died! But in time I realized that people don’t want to be in debt to someone. They are tormented by the thought that they owe their lives to someone and they don’t feel happy about it. So they tend to forget the incident.

I remember that I had a similar situation when my life was saved by a stranger. When I was about 10 I just have learned to swim and I wanted to show my swimming abilities to my parents. We were at a picnic near a pond and I was happy to swim near the shore. Unfortunately, I couldn’t swim well and I needed firm ground to step on from time to time. What was my surprise when I couldn’t find the ground under my feet! The bottom was too steep and I stared drowning. I panicked and I don’t remember the details. I only remember the strong hand that took me out of the water and the happy feeling that I was alive.

The man who saved me was a complete stranger. We went separate ways and we never met again. And I find that I also tend to forget that incident. Maybe it’s not because I don’t appreciate the help but because I have too many things to do every day and I forget about such important things. I think it’s human nature to forget and it’s not bad.

I believe we should not expect great appreciation for the help that we have given. We just have to be good to our friend and neighbors and to help them gratuitously. God knows hot to reward us for being helpful but we shouldn’t think about the reward. If we have received help from the others it is good to recall the event from time to time and to say “Thank you!” to those people even only in our thoughts. Our gratitude will be remembered.

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I found recently a post in Donald Trump’s blog called The World’s Happiest Nations where he provides the results from a research done at the University of Michigan. For me it is not a surprise that among the happiest nations are ones that have a high level of welfare. But one would never predict that people in countries like Puerto Rico and Colombia are so happy.

Here is the full list of the happiest countries:

1. Denmark
2. Puerto Rico
3. Colombia
4. Iceland
5. N. Ireland
6. Republic of Ireland
7. Switzerland
8. Netherlands
9. Canada
10. Austria

The fact that brought my attention, however, was that my country – Bulgaria – is in the list of the most miserable countries in the world.

My people doesn’t feel happy with its destiny and I can see it in their eyes. Now the whole world knows it. The question is: why? Why are we so unhappy? We tore down the communist regime more than 18 years ago and started to build a democratic society. And still my people is unhappy. It seems that we don’t understand democracy well or we just don’t appreciate it.

I am a happy person. I have a loving family and got on my own way towards professional realization. But you cannot succeed if you live among miserable people. I honestly wish happiness, welfare, “and justice for all”. But how can I help my people feel happier? How can I help them enjoy their lives? I ask these questions but I still haven’t go the answers. Any advice, folks?

Here is the list of the most miserable countries in the world:

1. Zimbabwe
2. Armenia
3. Moldova
4. Belarus
5. Ukraine
6. Albania
7. Iraq
8. Bulgaria
9. Georgia
10. Russia

It is interesting to note that most of the countries in this list are from the former Soviet Union or the Socialist Block. Could it be we still love and grieve for the “old times”?

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I found this very interesting post in the Predictably Irrational blog (via Bas de Baar) where the author asks the question: Which is the best form of motivation – cash or gift?

I don’t think the word “motivation” is appropriate here – I firmly believe that money is not a motivation but rather hygiene factor in the work environment. I think “reward” is more appropriate word in this case as rewarding is a very powerful instrument in the manager’s hands for showing appreciation to the employee’s work and thus, indirectly to influence on the employee’s motivation.

Back to the main question: Which is better – cash or gift? I think there is no simple answer. I love the proverb that one size doesn’t fit all and I think it applies here, too. Some people like to be in control of their lives (or at least to think they are in control) and they would prefer having the cash so they can decide by themselves how to spend it. Giving them the cash shows them that you respect their right to make decisions, their freedom to live their live as they want to and I believe that this will increase their loyalty to you and their motivation to work better.

On the other hand, there are people who need to feel your attention, they need to know that the company and the manager care for them and thus giving them a gift shows them your special attitude. Giving a gift means you have spent some time thinking about the other person while choosing a valuable present.

While this mindset is individual, it is also strongly dependent of the national culture. There are countries where most people would appreciate the present and other countries where most people would prefer the cash. So when you make a decision about the form of reward, take in consideration the person’s mindset and their national culture.

In my country, for example, most of the people would prefer the gift even if it is much less in value that the cash. The Bulgarians have an external focus of conscious, i.e. we look for the reasons of everything happening in our lives outside of us. We always need somebody else to take care of our lives and we always hold the others responsible for our destinies.

The national culture plays a very important role but don’t forget that there are also many exceptions! The important thing to know is that there is no best way – it always depends on the person you are dealing with so in order to find the right way to reward them, you must know them quite closely, as the great managers do.

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I see I haven’t been writing in this blog for quite a long time. The last couple of months was too heavy for me. I had a lot of work to do but it is not what made me so tired. I am not afraid of work especially when I do it with passion. I started to do something I believed was useful and I had the qualities to make it so that gave me the strength to cope with the tasks I set to myself.

But at that same moment my faith was put to a test. Too many people appeared in the internet who started spitting on me and writing rubbish about me. I got so much hatred on myself so I started thinking whether the things I do make any sense. Why do people who you try to help throw stones upon you?

Recently I found a new inspiration in one of the great Seth Godin’s posts, which started to clear up my mind:

Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. That’s just annoying.
Persistence is having the same goal over and over.

If the goal I set to myself is important to me, if I believe strongly in it, I have to pursue it steadily. If I chose an impassable way I may choose another one. What is important is never to forget where I am heading for and why.

Maybe this is the right way of thinking. Maybe I have chosen a wrong way and now I just have to find another one. Giving up before the obstacles is the easiest thing to do – I’ve done it many times. Finding your path towards a chosen goal and following it with persistence and strong will is much more difficult. And that’s what I have to do now.

I hope in the mean time not to lose my faith and my belief that what I do is right and makes sense because the faith is the only food for the persistence.

If I lose my faith I lose everything.

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John Wesley of Pick the Brain published recently an article called 7 Life Lessons I Learned Playing Halo where he gives seven great advices that can change your life significantly and for better. I found them very inspiring maybe because I’ve learned most of them the hard way trying to break walls with my head. They are not easy to accomplish but they definitely are worth trying.

I don’t play Halo or similar games so I will only comment on the life implications of these lessons.

1. Hesitation is death. No matter if you are playing combat games or you live the real life. Nothing is more destructive to your life than hesitation and doubt. You may be wrong in your plans, you may reach insuperable obstacles but you will never know how to deal with them unless you try. I was hesitating to start my own business for 13 years and now I regret it. I’ve been suffering all this time that I could do the things better but I never had the courage to make it. Don’t hesitate! Don’t be afraid that you might fall because when you fall you will know how much it hurts. Otherwise you will be afraid of the pain much more than it really hurts.
2. Success requires experience. Well, we’ve all heard about successful teenage businessmen but they are just an exception. If you want to succeed in business you need to learn the basics of the profession and to practice it repeatedly. It’s not enough just to try once. It’s necessary to try it many times. To fall and to stand up again until you realize the internal power that you have and until you learn how to use it effectively.
3. You can’t win without teamwork. In the real life no one succeeds by doing things by himself. The lonely runners are not the successful ones. To be successful you must beat your ego and sacrifice your personal glory. You need to take care about your buddies as they take care of you. When you learn to trust your team and to count on their skills you will get to success.
4. Anticipation is the key to victory. Always try to change your point of view and loof from the eyes of the others. Try to put yourself in the other people’s shoes and to understand their problems, their desires and their hopes – this way you will be able to better serve your customers and outgo you competition.
5. Leverage your strengths. Everyone is unique in some way. If you want to succeed you must know your unique qualities – your strengths which you must leverage and improve, and your weaknesses which you should keep low.
6. Winning comes in streaks. Some days you are full of energy and you can do a lot of work and some days you just can’t concentrate as well as others. To be successful, you need to recognize your streaks so you can weather the bad ones and make the most of the good ones.
7. The Devil’s in the details. As John says “[in Halo] the difference between life and death can be as small as the angle of a grenade toss or the decision to reload. The same is true in real life. You need to pay attention to all the tiny details that contribute to success or failure.”

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