His blog is devoted to project management and he has original ideas about how to manage people. I think he believes that we lack some thinking and understanding for the others and this is why I feel his blog so close to my blogs PM Stories and Stop and Think!. And probably this is the reason why I like his blog so much.

Read the interview here. You may find some food for thought.

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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 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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Unfortunately, it isn’t funny at all. My back is aching terribly and now I know the main reason for that – my bent working pose. So I did a little research and I am giving you some links to sites with very useful information about computer ergonomics and a lot of graphics and pictures.

Here they are:

• The Boston University self-help guide to computer workstation ergonomics
• Guide to Setting Up an Ergonomic Computer Station
• One more article on Computer Ergonomics
• And a whole blog devoted to ergonomics – Ergoblog

I believe this information will be of great help to you. Don’t be careless to your heath – think about it!

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I am really flattered. Liz is a very popular blogger and a true authority in the blogging world and I am just a newbie in writing. I lost my job three months ago and I am still looking for my way in life and in the profession. I am just trying to share with you my thoughts although vague and confused trying to find new ideas which way to go and how to continue my life from now on.

I don’t know if I will have the will and the strength to keep writing in my blog and if I will be smart enough to give you interesting information but I know that there are some people out there for whom my posts are interesting and valuable. It is important for me to keep writing and it is enough to know that you – my readers – exist.

Thank you!

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I love birthdays. It’s great when close and distant relatives, friends, or colleagues call you to wish you nice things, when they give you interesting presents, and in the evening, when you celebrate the end of the day with the closest of them eating delicious food and drinking your favorite drinks.

But there comes a moment when the years seem to pass to fast and you want to slow them down somehow. Unfortunately, there is no way to do that. There are birthdays in everyone’s lives when you become thoughtful, you take a look at your life that have passed and you try to evaluate it up to that moment – what have you achieved, where have you reached, and where are you going to. To some people it happens on so called “Christ age”. To me it happens much more frequently – say, every four or five years. Maybe it’s just because I am a thoughtful kind of person – I like to think upon Life, Universe and Everything…

Today, I’m getting 39. The last year of my thirties. I have the feeling that it is the last year of my youth. The numbers above 40 have always brought to me a sense of aging although some people say that the forties are the most productive time in one’s life. In my profession, where the average age is 24, the age and experience are not valued too much and many people consider me too old.

I, however, feel very strong and fresh, filled with energy and rich of countless dreams, despite all malevolent people and despite my own fears. After almost 20 years work in the information technology field, new ideas were born inside my head, ideas of career change. Instead of working for a salary I decided to take a chance on my own business. Instead of writing software, I started writing blogs and making presentations. Will I succeed? I don’t know but I feel strong and capable and I have firm belief in myself, in my friends, and in my family, who are standing behind me and are giving me an unconditional support with their faith and love.

The education that my parents and the society where I’ve grown up gave me has always made me look for the security – to get a good degree, which will help me find a good job and a high salary. But what exactly does “a good job” mean? Is it a good job where they make you do things you don’t like or at least are not interesting to you? Is it a good job where the boss yells at you and blames you for all their mistakes? Or it is a good job where you can’t find a way to communicate with your colleagues who secretly backbite you behind your back?

No, I don’t say that it all has happened to me! I don’t say that the jobs I had during all those years were bad! I’ve been working at very many places and everywhere I’ve been I have met people communicating with whom has been a great pleasure to me. I’ve always gotten into places where I have learned a lot not only about the subtleties of the profession but also about the human nature.

My jobs have always been “good” but have never been “good enough”.

Now I am taking on a new road. I want to work what I want, what brings me pleasure and satisfaction. I was asked if I consider making a blogging career. I don’t know how can someone “make a career” with this from Bulgaria. I still don’t know if it can bring me enough income to make a living. I only know that I like it damn much and I can do it well (and I am getting better every day). If I could make a career of being an IT consultant, author, speaker and blogger, one day (let’s hope it will be later) I would die happy.

The astrologers say that there are faithful years in our lives that come over a certain period of time, i.e. during those years significant changes happen to our destiny and our lives take a different direction. Perhaps for me this period is 13 years. Today a huge change is happening to my life. 13 years ago, when I was 26, I founded my first company together with my teacher in programming, my brother and two more colleagues. The feeling of doing what you can do best and what you like to do, of making your own decisions for your job and for your life, is incomparable! At that time we didn’t have a strong sense of insecurity because we were five partners and each of us felt the others’ support.

Unfortunately, we were young and inexperienced – not only in the business but also in the ability to understand each other. Soon the trust among us was broken and we had to separate. I couldn’t get the courage to continue my own business and I started an employee job. And it took 13 years – until now.

I believe something important and faithful had happened also when I was 13 (at least I entered the teenage) but probably because of my age my memories have faded and I cannot recall a significant event from that time.

Today it is different than ever. I am taking on a new road. I am alone but I am much more self-confident. I have a lovely family and loyal friends who, although not helping me directly, are my spiritual support and give me the courage and the strength to continue. Where exactly I will head to? I don’t know. Will I succeed? Nobody can tell. Time will be the only merciless judge who can say if I have succeeded or failed. What I can promise for sure is that 13 years later I will make my balance again and I will share it with you in my “little diary”.

Let’s hope we all be live and healthy until then (and many more years ahead)!

Cheers!

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I have to post these rules:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves which others do not know about them.
2. People who are tagged need to write in their own blog and post these rules.
3. At the end of your 8 random facts post, you must select 8 more people and leave a message at their site that they have been tagged.

In this meme, I was tagged by Zubli Zainordin along with the following “thinking” bloggers:

1. Janette Toral at Reflective Thinking
2. Peter Haslam at Necessary Skills
3. Mike Ramm at Stop and Think!
4. GloriaThinks at GloriaThinks (not available anymore)
5. Amit Shekhar at Indian Thinking
6. Karen D’Amico at Fluid Thinking
7. Casey Carmical at Casey’s Critical Thinking
8. Dude at Thinking Tunnel

So here they are, the 8 random facts about me:

1. I am a thinker and I really think I’m smart but I am too lazy. People in my country call people like me “wooden philosopher”, which means something like wiseacre because I think too much, I talk too much but I don’t move so much.
2. I am currently unemployed. I am at a crossroad and I am looking for new horizons for my future. I am fond of blogging and I think this could be my new career.
3. I’ve been studying at a drama school for an actor and a theater director.
4. I am still in love with my wife and I adore my children. I thank God every day for being so happy with my family.
5. Mike Ramm is not my real name.
6. I love rock music. I am a great fan of Ronnie James Dio’s and I sometimes use the name Dio as my middle name.
7. I am afraid of heights but I live at the 12th floor
8. My zodiac sign is Leo and I like cats.

Well, this is it – I shared my deeply hidden 8 random facts about me.

Now I tag the following bloggers, who I admire and read regularly:

1. Bas de Baar at SoftwareProjects
2. Pawel Brodzinski at Pawel Brodzinski on Software Project Management
3. Mike Griffiths at LeadingAnswers
4. Craig Brown at Better Projects
5. Elizabeth Harrin at A Girl’s Gude to Managing Projects
6. Rajesh Setty at Life Beyond Code
7. John Wesley at Pick the Brain
8. Todor Hristov at NovaVizia

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