• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Don't kid yourself on your priorities

Published: Friday, 08 March 2013

What are your priorities?  Work?  Family?  Relationship?  Start-up?  9-5?  Non-profit?  Volunteering?  Watching television?  Reading blogs?  Eating?  Meetings?

Don't kid yourself on your priorities.  Where you spend your time determines your priorities;  where you focus most of your time is your first priority.

Hundreds of decisions everyday

Published: Thursday, 07 March 2013

Answer the phone.

Reply to the email.

Follow up with the guy you met last week.

Go to the meeting.

Don't go to the meeting.

Don't become a board member.

Don't answer the phone.

Sign up to the message board.

Stay up for another hour replying to emails.

Go to the awards ceremony in another city.

Attend the conference.

Attend the seminar.

Send the thank-you note.

Don't sleep to ship on time.

Go for the job.

Lift weights.

Read the book.

Follow up with that VC.

Give the speech.

Dress up nicely to the event.

Study for the exam.

Attend an event overseas during your exam period.

Run an event overseas during your uni semester and skip a week of classes to attend.

Do the think you've been thinking about for the past 3 years.

Start the diet.

 

Success does not come overnight, but is the result of hundreds of decisions you make everyday.

Plane screens

Published: Wednesday, 06 March 2013

Walking down the aisle on an international flight, everyone is watching something different.  Whether it's the most popular television drama, listening to music, playing a game, a kids movie comedy, foreign language film, or indeed the same movie but at a different stage.

People can plan when they sleep and when they are entertained.

10 years ago, everyone was stuck with the same public screen on international flights, meaning that everyone was expected to be awake at the same time if they wanted to watch the movie, and everyone had to make do with the movie the airline chose.

If they slept, they would miss out on the in-flight entertainment entirely.

By decentralising the decision-making and providing the consumer with the tools to act on their decisions, has added to a richer flying experience.  We're not expecting consumers to want the same thing at the same time.

How can we apply this to other industries?  Education is one that comes straight to mind.

I'm average

Published: Tuesday, 05 March 2013

I used to think I was brilliant.  That I was different.  That I was special.  But then I realised a lot of people feel that way about themselves.  And if everyone is brilliant and special, then who are the average people?

They make up the majority of all surveys, so they must exist.

And so I chose to be one of the average people.  A dime in a dozen.  Another brick in the wall.

I don't mind being average, because if I'm average, it means I have to work twice as hard if I want to achieve anything.

One action a day

Published: Monday, 04 March 2013

Just taking one action a day, moves your project forward.  Keep living your life.  Keep going to work.  Keep studying.  Keep seeing your friends.  Keep cooking your dinners.  Keep your hobbies.  Keep going to conferences.  Keep travelling.

But along the way, always take at least one action a day to move your project forward.  And if you've planned it well.  These one actions, compounded, could lead your project into directions you never imagined possible before.

More Articles ...

  1. Focus with a laser on the things that achieve the most results
  2. Don't career plan
  3. The unglamourous work you love
  4. Tune out everyone
  5. When to launch

Page 32 of 49

  • Start
  • Prev
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • Next
  • End

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Are you a champion?

    Do you take a bold stand in how things are going to turn out? Do you take responsibility for your actions? Do you have an empowering context for...

  • A Tech Schools Update

    A building collapse warning system, a pancreatic cancer detection kit and a self-inflating shirt to stop young children drowning if they fall into a...

  • The people I admire and how I use them for inspiration

    Most lists of inspiring people contain the billionaires, or world-wide success stories of people who have decoyed 20-30-40 years of service towards...

  • Cairns Eye

    Returning to my hometown Cairns is always relaxing.  Returning to Cairns in winter is a luxury - because the weather is lovely, and not cold at all....

  • Choose

    When I was in my final year of high school, my family couldn't afford to send me to university, so I looked for scholarships that would enable me to...

  • Robogals 10-Year Anniversary Gala

    On 14 July 2008, I founded Robogals. At the Robogals 10-year anniversary gala in Melbourne, I gave a speech alongside Mark Parncutt, co-founder of...

  • Asian Society Game Changer Award

    I was named an Asian Society Game Changer Award winner alongside architect IM Pei (Lifetime Achievement Award), movie director Zhang Yimou, and the...

  • Good Weekend feature

    "Good Weekend" magazine (included every Saturday in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers) was interested in what I was up to, so they...

  • Scrap paper

    I write all my blog posts on scrap paper. I printed so many speeches last year that I have all these A4 scrap sheets of paper that just have...

  • How I manage

    For one of the projects I’ve been leading for over the past 2.5 years, I manage a team of 20 people remotely. I meet with all of my direct reports...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top