Ravi's Rants

Rndaom, Yet <Well Formed/>

  • Ravi’s Favorite Movies

Archives for August 2006

Quick, in One Word – Part I

8/25/2006 By Ravi Jayagopal

What’s the first word that comes to your mind when you hear the name… (my opinions below):

Rodman: Weird
Jordan: Greatest
Britney: Stupid
Beyonce: Beautiful
Paris: Slut
KFed: Loser
Bill Gates: Rich
Warren Buffet: Savior
Osama: Moth**f****r
Gandhi: Peace
Tiger Woods: Classy
Tom Cruise: Nutjob
Mel Gibson: Anti-semite?
Mother Teresa: Compassionate
You: ……

What is the first word people will think of, when they think of you now?

What is the first word you want people to think of, when they think of you, now and forever?

Filed Under: Ravi's Rants

Breaking Your Head For Success

8/22/2006 By Ravi Jayagopal

Or… “How to Become an Expert on Anything”

I had a room-mate in college (Shyama). The guy was an absolute genius. Over time, I found that he would spend a lot of time trying to figure things out himself. He never asked anyone for help.

On the other hand, I found that almost all of the lot-less-intelligent guys (mere mortals) would be the first to ask someone else for help if they got stuck with something – anything at all.

But this theory didn’t occur to me until many years later, when I was working with/for people in the real world.

I noticed an uncannily similar trend there too – the really smart guys never asked dumb questions (in fact, they never asked anyone for any help at all) – and the ones who were quick to say “Can I ask you a dumb question?” were really dumb (or had very average IQ’s) more often than not.

I may not be able to prove it, but I honestly believe I have increased my intelligence 10-fold (and my IQ by at least 50 points) in the last 15 years. And I owe it all to my theory above – and to think that I was operating without even being aware of it.

My theory works on many levels:

1) By not asking others for help, and by sticking to the “I’ll figure it all myself” theory, you are forced to think for yourself, struggle to figure things out alone, spend countless hours “breaking your head” while you desperately try to arrive at a solution before the deadline.

Yes, you will take a lot longer to complete your projects, but in the end, the end will justify the means. It will tremendously expand your “thinking cells” and possibly your “memory cells” as you dig deeper and deeper into your subconscious, your mind, your intelligence and your knowledgebase – in an effort to address your problem.

2) Because you never ask people any silly or dumb questions – or at least exhibit that you won’t ask unless you are *really* stuck – you have then tremendously increased your chances of being regarded as the “Guy (or Gal) who looks like s/he knows his/her stuff”…. or: “The guy must know a lot as I’ve never seen him go to anyone for help”.

Yep, that’s how you start on the path to becoming an “Expert”. It all starts with other people’s perception of you.

In fact, with the arrival of Google, it became an even bigger sin to ask stupid questions. “Google it, research it, and think about it – a *lot* – before you come to me” is probably what I would say to that annoying colleague who pings you every 2 minutes from across the cubicle.

Yes, I know I’m contradicting the holy grail of religion and self-help, that says “Ask, and you shall receive…”.

But when it comes to learning, I say, “Ask, and you shall remain dumb, deservedly so”.

Filed Under: Ravi's Rants

Elizabeth Taylor’s 8th Husband

8/19/2006 By Ravi Jayagopal

Many years ago, during yet another boring conference with a long list of uninspired speakers, one man brought the entire crowd back to life with this opening statement. He said:

“I feel like Elizabeth Taylor’s 8th Husband…. I know what to do, but I don’t know how to make it interesting”.

For the rest of the way, every one hung on to his every word.

Speaking is an art. Giving an entertaining speech is a more difficult art. Giving a motivational speech is the most difficult art.

It is not a coincidence that some of the world’s greatest leaders were amazing speakers. If you can’t get people to stop and listen, you can never get your message across. And when you can’t get your message across, you can’t get them to follow you.

Here’s a great place to start for learning how to give great speeches.

And then go watch this video and then this presentation.

Filed Under: Ravi's Rants

A Matter of Inches

8/19/2006 By Ravi Jayagopal

No, this is not about “inches” in the context of “size”.

Ron Jeffries in his article on Automated Testing (yeah, a very “exciting” topic for the average person) writes:

“The transition from good enough to excellent occurs at the high end of the range of capability in every endeavor. The fastest runner is fractions of a second faster than the second best, and not very much faster than even the mediocre ones. The world high jump record is about 7.9 feet; mere high school students have cleared 7.15 or more.”

Amen.

Filed Under: Ravi's Rants

About Ravi Jayagopal

Ravi Jayagopal

Ravi Jayagopal is a full-time entrepreneur living in sunny San Diego, CA . He is the Co-Founder & Co-Developer of DigitalAccessPass.com (DAP), the premier Membership Plugin & Content Delivery Platform for WordPress. Check out his Podcast about Membership Sites & Online Courses, at SubscribeMe.fm. Ravi is also the creator of CoolCastPlayer.com, a pretty and powerful podcast player plugin for WordPress. And creator of S3MediaVault.com, S3 Video Player for Amazon S3. Ravi first started selling online in 1997. Check out his book "Subscribe Me: Making, Marketing & Monetizing Online Digital Content with Membership Sites, Online Courses and Subscriptions"


Ravi is also the host of the "Subscribe Me" podcast at SubscribeMe.fm

Contact Ravi

Don't Miss a Post!
Free Updates
By Email

 

Recent Posts

  • Should I start a Podcast?
  • I Create For Creators
  • Skyscraper
  • Do you prefer listening to a podcast that is edited? Or nah?
  • Pirates Keep Out
  • Sands of Time
  • Using Your Web Host For Audio or Video (Don’t)
  • Practically Unreadable
  • Unimaginative
  • Batching

Archives

  • March 2022
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • August 2018
  • March 2018
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • August 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • March 2015
  • November 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • May 2013
  • January 2013
  • September 2012
  • April 2012
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • November 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005

    follow me on Twitter

     

    Want to give credits to your members just like Audible.com does? Then checkout our Credit Storeplugin.

    No Business Like E-Business

    Available at: NBLEB.com & Amazon.com

    Digital Access Pass

    DigitalAccessPass.com is an incredibly powerful Membership Script for WordPress. It has an inbuilt "ContentResponder", Affiliate Program, Email Autoresponder, Email Broadcasting, and more.

    Links

    • DigitalAccessPass.com
    • NBLEB.com (book)
    • Ravi's Favorite Movies
    • S3MediaVault.com
    • Techiiies.com

    Categories

    • Adsense
    • Advertising
    • AdWords
    • Alerts
    • Amazon
    • App Store
    • Apple
    • Atom
    • Automation
    • Blog
    • Branding
    • Business
    • Business Tools
    • Change
    • Code Snippets
    • Competitors
    • Content Creation
    • Content Marketing
    • Cool Sites
    • Cool Stuff
    • Copywriting
    • Coupons
    • Customer Service
    • Customers
    • DAP
    • Digital Access Pass (DAP)
    • Downloads
    • E-Business
    • Email
    • Entrepreneurs
    • FaceBook
    • Famous Quotes
    • Feeds
    • Firefox
    • Free
    • Free Software
    • Funny
    • God
    • Google
    • Hosting
    • How-To
    • Humor
    • I Don't Get It
    • Industry News
    • Inspirational
    • Instagram
    • Interesting Facts
    • Internet
    • Internet Marketing
    • iPad
    • iPhone
    • iPod
    • Jargon
    • JavaScript
    • Life
    • Live
    • Marketing
    • Mashups
    • Microblogging
    • Microsoft
    • Mobile Apps
    • Mozilla
    • Online
    • Online Reputation
    • Online Services
    • Paid Software
    • Peer-to-Peer
    • Penny-wise
    • Permission
    • Personal Tools
    • Philosophy
    • PHP
    • PHP Code
    • PHP Scripts
    • Ping
    • Podcast
    • Podcasting
    • PPC
    • Pricing
    • Priorities
    • Product Development
    • Productivity
    • Publicity
    • Purple Cow
    • Radio
    • Ravi Recommends
    • Ravi's Rants
    • Remarkable
    • RSS
    • Scripts-n-Software
    • SEO
    • Seth Godin
    • Side Hustle
    • Sitemaps
    • Social Media
    • Spam
    • Steve Jobs
    • SubscribeMe.fm
    • SubscribeMeBook.com
    • Technology
    • Technorati
    • This Versus That
    • Timepass
    • Tools
    • Torrents
    • Twitter
    • Un-Remarkable
    • Uplifting
    • ventriloquism
    • Video
    • Video
    • Viral
    • Virtual Reality
    • Web2.0
    • Webmaster
    • WordPress
    • WTF
    • YouTube