Below is a link to a recent article, where I was quoted. I hope it get picked up more and this is form my old job, and I plan on getting more press visibility with this current role.

The Mobile Enterprise — Wanted: A Unified Infrastructure on Managing Automation

Unfortunate but true, we often tend to over estimate our own importance. And I think this is an habit we learn from childhood. For some it is an overgrown sense of self importance while for others it is all about ego. Yes, we all have egos and we need 'em and they come in various sizes. However, there is still a need to know one's place in the order of the universe or there is a risk of reality distortion.

The baby needs to know she depends on the parent and not vice versa

The parent needs to know, they depend on the firm

The firm need to know it depends on its customers

Customers need to know it depends on the people I.e. the government

Government need to know she depends on God and not vice versa

You don't have to look far, to see that the new captains of industry are hedge fund managers. But wanting to be like one is not the point of this blog, rather it is what can you learn from the techniques of a fund manager.

Everyone should either be an indexer - get rich slowly with some risk or a hedge funder - get rich fast with a lot of risk in their investing style. The hedge fund approach is aimed at maximizing returns irrespective of the market condition. They invest globally in all asset classes, they use leverage and derivatives and they capitalize on unique opportunities in the global market.

Get this, the most valuable thing to the hedge fund manager though is the ability to monetize the intangibles - secrecy, records of return even when the overall market is doing well, avoid being benchmarked and finally mispricings.

Someone on the writer team actually made a comment on my site with regards to having to manually change the font, everytime I post something. However, he didn't offer me a solution except to point me to customization in spaces.  I can't use spaces customization because they offer you a choice of 5 fonts in 3 sizes - amongst all the universe of fonts out there. This is a joke.

Similar to the FrontPage problem, one of the reasons in my opinion, why FrontPage failed to take off as a web publishing tool - is how seriously it hampers your ability to be creative - in an attempt to make web site creation easy they make it so simple it is stupid.

I think, while people want to start with the simple stuff, they also want to be able to graduate and express themselves and become more creative. And you have to give them the power tools or they will move on.

The genius of Windows is simplification, however in the world where the consumer is the producer (co-creation), consumer need to become prosumer and some will become professionals. Natural selection, you can't fight it.

Facebook and MySpace is getting it - 99% of their users will never use their API's or even know what it is - but the 1% that do, they are the influencers, piss them off and when the move to your competition, they are taking the majority with them.

Moral - writer and spaces, have to become more useful, more powerful while staying simple.

What was I thinking!!!

I am tired. This is definitely not the right time to go for this - I simply have too much going on right now.

Of course, the one thing that I seem to be able to let slide is exercise and diet. So I have come to an acceptable compromise, I will watch what I eat - so as not to gain weight until post exams.

But common y'all, I really have a lot on my plate.

"The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing."

This is an article in BusinessWeek by Jack and Suzy Welch. Note that Welch for all the good he did at GE, can not be held up as a champion of minority rights, however his candor is outstanding. During my time at GE, I met a senior VP who happens to be black and even then somehow, the guy was able to communicate to all the young black IMLP's that fighting the entrenched bias is not worth it.

This is an article that I think all minorities should read and have tattooed on their brains - if you are going to fight the system, you at least need to know what system you are fighting. To suggest, white middle age men is out to get you or anyone else, is pathetic and simplistic. However, to think there is no real bias and that the bias have effect on concrete things like opportunity and rewards is to live in lala land.

This is a long posting - but well worth reading.

Breaking Through the Bias

Companies embrace diversity, but to get ahead, minorities still have to go the extra mile

by Jack and Suzy Welch

Related Items

• Podcast: Breaking Through the Bias

I am seeking a rewarding career, having recently completed my bachelor's degree in management. What obstacles will I likely need to overcome in the corporate world being an older, five-foot-tall African American woman?
—Letha Daniels, Houston

When we first received your letter, we put it into a file labeled How to Succeed in Business While Being Different. There it joined about 15 other e-mails that have come in recent months, including ones sent by a Sri Lankan immigrant joining a company in Atlanta, a 64-year-old Puerto Rican nurse promoted into management in a Toronto hospital, and a (closeted) gay man leading the sales force of a major corporation. Every e-mail in the How to Succeed folder tells a unique personal story, but the underlying question is always the same. Can you get taken seriously—and get ahead—in typical corporate settings without seeming, well, typical?

If only the answer were yes. Unfortunately, in our experience, it is only, "Yes, but it's harder."

Not to vilify corporations. There isn't a CEO today who doesn't want a diverse workforce, and there isn't a global company that hasn't devoted significant resources to achieving that end, with diversity councils, proactive hiring and promotion practices, mentoring programs, and the like. But deeply entrenched biases persist in society, and many corporations remain predisposed to straight, white men with prestigious college degrees. As one African American senior executive puts it: "Hiring managers are often uncomfortable based simply on a lack of familiarity. They want to associate with people like them."

Which doesn't knock you out of the corporate career competition, it just shifts your starting line back a bit. And the only way we know to overcome that deficit is with sheer, unbridled competence. Because at their core, more than anything else, companies want to win. So while your performance may take longer to be rewarded, if you consistently deliver great results, eventually you'll wear any doubters down. They'll come to need you too much.

Is this system fair? Of course not. Even though we have both benefited from it to some extent, due to background and education, we have seen its inequities and the toll it can take on personal dignity. We've seen it make too many people feel disenfranchised. We've seen it make too many leave. And indeed, that's a viable alternative for you. Many younger companies—think Google and eBay—seem to have solved the problem of diversity. Or you can go it alone: The economy is filled with businesses started by individuals who didn't want to wait for a bunch of middle-aged white men to decide they were worth something. You can't blame them.

But we wouldn't advise you—or anyone "different"—to ditch a traditional corporate career. Big companies are getting better every day at inclusiveness; the vast majority are making a serious effort. And corporations do offer immense opportunity for professional and personal growth. Once your career takes off, you can travel, manage teams, even launch whole new businesses. Perhaps most rewarding, you can use your platform to foster the careers of other "different" people, making the corporation and the world all the better for it.

So don't give up. If you feel you can survive the corporate journey with your sense of humor and humanity intact, know that your performance can ultimately get you to the top of the mountain. Just be prepared for a harder climb.

There are a lot of misperceptions about Nigeria. And as a Nigerian, I think it is imperative that I know the fact about my country and also do my best to clear some of the misperceptions.

Recently, I told someone Nigeria is a country of 140 Million people in an area the size of Texas, however according the CIA World Factbook - which every Nigerian and Friends of Nigeria should read, it is actually a country of about 135 million people in an area twice the size of California.

The CIA World Factbook  on Nigeria, was updated on October 4, 2007 therefore it has recent data.

Other interesting tidbits:

Median age: 18.7 years

Life expectancy: 47.44 years

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups; the following are the most populous and politically influential: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%

Industries: 
crude oil, coal, tin, columbite; palm oil, peanuts, cotton, rubber, wood; hides and skins, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing, ceramics, steel, small commercial ship construction and repair

Internet hosts: 1,968

Internet users: 8 million

Please check out the CIA World Factbook for more information

This is a very interesting article, and it always seem funny to me that people can be awarded Ph.D for doing work like this. Hmm, very much like strategy, how can you possibly be wrong by 2050. Who will remember then to go check your work?

OK. Here is my thesis proposal for a Ph.D

I want to build on Dr. Levy work that between contraceptive pills for men, sex with robots and genetically engineered babies. The human institution of marriage will virtually disappear in 3050.

Sex and marriage with robots? It could happen - Innovation - MSNBC.com

ABC News: Scientists Have Developed Birth Control Pill for Men

Even for me, this is a controversial topic, one which I hesitate to  write about. However, it is in my head, hence in the spirit of creative honesty, I think I should write about it.

Actually, my thought is simple - and it is the question, "Why is prostitution considered one of the oldest profession in the world"

Is there a purpose for prostitution, is there a need (beyond sex) that it serves in society? Does it help to achieve balance in some way? Is there a way to be liberal enough to look at prostitution with an open mind?

By the demystification of prostitution, is it possible to limit the dark underside of the trade. Humans are humans, legalized or not, prostitution it seems will happen, and some people will exploit and dominate others, it is simply in their nature to do so.

What do you think?

An friend asked me recently , What is it about you? Do you have some secret to share? What is your story? And so on...

Apparently this person felt there is more to me than meets the eye. I answered, what you see is what you get - throw out your assumptions, there are no secrets here.

I am not sure if he believed me, however, he did trigger my thought with regard to secrets.

What most people consider secrets are simply things that we don't want other to know about us. People have secrets for many reasons, however what is interesting is the extent that people will go to keep a secret.

Personally, I don't think lying to keep a secret is worth it. I always reserve the right to say "I don't want to tell" or "I can't answer that question" which is very different from "I don't know" an expression I am used to getting when I am being inquisitive.

You know, I realize it is not that I don't have secrets but that I believe that secret are better kept in open view.

The underlying principle is, half truths are more dangerous that untruths.

Can I be Swedish? - Check out these benefits - read the article

"Swedish workers also enjoy some of the most liberal benefits in the world, including two months' paid time off and 16 months' paid parental leave.

...common-ly take years off work at 80 percent compensation."

Dang!!!  and I chose to live in America, why?

1. Plan what you are going to eat for the day at the beginning and try to stick to it.
2. Cut carbohydrate not avoid it completely.
3. Eat dinner by 6pm
4. Avoid liquid calories - drink a gallon of water a day
5. Count calories - record daily calorific intake
6. Eat only when hungry
7. Always eat breakfast - most likely to burn the calories - followed by four small meals.

I recently exploded in anger. As a result, I am very disappointed in myself. The feeling is weird, on one hand, I am ashamed and truly sorry for what happened, on the other hand, I do want to change but I do not want to bury the root cause of the explosion.

Having been looking at a lot of resources available on anger management. I do agree that anger is sometimes justified - and burying the reason(s) you were angry in the first place won't solve the problem.

Toughest lesson - "it is right to be wrong" - I am not sure I can even internalize that one.

By gosh, this is going be quite a process, I can only hope I come out on the other end - a better man for it.

As I review the first week of the 60 days challenge, I have to give myself at best a C- more like a D. In my dramatic self, I almost thought of it as my last chance to make the best of it. But oh no - no, this is not the last time. It is the only chance. Why?

I have one life to live, and I need to live it out loud. Take the good with the good (because bad is a function of perspective). So please come on with me on this one and only journey through planet earth - in this form at least :)

An enduring characteristics of a leader is the desire to excel, here are some principles of leadership, that I have been thinking about.

1. Leaders lead by example not words
2. Leadership is about putting others ahead of yourself
3. Effective leaders covets the trust and respect of their subordinates, not spotlight
4. Leaders stays calm in time of crisis
5. Has an internal moral compass
6. Is always positive and optimistic
7. Insist on superior performance however is pragmatic

Skills of leaders:

1. Communication
2. Decision making
3. Motivation
4. Planning
5. Execution
6. Measurement and rewards
7. Learning and building others

I don't want somebody to love me
Just give me sex whenever I want it
'Cause all I ask for is instant pleasure
Instant pleasure, instant pleasure

You in the traffic for all eternity
How could that speed be where you want to be?
Said don't you really want instant pleasure
Instant pleasure, instant pleasure

Think that all these folks get laid?
Do it cause their pain is great?
What you thinkin' anyways?

For more, goto ... http://www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/view/rufus_wainwright/instant_pleasure/

So far so good.

Overall score:  B-

Things to improve on: Diet (this has been the most lacking for some reason)

Things doing well on: Exercise - It is true that exercising definitely puts one in a good mood and I am feeling the effect of the dopamine or whatever chemical. It is that causes that.

Stay tuned.