Changing the Brain

Transform your Mind, Change Your Brain

Presented by Richard J. Davidson

Brain Plasticity

Dr Michael Merzenich on brain power..think faster, focus better.

How to make a book

Where Good Ideas Come From

Steven Johnson




Chance favours the connected mind.

Drerek Sivers on Goals

Eric Schmidt at DLD ( Digital Life Design) in Munich January 2011

The internet has been the biggest disruptor.The economics of scarcity ( pricing powere, holding things back)has been replaced by economics of abundance.

You can be a truly global citizen and realise how interesting we all are.

Your children are in two states : either asleep or online.

It just the beginning.

Time wasting is a well known human activity we engage in. Instead of tv now online eg videos etc.

Cars on autopilot.

Not only available to the elite but accessible to the common man.

Lifting a couple of billion of people from poverty to middle class mainly in Asia.

A future of ideas, intuition, solutions and doing what we love to do.

Promoting Charities

Are you a UK-based charity with a compelling story to tell? Do you want to connect with your supporters, volunteers, and donors on YouTube?

To find out more go to:

http://www.youtube.co.uk/nonprofits

See the charities included in this video at:
http://www.youtube.co.uk/beatbullying
http://www.youtube.co.uk/deccharity
http://www.youtube.co.uk/friendsofthe...
http://www.youtube.co.uk/missingpeople
http://www.youtube.co.uk/wateraid

Rumi etc

‘It’s morning and the musk-scattering breeze is passing;
Know that it is passing out of a certain person’s lane.
Get up! How can you sleep when the world is passing?
Buy some perfume, for the caravan is passing’
(Mevlana, Divan-i-Kabir no.1750)


‘Forgetfulness is also a bounty. It allows one to suffer the pains of only one day, and causes the rest to be forgotten’
(Said Nursi, Risale-i Nur, 16)

‘Watch out that you don’t regret the matters of the past.
You are a sufi, so don’t mention the name of the past.
You are the ‘son of the moment’ during youth and old age,
As long as the present moment doesn’t pass away’
(Mevlana, Divan-e Kabir no. 1753)

‘Don’t worry but let yourself sleep,
For worry is a veil on the face of the moon, a veil.
The heart is like the full moon. Don’t keep worry near the heart.
Throw worry-making into the stream’
(no.1754)

Government and the Good Life

Taken from preface by Simon Griffiths:


In 961, reflecting on a long and seemingly successful life, Abdul
Rahman iii, Caliph of Cordoba, wrote:
I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved
by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my
allies. Riches and honours, power and pleasure, have waited
on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been
wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered
the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my
lot: they amount to fourteen.

edward gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (electric book Company, 2001), Volume V, 401.


1
Two weeks of happiness in a lifetime of abundance is pretty scant.
More than 1,000 years later the Caliph’s gloomy reflections are
more relevant than ever before, and are mirrored in two related
questions that run through the chapters in this book.
First, why are we no happier now than we once were (or to
use the language of the social scientists, why is ‘subjective wellbeing’ no higher)? even in recession, most of us in the west are far
wealthier than at any time in previous decades. between 1957 and
2006, the UK’s gDP per person almost trebled in real terms, rising
from £6,960 to £19,978.
2
Roughly speaking, orthodox economics
equates a rise in the level of purchasing power with an increase
in the wellbeing of a society.
3
Yet, during the same period, the
proportion of people in the UK who said that they were “very
happy” fell from 52% to 36%.
4
other surveys present a slightly less
pessimistic picture of wellbeing trends, but in almost all cases they...

To read further please go to:

http://www.smf.co.uk/assets/files/Well%20being.pdf

The Two Companions

‘You should not neglect your time or use it haphazardly; on the contrary, you should bring yourself to account, structure your litanies and other practices during each day and night, and assign to each period a fixed and specific function. This is how to bring out the spiritual blessing (baraka) in each period. But, if you leave yourself adrift, aimlessly wandering as cattle do, not knowing how to occupy yourself at every moment, your time will be lost. It is nothing other than your life, and your life is the capital that you make use of to reach perpetual felicity in the proximity of God the Exalted. Each of your breaths is irreplaceable and, once gone, can never be retrieved. Do not be like the deceived fools who are joyous because each day their wealth increases while their life shortens. What good is an increase in wealth when life grows ever shorter? Therefore, be joyous only for an increase in knowledge or in good works, for they are your two companions who will accompany you in your grave when your family, wealth, children, and friends stay behind’
(Imam al-Ghazali, Bidayat al-Hidaya)

Marketing with Meaning

How the challenges of the media and advertising landscape are giving way to a new paradigm in which businesses must create Marketing With Meaning.

Geoffrey Moore on Innovation

Author of 'Crossing the Chasm' talks about innovation which is different depending on whether it is a growing, mature or declining market. Customer experience innovation or operational excellence innovation.

Try to find an opening in the market where the leading vendors are not exploiting.

Kaplan on Successful Entrepreneurship

Believe that you can make a difference.

Action bias..can make things happen.Doing things is more important than being smart.

Burn up the markets with new ideas.

Urgent patience.Story of gardener. 'I thought you were going to plant an apple tree'.'Its going to take a hundred years' The etate owner replied 'So you better get started'.

Unjustifiable optimism- believe you will succeed in the face of all evidence.

The recklessness of Jeff Bezos was the key to his success.

A tolerance for uncertainity. Never enough information, very stressful to live in such an environment.

Genuine concern for other people creating a reserve of goodwill for people around.

Peter Drucker

Transform data into information which very people know.



Productivity of knowledge workers still incredibly low.

Frederick Winslow Taylor looked at work and saw that it was all wrong and that is the the great revolution and within 60 years productivity of manual workers went up 60 times.

Warren Bennis on Crucibles

Getting the best out of people and thereby get the best out of oneself.

We are imprisoned by the stories we construct ourselves. 'The story of our life is a story not our life' John Bart.

'One has to overcome the story and become the author of one's life'.

How do you know what you will excel at - have patience with yourself and open yourself up to many possibilities.

'Generous company' is the epitaph he would like.




A crucible is a test or event which has a verdict.

The Hedgehog Concept

Engage your energy and time:

1. Something for which you have great passion, love to do and absolutely reflects your values.

2. Find out what you are genetically encoded for, genetically encoded is not same as what you are good at, that you feel like a fish in water.

3. You provide great value, social or economic or both . You are useful.

Maslow's self actualisation. ( discovering what you were meant to do and committing to the ardour of pursuing excellence)

Culture of Discipline

Jim Collins talks about the culture of discipline and how it is not a business idea but a greatness idea.

Pranav Mistry and Sixth Sense Technology