By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News (click here) Flow is “a state of deep focus that occurs when people engage in challenging tasks that demand intense concentration and commitment. Flow occurs when a person’s skill level is perfectly balanced to the challenge level of a task that has clear goals and provides immediate feedback.” So says Mihayl Csikszentmihalyi, professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. In a state of flow, you are completely involved in and focused on the activity at hand.  You feel the confidence that comes from knowing you have the […]

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News (click here) For anyone with an entrepreneurial bent, it’s important to keep up with the times. Technologies change quickly, and you should not just be aware of how they are evolving, but you should also be comfortable enough to integrate them into your own life.  Being up on the latest trends puts you ahead of the competition.  It helps you better understand the people you are managing and it equips you to design creative strategies that will fit today’s needs.  A great way to keep tabs on what’s new is to surround yourself with […]

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hürriyet Daily News “Today’s key economic factors—talent, innovation, and creativity—are not distributed evenly across the global economy.  They concentrate in specific locations.  In today’s creative economy, the real source of economic growth comes from the clustering and concentration of talented and productive people.  The clustering force makes each of us more productive, which in turn makes the places we inhabit much more productive, generating great increases in output and wealth.” So says Richard Florida, author of the international bestseller “Who’s Your City?”  Given the latest technological advancements, it’s fashionable these days to assume we can all work […]

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hürriyet Daily News (click here) “I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.” That’s Steve Jobs describing how he dropped out of Reed College years ago.  He talks about how the decision to drop out was scary because he didn’t know what would happen next, […]

By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News (click) “Yes, I know, you are certain that your friends are becoming your enemies; that your grocer, garbage man, clergyman, sister-in-law, and your dog are all of the opinion that you have put on weight, that you have lost your touch, that you have lost your mind; furthermore, you are convinced that everyone spends two-thirds of every day commenting on your disintegration, denigrating your work, plotting your assassination.  I promise you: Nobody is thinking about you.  They are thinking about themselves—just like you.” These are the words of Roger Rosenblatt in the book “Rules […]