By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News In life generally and in business in particular, we like to think of ourselves as being receptive to change. We like to imagine we are open-minded and adaptable. Being comfortable with change is considered a great asset in any profession. When someone calls you a “change agent”, it’s a compliment, and you walk around the office taller, prouder, and more confident. In fact, 20 years ago, being open to change was considered a plus, something that set you apart. Now, it’s assumed. It’s almost become a prerequisite for getting hired for any job in […]
Coming Home Is Harder Than Leaving
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News If you are an expat, you may find that moving back to your home country is actually more disorienting than going abroad was in the first place. You won’t be the same person you were when you left. You’ve been exposed to another culture and learned how to thrive in a completely different environment. Whether you come away from the experience with good, bad, or, more likely, mixed feelings, you’ve grown personally. Your perspective on the world is broader than it used to be. When you get back home, you’ll be bursting with stories to tell. You’ll feel a […]
Someone else’s Dreams For You
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News “Women who are exposed to repeated images of other women who are unusually attractive – for instance, when they read a lot of women’s magazines – feel less attractive themselves, and their self esteem is diminished. The same thing happens to men when they read descriptions of other men who are more dominant or successful,” writes Richard O’Connor, Ph.D., a practicing psychotherapist and the author of the book “Happy at Last.” Advertising has learned how to leverage this phenomenon for sales growth. A typical ad shows an attractive woman dressed in highly fashionable clothes, standing […]
Thinking Like A Grown Up
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News When we’re young, we go to school to learn the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic. You can see some kids starting to question everything at that age, but most of their time is spent learning facts that everyone around the world accepts, things like the basic multiplication tables, or the definitions of words, or the major dates of World War II. As we get further along in our education, we spend more time learning how to question. Science class becomes less focused on teaching us facts, and more focused on teaching us how to test […]
Our pasts are prelude
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News In the old days, people had simpler expectations of life. Our parents taught us to be grateful for the food sitting before us on the dinner table. They taught us to be grateful when the whole family was there to break bread together. Saying grace before a meal took only a few moments, but it reminded us that we could find happiness in the simpler aspects of life, and that message was hammered home with daily repetition. Somewhere along the way, we let the world become more complicated. We decided it wasn’t enough to eat regular meals and […]