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 […]
The Science Of Self Help
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News Whenever I go to the bookstore, I marvel at how the self-help section keeps getting bigger and bigger. It seems there is a book for almost every kind of problem. Maybe your struggle is with romantic relationships, maybe it’s with weight-loss, maybe it’s with work. Whatever aspect of life has you down, chances are there is a book that will help you, or at least promise to. And these days, self-help isn’t just limited to books. You can go to a seminar, or find help online. Whatever the medium, all the gurus claim something new and magical. Just do what […]
From Good To Great
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News Sometimes being good just isn’t good enough. When the initial highs of success begin to fade, we almost always want more. We want to move on to even greater things. Whatever our current level, we want to reach for the next one. I think this is human nature. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t want to become at least a little bit better at something. What does it take to go from good to great? We know that it takes a lot of dedication, and that it requires an endless thirst for learning, even when everyone else […]
Entrepreneurship In Its Social Vein
By Fatmanur Erdogan, for Hurriyet Daily News At first glance, it’s not easy to find entrepreneurs whose businesses revolve around a social or environmental issue. For most entrepreneurs, the priority seems to be just getting a business going, and worrying later about making it socially and environmentally sustainable. There are many reasons for that. Most entrepreneurs consider it a luxury to focus on social or environmental issues. They want to find financial security first, to get on their feet and move beyond the daily survival worries. Dedicating oneself to another, bigger cause is a daunting responsibility, and most businesses focus […]
Your Customers Watch Each Other
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News (click here for newspaper article’s online version) Almost all of us love watching movies. One reason we like them so much is we like to see people living through situations we experience in our own lives, too. We want to see old friends drifting apart. We want to see a daughter struggle to gain independence from her parents. We want to see a man and woman fall in love, get married, and raise a family. But we also like to watch people going through trials we’ll never see ourselves. We’ll never be a James […]
Embracing New Technologies
Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News (click here for the newspaper link) I love the Kindle, Amazon.com’s electronic book reader. It makes getting the information I need fast and easy. I like reading hard-copy books, too, but sometimes I want the information right now – I don’t want to have to wait days or weeks for a book to arrive. I am also a globetrotter, so nothing makes me happier than packing my suitcase and flying off to a faraway city. In the past, whenever I went on one of those trips, I ended up lugging a heavy backpack filled with reading material. Now, I […]
On Finding A Goal
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News, (click here for nwspaper link to On Finding A Goal) It seems like just about every career advisor preaches the importance of goal-setting. These self-proclaimed “life’s path” gurus tell us that before we act we must have a goal, and that without a goal, it is impossible to make progress. To hear them talk about it, you’d think every successful person popped out of the womb holding a detailed road map for life. Now, I don’t discount the importance of having a goal. The business world is a rational and linear place, and it’s […]
Don’t Stare At the Marshmallow
By Fatmanur Erdogan, Hurriyet Daily News (click here for Don’t stare at the marshmallow) When you’re stuck in a rut, it’s hard to get out. You feel hopeless, like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. The economy might be bad, maybe your sales are down, your customers aren’t renewing their contracts, and you’re losing money left and right. Maybe you’re looking for new customers, but they want products you don’t have, and you’re out of the cash you need to invest in new ones. It’s clear to you that there’s a problem, but the solution isn’t coming […]