How great leaders inspire action

Why is it that Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement? How come Apple is so innovative compared to its competitors? And how were the Wright brothers able to figure out the world’s first successful airplane?

In his great talk, Simon Sinek explains what these three have in common. He calls it the Golden Circle.

I’ve used this simple yet wonderful concept ever since and it has helped me to structure my thinking, whether in emails, letters, or talks. Now you can use it too!

Google’s own Facebook: Google+

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A silent watcher. That’s what they call it. As I’m lurking in offline mode, checking out who’s having dinner with whom, in which restaurant, what the lobster soup taste and look like, and how the rain poured down on their way to it, I just can’t help myself thinking why on earth I would want to know any of that.

And yet, I do, and with me 750 million others. That’s when Google decided: “I want Facebook too”, and launched Google+. Currently only available upon invitation, Google+ tries to beat Facebook by making their platform more like the real life, by introducing Circles, Sparks, and Hangouts.

Circles enables a user to share certain things with certain people only who are in their ‘circle’. Sparks picks out interesting content from the web based on your preferences, similar to Stumbleupon. And Hangouts, what Google calls ‘the next best thing apart from teleportation’, attempts to simulate being in a social environment like a party, where you meet friends by chance.

A smart move of Google, to let the users do the work for them by letting them put the right contacts in the right circles. However, it still isn’t perfect. For example when you share content within a circle, everyone else in that circle knows who you’ve shared it with. That's not always preferable, as with CC and BCC in email.

And that’s exactly what the invitation only policy is for, to get feedback and improve it before the Grand Launch. And so the war in social media land gains another giant player. With already over 2 million members in the first two weeks, things looks pretty promising for Google+. Meanwhile, Facebook announced to launch new product improvements, including the recently leaked out iPad Facebook app.

“I liked Google+ when it was still called Facebook” is what you’ll hear more often these days. Which brings us to the question whether there is still room for another social media platform. And also, how much more will Google get to know about our lives, if it doesn’t already know everything that is.

How to think your dreams into reality using the law of attraction

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Imagine being a gigantic magnet. Think Magneto from the movie X-Men First Class. But instead of just attracting the screwdrivers, cars, and massive satellite dishes, you’re literally attracting everything you’re thinking of.

Think of your thoughts as life’s eBay and the universe is the almighty supplier. Now, what can you not buy on eBay these days? You simply click on what you want and know that in just a matter of days, it’ll magically appear before you.

This is exactly what happens when you’re using the law of attraction. Here are the three basic steps to follow:

1. Ask; know precisely what you want. If not, how would you know if you’ve received it or not? Then go ahead and ask the universe for it. Or god, or whatever you believe in.
2. Belief; belief with all that you are that what you ask for will become yours. Use the same certainty as if you ordered your razor from eBay.
3. Receive; let it become reality. Experience all the emotions you would feel as if you already have it. You’ll attract exactly that what matches your feelings.

The last part is crucial; the more intensely you feel, the faster it will manifest. Always combine your feelings with gratitude, the most powerful emotion there is.

One last thing to remember is that the universe makes no distinction between positive and negative thoughts. It simply gives what you focus on. Focus on why you’re so damn poor and more poverty will manifest. Focus on all your extra pounds and don’t be surprised how much more you can get. But when you focus on being wealthy, the money, health, and happiness starts flowing into your life.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the infinite possibilities and don’t know where to start? It makes no difference to the universe to what or how much you ask for, or when you ask for it or receive it. You’re the determining factor. I’d say start small. Build momentum by seeing the small things manifests before your eyes. Then when you’ve grown that rock-solid belief, go all out!

The secret of living your dream life starting right now

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That’s a pretty big headline you’ve got there young man! Yep. What I’m about to share with you is the single most powerful thing I’ve ever learned. It’s the ultimate power in the possession of us, humble mortals.

If you’re open to it, it will completely change the way you think about the world and everything you know about it. And if you’re really open to it, it takes you on a rollercoaster ride and your dream life starts at this very moment.

Are you ready? Let’s go!

It’s called ‘the law of attraction’. Here’s what is says: like attracts like. Positive thinking attracts positive physical results; negative thinking attracts negative physical results.

Take a big-ass microscope, and put anything you can think of underneath it and zoom in a gazillion times. Here’s what you’ll see: vibrating energy. Everything around you is energy. You are energy. And most importantly, your thoughts are energy.

So what you think, your thoughts, influences and manifests itself into the physical reality. You’re the creator of your thoughts, thus the creator of your own physical reality. And that’s where true power lies. Your current life is nothing more or less than the result of your past thoughts!

If you pay attention to it, sooner or later you’ll discover that all successful people know, consciously or subconsciously, and use exactly what you’re reading about right now in their every day lives. In fact, I’ve used this very same principle to attract you to my blog. What do you think about that?

There’s a book and DVD out there, called ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne, and that’s all you need. If you have never heard of it or haven’t seen it yet; go get it. Buy the book. Get the DVD. Download it or do it all. It’ll blow your mind, guaranteed.

On the next post I’ll explain the steps of how to actually use this to make your dreams become reality.

The day my MacBook Air went iPad

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Well, almost. Except for the touchscreen. The responsible? OS X Lion, Apple’s no-brainer operation system upgrade for only €23,99 straight from the App Store.

Rubber-band scrolling, zooming, tapping, pinching, and swiping; directing four fingers at once requires some practice, but the new multi-touch gestures on the trackpad feels extraordinary. The full-screen experience surely makes browsing on Safari more enjoyable (although you could already do it with other browsers) and you just gotta love the Launchpad.

Another neat little functionality is the AirDrop, making file sharing with other Mac users easier and user-friendlier. Now just have to wait until everyone else updates to OS X Lion too. Other new stuff includes Mission Control, App Store, Versions, and Resume; functionalities I personally don’t use all too often.

The new MacBook Air launched the same day; same appearance this time, but faster, more memory, and the return of the backlit keyboard. Looks cool, but honestly? I wonder who works in the dark anyway.

It feels like the Apples become more alike every step of the way. Can’t wait until the launch of the new iOS for my iPhone 4, iCloud, and the expected iPhone 5 in September. It will inevitably draw a heck of a lot more non-Apple-users across the border into the promised Apple-land. And once you go Mac, you’ll never go back.

Playing extra on new NCRV TV series Mixed Up

8:00 a.m. The alarm goes off. Have to be on the set at 9:00 a.m. Today I’ll play the role of an extra on the tenth episode of Mixed Up, starring Georgina Verbaan.

Mixed Up is a drama series about the life at the editorial office of ZIJ (Dutch for ‘she’) magazine and the battle of the sexes. Today we were shooting at the office studio and a few scenes on the streets in Amsterdam.

For me and my fellow extras, it was mostly waiting until you were summoned for some of act-like-you’re-doing-something-interesting-at-the-office on the background. It was fascinating to witness the live recording on the set, as the last-minute lights, make-up, and boobs-taping adjustments were made.

From what I could see, acting is just like any other long-days, hardworking, and not-always-that-exciting job.

The highlights of the day? When Georgina said ‘thanks’ when I held the door open for her and wished us a nice day as we left. Famous, beautiful, yet down-to-earth and nice!

5:00 p.m.; it’s a wrap for the extras. The others continue. I’ve had a blast and marked a new life experience off the list!

Mixed Up will be aired starting October 31, 2011 at channel NCRV.

Roamler: Crowdsourcing at its very best

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Everyone meet Jackie, my brother. Jackie is an early adopter, or what you would call a trendsetter. Above all, I think he is a maven.

A maven is someone who knows disturbingly much about anything and feels the urge to share it with others. Ask him anything from politics, to sports, the weather or the latest Hollywood gossips. He can tell you all about it, just like that.

Jackie has a new addiction; called Roamler. Roamler is an iPhone application through which you can earn money by completing tasks. Based on your location, you receive a task. Every completed tasks earns you experience points and/or money.

Imagine having thousands if not millions of mobile workforce around the globe, ready and waiting to complete your tasks every minute of the day! If that’s not über-cool, I don’t know what is.

Having started just a few days, Jackie is now the top 1 Roamler in Amsterdam and ranks number 11 in Holland. So Jackie, is also kind of a nerd. But here’s the best part: Roamler works on invite only, after earning 1750 experience points. Guess who Jackie will invite first?