When I think about the next leaders in the marketing area, I think about Chris Brogan.He is well known speaker and author of a few books. The beauty of his blog and books that he talks with you and about you, not at you.
Chris has been my virtual leadership and marketing mentor for the last 2 years. I had the privilege to meet him in person few days ago. It was the end of a long-term goal to meet Chris some day.

From thinking forward, to going on your success path, to building an online business, to winning with the crowd, Chris covers a bunch of leadership skills that you can use in any business.

Here are 5 life insights from Chris:

1. Work by heart – Money is important, but Chris businesses are powered by heart.
2. Capture your ideas – Spend the time every day capture your insights and ideas by writing or drawing them on paper. It helps to make some deep thinking about your ideas.
3. Listening is a daily thing – Chris spends a lot of his time to listen. He speaks a lot in events, but still find the time to listen. We all have a lot to say, we don’t really need to do that in a one time.
4. Use framework to guide you – Chris use mind-maps as a powerful tool to capture his ideas and model his framework. When you have framework, you have a path. When you have a path, you have vision.
5. Don’t forget your family - When it comes to business and passion, you can find yourself really quick in 30 year career path while your children are growing up while their dad is flying around the world. Chris puts his family in the top of the list as it should be.

I hope you enjoy these lessons as much as I’ve enjoyed putting them together.

I have done the hard work for you. See the “lite” view of the list in excel format for easy sorting, searching and funding!

Link to the file

Goal.  The word is one of the most commonly used words in the world. People love goals. Companies love goals. You love goals. It always starts well. You have dozen of goals in your mind. You want to be rich, happy, a good parent and many other things. Then, you have the motivation to start immediately. Next, nothing. You leave the room full of ideas, without making any change. In the last 12 months I have gathered a few techniques for goals setting. I have some ideas that I would like to share.

First Goals First

In my efforts to think about my life for the next few years, I started with my goals. Not all of my goals are related to business, some of them are related to my personal life and my family. Why are goals are so important to me? Because when I have my goals in front of me every day I can check with myself when a new opportunity comes in, whether this opportunity is related to my goals or not. Focus is a golden rule of thumb in my plan. It’s very important to start with a clear goal: “I want to lose 12lbs until the end of the year” is better than “I want to lose weight”. Be concise with your goals.

See the Bright Spots

By thinking about my goals, I’m trying to understand my passion or what I’m really good at. For example: I know that I’m not the operator, but I’m a great leader / thinker. Why is seeing the bright spots so important? Because your goals must be aligned with your strengths.  Want to start quick? Thing about the three things you are the best at.  Using this method, You can see what you are really good at, but also what you really need to improve this year (or the following years). Again, start with the basics. Make today a list of the three things you do best. Check the list after one week and see if what you wrote stays true. If yes, you’ve taken one step forward to find your strengths.

Connect All to Actions

You know your strengths and your goals, what you have to do now? Make it actionable. Many people fail at this step. I think that this step is the most important one. If you want to lose weight but you are not sure how, you are not going to lose weight. Period. Keep in mind that actions without deadlines are like trying to lose weight all your life. I have dozens of ideas to share about how to make a great switch. Reading the book Switch is a great start.

So what you can do today?

• Think about your strengths
• Think about your goals for this month, year, three years from now
• Split every goal into a list of actionable tasks
• Make it simple and clear

If you didn’t have goals yet, try to set a small one today. Over the last three years, I had one major goal – get into a top MBA program in the USA. Now that I have decided to join Babson’s MBA program this fall, I want to share “why Babson and why now.” The following ideas are only my own views. You should see the big picture and merge your own goals with your own perspective.

My Rank

Financial Times ranks Babson’s MBA Entrepreneurship program #1 17 years in a row. When every MBA prospective student starts to look for an MBA school he has the general rank in his mind. Babson is not a top 10 school on other lists. There are many reasons for that: it’s a small school, and many students start new ventures after studies leading to low employment numbers. Babson’s MBA 2-year program probably never be listed in the Top 5, and I’m glad about that. When I looked for a biz school, I searched a biz school which would fit my goals (remember goals?) in the next 10 years. As I do want to work in small business or start my own new ventures, I’m drawn to the diversity that Babson provides, bringing together people from many industries and countries.

Me and America

I’m living currently in Israel, so I’m going to move to Boston in the next few months. This will be a big change for me. As a someone who was born and grew up in Israel, moving to the USA is an amazing switch and a huge opportunity. I’m sure I will post a lot about my MBA journey, but I want to set goals and talk about them. I’m going to meet new people, experience a new culture, learn new language (Ok, maybe that’s not so new J). I’m drawing the plans for the next three years. Yes, three years is a lot of time, but that’s the way in which I will see the maximum results – by planning ahead of time my goals. Without a plan you don’t see results. Period.

Boston – Big City, European Culture and Entrepreneurial Atmosphere

Boston is really a great place for students. It has more than 50 universities. In addition to Babson’s programs, those of MIT and Harvard offer a great way to participate and interact in many events. I do like the way that many top MBA program around Boston organize events together. That way, students from Harvard can network with students from Babson and vice versa. Boston is a the twenty-first largest city in the USA. Being based in a big city will be a great opportunity for me and my family..

MBA That Fits You Not Others

Babson does have some disadvantages, like Stanford and MIT. No college is perfect. The question is what you want to do in the next 10 years and How you MBA school can help you reach those goals.

Don’t worry that I didn’t talk about the great people whom I have met and plan to meet during my time in Boston. It will by privilege to talk about the amazing people in my future blog posts. This, to me, is the best time of my life. It’s the best time for me to grow and develop more businessexpertise. From now on, as things get exciting, and I hope to share my lessons with you.

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