Guru

Crying for Joy on Father´s Day (Little Guru series)

Nico - Little GuruI have to admit: I weep easily. But then, I mostly cry for joy. Very frequently, my heart just overflows with love or gratitude – and my eyes seem to be the only outlet.

Today is a bank holiday in Germany, so unlike most workdays, I sat down to have an unhurried breakfast with my wife and the Little Guru. Towards the end, they played my wife´s favorite song on the radio, so she got up, went from the dining room into the living room and started to dance playfully. Of course, the Little Guru wanted to join in.

Ten seconds later, they were holding hands and jumping around in circles, laughing and shouting boisterously. All of that time, the bright morning sun entered the room through our large garden windows, lighting up their faces, giving them an almost angelic complexion.

I watched them for a minute or so – and that´s when I cried again. I am lucky.

Happy Father´s Day to all of you!

Zen Mind, Beginner´s Mind: Rain – for the very first time…

If you read my blog regularly, you´ll know by now that I blog about my son once in a while. I just love to watch him while he explores this world – and he is very good teacher. In (Zen) Buddhism, they put a lot of emphasis on cultivation a “beginner´s mind”, meaning one should let go of all preconceptions, rigid thinking, and dualistic distinctions. The goal is to see things as they really are – nothing more, and nothing less. For grown-ups, this is an almost impossible thing to do. Once a concept has entered our mind, it is incredibly hard to shake off. You can experience this effect via looking at pictures like this. Once you know what you´re looking at, it´s practically impossible to not see it any more.

All the more, it is an incredible thing to watch a beautiful child experience something for the very first time – as in this video. Enjoy!

Kayden + Rain from Nicole Byon on Vimeo.

It was a very good Year…

Thank You DanceOne of the oldest and therefore thoroughly researched interventions in positive psychology is deliberately focusing one´s attention on being grateful. So why not express gratitude for a whole year? Here were go … *

Thank you to Carl-Christoph Fellinger for being an awesome colleague to talk to, an awesome co-author, and an awesome person in general.

Thank you to Dr. Hays Steilberg, my boss at Bertelsmann. You know why.

Thank you to Bernd Rathjen and his team at Corporate Candy for making me look good as a manager (not easy …).

Thank you to the organizing team of WHU Euromasters 2013 for making me feel like 23 again.

Thank you to Annette Mattgey, Anja Tiedge und Petra Diebold (out of the journalists I´ve worked with over the year).

Thank you to the participants of McKinsey´s CEO of the Future for making me believe the future will be a good one.

Thank you to Russell Ackoff for writing the best business book of all times (most likely …).

Thank you to Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) for re-introducing me to the art of listening to whole albums – instead of taking in whatever the “shuffle” shuffles…

Thank you to the whole MAPP gang, especially James Pawelski (Master of Ceremony), Esa Saarinen (Master of Elevation), Art Carey (Master of Style), Emilia Lahti (Queen of Sisu), and Patricia De La Torre (Mistress of elevated conversion, good food+wine, and staying up way too late…) for making my stay in the U.S. a one-of-a-kind experience.

Last not least:
Thank you to my wife for letting me be who I am. And to the Little Guru for making me better than I really am.

 

* Thank you for this inspiration, Christoph…

 

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2013 – 8760h: How time flies…really?

Every time a year draws to a close, a lot of people start saying something like “Oh, how time flies…”. Mostly, it is used in a slightly sniveling fashion – as if those people might have missed something. I guess that´s why they show all those year-end retrospectives on TV. But then, they invite all these VIP and VEP (Very Exceptional People) – and at the end of the day, one´s own life might seem insignificant in comparison.

So why not create your own personal year-end retrospective?* Why not have a look at what really happened in those last 365 days?

Merry Christmas and happy new Year!

Nico Rose - Neon - Euromasters

One year consists of 8760 hours! I have…

Big Chunks

Need to Talk

Nico Rose - TEDxKoeln

Working with real People

New Beginnings

  • started to study (surprise, surprise…) positive psychology (and therefore spent 22 days in the U.S.)
  • started the blog Mappalicious (surprise, surprise…again…) and written 62 articles (including this one)
  • published 5 articles as “Digital Leader” via lead-digital.de
  • bought an acoustic guitar, taken 7 lessons and practiced about 10 hours (definitely not enough)

Endings

Not so nice

Very nice

  • been promoted at Bertelsmann

Nico Rose - Birthday

Personal Stuff

  • said “I love you” +365 times (not every day, but several times on some of the days)
  • canoodled with my son approx. one million times
  • read +80 good-night stories (definitely not enough, please refer to kilometers travelled)
  • had approx. 700 cappuccinos and 5 kg chicken tikka
  • been to 5 metal concerts and one opera premier

My New Year´s resolution: having myself cloned!

So, how might your very own year-end retrospective look like?

* Please excuse the fact that a lot links in this article will lead to German sites. I´ve really just started publishing in English this year – so most of my stuff is still in German…

Mappalicious: The first 100 Days

100 DaysWhen a new CEO or political leader assumes an office, typically there is this special 100 day time window to deliver some first results. Today, Mappalicious is 100 days old. So I thought: why not create a first retrospective. So here´s what happened so far:

A big thank you to all my readers!

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