Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Have you got friends who suddenly say goodbye to you, for excuses you consider lame?

If you feel you have been wronged, you have been treated unfairly, you have not been appreciated for what you have done, you have invested much into the relationship but have not been reciprocated to, or you simply feel such break-up is unwarranted, you are not alone.

Recently, a close friend for more than 3 years wanted to cut tie and just remain as normal acquaintance.

You may want to complain out loud to other people.  You may want to post your grouses on Facebook.  You may want to send in angry tweets.  But may I suggest you just keep quiet?

People sometimes don’t know what they are doing.  Perhaps they are still young and for the time being out of their mind.  After all, when we were younger and even now after we have matured a bit, we have done and still stupid things from time to time.

But when they come to their sense one day, and regret for what they have done to you, they may feel sorry for you and even long for your forgiveness.  That’s the time you have the chance to embrace them back and gain back friends rather than enemies.

In life, there are many chances for us to practise forgiveness and grace.  Forgiveness means giving them the benefit of doubt that perhaps they have some problems that they have to behave this way.

It also means understanding that generally people want to do their best sincerely to satisfy their own needs versus needs of others, but sometimes there is imbalance due to circumstance or their incompetence, that unfortunately we end up being on the receiving end.

Grace means our being gracious enough not to mind being on the wrong end when they have such problems.  It means when people do wrong to us, we don’t need to take revenge and do the same bad thing to them.

In my case, though I feel I’ve been wronged, luckily I managed to control myself and not complain or talk bad about the friend, either online on Facebook or offline in person.

I have only objectively told what happened and expressed my disappointment to a few close friends who asked me about it.

I hope when the friend comes to realize his or her behavior one day, he or she will come back to me, and I’ll be ever ready to embrace back a close friend as before.

Nowadays there are many free talks and seminars out there on doing business and entrepreneurship.  But many organizations are already doing these.  If we were to encourage entrepreneurship, why do we need to duplicate what others have done?  How do we differentiate our efforts from those of others?

After all, not everyone learns to be entrepreneur by just listening to talks. No doubt, such events also provide a networking opportunity.  But such platforms are better suited for those who are more sociable. How about others who are poorer in social skills?  Do such events help much in developing their social network?

To better develop entrepreneurship among the common folks, how about trying different ways besides talks, seminars and conferences?  Even small group sharing by entrepreneurs can have a bigger impact on individuals. Yes, less number of people, but higher impact on individuals.

How about having some kind of mastermind groups or buddy system where pairs or small groups meet regularly? Each person can share his or her own plan or progress in business, and be made accountable to other group members.  Then everyone can provide inputs and feedback on how the business can be improved.  Individualized development and action-based, isn’t it?

If possible, how about some mentoring system where each experienced entrepreneur mentors a small group?  The group can work as mastermind group above, with the mentor providing experience sharing.

To make more widespread impact, how about we cast our vision to others around the nation and mobilize them to duplicate the same thing in their own place?  This is akin to Toastmasters and BarCamp where each club or location does the same thing but in multiple locations to make an impact to more people instead of people at just one place.

By the way, how about setting up a mini public library with books on business, management, entrepreneurship, self-development and soft skills etc, and let budding entrepreneurs borrow and read the books?

What other ideas have you got?

This is a guest post from Secureshield Enterprise

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It is also equally important to have widely experienced networking engineers to support your business no matter the scale. We will empower you and your team via our products and business partners in making better use of this resource.

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More than 2 years ago in 2009, I went back to school and became an MBA student in UPM.  Last month in January 2012, I finally turned in the very last comprehensive case study (similar to a thesis) and finished up the whole course.

I remembered joining the MBA course for 4 purposes: to learn, to develop, to network, and to enjoy.  I have always kept reminding myself on these throughout the MBA journey.

• Learn - I have learned much about business, its various areas and everything in a whole.  The last case study submitted was a consultative paper in which I learned to apply many things in the course to provide solution to a real-world problem.
• Develop - I should have become a better thinking person, thanks to certain good lecturers in the course.  But I’ve not been able to improve my communication skills including presentation and public speaking.
• Network - I might be one of the most connected person in my business school.  The last count on friends known through the course on Facebook stood at 318.  Unfortunately, most are shallow relationships and I hardly have more than a few buddies to speak of.
• Enjoy - After absence from school for years, I indeed have enjoyed the campus life.  In fact, I enjoyed every process including the stressful schedules to submit assignments, prepare for presentations and sit for exams.

• Financial goal – Increase my net worth for a certain amount.
• MiC (Masters in Communication) – I need to become a master in communication, the very thing that I missed out developing in the MBA course.

I guess I’m quite clear of what I need to achieve this year. How about you?