December 2010
6 posts
4 tags
Why Networking Will Crush Your High GPA
There is nothing more important for your success than networking. Your marks matter zilch. Your initial capital is irrelevant. In order to be successful, you need networking. In order to get your dream job, you need networking.
You need networking, and there is no substitute for this need.
What can networking give you?
Every job I’ve had so far, I got because of the people I’d...
November 2010
17 posts
5 tags
About Good Marks, Motivation, Failure and Success
Life is much easier than you think. Anything you do or don’t do is most of the time a question of your will.
If you really want it, you’ll get it. If you don’t want it, you are going to fail or stay idle, which to me is not much different.
Getting good marks in school is easy. After all, the system is created this way. You study, follow the rules, put in time and effort, and...
15 tags
How to Find Time for Everything
If you were following any of my advices, you are probably struggling with finding time for everything like I do. I’ve never been so busy in my life, but, as time goes by, I find new ways to make the most out of every hour and not burn out. It gets easier with practice.
Here are a few things you can do to find time for everything and make your time constraint less binding.
Utilize
Look...
5 tags
How to Wear a Hat
This winter has come to Vancouver very early and, at least for me, unexpectedly. I should still change my tires or else I’m risking to be spending twice as much time on commuting, which would be the total of 5 hours daily.
Seeing how fellow students start wearing hats and being a considerably style-conscious person, I want to give you 2 very short pieces of advice.
1. Take your hat off...
15 tags
How to Rock Your Final Exams
The finals are coming up. Can you feel them? I can.
Over the years of epicly failing and wining on exams, I have developed a list of tools and tips that I use to get through any test. Today I want to share them with you, and I encourage you to post your own advice in the comments!
Tools
1. To-Do lists. I use these a lot. For every assignment, textbook chapter or test, I have a task, a due...
9 tags
Trust Agents - Book Review
“Trust Agents” is a bestselling book written by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith about social media, networking, and… well, building trust for success.
The book explains how the rules of branding has changed not only in terms of HOW you should brand, but also WHY.
It mixes theory and interesting stories, and showcases with direct practical action plans that will get you on top of the new...
4 tags
How to Find Your Passion
My story
I was 17, studying in my first year at a university in Ukraine, when I almost failed every course in that year. I was bored with school. I felt like every piece of information thrown at me in class could not be more useless.
I had no idea whatsoever about what I wanted to do with my life. For a while, before applying to study economics, I wanted to become a programmer and make video...
10 tags
What Social Media Every Sudent Should Start Using
There are a lot of talks about social media and how active one should be online. The general picture I see here in Vancouver with the people my age is: 98% have Facebook, 20% have Twitter, 10% have LinkedIn, 1% have blogs, barely anyone is more active than that.
Why Get Active Online
I believe that students should develop a habit of using social media and trying out new resources, networks and...
7 tags
How Textbooks Were Sent from Hell to Make Us...
I’ve seen them all: high quality textbooks, not-so-good ones, and super-crappy textbook parodies (hello, homeland). Almost every official textbook I’ve seen was a proud representation of bureaucracy, misery and dust of academia. Most of them felt like empty vessels waiting to be filled with tears and blood of students.
Well, you get the point. I hate textbooks. And I believe that...
6 tags
Rework – Book Review
“Rework” is a bestselling book written by the founders of a great company, 37signals.
I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say that it has many interesting insights on how to improve the way you work as an individual and as a business owner.
I don’t agree with everything the authors say, but most of the stuff is good.
It will be most interesting to business students of...
5 tags
Embrace Your Biological Clock
All my life I’ve been fighting my nature.
You see, I’m much more productive at night than in the morning. Yet, due to the influence of my parents and many other people, I was forced to live the early-bird lifestyle.
Even though I’ve been living by myself for a long time now, I was still trying to go to bed not too late and wake up not too late either. Until lately, when I got...
8 tags
5 First Steps to Building Your Brand While in...
So here we are. You already know that, in order to become really successful, you need to step up your game, which we will, from now on, call personal branding.
Sure, personal branding is not yet a must for becoming successful but only in cases where success is directly related to your achievements.
If being successful means to you being the best at doing what you love, then dive into the...
8 tags
How Higher Education Is Like Pacman
You go to school. You study. You nurture your marks and learn what you can, trying to have fun along the way.
If we look at it from a different perspective, your time in school is like an old arcade game. You make different moves, and you collect points as you play. These points are essential to your final score.
To get more points, you can use some secret pathway like in Super Mario Bros. Or...
7 tags
The New Mike Abasov's Blog
Hello fellow students,
Over the course of the last few months, I’ve been trying to find my voice on this blog. I talked about social media, marketing, professional development, etc., creating inconsistent content and, probably, boring you. But it’s time to put an end to this!
From this day forward, I going to write useful posts and try to help every student who’s looking for ways to succeed...
8 tags
How to Find People in Your Niche on Tumblr
This is not a hardcore tip but, for many people, not an obvious one either. Of course, you can go search for tags like “marketing” or “ubc,” or else, if you like. But the following idea I got from Twitter. Remember when you checked whom your followers follow to see if there were any cool folks out there? This is just like that.
So, what I do is I go to a tumblr post like,...
7 tags
What Do You Think About This?
Always have an opinion. Ask yourself what your gut feeling is saying, what you think about this and that, if it is good or bad. Then analyze. Then answer.
Don’t brag about your decision just yet, because you might be wrong, and you don’t want to show that to everyone. But reevaluate and review your opinion later, when more information becomes available.
Some times, you will be...
7 tags
Commodities & Social Media
Social media influence your business. No matter what industry you’re in.
It’s easy to say that “my business doesn’t need this,” but it’s not true anymore. Any brand, any product, any idea are now influenced by social media. To make a good example, lets look at things that don’t even need branding — commodities.
Commodities used to be unbranded for the...