How You Can Be a Leader and Break Away From Mediocrity

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What makes someone stand out as a leader? Is it their ability to excel under pressure? Do they possess the charm that is needed when you are one on one with clients? Those who find themselves in leadership positions tend to be anything but mediocre. They often have those specific attributes about them that help them to stand apart from their other colleagues. So if you are looking to get into a leadership position how do you make yourself stand out from being what others might consider mediocre? 

Have the Mentality of a Hero

For a leader to demonstrate excellence, they must think and act as their heroes. Successful leaders have a unique way of doing things. They all have a philosophy that governs them. While it is hard to keep off from all distractions, it is a brilliant way to achieve one’s dreams.

Leaders Should Avoid Being Money Minded

To break from mediocrity, a leader should not prioritize money. Arguably, numerous individuals earn high salaries at their tender ages, yet they are not happy with their lives. One should concentrate on finding and pursuing their passion. Doing what one loves provides a way for money to flow.

A Leader Should Shun Fear

Many business leaders suffer from a fear of failure. Some even lack the confidence to believe that they can register achievements. What they fail to understand is that failure presents a second chance to try once more. History has countless successful individuals that started with a series of disappointments. Accepting disappointments and learning from them provides a way to find leadership success.

A Leader Should Learn to Avoid Unhealthy Relationships.

A wise leader should choose friends that motivate them in actualizing their dreams. Any group of friends that do not add value contributes to making one less productive. Practically, a leader is a product of whatever company they keep.

Leaders Should Discourage Themselves From Being Content

While it is usual to get content, this mindset is one of the chief contributors to laxity, making one stagnate and fail to achieve more. Factors such as vacations, salaries, and an excellent working environment are among those that can make one content.

Breaking out of mediocrity is an excellent starting point for becoming successful. Every leader should aspire to achieve more and work towards attaining those dreams. They should embrace every opportunity that can make them better in their professions.

 

The Top Careers For Women in 2020

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Women have made huge strides in breaking the glass ceiling that kept them in a permanent second-tier workplace for hundreds of years. Since the fight for gender equality began in earnest in the early 20th century, pioneering and brave women have muscled their way into leadership positions at the top of several industries.

 

Now, in 2020, women dominate several professions. These are some of them.

 

Early Education

 

While underpaid for the value they produce, teachers are nonetheless a highly respected class of workers. While there are limitations in terms of salary (a conversation for another day), these positions make up for substantial government benefits and stability.

 

The good news is that teachers’ demand will continue to grow as school districts attempt to whittle down the student-to-teacher ratios in their classrooms and populations grow. For example, preschool teacher demand is expected to increase by as much as 7% in the next ten years – amounting to thousands of new positions throughout the US.

 

Speech-Language Pathologists

 

As the scientific understanding behind autism and other conditions affecting child development and adults is improved through research, the demand for specialists who know how to approach these special-needs cases has increased.

 

Careers available to certified speech-language pathologists with a master’s degree vary dramatically, from working in a classroom setting to helping the elderly with cognitive decline issues such as Alzheimer’s.

 

The demand for these speech-language pathologist professionals may climb by nearly 30% in the coming decade.

 

Chief Executive Officers

 

With CEOs at the helm, the top tier of business leadership has traditionally been dominated by males. However, that has started to change as corporations have realized the benefits of bringing a fresh perspective that a woman leader offers.

 

Despite the horrific consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exemplary leadership of women in positions of authority (in government) around the globe has done a great deal to sway public opinion in favor of female leadership – both political and economic.

 

The reshaping of the global economy currently underway, while presenting severe challenges, will also likely open the door further for women to break into new career paths previously off-limits.

Aspiring to Grow as a Leader

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Growing as a leader calls for sacrifice. You have to give up old ways and be willing to learn new and better ways of doing things. It means admitting you do not know everything and willing to learn even from the people you lead. Leaders at every level should desire for opportunities for growth.

Are you a leader yearning for growth? Here are some valuable insights to guide you.

Listen to feedback. A leader should enable a conducive environment that encourages the sharing of feedback. As a leader, do not mistake feedback for criticism. Sincere feedback provides a leader with valuable information that leads to better decision making.

Cultivate a cocktail of skills. Leaders cannot be one-dimensional. Best leaders have multiple skills. Also, they are always upgrading their existing competencies. Comfort-zone is never their thing.

Find what motivates you. People are motivated by many things. It could be internal or external. As a leader, identify with what motivates you. Self-motivation provides the daily drive that keeps you going even when you face setbacks.

Learn from your past. People say experience is the best teacher. The mindset of good leadership is to view every experience as an opportunity to learn. To grow as a leader, you must take lessons from previous experiences and apply them in current situations.

Let the sky be the limit. To grow as a leader, do not settle for mediocrity. Stretch your limits. Hold yourself accountable to nothing short of excellence. Constantly exceed expectations.

Do not shy from asking questions. Seek clarity when things are not clear. Leaders are not all-knowing. Growth involves asking the right questions to make informed decisions.

Accept failure as part of leadership. Man is to error, and so are leaders. Growing as a leader entails holding yourself accountable for your failures. However, this does not mean failures should hold you back. Learn from them and respond appropriately.

Listen to those above you. To grow, embrace mentorship from people with more experience. They could be internal or external. The more you walk with those with experience, the more the leadership shoes will grow into you.

Growth as a leader is a personal challenge. It calls for a lot of self-motivation. However, the tips highlighted above can go a long way into helping you grow to become a great leader. Put them into practice. If you fail, dust yourself up and try again until you become what you aspire to be.

Does Your Astrological Sign Actually Mean That?

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The year 2020 has meant that many things are coming and going out of trends. A big one that seems to have made a comeback are astrological signs. Now depending on whether you go off the old chart with the original twelve symbols or you have crossed over to now recognizing the 13th Sign, many can often wonder, how true does your astrological Sign fit to you and your personality? 

 

The Original Signs 

 

The original signs comprised of: 

 

Capricorn 

Aquarius 

Pisces 

Aries 

Taurus 

Gemini 

Cancer 

Leo 

Virgo 

Libra 

Scorpio 

Sagitarus 

 

All have their traits and personalities. The “newest” signs of Ophiucus (Oh-Fee-U-cus) and Cetus (See-tus) were never actually viewed as part of the astrological calendar due to the Babylonian followed a 12-month calendar and assigned the 12 constellations of zodiac signs. The constellation of Ophiucus is from December 6th to December 31st, while Cetus is from May 12th to June 6th. However, don’t go into a panic, thinking your zodiac is wholly messed up now. Many still follow the standard “old” zodiac chart. 

 

Personalities

 

 Many firmly believe that their zodiac sign plays a huge role in what makes up their personalities. 

 

Sun Sign

 

Your sun sign dictates your personality.

 

Moon Sign 

 

It is believed that your moon sign plays a part in determining your emotions and how you handle things in everyday life. 

 

Ascendant Sign (rising Sign) 

 

Your ascendant sign helps to determine your social personality. This Sign was on the eastern horizon at the date and time that you were born. It also represents your outward style and appearance. 

 

All of these signs combined are supposed to create you as a whole, but do they? A lot of the time, horoscopes and zodiac profiles are made up of entirely vague paragraphs that you may or may not relate to. Whether you believe them or not is entirely up to you. However, this year alone, many have been flocking to see their astrology makeup and determine if that is true to their personalities. 

 

In an article written on The Guardian, writer Jessa Crispin explains how we are living through an astrological boom, where many books are coming out regarding the subject, the craze of celebrity astrologers, and the numerous astrology apps that have come out, and ever major fashion organization has taken to writing a regular horoscope column in their magazines. You can’t even go on social media without feeling attacked by dozens of astrology pages and memes. Whether astrology holds will continue to be a widely debated topic for as long as we still talk about it. 

 

Business Tips For Female Entrepreneurs

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Women are still actually quite new to the world of business. We are not far from the time where it was accustom for the women to stay at home with the kids while the husband went off to work. We have now evolved into the breadwinners just like the men. But that does not mean we do not have our fair share of challenges when it comes to being apart of the business world. Women have to work twice as hard as the men do, we also have to put in the extra footwork when it comes to owning our own business. So what are some tips that will help us climb that uphill battle when in the world of business?

 

Get Social 

 

Social media has quickly climbed the ladder as one of the bused and most important strategies for business marketing. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, even Pinterest are great ways to promote your business, generate sales leads, create third party endorsements, and even conduct sales. If you are unfamiliar with using social media for marketing there are tons of online courses that you can take to help you learn the best ways to use it. 

 

Networking

 

Networking is one of the most important tools when owning a business. Making sure that you have a reliable support system will help you to navigate through the tricky world that is business. Having a mentor who also understands what struggles you are dealing with is also important. When you join groups in your industry it allows you to create a reliable web of contacts who can help to support you and give you great advice about how to navigate possible problems that may come along down the road. If you don’t have a lot of time to do this in person there are lots of apps that can help you in this area. 

 

Home Life 

 

A lot of business professionals will tell you to not bring your home life into your work life, however, this can be a useful tool that you can use to your advantage. Many women have their own responsibilities at home to take care of, things like kids, and daycare can be stressful especially while you are in the beginning stages of trying to open a business. A lot of women use this to their advantage by taking a sense of inspiration to things that they deal with at home. Women are the CEO of the household. When you translate something that already comes naturally to a lot of women this allows you to create a seamless transition to balance everything all at once. 

 

Knowing Your Worth

While the world of business may for now be run by men, women business owners should know that they are worth it. Did you know that the approval rates for women to get a business loan approval are between 15 to 20% lower than it is for a man to get approval for a business loan? Most would think that would tear women business owners down, but for many this makes women strive harder to be successful.

Are Companies Really Incorporating Diversity?

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It’s become more and more common hearing the words cultural diversity being thrown around in the workplace. But why does it matter? The benefits can far outweigh any negative connotations that it might have. So let’s start by discussing what cultural diversity IS? It is when a population of differences is represented well within a company; this should include those of different races, ethnicities, ages, gender, ability, language, nationality, socioeconomic status. To be diverse, the group diversely represented by different groups. 

Why Does It Matter?

These diverse backgrounds can have various perspectives when it to the workplace, and their contribution allows situations to be viewed from more angles providing innovative results. For diversity to strengthen the company, it should be valued in the businesses philosophy and must integrate into every aspect of the companies practices. But for diversity to best work, all coworkers must be willing to be open-minded and non-judgmental. 

Commitment to Diversity

Without a firm commitment from all employees, this can cause a group to weaken and create poor communication between employees. When situations like this arise, it can result in hostile conditions where often, people can jump to conclusions and misinterpret others’ behaviors.

Economically Beneficial 

When everyone works together in a diverse company culture, this has also been found to increase financial gains and can even lead to more awareness for your company. Each year 50 companies are selected by DiversityInc that have the most diversity. Diversity helps to drive profitability by helping to drive marketing, operations, and innovation. It is said that being on a successful team drives team success. The critical foundation of managing diversity has teams that are all set on achieving a common goal, often seen more with growth-orientated companies. These companies understand that to thrive is to fully embrace diversity as a sort of “fuel” to help drive their companies forward. 

Legal Costs

Diversity helps to cut down on legal costs due to it being illegal for employers to discriminate on any cultural, racial, or gender differences due to the Equal Employment Opportunity, that handles all complaints about workplace discrimination. 

 

The Top Ten Latin American Companies & Why They Matter

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The Top Ten Latin American Companies & Why They Matter

With booming tech scenes in major population centers like Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil, it has been so secret in recent years that Latin America currently has one of the hottest start-up markets in the world. Here are just a few of the best companies operating out of the region, and why investors will be hearing a lot more about Latin companies in the decade to come.

 

  1. Apli

Based out of Mexico City, Apli is currently revolutionizing the Latin food industry by connecting workers with in-demand restaurant jobs. Apli has almost singlehandedly revitalized what many investors once saw as a stalled industry, and the company’s future looks very bright indeed.

 

  1. Rappi

Based out of Colombia and currently developing operations in a host of different countries, Rappi is changing the way that online deliveries are made in Latin America.

 

  1. Movile

As one of Brazil’s leading start-ups, Movile is providing a variety of services to Latin American nations; the company currently handles everything from food delivery to online radio.

 

  1. Grow Mobility

Another Brazil-based start-up with enormous potential, Grow Mobility’s founders took advantage of the poor transportation service operations in their home town of Sao Paulo to launch one of the most successful micro-transport companies in the world.

 

  1. Selina

Much like its direct competitor Airbnb, Selina is currently taking the user-based vacation rental market by storm in South America. Based out of Panama, the company is now worth nearly $1 billion and is growing rapidly.

 

  1. Ecoandino

Founded in Peru, Ecoandino aims to revolutionize the Latin American superfood movement with its healthy offerings; the company is also notable for its commitment to sustainability.

 

  1. PagSeguro

Another of Brazil’s most promising new companies, PagSeguro makes online payments simple and straightforward for its 12 million customers. In Sao Paulo’s thriving and competitive start-up market, PagSeguro is currently one of the best companies for investors to keep an eye on.

 

  1. Magazine Luiza

Like Ikea, Magazine Luiza is hoping to win over upwardly-mobile market demographics with great deals on stylish home furnishings. Another Sao Paulo-based company that is a favorite with investors, Magazine Luiza appears to be taking the Latin American market by storm, and its holdings of close to 800 stores is a testament to the company’s remarkable popularity with the public.

 

  1. Cliengo

As one of Argentina’s most promising start-ups, Cliengo is a client-services company unlike any other currently operating in South America. By connecting small businesses with clients via AI chat applications, the company has wowed investors with its commitment to using futuristic tech to serve a growing customer base.

 

  1. Nubank

By offering a pragmatic and cost-effective alternative to Brazil’s high interest credit card industry and limited financial system, Nubank has disrupted the personal banking world in Latin America in a very big way. Indeed, the company is now regarded as one of the most promising start-ups in the region.

The Rise of Cryptocurrencies: Top Three Alternatives to Bitcoin

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Since the creation of Bitcoin, the concept of a digital currency (cryptocurrency) has taken root around the world. It is slowly being accepted not just by merchants, but by many countries in that they are creating regulations for it. Bitcoin is still the most popular cryptocurrency, but there are alternatives (or altcoins) that are gaining attention. In the crypto space, there are over 1,600 cryptocurrencies in use. There are many entrepreneurs that want to be part of this currency “revolution” by creating their own coins as well as minting them. It is important to note that cryptocurrencies are decentralized, meaning they are not controlled by a government (e.g. U.S. Dollar). Also, their value is volatile for a number of reasons, such as a small market, price is set by supply and demand, and the blockchain technology is new. Yet, it is an exciting time to invest in and use cryptocurrencies, and there is more variety in terms of coins. Let’s take a look at the top three alternatives to Bitcoin. 

 

  1. Ripple – It has a dual function of being a cryptocurrency (XRP) and a platform. The platform is an open-source protocol, which makes international transactions are faster and cheaper. In fact, the transaction fee is $0.00001. The reason for the incredibly low fee is to prevent DDos attacks. For convenience, people can make payments in any currency (e.g. Bitcoin). Ripple has RippleNet, a network of “institutional payment-providers” that enable payments to be made in real time. Also, Ripple uses a consensus ledger (RPCA), which does not utilize the blockchain technology. Verification is done through the nodes, meaning that if all of the nodes are in agreement then the transaction goes through. 
  2. Monero – It’s known as the “private” cryptocurrency. Transactions are untraceable through ring signatures and stealth addresses, which hide transaction details, such as amounts and payment destinations. They cannot be linked to a “real-world user” or to a previous transaction due to the Monero blockchain. Since it is private by default, units cannot be blacklisted by vendors or exchanges. However, Monero is the currency of choice for those on the dark web due to its untraceability. 
  3. Litecoin – Litecoin uses an open-source global payment network (decentralized) for faster transactions and can handle a higher transaction volume than Bitcoin on its blockchain. It uses mathematics to secure the network and gives users more control over their account. Litecoin offers the security of wallet encryption that allows users to view their account balance and transactions, but must provide a password to spend their coins. There is a sanity check before sending payments for added protection. Plus, miners receive a reward of 25 Litecoins per block. Its cap is 84 million, which is four times greater than Bitcoin’s cap. 

 

There many more altcoins, each with their own strengths. I am sure there will be more created on the horizon as cryptocurrency becomes more regulated and more merchants accept them. It will be interesting to see what is purchased with cryptocurrency as it becomes mainstreamed like fiat currencies.

Effective Resources to Help Strengthen your Family’s Finances

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Growing up in my community, we didn’t talk about finances. The husband went to work and brought home the paycheck. The wife took care of the household and was given an allowance for household necessities. Talking about money and saving for the future weren’t spoken about and bringing them up resulted in an argument. Times have changed and speaking about finances is encouraged in families, even with young children. High schools teach Economics (or Student Finances) to help students understand the basics of running a business as well as accounting (e.g. budgeting). There are numerous books on finances, especially those to help families be smart with their money. The books below offer great tips and plans to get families started (or continue) on a bright financial path. 

 

  1. Rich Kid Smart Kid: Giving Your Child a Financial Head Start — This book is from the author who wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki. He continues to educate people about finances (e.g. financial literacy) and now focuses on teaching parents how to give their children a financial head start. It provides the practical guidance needed to teach children to be financially responsible. The foundation of the book is education – learning about personal and financial success in today’s world. Kiyosaki points out that we are now in the Information Age, which is drastically different from the Industrial Age. Children have different obstacles than their parents and must learn to navigate them, and it starts with smart money management. 
  2. Family Budget Book: Gaining Control of Your Personal Finances — This is geared for families to help them gain control of their finances. This book offers “real world” advice and worksheets to help you apply what you have learned and to make it a habit. You’ll learn to address unexpected costs and to plan for future goals (e.g. a vacation). Also, you’ll uncover where your money goes when creating a budget — one that’s easy to manage and stick to! 
  3. The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money — I choose this book not only for its title but also for the great advice it gives parents on talking to their children about money. The author shares his experiences with finances and those of families of various backgrounds to illustrate the importance of money management. Parents should talk to their kids about money, even answering the difficult questions about its nuances. This book will help parents to raise grounded kids who are financially smart.