I recently stumbled upon a video interview with Michael Jordan’s and Kobe Bryant’s trainer – Tim Grover. I knew both of them were trained by the same person, but I didn’t know who he exactly is. Now I know. And I believe you should know too…

Here are the 3 things that I learned from the video interview and why I immediately purchased his book too(which, oh by the way, is probably one of the best books I have ever read!):

1. There is no such thing as “beast mode” which athletes like Kobe and Jordan “turn on” at specific moments. They are just beasts.
2. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
3. You have to remove the words “just” and “only” from your dictionary and add “the”. Why? See the difference:

This is just a job.
This is only a job.
No!
This is the job.

This is just a game.
This is only a game.
No!
This is the game.

…

Once that video is again online, I will for sure update the blog post, but in the meantime I highly recommend you buy that book and learn even more.

P.S. Pay special attention to what he defines as “a Cleaner”.

A few weeks ago I was privileged to be invited to speak at the American University in Blagoevgrad. It was not exactly the university who invited me, though, but one of the clubs they have – the Business Club.

To be honest here, it is absolutely rare to see such a motivated and already educated group of young people. We spoke about the world of presenting, some tips and tricks on how they can stay up to date and always ahead in their game and lastly, about personal branding and it’s importance.

…of course they also asked me if I did mistakes when starting 356labs and I shared just 3 of them. We didn’t have the time to share at least 20 more…

Once again – great time with the students, who were also from all over the world, fantastic job by the organizers and already looking forward to go back and spend some time with them again!

Some months ago I started documenting my life on Instagram. As many of you know, I am now completely out of the SQL Server world and into developing and growing 356labs which now, I am happy to say, is already a very financially stable company.

To be honest, I tried to do the same in Snapchat, but for some reason… I was not motivated enough to push content on so many platforms (even though I did Snapchat stories throughout my whole Microsoft Ignite journey, for example). That all changed when Instagram copied Snapchat and introduced “Stories”. Probably it was the fact that now everything was in one place or it was something else that made me start documenting. I don’t know. And frankly, I don’t care. It’s just so much fun to be able to document what I go through every day and look back at it.

So, if you are on Instagram and want to follow my constant journey and actually learn the things I am doing way before they are posted here or on the 356labs blog (if blogged at all), go on Insta, find my account – brshristov – and enjoy!

See you there!

A month ago I got an invitation from the local chapter of Startup Grind to speak about 356labs, my story and the presentation world. It was a long, but incredibly interesting and more importantly honest conversation.

Enjoy watching!

You know Simon Sinek from his “Start With Why” TED talk, right? If not, please stop everything. Stop reading this blog post and watch this.

I try to consume everything that Simon Sinek produces and probably that is the reason I saw the video above and stayed up until late in the evening one day to watch and then reflect on what he said.

Stop here for now and watch the whole video. Please. Yes, it will take you 1 hour, but I promise you – it’s worth your time.

Welcome back. Now you may be wondering why I am writing this blog post? The answer is very selfish – because I want to keep myself publicly accountable. This way I won’t have any excuses in front of myself and in front of you to not do what I learned from this video. Here are the 2 “accountability lists” I prepared for myself:

The personal one:

1. When going out with friends, family or my girlfriend, leave my phone at home or have it with me, but don’t use it except in an emergency.
2. Don’t put my phone next to me on the table when on a meeting or use it while waiting for someone. Notice the world.
3. Leave my phone at the living room during the night.

The ones for 356labs:

1. Make a rule – before a company meeting – phones out of the room.
2. Care. Truly care about the people who work with me. Build a family.
3. Support. Give chances. Make people at 356labs understand that I will always be there to help them in a hard moment.

…

That’s it. It’s public. Now I have no excuses.

Did you watch the video? What do you think?