Boris Hristov

Founder of 356labs

Founder of 356labs
and PowerPoint MVP.
Speaker, Trainer & Author.
A guy that loves to do sports, have fun and enjoy life. Gallery / Blog / Contact

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Simon Sinek and Personal Accountability

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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?

3 Reasons to Always Care Deeply About Your Presentations

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reasons-to-care-about-presentationsMany people asked me why I spend so many hours of work and preparation on every single presentation that I deliver. Here’s why. It’s because of 3 really simple things:

  1. Because presenting is part of our work today — have you recently been asked to present in front of your team or was it just the nature of your job that requires you to present? Almost everyone of us nowadays has to deliver presentation(s) as part of his work and so, if you want to be better and grow in your career, you have to be a good presenter.
  2. Because the expectations of your audience are now high — have you noticed that many people have now watched at least a few amazing presentations? Whether it’s Steve Jobs’s keynote or a TED talk, people have seen stunning talks and now they expect the same from us. They expect you, me, everyone to be at least as that level.
  3. Because it’s you and you have to care about your name and reputation — probably the most important reason for me. I care so deeply about my name and what people associate me with, it’s hard to even explain it. Please understand that if you fail in a presentation that can affect you and your reputation like never ever before.

So in case you were wondering why I spend so much time — that’s your answer.

In case you were wondering why you should spend a ton of time — that’s your answer.

And in case you were wondering why we started 356labs — I have a question — do you still wonder why we did it?

Don’t underestimate the importance of any of the presentations you deliver because if you do so, something may go wrong and the consequences for you and your career could be a lot worse than you can imagine. Strive to always get better and remember — when you are on stage people expect to see 110% from you, not 100.

Hope you will remember this post next time you are about to present.

Agree or disagree? Would love to hear your opinion on this too…