•Zandi Dolphin•
[@zazdolphin]
Person of the month: Margaret Whitman
After an impressive rise through the business world, working for several blue-chip companies, including Procter & Gamble and Walt Disney, it was with some reluctance that Whitman relocated 4800kms in 1998 to work for a small outfit that virtually no one had heard of. However, applying her extensive brand-building knowledge and marketing experience, she soon turned eBay into the world’s foremost e-commerce consumer site, making the company a household name and transforming the way that people buy and sell over the internet.
Biography:
Born in Long Island, New York, in 1956. Graduated with a degree in economics in 1977 from Princeton University and later completed her MBA at Harvard Business School in 1979.
Leadership Style:
Dedicated, optimistic, realistic. Whitman avoids taking an authoritative approach towards colleagues, preferring to remain open to advice and criticism.
Key Strength:
A willingness to listen to complaints and criticisms, and to address the issues directly and proactively.
Best Decision:
Acquiring PayPal, which has become a key element in the eBay experience
Lessons in Business: Remaining open to ideas
1) Don’t assume that as CEO you have all the answers.
2) Spend time with people at all levels of the organisation - they all have something to add.
3) Use an electronic “suggestion box” to collect and examine people’s ideas
4) Make decisions based on peoples suggestions. Reward ones that you implemented and, equally, let people know when you are not going ahead with their ideas.
Post with 2 notes
Fuck Fear, Love Anyway
The goal is to be unafraid when you love.
To turn your shoulder towards the winds and push on.
To be relentless in your pursuit of it.
To be fearless and unafraid.
We are so bold in anger and confrontation and so scared and meek in love. Quick to tell someone off or to give them a piece of your mind. Slow to place your heart in their hands and say, “Take care of this.” Fear is a trigger. I wish love was a trigger. I wish it was what made me tremble and took my breath and made me dizzy. I want to live in the cliché. I want to exist in the love song. Let me be mountain high and river deep. Not tabletop and puddle afraid.
This has to change.
Something has to be done differently. The goal is to be fearless in pursuit of all things you love. To be loud and unapologetic. No more apologies for who you love and how you choose to love them. Fuck that. Love them until you don’t. If they don’t love you back, then cool. Let them live in fear of you and all your neon-colored love. Find someone who will love you just as neon and flashing lights. Leave these beige and understated folks to each other. Let them have this neutral. This safe. This without risks. This comfortable. Let them have these ankles barely wet with it. Give me a drowning. Give me up to my neck in it. Give me a boat and an oar. Let me love an ocean’s worth. Fuck this playing it safe. This afraid to be hurt. We hurt. and we live through it. Fuck fear. Love anyway. Meditate on that.
If I’m afraid you will take this heart and mash it to bits, then I have no business loving you in the first place. And you have no right to it. No reason to exist where I am. If I’m afraid to say it because you’re afraid to hear it. Then what good are we? Useless. Absolutely useless then. Nothing. Two people pretending to do something when all it takes is one move in the right direction.
I pity you if you don’t love me. It means you wish for some tethered, close to the wall, hold on to the railing. I’m not that. I’m no tea party or cotillion ball. I’m juke joint. I’m speakeasy. I’m illegal in most states.
I prefer this.
I want fucking everything. Fuck this settling. Fuck this, “I’ll take this because I can’t get that.” Fuck that. I want that and this. I will get this and that because I worked for it. I had the nerve to live despite the broken. That takes work. So fuck the silence.
Fuck the “I’m not sure.”
Fuck the “give me time.”
Time is given. Take forever. There’s someone else who is standing at the edge waiting. I’m going to look for that guy. He gets it. He gets me. He’s neon and light-filled. And he exists.
I’ve never been easy. I will never be easy. I am a mad woman. I love just as insane. I’m flourish and reckless abandon. I prefer this. Match it or balance it. But don’t fuck with it. Don’t get close enough to touch and the decide you need this to cool down. I don’t do cool. I’m fire. I’m heat. I’m match this or balance it out but get the fuck out of my way if you’re just trying to change it. Love someone and mean it. It’s just that fucking simple. If you don’t love, then leave. If you don’t mean it, then move. Someone will. I promise you that. We all have shit to work on but that shit doesn’t mean we don’t get to be loved right the fuck now.
-Bassey Ikpi
Post with 1 note
Being Human
I wonder if the sun debates dawn some mornings
not wanting to rise
out of bed
from under the down-feather horizon
If the sky grows tired
of being everywhere at once
adapting to the mood swings of the weather
If the clouds drift off
trying to hold themselves together
make deals with gravity
to loiter a little longer
I wonder if rain is scared
of falling
if it has trouble letting go
If snow flakes get sick
of being perfect all the time
each one trying to be one-of-a-kind
I wonder if stars wish
upon themselves before the die
if they need to teach their young to shine
I wonder if shadows long
to once feel the sun
if they get lost in the shuffle
not knowing where they’re from
I wonder if sunrise and sunset
respect each other
even though they’ve never met
If volcanoes get stressed
If storms have regrets
If compost believes in life after death
I wonder if breath ever thinks
about suicide
I wonder if the wind just wants to sit
still sometimes
and watch the world pass by
If smoke was born knowing how to rise
If rainbows get shy back stage
not sure if their colours match right
I wonder if lightning sets an alarm clock
to know when to crack
If rivers ever stop
and think of turning back
If streams meet the wrong sea
and their whole lives run off-track
I wonder if the snow wants to be black
If the soil thinks she’s too dark
If butterflies want to cover up their marks
If rocks are self-conscious of their weight
If mountains are insecure of their strength
I wonder if waves get discouraged
crawling up the sand
only to be pulled back again
to where they began
I wonder if land feels stepped upon
If sand feels insignificant
If trees need to question their lovers
to know where they stand
If branches waver in the crossroads
unsure of which way to grow
If the leaves understand they’re replaceable
and still dance when the wind blows
I wonder where the moon goes
when she is hiding
I want to find her there
and watch the ocean
spin from a distance
Listen to her
stir in her sleep
effort gives way to existence
-Naima
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