Kathy Gecas Varol

Periodically it’s worth taking a step back, analyzing where you are and where you want to go. Take an honest look at what you want, so that you have the ability to be purposeful in how you spend this life and what you try to accomplish. Please note, this advice DOES NOT mean analyzing or comparing your current life situation relative to Jennifer from middle school, or the Jones’ next door. That unfortu...

There is a lot to be said about having a positive outlook on life. The glass half full versus the glass half empty attitude. That’s not to say being blind to issues, however it is to say that focusing on how to fix problems is an interesting challenge, along with believing you can (and will) be successful. Not only will this proactive and positive outlook increase your happiness, but it will also have...

In this edition-o-Kathy's CliffNote's we look at the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins. There are a lot of summaries of this book online, and many of them are shorter than the following 15 page version. However, since we're on the internet, page numbers don't really matter. I've included a number of examples in the below to help illustrate the points...

Since Digital Minds: 12 Things Every Business Needs to Know About Digital Marketing. As you know, the digital landscape moves at lightning speed compared to the rest of the world, and since this book was written a few years ago, some if it is already a little dated (like the Google+ section I removed...because honestly, who uses Google+??). But the book does give a good high-level overview for anyone w...

The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris is a MASSIVE 600 page book that covers a wide range of topics aimed at hacking the human body. All of the tips, tricks and hacks are backed by trial and error science experiments (some extensive, and some just based on Timmy Tim Tim using himself as a lab rat).

This books is a great read. Tim is both witty and entertaining. In this book summary I will only cover 4 of the se...

In this edition of Kathy’s CliffNotes we dip our toe into the study of behavioral economics with the book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely who is a Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. There are some interesting implications based on these “predictably irrational” findings for a product pricing, product ranges, limiting sup...

Many people at some point in their lives think about starting their own “thing”. Maybe they are tired of “working for the man” or they want the freedom and creative responsibility that comes with running their own business. Maybe they want to take the leap and try to finally turn their passion into a job (often not advisable) or find a way to flex the skills they’ve developed in the corporate world int...

Here we turn to one of my loves…marketing. The root of marketing is a fascinating psychology experiment: How do you influence consumers to buy your product or service? Because of the objective of marketing, some people might say marketing falls under the umbrella of "manipulation". Maybe…to some extent. But there are many products out there that actually BENEFIT consumers. For example: bicycle helmets,...

This edition of Kathy’s CliffNotes is another Cal Newport booked called So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love. Really great read with good (and possibly surprising) advice when thinking about:

1) Finding work you love (which hopefully you’ve done already), and

2) Advising mentees, your kids, nieces/nephews, etc. on how to find work they’ll love

There are a...

This installment of Kathy’s CliffNotes is on the book: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Cal has written a number of top selling books. He is a computer science professor at Georgetown (my MBA alma matter…NBD) who writes about how to perform productive, valuable, and meaningful work in an increasingly distracted digital age. You can find out more information on...