Alex Karasyov

On Importance of Honesty

Alex Karasyov — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:58:56 +0000

I can’t believe that there are people who think that honesty is not the most important part of the relationship. In any personal, or professional relationship honesty is most important. We have to be comfortable with what our partners think to build a lasting relationship. Even if we don’t agree with what they think.

If there is no trust there is no business. We have to be open with our partners, clients, and anyone who we have a relationship with. If people don’t agree, they must agree to disagree.

People also don’t realize that being in relationship does not only bring all the positives, but also the negatives of the partner. In other words, you don’t only inherit the benefits of having a partner, but you also inherit their problems. If you can’t handle that, you should not be in a relationship, you should not form a partnership, you should not engage in working with the client.

Be honest with your friends and they’ll be honest with you. If you are not honest with them, it will come back to you. And if the friendship ends because of honesty, then the relationship had to end.

If you lie to others, you lie to yourself.

Dream Fabrique takes over WordPress

Alex Karasyov — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:09:19 +0000

I always enjoy watching my friends and clients succeed. In the end of March I have consulted the CEO of DFMO.NET, Dmitry Myachin, on how to use Social Media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging for marketing their music, magazine, concerts, and stores. DFMO operates from St Petersburg, Russia and promotes Russian musicians(mainly rock) in Russia and into the international market. I was surprised by the quality of the bands they sign up.

Recently DFMO had a lot of success promoting one of their bands, Not For Joe, in Russia. And now you can read about it on their global crew blog – http://dfmusicorg.wordpress.com/. They also had a lot of success with the blog they lunched. On Monday DFMO Global Crew Blog was #1 blog on Wordperss Russia. The blog was lunched in April of this year and has achieved incredible results. I want to congratulate DF Music Organization on their success and wish them continuous success with their business in the future.

Seduce me with Design

Alex Karasyov — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:30:53 +0000

Andy Budd – Seductive Design from Build on Vimeo.

Seduction and design have the same goal. They both want to lure people in. They both portray value to others, and the ultimate goal is to create a long lasting relationship with the right people. Beautiful design is like a beautiful seduction. We will not pay attention to the flaws, we will only look at what adds value to our experience. We want to have a personal connection. @andybudd explains on the little details which make the world of seduction so much like the world of design.

Die Antwoord. The Zef within you.

Alex Karasyov — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:30:13 +0000

The first time I heard Die Antwoord I enjoyed it and had a laugh. Now I got their album and can’t stop listening to it. The South African Hip-Hop group that got famous through the internet seems to be speaking to their listeners on a level that no one has.

In their songs and interviews they talk about connecting to your inner Zef. You can call it the inner you, the force, the Buddha, the consciousness, etc. On a basic level it means to be comfortable with who you are and not let the social conditioning change it.

One of my favorite excerpts from their song “Enter the Ninja”:

“You can’t do this, you can’t do that”
Yo, fuckin’ who said so?
I do what I like
Too hot to handle, too cold to hold
You can’t fuck with the chosen one…

Can you handle Die Antwoord?
http://dieantwoord.com/

Education from the Future

Alex Karasyov — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:25:57 +0000

My friend Denis has been bugging me about this guy for a while now. He teaches Math and other subjects on youtube. From Basic Algebra to Calculus to Banking and Money. Learn at your own pace. Whether you are 10 or 30, or 50. I am planning to watch a few of his courses over the summer time.

This is a beautiful idea in practice. Most of teachers made me hate school. With exception of a few. So this is School 2.0. I like it.

Education is our future. And this is the future.
http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy
http://www.khanacademy.org/

By The Sword

Alex Karasyov — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:53:29 +0000

There is a few things I absolutely can’t live without. Rock music is one of them. I have grown up listening to Deep Purple, Queen, Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, Beatles, and a bunch of other bands I can’t even remember. I probably heard Smoke on The Water before I turned one. Thanks Dad, I really learned to love Rock music before I learned anything else.

I have been a long time fan of Guns’N'Roses. As someone who played in bands for the last three years of my high school career I find that Slash is one of the few guitarists who makes the guitar really scream. I haven’t heard much of his stuff outside of Guns’N'Roses and Velvet Revolver until now. His new self titled solo album – Slash – is a great collection of rock. The song By The Sword with Andrew Stockdale singing, has been in my head for a week. Make sure you turn up your stereo or put your best headphones on to listen to this song. The mixing is really amazing.

Japanese take on High Blood Preassure

Alex Karasyov — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:15:52 +0000

The Video

I absolutely love this commercial. A very humorous approach for health condition. North American advertisers could learn something from this.

To Do or Not To Do…Not To Do (lists).

Alex Karasyov — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:30:45 +0000

a CEO heading to his office by Gleb Shulishov

I hope you have a to do list of some kind. If you don’t…well… you disgust me…just kidding…but seriously get one. Life just becomes so much easier having things on paper rather than in your head.

How about a Not-To-Do list? Didn’t you ever catch yourself doing things you don’t want to or shouldn’t do? I recently decided to create one, hearing so much about how useful it is. It is. So I decided to share.

Here is some things from my not-to-do list:

Work

Do not e-mail or facebook first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

Start morning productively. Do something instead of checking email. Don’t ruin your sleep but filling your head with next days email
Do not watch TV shows in the morning.

This can just ruin all morning productivity. Did this for a while and started noticing how little gets done. Especially working from home.
Do not start working until a clear goal is set.

No one should work without a clear goal. If there is no goal you are just wasting time.

Health

Do not make excuses not to run or do cardio.

Really, don’t. You got to do some kind of cardio.

*Most of the work stuff is borrowed from Tim Ferriss.

Starbucks and Teleportation

Alex Karasyov — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:48:27 +0000

Meetings that are not in office are in Starbucks. “Let’s meet in Starbucks on x and x street.” Starbucks is everywhere. Since I work in Starbucks quite often, I also travel from Starbucks to Starbucks quite often.

So here is my question.

When will Starbucks implement teleportation services into their cafes? Think about the convenience. You walk into a Starbucks close to your home and teleport to a Starbucks on the other end of the city. Just like that. Get a cup of tea as you exit. Or a coffee if you like that better.

Transportation problem solved once and for all. Now just to figure out teleportation…

Privacy and Why You Don’t Need It

Alex Karasyov — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:09:39 +0000

Something… went wrong somewhere by Ian Sobolev

Benefits of sharing information about yourself:
- employers and/or clients accessing information on you(that would speed up their decisions)
- creating a brand for yourself
- easier to network and bring great people towards you(includes googling people you meet on the street)
- easier to keep in touch with your friends and for your friends to keep in touch with you. Skip the “What have you been up to?” conversation

There is an evolution of information that is slowly emerging. Information is no longer read by the speaker, the reader now decides what information they consume. This is social movement that is happening everywhere. More and more people start googling each other when they meet. You choose what information you want and you find it. If you can’t find it, you go somewhere else. Guess what? If a prospective client, business partner, boss, friend, government official, investor, or anyone who wants to know something can’t find information about you they will go with the person who they can find information about. Trust is the main concern.

You might say that there are people who might use your insights against you. You mean assholes. Yeah, there are assholes out there, but guess what? There always were assholes out there and they will probably be there for a long time. Until then, please learn how to handle them in a gentle and polite manner because the deeper you go into the rabbit hole the more assholes you will meet. But they also will become less and less significant, when you meet truly amazing people.