KACHARAGADLA

Opportunity will find you and your business when you have a strong brand. If you don't have a powerful and visible personal brand, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage in almost every aspect of your professional, business and personal life. Personal branding has become a requirement for anyone looking to grow their business, get a better job, get noticed by the press, take their career to the next level or meet new, high quality friends. Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands -- the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual. Everyone has a unique personal brand, whether they know it or not. But what we should all be striving for is a powerful, attractive and visible personal brand. I define that as an online and in-person authentic display of the engaging aspects of your professional and personal activities and interests. In my previous artic

Somethings work regardless what your business is. Sometimes the most valuable advice comes from your fellow entrepreneurs, not the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. At Facebook, we know that behind every business is a person, and behind every person is a story – with insights and advice to share. That’s why we created the Small Business Council which consists of entrepreneurs who share a common belief in the importance of serving their customers, their communities, and each other. Each year we meet with our U.S. Small Business Council members to hear from small businesses across a variety of industries, sizes and geographies. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting our newest 2017 Small Business Council members to learn from them and help them support their communities and fellow businesses. Here are a few of my favorite tips directly from the Small Business Council members past and present: Learn from and connect with other businesses. “Visit your competitio

Everyone has to interact with someone they don't get along with every once in a while, so be prepared the next time it happens to you. It’s inevitable that you’ll encounter people with whom you disagree. There are some people you instantly  click with  and others you can take or leave. And then, there are the select few you  just can’t stand ! How can you get along with someone you find difficult, distasteful or downright obnoxious? Well, it helps to remember that you aren’t perfect either. Remember that whatever you might feel about a person, someone else might feel the same about you. We’re all human, after all. We all  have our faults . It’s usually possible just to avoid people you don’t get along with. However, at some point you may have to work with someone you dislike. That may seem tough, but you can work with (almost) anyone if you just keep a few things in mind. In fact, by using these tips, you might find that a challenging person can still offer useful ins

Applying for jobs just out of college or grad school, comfort may have seemed like the ultimate goal: to find the perfect job that was a natural fit and have a long, fulfilling career there. Forget all of that: comfort is the enemy. If things are easy, it's time to shake up your career. Remember when you were young, and you first attempted to write a bicycle? Were you scared at first? Absolutely. Was the end result worth it? I'm betting it was.  Hopping into a new job or career path is indeed a lot like that first ride on a bike: a heart-pumping, adrenaline-inducing risk-- and the payoffs can be as meaningful as the life-changing freedom of mastering two wheels.  Getting out of your comfort zone is a must if you want to achieve extraordinary success. I like to think of it as a shift into your "strength zone": identify, highlight and hone in on what makes you unique and lean into it so you stand out. The hardest part of shaking things up is taking

It’s hard not to resent Mondays. The day marks the end of the fun and freedom of the weekend—and that’s especially true during the summer, when ordinary Saturdays and Sundays have a carefree vacation vibe. Even if you love your job, the angst of having to go back to the grind on Monday can leave you disorganized and spinning your wheels all day, explains Richard Citrin, Ph.D., MBA, an organizational and consulting psychologist and author of “ The Resilience Advantage .” Then you have to spend the rest of the week playing catch up. But while Monday is going to happen whether you like it or not, that lack of productivity doesn’t have to. The key is to adopt a few smart habits on Sunday so you set yourself up for a brighter, more efficient workweek without really cutting into your weekend R&R time. These tips will help you do just that. Steal an Hour to Get Organized Whipping out the calendar app on your phone or tablet while you’re poolside or enjoying a sports mara

I absolutely love my job. I almost feel like life isn’t real. That’s how much I love it. I have fun, flexibility and I’m working in the industry of my dreams.  Yet I just accepted a new job. Let me elaborate. A few weeks ago, I was invited to interview for a new position. Several days later, I was offered the job. This unleashed a world of struggle inside me because I love my current job.  I’ve been at this company for a little over a year now, and it’s been an amazing experience. I have learned a lot and grown as a person. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a mentor who has guided me and propelled me along. And I’ve had flexibility: I can, for the most part, work the schedule I set for myself. There’s something invaluable about that. So when I was faced with the decision of accepting a new job, I had to take a really hard look at my options. I kept thinking, Well, I have fun at work. I have a flexible schedule. I like the people I work with. There are certain perks I’d b

Bill Gates is a lifelong bookworm. In a recent  Forbes interview , Bill Gates' dad reveals what the Microsoft billionaire was like growing up. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the young Gates was an extreme bookworm: Just about every kind of book interested him — encyclopedias, science fiction, you name it. I was thrilled that my child was such an avid reader, but he read so much that Bill's mother and I had to institute a rule: no books at the dinner table. That Gates loved to read as a kid is hardly surprising. Today, his personal blog " GatesNotes " features upwards of 150 book recommendations for everything from scientific histories to novels. Among the world's richest and most successful people, a passion for books and for lifelong learning is hardly uncommon. Author and self-made millionaire Steve Siebold has interviewed more than 1,200 of the world's wealthiest people over the past three decades and has noted that  reading for self-education is a

Kaushik Mudda and Navin Jain graduated from RVCE Bangalore in 2014 as engineers in the field of electronics and communication. In their final year, the duo already had jobs in their kitty. Kaushik had got through to KPMG, a dream job for many. But a year earlier, in their sixth semester, the duo had started working on a pet project which kept their minds and hands full. “Navin and I used to build small robots and hovercrafts while in college,” Kaushik told me over an email while pitching his startup. While working on these machines, they realise that they needed more precision in their cut parts to make their robots better. They needed a CNC (computer numerical control) router for that but the cheapest machine in the market was about INR 6–7 lakhs. “Since we couldn’t afford this high price, we decided to build our own machine. We have never looked back since then. What started as a solution to our own problem has ended up becoming a solution for our clients as well,” recounts Kaushik