Peer-pressure. I grew up not giving a damn about it and I don’t know if that is any bad… In fact, I am convinced it is kinda good.
I remember how I was one of the few who didn’t have a Barbie doll. I was sad and even angry at my mother. But I knew that at the particular moment we could not afford this toy. I had a Cindy. A cheap version. Completely not the same as a fancy Barbie, but served the same purpose. What I learned was Continue reading Peer-pressure and standing out
To begin with, I truly believe that as Napoleon Hill said “whatever a mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. It might sound too easy, as if all you need is just a vivid imagination and there you go – effortless realization of everything. However, that is not what this phrase is all about.
Dreaming is difficult; dreaming efficiently is difficult to the power of hundred. The good thing though is that you can master the skill.
To begin with, there are three equally difficult phases on the way towards your dreams:
Continue reading Main obstacles on the way to achieving your dreams
Yesterday our daughter was once again drawing something weird on a piece of paper. Then she turned to me and asked the classic question: “Do you like my painting?“. I was tempted to reply the usual: “Yes, of course, very beautiful. Good job!” yet something stopped me this time. Instead I asked her back: “Do YOU like your painting?“. She was puzzled. To be frank, so was I. All this triggered me to think about external appreciation and consolation prizes. Continue reading Do you like my painting? or: Reflections on external appreciation and consolation prizes
The answer to the question in the title is very simple: I buy from small businesses because I know that every time I do, I am supporting somebody’s dream.
Think about it for a moment. Once upon a time there was that little girl, let’s call her – Mary, who liked to create beautiful clothes for her little dolls. She would take an old t-shirt from her father, cut it in small pieces and indulge in the magic of creation. A couple of days later her doll – Ann – would get a new layered dress and a matching jacket, and yes – don’t forget the ribbon for her gorgeous curly hair! Mary would dream that one day she will open her own fashion house and make clothes for all the little toys and all their little owners in the whole big world. Mary grew up to be an accountant, working long hours and even though succeeding in her career, still feeling as if her life is not what she wanted it to be.
Continue reading Why do I buy from small businesses (and you should too)?
The world is getting smaller and more interconnected every day. That’s just modern reality. We are mobile and we are on the move. Most of the times we are no longer “confined” to living in the same area, city, or even country as our ancestors. If I look at my classmates from school, for example, almost none of them stayed in my home-country. My ex-classmates are now everywhere from Europe to Canada and from Brazil to New Zealand. But what about their families? Well, as we are now in our 30s, most of my ex-classmates have families of their own. Yet, this is not what I mean… Their parents, their, so-to-say initial families, families they were born into – they in a lot of occasions are still in Latvia. And that raises quite some questions. The first and probably most obvious one is: how do you truly stay in touch? Continue reading Family living far away: keeping in touch despite the distance
Family Life CEO 