Octavian Mihai

YOUR CHOICE You shouldn’t allow anyone to choose in your place. Ever. Everything you ever did can be traced back to some decision. Got late for a meeting, you decided to sleep longer. Failed an exam, you decided to enter a too difficult program or not to study enough. Got stuck in a boring and [...]

SELF-ACTUALIZATION VS STAYING RELEVANT Self-actualization (Know Thyself …) is a transformation that someone goes though in order to realign with his changing values, competencies and interests. On the other hand, staying relevant is a series of steps we undertake in order to keep aligned with the changing reality of the world. While self-actualization is about realigning [...]

PLAY AS HUMAN NEED Leisure and play in particular are fundamental human needs and important activities for human development. Games and most play can be defined by a basic set of rules, a goal and by a fun factor. THE PROFESSIONAL CREATIVE ON-DEMAND CLASS RELOADED We are in the 21st century, in a modern, free [...]

SOME INTRO Whether you agree with Manslow, Goldstein or others, there comes a time where you face a profound need of self-actualization.  Maslow is putting the level of self-actualization as the highest in the hierarchy of human needs-others argue that those needs are non-hierarchical. Also, this post completely avoids any transpersonal psychology connections. WHAT? For argument’s sake, broadly, let’s [...]

WE LIVE IN OUR HEADS Just consider the fact that everything around us is, to a certain degree, radiation. And that the brain interprets everything. Including the inverted images formed on your 2 retinas. Our brain tells itself stories predicting the future and making sense of the past. And the goal of course is to [...]

Oh, the ignorance… SCIENCE AND ART In science there will never be a final theory. That is the founding premise of the scientific method. Science evolves in bursts or steps. The goal of science is to light up and understand reality. It is a process of unveiling and of deepening the realm of understanding. Every [...]

Most current books give exceptional examples that drive a certain point home. Of course it is fine to give Apple or Google as examples and trend setters. Of course it is inspiring to listen to the stories of becoming of great thinkers. Of course we’re sitting on the shoulder of giants. With hindsight one might always say [...]

I am not sure if the latest generation is always the most rebellious, but it is definitely considered the most outrageous by the previous ones. Our exaggerated individuality and need of self-expression is only a profound  desire for conformity and group acceptance. And thus we are all struggling misunderstood Baby-Boomer wannabe’s. Let this sink in for a moment. Every prisoner dreams of becoming [...]

BASIC MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS: PROJECTS VS OPERATIONS Projects are defined by a beginning, a closure and by the accomplishment of a specific goal. Examples of personal projects: graduating from university, buying a house or changing your job. Operations are ongoing recurring activities. Example of personal operations: Staying in shape, eating healthy or walking your dog. So staying healthy is [...]

Forget about Tom Peters. Ignore Seth Godin. Stop priming yourself. If by now you are not motivated enough you’ll never be. Stand up. Drink a coffee. Get your shit together. Devise your evil plan and roll with it. Hush now, go away.

What makes us human is not our job. And suddenly I imagine all my human resources friends throwing at me looks of disapproval. It is quite ironic and very often I feel the hypocrisy, and the cold cynicism of branding, in the oxymoron ‘human resources’. Just don’t point your fingers yet. Put yourself in the shoes of [...]

CONTEXT This comes in continuation to The Rebirth of Creativity And The Introspective Muse: About Irrationality, Seth Godin And Storks. Here is a quote to put things in context: The irrational passion is good as long as it is not stupid… And for it not to be stupid, you either have to be very lucky or very smart… This post is [...]

It’s 2002 once again you’ll say. However this is not about trends and say you decideed to express yourself online. 1. DO NOT LOOK FOR FAME You will be disappointed. Everybody will have their 15 min of fame on the internet (Nick Currie aka Momus I think). Fame will find you should you do everything right and [...]

On April Fools’ Seth posted Are you rational?. I am not arguing for or against Seth. I get the poke. I’m just ranting on my own since I have plenty of friends who still believe in muses and pure intuition for their creative craft. The irrational passion is good as long as it is not [...]

[UPDATE April 7th: Manifesto proposal approved at ChangeThis.com. Make it happen and vote here: http://changethis.com/proposal/show/27 . This is our moment!] We are the creative class. We breathe change. We move fast. We will change the world! We are web designers, bloggers, SEO experts, interactive experientialists, flashers, refined political critics, social media experts, geeks, artists, account executives, storytellers, [...]

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND THE GREEDY PATH Creativity and innovation never come by taking the fastest path. If it were so anybody can be called creative and innovative. Read more about the Greedy Choice: The Greedy Gene. Funny enough since quick-wins are the trend today, everybody and his brother calls themselves creative and innovative. The creativity concept [...]

Where are all the real ranters and the pissed-off people? Those whom Tom Peters once called: the ones who will change the world. Everyday I read rants about completely obvious or irrelevant stuff. About Brand or Die the focus on the personal brand. Like anybody cares about you. Really… About how news is still a good idea (read a nice analysis about [...]

CONTEXT Emotional responses, high-stress situations, work environment, know yourself, personal management. INTENT This post is the first of a longer series I started to write about the value of our actions. I am exploring intentions behind actions and issues we have when called to make high-stress and fast responses. I am aware of terminology issues [...]

TL;DR: work on brands you consume, keep your intuitive insights, be analytical, ask the right questions, be aware of your customers’ needs and wants, of how your product answers them, of what differentiates the  product from the competition & of the market’s current and future states CONTEXT: advertising, customer insight, branding, marketing strategy. INTENT: This [...]

TL:DR: Stay focused, creative and critical of your concepts. Context: advertising, entrepreneurship, marketing agency, digital marketing Intention: I would like to explore a bit the link between creativity, idea generation and the concept of Big Ideas Creativity What we call creativity is mainly determined by our capacity to: 1. generate ideas 2. communicate those ideas About ad [...]