I know, I know. It’s a bit controversial but if you’re a man reading this, you can hold on to your sock suspenders for a moment and try not to get your boxer shorts in a twist. It’s only a few observations I’ve noticed as a WOMAN in business.

I took over my father’s windows company in 2010 and I’d worked with him beforehand, so I saw up close how he ran the business. Admittedly, he’s a former broker in the City of London so has all the quirks and foibles you’d expect from a stereotype ‘City Gent’ type businessman. Nevertheless, I noticed quite a few things he lacked that could easily have been resolved, just by changing sex.

You can debate all you like but from where I’m standing, there are some fundamental differences between men and women. We’ve evolved in different ways to fulfil our own separate functions as human beings. Men were always the providers and protectors, whereas women were the nurturers and care givers. This is the way we’ve evolved, so don’t blame me for pointing it out.

See Also: What Women Should Know About Men’s Brains

So on our slightly different paths of evolution, we’ve evolved traits that are specific to our own gender. Now, it’s no secret that women have been held back from the world of business for the last forever thousand years. But in this current age of enlightenment, women get a fair crack of the whip, and it’s interesting to see how our evolved traits seem to give us an edge over the ‘not so’ fairer sex.

So, without further ado, let me please explain why women are better at business than men.

1. Women Are Better Multi-taskers

Women are better at multi-tasking and that’s a fact. We’ve had to prepare the food, look after the kids, clean the house and carry out all number of chores simultaneously, while hubby plonks himself on the couch after a hard days hunting.

Hunting that is, one wild beast. One. One goal, one aim, just one thing to concentrate on.

This went on for aeons, so it’s no wonder that women evolved better multi-tasking skills, and that carries through to the world of business. I have to manage over 50 staff, handle multiple customers, enquiries, ensure supplies and equipment are where they’re supposed to be, when they are supposed to be there, and my father, God bless him, struggled massively in this area.

It’s no coincidence that the majority of PA’s and secretaries are women, and the smart businessman hires a woman to multi-task for him. Which takes me to my next point.

2. Women Are More Motivated

When women were allowed into the workplace, it was generally as assistants to men. Do you not think that these women were looking at their male bosses, thinking they could do a better job?

Of course they were! The trouble is they were never allowed.

But since then times have changed and these women have had daughters and granddaughters and told them never to be afraid of being in charge. So we now have generations of women in business motivated by the outdated misconception that it’s a ‘man’s world’.

Men can be motivated as well, don’t get me wrong. But men have always been in business. It’s expected of them. Women have to work hard to prove they’re stronger, tougher and more capable than the thousands of years of conditioning have taught us.

3. Women Are More Resilient

Yes, women have had to battle against the tide for thousands of years. I’m 100% certain that there were stone age women who thought they could organise a deer hunt better than their half-witted other halves. But they would never have been given the chance. This has helped women develop extremely thick skins.

Fast forward a million years and this thick skin, or resilience as I like to call it, is helping women succeed in the tough world of business. Resilience is vital for being able to take the knocks and come back stronger.

There was a time when my business was on the ropes, and my father was ready to throw in the towel. But I refused to let it get to me. I reorganised, re-strategised and came back stronger. And now the business is thriving.

4. Women Are Less Egocentric

Which takes me on to my next point. Women have less of an ego than men. Men need an ego, they’ve evolved one. They need to be able to stand up to a threat, and they build a picture of themselves that’s bigger and stronger than they actually are.

This is important when it comes to facing an enemy that is bigger and stronger than themselves. But it can alienate people that aren’t a threat. We’ve all seen the red socks and suspenders of an Armani suited douche bag who kicks around the office like he’s God. This, in my opinion isn’t good for inspiring your team.

5. Women Are Better Communicators

And speaking of inspiring your team. It’s a well-established fact that women are better at communicating than men. To run a successful business, you need a team that works together with cohesion and purpose. If problems are encountered they need to be resolved quickly, so the team can get back on track with the business of being successful.

The trouble with men is they tend to bottle things up. Joe might have a grievance with his position, but rather than speak about it he lets his productivity slide. My father in this position would call Joe lazy, and probably aim a few loud expletives in his direction. Joe would then feel more aggrieved, and so the cycle would continue until Joe either quits, or is fired.

A woman on the other hand is more likely to notice that Joe has an issue, and she would ask him politely to share his feelings. Joe would open up like the delicate flower he is, and the problem would be resolved before it has a chance to spiral.

6. Women Are Less Impetuous

Which leads nicely to another reason why women are better at business than men. Women are less impetuous. Men have evolved what I call a fight reflex. This was a good trait to have when we were living in caves. You never know when the next caveman is going to steal your cave, your wife, and spread your innards on the wall as art.

So, when a man feels threatened by anything, his heckles go up and he switches to fight mode. Running in fight mode his vision is impaired and he’s liable to make rash, reckless decisions. This is when the woman will step in and tell him to calm down, but he’s likely to shout I AM CALM!

Fortunately, women don’t have this trait, and deal with threats in a calmer, more rational way. This avoids all manner of misunderstandings and helps a business run along like the smooth running ship it should be.

7. Women Are More Intelligent

Now, this is probably the most controversial of all the statements I’ve made in this here article. But facts are facts. It’s a modern educational orthodoxy that girls across the developed world are more likely to get top exam grades and university places than boys. The university admissions authority over at UK even warned that being a male could soon be seen as a new form of social disadvantage.

Now, does this mean that girls are more intelligent than boys? You betcha!

Although I’m sure there’s a myriad of factors that go into the reasoning why girls perform better than boys at school, the fact remains that they do. So if they had the same institutionalised thinking on business as men, they’d probably do better at that too.

See Also: Are Men Or Women More Successful At Saving For Retirement?

8. Women Have Women’s Intuition

I’ve made a lot of points here in this paper, and I’m sure if you’re a man reading this you’ll want to disagree with every single word I’ve written. You think it’s all jiggery pokery.

Well, a number of eminent psychologists agree that women’s intuition is very real indeed. Research has shown that women are better at reading facial expressions than men. Also, it’s shown that women are more likely to pick up on subtle emotional messages being sent out by others. This means we instinctively know if someone’s trying to hide something.

So the next time you try lying to a woman, remember she can read every little muscle tick on your face. And that’s a very handy tool to have when you’re running a successful business.

Summary

Okay, so you can uncross your legs now guys. You can disagree with a lot that I say, but the fact is I, (a woman) inherited a struggling business created by my father (a man), and turned it into the most successful and fastest growing sash windows company in London. I’ve done this in 6 years and have a 5-year plan to make Sash Windows London Ltd the biggest glazing company in the UK. And all because, thankfully I was born a woman.

The post 8 Reasons Why Women Are Better Than Men at Business appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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So you want to learn to code?

Well, you’re in luck – there’s never been a better time to start than now. There’s a whole host of resources and ways to learn. So many in fact, that just picking the best way to get started can be a real challenge – all of the options can be overwhelming!

So, I’ll walk you through 5 ways you can learn to code, pointing out the merits of each as we go, so that you can find the way that’s best suited to you and your goals.

Online Code Classes

There’s a range of both free and paid online coding classes that guide you through your first experiences with learning to code. They have a curriculum so you can learn in a structured way. They’re a great option for those wanting to learn the basics of programming.

Take a look at the courses offered by Treehouse, Khan Academy, Coursera, Codecademy and Code School. Harvard’s online Computer Science course CS50x is a good option too for those also wanting to learn more about computing in general.

Self-directed Learning

If you’re more suited to hacking things together and learning as you go, then you might prefer a less-structured, self-directed approach. That way you only have to learn the bits you’re interested in, and you can cater your learning to a specific purpose.

Your local library will likely stock a number of programming books but they can often be a bit dated. They’re more suited to traditional software development languages, like C and C++ than the latest in web development technologies. But there are of course a ton of free online books that you can get access to as well.

Also take a look at online tutorial sites, like W3Schools, Udacity, LaunchSchool, Thinkful, or SitePoint. Or for the more visual learner, there are videos too – check out TheNewBoston, SlideNerd, and Learn Code Academy.

For more resources, Bento has a great collection for virtually every language or utility you may need or want to learn.

Code Schools

For those looking to take things a little more seriously, and possibly snag a job at the end of it, then there are a range of intensive-learning code courses. They’re often quite pricey, but some come with some type of job guarantee or help to find a job at the end of it.

They won’t teach you everything, but after a couple of months eating, sleeping, and living code, you’ll be well on your way. Your choice of coding course will likely be limited to where you’re living, but take a look at options available with providers like the Flat Iron School, Dev Bootcamp, General Assembly, AppAcademy and the Recurse Center to get an idea of the types of courses available.

Of course, your local University will likely have a range of course options too for a more traditional Computer Science education.

Join a Community

Joining a programming community, either online or one that holds in-person meetups can be a good option. A community can help with specific coding problems, learn new ways of solving problems, as well as get suggestions of useful resources and meet potential new coding buddies.

Thankfully, there are lots of well-run options, from Hackathons (keep up with upcoming Hackathons with sites like Hackathon.io, HackEvents and Devpost), to Q&A sites like Stack Overflow, which are great for getting answers to specific coding problems.

There are language-specific fora, like those offered by devshed and Dream in Code. As well as those dedicated to Web Design and Development, like SitePoint and Daniweb or more Software Development focused sites like Code Project and Bytes.

There are also those that cater specifically to folks just starting to learn to code too – /r/learnprogramming, Free Code Camp and CodeNewbie are 3 of the best.

Whilst there is overlap between these communities, I recommend submitting questions and getting involved in a few and seeing where you feel most comfortable. Be sure to follow good forum etiquette and search for your question before posting though, or expect to get a snarky response back!

As your skills progress, you can also look into continuing to learn through coding challenges, and there are many community sites that promote them, such as HackerRank, SPOJ, CodeWars, Project Euler and /r/dailyprogrammer. You can even earn a little extra money too whilst solving them, through a site like Topcoder. Or, if your goal is to build your own startup, then why not learn to code by re-creating real products? Check out CodeUpstart and Code4Startup who do just that.

If in-person events are more your thing, then search Meetup for local events. In major cities there are lots of options, so be sure to look for language or problem-specific events. And for relevant conferences, check out Lanyrd.

Get a Mentor

Finally, for those looking to hone their skills or get advice on different ways of tackling programming problems, or things like coding-related career advice, then you might consider seeking a mentor to guide you. They aren’t going to be barking orders to keep coding, like a fitness coach, but they can help talk through issues in a more personal way and give you the detail you can only get in a 1-on-1.

Sites like Hack Pledge, Code Mentor and /r/ProgrammingBuddies are all good places to find willing mentors. At the very least, you can get input on your code with a code review community site such as codereview.stackexchange.com.

Regardless of the way you decide is best for you to learn to code, you’ll need to use a few tools to actually get started with writing code. HyperDev combines an online code editor, with automated code hosting and deployment to get you straight to coding without any confusing setup. So that’s a good starting point. As you get more experienced you might prefer a local development setup.

Learning to code isn’t easy, but if you find a way to learn that matches your goals, then you’ll be coding your way to success in no time!

The post 5 Goal-oriented Ways to Learn to Code appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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We all get stuck in a rut every once in a while.

Sometimes that rut is too deep to climb out of, and procrastination doesn’t help. It’s probably change that terrifies you, or starting something new feels like an impossible task, and you keep putting things off for tomorrow until you finally give up.

“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.” – Victor Kiam

You might’ve had countless opportunities to get up and running, and you might’ve missed them all.

And that is more because of a lack of motivation than anything else. Lack of motivation leads to procrastination, which leads to your same old boring routine.

Don’t you want to get out of it?

Then take a look at these tips to trigger your motivation and get you pumped and ready to take charge of your life:

1. Use Your Current Situation as Motivation

This seems obvious, but it is something you should be doing more often.

Do you want to get out of your dead end job and start freelancing? Do you want to start a business of your own? Are you tired of your corporate job and want to teach kids in a foreign country?

Look at yourself now. Look at your current state. Is it something you want to be stuck in for the rest of your life? Of course not.

Don’t let failure or life’s monotony dampen your spirits; if anything, they should be what motivates you to get your ass up, and get moving. Remind yourself constantly that the only way is forward, and staying still won’t get you anywhere.

Eventually, you’ll find that failure is always the greatest motivator.

2. Set Small (and Achievable) Milestones

We’ve all got ambitions.

Some of them a bit grounded in reality, some of them probably impossible to attain.
For people like you and me, who find it hard getting motivated, it is better to set small goals that can be achieved quickly and effectively.

These small goals are like milestones that count down your road to success.

Start with something really minimal like, “I’ll wake up at 7 every day.” Then wake up at 7 next morning, and then set another target.

“I’ll start building a client list.”

“I’ll write an article for a blog.”

Increase the scope of your goals as you go along, completing every single one of them.

One of the things we lack the most is a sense of achievement, and that leads to a lack of desire and drive to succeed. Seeing every single one of your objectives getting fulfilled elevates this sense of achievement, and you grow in confidence with every passing step.

This is the kind of confidence makes world-beaters.

3. Surround Yourself with Successful People

The company you keep matters.

Surrounding yourself with people in the same boat as you makes you complacent. You tell yourself, “I’m not alone,” and you sail along waiting for the right moment.

That moment won’t come. Ever.

Not until you change your company. Surround yourself with the right kind of people – people that are more successful than you are.

What this does – you start aspiring to reach their level, or even surpass them. This will give you the kick that you need to get going, and to never look back.

4. Join Groups Working Towards a Similar Goal

It can be any group – a mastermind group, a LinkedIn/Facebook group, an online forum, a Meetup or even a Whatsapp group.

People in such groups tend to help each other out as much as possible, and you can learn things you never would’ve otherwise. You get tips, you get resources and you get experienced individuals offering you valuable first-hand advice.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” – Helen Keller

Also, when you see other people, like you, starting from scratch and progressing steadily, sometimes that’s the only motivation you’ll ever need to get moving.

Use websites like LinkedIn and Facebook to find groups in your niche. Join a few good ones and interact daily. Join a Meetup in your city, and regularly attend its events.

Join a forum, ask questions and provide answers. Even popular bloggers in any niche generally have their own forums or communities; try to become a part of those.

Or better yet, you can create your own group. Network, connect and invite individuals you’d like to be a part of it. Use apps like Whatsapp or Hangouts to create a collaborative space that acts like a virtual mastermind group.

Doing this, you’ll realize that groups are the best motivational triggers for anything you want to accomplish.

When all’s said and done, it’s really up to you. Nothing’s stopping you from taking charge of your own life, except you yourself. Just follow these tips, and you’ll never find it hard to get motivated to succeed.

The post 4 Motivational Triggers to Get You Started Right Now appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Are you wondering why the heck we’re teaching you how to do less in life?

Modern life is a stressful cacophony of items calling for our attention. Time passes by in a neck-breaking speed, as we jump from one item on our to-do list to another. The common philosophy is if you don’t move forward everyday, you’re relatively moving backwards because of humanity’s collective progress.

That’s why instead of swallowing one productivity book after another to extend your to-do list, you need to reverse your thinking and always be on the lookout for how to do less in your life.

Here are five steps I took to do less in my life:

1. Decide what’s important in your life

Sit down with yourself and unearth your personal values. Divide your life into sections such as physical, relationships, spiritual and intellectual. Then work to improve in at least one area every single day.

See Also: Taking a Life Audit: Five Steps to Prioritising What’s Important

2. Cancel the rest

After deciding all the things that are super-important to you, place your boundaries and only pay attention to those items within your boundaries. The truth is, we’re inundated with information every single day and there’ll never be time to pursue and learn everything so you have to make a conscious choice to not go after some thing even if it’s very popular.

Don’t give in to your fear of missing out and instead focus on connecting to your authentic self. Once you do this, you’ll be focusing more on increasing efficiency rather than busy-ness.

3. Delegate

This is something I’ve learned from reading James Altucher’s work and listening to his podcast. Whenever you find yourself doing something that you hate, take a note of it, and work on ways to delegate it in the future.

Maybe it’s doing chores, cooking, or administration work. You might hire a part-time helper or a virtual assistant to do the work for you so you can focus on doing what matters.

If you can’t afford it, make a list of, “Tasks to Delegate As Soon As I Can Afford To,” and that’ll inspire you to work harder and maybe make more money so you can work more on the things you enjoy.

4. Deactivate Facebook

When I told one of my friends that I don’t have Facebook, she commented something like, “You gained so much time in your life.” The truth is, the time is always there, but the moment Facebook entered the scene, what happened was I – and many others – lost control of where our time went.

Instead of focusing on the things that were important to us, we instead started focusing on the things that were important to others.

That’s a great power to give to many people, so I personally deactivated facebook and haven’t looked back since then.

5. Delete other social media apps from your phone

I’m for Twitter, mainly because I use it to engage in conversations about ideas I care about. Twitter is more idea-centric than Facebook which is more people-centric. Or at least, that’s the function I use it for.

However, having my phone in my hand all the time meant I wasn’t engaging in my real life especially when there were pockets of free time around. Tweeting and replying was just too distracting and too stressful, so I deleted it from my phone. Instead I use the web version whenever I want to, and again, that’s another way to win back control in my life.

See Also: How to Stop Wasting Time on Social Media (no willpower needed)

When you focus on a few super-important items in your life – whether it’s finding time to talk to your spouse or laughing with your children or advancing in your career – you’re more capable of engaging fully in them, and that engagement comes with a sense of true fulfillment that the white noise of social media and information overload can’t really replace. So instead of finding ways to cut corners and add more to your plate, decide on getting a smaller plate.

The post 5 Steps to Do Less in Life appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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