Thursday 31 May 2018

How Steve Jobs Changed Facebook

Steve jobs quotes

There are times in our lives when we find ourselves in a truly novel position. No level of analysing and decoding helps and thinking just makes things worse. It’s hard to see where we are going wrong until someone, who is in a better position to observe, tells us. In the initial days of Facebook, its founder Mark Zuckerberg faced a similar situation. He was struggling with the company’s mission and had to take a decision fast for there were number of investors lining up to buy his company.

This is the time when Mark sought the advice of another founder and who later turned out to be his greatest coach, Steve Jobs. The results were outstanding and changed Facebook for ever.

When Mark visited Steve Jobs and explained his dilemma, he received a sage advice in the following words: “Pack your bags and go to India”. Steve Jobs could come to that advice because he had himself experienced it when he was struggling with his company. Steve’s visit to India and more specifically a temple in India gave him a new perspective and cemented his vision about his company.

Mark took the advice and travelled India for around a month and saw how people connected in India and the problems they faced. This helped him with his company mission of connecting people and helping them to stay connected.

It was not just Steve Jobs, Mark on his journey came across numerous personalities who coached him to be what he is today. To name one, is Don Graham the CEO of Washington Post who met Mark in his early days. He invested in Facebook and taught him the traits of being a good CEO. He also made a valuable addition to Facebook in the form of its current COO Sheryl Sandberg.

When running a company a person ought to have wisdom and foresight, Mark has both owing to his coaches. His current coaches included Bill Gates and Marc Andreessen.

We at happy brain coach celebrate the coaches and understand their importance in one’s success.
A mentor will help you get sharper and quicker by building up your skill sets but a coach will help you get a perspective which is need to start the work in the first place. This is the difference between a coach and a mentor.

So if you relate to this blog and find yourself stuck in a similar situation where you need to be clearer on your objectives and be more productive. And if you have understood the difference between a coach and a mentor and identified that you at this point need a coach. Then it’s time to visit happy brain coach.

Stay tuned to our blog in the next post we will discuss how John Mattone coached one of the greatest inventors of our time, Steve Jobs.

Wednesday 23 May 2018

Oprah and her Mentor

oprah quote on mentor
Who else could tell us about the importance of mentorship than one of the most influential mentors of all time, Oprah Winfrey. Oprah was an intelligent and hardworking kid in her school but was often criticised for her questions and inputs in the class. This led her to be afraid of her own intelligence. She lost confidences and started staying mum during her class. This was the moment when her 4th grade teacher Mrs Duncan stepped in and moulded little Oprah into what we see her today. Of course her other mentors too had a role to play in her success but Mrs Duncan laid the stepping stone for Oprah.


She gave her the much needed confidence to be not afraid of her own smartness. She opened her eyes to new horizons and pushed her to seek higher goals and contribute better to the society. It was her mentors regular inputs and motivation that made Oprah what she is today. The ability to see the better part of herself, to appreciate the good and ignore the bad; to focus on her strengths and let the weakness starve away is what Mrs Duncan helped her with.


The importance of Mrs Duncan, and all the other mentors of her life, is clear from her following quote….

“Mentors are important and I don’t think anybody makes it in the world without some form of mentorship.” - Oprah Winfrey

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