For the past few days I attended an awesome "Leadership Cruise" from Nice to the Island of Elba, then to Portofino and again back to Nice. Here some photos of our cruise boat "Sea Cloud":

The trip itself was for around five days, and of superb quality. First of all, it was a group of world-class entrepreneurs and leaders; secondly we were cruising to some of the most beautiful places in Europe; and thirdly we had additional value from the leadership training organized by a UK based company called "Ten", and as the cherry on the cake killer presentations by well-known entrepreneurs and leaders. Just Tom Cruise was not there...

All in all, a great get-a-way from home - a combination of holidays and learning, masterminding and chilling, and now with full power ready to start new ventures. Here is link to my photo set of the cruise at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fizzphotos/

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Free WiFi access in the guest rooms should be a standard feature by now with international hotel chains, wouldn't you agree? But it's not! Most international hotels still charge for the internet access, sometimes ridiculously.

Just stayed at Hilton Beijing, and although they do offer free WiFi in the lobby, you pay 30 cents per minute for the access in the convenience of your room (so for example 2 hours equals EUR 36,-).

McDonalds, on the other hand, gets it. If there is no other reason to visit McDonalds; it is the free WiFi access in all of their restaurants worldwide - it does not matter whether you check-in to McD in New York, Beijing or Dubai - the WiFi is free of charge!

So, it is about a time that the international hotel companies (in all categories from budget to luxurious) also offer free WiFi in their guest rooms as a standard feature.

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Sometimes, traveling outside your "home circles" can be a real eye-opener. Thank you Beijing!

See the full gallery on Posterous

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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If you are like me, you don't have time to go to the fitness studio....

Here is a possible solution:

All I need to do now is to swing it, and get some cool exercise tricks thru youtube. Lovin' it already!

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Nature is timeless.

Just look at this beautiful beaver which we encountered today in the Vienna woods.

There is a deeper message with the beaver: Wherever you are, be there totally!

If we would have asked this beaver "What time it is?" It would have probably answered: Of course it is now! What else is there!

IMG_3033.MOV Watch on Posterous

People get often so easily stressed, caused by being here but wanting to be there,...or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. But when you look at the beaver, he is totally focused on living in the moment, because that's all he's got. This is something we human beings tend to forget while living our mega-busy lives.

The Native Americans don't make a separation in between "work life", "home life" or "any other kind of life" -everything is life!

Life is meant to be lived in the "now" doing what makes your heart sing (...or if you are the beaver - what makes your tail slap).

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When visiting Finland last time, I got myself a pair of Asics Arctic running shoes with spikes. The Finns know how to do it in winter...., so now I have no more excuses not to do in winter too...

With the combination of hard packed snow and ice today, Vienna provided the perfect settings to test these shoes. Considering the intake of red wine the evening before, I was glad finishing a reasonable workout in this beautiful Winter Wonderland...

It was just too much fun to run on ice and snow, without caring much about the sliding at all. These shoes are really awesome!

Before I was sliding all over the places. Now, I felt totally confident with each step on snow/ice and just ran without having to fear at all - ...and did not slip once!!

The spikes are amazing for keeping stable and secure on icy paths. They feel a bit "different" than usual running shoes feel, but are still very comfortable and great running shoes. Just remember to take them off before you walk on your hardwood floors inside (not like me :)...

Alternatively, you could just bring your old jogging shoes to a shoemaker, who will nail some screws on the sole. This will probably function as well on snow/ice. With Asics, you do have the advantage though, of being able to unscrew the spikes anytime, giving you perfectly fine running shoes on any weather...

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An interesting difference between our brain hemispheres is that the right brain tends to see the general (the gestalt) - the forest, while in a parallel mode, the left brain is concerned with the trees.

To see an illustration, consider the following experiment. First, read this: 

A BIRD IN THE

THE HAND IS WORTH

TWO IN THE BUSH

Do you see anything unusual?

Try again.* 

Photo Credit: boubou1

*The word the is written twice.

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Thinking out of the box is at least as important as thinking inside the box. Here are some practical things I personally recommend and practice to get my creative juices flowing. What are yours?

1. Take dancing classes (ballroom, latin, hey - even Finnish Tango...) 
2. Travel to new interesting places - perhaps one of the best things you can do to boost your creativity
3. Try meditation, go to church, or visit other spiritual places
4. Go to opera, musical or classical music concert
5. Learn a new language - commit yourself learning around 20 - 50 keywords daily and you'll master the basics (conversational to get you through) of any language in very short time. Try it! 
6. Try new & different foods, tastes and recipes daily - we have a friend coming over from Hong Kong shortly and the kids cannot wait to enjoy some real Asian cuisine...(not really, but us parents at least :)
7. In general break the routines of your life and do things differently (driving/bicycling/taking a horse carriage to work, eating with left/right hand,...) to stimulate your creativity
8. Do some volunteer work - see how good you'll feel when helping others. As you know, giving back to the universe is one of the best things you can do in life
9. Take a class in a subject you know nothing about - I am currently planing on things I never tried out such as laughter yoga, learning to play ukulele and learning to yodle (quite popular here in Austria, at least on the mountains)
10. Learn something new every day - dedicate yourself and put 15 minutes a day to learn something completely new. Think Kaizen! And live Kaizen!

Hope there are some ideas you can put on use for yourself. Cheers.

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I am sometimes taken aback by how people can have a miserable day or get angry just because they feel cheated by a bad meal, cold coffee, or a rude employee in the grocery store.

We are sometimes quick to forget that just being alive is an extraordinary piece of good luck! Have an awesome weekend!

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Jordan (the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) was absolutely an amazing experience! The country has so much to offer from sandy beaches with crystal clear water to history of human civilization dating back thousands of years. One of the most stunning places is by no doubt Petra, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World:

We truly enjoyed the Jordanian hospitality with local delicacies (ok, the french fries are for the kids): 

Two (or so) weeks later, back home, I am still leaving little piles of powdery red sand of Wadi Rum wherever I walk; my favorite souvenir from Jordan...

To see more photos of this trip, visit my Flickr Set in here.

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I recently finished reading Viktor Frankl (again), and it made me wonder about the meaning of life. Can anyone answer this question in general terms? I guess not.

Similarly to leading people (situational leadership), the meaning of life differs from people to people, from day to day, from hour to hour. What matters therefore, is not the meaning of life in general terms, but the present moment and the meaning of the present moment.

I believe we all have a specific mission in life to accomplish, and therefore our lives cannot be replaced, nor repeated. We are all unique missionaries on the planet Earth. So better be your own Barista!

My objective, while reading Frankl this time, was to find out the core ideas what he really wanted to leave back with his readers. So here I am trying to sum up the most important in few sentences and quotations from the book.

First of all, Viktor Frankl sees the very essence of human existence is reponsibleness: "It is we ourselves who must answer the questions that life asks of us, and to these questions we can respond only by being responsible for our existence."

Therefore, according to Viktor Frankl - you can only answer to your own life and you do this by being responsible to your life.

"To achieve personal meaning, he says, one must transcend subjective pleasures by doing something that "points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself....by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love." 

Here is the core idea of V. Frankl about the meaning of life:

The meaning of life, differ from man to man and from moment to moment. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements.

"Life" does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life task's are also very real and concrete. They form man's destiny, which is different and unique to each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny.

No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way.

Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom". -Viktor Frankl

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This is a view from the Empire State Building on 1.1.2011:

For best burgers (and delicious Maine Lobster as a matter of fact too) in town, head down to PJ Clarkes close to the Central Park: 

Sex Museum, what else?

We went to see Memphis (musical) this time, something to recommend to everyone visiting NYC. The birth of Rock 'n' roll:

To see more photos from my New Years NYC trip, please check out my flickr set in here.

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You were born with goodness and trust.

You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so don't.

You have wings.

Learn to use them and fly.

-- Rumi (13th century poem)

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One of the coolest live gigs I've ever seen (and I've seen quite a few :) was the Buena Vista Social Club in Vienna.

...well actually their name is "Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club" since the deaths of six of the original members, however they perform worldwide with many of the remaining ensemble members, such as trumpeter Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, laud player Barbarito Torres and trombonist and conductor Jesus "Aguaje" Ramos.

The new members such as the singer Carlos Calunga (he was amazing!) and the virtuoso pianist Roland Luna (kind of the young version of the past Ruben Gonzalez) add great spices to the musical variety of the group....and not even having mentioned yet the singing legend Omara Portuondo who seemed very fit on her eighties. See it yourself - hope u like it! 

Omara Portuondo in her element - she really rocks the house. Now imagine she is 80 years old (born in Havana, 29th of October 1930)  but has a mind of 30 year old. That's really awesome! 

If you want to see more more Buena Vista Social Club (and some other hand-picked cool gigs) be sure to visit my youtube channel in here. Greez! N

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I really enjoyed Barcelona last weekend at the Toastmasters Europe Conference, as well as the numerous tapas & cava bars in and around the impressive Gothic old town. Here are some design inspirations as well as a short folklore snapshot from the trip; you can find a few more under my flickr in here.

Spanish (Catalanian) Folklore:

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The Spanish version of Burj al Arab:

Casa Batllo by Gaudi:

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Here are my FAV songs from the U2 live concert in Vienna:

Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2 politically motivated song from the early 80's, deja vu for my last U2 live concert 20 years ago in Stockholm.

Elevation - U2 rocks, I love this song!!!! 

Beautiful Day - U2 worldwide hit single which earned them 3 Grammy Awards. This is also my power song when I do sports :)

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