Enlarge. Excel. Evolve.

Mini Stories on Wisdom Have you arrived?" "How will I come to know that I have arrived and achieved success?", he asked the coach. " When you develop the courage to laugh at yourself. When your confidence begins to exceed your inferiority complexes, you have arrived in the true sense", the coach answered. ------------------------- "Just Few Friends" "The saying goes, 'Even if you have a thousand friends, you have not a friend to spare. Even if you have a single enemy you will meet him everywhere' Don't you think you have very few friends?", he asked her. "True. I am different with a story of my own. I can only connect with people if I trust them enough to tell my story. And they care enough to listen to it. And I believe you need few friends and many acquaintances", she had a surprising clarity about what she wanted in life. ------------------------ "Heart Walls" "She is such an un...

Ten Years of Digital: 2007- 2017 I began my digital journey in 2007 and recently completed ten years in the virtual world. Here are some of the landmark moments of the journey:- 2007 - Started my digital journey with research on New Media (how TV news channels were using social and digital media) as part of my PhD. - Started active micro-blogging on Orkut and later Facebook 2009 Joined LinkedIn 2010 - Launched blog “ Enlarge Excel Evolve ” - Joined Twitter (@DrAmitInspires) - Awarded PhD (New Media) 2011 - Blog listed on Alltop Business within six months of launch (2nd most popular blog in business category) - Stories published on reputed media (Forbes.com, Hindustan Times ) about my pioneering journey - Started speaking on Personal Branding and Storytelling at prestigious platforms starting with DMA (and later spoke at PRSI, STC, Headstart Foundation and so on) - Started corporate training on "Storytelling on social media" with corporate communications tea...

" Biryani with Blogger " is a series on blogger interviews where Chief Blogger, Enlarge Excel Evolve Dr Amit Nagpal chats with prominent bloggers of the world over a plate of Biryani.  The first interview in the series is with Dr Uttara Pattanaik, Executive Coach / Leadership Coach.  Dr Amit - You have a different take on Strategy and Leadership.  Can you please explain that? Dr Uttara - Strategy and Leadership are most over used words in most organization.  It is hyped, over-rated and positioned as hierarchical.   I look at it differently.  According to me, strategy & leadership is central to professional and personal growth.  Each one of us, irrespective of where we are and what we do, need to be strategic in our approach and discover our leadership style to maximize our full potential and discharge our responsibilities to the best of our abilities. Each individual needs to discover their leadership potential in order to be eff...

A Conversation with Dr Uttara Pattanaik Dr Uttara, an ICF certified Coach enables organizations/teams/Individuals to be their best version. Let us find out how. Dr Amit-How does one identify one’s passion? Dr Uttara- Have you heard of “Ikigai”? Japanese say, Finding and igniting your “Ikigai” or a sense of purpose is the key to living a long happy life. According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai. An ikigai is essentially your reason for BEING or the reason to wake up every morning. This is similar to passion but holds a strong "purposeful" connotation. Ikigai is also believed to be the union of 4 elements: What you love doing, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. According to Ikigai, passion is the outcome of “What you love doing” + “What you are good at (your strengths)” with an overarching purpose, that acts a guiding light throughout your life’s journey. There may be many things that you are good at and also enjo...

Digital Transformation in context of New India-The Summit There is a Chinese proverb, "If there is light in the soul, There will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, There will be harmony in the family. If there is harmony in the family, There will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, There will be peace in the world" Only the peace of individuals can leads to peace in the world eventually. In a similar way, creating digital mindset (nurturing traits such as creativity, collaboration and transparency) in individuals will lead to New India in the long run. To elaborate:- If individuals develop digital mindsets There will be transformation in organisations If there is transformation in organisations There will be a better society If the society keeps evolving We will create a New India of our dreams.  Digital Transformation in Context of New India-The Summit was organised at NDIM...

My coach Jennifer Sertl recently wrote the Foreword to our book "Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond". It has touched thousands of hearts and given a beautiful beginning to our book. And as they say, "Well begun is half done" I am reproducing the Foreword for the blog readers.   Foreword “If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen . . . A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar.” ―John Steinbeck All cultures throughout time have use stories to keep history alive, teach community and create demand. Ever since language began – we were telling stories on walls in caves and now we are telling stories on walls in clouds. Stories are how we breathe. We know now that robots are being taught empathy through literature. So clearly stories transcend technology. Stories are primal. As children we are great at telling stories. We know so ...

It was an honour to receive the 33rd   Dr S Radhakrishnan memorial   National Media Network Award from the hands of Sh. Ram Niwas Goel, Hon'ble Speaker, Delhi Legislative Assembly. Feeling as if I am back to square one. I mean back in the company of my journalist friends. My mind was in media management for so many years............yet my heart was always there in journalism (and with journalists), .....writing (and with writers)......blogging (and with bloggers). The tug of war between the heart and the mind continued for a long time. One of the reaso ns I enrolled for a PhD in media marketing was to stay in touch with my journalist friends. Even my first book shared the  story of TV news in India. And then one fine day the Universe listened to the "deep longings" of my heart and made me a blogger. Of late I have evolved into more of a storyteller. The heart finally emerged as the winner in the tug of war and the mind accepted its defeat gracefully. Three c...

Using Twitter and Other Tools for Book Marketing- A Success Story     “ No matter how good intentions you may have, people look only at your presentations. No matter how good presentations you may have, God looks only at your intentions” Great marketing starts with a great product. A great product creates a pull and requires lesser selling efforts. Our first priority as authors was to give a great experience to our readers and create a reader friendly book. With team efforts, the first edition was sold within 6 months. We used the following strategies to make the book an Amazon Bestseller:- Creating a great product - The book is the first book by Indian authors on the topic. It has plenty of illustrations, cartoons, examples and case studies to make it easy to read as well as practical to apply. Renowned cartoonist Ismail Lahari, (Editorial Cartoonist, Dainik Bhaskar) has created the cartoons for the book.  The book has several infographics and screensh...

And Why I Champion the Cause of Introvert Empowerment In a previous blog post (which went viral), “ How Introverts like Guy Kawasaki and Pete Cashmore are changing the rules of the game with Online Branding ?”, I shared my journey and how Susan Cain’s book “Quiet” changed my life forever. Interestingly, Susan also points out that introversion has three cousins, “shyness, sensitivity and seriousness”. Yet these three traits of introverts are often misunderstood and need a perception correction. Let us take a look at how introverts are misunderstood and what they can do about it. Myth / Misunderstanding 1- Introverts are often Nervous Fact-Introverts are Shy Recently when I was invited to speak at a public platform for 2 minutes, I began with a dose of humour, “It takes me 2 minutes to settle down with a new audience. By the time I will settle down, my time would be over”. Introverts are shy and tend to act as extroverts (in speaking, mentoring etc) when the...

Five Books + 6 Chapters (in six different books) "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. "- Ernest Hemingway My Journey as Writer My journey as a writer (or rather poet) began with a Hindi poem  in 1985 as a school student. For a long fifteen years I only wrote poetry except a piece or two of prose. I   began writing magazine articles around 2001 and blogs around 2010. I had became a published author in 2007, when a case study written by me was included in a reputed book "Marketing in the New Global Order" (edited by IIM Indore Professor Tapan K Panda) In the past decade, I have written 5 books (and 6 chapters in 6 books) about diverse subjects. Obviously some people feel surprised by the range of topics I have written about and ask me about my focus area.  When I took a deeper look, I realised the common thread in my books and contributions has been storytelling. The Books My first book, "From News ...