Category: Lifestyle Gamification

Today I was invited to Google to make a speech about The FD Lifestyle: Powering up in the Game of Life. The crowd was a group of Googlers, Facebookers, Yahooers and Cisco folks who regularly gather and invite speakers.

The speech went awesome. Some people tried to destroy my arguments during the Q&A session by challenging some of the logic and scenarios I presented, but fortunately I was able to answer them all.

I actually think my Q&A session turned out to be more impressive than my actual presentation.

A lot of people came up and chatted with me afterwards, and I really look forward to hanging out with them more! These are some great people who have already been leveling up their entire lives.

The slideshow above is the powerpoint I used for my presentation. Most of it is pictures, but I will soon upload a video version of my presentation!

Now that is out of the way, I just have to prepare for the Web 2.0 Expo in SF and the Keynote Speech I have at USC next week!

Hope you all had an extraordinary weekend and that you will be successful in every activity you engage in!

 

This is the origin of the my Lifestyle Gamification concept (known as the FD Lifestyle back then – living real life like a hardcore gamer).  This is the core philosophy that set me on the course of entrepreneurship, of being a speaker, a social activist, a career coach, a gamification expert and many more, and I want to share this to urge you in joining me in the passionate path of leveling up and completing cool quests that make a difference in this world.

Being a hardcore gamer is fun and makes you feel accomplished…temporarily

It all began in 2003. I was a hardcore Diablo II player back then, and I would spend a significant amount of time figuring out how would I build my character, assign the right skill points, assemble a team, and conquer difficult quests. I was quite good at the game and I helped a lot of my friends plan out their character skill charts and level up according to it.

Then came the time when my friends started quitting and moved on to another game. I quit too. During this time, I was in that transition phase between quitting a game and moving on to the next one, and I suddenly felt extremely empty.

I realized that I had I spent thousands upon thousands of hours getting more experience, leveling up, accumulating more gold, collecting better gear. And now I have nothing. My account will be deleted after 3 months of inactivity. It seemed like a big part of my life simply disappeared. What now?

Lifestyle Gamification: Pursuing a game that will last and be meaningful

So I started to think, what kind of game can I play that tons of people are playing, and they can’t just quit when the next big thing comes out? The conclusion I reached was: it’s pretty much the game of life.

So, if I were my own RPG character, I wouldn’t stay in town all day, be idle, and walk back and forth, back and forth. NO!! I would go out and kill monsters, get more experience, level up, and conquer cool quests of course.

I then realized that everyone is playing this game, but not everyone realizes it, especially when they are in high school or college. I figured that, if people are still in town just being idle, (watching TV, partying, not doing much with life) I can gain an edge by being out there getting more experience, meeting high level characters, assigning important skill points, and leveling up. Then one day they will realize (out of college) that they are playing this game too, and they will need experience to level up and overcome whatever quest they feel they should conquer with their lives. By then, I would be at level 20 or so with a strong head start.

Ultimately, my goal is to be the strongest player on my server.

Helping people level up and ally with them is the best way to conquer complex quests in this real world

In most MMORPGs, high level players can help lower level players level up faster. That’s what I have committed my life to do too: get people to realize they are playing this game and help them level up as fast as possible, so that we can help each other out in life(in Lifestyle Gamification, I call this Vertical Networking).

So I want to be the strongest in my field, and team up with all the strongest in other fields. Together we can complete cool quests to solve problems that the real world faces. In a game, the quest could be killing a monster or building a large empire. In the real world, a quest could be solving global warming, making a better search engine, or running a successful non-profit. The beautiful thing about this particular game is, when you play it, it can be just as thrilling, and it actually makes a difference in this world. You would have made a positive impact in peoples’ lives, and you would be wealthy and reputable if you play it well. Sounds like a good deal.

What money can’t get you, the Lifestyle Gamification can

In Lifestyle Gamification, we also call people who just want stability and comfortable lives NPCs. NPCs become the environment instead of living passionately. They live everyday to support their existence and buy cool stuff on the side. They slave for 5 days a week so they can do what they want on the weekends. If you think about it, this doesn’t make sense.

Why do you make money? You make money to increase the quality of life. But you spend so many hours in your life working anyway, that IS your quality of life. It makes little sense for people to pay a lot of money for you to be miserable your entire life. It makes a lot more sense to get paid a bit less, but have your whole life do what you are passionate about and play throughout.

I welcome you to join Lifestyle Gamification

So this is what I do. I work over 90 hours a week. I also play over 90 hours a week. People I have Lifestyle Gamified also spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to become a stronger player while accomplishing amazing things for their age. Because I feel like I have a better life than most people without necessarily being better in person, I want to bring the philosophy of combining work and play to people, whether through myself, my company culture, or the services/products that it provides.

I want people to have fun while working by doing what they are passionate about. I want those who are extreme in what they do (like hardcore gamers) to be extreme in what truly matters in this world. So for those who want to play their entire lives and become successful on the way, I welcome you to join Lifestyle Gamification. Lets ally up.

(To learn how to start the FD Lifestyle, go here: 4 Steps to Master Lifestyle Gamification )

A resume is essential in getting a great job, but has been neglected by many. Your resume is the piece of document that creates a chance for recruiters to consider you as an employee. It doesn’t matter how amazing you are at interviewing or how brilliant you are for the job, without a good resume, you have nothing. I have reviewed and edited over a thousand resumes, and most resumes are nowhere near their full capacities. In fact, most resumes that I have seen are only about 10-15% of their actual capacity. People fail to recognize that resume building is a craft. A resume is a one?page representation that lets the company know that, given your GPA and experiences, can you:

1. Create unique value for the company
2. Fit within the company culture

Take your resume seriously

A resume is like a brochure for yourself. Companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of expert work to finalize on a brochure that can represent the company. The average student only spends a couple hours piecing vague descriptions together without considering what effects it will have on their recruiting process. Your one page resume is extremely valuable real estate, and everything you put on it must have a purpose. If a sentence does not create value in the recruiter’s mind, you should take it out; if a word does not create value, you should take it out. With a well-optimized resume, you would be able to get interviews even with a less than competitive GPA.

Few seconds to establish a connection

One thing to note is that most recruiters only spend around 10?25 seconds on each resume. Therefore, your resume must not only have good information, it must “feel” impressive. Within those few seconds, you need to already have made a connection with the recruiter. Having a high GPA is obviously the fastest way to do that, but I have seen resumes with extremely high GPAs get rejected simply because it was not put together in a way that makes the applicant seem valuable.

Build a holistic image of yourself

Recruiters are trying to figure out if you are a good person to be on their team. As a result, your resume must reflect you as a person, not just a brain. You must show that you are a well rounded, qualified individual as an employee, coworker, potential leader, and someone to hang out with. A very important concept to pay attention to is Diminishing Marginal Image, which means that if seven lines on your resume say you are good finance person, the eighth line that says you are a good finance person would mean little in the mind of the recruiter. Instead, say that you are a team player, an organized person, or did something creative, even though your next experience might still be dealing with finance.

Continue reading Yu-kai Chou’s Guide to Resume Optimization

Networking and building relationships with people is one of the most essential things one needs to do to become successful. When you want to contact someone and meet up(newly met professional or old friend), you want to find a common interest to make the meeting pleasant and enjoyable for both. Maybe you both like golf. Maybe you would both like to visit a museum. But what if you don’t know what that person likes? In that case, there is a pretty universal common interest: food. Statistics show that most people deal with some sort of food one time or another in their lives. It also happens that most people like food. So it’s pretty safe to invite this person to a good food place when you don’t know enough about him/her. If the food is good, timing is possible, and maybe you’ll be treating them (and it’s worth it), most people wouldn’t mind getting some food and talking to you.
When you are talking to a new professional, make sure you don’t put too much focus on his or her professional information and forget about the personal things in his/her life. It doesn’t matter if they’re highly successful people, they’re still people, and until you show that you care about them as real people instead of their titles, you will have a hard time building a true relationship.

In regards to conversations, if you know the person likes something that you don’t, do not lie and
pretend you like it. You’ll lose any sense of credibility very soon. You could reveal that you do not know much about that topic but is interested to learn about it. That’s a good way to have a good conversation on something without needing much knowledge to it. Most people like explaining and teaching things they are passionate about, as long as you can keep yourself from drooling. However, besides having an open mind to learn, being genuinely concerned about the other person often helps in being more interested towards subjects that he/she is passionate about.
If you know what makes people smile, your day will turn out much better.