Do you want me to accept your LinkedIn invitation? Pay attention to these five things

Don't put all your eggs in one basket, they say.
Most of the time, they are right. (It happens a lot that they are right, just deal with it)

Still, when it is about networking and having an account on websites for professionals, I like to keep things simple and to embrace a minimalist approach.
This means that besides the Google+ account related to this blog, you can find me on LinkedIn, and on LinkedIn only. When people send me invitations for other networks, I pass, even if I feel flattered. Time is limited, and I prefer to focus on one network, where I have a strong and well-tailored profile.

Thanks to my profile and professional experience, I receive new invitations on a regular basis.
Some people follow a strict policy and they accept only invitations from people they know well in real life. I consider it a good option to also accept invitations from people that I don't know yet, if their profile is relevant to me. That said, I am always amazed at how sloppy and amateurish LinkedIn profiles and above all invitations can get.

[You don't have to look like a modern dandy, 

in order to make a great impression on LinkedIn,

but displaying a drunken selfie or some weird cat pic

would just not help. Just saying.

Image credit: ISO Republic]

Do you want me (= and probably other people as well) to accept your LinkedIn invitation? Then you should probably pay a little bit more attention to the following five things:

The kind of questions that can leave you speechless, make you smile and force you to grow

"Who do you feel would benefit least from your work?"

The question that coach Travis L. Wilson has kindly thrown at me, as we are talking about which kind of change I want to make, as an intercultural consultant on her way for getting certified as a coach and willing to work as a coach for diversity management, leaves me puzzled and a little bit speechless. Speechless, moi!?

Being speechless never occurred to me, if we keep out the first 18 months of me learning German after moving to Berlin without speaking (back then!) a single word of German and a (back then!) incredibly broken English that soon became an even worse Denglisch. 

But this would be another story, even if one with a linguistic double happy ending, and I digress. ;)

[Speechless, moi!? No way!

I do speak up if I need to. No problem there.

One of my personal issues is...

having often closed eyes in pictures. 

Pics: Me, November 2017 

at Berlin's street art museum

Urban Nation © Radoslaw Kosiada]

And suddenly, I smile, because I realize that I am in the right place and that giving myself Seth Godin's The Marketing Seminar as a Christmas present - even if I don't celebrate Christmas at all and I was just looking for a good excuse for enrolling in the workshop - has been a very good decision.

Just yet another epic DHL delivery fail, or the three pivotal elements while building (and keeping) trust in a relationship - Part I

Shopping for products online can be exciting, funny, time-consuming, smart, interesting, frugal, money-draining, surprising, safe, addictive, disappointing. 

And even if what you purchased is exactly how you were expecting it to be and you are not experiencing one of the more and more common online shopping epic fails that go viral these days, after purchasing something online you probably feel a little bit nervous until that very special moment where, after such a long waiting and so much patience, you are going to hold the package in your hands, at last.

[Not a long time ago, happiness was...

being in love with someone that loves you back.

Now happiness is way more mail-related]

LinkedIn two-step verification system and the mystery of human relationships

[The message says:

Two-Step Verification

You are signing in from an unrecognized device.

Please enter the verification code sent to the phone number ending in XXXX 

[United States, Germany in my personal case] to finish signing in.]

When I am signing in to my LinkedIn account, I get the message below, every time, together with a SMS containing the verification code. As soon as I decide to sign in, I get the SMS. Then I just have to use the code sent via SMS to login. Action and reaction. 

Everything is clear, simple, automatic and foreseeable. 

I do something and something else happens, as a consequence. The same action causes the same reaction to happen, every time. If I do A, then and only then I get B. If I do C, something else happens. If I don't do anything, nothing happens.

No surprises, no drama, no tears, no frustration are involved.

Action and reaction. 

Why human relationships can't be like that as well?

Why one has to ask himself/herself all the time if one is doing the right thing or not? Why I have to wait, even if would love to be contacted just right now?

If you should have the solution for the deep mystery of human relationships, please drop me a line.
And feel free to drop me a line even if you don't have the ultimate solution, but just a clue.

Tags: LinkedIn verification code, Human relationships, Action and reaction

A big news published in advance on this blog, just for you, just today...

This is not official yet but...

I want you to be the first ones to know that I am going to become a Suicide Girl and to model for a calendar for naked tattooed women. 

So everyone will be able to see all my tattoos and to have pics of them, at last.

Dita Von Teese, stand aside... I am coming!

[Dita Von Teese in Purple latex catsuit

Copyright Jim Weathers, 2001]

...

...
...

Happy April Fools' Day, guys!

Update 2015:

Blog Action Day 2013: How a movie like "The Butler" can teach us something about human rights

Blog Action Day 2013 is all about Human Rights. 

What does "Human Rights" actually mean?

Every human being on Earth has 30 basic kinds of rights, listed in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created in 1948 by the United Nations in order to promote "universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms". 

At least on paper. 

The reality is very often far away from what proclaimed in the Universal Declaration and a big percentage of the human population can't enjoy these rights at all. 

The right to life, the right to freedom, the right to fair treatment while in a court, the right to privacy, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of thought, the right to freedom of speech, the right to social security, the right to education are among the basic rights that should be self-evident for everybody.

That's understood, right?

Except that this is not.

And we tend to forget it.

Last week I have seen a very interesting movie about that.

"A Lot Like Purple" reached over 31,000 pageviews: Thanks to all of you!

February 2013 has been a great month for A Lot Like Purple: the blog reached over 31,000 pageviews.
Thanks a lot to all visitors, to all subscribers and to all people who left comments or wrote a private e-mail to me. So many thanks for your support, your kind words, and your interest!

[Numbers matter: A very young Matt Damon as Will Hunting

in Good Will Hunting (1997) by Gus Van Sant]

See you with the next blog post, and thanks again!

Tags: A Lot Like Purple, Blogging, Pageviews

What to read next:
If you should make a choice between these two options, what would you go for?

Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!

Where to start, if you are new

"What I want to do before I die?" Candy Chang and John Lennon can help you answer that question

When does one realize that life is getting serious?
That one is becoming an adult, after all?

While getting older, I find myself confronted almost on a daily basis with: friends who are getting married, who are starting a family and having children, who are falling in love, who are buying a house or moving to another city or making a career makeover... 

I am not yet much confronted with death, but it happens sometimes to hear that someone I love just lost a friend, a relative, a loved one.

[Art installation Before I Die by Candy Chang

Image credit: Candy Chang.Com]

In the song "Beautiful Boy" John Lennon says that life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans. Life is somehow difficult to be planned and we are used to thinking that we have a lot of time. We are used to saying: "One day, I will do this and that". We are used to taking a lot of things for granted.

LinkedIn, a powerful network and my top-five of actors and actresses from the classical Hollywood

I consider LinkedIn a very useful tool and a great website that offers plenty of chances for meeting interesting and talented professionals. 

When I get a LinkedIn invitation, I see the invitation itself as a very important part of finding a personal way to stay in touch with my connections and getting to know them better.

I don´t collect connections, I create a powerful network including people from all around the world instead.

Just yesterday I found out that one of my new connections and I share the same passion for classic movies, for example, and we exchanged opinions about quotes, great Hollywood directors, and actors in a very pleasant way.

[One can't talk about classic movies without talking about it:

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) 
by D.W. Griffith] 

And then I got one of the most difficult questions that someone fond of movies can get:

Today is Blog Action Day: The Power of We

Today is Blog Action Day and this year we are celebrating "The Power of We".

The Power of We is one of the most important ones, because thanks to it almost everything is possible.

We? Yes, we.

In a "me-and-only-me" era, we is yet still more powerful and enchanting.

We as human beings.
We as individuals.
We as friends.
We as wonderful people.
We as interesting one-of-a-kind always looking for someone special just like we are.
We as Vegan, if you are Vegan too.
We as bloggers, if you are going to publish a post too.
We as agents of the change.
We as the present.
We as the future.
We as women. And we as men.
We as someone absolutely sure that it´s possible to do something more, something better, something really important, something significant. Something, no matter what.

Every time, when I feel alone or I think that there is no hope, I remember that I am not alone and that there is always hope. Because of you. Because of we. Because today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow I can still fight for my dreams and for making the world a better place, just by starting around me. Just by believing that I can. Just by helping other people. Just by being authentic. Just by saying yes and no only if I really feel like.

Just by writing another post.

Just by writing this post.

Are you with me?

Are you with us?

We are every day more and more. And we can change everything. I know it, because it´s already happening.

Tags: Blog Action Day, Blogging, The Power of We, Change, #PowerOfWe, #BAD12,  #Blogactionday

Purple hair & fashion girls: The gorgeous world of freelance illustrator and photographer Kris Atomic

Kristina Mordokhovitch aka Kris Atomic is a very talented artist and freelance illustrator/wedding photographer based in Brighton.

Her work is lovable, original and quite impressive:

[The girl with the Purple kimono

Image credit: Kris Atomic]

The doll-like girls of her illustration & sketchbook works are absolutely funny, sweet and innocent but cool and somehow naughty at the same time.
If they also have purple hair or purple shoes, or cotton candy hair with a white blouse that Marlene Dietrich would definitely pull off, like the young lady you can see below, what else I am supposed to say?

A new Google Doodle says "Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!"

Google celebrates Jane Austen [1775-1817] with an elegant and romantic Doodle. 

The great author is my favorite writer ever. I have read all of her books several times, again and again, and each time I've discovered something new and unexpected in them. And in myself.

[Google Doodle for December 16th, 2010

Jane Austen's 235th birth anniversary]

Too often improperly described as boring, outdated, outmoded and "sugary", Jane Austen's works are actually still (and always have been) a fantastic and exciting reading.

Forget Becoming Jane - even if I'm in love with James McAvoy now and forever - and Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightley and maybe take a look at The Jane Austen Book Club or at Gurinder Ghadha's Bride & Prejudice.

Google celebrates 'The Wizard of Oz' with a yellow brick road (and a Doodle)

Saying something new about a classic like Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz is almost impossible. Judy Garland. Over the Rainbow. 'Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more'. The Wicked Witches of the West and of the East. The Scarecrow. The magic of L. Frank Baum's books. And the Technicolor!

But it's not always necessary to say something new. 

Google celebrates the 71st anniversary of the premiere of the film in the USA - with the exception of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, the movie it has been released in Europe after WWII and in 1951 in West Germany! - with a yellow brick road that leads us through a fairy and amazing land.

[Google Doodle for August 12th, 2010
The Wizard of Oz's 71st anniversary]

Google celebrates Austrian/Swedish architect Josef Frank with a colorful Doodle

Google Doodles are almost always very poetic and beautiful and it's a real pleasure to start my 'search engine journey' with something different and unexpected, now and then.

Today Google celebrates Austrian/Swedish architect Josef Frank's 125th birth anniversary [July 15th, 1885] with an explosion of shapes and colors, a Doodle realized by displaying some of the most beautiful creations from Frank.

[Google Doodle for July 15th, 2010
Josef Frank's 125th birth anniversary]

A wonderful Google Doodle celebrates Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 110th bith anniversary

I have been collecting "Le petit Prince" (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in every language since 2006. But this is another story.

Today's story is about the wonderful Google Doodle that celebrates Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 110th birth anniversary [June 29th, 1900]. It's absolutely beautiful and poetic like the book: my favorite Google Doodle ever.

[Google Doodle for June 29th, 2010
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 110th Birth Anniversary]

I've seen this Doodle on the Italian and German version of Google but not on the English one. Maybe just not yet?

ps. Thanks again, Fra!

Update: For mysterious reasons, the English version of Google didn't display the Doodle at all...

Tags: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le petit Prince, The Little Prince, Google Doodle, Birth Anniversary

What to read next:

Collecting "Le petit Prince" - Why collecting the book is like a big, wonderful game

Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!

Where to start, if you are new

Lady Gaga as a meteor? A huge but

Yesterday I was reading the celebrities' quotes collected in The Top 10 Celebrities Who Hate Lady Gaga. It doesn't matter that actually most of them didn't hate her and that they are saying nothing more than 'her music sucks, she's a meteor, she is not going to last'.
She's copying Madonna and Grace Jones, they say.

I can't agree or disagree, because I've never heard a single note from her, just seen photos and posters. I can only say that I don't like her outfits and she's too artificial, in my humble opinion.

[Unusual outfits and everything bigger than life...

This is Lady Gaga's style, dude! Take it or leave it]

But. There is a huge but.