Author: Stella Stone

Likeonomics (2019 March Book Recommendation)

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Everyone wants to be liked, right?  Of course, we all do whether we admit it or not.  We all know that itā€™s the most liked people who get invited to the social events, who have the most choice in dating partners and who seem to get all the advancement opportunities at work.  Unfortunately, the ā€œtraitsā€ behind being likeable are not evenly distributed across the population; some have abundance, others are left wanting. Wouldnā€™t it be great if there were a formula to help us all level the playing field and better position ourselves in the eyes of others?  Iā€™ve stumbled across just such a book, which attempts to distill likeability into a few succinct principles and practices. The book Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action by Rohit Bhargava is filled with helpful examples and psychologically sound advice on how to improve how you are viewed by others, and thus improve your life. I highly recommend this book. Read. Dream. Achieve.

Impress Your Boss: 3 Things to Do When Starting a New Role

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Whether you are moving to a new role within the same company, or taking on a new job somewhere else, try the three things outlined below.  Following this advice, you will surely make a positive first impression on your new boss and will achieve a more organized and efficient transition. No. 1 WHEN: Two Weeks before Your Start Date WHAT: Send your new boss an email (you should have already obtained his or her email address during your interview, for sending a thank-you note after the interview), tell him or her that: 1) You are very excited about starting in two weeks; 2) You would like to get a head-start if possible ā€“ ask him or her if thereā€™s any material he or she could send along in the meantime for you to read or work on, or anyone he or she would recommend you to meet and talk to. Say that you want to get yourself familiarized with the projects that you will be working on to make the transition as efficient as possible. …

The Wife Between Us (2019 March Book Recommendation)

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Seven years ago, Gone Girl started a trend. Since then, Iā€™ve bought and read many psychological thrillers; which is an enjoyable genre for me. However, once I had read ā€œenoughā€, these books all started to look similar (some conspiring individual with a dark past, which would be uncovered toward the end of the story). Among all of the psychological thrillers Iā€™ve read, The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen stands out: it not only has a page-turning plot thatā€™s typical of a thriller, but also has a cleverly designed structure intertwined seamlessly with the plot. This makes the ā€œtwistā€ of the story unique and engaging. I also enjoyed its storytelling – vivid, precise, and classy; it helped create the mood of the narrative. I highly recommend this book. Read. Dream. Achieve.

5 Things You Should Know Before Traveling to China

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1. No Need to Leave a Tip Unlike most Western cultures, in China you are not expectedto tip. The waiters and waitresses get paid a monthly salary, and in most casescomplimentary accommodation (boarding and meals), and therefore do not expectto get compensated through tips. Therefore, on a restaurant bill, you are notgoing to find the tip fields you may expect. Several years ago, when traveling in China, my husband (whois an American and doesnā€™t feel comfortable not tipping) left 20 Yuan (roughly3 dollars) on the table as a tip after paying with cash. As we were leaving,the waitress hurriedly caught up to us, holding the change in her hands, ā€œSir,you forgot your change!ā€ When my husband told her that it was a tip, theexpression on the waitressā€™s face was more bewildered than anything else. Similarly, when a bellboy helps you with luggage at a hotel,or when a pool boy brings you new towels, thereā€™s still no expectation for atip. In my view, an underlying reason for this ā€œno-tippingā€culture is an abundance in labor which leads …

Til the End of the World (Fiction)

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Please, God, let him telephone me now. Wen prayed in her mind. She shut off the shower. The sound of water reduced to a drip and stopped. She pulled the shower curtain to the side, stepped out of the tub, and walked over to the sink. She picked up her phone from beside the faucet, beads of water rolling down her back. Frowning without knowing, she lit up the screen. No messages. No missed calls. Maybe next time God would hear my prayer, she assured herself. She slowly set the phone down and started to dry herself off with an old towel. Outside the window, the city sky was a heavy, pale gray. A thunderstorm was forming. She retrieved her gaze. Sheā€™d better hurry up, if she didnā€™t want to get caught in the rain. She slung the damp towel on the rod, opened the cabinet, and took out her contact lenses. Her eyes met briefly with the empty pink bottle in the corner of the cabinet. That was the lotion she bought when she …

Find The Leader in You

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In the summer of 2014, I arrived in the US from China for an MBA education with a top 20 university in the US. One of the core courses in the first semester was titled ā€œLeadershipā€. At the beginning of the semester, the professor conducted a class-wide survey, which was composed of a ā€œself-assessmentā€ and a ā€œpeer-assessmentā€, in which the students rated each classmate on how they perceived that classmate: Do you consider he/she a leader? Do you think he/she is a valuable contributor in the classroom? Do you think he/she is difficult? And so on. The same survey was then re-run a few more times throughout the semester, as the students got to know each other more through various activities (and, of course, as the learning from the Leadership class progressed). I never cared for the class, as I believe ā€œleadershipā€ is a mindset you grow in yourself through real life events and mature self-reflection, rather than something dryly taught in a classroom by watching mediocre documentaries and participating in half-hearted discussions. I didnā€™t …