Do it yourself is always better

It has been a long time again since I posted here the last time. Unfortunately time is passing quite quickly and work loves me so I can't be without. But it is great so as many of you can confirm.

Today on linkedin I saw an interesting article: some witnessing on not to outsourcing the own website but handling it by yourself. After the experiences of last days I can really second that affirmation.

We all have suppliers we brief on project we want to have done. And we are happy about the work done that is in many times not only time but also money consuming. Even if we have to follow every step and approve a lot of steps, this procedure is great. We know what it is done, we follow and we get results.

But what happens if we brief blindly suppliers without knowing the matters in details? In the first line we need to cut costs and choose not always the world class leader to do work. So, if this is not done perfectly, we could say "at least it was cheaper!" and we didn't spend a fortune for it.

But it is always the truth? Myself, I made experiences that it is not always a case. If the client is following the project very closely, every supplier gets some pression. If the client wants or not, this is the case and the supplier feels controlled. But the work is done in the most of times faster and better.

More money - better results? This is not necessarily true. We have a lot of little supplier companies which are cheaper but faster and sometimes even more professional. But it is always up to us to judge it. And for this we need to be interested in what we need to do for our projects, even if this is not our profession. We need to become generalists. It takes time and effort but at the end it is much faster and more efficient.

Aromes

Hello everyone,

Some breaks in writing are due to some changes we pass in our lives. This is my case. I passed from shoes to cheese domain. Why? I tell you. I love food. Aromatic, spicy, regional, festive - I like to eat. And cheese is a part of it.

Being simple customer and end user before, I was aware about camemberts, hard cheese, fresh/soft cheese. Of course I knew mozarella, blue or some regionals cheese but I didn't ask any questions on it. Right now I am discovering a wonderful world, full of aromes. The differences in the production of the same cheese is seen in the first line on regional level. If you compare for example camembert produced in Germany and the one produced in France, you will find the German one very neutral. French one will give you a great impression of degustation. You will find it maby too strong but it will be not neutral. Please take the camembert Le Rustique (45% of fat in the dry part). This product will give you the idea what real aromes mean.

What is possible for cheese, you can find also in human life. Every situation we meet has its own subtile arome. It is up to us to find it out and to act accordingly. Or to act against if the arome is not appropriated to what we need and like. The only difficulty is to find out the arome of the actual situation. Sometimes it is tto discreet to be found out immediately. But it is still there.

I will from now on study more life aromes as they are as interesting as the ones of the cheese. And sometimes even more interesting. But let me tell you that my favourite two ones are cinammon and coriandre.

Martha

How they see me as a person...

Dear All,

I have read today an article of a friend of mine. My dear friend, Sunny Cervantes, she wrote this. And me as a fan of her, I do have to post it here. Please take a look at:

http://www.allthesinglegirlfriends.com/2011/04/05/do-love-triangles-really-exist/

The most impactfull part for myself was:

"I have male friends who are womanizers. I don’t condone their ways but I don’t want to judge them for it. I don’t know what goes on inside their minds and hearts. I only see and know how they treat me as a person. And they treat me with respect and decency. So, I think that for me to sit in judgment of their actions is not only unjust but extremely hypocritical."

Sunny, you are so right! We tend to see only what is on the surface and we don't take time to check what is behind. Human kind has no easy life today. And in our world, even if we have still not lived in the full emancipation, men has no an easy life. They need to always be politically correct. Every small step of bad direction can be concidered as a macho style or I take all I can get. And noone is really reflecting that this "womaninzer" style can be a trial to understand the other sex.

I can tell you once for me. I really DON'T get the man I love. And believe me, I love him more than my life and I would even die for him. But what I know is that he has the same problem with me. The only difference is: I can show my questions and fears. Him, the society is still expetcing from him to be a superman. He has no right to show any weakness. He is a man. If he shows, he is not credible.

My only thoughts are: we are still not in emancipation age. Neither for women nor for men. And both genders try to understand eachover. Please remember that.

Best regards,

Martha

Mangiare, pregare, amare

I still have to think of the movie "Eat, pray, love". And today more than ever since I read the article on how good an Indian woman entrepreneur is running German fashion label Escada.

You will for sure ask yourself or maybe even me directly: "What the heck these two things have to do with eachover?". I tell you a lot.

The role of woman has changed a lot within last years. Comunism made her expremely emacipated by law so that she was praying for having the right to be just a woman. In the western culture she has still to fight for her emancipation as this is a men's world. Of course there are few so called successfull women who are known in the whole world like Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of Kraft Foods. But believe me - she is playing the men's game and this is what I really DON'T want to do. So, where to go and what to do? Do I have a room
somewhere just to be myself, a woman, myself?

But I don't need to go far far away to be myself. I can do this here. The one point is: I need to have a certain strengh. A strengh to be yourself. A strengh to follow your dreams and not to let yourself influence but external "politics" or influences at all. Neither the fashion or so called good freinds or influences at all. You are always allowed to follow your heart and this is the best thing you can do.

Women today are under biggest pression ever. We need to be successful, perfect lovers, super models and the best wives. Hard to satisfy, no? To be honest? Not at all. We just need to be WOMEN. Not every successful woman has to be a CEo of Kraft Foods. Success is the state of having achieved something. And this is considered individually. And every personal success which guides to happiness is worth millions of political or industrial carrers. We just need to be aware of this in our mind.

I haven't find my way to be successful yet. But I know that this is what I want to do as next. No idea how but I have the best personal motivation - these loving eyes of my special someone. And I know I will find it out. I don't want to sell my grand-mother to be happy. I just want to be myeself - a real woman, a wonderful one.

Have a great Friday evening.

The best time of the year

Hello All,

It has been quite a long time I haven't written anything here on. All my apologies. and as last year I come back with my season wishes. My you all enjoy it, together with your loved ones.

Holiday season is a cosy one. We are busy to finish the year but we are also looking for the end of the year to get some rest and free time. This double face of this times doesn't make it easy. And the pressure of giving is also there. In some situations it has become not only a ritual but a real competition. But it is in the spirit of the time?

Giving is something special. It has to come from the heart. And the best gifts are unexpected ones. Competition has no place here. Love is not a competition, love is selfless, openhearted and openminded. We cannot expect the reward as well as the person who loves you doesn't do this either. The gesture counts and the spirit. And this is the right time to show it.

Enjoy the season everyone.

Happy Holiday!

People behaviour - next part

We are living in a very fast world. And we all HAVE TO fit in. It is not easy to spend 14 hours a day at work and then go home and have a life. Additionally we have so called cultural training that educated us. And at work the situation is not easy - demanding clients, demanding or even offending bosses and will to succeed.

It is normal today that we close ourselves in our own world and establish a mind of protection shild and try to defend us in front of all this. This is absolutely human in this non-human world. But what happens quite often is that we offend/hurt people we love. We try that much to controll the situation that we forget where the controll has to finish. We take the work stuff home. Why? Common behaviour, bad attitude, ambition. All nice qualitites but they shouldn't be put in private life as they are willing to destroy everything in front of them which is not common.

And in private life, don't we look for a little bit of difference? And if we find it, what we do? We scare it and we fight it. As we try to controll our life.

I was thinking about this a lot. This is rare that someone really enjoys what he/she does. And why isn't it so? This is a good question that I need to ponder on.

Have a great evening.

Martha

Would you like to take a cup of tea with me?

Today I saw in a Yoga magazine a story that took my attention. A man came to yoga school and could handle his love to a woman who didn't love him. He was desperated. The yoga master wanted to take a cup of tea with him to explore his state of almost luck. The man didn't get and left. Few time later he came back explaining he got over this and this love was nothing for him and he was not really in love. He asked the master to take this cup of tea with him. the master answered: "Maybe later".

This story shows exactly how the wolrd of today is working. We only do something if we know we can get something in return. We do a favour to someone as he can return the favour, we are in love with someone as we want to marry this someone, we give gifts as we are sure we will receive gifts in return. This is how it works.

But what if this is not the result that counts? What if this is the journey that we are intended to make? What if the state of journey is the most important?

to open your eyes to the world and see opportunities in journey or just doing something is not what we focus. And especially not in business. Sure, we have to live from something. But this aspect lets us forget often how beautiful is just to do something for this doing itself. This joy can change worlds. And sometimes it makes the life easier.

Have a great evening all,

Martha