Personal Blog of Carl Pei

There is a useful analogy that can be thought of and applied when dealing with people; the one of the cat and the string.

When holding a ball of yarn above the cat, teasing it, the cat will do anything in its power to try and get the yarn - out of its nature of curiosity. But when you finally decide to give the yarn to the cat, it will soon grow disinterested and walk away.

Human beings function in a similar way. We all want what we can’t have, and when we get it, we want something else.

Business function similarly. Supply and demand. High demand & low supply, as we all know, equals increased value.

This is a concept I very recently became familiar with. Basically, it’s about arousing desires, backing off, arousing more desires, and backing off. And repeat. Using this type of two steps forward, one step back methodology of constant teasing, you will be faced with much less resistance and will result in a faster speed and/or greater success in achieving your goals.

During the last couple of days, I have been experiencing with this, creatively applying the concept to different situations, and I can say (and without exaggerating), sometimes the results were absolutely amazing. At times, this method works like clockwork, flawlessly. Everything you anticipate happens and it all goes according to plan.

So if you are seeking to exert more influence and win people to your ways, try this out.

But just as a friendly warning, I would not recommend doing this online, as “backing off” will be pretty hard and awkward to do. In real life, you can back off using body language, speech or by literally moving away. On the internet, all you have is your keyboard.

Accepted is a 2006 teen movie that received notoriously negative reviews. Although these poor ratings could seem justified on the at first, the movie has a deeper underlying message often ignored by the reviewers.

What is it about?

Accepted is the story of a high school senior, Bartleby Gaines, who was rejected from every college he applied to. Desperate to make his conservative parents happy, he creates a fake college and accepts himself. His college, dubbed South Harmon Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.) is complete with facilities and even a website. Little did he know that his website was fully functional and accepted all applicants. Soon enough, he finds a large crowd of people lined up outside his college, all accepted and there with their tuition fees. These people are of all walks of life, mostly social misfits that have lead lives of rejection.

The ending shall not be revealed. If you are interested, watch the movie.

I can agree with critics saying that this movie promotes laziness and underachievement, but there is a great underlying message often ignored. (more…)

If you do not plan to live in the forest or under a rock in the future, read this book. If you read less than one book a year, make it this one. Heck, if you never read books (like me) - get the audiobook.

How to Win Friends & Influence People is a classic book written in 1936 by Dale Carnegie. It is split up in four parts (Fundamental Techniques in Handling People, Six Ways to Make People Like You, Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking and Nine Ways to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment) with a lot of sub topics.

People skills. That’s the most important skill of today, and one that is becoming more and more important as the global community continues to integrate. Goods and services will be so cheap in the future that the only good (non-humiliating / backbreaking) jobs left for Westerners are that of the creative type. By that I mean jobs in Advertising, Architecture, Design, Intellectual Property, Art and the like. The old ways of “work hard go pro” will not work. Genius is required, and people skills are a part of genius.

If this got you interested in the book, you will be happy to hear that I am going to walk you through the book here on my blog. Part for part, topic for topic. So stay tuned for the next HTWFAIP post!