I am currently visiting my parents for Christmas in my home town in The Netherlands, where I occasionally meet up with old friends while I am here. Yesterday, I met up with a very good friend of mine, and we started discussing our intentions for 2010, as New Year’s Eve is approaching. Besides the well-known health issues, and our intentions to do more sports, we had a long discussion about money. My friend had recently read a number of books and articles on career making and growing wealth in general, …

I had quite an interesting flashback lately; as I was sitting on my couch and letting some things pass through my mind, I was struck by the fact that there are so many things I could have done much sooner, and thereby enhance the quality of my life and my personal financial situation. Then, why hadn’t I? Quite simple really: I just didn’t know… or at least I didn’t know they were that important.
In order to help some of the younger readers, I have compiled my personal top 10 list …

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell takes a closer look at what makes people so successful, and why. In an entertaining and well written way, Outliers explains the relationships between hard work, ambition, passion, and pure luck, using many real-life examples, such as that of Bill Gates. All examples and theories described in the book are the result of extensive research.

I had a bit of a flash today: how many people are truly passionate about the kind of work they do? Actually, I was starting to have these thoughts when I saw a television broadcasting the other day about burn-outs and all sorts of mental disorders as a result of too much stress. And to be honest, most people I know consistently complain about their work, their bosses, their companies, in one way or the other…

China alone has more than 1 billion inhabitants. Worldwide there are more than 800 million native Mandarin Chinese speakers. With the Chinese economy booming, is Chinese on its way to becoming the dominant global language?