Success According to LinkedIns Allen Blue

Success According to LinkedIns Allen Blue Success According to LinkedIns Allen Blue Blue explained how the social and professional networking site is all about empowering every professional through the connections they already have. Personal relationships are very important, and, with 175 million members, the key to LinkedIns success. As his third startup, LinkedIn came into Blues life through the companys own approach a personal relationship. Blue honigwein fellow co-founder Reid Hoffman through a mutual friend while he worked as a theatrical set designer in the San Francisco bay area.What we realized welches that what really mattered was the relationship between me and you, Blue said. And if I reach out to you, youre not saying, Hey, I want to join LinkedIn, youre saying, Hey, I want to join this colleague this person who I trust and respect. I want to join them and be a part of their network and I want them to be a part of mine.Aside from personal relationships, Blue added tha t loving what you do is one of the most important factors in a successful career. Understanding the role passion plays in, not only his own, but anyones career, Blue also explained how LinkedIn was designed to help people in their career endeavors.LinkedIn is also a very mission-oriented company, said Blue. We really do want to make a difference for people who are looking for work, people who are looking to be great at what they do, people who are trying to make their companies better, and for people trying to do the work that they really love.His advice to entrepreneurs was to do what youre passionate about because the desire to do what youre doing and do it really well makes all the difference in terms of you being able to succeed. Passion allows you to see how what youre doing is bigger than yourself and it opens you up to learning and trying new things.The VP also advised future entrepreneurs to fail early and fail often. When you attempt to do something youre passionate about a nd it doesnt work, that is perfectly okay. Get back on the horse and try another path, Blue said.The combination of passion and a willingness to fail is a fantastic combination to building a career and building a career thats going to be you, he said.So personal relationships + passion= success. Not a bad formula. Yet, I wonder, how much of each variable is required to truly become successful? The popular saying, Its not what you know, but who you know does prove true for many success stories. Yet, you also have those who relied on nothing but the desires that burned deep in their hearts and the relentless determination to catapult them into their dreams.Networking is, and, most likely, always will be a beneficial tool. So many doors can open for you simply by knowing the right person. I interned at Scholastic Inc. this past summer and, unlike all the other interns, I didnt even apply for the position. How did I get in? A family member (and former employee) knew someone who knew som eone in the HR department. Connections are important.Yet, although I understand the benefits of having a network, I am convinced that if it came down to it, in the pursuit of success passion must be your greatest resource. You can have all the connections in the world, but if you lack passion for what youre doing it will be that much harder to reach your goals. Sure people can help and encourage you, but when it boils down to it, there has to be something inside of you that keeps you going. There has to be something internally that fuels you, something that motivates you to continue pursuing your dreams even if you do not have those personal connections life says you often need.Success is subjective, its relative to each persons goals. Like LinkedIn, personal connections can heavily contribute to accomplishing your career goals, but, like its co-founder and VP, more so the passion for what youre doing.

Decisions How to make decisions and be more productive at work

Decisions How to make decisions and be more productive at workDecisions How to make decisions and be more productive at workWant to be happier and more productive?Fewer decisions lead to better decisions.Do everything possible to put yourself in a box and reduce the number of decisions you need to make in a day.Think of every decision you need to make (whether big or small) as a one-pound weight placed on your head. Having a few to make is no big deal - that extra weight might even be a pleasant felling - but theycan add up quickly and eventually hamper your ability to move.Why? Your brain is notlage always good at understanding the differences between big decisions and small decisions.Decisions take a lotof effortEven small ones tax the brain. You should try to only make the big decisions and outsource as many of the small decisions to others (or to a routine).For instance, if you are having a special meal that really matters, spend a lot of time on the meal. If not, bestellung quic kly. Use some heuristic. Or order the saatkorn thing. Whatever. Just dont spend 10 minutes deciding on what you want to eat or where you want to eat unless it is really important.Create a default and follow it. When I go out to eat with friends, I often ask them to order for me.Lots of decisions in a compressed timeframe leads to worse decisions. The more decisions you need to make in a day, the worse you will be at making the right decision.Default decisions are your friendOne of the reasons it is so tempting to buy everything on Amazon (even though there might be a cheaper or better option somewhere else) is that it makes decision-making easy. If you trust a site like Amazon, then just trust it and use it for your needs. Dont worry about optimizing on every purchase (on price or quality) unless that purchase reallymatters to you.Its OK to go to the same restaurant or order the same thing. When I was first starting out as an entrepreneur I ate pasta and tuna fish for dinner every n ight and I still love that meal.If you are not known as an amazingly stylish person, then try to spend as little time as possible dressing yourself. Feel free to wear essentially the same thing every day. And no, it doesnt need to be a black turtleneck - it could be jeans and a blue-button-down shirt (which is what I wear to work every day).Its OKto just follow a GPS system you trust (like Waze) every time you drive. It might not be right, but the consequences of being wrong are usually just a few minutes difference in the length of trip.Its OKto listen to the same playlist over and overOne of the huge benefits of the rise in good television is that it reduces the number of decisions aboutwhat you want to watch. Since watching all of The Sopranos takes about 100 hours (and an average movie is just twohours), by watching a TV show, you might need to make about 50 fewer decisions as to what to watch.I actually know some people whospend more time selecting amovie to watch than actual ly watching the movie.This is even true of bigger things like vacations. Yes, spending a bunch of time planning it will increase the value of the vacation. But spending the time planning the vacation might significantly reduce your ability to make other decisions.Try to buy as few things as possible. Thats a good way of reducing the number of decisions you need to make. Then, when you find something you really like, its OK to overpay for something to ensure you get it. If you never go to concerts, then you can pay a lot for the one you reallywant to go to (from the savings of not going to other concerts).Focus on one decision at a timeIf you do need to make a reallybig decision, try to take all other decisions off your plate.When you need to make a super important decision that is hard to unwind, dont make it under duress. Try to disengage with whatever is causing you to make lots of decisions.One of the reasons people get really stressed before their wedding is that there are so ma ny little decisions that need to be made for the event. The color of the napkins doesnt matter, so outsource all those decisions to someone else and then be OKif they pick something that isnt optimal.Make decisions quicklyUsually, a decision is better than punting on decisions.The other way to spend less time making decisions is to try to make these decisions very quickly.For small decisions, its OKif you make bad decisions. If you order something at a restaurant you end up not liking, no big deal. If you pick a bad movie, no big deal. So better that you make them fehlte nicht viel and move on.For bigger decisions, you want to think more but still make them quickly. Its OK to sleep a night on a decision, but taking a month will not likely lead to a better decision (and every unmade decision is that one-pound weight on your head).This article originally appeared on Quora.

Nanoengineered Gel Regenerates Natural Immunity with a Single Shot

Nanoengineered Gel Regenerates Natural Immunity with a Single Shot Nanoengineered Gel Regenerates Natural Immunity with a Single Shot Nanoengineered Gel Regenerates Natural Immunity with a Single ShotSurgeons often transplant bone marrow to treat cancer and other diseases because marrow generates precursor cells that go on to populate the bodys immune system. Yet many patients struggle to convert all these newly transplanted cells into immune system precursors.To improve patients odds of survival, Harvard University researchers have created a nanoengineered gel that mimics bone marrow. Once it is injected under the skin, it could serve as another location where the body can produce immune precursor cells.It is a factory, in that its a foundry that works continuously, said Nisarg Shah, the nanoengineering researcher who led this work at Harvard. Shah is now a professor at the University of California, San Diego.Ultimately, the researchers hope to formulate a small, off-the-shelf injec tion that doctors can deliver after a bone marrow transplant. This would enable patients to recover immune functionality faster.The advance fits into the growing field of cell-free therapies, which prompt patients tissues to produce therapeutic agents. This contrasts with cell-based therapies, where physicians infuse cells grown outside the body into patients bloodstreams. Cell-based formulations sometimes pose manufacturing and toxicological issues.Recommended for You Mapping the Heart for Future Health Harvards bone marrow cryogel three weeks after injection. The outside is covered with bone shell while the inside of the sponge resembles bone marrow with blood vessels running through it. Image Harvard UniversityIn a typical bone marrow transplant, surgeons first implant the bone marrow into a patient and then infuse him or her with stem cells. The bone marrow recruits these stem cells as they circulate through the bloodstream and turn them into immune precursor cell s. The blood stream then transports the precursors to the thymus, where they evolve into T-cells, a type of immune cell that finds and destroys diseases and other threats.The gel developed at Harvard directs the body to assemble stem cells into precursor cells by establishing a niche. This is an environment whose biomechanical and biochemical properties resemble those found in bone marrow. Like bone marrow, the gels niche scavenges stem cells from the bloodstream. The transplanted stem cells go to the gels niche, said Shah. There, they receive instructions that essentially tell them to start becoming these adaptive immune cells, specifically T-cells.Other ways of improving a patients T-cell count exist. These include infusions of donor T-cells, T-cell precursors, and cytokine proteins that encourage T-cell growth. They could also improve immune response.Yet these approaches come with risks. Cytokines can be toxic, and donor T-cells may attack a patients tissues if they are not a goo d genetic match. Its also not clear if these procedures have versatile, long-lasting effects.Shah and his team aimed to address these issues by creating a secondary processing site to transform stem cells into immune cell precursors.Getting the gel to encourage new cell development welches a challenge. While researchers have synthesized many materials that support or expand an existing T-cell populations, they have had a difficult time generating new cells over prolonged periods of time.There are many studies where cellular viability is good, but its very difficult to go further, said Yichun Wang, a biomedical engineer at University of Michigan who also develops structures that resemble bone marrow. She was not involved in the Harvard research.The first step in recruiting stem cell transplants to transform into immune precursors is to mimic natural bones structure.To create a spongy, porous material, Shah and his colleagues quickly freeze a polymer solution of alginate-polyethylene- glycol as it starts to solidify. Tiny ice crystals form in the material before the polymer cures. The gel then stabilizes around tiny spheres of ice. Upon thawing, the gel retains pores where the ice crystals once were.The resulting gel approximates bone marrow well, Wang said. It retains its structure when injected into the body and permits cells from the body to infiltrate its structure. On the down side, it is non-degradable and would require surgical removal.Editors Pick Smart Bandage Does it AllThe real breakthrough, Wang said, is that the researchers found a way to incorporate two proteinsgrowth factorsthat foster cell development within their structure.The first, bone-development growth factor BMP-2, creates a niche environment that recruits stem cells from the bloodstream. The second, DLL-4, directs those scavenged stem cells to differentiate into immune precursor cells.At the projects outset, Shah and his team knew these growth factors could encourage immune cells, but they had to tune the formulation of these proteins within the gel to create the cellular foundry they had in mind. Initially, they allowed both growth factors to diffuse out of the gel to reach mora surrounding cells. In that form, the researchers found that DLL-4 did not encourage many immune cells to differentiate.So they decided to chemically lock DLL-4 into the polymer forming the alginate-PEG gel. This magnified the effect the DLL-4 had on surrounding cells.BMP-2, however, worked in an opposite way When it was tethered to the gel, the growth factor did not create a niche environment. So Shah and his team encapsulated the BMP-2 in a coating that let it diffuse slowly out of the gel.The team tested the gel on mice with injections just above the animals hind legs. The gel increased the number of T-cell precursors and improved tolerance of new bone marrow transplant cells.From other mouse studies, Shah and his team found that delivering this gel with a bone marrow transplant boosts the immune system more than delaying delivery after the transplant.The teams next step is to learn how to tune dosage and delivery in larger animals. Ultimately, they hope to reach clinical trials.Shah envisions boosting patients immune capabilities with multiple injection sites, or many small, separate gels via a single injection, equipping patients with many more immune cell foundries for recovery.Menaka Wilhelm is an independent writer.