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I've dedicated an entire website to the idea of getting smarter every single day: Farnam StreetDespite all of the people wanting to sell you a formula there is none. Sorry.Charlie Munger said it best: Are You A Learning Machine?:I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.Knowledge is like lego.Mental Models are the best and most useful blocks. They typically form the foundation and shape the way we see things. In addition to these pieces, explained later, you want to overlay a broad array of both exposure to different subjects as well as life experiences. This will give you a better understanding of not only how the world works, but how you can best use your knowledge and understanding to get what you want.Broad life experiencesIn Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, Jobs said:And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.[...]If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.Core principles and mental modelsJohn Reed said:When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles – generally three to twelve of them – that govern the field.These core principles are mental models.Charlie Munger puts it better when he says:... the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ‘em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form.You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.What are the models? Well, the first rule is that you’ve got to have multiple models because if you just have one or two that you’re using, the nature of human psychology is such that you’ll torture reality so that it fits your models, or at least you’ll think it does…It’s like the old saying, “To the man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” And of course, that’s the way the chiropractor goes about practicing medicine. But that’s a perfectly disastrous way to think and a perfectly disastrous way to operate in the world. So you’ve got to have multiple models.And the models have to come from multiple disciplines because all the wisdom of the world is not to be found in one little academic department. That’s why poetry professors, by and large, are so unwise in a worldly sense. They don’t have enough models in their heads. So you’ve got to have models across a fair array of disciplines.You may say, “My God, this is already getting way too tough.” But, fortunately, it isn’t that tough because 80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly wise person. And, of those, only a mere handful really carry very heavy freightok so General Tips.Learn How to Read A Book. Seriously. (And Remember And Use What you Read)Learn how to thinkLet Warren Buffett Tell You How To Get SmarterTime is no excuse. (Also see An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day And Finding Focus)Learn How to Make Hard ChoicesUse A Two-step Process for Making Effective Decisions and pay attention to How We Can Improve Our Decisions.Follow Daniel Kahneman's Favorite Approach For Making Better Decisions and keep a Decision Journal (a template of what mine looks like is included).Stop trying to be smart and start Avoiding Stupidity (inversion becomes powerful when trying to avoid the side effects of intervention: iatrogenic).Learn about the 5 Simple Notions that Help Solve ProblemsDon't read for other people's opinions, read for facts and then think. This requires time and effort. You’ll have to learn how to focus.The Single Most Important Change You Can Make In Your Working Habits is to move your cognitively difficult work (creative, strategic, anything requiring a lot of thinking) to the morning.Create A ‘Stop Doing’ List and while we're on the subject see 9 Habits You Need to Stop Now.Learn to Think Backward and Forward through problems.Question Assumptions.Learn Winning An Argument, because it will help you get the most information and learning from the conversation (and win the argument.)Use the Feynman Technique to make sure you understand things. This is perhaps the single most effective studying tool that you can use.You can't really know anything unless you understand your Circle of Competence. And you can't really understand your CoC until you do The Work Required To Have An Opinion. Learn to Consider the Other Side.Baseball legend Ted Williams can teach you a lot about decision making if you let him.Learning is best when you connect it to things that you've already learned. The more you know the more you can connect.Read A Lot.Learn to Combine ideas.

Getting a scholarship is a blessing not only for a high school or college student but for the family as well.It’s extremely difficult to obtain a full-ride scholarship, but you can easily find college scholarships that provide smaller amounts ranging from $1000 to $5000 if you have the right approach. This is a great remedy for mounting college debt and other costs.But one obstacle you will have to go through to secure the financing is writing the scholarship essay. And one of the top questions posed to students is: “Why do you deserve this scholarship?”In this article, I will tell you exactly how to answer this question and maximize your chances of getting the scholarship. In the end, you will also find an example of an essay, you can use as an inspiration. Also, if you want to put your writing skills to the test, get my report on how to earn money from home as a freelance writer.The keys to a successful scholarship essay (summary):The right length – around 500 words.Proper formatting, grammar, and vocabulary.Give strong reasons why you deserve it.Share powerful, memorable stories.Use language that will create an emotional impact.Give proof of your accomplishments.Grab their attention at the very beginning of the essay.Show your positive attitude.Paint a bright future for yourself.Politely ask for the money.Follow the essay instructions closelyCater to the scholarship provider’s mission and visionWhy do you deserve this scholarship – How to write an essay that will get the $$$?1. Write at least 500 wordsThis will show that you care and really want the scholarship. But at the same time, the essay won’t be too long to bore the review committee.2. Respect the grammar, vocabulary and formatting rules5 paragraphs (1 for introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and 1 for the conclusion). Make sure the essay is free of typos, and grammatical errors (use Grammarly to avoid embarrassing mistakes). That’s the first step to writing a winning scholarship essay.3. Give strong reasons for why you deserve the scholarship and what will you do with the money – be specific.Powerful reasons drive human behavior. You can think about your essay as a persuasive letter that needs to evoke certain feelings and emotions.Brainstorm and come up with a few great reasons why you deserve it. Adding the word “because” dramatically increases the chances of eliciting a positive response.The famous example from a persuasion study:“I have 5 pages, can I use the Xerox machine before you because I’m in a rush” got a 94% success rate vs. 60% when no “reason why” was given.An example you could use in your scholarship essay:“I deserve this scholarship because I graduated top of my class, even though I still had to help my little sister with her homework”.“I would be so grateful if I could receive this scholarship because my family is in a tough financial situation now, and my younger sister also dreams about going to college”.4. Include a powerful, memorable storyThere was one essay that got a student into 14 colleges, including Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton. Although a scholarship essay is a bit different, you can use principles from an admissions essay to achieve desired results.The secret ingredient in this one, was a powerful personal story, about bullying, and reconciliation with a homeland.Here’s an excerpt:This memory has woven itself into my philosophy and my dreams. The very personal knowledge that millions live in a way such that electric toothbrushes are an unfathomable luxury (my cousin, Aina), has given me the following personal rules:Education is an opportunity, not a burden;You always have enough to share.While I may not be certain of my future, I know for certain that I want to serve.If you can, include a beautifully written, personal story like this in the essay, you will be so much closer to getting the scholarship you deserve.5. Use words with an emotional impactPushing the right emotional buttons is key to persuasion. Don’t hesitate to share stories of your hardships.If you’re in a tough financial situation, say it. If someone in your family is chronically ill and you need financial and emotional resources to help them, say it.But mostly, focus on positive emotions. Talk about your childhood dreams, and about the great things you are going to do in the future.In a great book called “Contagious”, emotional triggers were one of the five main elements that help things spread and make us take action. Use them.Example: “Since I was a little boy I always wanted to be a great scientist. I used to hang posters of astronauts and planets on my bedroom walls and dreamed about making grand discoveries. This dream is still alive somewhere deep inside. But now I’m not sure how to nurture it. I would really like to concentrate on my studies, but because of my hard financial situation, I have to take odd-jobs instead of following my dreams”.6. Give proof of why you deserve itIf you really want to convince the committee that you truly deserve to receive a scholarship, you need to back up your claims with solid proof.It’s not enough to share powerful stories, and give strong “reasons why”. You also need to make the case more believable by proving that what you say is true.You need to be really specific in this area.You had excellent grades in high school? Your GPA is off the charts? Did you take part in interesting extracurricular activities? Do you have high achievements in the area of sports and athletics? Did you win an award for your accomplishments? An important person gave you words of praise?You can use these things to make your claim more believable. Make it appear that you deserve the money because of your true and honest accomplishments and hard work.Example: “In my senior year of High School, I received the MVP award for my accomplishments in football. My coach said he sees me in the big leagues if I work hard enough for it.”7. Hook – get attention from the very beginningThe scholarship committee has to go through dozens and dozens of essays and applications every day. Most of them are quite bland and follow the same tired script.To stand out, you need to come up with an attention-grabbing paragraph that will stop them in their tracks and get them focused. This is called a “hook”.There are a couple of ways in which you can do it. You can start with:An anecdoteAn interesting number or are a statisticA powerful quoteAsking a questionExample: “More than 70 percent of workers say they don’t feel satisfied with their career choices, and I believe we have a serious epidemic on our hands.”8. Show the right attitudeBeing humble yet eager and ambitious is the attitude you need to present if you want to get the scholarship.Do not be demanding, arrogant, or appear as a beggar. This will disqualify you immediately.Rather, be nice, positive, optimistic, future-oriented, respectful, and promising. The kind of attitude goes a long way.9. Paint a bright futureTry to stir the imagination of the recipients of your essay. How this money is going to help you move ahead? What great things are you going to accomplish in the future? What do you want to do when you graduate? What are your goals for the next 5 years? How are you going to help people and contribute to society?By answering some of these questions, you will prove to the committee that you are worth investing in.Example: “Deep inside I know that I’m going to succeed, and help many other people on the way. This is just a matter of time.”10. Call to action (close the essay with a bang)At the very end of the essay, try to sum up why do you deserve the scholarship and then politely but firmly ask for the money. You need to state your intention – “ ask and ye shall receive, right?”Example: “I have great expectations for the future and this scholarship would help me to move forward with my dreams. I will be eagerly waiting for your positive response.”Additional tips for editing and managing the scholarship essayAccording to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are over 750,000 scholarships available to students. That’s over $122 billion distributed every year. In fact, around two-thirds of students receive some form of financial aid during their time in college.So – someone is getting the money. And that’s why you need to apply and send the essays to as many scholarship and grant-giving organizations as possible. Treat it as a part-time job.Now, among these 750,000 organizations (whether federal, university-based or private), the majority will ask in one way or another: “why should you receive this scholarship”?Of course, you will not send a completely unique essay along with every single application.You need to learn how to intelligently recycle it, and adapt it to the specific situation.For example, if you apply for a university scholarship, the focus should be on scholastic achievements and a future in science and technology. If it’s a military organization, talk more about self-discipline, organization, and willpower.Religious groups? Adjust the essay so it relates to faith-based communities. Businesses? Talk about entrepreneurship of the student, and their ability to get things done.You get the point.When writing the essay, put yourself in the other person’s shoes and think – “if I were this person, which reasons would convince me that this student deserves a scholarship?”Turn yourself and your child into a scholarship-copywriter and adapt the approach as you go. There’s nothing that will get the application rejected faster than receiving a “cookie-cutter” type of essay that goes to hundreds of organizations without any changes.An example of a “why do you deserve this scholarship” essayNote: See how the essay includes the rules and elements I described at the beginning of this article.Two-thirds of students who earned a four-year degree borrowed for college. And the average student loan is $28,500. These numbers seem mild in comparison to what I and my family are facing.My older brother and sister are already in college because my mom always wanted us to be well educated and make a positive impact on society. But this has caused us to borrow, and now we’re over $60,000 in debt. Our father is never here to help us as he left us when we were still small children.But this hasn’t stopped me from dreaming and painting a brighter vision for my future. I know that to get out of this situation, I will have to work harder than anyone else around me. Even though I’m young, I have already worked part-time in a local cafeteria and earned a little bit of money on the side as a blogger to help my family.My true vocation is architecture. Ever since I was a child, I used to flip through the pages of “The Most Beautiful Buildings in The World” book in the nearby library, and think that one day, I too will be able to construct magnificent structures full of light and color.I’m drawing as much as I can, and I have already filled 12 notebooks with my projects. I also receive straight “A’s” in mathematics and physics since the very beginning of my school time. I even got the first place in my high school art competition and my teachers say I’m going to accomplish great things in the future.I am dedicated to succeeding no matter what, but nowadays it’s becoming harder and harder because I have to save every penny and worry about money almost all the time.I fear that instead of pursuing my dream, I will have to settle for a low paying job simply to survive and help out my mom. But I don’t want to postpone my studies and wait until my siblings pay off their debt. I don’t want to put everything on hold.If I received a little bit of financial help, it would be so much easier for me to go through college and become somebody.I deserve this scholarship because of my hard work, dedication, fantastic grades, and my entrepreneurial spirit. I promise I will make this money go a long way and continue with my efforts to make the world a better place. I’m eagerly waiting for your response.ConclusionAs you can see, writing a “why do you deserve this scholarship” essay is not as complicated as it seems. Once you have the final draft, you can use it as a template (with modifications), when applying for many different scholarships.The important thing is to push the right emotional buttons, share the exact reasons why you deserve the money, and never give up until you get the scholarship.Don’t trust the companies that say they will find the scholarships for you and write the best essay that will guarantee success. No one cares about your situation more than you, and it’s you who need to put in the work, to make it work. Good luck!

“According to a ‘Managing Digital Marketing’ study by Smart Insights, 46% of brands don’t have a defined digital marketing strategy, while 16% do have a strategy but haven’t yet integrated it into their marketing activity.” [1]If you are among the above 46% or 16%, do not worry! Follow the steps below to make one by yourself.#1- Know what is your Vision, Objective and Benchmark to successThis is an important part of a marketing strategy plan. Your digital marketing campaign should be going through this path as a guiding structure. If not then there is a serious problem. If you don’t know where you’re going, where will you end up? Then feel free to contact me.To build vision, mission and objective you must know what are the metrics which you want to consider. Follow the steps below.Segment your industry : Define your type of business example- Wholesale/ Service/ Retail etc.Segment your customer : Know your customers learn in step 4 of the articleSegment the problem you solve: Find out some problems in your industry faced by Customers and explain how your enterprise will solve some of them.Explain how you will solve that problem : As mentioned in above point, Show how will you solve the problem.Example-Vision: “Our initial goal is to become the premier provider for Car rentals. We will then leverage our customer base and position in the market to offer new equipment sales as well as comprehensive maintenance and service, custom equipment fittings, and expert trail advice.” [4]Objective: Become the largest shareholder of Car Rental in California. Generate $100000 as net income at the 2nd quarter of 2018.Keys to success: Provide a standard and quality Car with a 24 hour support online. Extra discount through loyalty program.# 2 – Decide and finalize the budget for your marketing campaign.Ad Budget Calculation“Take 10 percent and 12 percent of your projected annual, gross sales and multiply each by the markup made on your average transaction. “ [7]“Deduct your annual cost of occupancy (rent) from the adjusted 10 percent of sales number and the adjusted 12 percent number.” [7]“The remaining balances represent your minimum and maximum allowable ad budgets for the year.” [7]Sign up to get the next version of this article with a sample preparation in 2017, MarchExample- You sell a Mobile Phone for $150 and the cost price is $100. So markup is 50% and margin is 33.33%.Assume your business is predicted to make $1 million this year 2017. Profit Margin is 48% and Annual rent is $52000. So let’s calculate percent of sales and 12 percent of sales (4100,000 and $120,000).Now let’s convert profit margin to mark up so divide gross profit by cost (48% i.e $480,000 hard cost). Hence 480,000/520,000= 92.3 %So Profit Margin= 92.3 %Ok so now multiply 92.3% * $100,0000(10%)=$ 92,300Multiply 92.3% * $120,000(12%)= $111,760Now subtract the rent from both rangesHence Lower ad range= $92,300-50,000= $42,300 (4.2 % of gross sales)Higher ad range= $110,000- 50,000= $60,000 (6% of gross sales)# 3- Develop Personas and create campaigns or blog posts accordinglyTo develop a persona follow the below stepsKnow your target consumerWrite all demographic data for your target consumer- age, gender, geographic areaFind out problems faced by this consumer categoryGet some more information like emotional desires, fear etc. about the personaYou can go through the Audience Report on Google Analytics for knowing the characteristics of your persona.Find the list of people who will be influencers to your persona/target audience. Ask them for help or use their influencing information along with your campaign.OrYou can also use the given tool for automatic persona creation. Makemypersona is one of the best persona creation platform so use it for free.# 4- Designing your campaignFind popular topics to your audience: When your are running a campaign or posting an article, remember one important thing “What are you posting” [5]. Find out the most shared and liked topics by your segmented audience using the following tools Buzzsumo, Scoopit etc.Use a marketing calendar : Use a marketing calendar to set up a plan when to give special offers or posts according to an event. You can get a free marketing calendar here Click to download.Use right Keywords: Keywords are important factors to attract your audience when searching for something or seeing an ad on social media. Some of the helpful tools for keyword research are Google keyword planner and SERP.Designing your social media poster:Graphics is one of important parts of a marketing campaign.I would call it the Hero shot [6]. Canva and Adobe Indesign are some of my favourite tools for designing posters. Everyone likes a story – If you have a vision, then a company video is a great tool to connect with your audience. Have a personal message recorded by your founder and experience of your users. Have some animation integrated on your video to tell the story. Adobe Animate CC is one of the important video animation tool. Remember to add a call to action button. There are several tools for call to action and landing page templates, I like the tool Unbounce.# 5- Communication | Email Marketing |Check whether you have used right keywords in your marketing campaign. If it’s a email campaign then make sure you have used right tools for monitoring and segmenting leads and future leads while Title/Subject of the email is the most important part of the email.. If you are using wix then do not forget to use the email marketing server of wix because you can track your emails and download the list of emails that opened your email and those who do not open. Hence you can re target the audience according to behaviour and demographics.There many other email marketing tools like Mailchimp, Drip etc. While Email Subject is a very important part of an email campaign, the second most important reason is timing. Use SeventhSense for sending an email campaign according to time. ​Seventh Sense is a terrific tool that delivers your sales and marketing emails to your recipients at the ideal time—when they’re in front of their email. Apart from email set up, content is very important so are chances of getting spammed. This tool “EmailCopyChecker” checks the words in the content of your email and tells you which part of email is leading towards spam.For Social Media Approach and tools, read the upcoming advanced version of this article in March.# 6 – Do you have an advanced mobile friendly website ?There are approximately 4.6 billion mobile users [3] in the world so if you have an old website which is either not advanced/ user friendly or mobile friendly then you need serious help right now. If you are a small start up and need website only for content then I would suggest going for Wix or Weebly where you can edit the website using website builder without coding. While if you need a website for advanced level of work example- LMS or Search Database then you use WordPress.#7- Best time to post on social mediaChoose the channels for campaign- Adwords, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Hootsuite is one of my favourite automation software for social media campaigns.Remember“The best time to post on Twitter is at 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.” [2]“The best time to post on Facebook is between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And on Saturday and Sunday between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m.” [2]“The best time to post on Instagram is from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Friday.” [2]*Time may be different for different customer based on location.# 8 – Set the plan as Agile (Think “Outline” not “Campaign”)“As research on disruption and market transitions suggests, you’re better off these days if you can quickly identify and adapt to changes in your environment.”[8] Follow the below 4 phases for applying agile strategy in your marketing planAnnouncements and Initial AdvertisementCustomer engagement and Ad set upPromote new product salesAnalyze and regroup [8]# 9- Analytics | Google Analytics |After running a marketing campaign, the first thing you should do is track the activities and result. Mark the key performance indicators and measure the return on investment. Set the benchmarking tool and compare the your campaign or website analytics with your industry average. Find the audience according to region, technology, browser, age, gender etc. Segment the audience according to your target market.Read my articleAbout Author-Asif Razzaq is a seasoned digital marketing specialist and digital health expert with robust industry experience and an enviable portfolio in Business Development, Digital Marketing, Market Research and Animation. An astute entrepreneur, Asif has distinguished himself as a startup management professional by successfully growing startups from launch phase into profitable businesses. This has earned him awards including, the SGPGI NCBL Young Biotechnology Entrepreneurs Award.Asif also has verifiable proficiency in Turnaround management and Bottom-line performance; he has helped organizations achieve increased revenues through aggressive marketing and management initiatives.He has also worked extensively with USA’s leading medical device and biotech organizations like Bioviva, MedTech Catalyst, HealthConnexions and Epinex Diagnostics.Asif Razzaq is Google AdWords Mobile and Search Engine certified. He is also Inbound certified from Hubspot. He holds a degree in Biotechnology from India, a Graduate Certificate in Bio Science Management from Keck Graduate Institute, California, a Certificate in Design Thinking for Business Innovation from The University of Virginia Darden School of Business and, a Certificate Training on Financial Modeling from Stanford University.Asif is invested in helping businesses achieve turnaround through aggressive digital marketing growth strategies and digital health initiatives. He hopes to become one of America’s most renowned digital marketing consultants in a few years.