Is it good to be passionate and emotional in the workplace? Many may say passion is ok, but emotion may be an issue. But how to separate them?

Looking at one’s own personal pro and con - I am sure my passion and emotion gets the best of me. I have to be more level headed. I have to separate friends and business.

Watching a bunch of DVDs last night, one was called “taken” - its a great movie, I would definitely recommend watching it.

The basis of the movie is a retired secret agent is extra-paranoid about his daughter going on a trip to Europe. Everyone thinks he’s over-reacting, but actually she gets kidnapped SAME DAY she arrives in France.

anyway, so he goes to France and talks to some of his old colleagues there. They help him, to a point, but actually they are in on the crime (indirectly)….. so he has to make things personal, attacking their wives and using that to get information.

Then when he finds the area his daughter is held captive, he asks for her back. The “bad guys” say its not possible, until he shoots up the place. the mob-boss begs for his life to the father, saying - you have to understand, “it was not personal, it was business”….

The father doesn’t think so, and executes him coldly on the elevator floor.

If that a mix of personal and business?

Sure, its a movie. And extreme…..But there are other cases, weekends seeing staff, do you talk about work? Do you forget work and just be friends? Seeing your friends you are buying from, or selling to, at a party - how not to talk about business?

Especially with the explosion of social media in today’s internet environment. We see the facebook profiles of our friends. they are talking business. at the same time they are talking a bout getting drunk at a house party.

Then, when you have a dispute in business- do you delete them from your “social friends” profile? So strange.

I just keep going on, but would like some ideas here. Also, today is the first day I integrated my blog into my facebook account - hope to get some more activity / readers.

Yes. this can be a sensitive topic. But hey, thats why I am picking it as a topic in the first place! And that is - how an original idea in one country may be copied overseas without any financial compensation or even a “thank you” to the founder. I, being born and raised in the USA, always was brought up with the impression ideas are stolen and you have to watch carefully who you show it to, and that overseas, yes, it will quickly get stolen from you and you probably cannot do anything about it.

Being here in China now about 1 and a half years, I have grown perspective on this topic. Put yourself in this situation:

See a product / service you like that is sold overseas. It is not being offered in your country. You don’t speak the language where it is currently being made. You see opportunity of this product / service selling in your home country. Also, the original concept is not exactly how you think it would be best in your home country - the people here would want it differently.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

OK, so you want to do the right thing. You, what? Call a USA phone number, but you cannot speak English that well, and it is pretty expensive to call internationally. Do you consult with a company in your city? Well, they probably would say just do it, they would not say bother contacting this international company (and this is the main problem, no standard international policy on IP!).

but say you do speak good English, and you stay up late one night and make a phone call. OK - a customer service rep picks up the call - “who are you? hmmm, who to transfer you too”. etc etc, I mean, how do you get to the right person?

And then, say you get to the executive team who owns this great product / service in USA. If they even take you seriously, what are they going to say

bit of insanity, reading on twitter that approximately 500,000 usernames have been reserved on facebook now. BEFORE their 12 midnight release they had announced.

Many of my friends and facebook users are SLEEPING NOW. And they were under the impression midnight on Saturday… Guess i’m lucky to be checking during my chinese timezone daytime. and got my username facebook.com/michelini

Another interesting trend I saw on twitter is that, slowly, Facebook is seeing the tactics twitter has been using.

First - facebook copies the “status updates” (what are you diong) concept from twitter.

Now - facebook copies the “username” tactic twitter has.

The main difference I see with the two still is. FACEBOOK IS FOR REAL FRIENDS, you know in life, while Twitter is for those who want to meet new people, and can read anything others post. So Twitter is more open and sharing, while Facebook is more exclusive and friends only.

But yea, Facebook did try to buy Twitter last year, but it was an all stock deal, so Twitter didn’t bite. now, it seems it will just slowly mimic and copy the twitter model. but how much can i copy and mirror, without losing too much of its original focus and own business model - a place for friends (friends YOU KNOW!)