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Chiara Cokieng

📍 Berlin, Germany

Being misunderstood is the price of an interesting life

I attended our high school year reunion (10 years!). It magnified my chronic problem of answering two simple questions: What do you do? And what have you been up to? I’m currently Research Director, managing global operations, of a New York-based tech startup called OnFrontiers. Before that, I did

Being nice as the opposite of being truthful

When I onboard a new teammate and talk about our values, the first value I bring up is truth. At face value… It’s like, of course. Be honest. Don’t lie. But to be truthful, I don’t just mean don’t lie. I mean something more than that.

Saying no to the things that don’t matter

January 3rd in The Daily Stoic [http://amzn.to/2EIeD4z]: > How many have laid waste to your life when you weren’t aware of what you were losing, how much was wasted in pointless grief, foolish joy, greedy desire, and social amusements — how little of your own was left

My reading year, 2017

These are the books that stuck with me in 2017. 2017 is the year I learned how todo my job. What is my job? It is to not tell grand stories to myself about how great and talented I am, how full of potential, how awesome the things I will

Sometimes, to take control means asking for help

Or, asking for help doesn’t mean ceding control > In life the chief business is this: distinguish and separate things, and say, “Externals are not in my power: will is in my power. Where shall I seek the good and the bad? Within, in the things which are my

Books and highlights - Week of 4 December 2017

Books opened week of Monday, 4 December 2017 * Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less * The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues * The Advantage, Enhanced Edition: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business * The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization * The Four Obsessions

Reminiscing a four-year friendship with Sebastian Marshall

I’m rereading Ikigai [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M9T8NI/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title] which I bought four years ago, in 2013. At that time, it was a major decision to spend $9.77 to buy an ebook on Amazon. I remember buying a Kindle so I could

Why I quit my first job

[http://chiaracokieng.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/job.jpg] I was 22 years old. I was earning PHP 40,000 a month and traveling to a different city every weekend. That Sunday, I flew to LA to watch Jack’s Mannequin’s last concert. Six months later, while preparing to

Why I quit being an Olympic hopeful

I wanted to be an Olympic Wrestler. Or at least a World or Asian one. My hypothesis: I could condense twenty years of training into four, through heart, intelligence, and a willingness to invest time and money. After 1.5 years of training, competing, and collecting data, the verdict is

My three words for 2017

[http://chiaracokieng.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/connect-westrock.jpg] The three words are a mantra to guide my behaviors and actions in 2017. 2017 is my first year being a manager. I am Director of Research at OnFrontiers. For the first time in my work life, my results are a