Have you ever tried memorizing word-lists to improve your vocabulary? When I was in India, I used to coach students preparing for GRE / GMAT and other exams to improve their vocabulary. Using some very powerful mnemonic techniques, these students were able to learn as many as 100 new words and their meanings in about 2 hours.

The technique is simple.

1. Convert the word into a picture
2. Associate the picture with the meaning in a fun way.

In the word-a-week series of posts, I will share with you a mnemonic technique to remember a word and its meaning.

This week’s word:

Word: Ebullient
Meaning: excessive joy; enthusiasm

Picture for ebullient: A BULLY ANT
Association: A BULLY ANT is overflowing with joy.

Recent usage of this word in news:

1. The fear has spread to China’s normally ebullient market, where shares tumbled more that 5 per cent.
2. A year before he leaves town after two turbulent terms for a new home in Dallas, Bush is unusually ebullient these days.

Can you think of a usage for this word? Leave a comment.

Nishant Kasibhatla
Grand Master of Memory

Enjoy the following video which is a collection of some great quotations! The quotations with the music is a great combo and watching it will be a great time to reflect on some wise sayings of wise men.

One of my favourites from the video:
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly”

The next day, wouldn’t you talk to your friends, colleagues about the movie? I am sure you will. You have just used the power of referral to promote the movie and you didn’t even got paid a cent by Warner Bros (the distributors of the movie)

Its just natural for anyone to spread the good word (good movies, books, products, services etc). Now the point is how to benefit from this tool.

How to get referrals:

Its easy to give a referral to someone. But how do you get someone to give your products or services a referral? There are plenty ways of doing this. Here are some steps to follow:

1. You must first have a very good product/service. If you are in a job, you must provide exceptional service. No one refers a lousy product or a person.

2. Be proactive in talking about your product, service, achievements & accomplishments. If you are in a job, talk about your achievements and the targets you achieved.

3. Ask for referrals. You might say something to the effect of “If you know someone who you think might get benefited by my product/service, just let them know”.

4. Try to be in the eyes, ears, mind and heart of all your contacts. Meet them regularly, call them, be in touch. If your contacts don’t know what’s happening in your life, they will forget you and just cant refer you to anyone, even if they want to (Not everyone has a very good memory like mine!).

If you are in printing business and you do this, who do you think your contacts first think of when someone asks them if they knew any printer? You know the answer.

If you are in a job (say, Accounts Head), when you do this, who do you think your seniors think of when your company is expanding and they need some one to manage the accounts division if a major project?

5. Join a referral organisation, which engages in active referral promotion. One such organisation is BNI. I just joined one of its chapters in Singapore (BNI-Abundance)

You - The Superstar

By following the above points, it doesn’t take much time when everyone is talking about your products/services. And you (or your products/services) will be well on your way being a SuperStar!

BTW, I haven’t watched “I am Legend”.

Nishant Kasibhatla
Grand Master of Memory

PS: If you like my post/blog, let your friends know about it! (That’s Step 3 in action)

Credits: Thanks Nifal. You are the one who inspired me to come up with the title for this blog.