30 Haziran 2019 Pazar

Kadınsız Erkekler'den Unutulmaz Alıntılar

Kitap çok çok iyiydi, tabi kitapta altını çizdiğim cümleler de baya iyi oldu. Her zamanki gibi Murakami yine konuşturmuş kalemini...

Bir ağacın büyüyüp güçlenmesi için zor bir kış geçirmesi gereklidir. Hep ılık ve durgun bir iklim olursa, büyüme halkası da oluşmaz değil mi?

Yarın nasıl bir rüya görürüz, bunu kim bilebilir ki?

Gün gelir, maymun da ağaçtan düşer.

Benim için yazmak, bir şeyi unutmamak için en etkili yöntem.

Bu dünyada doğru olmayanı yapmaktan uzak durmak da yetmeyebilir bazen.


23 Haziran 2019 Pazar

Unsmoke as a Sunday Evening Activity

Tonight, just after watching an animation movie with my son and wife, as a Sunday evening activity before sleep, my son asked for a special request: drawing

All he asked for was to draw something that each of us can work on different paper and share with each other when the whole drawing was finalized.

As a father who is not good at drawing figures, I came up with an idea: Unsmoke

Rather than a drawing, it is a little bit writing but at least it has an inspiration.

And here is the product:



Not the best drawing, but probably one of the best messages to the whole world!

For my other unsmoke related posts, please kindly visit:

http://volkanyorulmaz.blogspot.com/2019/04/unsmoke.html

http://volkanyorulmaz.blogspot.com/2019/06/how-i-unsmoked-my-best-friend.html

If you want to learn more about Unsmoke, then you should visit:

https://www.unsmokeyourworld.com



Hesap Bakım Ücretini Nasıl Geri Aldım?

Şimdiye kadar kredi kartı kullanım ücreti, yıllık aidatı, üyelik bedeli ya da hesap işletim ücreti gibi bankaların farklı isimler adı altında benden kestiği tüm ücretleri Tüketici Hakem Heyeti’ne başvurarak birçok kez geri aldım. Tamamen haksız kazanç olduğunu düşündüğüm bu tutarları tüketicilerin ya da yatırımcıların yersiz bir şekilde ödememesi için elimden geldiğince insanları bilgilendirmeye çalıştım. Yeri geldi ya aşağıdaki gibi blog içerikleri hazırladım:

https://volkanyorulmaz.blogspot.com/2019/01/kredi-kart-uyelik-bedelimi-yine-geri.html


ya da konuya tek bir kaynaktan erişilebilsin diye ücretsiz bir elektronik kitap hazırlayıp insanları bilgilendirmek istedim:


https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Volkan_Yorulmaz_Sadece_Hakkımı_Aradım?id=WV1mDwAAQBAJ&hl=tr


Gelir görün ki, bankalar bu konuda müşterilerinden haksız bedeller alıp her geçen yıl kazançlarını üstüne koyarak artırmaya devam ediyorlar. Şöyle ki, kamuya açık bilgiler ışığında, 2017 yılında Türkiye’de en çok kazanç sahibi olan 5 kurumun tamamı, en çok kazanç sahibi 10 kurumun ise 8’i bankalar. (Kaynak: https://www.gib.gov.tr/sites/default/files/fileadmin/user_upload/VI/2017_KurumlarVergisi.htm) Ama bankalar yetinmiyor ve müşterilerinden bu “haksız” geliri farklı adlar altında elde etmeye devam ediyorlar. 


Bu kez başımdan geçen örnekte, Akbank hisse senedi yatırım hesabım sebebiyle vadesiz maaş hesabımdan “yıllık bakım ücreti” adı altında 75 TL’lik bir tutar tahsil etti. Bu durumu hemen fark ettim ve bankayı arayarak bir yılı aşkın süredir hesabımda yatırım hareketi olmadığını, tutarın çekildiği hesabın ise maaş hesabım olduğunu, bu sebeple tutarın tarafıma iade edilmesini istediğimi belirttim. Müşteri temsilcisi bu tutarı tüm yatırım hesaplarından aldıklarını ve iadesinin mümkün olmadığını belirtti. Bunun üzerine bir de mail ile bankadan iadesini istedim ve yazılı olarak da ret cevabı aldım.

Ardından e-devlet üzerinden tüketici hakem heyetine online başvuru yaptım. Başvuruma ilişkin belgeyi ekte örnek olarak paylaşıyorum:
İlk Kurşun: Haksızlığı Şikayet


Günümüzde oturduğumuz yerden tüketicilerin haklarını savunabilmesini sağlayan hukuk devletimiz sayesinde 7 Mayıs 2019 tarihinde başlattığım süreç 18 Haziran 2019 tarihinde benim için olumlu bir şekilde sona erdi ve talebimde haklı olduğum Karşıyaka Hakem Heyeti tarafından belirlendi.


Blog’umu okuyan, sosyal medyadaki paylaşımlarımı takip eden ve bankalara karşı mücadele etmeye çalışan pek çok kişi sürecin ne kadar süreceği konusunda bilgi almak için bana mesaj atıyorlar. Yukarıdaki tabloda da göreceğiniz üzere, araya bayram tatili, yaz tatili vb tatiller bile girse süreç bir ay ile iki ay arasında sona eriyor.


Sürecin Kısa ve Takibi Kolay Olması Avantaj


Siz de bankaların sizden kredi kartı üyelik ücreti, hesap işletim ücreti ya da bakım ücreti gibi farklı adlarla tahsil ettiği tutarlara karşı mutlaka itiraz edin ve hakkınızı arayın. 


Tüm Süreci İnternet Üzerinden Takip Etmek Mümkün

Bilgisayarınızın başındayken Turkiye.gov.tr’yi ziyaret ederek birkaç dakika içerisinde yapacağınız şikayet ile sesinizi çıkarın ve adı ne olursa olsun bu tutarı geri alın.


Sürecin Elektronik Ortamda Yürütülmesi Büyük Kolaylık


Sonra mı? Dilerseniz o bankada yatırıma dönüştürün, dilerseniz harcayın ya da ihtiyacı olan biriyle paylaşın. Tercih sizin… Sadece şunu bilin, gelir rekortmeni bankaların sizin hesabınızdan ya da kartınızdan ne isimle olursa olsun bu tutarları almaya hakkı yok!



Ve "Mutlu Son"
 
Kararda Kullanılan İfadeler Çok Net!


20 Haziran 2019 Perşembe

Highlights from Trillion Dollar Coach

Based on interviews with over eighty people who knew and loved Bill Campbell, Trillion Dollar Coach explains the Coach’s principles and illustrates them with stories from the many great people and companies with which he worked. The result is a blueprint for forward-thinking business leaders and managers that will help them create higher performing and faster moving cultures, teams, and companies.



Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders on both coasts, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016.

Below you may find the quotes I have highlighted while I was reading this great book. I hope Bill will manage to touch you with his coaching style:

  • Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders on both coasts, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016.
  • Bill loved shining the spotlight on others but preferred to stay in the shadows himself.
  • To be a great manager, you have to be a great coach. After all, the higher you climb, the more your success depends on making other people successful. By definition, that’s what coaches do.
  • Bill may have been correct in believing that success as a football coach depends on “dispassion,” but in business there is growing evidence that compassion is a key factor to success. And as it turned out, this notion of bringing compassion to the team worked much better for Bill in the business world than on the football field.
  • Teams that act as communities, integrating interests and putting aside differences to be individually and collectively obsessed with what’s good for the company. Research shows that when people feel like they are part of a supportive community at work, they are more engaged with their jobs and more productive. Conversely, a lack of community is a leading factor in job burnout.
  • The trick is to corral any “team of rivals” into a community and get them aligned in marching toward a common goal.
  • To balance the tension and mold a team into a community, you need a coach, someone who works not only with individuals but also with the team as a whole to smooth out the constant tension, continuously nurture the community, and make sure it is aligned around a common vision and set of goals. Sometimes this coach may just work with the team leader, the executive in charge. But to be most effective—and this was Bill’s model—the coach works with the entire team.
  • There was only one Bill Campbell, perhaps the most extraordinary individual we have had the pleasure and honor to meet and befriend. But much of the what and the how of his coaching, we believe, can be replicated by others. If you are a manager, executive, or any other kind of leader of teams, in any kind of business or organization, you can be more effective and help your team perform better (and be happier) by becoming the coach of that team.
  • Your title makes you a manager. Your people make you a leader.
  • Bill felt that leadership was something that evolved as a result of management excellence. “How do you bring people around and help them flourish in your environment? It’s not by being a dictator. It’s not by telling them what the hell to do. It’s making sure that they feel valued by being in the room with you. Listen. Pay attention. This is what great managers do.”
  • Bill liked to say: “If you’re a great manager, your people will make you a leader. They acclaim that, not you.”
  • He once sent a note to a valuable manager who was struggling, counseling him that “you have demanded respect, rather than having it accrue to you. You need to project humility, a selflessness, that projects that you care about the company and about people.”
  • People are the foundation of any company’s success. The primary job of each manager is to help people be more effective in their job and to grow and develop. We have great people who want to do well, are capable of doing great things, and come to work fired up to do them. Great people flourish in an environment that liberates and amplifies that energy. Managers create this environment through support, respect, and trust.
  • Support means giving people the tools, information, training, and coaching they need to succeed. It means continuous effort to develop people’s skills. Great managers help people excel and grow.
  • Respect means understanding people’s unique career goals and being sensitive to their life choices. It means helping people achieve these career goals in a way that’s consistent with the needs of the company.
  • Trust means freeing people to do their jobs and to make decisions. It means knowing people want to do well and believing that they will.
  • Great coaches lie awake at night thinking. “What keeps you up at night?” is a traditional question asked of executives. For Bill the answer was always the same: the well-being and success of his people.
  • Coaches are like great artists getting the stroke exactly right on a painting. They are painting relationships. Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how they are going to make someone else better. But that’s what coaches do. It’s what Bill Campbell did, he just did it on a different field.
  • Bill and Eric understood that there’s a direct correlation between fun work environments and higher performance, with conversation about family and fun (what academics might call “socioemotional communication”) being an easy way to achieve the former.
  • To build rapport and better relationships among team members, start team meetings with trip reports, or other types of more personal, non-business topics.
  • Oftentimes, small talk in a work environment is cursory: a quick “how are the kids?” or chatter about the morning commute before moving on to the business stuff. Conversations with Bill were more meaningful and layered; you sometimes got the feeling that the conversation about life was more the point of the meeting than the business topics. In fact, while his interest in people’s lives was quite sincere, it had a powerful benefit: a 2010 study concludes that having these sort of “substantive” conversations, as opposed to truly small talk, makes people happier.
  • From the (not so) small talk, Bill moved to performance: What are you working on? How is it going? How could he help? Then, we would always get to peer relationships, which Bill thought were more important than relationships with your manager and other higher-ups.
  • Have a structure for 1:1S, and take the time to prepare for them, as they are the best way to help people be more effective and to grow.
  • When his team was confronted with a challenging decision, Eric liked to use a management technique he called the “rule of two.” He would get the two people most closely involved in the decision to gather more information and work together on the best solution, and usually they would come back a week or two later having decided together on the best course of action.
  • When the best idea doesn’t emerge, it’s time for the manager to force the decision or make it herself. “A manager’s job is to break ties and make their people better,” Bill said. “We’re going to do it this way. Cut the shit. Done.” Bill learned this the hard way: in his days as an exec at Apple he had experienced the exact opposite, a place where decisions festered and the business suffered.
  • Make the best decision you can, then move on.
  • The Manager’s job is to run a decision-making process that ensures all perspectives get heard and considered, and, if necessary, to break ties and make the decision.
  • In any situation there are certain immutable truths upon which everyone can agree. These are the “first principles,” a popular phrase and concept around Silicon Valley. Every company and every situation has its set of them. You can argue opinions, but you generally can’t argue principles, since everyone has already agreed upon them. As Bill would point out, it’s the leader’s job, when faced with a tough decision, to describe and remind everyone of those first principles. As a result, the decision often becomes much easier to make.
  • Bill understood something about compensation that many people do not: the money isn’t always about the money. For sure, everyone needs to be paid a fair salary that affords them a good lifestyle. For a great many people, the money is about the money.
  • Compensation isn’t just about the economic value of the money; it’s about the emotional value. It’s a signaling device for recognition, respect, and status, and it ties people strongly to the goals of the company. Bill knew that everyone is human and needs to be appreciated. This is why the superstar athlete who is worth tens or hundreds of millions pushes for that next huge contract. It’s not for the money; it’s for the love.
  • Compensating people well demonstrates love and respect and ties them strongly to the goals of the company.
  • If you have the right product for the right market at the right time, go as fast as you can. There are minor things that will go wrong and you have to fix them quickly, but speed is essential.
  • In our world, the attitude is often first prove to me how smart you are, then maybe I’ll trust you, or at least your intellect. Bill took a different, more patient approach. He started relationships by getting to know the person, beyond their résumé and skill set. Shishir Mehrotra notes that Bill “walked among a set of driven technologists, but he saw the world in a completely different way . . . He saw it as a network of people, learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and learning to trust each other as a primary mechanism of achieving goals.”
  • How did Bill do it? First, he only coached the coachable. Then, if you passed that test, he listened intently, practiced complete candor, believed that his coachees could achieve remarkable things, and was intensely loyal.
  • Leadership is not about you, it’s about service to something bigger: the company, the team.
  • Bill believed that good leaders grow over time, that leadership accrues to them from their teams.
  • People who want to get the best out of a coaching relationship need to be coachable.
  • Today it is popular to talk about “being present” or “in the moment.” We’re pretty sure those words never passed the coach’s lips, yet he was one of their great practitioners. Al Gore says he learned from Bill how “important it is to pay careful attention to the person you are dealing with . . . give them your full, undivided attention, really listening carefully. Only then do you go into the issue. There’s an order to it.”
  • Don’t tell people what to do, tell them stories about why they are doing it.
  • You need to get people to buy in. It’s like a running back in football.
  • Don’t tell people what to do; offer stories and help guide them to the best decisions for them
  • One thing we learned from interviewing people for this book was how much Bill encouraged people to be themselves at work, well before the “bringing your whole self” meme became so popular.
  • People are most effective when they can be completely themselves and bring their full identity to work.
  • He knew, as he often said, that “you can’t get anything done without a team.” This is an obvious point in the realm of sports, but it’s often underappreciated in business. “You can only really succeed and accomplish things through the collective, the common purpose,” Lee C. Bollinger says. “There are so many ways in which people don’t understand this, and even when they do understand it, they don’t know how to do it. That’s where Bill’s genius was.”
  • When faced with a problem or opportunity, the first step is to ensure the right team is in place and working on it.
  • “If you’re running a company, you have to surround yourself with really, really good people,” Bill said. Not one of his most surprising statements: it is a tired business mantra to always hire people smarter than yourself. “Everybody that is managing a function on behalf of the CEO ought to be better at that function than the CEO. Some of the time, they are going to be wearing their HR hat or their IT hat, but most of the time you want them to be wearing their company hat. These are all smart people that have great capabilities, and what you want to get is the best idea that comes from that group.”
  • A big turnoff for Bill was if they were no longer learning. Do they have more answers than questions? That’s a bad sign!
  • Sheryl Sandberg says that the first time she met Bill, during her first week at Google in late 2001, he asked her, what do you do here? At the time, Sheryl had been hired with the title of “business unit general manager,” a position that didn’t exist before she arrived. There were, in fact, no business units, so she had nothing to manage. She answered by saying that she used to be at the Treasury Department. He stopped her: okay, but what do you do here? This time, she replied with ideas of what she thought she might do. Bill wasn’t satisfied: but what do you do here? Sheryl finally copped to the truth: so far, she didn’t do anything. “I learned an incredibly important lesson,” she says. “It’s not what you used to do, it’s not what you think, it’s what you do every day.” This is perhaps the most important characteristic Bill looked for in his players: people who show up, work hard, and have an impact every day. Doers.
  • All people have their limitations; what’s important is to understand them individually, to identify what makes them different, and then to see how you can help them mesh with the rest of the team.
  • As Stanford professor Carol Dweck points out in her 2006 book, Mindset, someone’s true potential is unknowable, since “it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.”
  • Peer relationships are critical and often overlooked, so seek opportunities to pair people up on projects or decisions.
  • To truly include everyone, everyone needs to be at the table.
  • Identify the biggest problem, the “Elephant In The Room,” bring it front and center, and tackle it first.
  • You need to commit. You can make mistakes, but you can’t have one foot in and one foot out, because if you aren’t fully committed then the people around you won’t be, either. If you’re in, be in.
  • Failure is a good teacher, and Bill learned from these experiences that loyalty and commitment are easy when you are winning and much harder when you are losing. But that’s, as Dan’s story highlights, when loyalty, commitment, and integrity are even more important. When things are going badly, teams need even more of those characteristics from their leaders.
  • Leading teams becomes a lot more joyful, and the teams more effective, when you know and care about the people.
  • To care about people you have to care about people! You hear over and over again in corporate-speak that a company’s most important asset is its people, that businesses put their people first, that they care about their employees, that blah blah blah. These aren’t necessarily empty words; most companies and executives truly do care about their people. Perhaps just not the whole person.
  • “I was always busy going into these meetings, with lots of things to do, but my time with Bill always gave me a sense of perspective. That whatever I was doing was important, but he showed me that what really matters at the end of the day is how you live your life and the people in your life. It was always a lovely reset.”
  • None of this feels that novel, does it? When we get together with colleagues, we often inquire about their families. The difference with Bill, and the hard thing to do in a busy business environment, is that he somehow found a way to get to know the families. Many times, he accomplished this simply by taking the questions a few steps beyond the “how are the kids?” norm.
  • To care about people you have to care about people: ask about their lives outside of work, understand their families, and when things get rough, show up.
  • Cheer demonstrably for people and their successes.
  • Bill built community instinctively. He knew that a place was much stronger when people were connected.
  • Once you have your team or your community, what matters most are the bonds between the people on the team, which are forged by caring for each other and the common good.
  • Build communities inside and outside of work. A place is much stronger when people are connected. 
  • It’s about making sure that the benefits of helping others outweigh the costs to you.” People who do this well are “self-protective givers.” They are “generous, but they know their limits. Instead of saying yes to every request for help, they look for high-impact, low-cost ways of giving so that they can sustain their generosity—and enjoy it along the way.”
  • The key is pushing yourself to do it. When you’re in that elevator, passing someone in the hallway, or seeing a group from your team in the cafeteria, take a moment to stop and chat. 
  • Loving colleagues in the workplace may be challenging, so practice it until it becomes more natural.
  • To be successful, companies need to have teams that work together as communities, where individuals integrate their interests and put aside differences to be individually and collectively obsessed with what’s good and right for the company. Since this doesn’t naturally happen among groups of people, especially high-performing, ambitious people, you need someone playing the role of a coach, a team coach, to make it happen.
  • He understood that relationships are built on trust, so he prioritized building trust and loyalty with the people he worked with. He listened completely, was relentlessly candid, and believed in his people more than they believed in themselves. He thought that the team was paramount, insisted on team-first behavior, and when faced with any issue his first step was to look at the team, not the problem. He sought out the biggest problems, the elephants in the room, and brought them front and center, ensuring they got looked at first. He worked behind the scenes, in hallway meetings, phone calls, and 1:1s, to fill communication gaps. He pushed leaders to lead, especially when things were bleak. He believed in diversity and in being completely yourself in the workplace.
  • He loved people. He brought that love to communities he created or joined. He made it okay to bring it into the workplace.
  • Don’t waste time worrying about the future. Allow serendipity to play a role. Most of the turning points in life cannot be predicted or controlled.
  • If you’ve been blessed, be a blessing.

18 Haziran 2019 Salı

How Corona Fights against Pollution

The beer brand "Corona" aims to fight plastic pollution on a mass scale. Corona’s goal is to eliminate all plastic from its packaging, and do so in a scalable way. The innovative idea is cost-effective and can be easily scaled out to markets worldwide. Corona also wants other beverage companies to try making Fit Packs, so the brand made its design available for the entire industry.



14 Haziran 2019 Cuma

Kiev İzlenimlerim - Workshop Var Dediler, Gittim


Workshop’a Çağırdılar, Hem de Kiev’e

Günlerden 11 Haziran Salı, saat sabah 6’ya yaklaşıyor. İstanbul Havalimanında dış hatlar terminalinde Kiev’e 7’de hareket edecek olan uçağımı bekliyorum. Biraz heyecan, biraz da merak var. Tabii bir de gece yarısı yola çıktığım için 1.45’te kalkmış olmanın yorgunluğu var. Güzel bir deneyim, iyi bir tecrübe olacak Kiev diye düşünüyorum.

Nedir beni Kiev’e götüren şey? Her şey Mayıs ayında şirketimdeki yeni CTO’muzun IShare adı ile düzenlenecek olan workshop’a bir IS müşterisi olarak herkesin fikirlerini sunmasını istemesiyle başladı. Oturdum, parça parça, gün gün, kısa kısa yazdım ve sonunda bir bütün haline getirdiğim düşüncelerimi gönderdim. Ramazan bayramının ilk gününün gecesinde Okan’ın yatmasının ardından laptop’umu açıp internete bağlandığımda aldığım mail ile fikirlerimin beğenildiğini ve Kiev’deki workshop’a davetli olduğumu öğrendim. Tam bir haftam vardı, neyse ki Ukrayna’ya vize gerekmiyordu. Hemen o gece yöneticilerime onay için başvurdum ve ertesi gün öğlen saatlerinde uçak biletlerim ve otel rezervasyonum hazırdı.
Fikirlerimin takdir edildiğini görmek, İşte bütün mesele bu! 
Hem bayram telaşesi, hem de kısıtlı zaman olması sebebiyle Kiev’i derinlemesine araştıramadım ama yine de internette Kiev hakkında bir şeyler okudum. Şu ana kadar Beşiktaş’ın Avrupa kupalarındaki maçlarından bildiğim Kiev benim kafamda hep soğuk ve karlıydı, ancak bu mevsimde öyle olmadığını öğrendim. Bununla beraber Ukrayna’da özellikle yeme-içme fiyatlarının çok cazip olduğunu daha önce giden arkadaşlarımdan duymuştum. İnternette okuduğum gezi yazıları da bunu teyit ediyordu.

Workshop Çarşamba ve Perşembe gerçekleşecek ve benim şehri keşfetmem için şehre varacağım Salı ve şehirden ayrılacağım Cuma günüm var. Salı akşamı için katılımcılara özel düzenlenmiş bir akşam yemeği ve yine katılımcılar için Çarşamba akşamı bir şehir turu ve akşam yemeği organize edilmiş. Bunun dışındaki keşifler benim yaratıcılığıma kalmış durumda… (Şimdi laptop’u kapatma zamanı, devamı Kiev’de)
Kiev İzlenimlerim
Kiev’den, hatta biraz daha detay verecek olursam, Radisson Blu (Yaroslaviv Val Street) Hotel’in lobisinden izlenimlerimi aktarmaya devam ediyorum. Kiev’e Türk Hava Yolları’nın uçağı ile geldim. Uçakta oldukça fazla Japon turist vardı, onlardan biri de benim yan koltuğumda oturdu. Sorunsuz geçen bir saat 45 dakikalık uçuşumuzun ardından Kiev’de pasaport kontrolü için kuyruğa girdiğimde, her ne kadar giriş vizesiz de olsa, klasikleşmiş hale gelen gergin bekleyişi yaşadım. Neyse ki Romanya’dakinden çok daha rahat bir şekilde geçtim, bu kez çalıştığım şirketin adını söylemek ve ardından davet mektubunu göstermek karşımdaki görevlilerin yumuşamasını sağlamıştı. Bavulumu aldıktan sonra Uber’i çağırdım, yaklaşık 2 dakika bekledikten sonra araçtaydım. Romanya’dayken sık sık Uber kullansak da orada misafir denetçi konumunda olduğum için ben çağıran pozisyonunda olmuyordum. (Romanya'da misafir denetçi olarak kaldığım süreçteki hatıra ve izlenimlerim için tıklayınızhttp://volkanyorulmaz.blogspot.com/2018/10/romanyada-misafir-denetci-olmak.html) İzmir’de de Uber olmadığı için ilk Uber tecrübemi Kiev’de gerçekleştirdim, memnun kaldım ve şoföre 5 yıldız verdim. Bu arada havaalanından otele ulaşmamız bir saat on dakika sürdü. Mesafe o kadar uzun olmasa da bizim yolculuk yaptığımız anda İstanbul trafiği gibi haritası kıpkırmızı olan bir Kiev vardı haritada. Otel’de check in saati 13:00 olduğu için yaklaşık iki buçuk saat beklemem gerektiğini söylediler, ben de fırsattan istifade edip bu satırları yazayım dedim. Bu arada, yukarıda neden otelin yanında parantez içinde konum bilgisi verdiğimi de paylaşayım. Kiev davetini aldığım Salı gecesini takip eden Çarşamba günü Kiev’deki ekipten bir mail geldi ve konaklama için Radisson Blu’da kalmamızı önerdiler. Mailde Radisson Blu Google haritalara linklenmişti. Linke tıkladım, rezervasyon içn hotelz.com sayfası açıldı. Ben de daha güvenilir olacağını düşündüğüm için otelin kendi sitesinden rezervasyon yaptırmak istedim. Google’a Radisson Blu Kiev yazdım ve çıkan linkten yer ayırdım. Ancak dün Kiev’deki ekiple konaklama ve bu akşamki yemek organizasyonu için konuşurken Kiev’de iki Radisson Blu olduğunu ve onların önerdiği otelin diğeri olduğunu öğrendim. Neyse ki çok büyük bir sorun olmayacağını, Uber ile yine kolayca ofise ulaşabileceğimi söylediler. Lobi’de bu kadar vakit geçirip dinlenmek ve serinlemek yeterli, biraz da sıcak Kiev sokaklarını arşınlamak lazım, bakalım bir sonraki paragrafı nereden yazacağım.

Sıradaki paragraf Kiev’deki son günümün sabahında oteldeki odamdan devam ediyor. Salı’dan Cuma’ya günler oldukça hızlı ve yoğun geçti. Geriye dönüp baktığımda, Salı lobiden ayrıldıktan sonra otelin çevresinde biraz dolaştım ancak sıcak havanın ve yol yorgunluğunun etkisiyle daha fazla dayanamayıp Romanya’dan da aşinalığım olan Paul’da öğle yemeğimi yiyip üzerine Kobo’dan “The Latte Factor” adlı kitabı okurken (kitaptan alıntılarımı paylaştığım içerik için: https://volkanyorulmaz.blogspot.com/2019/06/my-highlights-from-latte-factor.html) lattemi içip caddeden geçenleri izledikten sonra dinlenmek için odama çekildim. Radisson 4 yıldızlı bir otel olsa da çalışanlarının güler yüzlü yaklaşımı, odalarının genişliği ve konforu ile 5 yıldızlı bir otelden eksikliği yok. 


Latte keyfi diye fotoğraf çekip yanına kitap koyan instagram yıldızlarına ithafen
Salı akşamı bizim için Hutorets na Dnipri adlı restoranda bir akşam yemeği organize edilmişti. Uber beni mekana getirdiğim de önce nereye gideceğimi bilemedim, klasik bir restoranın önünde bırakmamıştı, şoföre girişi sorduğumda bilmediğini söyledi, daha doğrusu ima etti, maalesef şehirdeki çoğu Uber şoförü gibi o da İngilizce konuşamıyordu. Biraz ilerleyince nehrin dibinde hatta içinde otantik bir yer olduğunu gördüm. Geleneksel kıyafetler giymiş kızlar kapıdaydı. Bize ayrılan bölüm, restoranın yan kısmındaydı ve gemiler geçtikçe dalgaların etkisiyle hafif hafif sallanan bir iskeledeydi. O akşamdan itibaren şehirde ne yediysem çok beğendim deyip yemeklerin detayına daha fazla girmek istemiyorum, özetle Ukrayna’lılar yemek konusunda çok çok iyiler!  
Hutorets na Dnipri'de ilk akşam yemeği - nehrin adeta içinde bir mekan


Ertesi gün Podil Plaza’daki ofisimize gittim. Aynı plaza içinde tanıdığımız birçok firmaya yer vardı. Erken geldiğim için insanları gözlemleme fırsatım oldu. Çalışanlar Türkiye’deki plaza çalışanlarına göre giyim konusunda daha rahattı, açıkçası kasmıyorlardı. Olabildiğince katılımcı olmaya çalıştığım workshop’ın ilk günü bittiğinde kapıda bizi bekleyen otobüsümüz ve tercümanımız şehirdeki İkinci Dünya Savaşı’nın etkilerini anlatıp tarihi yerlerini gezdirdi. Bol bol video ve fotoğraf çekip güzel manzaranın tadını çıkardık. Açıkçası Dnipro nehrini gören her yer insana keyif veriyor. Kiev’lilerde bunun farkındalar, nasıl Kordon’da gençlerimiz kendilerini çime atıp denizin keyfini sürüyorsa, burada da gençler çim tepelerden nehri izleyip sohbet ediyorlar (bunu pekiştiren bir videoyu da hemen aşağıya iliştiriyorum, izleyiniz). Kiev’in önemli tarihi yerlerini gezdikten sonra yemek için Tsarkse Selo adlı restorana geçtik. İçeriye girer girmez ambiyansı sizi tarihte yolculuk yapar gibi hissettirirken garsonların giydiği kıyafetler, duvarlarda gördüğünüz resimler “şimdiye kadar nerelerdeydin?” ya da “neden ülkemizde biz böyle yerleri korumadık?” diye sormamıza sebep oluyor. Bir de masaları gezip geleneksel Ukrayna müziklerini canlı söylediler mi ortam iyice keyifli hale geliyor. Yukarıda da yazmıştım, yemek konusuna girmeyeceğim fazla diye, tek diyebileceğim, mükemmeldi. 




Beni twitter'dan takip edenler görmüştür; konu hakkında net görüş bildirdim
Perşembe günü yine sıkı bir çalıştay seansı geçirdikten sonra saat 5 gibi sürecimizi tamamladık, dünyanın farklı ülkelerinden gelen arkadaşlarımızla vedalaştıktan sonra Kiev’li arkadaşların önerdiği Ocean adlı alışveriş merkezine gittim. Saat 10’a iki dakika kala çıkış yaptığım AVM’de ayaklarıma kara sular ininceye kadar gezdim. Şunu söyleyerek başlayayım, önce Okan için Lego fiyatlarını 3 ayrı mağazada karşılaştırdım. Fiyatlar kuruşu kuruşuna mağazalarda aynıydı ve Türkiye’deki mağaza fiyatlarının yaklaşık yüzde 10’u kadar daha pahalıydı. Türkiye’de internet üzerinde mağaza fiyatlarının çok daha altında da Lego alabileceğiniz için vazgeçtim. Daha sonra çok bilinen markaların (Adidas, Skechers, Under Armour, Columbia, Guess, GAP, Armani gibi) mağazalarını gezdim. Buralarda sezon ürünleri ülkemizle aynı ya da yüzde 10 artı eksi şeklinde fiyatlanmış. Ancak ülkemizde genelde sezon dışı ürünleri outlet mağazalarda bulabilirken bu alışveriş merkezindeki mağazaların bir kısmında geçmiş sezon ürünlerini de bulmak mümkün ve işte bu ürünlerde yüzde 50 gibi indirim etiketleri vardı ve fiyat rekabetçi oluyordu. Bu büyük alışveriş merkezini dibine kadar gezdim. Dibi diyorum çünkü en alt katında bir de büyük süpermarketi var, adını yazmak için fişine baktım ama yazabilmem maalesef mümkün değil. Neyse buradan da içki, çikolata falan aldıktan sonra kapıdan çıkıp Uber çağırdım. Saat 10’da dışarısı hafta için akşamına göre çok kalabalıktı, şoför beni nasıl bulur bu kalabalıkta diye düşünürken Uber’de karşıma bir seçenek çıktı, AVM’nin ne tarafından bineceğimi soruyordu. Demek ki bu büyüklükteki ve kalabalıktaki bu ortamda bu detaylar da düşünülmüş dedim ve Polonya’dan sadece 3 hafta önce Kiev’e taşınmış şoför arkadaşla sohbet ederek otele ulaştım.

Cuma sabahı ise yukarıdaki özeti yazdıktan sonra kahvaltımı yapıp bavulumu toparlamaya koyuldum. Tabi bu arada youtube’a da Kiev’de çektiğim küçük videoları yükledim. Dilerseniz kanalıma abone olabilir (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgPbQVczYI8p4_zNO8xaJAA)  ya da “Volkan Yorulmaz – Kiev’de Gözüme Takılanlar” şeklinde youtube’da aratabilirsiniz. Bakalım bu incelemenin devamını nerede getireceğim.

Bu kez Kiev Boryspil Uluslararası Havalimanı’ndan devam ediyorum. Öğlene doğru otelden çıkış yapınca otelin yatay ve dikey sokaklarını turladım. Sokaklar sıcağında ve mesai vakti olmasının da etkisiyle çok kalabalık değil ama yine de cıvıl cıvıl, dışarıdaki insanlar neredeyse her köşe başında bulunun dondurmacılardan dondurma almış ya da pastanelerde kahvelerini içiyorlar. Çevrede Starbucks ya da üçüncü nesil kahveciden ziyade daha geleneksel pastaneleri ve kafeleri tercih ettiğini görüyorum insanların. Daha fazla şehirde kalıp keşfettikçe ayrılmak daha zor olacakmış gibi geliyor ve bıraktığım bavulumu otelden alım Uber’e biniyorum. Bu kez old town’un içinden geçiyoruz, turist olduğu her halinden belli olan insanlar köşe başlarında, dini ve tarihi yerlerde fotoğraf çektiriyorlar. Zaten sabah kahvaltıda Kyiv Post gazetesinde de görmüştüm, bu aralar çok popüler olan Çernobil adlı dizi sayesinde geçen yıl Çernobil’i gören 70 bin kişi sayısının bu yıl için 100 bin olarak hedeflendiğini ancak diziye olan ilgi ile bu sayının 150 bine çıkabileceği tahmin ediliyormuş.

Havaalanına gelince tüm duty-free’leri ya gezdim ya da dışarıdan inceledim. Bizdeki İstanbul Havalimanı’ndaki gösterişli duty-free’lerden sonra çok sade gelse de duty-free’den alınmasına alışılmış olan her şeyin mevcut olduğunu gördüm. Belki yemek için daha fazla alternatif sunulabilirdi ama zaten bu şehre gelen insanlar her zaman iyi yemek yediği için bu konuya çok takılmamak lazım. Şimdi uçağım anons edildi, kapıya gitme zamanı.
Havaalanında yukarıdaki paragrafı yazarken rahata bağladığım doğrudur
Ve nihayet sağ salim eve varıldı, bavul açıldı, hediyeler sunuldu ve toparlamak üzere bilgisayar karşısına geçildi. Sonda söyleyeceğimi başta söyleyeyim, Kiev’e gidilir mi? Bence net gidilir. Kışını bilmem ama bahar ve yaz aylarında Kiev’de tatil düşünürseniz, daha fazla düşünmeyin, hayata geçirin derim. Peki bunu destekleyecek sebeplerim ne olurdu? Öncelikle doğası, şehrin içindeki nehir, yeşillikleri, büyük bir şehirde olsanız da sizin yorulmanızı engelliyor. İkinci olarak fiyatları söylerim. Özellikle dövizin Türk Lirası karşısında oldukça değerlendiği son bir yıllık süreçte paramızın hala göreceli olarak değerli olduğu bir yer Kiev. Özellikle global markalar dışında alışveriş yapacaksanız ya da Kiev’in doğal ürünlerini satın alacaksanız (örneğin sokakta 500 metrede bir karşınıza çıkan bayanlardan meyve) Kiev’deki fiyatlar pek çok ülkeye göre yüzünüzü güldürür, en kötü ihtimalle sizi üzmez. Üçüncü ve son olarak da, yemeklerinin güzelliğini söylemeliyim. Evet yukarıda bir çok kez yazdım ancak gerçekten özellikle etleri o kadar başarılı ki bol proteinli bir Kiev ziyareti size iyi gelir. İnsan faktörüne gelecek olursak, hem iş yerindeki workshop’ta hem de Uber’de, otelde ve alışveriş merkezinde insanlarıyla iletişim kurma fırsatım oldu. İşlerini iyi yapan, kendi hallerinde, turistlere ve misafirlere karşı herhangi bir art niyeti olmayan aksine yardım etmek, yönlendirmek isteyen misafirperver insanlar. Bir daha Kiev’e gitmek nasip olur mu bilinmez ama öyle bir ihtimal doğarsa memnun olacağımdan hiç şüphem yok.


Radisson Blu'daki odanın gördüğü cadde, aşağıdaki gibi meyve satan bayanlar çevrede oldukça fazlaydı
Baktıkça içimin açıldığı bu fotoğrafı Tsarske Seko'da çekmiştim
Hutorets na Dnipri'de güneş batmasına yakın manzara
4 günlük Kiev ziyaretimi 1 dakikaya sığdırmak istesem sanırım şöyle olurdu:

My Highlights from "The Latte Factor"


If you don’t know where you are going, you might not like where you end up. What am I doing with my life?

Oculus, it means figuring out where you want to stand. Where you stand, and what you see from there, is the key to putting together the right Picture. That’s what creates the perspective you want. The picture happens first in your mind’s eye. Before you shoot. That picture is where everything starts. That picture is what guides it all. Your oculus. Where you stand, and what you see from there, is the key to putting together the right picture.

The latte factor isn’t about being a penny-pincher or denying yourself. It’s about getting clear on what matters. It’s about the little daily extravagances and frivolities, whatever they may be – the five, ten, twenty dollars a day that you could just as easily redirect toward your own future.

When you pay yourself first, what you are really doing is putting yourself first. 

Life is paradox, and sometimes the only way you can serve others is to put yourself first.

It is usually the simplest ideas that change people’s lives, not the complicated ones. Sometimes the simplest truths are the easiest to overlook. Or to dismiss as well, as too simple.

Down in Texas they have this expression, “Big hat, no cattle”. All show, it means, and no real assets to back it up.

You build your health the same way you build your wealth. One bite at a time. Your health doesn’t just happen; it is not something that takes care of itself as you go through life. You can’t leave your health in someone else’s hands, and the same goes for your wealth.

Money is the biggest reason marriages fail – but it is not money itself, and not even the lack of money. It’s the lack of talking about it and working it out together.

When you grow your income bigger, you just take whatever money problems you have and make those bigger, too.

The solution to your money problems isn’t more money; it’s new habits. It’s about shifting your everyday habits, just a little. And with that little shift, changing your destiny.

By and large, the wealthy spend their money on things that truly matter to them – no more, no less. It’s the unwealthy who spend money on frivolous things.

You know how to make your dreams come true? You buy them… a dollar at a time.

Do I take the safe route, where I think I know the outcome? Or do I take the riskier route – the one where I hope the real gold lies, but the path to get there is uncertain? Two voices: the big-boy voice that says, “Be safe, go to the safe road!” And the little-boy voice that says, “Go this way! It’ll be fun! Let’s try! That voice, the little-boy voice, the one that’s excited and wants to play – let that little boy come out and play. And tell your friends to do the same.

Three Secrets
1) Pay Yourself First
Keep your first hour’s worth of each day’s pay. An hour a day, in other words, of paying yourself first.
2) Don’t Budget – Make It Automatic
3) Live Rich Now
The first two secrets – pay yourself first, make it automatic – those are the how. This is the why. Figure out what matters, and follow that.

9 Haziran 2019 Pazar

How I Unsmoked My Best Friend

Today, it is not easy to find and trust a person that you can start a close friendship. I have just a few friends like this and I thank God for surrounding me with these trustworthy people.

One of those nice people is Mehmet. I met with Mehmet in 2007. We were both tax assistants in PwC. He was from Ankara and I was from Izmir. Due to the fact that the trainings were held in İstanbul, we shared the same room in the hotel. Since then, we became close friends and shared many things. Despite the distances we have, we always feel close to each other. Time passed by, we had things to laugh and things to cry, the one thing that doesn’t change was sharing the good and the bad experiences. Then first he got married and became a father, and later on I got married and became a father, too. In the holidays and vacations, we got together and enjoyed. The tune that our wives and sons caught was so fine and we became like a big family. People say that good things do not last long. He and his wife had made a decision, and this decision affected their life. One of the changes by Mehmet’s side after this decision was starting to smoke.

I am working for Philip Morris International and my company recently called to action to smokers, nonsmokers, regulators and agents of change across the world to drive a better future for the world’s 1.1 billion smokers and their families, loved ones and communities. Our ambition is to lead the way toward truly global change: It is clear as crystal:

If you don’t smoke, don’t start.

If you smoke, quit.

If you don’t quit, change. That’s unsmoking.

It is a fact that burning generates the vast majority of harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke. Eliminating the combustion dramatically reduces the levels of harmful chemicals.

As a person I know about the better alternatives that are available to people who continue to smoke and through conversation I inform them about the right thing to do: Unsmoke

Below is a short story of Unsmoke which I touch Mehmet’s life and did something good for him, his life and his loved ones. The original story can also be read from



What made our story more meaningful is it is published on Best Friend Day which we will celebrate and talk about his smoke free future in the next years of our friendship.



My Best Friend's Divorce

How your soul mate can Unsmoke you when you need it the most

They say you can’t pick your family, but you can choose your friends. And, honestly, that’s a great thing, because who else can really save you when you’re in trouble with your family?

National Best Friends Day falls on June 8, and it’s the perfect moment to show your pal how much they mean to you. 

From heart-to-heart conversations to pulling all-nighters just to enjoy each other’s company, today is the perfect day to celebrate your sidekick. 

Some will opt for a card, others will pick up a silly gift. Most of us will give our chums a shout-out on social media. But Volkan (above, left) went well beyond for his buddy Mehmet (above, right): he unsmoked him.



Their friendship started back in 2007 when they were both tax assistants at a multinational company. They met in front of the hotel room that their manager had assigned them during a training week in Istanbul.

“It took a simple handshake to understand he was special,” Volkan says of Mehmet. They shared stories until the small hours of the morning and told each other their hopes and dreams until they couldn’t keep their eyes open anymore.

After that training week, “we kept in touch almost every day, mainly on the phone, as he was based in Ankara, a seven-hour drive from my home town, Izmir,” explains Volkan. Then they both fell in love with two young ladies, got engaged and, finally, married.

“I was his best man, and he was mine,” Volkan recalls. “Mehmet was very much in love with his wife, and they soon had a baby. Then my wife and I had a baby, and we spent every weekend together as a big family, it was a joyous time,” he says.


The two sons were playing soccer together, Volkan’s and Mehmet’s wives were getting along well.

But last winter, Mehmet phoned his best friend, sobbing: things were not going so smooth at his house, and the couple was considering a divorce.

“It was sad, like losing a part of the family,” Volkan observes. And things got worse when Mehmet admitted that, during those lonely nights as his marriage was unraveling, he started smoking. “He started with a few, and then it became a pack a day,” says Volkan.

“It was time to have a chat with him,” adds Volkan . But hard as he tried, he couldn’t convince Mehmet to quit entirely. However, during a business trip, one of Volkan’s colleague talked to Mehmet about smoke-free products. “Then he and I researched it together on the internet and consulted a couple of friends who already used one,” says Volkan.

Mehmet didn’t quit altogether but at least he is no longer smoking cigarettes. “It was a tough time for him, for all of us, but I’m happy because I feel I did something good for my best friend.”

No matter how messy our lives can get, our best buddies are always here to help.


Google adsense

Analytics