Please, help me welcome her and her instructive, interesting and bright book Out of the Classroom Lessons in Success: How to Prosper Without Being at the Top of the Class!
Interview with Cynthia Kocialski
Author of: Out of the Classroom Lessons in Success: How to Prosper Without Being at the Top of the Class
Alaiel: First of all, thanks for the interview Cynthia and welcome to Librarian Mouse!
Questions about yourself.-
Alaiel: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Cynthia: I was raised in upstate New York, where it was way too cold for me. I got my undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester and graduate degrees from the University of Virginia. My career has taken me to New York City, Washington, D.C., Miami, and San Francisco. I have spent my career working in technology companies. About 15 years ago, I began working with start-up companies. I’ve founded three companies and I have worked with numerous other start-up companies. I love start-ups and all the wonderful gizmos and gadgets they make, and just the atmosphere of start-ups. I live in California with my husband and two young daughters.
Alaiel: What is your favorite book? Why?
Cynthia: That’s a hard one to answer. I have always been an avid reader. As a child, I read tons of fiction and I remember my favorite books by Dr. Seuss, Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, J.R.R.Tolkien, James Michener, Herman Wouk, Richard Adams and Mary Stewart. I also recall those I really disliked too. As a middle schooler, I thought Milton’s Paradise Lost, Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms, and Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago were painful to read. My older brother convinced my parents that if they wanted me to get into a top university, I had to start reading more serious books. I actually hid Farewell To Arms in our attic so I won’t have to finish the book.
As an adult, I read mostly non-fiction except when I’m on holiday. I really enjoyed Margaret Thatcher’s The Path to Power, Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence, Jack Perkowski’s Managing the Dragon, Tarun Khanna’s Billions of Entrepreneurs, and Pietra Rivoli’s The Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy.
Alaiel: Where is your favorite place to write?
Cynthia: My favorite place to write is in my home at the dining room table between 3 am and 6 am in the morning. It may sound odd, but I do my best thinking in the very early hours of the morning. I’m refreshed and my kids are quietly sound asleep.
Alaiel: Is there some kind of ritual that you need to do to write? Like listening a special playlist or have your favorite drink with you.
Cynthia: I write non-fiction, mostly about business topics. One way I get the thought flowing is to listen to others people podcasts on the subjects I write about. I find it gets my thoughts moving along. Plus, I can sometimes combine the listening in the podcasts with my morning exercise. The only problem is I have to keep stopping along my route to use the voice recorder to remember my thoughts.
