How You Handle Chaos Will Determine Your Success Or Failure
Yesterday I received a telephone call at 9:00 am from an employee who had been working for a recruiting company of ours for less than 72 hours and was giving notice before boarding an airplane. We had brought this particular employee out to work for us from another city and were training her in Pasadena before she fled home to the city she is from. During this employee’s 72 hours with the company, she witnessed numerous changes we were forcing ourselves to go through. One of our largest businesses was formerly a student loan company. Despite the fact that the number of loans we are doing is down 98% from this time last year due to the difficulty of making loans in this economic climate, we still had some employees unnecessarily on the payroll in the hope that things would pick up. We were in the process of letting some of them go. This new person was witness to much of the chaos these remaining layoffs in this business have created in our company. While we are understandably doing fantastically well in several of our businesses, the loan industry is not one of them. Moreover, our company has recently replaced its Chief Financial Officer and its Human Resources person. This has resulted in an incredible amount [Read more]
Upgrade Your Career and Life by Finding Work to Be Done
Several years ago I decided that I did not want to work in a law firm any more. The problem was that I did not know what else I could do besides practice law. Also, I did not have any money. In order to continue to make a living, I needed to do something that is among the most important skills we can have: I needed to create work for myself. I have written extensively about the importance of creating work before, because without the ability to create work for yourself you might as well settle for a life of mediocrity. The more work you know how to create, the better off you are going to be. If you know how to create work for yourself, you will never be unemployed or without excitement in your life. Everything that happens in this world comes about through the ability of us to use our minds to create work. One of my favorite motivational writers is Wallace D. Wattles. In The Science of Getting Rich Wattles writes:
No one is kept in poverty by shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for all. A palace as large as the capital in Washington might be built for every family on earth from the building material in the United States alone; and under intensive cultivation, this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to clothe each person in the world finer than Soloman was arrayed in all his glory; together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously. The visible supply is practically inexhaustible; and the invisible supply really IS inexhaustible. Everything you need on earth really is made from one original substance, out of which all things proceed. New forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving; but all shapes are assumed by One Thing. There is no limit to the supply of Formless Stuff, or Original Substance. The universe is made out of it; but it was not all used in making the universe. The spaces in, through, and between the forms of the visible universe are permeated and filled with the Original Substance; with the formless Stuff, with the raw material of all things. Ten thousand times as much stuff as has been made might still be made, and even then we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw material. No man, therefore, is poor because nature is poor, or because there is not enough to go around. Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short. Original substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms. When the supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced; when the soil is exhausted so that foodstuffs and materials for Clothing will no longer grow upon it, it will be renewed or more soil will be made. When all the gold and silver has been dug from the earth, if man is still in such a stage of development that he needs gold and silver, more will be produced from the Formless. The Formless Stuff responds to the needs of man; it will not let him be without any good thing. This is true collectively; the race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if individuals are poor, it is because they do not follow the Certain Way of doing things which makes the individual man rich. The Formless Stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks. It is alive, and is always impelled towards life.
Wattles’ writings are somewhat abstract; however, the point is that there is unlimited wealth and unlimited opportunity out there for you. People can create great wealth and opportunity for themselves from nothing. You too need to do the same thing with your life and career. I am amazed when I look around me and see how incredible certain people are [Read more]
The Best Way to Prepare for a Job Search and Interviews
Several years ago when looking for a position in Los Angeles I interviewed with numerous law firms. In virtually every one of these interviews I ran across an attorney who knew not one, not two, not three—but numerous, numerous attorneys in my current firm. If this is the case in a market the size of Los Angeles (and the market in Los Angeles is huge), I cannot even imagine what it must be like in smaller markets. For example, I am from Detroit. I grew up in a suburb of Detroit. When it came time for me to decide where to work after law school, when I started interviewing with firms in Detroit I knew many of the attorneys before I even arrived at the interviews–they were the parents of people I grew up with. The following are my suggestions for the best way to prepare for a job search and interviews: 1. Know you are always being watched, observed and judged When I was in high school I remember that one of the best looking girls in my school was known to be a prude and someone who would date boys but never let anything all that exciting happen. She was also a star athlete and a student counsel leader and a very respected student. My parents were divorced and lived about an hour apart. I lived with my father. The funny thing is that this same girl [Read more]
10 Powerful Lessons from a Turkish Rug Trader
Several years ago I was staying at a beautiful hotel on the beach on a small Greek island. The hotel was full of young people in their mid-20′s who appeared to be having the time of their lives. I had chatted with the receptionist several times during that week when I was at the hotel. The receptionist was my age and very attractive. She had a boyfriend who would sit in the lobby and chat with her at night. I think she was very surprised by the fact that I kept coming home alone each evening. When I would walk through the lobby each [Read more]
Get Security By Concentrating on the Needs of Your Employer
If there is a lack of any kind, whether it is need for employment, or for money, or for guidance, or even for healing, something is blocking the flow. And the most effective remedy: Give! Spiritual Economics: The Prosperity Process, Eric Butterworth
Several decades ago, people would start with an employer in the United States, and the chances were quite good that the person would be working with that employer for the majority of their career. This was how it was for my parents for the most part. It was probably also this way for your parents, as well. Both of my parents spent the majority of their careers with just one employer. There are still some pockets of this today; however, for the most part, this is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. [Read more]
Above Life’s Turmoil
Above Life’s Turmoil by James Allen is an excellent book that will help you confront the truth of who you are. The message of the book is timeless and asks you to look inside of yourself and change instead of trying to change external conditions around you. This is a classic in self-improvement literature that I am sure you will enjoy.
–Harrison
Above Life’s Turmoil
by James Allen
Foreword
True Happiness The Immortal Man The Overcoming of Self The Uses [Read more]
Have Trust in Others and Be Ready to Seize Opportunity However it Presents Itself
Trusting people and being ready to take advantage of opportunity when it presents itself are two of the greatest skills anyone can have. My life has been enriched in so many ways by often trusting people I should not have and by being aware of opportunities. I have always been eager to trust people who do not appear to be trustworthy, because I know that in the act of trusting them I can allow them to see themselves as better people. It also feels good to show people that you trust them. Fundamentally, I have a belief that deep down all people [Read more]
See Your Job and the World from the Bright Side and Not The Dark Side
For about as long as I can remember, I have been taking one course or another about different subjects every several months. I take courses in just about every topic you can imagine and love taking these courses. Typically, the courses I take are three or four-day affairs, and executives from one company or another are always flown in for these events by their companies to attend. I am at one of these things today that is about to start within the next couple of hours. Incredibly, for the next several days I am going to be listening to Tony Robbins, of self-improvement [Read more]
Be Resourceful
Something that very, very few people realize is that the most important aspect in any of our success, regardless of whom we may be, is our ability to be resourceful. Being resourceful is an incredible skill and something that really separates the extraordinary people out there from the average. In fact, if you can be resourceful, you can do and achieve just about anything. I rarely remember my dreams, but for some reason, I have a vivid memory about a dream I had last evening. When I was young I used to go to an asphalt tar [Read more]
Be Interested in Others
A few weeks ago, I purchased a new camera on Amazon. Since large cameras have been coming down in price for some time, I was able to buy a camera that had formerly been around $2,500 for $600 or so. It is a great camera and takes very nice pictures. I have been having a good time with it lately. This is a large photographer sort of camera, and I have really enjoyed walking around with this camera and taking pictures of things–parking meters, leaves, store signs and so forth. I have no skills as a photographer but I am trying! I [Read more]
