Do What You Want to Do, Not What You Think You Should Do
I know two men who worked in New York City, each of whom made millions of dollars and immediately quit their jobs, taking up completely different careers as gas station owners in New Jersey. I learned about one of these men when I was in college, and I heard about the other man several years later, when I was a recruiter. For the past several years, I have puzzled over the stories of these two men because the similarities between them just seemed so unbelievable.
- One man had originally been a financial trader with a bunch of Ivy League degrees. He made his fortune by selling some trading system he had developed for $10 million or so.
- The other man had been an attorney with an impressive pedigree as well. One day, he won a huge settlement and made around $5 million.
Both men were in their 40s, and after these major career victories, each of them quit their jobs and bought gas stations on the New Jersey turnpike. These men did not know each other and were of no relation, yet they both ended up migrating into the same profession. How does one transform from being a person with incredible qualifications to a person who simply owns a gas station on the New Jersey turnpike? From what I understood, these guys were incredibly happy after leaving their careers and taking on new positions as gas station operators. Running a gas station that sees a lot of business can be very profitable. Most gas station operators make around 10 cents a gallon in profit from every gallon of gas that they sell. In addition, they make a lot of money on the concessions that they sell inside the shop. Also, a lot of customers pay with cash, and the gas station owners often do not declare and pay taxes on their cash sales. Owning a gas station is much different from being a Wall Street lawyer or trader. You report to work in jeans, not a suit. You often work with people who are not highly educated. Selling refreshments and gas is something, it would seem, that almost anyone could do. Why, then, did these men both plan such a drastic change in profession? Here are some likely possibilities:
- They wanted to be happy.
- They enjoyed working in the gas station.
- They could earn decent money in the gas station business and could maintain a high quality of life.
- They wanted to be independent, and having their own businesses allowed them this independence.
- They realized that much of what is going on and is expected of people in the working world is just complete nonsense.
The idea has always fascinated me: If you could rise up through the ranks in your company and become incredibly successful, hypothetically making enough money to retire–would your very next move be to purchase a gas station? Most people would probably not do this. Instead, they would [Read more]
Why You Should Never Miss a Company Holiday Party or Invitation to Your Boss’s Home
A few years ago, I spoke with a man (now retired) who had worked in a large corporation for forty years and in his last twenty years, he basically did nothing. He was paid very well and was more or less forgotten—doing very little of anything. He would show up at the office at 9:00 a.m. each day, try to look busy—do a task now and then—and then get in his car at 5:30 p.m. each evening and drive home. When he finally retired from the company, he felt as if he had achieved a great victory. For the past [Read more]
Focus on Doing–and Stop Talking About Those Who Are Doing
Throughout my career I have learned that there are generally two types of people out there:
- First, there are those who are out there doing this or that and making things happen. These people typically put in years to perfect their craft, whether they are lawyers, actors, sports stars, businesspeople–or whatever. These people are actually doing something with their careers and lives. Their sense of self-importance and achievement comes from what they do. They are committed to getting things accomplished.
- Second, there are those who sit around writing about, talking about, and gossiping about those who are doing things in the world. Those who cannot do things or make things happen in the world are generally the ones who are best at writing, talking, and gossiping about those who are making things happen in the world. Writing, gossiping, reviewing, and passing judgment on people who are actually doing things is often a cheap shortcut to a sensation of power for those who lack the discipline necessary to do and create something that has worth. In reviewing, criticizing, gossiping, and so forth about others, the person can experience a fleeting feeling of importance.
When I was eleven years old, in February of 1981, the only television in our Detroit home was in my bedroom, and one time in the wee hours of the morning my mother and my four-year-old sister came into my room and watched Prince Charles and Diana get married. I have vague recollections of images from this wedding coming through as I tossed back and forth, incredulous that my mother and sister [Read more]
Don’t Be Dead Weight–Contribute More than You Take
One of the most important things you can do for any employer is produce value far in excess of what you receive as compensation. When you look at a highly compensated salesperson, for example, the chances are very good that he or she is producing a lot more value than he or she is paid for. A salesperson who makes $100,000 a year is probably producing at least $500,000 in revenue for the company he or she works for. It is like this with every profession. Lawyers who bill clients $700,000 a year for their services inside [Read more]
Getting Referrals from Powerful People (We All Know Someone)
When I was practicing law at a major Los Angeles law firm several years ago, something happened that was difficult for me to believe. The firm where I worked employed some of the top law school graduates in the United States. For example, in the year before I joined, they had hired three of the top five ranked graduates out of Harvard Law School. Most of the attorneys were students from the top of their class at either Harvard, Stanford, or Yale, and the ones who were not, were often first in their class from the top ten or twenty [Read more]
Froth, Downward Wages, and the Importance of Repeat Business
When I started in the asphalt business, the people I was competing against were charging exorbitant rates for their work. As an example, they might charge $600 to seal coat an average-size driveway. The job would require about two hours’ worth of work and $50 or so in materials. As a young asphalt seal coater, I too decided that I was entitled to make this much money from my work, and I initially went into business with this attitude. One of the first asphalt jobs I did was at a house next to my grandmother’s home. I [Read more]
To-Do Lists, Tactics, Strategies, and Going to the Moon
Companies, governments, and other organizations are typically organized in the following way: At the top of the pyramid are people whose job is to strategize for the organization. These are the people who set the entire tone for a group and define what it is supposed to accomplish.
- In the case of a war, for example, the president might declare that an overall strategy is to extinguish terrorists in Afghanistan, to make the world a safer place.
- In the case of an organization, a strategy may be to legalize something that is currently illegal.
- In the case of a company, a strategy may be to create a product that dominates a given sector.
Every group needs to have a strategic objective that is promoted by its leaders if it plans to survive in the long term. “Without a vision, the people perish.” The reason this [Read more]
Why the Best Executives Are So Highly Paid
The higher I have risen in my career, the more criticism and the more obstacles I have faced. In today’s world, if you lay off an employee, fire someone, or make any other decision that potentially upsets people, you face incredible scrutiny. Former employees will go on blogs and criticize you and your leadership style. You will be attacked by many people. This is something that has happened to every leader and every organizer throughout the ages. The leaders of companies, organizations, and religions are subject to incredible criticism and attacks by virtue of the position they are in. In some countries, the leaders are assassinated. Anyone who organizes groups of men and women, whether it is a country, a religion, or a company, will face criticism and pressures that the average working man and woman simply do not face. When you go to the worst neighborhoods in any city in America, you will find areas where there is rampant unemployment–people are living on the street, and drug use, prostitution, and murder rates are all high. The people you will find in these areas are those who are unable to follow orders and to successfully work for others, for the most part. They are people without jobs. When you drive out of the ghetto, you will find middle-class and working-class neighborhoods where you will pass rows of houses in which the televisions flicker each night. Inside each of these homes is a man or woman who goes to an average job each day, follows orders, and gets paid. This person lives much better than the people in the ghetto, and his or her ability to follow orders and work in an organized system is rewarded. This person gets a roof over his head and a job that brings him a steady paycheck. The better the area, the more likely you will find people who are incredibly skilled in following orders. And in addition to following orders, they are usually in positions where they are giving orders–and are highly skilled in doing this. The better middle-class neighborhoods will contain doctors, lawyers, and other high-level professionals who have gone to schools and learned to follow orders and procedures properly. These neighborhoods may also contain highly skilled laborers. The best neighborhoods will contain the upper-level managers. Again we are talking about highly skilled people. Then, in every city–as there has always been–you will find homes that are gigantic and have gates and other amenities that boggle the mind. These are the homes that are lived in by the wealthiest people. Some of these homes are so fantastic that the average person cannot even imagine setting foot inside them, much less living inside. These are typically not the homes of those who follow orders or who are skilled in following orders. Instead, these are the people who are skilled at giving orders, creating procedures, and getting incredible amounts of work done through hundreds, if not thousands of people. The most successful men or women become this way because of the amount of work they can accomplish and, often, the number of people they can get to do all the work that needs to be done. Those who shovel a ditch each day are only affecting the dirt in front of them. They are paid accordingly. Those who supervise a group of ditch diggers are paid more because they are able to ensure that more work gets done by a group. The people who manage the group that supervises the ditch diggers is paid even more. And so on. The more skilled the executive, the more this person is able to control, and the more work he or she is able to accomplish. This requires an understanding of people, the environment, and the economy, and it involves making numerous decisions and calculations while taking every factor into account each day. One of the most fascinating questions that I have heard is why do certain executives in major corporations earn so much money? When you see a large company like General Electric, Home Depot, Disney, or Apple, you will generally find Chief Executive Officers who are earning millions and sometimes tens of millions of dollars per year. It may seem hard to believe that someone’s efforts are actually worth $50 million a year; however, there is a reason these people are paid so much, which is very easy to see. It relates to how much these executives contribute to their companies. Nevertheless, throughout my entire life I [Read more]
How to Be a Good Manager
Among the many interrelated problems that can occur in an economy, are people having not enough work, not enough holidays, not enough benefits, and of course, not enough pay. As disruptive and problematic as these issues may become to people, hands down, the most severe problem is when there are no jobs available at all. Companies and organizations are all out to survive, and the worst thing that can happen is a company or organization finding it can no longer survive. When a company can no longer survive, the jobs disappear with it, which is the absolute [Read more]
You Need to Be in Favor with the Right People
When I started my first company, back in 2000, I and the other people who were with me at the time sat down and had a three-day meeting during which we discussed what we wanted the company to be then and what we wanted it to become. It was an incredible meeting that I will remember forever. During those three days, we came up with this fundamental core value, which has since shaped the course of my life and my various companies: We Must Get People Jobs. This has driven all of our work since that time, and anytime we have seen limitations in any certain way of doing things, we have always come back to this core value and expanded upon it. Today, because of this core value, we have evolved into numerous businesses that are connected to this same ideology. Back in 2001, I started a company called Legal Authority to help law students and attorneys get jobs. I had been a law professor, and I noticed [Read more]
