Stay on Track

I have been interested in self improvement and the process of growing spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually for most of my life. For the most part I believe we are all interested, to some degree, in growing and getting better at everything we do. If you go to any bookstore, you will undoubtedly encounter thousands of books all claiming they can help you improve in all areas of your life. There are gurus and similar types of people throughout the world who will tell you how to change or improve one thing or another about yourself. For example, [Read more]

Narcissistic Entitlement Syndrome

The word “narcissism” comes from the Greek character Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection and was made famous by the Greek poet Ovid. The story is one of great psychological complexity. In the story, Echo falls in love with Narcissus and gets rejected. The story makes it clear that Narcissus is only able to love himself and not others. Conversely, Echo completely loses herself in her love for Narcissus and has no sense of self at all. At the end of the story, Narcissus tells Echo, “I would die before I would give you power over me,” [Read more]

Sick Crows, Your Attitude, and Being on the Winning Team

Over the past week I have been witnessing something extremely unusual in my backyard. There is a crow outside, who appears to be ill – he’s not doing well at all. The crow appears to be infected with West Nile Virus. He wanders around appearing drunk, frequently falling over. He stands in one place most of the time. The interesting thing about this crow, however, is that all around him, there are a multitude of other crows cackling and cawing at him, almost as if they are supporting him–cheering him on. So many crows perched high up [Read more]

You Are Just Fine the Way You Are

I was sitting in a sales seminar several months ago and a well known sales trainer got up and started speaking to the audience. He is considered by many to be one of the best salespeople in America, and I was hanging on his every word. The man was describing how he went into meetings in corporations to sell things, and how he always was able to close. His entire strategy was based on what he called “finding the pain.” “You need to find the pain! You need to find the pain!” he kept shouting as he paced back and [Read more]

Planning, Grass Seed, Saunas, and Your Career

We are always fixing things. Always. We are always doing everything within our power to fix this or that, and we are continually trying to improve things because nothing is ever perfect for us. However, one of the biggest explanations for this is that we often fail to plan and obtain more information before we act on anything. This puts us in a situation where we end up having to do some clean-up of sorts, or worse yet, all-out damage control. In contrast, the people who plan properly and who relentlessly seek out information seem to be the ones who do the best in everything.

• They spend less time fixing what they have already done.
• They do not worry about things breaking.
• They put their energy into new projects instead of old ones.
• There are fewer kinks along [Read more]

Eliot Spitzer, Your Dark Side and Being Calm

I had a very disturbing experience several months ago and I am almost reluctant to talk about it because it was so disturbing. I am hesitant because I recognize that your natural response might be to assume I am a little aberrated for being in the situation in the first place; however, I am human and must admit that at times I do find myself in situations that are a bit odd. This was one of the stranger situations I have encountered, and it really threw me into a tailspin. For several years a friend of mine, [Read more]

You Need to Stand for Something

Today, I read a story in the Washington Post about a girl who recently resigned from West Point and is going to Yale. She resigned from West Point because she is gay and the school will kick her out if it learns that she is gay. Tired of compromising between what she believed was right and wrong, she resigned to protest the policy and be consistent with her own internal compass. When I started reading the story, I immediately thought—she’s probably transferring to Harvard or Yale. Sure enough, I was not surprised when I learned later in the article that that was where she was going. Why wasn’t I surprised? Because a school like Yale probably receives a couple of hundred transfer applications for every spot it has open (very few people drop out of Yale). In order to get one of those spots you need to stand for something. How memorable is it to have a good grade point average? Lots of people have good grades. Very few people stand for something. The people [Read more]

We Create Problems So That We Can Grow and Be Happy

When I was 15 years old, my grandmother took me to a Honda motorcycle dealership one day and bought me a moped. I believe it was called an Aero 50. That was one of the greatest days of my life at the time because, for at least the previous few years, I had been lobbying my parents for a moped and they had never gotten me one. Then, one Friday, my grandmother came over and I tried the same lobbying approach on her, and by Saturday afternoon, I was riding a new moped. When I got [Read more]

The Graduate, Andrew Carnegie, and Finding Positive Economic Currents

In the 1967 movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman plays a young, recent college graduate, Ben. At a party, Ben is congratulated by his family and their friends:

Guests: We’re all so proud of you, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud. What are you going to do now? Ben: I was going to go upstairs for a minute. Guests: I meant with your future, your life. Ben: Well, that’s a little hard to say.

In one of the most memorable lines in movie history, Ben receives advice from Mr. McGuire (played by Walter Brooke), a family friend:

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you – just one word. Ben: Yes sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Ben: Yes I am. Mr. McGuire: ‘Plastics.’ Ben: Exactly how do you mean? Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it? Ben: Yes I will. Mr. McGuire: Shh! Enough said. That’s a deal.

In an interesting twist, in real life McGuire’s advice would prove to be [Read more]

Immanuel Kant and What Good Hiring Managers Should Look For

Many people who make hiring decisions really do not know what they are doing. In fact, they often make mistake after mistake when hiring.

• They put too much emphasis on skills and experience.
• They are overly impressed with interviewing skills.
• They think in terms of who is going to work the hardest.

Are these sorts of things important? Of course they are. But the single most important aspect of hiring is evaluating the person’s unique outlook on the world. If the person does not have a positive outlook on the world, the following are likely to happen:

• The person will bring down the morale of the people they work with.
• The person will harm the company through their negative outlook.
• The person will abandon the job for something that looks better.

When people go into interviews, they [Read more]

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