Focus, Instead of Going Unconscious
I used to live in a house that had a room overlooking my neighbors’ backyard. I had a little exercise area with an elliptical machine and a StairMaster set up in one corner of the room, and whenever I would exercise, I could look directly out to my neighbors’ yard and see whatever was going on there. It was generally a pretty bucolic scene with a nice garden and some trees. About once every two or three months I would be exercising on the weekends and I would see the man of the house come into the [Read more]
Insider Trading, Ponzi Schemes, and Making the Most of Your Assets
One kind of story that probably will forever be a part of the new is the kind of story concerning various arrests and criminal prosecutions for insider trading, Ponzi schemes, and so forth. When these arrests have occurred, whether we are talking about Ivan Boesky or Martha Stewart or Bernard Madoff, the people who get into tremendous trouble are, somehow, often amongst the most successful people out there. An extremely successful trader apparently worth $1.4 billion or so, Raj Rajaratnam, was arrested recently for insider trading. He allegedly made around $20 million from those dealings. [Read more]
Concentrate on Your Product
When I was growing up, I used to spend most weekends with my father. Like most fathers I knew, my dad loved to watch sports. Football was always on during the season, and he always seemed most interested in college sports. I have always been amazed by college football because of the high level of enthusiasm that students, alumni, and others have for it. My mother went to the University of Michigan, my father attended law school there for some time, my grandfather went there, and my grandmother got a master’s degree there as well. My grandparents liked the school [Read more]
Push Yourself Outside Your Comfort Zone
About ten years ago, an attorney who had been practicing about seven or eight years longer than me, purchased his first house. I remember congratulating him on the purchase, and his response shocked me at the time: “I am very happy with the house. I plan on living here the rest of my life.” I just looked him up and he is still living there. At the time, I purchased a house of equivalent value in the exact same neighborhood he did. I sold my house within two years. Then I [Read more]
The Importance of Productivity, Focus, and Measurement
When I was in school, I would study at least a couple of hours each day in the library. While there, I noticed that the best students were always very focused. They were not distracted like poorer students were. A poor student looks around and looks up frequently. The poor students try to start conversations, make jokes, and laugh at things going on in the library. When I was studying with the best students, I could feel their energy and focus. They blocked out external stimuli and their study time was extremely productive. In fact, just about [Read more]
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]
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]
Values and Your Career
In my entire career, I have not come upon a single instance in which a candidate left their firm within one year of starting there. Putting a person in a job where they are likely to stay is more difficult than it may sound. In order for someone to stay in a job for an extended period of time, they need to believe that the job is a good fit for them. In speaking with jobseekers, I have heard comments like:
- “That firm is so cool, the people there all like to do stuff like go mountain climbing together.”
- “That firm is great. Once you get a job there, you pretty much always have a job because they never let people go.”
- “I really like the people at this firm. They love to go out and have a good time all the time and are all friends outside of work.”
- “I would never work at that firm, the people there are too uptight and boring.”
Give the World What It Wants
One of the most fundamental laws in the human and animal kingdom is that you must contribute to the world in order to survive. Species that do not contribute effectively to the world are typically eliminated by evolution. People who do not contribute effectively to the world are unemployed or under-employed. A major key to the success we experience in our lives, then, will be in direct proportion to how much we contribute.
- In most cases, the people who are the most powerful, wealthy, and famous are the people in society who contribute the most.
- Conversely, the people who are least powerful, least wealthy, and least known in the world contribute the least.
Your life and the success you experience [Read more]
Strategy, Symbolism, and Your Career
For several decades, Kaiser Permanente, a large HMO based in Oakland, California, has spent tens of millions of dollars annually advertising on television, in magazines, and various other media. Kaiser, like other HMOS, traditionally promoted itself with the sorts of images you’d expect: a doctor treating a happy patient, a group of smiling doctors, and so forth. A Kaiser advertisement generally also spoke about the quality and number of its doctors. For just about every HMO out there, this was the advertising formula. When meeting with Kaiser and discussing alternative approaches, advertising executives were asked:
