Take Small Actions and Meet Others
When I was in law school I was standing in a bar one day and the most beautiful girl I had seen around campus walked up to me and said: “I am just wondering why you have never come up to me and tried to talk to me. Every other guy I see around at parties does this.” Five years later we were married. She was right, I might have never walked up to her and introduced myself had she not taken this action herself. Imagine for a moment if she had not walked [Read more]
Do Not Create Too Many Rules
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they are looking for a job, working in a job and in life is this: They have too many rules.
- They have rules about the jobs they can apply for.
- They have rules about how they apply for jobs.
- They have rules about where they can apply for jobs.
- They have rules about whether they will or will not use recruiters.
- They have rules about how many jobs they apply for.
- They have rules about the type of work they will do.
- They have rules about the hours they will work.
- They have rules about the wages they will start making.
- They have rules about the sort of health insurance they need to receive.
- They have rules about the reputation of the employer they are working for.
- They have rules about the diversity of the employer they are working for.
- They have rules about the challenge of the job they are working in.
- They have rules about the vacation policies their employer should offer.
- They have rules about the challenge their job should offer.
- They have rules about the sorts of people they will be working with.
- They have rules about the style of the people they will be working with.
- They have rules about the accomplishments that people they work with should have.
- They have rules about the academic degrees the people they work with should have.
- They have rules about the material possessions the people they work with should have.
- They have rules about the neighborhoods the people they work with should live in.
- They have rules about whether or not the people they work with should have families.
- They have rules about the organizations the people they work with should belong to.
- The have rules about the race the people they work with should be.
Understand Your Ultimate Goal
Several years ago I was living in New York City and taking the subway to work every single day. Like many young people, I had been taught somewhere along the line that this was “the place” to work and where the most sophisticated work happened, where the highest salaries are paid and where the most important work occurs. I think this is true to a great extent. The city is extremely exciting and people work so hard there they cannot help but become incredibly good at their jobs. The concentration of businesses in New York also creates an abundance of extremely [Read more]
Do Not Be Vengeful: Let Hurt and Anger Go Through You
He who conquers the mind, conquers the world. -Guru Nanak Dev
In today’s economy, a lot of people are losing their jobs. People are being fired and let go from companies at an alarming rate. There is a huge sense of betrayal people feel when they lose a job. People are incredibly angry at their employers and often life itself. There is also a tendency for people who feel they have been wronged to want to “lash out” at their employers who have fired them. Many of these people become angry, not just at the employer where they have lost their job, but at all employers. They take on [Read more]
Ferraris Crashing Into Poles and the Importance of Focus in Your Life and Career
I read another article about someone in Los Angeles crashing a Ferrari into a pole today. The car was split in half. The driver of the Ferrari was Charles Lewis, a famous mixed martial arts fighter whose car spun out of control while he was racing a Porsche. Lewis’ Ferrari was split in two after hitting a pole. Tragically, Lewis was killed. Right in front of my house a couple of years ago there was another famous Ferrari crash. In February of 2006, Stefan Eriksson a Swedish entrepreneur, lost control of his $1,000,000 Ferrari Enzo sports car while driving along Pacific Coast [Read more]
The Pygmalion Effect and Setting Incredible Expectations for Your Career and Life
In your life, have you ever been around people who set either extremely high or extremely low expectations for you? It is important that you surround yourself with people who believe in you and what you can achieve. It is equally important that you distance yourself from people who do not believe that, for whatever reason, you are not capable of achieving much. In your career and personal life you are going to be around both sets of people: People who believe in you and those who do not. What is so striking is just how much [Read more]
Ships, Relativity and Your Happiness
A few months ago I found myself sitting in a ship yard getting ready to look at a couple of ships. The particular ship I was going to look at next had originally been used to ferry crew back and forth to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. It had three huge diesel engines, an outdoor hot tub, could safely carry and sleep at least 50 people and was over 150 feet long. You could have landed a fleet of helicopters on it if you chose to do so. I was there because I meant business [Read more]
Do Not Allow the Past to Limit Your Opportunities Today
My one-year old daughter calls a coffee cup “hot” and avoids coffee cups lest she gets burned. Until she learns that the coffee cup can also contain coffee, milk, and other foods that will not harm her, she is likely to avoid coffee cups for some time. She must have been burned a little by touching a coffee cup at one point and learned to stay away from coffee cups. Until she is able to see the coffee cup for what it is (a cup), and not her past experience (getting burned), she will not be able to experience everything positive that can [Read more]
How to Manage Crisis
One of the scariest things for any of us is when we are in crisis. A crisis can be defined a lot of ways. It can be:
- the loss of a job.
- a divorce.
- a traumatic injury.
- a death.
- the alienation of a loved one due to a fight or disagreement.
- a severe illness.
- or even your own impending death.
Crisis is absolutely one of the most challenging things that we face, and when many people are in crisis they simply cannot cope and therefore fall apart. The key to managing any crisis is to look towards the future while you’re inside the crisis. You [Read more]
Winners and Losers
When I was 10, I lost a fight that I did not realize I had lost. I went to a public school in Detroit where there were a lot of fights. Some of the fights were frightening to watch. People would hit each other with rocks and even baseball bats. Kids would often end up with broken bones and other serious injuries. Generally, these fights were about absolutely nothing. One day, I was in a disagreement with a kid my age that as far as I knew, had never won a fight. He was not even really [Read more]
