• On one hand, the culture of Athens left a legacy of art, drama, architecture, philosophy, the enjoyment of wealth and opulence, the idea of a governmental democracy and a strong navy.
• On the other hand, the government of Sparta left a legacy of asceticism, military supremacy on land and oligarchy (rule by a few).

These two societies fought repeatedly between the years of 500 BC and 350 BC. Their clash was a fight between two civilizations in the fullest sense. Each believed that their society and their way of doing things was the correct way. They fought in different ways and they ran their societies in different ways. Most of what we know about the Spartans comes from the writings of the Athenians, because the Athenians were the ones who spent their time writing and thinking. And since the Athenians did not like the Spartans, the writing is somewhat biased. I believe, and have always believed, that being a successful job seeker requires you to be more of a Spartan than an Athenian. In fact, I would propose to you today that a great deal of what is wrong with our current economy is due to many of us approaching our careers and our jobs more like an Athenian would than a Spartan would. I have been witnessing what appears to be a decline in a solid work ethic, job finding skills and the ability to do good work in the United States since I have been a young child. It seems to me that this decline is just getting worse and worse. Most people use all their sick days each year, even if they are not sick. Many people who are not working spend years unemployed and refuse to take a job unless it pays as much as their last one. In the automobile industry, unions have contributed to a slow death among American automobile companies by demanding more and more benefits and less and less work. Our government is bailing out companies and banks when they cannot make a profit. Our leaders are intellectuals with no experience running armies or groups. Worst of all, there is something developing in this country where we reward people for making mistakes. For example, between 2000 and 2005 hundreds of thousands of Americans made an incredible amount of money buying and selling houses. Now that the economy has started to slow down and they are no longer making money, we are stepping in to fix all of this. It is like a child running back to their parent for help. Our health care costs are incredibly high compared to other cultures. The people of our country are very unhealthy and do not watch their diets. Our highest paid workers in the law and other disciplines form communities online where they spend more time complaining about what they are making than appreciating what they have. Our jobs in this country have begun migrating to places where people can do them more cheaply and are hungrier for work. With manufacturing, it happened already with jobs migrating to China. In the information technology sector our jobs are going to places like India. Our country is getting fat, lazy and developing a massive sense of entitlement. We are turning into intellectuals, as opposed to soldiers. Our children spend time playing video games and not learning. Our national test scores are going down on an almost annual basis. We are innovators in many sectors, but something is changing. We have a sense of entitlement about what we deserve and yet we are not delivering. Much of the success we have experienced in the recent past has been the result of financial chicanery and financial manipulation. The cultural icons of our youth are other kids who have never worked. Some of our most popular shows at this point in time are of people who are not even required to memorize lines. Instead, a camera follows around young adults on shows such as The Hills, as they go on dates and socialize. Our country spends more than it saves. Our government has a deficit and most households do as well. There is something going on in this country that is more “Athens” than it is “Sparta,” and it is dragging us down. I know there is not a lot you can do about what is going on–and I know you may not agree with me as well. However, what you can do personally is be more “Sparta” than “Athens,” and being more “Sparta” than “Athens” is something that can help you reap incredible rewards in your career. As I will discuss below, being more “Sparta” than “Athens” will enable you to: (1) get a job more quickly, (2) be more effective in your existing job and (3) survive in all economic conditions. In ancient Greece, Sparta had the most feared military force there was. The Spartan soldier was, and still is, legendary. A Spartan soldier’s training began at birth and the Spartan soldiers never lost a battle in the conflicts that waged between the small city-states of ancient Greece. When a baby was very young, it was tested for weakness and deformity. Babies were bathed in wine shortly after being born by their mother. The babies that survived the bathing were brought by their fathers before a governing body of Sparta (a council of elders known as the Geousia). Babies that seemed as if they would be unlikely to become strong soldiers, or who were considered “puny”, were thrown in a gorge to die. (If a baby made it past this stage and died in another manner later on, they were not even allowed a headstone. The only Spartans who were allowed headstones were those of Soldiers who died in battle where Sparta was victorious, and women who died in childbirth or a divine office.) For those who were allowed to live, the training of the Spartan solider was nonstop and savage. Spartan boys began formal military training at the age of seven in what was called the Agoge system. The boys lived communally, and were given grueling physical training and learned to work with weapons at a young age. Men could not not live with their families until they left active military service at the age of the thirty (Spartan men remained in the reserves until the age of sixty). Plutarch, a Greek historian and essayist, wrote that for many Spartan soldiers going to battle was a welcome relief from the grueling training: “For the Spartans, actual war was a holiday compared to their tough training.” What is so significant to me about this early aspect of Spartan training, is the incredible focus that the young were forced to develop at a young age. Their lives were all about their jobs and they were toughened and taught to be “warriors”. Instead of being coddled by schools, they were toughened by schools. They were pushed both physically and mentally in these schools. The emphasis in the schools was not on being academic. For example, while Spartan boys studied reading, music and and writing, the boys were punished if they failed to answer questions laconically (i.e., briefly). The idea for Spartans was that they were to be warriors who were educated but did not sit around debating the nature of good and evil, for example. The idea of intellectualism and debate was not something that was part of Spartan society. A Spartan was trained as a soldier whose job it was to get something done. While I am not sure I personally would be all that comfortable with the Spartan educational system, what makes it so interesting to me is that it emphasized utility and action over the converse. The idea that was being taught was that focus is what is important. By being focused, you are much more likely to reach your point than by talking around the truth. The Spartans’ educational system was geared towards this focus. In modern society, our academics will traditionally sit around debating this or that. Our best students are often those skilled in the art of giving long-winded answers. Lawyers spend a great deal of time debating this or that, and this makes up a giant portion of what goes on in our culture. Students in school are coddled and given the sorts of learning environments that “nurture” them. While I am not going to debate this in great detail, I would go so far as to argue that the nurturing of our modern educational systems gives people in the United States a certain sense of entitlement about what society owes them, instead of what they owe society. This coddling ends up instilling a sense of entitlement that may go on in peoples’ lives forever, and continually put them in the role of being takers rather that doers. This is not something that would have happened in Sparta. In Sparta, failure was also something that was not allowed. According to Thucydides, when Spartan men were going off to war their mothers, wives, or a woman of significance in their lives would present them with their shield and the statement “With this, or upon this.” This meant that the solider could only return to Sparta having won the battle, with their shield in hand (“with this”) or dead (“upon this”). Spartans who returned to Sparta without their shield were presumed to have thrown it at their enemies and then fled–something that was punishable by death or banishment from Sparta. The entire Spartan culture was one that enforced incredible discipline upon its soldiers. For example, one Spartan legend discussed a man who ran away from battle and back to his mother. Instead of comforting him, the mother chased him around the streets hitting him with sticks. In our current society, failure is allowed. While there is nothing wrong with failure, it should never be an attractive option. Celebrities and well known figures repeatedly go into rehab for drugs and alcohol. We quit jobs if we do not feel we are being treated as well as we could be. We coddle people for failing and give them “easier” tasks to do if one task seems too difficult for them. Our government steps in if people make horrible economic choices and does not allow them to fail. We pay people unemployment who get fired from their jobs. We bail out companies with government money that are making bad products that no one wants to buy. When a Spartan went off to battle they had no choice but to succeed. There would be no warm homecoming for them if they failed. Consequently, the Spartans did not fail and always won their battles among the city states of ancient Greece. According to one commentator:

The life of a Spartan male was a life of discipline, self-denial, and simplicity. The Spartans viewed themselves as the true inheritors of the Greek tradition. They did not surround themselves with luxuries, expensive foods, or opportunities for leisure. And this, I think, is the key to understanding the Spartans. While the Athenians and many others thought the Spartans were insane, the life of the Spartans seemed to hark back to a more basic way of life. Discipline, simplicity, and self-denial always remained ideals in the Greek and Roman worlds; civilization was often seen as bringing disorder, enervation, weakness, and a decline in moral values. The Spartan, however, could point to Spartan society and argue that moral values and human courage and strength was as great as it was before civilization. Spartan society, then, exercised a profound pull on the surrounding city-states who admired the simplicity, discipline, and order of Spartan life.

Sparta’s emphasis on military supremacy and a simple lifestyle was the major emphasis behind Plato’s book, The Republic, which was one of the first attempts to formulate an ideal community. Was Sparta ideal? In many ways I believe it was. In our current society everything is just far too complicated. Our emphasis on leisure and eating has made us a nation that is predominantly overweight. Our ability to manufacture goods the world wants to buy continues to decrease. As a group, we do not have discipline. Our military is not valued and held in esteem by many of our highest leaders. We surround ourselves with luxuries and more emphasis seems to be put on this for many of us than on the value of our work. In contrast to Sparta, Athens was a very different society and far less rigid and militaristic. In Sparta, the emphasis of the society was on the military and in Athens the largest emphasis was upon culture. Some very important accomplishments were made by Athenians in science, art, philosophy and other disciplines. For example, the philosophers Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and the playwrights of Euripides, Aristophanes, Aeschculus all lived during Athens’ golden age in the fifth century BC. Athenians believed that they were culturally superior to the Spartans. They enjoyed luxuries and foods from all over their empire. The homes of wealthy Athenians were very nice and had inner courtyards. A good description of Athens also comes from Pericles famous funeral oration:

Further, we provide many ways to refresh the mind from the burdens of business. We hold contests and offer sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to drive away sorrow. The magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbor, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his own.

In contrast, Spartan men were taught to get along with almost nothing. Spartan citizens were not permitted to own gold or other luxuries. These differences between the Spartans and Athenians remind me of a conflict I see today all around me. There are people who talk a lot about what they are going to do and read a lot about what others are doing and have done, and there are people out there doing things and actually getting work done. Which are you? I would encourage you to be on the side of action, self denial and create effective contribution, rather than on the side of those who simply talk and do very little. One of the greatest conflicts I have personally witnessed in working with thousands of job seekers over the years has been a similar conflict–there are job seekers who are Spartans and there are job seekers who are Athenians. The Spartans are always the more successful in the long run. When I was around 18 years old my parents stopped giving me money completely. I did not have a traditional home to come home to where parents cooked and looked after me, either. Without any money coming in and expenses that included car maintenance, gas for my car, clothes, books for school and other essentials I was put in a position where I had to work. While I resented my parents for their personal situation which put me in this role at the time, it was something that I ultimately came to appreciate as I got into my 30s because I realized how much more scrappy it made me compared to others. In ancient Sparta, the boys were intentionally underfed so they would always be hungry and so they would develop the skill of being able to steal food. Here, without any money coming in, I needed to toughen myself and learn skills that other kids my age were not learning at the time. I sold knives on the street. I worked as a pizza delivery boy. I worked in the school bookstore. I started a business doing asphalt work. I worked on cars in my spare time. I did not have the same luxuries and other accouterments as other kids had. I also knew that I did not have any “backstop” if I failed. If I did not have any money then I would simply not be able to function. I needed to look out for myself. This was something that personally toughened me up. It made me quite self reliant and it put me in a position where I learned over time how to make use of existing resources, find the best deals for things and make the most of what I was given. This is an incredibly valuable skill to have, and as a “Spartan” I toughened myself up quite a bit. What this means for you and your job search is that you need to put yourself in the position of a Spartan. If a Spartan were looking for a job today they would show up to an interview ready for work. They would not debate the idea of retreat or running home if they did not get the job. They would not debate the idea of quitting the job if they were unhappy with the work conditions or they did not like their boss–they would make it work. They would only accept victory. Moreover, a Spartan would go to work ready to work and would work very hard. A lot of people enjoy sitting around and talking about things. They are undisciplined when it comes to their job search and quite lazy. Many may purchase a book or two here and there, and not do anything with it. Others may lament the state of the market and cite accounts in newspapers and other sources that there are simply not enough opportunities. They will sit around and try to see what benefits they are entitled to. They will take all of their vacation and sick days. Instead of working on their existing weaknesses and acknowledging them, they may move between jobs to find employers who will not bring to light their weaknesses. None of this does them any good in the long run. I think a lot of what is wrong with this country today is that we are too Athenian and not Spartan enough. I would encourage you, in your job search and career, to be more Spartan than Athenian. THE LESSON While Athens prioritized culture and intellectualism, the people of Sparta devoted themselves to simplicity and discipline. You need to approach your job search as a Spartan, not an Athenian; don’t retreat from the negative aspects of your life and current job, but rather make them work for you and remain focused on your success.

• I had one computer programmer who had gone to Columbia Law School and had come to work with me after deciding that he did not want to practice law.
• I had a girl who had graduated at the top of her class at Boston University Law School and decided that she did not want to practice law.
• I had another guy who had gotten a perfect score on his LSATs and a perfect grade point average. He was working for me a few years before deciding which law school to attend. They all ended up offering him scholarships.
• I had a guy who was extremely intelligent and hardworking, who had gone to law school with his wife, and ultimately decided against working in a law firm. He had followed his wife out to Los Angeles while she took a job practicing law.

One guy might come in at 5:00 am and work until 4:00 pm and then work from home later in the evening. Another guy might come in at 11:00 am and then work until 1:00 am. People often worked on weekends because they liked being together. Everyone seemed to keep unusual hours, working very hard. They were always applying themselves fully and I never needed to worry about them. We offered vacation time but people hardly ever took the time off. If someone wanted to go away for a week or so they would just announce they were going on their vacation and no one was too concerned. I knew the sort of people I was working with would never abuse any privileges. What I remember most about this group of people was that everyone had done extraordinarily well in college, getting almost all A’s. I have noticed throughout the years that the very best employees are often those who did incredibly well in college. The reason for this, I think, is that the best college students are always self-motivated, disciplined individuals who enjoy their work. You have to find a way to enjoy what you are doing in order to do well at it. To get good grades in college you generally need to work hard and set up routines, rituals, and so forth to make sure you study at the right times. In examining the hundreds of employees I have worked with throughout the years, with very few exceptions, the longest lasting and best performing people were always those who had performed very well in college. In contrast, I have known numerous people who, when they grew up, were forced to follow massive amounts of procedures and rules by their parents. They were told when to study, when to go to sleep, and more. Many of these kids ended up getting into great colleges because of their grades, but when they got there and did not have the structure, they fell on their ass. I saw this happen countless times. It is important that our rituals and sense of responsibility is internal, and something we learn to do naturally–not something we only do when it is imposed on us by people on the outside. This “core group” of four people performed incredibly well for my company and our revenues very quickly grew. Within less than a year of hiring this group, we had moved locations together. After hiring numerous new employees, we took over the largest office in our building at the time. Then the company underwent a huge hiring spree; every single day of the week I found myself interviewing various people for one job or another. The process of massive and rapid hiring occurred constantly for the next several years. What was so remarkable about this group of people was that they were entirely self-motivated and self-managing. They instinctively knew what needed to be done and they made it all happen. They were excited about and enjoyed their work, which was more akin to play for them. Their efforts helped build our companies to what they are today.  Indeed knowing these people gave me a tremendous amount of respect for the self-managing person, who knows what needs to be done and how to do it. This type of person is rare–and is the sort of person you need to be. The more self-managing you are, the better you will ultimately do at everything you undertake, the more employers will want to hold on to you, and the better future you will create for yourself. I met with a man yesterday who has been partaking in transcendental meditation every day for the past 30 years. He told me that for him it is just like getting up and brushing his teeth or taking a shower. He simply would not be able to get up in the morning without having his daily meditation. Many people have their special routines, which they follow each day. They eat lunch at a certain time, get up at a certain time, go to sleep at a certain time, walk the dog at a certain time, etc. We integrate all sorts of rituals and responsibilities into our daily lives. We need to do the same with our job and work life. We need more responsibilities and rituals. We should not have to rely on others telling us what to do. A grown up does not need to be told when to eat, when to take a shower, and so forth. So it should be at the workplace. There is nothing more important than being self-managing. Within a few years, our company had bought its own building and then another, and then another. The growth just kept continuing. Revenues increased and things seemed to be going very well. However, I remember just before we moved to the first building we had purchased, that many of our key employees began quitting. Very smart people started dropping off, people who had been core employees, who had greatly assisted in growing many of our businesses. As the company grew, I began noticing that certain new people were not as self-motivated as the ones we had hired previously. My hiring standards had dropped somewhat, and many new people I brought in were just not of the same caliber to which I had become accustomed. I was not the only one in charge of hiring anymore, either. In some cases people were apparently hired more based on looks than skills. Others were hired because they knew someone working in the company. The atmosphere of the company began to change rapidly. I became increasingly frustrated because as the company was branching out, it became necessary for me to create all sorts of new procedures, handbooks, and so forth to control many of the new people. I absolutely hated this. I am somewhat of a “creative type” and cannot imagine spending my time trying to control people through various procedures and protocols. Here are some of the employee issues I faced while the company expanded:

• People would begin disappearing for long periods of time during the day.
• Some employees would call in sick every few days.
• Other people would do slipshod work and have to be reprimanded.
• Various employees would circulate memos claiming that labor laws were being violated because certain employees were working too hard.
• People began requesting “reasonable accommodations” for various psychological ailments with which they had somehow been diagnosed.
• People started stealing from the company and getting caught red handed.

A whole host of other problems developed, far too numerous to delineate here. In response to all these problems the company started cracking down, establishing new bureaucracy and rules.

• I began hiring anal retentive people to be human resources administrators, and to create various rules that people would need to follow.
• We came up with employee manuals.
• We began circulating memos with rules.
• We began having various meetings to discuss employee procedures.

The self-motivated employees hated all of these rules because they were working hard to begin with. For example, if a self-motivated employee got “written up” for getting into work at 12:00 noon when they had worked until 3:00am, they were pissed. I hired an in-house lawyer to draft contracts for the new employees to sign, which demanded arbitration instead of allowing them to sue us if they believed something had gone wrong. The in-house lawyer stayed busy fielding calls and having meetings with people who were aggrieved in one way or another with all these rules and procedures. The lawyer also became responsible for firing people who were not following the rules, and spoke with the human resources manager on a daily basis about problem employees, having closed door meetings, and more. All of the rules and bureaucratic procedures the company had created were made specifically to compensate for the inadequacies of the weak hires–people the company would not have even hired at all in the past. I noticed that while the star performers could tolerate working with weaker performers (after all, they had probably been doing this their entire lives), they absolutely could not tolerate being governed by all sorts of rules and bureaucratic procedures. For example, we passed one rule that said people could not go barefoot in the office. This made a brilliant guy from Stanford who did great work for us almost quit on the spot. We passed another rule about dress codes (shirt and pants required in the office–no shorts allowed) that made another few people quit. As the best people left and more and more people were hired to replace them, the need for more and more bureaucracy kept developing, and I found myself passing more and more rules in order to insure that the new people were actually working. What ended up happening, of course, was that the company changed over time. While the culture of the workplace was still entrepreneurial, rules and regulations began to dominate. One time we had an incident where one of our offices tried to unionize. An increasing amount of managerial effort went into babysitting and keeping files and reports on the staff, as opposed to starting new projects and getting work done. Much of my experience running the company turned into a watchdog position, wherein I constantly had to insure that people actually did their jobs. I also started to notice another alarming trend with numerous employees:

• People would come into work and clock in and then disappear. They would do this for days at a time and do no work whatsoever.
• Others would manufacture fake on-the-job injuries and sue the company for damages.
• Still other people would come in late repeatedly and after a series of 10 or 12 warnings in the space of few months they would be fired. Then they would then bring lawsuits against the company claiming they were fired because they were old, young, whatever.

It was always the people who needed to be managed who caused the most problems. You would not believe how many people out there make a game out of creating fictitious problems. The best people in every job I have ever had and in every company I have ever supervised are self- managing and responsible individuals. Also, the more self-managing people are there working for an organization, the stronger the organization generally is. I cannot overstate the importance of being able to self-manage; this is an absolutely essential quality to possess if you wish to achieve success in whatever you do. Instead of creating problems in the workplace, you should seek out responsibilities, and ritualize your work routine. These responsibilities will drive you forward in your daily work, in your career, and in your life.

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.  Today, most of us will have had several jobs over our lifetimes. While this means many things, its significance is that there is really no such thing as employment stability and certainty in your job.  In fact, with very few exceptions, no job is immune from going away.  Most of us crave stability in our lives.  Stability in our careers is an incredibly important thing.  People search for and get stability in their lives in numerous ways:

• They get married.
• The get educations.
• They participate in certain religions.
• They send their kids to certain schools in the hopes this will give them security.
• They follow a certain routine.
• They exercise because it makes them feel a certain way.
• They eat a certain type of food to get enjoyment.
• They use food for comfort.
• They read.
• They act sick or helpless.
• They smoke cigarettes.
• They control others.
• They show up for work at a certain time each day.
• They buy cars which are safer than others so they do not get injured.

Why do we all do one or more of these things?  We do them because we are seeking a certain level of security in our lives.  We want to feel secure, and we expect each of these things we do will give us that result.  Security is coming home to the same home each night.  It is about having a job to go to tomorrow.  It is about having people in your life who love you.  It is knowing you will be alive tomorrow.  It is about being comforted when you are tense and agitated.  How we define security is unique to each of us, but something we all have a need for.  It is among the most important needs we have as human beings. The need for security in your career is real, and it is something I am sure is exceptionally important to you.  We need to have a purpose in the world, and we need to know that we are going to have the ability to make money and support ourselves in the future.  This is the reason people typically chose one profession over another.  This is also the reason people typically get educations, for example. When I was growing up, the most secure career you could go into was medicine.  The reason for this was largely due to the fact that doctors typically were guaranteed a pretty good income if they managed to get into medical school and graduate.  They could count on making enough money to live in a nice neighborhood and drive a nice car.  They could send their children to good schools and be respected in their community.  Much of this has been shaken recently and, within the past several months, I have even read some incredible stories about doctors going bankrupt due to being unable to find work.  This is not the case everywhere, of course, but it is a sign that there is not as much security in this profession anymore. The most secure job you could possibly get in the early 1970s in Detroit was a job with an automotive company.  If you got a job in a factory, you would get a good hourly wage, health benefits, and a pension.  This is, of course, no longer the case at all.  Life and business is a continual cycle of creation and destruction.  What is alive today may not be alive tomorrow.  What goes up often comes down.  This is what makes our careers so hard when we are seeking security. Most people do not realize this fact, but in the Great Depression there was a severe crash with unemployment rising to 25% from 1930 to 1933.  These stunning unemployment numbers are a sign that we should never take our future security lightly.  Things can change, and any and all security you currently feel  could be gone in a heartbeat.  One of my favorite economists whom I have been reading for years is Harry S. Dent, Jr.  In his most recently book, The Great Depression Ahead, he writes:

Businesses need to understand that a “survival of the fittest” battle is coming between 2008 and 2012 that will determine the leaders for many decades to come.  The businesses with the largest market shares or niche dominance and with the lowest costs and strongest balance sheets and liquidity will grow stronger and gain long-term market share, but many more will fail and be taken over by stronger companies.  Banks need to understand that they haven’t seen anything yet when it comes it comes to home foreclosures and business failures.

This extreme shakeout process in business, along with the great over-expansion and credit expansion of the bubble, will cause this downturn to see much higher unemployment than in the recessions of the 1970s and the early 1980s; our best estimate is 12% to 15%.

I have been reading Dent for years, and, in my experience, he has always been right on.  I believe that there is a strong reason at the moment for you to pause and question whether or not your job, your profession, and your life is secure.  I am asking you to do this so that you can understand the forces that are acting on your career.  Regardless of how secure you think your job is, regardless of the quality of your education, you do have reason to potentially be concerned with what is about to happen in the economy. Before I go any further, I want to be very clear about a few things that I believe have a major affect on your life.  With the Internet, population growth in various parts of the world, and more–the world is now wide open, and many of the jobs that we formerly did in the United States can be done anywhere.  These jobs can also be done much more cheaply and by people who are incredibly enthusiastic compared to many Americans.  The jobs can be performed with less bureaucracy and delivered to consumers more cheaply.  Businesses must operate as businesses, and the role of all businesses is to provide the best products and services they can at the lowest possible cost.  If the business can produce the product or service at a lower cost, then the business will also be able to sell more of the product by lowering the price. In fact, in practically any office in the United States, most of this work could be taken and moved overseas to a place where the work can be done more cheaply.  This also goes for work that occurs in factories.  Call centers have been being moved overseas for over a decade.  Sophisticated accounting and tax work can be done at a fraction of the cost overseas.  Computer programming can be done overseas.  I remember 10 years ago, it was difficult for me to hire programmer in the United States because they were demanding incredible amounts of money and stock options–if they knew what they were doing.  My experience was no different than the majority of American employers.  A decade later, most companies I know have put most of their programming staff overseas in areas where it is much less expensive. They would be crazy not to. If you can have something done better and more cheaply somewhere else, why would you not do this?  This is something I am confident has eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs.  The same goes for manufacturing.  A tremendous amount of manufacturing in the United States (and throughout the world) has now been moved to places like China.  Even taking into account the costs associated with taking shipping containers across the ocean, China is still able produce goods at a much lower cost than in the United States and elsewhere. Not too long ago, I was on vacation in Hawaii and shopping in a store which apparently had “authentic Hawaiian apparel.”  Everyone working inside of the store appeared to be genuine native Hawaiians.  I started looking at all of the labels, and, within a few minutes, I realized that every single thing in the store–whether it was a straw hat, or a flowered shirt, was from China.  There is nothing wrong with this.  The business was just doing what any smart business needs to do–it was getting its products from the lowest cost producer so it could make the largest profit margins. What is going on is not just confined to products and programmers, however.  Legal work is now also being increasingly outsourced to places like India.  People can now have legal work done there.  Imagine what the implications are for the long-term job security of American attorneys due to this.  I have heard others say that the education industry is safe; however, this is also being questioned now.  I read recently in The Great Depression Ahead, that even this may not be immune:

There are likely to be big changes in education ahead due to this Shakeout Season over the next decade.  Just as with the housing or technology or emerging market or commodity bubble, there is an education bubble.  Does it make sense that education costs should be rising so fast when education is an information-intensive industry during an unprecedented information revolution?  Bureaucratic management structures, real estate intensity, and tenure-based systems have sustained high costs, while high demand from frantic parents has exacerbated the price spiral.  Why can’t parts of education be conveyed online with greater access to experts and peers around the world?  Why do we need sprawling campuses with elaborate landscaping, buildings, libraries, etc., in an Internet world?  Why should students be restricted to teachers and experts in a local area when they can have video and interactive feedback from around the world from the best experts, peers and blogs? Education can be delivered at radically lower costs through a combination of online programs, in-classroom programs, and internships with companies.  However, it will take a shock to the system to force such changes in the most complacent, academic and tenure-based system in our economy. Page 306.

My idea here is that no industry and no job will necessarily guarantee you the security you crave in the future.  One proposal being batted around is that the Obama administration may decide to create a massive number of government jobs.  This may very well occur, however, if this does occur, then even these jobs may not have a lot of security because they may be eliminated when a new administration comes in.  Everything goes in cycles of creation and destruction. I believe the next 10 years or so in the present economy are going to witness a massive shakeout that is beyond anything we have ever seen before.  In a poor economy, businesses do everything they possibly can to cut costs.  This will mean that many of the jobs they have will be relocated overseas, where possible, and done in much cheaper ways.  In addition, I believe that productivity enhancing tools are going to increasingly put pressure on the human equation to lower wages.  I recently read a September 10, 2008, article in the Wall Street Journal, “Retailers Reprogram Workers in Efficiency Push,” which I am confident is a huge indicator of what lies ahead in most retail jobs:

Retailers have a new tool to turn up the heat on their salespeople: computer programs that dictate which employees should work when, and for how long.

AnnTaylor StoresCorp. installed a system last year. When saleswoman Nyla Houser types her code number into a cash register at the Ann Taylor store here at the Oxford Valley Mall, it displays her “performance metrics”: average sales per hour, units sold, and dollars per transaction. The system schedules the most productive sellers to work the busiest hours.

Ann Taylor saleswoman Nyla Houser, a retired teacher, has gotten fewer work hours under a new ‘workforce-management‘ system.”We are under the gun to be a much more efficiently running organization,” said Scott Knaul, director of store operations at the women’s apparel retailer, which said earlier this year that it is closing 117 under performing stores over the next few years. There was an initial “ego hit” for some employees, he said at a gathering of retailers in May. But the system, he said, has helped turn more store browsers into buyers. Such “workforce-management” systems are sweeping the industry as retailers fight to improve productivity and cut payroll costs. Limited Brands Inc., Gap Inc., Williams-Sonoma Inc. and GameStop Corp. have all installed them recently. Some employees aren’t happy about the trend. They say the systems leave them with shorter shifts, make it difficult to schedule their lives, and unleash Darwinian forces on the sales floor that damage morale. “There was a lot of animosity” toward the system, says Kelly Engle, who worked at an Ann Taylor store in Beavercreek, Ohio, until late last year. “Computers aren’t very forgiving when it comes to an individual’s life.”

Tools like this are enabling retailers to squeeze as much work as they possibly can out of their workers.  They are also shaking inefficiencies out of the system and making our jobs less secure and certain.  In this article it was discussed that this efficiency increasing tool is creating tremendous downward pressure on the wages of the most marginal sales people in the stores. The quest we have for security is there because we are all trying to survive.  How do you do this, however, when the world around you is constantly changing?  We fight for security in our jobs.  Unions are there, for the most part, to give people employment security.  Most of the worry and anxiety people experience is due to them worrying about what may happen or not feeling secure.  There are a lot of ways people try and get security:

• They save money.
• They limit their relationships to people where they are not likely to be disappointed and continually experience security.
• They look for people, situations, substances and other things to calm their anxiety and make them feel secure.
• Some people consistently underachieve because they believe there is more security in being average than being extraordinary and taking risks.
• Many people isolate themselves.
• A salesperson does not take risks and make certain calls to get new clients for their firm so they do not have to feel rejection, for example.
• We do not take the risks we should in meeting as many people as we should so we do not experience rejection.
• We do not apply for jobs we are likely to be rejected for so we can experience security.
• We do not follow up with applications we have submitted because this makes us feel more secure.

Not all of these things may apply to you, but I am sure many of them do.  You know that you have a need for security.  The problem with this need is that you should understand that there is no such thing as security.  Every inefficiency in every business and job you could possibly have will eventually be eliminated.  This is especially so in the current economy where employers will do everything within their power to reduce and eliminate unnecessary expenses.  This is something that happens in all recessions, and it is happening at the moment, and is likely to be severe.  Many people you know are about to lose their jobs if they have not already. Where does this leave you? What about your security? You are not going to be able to find security in almost any career you go into.  I do not say this to you to frighten you, but it is a stark reality.  Concentrating on security and searching for this is the wrong approach to your career.  What you really need to be concentrating on is yourself and the value that you can provide an employer.

• How you can reduce your employer’s costs.
• How you can make your employer more money.
• How you can create efficiencies where you work.
• How you can present a better image for your employer.
• How you can outsource work and save your employer money.
• How you can look out for and defend the employer’s interests.
• How you can improve your skills in your chosen profession for the benefit of your employer.

All of these ideas (and I could write them down all day) are things that you can do that are meant to give someone else (i.e., your employer) security.  When you concentrate on the needs of your employer and being exceptional at your job, very good things happen to you.  I have been faced before with the choice between letting one or another person go in our company during cutbacks.  If there is someone out there I know is always trying to cut costs and increase the revenue of one of our companies, then I will do everything within my power to save this person’s job.  Other people do not seem to care, and these are the people who are let go.  People who are constantly improving themselves are also kept around over those who are not.  People who are aware of inefficiencies in various operations and point these out to the employer are valued. In 1927, Bruce Barton, the co-founder of the BBDO advertising agency wrote: “If a man practices doing things for other people until it becomes so much a habit that he is unconscious of it, all the good forces of the universe line up behind him and whatever he undertakes to do.”" In order to experience the security you are seeking, you need to focus on the needs of others.  Focusing on your own security is something that is often counterproductive.  There is a chance you could lose any job that you are doing, even after having done the job for decades.  We are going into a frightening economy where a lot of bad stuff is about to happen.  It will be, in many respects, a true survival of the fittest.  The fittest are, and always have been, the ones who are providing the most value.  They are anticipating and catering to the needs of other and, due to this, they are staying ahead of the game. This is what I want for you as well.  You need to give your job your all and be seen as a productive unit that is working on behalf of your employer and creating immense value.  Not the opposite.  This is the only way to true security. THE LESSON Concentrate on your employer’s needs in order to achieve career stability. While everyone seeks security, it is detrimental to approach your job search with this as your main motivator; concentrating instead on the value that you provide your employer will increase your own value. Give your job your all, and you will be seen a productive unit in your employer’s organization, and security will follow naturally.

1. Someone typically files a complaint of some sort with the court about something they are upset about.  It could be a contract dispute or the violations of a copyright statute, for example.  In other cases, a prosecutor may charge someone with a crime in the court.  In many cases, the parties will file various motions regarding the complaint and whether or not it is even valid.
2. Following the filing of a complaint, and assuming the complaint makes it through this stage, a period called ”discovery” typically ensues.  Here, both sides will seek to understand the information (people, documents, etc.) that the other side has to prove the validity of what they are seeking to prove in the complaint.  The sides will exchange documents, question each others’ people and more.  During this entire process, the Judge will typically moderate everything.  This process may involve the parties coming before the judge to argue the validity of various forms of information they are seeking.
3. Following discovery, one or more of the parties will generally ask the court to throw out the case after doing what are called summary judgment motions.  If the case is scheduled for trial, they may do what are called motions in limine to throw out various causes of action.
4. A case will go to trial after all of these aspects of the case have been adjudicated.
5. Following a verdict in the case, the case may be appealed.

This is essentially, in a nutshell, what goes on in most cases that go to court. This is something that costs companies,  individuals and others an incredible amount of money to consistently go through and manage.  When you step back and look at this what is happening is pretty simple.  Essentially, two sides are seeking to be understood and a decision made about a particular misunderstanding:

• A company may believe a contract means one thing and not another.
• An individual may believe that someone has wronged them and want justice.
• Two people have have a different interpretation of one event than another.

We are appalled when judgments are passed on people and individuals without due process and taking the time to understand them.  For example, I recently saw the movie Changeling with Angelina Jolie.  This is about a mother who is wrongly thrown in a psychiatric institution without due process.  The movie Rambo is about a man who is wrongly imprisoned and then escapes without due process.  I watched 60 Minutes last night and the biggest story was about improper witness identifications, and one being wrongly thrown into prison due to a mistaken identification.  I read the New York Times this morning and a lead story on the cover was about people being wrongly imprisoned in China without due process.  Our culture is obsessed with people being understood before judgments are made about them.  We want to ensure that everyone is understood and the right thing happens.  This is something that is part of the fabric of our society, who we are, and what we believe. When I got out of law school, I started practicing law with law firms.  What I noticed is that most of the disputes that companies and individuals spend millions of dollars in legal fees could be taken care of by the two sides sitting down over a cup of coffee and discussing the issues and being willing to understand the other side.  In almost every case that I saw, the lawyers actually get in the way of the two sides working things out.  The lawyers do not want people to communicate and understand each other because, if this happens, then the lawyers will have nothing to do.  Accordingly, the lawyers go back and forth with motions and arguments for months until the client eventually decides it is not worth paying for and settles or until the case goes to trial.  Most disputes can be settled quite easily. The reason I know most disputes can be settled quite easily is because I saw it in action.  When I worked for the Judge, he would generally put the two sides in separate rooms right before the case was about to go to trial and discuss the matter with each of them individually.  He would try to get each side to see the other’s point of view.  In almost every single instance, he managed to settle the conflict right there, and the case never went to trial.  I often wondered why this particular thing never occurred before the case was so close to trial.  In more complex cases that involved multiple plaintiffs and defendants, he would bring in to what was called a “Settlement Master”.  These were typically portly men in their early 60s who looked like they had just had a good steak dinner with friends.  They were friendly men who were all smiles and everyone liked.  They would always settle cases.  They would just get people to understand one another.  This is an incredible skill. This brings me to you.  I think a lot of the current economic crisis this country is apparently going through could be solved if people learned to understand one another better.  When it comes to our jobs and what we feel we believe, however, we are more likely to dig our heels in and not understand the other person’s point of view–or our employer’s point of view. Lately, I have seen a lot of businesses closing around my neighborhood.  This is due to the economic downturn, of course, but businesses are always closing in all parts of the country at all points in time.  The reasons businesses close is often due to the people within them just not being able to understand the point of view of the employer.  Usually, these businesses are closing for reasons which are pretty stupid and generally unnecessary.  This is upsetting to me.  I want to see people working around me and businesses be successful.  Whenever I can, I try and step in and see if there is anything I can do. I am not an expert in saving businesses by any stretch of the imagination.  However, something I have seen time and time again is that virtually any business can be saved and does not have to fail.  Literally any business can work and survive if the right actions are taken.  Businesses do not need to fail and jobs can be saved quite easily. There is a business up the road from me that just went out of business. It did not take me long to figure out what was wrong with the business-the employees were being paid too much.  This was a good business, with good people, providing a good service. The business also has a tremendous upside.  It is a small business that does about $1,000,000 a year in revenue.  The problem is that the salaries of the people working there are more than $1,000,000 a year.  The business was paying virtually everyone working in the business far more than it needed to pay them.  The business had some part-time work that it could have had someone come in a few times a week to do.  Instead, the company was paying full-time people $70,000/year to do many of these jobs. The business had other jobs that in many companies would pay $30,000 a year for.  However, this business was paying $60,000 a year for the same type of work. The more I looked at things the more disturbed I became. I called the owner of the business and looked at the books.  The business was doing $1,000,000 a year and had plenty of revenue coming in. “All you need to do in order to run the business is pay people market rates instead of paying more than they are worth in the open market,” I told the owner.  “You also have a bunch of part-time jobs that you are paying people to do full-time.  Eliminate all of this overhead and your business will be fine.” The employees of this particular company did not want to be paid market rates.  They wanted to be paid “what they were worth,” and now they do not have jobs.  The company is out of business.  The employees had no solution to fix the problem because they were the problem.  Now the company is completely out of business.  Most of the people from the company are not working and are collecting unemployment. The employees blamed the owner for not bringing in enough business.  They did not want to listen to the employer’s side of things. The owners blamed the employees for not being flexible with their wages.  They did not want to listen to my suggestions. Here, if I were the owner of this company, I would have cut all of the wages and explained to the employees there was no way the business could survive unless this was done.  There is nothing wrong with not being paid two to three times what you are worth.  The employees did not want to listen to this, however, and because of this they are yet another casualty of people who are out of jobs.  A good business has failed. All over businesses are failing and, more often than not, many of these businesses do not have to fail.  The problem is that people want things to be a certain way and are afraid to listen to what needs to be done to change this. Auto companies have too many costs and need to eliminate costs.  Certain businesses have too much space and need to eliminate space.  Often, the easiest changes can have a massive impact on fixing broken down companies.  In order for this to occur, however, people need to be willing to listen. I stepped in and tried to talk to the employees about this situation even after the business had been closed.  I felt I could still rescue the business. None of them had jobs.  Still, none of these employees were flexible with their wages even after losing their jobs.  They explained that “good people need to be paid good wages.” One of the biggest mistakes we can make is failing to listen to another person’s point of view.  Here, had the employees really been able to listen to the concerns of the business owner, the business would not have failed.  The failure to listen to others is something that is almost at a crisis point in many circles.  We assume we know what people want and need.

• Governments do this with social programs.
• We do this when we speak to others.
• We reach conclusions about people, places and things without first getting all of the information we need.

I see this in the recruiting world all the time.  There are numerous recruiters out there who take one look at a candidate and assume they know exactly what this person does or does not need.  This is something the least successful recruiters do. The best recruiters spend a great deal of time getting to know the people they are working with and gathering information.  It is only after gathering a great deal of information that most recruiters are even remotely in a position to make a recommendation about someone’s career. When I look at companies and people, I see something that repeats itself over and over again.  People assume they know what someone else needs or what they are entitled to.  People do this without having any information whatsoever about where the other person is coming from.  This never works. We put a great deal of faith and energy into ensuring that people are not falsely accused without due process.  We require that people be understood.  The most important thing you can often do to keep a job, get a job, and more is take the time to listen and ensure you understand the other person’s point of view.