Harrison Barnes » CEO

Consistency and Commitment Beat Brilliance and Talent

Harrison Barnes — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 05:01:03 +0000

When I was growing up in Detroit, I went to school with kids whose parents were the Chief Executive Officers of major auto companies and were in other high level roles. Sometimes I would turn on the television and see the same men I’d eaten dinner with at a friend’s house on the nightly news giving a press conference in Washington, or speaking about an issue of national importance. Another one of my friend’s father was the CEO of a major national bank and, by the time I was 13 or 14, I was smart enough to realize I could learn a lot from these men. I figured they must all be enormously gifted intellectually and have other skills which I could learn. In my spare time I read books such as Iacocca, about Lee Iacocca, and when the Publisher’s Clearing House mail came to my mother’s house I ordered Forbes, Business Week and a ton of other business magazines so I could impress these nationally important men and talk to them about their careers and what they did. I remember after reading a book about Lee Iacocca, and having spent months reading business magazines, I had the opportunity to speak with one of my friend’s father. He used to work for President Ford writing speeches, and he now worked directly for Henry Ford writing his speeches. Because I had read so much, I realized after about an hour, I knew much more than even he did about various aspects of his business. When I was 13 or 14, I dominated dinnertime conversations at my friends’ homes spinning off facts and figures and entertaining major figures in various auto companies. The more I talked about business with these men, the less I realized they knew. I could not believe men who might have gotten MBAs from Harvard Business School knew so little. I figured that, based on their lack of knowledge about arcane business facts, none of them must be all that intelligent. Most of these men were from all over the country and had joined, right out of school, automobile companies, banks and the other institutions they would one day lead. In at least one incident I recall, one man worked on an automotive manufacturing line in a factory during college. In another case, one of my friend’s father even went to a school called General Motors Institute (no longer in existence) which was a college run by General Motors. Every day, these men got up early and drove into Detroit. They came home late each evening. Once a year, they took vacations for a couple of weeks, usually skiing in Colorado or at a ski resort in Michigan. At the same time, most had wives who never worked and stayed at home raising the children and providing their husbands with the sort of environment that would enable them to succeed. By the time I met many of these titans of business and industry, they had been getting up at the same time to go to work and living the life they lived for over 30 years–more than twice as long as I had even been on the earth. And there I was sitting at their dining room tables uncovering how much information they did not know and believing they were stupid. The more I realized these men did not know about arcane business facts, the more I read. One thing I quickly realized was none of these men were angry, and all of them seemed to enjoy learning what they did not know from a child. In addition, there was a very gentle way about them because, despite the fact I must have looked like an idiot spewing forth various facts and figures, they never sought to correct me. They were always quite diplomatic in all respects. Just because I was aware of more facts and figures, it certainly did not mean I was more talented than these men. On the contrary, they were actually busy leading their lives and careers while I stood on the sidelines simply reading about it. Now some 20+ years later I can reflect on what was going on:

I certainly have never been on the evening news giving my opinions before the United States Congress.
I do not sit in the office of the President of the United States and give him advice about what to talk about in speeches and write speeches for him.
My actions and opinions are not mentioned weekly in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

I now look at these men with profound respect because the lesson their careers hold is something I have certainly learned from, and you can too: Work ethic and consistency trump brilliance and talent. There are many people with a lot of talent, or who know a lot. These talented people may know more than the next person. They may be better socially. They may have a better idea of what needs to be done. They may have better educations. They may be better sales people. They may be more connected. But when it comes right down to it, none of this really matters if the talented person cannot simply “show up” and do the same thing over and over. The people who win and become the most successful are the ones who generally put in a massive effort over the long run. Nothing is more effective than being consistent. The Grand Canyon could never have been built by one giant flood. Instead, it was built over millions of years by a consistent flow of water that applied a small amount of pressure and erosion over time. So, too, it is with your career. If you are consistent, you will achieve a lot more over time than if you are not. Talent and brilliance have sex appeal. Talent is something that blows us away. Several years ago, I was sitting in the living room of my mother’s house in Detroit, and in the other room was a man who was providing one of the most brilliant analyses of the meaning of the world I have ever heard. The more this man’s mind worked through an idea, the more brilliant I realized he was. At the time, I was 27 and had been through college and law school. In addition to practicing law, I was also teaching in a law school. I had heard a lot of very brilliant men speak in my career, but the person I was listening to was incredible. As I listened to this man speak, I was firmly convinced he was the most brilliant man I had ever heard. After he left, I found out he had an extraordinary IQ and had received a PhD from Princeton. However, he had never applied his skills. Instead, he was living in a small $350 a month apartment and had lived there for years. He did not use his brilliance in his job and, instead, his talent went to waste because it was not being consistently applied. He had worked in multiple jobs in his career. What if this man had decided to spend his career writing? What if this man decided to spend his career teaching? He did none of those things and, despite incredible talent, nothing ever happened. We need to apply our talents. Talent is fickle. Sometimes talent shows up, and other times it does not. In contrast, being consistent requires a high level of tenacity. You need to keep plowing through. You cannot give up. Anyone can be a better performer in one thing or another for a short time. What really takes skill is to consistently perform over time. This is what my friends’ fathers were all doing. Imagine 30+ years of doing the same thing and climbing within the same organization. This consistent effort is what creates the best results and enables people to win over time. Only certain people are born with brilliance and incredible talent, but anyone can exercise their option to work hard. When we are consistent, we make small bits of progress on a daily basis. Making small daily bits of progress are what transform careers and lives. Anything you focus on consistently will make you better. Many people lack the ability to consistently focus over time, and instead believe one small flash of brilliance or talent will make a difference. This is almost never the case. Consistency and work ethic always trump brilliance and talent. THE LESSON Consistency and commitment trump brilliance and talent; the most successful people are those who put massive long-term effort into their careers. Only certain people are born with innate talent or brilliance, but consistent effort lies within the reach of anyone and is ultimately a much greater factor in success. Anything to which you apply consistent focus will show progress.

Flow, Your Ego and Your Career

Harrison Barnes — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:01:36 +0000

Aristotle believed that more than anything, we seek to be happy. There are some individuals who do their work and continually find happiness in this work, and for whom work takes on a meaning that transcends what most of us experience in work. These people feel completely involved in the work they are doing and are completely focused. They do not experience emotional turmoil when they are doing their work. In Mihhaly Czikszentmihalyi’s book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” (1990), he described a state of “flow” where people involved in an activity “forget themselves, the time, their problems.” Flow is something that athletes experience when they are “in the zone”, artists experience when they are at their best and we all are capable of experiencing when we are doing something that we love. According to the great soccer star Pele, during his best games he felt a strange calmness he hadn’t experienced in any of the other games. “It was a type of euphoria; I felt I could run all day without tiring, that I could dribble through any of their teams or all of them, that I could almost pass through them physically. I felt I could not be hurt.” Flow involves a state where we are able to concentrate with little effort, and where we are able to complete a certain task with very little effort. Another important component of flow, and I would argue the most significant, is that when some people are in flow they lose self consciousness. Instead of being conscious of themselves in relation to others, they move into another sort of state. This state Czikszentmihalyi also seems to believe, is “a loss of ego” (p. 122). According to Czikszentmihalyi, loss of ego is a rare transcendent experience. What is this state of “loss of ego” in our work? How does loss of ego translate into our professions and lives? I know of numerous people whose careers are defined by this state of flow. They do their work in a manner that seems to not involve their ego and, instead, seems to transcend individual and self-seeking types of behavior. They are able to do their work in a way that is similar to the way many people worship. Their work is not calculated, and people around them feel good by their presence. They are extraordinarily good at whatever they do. Their ego is not involved in their work–their work is not about them, but about the work itself. People who are able to enter a state of flow in their work become “egoless,” and do their work unconcerned with Power or titles Personal recognition Profit Their identity Competition This may sound like an incredible state to be in; however, this is a state that numerous people are able to enter into when they truly love something, and can get into a state of flow. Paradoxically, it is the people who do not care about power and money, and are able to enter into this state of flow, who most often end up achieving the most, financially and otherwise. These same people often then become controlled by their egos and quickly lose whatever it is they achieved, and subsequently lose flow. It is the ability to remain in flow and egoless that I believe is one of the greatest determinants of being successful. Since so few people are able to do this, and since this is so relevant to your career, I believe understanding flow and the ego is something that can change your career and life. One of my first memories as a child was when I was playing outside our apartment in Lansing, Michigan, and my mother called me inside for a few moments. My mother had recently purchased me a yellow Tonka Bulldozer toy, and I had been playing in the bushes of the apartment complex with the toy. Across the way, I noticed there was a boy perhaps a few years older than me also playing with some toys. I went inside for a few moments and when I came back outside my truck was missing. I could not have been more than three years old at the time; however, I can remember to this day how upset I was. I cried and cried, and I remember my mother comforting me about this. I am sure the boy across the way stole my truck. The fact that this is one of my first memories is quite striking to me. I would argue that this is something that was one of my first true introductions to my “ego” and the idea that I, like almost everyone on this planet, was getting a piece of my identity from forms, objects, titles and other things that are not part of me at all. Indeed, my pain related to this little truck being stolen was there because of the fact that I identified the truck as an extension of myself. As I grew older and older, I came to identify with more toys and other objects that I was given by my parents. Then, I would start to see friends with better toys and objects, and start feeling a profound sense of lack because I did not have toys and other objects that were as nice. As my life progressed, I would start to admire people who had better houses than I had, more important parents than I had, went to better schools than I did, and so on. When I was old enough to understand advertisements in magazines and on television, I would start to want things there, too. I remember when I was no more than 12 years old I saw a picture of the most expensive car ever manufactured at that time, an Aston Martin Lagonda, and I dreamed of my parents owning this car and driving me around in it. I thought this car was something that would be really meaningful. Several years ago, I purchased one of these used cars for not more than thirty thousand dollars, and spent another thirty thousand dollars restoring the car. I did this, I am sure, because there was a part of me that really wanted something for my ego from this car. When you see old men driving around in old cars they have restored, this is what they are most often doing–it is related to their ego and a sense of lack they are trying to fill from the past with a material object. My stepfather ran a small boating business and around our small two bedroom house he always had scattered magazines with pictures of bigger and better boats that he could buy if he ever made enough money. One day my stepfather came home with a 1977 Chrysler New Yorker, which was the biggest and worst car I had ever seen. Within a few months I remember a Rolls Royce dealer in Palm Beach, Florida kept calling our house because my stepfather had indicated he might want to trade the new car in for a Rolls Royce. We never could afford any of this stuff, but my stepfather always dreamed of these things and wanted them. He was never ever satisfied. Was he any different from any of us? When I got older, I started comparing my bicycles with other kids’ and always wanted the best bike. I never felt like my bike was good enough. I wanted to have the very best bike. In fourth grade or so, when people started having girlfriends in school, it was very, very important to me to have the most desirable girlfriend in the school. I would get into fights on the playground with kids over girls. I would continue fighting men in one form or another over women for the next 20+ years until I settled down. When video games came into vogue, I started competing with other kids as to who could have more video games. I always wanted to have more and better video games than other kids. Soon, designer jeans came into vogue, when I got into seventh grade or so, and I wanted the most pairs of designer jeans–Jordache, Calvin Klein, Sergio Vallente jeans. I wanted nothing more than for my mother to take me shopping each weekend to get more clothes. Soon I wanted a moped as well. I dreamed about getting a moped incessantly. As I got older and progressed through my life, there was one thing after another that I wanted, and there was always something else. It never ended. The friends I had. The people I associated with. It soon became titles like “President” of my class. It became recognition for various achievements. It became where I went to school. Then it became what I did for a living. How much money I made when I started as an attorney. What sort of car I drove. Where I lived. How prestigious my employer was. How big my company is. What school my child goes to. On and on and on … Do you see the madness in this? It is all around us and we are all part of this madness. There is a huge problem with this, and it is related to the drive that all of us have on both a conscious and subconscious level to somehow add to who we are by possessing or associating with something outside ourselves, such as an object, person, place or title. Most of this drive is due to our persistent identification with people, things and other forms outside of ourselves. We subconsciously or consciously believe that our self worth comes from outside of ourselves and not inside of ourselves. We are persistently trying to find ourselves and our identities in things that are outside of ourselves, and the struggle seemingly never, ever ends. It is a sickness, and it is something that almost all of us suffer from. We continually want more and more. I have been around the world and visited shrines, monasteries and other sorts of places. Even in the places that seem the most enlightened, people are constantly wanting more and more. Throughout the years I have become involved with various spiritual organizations in my quest to improve my mind. I have gone to groups that preach that we need to be in here and now and not look outside ourselves for value. However, it almost always happens that within weeks of attending one of these seminars or events my phone starts ringing. People learn I am the CEO of a company and assume I must be rich. They call and write wanting money and donations. They talk about how they need a new this or a new that. People visit me at home unannounced, seeking donations and constantly come looking for alms. These are the same people whose message often is “everything is within you.” It is almost impossible to find anyone, or any group of people, who is not constantly striving for more and more, and striving to fill some void. There is something missing in almost all of us and in almost all of our groups. You can be part of one religion or another and they may preach to you about how Jesus preached that we are complete with God, for example. The message is comforting, and our image of Jesus is someone who walked around in sandals and a robe, and was not concerned with wealth. However, regardless of what church you are a part of, they almost all expect you to give them money. There is nothing wrong with this in substance; however, they often use the money to build giant and incredible monuments that boggle the mind with their size and ornateness. You wonder why these same organizations do not use their resources to support the poor. No matter how much they are given, most religious groups will continue to ask for more and more. It never stops. They will soon want a new building, a new wing to a building and more. Their hunger will never, ever end. This is no different from us. We soon want new cars, new televisions, the latest fashions and more … we too are never satisfied. As long as we seek to be complete in objects and forms outside of ourselves, we will never be complete. People and groups are continually trying to complete themselves by acquiring things, titles and more. The problem with this line of thinking, though, is that it simply never works. Whatever rewards we receive through possessing one thing, or getting one title, quickly go away and we find something else that we are interested in and “need.” We are living in a society that is dominated by consumerism and the need to possess things. Our measure of progress in our society is almost always related to possessing more and more. We simply spend most of our lives trying to fill a gap that we perceive we have between ourselves and people who we think are better than us. For the past few years I have employed a driver. I live about an hour or two from my office, depending upon the level of traffic that there is each day. For me, being productive in the car (i.e., my time) is worth more than spending three to four hours sitting behind the wheel each day. I am in Los Angeles and throughout the years I have had a variety of drivers. I have had professional drivers, who were committed to being drivers, and I have had people who did not really seem to have any interest in driving. This never comes out in the interviews, as much as I would like it to, but it always comes out. When I first started interviewing people to be drivers, I started seeing a lot of guys show up that really deep down wanted to be actors. You could see this from their resume. I did not hire these guys, and their interest in being a driver was to make money and then, hopefully, also make some connections through the driving that would lead to future acting work. I was smart enough for the most part to avoid this. Then I hired one guy I did not think would be interested in other things, and within about a month of hiring him, I discovered that he was in a band. He started giving me CDs of his band playing, asking for days off to go play various gigs, and his work just got shoddier and shoddier in so many respects. It became clear to me that he had no interest in what he was doing. When he would not show up for work I would call a car service I have been using for some time. The drivers of the car service were all guys who did this sort of work for their careers, and they were incredibly enthusiastic. They would have Internet inside their cars so they could check traffic. They would know all sorts of special routes they could take. Their cars would always be spic and span. They would wear dark suits and always hold open the doors for me. Their service was fantastic and many of these guys had been doing the work for 20 years or more. These guys were also very happy. They had interests and could talk about a lot of things. They loved their jobs. They had an almost “instinctual” relationship with the road and understood how to avoid various traffic in certain locations. In a word, they were passionate about their work and in a state of “flow” as far as I could tell. When you were with them, you could tell they were “in the zone” and the drives with them seemed to go faster, and the entire experience was just better. I contrasted this with the guy I hired from the band whose interest lied in being somewhere else. Most people in most jobs are interested in being somewhere else … Then I hired a guy who was from El Salvador, and he showed up and had complete enthusiasm for his work. He told the person who interviewed him for me that he wanted nothing more than to be a driver and was incredibly enthusiastic to be working in the United States. A few weeks into me hiring him, however, he started asking me the “secret” to my success and all sorts of other questions. He started telling me that this was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to be someone else, and one day, he was going to have a driver like I have one. All he spoke about was how he was capable of so much more than simply being a driver. I noticed that he started getting really shoddy about his work, and making a bunch of stupid mistakes. He too did not really care what he was doing. Then I noticed this same pattern in the next person I hired. This person too wanted to be somewhere else, and be doing something else. I heard them on their cell phone talking about starting businesses, doing other things and more. None of this is to say that the people who are drivers are wrong in wanting to do whatever it is they wanted to do. But the point is that most people go through life not present in their jobs and always feeling a profound sense of lack, and wanting to be and do something else. As a consequence, they never succeed in what they are doing. This sense of lack and a need to be something different ends up permeating their entire lives and controlling them as long as they are alive. There is always something else they need to feel good about themselves–whether it is a job, title, person, place or thing. There is just a continual sense of lack. This is their ego talking to them, and I do not think it is productive, and I do not think it helps them. We are not just attached to things. I know people who spend their days and nights driving around from place to place, because they feel like they need a ton of friends in order to be happy. This struggle to meet new people and be popular almost never ends. Others work all the time so they can accumulate material possessions. Others have a cadre of different lovers, hopping from a sense of completeness from each one. People need something outside of themselves and chase after this throughout their lives in order to get a sense of completeness they feel is missing inside of them. It is good to have a lot of friends, but there is something wrong when all of your time is consumed by the need to have more and more friends. One of the most persistent things among most people is our identification of self worth with objects outside of ourselves. This includes not only the material things we possess, such as cars, houses and other things, but also things like our job, our titles, the awards we have received and where we went to school. We endow things with a sense of self and our importance and feelings of self worth come from objects outside of ourselves. In movies, television shows and others there is always a character it seems who is a sex addict, drug addict, gambling addict, or alcoholic or has some other disorder. Our culture is obsessed with the addictions of stars and others. One of the most interesting shows to come along in years is the show called “Intervention,” which follows people with various addictions. What is so interesting about all of these cases of addiction is that what most people are doing with their lives with drugs, sex, gambling, or liquor is the exact same thing that most of us are doing with our lives: Seeking a sense of fulfillment in something outside of ourselves. We watch people on shows like “Intervention” who come close to killing themselves with substances and other addictions, and we cannot help but recognize part of ourselves in them: No matter how much they get of whatever it is they are addicted to, they are never going to be complete and happy. No matter how many titles, wealth, friends–or whatever it is we are seeking–we too will never be happy. We will always be seeking more and more to make us feel complete as well. Most of us are no different than a skid row heroin addict who needs one fix after another. The heroin addict does some heroin and for a time feels good. But then he eventually needs to go and find some more. The only difference is that what the heroin addict is seeking causes visible damage to them, whereas what we are seeking is a psychological disorder. I am continually witnessing society’s desire to find fault with others. My wife subscribes to various magazines such as “Us Weekly,” “People” and others. Each week these magazines contain all sorts of incredible gossip stories about this celebrity or that celebrity. The majority of these stories are unflattering. We read about horrible break ups, public spats and more. Consider, for example, the public’s fascination with Brittany Spears and the things that have happened with her. There are, of course, more such stories. Why are we so fascinated with these things? I think this has to do with the fact that when we hear bad information about others it makes us feel superior to them. Our self identities are so fragile that just as we are seeking things outside of ourselves to complete ourselves, we are also obsessed with those we believe have more, or are more than us, being weaker than us on some level. We all do this. We are obsessed as a culture with people who we perceive are above us, suddenly having less. Several years ago, when my company began to get quite large, I started hearing all sorts of rumors about myself from various employees. There would be rumors of affairs, rumors that I was involved in something illegal, rumors that I had done this or that. The larger my company grew, the more I started hearing rumors like this. When certain employees would get fired they would persist in these rumors. For a long time I used to be incredibly upset by these rumors because they seemed to be malicious. I realized, though, after some time what was going on. Most of the people who were involved in spreading such rumors had been fired, or were people who I considered poor employees and let them know I thought this. When I confronted these people, I wounded their ego and how they perceived themselves. Their revenge and way of feeling “complete” again was to find some level of superiority to me in whatever way possible. This meant an interest in rumors and whatever weaknesses I might have. Our interest in others’ weaknesses often adds something to our need to feel complete. We love hearing negative stories about our enemies and people whom have made us feel inferior. When you are in conflict with anyone, it is usually due to the fact that you have somehow wounded their sense of self or vice versa. On its crudest level, you could injure this person or kill them so you can feel better about yourself and be “complete” (and people do). On another level, you will turn against them and attack them verbally, or undermine them in order to establish your ego and how you feel about yourself. This is something that we all do in one sense or another, and it is something that characterizes most of our lives. We want to be right about various conflicts because if we are right, we somehow feel validated as people. Deep down we want to feel better than others, and we get this through being right. When we are right and the other person is wrong, who we are is validated as a person. When I was growing up, my mother used to sit at the kitchen table or on the couch smoking cigarettes and talking on the phone to her friends for hours at a time. All of the conversations would almost invariably revolve around some perceived insult my mother had received, or given, or something that had happened–or vice versa with one of her friends. The entire conversation would go on for hours at a time, and she would either be supporting her friend, or her friend would support her. They would talk and talk, back and forth, until some sort of consensus was reached that my mother was right about something, or her friend was right about something. My mother would then feel better. If it was my mother’s ego that was involved, she would then call a few other friends after the conversation to see if they too thought she was in the right. She would always get their agreement, and then would move on. Other conversations I heard my mother having growing up involved rumors about other friends, or bad things that had happened to people they knew. These sorts of conversations I think dominate our consciousness and what we are doing, because they make us feel better in relation to others and make up for this sense of lack that we are constantly seeking to fill inside of us. “Sure she is beautiful, but she is not very intelligent.” “I would not want to have the responsibility he does. It would be horrible to be scrutinized all the time.” “They may appear to be a happy family, but she is really a pill popper and addicted to prescription medications.” “That was a good performance, but she is also anorexic.” “They cheat on each other.” “Oh, he is rich, but he has to work all the time and is really very unhappy.” On and on and on … how many statements like this have you heard? I have certainly heard a lot of them. Why is it that we need to denigrate others around us? Why is it that our self worth is often tied up in what others are doing? How can this be explained? We do this because there is a profound sense of emptiness and need for us to feel better than others. This is a collective disease. Religions do this, and are well known for this. Orthodox Jews, for example, feel superior to Jews who are not as observant and do not cover their heads. Extremely Orthodox Jews feel superior to other sorts of Jews who are not as observant. The same can be said for people of most religions. It is important that in our lives we get into a state of “flow” where our ego is not involved in what we are doing. We need to be detached from the ego and, instead, just concentrate on what is before us. I think this is the highest state of being in both our lives and careers. The idea that we are complete and do not need outside verification in any form in order to feel successful. We do not need to feel in competition with others. The people who experience the most problems in their careers are those who are more concerned with being recognized, paid and getting more and more–rather than the work they do. The fact of the matter is that once you start down this road, enough will never be enough. An executive who asks for a raise once due to having done something well, will likely ask for a raise a short time later if he does something right. Pretty soon, this executive will start concentrating on how much others at similar companies are making and feeling a sense of lack. He will ask for more and more raises, and then will start looking for another job. He will find a new employer who pays him a better salary, and then the same process will repeat itself over and over and over again. The executive may settle down at some point, or he may not. Because of this executive’s continual focus on what he lacks, he wastes his energy and never is able to get in a state of “flow” in his job where he could truly reach his potential. His work is shallow and nothing more than something that simply leads to immediate paychecks, raises and bonuses. The work cannot possibly ever be the quality that it would be if the executive’s ego were not involved. The executive never learns to truly appreciate the work he is doing. Others in the workplace are viewed as competitors, and not people to cooperate with unless there is a secondary motive. The ego seeks out only immediate rewards and views others as people to compete with, and not work with, unless they can appear as if they can lead to rewards that will enhance the ego. If the employer is not viewed as prestigious in the market, the person will feel personally hurt deep down because their ego is tied up in the employer. Their identity is in their employer and they are not necessarily one with their work. I would encourage you in your career to release and get in a state of flow. You need to step back from your ego and realize that no employer and no job can even fulfill your ego. Your greatest satisfaction in your career and life will come when you are able to be one with your job and what you are doing. Be in the here and now. THE LESSON It is importantly that you be totally and completely involved in your work. When you do this, you establish a flow where time and problems disappear, and you will find yourself completing tasks with very little effort. Upon entering a state of flow, you can do your work unconcerned with power, competition, or recognition, vastly improving your chances of success. Satisfaction and rewards come when you are one with your work.

How to Count in Your Career and Life

Harrison Barnes — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:01:46 +0000

Most people do not count in the world. In fact, almost all people in the world do not count. They are born, they grow and they die. Their lives are quickly forgotten after they die and the world is no different for them even having been there. Have you ever been to a cemetery? When you walk around the cemetery you will see numerous headstones and most of these people did not count. They may have loved others and been loved; however, they did not really matter to the world. These people may have had a lot of friends, they may have been happy, they may have been wealthy, they may have even been extraordinarily good people. But they did not really matter to the world. The simple truth of the matter is that most people simply do not count and regardless what we may want to believe about ourselves, or tell ourselves, most people will never count. A great deal of our day-to-day struggle in the world is to ensure that we count. People have different measures to try and figure out ways for them to count. For example,

Some people believe it is important to be good at sports
Others believe it is important for them to be well read
Others believe that they need to be very social and know a lot
Some believe they need to be an authority in the religion they practice
Some people believe they need to make a lot of money
Other people believe they need to have many children
Some believe they need to drive fast sports cars
Other people believe they need to have a large house in a certain neighborhood

All around us we can see numerous examples of people doing things they believe they need to do in order to count. I remember a couple of years ago, I was taking a class with my wife at a small university in Los Angeles. Every single classroom was named after someone who had donated money to the school. Every single wing of the school was named after someone who had donated money to the school. Every nook and cranny of the school had someones name on it. I am sure that all of the people gave money to the school because they wanted to help the school and had been touched by it in some way. But the school also made a bargain with them. In effect the school said “we will make you count and name this classroom after you if you give money.” What is it that makes one person really count and not another? When you turn on the television and watch various news stories that are obsessing over one celebrity or another, they are obsessing over people who “count.” In reality, these people really only count a little. Even these well known people are ultimately not going to really count when it comes right down to it. But these people “count” a bit. A powerful politician could be said to “count” and if the person is President, for example, then they almost certainly count. But even Presidents can be forgotten over time if they do not make their impact truly felt. There are certain people out there who are really and truly making an impact on the world and people around them know who they are. There is a certain power that comes from these people, it emanates from them, and the world pays attention. These people may have an excellent education, or they may not. The education this person has never really matters all that much, or is as important as their ability to make an impact on the world. These people may be brilliant or they may not be. None of this really matters to the people who ultimately end up counting the most. Two men join a large company at the same time and one is very well educated and gets along with people incredibly well; the other has less of an education and he is very abrupt and makes a lot of people angry with him. People do not like him. Yet, the man with the lesser of an education who cannot get along with people becomes President of the company and soon is one of the most famous CEOs in the world. The other man, who seems better than the other in every way, lives a life of obscurity and has a career of obscurity. He does not ultimately end up mattering to the world. What is it about the man who becomes CEO that makes him different? One person writes a poorly written book about something which has been written about before, and it becomes a massive best seller. Another person writes a similar book about the same thing that is incredibly well written, and no one cares about it. Both books were promoted the same way but something ends up happening to one book and not the other. It is not about promotion. It is about something else and something that no one seems to understand. What I am trying to say is that there are certain people who possess something that others do not that enables them to “matter” and “count” in the world. This is something that is so, so rare that we don’t encounter it often. We know it when we see it and we feel it when we are around people who have it. We feel this when we shake hands with the person who ends up mattering. We know this when we are around these people. It is a force that certain people have and almost everyone else simply does not. What is it that people who rise to great heights possess that others around them do not? Think about some of the incredible figures from history such as Gandhi, Jesus, Muhammad and others who made an incredible impact on the world around them and are influencing others long after they have left the Earth. These are people who “counted” and “mattered” to the world and who tapped into some sort of force that made them matter. We remember them and they have been gone a long, long time. There are others, of course, like these men and history is filled with them. The people who leave a massive impact on the world and who ultimately end up mattering to history and even the current world, however, are not the people who accumulated the most material things or held the highest positions. They are instead the people who are able to touch those around them with a certain type of power that others simply cannot and do not possess. Most of the people I have ever known follow a “religion” of sorts that is based on accumulating material goods and symbols such as titles, degrees and others indicators that we have for what happiness, power and success represents in modern life. People rob banks to get what they think these symbols represent and how they will make them feel. Others steal to get what they think these symbols will make them feel. Some work 12 hours a day in the office for years and years to get access to symbols, money and other accoutrements of success. We want to feel something and we are searching for something through all of this work and effort. Most of our understanding of the world is based on our relationship with the physical–things, titles and other indicators of success. However, most of us ultimately follow, and are influenced at the highest level, by those who have a relationship with something else and another sort of power. I would call this power the ability to relate to the “spirit” that exists in the world and to translate this spirit into how they relate with the world. There is a physical world and then there is a more ethereal world that is not based on the physical but revolves around something else. There is a relationship with this “something else” that enables us to influence others and it is something that is important and that you need to be aware of. If you have this relationship with the “something else” that is out there, you will begin to place yourself on the realm of those who matter. The people who matter are those who have this relationship with this “something else” and it is not physical. It is not sexual; however, it is often misinterpreted as this. It is in many senses spiritual, but it does not necessarily have a religious affiliation. It is something that is available to all but something that most people cannot see and never incorporate into their being. It is something that you know is there and have surely felt around you. Ever since I learned to read, I have been studying different religions. In Buddhism there is a “one” and a spiritual energy that practitioners try to tap into. This “oneness” is something that is achieved based on not having an attachment to earthly things, material goods and emotions. It is an understanding that comes from a lack of attachment. In Christianity there is the “Holy Spirit”. In the Sikh religion there is a “oneness” that comes from lack of attachment. This energy that is being sought and worshiped by religions ought to make us sit up and take notice because it is nondenominational in nature. It is something that is incredibly powerful and has been around for thousands of years. It is something that numerous people have dedicated their lives to and it is also something that most people do not understand. What I can tell you, however, is that there are people out there who have tapped into this energy and use it. It does not matter what religion they are. This energy is completely nondenominational in nature and it is available to everyone. You too can take this energy and use it. This energy does not care about the physical world and what material goods and titles we have. This energy is completely oblivious to who others think we are as well. This energy is a force of life that exists not just now but a force that has always been. It is clear from looking around us that we simply cannot understand the world around us and how things work. I go to conferences all the time given by “forward thinkers” and am constantly amazed how one new idea after another comes up that we do not understand. Recently, I heard a man lecture at an extremely prestigious conference about the feet of a Gecko and how science is studying what it is about the feet of a Gecko that allows them to climb walls. Here was a scientist who did not understand how a Gecko could climb walls, and yet there is a force out there that has engineered the Gecko and made it so that it can climb walls. There is a force that has given the Gecko life that allows it to have a beating heart, to think, to reproduce and to move. It is the same force that creates the wind, makes you think about things, and makes all of us more than just objects. It is a life force and a spirituality that everything possesses. It is clear there is a force out there that we do not understand that is capable of allowing something like the Gecko and its remarkable abilities to come into existence. This force is not as simple as “Charles Darwin” and evolution because even he cannot explain what the force of life is inside of a Gecko, and he cannot explain how a man like Gandhi could get hundreds of millions of people to follow him. What a man like Darwin could really teach us, however, was how his ideas (and not that of another) were able to get such widespread acceptance. This is the power of Darwin and it exceeds his ideas. The ability to powerfully leave your impact on the world long after you are gone is a skill scarcely no one comprehends. What is it about one work of modern art that makes one worth millions and the other worthless? This has always been something that I do not understand. I have seen two pieces of art that were both done by modern artists and appear to be nothing more than paint thrown randomly on a page. One painting may be worth millions and the other is worthless. What is it about the painting that is worth millions compared to the one that is not? I have studied art history and often I am simply dumbfounded by this question. There is something about the artist and the power of their work that others pick up on and go with. I do not know what this is but I do know that there is a force out there that is simply not understood by all. What I am suggesting is that the more we connect with this energy out there, and the more we are unified with this power, the more likely we are to achieve what we want in every endeavor that we enter into. In fact, the more we use this energy and power in our dealings with the world, the more successful we are likely to be and the more we are likely to matter. I cannot say that I have the recipe for tapping into this power, as I do not fully comprehend it myself. What I can say, however, is that if you can tap into this power you will broaden your horizons and impact the world far more than you are likely doing today. The starting point of connecting with this energy is using your mind to think about the fact that it exists. Once you do this you will leave behind the bondage of your mind and begin to connect with something more. While everyone wants to be happy and successful and make an impact on the world, none of us can do any of these things if we are in bondage. In the Hindi language a mind that is bound by attachments, desires and dreams for something different is called “pashu”. “Pashu” is also the word for “animal” in the Hindi language and the root of this word “pash” means “rope.” Animals are tied up physically and most humans are tied up mentally. Most of us are bound by attachments to material goods, people, titles and other things that are not spiritual in nature. Men and animals can both be bound: An animal may be bound by a rope but most people are bound by their own minds and this is what keeps them down. In Hindi the word “Pashupatinath” means “Lord of the Animals”. The Hindu religion believes that people are born with the possibility and ability to become pashupatinath, lord of the animal within. This signifies that unless you are awakened you will never be a master of the senses of your mind. The objective of human life is Shiva–to rise above the mind and senses. When you are the master of your mind you are not a slave to your mind. Most people are bound by a mind that clings to physical things and sensations and does not look beyond this. In the Bible, Jesus said that if you have eyes then see and if you have ears then listen to me. There are, of course, many interpretations of this statement but when he made this statement he was not speaking to deaf and blind people. What I believe he was saying was that it was important to see the spiritual side of the world and not just what the senses show in the physical realm. We look around us and all we see is separateness. We see people as different from ourselves. We see people of different religions and races. We see people who are poor and those who are rich. We see people we like and people we dislike. We try and figure out how we fit in with the people, places and things around us. We try and see how things are similar to us and how some things are different. We continually desire more and more material goods. We look for approval from others. We give others approval and we give others disapproval. The fact is that we are constantly and consistently looking for differences around us. However, when you study all religions and the people who make the most impact on the world, there is something that is similar to all of them. They are all tapping into and communicating something spiritual in nature that makes us all feel connected. There is a oneness out there to all things that many of us are simply ignoring. We need to tap into this oneness because it is through this oneness that we find true power. The more you concentrate on what is separate and different from you, the more suffering you are likely to experience. Suffering comes when we concentrate on differences and not similarities and finding common ground. We like people and are friends with certain individuals because we see commonality and share a “oneness”. The most popular people are generally those who find commonality between themselves and others, not differences. Life and happiness is based around tapping into this “oneness” and spiritual side of what is and what can be. Your life will take on new power when you tap into this oneness and spiritual side of things. This is when you will begin to matter and when you will begin to count. The more we do the right thing, the more we see our connection with all human beings and our oneness, the more we really use our eyes and ears to see the truth of all things, the more we will leave an incredible mark on the world–regardless of what we are doing. You need to be in harmony with this spirit that pervades everything and use it to make an impact on the world. I do not understand this spirit any more than you do; however, what I do know is that it is an incredibly powerful thing and something the greatest figures that are remembered in every walk of life can really tap into and that they understand. I encourage you to tap into this power and find this in your career and life as well. THE LESSON Recognize a pervasive, universal spirit or oneness, and harmonize with it in order to leave a lasting mark on the world. Many people may be intelligent or popular, yet fail to leave their mark because they lack this sense of oneness. People with a developed sense of universality can touch others in a unique way, and change the world in a way that others cannot. Tap into this sense of universality to unlock your true power and potential.

The Greek Parthenon and Your Career

Harrison Barnes — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 05:10:49 +0000

One of the most important lessons for our lives and careers comes from the Parthenon in Greece. The Parthenon has been standing in the same location for almost 2,500 years and is considered one of the world’s great cultural monuments. It is largely because of the Parthenon’s multiple columns that the Parthenon has survived for so long. If you understand and employ the lessons of the Parthenon, you should never have any issues with feeling secure in your career and life. I personally have run my career according to what I call the Parthenon Principle (the “Principle”). I define the Principle as the following:

Your career needs to be supported by multiple pillars. The more pillars that support your career, the better. If you are in a situation wherein you are supported by just one pillar or just a few, you are in danger and need to make sure you get more pillars.

I left a job as an asphalt contractor to be an attorney due to the Principle. I left the first law firm I worked for due to the Principle, and I left the second law firm due to this Principle. I run my career right now due to the Principle. The Principle is something that can guide your life and enrich your career as well, and it is something you should always be aware of. The more you understand and employ the Principle, the better off you will be. Here are some of the rewards for understanding and guiding your career under the Principle:

If you lose your job, you do not care for the most part.
If you do not get an important job, you do not care for the most part.
If a business you are involved in fails, you do not care for the most part.
If something happens in one part of your career, you do not care.

The rewards gained from understanding the Principle are profound. Over the past year, for example, I have seen incredible reversals of fortune in two businesses I operate–a student loan business and a recruiting business. The financial losses from these have been millions of dollars a month. While the loss of jobs and business from this has been painful, other businesses have picked up the slack, and I have been largely unaffected. I feel as secure today as I felt before this turn of events. I feel this way because I am running my career according to the Principle. The scariest and worst thing I believe I could do for myself would be to support my companies on one pillar alone. At all points in time, I have multiple businesses running, and this enables me to feel secure. In fact, I would say I feel more secure than the CEOs of most Fortune 500 companies because I have tried to create a Parthenon with my own career. You should do the same. The Parthenon represents the fact that we cannot just do things in one way in any pursuit, and rely upon that one way of doing things. We cannot be dependent upon any single method of support in our careers. If we are to rely upon one way of doing things, then we are taking a massive gamble. A career and life needs to be supported in multiple ways and through multiple outlets. Being overly dependent for your income on one data point is extremely dangerous. For example, about 18 months ago I was in the student loan business, and this was my largest business. Overnight, the value of student loans on Wall Street went almost to zero. The government changed the compensation that student loan lenders could receive. I was almost entirely put out of business overnight. At the time, our company had probably $20,000,000 in real estate and other assets dedicated to this business. We had hundreds of employees who were dealing with this business in one form or another. Then overnight everything changed. The business stopped operating, and even the company’s real estate holdings lost probably half of their value within the following 12 months. We pulled through this catastrophe quite easily and without too much difficulty because we were anchored by so many other businesses. Then something else happened. Our second largest business, a large group of recruiting companies, experienced a dramatic and devastating loss in revenue. The company coughed a bit due to this, but has since pulled through just fine due to even more businesses that we have started. Due to the Principle again, the business ended up being fine because there were so many other companies there to pick up the financial slack. This is how it is with the Principle: Multiple pillars help you survive. This does not just apply to companies. It also applies to you and your career. About a decade ago, I was sitting in my office in front of a computer and I received an email, and everyone in the office received the same message. In the subject line it said something like “All Personnel: Partnership Class Decisions”. At the time, I was in my third year of practicing law and I was very dedicated (at least, I thought) to what I was doing. The Holy Grail for young attorneys is to become a partner in a law firm. Attorneys go to college and work and compete very hard to get into the best law schools. Then they go to law school and continue to work and compete very hard. Only the best attorneys from the best schools typically get jobs with the best law firms, and very few of the attorneys who go to work in the best law firms ever end up becoming partner in these “best law firms”. The entire process is extremely difficult. Once an attorney is inside one of these law firms, he or she typically needs to dedicate himself or herself to the work with a great passion, in order to succeed. It is not uncommon for these attorneys to work 3,000 hours a year for many years in order to become partners. When this email came into my inbox, you could hear the entire office go silent as everyone started reading it. Although the subject line of the email mentioned “All Personnel”, the more I read the email, the more I realized that this email was not something I should have been reading. It should have been addressed to “All Partners”. Someone had made a terrible mistake. While I am reconstructing this from memory, I remember that the email contained statements such as the following:

Jack will not quit if we do not make him partner this year. We have decided to string him along until next year at which point we will make him partner. He is clearly material to be a partner in our firm right now but we will delay making him a partner yet one more year. Cindy is someone who is not partner material in our firm. Nevertheless, the decision has been made that until she quits, or otherwise leaves, we will let her know that she should “keep trying,” and in the outside chance that she does leave, she is easily replaceable.

The email then listed various individuals who would be made partner that year, and a smattering of people who would not make partner and would be asked to leave the firm. I could not believe what I was reading. A few minutes later, all of the computers in the building were turned off by some sort of remote switch. Someone had made a terrible mistake by sending out this particular email to everybody. Incredibly, a couple of days later, the head of the law firm sent an email to everyone implying they had fired the head of human resources for sending this email. There was someone in our office in Los Angeles that I referred to as “Jack” in the quote above. He was one of the more solid and good guys I had ever known, and I liked him a great deal. He had been working in the law firm for over a decade and was then in his fourteenth year of practice or so. It is rare for someone to be an “associate” and not a “partner” for fourteen years and not leave the law firm or decide to do something else altogether, but Jack was someone who was solid and really stuck things out. I remember walking by his office the day the email had gone out, and he had a noticeable perk to him that was absent before. I think he was on the phone with his wife and telling her about what had just happened. Over the next year, an incredible number of changes occurred within the law firm. The most important change was that the power structure within the law firm was reorganized. An important partner from another law firm, whom I’ll call “Robert”, had come over and assumed leadership of the office. Under Robert’s leadership, the firm was eliminating many of the attorneys who had been there before his arrival, and Robert also ensured that many of the attorneys he had brought with him were placed into the partnership ranks. The next year when partnership decisions were handed out, Robert made partner a few young associates he had brought with him from the other firm, but not Jack. The day after Jack learned that he had not been made partner, he reported to work as usual and was in his office that morning. Robert came into his office and asked Jack to do a very simple assignment that an attorney with six months of experience should have been doing–not someone with 15+ years of experience. Jack responded with some hostility. From what I heard, Jack said something like the following: “You know, I am a little upset right now because I have been working here over a decade and believed I was going to be made a partner in this law firm yesterday. I am not sure why you are demeaning me by giving me this work right now. I am pretty upset right now, and would rather not deal with you while I am upset.” Robert apparently looked at him for around 10 seconds and said “okay” and then walked away. Less than 30 minutes later, Robert walked into Jack’s office and said something along the lines of the following: “I have two pieces of paper here. One is a check for $30,000. The other is a severance agreement for you to sign that says you will not sue us. If you sign the severance agreement you can have the check. If you do not want to sign the agreement you cannot have the check, and you are fired. Either way, I want you to be out of the office within the next 15 minutes and never come back.” Robert may very well have had good reasons for doing this to Jack, but the episode was quite alarming for me to hear. It was astonishing to me how a 10+ year career could just come to a screeching halt like this. The good news is that Jack was able to find another job eventually, and everything ended up being okay. However, I have seen similar things happen to scores of other attorneys, and it does not always turn out okay. Many of those people did not find other jobs for a long, long time. What is the lesson of this? Under the Principle, you need to have many options available to you at any given time, and it is dangerous to put all of your eggs in one basket. Here, Jack was entirely dependent upon the whim of one law firm and their decisions about what happened to him. He also did not have numerous clients at the time. If he had had numerous clients and were he not as dependent upon the law firm for most of his work, he would have had better leverage. He could have left the law firm and easily made money with those clients. However, Jack did not have any of these things, and it held him back. The Principle demands that you give yourself multiple methods of support in your career. If you want to be a lawyer, that is fine; however, you better be sure that your career is not entirely dependent upon the whims of one person. You need to have clients or a skill so profound that you can help dictate the terms of your career. The more you support yourself with multiple methods of doing things, the better off you will be. This is why the Parthenon survives to this day. Its weight is supported in multiple ways, by so many pillars. The Greeks built the Parthenon to celebrate their victory over the Persians, and it was completed in 432 B.C. Over the course of the next 1,000 years, this building was a temple to the Goddess Athena.

Sometime in the Sixth Century, the Parthenon was converted to a Christian church.
In 1456, after Athens fell to the Ottomans, the Parthenon was converted into a mosque. The Ottomans added a minaret to the Parthenon; however, the building was not further modified.
In 1687, the Venetians attacked Athens and the Ottomans used the Parthenon to store gun powder. The Parthenon was hit with a shell and the gun powder exploded destroying much of the building. But the Parthenon still survived and is still standing today.

The Parthenon is now a massive tourist destination. The building just keeps providing value no matter what age it is, and it is all due to those columns. If there were not so many columns, it would not still be standing. You too need to provide value and run your career in such a way that you are always providing value. Although I am an attorney, I originally did not want to go to law school and become an attorney. Instead, my dream was to be an asphalt contractor. The problem with me being an asphalt contractor, though, was that my skin was not very good at being out in the sun, and specifically, on asphalt in the sun. As an asphalt contractor you need to work on black pavement all day around smoking hot asphalt. The black asphalt really absorbs the sun and it is not the equivalent of being out on a sports field, for example. It is much worse. I would get so sunburned being outdoors that several times a summer I would literally physically have to peel a layer of my skin off that had become very burned. My face was constantly coated with zincs and all sorts of lotions to keep the sun out as much as possible. Being outdoors on hot asphalt was not something I believed my body could handle over the long term. “You would do fine being an asphalt contractor,” I remember a relative saying to me one day. “But your body probably would not, and you could not last doing this.” So I decided to practice law instead, where I could work mainly indoors. You need to choose what you are doing and your career based on the idea that you can keep doing it forever, and will not be stopped. You do not want to be stopped by the sun, by one person who does not like you, or anything for that matter. You need to run your career in such a way that you are supported like the Parthenon and can adapt to all climates. One of the interesting characteristics of the Parthenon and its columns is that they were designed to be thicker at their bases than they are at the top. Architecturally this was done so that they would appear taller when standing at the base of the Parthenon. This creates an optical illusion for people visiting the Parthenon and portrays more strength and height than really exists. In your career and life, you need to be supported with a strong foundation and always need to be portraying strength. The less weaknesses you have, the better. Although it occurred a long time ago, most Americans remember the controversy surrounding Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in the 1994 US Figure Skating Championship in Detroit. Here, acquaintances of Harding struck Kerrigan on the knee after a practice. Both skaters became almost overnight celebrities due to this particular incident. In my mind, what makes this so interesting is that it highlights the incredible vulnerability that many people have in their careers. The idea that a career could be taken down by a blow to the knee is a dangerous lesson. In our careers, it is extremely important that we are not just dependent upon a knee, or one potential outlet. We need multiple outlets in order to succeed. One of the saddest things that I regularly read about is the careers of child stars who end up not succeeding later in life. I have heard about some becoming robbers and having similar problems after having had incredibly successful careers when they were younger. There are also stories of young stars who have ended up having great careers when they are older, but these stories seem less common. The idea that I am trying to stress is this: if you do not have other options in your career and job search, then you are making a horrible decision. Your career needs to be supported with multiple pillars because the idea of long-term security should factor into how you run your career. My first legal job was with a law firm and group of people whom I really liked. However, the longer I was at the law firm, the more I realized that I would never be able to run my career from the standpoint of the Principle. The business and clients that came into the law firm came primarily from two or three very powerful partners who earned millions of dollars per year. The other partners in the law firm were partners in the sense they had titles but they really did not have any business for the most part. Consequently, their careers were controlled by those with clients. While my perception may have been off a bit, the idea I got while working in this law firm was that the partners had so much work that they were not really looking for others to bring more clients into their business. Instead, they were most interested in worker bees whom they could control. The firm had so much work that the worker bees did not have any time to go out and meet people and get business. It was largely due to this reason that I left this firm; I did not see much of a future in it. The primary partners were, at the time, making twenty-five times as much money, in some cases, as the other partners. The idea of continuing to work in a firm wherein I would be so dependent upon a few people above me did not appeal to me. The challenge of all of our careers is to be supported like the Parthenon on numerous columns and with numerous potential sources of work, should one source fail. You should never allow yourself to be boxed in by being dependent upon just one person, skill or income stream for your success. If you are an attorney, you probably need to have lots of clients. If you are in a company, you need to have lots of allies. If you are good at one thing, you need to make sure that you have other skills, in case whatever job you are doing becomes obsolete. You do not want to be vulnerable to any one person, or to the economy. I left the practice of law and eventually went into recruiting because, for me, this seemed like something that was more in accordance with the Principle.

First, I felt the profession was safe because recruiting has been around in one form or another for thousands of years.
Secondly, I knew I could be diversified because I would have several candidates at one time, whom I could work with, and since recruiters get paid if and when a person gets a job, I knew that if one person did not get a job, another person would.
Third, I knew that since the job required me to find candidates, and my success would be determined based on this skill, I would not be dependent upon another person to give me work.
Fourth, I knew that I could work with numerous law firms and not just one, and this would give me extra support.
Fifth, I knew that since I was working with law firms, even if the economy was poor, there would still be business and recruitment opportunities. When one practice area in a law firm is doing poorly during a recession, another is doing well. For example, corporate work may dry up in law firms during a recession but bankruptcy will take off.

This is an example of a career that uses the Parthenon. Eventually, to keep this business going in all economic climates, I started other businesses that supported this business when it slowed down, despite the support it had. Year after year, I have had an enjoyable career that is without a lot of stops and starts, due to my understanding of the Principle. You too need to use the Principle in your own career. Support your career and life with multiple pillars. THE LESSON If you are good at one thing, then you need to make sure you develop a diversity of skills in case demand for your primary skill goes away. You need to shape yourself and your career to withstand all kinds of economic and other climates. Like the Greek Parthenon, you must have a strong foundation and project strength, supporting yourself with multiple pillars.

The Importance of Fitting In

Harrison Barnes — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:01:33 +0000

One of the most persistent mistakes people make is not fitting in with their work environments. Fitting in enables you to both get and keep a job. In terms of what it takes to succeed in the long term, fitting in may actually be more important than your skill level. This little-known observation is lost on many people, and overlooking this can result in unhappy and unfulfilled careers. Conversely, being aware of this often results in very happy and fulfilling careers. The problem is that it is often the very best people and those with the best academics and technical skills who end up not fitting in. Having been raised to believe that the true success is measured purely by how well people perform academically, many people enter the working world like shooting stars. They arrive at the very best organizations and soon leave one organization for the next, and then the next. If they are smart, though, they learn the importance of fitting in; otherwise their careers quickly end, and they are left blaming a self-imposed set of circumstances and people for their career problems. I have been a legal recruiter for several years, and I am constantly speaking with firms that are hiring, laying off, and firing attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries. I am constantly seeing both good and bad things happening to people searching for jobs. The interesting thing about my work is that I often get firsthand accounts regarding why people are getting hired and why people are losing their jobs. If there is one thing that stands out to me it is that the people that get hired and keep their jobs are generally those who fit in with their surroundings at work. The people who are losing their jobs and are having the most problems landing employment are those who are not able to fit in. A. The Importance of Academics and Technical Skills to Your Job Search To get an interview with most organizations, you need (for the most part) to have certain qualifications. For example, if a company is seeking someone with three years of experience, you need to at least come close to this. If a company hires people out of the top third of their classes and from only top-notch universities, you also need to come close to meeting these qualifications. With very, very rare exceptions, though, once you get beyond these types of hiring criteria, you are going to be competing with a large group of people. Who do you think is going to get the job? I’ll tell you exactly who is going to get the job: the person who meshes best with the hiring committee. Most professionals presume that the most important thing that employers are looking for in an interview is whether or not they have the skill set to do the job. Whatever the qualifications of the job may be, the fact of the matter is that employers would not even be interviewing you if they did not think you could do the work. Whether you are applying for a blue-collar opening or a c-level position, virtually every employer out there is smart enough to know that you can be trained to do the work for which you are interviewing, even if your skills are not immediately on target. Employers may use your skill set as an excuse NOT to hire you after the interview. More often than not, though, the person who gets hired is the person employers feel would fit into their organization best. B. What Is Fitting In? The remarkable fact is that the concept of fitting in will vary depending on the organization you join. Fitting in will mean something different if you want to work for the government or military compared to if you want to work for a private company or a public interest organization. Fitting in simply means that you will be comfortable around your coworkers and they will be comfortable with you. Fitting in can also be akin to being part of a family: Everyone may not be the same; however, everyone shares a certain set of beliefs and philosophies about the world. Your employers do not want to feel uncomfortable around you, nor do they want to feel as though you are going to be critical of them. Your employers want you to embrace, on philosophical and moral levels, their approach toward business and the world. Your employers want you to get along with everyone in the office, and not to be a source of tension. Your employers want you to identify with them and be sympathetic toward them. To your employers, you should seem like a kindred spirit, someone toward whom they can take a maternalistic or paternalistic approach. The more easily you are able to meet these needs of your employers, the more likely you are to get hired and remain employed once you are with a particular organization. While the analogy is far from perfect, an employer, in many respects, can be viewed as akin to an immediate family member. In any family, there are likely to be a variety of different personality types. Nevertheless, most families share a lot. They tend to share the same religion (or lack thereof); they tend to share certain values; they tend to have similar beliefs about the importance of education; and they may enjoy doing certain activities together. They are also likely to come from a similar economic background and to know a lot of the same people. These commonalities bind family members together on multiple levels, despite all of their differences. These commonalities are what make the family cohesive. For you to fit in with an employer, you need to be seen as a member of the family. To do that, you need to be bound to the employer by a set of commonalities. On its basest level, going to a good school or getting good grades may be enough to break the ice. This is not something that enables you to fit in over the long term, though. In fact, having a shared experience and outlook toward the world is the one thing that is likely to help you the most. This is the essence of fitting in. The most successful people are those who are able to fit in with their employers’ environments. At the risk of not being PC, I will simply note a few things. If you examine most organizations closely, you will almost always notice some very strong similarities in terms of the types of people that are most often hired. The people are never the same; however, their tolerance (or lack of tolerance) for certain types of behavior is usually quite similar. In addition, many organizations are comprised of people with a very similar set of life experiences. Many organizations may be male-dominated bastions, made up of groups of men with an affinity for football. Other organizations may be comprised of a great deal of former military men. Other organizations may be dominated by people of a certain race, religion, or even sexual orientation. Whether or not any of this is “correct” is not for me to say. What I will say, though, is that none of this is the least bit surprising. People want to be around others with whom they feel comfortable and share a similar set of experiences. And this brings me to another significant point that few professionals ever take the time to realize. You cannot fit in with every group of people. Certainly there are companies and employers in every city of the United States that are considered the most prestigious. You may have the academic and other qualifications to go work at these places. The question that is important, though, is not whether you have these credentials but whether you fit in. You are likely to experience the most success and longevity in your profession if you find an organization where you fit in. If you do not find an organization where you fit in, you may be in for a rough ride. The drive to succeed for certain people dictates that they only go to the hiring organizations that are universally recognized as the best. Job seekers often ignore the concept of fitting in in these cases, when it is really the most important aspect to consider, in my opinion. C. Fitting In at Different Stages of Your Career I would like to walk you through a typical career from (1) being hired out of school to (2) being hired laterally after working for some time to (3) being a senior person in a company. 1. The Importance of Fitting In When You Are Interviewing with Employers During School While you are in school, certain employers will generally only interview you if you (1) are coming from a certain level of school and (2) have a certain grade point average. Once you get the interview, though, it is all up to you. The most important factor determining whether or not you get a position will be your ability to fit in. Many of the best minds in every profession are not able to get positions in prestigious companies precisely because they cannot fit in. There are, of course, companies out there that will hire people because of their sheer academic prowess. Indeed, the better your school and the better your academic performance, the more likely it is that employers will look the other way if you do not fit in perfectly. Nevertheless, at least on some level, you are going to need to fit in. As you move down the food chain in terms of your school and academic qualifications, the importance of fitting in increases. If you are currently working at a Fortune 500 company, take a few minutes to consider the following. The people with the worst academic qualifications are often the people that fit in the best. They act as people from the company are expected to act. They have the right level of professionalism. They get along the best with others. These same people are often the ones who do best in the long term in their chosen profession. The ability to fit in will only continue to increase throughout their careers. I want to give you a couple of illustrations from my own law school experience. In my second year of law school, I was in an interview with the hiring partner of a law firm that, quite frankly, was at such a rarefied level that I did not think I deserved to be interviewing there. This high-powered law firm came to my law school (a top-10 law school) and only interviewed five people for a half hour each before jetting back to New York. Most other high-powered law firms came to our school and interviewed candidates all day long. Some even interviewed for a couple of days straight. Suffice it to say that this particular law firm is often considered the very best New York law firm, and its interview schedule simply reflected the fact that it did not believe more than five people in the entire second and third year classes of nearly 800 students merited interviews. While I am sure that not everyone in my class tried to get an interview with this firm, I am confident that at least around 100 students did. I had no idea why I had been selected to interview with this law firm. The other four people that the firm was interviewing were widely known to be at the very top of their classes. While I was a good student, compared to those people, I was not all that special. I entered the interview cognizant that I did not belong there based on my grades, and I was surprised to see that the partner was very welcoming. During the interview he asked me when I could travel to New York. At the end of the interview, I rose to shake the man’s hand, and when he held his hand out, he gave me my fraternity handshake! I realized right then and there that this was the entire reason I had been interviewed. While I did not ultimately get this job (after a callback), I was the only student in my school that received an invite to visit this firm’s office, despite the fact that I did not believe I deserved the initial interview. If you think about what was going on in this situation, I am sure that something similar to this has probably happened to you in your own career or job search at some point. If I did not have the academic qualifications to be interviewing with this law firm, why did I get the interview? The reason was that the partner had been involved in the fraternity I was in, a small national fraternity with not too many chapters throughout the United States. He knew that I had endured some of the same hazing experiences he had endured when he was younger. He also knew that we had sung the same songs and been indoctrinated into many of the same philosophies. He probably took a liking to me because he saw me as being somewhat like himself. Many people who do not have a good understanding of the political nature of work environments often presume that the purpose of an interview is for the employer to gauge a candidate’s skills and technical acumen. This is wrong. People who succeed in interviews are people who the organization perceives will fit in the best. Every single job I have ever gotten, I have gotten because of this factor. The people that do not fit in with the group are always easy to recognize. They tend to be more critical of the group. They tend to create problems. Most interns realize that success within an organization is all about fitting in. This is one of the main reasons that stories circulate each year about interns that do not fit in during the summers, at companies all over the country. Companies typically hire students to work there for the summer to see if they will fit in. Below is one of the most unusual intern stories I have ever heard. This particular story is told by Tucker Max, an individual who was a summer associate at Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, California, in the summer of 2000:

—–Original Message—– From: [Suppressed] Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 2:51 PM To: [Suppressed] Subject: The Now Infamous [] Charity Auction Debacle… Here is the story of what happened to me this weekend at my firm’s retreat. That’s the last time I ever drink before an auction: Aaron and I decide to leave for the Silverado Ranch by car instead of taking the bus at 2 pm. You have not lived until you’ve ridden through three hours of Bay Area traffic with Aaron at the wheel. By the time we got to Silverado, he was madder than fire. The first reception starts at like 6 pm. There are finger foods, etc., and lots and lots of wine and beer. Not really liking any of the food, I start drinking. Heavily. By the time I know what’s going on, I’m talking to the name partner, Bill Fenwick, in a redneck accent. Of course, he is from Kentucky, so we talked about basketball for an hour. It was great. About 9 pm the charity auction began. There were lots of “Fenwick” type items, like a dinner cooked by the managing partner, etc. One of the items was an entire night chauffeured by the hiring partner, [John]. In my inebriated stupor, I thought that if I won this, then they would have no choice but to give me an offer. The bidding starts at $50. People are bidding here and there, but I get tired of all the slow bidding, so I stand on my chair, and hold up my bidding card–without getting down. So the auctioneer takes this as a cue to just start yelling price increases, without even identifying other bidders. When the price hits about $800, [John] says that he will pay half if a summer associate wins. The bidding automatically doubles (John is a litigator). As the price gets to $2,000, I think I have the thing won. I get the “going once” call, and then this other summer intern, Aparna, goaded on by some partners, decides that she has to beat me. So the bidding hits $2,600, and before I know it, I’m on stage, taking the mike from the auctioneer, and yelling at Aparna to stop bidding. My exact quote, “Aparna, seriously, stop. I have to win, this is the only way I’m getting an offer.” So that just inspires more partners/attorneys/recruiting staff to contribute to Aparna’s pool. When the bidding hits $3,400, I start yelling, on the mike, about how this isn’t fair, because she has partners bankrolling her, but I only have a “few scrubby summers in my corner.” I keep trying to bid only like $5 more than her, but the auctioneer gets all mad at me, and is making me bid in hundred-dollar increments. When her bid hits $3,800, I get back on stage. After some banter, the auctioneer asks me if I want to bid $3,900. I ponder this for a second, and in front of the whole firm and spouses/significant others, with the mike in my face, say, “Fuck it–go ahead.” I won the auction.

This particular e-mail was rapidly circulated among most summer associates in large law firms around the United States after it was written. From a social standpoint, the reason this e-mail was so widely circulated is that it shows the antithesis of fitting in and highlights the importance of doing so. Regardless of where you work, chances are that you will be working close to a relatively small group of people. Because you spend so much time at work, these people are going to become quite aware of your style of work, your personality, and like it or not, a lot of details about your personal life. In all of this, these people want to feel comfortable around you. In addition, they want to feel that they can develop a relationship with you over time. 2. The Importance of Fitting In When Being Hired as a Lateral After you have been working for a few years and want to transition into a new employment environment, the importance of fitting in will arguably be further amplified. Shared experiences take on a different form when someone is trying to move laterally to a company. As a legal recruiter, my job is made easier by knowing the sorts of shared experiences that are likely to get people in the door in different law firms. For example, if someone is in Los Angeles and has worked for the Los Angeles office of a major New York law firm, I know that other New York-based law firms in Los Angeles are more likely to be interested in that attorney than Los Angeles-based law firms of a similar prestige level. The perception is that these attorneys will share a certain “New York outlook.” The same can hold true if one is moving in Palo Alto from one major law firm to another. He or she is more likely to be hired by another major Palo Alto firm than, say, somebody who has been working in another area of California. All of these similarities are based on shared experiences and the perception that these people will fit in. Certain organizations will simply not hire from certain other organizations (even those that are generally considered better than they are) because they believe that people from these companies will not fit in. Most often, these organizations will say things like, “These professionals are all too arrogant,” or something of the sort. When professionals are in the job market, an exceptional recruiter will instinctively know which candidates are likely to get interviews with certain organizations and which ones are not. This calculation is based first on externals such as the school and company the person is coming from; however, it is ultimately based on other important factors in the professional’s background that are often less evident. Recently, I have seen professionals ultimately hired over many other applicants for what I believe were the following reasons:

I believe one executive was hired for a $200,000-a-year job over more qualified candidates because he, like the CEO that hired him, enjoyed surfing.
I believe one manager was hired because she attended the same religious group as the hiring manager.
I believe one executive was hired because she had formerly followed the Grateful Dead, like a director in the company did.
I believe one professional was hired because of his military background.
I believe one executive was hired because of her ongoing participation in a controversial protest organization.

I could continue this list indefinitely and give you countless examples. People always say things like, “You have to know someone there to get a job,” and so forth. Indeed, it does help if you know someone. The reason is that you have already proven that you can get along with someone who fits in with that company, which means you too will be more likely to fit in there. I know of dozens of instances at various major organizations throughout the United States where laterally hired employees with, frankly, horrible academic qualifications are working alongside people with first-rate academic qualifications. Why do you think this is? In many cases, these people with horrible academic qualifications may have some unusual and highly valued skill. Still, more often than not, I have discovered that these people knew someone. This is how things work in the world. If you fit in, you are more likely to get a job and succeed in an organization. I can also tell you that there are organizations out there that are somewhat racist and hire people that are likely to fit that mold. My purpose here is not to be judgmental. There are certainly other factors that organizations consider when making hiring decisions, too. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, many hiring decisions are the products of people’s ability to fit in. 3. The Importance of Fitting In as Your Career Progresses In order to survive in a company, you need people higher up in the company to be in your corner. You can get people in your corner by working hard. Nevertheless, there will always be people working hard in large companies. The people who most often get higher-ups in their corner are the ones who are able to establish bonds. These bonds will make people go to bat for the employee. These bonds will also humanize the employee to their employer and make it much more difficult for an employer to fire an employee. Conclusions Most of the conclusions from this article can be derived on your own. You need to understand, however, that fitting in is probably the most neglected topic when it comes to discussions about success. Fitting in can be accomplished on several levels, and often you might not even be able to articulate why you do or do not fit in with a particular group. Fitting in is also something you cannot fake. You can often get a job without fitting in, but you will have a very difficult time keeping it and advancing if you do not fit in. When you were in elementary school, junior high school, high school, and then college, there was probably a group or groups you naturally fit into. Think back about the reasons why you fit in with those groups. Certainly, you have changed over time and will continue to change. The most important aspect of why you have fit in with various groups in the past, though, was based on how comfortable you felt with that particular group of people and how comfortable they felt with you. Your happiness and success in your career depend on the ability to recognize when you fit in and when you do not. THE LESSON The ability to fit into your work environment is among the most important parts of obtaining and retaining a job, even more so than your skill level. Fitting in means nothing more than being comfortable in one’s work environment, and making others similarly comfortable. Employers want to hire people who will embrace their approach to business and the world on physical and moral levels, so you must strive to fit in with their worldview.

Protect Your Reputation At All Costs

Harrison Barnes — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:10:56 +0000

“A risk to reputation is a threat to the survival of the enterprise.”

-Peter J. Firestein

I read an article once about Blackstone executive David Blitzer, whose father-in-law he once charged with trying to shake him down for $7.5 million. The man was ultimately arrested after Blitzer, 38, made a $500,000 payment as part of a deal to get the harassment to stop. Blitzer’s father-in-law had originally requested that Blitzer loan him money, which Blitzer did. However, when Blitzer refused to relinquish more money than originally requested, things turned ugly. According to the article:

In June, Ross demanded more money and began harassing Blitzer with phone calls and emails, according to the district attorney’s office. Ross allegedly said if Blitzer did not give him at least an additional $50,000, Ross would contact Blackstone executives and law enforcement with accusations he said would ruin Blitzer’s career.

In one voicemail message, Ross threatened to “commit open warfare” against Blitzer if he didn’t send money, the district attorney’s office says.

When I read that article, a family member was attacking me in a similar way, after I’d refused to give that person a loan. The difference between what happened to me and the situation with Blitzer was the “open warfare” against me had already begun. The attacks had been going on for some time, in fact. When my relative denied the attacks, I asked him to take a lie detector test, which he took and failed. While I cannot comment on this further, I will say you must protect your reputation at all costs from public defamation. Don’t let yourself become a victim. Being attacked by my relative was one of the hardest things I have ever dealt with. A situation like this really goes to the core of who you are, and it causes damage in many ways. People have asked me why someone would make accusations against me if they were not true. My reputation has been tainted. The problems the ordeal caused me, my family, and even my employees are completely unacceptable. During your career, you cannot afford to take any chances with what people say about you. Never let lies be spread about you. Before becoming the CEO of the employment companies I work for now, most of my experience was in the legal industry. I worked in Los Angeles and saw several attorneys’ careers destroyed by rumors. While some of the rumors I heard were in fact true, most were not–and the results for the attorneys were catastrophic. Even in a market as large as Los Angeles, word got around very quickly. If you think there are rumors going around about you, you need to react quickly to stop them. The only fight you’re guaranteed to lose is the one you back down from. When you are searching for a job, you need to be aware your potential employers will do their homework on you. They will put your name into a search engine and look you up on social networking sites to see what they can find out about you. If you have a blog, your potential employer will look this up as well. If the people you associate with on your blog do not meet your potential employer’s approval (e.g., they are into “weird stuff”), this may cause him or her to lose interest in your candidacy. You must ensure you are protecting your reputation and controlling what others can find out about you. I once heard someone say something I believe is very appropriate regarding professional reputations: “Never tell people you work with your biggest weaknesses because this is something that can be used against you in the future. Your weaknesses are something that gives others power over you.” While this advice may sound extreme, the point is to protect yourself. You do not want people spreading negative information about you in the workplace. This can not only cause problems with your current job but can also potentially damage your future employment prospects. There is no quicker way to hurt your career (especially in niche professions where a lot of people know each other) than to allow rumors to circulate about you. The best way to deal with rumors is often to acknowledge they exist and then do your best to address them. Addressing rumors is an excellent way to ensure that whatever is behind them is not allowed to fester. For example, the Coca-Cola Company has an entire portion of its website dedicated to addressing false rumors. This is a priority for large companies such as Coca-Cola, and it should be a priority in your career as well. In my opinion, one of the best ways to overcome your critics is to simply sit down and speak with the people you believe are creating the rumors. This can be challenging to do in a professional environment, but when done properly, it can put the people on notice about your concern and let them know you may suspect their own behaviors. Getting close to these people–keeping your enemies close–is often the best way to help quiet them. When I was in high school, I remember another football player spreading rumors about me and a girl in our school, with whom I’d never even spoken. I walked up to the player the day I heard the rumor and asked him, “What exactly makes you feel good about spreading rumors about this girl and me?” I never heard the rumor again. Later, I heard he denied ever saying it. In summary, if you hope to continue to grow your career, you must confront rumors early on in order to prevent them from growing and festering. Protect your professional reputation at all costs, act with honor and don’t let petty talk from other people stand in the way of your progress. THE LESSON Protect your reputation at all costs, and do not let false rumors or information about you to stand uncorrected. You do not want people to spread negative information about you in the workplace; not only can such rumors impact your current job, but also your future employment prospects. Negative rumors must be stopped as soon as you become aware of them.

Remain Calm

Harrison Barnes — Mon, 30 May 2011 05:02:23 +0000

For a portion of one summer when I was younger, I had a valet job at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club outside of Detroit, Michigan. I worked during the lunch hour and spent most of my time sitting in a small air conditioned shed in a corner of the parking lot waiting for cars to pull up. When a car would pull up, I would fling open the door to the shed and run over to the car, hand the person a ticket, and park the car. One day, I was sitting in my little shed and a giant Cadillac pulled up and a man stepped on to the curb. As I was exiting my shed, he looked at me and shouted: “Hey Boy … PARK THIS!” The man then proceeded to throw his keys in the grass. This amazed me. I used to lift weights and played football in high school. From the way I’d taught myself to think, this sort of treatment was not to be tolerated. “Are you kidding?!” I shouted at the man. “Are you trying to start something with me? Because if you are, I’m ready!” I strolled slowly up to the car which was about 20 yards away. Apparently terrified, the man went sprinting inside of the club. A few moments later, the manager of the club emerged and fired me. The manager was so upset about the whole thing he actually called my mother and told her about the incident. I lost my job because I lost my cool. When you think about your life and your career, what would be different if you had, instead, developed the ability to remain calm? Most people are agitated–moving in many different directions and unable to remain calm. When you remain calm, many things end up changing in your life. Remaining calm is one of the most important traits we can have. Being calm is not just about being relaxed and not yelling. Being calm is about being focused enough to absorb the world around you and make deliberate and carefully considered decisions before acting. When you are calm, you do not lose jobs like I did, and you are more likely to keep friends and to advance rapidly in whatever environment you are in. People will trust you more. People will look to you to fill leadership roles. When we are calm, we are far more powerful than when we choose, instead, to react from our gut with anger, fear, or other nonproductive emotions. Calmness is a virtue and one of the strongest you can have. The calmer you are, the more you can control and understand the world around you. The more you understand the world around you, the better you can be at everything you do. This is the nature and importance of being calm. Several years ago, I took a multi-day course at Disneyland about leadership. While I could write for several days about what the course covered, I remember when the instructors summed up the entire meaning of the course after countless examples and numerous exercises they said it with few words: “Leadership is about being calm.” The more I thought about this example, the more I realized the most important thing we can do in business, our careers and in leadership, is to be calm. The more we relax our minds and our bodies, the more positioned we are to make the correct decisions in our careers. I once read a book about former president Kennedy. Apparently, Kennedy liked to use stimulants and was often up for days during his periods of stimulant use. While it is not widely talked about, there was some fear among members of his cabinet that he might have potentially created a disaster during the Cuban Missile Crisis due to his use of stimulants and inability to remain calm. Some conspiracy theorists have even speculated he was assassinated by the CIA because they felt his inability to control his emotions could have led to a nuclear Armageddon. Despite an illustrious presidency in many respects, Kennedy’s inability to consistently be calm was considered by many a massive weakness. Several years ago, a high school friend of mine named Jeff was coming to Los Angeles from the Midwest to visit me and a friend of mine, John. We decided we would rent a giant limousine and take Jeff around Los Angeles to show him the sites. The limousine was so large it had a Jacuzzi in its trunk! I had honestly never seen anything like it. Because it was so massive, it blocked two driveways when it was parked in front of my house. About 10 minutes after the limousine arrived, we called our friend to see where he was. He told John and I he would not be able to make it because he was having dinner with his girlfriend and her parents, who’d shown up at the last minute. At that moment, I got extremely angry and felt hurt. Here I was with this giant limousine in front of my house with a bubbling jacuzzi in the trunk I’d already paid for. I felt alone and stupid. I exchanged some harsh words with Jeff and decided I would never speak with him again. That was several years ago. Do I regret it? Yes. I overreacted. In contrast, John got mad too, but he made up with Jeff just a few days later. To this day, I have not spoken with Jeff. It’s easy for me to look back now and realize how wrong I was. Jeff was rude, but if I had looked at the totality of the situation I would have realized getting angry was a stupid decision. Instead, I should have remained calm and simply filed this episode away and recognize that I could not always trust him when we made plans. I could have also been empathetic and understanding of his need to entertain his girlfriend’s parents. Instead, I chose to get mad. I’ve seen careers abruptly crash because of people failing to be calm. People react inappropriately to a perceived slight and fire off a crazy and savage email to someone. Someone does not think something through before acting. People whose careers soar to incredible heights are most often the ones who have the ability to remain calm. Being calm is more than just consistently being relaxed. Being calm is having the ability to react in a level-headed way to circumstances around you and face the world without getting flustered and keep your confidence strong. Being calm is a sign of security and self confidence. When you are calm, you are often more in control than the people around you. Many people fly off the handle at work, in public and when they feel they have been wronged. Generally, when someone flies off the handle, someone else is receiving their anger and negative emotion. The person who is on the receiving end typically has a couple of potential reactions. The first is to lash out and get angry. This is the most common reaction. The least common reaction is when the person on the receiving end remains calm. The person who remains calm puts themselves at a profound advantage. Usually what ends up happening is the person who has reacted angrily, or irrationally, comes to their senses and realizes they acted and responded in the wrong way. They come back to the person they have reacted to and seek apologies or attempt to make up. At that point, a subtle power shift has occurred and the person who was able to remain calm has assumed control. When you remain calm, you almost always end up in the role of the leader—regardless of the situation. When we think of generals, presidents, CEOs and other leaders, we rarely think of them as people who fly off the handle. Instead, we think of them as people who are constantly able to remain calm no matter what. We want leaders who have the ability to stay focused and calm despite the turmoil around them. We do not want people who fly off the handle. We think more of people who have the ability to remain calm. We respect those around us who stay calm. Being calm is so respected we have a word for it in the English language – “cool”. We call people with the ability to remain calm “cool”. We elevate people in society we believe are cool. Fonzi from the show “Happy Days” was considered “cool”. LL Cool J is considered “cool”. Action heroes are always “cool” when others around them appear to be acting nuts. We respect people in our society who are able to maintain their composure and stay cool. In your job, nothing is more important than being cool. One of the best jobs I ever had growing up was working for Domino’s Pizza as a driver. Back in the 1980s, I was making $150+ some days delivering pizza. The tips were really good. Unfortunately, I only worked there for one summer due to an incident delivering pizza in a bad neighborhood. I did not get fired from this job. However, when I tried to get a job there the next summer they told me they did not have any openings (which I am almost certain was not true). I’m pretty sure they told me this because of the incident I am about to relate. I dropped off a pizza in a bad neighborhood and the person’s change was only a few cents. When the person asked me for change I said: “Are you kidding?” There was only a few pennies at issue and in addition to not giving me a tip the person was asking for a few cents. I was deeply offended. After I fished the few cents out of my pocket, the guy said to me: “If you had the change ready, I might have let you keep it. Now get the f**k off my porch.” I was absolutely incredulous. I got in my car and started driving away, but then my anger got the better of me. I stopped my car and backed up. I got out of the car and screamed “F**k you!” at the top of my lungs at the house. The guy came out of his house and screamed “F**k you too, bitch!” This bizarre episode lasted a minute or two as we stood there screaming at each other. Eventually I peeled out in my car and drove away. When I got back to the pizza parlor, my manager said, “Calm down. Calm down.” The manager looked like Bill Murray and he said something I will never forget to this day: “I know that guy too. He is a total a**hole, but you have to calm down. It is not professional to stand on the street screaming at a customer when you have a Domino’s pizza sign on the top of your car. The guy’s neighbors called me about you!” The calmer you are, the more opportunities will present themselves and the fewer opportunities you will end up losing in your life. There is no sense losing your calm. This is simply not something you should do. You need to remain calm at all times. Remaining calm will not only keep you employed, it can also help you get a job. When you are calm, you make better decisions and understand more of the world around you and what is going on. You can see opportunities where others cannot. People who are effective networkers are often very calm because they are very adept at being able to listen to others and understand where others are coming from. People who are not calm are most often more interested in making themselves heard than understanding others. Steven Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is fond of saying “Seek to understand before being understood.” This is excellent advice and something I have heard many of the most successful people repeat time and time again. In sales, for example, this is something I have seen transform careers. People who have the ability to remain calm are much more likely to have cultivated the ability to understand. Understanding people and situations requires that you remain calm. When we react to things in the world, or instantly make decisions, we are most often doing so due to our conditioning and the things we have been led to believe. We react instinctively instead of thinking things through. The ability to react instinctively often serves us well. However, when we are able to remain calm we are often far more effective. One of the most effective things we can do is to delay our decisions and not make decisions quickly. Making rapid-fire decisions is something that can do us a great deal of harm. When you are calm you are able to make decisions in a slower and more deliberate way that will serve you very well. If you delay making a decision you can always make another decision later. THE LESSON Remain calm at all times, and stay focused on the world around you to make considered decisions before acting. You must remain calm in order to fully understand people and situations around you, and in turn make better decisions. Being calm leaves you in greater control than those around you, and empowers you to react in a level-headed way.

Treating Your Career Like A Small Business

Harrison Barnes — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 05:14:19 +0000

No one seems to take the time to consider that their careers are businesses. Your career is no different than any small business. You have a product (you) that you are selling to your audience (your employer). You need to run your career exactly like a business person runs a business. There is no greater skill to have with your career than to run it like a business. As a business, your goal is survival and to sell your product for as much money as possible. So too it is with your career.

Be a good business person and your career may go far, ignore the business realities and you are likely to run into trouble. I have been a recruiter for several years and have seen countless attorneys “go out of business” because they did not run their careers well. In fact, this is something I see on a daily basis while reviewing resumes of out of work attorneys. Just as companies make bad decisions that result in them going out of business, people also make bad decisions with their careers that result in them going out of business and finding themselves unemployed.

They may choose to concentrate on a profession that becomes obsolete–They are trying to sell a product no longer in demand.
They may have resumes that do not serve them well–They are not presenting/”packaging” their products correctly.
They may choose to work in an area where there are no jobs–They are trying to sell a product in a geographic area where there is no demand.
They may have done something bad that makes people not want to hire them–They have a bad “brand”.
They may be too old to get a job–People are “tired” of their product.
They apply to only a few jobs and do not get a job–They are not marketing their brands to a large enough demographic.

Your career is a business and you are a product. You need to understand that using simple business principles to market yourself is something that can be of massive benefit to you.

Before I go further, there are a couple of other things I would like to cover. First, I believe that working for other people is an incredibly smart thing. When you think about your career and working for other people as a business, you will quickly realize that there are few businesses that offer higher pay for less risk, the ability to shut off work when you are not there, the ability to leverage others’ assets as your own, the ability to be part of a social network and the ability to concentrate your efforts on one thing. Working for other people has a tremendous number of rewards and these rewards are both psychological, financial, and otherwise. When you are working for someone else, you are in business for yourself but allowing your employer to take most of the risk. Another secret of working for other people is that you can take advantage of economies of scale and inefficiency. If you go to work for a large enough company, the company will hopefully be throwing off huge amounts of money with thousands of workers and you can claim your desired share of this as your compensation. For some strange reason, however, when I meet people at various public functions (and elsewhere) they all start telling me how they want to start their own businesses. Whether they are doctors, accountants or lawyers, everyone seemingly wants to start their own business. I do not understand this. When you meet people who have little education and start hugely successful businesses and become fabulously wealthy, they rarely want their children to follow in their footsteps. They want them to go to school and become professionals and work for other people. There are a lot of reasons for this–the respect, the stress, predictability, the ability to be involved with large groups of people, the ability to be part of society and more. The point I am trying to make to you is that working for other people is something that the most successful people in the world want for others. It is good to work for other people. Many Americans seem to have a belief that it is much better to work for themselves and stay fixated on this idea throughout their careers. The truth is when you are working for someone else, you are actually already in business. Working for others is a very smart and shrewd choice for many people and if you were a business person it would be advisable in most instances to work for others rather than yourself. Someone who makes a $100,000 a year working for a company is no different than someone with a $1,000,000 a year at a company who is clearing a 10% profit margin. This is an impressive profit margin and something that not many people could accomplish, but being able to step into a job where you are guaranteed this profit margin is extremely smart. When you work for others, there is often less risk; other people are risking capital and not you. And if you choose the company right, you may have a lot of security. A few years ago, I was meeting with a lawyer friend of mine who had a salary of $200,000 a year, who was (like many people I spend time with) telling me in detail how interested he was in starting a business. The more I thought about it, the more incredible I realized making a salary like this is. He was sitting there talking about how he wanted to start one business after another. One business he wanted to start was a winery. Another business was a dry cleaners. The list of businesses he was interested in went and on. “What sort of profit margins are you interested in making?” I asked him. “At least 10%” he said. “Well, in order to make $200,000 a year you are going to have to bring in at least $2,000,000 a year. If a bottle of wine sells for $5 wholesale that means you are going to have to make and bottle over 400,000 wine bottles to generate the $2,000,000 needed to make your profit margin.” He gave this idea some thought and is still practicing law today. There are many people who dream of starting businesses when they would be far better off not dealing with the idea of a business at all. Running businesses is hard. Most businesses fail. How hard is it running a business? A couple of years ago, I hired a now world famous executive consultant to come and look at my companies. At the time the companies I was running were generating several millions of dollars a month and had over 700 employees. The coach sat me down and for a full day (at $40,000) lectured me about everything that was wrong with the companies I was running. “You would be a good CEO,” I said. “If you know so much about this why don’t you try going to work for a company,” I said. There was a pause and then the guy said something I will never forget. “I could never run a real business. I have never been able to fire people. I just cannot do it.” It occurred to me that here I was paying someone thousands of dollars an hour and he did not even have the nuts to be able to fire people. Running a business involves all sorts of things like this. You must be willing to take the unpopular position for the benefit of the company and consistently do this regardless of the consequences to your psyche. And then there are budgets, payroll, and all sorts of other things that most people do not even think about. The stress of running a business is incredible. There are a million small things like this that come up when you run a business as a business owner. When you limit your business exposure to your career and what you are doing on a day-to-day basis, you are much better off. Just understand that when you are working for someone else you still need to run your career like a business. I would like you to consider the following business realities of your career. First, that your career, like any business, needs to have a marketable product. This means that you need to be in a profession that is marketable in the geographic area you are in. There are countless professions that are marketable in some geographic areas and not others. For example, it would not be profitable to be a cowboy in New York City, but this would work in rural Wyoming. It would not be profitable to be a financial analyst in rural Wyoming, but it would be profitable to do this in New York City. Furthermore, the profession you are in can be under attack from various forces (including the economy) at various points in time. If you were a computer programmer 15 years ago, you had a very bright future. In today’s economy, however, this is not necessarily the case. Many of these jobs have been outsourced to India, Romania, and other locations where they can be done more cheaply. At all points in time you need to be asking yourself whether or not you have a marketable product. Second, you need to understand the importance of your “brand” to marketing your product. Everything you do in your career will have an impact on your ultimate brand. The better your brand is, the more in demand your product will be. The best brands typically work in the most competitive markets. The worst brands typically work in the least competitive markets. For example, if you go to Harvard Business School you are going to have a better chance of getting a job with a top bank in New York City than you would if you went to University of Phoenix at night for an executive MBA. This is not to be insulting to this school, it is just to point out a reality that you need to consider when you market yourself. Third, you need to know how to market your product for the maximum possible success. When you market yourself, you need to put your brand before the largest possible market to make the most “sales”–i.e., to get the most interviews and job offers. You need to know how to position yourself and your resume. You need to understand what to say in order to impress the employer in the correct way. A. Your Career, Like Any Business, Needs a Marketable Product Every business needs to have a marketable product in order to succeed. While businesses can sell all sorts of things, your business is selling yourself and what you do. This is something that will need to be carefully managed throughout your career. It is important to realize that when we are in the workforce we are all like small business people. We are selling a product (which is ourselves) and need to follow certain rules in order to sell this product effectively. The first thing you need to consider is that your product needs to be marketable. A lot of my family is from Toledo, Ohio. They are house painters and do other sorts of blue collar jobs. From the time I was around 10 until I was around 17 or 18 they kept telling me I should be a machinist. The told me about how they knew various machinists and how well they did as machinists. One machinist had his own boat, another machinist just redid his home. Being a machinist was a very good profession 20+ years ago in the Midwest. You could work for auto companies and other companies that were doing work that required the skills of a machinist. Today, it is almost impossible to find jobs as machinist in the Midwest. If I had chosen that career path I would be “out of business.” What do most machinists do when they lose a job? They try and find another job as a machinist. If you are working in an area where auto companies are closing and there are no opportunities for machinists (like Toledo, Ohio) you might have to wait a very long time indeed before you get a job. The problem with finding a job is not you–it is that you do not have a marketable product. Lots of people do not have marketable products and yet continue to look for jobs when their product is not marketable. When people lose a job ,the path they follow is often ass backward. They do not think about themselves as a product in need of a market. You can only sell what people are buying. You need to have something that is in demand. You can never cling to something that once was. I have seen so many careers ruined by this very idea. I know someone who, 12 months ago, was in a field that was very much in demand. It no longer is. He was making upwards of $70,000 a year at this profession. Now the most he can make if he continues doing this for a living is $12 to $14 an hour. He goes into every interview and tells people he expects to make $70,000 a year. The market for what he is doing around his geographic area has gone away, and to the extent it has, he can no longer sell himself for that amount. This is just the way it is. If I was a machinist in the Midwest, I might try looking for a job in other areas around the country where the skills of machinists are in demand. I would get the hell out of Toledo, Ohio, if I realized there were no opportunities. If there were not opportunities for machinists around the United States, I might consider another career. Or, I might consider how to package myself differently. Since I am in the legal career industry, I have recently witnessed something quite remarkable that I think you can learn from. During the real estate boom in the United States, a ton of small real estate firms became overwhelmed with real estate work. Companies and others were purchasing an incredible amount of real estate and this generated a lot of work for these real estate firms. About 18 months ago this work started dramatically slowing down to the extent that most of these firms started aggressively letting go of real estate attorneys. Things got so bad I was under the impression that most of these real estate firms would start going out of business. The crisis they were facing was incredible and beyond anything that had happened in the past. I was not sure what was going to happen. Recently, something incredible has happened with many of these real estate law firms. They have started representing to their clients (real estate companies) that they have great skill in bankruptcy involving property. Now, many of these bankruptcy law firms are thriving again and doing well. They are actively hiring. This is a remarkable reversal of fortune and something I certainly did not expect to see. This is because these law firms have figured out how to have a marketable product. As a business person and operator of a small business you are going to be faced with countless decisions as to how you operate your own business. You need to remember that every decision you make will determine your marketability. Everyone has a myriad of choices about how they operate their businesses. They may brand themselves as a big company employee, small company employee, government employee, you name it. Whether you are working on your own or for a large firm, you are always in charge of your career. There are aspects of your product that will never change. Wherever you are in your career right now, you simply cannot change the things you have done in the past. This includes your education to date, performance in school, the first company you worked at (or second, or third), your current skills and any variety of things that you have done in your career. However, if you look around, there are literally thousands of small businesses operating. The pedigree of these businesses does not matter so much as whether they are in business and how well they are operating. You need to look at the field you are in like the business world as well. Whatever type of business you are running, it must have a marketable product. If you are a computer programmer who programs in PERL, you have a product. You will be able to sell your product in certain areas and with certain audiences better than others. For example, your programming skills will be more valuable in Silicon Valley, most likely, than rural Nebraska. The list goes on and on. Everything is about having a marketable product throughout your career in the area that you are working in. The point of any business is to survive, and for many businesses, to grow. You need to consider the market for your skills and run your business accordingly. One of the most important aspects of running your business involves the type of work you do. If you are a sales person of premium automobiles, you help companies sell expensive cars. If you are an accountant, you will help people deal with tax issues. Whatever you do, it is important to understand that your product likely has more appeal (to the market) in some areas and points in time than others. Your objective is to get business and the decisions you make in this regard are important. There are certain jobs that may be bad business to choose. For example, railroad law used to be a popular practice area for attorneys, but you would have a difficult time running a small business now that focused on such an antiquated type of law. Several years ago, corporate work was enormously in demand. Later, however, this market was doing horribly and corporate attorneys from top 10 law schools who performed well both in school and in high profile firms were, in some cases, looking for work for more than a year. Years later, corporate work was again available. For many small businesses/attorneys, corporate law would have been a bad choice for them to get into because there is no demand for that product. In this current economic climate, bankruptcy would be a more prudent venture for the business-minded attorney. The list goes on an on. The point is that you need a marketable product. Likewise, the geographic area you are in, the stability of your current employer and your opportunity for advancement at your current firm are all factors to keep in mind in operating your small business. These are all things that will have a bearing on whether or not your business will succeed. Far too many people fail because they fail to adapt their business to the current economic climate. This is why most businesses out there end up failing. They simply fail to adapt. B. The Importance of Your “Brand” to Marketing Your Product

When you are working in any profession, you need to have a good personal brand. The quality of your brand will determine a great deal about what happens to you. The quality of the work you do, your interpersonal relationships and a variety of other factors will determine the strength of your brand. The point is that all brands have certain attributes and over time you will develop a certain brand.

Companies spend an inordinate amount of money both protecting and developing their brands. There are certain things that come to mind when you think of any brand. For example, think of BMW or Chevy. Likewise, RC Cola creates a different thought than Coke. A brand is developed over time. The places you work, your practice area, and all of the aforementioned factors will have a bearing on the quality of your brand. Generally, better brands can charge more and have more interest directed towards them than poor brands. All of the rules of the business world apply to managing your own brand. You always need to be cognizant of how you want your brand to be viewed by the outside world and potential employers. Think through what type of brand you want carefully, and ensure that you manage that brand the best you can. You are shaping your brand in so many ways, both by the things that you do and do not do. Your brand is shaped by the type of companies you have worked for, how long you have worked at these companies, the promotions or the demotions you have received, the awards you have received, the articles you have written and the general enthusiasm you have demonstrated for your job. There are numerous things that shape your personal “brand,” which is the general perception employers have of you. You need to be conscious that everything you do is reflecting on this brand. Something I have seen a ton of in my career are employees who move around a lot–they move every one, two, or three years. Once you have done this enough times you and your brand will start getting a reputation as someone who cannot be trusted to work with the same employer for a long time. If you do the opposite, you will also get the reputation as someone who can be trusted and will remain with the same employer for a long length of time. If you start out working for small, non-prestigious companies and gradually over the course of several years rise into more and more prominent positions and companies, you will get the impression as someone who is improving. Similarly, you will get the same reputation if you are consistently rising to higher and better positions with your employer over several years. It is important to understand that everything you are doing has a major impact on your brand. You shape your brand by the choices you make. The reason your brand is so important is due to the fact that it will impact your ultimate marketability. C. How to Market Your Product and Brand for Maximum Possible Success

As an attorney, consider hypothetically that your salary is $100,000 per year. Also consider that you are being billed out at approximately $200 per hour and expected to bill 2,000 hours a year in the law firm you are working in. This means that your small business is generating $400,000 per year and out of that amount you are “netting” $100,000. This is not bad from a business standpoint.

As a legal recruiter, I am not surprised that most attorneys want to go to the law firms that pay the most money and have the most prestige associated with them. These are all business decisions. If you are an attorney, over time you presumably would like the amount of money you make to increase. You would also like the percentage of the money you collect from your billings to increase. For example, if you generate $400,000 from your work, you would rather make $200,000 than $100,000, as in the prior example. You want to become a partner and earn more. The business game continues. Everything that happens to your career is the result of selling your product on the marketplace. The amount of money you receive as your salary (i.e., the amount of money the market will pay) will be influenced by the type of brand you have. Hypothetically, you could have no education and start out as a clerk in a small firm. This is something thousands of people do each year. Then, several years later, you could be earning in excess of a million dollars per year leading the same company you started out in. To many people this may seem like an aberration. Nevertheless, this is not an aberration and it happens all the time. The reason this happens is because of how people ultimately (1) brand themselves and (2) market their brand. Marketing is the single most important thing you can do for yourself and your career. Marketing is about how you package yourself, the things you say and the value the market perceives that you offer. The point of this essay is not to act as a diatribe on marketing; however, a few comments on marketing should make a helpful point. When you market a product, you need to appeal to people on both an emotional and rational (cost) level. When marketing personal services-which your specific skills are-people tend to want to deal with people like themselves. It is for that reason that large companies typically prefer a certain type of employee, small law firms prefer a certain type of employee and certain types of clients (rich, poor and in between) prefer dealing with a certain type of employee. We have a tendency to want to deal with people like ourselves. Thus, your product is likely to be well accepted in some areas and not others. I remember one thing when I was clerking for a federal judge and I had the opportunity to see different trial lawyers come into court and conduct trials. I also spent a year trying to write a book about personal injury attorneys several years ago and once again I made a similar observation. The one thing I noticed about the most effective personal injury attorneys was that they were nothing like big firm attorneys and almost never had big firm experience or top law school credentials. What they did know how to do was market themselves and their clients’ grievances to like-minded jurors. They also tended to be quite flamboyant in their marketing efforts, but that is another story. In small towns all across America, there are very successful attorneys. In most cases, these attorneys grew up in the area and are similar to the people they do work for. What is most significant about the attorneys who are most successful in small towns, from those who are not, is their marketing ability. They fraternize in local clubs and bar associations. Stories circulate about their successes. All of this is marketing. The same thing occurs in large law firms in big cities. Here, the marketing is confined to the law firm and getting clients to hire you as you advance in seniority. What is most significant, though, is that the marketing component and what the individual’s brand represents are always at the forefront. The issue then is how you market yourself and advance your own career. While this may not be obvious, a large part of a recruiter’s job is helping people market themselves to employers. They know what the employers want to hear and how the attorney should say it. Virtually every week at our recruiting firms we get attorneys jobs at firms that I know they could not have gotten on their own. That is because we “packaged” the person to the employer in a certain way and told him/her what to say in order to portray the particular brand the firm is interested in. What is so interesting about the work exceptional recruiters do is that none of what we do is dishonest. In fact, it is just knowing the market, the particular brand of the firm and what makes a person marketable to them. People need to be themselves, but also be aware of what the particular employer wants. If you are looking for a position you need to keep the idea of marketing at the forefront of what you do and how you think about everything. You have a product to sell and in order to sell your product you must brand it and package it in the right way. In order to sell your product, and get the highest price for it, you also need to have the largest possible market. Everything I have done in my career is geared towards helping people market and package themselves. One service I recommend that anyone look at is Legal Authority (www.EmploymentAuthority.com), which can assist you in marketing yourself to the largest potential demographic of employers possible. It helps you professionally package yourself and get the highest price for your product. Two other companies I recommend are Hound.com and EmploymentCrossing.com, which can help you see the most openings. You need to know what the market is for your product. EmploymentCrossing is an exceptional way to learn about the market. Here, you can be aware of the market at all times and know exactly what is going on and who is hiring. EmploymentCrossing is your personal barometer of the market and shows you where you can market your product. The benefit of knowing this information at all times cannot be overemphasized. Think of your career like a product. You have invested a tremendous amount of time and expense creating your product. You may have spent upwards of $100,000 on your education to get to where you are today. (If you are not educated, you have likely spent years of your life learning a given skill.) If you had that much money in the stock market, my guess is that you would want to watch what is going on in the market at all times. Your career should not be any different. Do not lose your investment. Do not allow yourself to go out of business. Know where your product is marketable. D. Conclusions

You are a product. Your career is a small business. Run it like a small business and realize the importance of your brand. Most importantly, realize you always need to have a market for your product. If you remember this, you will be well served throughout your career.

THE LESSON Your career is a business, and you yourself are a product that you are selling to potential employers. Your goal is to survive and sell your product for as much money as possible. Use simple business principles to market yourself, such as identifying markets for your product and recognizing the importance of your brand. Good basic business skills can take you and your career far.

The Peter Principal and Being Ready for More Responsibility

Harrison Barnes — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:01:28 +0000

The most important thing you can do in your work and in your career is to do what you know. It is fine to try new things. However, when you try new things, you need to be very careful that you remain focused on the things that you know and understand. If you venture outside of what you understand, you are likely to get into massive trouble and this trouble can come quickly. People who do well in their positions are typically rewarded with more responsibility and a better position. Eventually, however, this position will exceed a person’s level of expertise. This principle is called the Peter Principle, a theory originally conceived of in the late 1960s by Dr. Lawrence J. Peter. Dr. Peter Wrote: “In a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence.” In easier to understand terms, Dr. Peter wrote that “The cream rises until it sours.” The idea behind the Peter Principle is that, in many organizations, people are going to keep getting thrust upward until they end up failing at what they are trying to do. What does this mean for you? First, you need to be aware that by excelling at whatever you are doing, you are likely to put yourself in a situation where you advance. There is nothing wrong with this and it is healthy. However, you need to be ready for the next step. Second, the worst mistake you can make is to be thrust into a position before you are ready for this position. If you are not ready for a certain position, it is often wise to make sure you do not take this responsibility before you are ready. This can end up getting you fired or worse. Several years ago I started a magazine. At the time, our company had at least 100 people working in our headquarters and one day I held a meeting with various people from the company to discuss this magazine. We had hired numerous temporary people. We were doing a lot of work in the student loan business at that time and we had hired temporary employees who were paid not more than $10 an hour to catalogue, mail and do various things like this when needed. One day, I grabbed one of these workers and several others and brought them into the office. At the time, I did not know who the temp worker was. I just noticed he did not seem that busy. “It’s costing us over $300,000 to get this issue out and we do not have anywhere near enough advertising running in this issue to break even!” I barked at the group. I instructed the temporary worker that he needed to sell at least $100,000 in advertising and he had three weeks to do it. Every day or so, he would pop into my office. One day he got an ad from Citibank. Another day he got a law school to advertise. I did not listen to him, I just kept barking orders at him. The poor guy had never worked at a job paying more than $10.00 an hour and here he was all of a sudden being given the incredibly challenging assignment of hustling up ads for an upstart magazine. He was uneducated and had applied to stuff envelopes. As he sold ads, I started putting more and more pressure on him to sell even more. I started yelling at him and telling him he needed to “stop bullshitting” and “start closing.” I banged my hand on my desk and told him stuff like “now is the time for action!” I gave him pep talks and walked over to him when he was cold calling advertisers and told him what he was doing wrong. One day the guy disappeared. Someone came into my office and explained that he had applied to stuff envelopes. The guy had been turned into a professional advertising sales person over night. A funny thing happened after this guy disappeared. I hired two girls who were professional ad sales people from another magazine. They were each paid $50,000 a year plus commissions. After six months on the job, countless meetings, having hosted a major party for advertisers in New York City and more, they had sold fewer ads than the guy from the mail room had in less than a month. The guy from the mail room was promoted into a position faster and more aggressively than probably even his wildest expectations. This sort of thing happens all the time, however. It happens in businesses everywhere. Had he not been promoted, he might have still been happily employed in the mail room. Because he did not say “no,” he allowed himself to be thrust into a position beyond his comfort level and he failed. The thing was, he actually did not fail in this position. He believed he was failing and quit. He was uncomfortable with the work but he actually did not fail. He did well and much better than the professional salespeople I hired later on. One of my most glorious seasons in the asphalt business was the time I branched out. I did hot tar work, residential asphalt work, commercial asphalt work, asphalt patching and I stripped parking lots. I also got into paving and started doing commercial paving jobs. I purchased compressors to break up asphalt. I purchased a jackhammer. I purchased a dump truck and did a tremendous amount of work. One day, I was doing a man’s driveway in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. During the job, the man’s wife was not allowing him to smoke inside so he was smoking cigarettes outside and watching me the entire time. I was on my “evening shift” at the moment. I worked so hard in the asphalt business, frequently starting work at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, that around 4:00 many days I would drop off my exhausted crew and go out to do asphalt work alone. This was one of those days. I am not sure what was wrong with me. I think I was trying to get market share. I had so much energy and enthusiasm for this work it is hard to describe. In fact, there were times when I was doing some large commercial jobs that I literally did the work all night. One of my favorite things to do when doing this work was to talk to the owners of the homes. At the time, Grosse Pointe had a lot of big homes with a lot of successful executives living in them. I loved speaking to these men and seeing what they did for a living, the struggles they had overcome and more. Since a lot of the work I did was between 6:00 and 10:00 in the evening, I had the opportunity to see lots of people, get to know the success secrets of a lot of people, as well as the secrets they probably would rather I not know. For the most part, however, what I learned was exceptionally helpful and useful information. I got to meet the CEOs and high ranking executives of all the auto companies, and people who owned and controlled well-known businesses around Detroit and the world. On this particular evening, the man smoking while watching me do my work explained to me that he owned a giant construction company that built small strip malls around Detroit. For me, jobs like this were great because they always ended up leading to even more work. I loved meeting business owners during my work in the evening because if they owned a business I would do whatever I could to get this business as a client. The discussion turned out well. The man was in the process of rebuilding a small building in a city called West Bloomfield, around 70 miles away. He asked me to go over and give him an estimate for ripping out the existing parking lot, building a giant divider going through the parking lot, putting curbs in and striping the parking lot. It was a huge task he had in mind and I was certainly very enthusiastic about the entire job. The only problem was that I had never ripped up a parking lot, built a parking lot, or done any paving. I knew very little about paving at this particular point in my life. “If you work with me you are going to be very successful in the asphalt business,” the man told me. It was clear from our discussion that I needed to ensure that I did a good job with this asphalt at all costs. When I arrived at the work site to give an estimate, it was the most professional job I had ever been involved in. This was a large project and being very professionally run. There were foremen and various men in hard hats running around with engineering schemata. They sat me down in a trailer they had brought to the construction site and reviewed various architectural plans with me. They spoke about thinks like “pitch” and “elevation” and “grade.” I had no idea what the hell any of them were talking about. “You say you want me to rip out the parking lot?” I asked. They looked at me like I was crazy. The guys going over the engineering schemata seemed like they were engineers. Here I was, standing here in shorts with tar all over my face, and at the time was around 22 years old. It must have been a really sorry sight. I gave an estimate of $1,500 to do the entire project. This estimate was insane. In fact, the estimate should have been more like $20,000 for the entire project. I did not know this at the time, however. I had no idea because I was doing something I did not understand. My estimate was accepted and I was assigned a construction manager whose task became to call me every day until the work was done. It must have been a sorry sight the first day I pulled up to the job. I had 4 guys driving a Chevy Suburban who were towing a small compressor behind the truck. I had another couple of guys towing a Bob Cat, which is a small bulldozer. I was driving a 30 year old dump truck that barely made it to the job site. When we got there, probably 60 or 70 other people were busy with various tasks involved in building. There were people in hard hats and people with engineering documents spread out on tables. The operation was very professional. I directed my men to take the compressor and start breaking up the parking lot. I was not sure what else to do. For the entire day we used sledge hammers and the jack hammer (which is why we had the compressor) to break away at the asphalt. We picked up load after load of the parking lot and put various pieces of it in the dump truck. Around 1:00 in the afternoon, we broke a gas line underneath the parking lot with the bulldozer. It was a complete disaster. I still remember the worker lifting out the piece of asphalt with the gas line still attached to it, completely oblivious to the magnitude of what was going on. Because our work was such an unprofessional operation (my workers were doing things like dropping giant pieces of asphalt on their feet by accident and then hopping around in pain, etc.) a small crowd of workers had gathered to watch us with expressions bordering between amusement and shock. When we ripped up the gas line, though, everything changed. Men started screaming, someone cut all of the power to the building and it was so much commotion I did not know what had happened. Some guy charged the driver of the Bobcat and practically knocked him out of the bulldozer. The fire department was called and within moments the gas company arrived. Everything worked out okay after an hour or two. I was given a cell phone and it was the guy who had given me the job. “You need to be more careful reviewing plans,” he told me. “The gas line was clearly indicated there.” The last thing I wanted to tell him was that I did not know how to read plans. He told me that they would deduct the cost of redoing the pipe from the $1,500 they were going to pay me. That evening, as I was driving my dump truck back to where we stored all the equipment in Detroit (we called it “the Yard”) I realized I did not know where to take all of the broken asphalt. I figured there must be a dump of some sort where I could take everything. As I was driving down the streets of Detroit, I looked around me from side to side and realized that I was in Detroit. There was row after row of abandoned houses and lots. Mattresses and large piles of trash were on many of the lots. I took all the asphalt and dumped it in an abandoned lot. When I got home that evening I realized that I had spent more than $1,500 on the job already and I was also facing a deduction due to bursting a gas pump. Over the next several days I spent thousands more on the job and eventually, like the guy in the mail room, I too did not show up for work. I called the guy who had hired me: “This is not a $1,500 job and you know it. I have spent close to $10,000 of my own money on this already. This is not fair and you are smart enough to know that I was not experienced enough to do this work and was not giving you the correct bid.” The man was unsympathetic. He did not care that I had made a mistake. I felt horrible about this for several years. I had never abandoned a job or quit something, but I had gotten in way over my head. You want to be motivated. You want to succeed. You want to take on new tasks. But you never want to get ahead of yourself and take on work you are incapable of doing. What ends up happening when you do this is you sabotage everything. You end up losing your job or, even worse, your competence. You want to rise but there is nothing wrong with only rising when you are ready and have a good understanding of the challenges before you. Do not take on more responsibility or work than you are capable of before you are ready. THE LESSON Only take on more responsibility when you are ready for it. While it is fine to try new things, you must have a clear understanding of the challenges ahead of you; otherwise, you are likely to get into trouble when you step outside of your comfort zone. Do not get ahead of yourself and take on work of which you are not capable in your drive for success, or you risk sabotaging all of the hard work you have already invested.

You Need to Sell, Sell, Sell

Harrison Barnes — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 05:34:43 +0000

A strange misconception among many people, especially professionals, is that there is something wrong with selling. When I talk about selling, I am referring to any number of sales activities: -Selling yourself in an interview -Selling yourself in a cover letter to an employer -Selling yourself to a client -Selling yourself to any other person -Packaging yourself in a ”sellable” way In every single interaction we have with others, we are selling. The more you sell, the better you will do in your life and career. The best and most successful people are always selling. You should have no preconceived notions about the value of selling because it is among the most important skills you can have. If you understand sales, you understand and control your life. Several years ago, I was sitting in the office of my friend, who was a window washer. While he was on the phone, I picked up a magazine about window washing from his table. In it, I read an article which appeared to be part of a series. The series was about a man with a window washing squeegee and a towel who was transported to various American cities with no money and given the task of getting back each day. He might be transported from Chicago to Miami one month. The next month they might send him from Chicago to a small town in Oregon. He could be sent anywhere in the country. The article was titled something like this:

Give me a squeegee and a towel and send me to any American city with no money. By the end of the day, I will have a steak dinner in the most expensive restaurant in town, spend the night in a nice hotel, and take a flight home in the morning.

After being dropped off in a city in the morning, the window washer would go from business to business asking to wash their windows. Regardless of the city, he would always make enough money for his steak, hotel, and flight home. When I read this in the early 90s, flights often cost close to $1,000, so what this window washer was doing was really impressive. Without any knowledge of the city he was in and with no contacts, he would end the day with clients and plenty of money. I remember this series exceptionally well because it inspired me to understand the power of sales and how it can completely change your life regardless of your other skills. When you know how to sell something, you can do exceptionally well wherever you go. I want you to take a moment and think about the power of the window washer’s story. What makes this story so remarkable to me is that being a window washer requires no education and no investment. All it requires is the ability to wash a window, which is teachable in a few minutes, and to find people who will pay you to do this. The ability to sell the service is obviously among the most important elements of this job. What impressed me so much about this particular story is it shows if you have the ability to sell, you can make something from nothing. When you have the ability to sell you are in control of your life and what happens to you. Knowing how to sell something is a key to survival, advancement, fame, and fortune – if you are after these things. I believe selling is the most important career skill you can have. All people are involved in sales, even if they do not realize it. However, there is some sort of bias against effective sales people. It is often considered ”uncouth” or not businesslike to be good at sales. People often feel if they try to sell something it will reflect badly on them. People feel sales is a low-class profession. When I hear people talk about sales like this it nearly makes me sick. Selling is the most important possible career skill imaginable, and the most important people in the world are absolute masters at sales. Every time there is a presidential election in the United States, the winner is determined by the ability to sell to the public the idea he or she would make the better president. The winning candidate debates with his or her opponents, gives speeches, creates taglines and slogans, and travels all over the country trying to spread his or her ideas. When the candidate gets into office, he or she travels all over the world trying to sell those same ideas to other countries. The President tries to sell these ideas to the congress and the senate. The President tries to sell to constituents. If you are the CEO of a corporation, your job involves sales. Think about auto industry CEOs traveling to Washington asking for money. Their ability to obtain money involves their ability to sell to politicians. They too are in sales. The most important jobs involve sales, as do the least important. If you want time off from a job your ability to get that time off will depend on your ability to make a sale. If you want a raise, it may depend on your ability to sell your superiors on the reasons why you deserve a raise. Every single thing we do is about making a sale. Getting a good grade in school is often about making a sale. Everything we do is about making sales. I used to know a guy who sat in his apartment all day not doing much of anything. He watched television and occasionally made a few phone calls. He smoked a lot of cigarettes and had about five or six beers each night. He was also single and probably always will be. He had had a pretty lousy career. He was at least 40 pounds overweight and, despite being in his mid 30s, he had not had a girlfriend since he was in high school. What was this guy’s problem? He did not think it was cool to sell himself. He would not sell himself to an employer, a potential mate, or anyone. He did not care. I have not spoken to the guy in a long time, but I remember he was always making fun of people who sold stuff, making fun of commercials on television and making fun of people trying their hardest to do well in life. This guy was someone who needed to learn how to sell. Think about the people you know who are not selling themselves or putting their best foot forward. What would be different for them if they did? How would your life change as well? Selling yourself is about more than simply telling others how good you are. It’s also about showing others the value you can bring them. Things like being fit, being enthusiastic, taking care of yourself emotionally, taking advantage of opportunities presented to you, are all related to sales. Because you are paid by the market you are a product, and because you are a commodity you need to sell yourself and do so exceptionally well every chance you get. A huge mistake a lot of people in the job market make is forgetting they are a product. Yes, you are a product. Everyone is a product. We are products because in order to make money and add value to the world we have to get people to ”buy in” to whatever services or skills we are offering. Regardless of the job you have, people need to like you and/or what you are personally selling if you are going to reach your full potential. Selling yourself will really help you stand out in your job or in your job search. This means packaging yourself in the right manner. This is all about how you look and how you come across. In the most competitive jobs, employers can afford to be incredibly picky. If you go into a high paying investment bank, for example, you will see most new recruits are fit, sharp, and enthusiastic. Most investment banks can hire anyone they want, and they hire the people who make the best impression. This is how it is in a competitive industry such as this. In fact, one of the first times I met a group of investment bankers I thought they were male models – these people are very good at packaging themselves. What I want to see you do is make the most of who you are. This means packaging yourself to the best of your ability, always being at your best, and selling yourself. I want you to develop your sales skills and not be afraid-ever-to sell anything. Whatever your goal in life may be, becoming an effective salesman will help you achieve it.