Love What You Do

If you wish to get and excel at a job, one of the most important things you can do for yourself and for your employer is to love what you are doing. When I say, “love what you are doing,” I truly mean it. You must be so passionate about what you are doing you can hardly believe you’re getting paid for it.

I do not care if you are 20 years old or 65 years old, you need to find and do work you enjoy. People who enjoy their work are the ones who advance and do well in any calling.

Love of your work is a source of inspiration. It is something that makes you more creative in your job and gives you energy to work harder. Being playful in your job makes you happier. Making your job a game makes every moment something to grow from and makes your life much more enjoyable.

Let me tell you about someone I know quite well who loves his job. He has a library of thousands of books. He has so many books he had special shelves built in his office. He has books all over his basement. He has books crowded beside his bedside. He has DVDs all over his living room. He spends weeks away from his family each year going to seminars, in order to learn more.

All of these books, CDs, and DVDs cover topics such as management, getting jobs, finding satisfaction in one’s career, and others relevant to people wanting to improve themselves.

He reads these books before he goes to bed at night and when he gets up in the morning. He reads them when he exercises and uses a stair-master instead of a treadmill to exercise, just so he can read during his cardio workout. He even listens to CDs about whatever he is studying when he is driving.

He’s angered by the thought of people who go to work just to make money. He knows people who go to work just to make money typically work less, contribute less to their employer and the people they are helping, and they are not interested in long-term relationships with their work or their employers. He knows of countless people who think of work as just work, who are miserable. He speaks with these people every single day. He knows if you truly enjoy your work and get into your work, you will have a life that is incredibly meaningful. This person truly believes what he is doing is the most important thing in the world.

If you met this person in a normal situation, you might find him a little boring. But if you ask him about what he does for a living, he will become animated and his face will change. He will sit up and become very excited and talk about what he does for hours if you let him. His enthusiasm for his work is so sincere and profound he smiles whenever he thinks about his job. This person is angry he has to sleep each night because he would rather be doing his work.

The person I am speaking about is I. I have found my passion, and my passion is helping you and others get jobs. I love what I do and I want nothing more than profound success for everyone, because I know what everyone is capable of achieving.

I was once in a job I detested, and I was unhappy. I got out the second I found something that seemed like fun and appealed to me spiritually. I am getting an enormous amount of happiness and satisfaction out of my job and my life because I’m doing what I want.

When I was in high school, I remember sitting in a Denny’s one day at lunch with a group of friends, talking about other people. We must have spoken about 10 other people in depth over the course of 45 minutes. At the end of the conversation, I realized that each person we had spoken about had a special talent. One might have been really good at math, for instance; another person might have been very capable socially; another might have been an outstanding athlete, another an amazing writer, another a very talented saxophone player. I realized each person had a very special gift, or combination of gifts that made him or her unique and special. As I have gone through life, I have come to realize everyone has special and unique abilities.

We need to do what we enjoy because this can give us immeasurable and long lasting happiness. This is the most simple career advice I can give.

One of the most remarkable people I know is a mathematical genius – and no, I am not talking about myself this time. This person was so good at math, physics, and other disciplines as a kid that he was already taking college calculus classes when he was in middle school. He never liked math-related disciplines, though. He was more interested in journalism. Incredibly, he was never a particularly gifted writer, but writing was something he loved to do.

Just because we are good at something does not mean it’s what we like to do. Today, this man is a journalist and he loves his job. He’s good at it, too, and he runs a newsroom in a major city. While he took calculus at the age of 13 at the local community college, he was actually struggling to get by in English and the other classes he enjoyed.

Perhaps he could have designed rockets, been a professor at MIT – who knows. But instead he followed his passion and pursued something he loved.

Today, when I see pictures of him, he looks content and enriched. His family is healthy, and I can tell deep down they are all happy. When this fellow was working complex math problems many years ago, I do not think he was happy at all.

There is something inside of you that lights your fire. What is it? Become passionate about your work and find something that elevates you.

What do you read about in your spare time? What part of yourself would you improve to become better at doing what you love?

In November of 2008 I attended the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. I saw the CEO of Yahoo!, Al Gore’s boss at Kleiner Perkins, the CEO of Zappos shoes, and other famous people (I missed Lance Armstrong, unfortunately). When I see people like this, I know they love what they are doing, because they speak with so much passion. You too can, and should, love what you are doing. I know many people who do their jobs because they love them.

People who reach great heights in any discipline get there through a love of their job. Love of a job comes from a genuine, heartfelt passion deep inside a person. What motivates you to get out of bed? What would you do if you could do anything with your day? That is exactly where you belong and it is the path you should be following.

Can You Be Trusted?

Can you be trusted?

This is more important than any other single question. Regardless of how motivated you are, regardless of where you went to school, regardless of your work history, if you slip up in this area, you might as well forget about a good career in any profession.

Certainly, there are many people who rise quickly by playing fast and loose with the rules. I’ve seen this more times than I can count during my career. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, no matter how far an individual gets, they almost always come crashing down if they are not trustworthy. When this happens, it’s major. Careers end.

I used to teach professional responsibility at a law school. In this class, like in most professional responsibility classes, we spent a lot of time going over the rules and debating various ethical questions. Personally, when I took this class in law school, I believed it was somewhat of a blow-off, just like most of my fellow students. However, this article is about the consequences of dishonesty, not a blow-off discussion of professional responsibility.

As a legal recruiter I have seen far too many careers stall out or end due to credibility lapses. This is more common than you might think. In fact, I would estimate at least five to ten percent of all careers in the legal sector experience long term, negative results because an attorney has done something dishonest, or not credible. When you probe the reasons why top attorneys from exceptional backgrounds do not get interviews or hired, it is most often because when their references are checked others believe they cannot be trusted. While some credibility lapses are obvious – for example, stealing client money or lying in court – most often the issues are far subtler. If an attorney shades the truth with superiors or does not make important information known to a client, the results can be disastrous to his or her career.

In the organizations in which I’ve been involved or run, the most persistent cause of failure is someone losing credibility. Once this happens, a person’s career within an organization usually ends, and their lack of credibility ends up following them to their next job, and the next one after that, because people remember and people talk. I do not care if you screw up in a law firm in Chicago and then move to New York or Florida, wherever you go, the chances are very good that your past will follow you.

Can you be trusted? Once there is any doubt, you have lost a great deal.

Fortunes can be lost and rebuilt. Being fired for wrongdoings wherein your credibility was not an issue can eventually be forgotten. If you lose your credibility however, you may never regain it.

Credibility encompasses far more than you may realize. Paradoxically, it is almost always the most accomplished, aggressive, and talented people who seem to lose their credibility. Years of achievement can be ruined by one moment of poor judgment.

Credibility can be defined in many ways, but at its simplest, it means the following: (1) never being dishonest or lying, (2) never failing to make someone aware of the truth behind circumstances when you should, and (3) not cutting corners, and doing what you say you are going to do, and when you say you are going to do it.

You must never be dishonest or lie. If you lie then you are toast. This is the most direct cause of loss of credibility. Most liars are exposed, and people stop trusting them. People do not want to give liars work or do business with them.

Lying is all too common. When it occurs, careers quite often end. You simply cannot be good at any job and lie to others. It does not work.

Never fail to make someone aware of the truth. This area can be particularly problematic, because not disclosing the full truth is something many people do not consider as being dishonest. Why, I don’t know.

A common example of this is the prosecutor who does not turn over exculpatory evidence, simply because he is not asked for it. These sorts of prosecutors can become pariahs in the legal community. More importantly, when you are an attorney working for someone else, you are expected to make your superiors aware of information they should be aware of. If you have failed to do something, or have done something, you need to make others aware of it.

Others will trust you if you make them aware of information they should know about. Keeping silent is often tantamount to lying. There are numerous examples I could get into here, but basically, if you do this you are hurting yourself and putting yourself in a situation wherein you might not be trusted in the future.

Do what you say you are going to do. This is probably the most common lapse of credibility out there. In fact, I would say this is the single largest credibility failure for an attorney.

First, if you say you are going to do something, then you should do it. No questions asked. If you cannot be trusted to get something done, then you are sending all sorts of negative messages to your employer. There are always excuses for not completing work or not doing this or that. However, there are always people who manage to get things done, and then there are people who always make excuses. You need to be trusted as someone who will get things done if you say you are going to do them.

Second, you should never cut corners when you work. This also is a credibility issue. If you are going to do something, you should do it in a professional and serious manner. This sort of performance will win you a great deal of credibility. In addition, people who carry out assignments this way are the ones who are most likely to get future work from clients and superiors. There are far too many people who do things half way, and do not complete work the way it should be done.

When I was about 20 years old, I met a man who ran a giant steel factory. He was an uneducated German immigrant who was competing in my hometown of Detroit against some of the world’s major steel factories. One day I met the president of a major automotive company, to which this man supplied a lot of steel. I told the president I could not understand how this man was so successful, because he appeared to lack business sense, and certainly could not hobnob with other important executives. The president told me one thing I will never forget: “He does what he says he is going to do, and does it well. That’s all he does. It’s very rare.”

Far too many people out there are out for a fast buck or a quick transaction. My career advice is to become someone of integrity, and you will be trusted and thrive.

It is important to be credible for a number of reasons: (1) it makes you human and therefore more likable and appreciated, (2) if you are not credible, people will fear that dealings with you will lead to negative repercussions for them, and (3) if you are dishonest you will constantly be reminded of your lack of credibility, no matter where you turn.

Everyone has probably seen a comedian perform at some point. Typically, the comedian will talk frankly about topics that most of us can relate to, but would never speak of publicly – sex, bathroom habits, or strange things they do. Most people laugh at comedians and enjoy them. I believe this is true is because comedians let us see who they are. We like people when we can really see who they are.

The work environment is extremely competitive. Many people spend a great deal of time trying to cover up their weaknesses. They do this by avoiding talking about what they cannot do. They don’t tell clients they have never worked on a certain type of project; they do not speak about negative performance reviews to peers; they try not to let superiors know an assignment did not get done in a timely manner because they were out having fun over the weekend.

The most successful individuals I’ve known do not approach others with a tremendous degree of arrogance or confidence. Instead, they are always careful to point out what they know, what they can do, what their limitations are, and what they need in order to do whatever is being asked of them. This is an explicitly honest approach. It is also an approach that makes the person preferable to deal with.

If you think about it, the reasons you probably like people who act this way are not much different from the reasons you like comedians. When you like someone more, you are not only more forgiving, you trust they will ask the correct questions when carrying out assignments and doing work. You also identify with them because you know you too have limitations. When you identify with someone, it creates a bond of sorts, which makes your relationship stronger. In addition, when you let people know your limitations, they are more likely to award a “job well done”.

I am not suggesting you should not be self-confident. You need to be. The issue is how you let people know your limitations and how honest you are with those around you. When you are honest with those around you, they will also be likely to open up to you more. You will learn more from the world around you and grow more.

If you are not credible, people will avoid dealing with you. Twice in the past two years I have come across attorneys who were terminated from their law firms for reasons related to a single credibility issue. What happened in each of these cases was so remarkable in its simplicity and stupidity it’s hard to believe. The attorneys were asked by a partner if they had completed an assignment and although the attorneys said yes, they hadn’t, and were fired as a result. In one case, the attorney was terminated only a couple of weeks before he was going to be formally installed as a partner in an AmLaw 100 law firm. In each case, I do not think the attorney found a new job for a long time, if at all. Certainly, no good recruiter would continue to represent someone who was dishonest like this.

The reason this simplistic bit of dishonesty, like most dishonesty, resulted in such a drastic outcome is because it has the capacity to hurt other people. If people tell their employer they did something when they did not, this will affect the employer’s dealings with the client. The result is the employer could lose a client, which is bad for everyone involved.

Time after time, attorneys engage in one stupid episode of dishonesty after another. In the above example, the rationale may have been to appear competent for a moment or two in the partner’s eyes. Who knows? Regardless, these sorts of lies ultimately harm people, and are seldom worth any perceived short term gain.

Everyone is certainly familiar with the trials of Martha Stewart, Dennis Kowalski and others regarding various sorts of fraud and insider trading charges. Each of these episodes looks harmless enough on the surface. Nevertheless, these people ultimately hurt investors and others who relied upon the dishonest representations of the individuals in question.

When you are dishonest with others, you put them in the position of not knowing if up is up or down is down when they are dealing with you. People will actually fear doing business with you.

This is something I have noticed over and over again in the attorney placement business. When a recruiting firm decides to cut corners and be dishonest in one respect or another, law firms and others in the legal community quickly learn of the dishonesty. As a consequence, they do not know if what the recruiter is saying is right or wrong. They do not trust the recruiter and opt to cease doing business with them completely. Because it is a small industry, other law firms and employers quickly learn about the recruiter’s dishonest ways. Very shortly, the recruiter may be out of business.

A lot of times people who do something dishonest are under the impression they can do one dishonest thing, get away with it, and then come out ahead. This is rarely the case. When you lack credibility, you will be constantly reminded of it. This is the case whether you do one, or many things wrong.

One of the most common forms of dishonesty is the lie. There are different categories of lies. It can be something as benign as calling in sick when one is not really sick. On another level, there are things like lying about whether an assignment was completed, or lying about what a law means, so that you can do something you want to do. The issue with these sorts of lies is that you may often have to tell many additional lies to cover up for your original one. The more lies you tell, the more you have to keep telling. Pretty soon, lying becomes a near full-time occupation, and the lies just continue to build upon themselves. This is almost always disastrous.

In addition, a lot of people think if they are dishonest with someone, they can confine their dishonesty to that one person and be okay. This, too, is rarely true. If you upset one person through your dishonesty, chances are you will see them again and again and again. How you deal with the guilt of upsetting them is up to you. You need to understand, however, you will likely carry that guilt for a long time.

Your credibility is one of the most important aspects of your career. For many, credibility comes naturally. Others are always looking for a way to cut corners, or are simply dishonest. Those who cut corners and lack credibility never come out on top. In fact, their failure and mediocrity are all but assured.

Job seekers often don’t understand their reputations are fragile. The most important thing you can do for your reputation is to approach your work with credibility in mind. Always err on the side of credibility.

Never Get Too Comfortable

One of the greatest causes of failure stems from people experiencing success in their careers. Whether it is being given a new title, a raise, a position of increased job security, or other success, people often suddenly decide they have earned the right to relax. Security and comfort are certainly desirable results and may be a significant part of achieving your goals. However, when you focus on your comfort or bask in your success, you stop growing.

Executives and others who begin to relax or let their guard down quickly get crushed. They usually end up losing their jobs, or their careers quickly fade into obscurity. When you find yourself in a position that allows you greater comfort, security, you have an outstanding opportunity for further growth. Use this opportunity wisely. People are put in positions of responsibility and given higher incomes because they have shown growth in their current position. You never want to stop growing.

I would like to explain to you a pattern I have seen within my own companies and also among people I have known and worked with in the past as a legal recruiter.

I have worked with many people who have gone to top schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. The talent you need to exhibit to get into schools like these is phenomenal. You need to be academically gifted and have a long history of very high-level achievements. You also need to show talent in areas other than academics. People who attend top tier schools also have to work exceptionally hard to earn the academic marks and other honors needed to succeed once they are accepted.

What ends up happening to people who attend these elite schools is very interesting to me. A good many continue to work hard once accepted, while others think just because they were accepted, that’s good enough. The students who continue to work hard ultimately crush these students.

In the legal field, most attorneys in the top law firms worked hard in college and continued to work extremely hard in law school as well. Their hard work landed them positions in prestigious law firms. The competition to get a job with a prestigious law firm is even more challenging than what one must face to get into a prestigious college or law school.

Once in these prestigious firms, many of the new attorneys are already exhausted from having worked so hard in law school and college. Many believe that, because of their past achievements, they can now rest on their laurels. These new attorneys then end up losing their jobs very quickly, and many even leave the practice of law forever due to this experience.

My career advice is to never let your guard down. Whatever you have done in the past has only given you the right to compete on the playing field you are on now. No one cares about your past successes. If you do not perform your best, you will become expendable.

I have witnessed a very familiar pattern in the work world. People get a job based on their enthusiasm, past employment record, and other related factors. Once hired, they work extremely hard to earn praise and recognition. They are given increased responsibility at the company, more and more tasks, and people to supervise. As these people get more and more responsibility, the company traditionally begins to watch them less closely. At this point, these people have two choices:

-Step up their efforts and keep improving, or,

-Begin to coast and let others do the work, keep things the same as they are, relax, buy new things, take more vacations, and take time off.

The latter is what probably 50 percent of people do once they reach a certain stage or accomplish a certain goal in their careers. In my career I have seen far too many go this direction. What ends up happening when the person starts coasting is generally one of two things: one, the company fires them, or two, the company puts pressure on them to improve, and the person simply decides to leave, believing their status does not merit this sort of treatment.

Is this you?

This happens because too many people get too comfortable. You always need to be on your toes with any job.

Look at the headlines in the paper each day, and you will see business tycoons in their 80s and 90s who are winning and losing fortunes. They are still working. You will read about other prominent individuals challenging themselves in different ways. Ted Turner became famous for racing sailboats all around the world. Richard Branson has become known for trying to set records in balloons. These are some of the most successful men in the world. They are not sitting on a beach relaxing. They are challenging themselves in every way they possibly can. They challenge themselves in their work, and outside of work.

I live in Malibu, California. Up and down the 26 miles of coastline are some of the most magnificent homes you can imagine, some right on the beach. Some of these houses sell for $50 million or more. Some of the richest and most famous people in the world live in Malibu.

What is so remarkable about these houses is the fact most of them are empty almost every day of the year. People do visit these houses but, for the most part, the largest and most expensive of the houses do not have families in them year-round and their owners only drop in occasionally.

The owners rarely visit their multi-million dollar houses, but not because the properties are insignificant to them. The reason these people don’t visit their houses is because they simply do not have the time. They are always working. They enjoy their houses only for short periods of time and then they are back to work.

The most successful people do not allow themselves to slow down and get too comfortable. Using the old analogy of the world as a jungle, I leave you with this closing thought: animals, fish, and birds are always on the move. Whenever a lion is hunting, he looks for the weakest animal in the herd – the one that is not moving.

Protect Your Reputation At All Costs

What You Will Learn It is important to protect your reputation at all costs. Never let falsehoods be spread about you – in your career you cannot take any chances with what people say about you. If there are negative rumors circulating about you, they need to be stopped. This can not only cause problems with your current job, but can also potentially damage your future employment prospects.

“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 causes damage in many ways. People have asked me why someone would make accusations against me if they were not true. The problems the ordeal caused me, my family, and even my employees is 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 literally get destroyed because of 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’s 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 whatever is behind them is not allowed to fester. For example, the Coca-Coca 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 some of the people whom 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 medicine 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 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.

One of the Most Significant Lessons I Have Ever Learned About Work

What You Will Learn When you stop thinking about yourself in business and concentrate on the needs of others, you begin to do well. In business you should never focus on just yourself. Doing a good job should always be your priority.

When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor.
-Normal Vincent Peale

While I am no expert in the laws of the universe, one thing I’ve consistently noticed is when you stop thinking about yourself in business and concentrate on the needs of others, you begin to do well. I’ve seen this rule repeat itself over and over again, and I believe it is one of the most important keys to success.

When I was in high school I started an asphalt business to earn money for college. I ran this business as a part-time job during school for about two months, one of which was during summer vacation. My sole objective was to make money. There are many entertaining stories I could tell, but to make a long story short, after several weeks I lost a great deal of money, did very poor work, and failed. Miserably. I’d done shoddy work, and there were a lot of people who were upset with me. The only thing I thought of when I did those early jobs was the money, and getting done with the day’s work so I could go and have some fun with friends. Doing a good job wasn’t my top priority. I was.

Because I absolutely had to make money for college, I then began working as a garbage man for $5 per hour. I worked from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday for the remainder of the summer in order to save money for tuition and expenses. It was not a fun job and the people I worked with left a lot to be desired. For example, one day the driver of the garbage truck that I was riding on was pulled over by the police and arrested because he’d assaulted a woman the evening before. I was then relegated to another truck, and the driver of this truck told me one day if I was not careful he would “cut me up.”

Even though I’d quit the asphalt business, my phone continued to ring with complaints and demands that I come and repair the poor work I’d done.  Towards the end of the summer, I had saved just over $1,000. I had to use that money to buy supplies to fix the jobs I’d botched. I didn’t have to do the repairs, because I’d already been paid, but my sense of integrity won out. I knew I could not enjoy my time at college knowing I’d left shoddy work behind.

As I was buying supplies, I noticed an older man asking a hardware store clerk questions about various asphalt products. The clerk did not know the answers. I did, so I approached the man and began talking to him. I was surprised by how much I knew about asphalt. I must have talked to the man for over an hour. Despite the fact I was not a talented asphalt contractor, I was somewhat knowledgeable.

As it turned out, this man was the owner of a large apartment complex, and he was planning on having his maintenance man do a large resurfacing project on the property. During our conversation, I told him how much he should be paying for the work, the best materials to buy, and how to ensure his maintenance man did a good job. At the end of the conversation, the man asked me if I would look at his apartment complex to provide him with more tips.

Not even thinking about the money (I was actually interested in the process—and helping this man), I went and looked at the complex and called the man with my recommendations. He asked for my phone number in case he had any further questions. When I hung up the phone, I felt good I’d assisted the man with his questions. Throughout my whole exchange with him, I never expected anything in return.

A day or two later the phone in my house rang again. I was not in the habit of answering the phone because I was always afraid it would be another complaint. I let my mother get it. She told me it was the man from the hardware store. He wanted me to do the work on the apartment complex for him! I could not believe it. He said something to the effect, “You care about the work. You will look out for me. I want you to do this because I know you will do a better job than anyone else I could find.”

To make a long story short, I made over $3,000 on that job, and it was done in just two days. The work turned out perfectly. Over the years, I continued to do a great deal of work for this man, and always delivered top quality.

I learned a lesson that summer, one about selflessness and taking pride in your work. Two summers later, at only twenty years old, I was confident about my work. I did more driveway resurfacing than any other contractor in Michigan. I continued in this business throughout college, law school, and even after graduation. I loved it! I owed that success to the realization that, in business, you can never focus on just yourself. While I eventually sold the asphalt business, I never forgot the lessons I learned, and I still share them as career advice. Today, I believe I owe my home and much of my current motivation to the lessons of selflessness and caring about your work, which the man in the hardware store unknowingly taught me.

Your Job is a Game: Make Your Opponents External

What You Will Learn Your ability to play the game and be part of the team will determine your success or failure. Ensure you are playing by the rules in your company and you are always seen as part of the team. People who consistently work hard and play by the rules are always viewed by the team as valuable players. Leave it to other people to get involved in the political innuendos and other negative goings-on in your company – work hard and do not participate in the politics.

After being in the workforce for many years, I’ve come to realize that all of our jobs are, quite simply, games. In every job you have ever had you are part of a game. Your ability to play the game and be part of the team will determine your success or failure. The ability of your employer to externalize the game and the opponent will determine the success or failure of the enterprise. Games consist of rules, freedoms, barriers, and opponents.

Every organization has a certain set of rules by which it operates. These rules determine how you should do your work. If you violate these rules, you can be kicked out of the game (fired) much like a soccer player can be ejected from a game for doing something improper. Your employer will typically have a set of rules for when you are supposed to be at work, how the work is to be done, and the number of tasks you are required to complete (in a sport we might call these points).

Every organization and business also has a series of freedoms and barriers. The freedoms are the actions you can take and the things you are allowed to do. The barriers are the things you cannot do. The freedoms are given much like a sport assigns different freedoms. For example, in soccer the goalie is the only one allowed to touch the ball with his hands (a specially designated freedom), while the other players are not allowed to do so (a barrier). In corporations, different people typically have different rights, depending on their given position within the corporation.

The most significant part of any game is the presence of an opponent. If you don’t have an opponent, it’s not a game. It’s just practice.

One of the most interesting things I have seen in the workforce is that organizations tend to have opponents who are both external and, unfortunately, internal. A business and its people are “fired-up” and motivated primarily by the presence of outside opponents, and the need to overcome them. Businesses and their people also become more cohesive by coming together against their opponents. If this does not occur, the organization most often fails.

Most companies have a series of external opponents. For example, Yahoo!’s external opponent would be Google and vice versa. Amazon’s would be Barnes & Noble. Apple’s is Microsoft. The presence of external opponents serves to bring people within corporations together to fight for a common purpose, and to motivate the people in the company to work hard and believe in what they are doing. Fighting the good fight helps motivate people to get up in the morning and to get excited about going to work.

Organizations generally operate under the belief there is an external opponent to be fought (i.e., the “established company”) in a given space. However, if there is no established force for the organization to fight against, problems often develop.

Another issue that develops in virtually all companies – especially companies with no external opponent – is that people inside the company start manufacturing internal opponents instead of external ones. This most often occurs in companies without well-defined external competitors. In my opinion, the internal opponent phenomenon is among the more important things to understand when it comes to work and your success in both getting and keeping a job.

Several years ago, I started getting calls from associates in a large law firm in Los Angeles that, at the time, was called Troop Meisinger. This was a very successful law firm that was also considered a very good place to work in Los Angeles. While I am not aware of the specifics of how the firm was run, many parts of the firm had been pieced together from numerous other law firms (i.e., groups had joined from other firms or through mergers). When these groups joined, they were often viewed as competitors for the firm’s work and profits, and were treated as outsiders by the senior staff attorneys. Eventually, the firm became a group of numerous factions that were all working against one another. Instead of competing against outside law firms, all of these factions were competing against one another.

The calls that came to me from the firm’s associates were always about a different internal opponent within the firm. With so many internal opponents, the firm eventually imploded. When many of these groups found new jobs at other firms, they started creating the same sort of problems out of habit and did a lot of damage to the firms they joined.

As the old adage states, “Two is company and three is a crowd.” This is often true. A group of two people often collaborates better than a group of three. I think what tends to happen in a group of three is two of the people will find a slight to major degree of fault with the third person and, as a consequence, will come together to exclude the third person in some way.

The same thing happens in many organizations. Someone always seems to be on “the outs.” When someone is on “the outs”, they become an opponent to the group. It is like an athlete who is playing badly. The team members start talking about how this player is harming the team’s overall chances for success. The team may make the decision to sideline the player unless he or she changes and rises to the occasion.

I read somewhere that every year General Electric ranks its employees, and that the employees in the bottom 10 percent each year are given one year to improve. If they fall into the same bottom 10 percent the next year, they are dismissed. This is a method by which the company ensures that people who are not performers are eventually excluded from the team.

Unhealthy organizations can also find opponents in a paranoid way from time to time. These organizations allow rumors to flourish and enemies proliferate. If a manager arbitrarily fires people (regardless of whether or not they have been playing by the rules), people in the organization may start manufacturing internal opponents, often for no reason at all. No one knows who can be trusted in unhealthy organizations, and the process can get out of control.

This brings us back to you, and how you can find success in your career. You do not want to imagine the people you are working with as opponents, but as teammates. Externalize the opponent. Don’t look for an opponent among your co-workers. You want to ensure you are playing by the rules in your company, and that you are always seen as part of the team. If you’re not, then the team will quickly turn against you.

When you are interviewing for a position, you need to stress you’ll be part of the team, not someone who will be excluded from the team. When you are doing a job, you need to do everything within your power to ensure you’re always winning favor with the team, and that you are an asset. This means you should be doing things publicly that demonstrate you’re trying to help the team. You should also never speak negatively of your team members.

One of the best ways to tell if someone will be good at a job is to look at their employment stability. This is even more important than where someone went to school, how well they did in school, or even how prestigious their last employer was. Employment stability shows the ability to be a successful team player. Working successfully with most employers is like avoiding a hot ball that is always moving around. If the ball touches you, you will lose favor with the team, and you’ll be ejected from the game. The best workers are always the people who have the most stability, and who are able to consistently avoid the hot ball. I think this has a lot to do with the simple fact they’re able to work well with a team.

The people who have the most employment stability have very similar profiles. These people join “teams” rather than get jobs. When they are looking for a new job, it is usually because the owner of the company retired, or due to some other factor beyond their control. When they are hired, it is almost like their presence alone brings positivity to the organization they are joining. I have seen the résumés of people who have joined one company after another that failed. I’ve hired people like this and it’s almost as if they’ve brought a cancer to our company. They are negative and polarizing. I wonder sometimes if extremely negative people inside a corporation can actually cause that company to fail.

When I observe people who’ve had a lot of employment stability, I notice they never participate when people start speaking negatively of others. They simply do not get involved. I’m amazed at how well they navigate the waters and stay employed when others around them do not. It is also worth noting the people who tend to do well are also the people who consistently work hard and play by the rules. The team always views them as valuable players.

In order to become employed and stay employed you want to be part of the team. You do not want to be on the outs with the team. Instead of talking about internal opponents, find external ones to concentrate on. External opponents bring you and the team closer as you work toward a common goal. In order for your company to succeed it’s important it has an external opponent to drive it towards victory.

My career advice is to leave it to other people to get involved in the political innuendos and other negative goings-on in your company. Work hard and do not participate in the politics. This is a sure way for you to score big in your career.

How to Survive and Succeed in Your Job

What You Will Learn It is crucial to be well informed in order to succeed in any job. Information is the key to survival in any company or organization. When you are interviewing for a job, it is extremely important that you understand exactly what the employer would expect from you as an employee. An employer will never hire someone for a job who does not take the time to understand what the job is. Good listeners always end up doing the best.

Working in a company or any organization is often competitive and scary. The reason that it can be so scary is because around you there are so many unknowns, and there is so much information that you do not have access to. Having access to information, both about how to perform your job and also about the state of the company you work for, is crucial to your survival. I love to read the business section of the paper each day. While I am not an investor, I think someone who is familiar with the field could make a lot of money just by what they are reading in the paper each day, by looking at what the people who have information inside various companies are doing with (1) their careers and (2) their money. I am certainly not mentioning anything that others have not; however, the information I am sharing with you is relevant to your career and is solid career advice.

Every week in the paper there is a story about the CFO of one company or another resigning from his or her job. Often these CFOs resign when their companies appear to be in trouble. If the CFO has been in the position for several years and is resigning without another job lined up, it is generally an indication that the company is in some sort of serious financial trouble. Throughout the years while I have been observing this pattern, the companies in question have generally filed for bankruptcy, undergone mass layoffs, or experienced something of the sort not too long after the CFO’s departure. I have seen this pattern over and over again.

You need to understand that the CFOs are most often leaving their jobs because they have information about the company that they believe is extremely relevant to whether or not they should stay with the company. In leaving the company, these CFOs are often saving themselves from being laid off or being held accountable when the company goes down later. Information is the key to your survival and ability to do a good job in any company or organization that you join and want to remain part of. You absolutely need access to information.

I would like to walk you through the process of how to get access to information when you start a job, and how to use information to keep your job. If you follow this advice, you will be suited to do well in just about any work environment.

Over the years I have had the opportunity and privilege to work with some very intelligent people, people who went to the very best schools and have gotten jobs with the very best employers. A lot of this has to do with the fact that my main career has been working as a recruiter in the legal field and also as an interviewer for a top college. In the legal field, I have worked with people who were among the top five students in their graduating class at places like Harvard Law School. In working with people like these, I have noticed some commonalities among people who do exceptionally well in the schools that they attend and people who are able to get excellent jobs; the two are not always one and the same.

I want to add first of all that I think intelligence is overrated. I have seen people who scored in the 50th percentile on standardized tests be among the top students in colleges. I know of many happy and successful people who never even finished high school or who barely speak English, who came to the United States from other countries and have become extraordinarily successful. I think virtually anyone can be successful if they follow certain rules and develop certain habits. Success leaves clues.

What I have noticed almost universally about the most successful people is that they are very good listeners. These listeners find the right people and ask the right questions so they know exactly what they should be doing, whom they should stay close to, and whom they should stay away from. In an academic setting, the good listeners will listen to their teachers so they know what is expected of them and what information is most important. In a business setting, these listeners will know what work is expected of them, who to avoid, and what their employer likes best.

Listening and getting information from your employer or potential employer are crucial.

When you are researching a firm, it is important for you to know exactly what the firm is looking for. The company has a job available and, in order to do the job, you need to understand exactly what that job entails. When you interview for the job, you need to be very clear that you are willing to do the job. I know that this sounds like a very basic piece of advice; however, believe it or not, I have seen many people completely blow their interviews, based on doing very poorly in this category during an interview. Below are a couple examples of this:

Several years ago, I was interviewing a senior copywriter for a marketing position with our company. The copywriter had a résumé that was excellent in all respects, and he did quite well in his interviews with various people inside the corporation. After his interviews, I took him out to lunch. I was prepared to make him an offer either at lunch or, at latest, the next day.

The job of the copywriter was going to be to simply writing letters and emails that we could send out about our various products to potential users. This was something for which I needed someone with relevant expertise, since at the time most of the work in this category was being executed by people whose only prior experience had been writing résumés. I was very excited to have someone with this man’s level of expertise to assist with this task.

Having so much experience, the copywriter actually came across as arrogant during lunch. I suddenly got the impression that he would be very difficult to manage. None of this was fatal, however, until he said something along the lines of the following:

“I have so much experience at this point that I am not really so interested in writing anymore. Instead, I see myself more as someone who will walk around and supervise the younger writers in the company, and provide them with solid management and input on their writing.”

This was actually the last thing that I needed someone to do. I needed someone who would sit down and write emails and letters–nothing less and nothing more.

With this statement the man immediately painted himself as someone who wanted to be a manager and did not want to do the work he was being interviewed for. The man had actually been out of work for several months, and I knew the job we had open was very important to him. Despite this fact, he ended up saying something that was fatal to his obtaining the position. I did not offer him the job and learned a valuable lesson in hiring that day: never hire someone for a job who does not take the time to understand what the job actually is.

When you are interviewing for a job, it is extremely important that you understand exactly what the job entails. You need to be very good at asking questions early on in your interviews so that you can tell your interviewer and future interviewers exactly what they want to hear, and avoid saying what they do not want to hear. It is important that you do everything you can to get the job when you are being interviewed (but always be honest), including shading your information towards what the employers want to hear.

At the interview stage you can gather this information from the advertisement you saw for the job; incidentally, your résumé and cover letter should be geared towards exactly what the employer is seeking. When you get into the interview you should be asking lots of questions about what the job requires, if at all possible, until your interviewers start asking questions of their own.

Remember: good listeners always end up doing the best and getting ahead. Excellent listening is absolutely crucial.

With the information you gain, you can then go on to perform up to par in interview after interview. Let other people do as much talking as possible.

Once you are hired you need to continue being good at getting access to information. When you are hired in a new job, you will never know anything about your expectations and what is required of you until you get access to information. Knowing what each employer requires is absolutely crucial to your survival in the company. I want to tell you a quick story about one of my first jobs and how I was able to learn by getting access to information in the company.

My first job as an attorney was with a law firm that has since gone out of business in New York City. I write about this firm in a negative way only because it no longer exists; (here’s another word of advice: never say anything negative about a past employer if they are still in business). It was a summer job between my second and third years of law school. Specifically, it was a 10-week job that required me to do various legal tasks and then report on the work I had done via a billing system. Essentially, I was given various types of assignments and then needed to bill my time for each assignment to the firm’s clients, by writing down the client number and documenting the hours I had worked on each task.

After five weeks on the job, I was given a formal review. I had worked very hard on my tasks but none of them had taken very much time. I was billing on average about 7-8 hours a day to the clients. When the partners and others who assigned me tasks received my work, they were almost all pleased with the quality. However, when I got into my review it went terribly. I was told that I was not working hard enough on tasks. I was told that I did not produce enough work and so forth. It was very crushing to me because I thought I had been doing an excellent job. The firm told me that I had done so poorly that it was unlikely that I would receive an offer from the law firm at the end of the summer to work there after graduation.

I knew an attorney in the law firm who had been practicing for around four years and was a really nice guy. I had become friendly with him throughout the summer and he had taken a liking to me as a younger attorney. I remember telling him about the horrible experience, and as I told him this he began smiling.

“You have nothing to worry about,” he said. “I know how to solve this. All you need to do is start turning in your time sheets and working at least 12-15 hours every day. Just bill whatever you possibly can and they will beg you to come to the firm. This is 10 times more important here than even your work quality.”

Since this was the only information that I had to go on, I followed it. Sure enough, in my final review at the end of the summer, I received absolutely stunning and glowing recommendations. I was told I had a future at the firm, was loved by the management, and all sorts of other positive things. I was even taken out for a few drinks by a partner, and the most important partner in the firm ended up taking me on a trip with him to Washington, DC to watch a congressional testimony in my last week. I was one of the only people in the summer program whom the firm wanted to return after my summer there.

This was all because I had access to information about what was required at this firm. Sure, the quality of my work did matter; however, foremost on the employers’ minds was the number of hours I billed, and how hard I worked.

If I had not had access to this information about what the job required, I would have failed. I am 100 percent sure of this. I would not have gotten a position at the end of the summer, and I would have had issues with my legal career and getting other jobs for years to come.

Your job, no matter where you work, also has a set of rules that can result in you succeeding or failing. There are also people inside your company or organization who know exactly what you need to do to succeed, and they might tell you if you just get close to them and ask. When you are doing your job, you need to ask lots of questions. You need to find out what your predecessor did, and what did or did not make that person successful. You need to understand every piece of information about your job that you can.

Getting access to information is important in good times and in bad. Knowing where your company is making money can allow you to apply your efforts in this direction. Knowing who is about to lose their job can potentially save you from “guilt by association”, and knowing who is succeeding can also help you.

You need information to get a job and to succeed in your current job. Be information conscious!

Play Each Day Like it is Your Most Important

What You Will Learn Love the work you do, be focused, and see each day of your life as the most important. Foster a relationship of love and improvement with your work. Focus on the big picture and not on the rewards. Realize that your relationship with your job is an absolute reflection of your character and the sort of person you are.

Most people never do their work the best way they can. To be successful you need to make every single day at work, every single interview, and every single job you apply for the most important one ever.

I want to propose to you a relationship with your work that is one of love, improvement, and embracing everything that you do. Embracing your work is the only way to continually move ahead and to stand out among all of the people out there who are also competing for the life that you want.

There is a reason for maintaining this philosophy: the better you perform each task, the more you will improve in each task. The more you improve, the more praise and rewards will come your way. When you are continually improving at each task, you will always look forward to the next task that lies ahead of you. You need to play each day of your life and career like you are playing in the World Series. Every single moment truly matters.

I was reading an article in the New York Times yesterday about President Obama being on vacation in Hawaii several years ago, and being recognized in a snack shop by a reporter (who was also on vacation). Most politicians would probably not have been too excited about being caught off-guard by a reporter while in the middle of a family vacation.

What happened was surprising, even to the reporter. Obama proceeded to be the nicest and most open guy he had ever met. He sat down and spoke with the reporter about his policies and other matters for some time. Back then Obama had not even announced that he would be running for the presidency. Most politicians would have viewed something like this reporter as an annoyance. Obama was smart enough to realize that you always need to be on. However, I believe it goes deeper than that. I believe people who are truly great in any discipline, and who rise to great heights, are always on.

The article I read yesterday in the Times gushed about this episode. You simply cannot buy this sort of glowing press coverage. Obama realized that if he wanted to be a public figure and a representative of the people, he needed to be accessible. This is what the best people do in every discipline: they live their work and are always on, wherever they are.

Think about all of the people you work with who are frequently stating that “this does not matter” or “that does not matter” right now. People are constantly justifying giving less than a 100 percent performance in their jobs, as if they seek some reason to believe their work is not all that important. This is one of the worst approaches one can take to his work and career.

Several years ago in the United States, people got jobs and typically stayed employed with the same company for their entire careers. They looked forward to annual raises and did whatever they were told to do. It did not matter if they liked their work or not. People did the work they were given within the hours required, and they could look forward to a pension and other benefits years later. They resented their bosses, and they resented their jobs. They did their work simply because it was required of them. They looked forward to the weekends and dreaded Monday mornings.

Today, we are no longer tied to employers like this. Most people move around numerous times in their careers and work for numerous employers. In this modern environment, employees are less loyal to employers and vice versa. We rarely have pensions anymore, and instead we have portable 401ks, which we can move between employers.

Because work is so different today, you cannot afford to dislike your job; whether you like your job or not matters to your employer. There is no excuse for you not to give 100 percent; if you do not give 100 percent, your employer will find someone who will. You have no excuse to not find work you love to do. You can find a job you like, if you just look hard enough.

There are people who will only work hard for an organization if the organization is prestigious or is experiencing financial success. There are people who will only work hard if they feel they are in their dream job with their dream employer. There are people who will only put in their best effort if it looks like they are going to receive a bonus at the end of the quarter.

Let me give you some examples of people like this that I have seen or heard of in the past:

-The lawyer who goes to work at a law firm that is less prestigious than the one he or she used to work for and does not work as hard, because others in the community do not think highly of the firm.

-The person who only puts in a good effort at their job before a performance review is about to occur.

-The decorator who is used to working in the homes of stars and other wealthy people, and gets a job working for a smaller client. The decorator does not promptly return calls or work hard due to the lesser social status of the client.

-The manager who decides to stop working hard the day he realizes he cannot qualify for a bonus.

-The contractor who used to make thousands of dollars a week when the economy was strong, but who suddenly can only find work on small, unimportant projects. Instead of doing a good job, the contractor wastes time and does not apply him or herself to the work that is offered.

-The person who works hard only when his or her supervisor is around.

-The job seeker interested in working for a particular company, who is extremely rude to someone he or she meets at lunch, believing this person cannot help him or her get a job.

-The athlete who gives a horrible performance and does not put out the required effort because he or she does not think the game matters much.

Several years ago, I was at a playoff game for the Detroit Pistons, and I was sitting next to someone who was very knowledgeable about how Dennis Rodman played the game. The person said to me:

“He’s playing his best tonight because this is the playoffs. He never tries this hard in the regular season.”

It is amazing to me that we reserve our best efforts only for certain times. The people who are always on and are always being watched are the people I believe succeed the most and perform the most consistently. I want to tell you a quick story about someone I never knew all that well, but whom I realized many years ago would do well.

I remember walking into my public high school in Detroit when classes were not in session, and seeing a girl going down the hall, picking up various pieces of paper and so forth that were on the floor. The school authorities did not know anyone was on campus; it was the middle of summer and there was no reason for anyone to be there. This girl was the class president, and this sort of work was something I knew that she probably did not ever tell anyone that she was doing. She just did the work to support the school. In the few years I had known this girl, I ha seen numerous examples of her doing things like this, which no one else ever saw.

A few years ago it occurred to me that someone like this was probably famous by now. I had known this girl when I was between 13 and 16, and although I never really spoke with her much about her work ethic back then, her need to always contribute–in the true sense, had a profound effect on me. I knew that this girl was out to better the world.

When I searched for her on the Internet, what immediately came up were tons of pictures of her in Asia, in places like Vietnam, Laos, and other countries–in villages, helping people who were stricken by poverty and disease. There were news stories about her, and a great deal of other information about her online. Twenty-five years ago I probably would have predicted that this girl’s selflessness would have made an impact somewhere. Her attitude towards work is the same now as it was back then.

To be really outstanding in life and in a job does not require that much strain. An extra 10 percent effort is often all it takes to become an extraordinary performer in your chosen field, or an average performer in any other field.

Your efforts need to be focused on the work you are doing, not on how people are responding to it. When we are focused on who is responding to our work, how many people are responding to our work, or whether or not we can get ahead through peoples’ responses to our work, we are missing the big picture. The big picture reminds us that the best performers out there are continually focused on doing the best they can, no matter what. Making each day’s performance the most important ever is something that enables them to constantly improve.

Making the most of each day’s performance also strengthens your relationship with your work, rather than with the rewards of your work. When you are looking at the rewards of your work, you are not giving your work the attention it deserves.

Your work is far more involved and far more complex than any reward you could possibly receive for it. Your work can teach you how to become a better person. When I watch people work, I can see their character coming through. I can see how the way that they treat their work relates to how they treat the people around them. I can see how people think of themselves and also how they think of others.

You need to realize that your relationship with your job is an absolute reflection of your character and the sort of person you are. Those around you see everything you do and every single part of your performance–regardless of whether or not they appear to be watching.

The Best Way to Prepare for a Job Search and Interviews

What You Will Learn You are always being watched, observed and judged – you can never ‘fake it’. The best employees can spot other good employees. Just by doing a good job, you are preparing for interviews. Go for your job with a sincere desire to make it work and do not switch jobs frequently. Being a good employee and a job searcher is something that takes the same amount of time and effort to achieve.

Several years ago when looking for a position in Los Angeles I interviewed with numerous law firms. In virtually every one of these interviews I ran across an attorney who knew not one, not two, not three—but numerous, numerous attorneys in my current firm. If this is the case in a market the size of Los Angeles (and the market in Los Angeles is huge), I cannot even imagine what it must be like in smaller markets. For example, I am from Detroit. I grew up in a suburb of Detroit. When it came time for me to decide where to work in law school, when I started interviewing with firms in Detroit I knew many of the attorneys before I even arrived at the interviews–they were the parents of people I grew up with.

The following are my suggestions for the best way to prepare for a job search and interviews:

1. Know you are always being watched, observed and judged

When I was in high school I remember that one of the best looking girls in my school was known to be a prude and someone who would date boys but never let anything all that exciting happen. She was also a star athlete and a student counsel leader and a very respected student. My parents were divorced and lived about an hour apart. I lived with my father. The funny thing is that this same girl also had parents who were divorced and spent a lot of time in one city visiting a parent.

The girl had the exact opposite reputation in the city where she did not live full time. Her strategy it seemed, like the strategy of many, was to have two separate personas. She knew that if she behaved one way in her school and around people there she would experience fall out. She also knew that by keeping her “wild side” in another town this would not affect her directly in her own back yard.

In life we are always being observed. We are being observed in our communities. We are being observed in our jobs. We are being observed by our peers. We are being observed by our superiors. There are a lot of people out there who understand that. The smart woman discussed above certainly understood that (albeit, in a different context).

When I went to look for a job in Detroit, despite the fact that I had not spent time in the city since high school I already knew which firms I would likely get jobs in and which ones I likely would not. This had nothing to do with the prestige of the firm—it had to do with the people inside the firms. I knew that I had been close to certain people growing up and their parents like me. I also knew that I had not been close with others and had made some enemies along the way. Sure enough, when I started applying for jobs in Detroit I was preceded by my past. The Detroit legal community is small enough that most people know one another.

In everything you do in the public arena you are likely being observed, watched and judged. The people you need today will likely have some impact over events that may happen to you tomorrow. It is as simple as that. Like the woman discussed above, you need to do everything you can to maintain a strong public face at all costs.

One thing about interviewing is that there will likely almost always be someone where you are interviewing that knows of you. That person will likely have a say in what is happening to you in your new position. Be aware of this and you will be preparing for interviews every second of every day.

2. Remember that the best employees can spot other good employees and you cannot “fake it”—you are always preparing for interviews just by doing a good job with your current work

There are many people out there who go to work in jobs and for whatever reason are not challenged. Most often the people who claim they are not challenged are the same people who go out of the way to not challenge themselves. We all know the type of person who does not challenge themselves in the job. These are the sorts of people always looking for shortcuts and other methods to do as little work as possible. I have never understood this sort of person—but they are there. This sort of person is also the same one who is likely to be very defensive when asked about something they do not know but think they should know—“oh, I already know that!” they will say.

When you are good at something and really doing your job you have the tendency to get “immersed” in your subject matter. Over time the subject matter and its intricacies and innuendos becomes almost second nature to the good student. You also become more astute and a level or presumed understanding emerges between people who understand the subject matter well. Little tidbits and other bits of understanding emerge. Two people who are very good at something share a similar understanding.

When you are interviewing with a truly excellent person, they will also be able to tell if you share this level of understanding. If you are a slacker and not a hard worker, or someone who does not consistently challenge their mind, they will see right through this. This level of understanding is particularly important at the higher levels. You need to always be working hard and doing good work even when you may not want to make long-term plans to be at your current firm. This is essential.

3. You need to go into your job with a sincere and 100% desire to make it work and switch jobs infrequently—if at all

Until the 1980s, the majority of workers in America changed jobs—if at all. One of the major changes that happened was when the Japanese started importing cheaper and better cars into the United States. American car makers (a major industry at the time) could no longer afford to be as loyal to their employees and mass firings and layoffs became increasingly commonplace. Furthermore, pensions were fairly rapidly phased out at most companies in favor of 401ks—because employees began to be more “portable” in their jobs.

Despite that fact that people can switch jobs at a whim, switch jobs is not always the smartest thing to do. Young people like to feel as if they are in control and more valued by their employers than they value them. In addition, young people are likely to move for a slight bump in salary, an person in the firm they do not like, or some other trivial sort of factor.

These are not good reasons to move. In fact, there are few good reasons to leave most employers. The best reason and the only reason is if there is something inside your firm that is so endemic to the firm and so pervasive that unless you leave your career will never go forward. These factors also should be near 100% beyond your control. When you join an employer it is much like getting married. If you show a lot of commitment to your current employer you will be respected if you have to leave due to factors outside of your control.

The reason all of this is important is because the person interviewing you wants to trust you. If the person or organization interviewing you does not trust you and believes you may leave for a trivial reason then they are will be unlikely to hire you. If your reason for leaving is sound and the next firm who hires you believes you are likely to remain on board in the face of adversity then they are more likely to hire you. People want to have people with staying power in their organizations. No organization is perfect and all organizations go through ups and downs.

Conclusions

In everything you do—both inside and outside of work—you are always preparing for your job search and interviews. You need to remember that the time to prepare for interviews and a job search is before you ever know you will need to prepare. Being a good employee and a job searcher is something that takes the same amount of time and effort to achieve.

Get Security By Concentrating on the Needs of Your Employer

If there is a lack of any kind, whether it is need for employment, or for money, or for guidance, or even for healing, something is blocking the flow.  And the most effective remedy: Give!  Spiritual Economics: The Prosperity Process, Eric Butterworth

What You Will Learn For security in your job, you need to concentrate on yourself and the value that you can provide to your employer. You need to also concentrate on the needs of your employer and be exceptionally good at your work. Give your job everything you have and be seen as a productive unit that is working on behalf of your employer. Creating immense value is the only way to true security.

Several decades ago, people would start with an employer in the United States, and the chances were quite good that the person would be working with that employer for the majority of their career.  This was how it was for my parents for the most part.  It was probably also this way for your parents, as well.  Both of my parents spent the majority of their careers with just one employer.  There are still some pockets of this today; however, for the most part, this is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Today, most of us will have had several jobs over our lifetimes.

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

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

Why do we all do one or more of these things?  We do them because we are seeking a certain level of security in our lives.  We want to feel secure, and we expect each of these things we do will give us that result.  Security is coming home to the same home each night.  It is about having a job to go to tomorrow.  It is about having people in your life who love you.  It is knowing you will be alive tomorrow.  It is about being comforted when you are tense and agitated.  How we define security is unique to each of us, but something we all have a need for.  It is among the most important needs we have as human beings.

The need for security in your career is real, and it is something I am sure is exceptionally important to you.  We need to have a purpose in the world, and we need to know that we are going to have the ability to make money and support ourselves in the future.  This is the reason people typically chose one profession over another.  This is also the reason people typically get educations, for example.

When I was growing up, the most secure career you could go into was medicine.  The reason for this was largely due to the fact that doctors typically were guaranteed a pretty good income if they managed to get into medical school and graduate.  They could count on making enough money to live in a nice neighborhood and drive a nice car.  They could send their children to good schools and be respected in their community.  Much of this has been shaken recently and, within the past several months, I have even read some incredible stories about doctors going bankrupt due to being unable to find work.  This is not the case everywhere, of course, but it is a sign that there is not as much security in this profession anymore.

The most secure job you could possibly get in the early 1970s in Detroit was a job with an automotive company.  If you got a job in a factory, you would get a good hourly wage, health benefits, and a pension.  This is, of course, no longer the case at all.  Life and business is a continual cycle of creation and destruction.  What is alive today may not be alive tomorrow.  What goes up often comes down.  This is what makes our careers so hard when we are seeking security.

Most people do not realize this fact, but in the Great Depression there was a severe crash with unemployment rising to 25% from 1930 to 1933.  These stunning unemployment numbers are a sign that we should never take our future security lightly.  Things can change, and any and all security you currently feel  could be gone in a heartbeat.  One of my favorite economists whom I have been reading for years is Harry S. Dent, Jr.  In his most recently book, The Great Depression Ahead, he writes:

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

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

I have been reading Dent for years, and, in my experience, he has always been right on.  I believe that there is a strong reason at the moment for you to pause and question whether or not your job, your profession, and your life is secure.  I am asking you to do this so that you can understand the forces that are acting on your career.  Regardless of how secure you think your job is, regardless of the quality of your education, you do have reason to potentially be concerned with what is about to happen in the economy.

Before I go any further, I want to be very clear about a few things that I believe have a major affect on your life.  With the Internet, population growth in various parts of the world, and more–the world is now wide open, and many of the jobs that we formerly did in the United States can be done anywhere.  These jobs can also be done much more cheaply and by people who are incredibly enthusiastic compared to many Americans.  The jobs can be performed with less bureaucracy and delivered to consumers more cheaply.  Businesses must operate as businesses, and the role of all businesses is to provide the best products and services they can at the lowest possible cost.  If the business can produce the product or service at a lower cost, then the business will also be able to sell more of the product by lowering the price.

In fact, in practically any office in the United States, most of this work could be taken and moved overseas to a place where the work can be done more cheaply.  This also goes for work that occurs in factories.  Call centers have been being moved overseas for over a decade.  Sophisticated accounting and tax work can be done at a fraction of the cost overseas.  Computer programming can be done overseas.  I remember 10 years ago, it was difficult for me to hire programmer in the United States because they were demanding incredible amounts of money and stock options–if they knew what they were doing.  My experience was no different than the majority of American employers.  A decade later, most companies I know have put most of their programming staff overseas in areas where it is much less expensive.

They would be crazy not to.

If you can have something done better and more cheaply somewhere else, why would you not do this?  This is something I am confident has eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs.  The same goes for manufacturing.  A tremendous amount of manufacturing in the United States (and throughout the world) has now been moved to places like China.  Even taking into account the costs associated with taking shipping containers across the ocean, China is still able produce goods at a much lower cost than in the United States and elsewhere.

Not too long ago, I was on vacation in Hawaii and shopping in a store which apparently had “authentic Hawaiian apparel.”  Everyone working inside of the store appeared to be genuine native Hawaiians.  I started looking at all of the labels, and, within a few minutes, I realized that every single thing in the store–whether it was a straw hat, or a flowered shirt, was from China.  There is nothing wrong with this.  The business was just doing what any smart business needs to do–it was getting its products from the lowest cost producer so it could make the largest profit margins.

What is going on is not just confined to products and programmers, however.  Legal work is now also being increasingly outsourced to places like India.  People can now have legal work done there.  Imagine what the implications are for the long-term job security of American attorneys due to this.  I have heard others say that the education industry is safe; however, this is now even being questioned.  I read recently in The Great Depression Ahead, that even this may not be immune:

There are likely to be big changes in education ahead due to this Shakeout Season over the next decade.  Just as with the housing or technoloy or emerging market or commodity bubble, there is an education bubble.  Does it make sense that education costs should be rising so fast when education is an information-intensive industry during an unprecedented information revolution?  Bureocratic management structures, real estate intensity, and tenure-based systems have sustained high costs, while high demand from frantic parents has exacerbated the price spiral.  Why can’t parts of education be conveyed online with greater access to experts and peers around the world?  Why do we need sprawling campuses with elaborate landscaping, buildings, libraries, etc., in an Internet world?  Why should students be restricted to teachers and experts in a local area when they can have video and interactive feedback from around the world from the best experts, peers and blogs?

Education can be delivered at radically lower costs through a combination of online programs, in-classroom programs, and internships with companies.  However, it will take a shock to the system to force such changes in the most complacent, academic and tenure-based system in our economy. Page 306.

My idea here is that no industry and no job will necessarily guarantee you the security you crave in the future.  One proposal being batted around is that the Obama administration may decide to create a massive number of government jobs.  This may very well occur, however, if this does occur, then even these jobs may not have a lot of security because they may be eliminated when a new administration comes in.  Everything goes in cycles of creation and destruction.

I believe the next 10 years or so in the present economy are going to witness a massive shakeout that is beyond anything we have ever seen before.  In a poor economy, businesses do everything they possibly can to cut costs.  This will mean that many of the jobs they have will be relocated overseas, where possible, and done in much cheaper ways.  In addition, I believe that productivity enhancing tools are going to increasingly put pressure on the human equation to lower wages.  I recently read a September 10, 2008, article in the Wall Street Journal, “Retailers Reprogram Workers in Efficiency Push,” which I am confident is a huge indicator of what lies ahead in most retail jobs:

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

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

Ann Taylor saleswoman Nyla Houser, a retired teacher, has gotten fewer work hours under a new ‘workforce-management‘ system.

“We are under the gun to be a much more efficiently running organization,” said Scott Knaul, director of store operations at the women’s apparel retailer, which said earlier this year that it is closing 117 under performing stores over the next few years. There was an initial “ego hit” for some employees, he said at a gathering of retailers in May. But the system, he said, has helped turn more store browsers into buyers.

Such “workforce-management” systems are sweeping the industry as retailers fight to improve productivity and cut payroll costs. Limited Brands Inc., Gap Inc., Williams-Sonoma Inc. and GameStop Corp. have all installed them recently. Some employees aren’t happy about the trend. They say the systems leave them with shorter shifts, make it difficult to schedule their lives, and unleash Darwinian forces on the sales floor that damage morale.

“There was a lot of animosity” toward the system, says Kelly Engle, who worked at an Ann Taylor store in Beavercreek, Ohio, until late last year. “Computers aren’t very forgiving when it comes to an individual’s life.”

Tools like this are enabling retailers to squeeze as much work as they possibly can out of their workers.  They are also shaking inefficiencies out of the system and making our jobs less secure and certain.  In this article it was discussed that this efficiency increasing tool is creating tremendous downward pressure on the wages of the most marginal sales people in the stores.

The quest we have for security is there because we are all trying to survive.  How do you do this, however, when the world around you is constantly changing?  We fight for security in our jobs.  Unions are there, for the most part, to give people employment security.  Most of the worry and anxiety people experience is due to them worrying about what may happen or not feeling secure.  There are a lot of ways people try and get security:

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

Not all of these things may apply to you, but I am sure many of them do.  You know that you have a need for security.  The problem with this need is that you should understand that there is no such thing as security.  Every inefficiency in every business and job you could possibly have will eventually be eliminated.  This is especially so in the current economy where employers will do everything within their power to reduce and eliminate unnecessary expenses.  This is something that happens in all recessions, and it is happening at the moment, and is likely to be severe.  Many people you know are about to lose their jobs if they have not already.

Where does this leave you? What about your security?

You are not going to be able to find security in almost any career you go into.  I do not say this to you to frighten you, but it is a stark reality.  Concentrating on security and searching for this is the wrong approach to your career.  What you really need to be concentrating on is yourself and the value that you can provide an employer.

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

All of these ideas (and I could write them down all day) are things that you can do that are meant to give someone else (i.e., your employer) security.  When you concentrate on the needs of your employer and being exceptional at your job, very good things happen to you.  I have been faced before with the choice between letting one or another person go in our company during cutbacks.  If there is someone out there I know is always trying to cut costs and increase the revenue of one of our companies, then I will do everything within my power to save this person’s job.  Other people do not seem to care, and these are the people who are let go.  People who are constantly improving themselves are also kept around over those who are not.  People who are aware of inefficiencies in various operations and point these out to the employer are valued.

In 1927, Bruce Barton, the co-founder of the BBDO advertising agency wrote: “If a man practices doing things for other people until it becomes so much a habit that he is unconscious of it, all the good forces of the universe line up behind him and whatever he undertakes to do.”"

In order to experience the security you are seeking, you need to focus on the needs of others.  Focusing on your own security is something that is often counterproductive.  There is a chance you could lose any job that you are doing, even after having done the job for decades.  We are going into a frightening economy where a lot of bad stuff is about to happen.  It will be, in many respects, a true survival of the fittest.  The fittest are, and always have been, the ones who are providing the most value.  They are anticipating and catering to the needs of other and, due to this, they are staying ahead of the game.

This is what I want for you as well.  You need to give your job your all and be seen as a productive unit that is working on behalf of your employer and creating immense value.  Not the opposite.  This is the only way to true security.

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