From: John Quinn Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 2:10 PM To: Attorneys Subject: things are slow right now More so in some offices than others. Lawyers are funny. In April, May and June we averaged over 200 hours per attorney – an unbelievable, perhaps unparalleled work pace for a firm as large as ours. Many wondered how we could possibly keep that up. Now we’re averaging 150 plus per month and people are worried. So one point to be made here is that “slowness” is relative. The pace is down significantly because a number of major matters, on which scores of attys were working full time, went away–trial ended, the case settled, etc–at the same time. 10 of the largest billing matters in 2008 thru the end of Sept, 9 have been completed. These are the kinds of cases you do not replace immediately. This really shouldn’t be a cause for concern though. Our basic practice strategy–focusing on financial litigation, trial work, being able to be adverse to financial institutions, etc–is clearly sound. In fact, in this business environment, we’re better situated than any firm I know. Lots of claims will be brought arising from the financial chaos and they will require firms that can be adverse to banks. We are at the top of that list. Many law firms will suffer. I don’t think we will. There are lots of business development issues and non-billable tasks to be done. We expect everyone will pitch in on such projects when asked to do so. John B. Quinn Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP

While there is likely truth to a memo like this, the fact is when work starts decreasing inside companies and law firms, people may get very nervous. The attorneys inside law firms become very nervous because the less work there is, the more they realize the sun may not continue to shine forever. It is a very scary world when we realize we do not always have employment stability. This is what happens in all companies and organizations, however. Things eventually slow down, and jobs eventually begin to disappear. There is a cycle of creation and destruction which characterizes all industries. A few years ago, I was reading about what a big deal Dell Computers was, and how the company was invincible. Now I am reading article after article about its layoffs and declining market share. A couple of years ago, I remember reading articles about how amazing Goldman Sachs was, and how it was the most successful investment bank of all time, and how certain people there were earning 100s of millions of dollars. Now I am reading how this company is no longer an investment bank and had to borrow money from Warren Buffett. Recently, I’ve read about how great Apple Computers is, but even more recently, I’ve read rumors that Steve Jobs is sick and dying. When he dies, the company could lose any momentum it has. Yesterday, I read that in September the American steel industry had one of its best quarters ever, but the final quarter of the year was one of its worst. Now steel plants all over the United States are being shut down, and workers are being laid off. Things are so bad for the US steel industry they are now seeking a government bailout. I read articles like this on a daily basis, and what it all says to me is we cannot take anything for granted. Inside law firms, people start losing their jobs when work slows down. The law firms generally begin whittling away their weakest (i.e., the people they dislike the most, or the people they feel contribute the least) for performance reasons. The attorneys are told their work is not up to par, or asked to look for other jobs. This process will generally occur until the law firm is healthy and earning again. This same process occurs inside companies. The companies will do everything within their power to eliminate as many redundancies as they possibly can so they can return as rapidly as possible to profitability. The more layoffs I’ve read about in the papers recently, the more I realize how the sun has stopped shining for so many people. All over the United States, and throughout the world, an incredible number of people have built lives for themselves which are now slipping away. Employers are doing everything possible to eliminate waste. Where does this leave you? First, you need to be ready for change. You simply cannot expect that your job will go on like it has forever. The idea that the steel industry in America could go from one of its best quarters ever, to one of its worst almost overnight, sends an incredible message: nothing is secure. My grandmother lived through the Great Depression and after this she lived her life in an incredibly frugal way. While this extreme may not be necessary, it is important to understand you need to be ready for change and should have a rainy day fund. If you do not have one now, start creating one. You should also be prepared for change. This means being aware of other potential jobs you could have and knowing what is going on in the market – one of the most important things anyone can do. While I am the Chief Executive Officer of EmploymentCrossing and am biased, I can assure you using a site like this is an incredibly intelligent and very good use of your time. A site like this is no different than checking the stock market to check your worth and the worth of your stocks. You need to be watching the market because the market is your job security. In a good market, you are fine, and with a poor market, you need to be prepared for change. Do not spend your life guarding against change. It will do you no good. You need to be proactive with your life and your career. If you find you are protecting yourself and guarding yourself in your existing career, this is not a good sign. Generally, this means you feel you may not be providing value commensurate with what you are paid. If this is the case, you need to step up and provide more value, or find somewhere you can provide value that matches your contribution. THE LESSON Since the sun does not always shine forever, you must take a pragmatic approach towards your life and career; remember that good fortunes are never permanent. Do not take your job for granted, but instead watch the market and be aware of other potential jobs. Rather than guard against change, be prepared for it.

1. Today is a new day.
2. You can choose to start your career and be successful now.
3. There are opportunities in the market if you know where to look.
4. You are smart, intelligent and skilled.
5. You do not need to think about the past. You should focus on the future.
6. You can bring incredible value to any organization.
7. You need to tell an employer where they can create value.

After several minutes of talking to this person, I realized something quite amazing: He’d given up completely. He was talking about how he wanted to get a job, but regardless of what I was about to say, he’d given up on going after the career he wanted. While he was talking about how he wanted to get a new job and change his life, deep down he did not believe he could accomplish it. He was afraid of accomplishing this because he did not want to experience pain. The conversation continued for some time, and I told the person various different methods he could use to look for a job. As I talked, he frowned. He started picking at his food in a nervous way. I do not think he really wanted to hear, or understand, all of the opportunities available to him. Instead, he wanted to talk about his desire to get a job, but not take steps to go after one. He started giving all sorts of excuses about why none of what I was talking about applied to him:

1. He was too old.
2. He did not have a good enough resume.
3. He had not gone to the right schools.
4. People would never hire him because they would find out he was fired from a job years ago.

The excuses and reasons he would never get hired were so numerous, I cannot even remember them all. (One reason I cannot remember them all is because I simply do not want to allow my mind to focus on so many negative thoughts.) We all have excuses for why we are not living the lives we want, and he was not different. In fact, I could have sat there for hours listening to excuse after excuse. The conversation I had with him is no different than the many conversations I’ve had with a variety of people over the years. Recently, I had this same conversation with a Wall Street titan I was coaching, who was used to making $5,000,000+ a year. This person’s assessment was there would never be another job in his lifetime because the market was so bad. The person also offered the insight that America was bankrupt, all its institutions were corrupt, there was no money in the financial system, and virtually every bank in the United States was headed for failure. Accordingly, this person decided he would never work again. After getting off the phone with this person, I needed to go for a run because his assessment of our country was so depressing I needed to think about something else. If you look at the world through dark glasses, this is what you see. The same energy you think with is what will come back to you. Thoughts are things, and the energy out there is something we simply cannot understand. The power of our minds is an incredible thing. Have you ever been with someone and had an idea of what they were thinking about – were you completely right? Have you ever had a premonition? Do you believe there are forces which people simply do not understand? I do. The one force I truly believe in is if we focus almost exclusively on negative things, that is exactly what the world is going to be. We will see a world that is negative, and this energy will come back to us. I am sure the Wall Street titan I was coaching is still sitting around thinking about how bad things are. What good is this going to do him? Why not go out there and look for a job? I charge thousands of dollars for coaching people on how to get a job, but my coaching methods are not that complex. Being a good coach, in my opinion, is simply reminding people of who they are, and then ensuring they take full advantage of that person. Everyone has such incredible skills within them waiting to be tapped. While I give people an aptitude test to assess their work skills, the majority of my coaching is spent making sure the person focuses on his strengths and then takes action. This is the gist of a very expensive coaching program. It’s what I do, what anyone can do, and what you can do even without hiring me to coach you. You just need to realize who you are and ensure you do not give up on your dreams. Then you need to take specific actions to get a job. When I look at the job market around me, I see incredible amounts of opportunity. I see so much opportunity that watching people who are unemployed makes me crazy. The idea that people spend a lot of time searching for a job makes no sense to me. 99.9% of people go about searching for a job the wrong way. Regardless of your profession, there is a very good possibility there are tons of jobs available for you (and the number of jobs open to you is virtually limitless if you are geographically flexible). You just need to know where to look. Getting a job is very, very simple. I get upset when I think about people not finding jobs because they are out there waiting for you. People look for jobs for years. It is so stupid!

1. There are jobs on large commercial job boards (which is where everyone is searching, so it is not always the best place to look).
2. There are jobs in newspapers all over the United States, large and small (there are so many newspapers out there it is hard to count. People need to see the jobs in all of them!.)
3. There are jobs on association websites. (There are so many association websites it is difficult to count. There are huge volumes of associations in libraries, and most of these associations have websites.)
4. There are jobs on small job boards (there are so many small job boards it is hard to count. The numbers of small job boards are phenomenal. They pop up daily.).
5. There are jobs on employer websites (the majority of employers now put their jobs on their websites instead of advertising them. Very few people look there! It is crazy to me.).
6. There are jobs on bulletin boards (there are jobs out there on bulletin boards all over the country.).
7. There are jobs which are open but not advertised. You can find, and often get, a job by doing a mass mailing to employers in a given area (which is often 1000s of letters, but it works). This is an incredible way to get a job. Many employers “informally” have job openings they are not advertising, but occasionally interview people for, if they get a decent referral. Other employers always look at resumes as they come across their desk, and will bring people in if it looks like a good fit. Still other employers will file your resume away, if you send it to them, and call you if something comes up. Doing a targeted mailing of your resume is an incredible way to get business – and it works! I am so enthusiastic about this method of searching for a job because it virtually guarantees you will have exposed yourself to every employer for whom you can possibly work. With multiple interviews and opportunities, you will have a wide variety of offers at different salary levels, have the opportunity to work in firms with different cultures, and more.

I have literally dedicated my life to helping people find jobs through these search methods because I know they work, and they have worked every time someone has “gone all out” and followed my advice. Through EmploymentCrossing.com you can see virtually all the jobs on numbers 1 through 6 (above). On Hound.com, you can look at jobs just on employer websites. And if you do a mailing (the most incredible way to get a job I know of), you can approach every single employer in whom you might be interested. You can do a mass mailing through another one of our companies, EmploymentAuthority.com. This is the way to get jobs. You need to ensure you track down every available job, and this is how you can do it. Anyone can do this, but so few people do. In order to get these jobs, you also need to package yourself correctly and know how to go after them. This is one real benefit of coaching people often do not get on their own. For example, I was coaching an executive recently who had an exceptional resume, but was having a difficult time finding a job. He was used to sitting behind a desk and not going out a lot. Prior to this job, he had a position in business development. I told him he needed to focus on business development in packaging himself because we are in a tough economy, and he needed to look like a “revenue producer” and not a “cost center” to potential employers. I made sure he understood he needed to package himself as someone who would give incredible value to his next organization, and not someone who would simply take. Most people never take all of these actions to try and get a job, however. I think it’s because they simply do not believe in themselves. They will somehow argue that approaching employers through a mass mailing is a horrible idea, that applying for so many jobs is a horrible idea, and doing so will hurt their reputation. To me, such thinking is incredible because the person is already unemployed! What is the worst thing that can happen? Someone can say, “I cannot believe this person applied to work here?” This makes absolutely no sense to me. The human brain works to avoid pain. There are so many extraordinary people whose careers and lives are totally paralyzed because they are working so incredibly hard to avoid pain. They associate taking action with pain, so instead of chasing the life they are entitled to and deserve, they do nothing at all. Positive thinking and the life you want requires focusing on what you do have and what you can become. This is a word of advice for you. You need to always be packaging yourself as someone who will give far more than you receive to your organization. This is a secret that will change your career and the way you market yourself forever. Far too many people focus on what an employer can give them, rather than focusing on what they can give. The point is there are tons of jobs, and the way most people look is simply not conducive to finding one. The process of finding a job is not difficult if you know what to do, but most people do not give their all to a job search. Most people simply give up and do not try their hardest. Somewhere along the line, I think people come to believe they should expect very little so they will not be disappointed. Not concentrating on the positive and what you can do with the limitless possibilities which exist is the ticket to the destruction of your dreams. You never want to destroy your dreams. The power to live your life and career is within your grasp, and you can have it right now if you want. It is very simple. There are rules to success. Find them, go after them, and claim your life right now. THE LESSON Nothing is more destructive than not pursuing your dreams, and in order to do this you must step outside of your comfort zone. The way you use your mind shapes your entire existence; focusing on positive things and your goals, therefore, does much to make those things a reality. Similarly, focusing on negative things can actually invite those elements into your life and hinder your success. The power to live your dreams is easily within grasp if you can harness your mind’s incredible power.

1. We need to purchase something
2. We need to get a particular type of job
3. We need to receive a particular acknowledgement
4. Someone needs to do something for us
5. We need to get promoted

The idea with all of these things is that something outside of us needs to happen in order for us to be happy.  The fallacy of this thinking is that nothing is ever good enough.  There will always be a better job, something else which can be purchased and something else outside of us that can happen in order for us to experience happiness.  I have no doubt that much of our thinking in this world is driven by the fact we are in a consumer society and as part of this society we are constantly bombarded with advertisements that link up the purchase of a particular good or service to being happy.  That is why, for example, in the heart of consumerism in an area like New York City the idea that something outside of us can make us happy is even more pronounced. The most amazing place to me in the world is Thailand.  If you have never been there, you need to go.  I spent some time attending high school there and the experience of living with the Thais changed my life.  The people there are extremely happy and despite massive western influence have largely stayed removed from a psychology which requires external events to occur in order for them to be happy.  The last time I was in Thailand my wife and I met a man who stated he goes there at least twice a year because it is the only place in the world where people are happy all the time.  He feels good there because people do not think about happiness the same way.  The thinking of the people of Thailand is that happiness comes from the inside and not the outside. When you watch a baby you can see the baby be happy about an incredible number of things.  They can laugh at a light bulb on the ceiling.  They will smile for the most trivial reasons.  When you watch a baby being happy what comes to mind is that we are born happy.  Happiness is on the inside.  Happiness is something we are born with. Back on the street of New York people are rushing too and fro and the thought that occurs to me is that people are working so hard and living these lives because their ultimate goal is really to be happy.  They believe that if something occurs they will be happy.  This is such a Faustian bargain and it makes no sense.  People are doing all of this and working so hard because they believe that if they do they will be happy.  When you think of someone walking down the street singing a song because they are so happy, the image is typically not of someone in New York.  The image is most likely of someone in the country where there is no one around to judge, evaluate and tell the person they should not be happy.  You need to be happy regardless of what is going on outside of you.  We are seduced by the outside world into definitions of happiness that require various external things to occur before we can be happy.  Happiness is inside of you and never requires any sort of external intervention. The reason I am focusing so much on your happiness is because the happier you are the better job you will get and the better you will do in your career.  Your happiness will guide the course of your life.  When you are happy you perform better at your job.  When you are happy all the time people want to be around you.  When you are happy good things happen to you and continue happening to you.  Most of all, the best way for you to be happy is to stop focusing on externalities and realize that happiness is already inside of you right now. You do not need any rules of what must and must not happen for you to be happy. You can just be happy.  You need to realize that what is already inside of you will give you joy if you allow it.  You need to set up rules which allow you to be happy for no reason at all–just because you are happy. Another important way to insure you are constantly happy is to change your focus. I am amazed when I go into different companies and meet people.  I can always get a very good sense of what the people are like and what the company is like by speaking with the people.  In some companies the second you get there the people are talking about how exciting this or that is and what a great place the world is and how much opportunity there is. In other companies the people will be talking about how awful the world is, how tough the economy is and more.  Most of this thinking occurs and is prevalent in these companies regardless of the state of the economy.  When the economy is good the people focus on the bad and when the economy is bad the people focus on the bad as well. This sort of negative thinking is very destructive.  People feel what they focus on and a negative focus is self reinforcing and continues to make things worse and worse. Focus is one of the most important skills you can learn. Refusing to be negative is a skill that really can help you accomplish a great deal in your life and career. Right now you can start thinking about who has wronged you in the past and get angry.  You can focus right now on jobs you have lost and get angry. You can focus on people in your life you were close to that died and feel incredibly sad.  You can continue focusing on negative things forever if you like (which many people do) and will continue to feel absolutely dreadful about your life. You can share your negativity with everyone you meet and insure that you spread this negativity everywhere.  This is what a lot of people enjoy doing.  They focus on the negative. Refuse to focus on the negative. When you look at the world around you there are many choices you need to make.  For example, if someone is rude to you one option you have is to be rude back.  Another option is to empathize with them and see if there is anything you can do to brighten their day and make them feel better.  You need to choose meaning which support you and make you continually feel good.  Nothing in your world and life has any meaning except for the meaning you give it.  One thing I have noticed about the unhappy people and the most unproductive organizations is that they are constantly judging and putting a negative spin on people and events around them.  They decide to interpret things in a negative way and this ends up doing them a massive disservice. When you think about all of the famous people in history who have died despite being incredibly gifted but have taken their lives with drugs it makes no sense.  All of the overdoses and issues of rock stars and other entertainers are nonsensical. Some of the most talented people in the world have used drugs like this to excess, most likely because they felt stressed and upset by the world around them.  They wanted to feel good.  Managing how you feel about yourself and your life is probably the greatest skill you can have.  You need to feel good about yourself and how you feel about yourself is most often determined by the meanings you give to circumstances and the world around you.  The most important thing you can do with your life is to choose meanings that are empowering you. One of the reasons I think that so many people get into so much trouble when they get famous is that they are suddenly surrounded by people who are even more famous and talented than they.  They look at these people and they start comparing themselves with other people.  Because they make happiness external, they start not feeling as good about themselves due to the fact that someone is better than they are in one way or another.  One of the ways that we look at the world and interpret the world is through contrasting ourselves with others.  For example, I run a group of career sites that I believe are the best at what they do in the world. I feel very good about the power of EmploymentCrossing and how good it is in terms of getting people jobs.  However, if I decided that the measure of my success was whether or not this site had as many users as a free site like Monster, I probably would never feel that good about myself and my business.  The reason I would not feel good is because I would be measuring my success and ability to feel good by something external. I made this mistake growing up. I grew up in a very wealthy neighborhood with parents who were not well off.  Since the people around me were making such a big deal about cars, homes, vacations, clothes and so forth (none of which I had at the same level), I decided that I should feel bad about myself.  This is a crazy reaction.  A choice I could have made was that I should feel happy that I am being exposed to this and glad my parents are able to afford for me to be in an environment where I can associate with these sorts of people.  Instead, however, I chose the negative interpretation. I think this is how many of us run our lives.  We so often use contrasts to make ourselves feel badly instead of to make ourselves feel good.  You need to use contrasts to make yourself feel good and not bad.  Contrast is one of the most important tools you can possibly use in your psyche and it will change your life. One of the largest obstacles to our true happiness is not just the contrasts we make it is the rules we make for when we can be happy. I remember one time I was on my way to visit a relative with my mom and I had on a shirt that I thought was alright and a sport jacket. I was probably 25 at the time.  My mom started getting all agitated in the car and was very unhappy and angry with me.  She wanted me to stop at a store and purchase a new jacket, slacks and shirt.  The whole thing seemed very strange to me. “You need to look ‘crisp’ and if you do not these people will not respect you. Your clothes have too many wrinkles.  You need to be ‘crisp’,” she said. Somewhere along the line she had picked up a rule about the importance of being “crisp” that led her to believe that wrinkles were a massive sort of sin.  Perhaps she was right, but if she did not have this rule she would have had a much better time that day and so would have I.  Many of us have rules about the way things need to be that prevent us from being happy.  We want things to be a certain way before we will allow ourselves to be happy.  We decide that to be happy we must be rich, lose 10 pounds, have a certain mate, or drive a certain type of car.  We allow ourselves to be paralyzed by rules that are difficult if not impossible for us to ever meet and this prevents us from ever being happy.  So many people out there are paralyzed by rules like this.  Relaxing these rules would change their lives forever. I would challenge you to stop externalizing your happiness with rules, conditions and more that will continually make you unhappy.  Instead, you need to adopt a belief for your life and career that defines success as simply being happy and failure as not being happy.  While we all have our ups and downs in life, the most important thing that you can do is to be happy.  When you are happy your career and life will change as you know it.  More happy people will start coming into your life and you will attract the energy of good opportunities and other happy people.  Your life is too important not to be happy.  Change your mind and you will change your life. THE LESSON Your life’s ultimate goal is happiness; your drive for happiness guides the course of your life, and you need to be happy regardless of the external circumstances in your life. The happier you are, the better jobs you will get and the more successful you will be in your career.  In order to achieve happiness, turn away from externalities and instead focus on the happiness that is already inside of you. Your life is too important to be unhappy.

• I am sure every single freshman entering a college class each year wishes that s/he would get all “A’s”. However, only a small fraction of these people ever end up with all A’s. The people who get all A’s figure out how to make it happen. They work harder than most of their other classmates. They often take classes they know they will do well in. They push themselves to get the best results they possibly can, and get these sorts of grades because of the incredible effort they put in.
• Every single person wishes that they had all of the money they wanted to fulfill all of their dreams. However, only a small fraction of people ever have all the money they want. The people who do have all the money they want have a massive desire to get these results. This desire enables them to work more than others and to see opportunities where others see none.
• Most people wish that they could make a huge impact on the world by doing something positive. However, only a small fraction of people ever do this. Instead, they have no particular desire to do anything of major significance and just meander through life watching other people in the world who have managed to do great things. They may sit on the sidelines and criticize these people. They may watch others living lives from a distance. The people who are out there achieving great things are the ones who have the most desire.

You will not have the career that your are entitled to claim for yourself if you are only wishing for it. Wishes cannot give you what you are seeking. When you have a wish, however, that is backed by a desire, you will start to achieve what you are looking for because you will create opportunities for yourself and your desire will drive you to excel. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice gets trapped in a wonderland and not knowing how to get out, she moves between here and there. One morning she reaches a crossroad. She stops at the crossroad, confused over which road to take. She looks around her for advice and sees a white cat sitting on a boulder enjoying the warmth from the rising sun.

‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ questioned Alice. ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ ‘I don’t know where. . .’ ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

This parable shows that without a desire and a goal you will just wander aimlessly through life. When you replace wishes with desire, then the map becomes clear. Rather than wandering aimlessly through life you will have a destination and the path toward your goal will always be in front of you. When I was in college, on two separate occasions, different people that I was extremely competitive with announced that they were planning on going to the same law school. This story is not notable for one particular reason. It is instructive because of the way I reacted to this, and the lesson it taught me about desire. The smartest guy I knew from my childhood was attending the University of Michigan when I ran into him one evening in a restaurant in Detroit. From the time I was around 5 years old until I graduated from elementary school, this guy had infuriated me to no end. We would always get the #1 and #2 grades on every test we took in each class we were in together. The problem was that no matter how hard I tried I would always be #2. If he was a 97, I would be a 96 or a 95. It happened for several years of my life. His name was Josh and his dad was a professor at a local college. He was a really smart kid that consistently did better than me in every course. I had not seen Josh from the time I was 12 years old until I ran into him at that restaurant one evening. At the time we were both around 21. Josh announced to me that he was planning on applying to and going to the University of Virginia Law School. I have no idea why he had chosen this law school other than he told me he it was inexpensive compared to other schools. Josh was attending the University of Michigan at the time, and I was attending the University of Chicago. I had heard nothing about the University of Virginia Law School but the second he announced that he was planning on applying there, my radar went up and it immediately became something that I too decided I was interested in. I decided that if he was interested in attending this particular school, it must be a really good one. I felt the fire of competitiveness well up in me because I had spent a good portion of my boyhood competing with him. I was a couple of years away from being far enough along in college to apply to law schools, but at that moment I knew I had found a worthy desire and goal. Josh told me how hard the school was to get into and that it had been his dream to attend this school for several years. In that instant I started thinking that I should probably do whatever I could to attend this school as well. When I got back to school, my girlfriend introduced me to a friend of hers who was incredibly smart. He had achieved a perfect score on his LSAT’s and had some of the most incredible grades I had ever heard of anyone getting at the University of Chicago. My girlfriend and this individual had a strictly platonic relationship. However, I had been hearing for the past year of dating her how incredibly smart and talented this particular guy was. It was starting to piss me off a little. Since I had the experience of running into Josh a few months previously, I was understandably even more intrigued when this incredibly smart friend of my girlfriend announced that he too planned on going to the University of Virginia Law School. I was at a dinner with him and several other people, and everyone was sort of hanging on his words. Everyone seemed interested in what he was going to do. This guy was older than me by a few years and when it was time to apply to law schools, he got into the University of Virginia Law School and just about every other law school he applied to. But he chose the University of Virginia. For the next year or so I had to listen to my girlfriend talk about what a great law school this was. Between that and my competitor back in Michigan, it was all too much. I decided that I too was interested in this law school and became determined to do everything I could to get in. At this particular point in my life, it looked as if the last thing I should be doing was going to law school. I had been having a great time in the asphalt business during the summers, and was enjoying this particular line of work more than anything. In fact, I could not wait to get out of school each year so I could do asphalt work. But this particular goal energized me to no end. When I first learned about this school, I had probably a B+ average in school. Once I realized I would need almost all A’s if I stood a shot in hell of getting in this school, I started arranging my life so I got all A’s. I have no idea how I was able to do this until this day. Before taking various classes, I would call up the Dean of Admissions at the University of Virginia Law School and ask them if this was a good class to take. I think he was amused at me calling him, but they remembered me. As a third year college student, I went to meet the Assistant Dean of Admissions when he came to a law school fair in downtown Chicago, and I chatted with him for a long time. I told my teachers that would be writing recommendations for me in the future that I wanted to go to this law school. I took classes from people who had gone to the college there. I did everything within my power to establish an affiliation with the school, even though I was very far away. What I was did was create an incredible desire to go to this school. I even visited the school and spent a day attending classes. I did this on my own without an invitation from the school, and then wrote the school a letter telling them how important this experience had been to me. I dropped names in the letter of the students I met. During my last year of college I wrote another 10 page, single spaced letter to the Assistant Dean of Admissions as to why I should be let into the school. I remember that I had the letter photocopied at Kinkos and when I picked up the letter, there were other students working there who had read it. They were making fun of me and laughed when they gave it to me. However, what I had done was create an incredible desire to go to this school, and put everything I had behind this desire. I had even gotten a job in Washington DC my last year of college, so that I could live in Virginia to establish residence for a year if I did not get into the school initially (having residence in Virginia would have assisted me in getting into the school because there was a preference for in state students at the time). In summary, I did everything within my power to put myself in a position where I would get into the school, and when the time came to apply, I was accepted despite not having test scores anywhere near what I should have had and some other factors that worked against me. The point is that once you set goals for yourself you can achieve practically anything. You need to “get angry” and put some passion behind your goals in order to achieve them. In this particular instance, I used all of my competitive urges and directed them towards this school. I am very glad I did this in this particular instance, because there were a lot of really nice people at the school and attending has enriched my life immeasurably. Without this goal, however, I never would be where I am today. Without having made this goal an obsession I am 100% confident I never would have gotten into the school. I gave the school a filing cabinet of information about myself when I applied, and I am sure they too saw that I was obsessed. We want to be around people who like us. I want your career and life to change. I want you to get obsessed and focused on a goal. This is the only conceivable way your career is going to go to the highest level possible. Find a goal that charges you up and go all out in achieving this goal. Create desire. Nothing happens without strong desire. If you are meandering in your life, everything will change if you get a strong desire. Several years ago, I was in Chicago visiting a recruiter from our firm there. My company was small at the time, employing around 6 or 7 people at most. I was a recruiter at the time, and enjoyed my job and was committed to it. But the idea of getting people jobs had not yet become an all consuming desire. A woman from the Chicago area had been calling me in Los Angeles asking me to help her with her job search for weeks. I told her that I would meet with her the next time I came to Chicago. The woman had been an attorney at Motorola for most of her career and had recently experienced a series of incredible tragedies. Her husband had just died of a heart attack while playing tennis. Her son was handicapped and her mother was dying in her house and was hooked up to respirators as she was living out her last days. Worst of all, Motorola had recently done a massive downsizing and eliminated her job. She had no savings and incredible expenses associated with taking care of her handicapped son. I remember that I met her at the Sears Tower for coffee. She looked very professional, but in her face I could see a tremendous amount of pain. We talked for over an hour and she repeatedly asked me what I could do to help her. At the time, employing normal recruiting methods, there was absolutely nothing I could do to assist her in getting a job. The situation saddened me and made me feel like my life was meaningless and that I was a failure. Here was someone who wanted to work, whom I could not help. It was an awful feeling and it made me feel in many respects that the profession of recruiting was not what it should be doing if I could not help every single person out there. I thought of my own mother who was also widowed by her second husband. I thought of all the people out there who want to work but cannot, and over the next several weeks my desire to help this woman and others turned into an obsession. I wanted to do things differently. I wanted to ensure that people who wanted to work could. I remember sitting with that woman like it was yesterday and how she cried. I remember how it was so hard not break down in tears and hug her. While I am not telling you about this to sell services, over the next year I started companies such as Legal Authority (to assist attorneys with marketing themselves by direct mailing employers) and LawCrossing (which gathers every open job it can find on the Internet and puts these jobs in one place). Within one year, I had increased the size of the company from 7 to over 100 people and it kept growing. I soon launched businesses like EmploymentCrossing (to gather jobs in every field) and EmploymentAuthority (to assist executives with mass mailing) because my desire to help people get jobs had become an obsession. I really became obsessed with what I am doing and still am to this day. I have become both loved and hated for my obsession. In business, I frequently do everything I can to push people out of my way who stand between me and this obsession. Simultaneously, I have done everything within my power to ensure I am getting people jobs. I want people to know how to get jobs, not just from understanding how to search, but how to control their minds. I write about this daily. I read books faster than I can order them. I do tele-seminars. I work on my own mind, so I can help others. My desire to get people jobs is a massive obsession. It is all I think about. I think about it seven days a week, and I work seven days a week. Has this been good for me? Yes. My life has meaning and I feel like I am accomplishing something of great significance. I want to work all the time to forward your goals and I frequently get up at 3:00 am, then 4:00 am, then 5:00 am turbocharged to go to work because I am so enthusiastic about trying to help you. I need to force myself to go back to sleep, so I can get a decent night’s rest. I think about people like the woman who could not find a job and what I can do to change that every day. You need to have an all consuming desire for what you are trying to achieve. You need to find a desire which moves you. No matter how smart you are, no matter what has happened to you in your life, you can do great things if you put a massive desire behind your wishes. Wish big and create a desire, and your life and career will never be the same.