Meg Whitman’s Greatest Achievement, Networks and Your Career

A few years ago a woman who was working for me sent me a long letter asking for an extreme raise—four times what I was currently paying her. Without going into too much detail, the woman was incredibly accomplished and had a background that was absolutely astonishing. For example, she had been a clerk at the United States Supreme Court and I think she might have  stood first in her class at one of the top two or three law schools in the country. I liked the woman and wanted to give her a raise (she was [Read more]

Making Others Aware of Your Weaknesses Can Make You More Trusted

Several years ago I was on vacation with my wife in Paris and was trying on shoes and found a pair of dress shoes that I really liked a lot. I had never seen a pair of shoes like this before and they were extremely comfortable. After trying them on and walking around the store in them, I told the salesman that I would take them. ”You would be an idiot to buy them here,” he told me. ”The shoes are made in the United States and there is a duty charged on them, taxes are charged here [Read more]

You Need Connections to Make the Most of Your Career

Several years ago I went to a seminar on public speaking and publishing held at a hotel near the Los Angeles Airport.  From what I remember, there were two ticket levels for the seminar—a ”standard” level and a ”VIP” level.  The second level, a VIP level, allowed you to sit up front and go to lunches with “important people” in the publishing industry. When I go to these sorts of seminars I generally could care less where I sit; however, in the case of this particular seminar my assistant signed me up for a VIP ticket. The extra [Read more]

10 Powerful Lessons from a Turkish Rug Trader

Several years ago I was staying at a beautiful hotel on the beach on a small Greek island.  The hotel was full of young people in their mid-20′s who appeared to be having the time of their lives.  I had chatted with the receptionist several times during that week when I was at the hotel.  The receptionist was my age and very attractive.  She had a boyfriend who would sit in the lobby and chat with her at night. I think she was very surprised by the fact that I kept coming home alone each evening.  When I would walk through the lobby each [Read more]

You Need to Stop Competing and Seeing Differences Between You and Others

If you are looking for a job, trying to improve in your current job, or simply wish to experience a better life, there is one thing you need to do: You need to be friends with everyone you meet in business, and stop competing and seeing differences.   This is a statement that falls on deaf ears for most people.  In fact, this is the exact opposite of the way most of us think.  Instead, we view others as competitors and the slices of pie as limited.  We view opportunities as few and limited, and feel the need to compete for what little there is. What are the rewards for looking and seeing commonalty between you and others?  They are incredible.  In the Year 2000 I started a legal recruiting firm.  I did not start the firm until around March of that year. I had no legal recruiting experience and knew absolutely nothing about about the market.  Since I had been a practicing attorney for years, the fact that I was now recruiting seemed almost surreal to me in many respects.  I had decided to just enter a zone where I did not care what happened to me.  When you are in the recruiting business, what typically happens is that law firms will call you in a very formal way to tell you they have no interest in a candidate of yours.  The conversations will typically last no more than 30 to 45 seconds. “We are calling to let you know that we have no interest in John Smith,” they might say. “Thank you,” would be the standard response. After several weeks of this I began to feel that the entire situation was somewhat absurd.  This is what recruiters do all over the country. I decided that the best [Read more]

Do Not Be Immobilized in Your Job Search

Several years ago, I was sitting in my office and the most amazing candidate came across my desk.  The attorney had a degree in a hard science discipline from a school like CalTech or MIT (I believe it was physics), had gone to a good law school and finished first in his class.  Not only that, he was currently working at one of the top law firms in the world and was in a practice area that was not just desirable at the time, it was white hot.  His practice area was so in demand at this particular point in time that one law [Read more]

King Henry II and Understanding Your Employer

Under King Henry II in the twelfth century, England established a common law.  This was a body of law that was common to all parts of the country.  Throughout Europe at the time, there was a wide body of law that was applied—there were feudal customs, Germanic customs and other differing customs.  For example, French King Louis IX was well known for having allowed each province of France to have its own laws and procedures after becoming part of France.  He created a Parliament of Paris to hear appeals from the feudal lords around France. Each year, [Read more]

Alpha Pygmy Goats, Unreasonably Optimistic Russian Attorneys and Setting High Expectations for Yourself

I used to be a law professor, and I remember in my class there was the nicest kid you can imagine who had immigrated from Russia a few years previously and wanted to be an attorney.  He hardly spoke English and had a difficult time putting sentences together, however, none of this appeared to matter.  He was always the first guy who arrived in class each day and always stayed after to ask questions.  During class, he took notes and wrote furiously.  He sat in the front row and appeared to believe that he was going to be the greatest attorney of all time.  He wore a suit to class each day and other kids were showing up to class in shorts, tee shirts and flip flops.  All of the kids in the class liked him a lot, and they respected him a lot. Each day after class, he would approach me and ask me questions about ridiculously prestigious law firms and whether or not I thought he could get a job with these firms.  I never had the heart to tell him that it would be impossible for him to get a job with most of these law firms due to where he was attending law school and his ability to speak English.  He did not seem to care, however.  For as long as I could take it each day, he would sit there and question me about various law firms and then, from time to time, also ask me questions about the material. When the semester was over, I continued to hear from [Read more]

Do Not Allow the Past to Limit Your Opportunities Today

My one-year old daughter calls a coffee cup “hot” and avoids coffee cups lest she gets burned.  Until she learns that the coffee cup can also contain coffee, milk, and other foods that will not harm her, she is likely to avoid coffee cups for some time.  She must have been burned a little by touching a coffee cup at one point and learned to stay away from coffee cups.  Until she is able to see the coffee cup for what it is (a cup), and not her past experience (getting burned), she will not be able to experience everything positive that can [Read more]

You Need to Be Seen as an Authority

Several years ago I learned about the power of authority while operating an asphalt business in Michigan. When I initially started the company it was called something like ‘‘Barnes Asphalt Service’’ or something along those lines. When I would show up at peoples’ homes, since I am Harrison Barnes, they would know the company was intimately associated with me and that I was a kid seeking to do asphalt work on their home. I was also around 18 years old when I started doing this and since for most people their home represents the biggest purchase of their life, not [Read more]

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