The Dangers of Getting Jobs Through Friends

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure. “Oh, I already have a friend there. I’ll just contact him.” In the job market, it’s one of the more common things we hear after informing a job seeker that a certain employer has a job opening. There is a lot you need to consider before you decide to apply to a job through a friend or relative, or take a job working for a friend or relative. First, it is exceedingly rare that a friend or [Read more]

The Kick-Ass Marketing Secret of the Most Successful Job Applicants and Employees

I have been going to conferences about one thing or another at least a couple times a year for the past several years. I have spent thousands of dollars attending marketing-related conferences. If I go to one more conference where someone talks about USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) I will probably get up and leave. I am going to teach you in the next few minutes what the best marketing minds in the world would charge you thousands of dollars to tell you about how to market yourself. You are going to know how to position yourself for incredible success—in life and in your [Read more]

The Godfather, a First Google Employee, Steve Balmer and Microsoft

A few months ago I had dinner with one of Google’s first employees. How he joined Google was a long and convoluted story that had more elements of luck than I can ever recount. He had been working in a midsized town in relative obscurity and at a fairly low level when, through a series of making the right choices and one random string of events after another, he was hired at Google. Early, early Google. He found himself sitting in a room with less than 15 people who were  Google’s [Read more]

You Will Succeed in Your Job and Job Search When You Are Concerned With Giving and Not Taking

The quality of our lives, in many respects, is determined by our working lives. Being able to enjoy our jobs and being able to get jobs is something that is incredibly important. A job is not just about earning a living; it is about forming a relationship with an institution, or a group of people, and being supported by that organization. For example, the organization may provide you with a good outlet for your skills and give you work you enjoy. In your work environment you will also have the opportunity to come into contact with, and [Read more]

Create Rules that Make You Feel Successful, Not Unsuccessful

I attended a private high school named Cranbrook-Kingswood. There was a lot of competition to get accepted. A couple of years before I started there, the founder of Little Caesar’s Pizza, Mike Ilitch, made a large donation to the school with instructions to build an indoor hockey rink. Mike loved hockey, and his son had also been very good at the sport. I believe he may have also “required” the school, as part of his gift, to have an exceptional hockey team. The school went out and recruited the best hockey players from all over the [Read more]

Communicate Your Value: How to Get a Job and Keep It

One of the best ways to realize the importance of communication is through simple services, such as getting a shoeshine, ordering hotel room service, or taking advantage of valet parking. In these situations the people providing the service must act quickly to show their value and win a large tip. If they fail to show their value, they risk selling themselves short and losing out on the extra cash. You can always tell how good someone is at these sorts of jobs because they communicate their value, or lack thereof, usually early on in their interactions. Several years ago I was getting my shoes shined at a Washington, DC airport. As the shine progressed, I noticed I was being treated to a ridiculous amount of attention. The man used a modified common contractor’s drill to buff my shoes, in addition to other specialized tools. He painted the heels with what appeared to be an artist’s brush and, as the shine progressed, it was one thing after another like this. Finally, towards the end of the shine, he sprayed something on my shoes, took out a match, and very briefly lit them on fire! It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. He put out the fire in less than a second and made a statement about how this would really make a major difference in the shine. The shoes ended up looking fantastic and I gave the man a giant tip. I’m sure he got tips like that all day long. The shoeshine man did everything he could to communicate his value. Communicating our value is something we all must do to keep our jobs. We must also do the same in order to get jobs. Imagine if this man interviewed for a shoeshine position and described his approach to the job. Imagine an average shoeshine man doing the same. Who would you hire? One of the biggest mistakes people often make when interviewing for jobs (or in their current jobs) is failing to communicate their value frequently and in detail. This kind of communication is one of the most important things in our careers. If you go above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis, or have become aware of cost-saving measures or new sources of [Read more]

Harness the Power of Your Subconscious Mind to Get a Job and Improve Your Career

I know of so many people who fail to get jobs and, ultimately, do not have good careers because they keep their minds cluttered with things that have nothing to do with their job search. I have wanted to write for some time about how to harness the subconscious mind in your job search. Many people get suspicious about this topic, however. The wonderful thing about our minds is they can empower us. However, they can also lead us away from what we are trying to achieve. Throughout my career I have done my best to help people understand the power of the subconscious mind, especially in a job search. It is one of the most important factors to be aware of when it comes to looking for work. In fact, I think having an awareness of the subconscious mind is what enables the most successful people out there to achieve their goals. I would like to tell you a few stories about very successful people I have known and how they’ve used their subconscious minds to really shine. As a child, I grew up with a friend who was a championship swimmer. To look at him, I could not figure out why he was so successful. Where the other swimmers were long and lean, he was heavyset. He had a secret, though. A few hours before every swim meet, he would say he was going to take a nap. He would not sleep, however. Instead, he would visualize what he wanted to happen at the swim meet. He visualized himself winning each race. He told me he viewed this as more important than swim practice. My friend did this instinctively. No one told him to do it. No one taught him. He was naturally inclined to motivate his subconscious mind. He was creating the result he wanted by visualizing it. He saw what the race would look like, how hard he would need to push himself to win, what it would sound like when he won. This process worked for him. Several years later, I was in Harper Library at the University of Chicago.  A friend next to me was studying for an economics test. This friend never studied for more than an hour or two for any test. Other students, like me, would hole up for weeks in the library cramming for the same tests. He would breeze through each exam and enjoy some downtime while others were studying. All he would do was look briefly at the page he was studying, then look up and begin thinking for a few minutes. I asked him later what he was doing. He told me he was visualizing what would happen in each economics problem. This was a unique use of his subconscious mind. Here, he was becoming incredibly familiar with the subject matter and incorporating it into who he was, and into his entire understanding about life. He was someone who received perfect grades and went on to do very important work in the field of economics. There are many ways to program your subconscious mind in order to become the kind of person you want to be. Programming your mind can put you in the job you desire and get you the promotions and advancement that you seek, if you do it correctly. The most popular way to program your subconscious mind, of course, is through visualization. Visualize the result you want to achieve before the [Read more]

The Benefits of Failure

Several years ago I was working with a distinguished law firm partner who had been given a few months to find a new job by his existing firm. The partner had not looked for a job in probably twenty-five-plus years and I think his confidence was  shaken by losing his job. The attorney was quite marketable and was used to earning close to a $1 million a year, and I knew that he would not have a very difficult time getting another job. I met with him on several occasions and gave him a list of about fifteen [Read more]

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