You Are Just Fine the Way You Are

I was sitting in a sales seminar several months ago and a well known sales trainer got up and started speaking to the audience. He is considered by many to be one of the best salespeople in America, and I was hanging on his every word. The man was describing how he went into meetings in corporations to sell things, and how he always was able to close. His entire strategy was based on what he called “finding the pain.” “You need to find the pain! You need to find the pain!” he kept shouting as he paced back and [Read more]

Planning, Grass Seed, Saunas, and Your Career

We are always fixing things. Always. We are always doing everything within our power to fix this or that, and we are continually trying to improve things because nothing is ever perfect for us. However, one of the biggest explanations for this is that we often fail to plan and obtain more information before we act on anything. This puts us in a situation where we end up having to do some clean-up of sorts, or worse yet, all-out damage control. In contrast, the people who plan properly and who relentlessly seek out information seem to be the ones who do the best in everything.

• They spend less time fixing what they have already done.
• They do not worry about things breaking.
• They put their energy into new projects instead of old ones.
• There are fewer kinks along [Read more]

Eliot Spitzer, Your Dark Side and Being Calm

I had a very disturbing experience several months ago and I am almost reluctant to talk about it because it was so disturbing. I am hesitant because I recognize that your natural response might be to assume I am a little aberrated for being in the situation in the first place; however, I am human and must admit that at times I do find myself in situations that are a bit odd. This was one of the stranger situations I have encountered, and it really threw me into a tailspin. For several years a friend of mine, [Read more]

You Need to Stand for Something

Today, I read a story in the Washington Post about a girl who recently resigned from West Point and is going to Yale. She resigned from West Point because she is gay and the school will kick her out if it learns that she is gay. Tired of compromising between what she believed was right and wrong, she resigned to protest the policy and be consistent with her own internal compass. When I started reading the story, I immediately thought—she’s probably transferring to Harvard or Yale. Sure enough, I was not surprised when I learned later in the article that that was where she was going. Why wasn’t I surprised? Because a school like Yale probably receives a couple of hundred transfer applications for every spot it has open (very few people drop out of Yale). In order to get one of those spots you need to stand for something. How memorable is it to have a good grade point average? Lots of people have good grades. Very few people stand for something. The people [Read more]

The Graduate, Andrew Carnegie, and Finding Positive Economic Currents

In the 1967 movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman plays a young, recent college graduate, Ben. At a party, Ben is congratulated by his family and their friends:

Guests: We’re all so proud of you, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud. What are you going to do now? Ben: I was going to go upstairs for a minute. Guests: I meant with your future, your life. Ben: Well, that’s a little hard to say.

In one of the most memorable lines in movie history, Ben receives advice from Mr. McGuire (played by Walter Brooke), a family friend:

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you – just one word. Ben: Yes sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Ben: Yes I am. Mr. McGuire: ‘Plastics.’ Ben: Exactly how do you mean? Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it? Ben: Yes I will. Mr. McGuire: Shh! Enough said. That’s a deal.

In an interesting twist, in real life McGuire’s advice would prove to be [Read more]

Immanuel Kant and What Good Hiring Managers Should Look For

Many people who make hiring decisions really do not know what they are doing. In fact, they often make mistake after mistake when hiring.

• They put too much emphasis on skills and experience.
• They are overly impressed with interviewing skills.
• They think in terms of who is going to work the hardest.

Are these sorts of things important? Of course they are. But the single most important aspect of hiring is evaluating the person’s unique outlook on the world. If the person does not have a positive outlook on the world, the following are likely to happen:

• The person will bring down the morale of the people they work with.
• The person will harm the company through their negative outlook.
• The person will abandon the job for something that looks better.

When people go into interviews, they [Read more]

Moses, Great Religious Figures, the Wilderness, and Your Career

On a Christmas vacation over ten years ago, I went home to Detroit from Los Angeles, where I was practicing law at the time. I was taking a 10-day vacation. Over the course of those ten days, I found myself having trouble getting to sleep every night. When I did get to sleep, I would wake up in the middle of the night and have a difficult time getting back to sleep. All I could think about was how much I disliked my job and the work I was doing. I could not get it off my mind and I [Read more]

Induction, Deduction, and Your Career

When you look at the way something has been in the past to draw conclusions about the way something always will be, or always is, you are using inductive reasoning. A standard example of induction would be: All grass examined thus far is green. This leads us to conclude (using induction) that all future grass we see will be green and every piece of green grass we see in the future will strengthen this belief. For example, you likely believe that a flame will burn you if you touch it. Similarly, just about everyone believes that if [Read more]

How to Find Public Interest Jobs and Nonprofit Jobs

If you have a passion for a certain issue, such as civil rights, the environment, helping the poor, or animals, public interest can be an excellent career choice. In public interest you will be working with others who share a passion for an issue like you do. In addition, you will be making a difference in your chosen field. People who work in the public interest find a tremendous sense of satisfaction that they are making a difference to their careers. When you work for most companies, you are helping the company and its stock holders make money. [Read more]

Working on Sundays and Concentrating on Your Work

There is a secret to success, common among most successful people out there that I have seen time and time again: Working on Sundays. When I was practicing law, the best attorneys were always in on Sundays. When I was a student in college and law school, the best students always worked on Sundays. In my professional career, a good portion of the most accomplished executives and others I have known work on Sundays. When I say ”work on Sundays” I mean that they are working the entire [Read more]

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