As Seen on TV, P.T. Barnum, Penis Pills and Your Career

What You Will Learn The ability to sell is among the most important skills. When you know how to package and sell something, you can do anything. Think creatively and understand that you need to stand out with your applications. You need to get employers’ attention and get them to call you. If you do not package yourself correctly you are doing yourself a huge disservice.

I confess that I took no pains to set my enterprising fellow-citizens a better example. I fell in with the world’s way; and if my “puffing” was more persistent, my advertising more audacious, my posters more glaring, my pictures more exaggerated, my flags more patriotic and my transparencies more brilliant than they would have been under the management of my neighbors, it was not because I had less scruple than they, but more energy, far more ingenuity, and a better foundation for such promises.             — P.T. Barnum

One of the greatest marketers of all time was P.T. Barnum who coined the phrase “The Greatest Show on Earth.”  P.T. Barnum was the absolute king of promoting various events during the 1880’s and understood advertising and marketing concepts that are still in use today.  He was able to make an absolute fortune by capitalizing on sensational headlines and arousing curiosity in various sideshows.  He knew what people wanted to see and hear, and he aroused their curiosity.  He used language and was able to create a sense of urgency so strong that people often fought to get into his shows.  He was also a man of the people and able to identify with the people around him.

One of PT Barnum’s greatest lessons, however, involves the importance of promotion.  One of my favorite quotes is by P.T. Barnum is, “Without promotion something terrible happens: Nothing!”  In fact, it is the people who are most successful at promotion that are able to achieve the most success in virtually every calling there is.  Without promotion very little can happen.  Businesses who do not promote go out of business.  People who do not promote themselves successfully also fail to get the sorts of jobs they are capable of getting.  It is a huge tragedy when people fail because they are simply unable (or unwilling) to promote themselves as they should.  I wonder to myself if you, or people you know, are not living the life you are capable of due to an inability to effectively promote yourself.  Many people are, and this is a massive tragedy.  In fact, most people out there do not know how to successfully promote themselves.

Last night I went to Target with my wife, and I was pleased to see that they had several areas of the store that are now dedicated to “As Seen on TV” products:

• sandpaper you put on your hand that can remove all the hair off your body
• a tool to file down your dogs nails
• a blanket with holes for your hands so you can wear it
• scratch remover for a car
• a towel that soaks up anything, and can be used thousands of times
• putty that can glue together anything
• a carrot chopper
• a juice maker

There used to be an “As Seen on TV” store in Santa Barbara and, when I would go in there, I would spend hours and hours inside this particular store looking at stuff.  These stores are my dream come true.  I wish there were more “As Seen on TV” stores, and there were Targets stuffed with every good that had ever been sold on television.  I would probably never leave.

Why am I so interested in the stuff that is “As Seen on TV”?  I am completely and utterly fascinated by this stuff because, with extremely limited exceptions, all of the stuff being sold is complete junk that is being marketed incredibly effectively.  The only thing any of these products has is that, somewhere along the line, an incredible copywriter and/or salesperson has gotten behind these products and endowed them with super human qualities.  People line up to buy these things the same way people used to line up to see P.T. Barnum’s shows.  These products also appeal to the average person–i.e., all of us.  The people who are marketing these products are absolute geniuses in many, many respects and they could teach you and I a ton about getting a job.  People that know how to market things really have an advantage in the world.

Before I go any further I want to make something clear to you.  When you know how to package and sell something, you can do anything.  The ability to sell is among the most important skills there is, and has ever been.  More importantly, the ability to sell yourself is exceptionally important.

• When you can sell yourself, you can get any job you want.
• When you can sell yourself, you can get promotions.
• When you can sell yourself, you can help your company expand.
• When you can sell yourself, you are capable of incredible achievement.

You need to understand the skills of selling.  If you can sell yourself, you can do anything.

Massive fortunes are made by the people who are able to market these products successfully on television. Do you have any idea how much money people make who sell this stuff on television successfully?  It would absolutely boggle your mind.  People who are able to take inanimate objects like this and package them are among the most successful people out there in marketing.

The woman who cleans my teeth in my dentist office lives in a modest suburb in Los Angeles.  However, each week she takes some of the most outrageous trips you have ever imagined.  Her best friend’s husband came out with some sort of pill that he claims makes men’s “private parts” larger and he advertises it in magazines, on television and other various locations.  The guy has gone from living like an average Joe to spending his weekends taking his friends (and my dental hygienist) to Rio, Cancun, Hawaii and other locations on his private jet.  The guy apparently makes millions of dollars a month with his penis pill.  He started out advertising in magazines, moved to television, and the rest is history.  There is nothing in these pills but some common herbs and vitamins, but none of this seems to matter.  It is his ability to sell this product that makes all of the difference.  I can tell you that as far as I know, probably no advertising executive on Madison Avenue and in any of the largest advertising firms on the planet has a lifestyle like this.

You will not find most of these successful marketers (like the guy with the penis pill) working in large advertising agencies.  The people who are marketing these products in infomercials and other areas are typically “outsiders” to the big corporate advertising firms.  The reason is that most large advertising firms do not want to do direct response television advertisements where they need to be accountable immediately for the result.  Large advertising firms and others prefer typically to do “branding” sorts of advertisements where the results the ads get are not really measurable.  You would prefer to do this sort of advertising if you were a big advertising firm, as well.  If you were a big advertising agency, you would not want to have to be accountable for the results of your work either.

However, the people who do direct response advertising on television, the people who sell penis pills and people like P.T. Barnum, all need to be accountable the second their ad runs.  If people do not purchase their product, they do not earn money.  Therefore, the people who promote these sorts of products develop the most outrageous and effective skills they can to sell these products and get your attention.

One of the most interesting facts, that has been true as long as I remember, is the fact that the National Enquirer is read by more people each week than Reader’s Digest, Time, US News and several other publications put together.  The National Enquirer is incredibly popular.  In addition, some of the highest paid writers in America also work at the National Enquirer.  The key to what they are doing is writing the headlines that appear on the cover. These headlines, as I am sure you can remember, are absolutely fascinating.  But they sell magazines, lots and lots of magazines.  While other magazines experience financial problems, people keep buying the National Enquirer in supermarket checkout lines to the tune of millions of copies a week.  We buy the National Enquirer because it interests us.

An interesting article  by Jay Gourley ran in the Washington Monthlyin 1981 that discussed the differences between “quality press” and the “popular press.”  This article discussed that the popular press follows the motto “tell them what they want to hear” while the quality press tells them “what they ought to hear.”  Gourley wrote that, ”Popular journalists generally see quality journalists as dimwitted and pretentious. Quality journalists generally see popular journalists as immoral and brash.”   This is a conflict that exists everywhere between advertisers selling penis pills and large pharmaceutical companies, between magazines like the National Enquirer and The Economist, and between large advertising firms and individuals out there peddling carrot peelers in 30 minute infomercials.  However, I would submit to you that what ultimately matters is whether or not something is sold and people buy it.  The most important thing is whether or not people buy something.

I am constantly amazed when I see people with very little intelligence or academic prowess come out with a book about this or that, and sell millions and millions of copies.  It could be a story about a woman who spent a romantic night with a famous man and is writing a tell all.  It could be a 200+ page book about a diet someone likes.  There are so many ridiculous books out there it is difficult to believe.  These people make millions of dollars writing books about the most stupid topics.  Simultaneously, there are tons of books out there written by superstar academics that discuss stuff that is really important.  These people are professors at the best universities all over the country.  However, more than often we are buying the books about crap, than we are the books by the really smart people.  What everything ultimately comes down to is whether or not something sells.  It does not matter how smart you are, or how many degrees you have.  It matters if you can get people to ultimately pull the trigger and buy what you are selling.

Recently, I have started to read and study the works of various copywriters.  I have studied copywriters on and off for the past decade or so, but am always drawn back to their works for various reasons.  These copywriters run workshops that they charge thousands of dollars to attend, sell binders full of other best ads for hundreds of dollars, and will basically sell you anything if you pay them money.  Primarily, I am drawn back to the work of copywriters because I am amazed time and time again when I see products and people come out of nowhere to dominate the national consciousness.  Because I am so interested in getting people jobs, the idea that the quality of our letter to an employer, a headline, or something along those lines can have an incredible influence on your candidacy and whether you end up getting the job of your dreams is fascinating to me.

There is also something to be said of the fact that when people are following the rules and doing things the same way others are, they may not be getting the best results they are capable of getting.  This is true as well with your job search.  P.T. Barnum, infomercials, other sales people and vehicles outside of the mainstream are more often than not the ones who are actually moving products and selling lots of stuff.  The writers for the National Enquirer are some of the highest paid writers in the world–not the writers for the New York Times.  Everything is about the ability to arouse peoples’ interest and get them to buy something.

The most successful people and marketers are able to get your attention.  They are able to get you to part with your hard earned money and they are able to close the deal.

What does this have to do with your job search? It has everything to do with your job search.  Your job search is no different than the conflict going on in the business world between traditional advertisers and the mavericks like P.T. Barnum and the guys with infomercials out there.  What do advertisers like P.T. Barnum and  ”As Seen on TV” ads and others have in common?  They grab your attention, make an offer that motivates you to act by picking up the phone, signing up (or whatever).  These ads ask for action and they try and make the sale now–and not later.  They know that their objective is to get you to act because if they do not get you to act

• … they will not fill their circus with seats
• … they will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising their gadget

Traditional advertisers do not care what results they get (for the most part) because it does not matter to them.  They are used to following the rules.  They run ”image” and not “direct response” advertising.  This is a massive difference between what the people who are making the real money advertising are doing. In image advertising the results are not measurable.  When you need someone to pick up the phone, or fill out an order form and order a product right now, you had better bet you are going to do everything within your power to sell the product as effectively as you can right now.

In your job search, I want to encourage you to think creatively and understand that you need to stand out with your applications.  You need to get employers’ attention and get them to call you.  You need to arouse their curiosity, and you need to have an offer that looks better than the next guy or gal.  It may seem unusual to you that people are getting incredibly rich selling stupid stuff like pet nail files on television, but they understand something most people do not: It is all about the ability to package and sell something that matters.  It is more important how something is packaged and marketed many times than what the product is.  It is all about the marketing.  Everything is about the marketing.  Regardless of how good you may look on paper, regardless of how good your resume and experience are, if you do not package yourself correctly you are doing yourself a huge disservice.

Government Bailouts, Groups and Your Career

What You Will Learn The government should not get involved in business. Freedom to operate any business leads to more innovation. One needs to associate with organizations and groups where there is a freedom of movement. Both the individual and the company can expand where there are no constraints.

Recently, something quite interesting has been happening in the American economy.  The government has decided to get involved in running various businesses.  These businesses include insurance companies, banks and automotive companies.  This is something that I am almost 100% confident is going to likely be a disaster.  In fact, it is already turning into somewhat of a disaster as far as I am concerned.

History has shown time and time again, that when a government tries to operate a business, this ultimately fails.  It never worked in Russia, for example, and China and India have only started expanding and growing in relation to their ability to run a “hands off” approach to businesses in the country.  The more freedom people in a country have to operate their businesses, the more innovation is likely to occur, and the more businesses are likely to be started.

What is needed to start the American economy are people willing to take risks and start and operate businesses. In order to take risks and start businesses, people need to be able to have the prospect of large rewards.  There is no reason to start various businesses unless there is a prospect of substantial reward.

First, I do not think the government has any business being involved in business to begin with.  The idea that the government is loaning money to failing auto companies, insurance companies and others is sheer lunacy.  I grew up in Detroit.  The American auto companies have been losing marketshare and failing since the 1970s. I love America and drive an American car, but the point is that it does not make sense to put money into a failing industry.  America has some of the greatest companies on earth, and many of the largest companies on earth–companies that are expanding.  Putting money into something that works seems a heck of a lot more intelligent to me than putting money into something that is contracting and is broken.  Putting good money after bad is something that stifles innovation and will not lead to the sorts of changes needed in the American automobile industry.  If the auto companies were allowed to fail (and they should now), then someone would be able to come along and purchase their assets very cheaply.  They could start a new auto company with a lower cost, or labor structure perhaps.  They could innovate in other ways to keep the costs down and profits up. More money would likely end up going into the American economy over the long run.  Instead, we are putting money into something which has been slowly failing for over 30 years.

Second, the government has no role legislating our paychecks.  Limiting peoples’ ability to make a certain amount of money is something that will serve to undermine industries in an incredible way.  Businesses operate with a set of incentives and rewards.  People go to work in various businesses due to the salaries they receive and the potential rewards they can receive in terms of bonuses.  In addition, businesses also take various risks and make various investments in the hopes of getting large windfall rewards.  For example, if a company invests $1,000,000 in something that is unproven, it hopes to get a reward that may be twice that.  This is just how it works and it has always worked this way.  In order to attract the sorts of executives that will take the risks and see the opportunities out there that will turn $1,000,000 into $2,000,000, a company will need to incentivize them with various potential bonuses and rewards. The best executives will almost always go where they believe they can make the biggest impact out there, and create the most opportunities for themselves.

One of the strangest things the government is doing now is providing a tax on bonuses of 90% on people earning more than $250,000 a year who receive government bailout funds.  This is just going to force the best people to not go to work for these companies.  It is as if the government is investing money in companies which will not be able to have the best people working for them.  Due to this, these companies are likely to do poorly.

Several years ago I was taking a sales class from a man who had recently started a school to teach other people how to be salespeople.  In the class, day after day, the man told one story or another about what an incredible salesman he was and gave multiple examples to the class about how much of this and that he had sold.  The man was pretty well known and incredibly good at sales.  After a career in sales in which he had made millions of dollars selling everything from real estate to jewelry, the man  decided to start a sales school.  He had a lot to teach, and his material was very, very good.

One of the strangest things about the school; however, was that the man who was in charge of the school never once tried to sell the product he was selling (sales training) to the public.  He never answered the phones in the school, and never had anything to do with selling the product.  The only people who were allowed to sell the product in the school were the salespeople in charge of selling the sales school.

The sales class I was in was pretty small.  There were no more than 10 students in the class.  The class cost a couple of thousand of dollars, and after several sessions of the class I started to feel that this salesman was selling himself short.  I remembered when I had called the school the people who answered the phone had been very poor at selling me on the sales school.  It was only due to my knowledge of the particular man that I had taken the classes. It occurred to me that if the salesman’s salespeople had been more effective, he could have sold numerous people on the school when they called.  It did not make sense to me that I was taking a class with someone who was such a great salesperson, who was not out there selling his own product.

One day after class I decided to stay late and speak with the salesman about his operation.

“If you were in charge of selling your own product, you would likely have 100+ people in this class.  You are a much better salesperson than the people you are employing to sell this for you.  Why aren’t you selling the product yourself?” I asked.

The man looked at me and smiled.  He seemed very happy that I was asking this particular question.  He looked up and me and his answer was very simple.

“Because if I sold my own sales school the people who worked for me would very quickly feel undermined and quit.  Also, my company would never grow if I sold my own product.  No matter how well I sold the product, I would always be extremely limited if I sold this myself.”

This was something that I forgot about until just recently.  The lesson is that an organization can only function and grow when there is freedom of movement among the people in it. In effect, when there are groups within the organization that are allowed to function independently of oversight, the business grows.  When you see small local businesses you will generally find an entrepreneur or other business operator who is intimately involved with all aspects of the operation and doing most functions.  He may be assisting with accounting, filling in with various sales functions and more.  In such a situation, the business can never really grow and reach its full potential.  A business will only reach its full potential when it is allowed to operate independently of one individual, or one power.

The mistakes the government is making with the economy and American business at the moment are quite relevant for your career, as well. You need to be working in organizations and with groups where there is a freedom of movement and where both you and the company can expand.  The more constraints there are in your movement, and the more a company is managed by one individual, or one organization, the more problems there are likely to be, and the more likely you are to eventually be out of a job.  It makes no sense to participate in organizations where the organization and your growth is constrained by outside forces. Organizations need multiple independent groups to survive.

Flow, Your Ego and Your Career

What You Will Learn Be completely involved and focused in your work. In this state of flow you forget yourself, the time, your problems, and can complete tasks with very little effort. Do not be concerned with power or titles, personal recognition, profit, or competition. Be one with your job and what you are doing and you will gain great satisfaction in your career and life.

Artistotle believed that more than anything we seek to be happy.  There are some individuals who do their work and continually find happiness in this work, and for whom work takes on a meaning that transcends what most of us experience in work.  These people feel completely involved in the work they are doing and are completely focused.  They do not experience emotional turmoil when they are doing their work. In Mihhaly Czikszentmihalyi’s book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” (1990), he described a state of “flow” where people involved in an activity “forget themselves, the time, their problems.” Flow is something that athletes experience when they are at their best, artists experience when they are at their best and we all are capable of experiencing when we are doing something that we love.

According to the great soccer star Pele, during his best games he felt a strange calmness he hadn’t experienced in any of the other games. “It was a type of euphoria; I felt I could run all day without tiring, that I could dribble through any of their teams or all of them, that I could almost pass through them physically. I felt I could not be hurt.”

Flow involves a state where we are able to concentrate with little effort, and where we are able to complete a certain task with very little effort.  Another important component of flow, and I would argue the most significant, is that when some people are in flow they lose self consciousness.  Instead of being conscious of themselves in relation to others, they move into another sort of state.  This state Czikszentmihalyi also seems to believe, is “a loss of ego” (p. 122).  According to Czikszentmihalyi, loss of ego is a rare transcendent experience.

What is this state of “loss of ego” in our work? How does loss of ego translate into our professions and lives?  I know of numerous people whose careers are defined by this state of flow.  They do their work in a manner that seems to not involve their ego and, instead, seems to transcend individual and self-seeking types of behavior.  They are able to do their work in a way that is similar to the way many people worship. Their work is not calculated, and people around them feel good by their presence. They are extraordinarily good at whatever they do.  Their ego is not involved in their work–their work is not about them, but about the work itself.

People who are able to enter a state of flow in their work become “egoless,” and do their work unconcerned with

Power or titles
Personal recognition
Profit
Their identity
Competition

This may sound like an incredible state to be in; however, this is a state that numerous people are able to enter into when they truly love something, and can get into a state of flow.  Paradoxically, it is the people who do not care about power and money and other things, and are able to enter into this state of flow, who most often end up achieving the most, financially and otherwise.  These same people often then become controlled by their egos and quickly lose whatever it is they achieved, and subsequently lose flow.  It is the ability to remain in flow and egoless that I believe is one of the greatest determinants of being successful.  Since so few people are able to do this, and since this is so relevant to your career, I believe understanding flow and the ego is something that can change your career and life.

One of my first memories as a child was when I was playing outside our apartment in Lansing, Michigan, and my mother called me inside for a few moments.  My mother had recently purchased me a yellow Tonka Bulldozer toy, and I had been playing in the bushes of the apartment complex with the toy.  Across the way, I noticed there was a boy perhaps a few years older than me also playing with some toys.  I went inside for a few moments and when I came back outside my truck was missing.  I could not have been more than three years old at the time; however, I can remember to this day how upset I was.  I cried and cried, and I remember my mother comforting me about this. I am sure the boy across the way stole my truck.

The fact that this is one of my first memories is quite striking to me.  I would argue that this is something that was one of my first true introductions to my “ego” and the idea that I, like almost everyone on this planet, was getting a piece of my identity from forms, objects, titles and other things that are not part of me at all.  Indeed, my pain related to this little truck being stolen was there because of the fact that I identified the truck as an extension of myself.  As I grew older and older, I came to identify with more toys and other objects that I was given by my parents.  Then, I would start to see friends with better toys and objects, and start feeling a profound sense of lack because I did not have toys and other objects that were as nice.  As my life progressed, I would start to admire people who had better houses than I had, more important parents than I had, went to better schools than I did, and so on.

When I was old enough to understand advertisements in magazines and on television, I would start to want things there, too.  I remember when I was no more than 12 years old I saw a picture of the most expensive car ever manufactured at that time, an Aston Martin Lagonda, and I dreamed of my parents owning this car and driving me around in it.  I thought this car was something that would be really meaningful. Several years ago, I purchased one of these used cars for not more than thirty thousand dollars, and spent another thirty thousand dollars restoring the car.  I did this, I am sure, because there was a part of me that really wanted something for my ego from this car.  When you see old men driving around in old cars they have restored, this is what they are most often doing–it is related to their ego and a sense of lack they are trying to fill from the past with a material object.

My stepfather ran a small boating business and around our small two bedroom house he always had scattered magazines with pictures of bigger and better boats that he could buy if he ever made enough money.  One day my stepfather came home with a 1977 Chrysler New Yorker, which was the biggest and worst car I had ever seen.  Within a few months I remember a Rolls Royce dealer in Palm Beach, Florida kept calling our house because my stepfather had indicated he might want to trade the new car in for a Rolls Royce.  We never could afford any of this stuff, but my stepfather always dreamed of these things and wanted them.  He was never ever satisfied.  Was he any different from any of us?

When I got older, I started comparing my bicycles with other kids’ and always wanted the best bike. I never felt like my bike was good enough.  I wanted to have the very best bike.  In fourth grade or so, when people started having girlfriends in school, it was very, very important to me to have the most desirable girlfriend in the school.  I would get into fights on the playground with kids over girls.  I would continue fighting men in one form or another over women for the next 20+ years until I settled down.  When video games came into vogue, I started competing with other kids as to who could have more video games. I always wanted to have more and better video games than other kids.  Soon, designer jeans came into vogue, when I got into seventh grade or so, and I wanted the most pairs of designer jeans–Jordache, Calvin Klein, Sergio Vallente jeans.  I wanted nothing more than for my mother to take me shopping each weekend to get more clothes.  Soon I wanted a moped as well.  I dreamed about getting a moped incessantly.

As I got older and progressed through my life, there was one thing after another that I wanted, and there was always something else. It never ended.

The friends I had.
The people I associated with.
It soon became titles like “President” of my class.
It became recognition for various achievements.
It became where I went to school.
Then it became what I did for a living.
How much money I made when I started as an attorney.
What sort of car I drove.
Where I lived.
How prestigious my employer was.
How big my company is.
What school my child goes to.

On and on and on …

Do you see the madness in this?  It is all around us and we are all part of this madness. There is a huge problem with this, and it is related to the drive that all of us have on both a conscious and subconscious level to somehow add to who we are by possessing or associating with something outside ourselves, such as an object, person, place or title.  Most of this drive is due to our persistent identification with people, things and other forms outside of ourselves.  We subconsciously or consciously believe that our self worth comes from outside of ourselves and not inside of ourselves.  We are persistently trying to find ourselves and our identities in things that are outside of ourselves, and the struggle seemingly never, ever ends.  It is a sickness, and it is something that almost all of us suffer from.  We continually want more and more.

I have been around the world and visited shrines, monasteries and other sorts of places.  Even in the places that seem the most enlightened, people are constantly wanting more and more.  Throughout the years I have become involved with various spiritual organizations in my quest to improve my mind.  I have gone to groups that preach that we need to be in here and now and not look outside ourselves for value.  However, it almost always happens that within weeks of attending one of these seminars or events my phone starts ringing. People learn I am the CEO of a company and assume I must be rich.  They call and write wanting money and donations.  They talk about how they need a new this or a new that.  People visit me at home unannounced, seeking donations and constantly come looking for alms.  These are the same people whose message often is “everything is within you.”

It is almost impossible to find anyone, or any group of people, who is not constantly striving for more and more, and striving to fill some void.  There is something missing in almost all of us and in almost all of our groups.  You can be part of one religion or another and they may preach to you about how Jesus preached that we are complete with God, for example.  The message is comforting, and our image of Jesus is someone who walked around in sandals and a robe, and was not concerned with wealth. However, regardless of what church you are a part of, they almost all expect you to give them money. There is nothing wrong with this in substance; however, they often use the money to build giant and incredible monuments that boggle the mind with their size and ornateness.  You wonder why these same organizations do not use their resources to support the poor.  No matter how much they are given, most religious groups will continue to ask for more and more.  It never stops.  They will soon want a new building, a new wing to a building and more.  Their hunger will never, ever end.

This is no different from us. We soon want new cars, new televisions, the latest fashions and more … we too are never satisfied.  As long as we seek to be complete in objects and forms outside of ourselves, we will never be complete.

People and groups are continually trying to complete themselves by acquiring things, titles and more.  The problem with this line of thinking, though, is that it simply never works.  Whatever rewards we receive through possessing one thing, or getting one title, quickly go away and we find something else that we are interested in and “need.”  We are living in a society that is dominated by consumerism and the need to possess things.  Our measure of progress in our society is almost always related to possessing more and more.  We simply spend most of our lives trying to fill a gap that we perceive we have between ourselves and people who we think are better than us.

For the past few years I have employed a driver.  I live about an hour or two from my office, depending upon the level of traffic that there is each day.  For me, being productive in the car (i.e., my time) is worth more than spending three to four hours sitting behind the wheel each day.  I am in Los Angeles and throughout the years I have had a variety of drivers.  I have had professional drivers, who were committed to being drivers, and I have had people who did not really seem to have any interest in driving.  This never comes out in the interviews, as much as I would like it to, but it always comes out.

When I first started interviewing people to be drivers, I started seeing a lot of guys show up that really deep down wanted to be actors.  You could see this from their resume.  I did not hire these guys, and their interest in being a driver was to make money and then, hopefully, also make some connections through the driving that would lead to future acting work.  I was smart enough for the most part to avoid this.  Then I hired one guy I did not think would be interested in other things, and within about a month of hiring him, I discovered that he was in a band. He started giving me CDs of his band playing, asking for days off to go play various gigs, and his work just got shoddier and shoddier in so many respects. It became clear to me that he had no interest in what he was doing.

When he would not show up for work I would call a car service I have been using for some time.  The drivers of the car service were all guys who did this sort of work for their careers, and they were incredibly enthusiastic.  They would have Internet inside their cars so they could check traffic.  They would know all sorts of special routes they could take.  Their cars would always be spic and span.  They would wear dark suits and always hold open the doors for me.  Their service was fantastic and many of these guys had been doing the work for 20 years or more.  These guys were also very happy.  They had interests and could talk about a lot of things.  They loved their jobs.  They had an almost “instinctual” relationship with the road and understood how to avoid various traffic in certain locations.  In a word, they were passionate about their work and in a state of “flow” as far as I could tell. When you were with them, you could tell they were “in the zone” and the drives with them seemed to go faster, and the entire experience was just better.

I contrasted this with the guy I hired from the band whose interest lied in being somewhere else.

Most people in most jobs are interested in being somewhere else …

Then I hired a guy who was from El Salvador, and he showed up and had complete enthusiasm for his work.  He told the person who interviewed him for me that he wanted nothing more than to be a driver and was incredibly enthusiastic to be working in the United States.  A few weeks into me hiring him, however, he started asking me the “secret” to my success and all sorts of other questions.  He started telling me that this was the last thing he wanted to do.  He wanted to be someone else, and one day, he was going to have a driver like I have one.  All he spoke about was how he was capable of so much more than simply being a driver.  I noticed that he started getting really shoddy about his work, and making a bunch of stupid mistakes.  He too did not really care what he was doing.  Then I noticed this same pattern in the next person I hired.  This person too wanted to be somewhere else, and be doing something else. I heard them on their cell phone talking about starting businesses, doing other things and more.

None of this is to say that the people who are drivers are wrong in wanting to do whatever it is they wanted to do. But the point is that most people go through life not present in their jobs and always feeling a profound sense of lack, and wanting to be and do something else.  As a consequence, they never succeed in what they are doing.  This sense of lack and a need to be something different ends up permeating their entire lives and controlling them as long as they are alive.  There is always something else they need to feel good about themselves–whether it is a job, title, person, place or thing.  There is just a continual sense of lack.

This is their ego talking to them, and I do not think it is productive, and I do not think it helps them.

We are not just attached to things.  I know people who spend their days and nights driving around from place to place, because they feel like they need a ton of friends in order to be happy. This struggle to meet new people and be popular almost never ends.  Others work all the time so they can accumulate material possessions.  Others have a cadre of different lovers, hopping from a sense of completeness from each one.  People need something outside of themselves and chase after this throughout their lives in order to get a sense of completeness they feel is missing inside of them.  It is good to have a lot of friends, but there is something wrong when all of your time is consumed by the need to have more and more friends.

One of the most persistent things among most people is our identification of self worth with objects outside of ourselves.  This includes not only the material things we possess, such as cars, houses and other things, but also things like our job, our titles, the awards we have received and where we went to school.   We endow things with a sense of self and our importance and feelings of self worth come from objects outside of ourselves.

In movies, television shows and others there is always a character it seems who is a sex addict, drug addict, gambling addict, or alcoholic or has some other disorder.  Our culture is obsessed with the addictions of stars and others. One of the most interesting shows to come along in years is the show called “Intervention,” which follows people with various addictions.  What is so interesting about all of these cases of addiction is that what most people are doing with their lives with drugs, sex, gambling, or liquor is the exact same thing that most of us are doing with our lives: Seeking a sense of fulfillment in something outside of ourselves.  We watch people on shows like “Intervention” who come close to killing themselves with substances and other addictions, and we cannot help but recognize part of ourselves in them: No matter how much they get of whatever it is they are addicted to, they are never going to be complete and happy. No matter how many titles, wealth, friends–or whatever it is we are seeking–we too will never be happy.  We will always be seeking more and more to make us feel complete as well.

Most of us are no different than a skid row heroin addict who needs one fix after another.  The heroin addict does some heroin and for a time feels good. But then he eventually needs to go and find some more. The only difference is that what the heroin addict is seeking causes visible damage to them, whereas what we are seeking is a psychological disorder.

I am continually witnessing society’s desire to find fault with others.  My wife subscribes to various magazines such as “Us Weekly,” “People” and others. Each week these magazines contain all sorts of incredible gossip stories about this celebrity or that celebrity. The majority of these stories are unflattering.  We read about horrible break ups, public spats and more.  Consider, for example, the public’s fascination with Brittany Spears and the things that have happened with her.  There are, of course, more such stories.  Why are we so fascinated with these things? I think this has to do with the fact that when we hear bad information about others it makes us feel superior to them.  Our self identities are so fragile that just as we are seeking things outside of ourselves to complete ourselves, we are also obsessed with those we believe have more, or are more than us, being weaker than us on some level.  We all do this.  We are obsessed as a culture with people who we perceive are above us, suddenly having less.

Several years ago, when my company began to get quite large, I started hearing all sorts of rumors about myself from various employees. There would be rumors of affairs, rumors that I was involved in something illegal, rumors that I had done this or that.  The larger my company grew, the more I started hearing rumors like this.  When certain employees would get fired they would persist in these rumors.  For a long time I used to be incredibly upset by these rumors because they seemed to be malicious.  I realized, though, after some time what was going on.  Most of the people who were involved in spreading such rumors had been fired, or were people who I considered poor employees and let them know I thought this.  When I confronted these people, I wounded their ego and how they perceived themselves.  Their revenge and way of feeling “complete” again was to find some level of superiority to me in whatever way possible.  This meant an interest in rumors and whatever weaknesses I might have. Our interest in others’ weaknesses often adds something to our need to feel complete.  We love hearing negative stories about our enemies and people whom have made us feel inferior.

When you are in conflict with anyone, it is usually due to the fact that you have somehow wounded their sense of self of vice versa.  On its crudest level, you could injure this person or kill them so you can feel better about yourself and be “complete” (and people do).  On another level, you will turn against them and attack them verbally, or undermine them in order to establish your ego and how you feel about yourself.  This is something that we all do in one sense or another, and it is something that characterizes most of our lives.  We want to be right about various conflicts because if we are right, we somehow feel validated as people.  Deep down we want to feel better than others, and we get this through being right.  When we are right and the other person is wrong, who we are is validated as a person.

When I was growing up, my mother used to sit at the kitchen table or on the couch smoking cigarettes and talking on the phone to her friends for hours at a time.  All of the conversations would almost invariably revolve around some perceived insult my mother had received, or given, or something that had happened–or vice versa with one of her friends.  The entire conversation would go on for hours at a time, and she would either be supporting her friend, or her friend would support her.  They would talk and talk, back and forth, until some sort of consensus was reached that my mother was right about something, or her friend was right about something.  My mother would then feel better.  If it was my mother’s ego that was involved, she would then call a few other friends after the conversation to see if they too thought she was in the right.  She would always get their agreement, and then would move on.  Other conversations I heard my mother having growing up involved rumors about other friends, or bad things that had happened to people they knew.  These sorts of conversations I think dominate our consciousness and what we are doing, because they make us feel better in relation to others and make up for this sense of lack that we are constantly seeking to fill inside of us.

“Sure she is beautiful, but she is not very intelligent.”
“I would not want to have the responsibility he does.  It would be horrible to be scrutinized all the time.”
“They may appear to be a happy family, but she is really a pill popper and addicted to prescription medications.”
“That was a good performance, but she is also anorexic.”
“They cheat on each other.”
“Oh, he is rich, but he has to work all the time and is really very unhappy.”

On and on and on … how many statements like this have you heard? I have certainly heard a lot of them.  Why is it that we need to denigrate others around us? Why is it that our self worth is often tied up in what others are doing?  How can this be explained?  We do this because there is a profound sense of emptiness and need for us to feel better than others.  This is a collective disease.  Religions do this, and are well known for this.  Orthodox Jews, for example, feel superior to Jews who are not as observant and do not cover their heads.  Extremely Orthodox Jews feel superior to other sorts of Jews who are not as observant.  The same can be said for people of most religions.

It is important that in our lives we get into a state of “flow” where our ego is not involved in what we are doing.  We need to be detached from the ego and, instead, just concentrate on what is before us.  I think this is the highest state of being in both our lives and careers.  The idea that we are complete and do not need outside verification in any form in order to feel successful.  We do not need to feel in competition with others.

The people who experience the most problems in their careers are those who are more concerned with being recognized, paid and getting more and more–rather than the work they do.  The fact of the matter is that once you start down this road, enough will never be enough.  An executive who asks for a raise once due to having done something well, will likely ask for a raise a short time later if he does something right.  Pretty soon, this executive will start concentrating on how much others at similar companies are making and feeling a sense of lack.  He will ask for more and more raises, and then will start looking for another job. He will find a new employer who pays him a better salary, and then the same process will repeat itself over and over and over again. The executive may settle down at some point, or he may not. Because of this executive’s continual focus on what he lacks, he wastes his energy and never is able to get in a state of “flow” in his job where he could truly reach his potential.  His work is shallow and nothing more than something that simply leads to immediate paychecks, raises and bonuses.  The work cannot possibly ever be the quality that it would be if the executive’s ego were not involved.

The executive never learns to truly appreciate the work he is doing.  Others in the workplace are viewed as competitors, and not people to cooperate with unless there is a secondary motive.  The ego seeks out only immediate rewards and views others as people to compete with, and not work with, unless they can appear as if they can lead to rewards that will enhance the ego.  If the employer is not viewed as prestigious in the market, the person will feel personally hurt deep down because their ego is tied up in the employer.  Their identity is in their employer and they are not necessarily one with their work.

I would encourage you in your career to release and get in a state of flow.  You need to step back from your ego and realize that no employer and no job can even fulfill your ego.  Your greatest satisfaction in your career and life will come when you are able to be one with your job and what you are doing.  Be in the here and now.

Einstein, Visualization and Your Career

What You Will Learn Master the skill of creative visualization. Picture those things in your mind that you would like to happen in the future. Visualize positive events and outcomes. Focus on the results you want to achieve.

One of the most little known facts about Albert Einstein was that he attended a school that followed the teaching methods of the Swiss educator Johann Pestalozzi.  Pestalozzi schools taught children in what was know as the Pestalozzi Method (the “Method”).  Under the Method, instead of dealing with words, it was believed that children should learn through activity and things.  They should be free to pursue their own interests and reach their own conclusions.  Much of his teaching methods can be found in a book he published in 1801 called How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.  In this book, he discusses the importance of spontaneity and allowing children to arrive at answers themselves. Visualization was a major component in this method.  Pestalozi believed that visualization was among the mind’s most powerful features, and that imagery was where all knowledge started.

The school environment created by Pestalozzi’s method of eduction created the perfect environment for Einstein to develop as he did.  According to a biography of Einstein, Einstein: His Life and Universe:

It  was a perfect school [Aarau] for Einstein. The teaching was based on the philosophy of a Swiss educational reformer of the early nineteenth century, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who believed in encouraging students to visualize images….The visual understanding of concepts, as stressed by Pestalozzi and his followers in Aarau, became a significant aspect of Einstein’s genius. ‘Visual understanding is the essential and only true means of teaching how to judge things correctly,’ Pestalozzi wrote, and ‘the learning of numbers and language must be definitely subordinated.

Given his early learning, it is no surprise that Einstein used visualization throughout his entire life.  It is well known that at the age of 16, Einstein use

The Sun Does Not Always Shine Forever

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was: “The sun does not always shine forever.”  I don’t remember who the person was, or even when I heard it, but the words were so powerful I will never forget them.  What this meant to me was good fortune does not continue forever. Instead, the most important thing we can do in our work lives is (1) be ready for change and (2) prepare for change.  Instead, what many of us do is guard against change.  Guarding against change rarely does any good and usually does more harm than good.

What You Will Learn Change is inevitable. Prepare for change. Guarding against change does more harm than good. Be constantly aware of change in the market and find somewhere you can provide value that matches your contribution.

Are you in a role in your career right now where you are guarding against change?  It is never good to be on the defensive in your career and life. Instead, you should be on the offensive.  The people who win in their careers and lives are always the people who are on the offensive.  When you are on the offensive, you are winning, and when you are on the defensive, you are retreating.  You cannot retreat forever.  Inevitably, you will find yourself boxed in with nowhere to go.  At that point, you will lose your job, your home, and whatever you are doing at the moment.

The best possible thing you can do is be on the offensive.

There are many companies in America on the defensive right now.  These include companies in the financial industry and numerous manufacturing companies.  When I have been out and about in Los Angeles and heard people talking, I’ve heard things like, “No one is hiring.  There are no jobs.”  While I disagree with this statement, I do believe these people are finding a disproportionate number of firms and companies who are not hiring because they are in retreat.  Companies go into retreat when people stop spending, and many give up and simply close their doors.

All over the United States, an incredible number of people are being laid off. What is happening is very sad, and it’s devastating to the people being affected by it.  When times are good, companies hire people very aggressively.  In many cases, they hire people where their skills are actually redundant.  I have seen this happen more times than I can count.

When business is good, law firms and other companies start hiring as many people as they possibly can to do the work.  The people they hire become very “cocky” and will jump from firm to firm in search of more money or more prestige.  The people inside the organization will make more demands on the company for benefits and other things.  They may refuse to work as many hours. They may band together against management. They may go on message boards and complain about their employer.  Meanwhile, these same people watch their lifestyles get better and better, and they go out and purchase nice cars, they may move into nicer apartments or homes, and they feel good about the lives they have achieved.

This is what happens all over. When a company is doing well, the people working inside the company decide (rightly so) they have contributed to the growth of the company and want in on “the action.”  In the largest companies, the people may unionize.  In smaller ones, the people may band together and simply demand more benefits or higher salaries. It may be a good idea to try to get benefits when things are going well.  In theory, there is nothing wrong with this idea.  This is a process that is repeated over and over at countless organizations around the world when things are going well.

During good times, a customer service department may go from one to five people.  Other areas of the company may experience similar growth.  When the business goes away, as it inevitably does in many recessions, the people in the department start doing everything possible to protect their jobs.  Despite the fact very few calls are being received, the people in the customer service department will band together and claim they are all needed to field the few calls coming in.  The people will tell of the incredible need for customer service representatives, and how much the company will be affected if they are not all there.  These cries for “good customer service” will often come despite the fact there are no customers.  The management will listen to this and fear taking action.  The management will continue paying these representatives and vendors.

Inside law firms, you may see memos or emails like the one below being sent from the partners to the associates about the work loads:

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 will 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 have something serious to worry about.  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.

You Need to Be Relevant to Your Employer

What You Will Learn It is essential to realize what business you are in. You need to sell yourself to the correct audience and know where and how to market yourself in the best way possible. You need to be relevant and understand the skill you are offering. You should understand your market and know what your customers want.

In the mortgage industry many jobs have simply disappeared. This has put tens of thousands of people out of work.  While there are many who manage to hang on in all downturns, for the most part, many people in the mortgage industry have lost their jobs.

People who lose their jobs in the mortgage industry generally have a couple of options. One of the most incredible options they have is to try and find another job in the same industry, because this is what they know, which is what many are doing.  They do their best to network, and email their resume out to every opening they can find in the mortgage industry.

“The job market is really tight,” they will tell you.

They may get an occasional interview, but they do not get the job because the companies they are interviewing with eventually realize they do not have the business to hire the person.  They may also realize there is someone out there who is more qualified.  The criteria for these jobs has become much more stringent.  Eventually, after weeks or months of looking for a job, the person may say something like:

“I need to wait for the market to pick up.  I simply cannot find a job.”

To illustrate further the current state of the mortgage industry, the headquarters of Countrywide Mortgage is located in Hidden Hills, near Los Angeles. As you might imagine, there are acres of buildings for Countrywide and other mortgage companies around this area sitting practically empty.  Not too long ago, these buildings were filled with thousands of people selling mortgages to mortgage brokers and others.  Now, most of these people are out of jobs. All around this area, businesses are closing and people are pretty desperate. In the early evenings, if you drive by these Countrywide buildings, you can see inside. There should be hundreds of people, however, in most cases you see no one.

Recently, I was playing golf with a friend who lives in Hidden Hills. When he arrived to play, he was very upset.

The night before, my friend had been invited to a small party at his friend’s multimillion dollar house. The friend was an unemployed mortgage broker who’d purchased the house when he was employed and doing very well. He’d been told the party was a social occasion. Happy to go, he’d shown up wearing jeans. When he arrived he immediately realized something was wrong – his friend was wearing a suit, and everything seemed a little  ”too professional.”  A few minutes later, he was given a brochure about some Donald Trump condominium going up in Florida.  His friend started showing a movie about the development and began telling everyone at the party if they “wanted in,” he could immediately assist them with financing a condominium.

Everyone was astonished. A group of people who’d been invited to a party were suddenly being encouraged to buy and finance condominiums thousands of miles away they’d never seen in their entire lives.  My friend got up and left the party upset he’d been suckered into a sales presentation.

While I have nothing against aggressive sales practices, what this story represents to me is someone who is holding on to a paradigm that no longer exists. While people may have been speculating on condominiums sight unseen years ago, this is no longer the case.  Here, the mortgage broker was doing everything he could to hold onto a profession and a life that no longer existed for him.  This example is extremely important to understand because it has a lot to do with you, your career, and what will end up happening in your life.

From what I understand, the mortgage broker, in this example, was on his way to losing his house through foreclosure.  His world was literally crumbling around him.  Like the man in the store, he was making a fundamental error so many people make: He did not understand how to adapt to a new paradigm.  Understanding your paradigm and what you do for a living is the most important thing you can possibly do with your career because paradigms are always changing.  The sun does not shine on every specific type of job forever.  We get comfortable with one specific type of job and believe we should always do this.

A couple of weeks ago, while shopping, I met a man who was working in the computer industry.  He told me he had made over $250,000 a year just two years ago writing software for mortgage companies.  Now, he was working in a store selling sweaters and shirts to men for probably no more than $12 an hour. 

“There are no jobs for programmers in the mortgage industry,” he told me. 

The man who was trying to sell mortgages and Trump Condominiums in Florida was in the business of sales. If he realized this, he would likely not be having the problems he is having now.  He could apply to every sales job available and probably easily get one. 

The man I met selling sweaters in the store was also in a business: The business of programming.  Instead of applying to every programming job available, he was stuck in believing he was a specialist in programming computers for mortgages and, for this reason, he could not find a job.

In everything you do, you need to understand what your basic business is.  Far too many companies and individuals fail to understand this.  They end up “going out of business”.  Some of the largest and most profitable companies in the United States used to be railroad companies.  These were the “Internet moguls” and tycoons during their age.  However, when trucks came along, none of these railroad companies entered the trucking industry.  Instead, they clung to the belief they were in the railroad business.  If they had realized they were actually in the transportation business, they could have started offering trucking and other transportation services to their clients. Because of their belief they were in the railroad and not the transportation business, many great railroad companies ended up going out of business.

In your career, it is essential you realize what business you are in.  You should not be blinded by the specifics of what you do and, instead, should understand the generality of what your specific profession in fact is.  This is the way to stay employed, and it is also the means to continual improvement.

W. Edward Deming gives an excellent example of a time when there were carburetors in all cars.  The people who made carburetors continued to improve their product.  Soon, however, fuel injection was developed, and everyone stopped using carburetors.  With very few exceptions, many very large companies that formerly made carburetors went out of business.  They should have realized they were in the business of finding better ways of putting the correct mixture of fuel and air in the combustion chamber of engines.  This is what the mortgage broker was doing wrong as well: He failed to realize he was in the business of sales.

Something similar happened to the makers of Swiss watches in Switzerland.  The Swiss invented the quartz movement; however, they failed to realize the gigantic impact this would ultimately have on their business.  The Swiss continued to make mechanical watches and market these even after inventing the quartz movement.  Eventually, the number of people making watches in Switzerland went from 65,000 to around 10,000 in a decade.  The Swiss failed to realize they were in the business of making watches and they did not take into account the needs of their market.

What you need to do in your career is the same thing companies need to do: they need to understand their market.  When you understand your market, you have the ability to provide your customers with products and services that meet their needs.  You and your career are a product.  You need to sell yourself to the correct audience and know where and how to market yourself in the best way possible.  You need to know what your audience wants and requires.

In 2001, General Motors released the Pontiac Aztek.  The car was voted the ugliest car in the world by the British newspaper, The Telegraph.  The vehicle was criticized many times in Steve McConnell’s book about software design, Code Complete 2: The Pontiac Aztek and the Perils of Design by Committee.  According to another commentator, Dan Norman:

In the mid-1990s, then-General Motors Corp. Chairman John G. Smale decided to bring the world’s biggest automaker a dose of the ‘give-the-people-what-they-want’ethic that’d animated Smale’s old company, Procter & Gamble Co. And what the people wanted was sexy, edgy and a bit off-key – in short, a head-turner. General Motors’ culture took over from there. Design would be by committee, the focus groups extensive. And production would have to stick to a tight budget, with all that sex appeal packed onto an existing minivan platform. The result rolled off the assembly line in 2000: the Pontiac Aztek, considered by many to be one of the ugliest cars produced in decades and a flop from Day One.

 

The Aztek represented all that is wrong with GM’s design process, that official said. The concept car actually did something few GM designs do: arrive before a trend — this time, the crossover SUV that combined the attributes of a truck and a passenger car. And GM had high hopes to sell 50,000 to 70,000 Azteks a year, putting Pontiac on the cutting edge.

 

Then came production, the executive said. The penny-pinchers demanded costs be kept low by putting the concept car on an existing minivan platform. That destroyed the original proportions and produced the vehicle’s bizarre, pushed-up back end. But the designers kept telling themselves it was good enough. “By the time it was done, it came out as this horrible, least-common-denominator vehicle where everyone said, ‘How could you put that on the road?’” the official said.

 

Sales never reached the 30,000 level needed to make money on the Aztek, so it abruptly went out of production. The tongue-in-cheek hosts of National Public Radio’s “Car Talk” named it the ugliest car of 2005. “It looks the way Montezuma’s revenge feels,” one listener quipped. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000321.html

In an oval office interview in January of 2006, President George Bush said he believed General Motors and Ford needed to produce “a product that’s relevant.”  The idea of producing a relevant product is one of the most important things any manufacturer can do.  Being a relevant product is also something essential for your success, as well.  In a bad economic climate, one of the strangest things people do is try and continue being a ‘product’ that is no longer needed.  This is nonsensical.

You need to be relevant and understand what the skill is you are offering.  The worst thing you can do is not be relevant to the market you are serving.  It’s easy to be relevant when you understand what you are doing and what purpose you serve.  Being relevant is about much more than just getting a job, however.  Being relevant also relates to serving your employer with the skills they need.  You need to understand your market and what your customers want.

One of the biggest failures in my career was due to not understanding my market.  When I got out of law school, I worked for a federal judge who had recently been appointed to the bench.  My interest in this job was being brilliant and showing how smart I was, what a good writer I was, and how much detail I could put into opinions and more.  I did a very good job with the harder intellectual aspects of the work.  The judge I worked for admired my intellectual abilities, but his biggest concern was for me to produce work that was completely error free.  Because I was so interested in the intellectual aspects of the work, I did not always give him what he wanted in terms of error free work.  This was upsetting to him.  Because of my concern with the “meat” of what I was doing, and not the details, I ended up leaving this position after one year, when I’d been hired for two. Had I not left, I am pretty confident I would have lost my job.  I was not giving my employer what he wanted and, instead, was making up my own rules.

The next legal job I held, I was sought out for my intellectual insight into legal issues. You need to know your audience.

When you think about your career, how often have you made up your own rules?  You need to understand your audience.  You need to know you are in the business of selling a product to people, and you need to give them what they want.  You are a product, and your job is to give your audience exactly what it wants.  This is the way to get, and keep a job.