You Can't Do It Alone - Keith Ferrazzi's Relationships for Success by Keith Ferrazzi

07:28 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Swinging Success

A great quote, paraphrased from San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, via the blog of the guy behind Pursue the Passion:

"A sculptor had a large stone that he wanted split down the middle.  He took a big swing with his hammer to meet the chisel with a vengeance, only to find the stone unaffected by his effort.  He repeated the process a thousand times, only to achieve the same undesirable result.  On the 1,001st time, the hammer swiftly met the chisel and the stone split perfectly into two equal halves.  A bystander told the sculptor that he must have put some extra effort into the 1,001 st attempt.  The sculptor replied, ‘I know it was not the 1,001st attempt that split the stone, but all the other times where I applied the same effort.  That set me up for success.’”

07:24 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Personal activism

Earlier today I spoke with an incredible woman who's spent most of her career as an activist, working in nonprofits. Her work helped a lot of people, but it didn't exactly earn her a lot of money. But worse, after a while the constant attempt to right the world's wrongs got under her skin. It got depressing! She's not giving up her activism, not by far, but she is trying to find a way to balance it with a passion that's all about her -- her photography.

This got me to thinking about the need to balance altruism and self interest in our lives. But unlike my friend, most of us tend to lean too far toward self-interest, just because our own little circle seems to consume every minute. We lose perspective.

One way to keep yourself in balance is to constantly find new ways to be generous to the people you come in contact with. Doing good can start with one person at a time - a phone call answered, a referral given, a kind word or a bright smile. There's no better way to broaden your horizons than by extending a hand to someone new in your life.

01:43 pm | 1 recommendation | 1 comment

The Upside of a Down Market

With increasing unemployment making front page news these days, you may think your prospects for sucess this year are dwindling (particularly if you're already in the market for a new job).

Life's easier and opportunities flow more freely when the economy's on fire. But that doesn't mean that there aren't opportunities in a tightening market -- they may just be harder to see. To wit: Henry David Thoreau graduated from college into a terrible depression that would last 5 years. The lack of opporunities pushed him into the "quiet desperation" of his family's pencil factory -- fueling the lakeside economic experiment that gave birth to the country's greatest work of transcendental literature, Walden.   

I don't want to downplay the experience of anyone who is struggling to find their next gig. I know its not easy. But when you get frustrated, go big picture: If you've got more time on your hands, or need a break from networking or your job search, what talents and ideas can you explore to create wealth (or at least happiness) in your future?

Sometimes an economic downturn forces people to invest in themselves -- rarely a bad move. If you can keep a proactive, positive outlook, you can still move forward when the economy is stuck. 

01:35 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Birthday Pinging

Everybody likes to be remembered on their birthdays and that's why they are a pinging staple. I have birthdays logged at the top of my Outlook schedule so I can call or email that day when I have a few moments. Birthdays are a great time to let people know that you care about their success. Here's an email I sent one of my best employees on his birthday:

Take a deep breath today and really ask what you want to feel like one year from now. What do you want to be doing, etc. Then, make a commitment to get there and tap into the resources who care about you like me and others in the office and outside and those you know. The point is let's make this year one when you breathe easier and spring out of bed in the am. to do what you do! Happy Birthday.

05:10 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Office Gift-Giving

A friend passed along some funny statistics about holiday gift-giving:
• 20% of working Americans get stiffed by Secret Santa.
• 50% find office gifting expensive and time-consuming.
• A third of those who give gifts to co-workers have re-gifted (32%) or simply thrown out a gift from a co-worker (31%).
• One in five co-workers say they have received an inappropriate gift from a co-worker.
• More than half have received gifts that they didn’t like.

A great gift for anyone at the office is a copy of Never Eat Alone, my book in building relationships for career and life success. Another great idea is Giftscriptions, the magazine gift subscription in a box. Both are available on amazon.com. Happy holidays!

03:57 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Office Secret Santas

At Ferrazzi Greenlight, someone asked whether we could do Secret Santas. It brought back memories of what I was like when I was in college. This serves as an example of what not to do with Secret Santas at the office.

Back at Yale, we did a Secret Santa and there were about six gifts leading up to holiday vacation. I remember getting my first gift and it was something like a big candy worm. I had no interest in it. I didn’t know the woman who I had on my gift-giving list, so I figured this was easy. I will just give her what I was given and re-gifted all the gifts through Secret Santa.
Turns out that I had drawn the name of the same person who was giving me gifts. I was totally busted. I thought it was funny. She did not find it amusing. She found me insensitive.

I promise to be more creative for my own staff this year.

Happy Holidays!

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