In Case You Missed the News

I am preparing for an online transition this week, so I have scheduled some repeats from earlier this year including this one from July:


Thought I'd take a moment and let you know what I've done this summer in case you missed the announcement a few weeks ago.

After 8+ years working in sales and management with the Summit City Radio Group of stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I decided to accept an offer from Cirrus ABS, also headquartered in Fort Wayne.

This new opportunity is wide open as I help Cirrus find clients for their Net-Centered Marketing Agency.

Every year, while working in the radio business, I had people contact me asking me if I would consider working for them, and I always said no thanks.

This time was different.

I get to apply my marketing consulting background to the web world and help businesses and organizations find solutions that are cost effective and make good strategic sense.

I don't need to know how to write code to build websites, because we have 30 others at Cirrus ABS who handle those details.

I'm here to to act as an interpreter between the geeky-tech world and your business world.

Quite frankly, it is amazing.

I'm also in my 5th year on the Board of Directors for the Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne and involved with multiple other volunteer organizations.

Anything I can do to help? Just ask.

And please think of me first when you are needing anything web related.

My contact info is:

SHoward@CirrusABS.com and 260-255-4357


:)

It's Your Life

I wrote this two years ago:


My wife and I have talked about this.

My best friend Ron and I have talked about this.

And I've talked to my own kids about this.

The person who gets ahead in life is often the person who has earned it.

And one way to earn it is to do what others are not willing to do.

In my line of work, I come across men and women every year who are creating their own future, perhaps by starting a business, or by taking advantage of the opportunities that are available.

This isn't luck, this is more than that.

When I was a senior in High School, there was another young man that worked at the grocery store at the corner of Anthony and Crescent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose name was Dave.

I worked there too as a carry out, over 30 years ago. But I had dreams of working somewhere else too. I wanted to work at a radio station and by the time I was 19, I had launched my full time radio career as a disc jockey which later led me to the advertising and marketing business I am in now.

11 years ago, I moved back to Fort Wayne, and just last weekend I saw Dave at the grocery store. Doing the same job. I hope he is happy. If I needed a job, I know I could do that job again, but I have other ambitions.

The advice I gave my kids, is the first step is to get a job. Any job, as long as it is legal and not harmful. Next, you learn that job and gain skills and either discover you like that type of work, or you hate that type of work.

I was a bus-boy and dishwasher as a kid. Hated it. Liked having money, but it motivated me to try something else. So I applied and was hired elsewhere, then quit the restaurant business.

The Art of Manliness blog wrote recently on this subject:

The Importance of Paying Your Dues

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 09:19 PM PDT

As a member of a Generation Y, I’m always on the look out for articles about people my age. While many sociologists and employers have very positive things to say about my generation, they also make critiques. A common criticism that many employers have about young people entering the workplace is that 20-somethings want all the trappings of a successful career but aren’t willing to put in the work needed to earn them. Young people just don’t want to pay their dues anymore.

Which isn’t surprising. Many members of Generation Y grew up getting trophies and accolades just for trying. In high school and college, many of these young people (and their coddling parents), demanded they receive good grades even if their work was shoddy. Consequently, the idea that you might actually have to earn success through hard work has gotten lost on many “millennials.”

Lifestyle pundits encourage such an attitude by saying that paying your dues is an antiquated idea. That really depends on how you define the phrase. If it means slogging through 80 hour weeks to move up the corporate ladder to a position that pays well but you hate or if it is used to make you jump through pointless hoops for no reason other than your higher-ups had to, then yeah, it’s not a very helpful philosophy. But to me paying your dues means putting in the time and work to attain your dream job.When you’re moving from point A to point B, it doesn’t matter if B is being a CEO or a rock star; you’ve got to pay your dues to get there. Here’s why.

You have to start somewhere. I know a couple of guys my age who are unemployed and living with their parents because they can’t get the job they feel they deserve, and they refuse to work a “menial” job because they think it’s beneath them. They expected to jump into their dream job right out of college. But you have to start on the “bottom” in every job, not only if you’re looking to move up the corporate ladder.

Reading through our “So You Want My Job” interviews, a common theme has emerged. The men who now have their dream jobs often started out working at the “bottom” to get the experience to move into what they really wanted to do. Jason Stoltzfus, started out as a regular roadie, and learned the trade and skills needed to become a guitar tech. Eitan Loewenstein put on sketch shows for an audience of two in a dingy theater above an ice cream shop before getting roles in national commercials. You’ve got to start somewhere and pay your dues to move up in the world.

Success comes from years of hard work. Not only do many millenials expect to land their dream job right away, they also expect to immediately live the same lifestyle they had when they left their parents’ house. They want nice clothes, nice furniture, a brand new car, and a nice house the moment they set out in life. Of course, in order to do this right off the bat, these young people have to take on huge amounts of debt.

I’ll admit that I get to thinking like this sometimes. I would love to have the same lifestyle I had when I lived with my parents. It was nice! But then I remember something my parents told me one day when I was moaning about not having money to buy some frivolous thing, and it put everything in perspective for me.

They said, “Brett, this house, the cars, the nice clothes, and the video games for Christmas we were able to buy for you and your siblings are the result of years of hard work. It didn’t happen overnight. We started out living in a one bedroom house with a metal roof in the middle of the New Mexico desert. But with patience and perseverance, we were able to make a life for our family.”

That shut up my whining.

In the age of seemingly overnight Internet millionaires, it’s easy to forget that success comes from years of hard work. Even the overnight successes weren’t really overnight. Take Facebook for example. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook back in 2004. In just a few years it has become one of the most trafficked sites on the internet and has made Zuckerberg a millionaire.

While it seems Facebook is your typical overnight success, it was actually years in the making. Zuckerberg started programming back in middle school. While most teenagers were playing video games and watching MTV’s Total Request Live, Zuckerberg was hammering out code. Consequently, when the muses visited Zuckerberg in his dorm room, he was ready with the knowledge and skills to build Facebook. Even after Facebook launched it would take a few years for the site to grow to where it is today.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he posits that greatness comes through adherence to the “10,000 hour rule.” Pointing to people like the Beatles and Bill Gates, he argues that their success came from practicing their skills for 10,000 hours, not through some inherited genius.

We’d all love to be rich overnight, but unless you win the lottery, it just isn’t going to happen. The path to success is hewed through years of dedicated and relentless hard work. In short, you have to pay your dues before success comes.

Recognize tradeoffs exist when you live by your values. In news articles and blog posts discussing Generation Y, employers gripe that these young people don’t want to work as much, but they still want the high salaries and cushy benefits. As a law student, I heard about this a lot. Senior partners at firms complained that new associates were demanding lower case loads and fewer required billable hours, yet they still wanted the nice six figure salary so they could have the freedom to have a life outside of work.

I understand Generation Y’s desire to work less and have more time. Many from this generation came from homes where their Boomer parents were workaholics and hardly spent anytime with the family. But time is money. If you value your time, expect to earn less. If you value wealth and money, be prepared to put in a lot of hours at work. The key is to figure out what you value and accept the tradeoff.

Some might argue that there are plenty of people out there who make lots of money, but aren’t slaves to work. I’ll concede that such people exist, but would follow up with inquiring on what that person had to do to get to that position in life? More likely than not, they had to hustle their butt off. Exceptions exist, but I’m pretty sure most of these types of people spent years investing all their free time and money with the hope they would have more of it in the future. They had to make a trade-off: less time and money now, for more of it later. In other words, they paid their dues. Which takes us to our next point…

Be willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term goals. I like to study the lives of successful men to see if there are any principles I can glean from them and apply in my own life. A common trait among successful men is that they were willing to make short-term sacrifices, for long-term goals. They were willing to pay their dues upfront in order to reap rewards later.

My dad is a good example of this. His goal starting off in life was to be a federal game warden. After he graduated college, he started looking for a job as a state game warden so he could get the experience he needed for the fed job. But no job openings existed for a year. So my dad worked in a liquor store to make ends meet until an opening came up. It’s not the most glamorous job for a college graduate, but my dad was hungry and humble enough to do whatever it took to reach his goal.

Albert Einstein didn’t become a world renowned physicist right after he got his diploma. He graduated college trained to become a professor, but like in my dad’s situation, there weren’t any job openings. Did Einstein whine and complain that because he finished college he was entitled to a job? Nope. Instead he got a job as a clerk in a patent office in order pay his living expenses. In his spare time, Einstein continued his real work as a scientist and developed the special theory of relativity.

If you have a great goal, be willing to make sacrifices for it. If you want to start your own business, you may have to moonlight it a few years until you can quit your day job. Spend all your free time getting the skills and putting in the work to make your dream job a reality. If you want to get out of debt quickly, you may need to take on a second job delivering pizzas or working as a coffee barista. Whatever your goal is, you’re going to have to pay the piper upfront before the dance begins.

DownloadThe Art of Manliness Free Man Cookbook DownloadThe Art of Manliness Guide to Being a Gentleman

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

The Sunday newspaper used to be stuffed with classified ads for jobs. Not so much anymore.

This site is maintained by a good friend of mine in Fort Wayne that might be exactly what you are looking for in your career search.

Click on Pic.

A Career Adjustment

Thought I'd take a moment and let you know what I've done this summer in case you missed the announcement a few weeks ago.

After 8+ years working in sales and management with the Summit City Radio Group of stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I decided to accept an offer from Cirrus ABS, also headquartered in Fort Wayne.

This new opportunity is wide open as I help Cirrus find clients for their Net-Centered Marketing Agency.

Every year, while working in the radio business, I had people contact me asking me if I would consider working for them, and I always said no thanks.

This time was different.

I get to apply my marketing consulting background to the web world and help businesses and organizations find solutions that are cost effective and make good strategic sense.

I don't need to know how to write code to build websites, because we have 30 others at Cirrus ABS who handle those details.

I'm here to to act as an interpreter between the geeky-tech world and your business world.

Quite frankly, it is amazing.

I'm also in my 5th year on the Board of Directors for the Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne and involved with multiple other volunteer organizations.

Anything I can do to help? Just ask.

And please think of me first when you are needing anything web related.

My contact info is:

SHoward@CirrusABS.com and 260-255-4357

Baby Steps to a new Career

A few years ago, while I was working for the group of radio stations I had been at for a few years, I decided that were not going in the direction that I wanted to go.

I was in management, overseeing a sales staff of two stations and we were turning things around positively.

Then my boss quit and there were two of us would could have taken over.

It ended up being the other guy.

I stayed for a couple more years but that planted the seed for evaluating what I really wanted to do career wise.

I almost walked away to start my own business, but instead started a side business which was active until about a month ago when I joined Cirrus ABS and now all of my efforts and energy's are back under one roof so to speak.

Here's some advice from DLM if you find yourself in a similar situation:

Keeping Your Side Business Moving When You Still Have a Day Job

Posted: 27 Jun 2011 08:50 AM PDT

Do you have your own business – or have you ever thought about starting one? It seems like more and more of the people I talk to have side projects going on: they work a day job to pay the rent, but they’re doing what they really love in the evenings or on the weekends, hoping that eventually, they can make a career out of it.

It can be really tough, though, to keep up your motivation when you’re working long days in the office and coming home to work some more.

I spent months freelancing on the side, before I established a strong enough client base to quit my day job. It was tough at times, but I’m really glad I made it. Here are some of the things that helped me, and which might help you too.

Write Down Your Goals – With Dates
I’m sure you’ll have heard time and time again that you should write down your goals, and that you should put dates to them. It’s great advice – but many of us don’t follow it.

Rather than having a vague dream of being a self-employed computer programmer (or whatever it might be), set an actual goal down in writing. Maybe you want to get another client within a month. Maybe you want to write a business plan, or set up a website, or order your business cards.

Putting a date to your goals often helps them happen: it creates a sense of urgency. Without this, it’s all too easy to put off taking action until tomorrow (and then a year slips by, and you’re no closer to your goal).

Write Down Your Achievements
Something which I found very powerful when I was just starting my side business was to write down what I’d achieved each month. To begin with, these achievements were small (like getting my first client!) but they all represented progress towards my ultimate goal of being a full-time freelance writer.

It’s easy to feel discouraged when you don’t have much time to devote to your business: it can seem as though you’re not making any forwards progress at all. Keeping a record of what you’ve achieved (perhaps new clients, new projects, or passing a certain income thresh-hold) gives you something concrete to look back on, so that you can see how far you’ve come.

Find Regular Work Hours
Try to find a few hours in the week which you can consistently block out to spend on your side business. For me, this was 6am – 7am (ugh! But it worked...) If you’re even less of an early riser type than I am, you might choose to work on certain evenings, or even in your lunch hour, depending on what facilities and rules your day job has.

If you can devote some time to your business at the weekends, that will really help you to make progress. I personally prefer to work in the morning and then knock off for the rest of the day, but this is really a case of finding what best suits you.

Depending on your home situation, you may need to negotiate with other people for some uninterrupted time. For example, you could ask your spouse to take the kids out on a Saturday morning while you work (you can then return the favor in the afternoon).

Cut Down Other Commitments
If you’re working full-time and trying to establish a business on the side, you need to minimize your other commitments. This might mean putting a particular hobby on the back-burner for a while, or telling people in your community group that you’re stepping down as secretary.

You might also have the possibility of cutting down your hours at work. This is obviously something to be cautious about asking for in the current economy ... but depending on your circumstances, you may be able to approach your boss or line manager about the possibility of working a 4.5 or 4 day week.

As well as cutting down on your current time-consumers, don’t take on new ones! You might find it very tough at first to say “no” – but people usually take it surprising well. Don’t worry about giving apologies or excuses, simply say “I’m very busy at the moment, and I’ve promised myself I won’t take on any new commitments.”

Do you have a side business or a fledgling freelancing career? How do you juggle it around your day job, and how do you stay motivated? If you’re an established freelancer, what was it like getting started?

Written on 6/27/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: mind on fire

Fort Wayne Site of the Day

Okay, My Fort Wayne site of the day isn't random. Today I wrap up 8+ years of working in advertising sales and marketing at a fine group of radio stations and starting Monday I officially am a part of the team at today's site of the day. Click on Pic.

Getting Hired (Part 5)

Today, the final in a 5 piece series on getting hired.

I wrote this series 5 days ago on Sunday.

The subject has been on my mind a lot recently as I know a couple of people who are looking for work.

The best time to look for a job is when you already have a job.

It is being proactive instead of reactive.

Rarely have I been unemployed. Only once in my life did I ever collect an unemployment check, and by the time the first check arrived, I had a new job.

Oh, I've lost jobs before.

My first radio job while in high school, I was laid off from.

My 2nd, 3rd and 4th full time jobs in radio I was let go from. It was the nature of the radio business which is very insecure when you are on the air.

I also quit a few jobs, fought for a few jobs and even started new careers a couple of times.

I turned down job offers and have been turned down from jobs that I thought were in the bag.

What has happened the past few weeks however in my life breaks all the rules.

What began as a conversation between a couple of friends on April 21st, has led to a new career which starts officially on June 20th.

You can click here to read about it.

There was no resume, no H.R. department, just someone who knew me, who found out I was interested in a new opportunity and everything fell into place.

There are risks involved. I'm giving up a few things in exchange for new challenges, but the pay off for the risks are ones I am willing to take.

I urge you to not wait until you are unemployed to start looking. Prepare now for your next step.

Become a Pro

from the DLM Blog:

How to Gain Respect and Make Professional Connections

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 08:42 AM PST

No matter how talented or smart you are, if you can’t communicate effectively with others it will be difficult to get a job, retain clients, and have productive relationships. It's a delicate process. Communication can be a hectic two-way street with messages coming and going between sender and receiver. If you aren't paying attention, you'll miss a queue and in turn, send a response that isn't ideal.

Listen, some people are born with that 'gift'. They can pick up on something and jump into any conversation whenever they want. Most people aren't built that way. Let's dive in and look at a few ways to improve. The goal is not to be the Anthony Robbins of your office, but perhaps with some work, you can take your game up a notch.

Here’s how to make professional connections.

Focus on first impressions and non-verbal behavior
Communication is both verbal and nonverbal. We don’t only send messages with words, but also with our behavior, expressions, and tone of voice. When making a first impression, be sure to have good posture, shake hands firmly, use a clear and confident tone of voice, and make eye contact.

Nonverbal communication is the real key to gauging what someone is thinking and how they are feeling, so make sure you’re sending the right message from the get go.

Adapt to match their behavior and emotions
To make a connection with someone, be aware of their state of mind and personality. Matching and mirroring others characteristic no-verbal behavior is a wonderful way to build rapport. When some mirrors our expressions, such the way we sit and move, it can feel like they’re similar and relate to us.

This offers a feeling of comfort and safety, where it becomes easier for the other person to open-up and act natural.

In general, gauge how the other person is feeling from their expression, posture, or tone of voice, and try to connect on their level.

For instance, have you ever been extremely tired and someone with boundless energy comes around talking a mile per minute? It can be irritating and obnoxious.

We simply like people who we connect with and who are like us. Building rapport through non-verbal behavior is a key to building trust and getting positive results from others.

Mutual Respect is Crucial
Learning to be assertive is very important for healthy relationships. Assertiveness is a way of communicating with mutual respect. We show respect to others while at the same time not compromising self-respect. Don’t get aggressive and belittle others, and similarly don’t be a passive pushover and accept disrespectful treatment.

Here’s how to get our needs meet while still respecting the needs of others.

• Learning how to organize assertive statements
• Use “I” statements rather than “you” statements
• Be willing to listen and stay calm
• State the facts and focus on the problem
• Express personal thoughts, feeling, and opinions reflecting ownership
• Use clear direct requests or commands when you want others to do something rather than being vague or indirect.
  

Consider assertiveness in your everyday life and start practicing. Who do you have trouble being assertive around? What is happening during these times? How do you usually respond?

We all have a personal bubble
Understand people have different boundaries. Everybody has a comfort level of how close they are willing to get to others emotionally and physically. Some people have more rigid boundaries and are not open to getting close to people they don’t know. Someone with rigid boundaries may be difficult to get to know or seem uninterested, but in the long-run these can be very loyal friends and colleagues.

Other people have very open boundaries and are willing to get close and be more personal. These people have no problem being open and expressing their personal feelings.

Understanding these differences can be helpful in dealing with people in professional situations. If you have very open boundaries be careful not to offend others. You may want to test the waters and be a little more reserved at first.

Similarly, if you’re a little closed off, you may need to work on being more assertive and staking your claim if you desire to network and expand your influence.

The goal is to be balanced. First learn to understand your own boundaries and know what you feel comfortable with. Then approach others with their personal bubble in mind.

Find similarities and know people’s interests
Find what you have in common with people in order to build rapport and establish a relationship. This helps to navigate the numerous social interactions we have each day, and helps to stand out as someone who considers and pays attention to others.

For instance, by remembering peoples’ interests you’ll know that:

Pam is the music lady, Rob loves talking about astrology, and Frank is always focused on sports.

You get the point. By knowing what others are interested in, you can make it about them and get them to open-up and start connecting. Everyone enjoys talking about themselves and their interests, so make it about others.

Don’t forget to be real
It’s never advised to try and be someone you’re not, however at times we must adapt and utilize our social intelligence in order to build relationships and manage conflict.

When incorporating the above ideas don’t forget to be authentic. If you seem unnatural, all the focus will be drawn to your awkward behavior instead of making a natural connection. Start practicing the tips and little by little they will become more natural.

Similarly, it’s important to actually care about talking to others and have a positive attitude in process. Take a sincere interest in others, show respect, and act natural, and you’ll be making connections and networking in no time.

Written on 2/20/2011 by Joe Wilner. Joe is an entrepreneur and career coach who runs the personal and professional development website Shake off the Grind. Subscribe to his blog via RSS.

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon

Need a New One?

from the DLM Blog...

8 Signs That It's Time to Look for a New Job

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 07:57 AM PST

There are good jobs, bad jobs, and jobs that make you want to gouge your eyes out with a soup spoon. Most of us can take the good with the bad, but when things at work are continuously awful, it's time to start thinking about a change.

Listen, I get that we can't all be Lego assembly testers, video game reviewers, or rock stars, but come on...how how much misery should we take before we start planning a job move?

Having been in a job I'm unhappy with for 9 years, I can certainly speak from experience when it comes to knowing when enough is enough. I consider myself an expert when it comes to finding reasons to quit.

Here are 10 signs that you need to find a different job:

1. You area miserable S.O.B.
   Now, there are plenty of miserable people in this world and there could be a million different reasons for it. However, if your job is sucking all the joy from your life and is making your and your coworkers lives miserable, it's time to move on. Work won't always be a bed of roses and one needs to persevere, but there are limits.
   


2. You dread going into work.
   Most people, if they had the choice, would opt not to go to work everyday. That's completely normal and reasonable. If you're anything like me, you probably try to think of as many ways you can get out of work as possible. How to you feel when that alarm clock goes off in the morning? Tired is fine; full of fear and stress is not.
   


3. It's affecting your health.
   If you work with asbestos or in a coal mine, your job IS affecting your health. However, if you're a desk jockey and are not subjected to carcinogens all day long, that doesn't mean your health won't be compromised. Chronic stress has some serious adverse health effects.
   


4. It's stealing your dreams.
   If you find yourself settling for a job you hate, it's time to wake up. Maybe you're too lazy to try to find another one. Maybe you're worried about job market conditions. Maybe you don't have the confidence to go out and make it happen for yourself. Whatever it is, change it. Do not give up on your dreams, EVER! I am not saying to quit and then look. I am saying that you should at least allocate some time to looking for another job and then making a move when the timing is right for your family, finances, etc.
   


5. There is no room for growth.
   We all strive to better ourselves, or at least we should. Personal growth is something that every individual should experience. If it's being stifled by your job, it's time to pack it in. If you feel that regardless of your efforts and results that your current position is destined to be your only position, consider moving.
   


6. You know it's the wrong job.
   When you were in high school and working at Wendy's or KFC, you knew it was temporary. However, when we're in the real world, we work for a living. We spend 40+ hours each week in our jobs. If we have chosen one that we know is not the right one for us, we must take action. It may take us 15 years to find the right job, but we need to find what makes us happy.


7. It's not aligned with your values.
   Working at a job you don't like just for a paycheck is one thing. However, when you're in a job that is not at all in line with your values or morals, that's a real problem. For example, I work in the financial services industry. From what I've seen over the last 9 years, the primary theme is greed. It's amazing how prevalent greed is in this business and it makes me sick. I don't consider myself greedy, so being around money hungry sharks every day is a real problem for me. If your company stands for something that you don't believe in, it's time to get that resume out.


8. It's a complete waste of your time.
   Time is the most valuable commodity on earth. Yes, we all have to work for a living and that takes up our time. But, when the job we are working in is nothing more than a means to an end, it's a waste. Go find something meaningful that will do the world some good. Be different, be bold, make a difference!

Whatever the case may be, if you are extremely unhappy in your current job, do something about it. Don't tell me about the unemployment rate or the "security" of your job. Your daily sanity is worth more than that.

Go find something you love to do!

Written on 12/30/2010 by Steve Roy. Steve is the owner of EndingTheGrind.com, a blog about escaping the daily grind of a 9 to 5 job, building an online business, and living your passions. You can also find him on Twitter at @EndGrind.

Photo Credit: RLHyde

For the Bosses...

How happy are your employees?

Are they working for you because they want to, or because they haven't found a better job yet?

Harvey Mackay has advice for you:

Good bosses improve good employees

By Harvey Mackay

With so much focus on finding or keeping jobs in this economy, one significant employment factor seems to get moved down the pros and cons chart: What kind of boss will my next supervisor be?

Interviewing with a human relations specialist.... Meeting folks up and down the line... Putting your best foot forward while they are all doing the same... The process may not present a completely accurate picture of the day-to-day environment.

Bosses know the importance of a good hire. Assuming the best candidate has accepted the offer, and has shown up on time for a few weeks, does the boss realize how critical retaining that new employee is? Does the boss know how to be a good boss?

In short, will the boss be a buddy or a bully?

The late great basketball Coach John Wooden shared his coaching philosophy that works just as well in business when it comes to mentoring employees: "A coach's primary function should not be to make better players but to make better people. Lift others even with your critical analysis. This is still the best method to get the best out of someone because pride is a better motivator than fear. I never wanted to teach through fear, punishment, or intimidation."

Bosses have tremendous power over those they supervise. Whether the owner of the company or a middle manager, employees understand that the person they report to can be their biggest cheerleader or their worst nightmare.

I prefer to think that the people I have hired put me in the first category. Having made a significant investment of time in hiring them in the first place, I must have recognized the sort of talent, personality and energy that would improve our company.

I want the folks I hire to love their jobs enough to come back raring to go after a lousy day, because everybody has a lousy day once in a while. I want them to look to me for inspiration. I want them to respect my work ethic. I want them to want to get better at what they do. I want them to know that I will help them get better. I want them to learn from my example, even when I am not directly mentoring them.

Of course, none of that happens unless I know how to come back revved up after a miserable day, demonstrate a stellar work ethic, and keep improving myself. What goes around comes around.

Study after study has concluded that the most important factor in job satisfaction is a positive work environment. Praise is vital, and salary is important, but nothing ranks as high as loving what you do. Location matters, but people are willing to go great distances for a job that makes them happy. Titles aren't even near the top of the list.

The determining factor is often closely related to the boss. A truly great boss will engender loyalty before any of those other factors will. A committed boss works hardest at positive leadership and a professional environment. A perceptive boss remembers her own early challenges and draws on those experiences. A responsible boss understands that mentoring his staff and helping them develop skills reflects positively on him.

Some months back, I wrote a column about the TV program "Undercover Boss." I admire the bosses who concealed their identities and went to work on the front lines for some "real-world" lessons about their companies. They were quite courageous to expose their own weaknesses on national television. But the exercise resulted in enhanced awareness of the importance of every single employee.

If you dare, try that experiment in your organization. You likely cannot be anonymous, but working side-by-side with staff, reinforcing that you won't ask them to do anything that you wouldn't ask of yourself, demonstrates your understanding of their challenges.

If all this sounds too overwhelming, step back and examine your motives. Are you ready to let someone else have a share in the glory? Are you willing to listen to options? Are you threatened by others' successes? Can you take responsibility for failure?

Many bosses get promoted without any formal leadership training. A good boss learns quickly from employees that Coach Wooden's advice will serve them better than a superior attitude.

Now here's the most important piece of boss advice I will ever give you: Your employees don't really work for you. They work for your customers. Customers are their real bosses. And yours too.

Mackay's Moral: Be a mentor, not a tormentor.

Living in Real Life too

Before you had a computer and a cellphone, (if you are that old!), you had an off-line life.

In order for you to spend time online, you had to reduce time you spent doing something else.

Do you know what that was, that you used to do, before you started spending time online?

Do you spend less time watching TV?

Do you spend less time talking with your spouse?

Do you spend less time exercising?

Do you even know what you used to do with the time you created to be online?

Please use your time online appropriately.

This means different things to each of us.

If relationships are being neglected, make changes.

If there are other projects that are being neglected, make changes.

One more point on this subject, and it's about giving.

These days, my kids are grown, getting married, making grandkids and doing the things I did 25 years ago.

My wife and I have more freedom with our time than we did years ago. Yes, we both work at least 5 days a week, but without kids we really enjoy being able to pick and choose what to do after hours.

One of the things I do is give of my time. Some of the organizations that I am involved with include the Fort Wayne Central Lions Club, The Anthony Wayne Area Council (Scouting), The Fort Wayne chapter of the American Advertising Federation, The Gus Macker Basketball tournament, The Three Rivers Festival, and a few other events and organizations as they come up.

We also attend a weekly worship service at our church and have launched a couple of businesses.

And just because our kids are in their 20's, doesn't mean we are not involved with them. Between last year and this year, we have 3 weddings, another college graduation, my stepson had a daughter, his third child; and my youngest and her husband are expecting their first child.

Everything that I'm aware of right now with our kids will be over by mid-August, but they will be replaced with new things.

I challenge you to keep a balance in your online and off-line lives, use the online world as a tool, not a replacement for life in the flesh.

Fear?

From the DLM Blog:

Overcoming the Fear of Success

Posted: 09 Jan 2011 07:31 AM PST

I've got a problem. At least, I used to. Success freaked me out. I thought I wanted to be successful, but I really didn't.

Oh, I'd think a lot about wanting to make more out of my life, to do something that filled me with passion and excitement, but I never bit the bullet and did it. You know why? I was scared I'd fail.

Failure, to me, meant saying I was going to do something publicly, trying to do it, and then not being able to do what I wanted to do. I've always been like this, for as long as I can remember.

As a matter of fact, one of the earliest memories I have is of me playing baseball. I was probably seven years old, maybe even younger than that. I loved baseball (still do), and I was pretty good at the fielding part. I played shortstop, which isn't a position where you can hide someone who's not very good. If you want to hide a seven year old, you send him to the outfield, so he can pick dandelions.

I was terrified of hitting, though. Not because I was scared of the ball; I just didn't want to hit the ball. I thought it would be the most embarrassing thing in the world to make an out in a critical situation. So, every time I went up to bat, I prayed for a walk. I honestly never swung once the entire season.

Naturally, I ended up striking out a lot. Same result as I would have gotten had I swung, without the opportunity to ever get a hit. That thought never crossed my mind, though.

Finally, the last game of the season, my dad finally said something to me. He realized what was going on, I think, and explained to me that I never had a chance to get a hit if I never swung the bat.

So, the last at bat I got in that game, I swung. And you know what?

I struck out. Again.

And I cried.

But, after the game was over, my dad told me he was really proud of me. And his words started to sink in. I realized I had to be willing to fail in order to succeed. To my young mind, this was a new thought; one I'd never really considered before.

Is this kind of situation playing out in your life?
Here I am now. I'm 32 years old, and I'm still scared of putting myself out there. I think it's natural for pretty much everyone. We think that, if we say the way we'd like things to be in our lives (whether it's professing love to someone, or admitting we're dissatisfied with our jobs, or wanting to go back to school when we're definitely past our college years), people will laugh at us. They'll beat us back into conformity with everyone else, and that won't feel good.

I once heard of an experiment that was done with a group of chimpanzees. These chimps were placed in an enclosure that had a pole in the center. On top of the pole was a platform that had a treat on it (bananas or something). Whenever one of the chimps would try to climb the pole to get at the treat, the researchers would hit the group of chimps on the ground with water from a hose. Eventually, if one would try to climb the pole, the others would grab it, to prevent the group from getting sprayed.

After a while, the researchers quit spraying the chimps. The chimps behavior, however, continued. They still kept anyone from climbing the pole. After a while, none of the chimps tried to climb the pole anymore.

Later, the researchers introduced a new chimp into the group, and removed one of the originals. The new chimp tried to climb the pole, and was instantly pulled back down by the group. After awhile, it quit trying to climb the pole, too.

New chimps were introduced one by one, and original chimps were removed. Eventually, all of the original chimps were gone. None of the chimps currently in the enclosure had ever been sprayed with water. Yet none of them ever tried to climb the pole, because each time they did, the group would pull them back down.

Think about that. None of the chimps even knew why they weren't supposed to climb the pole, yet they all enforced it just out of habit. Because that's the way it's always been.

People behave in the same way. If we try to do something extraordinary with our lives, and we tell people about it, we're worried we'll be ridiculed for it. Mocked and shamed into conformity. People tell us it can't be done, simply because they've never seen anyone do it before.

Well, I think it's time that it stopped. Thumb your nose at the rest of the chimps and climb the pole. Do what you want to do, and don't worry about what other people think.

These are the lessons that I've learned since that day I struck out in Little League:

1. Everyone's scared.
   No one has it all together. If you talk to any successful person, you'll find out that, not only were they scared to begin doing something different, they still get scared every time. It gets incrementally easier, but the fear never goes away. Professional athletes still get nervous before the game. Musicians still have butterflies in their stomachs before concerts. Authors freak out the night before their books are released. What you're feeling is no different that anyone else.
   
2. No one's paying attention to you.
   This is a corollary to lesson #1. People are so worried about how things are going for them they don't have time to be concerned about anyone else - especially you. Consequently, people spend time worrying about other people, who really have no time to worry about anyone else because they have problems of their own. See how silly this all is? Oh, sure. There are some people who are paying attention to you. But, they're usually your spouse or family or really close friends. The kinds of people are going to be supportive of you, anyway. That's a good kind of attention.
3. You have to know where you want to go.
   What's the old saying? “If you don't know where you're going, any road will do”, I believe is how it goes. You need to figure out what your dreams are for yourself. Once you've figured out what you want to do, you can put a plan together to achieve it.
   
   One of the things that always concerned me about goals was hearing all of these “self-help gurus” saying you have to set huge, aggressive, audacious goals for yourself. The implication was that if you don't dream big, you might as well not bother. That always put me off, because I've never wanted anything really big in my life. No huge mansions or Ferarris, no yacht in the Caribbean.
   
   I came to believe that everyone needs to start somewhere. If you have a lot of credit card debt that you want to get paid off, that's a fine dream. There's nothing wrong with your dream of a debt-free life. You don't have to want to build a multi-million dollar business in order to put the power of dreams to work for you. Just start dreaming, and however big or small they are is good enough for now.
4. Do what makes you happy, and don't worry about others.
   Obviously, you have to be smart about this. I'm not saying run out on responsibilities and obligations you have set for yourself. What I'm saying is that there are very few people in this world who's approval you should be after. Your spouse and kids, maybe your extended family's, if they're supportive; that's about it. If a person doesn't have a vested interest in your success, you can confidently disregard what they think about what you're choosing to do. The only way you can count your life as truly successful is if you're doing what you're meant to do, regardless of what society at large thinks of it.

It's taken me over 25 years to fully absorb the lesson my dad tried to pass on to me that day on the baseball diamond. I've finally started to put something out there to the world that's reflective of who I truly am, without shame or apology. And I'm finally happy with who I'm becoming. I'm pressing on to be a better person, and, even though it scares me every time I hit “publish”, I'm learning to enjoy the butterflies. Because I'm starting to be who I'm supposed to be.

Written on 5/26/2009 by Jason Barr. Jason writes for LDCL, a blog about Life Design and forming the habits necessary to reach your goals, whatever they may be. If you like what you just read, you can see more posts like it twice weekly by grabbing a subscription here. Republished on 1/9/2011.

Photo Credit: Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha

Movin' Forward

Sometimes instead of looking for another job, here's another approach from the DLM Blog:

How to Pursue Your Dreams – Despite the Day Job

Posted: 04 Nov 2010 11:46 AM PDT

You've got big dreams. Perhaps they're recent, or perhaps they've been simmering away at the back of your mind for years. Maybe you haven't started yet, or maybe you've already made a lot of progress.

The problem is, you've got a day job. You'd love to pursue your dreams full time – and you've read all the books and blogs about going after your passion – but you simply can't afford to. Maybe you wouldn't even want to.

The good news is, you don't have to quit your job to go after your dreams. You can work round it instead.

Setting Clear Goals
First, be clear about what you're trying to achieve. That doesn't need to mean setting yourself some detailed five year plan. It could just be:

• Aiming to spend some time each evening on your hobbies
  
• Gradually getting some experience in your dream career, perhaps by volunteering
  
• Visiting a different country every vacation
  
• Getting to the next stage with your music or art
  

It's so easy to let your dreams slip away. It's so easy to keep putting them on hold, hoping that you'll have more time next month ... next year ... once the kids are older.

By setting clear, achievable goals, you keep yourself focused.

Finding Your Best Time
I've been coaching some writers, and one common problem which comes up for those with a day job is finding a good time to write.

A lot of dreams require energy and commitment. They're not like cleaning out the garage – you have to have a certain amount of inspiration and mental clarity in order to get going.

To figure out your best time of day, experiment! Try working on your rock anthem first thing in the morning, or straight after you get home from work, or on a Sunday afternoon. What feels easiest and most natural for you?

Once you've found your best time of day, look for ways to fit your dream into it. That might mean getting a bit creative – perhaps swapping childcare with a friend, or negotiating slightly different work hours with your boss.

Getting Supporters to Cheer You On
In your day job, you've got a number of people with an interest in how you're getting on. Your boss, for instance, is definitely going to notice if you don't do any work for days on end. And your colleagues will be there to support you, to offer a sympathetic ear when things go wrong, or to answer questions.

When you're going after your own goals in your own time, it can feel like you're out on your own. Perhaps your partner doesn't really "get" your dream, or maybe your friends would laugh if you told them all about it.

Having support, though, makes a huge difference: it can keep you enthusiastic even when things aren't going well, and it can give you the motivation to carry on.

How about joining a group – in your local area, or online – that's devoted to your dream? Or finding just one person, perhaps a friend, who'll help you stay accountable?

Making the Most of Your Day Job
When your day job gets in the way of your dreams, it's easy to start feeling resentful. But you've made a commitment to your job (whether or not you enjoy it), and it's important to honor that commitment.

Sure, you might have a bit more time for your dreams if you came into work late every day, or pretended to be working while you were really reading about the new guitar you want to buy. But your work will probably suffer, your boss will probably notice, and you'll feel guilty about it.

Even if your day job is far from ideal, there's probably something you can gain from it. Maybe that's a good reference, experience, strong relationships with colleagues or greater self-discipline.

Whatever your dreams are – make time for them, and treat them seriously.

Written on 11/04/2010 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: tibchris

The Answer to Unemployment

from Drew:

Use word of mouth to score your next job

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 12:16 PM PST

Word of mouth sells products and services every day. In fact, 67% of consumers say that WOM is the #1 influencer of their buying decisions.

Why would work any differently when someone is "buying" a new employee?

Here's how you can amplify some word of mouth for your next job search.

I end up having coffee with many people looking for work. They might have been fired, downsized or are a college graduate just starting out. They're looking for someone to run their resume by, someone who might be able to help them make connections and often, just someone to listen. (I have some specific advice I give college kids but I'll save that for another post.)

I try to offer them as much help as I can. One thing I always do is describe what I believe is the surefire way to find your next job. I've seen it work every time someone has tried it. But it requires some work and discipline. Which is why most people never bother with it.

And why many of them are still looking for work.

If you're serious about finding the next job -- follow these instructions and then watch what happens.

1. Make a list of 100 or so people (you will need email and phone numbers) that you believe would want you to succeed. This might be family, friends, former co-workers, professional group colleagues, neighbors and the people you know from the PTA, gym, church or softball league.

In other words, think long and wide. Ideally, they should all either live where you want to work or be wired into the industry you want to be a part of. If you are looking for a job in your hometown of Chicago, your cousin in Houston isn't as good a choice as your next door neighbor. Unless he's connected. Then, keep him on the list.

2. Write an email that basically says:

I am looking for my next job and I am trying to build an army of people who will help me find that new job by making introductions, sharing their knowledge of companies and people, keeping their ear to the ground, etc.

If you'd be willing to be a part of my team, I promise I will not abuse your kindness and that I will pay it forward by helping others when they ask down the road. My plan to to send you one update email per week.

In this email, I will include any meetings, interviews, ads answered and other activity done that week. I will also share what I have on my to do list for the following week. All I ask is that you read the email and if you know any of the people or companies and can put in a good word - you do.

Would you be willing to get this weekly email from me and help if you can?

3. Wait for replies and based on the yeahs or nays you get -- build your mailing list. Most people, if you choose wisely, will say yes and be genuinely glad to help.

Send them your updated resume and a detailed description of the type of job you are seeking. Be candid about your strengths and weaknesses. Help them help you.

4. On the following Friday morning, compose and send your first email. Include:

• Coffees/meetings held
• Interviews
• Phone contacts made
• Ads answered/jobs applied for
• Interviews set up for the following week
• People you are trying to make contact with
• Any specific things you need help with (review the resume, mock interview practice, etc.)
• And then, send it on it's way and let the army go to work.

If you are going to employ this tactic, you absolutely MUST send an email every week. Share the good weeks and the bad. This isn't the place to whine, complain or gossip.

This is not your diary, where you can air all the emotions that come with a job search. This is a top line report of your efforts. Nothing more or less.

If you activate this job search army, you will be amazed at their reach and their willingness to help you. Be respectful of their time, be humble and say thank you often to those who help.

Most important - once you land that next job, remember your promise to pay it forward.

Note: I am not negating LinkedIn, Facebook, or any other social media tool. When you're looking for a job -- it's all hands on deck. But there is something very powerful, affirming and effective about mobilizing a team of people who truly can get you past the gatekeepers and onto a short list of candidates.

Word of mouth sells products and services every day. In fact, 67% of consumers say that WOM is the #1 influencer of their buying decisions. Why do you think it would work any differently when someone is "buying" a new employee?

Working for the Weekend?

I enjoy my work. I really do.

It's not a 9 to 5 job, there is no time clock and I work a few weekends and put in time in the evening too.

My to do list for next week, is the one form of paperwork I turn in every Friday by 4pm.

Out of 15 things, usually at least half get pushed off until the next week, as new things pop up and take their place.

Tim Miles has some advice for us from his blog this week:

How To Have A Better Weekend

Posted: 12 Nov 2010 05:46 AM PST

Before you call it a weekend, tie up a loose end.

Or grab the scissors and cut it off.

Fix something that needs fixed.

That monotonous little project that you’ve been pushing back from one day to the next on your to-do list for days/weeks/months?

Do it.

You know which one I’m talking about. Give yourself permission to get closure.

Lighten your mental load.

That call you haven’t made? Make it.

That thing you haven’t written? Write it.

That noun you haven’t verbed? Verb it.

Give your mental health that gift before you call it a weekend.

Do it. Before noon, please.

I’ll do the same.

Have a great weekend.

Related posts:

1. Are You A Gift Artist?
2. Productivity jumpstart? Reboot your office.
3. Scheduling, Previewing, and Practice

The New World Order

This used to be a term used for a conspiracy theory leading to a unified, one world government.

However I'm applying it to a new way of doing things that didn't exist in my parents lifetime.

Seth Godin posted this on his blog:

A post-industrial A to Z digital battledore

New times demand new words, because the old words don't help us see the world differently.

Along the way, I've invented a few, and it occurs to me that sometimes I use them as if you know what I'm talking about. Here, with plenty of links, are 26 of my favorite neologisms (the longest post of the year, probably):

A is for Artist: An artist is someone who brings humanity to a problem, who changes someone else for the better, who does work that can't be written down in a manual. Art is not about oil painting, it's about bringing creativity and insight to work, instead of choosing to be a compliant cog. (from Linchpin).

B is for Bootstrapper: A bootstrapper is someone who starts a business with no money and funds growth through growth. The internet has made bootstrapping much easier than ever, because the costs of creating and marketing remarkable things are cheaper than ever. It's really important not to act like you're well-funded if you're intent on bootstrapping (and vice versa). You can read the Bootstrapper's Bible for free.

C is for Choice: I didn't coin the term the Long Tail, but I wish I had. It describes a simple law: given the choice, people will take the choice. That means that digital commerce enables niches. Aggregating and enabling the long tail accounts for the success of eBay, iTunes, Amazon, Craigslist, Google and even match.com.

D is for Darwin: Things evolve. But evolution is speeding up (and yes, evolving). While it used to take a hundred thousand years for significant changes to happen to our physical culture, the nature of information and a connected society means that 'everything' might change in just a few months. Ideas that spread, win and organizations that learn from their mistakes lead the rest of us. (from Survival is Not Enough)

E is for Edgecraft: Brainstorming doesn't work so well, because most people are bad at it. They're bad at it because their lizard brain takes over moments before a big idea is uttered. "Oh no!" it says, "I better not say that because if I do, then I'll have to do it." And so brainstorming quickly becomes clever stalling and timewasting. Far better is to practice edgegraft. Someone announces a direction ("we'll be really convenient, we'll offer our menu by fax,") and then the next person goes closer to that edge, topping it, ("we'll offer it by email!") and so on, each topping the other in any particular direction. (from the book Free Prize Inside)

F is for the Free Prize: People often don't buy the obvious or measured solution to their problem, they buy the extra, the bonus, the feeling and the story. The free prize is the layout of Google--the search results are the same, but the way the search feels is why you choose to search there. If engineers thought more about the free prize, we'd need fewer marketers.

G is for Go go go™: I just trademarked this one, but you have my permission to use it all you like. Go go go is the mantra of someone who has committed to defeating their anxiety and ignoring their lizard brain. Not a good strategy for airline pilots, but for the rest of us, a little Go go go might be just the ticket.

H is for broken: Isn't it just like a marketer to compromise when he should have organized better in the first place? There's a lot in our consumer society that's broken, but try to avoid getting obsessed with it. Far better to ship your own stuff that's not broken instead.

I is for Ideavirus: A decade ago a wrote a book that was free. It still is. It argues that ideas that spread win, and you can architect and arrange and manipulate your ideas to make them more likely to spread. Note that I'm not saying you can add gimmicks and spam and networking to spread your idea. I'm saying the idea itself is more or less likely to spread based on how you design it.

J is for just looking: When there's plenty of choice and everything is a click away, I'm very unlikely to take action, certainly unlikely to actually buy something from you. I'll do it tomorrow. Or the day after. Which means the only way you create action is to produce an emergency. Why now? Why not later...

K is for kindle: No, not the ebook reader. Kindle as in patiently starting a fire. The TV era demanded blockbuster launches of blockbuster products aimed at the masses. The internet responds better to bonfires that are kindled over time, to ideas that spread because the idea itself is the engine, not the hype or the promotion. First, ten.

L is for Lizard Brain: This is a huge impediment to getting what you want, finding your calling and satisfying your customers. The lizard brain is near your brain stem, including your amygdala. It's the part of your brain responsible for anger, revenge, fear, anxiety and reproduction. It's the original brain, the one that wild animals possess. Steve Pressfield has named the voice of the lizard: it's the resistance. The resistance rationalizes, hides and sabotages your best work.

M is for Meatball Sundae: This is the unfortunate combination of traditional products and services (designed for low price and good quality) with the high-growth nature of the idea-driven internet. When your boss tells you to build a viral campaign about some lame product gathering dust in the warehouse, she's asking you to build a meatball sundae and you should flee.

N is for NOBS: Otherwise known as the new order business school. My rant about this points out that for most people, a traditional MBA is a waste of both time and money. The two biggest benefits--the selection process of getting in, and the social process of networking--could be accomplished, in a Swiftian fashion, without any classes at all.

O is for Orangutan: I could have used the word 'monkey', but I already had an M listing, plus I love the way you spell Orangutan. Anyway, the primate is the best way to think about how people interact with websites. They're like monkeys in a psychology experiment, looking for the banana. Where's the banana, they ask? Of course, I don't know the monkey word for banana, so I'm paraphrasing. If your website offers a banana, people are going to click on it. If they don't, they'll leave. My argument for banana design is in The Big Red Fez.

P is for Permission: Anticipated, personal and relevant messages will always outperform spam. Obvious, but true. So then why do you persist in spamming people? Billboards, TV ads, phone calls--they all are defeated soundly by delivering your offers with permission. In fact, the biggest asset a company can build online is this privilege, the list of people who would miss you if you didn't show up. Here's the original interview (12 years ago!) in Fast Company.

Q is for Quitting: Sticking things out is overrated, particularly if you stick out the wrong things. In fact, I think you'd be much better off quitting most of what you do so you have the resources to get through the hard slog I call the Dip... The challenge, then is to not quit in the Dip, but instead to quit everything else so you have the focus to get through the slog of what matters.

R is for Remarkable: A purple cow is remarkable, because it's worth talking about. Not because you, the marketer said it was, but because I the consumer did. And in a world without effective, scalable advertising, remarkable products and services are the single best way to succeed. Here's a long essay from seven years ago.

S is for Sneezer: What do we call someone who spreads an idea the way some people spread a virus? Seek them out, cater to them, organize them.

T is for Tribe: Human beings evolved to be attracted to tribes. Groups of like-minded people who share a culture, a connection and perhaps a goal. And each of these tribes seeks leadership. The opportunity for marketers today isn't to sell more average stuff to more average people. The opportunity is to find and connect and lead tribes of people, taking them somewhere they want to go.

U is for Ululate: Not because it's relevant, just because it's the single best word in the English language. Can I sneak an extra C? The cliff business.

V is for Very good: No one cares about very good. I can get very good from just about anyone, and certainly cheaper than I can get it from you. We don't have a competence shortage, not any more. No, I'm only going to pay extra for the personal, the magical, the artistic and the work of the linchpin.

W is for Worldview: I first encountered this term via George Lakoff. Your worldview is the set of expectations and biases you bring to a situation before any new data appears. Some people hear a politician say something and hate it, while others are thrilled by it. Is it the thing that was said or the person who said it? Some people hear that Apple is about to launch a new product and they get out their wallets, others flee--before they even know what it is. If you don't understand the worldview of the people you're selling to, you will fail.

X is for Xebec: I hate it when A-to-Z listmakers cheap out on the X. Hey, a xebec is a three-masted schooner. And they're obsolete. Just like CDs, newspapers and a whole host of interesting but dated business models. Sorry. Imagine someone saying: "He's a nice guy, but that company he works for is a xebec."

Y is for You. You the artist. You the one who makes a difference. You the one who stands for something and now has the leverage (and access to the market) to actually ship. Go go go.™

Z is for Zoometry: Originally a term from zoology (pronounced zo-ology, in case you were curious), zoometry is the science of instigating and learning from change. This is the revolution of our time, the biggest one in history, and it's not just about silly videos on Youtube. One by one, industry by industry, the world is being remade again and again, and the agents of change are the winners.