You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2007.
I’ve seen quite a few of these in the recent past, but school doesn’t let out until June in my area, so I thought I would wait till now. The following is my address to this year’s High School and College graduating classes.
I’d like to congratulate you all today. You have finished the really hard part, the part where your choices were made for you, where you really had no freedom. I know many people will tell you that you will eventually look back at the last few years as the best days of your life. I think that’s utter crap! The best day of your life is tomorrow.
Tomorrow holds the promise that everything you have ever experienced, through today, has meaning and purpose. Tomorrow is never ending. Tomorrow, the world is yours.
But having the world comes with some conditions. You’ve seen the generations that have come before you destroy what was given to them. You see that there are generations after you who are looking to see how you will handle the responsibility. Here are some tips to make sure that someday, you can give a better place to those waiting in the shadows.
1. Learn something new every day. Once you stop learning, you limit your potential.
2. Say something positive to someone different every day. It’s easy to say nice things to your friends and loved ones. Being a friend is enough for them. For everyone else, you have to make an effort.
3. Every day is a clean slate. Never carry any anger, resentment, hostility, or grudges into the new day. Very few things are really that important, but having a good life certainly is.
4. Only apologize to strangers. Your friends don’t need it, your enemies won’t believe it, but strangers haven’t yet made up their mind.
5. Find the “right thing” to do, and do it. Do it again.
6. Save money when you can. Spend money when you have to.
7. Sleep in late no more than once a week. Enjoy the opportunities to do so.
8. Wake up early whenever you are able to. Enjoy the quiet. Don’t do anything during this time until you have to.
9. Make at least one person laugh every day. Start with the easy ones, but work your way up to the most miserable person you know.
10. Never settle. Never give in. Never give up. Never think that “good enough” is.
One last thing. Don’t repeat the mistakes we have made. In many cases, there is no, one, right answer. Listen to other opinions, and make the decision that is right for you, but don’t assume that your right answer has to be someone else’s.
Congratulations to the class of 2007!
Okay, I’ll admit that the title is for effect, but the other day I was talking to one of my old bosses, and we were chatting about the good old days. It seems that since I left the place, sales have gone down, productivity has suffered, and people just don’t seem to be having fun like they used to be. Some of that she attributed to me, but some of it is just because they don’t make good salespeople like they used to.
She told me something that really struck a nerve: she said that the biggest thing she is missing is the stark naked ambition that I had when I was there. See, I went, in a very short period of time, from being a part-time teller all the way up to Operations Manager. I never hid the fact that I wanted to move up in the company, I took stupid chances (luckily most of them paid off!), and I was fiercely dedicated to the company. She told me that I forced her to be better. She came in after I had already been there a while, and when she got there, she thought it was going to be a zero stress job.
She was shocked that I took the initiative to do things like automating some management functions, establish a training program and schedule, and establish goals for the rest of the staff. She had seen similar projects at bigger institutions, but she didn’t believe that these things would work in a smaller setting. She confided that there were several times when she felt that she was competing for the job, and that she felt the company did better for it.
I told her about F4Y, and she made me promise to teach young people the importance of working at a job every day as if you were auditioning, or could be let go any day. I never thought of it that way, I just really wanted to do well, and I really wanted the company to succeed.
The truth of the matter is, I know that many of you who work do so in jobs that you don’t want to be your career. You are planning on enjoying life, and putting in the extra effort just doesn’t fit in with your plans. I get it. But I will say that you will enjoy much more success at work if you have the ambition to do well. Even if you don’t like the company, consider that every day at work is an audition for your next employer. I could talk for days about people who were given incredible opportunities just because they worked hard at the most menial of jobs.
Call it stark naked ambition, call it strong work ethic, or call it bull-goose stupidity, but this is definitely an attribute you need to have if you want to succeed in the workplace.
advice, that is. I figure that’s about the value of the advice I’ve received from people over my lifetime. I’m not just talking about money, jobs, or even finance. My waife and I were having this conversation earlier in the week, and I honestly believe that the people who have influenced me to become who I am today have had such an impact over so many aspects of my life that its about time I pointed them out.
Mom and Dad– Goes without saying. They were so important in the formative years. I remember that we had a set of encyclopedias (anyone still remember those?), and from a very young age, my mom used to make me put them in order. She would move them while cleaning, and have me put them back. This taught me letters at a very early age, and this jump-started my love for reading. My dad taught me many lessons about doing one’s best to be the best. At the time, I thought he was just bragging about how good he was at his job, but when we talk today, he was using my competitive nature to inspire me to to better.
My Eighth Grade English Teacher– She was a miserable, bitter, old woman. She was the first teacher that ever taught me that just knowing the right answer wasn’t enough. She almost failed me because I never wanted to go through the process, instead skipping ahead to the end result. This is a lesson that I’ve had to learn several times.
My High School Physics Teacher– Okay, so some of the things he did weren’t “technically legal”, but he taught me to look for answers no matter how crazy they seemed. He also taught me that it was okay to try and figure out the unfigurable (is that even a word??), as long as I kept trying to expand my horizons.
My High School Drama Teacher– When I wasn’t such a great kid, she and my Physics teacher believed in me. She fought against me being screwed over by a really over-eager pincipal. It cost her her job, and I never got to thank her.
The CEO of that one credit union I worked at– He was a good guy. He showed me ways of looking at work that really stuck with me. I eventually got fired from the place, but he gave me the advice to take the firing like a gentleman, learn from my mistakes, and never repeat them.
The CEO of that other credit union I worked at– He never gave advice that was particularly useful, but he was one of those rare characters who actually believed whole-heartedly everything he said. He used to make it a point to say good morning to me every day, and would go out of his way so we would interact. I left his company because the people under him were incompetent and lacked honor. Too bad they couldn’t learn from his example.
My wife– More than advice (which she also gives), she gave me inspiration to just get off my ass and do it. Whatever it was. She and I differ on a lot of things, but we both share the dedication to do something right.
I’m sure there are a lot more people that have influenced me, but these people shaped me. This brings me to the present. When I talk to young people, I try to think that I might be one of those people who will someday influence them. It is of the utmost importance that I influence people in a positive manner. If I do my job, then there will be a new generation that will be influenced to also do the right thing. I think we got away from that for years as a society. Or maybe we just don’t know how to get from the right idea to the right action. If there is one piece of advice that I can give you that will be worth “$1,000,000.00″, I would say to make sure that whatever you do in life, make sure you do good, and to make sure that you can influence one person in your life to also do good. As the good action spreads, you will see that life is so much more fulfilling than money could ever make it.
I got more than a few emails about yesterday’s post, so I thought it might be a good idea to talk about it.
Some people have, or think they have the entrepreneurial spirit. They feel that the only way for them to succeed in life or in business is to become their own boss. This belief is strengthened by several PF “professionals” who say the same thing in books, blogs, TV appearances, etc. They may do this for several reasons, such as believing they have an idea for the “next great thing”, or they may have difficulty holding down a traditional job and believe the only remedy is for them to work for themselves. There are several other reasons, and each of them is equally valid, but that’s not the point.
Others, don’t like the risk that comes with going into business for one’s self. I fall into that group a lot. I don’t have a mad-on for business, or even my boss. I may disagree with the way they do things, and I quite frequently know about something that has proven to be better than the current way of thinking, and that’s okay. Some people believe that this knowledge makes me the perfect candidate to start my own business, but I personally believe it makes me a better perspective employee for future employers.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to be an entrepreneur. Some people thrive as long as they work for someone else. Whatever decision you make on the subject, do yourself a favor and make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. If you choose not to be an entrepreneur, here’s my 10 random tips to help you with that.
1. Do everything to the best of your ability. If you are going to do something, there is no reason to do less than 100%.
2. Learn from everyone! No matter how stupid someone is generally, they can still teach you something– even if its how not to do something.
3. Stay away from office politics. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it many times over. There are people out there who will be better than you at the games.
4. If someone above you asks a question, always answer it, even if it gets someone else in trouble. Whoever gets in trouble should have thought about that before hand.
5. Never show up late. Never leave early.
6. If possible, try and be the first one there, and the last one to leave at the end of your shift. Make sure you are always working, but don’t go into overtime unless your boss asks you.
7. Always act with honor and integrity.
8. Don’t ever show up to work drunk, hung-over, or stoned.
9. Remember that most people will have more experience than you. Show some respect to these people.
10. Don’t be afraid to not know everything. Feel free to ask questions or for help. Never let your ego control your career.
If you have others, you know what to do!
-W
Being a successful entrepreneur takes a lot of work. Everybody knows that. Every book on the subject pretty much says the same thing, but they don’t seem to give any specifics.
Over the past few days, I’ve been in contact with several young people who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. They’ve asked for some advice, and I think it is important enough to go into some detail here.
1. You HAVE TO do something you are interested in. Not doing so is an invitation to failure. To give you an example, my wife likes to cook. She’s really good at it too. She could easily make a living cooking, but for her, cooking is a way to get hot food into her belly– not a way to get hot money into her account.
2. You have to understand that being an entrepreneur takes more than not being able to hold down a job. Look, I’ve been fired a lot. I’ve said it before, and I’m not ashamed of it. Does that make me a good entrepreneur? No. It makes me a difficult employee. There is a difference.
3. You have to have a plan. I used to dream about getting a bunch of old cars, fixing them up, and renting them at a premium. Sounds pretty cool, right? That was the end of my plan. Get cars, fix them, rent them. With that type of plan, all I would end up with is a lot of used cars sitting in my driveway.
4. You have to do a lot of research. This kind of dove-tails in with the last one, but its true. You have to know the ins and outs of whatever business you think you want to start. You have to understand the trends, what has worked for other companies, and what other companies are missing. Without that, you are forced to learn by mistake, and that is a pricey way to learn anything.
5. Become an expert. When others look to you for advice on something, you have to make sure that the answers you are giving are right, all the time. It doesn’t cut it for you to say to a paying customer, “oops”. At the end of the day, whatever you do, your reputation is what you are selling. Make sure you have a good one.
6. Learn as much as you can about whatever it is that you want to do. I like to read books, but that doesn’t mean I can run a bookstore. I want to someday own a bookstore, so I took a few years to work at some successful bookstores and learned the business from the inside. Someday, I might get that bookstore, and I can assure you it will be successful, because I took some time to learn how to make certain.
7. You have to be willing to go hungry. When you start a business, it won’t be successful right off the bat. That’s okay. This is one of those long-term investments. For this reason, I don’t suggest people go into business for themselves unless one of two things are true: Either you are financially set, and can afford to live without a paycheck for a while, or you are willing to scale back your efforts temporarily, working full-time at a job while you slowly build up your own business to the point where you can afford to do it full time. That’s what F4Y is, something I do OUTSIDE my normal day-to-day job. When I’m ready, I stop doing the day-to-day, and focus 100% on F4Y.
8. Prepare to go without a lot of sleep. I spend at least 8 hours a day at work. I spend 3-5 hours a day working on school. I have a wife and family that I like to devote as much time as possible to. Figure out sleeping time, and time where I am doing something else that I have to do (stuff around the house, family I don’t like spending time with, etc.) and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for anything else. So I have to find the time to do the things that are important to me.
9. Focus on doing things with integrity and honor. No matter what it is you choose to do, if you don’t have integrity and honor, you will never derive any real benefit or sense of accomplishment from doing it.
10. Always understand what you want to accomplish, and why. I never want to get to the point where I am so successful that I no longer have time to spend with the people I love. I also never want to be successful at the expense of my own well-being. When that becomes an issue (and it has), I have to make some hard decisions about what is more important to me– success or happiness. My wife is there to make sure I never lose sight of that.
I’m sure there are many more things, but 10 seems like a good starting number. If you have others, let’s discuss:
