Things I’ve Learned about Business from Hiking
Summer is THE time to get your hike on in the Pacific Northwest. The rest of the year is pretty good for hiking too, but summer days are often clear and have the best views.
Like all great plans for fun they seem to take a back seat to other plans. As such… my son …
Building Your Personal Brand When Things Go Wrong
Corporate and personal brand building is easy on sunny days when everything is proceeding on schedule.
This is true, whether you’re an employee, a self-employed professional, or a huge corporation–like one of the largest airlines in the world.
The real test of a brand’s commitment to brand building customer service is when everything goes wrong…like …
5 Soft Skills to Emphasize in Your Brand
In job search materials like a resume and cover letter, we tend to focus a lot of our attention on including the hard skills listed in the job description. We want to prove we can do the job, so we focus on the hard skills more than anything else. The problem with this logic is …
Why Women Falter In the Face of Opportunity
PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ chairman and senior partner Bob Moritz was sent to Japan, after a slow start in his career at the firm. It was about six years into his tenure, and he really did not want to go. When he arrived, he had a difficult time even trying to fit in with his Japanese colleagues. Everything …
The Optimistic vs Pessimistic Job Applicant
There are two ways to look at life, one’s job search and the inevitable interviewing rejection each job seeker incurs. The first is to imagine the worst and be prone to depression when we encounter each roadblock. The second is to look at interviewing rejection as a temporary setback and to leverage that disappointment into …
Easy to Imagine, Hard to Achieve
I saw a picture of someone “Hanging 10” on a surfboard today and it got me thinking. Thinking about how fun that would be to do. Also realizing how hard it is to actually do it.
I’ve been surfing since I was a kid and I know how hard it is to hang 5, let …
Job Seeker “Employment Date Codes”
I like milk. For my entire life I have purchased it based upon the date code on the carton. The assumption is that the later the date code, the fresher the milk. You have date codes, too. Few people talk about them, but they can have major effects on your employability. Let me explain what …
How to Overcome Obstacles As You Advance Forward
The entrepreneurial mindset is known as one that embraces change, as well as learning how to incorporate change into one’s life. Those who fall into this category, many times, have difficulty relating with others who do not embrace this philosophy. Generally speaking, change frightens most people. Consequently, most people will not be your supportive friend.…
Why You’re Nobody’s Hero. Yet.
In Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, real estate entrepreneur Bruce Norris inadvertently describes two heroic moments. He describes them respectively, as 1) a harrowing lesson and 2) his worst mistake. How’s that for putting you on the edge of your seat?
Now that he’s got our attention, let’s go with number one. What was his harrowing …
Reacting, Responding and the Power to Know the Difference
Earlier this summer I decided to re-visit some books I read years ago about the revolutionary era, and the Founding Fathers that led the charge for independence in the United States.
I believe they were extraordinary men (and some women) during an extraordinary time in world history that continues to offer us many lessons we …