In his book What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell titles one especially worthwhile chapter "The New-Boy Network." According to Gladwell, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a speech to former Microsoft interns and a young man posed an astute question to Ballmer. After that talk, Ballmer asked this college senior for his e-mail address.
I ran my first marathon after my fiftieth birthday. I've run nine more since then, including the New York and Boston marathons. I'm proud of that fact for a number of reasons, not because I ever came anywhere close to finishing first, but that I finished them all.
Gordon Dean was an American lawyer and prosecutor whose distinguished career was fairly typical for Washington types. He went to work for the Justice Department under President Franklin Roosevelt, taught in the law schools at Duke University and the University of Southern California. He was appointed as one of the original commissioners of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1949 by President Harry Truman, eventually becoming its chairman from 1950-53.
So there's this new guy/gal, older than most entry-level employees, who shows up at your workplace one day and wants to learn the ropes. A little unusual, you think, but you train the person to do your job and explain why what you do is important to the company.That's the premise of one of the hottest new reality shows on television.
Disagreements happen. You can't always get your way. Everyone has an opinion. There are two sides to every argument.
When you're dealing with family or friends, you expect to have differences of opinion. Perhaps you are willing to fight for your views and what's important to you. And often, because of the personal relationships you have, you find a way to work things out.
In the State of the Union address, President Obama declared our national economic agenda "begins with jobs." So does mine. I'm dedicating myself to a 30-day, nationwide tour to launch my newest book Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You.
Use Your Head is loaded with silver bullets. I even enlisted the help of readers of this column. They delivered great tips ranging from networking-your-way-to-work to tapping multi-skills for a totally new career.
In Greek mythology, Pandora opened her fabled box and let out all evils except for hope, which Greeks considered to be as dangerous as the world's other evils. Soon they discovered that without hope to offset their troubles, humanity was filled with despair. So Pandora let out hope as well. In the myth, hope was more potent than any of the other major evils.
In ancient Greece, Alcibiades was telling Pericles how Athens should be governed. Annoyed by the young man's tone and manner, Pericles said, "Son, when I was your age, I talked just the way you are talking."
Alcibiades looked Pericles in the face and replied, "How I should like to have known you when you were at your best."
I'm having a fabulous time on my tour promoting my new book, Use Your Head To Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You. I've been meeting folks with so many stories that I could write another book on the challenges of today's job market.
As any successful person will honestly admit, I've had my share of failures. Since this column is limited to 750 words, I won't bore you with the details!
But from every failure I have learned an equally valuable lesson. The first lesson I learn is that there was at least one reason I failed. The second lesson I learn is that I can rebound from that failure.
According to Shiv Khera, author of "You Can Win," failures most often occur for one of the following seven reasons:
