A Practical Guide For The Recently Unemployed

It has happened to virtually all of us at one point or another in our career - we find ourselves unemployed one day. Sometimes it comes as a shock, and sometimes, we probably saw it coming, but either way, it never gets any easier. But, if I have learned one thing over the decades, it is that each time we find ourselves unemployed, we have actually been handed an amazing opportunity to better our careers and ourselves.

Three years ago today, I found myself in just that spot and I used what life threw at me that day as a catalyst to improve a number of things in my life, including my career path. I’m not saying that I have all the answers, nor am I saying that my advice is the only advice you should listen to when you find yourself unemployed one morning, but I thought I would compile the lessons I learned being let go to perhaps help someone else out there who ends up in the same situation.

So, take a deep breath, know that everything is going to be OK, and whether you were let go from your job today, last month, or know that it might be just around the corner, I hope at least some part of my experience will help you on your journey.

Click here to read A Practical Guide For The Recently Unemployed.

Don't Be A Rhino At Work

Are you a rhino at work? Do your coworkers reference bulls and china shops in the same sentence when they describe what it is like to work with you?

Now, when I say rhino, I’m not talking about you physically storming through the halls, leaving twisted and mangled bodies in your wake, but I am talking about how you treat and speak to the people with whom you work.

Granted, some of us are more soft spoken, or out spoken, than others, and some of us are more imposing, or less imposing, but I am specifically talking about those individuals who time and time again end up rubbing their coworkers the wrong way and leave the rest of us marveling at what they just said, how they just handled a given situation, and more so, at how they just do not recognize the intimidation, uneasiness, and generally unwelcome environment that circles around them as they storm through the office.

The best way to tell if you are a rhino at work is to listen to yourself when engaged in conversation with your colleagues, your bosses, and your subordinates. There should not be stark differences in the tone and intensity of your conversations between the three. The same voice and tone you use for your bosses is the same voice and tone you should use for your colleagues and your subordinates. 

Also, look around at others in the office when you are engaged in conversation. Are people purposely looking away, looking down at their desks, or trying very hard to avoid eye contact with you? Are people shaking their heads or shifting uncomfortably in their chairs? Your office conversations should not make people who overhear them feel uncomfortable or uneasy, nor should they make people not want to work with you.

I know it can’t all be roses and sunshine at work, but your coworkers deserve to be treated fairly, reasonably, and with respect. People should not have to endure conversations that make them feel belittled or intimidated. There is just no place for this type of behavior in today’s business environment.

So, be sure to listen to yourself and take note of the reactions of those around you when you are engaged in conversation with people at work. By doing so, you can make sure that you are not your office’s rhino.

Photo by Casey Allen via Pexels

Remember To Reward Yourself

When the conditions are just right on a Sunday morning – cooler temperatures and, even better, a cloudy day during one of the Non-Summer months – at 8:00 AM, you will find my wife and I walking through the turnstiles, just about to head up to catch the monorail into Disneyland via Downtown Disney. This Sunday morning ritual that we try to undertake at least once a month for nine months out of the year is one of the most enjoyable non-working experiences of my life these days.

Once inside the park, we undertake a loosely standardized regiment that consists of a good amount of walking, a number of our favorite rides, and thanks to the off-time and early morning, not a lot of standing in line. A normal Sunday sees us head right to Small World, followed by stints at Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, the Rivers of America boat ride as well as Star Tours. Sometimes we deviate and walk along Main Street or head over to walk at California Adventure, occasionally going on a ride or two on that side instead.

Usually by 11:00 AM, the park has filled up a bit and the clouds have either burned off and/or the temperature has increased enough that we’ve had our fill and are ready to move on to our next activity. Sometimes we have lunch at Downtown Disney, sometimes we have breakfast in the park, and we were even known to pay the inflated cost for the all-you-can-eat BBQ at Big Thunder Ranch before it was closed to make way for Star Wars Land. And while you may think this is some attempt for us to relive our childhoods, it is, in fact, almost the opposite. Our childhoods didn’t involve a lot of trips to Disneyland – definitely many fewer trips than we see kids in our neck of the woods making these days.

See, if I can make it to Disneyland nine times in the course of a year, in that year, I will have walked through the gates into the theme park more times than I did in the first 18 years of my life. While I am forever grateful for all of the people who worked hard and sacrificed to make those trips over the course of my first 18 years possible, the true bliss of these Sunday morning walks and rides is the sense of accomplishment we feel in the fact that we can now go there so often.

I whole-heartedly believe it is important for each of us to work hard and accomplish as much as we can to benefit not only ourselves but also those around us. It is important for each of us to discover what we have to offer an industry, a market and/or an employer, as well as the people in our lives. But I also feel it is just as important for us to take a step back every once in a while, put down all the electronic devices, and do something that allows us to feel rewarded for all of that hard work. These Sunday morning trips to Disneyland are just one of the little rewards we give ourselves over the course of the year.

I encourage each of you to not only work hard and find your niche in this world, but to also find something you can do to reward yourself for those accomplishments in a meaningful way. Find something that not only brings you joy, but also provides motivation to keep up the hard work – the motivation to keep driving yourself forward to surpass even more of your goals. Always remember that while hard work and dedication is paramount to your success, if you don’t take the moments to enjoy the fruits of your success, then you just might miss the point of all of that hard work. 

Photo by William L. Savastano

The Opportunity In Being Let Go

It is a sound that I will always remember - the wheels of my big desk chair as it rolled noisily along the concrete floor of the big, open office space. The sound echoed off of the concrete walls and rows of glass desks. It was funny watching the little heads pop up from their desks and monitors, almost like gophers popping their heads up out of the ground for a look as everyone in the room sought to discover what was making that annoying sound.

It was just me, wheeling my big office chair out of the office for the last time. I’d boxed up the few things I kept at work and all that was left was to wheel my chair, my box and my printer to the car and drive away for the last time.

In American corporate culture, we’re supposed to walk out quietly, move on, and then never speak of these final walks out of a place of employment again, even pretend they never happened. We have all experienced them at some point, though, and if I accomplish one thing by continually writing about them, I hope it will be to assure each and every one of you that experiences something like this that the ending of a job truly offers amazing potential when it comes to taking your career and life to the next level.

One such opportunity that is presented to us when a job ends is the chance to expand our personal network. We meet a lot of amazing people at each job, so each time we leave one and start another, we stand the chance of meeting an entirely new set of amazing folks while still being able to stay in contact with the people from the job we have just left. Add in the fact that you will also secure  some valuable contacts while conducting your job search, and there’s some extra icing on that cake.

So, the next time you are walking out of a place of employment for the last time, just remember to hold your head high and smile, knowing that great things are about to happen for you. The potential to improve so many things you have wanted to improve is the greatest at that point in time. To be cliché, the world is yours to shape and mold as you wish on that day. Don’t forget to enjoy the feeling of freedom, then get right to work finding that next opportunity and ensuring it is your best opportunity yet.

As for me, one of the most amazing things about the day I wheeled that big office chair out of that echoing, big concrete and glass office and down to my car was the fact that I did not wheel that chair out alone. I was flanked by people who were now not only former co-workers, but life-long acquaintances that will always share the memories of our time there together, and the memory of that funny time William noisily wheeled his big office chair out of the place on his last day.

On that last day, when that window closes, just remember that the biggest door in the world has been opened for you – a door that leads to limitless potential.

Hard Work vs. Panhandling

I know in today’s modern, progressive American society where every child gets a trophy and they are all “#1”, we’re not supposed to compare people to each other, but I recently experienced two very different spectrums of humanity over the course of a week that I just had to share.

As many of you know, we have been involuntarily re-piping all of the water pipes in our house thanks to the perfect combination of the bureaucracy that put way too much crap in the water that comes into our house and the regulatory bodies that made it perfectly legal to build my house with only the second highest grade of five possible quality grades of copper pipe. Naturally, corrosive water and cheap pipes resulted in an unbelievable amount of water leaks in our neighborhood, including six in my home over the course of a year.

As part of this re-pipe project, during a walk-through by the construction company overseeing the work crews, I was instructed to cover just about everything in the entire house in plastic tarps to save it from being covered in a very fine, but very difficult to remove layer of drywall dust. We took all the pictures off the walls, boxed up every knick-knack in the house, and then, the evening before the re-pipe was to begin, planned to cover every piece of furniture and anything not in a box in plastic.

Being the frugal individual you all know me to be, I proceeded directly to the closest Walmart to get the plastic tarps I would need to cover all of my earthly possessions from the impending, menacing drywall dust.

So, this is when I found myself leaving the Walmart parking lot, as I so often do, after a full and long day of working, prior to heading home. Plastic tarps...check! Having to go home and spend hours prepping the house for the re-pipe instead of relaxing after having worked all day...check!

Now, if you’ve ever visited the Walmart in Laguna Niguel, California, you also will have noticed that nine times out of ten when you leave the parking lot, there is a member of our not-so-transient homeless community sitting at the exit with a sign, asking you to part with some of your money on your way out of the parking lot.

You can call me heartless and selfish and so many things worse, but you will never see my car stop to hand these folks some of the money that I have earned by working day in and day out for the past 25 years. Call it a personal choice. Do I give to charity? You bet. Do I also part ways with nearly 30% of the money I earn each and every year and send it to the local, state and federal governments, which provide programs that help the less fortunate? Guilty as charged! Do I put icing on that cake by handing more money to the folks asking for it around town? No, I do not. Bless those of you that do, but I’ve made my decision and I’m sticking to it.

But this particular evening, I did slow down a bit as I passed the person manning this corner on which there is always someone with a sign, soliciting donations to their own private cause because he definitely did not fit the mold of the usual types of folks manning that corner. I was in disbelief. There, sitting on an empty milk crate, was a young man, easily older than a high school senior, but definitely not much older than your average college graduate; a good-looking guy, about 6 feet tall, fit and overtly muscular, though he was wearing a loose-fitting jacket.

So, let me get this straight...You are younger than me...you are taller than me...you are definitely in much better shape than me, yet I worked all day, and here you are, not working, asking me to give you some of the money I worked for today.

Now I hear all you voices of reason out there, coming down on me for not knowing this man’s circumstances and all of the reasons that he was on that corner with that sign, but as someone who has worked every type of job from manual labor to sitting at a desk as well as managing teams in both types of jobs, trust me when I tell you I think I am a pretty good judge of character of who is physically and mentally capable of working, and this kid was a Soviet propaganda minister’s dream.

Now that we have established the first point of my comparison, let me flash forward a few days for you. I spent that evening covering everything in plastic and prepping the house, and then spent the next two days working from home, holed up in one of our spare bedrooms while the re-pipe company’s hard working team ripped apart my drywall, pulled out my horrible copper piping and replaced it with brand new non-metal piping that is supposed to still be leak free long after I leave this world. While I had these teams of hard-working, polite and very respectful gentlemen working so hard on my house to fix my plumbing, I could not help but think back to the kid with the sign asking for money on the corner. But, that’s still not even the hard-working counterpoint in my comparison.

The locking doorknob and that leads from the house into the garage has been giving me trouble for some time. It’s original equipment from when they built the house back in 1997, and while I had the innards rebuilt and rekeyed back in 2002, it was very safe to say it was time to replace this lock. I gingerly locked and unlocked it each day, prolonging its life as best I could. You remember that part about me being frugal, right? But, with all of the in and out, opening and closing of that door through the first two days of the re-pipe project, by the time I was closing up shop that second afternoon, my lock was done for. There would be no more ginger-ness - it was time to replace it.

Wanting to keep the same keys, I did a Google search for a locksmith and the top search yielded a small, local operation that had some really great reviews. The reviews all said that the proprietor of this locksmith company was a young guy, but that he really knew his stuff. My Friday afternoon call to this locksmith was promptly answered and I set an appointment for Monday afternoon, following what would be day five of the six-day re-pipe project.

The locksmith did ask that I go ahead and purchase the locks I wanted him to install, but he was able to tell me over the phone the exact replacements I needed because my locks were no longer made. In fact, he was a little surprised I was still using locks that old, but said he could make quick work of rekeying the new locks to my existing key.

So, Saturday sees the first day of drywall repair, Sunday sees a day off from home refurbishment, and Monday sees me working from home in my holed up spot again. Then, Monday afternoon, just as scheduled, there is a knock on the front door, and standing there is a skinny, scrawny little guy that looks like he could still be a college student, with his locksmith license in a lanyard badge around his neck, wearing shorts and a T-shirt that says “Locksmith” on it. If you had seen this kid walking down the street, you’d have thought he was going home to do his homework.

I invite him in and after some small talk, he sets to work on rekeying the locks I had purchased. Just as he said he would, he made quick work of it, explaining to me that he installed the new locking doorknob and deadbolt I purchased, but did not swap out the strike plates in the door frame because with the door frame being sheet metal, the strike plates I already had were a much better option than the ones that came with the knob and deadbolt. He showed me how the deadbolt was hitting the strike plate a bit, but said he would modify it as needed so it would be a much better fit.

After modifying the strike plate and reinstalling it, the job was done. It took a little over half an hour, and I was amazed at how well this young tradesman had breezed through the work. I asked him what I owed him, he produced a price list, and then quoted me a price that I thought to be very reasonable and fair for the job he did. I paid him cash, told him to keep the $5 in change I was due, and he then proceeded to tell me that since he had some time to spare before his next call, if I wasn’t too busy, that he would show me something about my front door lock that I should be concerned about.

He then proceeded to show me that my front door lock, being almost 20 years old now, predated a security feature that prevents a thief from making a make-shift key that would unlock my front door with just this key and a quick, carefully placed tap. He demonstrated the maneuver for me on a spare lock he kept just for demonstration purposes as to not do any damage to my lock. And after showing me this extremely easy trick that someone could use to unlock my door, he offered to fix it for me for free since he had the time and I had been such a good customer.

This young tradesman not only put in the security measure necessary to keep my lock from opening with a makeshift key, but also proceeded to tell me that when he was cleaning my front door lock, also free of charge, he noticed the original construction pins were still in the lock. He said that this was a concern because somewhere out there could be a storage facility from the original builder of my house that held a key that would open my front door. He then told me that I no longer needed to worry about that, though, because in addition to adding the new security measure and cleaning my lock for free, he also removed the construction pins as well. He said the chances of the original construction company key surfacing were low, but even if it did happen now, the key would no longer open the door. I had a very experienced commercial locksmith out in 2002 that rekeyed that very same lock for me and never mentioned any of this to me.

With my front door lock cleaned and refurbished, as well as more strongly secured than when he arrived, this young tradesman thanked me for my business and went on to his next call. As I closed the door and began to clean up the house from that day’s re-pipe work, I could not help but think back to the guy with the sign – who was bigger, stronger, taller, and more fit than either me or my new locksmith friend, though the locksmith and the guy with the sign definitely seemed to be about the same age.

Two young Americans – one already an experienced tradesman, knowledgeable and a credit to his profession who was running his own business – and one sitting on an empty crate on the corner of the Walmart parking lot with a sign, begging for money. You say that I am not supposed to compare these two young men to each other, and I say not comparing them does the biggest disservice imaginable to this country, our people, our children, and these two young men.

Photo via Pexels

When Something Remarkable Happens

Two years ago today, something remarkable happened. A job that I held for a little over seven years came to an end. The remarkable part, however, is the blessing that job ending turned out to be.

When we become unemployed, we are naturally faced with the uncertainty of how long it is going to take us to find that next job, and if we’re living paycheck to paycheck, even with a little severance pay and some stored up vacation time pay, it has the potential to be a really nerve-wracking experience.

But like I said, something pretty remarkable happened that day. When I walked out the lobby door of the building I had worked in for over seven years straight, I found myself walking to my car with a smile on my face and a sense of relief. Granted, I had planned financially for just this type of eventuality, so my cushion was there, but money aside, even in that first hour of being officially unemployed, I felt a sense of opportunity and freedom.

That is because every time in life a journey ends, a new journey begins, and it is important for us to remember that. No matter how bad an experience, no matter how shocking (or anticipated) an unexpected event can be, if we’re still breathing, then there is still a chance to turn a potential crisis into an opportunity. And if we play our cards right, we can turn that unexpected event into something really positive.

In my case, this job ending afforded me the opportunity to reflect on the past seven years with ample time to really look into what was positive and what was negative about the experience. The wonderful thing about life’s potential challenges is that they provide us with crystal clear insight into the lessons each of us is supposed to learn.

By taking the time necessary to reflect, analyze and gain an understanding of this remarkable event, I was able to truly know what I wanted my next move to be, and what I needed to do to accomplish it. I also was able to analyze and understand exactly what it was going to take to ensure I re-experienced the positives of this seven-year stint as well as ensure I did not re-experience the negatives. This reflection allowed me to conduct a job search over the next two months that put my career and so many other aspects of my life on an even better trajectory than it already had been.

So, when faced with a change, it is important that we stay calm, not only look at the positive, but also gain a true understanding of the negative, so we can learn from both, and above all, remember that just because one of life’s journeys has come to an end, a far better journey may be just around the corner.

How To Trick Yourself Into Making The Leap To Your Next Job

I recently read a great annual recap post from a successful entrepreneur that asked, what has been your biggest take-away or key learning this year? I responded to the post by stating my biggest take-away for 2015 was that we should all make a leap we might be a little afraid to make, whatever that leap might be. Win or lose, we’ll be better off for having tried, and when it turns out to be a fantastic move, even better!

My comment stemmed from an actual event in my life in 2015, a job change that turned out to be an absolutely fantastic move. Without getting into too many details, I had a job I truly enjoyed, was working with a great team made up of a group of folks that I loved working with (and spending time with), but sadly, was also at a place that didn’t really align with my values. Ultimately, it just wasn’t the right place for me.

While I thought about leaving, my commitment to finish the job I started, the desire to continue working with the team I had grown to love, and that natural fear we all have of changing jobs, kept me from looking. It wasn’t until I was lucky enough to hear about some changes that were going to effect me that I finally decided to start my job search.

Fortunately, by the time those changes were put in place, I had already secured a great new job at a great new company with a great new team. But, I’m not just spinning a yarn here, folks, I have a purpose. See, I’ve changed jobs twice in the past two years, following two seven-year stints in a row, and on each occasion, when looking back, I probably should have changed jobs sooner than I did. Now, while I believe everything worked out perfectly for me, I can also sympathize with all of you out there who might not be working the job you really want, or working for the right company, but find yourself in a spot where you are afraid, or maybe just reluctant, to make the leap you know you should be making.

Trust me, you are not alone. I know a lot of great people who aren’t necessarily happy with the job they have, but share that same fear of beginning a job search, especially if they worry an employer getting wind of their decision to leave might retaliate in some way. Fortunately, though, I have a little exercise that might help.

The last thing anyone working a full-time job wants to do is take the time to find another job after working all day, but we all know it is much more beneficial on many levels to conduct a job search while still employed. Though being unemployed provides much more free time to conduct a job search, it can also negatively impact confidence and even result in job seekers accepting a job offer that might not be right for them.

So, here is what I propose you do to find the motivation to conduct the job search you might be reluctant to start. Go to work next Monday and work a normal day. Do your job just as well as you always do, and when you walk out the door to go home that night, pretend your boss just took you aside as you were walking out and told you he or she just discovered you are going to be let go in six weeks.

Think about the scenario for a second. If this actually happened to you, what would you do? Would you go home and lounge on the couch in front of the TV, or would you get to work finding a new job?

I understand this might take a little effort and almost seem silly to convince yourself this mock layoff warning has occurred, but I promise you this – if you can truly take this little ruse to heart and pretend you have just six weeks until you’re out the door, you’ll do what you need to do to ensure you find that next job!

Start by updating your resume, portfolio, website and LinkedIn profile, and asking colleagues for recommendations. Ask past employers and colleagues to serve as references. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can get everything for your job search lined up once you actually get over the fear of making that leap and start these tasks.

Go to work every day and keep doing the amazing job you’ve always done, and every night, every weekend, every lunch break, look for the job you really want – with the commute, salary, culture, company and team that will make this move a fantastic one!

If you have been contemplating making that leap for some time, but have been reluctant for whatever reason, this little “six week fire drill” might surprise you! If you really buy into it, put your nose to the grindstone, and work the job postings and your network, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the progress you can make in those six weeks.

With the average job search taking two months, by the time you reach the six week mark from that imaginary layoff warning from your boss, you might just be well on your way to a couple great job offers. In my case, by the six week mark, I had already turned down an offer for the salary being too low, was in the final round of interviews for a job I knew I would love, and waiting on a job offer from the fabulous company I’ve loved working for over the past four months.

Make that leap, my friends! Win or lose, you’ll be better off for having tried.

Screen capture by William L. Savastano

Healthcare Industry Hardest Hit

According to a report from the Ponemon Institute, the cost of a lost or stolen record in the healthcare industry is over double that of other industries. Security Week reports that cost to be $363 as opposed to the average of $154, with the average breach having a total cost of $3.8 million. This has led the online magazine for Internet and enterprise security news to report the headline “Data Breach Costs Rise, Healthcare Industry Hardest Hit”.

But what is driving this massive increase in security breaches and their cost in this vital industry? As with many industries, it is the adoption of technology and human interaction with that technology that is creating new challenges.

Healthcare is Becoming Digital

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinic Health Act, passed by congress in 2009, encourages healthcare providers to digitize records. While good news for patients who will ideally be able to access their medical records from anywhere in the world, this process is not only increasing the volume of digital records, it is increasing the number of endpoints required to manage them. Advances in technology are putting a mobile device in every caregiver’s hands, but this is putting great strain on healthcare provider IT teams to keep up with a constant barrage of attacks on these endpoints by viruses and malware deployed by cybercriminals hoping to gain access to sensitive information.

Providers are Retaining Sensitive Patient Data

And speaking of sensitive information, gone are the days when your doctor knew your medical history from memory and kept a back-up copy in a file folder behind the reception area. Today, with electronic billing and digitized healthcare records, more and more sensitive patient data is being retained on networked computer systems. This has made healthcare provider infrastructure an attractive target for cybercriminals.

It’s Getting Cloudy (and Mobile-y)

InformationWeek predicts that by 2020, 80% of healthcare data will pass through the cloud at some point in its lifetime. Patients are becoming more technologically savvy and that means the use of mobile apps to access healthcare systems and records. Providers can only be so vigilant with the implementation of cloud security and BYOD policies because all it takes is one compromised device for a significant breach to occur.

We’re Only Human

While healthcare providers can secure systems and put all of the “detect and respond” technology they can buy in place, one of the biggest threats to their security is the very thing that makes them great – their employees. Providing healthcare to large numbers of patients can result in a very fast-paced and stressful environment. Workers can suffer from fatigue and distractions. This can lead to disaster since all it takes is one wrong click on one malicious link to compromise an entire infrastructure.

A Solution to All of These Challenges

I mention “detect and respond” solutions because while being mildly effective at alerting healthcare infrastructure administrators to attacks AFTER they happen, these traditional antivirus and malware detection solutions will never PREVENT the attacks that come as a result of these new healthcare industry technology challenges. Only a “preventive” solution that scans and detects the characteristics of files to locate potentially malicious files BEFORE they execute will guard against these new challenges.

For this reason, healthcare providers should seek a solution that uses an artificial intelligence and algorithmic science engine to scan every file on every endpoint in their healthcare infrastructure instead of one that simply alerts them once a breach has occurred. By deploying such a solution, healthcare providers can truly secure every endpoint in their infrastructure. This means regardless of whatever “detect and respond” solutions they have in place, no matter how many digital records their team processes, and no matter how many times employees click on something they shouldn’t, a “preventive” solution will have them covered because files are quarantined BEFORE they execute, stopping threats BEFORE they can do damage.

Photo by Darko Stojanovic via Pixabay

Before Kicking In The Doors And Bursting Into A Meeting...

It’s funny…when I was in my mid-20s, I was working for a boss that was promoted from being just an engineering manager to actually sitting on the executive board of the company.  My colleagues and I were all gangbusters at the idea because we thought that with him sitting on the board, we could work with him to get all of our initiatives pushed through much more quickly to approval.

Needless to say, my young ambitious ass marched right into his office as soon as I heard the news and quickly laid out all of the fantastic initiatives that my team and I were working on that he could now help ram straight through to approval!

He sat there quietly and kind of smiled and after pausing a second proceeded to tell me that his plan was actually to spend about the first three months or so that he was sitting on the board just observing the meetings and the other executive team members to get a feel for how the meetings went, how topics were brought up for discussion and how things moved through the process from discussion to actual serious discussion and then on to talks about approval.  He said that he was definitely going to take things slow and not make any waves, taking a very strategic approach as not to jeopardize his or the department’s standing in the eyes of the board.

Sitting here today, writing this, now the age that he was at the time, his approach sounds so reasonable.  His approach was very thoughtful, very strategic, and above all, probably very smart.  What I marvel at today is how absolutely insanely ridiculous this approach seemed to me at the time!
Why not bust into that first board meeting, take charge of the room and throw down on the table all of the great initiatives that your team is working on and take advantage of the situation immediately and furiously to get what you want?

Like I said, it’s funny…it’s funny to see now how much of a hurry I was in back then and how little I understood about tact, corporate culture and above all, being reasonable.  Today, I must say, that I have slowed down and calmed down a bit, and while I have maintained my passion for work and for loving what I do, I have recognized the importance of pausing a minute or two to observe, take mental notes, and develop and implement a strategy before bursting into a meeting.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that each of us needs to be bold and take risks to advance our businesses and our careers, but we have to remember that when it comes to risk-taking, we also have to be thoughtful and patient.

Image via Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Journalists Finding A New Home

I remember us worrying…worrying that all of those poor journalists would be out of work once those environmentally-unfriendly newspapers started boarding up their windows and chaining their doors like something out of an old black and white movie about The Great Depression (or a Michael Moore movie).

But it turns out, the ones who have not already found a second life writing for websites on the print-newspaper-killing internet, actually have a pretty good chance of being hired by large enterprises to serve as storytellers in their very own corporate newsrooms.

That may sound odd and leave you wondering why in the world America’s enterprises would need their very own journalists, but, as consumers are evolving, so must the marketing department and the ad agency. Consumers fast forward through ads on TV, change the radio station as soon as a commercial comes on, ignore a-hell-of-a-lot-a online display ads, and things are only going to get worse for marketers and advertisers.

While this all seems scary for companies that rely on advertising to help generate revenue, many are finding a silver lining, a light at the end of the tunnel. While consumers simply don’t care to be bothered with advertising anymore, apparently, they are still interested in a good story, even if it is published by the very same companies whose advertisements they are ignoring throughout the day. In fact, not only did marketing web magazine CMS Wire call 2014 the year of storytelling, but based on what they’re seeing so far, 2015 might turn out to be…you guessed it…the year of storytelling.

And who better to research, develop, and tell the stories these consumers want than the folks that were classically trained in gathering and disseminating stories in a way that makes people want to listen…journalists.

Needless to say, the journalist at a dying newspaper or the barely-hanging-on-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth news site is going to jump at the chance to translate their skills into some real big, evil corporation money.

So, gone may be the days when our top journalists are working for newspapers, online rags, magazines, and the evening TV news. We just might be witnessing the dawn of the age of advertising and storytelling where our top journalists are reporting on the historic ties between Coca-Cola and Santa Claus, reporting on the philanthropic efforts of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet for either Microsoft, Berkshire, or the Gates Foundation, or maybe even compiling a seven-part series on the history of Mercedes-Benz Racing for mbusa.com. It’s a brave new world out there, people…

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

With More Workers Planning To Never Retire, It Is Time To Reform Social Security

You’re going to have to keep working, America! At least longer than you had planned, anyway. A recent survey found that one in five Americans now say they plan to never retire.

While some of that 20% is surely the people like me who just don’t plan to stop working at any point as long as they can help it, I am sure there is a good percentage that are not going to be working straight to the grave by choice.

With a growing number of Americans facing this same choice, or fate, maybe it is time for us to take a good, long, hard look at our socialist retirement system.  

By the time I am at retirement age, there will be huge segments of the population that will not be able to survive on the gub’ment checks alone, and will be forced to keep working. What’s wrong with that? Well, the way the socialist retirement system is currently set up, the more you earn in a year that you receive benefits, the less of the social security money you paid into the socialist system you get to keep. You can even earn so much in a year that you get absolutely no social security money at all.

I hope to be in a spot where I have this problem one day, but I am also going to be really pissed off that all of the money I paid into social security over the course of my life will not be making its way back to me, which was the fundamental promise of the program.

Regardless of where I may end up in the year 2041 (the year the socialists want me to retire, at least for now, anyway), I really think now is the time to reconsider all of this socialist retirement program craziness.

Perhaps there was a time in this country where we needed to ensure that people retired by penalizing them for earning money once they reached social security age, but I think the landscape of America, her economy, the world’s economy, and life here on planet Earth have all changed so much that we need to rethink this antiquated nonsense about incentivizing people to stop working when they get to a certain age.

I am paying money into Social Security right now, but if I choose to keep working, especially if I am in a spot where I continue to earn more and more with each passing year as long as I am of sound enough mind and body, I will be earning the most in my lifetime, right at the time that I am supposed to start getting back all of the money that I will have paid into Social Security for 52 ½ years.

The more I earn, the less I get back, so how much is that going to suck? I get it – once I’m destitute or disabled, and what not, it will be money off of which I can live, but let’s say for instance, I keep working, keep earning money, keep living life like I am planning to do right up until my number is up (it does happen, people)… I may be in a spot where I don’t ever get a dime of MY social security money back. And despite what the government and all of those liberal politicians out there want us to believe, it is MY money, not theirs. That means I will have been one huge benefactor to the U.S. government and its socialist Social Security retirement program.

I get that most of you are going to retire – some of you may even take the hit financially to retire early – and more power to you – but me, the crazy nut-job who wants to keep working ponders….shouldn’t I have a choice? Shouldn’t I have some other option rather than giving all of this money to the socialists in Washington, DC. Especially when you consider the very real possibility that I may get only 85 cents on the dollar back if I actually do stop working, and possibly, no cents on the dollar back if I actually do keep working? Don’t penalize me for working, America! In what world does that make sense?