7 Essentials for the Young Traveling Professional
You’ve just landed your first job that requires a lot of travel. Congratulations! Doing a traveling job can be an exciting and invigorating way to see new locations, meet interesting people, and satiate your desire to not be stuck in a desk 5 days-a-week. It’s a great way to really feel alive, especially if you […]
How to Find What You Love Doing
“Do what you love” is such a common bit of advice to young people trying to find their place in the world that one would expect it on a mug at your retired Aunt’s house. It’s become such a popular bit of advice that Silicon Valley contrarians and public personas pride themselves on offering the opposite […]
Why 99% of the Work You Do Doesn’t Matter
Here’s something that a lot of companies, creative projects, and people miss: the smallest details are the most important. One error in grammar can shut down the best written argument. One missing line of code can create a security nightmare. One mixup in color, labelling, or font can make a brand look childish. One stupid act can destroy a […]
Dropouts and Opt-Outs: Wilbur and Orville Wright
“If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.” – Orville Wright Think science and innovation are closed to people without engineering degrees? The Wright brothers challenge that notion. Neither brother graduated from high school. Both were self-taught and well-read. The […]
Don’t Just Look Professional – Be Professional!
[optinform] Today’s post is from returning guest author Mathew Knudson, a first-year doctoral student at Vanderbilt University and recent Temple University Alum. You can contact him here and connect with him on LinkedIn here. For many young people entering the workplace for the first time, “professionalism” conjures up a set of very particular images and behaviors. They think about how […]
How To Think About Risk
“Risk is the potential for an irreversible negative outcome.” -Tim Ferriss The responses from family, friends, and acquaintances when I announced I was joining a startup were overwhelmingly positive. You would of course expect this from a supportive network. However, there have been many occasions when that positivity has been paired with a side of […]
How to Build Your Future
I was recently speaking to a young person (~Age 20 or 21) and he was telling me about his aspirations. He wanted to go work at a startup, see what it is like to found a company, and eventually go launch his own firm. He wanted to go and create value in the world — […]
Want to Accelerate Your Career? Burn Your Backup Plan
“If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.” — Mark Cuban Do you have something that keeps you going when things get tough? Do you have a vision you want to bring into reality? A lifestyle you want to achieve? A program to launch? An empire to build? A dream to live out? […]
Keep the Elephants in Your Parade
“You don’t let the guy with the broom control how many elephants are in the parade.” -Merlin Mann If you decide to throw a parade, then it’s inevitable that you’re going to create a mess. If you create a mess, then someone has to come along after the parade is done and clean the mess up. That […]
How To Kill It In Your First Internship
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin Internships are a disagreeable but very real part of growing into a career. At least until we bring back the apprenticeship (we’re working on it), many young people may find themselves at some point in stereotypical coffee-fetching, copy-making positions in companies across the country. Still, […]
Sometimes There’s No Lesson to Learn
Back in college, as part of an ice breaker group routine at a retreat, some friends and I were faced with the difficult task of physically carrying each member of a group to a certain location without anyone’s body touching any of the objects that were deemed out of bounds. My friends and I figured […]
Your Resume is Boring. Do These Five Things Instead
The following article is excerpted from our book, How to Get Any Job You Want: Advice for Future Career Seekers. Want a free PDF copy of the full book? You can download it here! The resume is supposed to be a relatively quick way for someone to get to know your personal and professional accomplishments, […]
You’ve Been Postponing Your Goals — Here’s How to Change That
“Never ask people. Not about your work. Don’t you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?” — Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead You’re scared. You’re 16-25 years old and you’re scared because you don’t know what you want to do with your life and you’re even more scared of finding out. Or, maybe you do know what you want to […]
If You Want to Get a Job, You Don’t Need a Resume — You Need a Value Proposition
Picture this: Two people want a job at a growing startup. Person one sends in his application and resume. He’s confident, because he’s put hours into it, digging up every award, achievement and accolade to his name since high school. He’s confident because on paper, he looks like the ideal candidate. He was the captain […]
The Two Things That Trump Talent
One of the big secrets in the professional world is that talent is not the most valuable thing to clients, employers, coworkers, and investors. I’ve written before about a skill that beats talent every time. I’m going to expand on that a little bit today. A combination of two traits will win out over a […]