Adapted from a Safal Niveshak original in 2020, courtesy of the Uncopyrighted Project.
I wish you a very happy, healthy, and fulfilling 2021.
Life’s moving really fast and continuing to create new challenges and opportunities as many of us reach a full year of quarantining and working from home.
As we begin 2021, here are a few things to aspire to each day.
1. Each day, do something foolish, something creative, and something generous.
This is not a big long term goal that should worry you just by the magnitude of it. It’s a daily task, which is much easier to accomplish.
In another year of indoor-living and potentially more family time than ever before, find a small piece of fun in each day.
Be silly. Don't act your age. Write. Draw. Learn a song on a musical instrument.
And when you're done, find a way to pass on a generous act of kindness to somebody you speak to today.
2. Don’t worry too much about making money.
It won’t change the way you live. Time spent earning enough money is time reasonably well spent. Time earning an excess of money far beyond that required to meet one’s needs, however, is time wasted. So, know how much is enough.
As far as saving money is concerned, take it seriously but not too much that you compromise your and your family’s present. Especially when you are making a reasonable income and are already saving enough, remember what Warren Buffett says –
…who is to say whether it is better to defer a dollar of expenditure on your family – on a trip to Disneyland or something that they’ll get enormous enjoyment out of – so that when you are 75, you can have a 30-feet boat instead of a 20-feet boat. There are advantages to spending money on your family when it is young – giving them various forms of enjoyment, education, or whatever it may be. But it’s crazy to be spending 105% of your income.
3. Do your work, your best work, the work that matters to you.
Find work you love. Work ought to be chosen for its intrinsic value, and for its sense of enjoyment, sense of purpose. Life is much too short to spend doing something you don’t like, even for a few years.
4. Choose well.
The most important choices you’ll ever make in life will be with respect to your spouse and your friends. If you choose right, then later choices become simple. The less effort you have to give something, the more powerful you become.
5. “What if I fail?” is not the question.
You will fail. So the better question might be, “After I fail, what then?” If you’ve chosen well, after you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding, you will be wiser and stronger and you almost certainly will be more respected by all of those that are afraid to try.
6. Don’t put off “living happily ever after” for another year.
Don’t assume you’ll have another year. You won’t get this life again. No one will bring back the years; no one will restore you to yourself. Life will follow the path it began to take, and will neither reverse nor check its course. Life will not lengthen at your command. As it started out on its first day, so it will run on, nowhere pausing or turning aside. Stop being busy. Tell the ones you love how much you love them often enough. You could be very happy with almost nothing if you had a loving family, and you weren’t competing with a lot of other people who had more than you did.
7. Become wiser.
Becoming wise is a slow game, but wisdom builds up, like compound interest. You have to work at it for a long, long time. But the earlier you start, the more territory you can cover. And the more big, important ideas you can assimilate, the easier the learning process is. Have a temperament to grab ideas and do sensible things. Start this process in 2020 if you haven’t already.
8. Let go of your need to control.
Control makes us feel secure. But this security is dependent entirely on our feeling of keeping such control. And when things don’t go as planned, which is often the case, such a need to keep control may drive us crazy, and lead us to wrong, irreversible decisions.
Consider investing. You will work tremendously hard to earn great returns from the stock market only to sometimes see them disappear into thin air. And that’s okay. As an investor, you should learn to relax. Because making and losing money is just the nature of investing, and often outside your control. So just do your work well, and then let it go.
9. Get rich quick
by doing these five simple things –
Create value for others;
Contribute to someone, without keeping score;
Say what needs to be said;
Learn something new, something scary; and
Reject false shortcuts.
10. Deal well with your fears.
We’re all fearful…of some things…and many things. I’ve never seen any person who has no fear. However, in dealing with fear several times over the past few years, I have realized one very important thing.
It is that, in our life, the issue is not really ‘fear’ but rather, what we do despite it. We can either get managed by fear, or manage it. We can either acknowledge fear or fall into an emotional whirlpool. We can either accept fear or pretend that it doesn’t exist at all. We can either give up or get up in the face of fear.
In fact, fear is what keeps us safe at most times in our lives. Fear keeps us out of harm’s way. All we need to have is the courage to manage it. Now, nobody can give us the courage. Even if Buddha were sitting right here next to you, he couldn’t give it to you. You have to practice it and realize it yourself. You have to make a habit of mindfulness practice to get over your fears. Then, when fear strikes you, you will already know what to do.
Anyways, before I close, here is a beautiful poem from Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese poet well known for his book, The Prophet, that strikes a chord deep within.
FEAR (Khalil Gibran)
It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled, from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast, that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way. The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back. To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear, because that’s where the river will know it’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.
Benjamin Franklin said, “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
I’m so grateful to have you shared this journey with me, and I look forward to continuing our connection in 2021, whatever it may bring.
Entrepreneurship is messy. There is no clear roadmap and no set 9-5 time clock. When life is already hectic enough, adding a side-hustle or new small business into your plans can be overwhelming.
Not everyone can make drastic steps toward simplicity, but if you have some control over at least your workday, you can do a few small things that will simplify things greatly.
Start by eliminating most of the routine, boring, administrative tasks with a few simple principles. That way, you can focus on the tasks you enjoy in your business, like creating your products and building relationships with customers.
One of the best moments in life is when you allow yourself to simplify. Declutter mentally, physically and emotionally.
If you don’t have control, or if you find yourself thinking, “I can’t do these things”, I’d start to ask why not?
Is it possible to change things, if not today then over the long term? Often we believe something isn't possible (working from home, for example), but in the long run, could be.
You don’t need to do all of these things — pick just one, and try it. Then try another and see if it works. Experiment to find what works for you.
1. Start early
Start your day before the phone starts ringing and the emails start flooding your inbox. By getting to the office (even your home office) before “standard” work hours, you block of peaceful time to prepare and focus for the day ahead.
It's kind of like working out in the morning. It can be difficult for night owls like myself to adjust, but it feels so fulfilling when you have two or three big tasks checked off your list before most people start their day.
2. Limit your hours.
It's an impulse to believe that working longer hours equates to higher productivity. But studies have shown that on time on the clock does not create higher value for your company.
By cutting back and limiting yourself to 6-8 hour days maximum, you will naturally become better at prioritizing what matters. The essential projects will move to the top of your list as you force yourself to be more efficient with your time.
3. Make a short list.
Are you a list-builder? I love making lists and feeling that thrill and accomplishment of crossing something off.
Challenge yourself to take your normal list and cut it to no more than THREE items that absolutely have to get done that day.
I call these your “Most Important Tasks” or M.I.T.s.
Choose the projects or tasks that if nothing else were completed that day, you'd still be proud and feel success from your day.
Prioritize these MITs so highly that you finish them before any other tasks, including drowning in your email inbox.
4. Batch distractions.
As an entrepreneur in a tech-forward world, it feels essential to be highly active on every social media site in order to be responsive to your audience.
However, in the same way surfing the web and watching tv can be distractions, process that FEEL productive can equally become distractions.
Things like email, reading blogs, and responding to all your DMs quickly eat up more time than we realize.
Schedule a time to knock out these process all at once – preferably later in the day: say, from 3-4 p.m.
By grouping them all into one time period, you can stay focused on your MITs in the morning, but still set structured time for your “distraction tasks.”
Another approach is to block off only 10 minutes at the end of each hour for distraction tasks, but it can be harder to stay diligent and not let that time stretch.
5. Write shorter emails.
It may sound crazy, but have you ever noticed how long it takes to send a simple email?
Rather than over analyze your words and rewrite to perfection, aim to cut your emails down to 3-4 sentences per email.
First, it will drastically shorten the time it takes to write or respond to emails.
Second, (and admittedly my favorite aspect) is that it will shorten responses to your emails, which means you’ll spend less time reading email.
6. Limit meetings.
Meetings are a staple of the corporate world. They are a necessity for teams and communication as well. But that does not mean they have to be the standard 30 – 60 minutes we have become accustomed to, and we certainly do not need several a day.
Some top Google executives hold only 5-minute meetings. Gary Vaynerchuk is a huge proponent of this concept as well.
Anyone who attends these meetings better be prepared and concise.
If you can skip out of meetings and collect note or communicate a different way, it could save you hours per week.
7. Automate.
The fewer repetitive and routine tasks you have to accomplish, the more time you’ll free up for creating and developing your valuable projects and services.
As a solopreneur, the earlier you can automate the better. Automate wherever possible:
have customers fill out forms or make orders electronically, screen prospects through a web form prior to scheduling calls, use a service that automatically processes payments or ships your product, and so on.
8. Eliminate paperwork.
In the corporate world, there is not a lot you can do about the amount of paperwork that constantly has to be processed. As an entrepreneur, one benefit is that YOU create the standards of procedure (“SOPs”).
Paperwork may be a necessary evil in some industries, but when it's not absolutely required, eliminate it. We are blessed with so much technology today that most processes should be able to be handled electronically.
9. Clear your desk.
Take a few brief minutes to clear absolutely everything off the top of your desk. Put back nothing else but a few most essential items.
Everything else should be filed, given to the appropriate person, given a permanent spot in a drawer, or trashed/recycled. Make quick decisions and then get back to work.
10. Get away.
Get out of your normal office and find a go-to getaway work spot. Create a peaceful escape where you can focus on high-priority work without distraction.
When traveling what a more frequent occasion, I loved working on an airplane as my getaway focus. It's quiet and relaxed, with no internet service for distractions. Then, I'd be able to save and send once we touched back down on the tarmac.
11. Take breathing breaks.
Every 15-20 minutes, get up from your desk, and take a brief break.
You could turn the “breathe” app on your smartwatch, or simply take a brief walk around your office (or home office!) Even better, get outside for some fresh air.
Walk around, get your blood circulating, and stretch your joints.
When you get back to work, remind yourself what you want to be working on, and clear away all distractions.
12. Practice a focus ritual.
Take a couple minutes every few hours to perform a refocus ritual.
One of my favorites is to fully shut down every application and opened tab in my browser.
It may sound simple and marginally effective, but often my multi-tasking brain goes into overload with too many “open tabs” and the manual processes of shutting them down on a computer truly does help.
Return to your list of Most Important Tasks and figure out what you need to accomplish next before beginning any distraction tasks.
Repeat this refocus ritual throughout the day whenever necessary. It's like meditation for the entrepreneur!
This post was authored by and originally posted on the website of Safal Niveshak and has been reposted here as material generously contributed to the Uncopyrighted initiative.
If you don’t know who Charlie Munger is, then here’s a quick introduction. He’s a billionaire and he’s 93 years old. He’s not the oldest and he is not the wealthiest but when it comes to being the “oldest billionaire”, he doesn’t have any competition.
In other words, he has the two most coveted things in this world – wealth and a long life.
His advice to us – minimize stupidity. Remarkably simple, isn’t it?
The most effective way to follow Charlie’s advice is to learn from others’ mistakes. That’s where books come into the picture. They’re the best source of vicarious knowledge.
When humans first discovered that they could persist their words and other information in physical form, it was revolutionary. According to some historians, between the years 3500 BC and 3000 BC, ancient Sumerians from Mesopotamia civilization invented the first system for storing and processing information outside their brains.
In the timescale of millions of years of human evolution, this invention is pretty recent one. Irrespective of how trivial the ability to read/write sounds, it was nothing less than a disrupting technology when it came out. Probably thousands of talented Sumerians, who were employed for memorizing information, lost their jobs.
You don’t have to teach an infant how to swallow liquid or give walking lessons to a toddler. These skills are built into the human genome. But reading isn’t part of our DNA.
The point I am coming to is this: the human brain isn’t naturally built to read. It’s an acquired skill like driving or playing Tennis. Reading involves vision which engages a certain part of the brain which in turn exercises a specific section of our neural machinery.
Although our brain processes signal received from all senses, each of the five senses is wired to different sections of the brain. Which means, reading lights up only the visual component of our brain’s circuitry.
When the brain receives the same information from different senses, it processes them slightly differently. And the interpretation changes based on which instrument (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) was used to record the information.
Eyes usually get preference over others. McGurk Effect is the proof that our brain gives different weightage to each sense organ.
What would happen if you could involve multiple senses to absorb knowledge?
For one, our brain would frequently run into conflicts. Eyes would tell one story and the ears will say something else. But that’s not a bad news. Fortunately, unusual insights are almost always preceded by conflicts.
So I would like to argue that to learn better, one should be open to the idea of absorbing knowledge through multiple senses.
Making use of multiple senses fires up neurons in different locations inside our brain. This creates the possibility of fresh connections between previously unrelated brain cells. These unprecedented linkages enhance our brain’s ability to perceive the world and generate brand new insights.
Guy Spier, in his book The Education of Value Investor, mentions that someone gifted him an audio CD of Charlie Munger’s talk at Harvard on the 24 standard causes of human misjudgment. And there was an 18-month period, writes Guy, “during which this was the only CD in my car’s entertainment system.”
Guy probably listened to Charlie’s talk hundreds of times.
So to experiment with this idea, I have been trying to learn through my ears. One way to do that is to listen to the audiobooks. For that, I subscribed to Audible and listened to quite a few audiobooks.
My experience with audiobooks led me to the conclusion that listening to biographies and fiction is quite enjoyable. And there are again evolutionary reasons behind it.
If you recall our earlier discussion in this post, the technology of writing and reading came into existence quite late in the history of human evolution. The human brain hasn’t yet adapted naturally to the idea of learning things by reading. However, for millions of years, the knowledge was transferred from one person to another by narrating stories. So sound was the primary mode of sharing and propagating information for the majority of human history.
Which confirms my personal observation about my inability to absorb any information in audio form if the content is not in a story format.
The human brain started comprehending complex matters precisely because of the invention of the written word. We learn to do complex algebra and calculus in school because the process involves delegating all the steps to paper. If you had to do it all in your head, it would be impossible. Our brains aren’t wired to do that.
But the idea of podcasts has kind of broken this barrier. For some strange reason, our mind would find it extremely entertaining and engrossing when it’s privy to a conversation between two fellow humans.
A monologue, when it’s not a story, is boring. On the other hand, listening to a dialogue, even if the topic is fairly complex, isn’t that taxing to the mind. Maybe that’s the reason podcasts are rapidly gaining acceptance and popularity as a very effective medium to share knowledge.
For past one year, I have been listening to podcasts. I have learned a lot. It feels as if two wise people are sitting behind you and informally discussing their experiences. I find it fascinating.
So I thought of sharing the podcasts that I regularly listen to. I am also including some of my favourite episodes of each to get you started.
1. How I Built This
It’s a show hosted by Guy Raz. In his words, “How I Built This is a podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.” Unlike many other podcasts, the length of each episode is relatively short i.e. 30-40 minutes. My favorite stories in this podcasts are –
Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airline. Airlines is an industry marred by abysmally poor economics. In its entire history, on the whole, the airline industry has destroyed shareholder wealth. Southwest is the only airline in the world which has remained profitable for an almost entire period of its 40+ years of operation.
Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, which was bought for a billion dollar by Amazon. After listening to this conversation, I picked up Tony’s book Delivering Happiness and enjoyed reading it.
Manoj Bhargava, founder of 5-hour energy. This guy lived as a monk for 13 years and then went on to create a billion-dollar business in less than a decade. He’s now devoting a majority of his time for tackling the hardest problems our world is facing like bringing electricity to those who don’t have it yet, converting seawater to freshwater and a few more.
John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods Market grocery chain, which was recently acquired by Amazon. Amazon acquires a company only when Jeff Bezos realizes that he can’t replicate what the acquiree is doing which speaks a ton about what John Mackey has accomplished.
Joe Gebbia is the co-founder of Airbnb. Today Airbnb is disrupting the hotel industry. Airbnb has now has more rooms than the biggest hotel chain in the world.
2. The Knowledge Project
Shane Parrish has been relentlessly sharing multidisciplinary ideas on his blog for almost a decade. The knowledge project podcast is another feather in his cap. The publishing schedule is quite infrequent and irregular, nevertheless, there’s enough wisdom here to keep you busy for weeks. My favourite episodes are –
Interview with Sanjay Bakshi. Being a Safal Niveshak tribesman, it’s almost impossible that you haven’t heard of Prof. Bakshi. He teaches a course on behavioural finance and business valuation in MDI Gurgaon, a prestigious MBA college. There’s chock full of investing wisdom in this interview. I recommend that you listen to it multiple times.
Interview with Naval Ravikant. Naval is the co-founder of AngelList. He’s been an investor in many unicorn startups including Uber, Twitter, Yammer, and many others. This 2+ hours of conversation between Shane and Naval was simply out of the world. I have already listened to this one twice and want to listen to it again few more times. Naval has been interviewed in Tim Ferriss show also and that conversation was equally amazing.
Interview with Morgan Housel. I became a fan of Morgan Housel when I first read his incisive posts at Collaborative Fund’s blog. I have read, at least twice, every single article that he’s written in last one year. He’s perhaps one of the best investment journalists out there. His insights on investing and business are truly jaw-dropping. When I start reading his posts, I always sit tight in my chair lest the Eureka moment throws me off on the ground.
3. The Tim Ferriss Show
Before I tell you what I like about this podcast, let me be honest about two things that I don’t like in this one. First is the excessive promotional content in each episode (from financial products to undergarments) which isn’t really wrong or unethical but a big put off for a new listener. Second, a lot of episodes aren’t interviews but random ranting from Tim which kind of dilutes my original purpose of listening to a podcast i.e. being privy to a dialogue, not a monologue. So if you can get past these two small irritants then there’s quite a bit of wisdom to be gained from Tim’s show. Here are few of the episodes which I liked –
Interview with Derek Sivers. Sivers is a fascinating personality. He was a musician who accidentally created a multi-million dollar company called CDBaby. He later sold the company for USD 22 million and gave away the money to a trust dedicated to musicians. I loved Sivers’ book Anything You Want and go back to all his TED talks again and again. There are actually two episodes with Derek Sivers. Like Scott Adams, Sivers has spoken to James Altucher also.
Interview with Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal and the first investor in Facebook. Thiel has written a book called Zero to One which mind stretching insights about future. He’s a true contrarian and he starts every decision by asking, “What important truth that I know which most people disagree with me on this one.” A fascinating conversation. Thiel interviewed with James Altucher also, so do check out that episode also.
4. The James Altucher Show
James Altucher is a prolific blogger and podcaster. His podcast has already crossed 250 episodes and his guest list is pretty awesome. James’ book Choose Yourself had a profound impact on how I think and it’s a book that I recommend very frequently. Here are my picks from Altucher’s show –
Interview with Yuval Noah Harari who shot into limelight with his book Sapiens when it was recommended by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama, and Bill Gates. I have read Sapiens twice already and, ignoring my bias about non-narrative audiobooks, have listened to the audio version also, more than once. Harari is an outstanding thinker and a gifted writer. I challenge you that once you read Sapiens, two things will happen to you. One, you will immediately want to read it again and you won’t be able to see the world with the same eyes as you do now. His second book Homo Deus is equally fascinating.
Scott Adams is the creator of famous cartoon strip Dilbert. Adams’ story is a remarkable tale of series of lifelong experiments that he undertook to tilt the odds of success in his favour. He consciously pursued a strategy which eventually catapulted him to wealth and world fame. His insights on the science of persuasion are just out of this world. Scott Adams has appeared in Tim Ferriss show also. I loved Scott’s two books – How To Fail… and Win Bigly.
5. Masters In Business
Barry Ritholtz hosts this show. The archive contains more than 100 episodes but I have just started listening to this podcast.
The first one which I listened was a conversation with Marc Andreessen, creator of first internet browser Mosaic and founder of Netscape. Marc is also the co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. It’s was a fascinating dialogue. The breadth and depth of Marc’s knowledge about how the world works are truly remarkable.
Vishal shares that a few other wonderful podcasts from this series includes the ones with Ed Thorp, Howard Marks, and Michael Lewis.
I use a podcast aggregation app (Podcast Addict, on Android) to subscribe to these podcasts. There are many other similar apps which you can use. I find Podcast Addict quite good because it has useful features like playback speeds (slowing down or speeding up), bookmarking, adding notes, skipping, downloading for offline consumption, creating playlists etc.
Listening to podcasts is a great way to make use of your commute/travel time especially if you use public transport or taxi. I call this mode of learning – university on wheels.
I hope you’ll try out this mode of learning and if you’ve already been doing it, I would love to know about your podcasts list.
This is Part 1 of an ongoing review of, and insight into, my personal Toastmasters International / Pathways journey. You will be able to see all Toastmasters review posts here as I update lessons and speeches along the way.
Public speaking may easily be one of the most intimidating tasks a person can be asked to fulfill. While hundreds of confident, larger-than-life, big-personality influencers can get on stage on a daily basis and make it look like an effortless task, the rest of us may still need baby steps before making that huge leap to center stage.
Somehow, even the most timid people of all still often find themselves in a role asked to address an audience to some degree. An internal employee may be “voluntold” that she will be presenting the project status update to the Board of Directors at the next meeting. A student will inevitably need to give an oral report or defend a dissertation. And even a small business owner or boss-woman who can usually delegate tasks will be forced to broadcast her own voice on occasion.
So how can we get past the nerves and deep-seeded fear of public speaking?
Practice. Practice. Practice. (And some serious “fake it ‘til you make it” attitude!)
Just like any fear in life, we need to force ourselves to take the reigns and get past it, and typically this means referring back to the classic Nike slogan and “Just Do It!”
Luckily, there are public speaking tips everywhere, and not all of them result in the cherry-red cheeks of a speaker blushing at the image of the audience in their underwear (as the old tradition included.)
Somehow, I’ve always enjoyed public speaking – but it’s the anxiety and anticipation in the moments before that always hit me the hardest. I thought, “That must be because I’m not formally speaking in front of a group very often. Maybe that would make a difference.”
When I discovered a Toastmasters group (more formally, Toastmasters International) met every Thursday during lunch right in my office building, I signed up. Yes, I feel confident that I know all of the “rules” of public speaking on-paper. And I have been writing essays and speeches for years, so I feel equally confident in my organization of content. But there is something to be said about continued practice when it comes to public speaking and being able to connect with various audiences for various topics (for instance, presenting a technical speech to those outside of your niche industry and still being comprehensible.)
Have you heard about Toastmasters? I would love to hear about your experience with this group or a similar one in the comments below!
The Velvet Hammer: PowHERful Leadership Lessons for Women Who Don't Golf by Elaine Allison
The subtitle of the book says it all – this book is written to energize and provide actionable solutions for ambitious women navigating the often male-dominated leadership roles.
Admittedly, both the title and cover art could use a revamp if you ask me. After receiving this book through our corporate library delivery, I brought it on an airplane an immediately felt uncomfortable, as if I were reading a harlequin romance novel, even though I was in my suit on the way to a business meeting. The cover image is a pair of woman’s legs in stockings and heels, standing in front of six pairs of matching men’s slacks and shoes. With the primary title “The Velvet Hammer” in large purple and black cursive letters, the subtitle defining the book felt quite hidden. I thought perhaps it was my odd personal perspective, but after opening the book on my couch at home, my husband instinctively had the same response.
Perhaps a hammer and a delicate raw egg may have done the trick for cover art.
Cover judgment aside, I had to dive in to see what Allison had to say – the first literal example of not judging a book by its cover I have ever confronted.
Reading it through, the early chapters provide a little food for thought around the differences between men and women in the workplace with some simplistic traces back to the hunter and gatherer days. Recognizing not all generalizations are true for all people, it provides a baseline for those who may have not formerly heard how and why men may perceive women as “scattered” when women self-recognize the trait as “strong multitasker.”
If you are new to the working world or a young leader, it may be interesting to peruse the brief overviews about different personality types and how to connect with opposites. The book is an easy read and provides basic and manageable steps for things like goal setting and aligning your team, but doesn’t have quite the experience level or uniquely “only executive woman at the board room table” as expected based on the title. The workbook style activities were very short and simple – far less valuable for those deeper into a corporate career or who have historically taken deeper dives into things like StrengthsFinder.
Some of the material doesn’t seem to flow, and there are chapters with personal anecdotes followed by chapters of generic material out of any leadership book. At one point, the author lists a technique to resolve conflict: “It doesn’t matter if you are right; it only matters if you can find a third way.” This section is then filled with an anecdote about her mother-in-law smoking in the cabin while the Allison herself is highly asthmatic. Not only does Allison ignore the opportunity to confront her mother in law, but there is no “third-way” option in sight… I had to reread the section to be sure I wasn’t missing something but alas… it never tied back. Two techniques later it rounded back out with connectivity to “third-way options” but it felt too little too late.
As a woman in an industry where business is still quite literally done on the golf course regularly, I was intrigued by the title to find methods of connecting with male C-suite executives in ways other than finishing and golf. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the topic of golf was even mentioned within the pages of the book.
My Conclusion? Not a recommendation from my side of the table. In fact, the most valuable piece to me was the two-page appendix section with a list of women’s organizations, resources and websites.
Has anybody else read this book, and did you have similar takeaways?
Let’s be honest. Networking events can be awkward. Half the time, you don’t know where to start, and you may not even know how to pick the employers out from the crowd of hopeful-employee candidates scattered amongst the room. And when you’re a high school senior or early on into your college career, you may feel ultra-intimidated when finding yourself forced into one of these settings, especially if you have no idea where you want to work nor have any remote interest in a particular career path. That’s understandable.
But I wish somebody had told me just how valuable networking events are in the long run.
Admittedly, I’ve always been an overachiever, and networking events made me eager and excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. That didn’t mean I was an expert, and it certainly didn’t mean that early on I took the best advantage I could have when I was in a room with corporate managers I admired.
However, once I received my first marketing internship through a barista job at a local coffee shop, my eyes were opened to just how cognizant we should be to opportunities around us.
Now that I work with high school and college students, helping to advocate for financial literacy and financial independence and volunteering at events scheduled to propel them into their first job hunt, I recognize some alarming trends. Hopefully, these words will fall onto at least one person at the right time; that person will be strides ahead at his or her next networking event.
Just because it’s not a job interviewdoesn’t mean the networking event isn’t a job opportunity.
If you are invited to an event and volunteers from businesses in the community are out to help prepare your interview and resume skills, it’s a judgment-free zone for help, surely. But just as any moment in life, you should show up prepared, eager, and with insightful questions, because that person could be a recruiter with a job opening at that very moment.
Not all networking events are created equally. You may get a chance to know your volunteer’s name or job title. But, here’s a little anecdote. I am a woman in banking, and I helped interview a young woman, who was passionate about breaking into the finance field. [This is always exciting to hear, of course!] However, while her one-on-one time working with me was impressive, she showed up late to the table, whispered with friends in the interim, and of course had a constant text message conversation throughout the event.
We were actively hiring for an entry-level analyst position, and she would have been a top candidate.
You just never know who is watching, or who you are interacting with.
That’s not to say that a few poor moves at a “non-interview” event will be held against you, but it doesmake a potential recruiter stop and rethink before approaching you with an opportunity.
Networking events are a primary method of securing a job in today’s economy. While it’s easier and more efficient for an individual to copy and paste hundreds of resumes into a Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com website, it’s much easier and more efficient for a manager to already know an ideal candidate or two and invite them to apply for a job opening.
So even if you are not looking now, keep this integral key in mind as you attend your next networking event, stand out above the crowd, and get your business card or resume to the top of the pile.
Just because it’s not a job interviewdoesn’t mean the networking event isn’t a job opportunity.
I create resources for female entrepreneurs and career-driven women striving to break out of their comfort zones and through the glass ceiling.
