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I define success as helping others. Being a helping person, I succeed when I benefit others in some small way. Attempting to uplift everyone I meet is part of my success profile. Although I like to be fairly paid, even highly-paid, I don’t consider money the full measure of success.
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Although not a morning person, I arrive at the office at 6:00 a.m. and work until 5:45. Because I live only two miles from work, my commute is brief. My day is filled with a rainbow of different activities: developing new products, creating marketing campagins, making sales calls, meeting with clients. The Internet plays heavily in our business, so I spend a fair amount of time designing and updating our website. Although I am always busy--often without a single break all day, except for lunch, I do not lead a frantic pace. I believe too much frantic activity results from lack of planning and poor implementation. I’m more effective when I have too much to do, rather than too little--so I tend to keep my plate slightly overfilled. In the afternoon, I spend an hour or two in the health club next door.
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I began my career as a lone ranger consultant, doing everything myself. As I aged, I found it’s more fun work in and through a team and draw on the strength and talents of others. I still like lots of individual projects that have a beginning, middle, and end--where I can control the process and outcome. Therefore, I’m both an individual contributor, and team player. The best of both worlds.
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I have hundreds of heroes, mentors, and coaches. Many are the authors and writers quoted on our website at www.careerlab.com/success_zone.htm. I find I can learn something from nearly everyone. Since 1978, my career clients have taught me about their businesses, their lives, and their personal values. That has been enormously beneficial to me. Everywhere I look, I see heroes. Our US culture tends to glamorize movie stars, athletes, even crime figures. I don’t consider them heroes, unless they have performed an heroic act.
Here are a few heroes that come to mind:
1) Rick Rescorla - As security chief for Dain Bosworth, Rick unselfishly rescued 3,800 people from the World Trade Center before it collapsed, killing him. (See Heart of a Soldier, by James B. Stewart - Simon & Schuster)
2) Irving Berlin - One of America’s greatest composers. Courageously reinvented his career six or eight times over a lifetime.
3) PT Barnum - Circus entrepreneur. Miraculously reinvented the circus to keep it current and saleable. His last words to mourners were supposedly, What was the gate? (Meaning, How were the sales today?)
4) Galileo - Astronomer. Devoted a lifetime to momentous scientific discoveries despite an ongoing battle with the Catholic church and the Inquisition.
5) Ralph Waldo Emerson - One of the great minds in American philosophy. Eminently quotable, my favorite is located at www.careerlab.com/emerson.htm
6) John A. Roebling, his son Washington, and Washington’s wife Emily - The three gave their lives (literally) to the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the wonders of the world in its day--and still so today.
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1) Founding and managing CareerLab, driving it from startup to $1 million annual sales (1995) and delivering career development services to more than 300 brand-name companies, and 2500 individuals.
2) My greatest joy is taking someone who is already successful to the next higher level. I have provided 20,000 hours of face-to-face career consulting for clients at all levels (particularly the C-level) in all industries and all functional areas. The fact that I have personally helped so many individuals to improve their business and personal lives is something I find enormously satisfying.
3) Writing and publishing the content on www.careerlab.com, including the text of my highly-successful book, 200 LETTERS FOR JOB HUNTERS. The site receives 1.5 million hits per week, and annually delivers several million pages of free career guidance.
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I am not a delegative manager in the classic sense. I effectively manage workgroups of 6-12, but I would not be effective, or interested in, managing 200. I am a knowledge expert, meaning I lead by example. I am coaching and facilitative. I care about my co-workers, sometimes too much. I have delegated some of the leadership in our company to managers who can be more firm and directive, and therefore, more effective.
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1) To build a culture such that our employees expand and develop their skills to the highest level and value CareerLab as the best possible place to work.
2) To develop innovative products and services that bring great value to our clients.
3) To develop an infrastructure that sustains CareerLab’s culture, growth, and success after my departure.
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I work well for nearly everyone, because I’m able to adapt my style to theirs. Having worked for 300 US corporations, I’ve had a lot of ’bosses.’ Like everyone else, I work best for people who are collegial, empowering, and collaborating. I like bosses who draw out my expertise, rather than believing they know it all themselves. (Unless they do!)
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Obsessive micromanagers. People who are consistently negative, critical, or fault-finding. Clients who know more than I do before ever asking me what I know. I dislike people who are only out for themselves, and therefore, I don’t work especially well with them.
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Yes, early in my career. I was fired as a laborer in a lumber yard for coming up with too many new-fangled, innovative ideas. My boss wanted to continue stacking the lumber where it had been stacked for the last 20 years, and I saw ways to make some improvements. My mistake was moving too quickly and not achieving buy-in from the powers that be.
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1) I am an innovator. I can come up with more practical creative ideas than I could implement with a staff of 50,000. Emphasis on the word PRACTICAL.
2) Coming from a medical family--my father and grandfather were physicians, my mother was a nurse--I am a helping, caring person, and a superb coach and consultant.
3) I am a great salesman and marketeer and have personally sold our consulting services to several hundred individuals and business enterprises. I tend to understand what will work in the world, and why.
4) I care about everything I do. My mother told me, It’s just as easy to get A’s as it is to get B’s, and I believed her. She also said, If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. I seldom undertake anything without 110% effort and committment--and A+ results. (This has sometimes angered my competitors.)
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1) As an entrepreneur growing a company, I am challenged by letting go of the reins. This doesn’t mean I don’t trust others or want them to exercise power. Having been a one-man-band for so long, I simply don’t always know what to let go of, or how to do it.
2) Having a creative start-up personality, and a high need for increasing levels of challenge, I have to be careful not to take on too many tasks at once. Or if I have a dozen projects on the plate, I need a structured system (I call mine a Playbook.) to keep first things first.
3) An artist and helper by temperament, I can get involved in projects or assignments that are tremendously beneficial to others without being entirely profitable. I have to made sure there is enough PROFIT in my activities to sustain and grow the business.
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Having spent 30 years as a career and human resources consultant, I’m more experienced than many of my peers. I can’t imagine a career situation or leadership development issue, for a company or for an individual, where I couldn’t offer some constructive and useful advice.
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I am optimistic 365x365. As Secretary of State Colin Powell said, ’Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.’
Creativity and innovation are central parts of my personality. Roger Von Oech defines creativity as ’seeing what others see and thinking something different.’ On a good day, I have that ability.
I am also uncommonly tenacious. Once I lock onto a goal, I seldom ever fail to achieve the original objective(s). I also lead with caring. Nearly everything I do is centered around helping others to define and achieve their personal goals.
Last of all, I am funny. Not joke-telling funny, but contextually funny. In the midst of conversations, meetings, or public events like seminars, I occasionally toss in one-liners that get the audience laughing, sometimes even in serious situations. My timing is good. I have a strong belief that if a task or project is worth doing, it’s worth having fun at.
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