Tag Archives: career development

Roll up your sleeves

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Of the 1.3 million US college graduates in 2007, more than 50% became professional sales  people.1  That same year the total number of graduates from US med schools was 16,000.2

I can see how some might find this statistic shocking.  Particularly those who feel that sales is beneath them.

Make no mistake, even though most sales people do not save lives or rainforests, sales is what makes the world go ‘round.  That’s the bottom line.

Too many times I have seen entrepreneurs fail because they were ‘too good’ to roll up their sleeves and go sell their wares.  Too many times I have seen glossy business plans shrivel up simply because those who master-minded the idea refused to hit the road (and the phone) to look for customers.

As a serial entrepreneur I’ve learned first hand how important selling is to any business venture.  Even after years of specializing in business development, sometimes I feel stuck and find it hard to get motivated.

It’s because of the following principles that I’ve been able to roll up my sleeves, without feeling that I’m compromising my professional integrity – or that I’m crossing over to the dark side.

To celebrate Diwali3, let me enlighten you:

Golden rule:  Forget closing techniques.  When you ask for the business, you’re OPENING a relationship, not CLOSING a sale.  Some might find this to be a simple play on words.  In my experience this approach is what has made a world of difference to my track record.  It’s like dating.  If you’re attracted to someone and want to move beyond a friendship, you either hope and pray that you get kissed or you ask for a kiss.  If there’s consent, a kiss doesn’t close anything.  A kiss is what moves the relationship to the next level.  It’s the same in business.  A sale is what advances the relationship.

Know your product:  It’s possible that you got the job in large part thanks to your charm and even your good looks, but without product knowledge neither will get you the sale!

Know your client:  From the get go, get into your customer’s shoes.  Tell them what’s in it for them if they buy from you.  Focus on their needs and how dealing with you will be a different experience to dealing with all the other sales people (the other 649,999).

Supermarket test:  This one is particularly important if you’re employed within an organization.  Treat customers like you’re 100% sure that you’ll bump into them at the supermarket while you’re with your family – and can’t hide behind a company logo.

Build trust:  Trust takes time to build.  Start by keeping your word.  Do not over promise to get the sale.  You’ll be risking the long-term relationship.  Always remember that clients who trust you will refer you to others. 

Guard your reputation:  Whether you’re selling widgets, crunching numbers behind a desk or teaching yoga, your professional reputation is always on the line – not only your employer’s.  Particularly in sales the messenger (i.e. you) will be shot.  If you’re known for your integrity, the likelihood is that your clients will follow you wherever you go.  Show integrity by making claims that you can back up with sound data.  Data that you believe in.  Be transparent – like you, prospects aren’t idiots.

Question prospects’ current buying habits:  It’s not rude to ask someone why they are currently buying what they are.  It’s actually in their best interest to review their buying habits.  Ask them respectfully. 

 

References:

1. Thanks Huthwaite

2. Thanks AAMC

3. Diwali: “…the Hindu festival of lights…extends over five days.  (It) celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance…” (thanks BBC)

Job hopping 101

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Because I’m still reading through the hate mail that I received after posting Are You Getting the Itch to Switch (jobs) on brazencareerist’s blog: http://www.brazencareerist.com/2008/09/08/are-you-getting-the-itch-to-switch-jobs I thought it would be a good idea to set the record straight about my philosophy about job hopping.

Lets start by defining what it isn’t.

Job hopping is not a sport. It’s certainly not about running away from something. Neither is it a way to feel redeemed by getting back at your boss or the HR department. Make no mistake, if it’s not done strategically, job hopping might as well be called career suicide.

In order for job hopping to lead you to success in your career, you must be strategic and follow a few ground rules.

These are my top 10:

Rule #1: Be a career owner. Take charge and run your career like a business venture. Have a long-term plan. At the very least know what you want to achieve during the next 5 years. Map out how you’ll get there. That way when you switch, you’re not running away, you’re going towards something.

Rule # 2: Package yourself on your resume. Ditch the features. Focus on the benefits that your past experiences will bring to your future employer. Your potential future boss does not care about how many clients you cold-called. She wants to know that because you’re not afraid of cold-calling you have the potential of opening new accounts. Back up your claims with past accomplishments.

Rule #3: Package yourself during the interview. Okay, so I’ve had 4 jobs in the past 5 years and I owned and ran a business in between. To show my future bosses what that means to their bottom line, other than quite possibly that I will not be around for more than 18 months – I use the following illustration:

+ + + + + = $$$ for you

To do this, I pull out a piece of blank paper and a pen and draw this same picture as I talk about what I learned from each experience. I focus on the transferable skills that I bring to the table that will impact their bottom line. For example, when I mention that I’ve had my own business, I explain that I can work under minimal supervision and get things done. I do not leave it up to them to answer: “What’s in it for me?”

Rule #4: Partner with a recruiter. I’ve worked in recruitment so I know how nasty recruiters can get – especially when they’re desperate to fill a role (i.e. to get commission). But I have also found some very professional ones out there. In fact, much of my success in hopping around I owe to one particular recruiter who since day one got me. It was more than chemistry. She took time to read my resume and ask me insightful questions. Not only did I feel respected, I also felt that because she took time to understand me, that she would be able to place me well. Twice in a row she has placed me in jobs that have been bigger and better than my previous ones. I suggest that you take the time to look for a recruiter who you feel comfortable with and you can trust. When you do, keep them around. I had to kiss a few frogs before I found mine.

Rule # 5: Network. I don’t believe in being Machiavellian about relationships. It’s those people who I genuinely connect with who have helped me the most during my career. So there’s little point to go around collecting acquaintances. For your network to really support your success, it must be made up of people you like and respect. Your recruiter is one of them.

Rule #6: Prepare for the sales presentation. Make no mistake, you are selling yourself at an interview. For that very reason, I treat every interview in the same way that I treat a sales presentation to a client. The difference is that at an interview I’m the product and the salesperson. I make sure that I know my product (i.e. my resume) and also my presentation. These days there are no secret questions at an interview. You’ll find lists and lists of interview questions online. Here’s a list I found to be quite insightful since it gives advice to interviewers on how to get the best (and worst) out of candidates: www.bnet.com/2403-13056_23-52952.html

Rule #7: Ask for the job. Please do not get so close to the job and yet be so far away simply because you do not ask for it. I admit that it can feel awkward to say to the interviewer: “I like what I know about the company, and what I learned today about the role and the team. And I really want this job. What will it take for me to get it?” But being that I’ve sat on the other side of the table, I know that candidates who do not ask me for the job come across as people without a back-bone. As a future boss, I want the person who will do whatever it takes to get the job done – even if it means putting up with a few seconds of awkwardness.

Rule #8: Learn to negotiate your salary. In an earlier post I wrote about negotiating the empowered way (http://silvanaavinami.com/?p=28). The main thing to keep in mind when you’re negotiating your salary is that a negotiation is the beginning of your relationship with your future employer/boss, not the end. To set a positive tone, aim for an outcome that’s mutually beneficial. For the relationship to last, you must feel that you came out getting what you need. By the same token, do not expect your future boss to give you more if that will land them in the loosing position. Expect them to pay you in line with your contributions – not the smick life-style you want to lead. By focusing on the value that you’ll add to the company, quite possibly you’ll find that you’ll be able to afford all those toys that you want.

Rule #9: Exit in style. I covered this in an earlier post (http://silvanaavinami.com/?p=161). In short, aim to preserve the relationship that you worked so hard to build with your soon-to-be ex-employer. Very few people know you as well as they do. Like I have, some day you’ll find that they will be great allies as you sail across the big blue ocean of possibilities.

Rule #10: Become a learning machine. To successfully switch jobs, let alone careers and industries means that you’ll have to climb some steep learning curves. And tackling all the information that comes your way can at times feel like trying to survive an avalanche. The key is to find out very early on in your career what steps you go through to learn new information as well as under what conditions you learn best. Once you know this, you’re less likely to panic if by month 2 in a new job you still feel clueless. For example, I know that after month 3 things start to gel in my brain. After month 6 I’ll start to see the light. So I no longer panic. I simply make it a point to sleep 8 hours a night for the first ew months so that my brain survives the over-stimulation.

Why having a foreign accent is fabulous for business

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Being that my first language is Spanish and that I’ve developed my career in the English-speaking world, at work meetings and functions, more often than not, I get asked about my foreign accent.  Quite frankly, the ‘..and where are you from?’ line (or similar version) got old about 10 years ago.  To stop myself from getting annoyed, I’ve found a way to amuse myself.  Before answering I ask people to take a guess.  I’ve heard all kinds of things.  Among my favorite responses are: Philadelphia (go figure, I only stopped in Bethlehem during the storm of ‘93), Quebec, and some have even placed me in Chekoslovakia (close guess, three of my grandparents are Eastern European).  I know that I sound like all of South Florida, just like JLo and on a bad day like Ricky Ricardo.

Although I now take this lightly, earlier in my career I was convinced that my foreign accent made me sound unprofessional and in general played against me in the world of work.  With that on my mind, whenever I spoke, I made an effort to sound ‘American’.  Forget that I must of sounded robotic and rehearsed.  All the mental energy that I was dedicating to juggling between my accent, the content and the structure, would’ve been much better spent on what I was saying.  Needles to say, I usually felt exhausted after meetings, phone calls and presentations.

Determined to get rid of this nagging feeling, I decided to look for proof to dispute the little voice inside my head.  If only someone would’ve pulled me aside earlier to tell me all the reasons why having an accent is great for business. 

Native-speakers and ESLs, let me enlighten you:

1. Think Kofi Annan, Carlos Ghosn, Golda Meir and Roberto Goizueta.  It’s clear that their accents did not get in the way of their success.  If anything they all sound(ed) memorable and distinguished.  So it follows that

2. Being unique is a strength especially when we’re all wearing blue suits.

3. By growing up in a different part of the world than most people in the room, by default you bring a new and different point of view.  Buzz words aside, diversity does add value in the world of work.

4. If like me, you had to complete the entire series of Warriner’s Grammar and Composition to graduate from high school, it’s likely that your grammar is above average.

5. Breaking the ice by speaking about your nationality and foreign countries in general is far more interesting than talking about the weather.

Do me a favor and give yourself a break.  Keep your accent.  Instead focus on backing your recommendations with solid data and try to use correct grammar. 

Let go! (it’s all impermanent)

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Shot by Adrian Alston

At the risk of my readers suspecting that I own shares of Buddha Corp. (BCOR) I’ve decided to indulge my need to write yet another post about the benefits of meditation. 

In an earlier post: Go Fetch! I only mentioned in passing that while sharpening my meditation skills at a Buddhist monastery, I also learned about impermanence.  This morning, after coming out of a Bikram yoga class, I realized that when I wrote that last week, I only knew that the concept impermanence existed.  In other words, I did not really know what impermanence is.  Today is when I experienced impermanence for the very first time.

The aha! moment hit me this morning when I went to pay for parking.  For three years I’ve been making sure that I leave my yoga class in time to get to my car within 2 hours so that I pay $1 for parking and not $7.  Today my system went wrong and I got zapped by a $7 dollar fee for going over just 2 minutes.  Those 2 minutes cost me $5 bucks.  Okay so it’s not a big deal, it’s just $2 bucks.  However, I’m ashamed of myself to say that the last time that I went over and had to pay $7, I went totally nuts.  First I felt pangs of anger in my belly, the temperature in my body rose and angry thoughts started to swirl in my head at a million miles an hour.  Admittedly a totally extreme reaction, but that’s what I experienced. 

Today though when I saw the $7 dollar charge come up on the parking meter, I acknowledged it with a gentle ‘oh’, and took out a bill from my wallet.  Calmy and feeling undisturbed by the mishap, I walked back to my car. 

Has meditation damaged my amygdala – the region responsible for emotional reactions in our brains?  Or has meditation allowed me to let go off things at the speed of light?  Because I still cry of laughter whenever I hear something funny, and I’m still in love with my husband, I know that the latter has to be true. 

Taking it a step further, I realized that if anything, meditation has turned me into a more rational human being.  (Notice the focus on human – other living beings have the capacity to feel – just think slaughter house – but their ability to reason and make decisions is still questionable)  How am I more rational? By not holding on to anger, I did not occupy my mind unnecessarily.  Instead I used it to think of my options.  I now know that if I park out on the street for 5 days in a row, by not paying a $1 each day, I’ll make up for the extra $5 bucks that I paid today.  That’s an option right there, which even gives me the opportunity to change my scenery and get more fresh air.  Maybe it’s a bit extreme to go through that process for such a triviality, but this realization is certainly worth testing on the bigger issues that life throws my way.  

What does this have to do with impermanence?  Right now, take a deep breath and hold on to it. Hold it. Hold it a few more seconds.  Keep holding it.  Okay let go!

What were you thinking while you were holding on to your breath?  I suspect that like me, all you could think of was how great it would feel to breathe out.

Then my question is, if it’s inevitable that the breath will go out, that things are impermanent, then why hold on to them in the first place? 

By holding on to things we’re only hurting ourselves and certainly not being part of the solution.  We become part of the solution by thinking through our options, not by holding on to things.

Next time that you’re holding on to something, like a big important problem, you might want to ask yourself: “Why am I taking up head space and energy holding on to this?  Instead why not use my mind in smarter ways, like thinking creatively and looking for solutions?”

Namaste.

Stamping out mistakophobia

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Mistakophobia, an intense fear of making mistakes, is up there with career -suicide as one of the killers of career growth.

The afflicted mistakophobes are so afraid of making mistakes that they never leave their comfort zone.  Going about their work-lives feeling comfortably numb, because they seldom make mistakes, they miss out on all kinds of important lessons.  Consequently they never grow.  And the cycle repeats itself.

There is a thin line between a good mistake and an unforgivable one.  The kind of mistake I’m advocating is the inevitable one that comes from taking risks and trying new things.  It’s also the one that we make a point to learn from so that we don’t make it again. 

How can you tell if you’re on the right side of the line?

1.     You’re genuinely surprised by your mistake.

2.    You accept full responsibility.

3.    You’re quick to find out what went wrong for the sole purpose of finding a solution – not to dodge blame.

4.    You don’t dwell on the situation.  Instead you aim to find solutions and get on with things quickly.

5.     When faced with the same or a similar situation, you’re able to apply what you learned.

Go Fetch! (lessons from inside the walls of a Buddhist monastery)

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Contrary to what most would think, that the reason I went away for 3 days to meditate and observe Noble Silence* at a Buddhist monastery was to take care of my spirit, my main objective was to take care of business.  By learning from those who know best about meditation, my goal was to improve my practice and sharpen my mind.  In the process I did learn about loving kindness and the impermanence of things.  But those were only fringe benefits and pale in comparison to what I learned about how to control my mind by keeping it still.

My main hope in sharing this with you is for you to realize that, like me, you too can benefit from sitting down and doing nothing for 30 minutes a day – talk about a great return on an investment!

The reality is that as much fun as it looks like a dog is having when it’s playing fetch with its owner, something tells me that just like me, you would much rather be the one throwing the stick.  Not the one panting from chasing after it.

The question is, are your thoughts sending you to go fetch?  In other words, are you mindlessly reacting to situations around you, chasing after your anger, your worries and your doubts? Or are you in control of your mind, taking time to think and respond to the world around you? 

Aside from your pride being threatened if you are in fact the one running breathlessly after your thoughts, the more important thing that is at stake here is your ability to think clearly.  When your mind is too busy going on an emotional errand, you’re not able to experience your mind’s full capacity to think.  It’s a well-known fact that your mind performs at its peak when it’s calm and clear like the surface of a pond on which you can see your own reflection.  A still mind is a clear mind.  A clear mind is a thinking mind.

The great news for you and me is that we can learn to make our mind stay still – and not go fetch – in spite of what happens around us.  The simplest way that I know how is by meditating.  By sitting down to focus on your in and out breath, you’re learning to take control over your mind by keeping it still.  The whole point is to keep coming back to your breath as it enters and leaves your nose, over and over again, as you watch your thoughts go past.  The more you do this, the easier it becomes for your mind to stay in one place.

I know that sitting down and doing nothing does not sound like much of a party.  But you tell me, what would you rather do; pant as a result of fetching after your thoughts all day long and continue to think with an impaired brain, or spend 30 minutes of your day to make your mind sharp as a diamond?

Take a deep breath (with a little smile).

*Noble Silence: silence of the body, speech and mind. Speaking is allowed only in case of an emergency or to ask staff about your practice.

The Buddhist monastery that received me with loving kindness: www.sunnataram.org

 

Soul Food for Your (one) Reputation

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Employed, self-employed or unemployed, in the world of work you have one reputation – one.

Just as Apple and Mini Cooper have a brand that represents them in the public eye, your reputation is your own personal brand. Depending on how you manage it, it can either open doors for you or potentially repel opportunities.

I’m not implying that you don’t already take care of your reputation, but humor me for a few seconds and think about what you would do differently if you would take it as seriously as Apple takes their brand image.

The good news is that it’s possible for you to look after and develop your reputation, while being yourself and not feeling like you’re walking on egg-shells.

The following tips are based on my own experience and some come from working with doctors – a group of professionals whose careers live and die by their reputations.

Tip #1 – Follow the ‘Golden Rule’: Do onto others as you would like done onto you. ‘Nough said. By parting from this point you’re acknowledging that others are as important as you are. When you respect others, the likelihood is that they’ll respect you in return.

Tip #2 – Work as if you matter: This isn’t about feeling cocky and giving your ego a boost. Rather, it’s about knowing that your skills are needed and that through your work you have the potential to make a difference in your company and the community at large. Not to idealize the medical profession, but most doctors know that their work can make a difference and feel proud of it. By believing that your work makes a difference you also have the potential to feel proud about your own contributions.

Tip #3 – Take responsibility: Take full responsibility for any mistakes you might make. Nobody is error free (that’s why there are erasers on pencils). Playing the blame game or getting caught in a lie can tarnish your reputation. Face your mistakes and other difficult situations head on. If you live by this, your co-workers will have much more respect for you.

Tip #4 – Work to be respected, not to be liked: Bill Cosby says it best: “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” Through your actions, you can influence whether you’re respected or not. But in reality, just as you can’t control whether a peer likes cocktails or beer, you can’t control whether you are liked by everybody or not.

Tip #5 – Be assertive: While trying to get your point across and influence others, don’t be aggressive but don’t be passive either. Sure, this has been stated almost ad-nauseum in self-development literature time and time again. However, that doesn’t change the fact that there’s a lot to be said about someone who can be firm yet nice at the same time. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind and ask for what you want but do so in a way that respects the personal boundaries of others. Trust me, I learned the hard way that being too aggressive and pushy can result in the opposite than what you’re looking for.

Tip # 6 – Build trust: Trust isn’t something that is given to you, you must earn it. And you’ll find, as I have, that it’s not that hard to earn, as long as you’re willing to make the necessary deposits in people’s emotional bank account. All it takes is a few baby steps. Make a small promise, one you are 110% sure that you can keep, and keep it. Through making promises and keeping them is how you pave the way and eventually earn others’ trust.

Tip # 7 – Follow-through relentlessly: If you’ve taken a tennis or golf lesson, you’ll understand that your stroke is only as good as your follow-through. This also applies to work follow through. By not responding to work related matters in a timely manner you’re projecting a message – whether intentionally or not – that certain issues don’t matter to you. If workload is what’s keeping you from responding, just a quick note to let people know that you received their communication and by when you plan to respond, will make a world of difference. To make sure that you follow-through, set rules for yourself. I personally believe in returning emails within 1 day of receiving them and phone calls the same day. Don’t wait until you need someone you met to get in touch with them. Use the follow through to create the bridge that you can walk on to get to them when you need them.

Tip # 8 – Deliver what you promise: Talk is cheap. Do what you promise that you will. Start by being honest with yourself about what you can deliver and then be honest with others, don’t over-promise. If you’ve fallen into the habit of talking up things, be it because you mean well and genuinely want to help or that’s just your style, practice under-promising. This is not about being mediocre or a slacker. It’s about learning to work within the bounds of your own reality.

Tip # 9 – Be on time: I learned that if you’re late you’re ‘dead’. While working as a baking & pastry apprentice in an industrial kitchen, I saw first-hand how tardiness messes up a whole day of production. In the office world, tardiness communicates: ‘I have more important things to do than to meet you!’ Think about it. In the absence of an emergency, we all know that we’re late because we decided to do something else on our way out the door. In other words, we did not make it our highest priority to respect the other person’s needs. Being on time is not rocket science. Simply work backwards from the time that you need to be somewhere and figure out by what time you need to leave. It will do wonders for your reputation because it makes others feel important and shows that you’re organized.

Tip # 10 – Mind your appearance: Yes, your image is part of the package of how people perceive you. This includes the way you dress and how you communicate when you speak and write.

Dressing: A simple rule regarding wardrobe is to dress according to the message you want to project. I tend to look at people I admire (in & out of work) and use them as a guide as how to dress. It’s not about stripping away your personality, it’s more about bringing it out where it really counts and makes a difference. And sure, in certain environments it’s the norm to make a statement with what you wear – I say, go for it!

Speaking: Just as well, how you say things is as important as what you say. When it comes to speaking in public, practice does make perfect. Recently I became a member of a Toastmasters club. I’m finding that  it’s a safe environment to practice skills that most certainly apply to work. I suggest that you check them out: www.toastmasters.org (No I will not get any commission or brownie points if you join. I’m serious).

Writing: In writing, to get your point across aim to make your point early on, use simple language and be consistent in your use of verbs and terms. Make it a habit to proof read documents at least once – don’t just rely on spell check.

Now that I’ve shared with you my thoughts, I’d love to hear what you’re feeding your reputation.

Stop the Self-sabotage – Play it Forward

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It’s a no-brainer that our decisions have consequences – the question is do our actions reflect our knowledge of this simple fact?

It was the know-it-all comment by a teen-age girl to her mom that prompted me to re-examine my own actions.  As I was going about my own business in the locker room at the local pool where I go for my weekly swim, I over-heard a mom and her teen-age daughter arguing.  At the crux of their argument was the daughter’s refusal to place her bag inside one of the lockers.  I did not find it surprising that the daughter refused to do so – or even that she rolled her eyes in the process.  On the other hand, I found it fascinating to hear how the daughter justified her decision.  With some attitude, she told her mom, almost verbatim: “What’s the point mom? It’s such a waste of time to put my bag in a locker.  What for?”  Now, I’m far from being a mind-reader, but after watching ‘What Women Want’ (2000) I’ve become quite good at listening to people’s thoughts.  I could hear the mom thinking: “Yeah right, taking 30 seconds to put your bag in a locker is a waste of time!  I’ll tell you what’s a waste of time…taking weeks to replace your stolen documents and to earn back your allowance!”

From how that argument unfolded – the mom lost – I learned that what may seem very minor decisions throughout our day, deserve more of our attention because they could end up disturbing our lives in a major way.

For example, while I was working as a pastry apprentice in a hot hotel kitchen in Miami, some days standing on my feet for 12 hours at a time, the last thing that I wanted to do at the end of my shift was clean my tools.  A shower and a bed was all that was on my mind.  But I learned the hard way that dashing out with a tool-box full of sticky knives and piping cones was not a smart move.  After spending an afternoon cutting chocolate cakes and then plating desserts until mid-night, I decided to go home (a shower & a bed) without properly cleaning my serrated knife.  That’s when I found out that staying back 10 more minutes after a shift to run my tools through hot water was a piece of cake in comparison to having to empty out my tool box to get rid of the ant colony that was inside having a feast.  What about when writing a document at work, be it a contract for a client or a board paper, or a fax.  Do we feel it’s a drag to stop every few minutes to hold down the Control and the S keys?  (for my Mac it’s Command and S)  Realistically, how much of our time does doing that take?  On the other hand, how long would it take us to re-produce the document if our computer crashed? (okay, Mac’s don’t crash as often, but still you get my point)  One situation that I’ve been struggling with for the past 9 years is every time – without fail – that we leave the house, my husband asks me as I’m about to walk out the door, if I have my house keys.  Almost each time – without fail – I can feel myself roll my eyes (just like the teen-ager in the locker room) and say to myself: “here he goes again!”.  But, here I go.  For the first time ever, I’m willing to admit that he’s doing the right thing.  He’s thinking about the consequences.  And I’m hoping that following my almost indecent exposure that you’ll agree that as annoying as it may be to check for house keys, that it’s much more aggravating and time consuming to be locked out of the house. 

With this I’m not advocating that we lead paranoid existences.  I’m proposing that we become more preventive and think through our decisions – even the small ones. 

Which decisions could you play forward and stop the self-sabotage?  

Same city – Different outlook – Totally different experiences

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Peace and quiet in the middle of the hustle and bussle

It’s day 12 since I started my 30-day “happy no matter what challenge” – and I’ve decided to write an update because it was earlier today that I noticed something was different in my life.  While writing this, I’m mindful that my progress report might disappointment some.  For those of you who were expecting to read that I’ve found it easier to find parking spots, nope, the Law of Attraction has yet to solve that for me.  In fact, I just come from spending 30 minutes feeling very frustrated while looking for a place to leave my car for all of 5 minutes so I could grab some lunch.  In that regards, I can’t say that I’ve been better at keeping my cool when those small things get in my way.  As far as becoming a billionaire, I feel that I’m getting close, but I haven’t had a call from a rich relative to let me know that I’ll be getting a big chunk in advance.

So if it’s not the small stuff that I’m attracting and it’s not the big stuff either, then what is it that I’ve noticed is different in my life?  By minding my feelings and aiming to feel happy even if it means tickling myself in public, I’ve noticed a significant shift in my outlook on things.  That may sound minor in comparison to what you were expecting me to attract – convenience and instant wealth.  But based on the experiences that I’ve had in the last few days, that is no small thing for me. 

Let me explain.

Last week, while I was in Hong Kong (HK), I had the benefit of meeting someone who clearly needs to, as Lynn Grabhorn says in her book Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting, “open the valve” to let some happy in.  One night, while sitting outside of my hotel room so that I could work without waking up my husband, a very chatty neighbor approached me.  I let him interrupt because I was curious as to what the universe would bring to my door-step at that time of the night. (you can relax because I’m not a murder-mystery writer so you don’t have to worry about my safety)

The universe brought me a very important life lesson.  My neighbor, a pearl farmer from Seychelles (East Africa), was in HK attending the jewellery exhibition that was taking place in town.  Soon after we met, he went on to speak his mind about how he thought that HK was one of the most rotten places on earth.  He complained about the pollution, the frivolity of the people, the traffic and on and on and on he went.  I let him go on because I found his rant quite amuzing.  Like an anthropologist doing an ethnography on an indigenous tribe in Africa, there I was, doing a study on the power of perspective (on an African just as well).  Clearly, my neighbor and I were experiencing the same exact city.  Yet he was spending most of his free time cooped up in his hotel room, looking to avoid what he saw as overcrowded, polluted and noisy city streets, while I was busy seeing, tasting, and feeling new things.

Of course there was traffic and pollution and noise 24/7, but there was also a world of experiences to be lived.  On most mornings before work, I went for a walk through Victoria Park where I watched locals practice their daily Tai-Chi ritual, while others danced Abba (with a straight face) and others swam laps. I experienced new and unusual flavors at one of the city’s oldest vegetarian restaurants – which happened to be just 3 blocks away from my hotel (Tung Fong Siu Kee Yuen at 111 Wan Chai Road).  If you’re a vegan – like me – or a vegetarian and you’ve been to HK, you would know that such a spot would feel like an oasis in the midst of all the dead ducks, pig’s body parts and who knows what that are hanging from almost every other restaurant window.  On the week-end, I met a friendly local who drove me around the art galleries and antique shops on Upper Lascar Row – in a hip convertible mini-cooper.  And the greatest highlight of all was spending a morning meditating at the Chi Lin Nunnery.  Founded in the 1930s, this monastery was built in the Tang Dynasty style.  It’s all made out of wood and no nails where used in its construction.  The energy in this quiet place – which happens to be in a busy neighborhood – is both intense and calming – like nothing I’d experienced before. 

It’s questionable and hard to prove whether I attracted these experiences into my life.  But I can say that I did not go looking for any of this, because like my neighbor, I did not know that all this existed in HK.  Like him, I too could’ve stayed locked up in my hotel room during my free time.  But I found that somehow, these flavors, sights and sounds flowed into my life – quite effortlessly.

Now that I’m back in Sydney, feeling energized and fulfilled from my trip, I plan to do exactly what I’ve been doing – feeeling happy no matter what.  

Stay tuned.

The method behind my job-switching madness (The Secret)

alcanza metas, autoconciencia, empoderamiento, empoderamiento profesional, estratégico y sostenible, liderazgo, , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve been asked more than once why on earth do I switch jobs so often.  To set the record straight, in this post I’ll let you in on the biggest secret of my career so that hopefully a. people stop dropping their jaws when they hear that I’ve had 12 jobs in ten years and b. you learn a few tricks that will benefit your own career.

The main reason I consider myself a strategic job-hopper and not a hopeless one is because at my core I am an entrepreneur.  Let me explain.  Aside from being born into a family of enterprise builders (who have set up multiple manufacturing plants of 200 + employees), since the age of five I have been setting up businesses.  (Click here to find out more about my mango stand).  But as a college graduate, when the time came for me to make a living for myself, it made more business sense for me to get a job than to set up a business.  That’s when I became the first adult in two generations of my family to be an employee.  Because until that point I’d only either worked with my family’s businesses or owned my own, I only knew about business ownership not employee-hood. So by default I viewed my career just as I viewed a business venture and approached it in similar ways.  I’m far from being perfect, but I believe that my entrepreneurial view of my career is what has driven me to switch jobs at the rate that I have – and to succeed because of it.

To share the wealth, below are the main philosophies and strategies that have guided my career for the past ten years:

  1. I work with an employer, not for them.  In essence I see myself as an employee-owner, not a vanilla-flavored employee who’s at the mercy of an employer.  Admittedly this is merely a play on words, but believing that as an employee I work with an employer not for them, has been the lynchpin of my career.  This approach to work is what allows me to feel that I’m in control of my career and the master & commander of my own ship.  And in my mind, just like restructuring is a fact of life for businesses to succeed, resigning from a job is a naturally occurring change of course, not an underhanded ship jump.  For that very reason I’ve always made it a point to exit in style and maintain the relationships that I’ve worked so hard to build with my boss and colleagues. (check out this post to find out how I exit in style)
  2. I know my key assets. Whenever I’ve considered a business opportunity I’ve performed a feasibility analysis to learn about strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (i.e. SWOT).  As an employee I’ve followed a similar logic and I’ve made it a point to frequently self-assess my key assets:  my interests, my skills (& my strengths) and my values. (If you’d like to find out what assessments I’ve used, check out this post)  Aside from being aware of my priorities at different points in time, I also know what I bring to the table and what I need to improve to get to where I want to.  Having this information about myself guides me during a job search and also increases my negotiating power during interviews.  In fact, the last three times that I changed jobs, I received pay packages that were 30% higher than my previous salary.
  3. I have a strategic career plan.  Since day one of my career I’ve made it a point to work with the end in mind.  In fact, for the past ten years I’ve been planning my career in five-year chunks.  So not only do I know where I want to be in five years I also know what I need in order to get there.  This does not mean that my final destination hasn’t changed after I’ve set it.  In fact, in ten years, I’ve changed my destination more than once.  For example, after I worked for over a year as a pastry chef fantasizing almost every day that in 5 years I’d be a top pastry chef, I realized that industrial kitchens were not a place for me.  I decided to change courses and to use my business degree to make a living.  But before I made my move, I spent time assessing my key assets and drafting a 5-year plan based on the opportunities that I could access with my non-existent office experience.  There’s also the time when I was working as a medical sales rep selling prescription drugs with a pharmaceutical company.  Selling prescription drugs was meant to be a training ground for me to be able to sell medical devices, which is where the big bucks are made in the world of medical sales (I suggest that you make a mental note of this fact).  But six months into my role selling prescription drugs, I realized that I did not enjoy chasing doctors around, no matter how good a living I had the potential of making.  Again I went back to drawing board and I dropped the idea of working with a medical device company.  Instead, months later, I accepted a job as a consultant, which still got me the big bucks that I was looking for.  Quite simply, by working with the end in mind, I’ve always had a very good idea of how long I need to stay at a job in order to get to the next job that will get me closer to where I want to be at the end of the five years.  It’s my plan that tells me when to sell and when to buy, not my mood swings or my boss’s.
  4. I approach my daily tasks systematically.  I learned to work systematically while training to be a pastry chef.  As an apprentice I learned, mostly by burning myself, that in the kitchen there’s an efficient way and a not so smart way to do almost everything – and the more senior chefs have a blast letting you know the difference. And if you insist on ignoring the rules, stuff will either burn or be late.  Both big no-no’s in the food business.  By transferring this approach to an office environment (be it a home office, a car or a cubicle), I’ve been able to consistently deliver high quality results throughout my career.  And it’s because I deliver results and have a formula to do so consistently that I’ve remained very employable – and have been able to get interviewers to look at what I bring to the table, not how little I’m likely to stay at a job.
  5. I seek to improve myself.  My ongoing search for being the best version of myself has led me to learn a series of techniques that are based on Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), Positive Psychology and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).  By applying these techniques to my work-life, although I’m most certainly a work in progress, I have the insight and tools to change habits and behaviors that get in the way of my goals.  For those who either frown upon or walk fast past the self-improvement section of the bookstore, I suggest that you think again.  Based on the premise that knowledge equals power, my self-knowledge has certainly placed me in the seat of power of my career.