How To Make $1 Million Before You Graduate

These whippersnappers have business in their blood.

In Pictures: 15 Wunderkinds Who Made $1 Million Before Graduation--And The Ideas That Got Them There

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Ted Turner: All these leading lights famously ditched college to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.

Then there are those lesser-known preternatural wealth-builders who manage to cobble million-dollar enterprises before they graduate from college by age 22--and some who did it much earlier than that.
Cracking the million-dollar mark is no mean feat for any entrepreneur, let alone one who may not be old enough to legally saddle up to a bar in the U.S.
Forbes interviewed 15 of these super-strivers. (For a gallery of their photos and short profiles, click here.) Here the million-dollar measure refers to either the annual revenue generated by their businesses (as opposed to total profit) or the value of the enterprises built as implied by the companies' financing arrangements. Example: If an investor paid $100,000 for a 10% equity stake in a young company, the enterprise is said to be worth $1 million (assuming it carries no debt).
In Pictures: 15 Wunderkinds Who Made $1 Million Before Graduation--And The Ideas That Got Them There

How did these whippersnappers pull it off? Some of them identified problems and created companies to solve them, while others turned their hobbies into money-making ventures. Some teamed up with friends, parents and mentors; others plowed ahead on their own.

Here's a look at a few:
Autocricket
In the summer of 2008, after his high school graduation, Jason Brian started working in the marketing department of a South Florida car dealership. He knew the future of marketing was on the Web. "With half of the money, I found that I could double the results," buying online ads and using search engine optimization techniques, he recalls. Three years later, at age 21, Brian spent "less than $10,000" of his savings to build a website that would help consumers look for cars.
Autocricket.com made money by selling customers' information to dealers and manufacturers, which could market to customers directly. Six months after launch the site attracted the attention of two entrepreneurs in Naples, Fla., who invested $250,000. The site generated $1.2 million in revenue in 2009, when Brian was 22. In 2010 it did $6 million.
Showclix
In 2005, when he was 18, Joshua Dziabiak sold his first company--a Web hosting firm called Mediacatch--for north of $1 million. He bought a Mercedes (in cash) and a flat-screen TV, and used the rest to invest in other companies, including Showclix, his current venture, a website that lets performing arts centers, colleges, live music venues and other outlets sell tickets online, over the phone and at their box offices. In 2009 he raised nearly $1 million, which valued the company at $2.75 million. Showclix collects services fees (usually paid by the ticket buyer) of 7% to 15% of ticket sales. Those fees brought in $9 million last year.

Solben
Twenty-year-old Daniel Gómez Iñiguez launched Solben, a company that designs and manufactures a press that extracts oil from plants to produce diesel fuel. Iñiguez began his R&D in high school. He sold to his first client for $150,000--$75,000 up front to help build the product, followed by $75,000 upon delivery. The Monterrey, Mexico, company brought in "a little over $1 million" in revenue during its first year of business. Today it employs 15 full-time staff; Iñiguez is entering his junior year of college.

Watch List: Tartufi Unlimited
Three years ago, at age 15, Ian Purkayastha started importing truffles and selling them, for up to $5,000 a pound, to restaurants and fine food shops from his home in Fayetteville, Ark. Purkayastha grew up in Houston, where as a young boy he foraged for wild mushrooms in the forests near his parents' home. Importing truffles is tricky work, involving four different federal agencies and a race against time: Truffles have a shelf life of only seven days. Purkayastha is opening a truffle orchard in Arkansas--the first in the U.S.--and has "close to $1 million in sales."
Honorable Mention: Astor and Black
When David Schottenstein graduated from Oholei Torah Rabbinical Seminary at age 20, he hadn't yet made his first million--but he was well on his way. In 2004, at age 21, Schottenstein started a custom suit company at his home in Columbus, Ohio. With $75,000 he had pocketed day-trading in high school, he went to Hong Kong and lined up factories to manufacture custom "Zegna-quality" suits, listed at a fraction of competitors' prices and sold by haberdashers door-to-door. During its first full year of business Astor and Black generated $562,000 in sales. Last year it did $20.5 million.

A Blessing Or Curse?

As a journalist, I’m paid to observe others and communicate their challenges and successes, but sometimes the story hits closer to home. At 25-years-old and a reporter at a major-media company, my age seems constantly a topic of conversation. That’s why, when my editor tasked me with writing a series about youth in the office, I knew I wouldn’t need to look far. This is my story.
When I was near 5-years-old, the only child of a single, working mother, I was bored and dying to start school. However, the way the Florida education system was set up, you had to be age 5 by September 1. I begged my mom to let me go, who in turn begged the school to take me, but I was a month and half too young.
The school board told my mother it was a blessing. The older children usually had an advantage, they said. They may have been right. I loved learning and made an A in every class all the way up through college, except ninth-grade health (skipped too much), 10th-grade woodshop (talked too much) and 11th-grade yoga (still not sure what happened there). When I decided I wanted to accomplish something, I usually did. I became used to succeeding among my peers.
In my first full-time internship at a well-known magazine, still in college at age 20, I expected I’d be fetching coffee. I also promised myself that I’d try to make a mark. I got in early, read multiple newspapers a day, spoke up and pitched stories. I surprised myself when I pulled off multi-page print features and well-received online pieces. One longtime staff writer wasn’t as pleased. “In my day, interns didn’t do this kind of work,” she told me. You skipped the line, her eyes said.
I landed my first salaried magazine job the day after I graduated and started work the following week. I was lucky, people told me. I was 22. Invariably lost in the building the first few weeks, people would smile sympathetically in the halls and ask if I was an intern. I’d assumed my age would be an issue, so wore a rotation of blasé collared shirts and dress pants. But you can’t hide your face.

A month or so in, one of my female bosses called me to her office to tell me specifically to stop looking like an intern. She suggested I cut my hair. I felt it was more mean-girl than mentor but decided she had a point. I cut my hair. I continued building a closet of professional clothes and remained even-keeled. I wasn’t happy, but I had a job to do and was doing it well. I continued about my business.
I’ve put on a few more years since, but basically look the same. It would be hard not to look young being 5’2”, round-faced and non-committal when it comes to heels. At a recent soccer game, in a T-shirt and light makeup, I was pegged at 17. When I put on my big-girl pants and eyeliner, I pass more vaguely as a 20-something—not necessarily a term of endearment. As a group we’ve been called spoiled, entitled, stuck, lost, emerging, narcissistic and addicted to tech.
Yet, my mother calls my young face one of those “good problems.” And at times it has worked to my advantage. Bosses affectionately call me “kid,” “kiddo” and “young lady,” and take the time to offer encouragement and advice. One told me point-blank that when she looked at me she saw her daughter; she promoted me a few months later. When I show up for TV segments, the producers seem pleased by my “fresh face,” and the other reporters lean close, brows furled in wonderment. You’re so young, they say. I can approach almost anyone under the guise of mentorship. They want to help.
Outside the industry, subjects and sources often feel the need to point out their age in comparison to mine. Maybe I make them feel old. One subject tried to use my age to discredit me, so I knew I was getting to her. Others open up, let their guard down, say too much. In my reporting, if my not being intimidating helps, hey, I’ll take it.
“Never let them tell you your age is a problem,” one seasoned reporter told me last year. I know now that there’s something every generation has to offer—to a story, to a team, to a workplace. If I’ve managed to be successful despite my age or in light of it, it doesn’t matter. I am one of the lucky ones.
This is the first post in a series that will examine youth in the office, in the words of young workers themselves and others around them. Please share your own insights and experiences in the comments section below.

True Tales Of A 26-Year-Old Receptionist

This was told to me by a 26-year-old woman working as a receptionist at a New York City financial firm, who asked to remain anonymous. This post is part of a series on youth in the office.
I feel like the office slave. I answer phones, order lunch, give people their mail. All the assistants here are female and almost everybody else is male. Some of them like to complain a lot. Some of them think they’re special.

The other day one guy accusingly informed me there was no hot sauce left in the refrigerator. Another dropped by to ask, “Is there a reason that the water cooler has become unplugged?” When the microwave blew a fuse, I had to find the circuit breaker, and when the coffee machine broke, that was somehow my fault too. I’m not even that good with technology. How did this become my life?
They look at me and think I’m stupid, but I have a degree from one of the best schools in the country. I wanted to be a musician. I came to New York, graduated with honors from a renowned music program and saw myself playing in an orchestra. I was planning my future with a man. We’d both work to scrape by while I pursued my music. It might be hard, but we’d be together. I had all these romantic visions, and then reality hit.

He died suddenly in an accident. The year after that was the lost year of my life. I stopped playing and worked as a waitress in my hometown. I was forced to reevaluate everything, and I wasn’t sure that I could do it on my own. Music wasn’t practical. You have to be the best, and I questioned whether I wanted it enough.
I didn’t really want to be home. I missed him. I missed the city and my friends. I decided to move back to New York City and get a job—any job—and figure it out. I took a minimum wage retail position, and then did a series of temp jobs at cosmetic, jewelry, and financial companies. I learned how to use the phone and Microsoft Outlook.
One of the temp jobs led to an administrative assistant position in the music industry, but my bosses were freaks. The first would yell about every little thing. When she walked into a room, everyone parted to let her pass. When I went to her office to ask her something, she would say, “You wait until I look at you before you speak.” She was going to anger management classes after work.
The other boss was bi-polar, nice one minute and crazy the next. She loved to fire people—security guards, assistants, people in the mailroom. Once she asked me to messenger her lunch from the office to her home in Connecticut. When she wanted to yell at an assistant over the phone, she would ask to be put on speaker so that everyone in the office could hear. I hated it, and I wanted out.

That’s how I ended up here. It probably was not a good career move because I demoted myself. But I get paid more, and they yell less. I am, however, bored out of my mind. And I feel like I get blamed for everything as if I’m totally incompetent.
I’m supposed to interrupt meetings to ask if anyone wants a drink. It’s completely awkward, and no one ever wants one. I’ve had to field phone calls from people’s taxidermists and about their private jet planes. One time, one of the guys accidentally butt-dialed the office. He was screaming and cursing at his girlfriend, saying, “I just bumped into you; I didn’t hit you!”

A lot of times I’m just browsing the internet. When I’ve read every story and gone through Facebook three times already, that’s when I start wondering what’s next.
I know if I did anything in the performing arts I wouldn’t make any money. Sometimes I fantasize about marrying a rich guy and being able to pursue music. I wouldn’t have to worry about money and maybe I could be really good.
My worst fear is that I’d stay a receptionist forever—although I’d rather answer phones at a hospital that helps people than for traders making billions. I’ve spent a lot time thinking about what I should do. I’ve crossed finance off my list. I was considering accounting, so I went to the library and checked out Accounting for Dummies. I started reading it and thought: No way.
I like the idea of health care, but don’t think I could deal with blood or cleaning up after people. That’s how I came across physical therapy, which I think I could like. But I’ve recently been leaning towards being a paralegal because I think it might be interesting and it would cost less to get certified.
I really like to travel. I’ve thought about going abroad and teaching English, especially now since I’m young. But I also wonder if I should stay in one place for awhile to establish myself. There are just so many options now it can feel overwhelming.
I don’t know what I want, but I know I want my job to mean something. I want to use my brain more. I want to go to work and do something that I’m proud of, that improves people’s lives. If I have to hop around for awhile, that’s okay. Because even if I do a job or take a class and don’t like it, I know it was worth something.
This is the sixth post in a series that examines youth in the office, in the words of young workers themselves and others around them. Please share your own insights and experiences in the comments section below.
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The 8 Things You Do Wrong On LinkedIn

Some years ago, I was chatting with a prospective employer, sharing tales of my experiences and selling him on the many reasons he should hire me, and doing it by using very specific examples. At one point in the conversation he turned quickly around in his chair and started furiously typing. As it turned out, he was Googling me mid-interview to learn if what I was telling him was true (it was true, and I snagged the job).
If this hasn’t happened to you in an interview, don’t think it hasn’t happened in one shape or form. Because even if you don’t witness them doing it, I can almost guarantee they do indeed, Google you.
What are they looking for? Not your Facebook page (although if you don’t have that blocked, they will definitely enjoy the read). Not your dating profile (if they did, that‘s actually über creepy). Instead, what they’re looking for is your online professional presence. And in today’s world, you need to have one out there for them to find.
For many (and I dare say, most) professions, an online professional profile will only help you. And until someone rolls in with something better, the best place to go to build one is LinkedIn.
If you have a profile on LinkedIn already, kudos! But this isn’t really about that. You should have already created one of those years ago. If you haven’t, you should Google around for some tips and tricks for building a great page. Then circle back over here.
This is about using your profile correctly — and to your advantage. Because in the corporate world, people read into things. Including the things you’re doing on sites like these. So here are the top eight things you might be doing wrong on LinkedIn.
1) You don’t have any recommendations. If a hiring manager is scoping out your LinkedIn profile and doesn’t see a recommendation, they might think, “Hmm…no one likes their work,” or “They must not have impressed anyone,” or even, “Umm, this is a dud networker.”
The Fix: Get some recommendations, duh. If you haven’t tried it yet, that’s your homework for today. Send out a request for a recommendation to at least five people you’ve worked with or currently work with (check your company policy). You’ll be surprised at how willing, honest and complimentary people will be of your work (granted, that’s if you’ve impressed them in the past – I don’t recommend you sending a request to an enemy).
2)  You get a flood of recommendations. One word. Shady. If you get a flood of recommendations one day, we’re all going to know you’re looking for a job. More often than not, job searching occurs under the radar. Well, broadcasting a bunch of recommendations all at the same time is the complete opposite of that.
The Fix: I know what you’re thinking, “I need recommendations to get a job, but you’re telling me not to get a bunch of them!” The trick is to always be looking for recommendations, even when you’re satisfied with your job. That way, when you’re not satisfied, you’re already set. If you’ve done great work for a client, ask them for a recommendation via LinkedIn as soon as the project is completed. If you leave a job for another, ask all your former colleagues to give you a shout out. There are lots of ways and reasons to get recommendations, get creative.
3) You lie. This one is pretty self-explanatory, and yet, for some it’s hard to follow. In all business settings, if you lie, you will eventually get caught.
The Fix: The best fix to this one is to just simply not to do it. Karma is…well…you know.
4) You flirt. I don’t think women have a problem with this one, but men seem to. I know it’s hard to date a modern woman, I get it. We tend to know exactly what we want, when we want it and how to avoid you if you’re not offering how or what we want. On the one hand, the LinkedIn profile might look so juicy and attractive – how could you not write her? But on the other hand, approaching said modern woman in their professional setting (albeit an online one), isn’t ok. Even if you craft a message that would blow even Shakespeare out of the water (although, it’s questionable why you would choose that route), you probably won’t get a call back. If she’s serious about being on the site for business purposes, you will have a hard time chipping away at that. In simpler terms, don’t be a creep.
The Fix: Take your party elsewhere. If you see someone on LinkedIn that you find attractive, find another way. Or connect to them and actually be professional and strike up a real networking relationship (I realize you’re doing this with ulterior motives, but you’ll get better results and a business acquaintance in the process). There are better places to go to find someone to date.

 5) You don’t describe your job. Hmm, “specialist.” That means so many different things. And when you don’t describe it, we have no idea what you’re talking about or what you do from 8-5 p.m. every day. The main point here is that you don’t want a blank piece a paper with job titles, it doesn’t help you at all.

The Fix: When I chose this as one of the eight “wrongs,” I actually got conflicting feedback from some folks about how best to share details about your experience. Some said it was ok to list job titles only, and then put the description in the summary at the top of the overall profile. Some said it was best to describe each job, as if building a résumé. When it comes down to it, either of these works, you just have to do one of them so people know you actually work.
6) You don’t post a picture. No, it’s not a beauty contest (and actually, if you use a glamour shot-esque photo, you may get laughed off the interwebs). But a picture is definitely worth a thousand words. We’re not going to judge you, we just want transparency from you. If visuals weren’t important in the business world, you would get every job by simply going through a telephone interview (wouldn’t that be nice?). LinkedIn is very much the same way. Because it has the photo feature, you should be using it. We want to see who we’re working with, networking with and introducing ourselves to – we are visual creatures.
The Fix: Ask a talented amateur photographer friend to snap a few pictures of you. Trust me, they’ll be more than willing and you’ll reap the rewards. While you’re at it, go ahead and use those pictures to create an About.me page. It’s a lesser-known site, but one where you can make some great connections while also showing off a bit more personal flair than LinkedIn will allow.
7) You don’t have any “stuff.” You don’t have to be a renaissance corporate-America person with tons of medals, awards and lots of extra-curricular activities, but it helps add a little personality to you if you’ve got some extra “stuff” listed in your profile. Everyone has something they can add to their profile, a hobby, an award they’ve won, school organization they led, put something there. If reading this has made you suddenly realize you don’t have anything to put there because you work too much – you need to change that. Having a life outside of work makes you marketable.
The Fix: This one is easy. Think about your hobbies, your organizations, what you do for fun, and list them. It shows that you’re human and that you enjoy life. Then list any awards you’ve won at work and any professional affiliations you may have. Then go out and join a few LinkedIn groups (like this one), start a few discussions and get active. LinkedIn is an amazing way to network if you take advantage of its offerings.
8) You change your profile top to bottom. This falls in line with the recommendations. If you’re making massive changes to your LinkedIn profile all at once, that tech-savvy employer will get suspicious. What’s worse, is that anyone you’re linked up to will get a notification that you’ve changed your profile drastically – so if they don’t notice it when you do it, they’ll notice it then.
The Fix: Don’t do any major fixes to your profile all at once, be strategic about it. Make changes gradually and smartly (or if you’re not going to be smart about it, make your settings private). You have colleagues who keep an eye on your profile regularly (I promise). If you really are job searching, don’t give them something to gossip about.

Article by Molly Cain, is a banker, CEO of GlassHeel.com, and an award-winning communicator with a passion for bringing a bit of creativity and humor into the workplace. When she’s not at the office or on Glass Heel, Molly’s running half-marathons, traveling or hanging out with her retired racing greyhounds. Follow Molly on Twitter @MollyCain. 

When to Give Up on Your Goals

A few years ago, I had a brilliant New Year's resolution: I'd arrange to play squash with my friend Ben three times a week. The lure of seeing him would compel me to visit the gym, and we'd get fit in the process. The only hitch was that Ben, as a teacher, had to be at work early, so our matches could begin no later than 6:00 a.m. For over a year, we kept up the ritual — until I finally realized I was so exhausted from the early mornings, I wasn't productive the rest of the day.

Goal setting can be powerful. It's important to periodically look at your priorities and ensure you're doing the things that matter, whether it's seeing friends, getting healthy, or making more sales calls. But it's equally important to re-evaluate those goals to ensure they're still appropriate. At my gym — the same one I visited with Ben — there's a huge banner with a Lance Armstrong quote: "Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever." But I'd like to suggest there are three very good reasons to abandon your goals.
When your goals have adverse consequences. Just as predicted with my squash plan, I enjoyed seeing Ben frequently and I lost ten pounds over the course of the year. But I also made the erroneous assumption that over time, I'd learn to wake up gracefully at 5:15 a.m. Despite the benefits of the routine, I eventually realized the cost — my fatigue and lost productivity — was too great to keep it up.
When your goals impede other objectives. A while back — driven by stress — I decided to schedule in my "life balance." Planner in hand, I'd spend Sunday nights carving out weekly time for friends (four hours), working in coffee shops (four hours), networking (three hours), and the like. I tried my new schedule for months, dutifully monitoring my time allocation to ensure I'd checked off the boxes and was leading a balanced life. But my stress level never seemed to go down, and I realized scheduling my life was actually impeding my enjoyment of it. I constantly felt boxed in, with no room for spontaneity. Today, I have looser guidelines for myself, and perhaps less balance, but I'm enjoying myself more.
When your goals are no longer appropriate. I recently received an attractive job query: Would I like to become the Communications Director for a prominent elected official? A decade ago, I certainly would have; back then, I spent hours crafting my resume and badgering my contacts to recommend me for a job very much like the one I was now being offered. It almost felt like a betrayal of my 20-something self to say no — but I did, anyway. In the intervening years, I had served in positions similar enough to satisfy my curiosity, and now, as a consultant, I had contracts and commitments to honor. The right goals for you now aren't necessarily the ones you set in college, or five years ago, or even last month.
"Winners never quit, and quitters never win" — that's what they told us on the Little League field. But in business, and in life, sometimes quitting is the best thing you can do.
What goals have you abandoned, and why? How did you make the decision?

Things that You Never do during Interview

With the job market extremely tight, even the small stuff counts, especially when you’re on a job interview. That’s why it’s so important not to say or do the wrong things, since that first impression could end up being the last one.

With that in mind, here are seven deadly sins of job interviewing.

1. Don’t Be Late To the Interview
Even if you car broke down or the subway derailed, do everything you can to get to that job interview on time.
“If you have a legitimate excuse it’s still hard to bounce back,” says Pamela Skillings, co-founder of job coaching firm Skillful Communications. “People are suspicious because they hear the same excuses all the time.”
On the flip side, you don’t want to show up too early and risk appearing desperate, but you do want to be there at least five minutes early or at the very least on time.
2. Don’t Show Up Unprepared
It seems simple, but countless people go on job interviews knowing very little about the company they are interviewing with when all it would take is a simple Google search to find out. As a result, they end up asking obvious questions, which signal to the interviewer that they are too lazy to prepare.
“Don’t ask if the company is public or private, how long it’s been in business and where they do their manufacturing,” says Mark Jaffe, president of Wyatt & Jaffe, the executive search firm. “Sharpen your pencil before you go to school.”
3. Don’t Ask About Salary, Benefits, Perks
Your initial interview with a company shouldn’t be about what the company can do for you, but what you can do for the company. Which means the interview isn’t the time to ask about the severance package, vacation time or health plan. Instead you should be selling yourself as to why the company can’t live without you.
“Your interest should be about the job and what your responsibilities will be,” says Terry Pile, Principal Consultant of Career Advisors. “Asking about vacation, sick leave, 401K, salary and benefits should be avoided at all costs.”
4. Don’t Focus On Future Roles Instead Of The Job At Hand
The job interview is not the time or place to ask about advancement opportunities or how to become the CEO. You need to be interested in the job you are actually interviewing for. Sure, a company wants to see that you are ambitious, but they also want assurances you are committed to the job you’re being hired for.
“You can’t come with an agenda that this job is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things,” says Jaffe.
5. Don’t Turn The Weakness Question Into A Positive
To put it bluntly, interviewers are not idiots. So when they ask you about a weakness and you say you work too hard or you are too much of a perfectionist, chances are they are more apt to roll their eyes than be blown away. Instead, be honest and come up with a weakness that can be improved on and won’t ruin your chances of getting a job.
For instance, if you are interviewing for a project management position, it wouldn’t be wise to say you have poor organizational skills, but it’s ok to say you want to learn more shortcuts in Excel. “Talk about the skills you don’t have that will add value, but aren’t required for the job,” says Pile.
6. Don’t Lie
Many people think its ok to exaggerate their experience or fib about a firing on a job interview, but lying can be a surefire way not to get hired. Even if you get through the interview process with your half truths, chances are you won’t be equipped to handle the job you were hired to do. Not to mention the more you lie the more likely you are to slip up.
“Don’t exaggerate, don’t make things bigger than they are and don’t claim credit for accomplishments you didn’t do,” says Jaffe. “You leave so much room in your brain if you don’t have to fill it with which lie you told which person.”
7. Don’t Ask If There’s Any Reason You Shouldn’t Be Hired
Well meaning career experts will tell you to close your interview by asking if there is any reason you wouldn’t be hired. While that question can give you an idea of where you stand and afford you the opportunity to address any concerns, there’s no guarantee the interviewer is going to be truthful with you or has even processed your information enough to even think about that.
“All you are doing is prompting them to think about what’s wrong with you,” says Skillings.

Look Different from the Market, Not Just Other's

If you're an experienced professional, it can be tough to find a job in today's market. Sally (name has been changed) was laid off six months ago. She was a training manager for a large corporation, advising middle and senior managers on career development. She'd worked for her company for a dozen years and was regarded by her boss and her peers as a good performer. Located at the home office, she developed long-term relationship with her clients. Because management and professional services have traditionally been delivered face-to-face, Sally thought her job and location were reasonably safe. But they weren't.
Looking for a job was harder than Sally thought. She didn't just face tough competition from younger job seekers. The market dynamics that pushed her out of a job were happening across the whole marketplace for her profession. Global IT and increasing global pressures have dramatically changed the game. More people and companies are increasingly comfortable with virtual collaboration and remote professional services. As a result, many companies cut costs in those areas, just as they outsourced manufacturing decades ago. Between 2007 and 2008, financial, information, and professional service jobs were outsourced at an average rate of 5.4% (PDF). John McCarthy of Forrester Research predicts that at least 3.3 million white collar jobs and $136 billion in wages will shift from the U.S. to low-cost countries by 2015.
This shifts knowledge work from a craft into a knowledge production system. Where Sally was a skillful collaborator integrated into her division and providing tailored services, the new low-skilled remote staff advises clients with a semiautomated template of choices.
You might think you are immune to this shift if you are a manager, but that's not the case. This is a fundamental shift in how professional and managerial work gets done, and you can't merely sharpen your skills to stay competitive. You need to do something to distinguish your skills from "everyday" professional services.
We've known for a decade or more that this shift to more production-engineered knowledge work was underway. Like most of us, you probably couldn't have anticipated how much it could impact local job markets. It's not easy, but you can still chart a career through this difficult this environment.

• Get on the cutting edge of your discipline. It's tempting to concentrate on your core skills. But if your previous company isn't keeping your skills at your high-cost location, chances are high that prospective employers aren't either. You'll need to differentiate yourself. Every discipline evolves. You don't have to be a "fresh young thing" to bring new ideas and approaches to prospective employers. In fact, cutting-edge, seasoned expertise might be even more valuable. Learning about new developments in your field will be more engaging than pounding the pavement for your old job. Niche professional expertise is less likely to be reengineered and sent to an offshore or low-cost provider. Expertise that directly supports corporate leadership is also likely to remain in its current location because of its centrality to the leadership center of the organization.
• Become a contractor. If cost is a driving force for potential employers, you can still be cost competitive. As a consultant, you absorb the costs of benefits, and hiring you is a low-commitment proposition for employers. As you prospect for new clients, you can test out different combinations of your new cutting-edge focus. And as a consultant, your internal experience is a plus. Many companies in this transition hire back former employees as contract workers.
• Don't sell yourself short. It's tempting to get a job lower than your expertise. But with this global shift, de-skilling yourself is not likely to be an effective way to stay competitive because it puts you in direct competition with the low-cost, less-skilled competitors that are changing your field. Yes, as a contractor, you'll likely do some things that only use some of your skills, but it leaves you clear to continue to develop your edge. You offer your clients more for less.
• Find a market niche. A CPA was laid off from her high-paying, high-pressure job as comptroller in a small private sector company. When she became a consultant, she shifted her focus to accounting in nonprofits. Even though the accounting aspect of her niche is below her level of ability, she serves as the top advisor to the senior management team on the organizations' financial health and the potential financial impact of their decisions. Although she makes less money, it is better than competing with the literally hundreds of applicants for comptroller jobs. Her clients appreciate the fact that she can speak the language of senior management. She chose nonprofits that she had an emotional interest in and loves contributing to something she cares about. Finding a niche not only distinguishes you, but your expertise will be genuinely appreciated. 

Article Source

Richard McDermott

Richard McDermott, PhD, is president of McDermott Consulting and a Visiting Academic Fellow at the Henley Business School. He can be reached at Richard@McDermottConsulting.com.

Tips to Avoid Becoming Depressed

Is it possible to avoid depression? What is the secret of cultivating happiness and avoiding periods of unhappiness? To a large extent, we determine our own frame of mind; we shouldn’t feel that we are a helpless victim to depression. Depression is something that we can avoid by cultivating the opposite – happiness.
Here are some tips for avoiding depression
1. Offer goodwill to Others.
If we seek to make others miserable how can we expect to be happy ourselves? If we offer goodwill to other people this creates a powerful positive energy. Focusing on other people’s good qualities can definitely help improve our own state of mind. There is a principle that what we give out, we get back. Therefore, by offering positive energy to, at some time, we will also be the recipient.
2. Learn to Detach from Thoughts
Thoughts play a very significant role in determining our state of mind. If we pursue negative thoughts then we give them greater power and influence over our state of being. However, it is possible to decide which thoughts to allow and which to reject. We have to learn to be vigilant and prevent negative thoughts from taking hold. As soon as we become aware of negative thoughts we should let go of them. We can imagine that we are throwing them out of our mind into a cosmic dustbin.
3. Keep Busy.
If we struggle to detach from negative thoughts we should just throw ourselves into other activities. When we get involved in other activities that we enjoy it takes us out of ourselves. Activity forces us to do something constructive, and does not allow us to dwell on our depressed state of mind.
4. Avoid Feelings of guilt.
If we have made a mistake, harbouring feelings of guilt will not help alleviate the situation. In particular, we are seeking to avoid feelings of guilty for minor events of no significance. Often we have done nothing wrong, but, others seek to make us feel guilty for their bad fortune. Instead of feeling guilty we should seek to concentrate on doing the right thing.
5. Live a Balanced Life.
In life we need to make room for different aspects. If we focus all our time and energy on work then we will have no time for relaxation and cultivating other aspects of our life. If we pursue an unbalanced life unhappiness is more likely to occur.

6. Don’t Base your Happiness solely on other people.
If we expect to gain happiness from another person, at some time, we are bound to be disappointed. If bad relationships end, we should see it as an opportunity to move on. It is no use dwelling on what might have been. It is also a mistake to feel that we can change somebody to match our preferences. If we seek to change a person fundamentally we will just feel frustrated when we fail.
7. Share Problems
Good friendships can offer tremendous help. Especially, if we can have 1 or 2 friends who are able and willing to listen to our problems. Our friends will not be able to solve our problems. However, simply having someone to talk to and share difficulties is a tremendous help in being able to work through our own problems.
8. Cultivate Happiness.
To avoid depression we have to focus on the alternative which is happiness. The problem is that when we are depressed, the idea of happiness seems a million miles away. But, sometimes if we can force a smile or try to be insincerely happy, we can trick the mind and force happiness to descend; and after a while we start to achieve real happiness.

9. Have Low Expectations.
Depression often occurs because our desires remain unfulfilled. The more desires we have, the more likely we are to be disappointed. After disappointment comes a sense of frustration and depression. If we minimise our desires then we will not be prone to disappointment. This does not mean we cannot strive for excellence and achieve things. We definitely should strive to achieve various accomplishments. However, we should try to have an attitude of detachment to the outcome. Nor should we expect people to behave in a certain way.
10. Don’t Dwell On the Negative.
This is the key to avoiding depression. If we focus always on negative things this will eventually filter through into our state of mind. Negativity can be, miserable people, depressing situations and our own negative thoughts. If we want to cultivate happiness, we should seek to avoid depressing situations and depressing people.

How to talk on phone

The telephone has been in existence for 136 years, but the way some people use it, you'd think it was invented yesterday.
With business travel at an all-time low, there is simply no skill more important to business success (especially in sales) than the ability to build rapport during a telephone conversation. When you can't shake hands or look somebody in the eye, your voice (and your voice alone) must be able to communicate "I am capable and trustworthy."
Unfortunately, many people in business have no idea that they sound like idiots, hustlers or robots when they're talking on the phone. They talk too fast, they mumble, they blather, they make remarks that would only make sense with an accompanying hand gesture.
It's crazy. You wouldn't believe the stuff I've heard. And that's just the negative, sales-killing stuff. Very few people use their voice and word choice actively to create a better connection with the person at the other end of the line.

Here's a quick primer how to do this:

1. Expunge your verbal weaknesses.

Record some conversations (with the other person's agreement, natch) and see if you're doing something annoying–saying "uh ..." in the middle of every sentence, for instance, or slapping a "you know ..." at the end.
Important: Never, ever turn a statement into a question by putting a little uptick at the end; it's a huge credibility killer. Same goes for regional accents that carry a stigma in other regions. If necessary, hire a vocal coach.

2. Always have an agenda.

Never have a business conversation, especially on the phone, without knowing exactly what you're trying to accomplish. This is also a good idea when meeting face to face or emailing, but it's even more important during a phone call. Two key reasons:

• You may not have the other person's full attention.
• Unlike email, it's real time–which means you can't craft a message and then edit it before hitting "send."

3. Listen (really) to the other person.

When in a conversation, most people barely hear what the other person is saying; instead, they're thinking about what they're going to say next. That's really stupid during a phone conversation because nuances are much harder to catch than if you're face to face.
It takes a bit of practice, but what you need to do is suspend your "what do I say next?" until after the other person is done speaking.

4. Take a second before each response.

When you pause before responding, the other person knows that you've listened. If, by contrast, you jump right in immediately with your response (or worse, cut the other person off), you've just communicated that you think your own thoughts are far more important than anything the other person could have said.

5. Listen (really) to your own voice.

This is the flip side of listening to the other person. When in a conversation, most people, as they talk, are thinking about what the other person is going to say next. That almost guarantees you'll communicate poorly.
Instead, listen to your own voice as if you were listening to another person. (By the way, this is much easier if you're following rules 1 and 3.)

6. Adapt your tonality to match.

As you speak, gradually take on the least obvious elements of other person's voice. The key here is to make it subtle, not obvious–lest the changes fall flat or, worse, seem mocking.
For example, if you're talking with somebody with a Mississippi accent, draw out your vowels ever so slightly–but don't cram "y'all" into your normal speaking pattern. Believe it or not, this trick really does build rapport quickly.
One final note: I probably don't need to say that the rules above also apply to face-to-face conversations. However, the rules are not quite as important in person, when your body language and appearance create enough interference that things like voice tonality can get lost in the mix. This is especially true for people who are very attractive. Back when I was single, I was often amazed at how a woman who was fascinating in person could be annoying over the phone.
In fact, if I can make a non-scientific observation, it often seems that there's an inverse relationship between physical attractiveness and good phone skills. It's almost as if the "beautiful people" have become dependent upon their looks to smooth over their character flaws–flaws that emerge, big time, when they're on the phone.

why people fail

Reaching your level of incompetence and then crashing and burning -- or is that just one of many reasons why people, for whatever reason, become ineffective? Well, I've thought long and hard about this and I think it comes down to nine essential failure modes.
Breathing your own fumes. Probably the most common failure mode, especially for formerly successful people, is they lose their humility and their objectivity and begin to think they have all the answers. They don't just lose perspective -- they honestly don't believe they need it.
Following your own agenda. If you're an entrepreneur and it's your baby, that's one thing. Do whatever the heck you want. But when you work for a company, you're not there to carve your own crazy path. It doesn't matter what level you're at. You're there to do the company's business, not your own. You can't be effective that way.
You run out of steam to compete in a brutally competitive world. It hasn't always been that way, but now more than ever, companies, managers and employees need to continuously refresh and reinvent themselves. In any competitive market, yesterday's value proposition may not hold true today or tomorrow.
The Peter Principle. The vast majority of folks who climbed the corporate ladder and all of a sudden seem clueless have either reached a level where they're no longer competent or have moved laterally into a position they're not suited for. And all too often, they're left there to rot.

You're losing it. I thought of all sorts of PC ways to say this, and there just isn't any. It's huge and yet nobody talks about it. People lose it. Maybe they're dysfunctional or a little unbalanced to begin with and for whatever reason -- stress, personal, whatever -- they start to go off the deep end and self-destruct. I've seen lots of people recover, but first they have to get out and get help.
Cultural disease. I once worked with a publicly traded company that had absolutely the worst reputation you could imagine. The media, customers, everyone thought they were arrogant bullies. Instead of looking at themselves, it became popular to blame it on all sorts of conspiracy theories. Everyone was out to get them. This lunacy became a sort of cultural disease that infected the entire company. No kidding.
You've lost faith in the organization. Sometimes, it isn't you. At any given time, probably half the companies out there are heading in the wrong direction: down. Think RIM (RIMM), Sprint (S), Yahoo (YHOO), AOL (AOL), Kodak (EK), it's a long list. It's hard to get up in the morning and be effective when, deep down, you feel like the organization is going nowhere.
Your strategy didn't age well. It happens all the time and for reasons that, well, have too many variables to categorize. One day your ideas are awesome, they work and everything's hunky dory. The next day you wake up and everything's changed. After all, we live in a dynamic world. Suddenly, your strategy or ideas no longer resonate with customers, your boss, the market, whatever.
You don't understand or want to play by the rules. Want to paint the world with your own colored crayon? March to the beat of your own drum? Do your own thing? Be a rebel with or without a cause? That's great, go for it. But when it comes to work, products, markets, customers, that sort of thing, you really don't get to do whatever, wherever, whenever you want.

10 Most Common Mistakes Made When Hiring

To err in hiring is human – and is considered to be very expensive. Many “standard” hiring procedures are actually common mistakes, so to choose more competent candidate, you need to be prepared to revise your hiring methods. Learn the consequences of the hiring errors managers often make, and then eliminate them from your hiring practices to help you choose only the cream of the crop. Most, if not all managers would agree that there are always risks when hiring new employees. These risks exist whether the new hire is a fresh-out-of-school Field sales rep. or a new chief executive officer.

Clearly Identify Company Needs

When seeking to fill a position, your company must clearly define its goals in terms of skills, experience, character, and competency. Determine the actual, objective standards a candidate must meet, and the requisite educational background, exact work experience, and specific technical skills they must possess. In addition, it is important to evaluate the organization's short-and long-term needs and the effect this particular hiring decision will have upon those needs. Many times, however, an organization's requirements can be more efficiently met through outsourcing or strategic partnering. Don't automatically assume you need a certain type of employee. Test those assumptions before you hire.

Test a Prospective Employee's Skills

Skill testing is a must. Every job has some form of measurable, objective performance standard. Identify it and test for it. A secretary who types 60 words per minute with mistakes will be less effective than a secretary who types 90 words per minute without mistakes. However, if a company fails to test for typing skills, it will have no way of evaluating a prospective employee's ability to perform a specific task. Under these circumstances, a supervisor may criticize the first secretary for lack of productivity, when she is in fact giving her best effort. Unless you test an applicant's skills, you are taking a gamble that they can perform. It's a bet you just may lose.

 Rushing a decision
When a fast-growth company decides to hire someone, it tends to create an impetus to hire that someone, today. That can mean that your company is willing to settle on whatever candidate walks in the door next–a big mistake, says Alex Membrillo, co-founder of Atlanta-based Cardinal Web Solutions. Membrillo admits that when his firm, an interactive marketing agency, recently decided to bring in a new sales person, they decided to hire someone who they knew wasn’t a perfect fit just so they could get someone in the door fast. The result? The new hire lasted just three months and cost the company thousands of dollars. “In the future we will wait as long as it takes to get the perfect fit,” says Membrillo.

Hiring friends
 
The guys that are a good time to drink with don’t necessarily make the best employees, says Megan Smith, founder of Brownstone PR, a public relations firm in Philadelphia. While knowing someone before you hire them has advantages, it can also cause problems, such as blurring the lines between business and personal relationships. “Just because your best friend will always have your back if a bar fight were to break out, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a vested interest in your business and the direction you wish to take it,” says Smith.

Being overly influenced by advanced degrees.


  Candidates with plenty of letters after their names have certainly worked hard to earn their degrees. But there is no substitute for real-world business experience, and people often make the mistake of overlooking candidates with track records but not degrees. Note: this does not apply, however, to specialized fields that require advanced degrees.

Not having a long-range plan. 


 Hiring someone to fill a current need can help you through a busy time. However, unless you're hiring someone on a temporary basis, you need a long-range plan for that employee beyond your immediate need, including how you plan to develop him or her, and how he or she fits in with your company's long-range plans.

Making promises you cannot keep. 


It can be a very costly mistake to make promises that are not well thought out. Know ahead of time what you can and cannot offer a prospective employee.
 

No background check

Managers must take time to check each of your applicants’ background and employment history. No matter how much you think you know the person through reference, you never really know a person until you do a rigid background check. One common mistake managers commit during the hiring process is failing to get to know an employee in enough detail before contract signing.

 
Not contacting all applicants

This is a terrible waste of talent, and a risk to the reputation of your business. Some managers are guilty of packing up early or making quick assumptions too early on. When you miss the opportunity to see all the applicants, you’re missing the chance to make a fair and objective choice. Sadly, it is commonplace for a manager to decide on the ‘right’ candidate right away without properly reviewing all potential applicants.

As a matter of professional courtesy, you should also contact all unsuccessful applicants. You never know where or when you might come across any of these people in future – as a client, candidate, supplier, business partner. Don’t give them any reason to ‘hold a grudge’.

Ignoring the existing employees 

Most companies become too focused on finding out and recruiting new resources and consequently the human resources managers ignore the needs of the existing employees. This creates unnecessary conflicts and competition. Therefore, proper understanding and correct retention strategies should complement with the recruitment procedures.

Top Tips for Tough Job Interview Questions

How to formulate answers to common, tough interview questions and ace any interview.

The best defense for any job applicant is to prepare for an interview well in advance by anticipating tough questions and preparing answers that focus on how he or she can contribute to the employer and why he or she is the best candidate for the job.

The Function of a Job Interview

The whole point of a job interview is not just to evaluate an applicant’s skills and accomplishments, but also to ensure applicants are a good “fit” for the company. Interviewers also want to see how applicants react in high pressure situations.
Interviewers focus on certain types of questions to elicit as much information as possible from the applicant. Most questions also have an underlying purpose and answers often tell the interviewer more than the applicant may assume.

Preparing Answers for Tough Interview Questions

Here are some suggestions for how to answer difficult questions:
1. Tell me about yourself:
Applicants should prepare a one to two minute description of themselves that illustrates their potential value to the employer. They should give relevant information about their academic, technical and professional background that illustrates the contribution they can make to the company (e.g. “For the past four years I have focused on preparing myself for a career in... by....”).

2. What is your greatest strength?
Applicants should avoid giving any obvious answers, but rather give concrete examples and evidence (e.g. “My previous supervisor said...”).
3. What is your greatest weakness?
It is again best to avoid an obvious answer like “I’m a perfectionist”. Rather, applicants should choose a weakness that is not too serious and won’t affect their performance on the job. They should leave the interviewer with a positive thought by de-emphasising the weakness and focussing on what they are doing to overcome the weakness.
4. What are your salary expectations?
Applicants should research expected salary ranges for the position and request what they think they are worth within that range. They should back up their answers by drawing attention to their qualifications and experience.
5. Why do you want to work for us?
This question gives applicants a chance to illustrate what they know about the company. Applicants should give specific reasons related to what they know about the employer and what genuinely interests them about the company. Applicants should focus on what they can contribute, rather than what they can get out of the job/company.
6. Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years time?
Applicants should not identify specific positions, but rather indicate areas in which they want to improve their professional skills and where they see themselves increasing their level of responsibility.
7. Abstract questions
The interviewer is testing whether applicants can think on their feet. It is best to think carefully and respond with an answer – regardless of what one comes up with, anything is better than “I have no idea.” Applicants should then briefly explain their choice.
8. Behavior based questions
Applicants should think about and prepare examples from their academic, professional and social lives that illustrate where they have shown leadership, dealt with a conflict, failed and succeeded. These "stories" can be applied to many behaviour based questions. Applicants should always try and illustrate how they showed initiative, and they should ensure that they focus on a positive outcome. Applicants should prepare an answer that describes the situation, what action they took and what the result was.

 Best Wishes For Your Next Interview........ :)

Get Efficient output with Worst Team

How to Build a Great Team With Imperfect People

Your goal isn’t to ensure every employee is great; it's to ensure that collectively they'll be great.

We all know what makes a great team: Great people, right?
That’s true—as long as you define “great” correctly. That’s a definition many business owners, and bosses in general, often get wrong.
Years ago I worked in a manufacturing plant where productivity was all-important. We spent significant time and effort working to improve efficiency, reduce waste, reduce downtime... typical improvement initiatives.
As supervisors and managers we also spent a lot of time competing with each other. (Hey, you are what you measure, right?)
One manager decided team performance could be predicted and improved by quantifying the attributes of a great machine operator. He felt that if you could determine the key attributes, and measure potential team members against those attributes, that he could select and create a great team.
I was there when he tried to identify those attributes. During the brainstorming session he filled up 12 easel pad sheets with key skills and attributes.
The problem was, great operators possess a dizzying array of qualities. Many attributes were hard to quantify, like “self starter” and “team player.”
So afterwards he focused on attributes that could be quantified. One was mechanical aptitude. Plenty of tests evaluate and measure mechanical knowledge. And intuitively it made sense: Machine operators run machines, so mechanical knowledge must be important. Off he went, in short order creating a team filled with mechanical aptitude superstars.
Yet my team—most of us with limited mechanical aptitude (based on testing, my mechanical aptitude was the worst)—consistently outran his team by a wide margin.
Where did he go wrong? Faced with too many variables, many of them intangible and hard to quantify, he picked an attribute he could put a number on: mechanical aptitude.
Never mind our plant’s equipment failed less than 4% of the time. Never mind we had skilled machinists who were seconds away if we needed help. Mechanical aptitude could be measured in a way hustle, teamwork, drive, and work ethic could not, even though those qualities were much more important than mechanical aptitude.
So he went with mechanical aptitude because it was something he could “know,” instead of focusing on other qualities that were more difficult to assess.
That’s a simple, and all too common, mistake.
Here's how you can avoid it. The key is to recognize that every employee brings different skills and attitudes, so your goal isn’t to ensure every employee is great; your goal is to ensure that as a team those employees can collectively be great. (There’s a big difference.)
To build a great team:

Decide what key attribute you must have.

Forget about the stereotypically well-rounded employee for a moment. If you could only pick one attribute, what would you choose as the most important skill or quality a great employee needs to have to succeed in the position?
Maybe it's attitude, or interpersonal skills, or teamwork, or a specific skill set... whatever it is, that attribute is the foundation for individual employees and for your team. Training can fill in the gaps, but this is the attribute almost every employee must possess.

Decide what key attribute you can't have.

This one’s easy. Just complete this sentence: "I don't care how great he is, I don’t want him on my team because he…" Typically your answer won’t be skills-based; it will be something like terrible interpersonal skills, a horrible work ethic, or a larger than life ego. Just identify the attribute you can’t live with and make sure it stays off your team.

Determine your threshold point.

You may not be able to build a team where every member possesses your most important attribute. In our case a crew was made up of six operators. We had room for one operator who wasn't quite as fast on job changeovers but was a great leader. (In fact, he could serve as the poster boy for my definition of a remarkable employee.) The rest of us bridged his speed gap and we all benefited from his leadership skills.
Could we have afforded two operators on the team like him? No, probably not. Decide how many individuals who possess your most important attribute will be enough to make things work. If you can find more, that’s great. If not you’re still okay.

Put together the rest of your puzzle.

Knowing your threshold point frees you up to build a team with complementary skills. You can take on a great team player who is technically weaker, or a loner who is an outstanding problem solver, or a person with limited experience who possesses incredible hustle and drive.
Never assume the only individual attributes that matter are attributes that can be measured. In some cases, when individual contributors work alone and largely outside the scope of a team, quantifiable skills may be all-important.
But where teams are concerned, success is almost always the result of intangible qualities. Focus only on numbers—especially on the wrong numbers—and you build teams that on paper should perform well… but in practice never do.

How to Succeed at any Career

Woody Allen once said, “80% of success is just showing up.”
While there’s definitely some truth to that – in practice, success requires a bit more effort than just showing up – especially if you want to succeed at your career.
Employers are constantly looking for the right signs to qualify you as promotion-worthy material. You just need to show them you are qualified. Remember, it’s not a matter of what you did or said during the interview process – what matters is what you do consistently every day.
So how can you start moving up the corporate ladder? Here are some helpful hints to get you started:
Build Relationships: Sometimes it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. It’s a good idea to foster positive relationships with your co-workers as well as your superiors. When it comes time for a promotion or a recommendation, you’ll be glad you built a network of alliances to fall back on. You can never have too many friends to speak in good favor for you. Many professionals try to “edge out” other people for promotions or to be in good favor from the boss. Don’t play that game – perform whatever function you do as an executive would – help others shine, compliment people to others, and help other people network.
Be Professional: Everything from your workplace demeanor to your Facebook page might be scrutinized at some point by your current or future employers. Try to keep a low profile when it comes to your personal life, and always maintain an air of professionalism. Not only will you be taken more seriously, you’ll be remembered as a rising star when opportunities arrive. In the eyes of your boss, your reputation is a reflection of things to come. If you have a sullied reputation at work or you were too personal in the past, consider changing jobs. It’s difficult to change your employer’s perception of your core personality – you might be better off with a clean slate.
Show You Care: If you find yourself constantly watching the clock, just waiting to rush home – then you’re in the wrong job or there’s a problem with your work ethic. No one likes working all the time, but you should take some pride and satisfaction from your work. This attitude will help you work more efficiently and effectively. At the same time, its a good idea to push the envelope once in a while – to stay late or come in early – anything that shows you’re a cut above the rest. The main point here is not to “brown-nose” by showing up early, but rather to examine your own intention and motivations on a daily basis. If you don’t want to go above and beyond, if you don’t want to put in more than your fair share, you might be better off in a different career. To truly succeed and go far in any profession, it has to be the right one for you – the one you want to put effort into.
Keep these career tips in mind as you go about your day-to-day business and you’ll start turning heads. Performance and behavior can be altered whenever you choose; it’s never too late. Your career is more than your livelihood – it’s your best link to a promising future. Why not get ahead today?

The Five Personalities of Innovators: Which One Are You?

Whenever I try to conjure up what innovation looks like, the same slideshow of images clicks across my mind: that photo of Einstein with his tongue sticking out, Edison with his light bulb, Steve Jobs onstage in his black turtleneck, introducing the latest iThing. Unoriginal and overdone, to be sure. And not all that accurate.

Because it’s not just about that romantic “ah ha!” moment in front of a chalkboard or a cocktail napkin, it’s about the nitty-gritty work that comes after the idea:  getting it accepted and implemented. Who are these faces? And, most importantly, as I’m sure you’re all asking yourselves: where do I fit in?
Forbes Insights’ recent study, “Nurturing Europe’s Spirit of Enterprise: How Entrepreneurial Executives Mobilize Organizations to Innovate,” isolates and identifies five major personalities crucial to fostering a healthy atmosphere of innovation within an organization. Some are more entrepreneurial, and some more process-oriented – but all play a critical role in the process. To wit: thinkers need doers to get things done, and idealists need number crunchers to tether them to reality.
Though it may seem stymieing at times, in any healthy working environment, a tension between the risk-takers and the risk-averse must exist; otherwise, an organization tilts too far to one extreme or the other and either careens all over the place or moves nowhere at all. An effective and productive culture of innovation is like a good minestrone soup: it needs to have the right mix and balance of all the ingredients, otherwise it’s completely unsuccessful, unbalanced — and downright mushy.
The Forbes Insights study surveyed more than 1,200 executives in Europe across a range of topics and themes. Using a series of questions about their attitudes, beliefs, priorities and behaviors, coupled with a look at the external forces that can either foster – or desiccate – an innovative environment, a picture emerged of five key personality types the play a role in the innovation cycle.
This last piece – the corporate environment – is a stealth factor that can make or break the potential even the most innovative individual. Look at it this way: a blue whale is the largest animal known ever to have existed, but if you tried to put it in a freshwater lake, it wouldn’t survive. Well, that and it would displace a lot of water. My point? Even the largest and mightiest of creatures can’t thrive in an environment that doesn’t nurture them.
The themes surveyed in the study are universal; despite the focus on European executives, these personalities are applicable across oceans and cultures. The full study, available here, provides further breakdown of where these personality types congregate by industry, company size and job function.
I’ll leave it to you to decide which one fits you best . You may even see a little of yourself in more than one group.  But remember, none of these are bad. All play crucial roles in developing an idea, pushing it up the corporate channels, developing a strategy and overseeing execution and implementation. These are all pieces of a puzzle, arteries leading to the beating heart of corporate innovation. Wow – can I make that sound any more dramatic?

The Five Personality Types of Innovation: a breakdown

Movers and Shakers. With a strong personal drive, these are leaders. Targets and rewards motivate them strongly, but a major incentive for this group is the idea of creating a legacy and wielding influence over others. These are the ones who like being in the front, driving projects forward (and maybe promoting themselves in the process), but at the end of the day, they provide the push to get things done. On the flip side, they can be a bit arrogant, and impatient with teamwork.  Movers and Shakers tend to cluster in risk and corporate strategy, in the private equity and media industries, at mid-size companies; though they comprise 22% of total executives, at companies with revenues of $25 million to $1 billion, Movers and Shakers can encompass up to one-third of the executive suite.
Experimenters. Persistent and open to all new things, experimenters are perhaps the perfect combination for bringing a new idea through the various phases of development and execution. “Where there is a will, there is a way,” is perhaps the best way to describe them. They’re perfectionists and tend to be workaholics, most likely because it takes an incredible amount of dedication, time and hard work to push through an idea or initiative that hasn’t yet caught on. They take deep pride in their achievements, but they also enjoy sharing their expertise with others; they’re that intense colleague who feels passionately about what they do and makes everyone else feel guilty for daydreaming during the meeting about what they plan on making for dinner that night. Because they’re so persistent, even in the face of sometimes considerable pushback, they’re crucial to the innovation cycle. They tend to be risk-takers, and comprise about 16% of executives – and are most likely to be found in mid-size firms of $100 million to $1 billion (20%). Surprisingly, they’re least likely to be CEOs or COOs – just 14% and 15%, respectively, are Experimenters.
Star Pupils. Do you remember those kids in grade school who sat up in the front, whose hands were the first in the air anytime the teacher asked a question? Maybe they even shouted out “Ooh! Ooh!” too just to get the teacher to notice them first? This is the segment of the executive population those kids grew into. They’re good at…well, they’re good at everything, really: developing their personal brand, seeking out and cultivating the right mentors, identifying colleagues’ best talents and putting them to their best use. Somehow, they seem to be able to rise through the ranks and make things happen, even when corporate culture seems stacked against them. Unsurprisingly, CEOs tend to be Star Pupils. What’s most interesting about this group, though, is the fact that, at 24% of corporate executives, they don’t seem to cluster in any one particular job function, industry or company size; rather, they can grow and thrive anywhere: IT, finance, start-ups, established MNCs. They’re the stem cells of the business world.
Controllers. Uncomfortable with risk, Controllers thrive on structure and shy away from more nebulous projects. Above all, they prefer to be in control of their domain and like to have everything in its place. As colleagues, they’re not exactly the team players and networkers; Controllers are more insular and like to focus on concrete, clear-cut objectives where they know exactly where they stand and can better control everything around them. They comprise 15% of executives — the smallest group overall — and tend to cluster on both extremes of the spectrum: either in the largest enterprises (with 1,000 or more employees) or the smallest (with fewer than 10). This makes sense when you think about it: controllers thrive on overseeing bureaucracy (at larger firms) or having complete control over all aspects of their sphere – at the smallest firms, they may be the business owner who has built an entire company around their personality. Controllers pop up most frequently in sales and marketing and finance, and populate the more practical, less visionary, end of the corporate hierarchy: these are the department heads and managers who receive their marching orders and get to mobilizing their troops to marching.
Hangers-On. Forget the less-than-flattering name; these executives exist to bring everyone back down to earth and tether them to reality. On a dinner plate, Hangers-On would be the spinach: few people’s favorite, but extremely important in rounding out the completeness of the meal. Like Controllers, they don’t embrace unstructured environments, and they tend to take things one step further, hewing to conventional wisdom and tried-and-true processes over the new and untested. When asked to pick a side, Hangers-On will most likely pick the middle. This is not necessarily a bad set of characteristics to have; someone has to be the one to remind everyone of limitations and institutional processes. While they comprise 23% of all executives – the same no matter the company size – they cluster most strongly in the CFO/Treasurer/Comptroller role, where 38% are Hangers-On. This makes sense; someone has to remind everyone of budget and resource constraints.

No one group can be considered the purest “entrepreneurial group,” but Movers and Shakers and Experimenters may be the closest. They have the strongest tendency to be internally driven, in control and bridle the most at others telling them what to do. Younger, more innovative firms generally need Movers and Shakers at the top, channeling the energy of Experimenters into a vision that can be implemented. As organizations grow larger and more established, however, they need Star Pupils who can translate that vision into a strategy and lead it forward, Controllers who can marshal the troops to execute it and Hangers-On who can rein it in. A firm reaching maturity has greater need for strong processes, as well as those who value control.
As we’ve seen time and again, unbridled innovation is a wonderful thing. But it’s what comes next that’s arguably more important. To get an innovative idea off the ground, it’s crucial to have a cast of characters who can keep that tension between risk-taking and reality at a healthy balance midway between the sky and the ground — where innovation can thrive.

Brenna Sniderman, Forbes Staff

How Great Bosses Motivate Employees

The 5 Qualities of Remarkable Bosses

Consistently do these five things and the results you want from your employees--and your business--will follow.

In the eyes of his or her employees, a remarkable boss is a star. Remember where you came from, and be gracious with your stardom.

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Remarkable bosses aren’t great on paper. Great bosses are remarkable based on their actions.
Results are everything—but not the results you might think.
Consistently do these five things and everything else follows. You and your business benefit greatly.
More importantly, so do your employees.
1. Develop every employee. Sure, you can put your primary focus on reaching targets, achieving results, and accomplishing concrete goals—but do that and you put your leadership cart before your achievement horse.
Without great employees, no amount of focus on goals and targets will ever pay off. Employees can only achieve what they are capable of achieving, so it’s your job to help all your employees be more capable so they—and your business—can achieve more.
It's your job to provide the training, mentoring, and opportunities your employees need and deserve. When you do, you transform the relatively boring process of reviewing results and tracking performance into something a lot more meaningful for your employees: Progress, improvement, and personal achievement.
So don’t worry about reaching performance goals. Spend the bulk of your time developing the skills of your employees and achieving goals will be a natural outcome.
Plus it’s a lot more fun.
2. Deal with problems immediately. Nothing kills team morale more quickly than problems that don't get addressed. Interpersonal squabbles, performance issues, feuds between departments... all negatively impact employee motivation and enthusiasm.
And they're distracting, because small problems never go away. Small problems always fester and grow into bigger problems. Plus, when you ignore a problem your employees immediately lose respect for you, and without respect, you can't lead.
Never hope a problem will magically go away, or that someone else will deal with it. Deal with every issue head-on, no matter how small.
3. Rescue your worst employee. Almost every business has at least one employee who has fallen out of grace: Publicly failed to complete a task, lost his cool in a meeting, or just can’t seem to keep up. Over time that employee comes to be seen by his peers—and by you—as a weak link.
While that employee may desperately want to “rehabilitate” himself, it's almost impossible. The weight of team disapproval is too heavy for one person to move.
But it’s not too heavy for you.
Before you remove your weak link from the chain, put your full effort into trying to rescue that person instead. Say, "John, I know you've been struggling but I also know you're trying. Let's find ways together that can get you where you need to be." Express confidence. Be reassuring. Most of all, tell him you'll be there every step of the way.
Don't relax your standards. Just step up the mentoring and coaching you provide.
If that seems like too much work for too little potential outcome, think of it this way. Your remarkable employees don’t need a lot of your time; they’re remarkable because they already have these qualities. If you’re lucky, you can get a few percentage points of extra performance from them. But a struggling employee has tons of upside; rescue him and you make a tremendous difference.
Granted, sometimes it won't work out. When it doesn't, don't worry about it.  The effort is its own reward.
And occasionally an employee will succeed—and you will have made a tremendous difference in a person's professional and personal life.
Can’t beat that.
4. Serve others, not yourself. You can get away with being selfish or self-serving once or twice... but that's it.
Never say or do anything that in any way puts you in the spotlight, however briefly. Never congratulate employees and digress for a few moments to discuss what you did.
If it should go without saying, don't say it. Your glory should always be reflected, never direct.
When employees excel, you and your business excel. When your team succeeds, you and your business succeed. When you rescue a struggling employee and they become remarkable, remember they should be congratulated, not you.
You were just doing your job the way a remarkable boss should.
When you consistently act as if you are less important than your employees—and when you never ask employees to do something you don’t do—everyone knows how important you really are.
5. Always remember where you came from. See an autograph seeker blown off by a famous athlete and you might think, “If I was in a similar position I would never do that.”
Oops. Actually, you do. To some of your employees, especially new employees, you are at least slightly famous. You’re in charge. You’re the boss.
That's why an employee who wants to talk about something that seems inconsequential may just want to spend a few moments with you.
When that happens, you have a choice. You can blow the employee off... or you can see the moment for its true importance: A chance to inspire, reassure, motivate, and even give someone hope for greater things in their life. The higher you rise the greater the impact you can make—and the greater your responsibility to make that impact.
In the eyes of his or her employees, a remarkable boss is a star.
Remember where you came from, and be gracious with your stardom.

Article by :        
Jeff Haden