This article was originally published on May 29th, 2010. Since then, Nassim has continued to be controversial and thought-provoking. And I like having my thoughts provoked! Big Thought Definition of a black swan event: “First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable. I stop and summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective … [Read more...]
Are you the Right Kind of Networker?
What kind of networker are you? In my experience, people fall into one of two categories. It’s an incredibly important distinction. The professionals in the first category put in an enormous amount of effort and still fail miserably at building their network. Those in the second find their careers blossoming because of their business relationships. Transactional vs. Relational Networking The Transactional Networker The first type is the transactional networker. People that follow this philosophy see networking as a series of brief encounters. And the goal of each encounter is to get something from it. These are the people at … [Read more...]
The Best Way to Honor the Soldiers on Memorial Day
It's Memorial Day in the U.S., the day we acknowledge and honor our servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the country. And later in the year we'll also have Veterans Day to honor those still soldiers still living, I think it's important to remember those who paid a price for others. It could have been separation from their loved ones, physical or emotional injury, or the ultimate sacrifice. But many have given much to safeguard the ideals that we hold in high regard. It's fitting to acknowledge them - and to remember those who sacrificed in the past. Mindfulness = Memory It is called Memorial Day for a … [Read more...]
Purple Cow – Seth Godin
This article was originally published on June 30th 2010. And Seth keeps pumping out insightful ideas on current marketing! Big Thought Because the modern consumer is overwhelmed by information, the most effective way to market is to create products and services that are remarkable and stand out – leading people to want to talk about them.[Tweet "The most effective way to market is to create products and services that are remarkable"] Ideas, Implications, and Questions It’s interesting that Seth focuses on a “holistic” view of marketing: instead of seeing marketing as something separate from the product development, what the product is … [Read more...]
The Technology Yin and Yang of Millennial Networking
"Are different demographic groups better (or worse) than others at networking?" That was a question that was lobbed at me after a recent keynote on networking. OK, the actual question was, "Don't Millennials and other young professionals have an advantage in networking these days because they are so used to technology?" The person who asked it really wanted to validate her fears and concerns that because she wasn't young, and wasn't comfortable with technology, that her struggles with networking weren't her fault and she should just give up. It was a valid question, but there isn't a simple answer. I didn't let her off the hook, … [Read more...]
Outliers – Malcom Gladwell
This article was originally published on April 10th 2009. If you haven't read Malcolm's stuff yet - go read it! You won't be disappointed. The 10,000 hour idea that he popularized only holds up for mastering in highly-competitive fields and doesn't translate to most activities (watch this TED talk on how long it really takes to learn a skill). Still, it's great food for thought. Malcolm Gladwell has an uncanny ability to pick a small, below-the-radar aspect of human experience and use it as a jumping off point for an exploration of how our brains work. In doing so, he usually goes well beyond the initial topic and invariably ends up … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Incorporate LinkedIn into Your Offline Networking
When I talk to professionals about social media, I often get a litany of complaints (especially from veterans in the industry): "It's a waste of time!" "All I see is kids on their cell phones all the time - I don't have room in my schedule for that!" "The next generation is going to have a hard time talking to people because they're so used to just texting everything or Facebooking their life!" Even though each of these has some measure of truth, I also hear a little bit of jealousy as well. Those born after 1980 are considered digital natives because they've grown up with technology integrated into their lives. It's easy for them … [Read more...]
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