Reset Your Life (CST: Crisis Standard Time)

It's hard to get motivated during a recession. Our natural instinct is to hide and ride it out, trying to avoid the worst of it.

But we all know better. We know it when we look at our President. He's taking advantage of the recession to reshape society and the future of our nation. He knows times like these present the biggest opportunities. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff told the WSJ, "You never let a serious crisis go to waste".


It's easy to see how this applies to politics. But how does it apply to each of us as individuals? Marty Linsky and Alexandar Grashow explain in a blog for the Huffington Post.

This is the part I pulled out and read almost everyday - four ways to reset your life:

1. Looking over the horizon - Thinking long-term even in the midst of short-term crisis; investing money now to save or make money later.

2. Giving up some autonomy - Permeating traditional boundaries by delegating responsibility and building new partnerships. Nurturing your networks, rekindling relationships, collaborating and sharing ideas with anyone who will work on them.

3. Running experiments - Try something new, maybe multiple initiatives, rather than championing "solutions". Learning and making mid-course corrections.

4. Acting publicly on your value - Deciding what is really most important and then closing the gap between what you say you believe and what you actually do.

Stand deep in your own purpose.

Photo credit (Flickr): dictybloke

Truth-Tellin' in Job Interviews (Professor of Death Remix)

Bad job interviews are a fact of life. I'm not referring to that "bad"interview when you walked in with a stain on your shirt, or when you blanked out while describing your strengths.

I define a bad job interview as a failed exchange of information. You don't get the full story from them, and maybe they don't get the full story from you.

The hiring manager may not be deliberately deceptive. It's hard to communicate honestly and completely when there's pressure to close a candidate or fill a position. So how can a manager best communicate the truth?

Enter the Professor of Death.

Professor Shelly Kagan teaches philosophy at Yale. I was on Academic Earth watching an opening lecture for his class on the Philosophy of Life and Death, when he did something I wish every hiring manager would do in interviews. He pulled out his student evaluations, and read the most complimentary...and the most scathing.

He starts out: "Some students like me, some students don't like me."

A few gems:

"Overall, I was unsatisfied with the class. Few substantive conclusions were reached."

"He could be a bit more unbiased and tolerant of other perspectives."

"He's just in his own world babbling on and on. I zone out with regularity."

The video's long, so start at minute 39.

It's honest, confident, generous and refreshing.

C'mon corporate America. Grow some balls and arm us with the facts to avoid mutually destructive decisions.

Facebook (Used Car Salesman of the Year)

Will Facebook ever make real money? The kind of money that'd support their growing operations and astronomical valuation?

Facebook is positioned to define the social web. They're in the lead - and have to clear a new path for everyone else to follow. Their past attempts at making money have been innovative, but ineffective: think Beacon and Social Ads. Neither was a hit with advertisers or Facebook members.

Why not?

Facebook is still trying to monetize clicks, uniques, members, time-on-site, etc. No matter how cleverly intrusive their tactics, they're still based on the tried-and-true methods of online advertising.

But Facebook can lead by monetizing value. Revenue streams shouldn't just be valuable for Facebook and its advertisers. They should also create value for Facebook's members.

Google monetized the search engine by bringing me better search results. Sure, this helped advertisers. But in doing so, Google added value to my search experience. They also gave content owner and providers an incentive to create relevant, useful content. If Google had followed the tried-and-true methods, they would've wedged random display ads between my search results, interrupted me with pop-ups, and limited me to 250 "free searches" a month.

Umair Haque sums it up well in a discussion of the current state of the financial sector:

"The reason monetization is such a dirty word is simple. It blinds us to value creation, at the expense of value capture. When we seek to monetize, we end up chasing the same old lame competitive advantage. I win (and you, and you) lose.

It is by rediscovering how to make stuff that's not toxic junk in the first place that we'll get out of the mess lame, evil, brain-dead 20th century thinking has left us in. That's the challenge of a new generation of revolutionaries...it's about reconceiving authentic, deep, value creation."

Facebook needs to wake up. Twitter, are you listening, too? Monetize real value. Everything else will be exposed as inauthentic gimmicks.

Photo credit: UPGRADEDmedia

I Got Schooled in 2008 (Lessons Learned the Hard Way)

2006 and 2007 were the hardest years of my life. I took huge risks. Emotions and ego clouded my judgment. Personal frustrations seeped into my professional and financial decisions, and vice versa. I lost faith when I saw good friends behaving badly.

I fought like hell with a flaming, at times destructive, ego.

But something had to give. Actually, it all gave - everything came tumbling down. 2006 marked the slow, but steady crumble. The collapse came in 2007 - and it was spectacular. In December of 2007, my friends and family helped me apply bandages and I resolved to heal. Some of those bandages would be ripped off again for more abuse (I refused to learn some lessons in one try). But most stuck.

I learned to smile and wink in the face of harsh reality. When I realized my pride and ego were weighing me down, I dropped them both off at the next rest stop. I learned to love like I wanna be loved. I learned to live and love my life “As Is”…no returns, no refunds.

I got schooled. Thank you, 2008.

Photos via Flick, check 'em out: valeriaorlando, javanutmom, kristin 1414

New Year's Evolution

Flickr photo credit: Tad 20D

I suck at resolutions. I usually fall apart somewhere between week 2 and 3 of each new year.

So I've decided to do something a little different for 2008: I'm doing an evolution, instead. Why? I may suck at keeping them, but resolutions themselves suck even more. First, the word "resolution" just reminds me of some failed Middle Eastern peace process. Which brings me to my second point: these processes fail because they leave no room for error or minor set-backs. Once you fail, it's all over...good luck next year!

I'd rather think of this as an ongoing process...an evolution. There is room for error, but the point is to maintain a positive trajectory for the long-term.

That's something else I really love about the concept of evolution. It forces you to think not of changing habits or completing tasks, but instead challenges you to consider life wholistically.

Anna's right: in this case, language matters.

I Can Do Better [Regret, the Remix]

Many in Gen Y are quite taken with non-sensical life philosophies...that sound good. Philosophies that are more for show and tell than anything else.

I find the "I live life with no regrets" motto particularly disturbing. Sounds optimistic - right? But no.

The words inherently imply stagnation and immaturity. There is no way you cannot have regrets - unless your views/philosophies/perspectives have never changed. You've never thought to yourself, "I could've done better", or "I expect more of myself", or "Next time will be different".

The motto assumes a lack of evolution and development. It assumes no 20/20 hindsight...everything remains murky...and acceptable.

I've heard of people saying these words in their last moments. That makes sense. But for young adults with so much more life left to live, this philosophy is misguided.

Hopefully, it's just for show and tell.

Evolve. Mature.

MySpace: the Social Entertainment Anti-Facebook

I was with a few people casually discussing MySpace and Facebook when one noted, “People keep telling me I should join, but lately, I’ve heard I shouldn’t even bother with MySpace and just join Facebook?” Everyone agreed. “Don’t bother with MySpace, just go straight to Facebook”. I didn’t say anything. Not too long ago, I was swept up in the mass migration.

Things have changed. MySpace, it turns out, isn’t the sleeping corporate pawn I thought.

We all know MySpace still boasts enviable numbers. But they’re positioned to maintain and even enhance their growth.

Not by out-Facebook-ing Zuckerberg, but by creating the anti-Facebook. And I’m not talking OpenSocial.

Facebook is quickly becoming a social-communication platform. I log on to see what my friends are doing, send them messages, and check in on events…

Of course, MySpace has this functionality, but they don’t do it well.

What they do well is music, videos and other social entertainment. I now know people who use their profile exclusively to find new music.

Myspace’s cozy position, nestled inside Fox Interactive, somehow makes total sense now. Now that Hollywood’s producing content specifically for MySpace TV. MySpace has done social-entertainment well…and I’m sure they’ll improve on their success in this area. Facebook also has the basic functionality…but they don’t do it well.

The lines are drawn.