Karen Ruby

Proof That It's Never Too Late To Change Careers

I'm enjoyed reading the Globe's article on the prior CEO of Circuit City's The Source, Brian Levy. Brian worked at The Source for over 30 years, until he decided in 2006 to quit his CEO job and become a doctor.

Yes, a doctor. With all the extra schooling that entails. At 50 years old. And, he's loving it.

I'm love this story because it just goes to show you that it's never too late to change careers. Can you imagine how someone who started at the bottom rung and then after 30 years became it's CEO, just decided to chuck it all to pursue his childhood dream?

For those people who thik that entering med school at 50 years old is taking the spot of someone in their 20s who can be a doctor for much longer than a 50-year old, I say this - who's to say that the 20-something will remain a doctor? No one can predict what anyone else will do in their lives. The 20-something may become a doctor, then decide it's not for them, and default on all those student loans. Did you know what you wanted to do for the next 50 years of your life when you were in your 20s? I sure didn't. I think the 50 year old man has a better shot at sticking to the profession and deserves to be in the program, just as much as the younger person does.

What are you putting off because of your age? If Brian can do it, then so can you!

Swanson's Plagarized Rules of Management

Don't know if you heard the news or not, but apparently the infamous book of Bill Swanson's titled 'Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management' was not wholly authored by Bill Swanson - he plagarized most of it from a 1944 book by engineer W.L. King called "The Unwritten Rules of Engineering".

Here's my original post from August 2005 on the Unwritten Rules of Management.

Check out the ChangeThis manifesto by Tom Ehrenfeld titled "The Rewritten Rules of Management" on why this latest lack of integrity should be a major concern for us all in today's business world. It's quite an interesting read.

Tags: Unwritten Rules of Management ChangeThis Bill Swanson

Radical Career Cherry Bombs

I went to an executive personal and professional coaching seminar last night. It was really interesting because while although I read a lot of personal and career development books, I've never sat in a room with 12 strangers and talked about my personal and professional goals.

It was fascinating to hear other people's stories and what's causing them not to live their dreams and goals. You know what? We all have the same fear - something that is causing us angst in our life and is holding us back from realizing our full potential.

And, you know what surprised me last night? Half the room was filled with people who were perfectly content in their careers (some even loved what they were doing) and the other half of the room were not so happy in their career selection and life direction.

We always wonder What If. What if I moved? What If I changed jobs? What if I increased sales? What If I were to open my own business? What If this big change in my life is really an escape and I make things worse? What If I do this and it turns out to be great?

Last night reminded me a of a really good ChangeThis manifesto that I read last month - Cherry Bombs: A Supplemental Kit to Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead. There are no cut and dried answers in the manifesto, but there are some good questions. Questions that rang true with me. The purpose of the manifesto is to get you to question yourself and your career.

What is a Cherry Bomb?, you ask:"Cherry bombs are quick but explosive ideas that startle a situation out of paralysis. Bursts of thinking to create change within you, or around you. Toss one wherever you want a flash of action." Sounds good, eh? There's more...

Sally says that there are three very simple and consistent trends among professionals, namely:

1. Most of us do not love our career right now.
2. We definitely want to love our career.
3. We don’t know exactly how.

True! True! True!

She offers 9 Cherry Bombs to lob at yourself:

Cherry Bomb #1. Passion is Not a Luxury. It's an Imperative.

A career isn’t to be tolerated. It’s to be savored, devoured, marrow sucked and fingers
smacked.

Cherry Bomb #2 Optimism Ain't for Wussies.

Optimism is so annoying. It asks you to take responsibility for your attitude and your actions, rather than throwing up your hands and blaming circumstances.

Cherry Bomb #3 Ruin the Bell Curve.

The danger for a company or individual is measuring success by the collective average,
rather than by your own maximum potential.

Cherry Bomb #4 Your Job is Difficult and You Are Busy. Get Over It.

Your career shouldn’t be a frantic scramble of catch-up, with zero time to stop and breathe. A career is a process, not a destination.

Cherry Bomb #5 Emotion Without Action is Useless.

Hope isn’t a passive act. And nowhere is this more true than in your career.

Cherry Bomb #6 You Can't Do Good Work at a Mediocre Company.

Anything truly innovative requires ferocious, relentless, even irrational dedication to see it through to execution.

Cherry Bomb #7 Your Life Isn't Multiple Choice. It's One Long Essay Question.

Today your career is one of the few things you’ll ever own that’s truly yours, and yours
alone. You can build your career, take it apart, fiddle and rebuild however you choose. You get to create options to move forward, or take a step back, or even exit if necessary.

Cherry Bomb #8 Refuse to Allow Your Career to Become One Long Focus Group.

Don’t play on anyone else’s terms. You can’t win on their terms, only your own.

Cherry Bomb #9 Find a Goal That Scares the Shit Out of You.

What do you stand for? What’s your life about? What’s your mantra statement? Once you figure that out, and then steer your life toward it, you can start to realize your true potential.

Check out the manifesto for some great questions at: http://changethis.com/18.CherryBombs and check out Sally's site at: http://radicalcareering.com.

Tags: Cherry Bombs ChangeThis

Five Career Questions

"It's September. Do you know where your life is going?"

Great question!

This is the opening line of an article in the September 2005 issue of 'O' The Oprah Magazine. I just have to say that I have been a reader and collector of this magazine since it's inception five years ago. I have a every issue since it first came out and while I've been really impressed with each issue, this is the first time (but not the last time) that I want to share with you one of its articles.

The article "Getting Unstuck" by Suzy Welch, coauthor with her husband, Jack, of Winning poses five questions to ask yourself regarding your career and job prospects.

The Five Career Questions are:

1. Does this job allow me to work with "my people" - individuals who share my sensibilities about life - or do I have to put on a persona to get through the day?
2. Does this job challenge, stretch, change, and otherwise make me smarter - or does it leave my brain in neutral?
3. Does this job, because of the company's "brand" or my level of responsibility, open the door to future jobs?
4. Does this job represent a considerable compromise for the sake of my family, and if so, do I sincerely accept that deal with all of its consequences?
5. Does this job - the stuff I actually do day-to-day - touch my heart and feed my soul in meaningful ways?

A few of my friends have been questioning our careers and job positions lately. We've had lots of discussions and debates. No matter what your age is, everyone questions at one time or another whether they are really happy and on the right path.

I also like this quote from the article: "You can figure out what you want to be when you grow up. You just have to be very grown up to do it". Great advice, Suzy!

It's never too late to consider if you are the right path (for you!) or whether you need to take an alternative career path. Don't fall into the 'Everyone's Happy But Me Syndrome'. Life is way too short.

Just something to think about.

Greatest 20th Century Business Leaders

Harvard Business School's Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria have listed the 50 Greatest Business Leader's of the 20th Century (via Fast Company article.) Check out the article for the complete list.

Here are the Top 20:

1. Samuel M. Walton [Wal-Mart]
2. Walter E. Disney [Walt Disney]
3. William H. Gates III [Microsoft]
4. Henry Ford [Ford Motor]
5. John P. Morgan [J.P. Morgan Chase]
6. Alfred P. Sloan Jr. [General Motors]
7. John F. Welch Jr. [General Electric]
8. Raymond A. Kroc [McDonald's]
9. William R. Hewlett [Hewlett-Packard]
10. David Packard [Hewlett-Packard]
11. Andrew S. Grove [Intel]
12. Milton S. Hershey [The Hershey Co.]
13. John D. Rockefeller Sr. [Standard Oil]
14. Thomas J. Watson Jr. [IBM]
15. Henry R. Luce [Time-Life Publications]
16. Will K. Kellogg [Kellogg]
17. Warren E. Buffett [Berkshire Hathaway]
18. Harland Sanders [Kentucky Fried Chicken]
19. William C. Procter [Procter & Gamble]
20. Thomas J. Watson Sr. [IBM]

Can't help but notice that there are a lot of family-named businesses. Also, kind of sad to realize that there is only one woman, Estee Lauder, who made the list at #22.

One woman, in the last century who fits this list. Pretty sad state. I have hope that the list for the 21^st Century will include more than one woman, otherwise we would have learned nothing from the past.

Very Influential Women

Forbes has come out with their list of the The 100 Most Powerful Women in the world.

Here are the top 10 most influential women, the country they're from and their title and/or company:

1  Condoleezza Rice, U.S., Secretary of State 
2  Yi Wu, China, Vice Premier, Minister of Health 
3  Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine, Prime Minister 
4  Gloria Arroyo, Philippines, President 
5  Margaret Whitman, U.S., Chief Executive, eBay 
6  Anne Mulcahy, U.S., Chief Executive Officer, Xerox 
7  Sallie Krawcheck,  U.S., Chief Financial Officer, Citigroup 
8  Brenda Barnes, U.S., Chief Executive Officer, Sara Lee 
9  Oprah Winfrey, U.S., Chairman, Harpo Studios
10  Melinda Gates, U.S., Co-founder, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Other notables from the list include:

26   Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S., U.S. Senator 
40  Joanne Rowling, England, Author 
47  Katie Couric, U.S., Co-Anchor, NBC's Today Show, Contributing Anchor, Dateline NBC 
55  Diane Sawyer, U.S., Co-Anchor, ABC's Good Morning America, Primetime Live 
58  Elizabeth Dole, U.S., U.S. Senator 
62  Cherie Booth Blair, England, Wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, Lawyer   
65  Louise Fréchette, Canada, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations 
68  Wangari Maathai, Kenya, Nobel Laureate, Deputy Minister of the Environment 
72  Christiane Amanpour, U.S., Chief International Correspondent, CNN 
75  Queen Elizabeth II, England, Queen of England 
80  Queen Rania, Jordan, Queen of Jordan 
86  Carol Bartz, U.S., Chief Executive, Autodesk 
90  Christie Hefner, U.S., Chief Executive, Playboy Enterprises 
100  Mary Callahan Erdoes, U.S., Chief Executive, JPMorgan Chase Private Bank

I'm just glad that we have at least one Canadian in the Top 100.

Don't you think Oprah should be a lot higher than No. 9? I do! It's also a surprise to see Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer on the list. They are more powerful than Queen Elizabeth? Somehow I don't think so. I'm also happy to see that Christiane Amanpour made the list as she's my favourite foreign correspondent.

Who else is missing? Read the full list at Forbes

Secret Management Handbook

I came across this article in Business 2.0 titled, "The CEO's Secret Handbook" by Paul Kaihla which is interesting enough to share.

Apparently, all the bigwigs in the corporate world have been passing around a book by Bill Swanson, the CEO of aerospace contractor Raytheon called 'Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management'. As Kaihla writes it's "part Ben Franklin and part Yogi Berra, with a dash of Confucius thrown in."

What's so great about this little secret management handbook that when Warren Buffet received a copy of it he then passed it around to his friends and family, that Jack Welch says the handbook is a 'worthwhile read for any CEO' , and that Bruce Whitman says "The book is something you can carry around with you like a Bible and live by every day." ? It outlines the many of 'secret rules' for CEOs (and the rest of corporate managers) that Bill Swanson spent a lifetime of learning.

Some of Swanson's secrets include:

• You can't polish a sneaker (i.e. even if you polish a hollow shell, it's still nothing more than a hollow shell)
• Learn to say "I don't know." If used when appropriate, it will be used often.
• You remember 1/3 of what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but 100 percent of what you feel.
• Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what's there; few can see what isn't there.
• Never direct a complaint to the top; a serious offence is to "cc" a person's boss on a copy of a complaint before the person has a chance to respond.
• Treat the name of your company as if it were your own.
• Have fun at what you do. It will be reflected in your work. No one likes a grump except another grump!
• When faced with decisions, try to look at them as if you were one level up in the organization. Your perspective will change quickly.
• If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
• When something appears on a slide presentation, assume that the world knows about it and deal with it accordingly.
• A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter -- or to others -- is not a nice person. (This rule never fails.)
• When facing issues or problems that are becoming drawn out, "short them to ground." (i.e. find the quickest path from problem to solution)

Read the full article for more insights.

Jim Collin's related article "Are Swanson's Rules Good to Great?" is an interesting read, too.

By the way, I checked Amazon and it's not listed. So, it must be a really secret handbook, just for CEOs. Shh.

Hughtrain wiki

Speaking of free cool articles, Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid has provided the Hughtrain up on a wiki. Hughtrain is billed as "a rant about the new realities of marketing".

Check out his cool cartoon business cards on the wiki and his blog.

The advice is pretty interesting, but it would just be so-so, if it wasn't for his sometimes outrageous, but always thought-provoking, cartoons.

There are a couple of cartoons that I would just absolutely love to hand out to some people, but because of the profanity, can't. Too bad. But, they sure are funny!

Marshall Goldsmith Free Library

I saw on the Fast Company Now blog that Marshall Goldsmith has decided to provide his articles, videos, interviews, and columns free for everyone to read, download and share. What a gift!

Who is Marshall Goldsmith? "Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams." He's written quite a few articles on FC that are very inspiring and useful.

I love Fast Company -- here's the link to the Fast Company articles Marshall wrote: http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/cim/FastCompany.php

Some of Marshall's articles from the magazine include:

• Who Are You Arguing With? (FC, April 2005) (doc)
• Do You Love What You Do? (FC, March 2005) (doc)
• If They Don't Care, Don't Waste Your Time (FC, July 2004) (doc)
• Why Even Thinking About Retirement Can Be A Bad Idea (FC, January 2004) (doc)
• How To Learn The Truth About Yourself (FC, October 2003) (doc)
• ... and many more

Some of his Leadership Excellence articles include:

• Coaching Leaders (Leadership Excellence, 2005) (doc)
• From Good To Great (Leadership Excellence, September 2004) (doc)
• Creating Diversity (Leadership Excellence, May 2003) (doc)
• Building Partnerships (Leadership Excellence, March 2003) (doc)

Check out his free online library here: http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/

ChangeThis Under New Management

I know I'm totally late to the party in recognizing that ChangeThis has new owners, but it's still worth mentioning to those who don't know, haven't heard the news, or haven't visited the ChangeThis site.

ChangeThis was founded by an idea from Seth Godin and was built by 5 interns in summer 2004. The site is now 'under new management' by 800-CEO-Read and after a 5-month hiatus is back publishing manifestos on the site.

If you haven't checked out ChangeThis before, now's your opportunity to download and read some pretty interesting articles from a variety of well-known, and not-so-well-known, people on various topics. Did I mention that it's all FREE? The site is all about spreading the word --the 'ideavirus' as Seth Godin would say. Check it out.

Some of the newer manifestos include:

• Tom Peters "Tomato TomA[h]to"
• David St. Lawrence "Danger: Quicksand (Have a Nice Day)" -- be sure to check out David's blog 'Ripples' if you are interested in buying his book
• Tom Peters "100 Ways to Help You Succeed/Make Money, Part 1"
• Rosa Say "Managing with Aloha"
• and many more...

Some older manifestos worth checking out include:

• Seth Godin "Do Less"
• Robert Scoble "The Corporate Weblog Manifesto"
• Tom Peter's "This I Believe"
• Hugh MacLeod "How to Be Creative" -- be sure to check out Hugh's site, gapingvoid, because he's been posting quite a bit lately on "How to Be Creative" and the journey to get his book from the manifesto published
• Malcolm Gladwell "The Talent Myth"
• Brendon Connelly "Slacker @ Work"
• Ole Eichhorn "The Tyranny of Email"

Something to keep your eye on. New Manifestos come out every month and be sure to subscribe to their newsletter for advance warning.