“Giving you a handout will help pay the bills, but it won’t give you dignity.”

My self-esteem was slaughtered when my company was shut down. My lifestyle flipped and my dignity – how I assessed my value to society – evaporated.

Fast forward to 2010. In the eBook, What Matters Now, Jacqueline Novogratz writes:

“Dignity is more important than wealth…It comes from creating your own destiny and from the respect you get from your family, your peers and society.”

By that definition, I was broke. I floundered, waiting for someone to restore my former career success. I expected my imaginary benefactor would offer me the best job I could imagine with an intriguing, prestigious company. But fantasy was a toothless substitute for dignity. It got me exactly nothing.

I eventually learned a very simple lesson:

Only you can create your own destiny.

If you’re sitting on your butt feeling sorry for yourself, you are creating your destiny. If you’re reading this while you take a break from writing a business plan, you are too. It’s your choice.

Do you look around and see others in the same situation? Is the problem of crushed dignity too widespread to overcome? Do you think the phrase “create your own destiny” is too cliche? If so, take heart. I was there too. Cynical, jaded, victimized. But no one could pick me up and point me in a direction to restore my career – except me. You can do it too.

Do you need to restore your dignity? What are you doing to create your own destiny?

If you want to catch up on the trends affecting the working world and society, read the eBook, What Matters Now.

Laurie Phillips writes for and about businesses. She likes to ride motorcycles because it’s life without a safety net. Follow her on Twitter at @ljp26.

photo courtesy of Darren Stone

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

How to Reclaim Your Future

Tweet This Post

“Will we know a fork in the road when we see it?”

I had to finish about 200 things on my to-do list before I sat down at my desk today.

Wait. That’s a lie.

I chose to spend my time slaving away at that list, which is hefty enough to make a pack donkey bray.

Someone once asked if I got any satisfaction from a day spent checking things off my list. If so, they continued, did that satisfaction last more than a day?

Sometimes rhetorical questions are the safest way to give advice.

In the eBook What Matters Now, Gina Trapani offers a productivity test. She writes:

Getting things done is not the same as making things happen.

You can…

…reply to email.
…pay the bills.
…cross off to-do’s.
…fulfill your obligation.
…repeat what you heard.
…go with the flow.
…anticipate roadblocks.
…aim for “good enough.”

Or you can…

…organize a community.
…take a risk.
…set ambitious goals.
…give more than you take.
…change perceptions.
…forge a new path.
…create possibility.
…demand excellence.

Don’t worry too much about getting things done.

Make things happen.

If you’re at a fork in the road, read the rest of the eBook, What Matters Now. It might be the smartest thing you can do to catch up on the trends affecting the working world and society.

Laurie Phillips writes for and about businesses. She specializes in technology and motorcycling.

cool and creative photo courtesy of flikr.com/drcornelius

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

Take This Productivity Test

Tweet This Post

So your company closed. When this happened to me, I felt despondent, betrayed, victimized and generally worthless, angry and shattered.

Yet, I had to admit there was a silver lining. I didn’t want to acknowledge it because I wanted to be mad, but it was there. Maybe not one that gave me my economic stability and self-confidence back, but still…

Let’s face it. Have you ever been at work and:

• Wore out your watch by staring at it?
• Spiked your anxiety-ridden manager’s coffee with Valium?
• Kept your fingers crossed that the moron wouldn’t speak up and drag the meeting out purposelessly for another hour?
• Worried that the job would outlive you?

It’s a bummer to lose your job and your company with no chance of being hired back. But it gives you the opportunity that lets you get a new start, find new opportunities, even explore new careers. Admit it. There’s a silver lining there.

Have you found your silver lining yet?

Laurie Phillips is an expert at working for companies that vanish. She is the President of Sundance Research and no longer worries about the job outliving her.

Muchas gracias to flikr.com/tanakawho for the photo.

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

Have You Found Your Silver Lining?

Tweet This Post

“Law firm accepts carbon credits as fees”

EcoSeed reports:

“Law firm clients may now pay legal fees with carbon credits under a scheme launched by a Miami, Florida-based law firm.

The Cueto Law Group has started the first initiative of its kind in the professional services industry, allowing clients to pay up to 20 percent of their legal fees with carbon credits.

Carbon credits represent permits to emit climate-warming greenhouse gases. One carbon credit unit is commonly equal to one ton of carbon dioxide emissions.

Under the law firm’s program called “CO Too,” its clients can pay with carbon credits which the company can then trade in the international carbon markets.”

Carbon Credits for/by Dummies

After I let that short, innocuous announcement soak in, a few things became obvious.

Observation #1: I can now buy and sell permission to pollute. This seems ludicrous, but it leads me to…

Observation #2: I have the right to pollute if I have carbon credits. It’s no longer something I shouldn’t do (but do anyway).

Observation #3: It’s going to be a seller’s market. Companies that can’t reduce their pollution further and stay profitable will need a good supply of carbon credits no matter what the price.

Observation #4: Carbon credits can be exchanged for currency if you have access to a marketplace for carbon credits.  This law firm isn’t taking lower fees: they’re just receiving part of their payment through a financial market that few know exists.

Observation #5: He who holds the most carbon credits wins. Power and wealth will belong to the credit holders for as long as companies pollute. Which countries and companies have a minimal carbon footprint right now? They have an invisible asset.

Opportunity or just more hot air?

Is this a big new opportunity or just a teaser? If you’re dusting yourself off from a company collapse, you’d be silly to ignore a developing market. For that matter, the economy is certainly encouraging us to get creative about finding and making new jobs. Is there something here?

Santiago Cueto poses the question, “Are Carbon Credits the New Global Currency?” I ask: Is this an economic opportunity, an environmental disaster or the emperor’s new clothes?

Want more? Here are the abbreviated, summarized, abridged “Cliffs Notes” to global business trends as identified by Laurie Phillips, who hates pollution, whether physical or digital.

photo courtesy of flikr.com/net_efekt

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

The New Global Currency?

Tweet This Post

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Alton Jefferson and Sgts. Ronald Williams and Jeremy Squires, all from Bravo Company, 173rd Special Troops Battalion, conduct final checks on a Shadow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on Forward Operating Base Fenty in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, March 17, 2008, prior to its launch. A UAV is used to track enemy activity. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Tyffani L. Davis) (www.army.mil)

Manufacturing experts wanted

5th in a series about What Matters Now

Looking for a job in manufacturing or design?  Hold up. Make sure you understand the stampeding herd that is threatening the industry.  But first, let’s talk about your hobbies.

Break time

Let’s say you love planes and want to resume flying lessons as soon as you have a secure paycheck. In the meantime, you kill time online with other airplane nuts and post some design questions for a remote-control plane.

The engineer types and experienced fliers give you plenty of advice on your design, send you links to inexpensive electronics and tweet a rousing brainstorm to come up with new things you can do with your plane. They also tell you where you can get a prototype made, dirt cheap.

The job market still stinks and you’re getting tired of spending all day at the screen, so you order the prototype and add the electronics when it arrives from China a week later. You take it out to the dusty field nearby and let it loose. With the camera and GPS onboard, your little drone flies over the countryside taking snapshots and filming the flight while you control your recon mission with your iPhone. Fun, huh? Who needs Northrop Grumman?

Back to work

OK, back to that manufacturing job. Here are a few facts you need to know:

1. You no longer need a big employer to do design and manufacturing. Collaborative design, open-source components and micro-manufacturing put control in your hands, if you want it.

2. That big company becomes more vulnerable every day as barriers to entry keep falling, and they can’t staunch the tide. Do your homework before you sign on.

More about that UAV

Chris Andersen, Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine, is a firm believer that the web is transforming manufacturing. He should know. He founded DIY Drones and has been spreading the message about DIY manufacturing. Here’s a short video about his experiment building drones and interacting with the U.S. Government – unintentionally – as a result.

The longer video of the entire presentation by Chris is fascinating. It includes the tale of his tangle with the U.S. Government at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and a gleeful story about how he busted Google. Great stuff and well worth the 20+ minutes to watch.

If you want to catch up on the trends affecting the working world and society, read the eBook, What Matters Now. It might just be the smartest thing you can do for yourself this year as a survivor of corporate destruction.

Laurie Phillips is a snow-bound freelance writer with cabin fever.

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

Manufacturing Your New Job

Tweet This Post

“Globalization is forcing companies to think in new ways.”                                            — Bill Gates

“No duh, but how?”                    — Apprehensive Businessperson

What Matters Now: Global Business in the 21st Century

4^th in a series

Does the phrase “global business” bring to mind using off-shore contractors? Having an office in a shiny, new, nosebleed-high building in Singapore? Scheduling conference calls at odd hours to accommodate far-away time zones? If so, you are stuck in the last century.

Americans are way behind in understanding global dynamics. Why should you care? Because these trends are changing how businesses start up, staff and compete. The nature of work is changing. The workforce is changing. Barriers to entry are collapsing. Your next job will unquestionably be affected, even if your new employer isn′t willing to admit it yet.

Why are we still so naive? It′s not just because you had a job that didn′t give you the time – or the need – to learn about all this stuff. In the eBook, “What Matters Now,” Alisa Miller says:

“Too often American commercial news is myopic and inwardly focused.

This leads to a severe lack of global news. And increasingly, a shortage of “enterprise journalism” – journalistic depth built over time through original sources – that provides the context and enables thoughtful response.” (emphasis mine)

She continues:

“It’s difficult to understand the world if you haven’t heard much about it. But we also know many Americans want to know more.”

The solution

So what should you do? Get informed. Plug into world news and follow these topics:

1. Capitalism in developing countries: Margins are going to fall and keep falling as the balance of consumers shifts from high- to low-income markets. Ignore this and you′ll be working for another dead company.

2. Micro-factories and DIY design: Today you can place an order on the web for a prototype and an industry-agnostic micro-factory in China can build it in 24 hours. Barriers to entry in manufacturing are going “poof.” One person with an idea and a computer can now do what used to require a ton of capital and lots of industrial square footage.

3. Educating the poor. Efforts such as Room to Read are teaching the world’s poor to read. There are almost three quarters of a billion of them and when the newly educated start working, they won′t know anything about the “old way” of doing things. They′re going to question everything. Ignorance is going to foster innovation.

4. Cultural prejudices: Exclusion – by race, culture or gender – is breaking down. Work force demographics are changing and employers will become more accommodating.

As Hugh MacLeod wrote, “The world is changing.” Maybe this should be on the back of everyone′s business card.

Alisa Miller and Hugh MacLeod are contributors to the new eBook, What Matters Now. Alisa is the President and CEO of Public Radio International and blogs at Global Matters Post. Hugh blogs at Gaping Void and is the author of Ignore Everybody.

This is the fourth article in a series about global trends and how they are affecting business. The source of wisdom for these posts comes from the eBook, What Matters Now. Previous posts include “Important Trends You Missed While You Were Employed“, “What Matters Now: Advertise by giving it away” and “What Matters Now: Be fearless“.

Laurie Phillips is the editor of The Dead Company Club blog. She is also the passionate founder of the No Businessperson Left Behind campaign.

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

Are You Sure You Understand “Global”?

Tweet This Post

“What Matters Now” is what matters

Second of a series

I want to be fearless. Apparently I’m not the only one. In the new eBook, “What Matters Now,” there are plenty of mini-essays that talk about stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a new direction. And what better time to consider it than when you’ve been involuntarily canned?

In a short article appropriately titled, “Fear,” Anne Jackson writes:

“We’re often impressed by those who appear to be fearless. The people who fly to the moon. Chase tornadoes. Enter dangerous war zones. Skydive. Speak in front of thousands of people.”

I bet you’re also impressed by people who start a business that becomes successful, ferret out an unbelievable new job with a whopping promotion or ditch their former career in favor of something they’ve always wanted to do.

Do you ever think, “I could do it too,” but your Inner Censor wakes up and kicks your dreams down the sewer?

Maybe you’re short on savings or have no household income. Or you don’t have expert qualifications. Maybe you’re highly qualified but still feel the sting of your company’s collapse and are afraid to go for it. The Censor says, “Be mature! You can’t risk spending money to go to that conference/take that class/buy that company in this economy,” or “You have too much to learn, you’ll never catch up.” It may just echo, “Oh, grow up!” The Censor always ends with, “Take the safe road.”

Stop right here. Reread Anne’s quote. Those people who fly to the moon, skydive or capture a immense following are just like you. Except they didn’t take the safe road. They were afraid. They knew they were taking a substantial risk, maybe even putting their lives on the line. They chose to walk through their fear.

Could our heros have ignored their passion and done something safer? Absolutely. Would they have been satisfied? Perhaps. But here’s what I’ve found: If you have a dream and ignore it – even for good reasons – it will haunt you. It will be that little voice that nags, “Is this what I really want to do?” with every job opportunity. That dream will demand attention, and you will spend a lot of energy suppressing it.

Anne ends her essay with this:

“Until Fear is gone, (and realize he may never completely leave) make the decision to be courageous. The world needs your story in order to be complete.”

You can swallow hard and become fearless. You can also decide to be afraid. What’s your choice today?

Laurie Phillips is a freelance writer and motorcyclist. She has done the motorcycle stunt above by accident while pursuing one of her passions. It was worth it.

Photo courtesy of flicker.com/pdbreen

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

What Matters Now: Be fearless

Tweet This Post

“What Matters Now” is what matters now

First of a series

Yesterday I wrote that the new eBook, “What Matters Now” is a must-read for business people, especially anyone who has recently been ejected from a long-term job.

I was wrong.  Anyone should read it who wants to be in the know about what direction the world is taking and what they should be doing about it. In a new series I’m going to highlight several points that the book rams home. Not to detract from reading it, but to share what I think are some radical shifts from traditional thinking.

Let’s take advertising and marketing. One essay is titled “Attention”. It begins:

“You can buy attention (advertising).
You can beg for attention from the media (public relations).
You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales).

Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it on line for free: a YouTube video, a blog, a research report, photos, a Twitter stream, an ebook, a Facebook page.”

Does this work? Isn’t it a threat to your hard-earned, valuable expertise? You be the judge.

Let’s say you’re looking for a job. Everyone knows what a challenge that is right now, so you decide to set up a blog that highlights your experience. You do a little reading and find out you should use lots of key words to make sure people will find your site. But you don’t know how to set up a blog and you don’t want to become a web designer. Still, you want it done fast and without spending a lot.

Take a look at Johnny Truant. Johnny will set up a blog for you for free. When you’re ready to do more, Johnny can be your “virtual assistant,” helping you enhance your blog remotely or providing extensive online training materials. He charges for these services. Would I hire him to do the expert stuff needed to make my blog a success? You bet.

Johnny makes money by selling his services, but he attracts customers by giving his services away. This is the new advertising. Set aside your old biases and provide value for free. You’ll get far more in return.

Laurie Phillips is a freelance writer and a member of The Dead Company Club.

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

What Matters Now: Advertise by giving it away

Tweet This Post

I did a lot of soul searching when my company closed. Did I love my work, or just love what it enabled me to do?

Many of my colleagues grabbed offers from competitors, but I chose a new path. I became an entrepreneur and a consultant to other entrepreneurs. Ultimately I started four companies and worked with many more. And boy, did I learn how ignorant I was.

I was an expert in one subject in my former job. I didn’t need to know anything about emerging trends like Twitter, micro-manufacturing or green business. I learned – thanks to many strangers who offered valuable expertise for free – what I had missed. And there was a big gap.

If your corporate cocoon has cracked open recently, there is a new business world you should know about. A newly released eBook, “What Matters Now,” is a must-read. The book is a collaborative effort by dozens of authors, journalists and activists who preach the facts of leading edge business and corporate interaction. Each has written a “micro essay” of about 140 words. It’s easy reading but incredibly valuable in its simplicity.

Consider the opening essay by Seth Godin titled “Generosity.” It begins:

“When the economy tanks, it’s natural to think of yourself first. You have a family to feed, a mortgage to pay. Getting more appears to be the order of business.

It turns out that the connected economy doesn’t respect this natural instinct. Instead, we’re rewarded for being generous. Generous with our time and money but most important, generous with our art.

If you make a difference, people will gravitate to you. They want to engage, to interact and to get you more involved.”

The topics are delightfully diverse, and I’m glad I don’t agree with all the opinions because I really don’t know it all. If you’re pondering your future, take a few hours to absorb some important trends before you make your list of resolutions for the new year. And, as the authors suggest, if you like what you read, pass it on.

Laurie Phillips is a freelance writer and President of Sundance Research, a network for writers and editors.

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

Important Trends You Missed While You Were Employed

Tweet This Post

“My reputation grows with every failure.”

– George Bernard Shaw

A NEWSWEEK story begins:

“Lehman Brothers disappeared with Hank Paulson’s reputation. He wants it back.”

“Hank Paulson, former master of the universe, sits in a nondescript office in northwest Washington, D.C. He is trying to work on his memoirs, but he is struggling. He doesn’t seem like the onetime All-Ivy tackle at Dartmouth, the Harvard M.B.A. who ran Goldman Sachs, the prince of Wall Street who went on to be come secretary of the Treasury. He comes across more like an athlete who has lost a game and can’t stop talking about the dropped pass, the missed shot. He is trying to explain the weekend last September when Lehman Brothers went down—and the financial world collapsed.”

The story goes on:

“The conventional wisdom, he admits, congealed quickly: it was a mistake for the government to let Lehman die, and the blame rested squarely with Hank Paulson.” (NEWSWEEK May 25, 2009)

—————–

I have some thoughts to share with Hank.

—————–

Henry Paulson, Former Secretary of the Treasury
Nondescript office
Northwest Washington
Washington, DC
USA

Dear Mr. Paulson:

So Lehman torched your reputation, huh? I’m sorry to hear that. I’m very familiar with reputation damage, as are many others here. After my company crashed people walked away from me after they heard where I had worked. So many people were hurt, losing their life savings, their homes and their jobs that I became their enemy simply by association, as if it were all my fault.  Sound familiar?

There’s good news though.  I found a simple fix to reputation damage that has helped everyone who has tried it. It works like this:

If you want your reputation back, earn it.

Best wishes.

P.S. If you’re still struggling with your memoirs, please call me. I’m a ghostwriter, and not just during Halloween.

Thank you h.koppdelaney, for your flickr.com photo.

Laurie Phillips is a ghostwriter, but she wrote this all by herself.

Post from: The Dead Company Club The Dead Company Club is a hobby of the writers at Sundance Research. Sometimes they just need to write about their own stuff.

How to Get Your Reputation Back

Tweet This Post