MyLifeMyCareer.com

Severe thunderstorms are rolling through Indy and the suburbs, so I'm hanging tight before socializing this evening. Why not rattle off a little blog post instead of taking cover in a sturdy structure (my apartment does not count as a sturdy structure - paper thin walls, zero insulation, and cheap construction)?

The professional work-force is boring and overly cautious in what they say and do at work. There, I dropped a bomb of a generalization. I have cracked jokes and received the follow up emails or conversations that are to the effect of "Easy there big fella." I think very few people enjoy being a robot of pure etiquette between the hours of 8 and 5 each Monday through Friday, but do so because it is accepted as the proper behavior within the walls of a business. When did becoming a stuck-up douche with no sense of humor become perceived as professional?

I would rather walk the line of "maybe we should have a sit down with HR" not because I'm a rebel without a cause, but because maybe that line is drawn too close to "church/funeral behavior" and not close enough to "summer bbq" behavior. I don't see a correlation between me sitting with my hands crossed, half-falling asleep, and wishing people would say what they really want to say instead of speaking business gibberish and me being more productive. I check my email, calendar, run data analysis tests, and work on another project all at the same time. What's wrong with cracking a joke or injecting humor into business conversations? Nothing. I do it all the time - in moderation of course.

I agree that there is a recommended mixture of comedy and seriousness that still allows the collaboration to move forward in a productive manner while having a good time. It does take a certain level of maturity, personality, and conversational experience (put that on your resume) to recognize when you are deterring the current movement or progress. Cross that line of "intelligent and fun co-worker" to "class clown" a few times and you will recognize the response and learn to not do it again.

So, lighten up, make the best of a situation that isn't always fun, and change the perception of what it means to be professional. Working towards your goals with the company you work for, starting a business, or running a business is rewarding but hard work that lasts many years. The stress will build up and you will release it one way or the other if you don't manage it.

The biggest stress reliever for me is comedy. Even at the office.

I didn't drink coffee until I started working full-time and had to get up everyday before 7AM. It was a rough transition from college. What eased the transition was my desire to drink mug after mug of coffee each day. There are different ways to drink coffee in terms of amount and frequency which can be more beneficial than other ways. I never thought of this, but it's true.

Most people fill their mug or styrofoam cup to the brim because a) the coffee pot and break room are a long walk from their desk, b) they enjoy drinking more coffee in one sitting, or c) only pansies fill a cup half way. If it was meant to be filled half-way they would have made a smaller cup to be filled to the brim.

I used to do 1 full cup in the morning and 1 full cup in the early afternoon, but the caffeine would wear off after 60-90 minutes and I would drag until lunch or the end of the day. I now do a half a cup every 90-120 minutes, and I never feel the effects wear off. I read about it somewhere, and it actually works. I also get a cup of water with each half cup of coffee to rinse my teeth and to flush my system. I have no idea what would happen if I drank coffee alone - probably clog a pipe somewhere.

You can do the same thing with caffeinated tea or energy drinks if that is your bag. Why would you pay all of that money for Red Bull, though, when the company coffee is free? I guess you could always find out where the Red Bull promotional Mini Coopers full of college student employees will be located in your city if you live in a bigger city, and then the Red Bull would be free too (minus the cost of $4/gallon gas tracking them down).

Anyways, drink less coffee more and lose the caffeine crash.

* Disclaimer * This isn't a very beneficial post in terms of you learning anything valuable, so read ahead only if you have several minutes to possibly be entertained. I'm not all business all the time, so I'm just giving you the warning ahead of time in case you are and may consider this a waste of your time. I do care about you.

My younger brother and I attended Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday (basically a big party and a concert featuring STP this year), and since it was raining we went over to my friend's house nearby the track. Everyone there was around my age or older, so my younger brother was the only college student attending. He's going to be a senior and he's 21 so not too much younger, though.

I was driving and he was not, so the amount of beer consumed by him was much greater compared to most of the other people there who were also driving. He was out of control and pretty entertaining, and realized everyone else was pretty sober and justified it by saying "Well, you're career people." When I dropped him off at his apartment he was telling his friends about the party and free keg and how all the career people weren't drinking much. I tried to justify it by saying that it's only 5 PM and the night is young. They didn't buy it, and I might as well have been wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase.

So, we who are out of college and employed are no longer young professionals. We are career people as viewed through the eyes of drunk college students (just one so far). And for the record, the career people matched his level of partying, possibly surpassing it, later that night when everyone hung up the keys for the day.

The President of the United States. Vet. Brain Surgeon. Nothing. Accountant. Investor. Programmer. Tech Researcher. Professor. Interaction Designer. Consultant.

Going back as far as I can remember those are the occupations I dreamed of one day being. Nothing - that one hit during high school when I either thought that the high school years were the pinnacle of life and didn't care what was next, or because I truly recognized that I was clueless to my own interests for the future. I just remember teachers saying that new types of jobs were being created, and that my position did not even exist yet. I one-upped the high school profs, and majored in something that didn't formally exist during my hs years - Informatics.

I'm now working in a role that is a cross between business analysis and systems implementation. It's not my life's calling or what I see myself being, but it is a role within a business which became part of a much bigger business. That's all I asked for after college - experience in the "professional" world. I'm 24 and realize I don't have it all figured out, I still don't know what I want to be, and I'm completely comfortable with the fact that I'm not comfortable or satisfied on some days. I like feeling hungry for change in my life. Not Obama-change - just "regular, personal growth and satisfaction" change.

How did I get to where I am today in my Business Analyst role? I didn't just wake up and decide that "Hey, I want to grow up and sit in a cubicle and be a Business Analyst". I took steps that led me in this direction like switching majors from Business Finance and Accounting in the ivory tower of the Kelley School of Business of IU to Informatics - a degree from a school that didn't even have a formal building until my Sophomore/Junior year when they renovated an old sorority house into the new School of Informatics. I switched because I enjoyed the course I took through the business school titled "The Computer in Business". It was basically an intensive Access and Excel overview and application course - one that I enjoyed and everyone else in it hated. I hated all of the accounting and finance courses, so I switched to a degree that was more tech-centric and still allowed me to take business courses that were interesting to me like Entrepreneurship, Small Business Management, and marketing.

Several career paths presented themselves to me during my last two years at IU as I became interested in interaction design, network security, and fields that were not technically defined such as sports informatics. I considered grad school to continue on in interaction design, but I wasn't completely sure that is what I wanted to do. I took the GRE the winter of my senior year just in case I decided it was what I wanted to do, and ended up continuing interviewing with various companies in early spring. I was basically in a long hallway of doors, not sure of which one to walk through, and wanting to keep them all unlocked forever. Something just felt right about one of the opportunities for a full-time position after graduation, and I took it. Was there a reason or tipping point? Not really. It was a combination of thinking I needed a break from academia and the small college town of Bloomington, my bank account being empty and my credit card bills piling up, and my desire to apply my business knowledge to a real situation. Were these thoughts correct and did I make the right decision?

Yes and no. I can answer that way, right? That's the only fair and accurate response. There are days I regret not going to grad school right away, but at the same time I can always go back. It's just a matter of leaving the standard way of life I've become accustomed to over the past few years, and reverting back to learning mode, strapped for cash mode, and increasing debt mode in the hopes of expanding my knowledge and adding a few more doors to that hallway of options. There are also days where I think how much more knowledge I have gained working for two years in an actual business facing non-scripted situations over and over again that I will be able to utilize in my future business plans, endeavors, or to make my learning during grad school (if I go that route) more beneficial and realistic knowing what can happen outside of the bubble of the classroom and textbooks.

The point of this post is that my desires and what I think I would enjoy or excel in change constantly. I've tried to illustrate that for you in case you think you have it all figured out, and have some concrete plan of how your life is going to play out. I could go on for hours about how my mindset, career plan, list of friends, activities I participate in - my life have changed just in the past two years since graduation day.

No one is going to tell you what you are going to be. You have no idea what you should really be. There is no perfect system in place to alert you of opportunities you might enjoy, places you should live because they align with your lifestyle, and so on. I don't think this will ever be possible to create a system that lets you know what you should do and you will be happy doing it for years to come. So much changes internally and externally in your life, and you can either recognize or ignore the fluctuating factors that control your overall satisfaction with what you are doing for a living.

If it scares the crap out of you that you are about to go to college and pick a degree that will ultimately control the first few steps after graduation that's normal. If you just graduated and have a job or don't have a job that's ok. I'd recommend getting a job to experience something and to of course pay the bills so that you can move out of your parents house, but I meant it's ok that you're unsure of what you want to be.

I'm 24, two years removed from college, and have no idea of what I want to be. I do know what I want to do next, though, and after that I'm sure I'll figure it out just like everything else has been figured out on the fly thus far.

The thoughts of this post were inspired by an article in Esquire titled 'You'd Make a Good President. Or Maybe A Good Fashion Photographer. Or a Good Shortstop. The Point Is, You Have No Idea'. It's on page 68 of the June 2008 issue, and currently not on their website. There is an excerpt on Brijit if you are into summaries.

That's right - John Mayer, the guy who used to play songs for 13-year old girls and is now starting to shine with a more grown up sound similar to his role model, classic blues/rock guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn (video: SRV playing a cover of Hendrix's "Little Wing"). Sure, his voice won't ever be considered edgy or hard, but he's really going transition into a more appreciated blues / quasi-rock guitar player as the years go on. There were stories of him while he was in music school where professors would stop by and just listen to him jam and mess around in the school's practice rooms. The guy is talented however lame you may think he is or some of his original pop rock songs are.

So, now that I have justified being a fan of John Mayer, what can he teach us about business?

Well, the music industry is struggling to find a profitable model while artists are finding it and have found it without the suits' help. You've all heard of the "cutting-edge" business practices of selling less of more (Long Tail) and actually giving away services and products in order to sell other products that could be more profitable or allow for a long cycle of additional business. Several musicians, I'm talking about major recording artists - not the garage bands on MySpace, have toyed around with different variations of giving away music or enhancing their music offerings through the use of the internet and old-school, non-technological means as well.

Beck's "Guero" was the first album that I remember taking advantage of the internet by leaking the album, remixes, and videos before the release of the album allowing fans to piece it together however they wanted. The first mash-up album. Then, the actual CD was released in which the album art was mostly blank, and came with stickers that could be used to decorate the cover however the fan or listener wanted to. The CD also contained videos to accompany each song that could be viewed on your computer. This was a slap in the face to the RIAA who had already basically shut down Kazaa Lite at that point which was what most people used after old school Napster shut down. Here the lawyers were trying to stop fans from distributing music, and Beck came along and basically told fans not only to give it away, listen to it how they want, and all before the release. Then he released the album and still made more fans with the unique features, and raked in on tour where all musicians make most of their money.

More recently, Radiohead gave away their latest release "In Rainbows", and allowed fans to pay what they thought the music was worth. Radiohead is already an internationally famous band - more hipster and indie rock here in the States, but I'm sure they gained a few new fans or at least exposed new people to their music through the give-away. I know their summer show nearby is already sold out months before the date of the performance. They've already said that they won't be doing the give-away again, but we thank them for blazing a trail and trying.

After Radiohead, you know that there would be followers. I've seen many smaller bands - especially MySpace bands, giving away their albums now that it is perceived as "cool" - maybe a result of the Radiohead publicity stunt, or maybe because it is a valid long-term business model. Oh yea, Nine Inch Nails also recently gave away their newest album for free, so it's not just the no-name garage bands buying into it. We'll see if it is just a trend or if it holds on to actually work.

I think the more viable business model is to give insight into the creative process like only the artist can - that's exclusive content rather than giving away the entire product. As big as life-casting, radical transparency not only in personal blogs but also corporate blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and iJournalism are it makes sense for musicians to add this personal and truthful insight into their albums somehow. Which brings us back to John Mayer.

For his new album he is posting videos from the studio, bits of songs where the lyrics and melodies are not even complete, photos of equipment used, and random posts and thoughts that are going through his mind as he records the next album. His blog has transformed from "a musician trying to crossover into stand-up comedy" (which he was trying to do on the side at times) into a blog about a modern-day musician. By letting fans in more and more into the creative process they will have a greater connection with the artist, and a stronger interest in buying the completed product. They've invested time into the creation of the new album by following the progress, and that just doesn't go away too easily. No one else can provide the content he is providing since it is him writing, talking, playing, or in front of the camera doing whatever. It's all free and leading up to the big finish which actually has a price tag - the new release.

Then there is the tour. Musicians do not get a huge cut on actual album sales, and get the much larger mark-up from tours. John even has a modern-day twist on tours incorporating a centralized place for fans to upload photos, videos, recordings, and comments so that you do not have to "search for the experience". Not to mention he should attract more and more fans by playing some of his favorite cover songs and incorporating the blues set. There should be something for everyone, and it will be interesting to see if some of the younger fans can appreciate the cover of "Bold As Love" (another Hendrix song) as much as "Your Body Is a Wonderland".

I think his business strategy is a mix of transparency and long tail, but more transparency in the end. By adding the in the user-generated content coming this summer with the new tour I think John Mayer has officially become a musician 2.0 which other businesses and owners can model themselves after. It's a great example of utilizing social media to market yourself and your product.

Write that down about the "musician 2.0" - that's a freebie for you and a keeper.

Additional Reading/Viewing:
John Mayer is still trying to be a funny guy on the side, and posted a video poking fun at the inside look into making music. This was made with the help of Judd Apatow, director of Superbad - video

Chris Anderson, author of the Long Tail recently wrote an article in Wired about the future of business being free. Check it out here - Free! Why $0.00 Is The Future Of Business

Viral Marketing, Guerilla Marketing, Alternate Reality Games. Sign me up.

I was reading an article today on WebUrbanist.com about the five most recent guerilla marketing examples that went wrong. Rather than just coming up with a concept for print or electronic media it would be a blast to come up with crazy ideas to take to the streets or net in unconventional ways.

There was an article several months back in Wired about some of the more notable alternate reality games that were hugely popular among the popular internet crowd that every company, studio, or artist wants on their side. They have the potential to set off exponential growth or popularity - the most likely tipping points if you're a Malcolm Gladwell fan and believer of the theory.

I doubt many business schools or MBA or executive programs are training marketing professionals to utilize social media properly, and the skills required to excel in social media and marketing positions. These skills are less business and more technology research and application in my opinion. I also doubt that many established businesses are putting non-business grads or non-MBA's in their marketing management positions, or embracing social media at all.

The new forms and practices in marketing have already caught fire, and slowly but surely more and more opportunities will arise as companies start to accept the new media practices as equals with their traditional PR and traditional media advertising methods.

Companies To Check Out:
42 Entertainment

I work in the suburbs. In fact, I live in one suburb and work in another - an 11 mile one-way drive that can take anywhere between 20 - 45 minutes depending on if I decide to leave during rush-hour or not. On the weekends, I have to drive at least 20 minutes to the closest young professional magnet of a bar strip, and 30 minutes to downtown. If I need to get food or something from a store I have to drive a wasteful 5 minutes at least. Bottom line, I cannot walk anywhere really.

With gas prices approaching $4/gallon with no end in site, I would argue that it costs about the same if not less to live and work in a major metropolitan area. If I lived and worked in Chicago or any east coast city I would consider getting rid of the car completely, or at least downgrading. I'm spending over $200 a month on gas alone, which could easily offset or equalize the higher cost of apartments or condos in cities.

We as a country really need to change our city planning and urban development planning. Here in the midwest everyone wants their own yard and property even if it means they can only afford to build a cheap box in one of the many unattractive vinyl villages that our future generations will hate us for building. I'm a big fan of the "live where you work" way of life, and love the idea of living in a condo or townhome close to restaurants, clubs, stores, etc. You also have a much greater sense of community, not to mention using less land and resources. The "green" movement is really centered on efficiency in automobiles right now, and changing the way we build and expand our cities is rarely discussed when the impact could be greater.

So, should you live in a big city or look to work for companies in big cities? That's up to you and depends a bit on your lifestyle, but just be aware that your entry-level salary will leave you with a tight budget as it is - especially if you live alone. You cut out some major costs by living within walking distance of where you work and socialize, or you could at least make an effort to minimize your driving distance to work and where you play on the weekends (and weekdays...especially when Cinco de Mayo falls on a Monday, what's up with that?).

I'm in a tough dilemma with the office being located on the far north side of the city in an uppity suburb, and everything else is going on in the city. It's either going to be a long drive to work or a long drive to hang out with friends.

Sales were slowing down a bit, and the content of the book is now almost two years old. I decided it would probably be more useful being available on this site so that you could search it, skip around, and freely access it. An updated second edition will not be released at this time, but I am considering another idea for a book that may be interesting to you young professionals.

So, as soon as I figure out how to get the content quickly transferred to a usable web format it will be available. For those of you who have sent emails recently requesting printed copies, I will also work on making it available through an on-demand publishing store for you and anyone else to purchase if you would like.

Thanks for the continued support, everyone!

In a discussion with a mentor of mine who is well into their 50's (small business owner) we came to the conclusion that the baby boomer business "gold rush" of the last 20-30 years has resulted in maybe too many publicly owned companies, large corporations, and ivory-tower offices where the next generation is coming in to be another cog in the wheel to keep the monster of a machine moving. And 99% of the corporate or big business work-force complains about the situation, but settles and still buys a vinyl-village home, adds a dog to the family, pops out some hell-raising kids, divorces a few years later (bad day at work results in bad day at home, multiply the effect over several years, and you have a reason for 50-60% national divorce rates), re-marries, retires, and looks back on a life of climbing the corporate ladder and not really leaving much of a mark.

Dating all the way back to the industrial revolution, as more and more businesses selling products to consumers grew the number of businesses selling products or services to other businesses grew. I personally think this shift from B2C to B2B oriented businesses is a major cause of the mundane aspect of most people's careers. Think about it: would you rather sell the car to an actual person or would you rather analyze the efficiency of the logistics used to transport a tire for the car that is being sold? For every B2C service or product sold there are truck loads of B2B services backing it up. And guess what? The number of B2B jobs outnumbers B2C jobs, and these jobs are getting more and more mundane, process-oriented, and outsourceable.

Just look at any job search that you submit on Monster, Jobster, or Careerbuilder. The results may go on for hundreds of pages if you are searching in a major metropolitan area, but they will be the most uninteresting positions unless you or new to the game or naive (college grads or corporate workhorse) or truly enjoy having an "8-5 5 days a week auto-drive position with the chance of moving up the ranks of middle management over a 40 year period" job. Logistics specialist, Sr. Analyst, Data Integrity Jr. Manager, etc. These all will result in hours of spreadsheet viewing, report writing, pointless meetings, and hours of boredom even if you are working. If you are a manger you are not running a business, you are improving processes. If you are an employee, you are acting out the role in that process. Exciting, right?

Add in all of the other wonderful aspects of the business world including pleasing the shareholders, acquiring businesses, being acquired, merged, outsourced, or eliminated and you are in for what may seem like a wild ride - but it really is only wild for the owners moving around the pieces on the chessboard to maximize their profits while you enjoy a 2-4% raise each year and continue serving your purpose.

So, what is the solution?

Well, we can't stop the pace of growth and operation in the "big business" world, but small business owners and entrepreneurs can take advantage of the situation. If you want to grow your personal or small business to be a lifestyle business for the rest of your career I salute you. That's an admirable move, and a dream of mine, as well. However, with the rate of business growth in the corporate and publicly-owned market, you have a good chance of being bought much sooner than in the past. Some business plans in the tech industry have exit strategies of less than 1-2 years. Bam, sell to some CEO of Boring Company, Inc who thinks that your company is a good fit for them whether you agree or not, take the cash, and do it again. Or retire.

Small businesses do not have much of chance competing with bigger businesses operating on volume and cost-cutting, so the best bet is to start the business with the goal of selling sooner rather than sticking around to fight for space in a market where the competitor has just outsourced what you do to someone who is paid just enough to feed themselves. Cost vs. Quality is unfortunately a mostly invalid argument these days if you want to stay in business. Very few succeed taking the side of quality as a long-term plan.

Small business is where the fire is still burning brightly in the owner's and employees' minds, and offers you the chance to have a more exciting and higher impact job. Not to mention, it's generally more lucrative at the cost of being riskier. From the beginning, I have recommended that college grads seek to work for smaller businesses or lesser known companies still with good reputations. Unfortunately, there is not a good resource that lists jobs in the more entrepreneurial sector. These are usually word-of-mouth or opportunities that result from networking. Well, most college students do not have many professional contacts, so professional networking and word-of-mouth opportunities are hard to come by. This is another flaw in the system as college grads are being funneled into the corporate world simply because opportunities with smaller businesses are not widely available.

This is pretty much where we both paused for awhile, continued eating, and shook our heads. I wanted to say, "What a mess", but was beaten to the punch by the old guy on the other side of the table who broke the silence by saying something to the effect of, "There is still hope in the business world, but it is far and few between in corporate America. There are still diamonds in the rough - large, publicly owned companies that still act like rebels similar to when they started, but they're hard to find and it could change in an instant. Many companies claim to be different, but many of them are really the same."

I know the title sounds like some bullshit PR, but it's a message with truth behind it. And NBC was also right about the whole "The More You Know" Saturday morning positive messages in between mindless cartoons. Eek the Cat, anyone?

You don't just get an innovative idea by sitting on your sofa watching American Idol or playing Halo 3. Actually, you can if you allow yourself to, but reading still yields the most inspiration for me. I'm not talking about leather bound books with gold trim on the pages. I'm talking about blogs from other entrepreneurs, websites, and my favorite - magazines. Printed media is not dead (yet), and at $6-20 a year for 12 issues I load up. I try to stay away from more traditional "business" magazines like BusinessWeek or The Economist since they generally report on proven strategies or established methods which are usually common sense to most people or widely reported and you've already heard about them.

Non-fiction books about "new age" business concepts, like The Tipping Point, Long Tail, Wikinomics, etc contain great ideas, but the books are dead to me. No one needs 300 pages to prove a point. Reading a non-fiction book is a huge waste of time. The point of each chapter is usually made in the first few paragraphs, and is followed by 43 more pages of citations and similar examples. The author is basically saying, "Here you have my idea, and here are many other resources that I have arranged in a way to make my idea seem like it is supported whether it is or not." Once you catch onto the pattern, unless the subject is extremely interesting to you the book will be back on the shelf in no time. I would rather go on-line, get the basic premise, and see what other people have to say. It's quicker, more interactive, and rather than one person pitching some crazy new idea there will be many people with different opinions selling it to you or throwing it away. And you can ask them, "Why?", like the inquisitive 2-year old version of yourself is wanting to know the entire time you are trapped reading the book. Pick up a book from the Fiction section, and at least entertain yourself if you're going to spend days or weeks reading one thing.

Magazines have time-sensitive material. The articles are shorter, straight to the point, and more relevant to current trends and events in the world. Most magazines have a consistent voice, so you can usually find several that match your style and you end up reading cover to cover. Most of the articles are on-line for free, but let's be honest, you will get distracted after half an article and mosey on over to Facebook to see pictures of your buddy passed out on some beach during Spring Break. Get the actual magazine, and step away from the computer, and you would be surprised how quickly you will breeze through it picking up ideas to research or look into when you get back to the computer.

So, which ones do I read?

FastCompany
Inc.
Wired - not a "business" magazine, but I'm a tech guy and I would argue that it does contain valuable business info
Esquire - a lifestyle magazine, I know, but successful people are interviewed and popular trends are identified among some other stuff that I would qualify as crap
GQ - same as above - you need to stay in touch with pop culture at some level. It's all about balance.
PopSci - technology mentioned in this bad boy is usually featured 6-12 months later in mainstream media
Technology Review - The intelligent and more research oriented version of PopSci
Scientific American - I read very little of this magazine, but pick up just enough information to be dangerous in conversations that I have no business being included in. You never know when an investor may start discussing the possible types of life in underground oceans recently discovered on a different planet. Or you may be on Jeopardy and win money.

Surprised by the variety? I feel it's important to keep a broad perspective, so that you do not get on one path. Think about it: you are thinking about ideas from different perspectives, picking up general information that may help you or simply rot away in your brain, and you are well-equipped to hang in conversations with many types of different people. If you're ever a manager or business owner, this will be a killer skill in my opinion allowing you to hopefully connect with all of your employees at some level outside of work-related conversations.

Reading is a bore when you could be watching a movie or playing Wii, I realize this. I look at it this way, though: I just spent 20 years going to school, spent close to six figures on college, and I am not going to quit the personal investment just because I have a degree.

You are your greatest asset. There, another BS corporate zinger for you. I'm sure many people who think they are important have said those five "inspirational" words with a straight face. I have always laughed at them when they say them, and chuckled as I typed the phrase. We know this already, and choose to deny or accept it. Thanks for the coffee mug worthy slogan, though. All right, I'm done. Two posts in two days? It's been awhile.