Ted Tuesday: "You've Got To Find What You Love,"Jobs says

"Hands down the best career talk ever given. EVER! Jobs urged the Stanford graduating class of 2005 to courageously follow their heart and intuition, just as he did. He encouraged them to give their inner voice a chance and not suppress it by giving in to others' opinions."

Good Morning Folks,

Today we revisit one of the most memorable and classic speeches ever— one that Steve Jobs gave to a group of graduating young students from the University of Stanford beginning a new journey of their lives: How to Live Before You Die (& not spend your life hating what you do)

I believe this is hands down the best career talk ever given. Ever. I’ve watched it over a dozen times. Not originally a TED talk, but now one of their top videos. This commencement speech garnered over 8 million views in a single day on YouTube, the day after Jobs' death. As I write this post, the speech now has over 15 million views.

Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -- including death itself -- at the university's 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.

"You've  got to find what you love," Jobs says

What was so special about Steve Jobs' words that day which made a lasting impression on many? It was straight from the man's heart. And secondly, there was much to reflect upon in terms of the embedded message encouraging youngsters even today to achieve their best.

In his three part speech, Jobs talked about how one's past can influence one's future, stumbling upon both love and loss and coming face-to-face with death. Jobs shared many personal moments from his life right from when he started as a college student till the day he discovered he had cancer. 

Jobs narrated his experiences when he had dropped out of college and so didn't have a dorm room. He slept on the floor of friends' rooms, returned coke bottles for 5 cent deposits to buy food and walked 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. He wanted to convey that the past had an important role to play in his present.

Jobs continued to talk about how he was fired from Apple, which was the biggest turning point of his career. Being jobless for a few months, Jobs thought it was all over until his perspective changed and he began to see this as an opportunity. He went on to start NeXT and Pixar, and during this time Jobs also fell in love with Laurene, whom he eventually married. In turn of events, Apple bought NeXt and Jobs returned to Apple, a move he never thought would've been possible.

Jobs urged the Stanford graduating class of 2005 to courageously follow their heart and intuition, just as he did. He encouraged them to give their inner voice a chance and not suppress it by giving in to others' opinions.

Here's Steve:

Full  of Steve Jobs' address

The sprit of Steve Jobs is very much alive today at FSO as we consistently strive to help our clients discover and (re)imagine new and better ways of doing business.

Every day, people search for something that motivates them. Things to get them out of bed, things to get them pumped up, things to help them make it through the day and so much more! What a great thing to be able to say about your job!

As in the locations that I am lucky enough to visit this week, each site employee, YOU, are the FSO difference! You're commitment to service, to exceed the client’s expectations, to notice that detail, to have that SKIP, FIRE, TWINKLE is uniquely FSO.  

The employee and client lovefest could not be stronger and I could not be more fired up!!

Thanks to NDTV for their inspiration putting this together and most of all to you for listening.


Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"If you resist change, you fail. If you accept change, you survive. 
If you create change, you succeed" ~~Mike Schlappi
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LinkUP- Thursday: Unemployed, Underemployed Or Somewhere In Between? We’re Here To Help

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

Good Morning Folks,

With so many high school and college graduates entering the workplace this summer, and a long weekend for beach reading, I thought I suspend out throwback post series until next week, so we can help those who urgently need career guidance at this critical time in their lives.

As the owner of FSO, I personally could not be more committed to finding good people and making them great. We currently have an eye open for finding great talent who have that skip in their step, fire in their belly, and twinkle in their eye to fill hundreds of new positions that will be added daily in our fast-growing company. Apply HERE

Today some links to tips for reinvigorating the passion you can bring to the workplace and to help you achieve all the success that you deserve.

Degree vs. Experience: Which one Truly Benefits Job Seekers? 

Checklist to Review Before You Start Your Job Search

A Very Different Future Of Work

5 Simple Changes to Ace Your Next Interview

How to Handle Office Criticism

7 Traits Of People Who Get Promoted

How Do You Interview Prospective Employers?  

The Power of Being Thoughtful and Kind 

What Baby Boomers' Retirement Means For the U.S. Economy

Millennials— If You Don't Develop Them, You'll Lose Them

Why Isn't Anyone Reading Your Resume? Your LinkUP To Job Search Success

By, For and All About Millennials!

Adding your Real-World College Experience to a Resume 

The “Why” Behind an Unsuccesful Promotion 

4 Steps to Write Professional Post-Interview Thank You Letters 

Personal Etiquette: How To Make A Good First Impression

Transform Temp/Contract Work Into A Permanent Job

9 Tips for Hiring the Best of the Class of 2013

How to Avoid Ending Up on the Unemployment Line

30 Exciting Summer Internships for College & Grad Students

My 10 Best Pieces of Career Advice for College Graduates

There is also a great special "advice to graduates" series running on LinkedIn where top Influencers share lessons from their youth. It's like 1000 of the best commencement addresses you'll ever hear. (at NPR The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever....

They’ve hand-picked over 300 addresses going back to 1774. Search by name, school, date or theme, and see our blog n.pr/ed for more)

Thanks to Recruiter.com, and thanks to you for “caring” then SHARING!.

Good luck with your career choices whatever they may be.

And... have a GREAT Day.

Love Life,

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

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“We need to believe in the impossible and remove the improbable” 

~ Oscar Wilde.  (Hat Tip: FSO's Matthew Simon)

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Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, FSO’s growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients’ bottom lines, as well as their employees’ careers and lives. See us in action HERE

An Awesome Autowala: A Story of Service at its Finest

"Annadurai spends more than 5,000 to give his customers an auto ride like no other in the city, yet makes a good living. "What gives me pleasure is that people remember me and are grateful for the service I offer.""

Good Morning Folks,

I am always on alert for that skip in a step, fire in a belly and twinkle in an eye!

So when I read this story on Facebook about how Annadurai (re) IMAGINED the taxi ride, I just had to share it with you to kick the week off on an inspirational note.

Annadurai owns an Auto Rickshaw(similar to Taxi) in Chennai City Tamil Nadu, India. Similar to the other Auto-drivers he also does the same thing but What makes his auto from other Auto's is he provides a lot of things inside the Auto for the passengers/ customers… which include...

1. Free mobile battery charger
2. Watch T.V for Free of cost
3. Free WiFi
4. Free Books to read
5. Bumper prize contest for customers
6. Refer a poor child for Studies
7. And discount in fare for teachers and on special days.
8. Mobile and DTH recharge

Annadurai is now 29 Years old. His main goal is to get his customers feel happy and he needs customer satisfaction. The vehicle is WI-Fi enabled and, if you're not carrying a laptop or smartphone to connect to the internet, Annadurai will slip you a 10-inch tablet. He carries an internet dongle attached to a WI-Fi router and offers free access to the internet. "Most people who take my auto work for IT companies and I know access to the internet is important for them," Annadurai says. "It takes about half an hour to cover the distance between Thiruvanmiyur and Sholinganallur. Why waste that time?" Says Annadurai

The auto also has lots for magazines and newspapers that contain the latest editions. Annadurai spends 4,000 Rupees a month on subscriptions to 35 various news publications. There are dailies for the customers who need to keep up on the news, weekly magazines for passengers who are taking a long ride, and glossy fortnight-lies for those interested in lighter reading.

Annadurai spends more than 5,000 to give his customers an auto ride like no other in the city, yet makes a good living, taking home a profit of around 1,000 a day. "That is more than enough for a bachelor like me," he says. "I drive from 8am to 1pm and from 5pm to 11pm," he says. He charges Rupees 15 for the 11km route he covers, while other share auto drivers demand 20 for the same distance. "Money really isn't too important to me," he says. "What gives me pleasure is that people remember me and are grateful for the service I offer," Annadurai Says.

Truly powerful people like Annadurai  have great humility. They do not try to impress, they do not try to be influential. They simply are. People are magnetically drawn to them. They are most often very silent and focused, aware of their core selves. They never persuade, nor do they use manipulation or aggressiveness to get their way. They listen. If there is anything they can offer to assist you, they offer it; if not, they are silent.

Annadurai, like the beloved members of our FSO family are the real deal. I love your energy everyday. You make me proud this year and beyond.

Believe in your leaders, follow their instructions, trust your teammates and know that together there is nothing we can't accomplish. 

Have a great day and excited to start an awesome week. 

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

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“Somewhere out there is a bullet with your company 's name on it. Somewhere out there is a competitor, unborn and unknown, that will render your business model obsolete… Competition today is not between products, it's between business models, and the hottest and most dangerous new business models out there are on the Web. Success and failure in the electronic age is binary; you are either one or a zero. Innovation determines who wins and who loses"  ~~ Gary Hamel and Jeff Sampler in the December 7, 1998 issue of Fortune

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Discover what makes FSO GREAT and Different HERE

Ted Tuesday: Without Self-Meaning, Money Means Nothing

"Wow. Very Eye Opening!" 

~~ Pat Mustico PhD, VP National FSO Sales

Good Morning Folks,

When I shared a Wharton Americus Reed, II's (the Whitney M. Young Jr., Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) take on today's Ted Talk on LinkedIn, our new VP of Sales, Pat Mustico, stood up and took immediate notice.

His takeaway was that money, in the abstract, is meaningless. Just chits on the digital page, dollars in the trading account.

It's a tool, like a hammer.

A hammer is meaningless until you lift it and build a house, or smash a skull. A hammer can be good, or bad.

Likewise, money.

It means nothing until you do something with it.

Bad, frivolous, or good.

Opined Professor Reed in a Huffington Post review of this Ted talk, "If I had a dime for every business student who entered my office; lamenting the self-described drudgery that is their work-life. They thought that a career on Wall Street or in heavy duty consulting would bring that pristine pot of gold. They were right. And wrong. Yes, those hundred plus hour weeks catapult you into that illusive 5% earner stratosphere. But if I had a dime for every student who would later confide in me: "it just was not fulfilling," ironically, I would be as wealthy as the financial institutions from which they feverishly depart.

"

Enter social psychologist Paul Piff and his provocative TEDx talk "Does money make you mean?" Sixteen and a half minutes of summarized laboratory and field data show an association between wealth, and lack of compassion, empathy and pro-social motivation.

It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal. In this entertaining but sobering talk, social psychologist Paul Piff shares his research into how people behave when they feel wealthy. (Hint: badly.) But while the problem of inequality is a complex and daunting challenge, there's good news too. (Filmed at TEDxMarin.)



Professor Reed, II observes, "This Isn't Your Father's Business Person Identity--therein lies the paradigm shift. There is a new model of business and business student afoot: The student who enters my office with a deep passion to do two things. Make money and do good. Business schools are "rebranding" themselves to welcome this new identity. It's being called "social impact." The identity of the student, who has realized that mindless self-investment into the false idol of material things for their sake, is an empty void--a fast track to an empty soul--is changing. Business students are becoming much more aware, and self-reflective."

This is the battle cry of the millennial generation who is shaping the future of the workplace, here at FSO, and everywhere.

Watch the short 16 minute presentation and see if you don't agree.

Whatever your takeaway is, it takes a brave person to take on the Corporate interests in today's world, because they are global and pernicious - just like they have always been. Bravo Paul for helping us (re)IMAGINE new and different possibilities.

Let’s have some fun and lets LIGHT UP THE NATION.. ITS OUR TIME, together we can do it.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE. 

Ted Tuesday: Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend

"Kelly McGonigal is a leader driven by compassion and pragmatism.” – Forbes.com 20 Inspiring Women

Good Morning Folks,

Those who believes that life is fun, that’s how life becomes. Those who believe life is difficult, that’s how life turns out. Those who believe that only honest way to be rich is to work hard, can never make a lot of money without working long hours, but those who believes that money comes to them effortlessly & easily tend to earn honestly but from comparatively less effort. Same is for health, relationship everything. Don’t you know some who eat fast food & doesn’t exercise much, but still maintain a healthy & fit physique?

Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.

Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal is a leader in the growing field of “science-help.” Through books, articles, courses and workshops, McGonigal works to help us understand and implement the latest scientific findings in psychology, neuroscience and medicine.She is now researching a new book about the "upside of stress," which will look at both why stress is good for us, and what makes us good at stress. In her words: "The old understanding of stress as a unhelpful relic of our animal instincts is being replaced by the understanding that stress actually makes us socially smart -- it's what allows us to be fully human."

I couldn't stop watching her talk:


So kids, now that you know how, rid the stress and rock it today!.

Have a GREAT day, be happy and…

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

*TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.  More at Ted.com

Ted Tuesday: Easily Learn 100 TED Talks Lessons In 5 Minutes Part 1 of 3

You Can Easily Learn 100 TED Talks Lessons In 5 Minutes 
Which Most People Need 70 Hours to Absorb

Good Morning Folks,

The other week a friend watched 70 hours of TED talks; short, 18-minute talks given by inspirational leaders in the fields of Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED). He watched 296 talks in total, and he recently went through the list of what he watched, weeded out the crappy and boring talks, and created a list of the 100 best things he learned.

This article isn’t entirely about productivity, but I guarantee you’ll learn a thing or two. Here is the first of a three part post showcasing 100 incredible things my friend learned watching 70 hours of TED talks last week!

Productivity

1. Studies have shown that what motivates a person the most (in non-factory-type work) is how much autonomy, mastery, and purpose they have, not how much money they make.

2. Playing video games can actually make you more productive because video games give you more physical, mental, emotional, and social resilience.

3. A lot of people aspire to be productive so they can become happier, but happiness has been shown to lead to productivity, not the other way around.

4. You don’t have as much attention to give to the world around you as you think. You can’t recall memories while processing new data, you can only process so much information at once, and your attention is easily manipulated (like by magicians).

5. Innovative thinking is often a slow and gradual process, not a moment of instant, lightbulb-like inspiration.

6. If you want people to remember you, sweat the small stuff. Most companies (and people) do the big stuff right, so sweating the small stuff (like getting the user interfaces on your products right) can really set you apart.

7. You have three brain systems for love: lust, romantic love, and attachment. To develop more intimate relationships with your significant other, it’s important to invest in all three.

Controller

8. When you create an environment for your employees that makes them truly happy(instead of just rich), more profits may follow.

9. Your office is actually a pretty crappy environment to get work done. In fact, when Jason Fried asked folks where their favorite place to get work done was, almost no one said “in the office”.

10. Taking time off can make you a lot more productive, because time away from your work lets you explore, reflect, and come up with better ideas.

11. The greatest leaders and companies constantly reflect on why they do what they do, instead of simply doing it.

12. Success isn’t a destination, it’s a continuous journey that’s made up of eight parts: passion, hard work, focus, pushing yourself and others, having great ideas, making constant improvements, serving others, and persistence.

13. The key to becoming more productive and successful may be to fail faster and smarter, especially if you do creative work.

14. We don’t feel fear because of a potential loss of income or status, we feel fear because we’re afraid of being judged and ridiculed. Any vision of success has to admit what the definition doesn’t include, and what you may be missing out on.

15. IQ isn’t the only thing that dictates whether someone will be successful or unsuccessful; grit does too.

16. If you want to make better long-term decisions, imagine how your decisions will affect your future-self.

17. All you have to do to learn practically anything is jump in and ask yourself, “what’s the worst that could happen?”

18. People tend to avoid conflict (it’s in our nature), even though a moderate level of conflict may be the key to better relationships, research, and businesses.

19. Mass media is pretty much dead, so the key to making big changes is through tribes. As time goes on, more and more people are investing their time and attention in their tribes (like TED!)

20. The best way to help someone is often to shut up and listen to them.

21. A great way to kill two birds with one stone: have walking meetings, where you walk and talk to someone at the same time. It’s great exercise, and it speeds up the meeting.

22. Stress by itself doesn’t affect your health. How you think about stress does.

23, 24, 25. Limits are bullshit. Some people choose to not be set back by limits, and at the end of the day, they’re the ones who end up giving TED talks. Like Neil Harbisson, who was born without the ability to see color, so he hacked together a device to hear color. Or Caroline Casey, who didn’t learn until she was 17 that she was legally blind. Or David Blaine, who pushed his body and mind to hold his breath for 17 straight minutes underwater.

Have a GREAT day, be happy and…

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

*TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.  More at Ted.com

Giving Thanks, With Love and Warmth, From Your Friends at FSO

ERIC HOFFER once said: 

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

Good Morning Folks,

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

These words remind us that this Thanksgiving we have lots to be thankful for.

In the spirit of the season.... CHEERS!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"Kindness it is that brings forth kindness always."
-- Sophocles (447 BC)

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Ted Tuesday: Do you love what you do for a living?

"There is never a job shortage for good people! There is an endless number of jobs that you could do successfully, and make a good living doing them. You never have to feel stuck in a particular position, company, or industry. You deserve to do what you love for a living." ~~ Brian Tracy

Good Morning Folks,

Brian Tracy made a very motivational post on Facebook (see above) that made me wonder if he ever given a TED talk.

I couldn't find a TED talk, but my online search led me to this timeless gem on YouTube (24 Techniques for Closing the Sale) that is a must for anyone in sales to watch or watch again. This being a long weekend, you might simply bookmark the link and hope to find time to consume it.

 

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. 

Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain

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Link Up Thursday: "How Would You Motivate Employees"

"You've now seen all these people. Which one would you fire?"

Good Morning Folks,

Today I am sharing some great articles I stumbled up in social media this week.

LinkedIN in keeping their influencer series fresh, relevant and exciting, is asking each superstar influencer to write a short essay on what is their favorite interview questions. In one piece linked below, there is a story about the forgotten demographic working in the hotel service industry, and a brilliant interview question posed to a management candidate, "How Would You Motivate Employees like the Dishwasher. Fascinating read.

In a second piece below Wall Street "corporate raiders" share their favorite question: 

"Let's say you're interviewing for a big job. You've talked with a bevy of senior executives. You've made your high-level strategy proposals.

Everyone seems to like you.

Then, you sit down with the final decision maker, who throws out this curve ball: "You've now seen all these people. Which one would you fire?"

How do you respond? Well, it helps to be prepared and that's the benefit I promise you from checking out some of the links below.

Corporate Raiders Reveal Their Favorite Interview Questions

Why millennials still live at home (short video)

The Best Job Interview Question Ever 

Lou Adler's Interview Questions Part One (Brilliant)

Five Ways To Be Amazing At Work

Building Middle-Manager Morale

Great Expectations for Female Lawyers

Behold the power of the Internet. Those of us on the senior leadership team were thinking about how life would have changed had we had this type of access to mentorship back in the day.

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"Nothing stops an organization faster than people who believe that 
the way you worked yesterday is the best way to work tomorrow"
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How to Become More Productive at Work

"A must see for overwhelmed professionals. It gives you tips and tools to accomplish more on a daily basis and to make better choices about your career.”

Photo: Robert C. Pozen is Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. 

Good Morning Folks,

In today's short video, Harvard Business School Professor Bob Pozen discusses secrets to workplace productivity and high performance from his recently published book "Extreme Productivity."

Pozen reveals his secrets to workplace productivity and high performance. The antidote to a calendar full of boring meetings and a backlog of emails, his book shows professionals how they can achieve their goals by making a critical shift in mindset: from hours worked to results produced.  Pozen focuses on:

==> Three Big Ideas

• Spending your time on your most important goals
• Focusing on the final product as soon as possible
• Accepting the B+ and moving on to more important tasks

==> Productivity Every Day

• Establishing an efficient daily routine focused on your priorities
• Transporting your productive habits from the office to the road
• Running effective meetings and avoiding them altogether!

==> Developing Personal Skills

• Reading effectively by knowing your purpose
• Writing effectively by organizing your thoughts quickly
• Speaking effectively by engaging your audience

==> Managing Up and Down

• Getting the most out of your team by getting out of the way
• Creating a mutually beneficial relationship with your boss
• Productivity Throughout Your Life

==> Choosing your next job to maximize your career options

• Embracing change, but recognizing universal constants
• Maintaining balance between your work and your life

There's a difference between being productive and being effective. I try to focus on the latter.

Enjoy the Video and if it's useful, check out  Professor Pozen's book.

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"If you don't fight for what you love. Don't cry for what you loose."
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