LinkUP Thursday: “What if?”

"In fact, Orman might have become a restaurateur if not for a critical turn of events — she lost the $50,000 in a bad investment. The setback, Orman writes, helped launch “a new career passion: helping people take control of their financial lives.”

Good Morning Folks,

The Internet is such a great invention. So many wonderful, useful things that can be applied to our greatest challenges and opportunities in unexpected ways. Things they don't teach you in Harvard Business School. Things just waiting to be discovered or to be pointed out by a friend... which brings me to why we do these LinkUp's on most Thursdays on MitchWeiner.com.

What ties today's stories together with FSO is the movement of (re)IMAGINATION that is taking place in every company of every industry today. Forced to innovate or capitulate in a technology-leveled playing field, (re)IMAGINE is something so simple as it is Revolutionary, showing clients how to look at their business from a completely new perspective, that of a blank canvas. Looking not at “What is” but “What can be”.  But let's start with something more personal, something you can ask yourself....

“What if?”

Depending on where you are in your career, those two words have the ability to inspire — or haunt — you.

If life had taken a different turn and you weren’t in your role today, where would you be? What would you be doing instead? Or if you’ve already changed directions?

In this latest series on LinkedIn, “The Road Not Taken,” some of the world’s most successful professionals were asked to explain how their career paths might have turned out differently. From Suze Orman and Deepak Chopra to the World Bank’s Jim Kim and General Electric’s Beth Comstock, more than 60 Influencers chimed in with inspiring tales and reflections of what might’ve been. In some cases, as with Randi Zuckerberg, Influencers also revealed what’s on the horizon.

Read on to find out what might’ve been for Suze Orman, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, and others.

Some careers are made by turning misfortune into opportunity.

Before Suze Orman became “the Money Lady,” she worked as a waitress who aspired to open a neighborhood restaurant. In an amazing display of generosity, Orman’s loyal customers rallied behind her: “When [Fred, a beloved customer] finished his breakfast, he didn’t just leave a tip. He gave me a $2,000 check and commitments from other diners/friends that totaled $50,000 (the equivalent of nearly $150,000 today) along with a note:

As a teenager, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary worked at an ice cream parlor. One day, his boss ordered him to scrape gum off the floor. “That’s not my job,” I said. “My job’s to scoop ice cream.” Next thing out of my boss’s mouth was: “You’re fired. Get out of my store.”

This early experience was all the inspiration O’Leary needed to become his own boss.

Though Randi Zuckerberg loved to sing, she abandoned her love of singing for more “professional” endeavors at Facebook. “I learned quickly that in the corporate world, it’s ‘distracting’ for women to have side interests, aside from work and family – and that if I wanted to be taken seriously in my career, I would need to shelve my passion for performing,” Zuckerberg writes.

Now years (and one Broadway stint) later, Zuckerberg says she’s ready for her second act.

Other career crises may feel as if the universe is conspiring against you.

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski describes getting fired from CBS as an “out-of-body experience. I sent my work to other networks and the response was… crickets. I went from everything to everyone to nothing to no one.”


As her severance pay and job prospects dwindled, Brzezinski reluctantly broadened her job search: “I’ll never forget the moment. Driving my pickup up the hill near my house, the ’93 Ford 150 with roll-up windows just stopped… Stalled out and died. I knew that meant another $500 at the shop. $500 that I did not have. Then my cell phone rings. It’s the PR firm. Wanting to know if I can come in this week…”

Should she leap at the much-needed job opportunity? Or should she stay the course?

But whether reflecting on the road not taken brings angst or clarity, it’s what you do next that matters.

In the coming days, don’t miss these other “The Road Not Taken” stories, and more:

Deepak Chopra on how he learned self-awareness the hard way (note to self: never dump a pile of papers over your boss’s head and storm out…)

eBay CEO John Donahoe on the PayPal split and why he’s stepping aside next year
World Bank President Jim Kim on what he’d be doing as a doctor on the front lines of the Ebola crisis

Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec on when he realized he needed to be the supplier, not the seller

Looking not at “What is” but “What can be”, is what sets FSO apart from the other outsourcing companies and what has made us the fastest growing outsourcing company in the nation.

It is woven into the culture of who we are, it is part of everything we do. (re)IMAGINE allows us to uncover those hidden cost savings every company is looking for, identify innovative ways to improve their business, and inspire those who take care of them. 

If your outsourcer is not keeping their commitments nor fulfilling the promise of all the advancements and new technology at its hand, I invite to you call me directly and I'll set up a time for you meet with a member of our (re)IMAGINE team and learn why of 250 companies have made the switch to FSO in the past 4 years.

TALK TO US. WITNESS US. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, EXPERIENCE US! 

Call me directly at 212.204.1193.

BTW, You can write your own "What If" post; be sure to include the hashtag #RoadNotTaken in the body of your post so LinkedIn can find your great stories.

Thanks to Amy Chen at LinkedIn and thanks to you, for listening.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here