It's Your Career.

"No one is going to serve you a career on a silver platter. Your career will be what you make it. No more, no less."

Good Morning Folks,

Often I hear candidates say they want to leave a job, because their current employer is not ‘looking after my career’.

Sure, it’s important to work for a company like FSO where you can thrive, but you must above all understand this:

The person who will always care most about your career is you!

All of which reminds me of this post I saved from a recruiter I know...

==>  You Own Your Career, No-One Else! By: Alexey Fursov

The biggest mistake you can make in your work life is leave your career to your employer, or anyone else. You have to work at your career goal, plan it, and drive it where you want it to go.

Please understand that just having the qualifications is not enough anymore. Gone are the days where ‘getting the right degree will set up your career’. A degree just gets you the chance to get on the field, not win the game.

Ponder this. Success in your career will never be just a matter of qualifications or skills. It will always be a matter of motivation.

No one is going to serve you a career on a silver platter. Your career will be what you make it. No more, no less.

And so, as clichéd as it sounds, the starting point is to find what you like doing.

A career without passion and enthusiasm will have no meaning, no joy, and little hope of long-term success.

Indeed, does your career goal keep you awake at night?

If not, maybe you need to start to worry. You have 30 more years at work, and trust me on this.

No one else is having sleepless nights about what happens to your career.

So that means no one is steering your career ship.

Bottom line: You are always afforded a career, not just a job at FSO. But it's not a free ride.  Whether you have the motivation to apply and invest in yourself to learn and grow into future opportunities, is your part of the deal.

So, just a quick good morning. Great inspiration and motivation. Thanks for listening. Have fun and love life folks. We have lots to be thankful for. 

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

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"If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time."
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Uncovering Your Company's True Culture

"Invest in individual mastery and market value . . . culture is to attracting high impact talent as a great product is to attracting good customers."

Good Morning Folks,

As you know I am a firm believer in continuing education by asking my team to read business books. Tom Peters is one of my favorites.

But now, thanks to the Internet, there are much shorter reads with just as powerful takeaways.

Here are a few I found in my library to share with the leaders among us this morning:

Jack Welch: Star Wars: When to Let a Top Performer Walk

How to Get Employees to Embrace Social Media

How To Uncover Your Company's True Culture

The Most Powerful Habit You Can Imagine

The Future of Work

Some thoughts on the culture article: Give me a team I can bring together in person now and then and watch the synergy pay off. 

As an people / talent professional, I have been astounded by how often senior leaders don’t “get” that culture is a living thing, unique to a company or organization. I once heard a fairly new leader describe the corporate culture of our organization to candidates but what he described was the culture of his previous company. He truly thought that if he said it, it would be so. As hard as I tried, I could not convince him that one organization’s culture could not simply be grafted onto a new organization and its employees.

The article linked above proffers that "... many companies have tried to adopt, say, the Zappos culture or the Google culture… but in most cases those attempts fail because culture is something that can be mimicked but almost never successfully copied."  

Within every organization, decision making drives performance. Every employee comes to work every day and makes decisions that impact performance.   The workplace has many temptations that employees must resist, from the petty impulse to claim credit for someone else's work, to the unscrupulous lapse of lying in a negotiation, to the criminal act of misrepresenting financial numbers.   

These decisions, at every level of the organization, define the corporate culture and drive performance.   

In 2008, Harvard Business School Professor Robert S. Kaplan and his Palladium Group colleague David P. Norton wrote The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage.   There are ten (10) steps to define the corporate culture and drive performance, including:  

Step 1: Visualize the strategy.   

Step 2: Communicate the strategy. 

Step 3: Identify strategic projects.   

Step 4: Align projects with strategy.   

Step 5: Align individual roles and provide incentives.  

Step 6: Manage projects.   

Step 7: Make decisions aligned with strategy.   

Step 8: Measure the strategy.   

Step 9: Report progress.  

Step 10: Reward performance.  

To make change, leaders must identify behaviors that are in line with the desired culture and find ways to reward or reinforce them

I will like to say these idea is common among young growing companies regardless of years in existence, they are still learning, but when they get to certain points in their growth, they begin to value employees much as the value the customer, quite really, they realize that the employees also make the hearth of the company much as the customer do, it's a matter of time, if the company as a future or big dreams.

Industry training, incentives, rewards, recognition and a TRUE career path sit at the heart of a successful company culture centered on service. At FSO, our Future Leaders Program (FLP) identifies and develops business leaders across the FSO enterprise and ensures a strong bench to fill our national expansion

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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“Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill
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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

LinkUP Thursday: 10 Simple, Science-Backed Ways To Be Happier Today and more...

"Our commute to the office can have a surprisingly powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that we tend to do this twice a day, five days a week, makes it unsurprising that its effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy" from... 10 Simple, Science-Backed Ways To Be Happier Today

Good Morning Folks,

Please enjoy these articles that got the most likes and great comments when I shared them on social media.

Can You Be Found? Why You Must Personally Invest in Social Media

Coveting Not a Corner Office, but Time at Home

8 ways to turn passion into success

Superhero or Sidekick: Which One Are You?

Five Ways to Change Someone Else's Mind

10 simple, science-backed ways to be happier today

How to stop doing so much busy work

Thanks again for your amazing energy and support that is fuelling the FSO fire across the country. FSO did not get to this place by luck. With the market on our side, we have recognized the opportunity for limitless growth.  

Folks, there is so much awesome “stuff” happening in our great company. We have awesome leaders; awesome people; and a market that is in love with us and competitors that just cannot keep up! 

Good luck and feel it folks. It is real. Thanks for reading, sharing and supporting.

Have a GREAT day,

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here

LinkUP Thursday: Leadership's Biggest Challenges

"Invest in individual mastery and market value . . . culture is to attracting high impact talent as a great product is to attracting good customers."

Good Morning Folks,

As you know I am a firm believer in continuing education by asking my team to read business books. Tom Peters is one of my favorites.

But now, thanks to the Internet, there are much shorter reads with just as powerful takeaways.

Here are a few I found to share with the leaders among us this morning:

Jack Welch: Star Wars: When to Let a Top Performer Walk

How CEOs Can Transform HR into a Revenue Driver

How to Get Employees to Embrace Social Media

How To Uncover Your Company's True Culture

The Most Powerful Habit You Can Imagine

The Future of Work

Some thoughts on the culture article: Give me a team I can bring together in person now and then and watch the synergy pay off. 


As an people / talent professional, I have been astounded by how often senior leaders don’t “get” that culture is a living thing, unique to a company or organization. I once heard a fairly new leader describe the corporate culture of our organization to candidates but what he described was the culture of his previous company. He truly thought that if he said it, it would be so. As hard as I tried, I could not convince him that one organization’s culture could not simply be grafted onto a new organization and its employees.

The article linked above proffers that "... many companies have tried to adopt, say, the Zappos culture or the Google culture… but in most cases those attempts fail because culture is something that can be mimicked but almost never successfully copied."  

Within every organization, decision making drives performance. Every employee comes to work every day and makes decisions that impact performance.   The workplace has many temptations that employees must resist, from the petty impulse to claim credit for someone else's work, to the unscrupulous lapse of lying in a negotiation, to the criminal act of misrepresenting financial numbers.   

These decisions, at every level of the organization, define the corporate culture and drive performance.   

In 2008, Harvard Business School Professor Robert S. Kaplan and his Palladium Group colleague David P. Norton wrote The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage.   There are ten (10) steps to define the corporate culture and drive performance, including:  

Step 1: Visualize the strategy.   

Step 2: Communicate the strategy. 

Step 3: Identify strategic projects.   

Step 4: Align projects with strategy.   

Step 5: Align individual roles and provide incentives.  

Step 6: Manage projects.   

Step 7: Make decisions aligned with strategy.   

Step 8: Measure the strategy.   

Step 9: Report progress.  

Step 10: Reward performance.  

To make change, leaders must identify behaviors that are in line with the desired culture and find ways to reward or reinforce them

I will like t say these idea is common among young growing companies regardless of years in existence, they are still learning, but when they get to certain points in their growth, they begin to value employees much as the value the customer, quite really, they realize that the employees also make the hearth of the company much as the customer do, it's a matter of time, if the company as a future or big dreams.

Have a GREAT day. Love LIFE!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

.........................................................................
“Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill
..........................................................................

FSO: Building Great Leaders to Make a Great Organization Even Greater

"TRUE leadership is the ability to inspire others to greatness beyond their expectations. "

Good Morning Folks,

I don't often blog to toot our own horn, but because we have so much great "stuff" happening at FSO that I simply cannot keep it a secret.

In order to guarantee perfection, protect the brand and ensure future growth, it is imperative that we “FSO-ize” our new staff who will be supporting my legacy and vision across the country

We recently held a (re) IMAGINE SUMMIT with over 40 hand-selected Experience Managers and Leads attended a highly energetic and intensive program from Oct 14th – Oct 15th at FSO Headquarters and via Sypke for those few that couldn't attend.

The goal? To achieve a solid foundation, solid work force and team players who have the “can do attitude” that makes FSO so special.

More importantly, we wanted each and every person who flew in to New York for this special event to come out feeling completely energized, excited and pumped to work for us and spread the word and energy back across their regions. The two day program provided a wonderful opportunity for our new starters and representatives to experience the FSO love fest and Personal, Passionate and Productive culture firsthand!

Of course they are out with clients every day so they bring a "field real" perspective.

One manager noted "having come back to the industry we created, every account we hold someone else had, many times waiting since we returned in 2010 until their contract with the incumbent was up for renewal to make the switch. Ultimately it’s the people, passion and what happens when no one is looking. There's is a reason we were brought on- better product at better price than anyone else. We bring the passion back."

So what it all boils down to is our corporate culture and our leaders ability to inspire others to greatness beyond their expectations.

All of us at FSO live and breath what we call the  8 “P”s:

1. Personal
2. Productive
3. Passionate
4. Positive
5. Progressive
6. Professional
7. Proud
8. Proactive

FSO is building great leaders to make a great organization even greater. According to our Chief Inspiration Officer "Dr. Phil" (Levy, this) TRUE leadership is the ability to inspire others to greatness beyond their expectations. He argues...

• There is no one style of leadership.
• Great leaders are authentic and are perceived as genuine.
• Great leaders style should be one that they are comfortable with and that maximizes their strengths and minimizes their weaknesses.
• Great leaders  an interest, respect, and compassion for others.
• Great leaders motivate with optimism, passion, confidence and humility.
• Great leaders praise publicly and criticize privately and constructively

The effort and atmosphere at FSO is just awe-inspiring. To my staff: THANK YOU for your wonderful efforts, motivation, teamwork, leadership, care, passion and a desire to execute like no other. The list goes on but I think you get it :). And to our great clients: THANK YOU for your continued support. We appreciate your business and our ever-evolving relationship.

We have a ton of people who believe in and love what we do. It is up to our leaders to build the confidence and leadership in FSO to ensure the best-ever “skip in the step, fire in the belly and twinkle in the eye” coupled with delivering the three “Ps”.

It is winning time. It is time for all of us to put on our thinking caps; smile; laugh; lead and show our newest family members the excitement and enthusiasm behind winning the largest prize the industry has seen!

As I reflect on another action-packed week "fso-izing", I m reminded that our business and our company is built on great people who care. Coupled with the best knowledge and tenure this industry has ever seen, we are unstoppable. we are not perfect, but we will strive for perfection each day to perform for FSO

On that good note, make every day count and enjoy your week.

Have a GREAT day, and...

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here

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“It’s important to be optimistic and to call stakeholders to a purpose bigger than themselves.”  ~~Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

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Mitch's Monday Musings: Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future

"Whether you want to advance faster at your present company, change jobs, or make the jump to a new field entirely, the goal is clear: to build a career that thrives on your unique passions and talents."

Good Morning Folks,

You know that I am a big fan of management books and that I encourage all leaders to never stop learning and to soak up every ounce of knowledge one can get from someone smarter than themselves.

That in mind, this weekend I came across another GREAT Harvard Business Review book that I wanted to share....


Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future
by Dorie Clark
Source: Harvard Business Press Books
240 pages. Publication Date: Apr 09, 2013. Prod. #: 10835E-KND-ENG

How important is a personal brand? Is that phrase even able to stay alive in this day and age? There is no doubt that our individual reputations are online and available for the world to see, but what does that really mean in a world where everyone is connected, has a Facebook profile, a Twitter feed, a blog and more? Dorie Clark has spent some serious time trying to figure out how individuals can better connect and build their personal profile and reputation. 

In this book, The Harvard Business Review and Forbes contributor, Dorie Clark, the newly published author of Reinventing You looks at the power of personal brands and what they mean in this day and age. Enjoy the conversation...

A step-by-step guide to reinventing you… Are you where you want to be professionally? Whether you want to advance faster at your present company, change jobs, or make the jump to a new field entirely, the goal is clear: to build a career that thrives on your unique passions and talents. But to achieve this in today's competitive job market, it's almost certain that at some point you'll need to reinvent yourself professionally. Consider this book your road map for the next phase of your career.

Dorie Clark has literally written the book on personal brand reinvention, and she knows what she’s talking about. In a past life she was a presidential campaign spokeswoman. Before that she wrote for an independent newspaper in Austin. That was after she’d earned an MA in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

Now Clark puts her experience to use for brands like Google, The World Bank and Yale University as CEO of Clark Strategic Communications. Her book, Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, comes just as people and businesses are learning, sometimes the hard way, how disruptive the web can be.

It' just $25 and you can order it HERE

Busy, busy week here at FSO so I am going to cut this short to attend to big welcoming ceremonies here on 41St Street. It's something you'll be hearing a lot about in a major announcement November 1 So keep your eyes on your email!

Have a GREAT day,

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here

Monday Musings: Stop Holding Yourself Back

The takeaway: "When it comes to meeting their leadership potential, many people unintentionally get in their own way."

Good Morning Folks,

You know I'm a big fan of books about leadership and those authors have been my own mentors over the years before the Internet. 

But this weekend I stumbled upon another great take on leadership and you can download it for less than $7 from Harvard Business Review and be putting it's guidance to work for you before the end of the day.

After working with hundreds of leaders in a wide variety of organizations and in countries all over the globe, the authors found one very clear pattern: When it comes to meeting their leadership potential, many people unintentionally get in their own way. 

Five barriers in particular tend to keep promising managers from becoming exceptional leaders: People overemphasize personal goals, protect their public image, turn their competitors into two-dimensional enemies, go it alone instead of soliciting support and advice, and wait for permission to lead. 

Troy, a customer service manager, endangered his job and his company's reputation by focusing on protecting his position, not helping his team; when a trusted friend advised him to change his behavior, the results were striking. Anita's insistence on sticking to the tough persona she'd created for herself caused her to ignore the more intuitive part of the leadership equation, with disastrous results-until she let go of the need to appear invulnerable and reached out to another manager. 

Jon, a personal trainer who had virtually no experience with either youth development programs or urban life, opened a highly successful gym for inner-city kids at risk; he refused to be daunted by his lack of expertise and decided to simply "go for it." 

As these and other examples from the authors' research demonstrate, being a leader means making an active decision to lead. 

Only then will the workforce-and society-benefit from the enormous amount of talent currently sitting on the bench.

Check it it on: http://hbr.org/product/baynote/an/R1101P-PDF-ENG?referral=00505

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"People may not always remember what you said, 
but they will always remember how you made them feel."
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LinkUP-Thursday: Note To Managers: Humor Is Good For Business

“There is definitely a wall that comes down between managers and employees when they can share a laugh. It can make people feel more at ease and less nervous, especially when first starting a new position. 

Good Morning Folks,

Humor is a great tool in the management box. We are all human, and the ability to laugh together about appropriate things combined with strong empathetic leadership, a great organizational system and a team mentality, creates a winning combination.

Humor is very important to life. Laughing is contagious and can change the mood of a situation instantly. When applied correctly in business, and not at the expense of others, it is extremely powerful. Learning to use it respectfully can strengthen internal relationships, diffuse conflict, show modesty and reminds us all that we are human. 

Being able to bond with others that you have to be around on a professional level is the key to the success, and adds light to almost any situation. Humor is a great icebreaker as well and plays a big role in one's attitude, and when you feel better you perform better in almost every aspect of life.

A good manager can use the humor in many ways. It can bring the enjoyment to his/her meeting room, drawing the smiles on his/her employee's faces, bonding with others and sometimes he/she can used it wisely to send a hidden messages to his /her employees in an appropriate way.

Of interest to our managers and leaders and those aspiring to be so, are your LinkUPs hand-curated by me after spanning the web over the past six weeks, included here:

Humor: Key to Management Success--And Happy Workers?

Note to Managers: Positivity Matters

Make Workplaces More Awe-some

7 Tips for Working More Happily With Your Colleagues

Are funny people more successful In business? As you’ll read, there is definitely a wall that comes down between managers and employees when they can share a laugh. It can make people feel more at ease and less nervous, especially when first starting a new position.

Have a GREAT day,

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Learn more about what DIFFERENTIATES FSO here