3 Things Successful Professionals Eventually Figure Out

In school, we learn in a controlled environment where things are linear and answers can be found in a textbook. Yet, the world of work couldn’t be any more different. In fact, it’s the opposite. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin and Paypal, discusses three important traits we miss out on in school and will all eventually figure out - either the easy way or the hard way. Here’s the easy way:

Build a competitive advantage

We’re told we can do or be anything we want to be. What we’re not told though is that everyone else also wants to be those things and they’ll be competing with you for those opportunities. In order to stand out you need to have a competitive advantage. A competitive advantage comprises of three things: assets, aspirations, and market realities.

"To use many thoughts to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius."

Arthur Schopenhauer

It’s Time To Fill The Education Gap

According to The Economist, almost 300m 15- to 24-year-olds are not working - almost a quarter of the world’s youth. The late Margaret Thatcher famously quipped “Young people ought not to be idle. It is very bad for them.” She was right.

Societies that leave their young workers idle in their formative years is problematic: young workers are more likely to struggle later in their careers, with lower wages and less job security as a result. It’s also a stark omen for the future of any economy, given an aging population will eventually be reliant on the goods and services that generation produces.

Generation jobless →

“YOUNG people ought not to be idle. It is very bad for them,” said Margaret Thatcher in 1984. She was right: there are few worse things that society can do to its young than to leave them in limbo. Those who start their careers on the dole are more likely to have lower wages and more spells of joblessness later in life, because they lose out on the chance to acquire skills and self-confidence in their formative years.

How Creating A Manifesto Will Spark Your Career

We deal with decisions every day - some far more complex than others. This is true of your personal life as well as your career. It’s also true of the company where you work. The true challenge is in assessing and weighing those decisions, because there’s always trade-offs between one path and another. 

For instance, do you accept a promotion in a different group that’s less interesting than the group you currently work for? Do you make a career move based purely on financial considerations? As a company, do you put your customers or your shareholders first?

"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left."

Oscar Levant

The Difference Between a Footnote and a PR Tidal Wave

Companies obsess about generating great PR about their products and services. Some hire expensive agencies, others spend months pitching to every news outlet that will hear them. Most fail.

It’s not that you’re not on to something great - it’s just that nobody cares. You have to find a compelling reason for them to sit up and take notice over and above the extremely mundane “we just launched a new product/service”.

A great example of a PR pitch done RIGHT was a recent bit by TransferWise - a relatively new company based in Europe that focuses on making foreign exchange (forex) transfer seamless and affordable.

Why Handwritten Notes Are Worth Your While

We are in an age of over communication. Our originally stated goal of making the world smaller and more connected using technology has given way to a race to produce more tools to express the same information quicker and more cheaper. The investment isn’t in the quality of the information, but its rapid dissemination.

From social media tools to email, they’ve had a significantly profound effect on how we communicate and has democratized the sharing of information that was unimaginable even twenty years ago. For instance, Twitter now routinely breaks news stories well in advance of media organizations.

Rogers bets $200 million on the Blue Jays. Why it’s the smartest investment they’ve made in years. →

Rogers Media is betting $200 million on the Blue Jays in a bid to bring baseball glory back to Toronto. Why it’s the smartest investment they’ve made in years.

Why Leadership Is An Act, Not A Title

Most confuse what constitutes leadership. They believe it’s wrapped up in a title and bestowed upon a select few who are deemed worthy. As long as we take all the right steps to work our way up to that point, we’ll become a leader (one day). Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Seth Godin points out in his book Tribes, we rely on leverage in order to get things done. In the past, leverage came in the form of organizational resources - money, senior leadership sponsorship etc. - and this required working from the bottom up to the top. Without buy-in from the top, your idea or project was unlikely to see the light of day.

March footy: Toronto FC v LA Galaxy

How Self-Interest Is Killing Our Dreams

“The great error of our nature is not to know where to stop; not to be satisfied with any reasonable requirement … but to lose all we have gained by an insatiable pursuit of more”. 

~ Edmund Burke

When Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations he advocated the exploitation of our innate self-interest as a key step on the path to becoming a more productive - and wealthy - society. He also penned his influential treatise in the backdrop of 18th century England, which was a place few would recognize today. Crime was rampant, living conditions were poor, disease was a constant threat, and average life expectancy was a mere 35 years old.

"The great error of our nature is not to know where to stop; not to be satisfied with any reasonable requirement … but to lose all we have gained by an insatiable pursuit of more"

Edmund Burke

Presentation to TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) Program @ the University of Toronto (March 13, 2013)

The Secret Behind Building Powerful Networks

Most of us understand the importance of networks. You’ve been probably told “it’s not what you know, but who you know” on more than one occasion. The problem of course is that we spend most of our time focused on the “what” rather than the “who”. It’s particularly true in the first twenty years of our lives and it’s also why so many of us struggle to land that all important first job straight out of university.

Building a powerful network of connections can be one of the best investments you’ll ever make. They can help you land gigs you didn’t know about, provide referrals to support your candidacy for a promotion, serve as expert advisors on projects or major career decisions, or give you invaluable feedback on your resume.