Tag Archives: Focus

The 4 things high wage earners do, some for only 40 hours per week

Posted on September 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

It is not just know the “4 Do’s” to earn a lot of money.

Do it.

Do it right.

Do the right thing.

Do it right now.

One of my managers told me, “Bryan, you don’t work hard enough.  I put in 60 or 70 hours a week. Even if I’m just in here filing microfiche, I’m getting more done than you.”  I couldn’t answer him.  I was too amazed.  He took my silence for the deep pondering of a well taught student and left. I’m grateful he couldn’t read my mind.

The hardest working people I know, by hours worked, are paid about the same as others who work tightly focused and undistracted for 40 to 45 hours a week.  Both the 70 hour week and 45 hour week people are VP’s and directors. They are paid the same.

The people working seventy hours a week focus on the “4 do’s” differently.  They focus on working efficiently or hard.  They want to get a lot of work done. At the end of the day they point to the fact that they did the work of 3 people in only 70 hours.

The people working 40 to 45 hours a week also focus on the “4 do’s”, but first they prioritize.  “Do the right thing” is their focus when they plan each day. They try to avoid administrivia—the things they are asked to do that don’t really help.  Then they stay focused on getting the highest impact things done and purposely ignore a lot of the rest, or get someone else to do it.

The manager of the manager I mentioned in the first paragraph told me, “When my boss asks for a new report, I faithfully send it to him for 3 weeks.  It is always a masterpiece.  The fourth week I prepare it for him and don’t send it.  If he calls and asks for it I apologize and he has it in his hands in minutes. Most of the time he never asks for it.  I prepare it for a couple of more weeks just in case he calls, then I stop entirely.”   He was one of the most highly rated directors in EDS.

Now let’s get something straight.  45 or 90 hours of wasted time will get you nowhere.  Solitaire, internet poker and reading the news don’t count as well spent time.  You have to be doing what’s most important for 40 hours each week to beat out the person working 70 hours.  And notice that the very first manager I mentioned got there solely by putting in 70 hour weeks for years.

In your job search or your job this lesson applies.  Are you only putting in the time or are you focusing?  Are you doing the hard things that will have the biggest impact, or are you spending your time in the same online job boards praying for miracles?

Do it.  Do it right. Do the right thing. Do it right now.  Don’t get distracted.  Focus on what is most important.  Then take some time off with your friends and family.  They’re important too.

————————-

Something To Do Today

It is time to figure out what you are doing.   Really.  Make a list of the things you do at work or in your job search each day and each week.  Think about it.  Are you consistently working on the most important stuff, or are you merely focusing on activity?

—————————-

Later:  Logs and the chainsaw massacre

Unbelievable Networking facts

Leave a comment

Posted in Accomplishments, Focus

Tagged , ,

How to make your job interview focus on getting you a job

Posted on July 2, 2013 | Leave a comment

In a job interview you have to focus your answers, and you have to focus the questions of your interviewer. In interviews it is easy to focus on the trivial. Here are a couple of quotes that apply:

A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise. (George Steiner)

It’s really hard to design products by focus groups.  A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. (Steve Jobs)

You the movie – stay focused

What was the last time you went to see a movie made from a book you had read?  They left out a lot of stuff that was in the book, didn’t they?  There just isn’t time to show all the details.  They have to focus their attention on the critical plot.

Employment interviews also need to stay focused. Don’t try to talk about your entire life and career. You need to focus on what the interviewer wants you to be able to do.  Focus on your critical plot. “Tell me about yourself,” should be answered with a short description of your last two jobs and what parts apply to this one.  It will get talk focused on your career plot line.

Often the interviewer has trouble staying focused.  He may be embarrassed to ask you about your experience because he feels like he is prying.  When you start talking about it, he may come alive and ask detailed questions.

Your questions can often pull an interview back on course.  If you are getting a lecture instead of an interview, say something like: “I like what you are saying about my skills being a fit, do you think my experience with (subject) is going to be important?” Sometimes you have to remind an interviewer to ask questions.

If you find yourself talking for more than 2 minutes in reply to a question, stop.  Ask, “Have I told you what you need to know about that question?”  It will allow the interviewer to redirect you down the precise path you need to go.

Don’t take over the interview.  An answer longer than 2 minutes is usually too long. We had one guy in here who wouldn’t let us get a word in edgewise.  He never wound down.  He never stopped pontificating about his wonderful qualities.  Unfortunately he talked about all the wrong stuff.  He came across as arrogant. After an hour he was shown the door and we still did not know what we needed to know.

Sometimes you have to focus your replies and cut your answers short.  Sometimes you have to focus your interviewer and get him to ask questions.  The better you are at getting the focus on your strengths, the more likely you will get the job.

————————–

Coming up

You, as Ed McMahon

The most powerful questions

Beating the tests

Leave a comment

Posted in Focus, Interviews

Tagged , ,

Do you eat the leaves of your job search before the fruit appears?

Posted on March 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Woodchucks are evil.  They get in my garden.  They eat the leaves on my strawberry plants and leave the flowers and small green fruit.  Then the flowers and fruit die.  I hate woodchucks.

I sometimes do the same thing figuratively.  I get started in a successful niche in my business, then I turn my hand to something else without thinking, without following my plan.  I waste my built up career capital switching direction because of lack of discipline.  I fail to direct my efforts and let the shifting winds of the moment direct my efforts.  I eat the strawberry leaves.  Then the flowers and fruit wither and die.

Are shifting winds and tides driving your job search and career?  Changing direction is one thing.  Never deciding is another.  You only have 40 or 60 hours a week for your career.  You have to build the roots and leaves of your career so that you get the full fruits of your labors.

Don’t let the woodchucks of indecision and lack of discipline keep you from the ripe fruits of hard work and patience.

Something to do today

Write out what you want your career to look like.  You can change it later, but if you write it out you will be less likely to change it 3 times a day.

————————–   

Later:             It’s official

Illegal questions

How to quit

The old boy network

Exploit the old boys

The money question

Leave a comment

Posted in Focus, Perseverance

Tagged , ,

Picking up a hundred dollar can halt your career

Posted on September 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Do you pick up money you see on the ground?  Do you stop your career in order to do a menial project or take a job someone else should do?

Bending over to pick up a hundred dollar bill is a bad investment of your time if you are Bill Gates.  He has averaged earning more than that every two seconds since Microsoft started.  I did the math.

Bill Gates has focused his career on multiplying his effectiveness.  He has focused on using internal and external resources to dominate the computer industry.  Microsoft did not create the PC operating system they sold to IBM.  They sold IBM something they didn’t own, but had negotiated a right to buy.  Bill Gates saw an opportunity and ran to make it happen. He passed up other opportunities to make that happen.  That is the way Microsoft has grown — a little internal innovation and a lot of focus on using other’s ideas. The most important ideas he could find.

Can you figure out where the biggest changes are happening?

If you focus on the innovations happening around you it can change your career.  When an idea, technology or procedure is new, it takes a week to become an expert.  A year later it takes a year to become an expert.

I became a database expert in a week when Oracle 1.0 came out.  I talked my boss into springing for $100 to get a copy.  I parlayed that into becoming a DB2 guru by buying a book.  One book.  I became a data modeling expert because no one else had a clue what that was.  One innovation led to another, and my bosses had no desire to stop me.  All the industry magazines and experts were using the buzzwords I could implement.  I was on the leading edge.  I was riding the wave of innovation. Every career progression was caused by taking 2 weeks to prepare for an upcoming, essential, mystifying technology.

Do like Bill Gates and I did. Do a little internal innovation and focus on using other’s ideas and new technology.  It is always easier to become an expert when technology and techniques are new.  What is new in your field?

Something to do today

Try it again. The greatest lunch topic you can talk about with your boss is, “What is the emerging world changing technology, technique or skill in our field?”  Figure out what the buzzwords are that people are barely starting to define in your field.

————————–

Tomorrow:     Grandpa rotated crops for free

Leave a comment

Posted in Focus, talent, Time management, Training

Tagged ,

Change what you associate pain and pleasure with

Posted on February 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

I got this from Sandi in an email today and had to share it with you.  Your job search is marketing of yourself.  She is a marketer.  Her ideas about deciding what causes you pleasure or pain directly relates to your job search. — Bryan Dilts

Change What You Associate Pain And Pleasure With

By: Sandi Krakowski

You may not realize it right now but you are, at this very moment, being motivated and influenced by two things. These two things literally control how you make decisions, when you’ll make them and quite frankly, IF you’ll make them at all… or sit in limbo.

Many people go through their day, all day long, without ever giving much thought to these very important two things. Myself included! It’s not like I get up in the morning and take a conscious thought of how these two things are motivating me…. but they are. Deep inside my subconscious mind, inside your mind as well, these two things are moving everything… forward, backwards or even holding at a standstill.

What we associate pain and pleasure with is the single greatest motivator in everything we do.

I’m here to tell you that 8 years ago this month I made a decision to CHANGE on a very conscious level what I personally associate to pain and pleasure.

Maybe you’re like me and you’ve always thought it painful to get a critique on something. Coming from the childhood I did where I was motivated nearly every single day by my performance, it was obvious that pain was directly attached to any kind of critique or opinion. And let me say this, this kind of underlying belief did NOT help me as an entrepreneur and thriving business owner.

If you associate pain to any opinions, suggestions, input or critiques, because maybe you didn’t have the loving, nurturing and caring support you deserved as a young person growing up, you will do anything to avoid these at all costs. Here’s the startling part, you’ll do it without even thinking.

You’ll ignore suggestions.

Fear critiques.

Hate when someone asks you to wait because something else must come first. You can see where I’m going with this.

However, 8 years ago I began a process of growing my life and my business simultaneously that caused me to make a decision to change this underlying belief. Now I am extremely happy when my mentor or someone I ask for input gives me critiques, wisdom and advice on how I can improve. It also changed something else in me very dramatically- who I’d listen to when it came to input on my business. I’m now very cautious, in a very good way, who has the privilege of speaking into my life and giving me suggestions for my business.

Listening to the postman and his thoughts on what we should do to grow our business to the next level, or letting that person who has never made millions of dollars, let alone even thousands of dollars in an online business give me their ideas is now attached to pain. And rightfully so. I don’t want the critique and input of someone who hasn’t done what I am seeking to be exceptionally good at! I do however pay more than six figures per year to get the best in the world to give me their thoughts. Because I associate extreme pleasure to moving to the next level!

So my question for you today is this- who are you taking input, ideas and suggestions from?

If you let someone at Walmart that you bump into, or let’s get a little more personal, that relative of yours give you input on whether to invest into your business the first thing they’ll say is, “Can you afford it?”

Newsflash, we were more than $450,000 in DEBT when I invested into my business! I didn’t consult with my checkbook to determine whether or not I could ‘afford’ to invest into something that could change my entire life and business. That kind of mindset comes from someone who has a fixed income anyways.

Trying to build a bigger future on your current income is a faulty business model!

No, I listened to the input of multi-millionaires who reminded me that to increase my own skill and to develop what is necessary in business it would take some sacrifice. It would take a commitment to “be here a year from now” and to not give in the first time hardship came. I sold things on eBay, learned to cook very inexpensively so I COULD do whatever it took to always have a mentor.

We also took an inventory on what we were spending our money on…. and made a conscious choice… pain and pleasure, remember that?….to associate pain with not moving to the next level. This motivated me to avoid whatever held me back. PERIOD.

It took a “Balls to the wall!” approach when it came to my business… which means in plain English “Do the things that make money for crying out loud” and don’t sit on Facebook all day chatting about the cutest things you can find on Pinterest and how “one day” I’ll pay cash for them when my business that I’m building on free tools finally grows.

It is my personal conviction that when someone says to me that they cannot invest into their skill set because of a layoff at work, or a down turn in their personal economy, they simply do not understand what it takes to build a business. They are still locked in a corporate mindset that says, “This is how much we earn and this is how much we can spend because it won’t change unless someone else increases my pay.”

YOU my friends have got to associate pleasure with doing the work and increasing your own paycheck because YOU have made a decision to not settle for less.

If you want a pay increase, you are going to have to make sure your skill set lines up with what commands and directs a pay increase! And you’ll need to associate PLEASURE with the entire process.

You can’t take on a typical a college degree mindset, where it becomes painful and tedious to study and learn things. Stop. Check that thought. Is this your belief? Change it!

You must flip that and begin associating pleasure to learning and more pleasure to activating what you learn!Attach PAIN to staying the same way, associate deep internal pain to doing things as you’ve always done them. You are being motivated every single day by what you associate pain and pleasure to.

This is how you pay off debt, you change your habits, you make decisions correctly and quite literally, you change your life.

The question becomes, will you do what it takes?

ONLY you can decide. For those who are ready? I’m here to take you to the next step. Come on over to my Facebook page right now and tell me that YOU have made a decision to do whatever it takes!

http://www.facebook.com/sandikrakowskibiz

With love,

Sandi Krakowski

Leave a comment

Posted in Attitude, Focus

Tagged , , , , , , ,

One Hour Interview Prep

Posted on March 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.  (Seneca)

 Daryl comes out of another tense project meeting at work.  He’s late leaving for his job interview.  He guiltily leaves his jacket hanging in his cubicle so no one will suspect he is gone and sneaks out to his car.  He turns on talk radio where politicians are being called the biggest thieves and liars on earth. That gets him thinking about his hate for his current job.   He’s two minutes late.  No one will notice, but Daryl is still stressed.  The interview seems to go well, but it only lasts half an hour.  The next day a secretary calls and informs him that “He is not a fit.” He doesn’t understand why.

This is how Daryl blew it

You have to prepare for your interview emotionally and mentally.  Daryl did neither.  He really did everything he could to assure he interviewed poorly.

Here are 10 things to do on your way to an interview:

  1. Get mentally out of your office an hour early.  Shut your office door or leave the building. At the very least, prepare the evening before.
  2. Reread the descriptions you have of the job you are applying for.
  3. Jot down a quick list of how you have triumphed in the kinds of projects that you would see on that job. Writing the list cements it in your mind.
  4. Describe those triumphs out loud while you watch a clock.  Keep each description under 2 minutes.
  5. Answer aloud a few test questions like, “Tell me about yourself,” or “Why do you want this job?”  Time your answers. Keep them under 2 minutes.
  6. Leave early enough to arrive 10 or 15 minutes before the interview starts.
  7. Listen to soothing music or a motivational tape as you drive.
  8. Use your drive time to think about what you have accomplished in previous jobs. Talk out loud about each accomplishment while you watch the clock.  Keep each description under 2 minutes.
  9. After you stop in the parking lot, read the job descriptions one more time.  You need to keep in mind what the company says it is looking for.
  10. Time to shine.  Remember to smile as you walk in the door and greet each person.  Have fun.  Remember, they invited you in.  They want to see you.

If you have a bad interview, you won’t get the job.  If you have a great interview, you not only get the job, you may get more money.  

Interview preparation is not difficult.  It requires time and concentration. Give it the time and the effort it deserves.  You’ll see the difference.

One thing I mentioned that people forget

Collect job descriptions of every job you are going to interview for.  That’s often the key missing link in preparation.  If you rely only on your memory, you may forget a few essential points that you should emphasize in your interview.

Leave a comment

Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Focus, Interviews

Tagged , , , ,

Poison and disease – your job and search

Posted on December 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

Malice sucks up the greater part of her own venom, and poisons herself.  (de Montaigne)

Do you know why Al Qaeda has not used small pox, nerve gas, or sarin in an attack on the USA yet?  Because they are not as fast, painless, or sure as a car bomb….in killing the attacker. 

Terrorists are smarter than people who are mad at their boss or a coworker. Poison and disease kill attackers as horribly and slowly as they kill their target. Terrorist attackers want to die quickly and relatively painlessly so they won’t use poison and disease. People who are mad at their boss die slowly, painfully, and publicly from their own venom.  Their boss rarely suffers. The terrorists are smarter.

Every day I talk to people with serious reasons to leave their jobs.  Most briefly state the problems, then go on with their job search. They are winners.  Some state the problem and then they try to poison and infect the people who contributed to the situation.  They are losers.  Examples of stupidity, gross unfairness, lawlessness and cheating are given. The trouble is that the attacker slowly poisons himself.  His pain is horrible to behold. 

What is left is a twisted wreck of a person who is unemployable.

So what do you do?  Forgive.  Forget. Get on with your life.  The best revenge you can have is to be happy while they are miserable.  Let them wallow in depravity.  Don’t hop in the mud puddle to wrestle the pigs and expect to stay clean.  Forgive them.  Pen them up in a part of your life that is through.  Don’t talk about them.  Don’t even think about them.  Stop letting them ruin your life.

If you are still employed, you can pay them back.  Stop talking about them.  Stop worrying and fretting.  If something illegal is going on, quit now and tell the police.  Otherwise find a new job and then leave.  They’ll hate having to replace you.  Never say an unkind word about them to anyone, just give notice and leave.  Then forget them.

Something To Do Today

How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie can help.  It can help you get rid of anger and start living for the good things in life.

Leave a comment

Posted in Attitude, Focus, Quitting or Fired

Tagged , , ,

Job hunting or administrivia?

Posted on September 21, 2010 | Leave a comment
  1. Do it.
  2. Do it right.
  3. Do it right now.  (The 3-do’s)

One of my managers told me, “Bryan, you don’t work hard enough.  I put in 60 or 70 hours a week. Even if I’m just in here filing microfiche, I’m getting more done than you.”  I couldn’t answer him.  I was too amazed.  He took my silence for the deep pondering of a well taught student and left. I am grateful he could not read my mind.

The hardest working people I know are paid about the same as others who work steadily and put in 40 to 45 hours a week.  Both the 70 hour week and 45 hour week people are VP’s and directors. They are paid the same.

The people working seventy hours a week focus on the 3 do’s differently.  They focus on working efficiently or hard.  They want to get a lot of work done. At the end of the day they point to the fact that they did the work of 3 people in only 70 hours.

The people working 40 to 45 hours a week also focus on the 3 do’s.  But they first prioritize.  They try to avoid adminstrivia–the things we are asked to do that don’t really help.

One director I worked for said, “When my boss asks for a new report, I faithfully send it to him for 3 weeks.  It is always a masterpiece.  The fourth week I prepare it for him and don’t send it.  If he calls and asks for it I apologize and he has it in his hands in minutes. Most of the time he never asks for it.  I prepare it for a couple of more weeks just in case, then I stop entirely.”   He was one of the most highly rated directors in that company.

Now lets get something straight.  45 or 90 hours of wasted time will get you nowhere.  Solitaire, internet poker and reading the news don’t count as well spent time.  You have to be doing what’s most important for 40 hours each week to beat out the person working 70 hours.

In your job search or your job this lesson applies.  Are you only putting in the time or are you focusing?  Are you doing the hard things that will have the biggest impact, or are you spending your time in the same online job boards praying for miracles?

Do it.  Do it right.  Do it right now.  Don’t get distracted.  Focus on what is most important.  Then take some time off with your friends and family.  They’re important too.

————————-

Something To Do Today

It is time to figure out what you are doing.   Really.  Make a list of the things you do at work or in your job search each day and each week.  Think about it.  Are you consistently working on the most important stuff, or are you merely focusing on activity?

Leave a comment

Posted in Attitude, Focus, Perseverance, Time management

Tagged , ,

Even lasers have to focus

Posted on February 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

Laser light has three basic attributes: coherence, focus and intensity.

Lasers, by nature, are unfocused. A common misconception is that the light comes out of a laser in a tight beam.  It does not.  If you take a laser pointer apart you will see a simple lens just in front of the laser. Because of the light’s coherence and origin, the light can be focused into a tight beam. Coherent light waves all marching in step come from a laser.  Focus has to be designed into it.

Most people laugh at the idea of a company president becoming a janitor.  I know two people who decided to do it.  They decided to change the focus of their lives.  Both make a lot of money as janitors because they are focused.

Do you need a focus for your career and job search?  You may be capable of being a manager, worker, company president, and janitor.  With 4 resumes you could apply for each job in a coherent manner.  You could also interview for each and present yourself as the perfect employee.  But should you?

What are your talents?  What do you do better than others?  What do you want to learn?

Inability to get ahead in a career is often caused by a lack of purpose or focus.  You are happy to float to wherever there is an opening today.  Everyone always tells you what a great team player you are.  The trouble is that your raises are small and you get passed over for promotions.

So you decide to get another job.  You apply for every job you can.  Your new job is outside of the field you were in before.  Once again you float into whatever needs to be done today.  Your career goes nowhere.

Do you WANT to go nowhere as fast as you can?

Stop today.  Focus on a goal.  What is the next job, responsibility, or promotion you want?  Turn down urgent requests to do something else.  Stop letting the minor inconvenience of other people decide what you will do.  Focus on a goal. 

One way to tell if you are focused is to count how many people YOU ask to help YOU reach YOUR goal.  Ask for help.  Network.  Talk to people doing what you want to do next.  Get their advice.  Focus on one goal. 

But what if you are unemployed?  It still works.  Decide on a specific job, title or assignment you want the most.  Find people doing that job.  Ask them to help you figure out how to get to that job.  That=s networking.  That’s laser like focus. 

————————-

Something To Do Today

Talk to someone doing the job you want for your next job.  Ask them the steps you can take to get the same job.

Leave a comment

Posted in Attitude, Focus, talent

Tagged , ,