Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

The Homework I Gave To My Friend Who Wanted To Generate $60K to $250K in Passive Income

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My good friend (let’s call her Rita) recently asked me for tips on how to generate extra passive income of $60,000 to $250,000 per year.

Rita wanted to do this so that her life-partner (who has a stressful job) could live a more comfortable life, and the two of them could pursue some “do-good” creative projects to better the world.

I couldn’t guarantee her anything but she asked for a meeting with me and I came up with some homework that she could do ahead of time (mostly to read some of my past articles and do some exercises).

I know the links/tips I include are all my own…but, hey, that’s what I know best. 😉

I thought I’d share with you my email to Rita in case you or someone you know wants to make some more $dough.

It’s not easy, but if you are serious about wanting to increase your income you’re going to have to put in some work. Here it is.

Dear Rita, …

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Saturday, June 25th, 2011

5 Tips On How I’ve Doubled My Income Every 5 Years

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I can’t help but feel cheesy writing the above headline — it feels like something a shuckster — trying to sell you something — would write.

But I’m not selling you anything…other than some free advice!

I know a lot of you want to increase your income over time (I do) and I recently had an “uh-huh” moment about my own personal income path.

The below graph is my income plotted over the last 20 years (you’ll notice that I don’t volunteer my actual income in the graph — that’s because it’s none of your business!).

Tips On Increasing Your Income

1) Plot Your Historical Income Onto A Spreadsheet

The first tip I have is that you need to plot out your past income onto a spreadsheet and chart it out (like the graph above). …

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Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Wow, Here’s An Excellent Thank-You Letter 16 Of Us Just Received

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A crafty college student named Brian Kerr networked his way into a phone meeting with me back in March — I was impressed by his chutzpah (I welcome cold-calls from ambitious folks!).

However, what really impressed me was the “thank you” letter he just emailed sixteen of us — that’s right, he talked to 16 people in his job searched and thanked us all.

I’m blown away by the tenacity and professionalism of this young man: He even included details about why each of us were valuable to him in his job search.

I’ve included the email below (with his permission)…we have a lot to learn from this man.

His email is more thoughtful than ones I receive from most “professionals” with decades of experience!

From: Brian Kerr

Subject: Thanks to you, I got a job!

This email is a thank you to everyone who played a part in helping me in my career search.  I graduated from SFSU 5/21 with a major in Business Administration: Marketing.

5/22, I was hired by Firetide as WLAN Business Development. (How perfect, I know) Firetide is a Wireless technology startup that is located in Los Gatos, CA.

They specialize in Wireless Mesh infrastructures.  As part of WLAN Business Development, I will be working with two other individuals to ramp up and scale Firetide’s WLAN division.

Ultimately, the people at firetide truly won me over… (the CEO is hilarious, the Sr. Product Manager always has me smiling, and my team is made of Swedish tennis players….what more could I ask for?)

Mentions:

Kostas, Navid, James: Thanks for all the help on my resume, with your feedback, you helped me build one hell of a resume.  (The final version is attached to this email)

Rob, Gady, Greg, and Dana: It was from speaking with you that helped me get a clear understanding of what I truly wanted from my first professional job.  I learned that I wanted to be a social connector, someone who can do sales, marketing, pr, and management.

I realized that I needed a small entrepreneurial environment where I can wear many hats and take on lots of responsibility, so I can feed my desire for variety while still allowing me to take ownership/responsibility.

Ultimately, the most important thing was that I realized I wanted a place where I could make connections and build lasting professional relationships, internally and externally.

Jon, Kerry, Skip: Thanks for such a great time at TKG, you guys showed me that no matter what, I have to love the people I am working with.

Nancy: I can’t thank you enough for creating the environment at SFSU where I could learn inside the classroom, but also really truly learn by connecting with the faculty, orgs, and administration so that I could learn whatever fueled my interests.

Don, Anne, Foo, Mike, Jan: Your classes were by far my favorite.  It was because of you that school was a pleasure.  Please continue being amazing teachers, students need more teachers like you.

Everyone:

Thank you for helping me reach the next step in my career, one day I will be sure to return the favor.

-Brian Kerr

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Sunday, May 1st, 2011

7 Signs That Your Boss Is A “Charisma-Based Narcissistic Leader”

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Few things irk me more than hearing from friends who have to work with “narcissistic leaders.”

Why would my friends work with someone who’s “narcissistic?” Because they are charismatic — they are able to mobilize resources (i.e. you and others!) through their charisma.

I call such leaders  “Charisma-Based Narcissistic Leaders.”

The scary part is that these charismatic leaders usually meet 2 of the 3 requirements that Warren Buffett demands in a good business person (high intelligence and high energy) — it’s the third one (high integrity) they have a problem with (see Warren Buffett’s 3 Simple Steps On Who To Hire for more on that).

Ok, so on with it — here are 7 signs that you work with one of these jackasses:

7 Signs Of A Charisma-Based Narcissistic Leader

1) They’re Big On Titles (Especially They’re Own)

Narcissistic leaders typically love big titles…and even more than one!

For example, you might find them using: …

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Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Job-Finding Advice: Focus On Meetings (Not Jobs)

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Do you need help finding a job?

I was catching up with my pal and former boss Mitch York — awesome business guy — the other day and he pointed me to some neat job search tips from The 5 O’Clock Club (an outplacement and career coaching service).

If you need to find a job, keep these in mind:

Tip 1: Focus On Getting A Meeting (Not A Job)

5 O’Clock encourages its job seekers to first select industries they’re interested in working in and specific companies they’d like to work for (regardless of what jobs are available).

“Everyone (on a job hunt) makes the mistake of placing too much emphasis on published openings,” the 5 O’Clock Club says. …

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Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

HR Star Explains How To Cruise The Career S-Curve

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The January-February 2011 Harvard Business Review featured an article titled Reinvent Your Business Before It’s Too Late: Watch Out for Those S-Curves.

Seeing this headline caused my mind to immediately jump to my study of S-curves in graduate school (think of an S-curve (see chart above) as the graphical life of an organization where performance ascends (“replicating and improving”), often rapidly, but later declines (“dying”) due to stagnation, new market entrants, tired management etc.). …

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Sunday, March 27th, 2011

The 5 Stages Your Boss Will Go Through When You Resign

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Resigning from a job is tricky — not only do you not want to “burn any bridges” when you leave a job, you want the departure to be as smooth and positive as possible.

My good pal Larry the Recruiter points out an excellent framework to keep in mind when you’re resigning: he suggests that you go Jedi on your boss by putting yourself in their shoes through the “5 Stages of Loss” framework. …

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Friday, October 22nd, 2010

3 Simple Steps To Help You Pursue Your Passion

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Steve Jobs told Stanford students that when he wakes up each day he tries asking himself:

“If this were my last day on earth, would I be happy with my to-do list.”

 

And if his answer is “no” for three or four days in a row, he does something about it.

Well, a goal in my life is to help people explore their passions, ideally in a way that helps them make a living.

I thought I’d share three steps that I used to further my own career passions.

Ok, so let’s dig in…

Step 1: Pick a Passion

It starts with picking a passion — your passion may be obvious to you ( politics, sports, medicine, photography religion) and you’re good to go.

If your passions are not obvious to you, ask those closest to you (friends, colleagues, family members) what they think. …

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