Fire Me IBeg You

About the Author
If you look at my LinkedIn profile, my specialty is turning around and

leading complex IT Projects by acting as a communications bridge
between IT and Business.
If you ask my clients, Im the glue that keeps their projects moving and
project members motivated.
If you ask the Chicago startup community, Im an avid blogger and people
connector who has helped numerous people find new jobs and
opportunities.
If you ask my friends, Im a career advisor who has helped them negotiate
substantial raises.
If you ask my blog readers, Im a sarcastic, passionate writer who loves to
rant on random topics.
Contents
About the Author ....................................................................................................... 1
Contents ........................................................................................................................ 3
Dedication .................................................................................................................... 6
Preface .......................................................................................................................... 7
Foreword by Seth Kravitz .................................................................................... 10
Month 1 Meets Expectations Never Felt So Good ...................................... 12
Dont Hate the Player, Hate the Game ............................................... 13
Working With Difficult People ............................................................. 17
Are You Smarter Than Your Boss? ...................................................... 24
Loyalty is Dead and My Boss Killed It ................................................ 27
Action Plan: Meets Expectations Never Felt So Good ................ 30
Everything You Need to Know About ............................................. 49
Case Study: Getting Rid of the Performance Evaluation .............. 53
Month 2: The Forever Brand of YOU. ............................................................... 56
The Most Important Story You Will Ever Tell ................................. 57
Action Plan: Build Your Online Presence ......................................... 65
Case Study: Personal Branding ............................................................ 80
Month 3: Create Something ................................................................................. 83
The Hardest Part About Starting Anything ...................................... 84
Consumers, Critics and Creators ......................................................... 88

Action Plan: Move From I can do that to I did that ................. 90
Case Study: Connections Newsletter ................................................ 107
Month 4 Building and maintaining relationships .................................. 110
Your Professional Network Sucks ..................................................... 111
Find a Second Home, Fast .................................................................... 113
Every Single Relationship Counts ..................................................... 117
How to Get People to Like You and Help You ................................ 120
Action Plan: Find Your Second Home .............................................. 127
Everything You Need to Know About ........................................... 134
Case Study: 250 Coffee Meetings in 400 Days ............................... 137
Month 5: Be Vulnerable ...................................................................................... 141
Rejection and Failure ............................................................................ 142
No Response Means NO. Deal With It. .............................................. 146
Action Plan: Positive Failure .............................................................. 152
Case Study How a Broke Trip to Aldi Changed My Life ........... 155
Month 6: Make a Decision .................................................................................. 160
Whatever Decision You Make, It Will Be Wrong .......................... 161
Lie Like Hell On Your Exit Interview ................................................ 165
Action Plan ................................................................................................ 183

Case Study: Paypal Mafia ...................................................................... 185
Dont Do It ................................................................................................. 202
Bonus: 44 Ways To Be The Worst Employee Ever (NSFW) ..................... 203
Inspiration .............................................................................................................. 221
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. 223
Dedication
To my wife,
It seemed like only yesterday when we were sitting together at the airport
on the way back from vacation. I told you for the first time that I
desperately needed to quit my job, and it was destroying me to the point
where I had no choice but to make a change.
You were so supportive of my new business, and without you I could have
never made this happen. You supported my writing and told me to stop
capitalizing every word and that my grammar needed work.
You told me that networking = not working. I dont think I have ever
laughed so hard in my life.
I hope you read this book from beginning to end and dont ask for the
summary like you usually do when I write something. But, seriously, I
thank you every day for believing in me and appreciate all youve done.
To my family,
Dad - Thank you for being the most generous and the funniest person Ive
ever met. I was able to inherit your humor along with your swearing.
Mom - I picked up my work ethic from you. Im just hoping one day you
can relax and enjoy life.
To my brother, sister, in-laws, nieces and nephews - This book wouldnt
be possible without your constant support. It means everything to me.
Preface
On April of 2012, I wrote an article titled Fire Me, I Beg You. I published
the post on my personal blog, closed my laptop and walked home. On my
walk home, my phone started to go crazy with Twitter notifications of
people re-posting the article and tagging me in their Tweets.
When I got home, I checked my website analytics; within a few hours
more than 7,000 people had visited the post. By the end of the day, more
than 20,000 unique viewers had read that post.
At that moment, I knew I had hit a pain point that many others could
relate to. I immediately bought the domain firemeibegyou.com in case I
wanted to do something with it later; in this case I used it for the name of
this book.
My intention is motivate you to make a change in your career for the
better through my stories of failure and success.
I learned the hard way. I want to share with you what I learned along my
traditional career path and my non-traditional entrepreneur career path.
Ill share the good, the bad and even the ugly.
This book is not about how to quit your job to start a new company,
although it does cover that topic briefly. This book is about firing yourself
often to find an overlap of making money and enjoying your job.
When you invest in the stock market, do you put all of your money into
one stock and wish for the best? No sane person would put all of her
money into one stock because its too risky.
Any advisor would tell you to diversify your portfolio. Spread it across
multiple stocks so if one company falls dramatically, you have a variety of
stocks with different risks to keep your portfolio running without taking a
big hit financially.
Simply put, a diversified portfolio protects you in a bad market.
So why is it that many workers put their entire energy into one career and
one marketable skillset, while maintaining deep loyalty to their
managers? During a bad economy, companies have to protect themselves
and often that means layoffs. Those who diversified their careers have
options to find a better job. Those who put all of their energy into one
company are screwed.
How many people can make a major business decision and ruin your life?
If the answer is 1 or more, you may have a problem. My goal with this
book is to help you diversify your career options and marketable skill sets
and help mitigate any disasters that may occur.
Ive worked across the USA, England and Mexico for many Fortune 100
companies mainly as a technical project manager and solutions architect.
I had 250 coffee meetings in 400 days to expand my personal network.
The CEO of Deloitte Consulting US sent my resignation letter to the entire
company.
My writing has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, CBS News
and Lifehacker.
I wrote this book the way I talk in real life. Most of this book is written in
first person because Robbie likes to talk in first person.
Capiche?
Capiche.
Lets get this show started.
Foreword by Seth
Kravitz
Robbie emailed me in Fall 2011 asking to meet, but I passed, since I was
already overbooked for coffee meetings. A month later he shows up at my
event and enthusiastically offers to not only sell sponsorships for the next
event, but also rebuild the Technori website (since I mentioned we were
redesigning it). Honestly, I thought this guy was full of it.
The next morning after the event, I get an email with the subject line,
Great meeting you last night - don't forget to put me to work. In it were
a list of requests for sponsor docs and access to our website so he could
begin working immediately on both. Within days, we had met face-toface, plotted out the website development and he was off working on
deliverables!
My underlying concern was, Why is this guy doing all this? Months
later, Robbie would reveal to me his true intentions for offering so much
help, so quickly, and for nothing in return. He wanted to get involved in
the Chicago technology community and felt Technori was the fast track to
doing so.
Robbie explained that he had recently left a job to go out on his own, and
Technori was the bridge between the 2 worlds. He paused and clarified
that he not only left his previous company, but also resigned via an epic
personal letter that was so eloquent and diplomatic, the CEO of Deloitte
Consulting US forwarded it to every employee.
We went on to work together on Technori for 2 more years and I grew a

deep amount of respect and admiration for Robbie. As you will see in this
book, he is passionate about people, connections and having direction in
his life. He doesnt soften his words or try to cradle the reader. He is direct
and pragmatic with his advice.
Fire Me I Beg You struck me as a manifesto for those who believe they
have a much greater purpose in life than being a cog in the machine. If
you are stuck in a career you dont like, think of this book as primary tool
to break free of your corporate prison. Robbie lays down a framework to
go from employee to entrepreneur in a way that makes clear sense and is
reality tested. It will be a bumpy journey, but not leading a life of quiet
desperation is worth it.
Month 1 Meets
Expectations Never
Felt So Good
Dont Hate the Player,

Hate the Game
I walked into our weekly Monday meeting with the top leaders in the
company just like every Monday that preceded it. I sat down and waited a
few minutes for the meeting to start.
I pulled out my 99-cent Bic lighter that I got from a gas station around the
corner and placed it on the big oval conference table. Immediately
everyone started looking at me and gave me weird looks.
I ignored them and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and started to pack the
cigarettes by jamming it against my palm. It made an audible noise and
the stares continued, but the meeting presenter kept talking as if nothing
was happening.
I pulled out a cigarette, put it in my mouth and lit it. I took one big puff,
lifted my head and blew a puff of smoke in a conference room with a
beautiful view of the Chicago Skyline.
I wasnt done.
I pulled my leather chair back and then put my legs on the conference
table and crossed them as if I was on vacation smoking a big cigar with no
worries in the world.
By this time, the presenter had stopped talking and everyone was staring
at me.
The CFO, the CEO, the Human Resources Vice President and all of the
other directors were staring at me in complete shock.
I looked down at the room and said, Whats wrong? Never seen someone
smoke during a meeting before?
Then I woke up.
It was a dream. Except it wasnt nighttime, and I wasnt sleeping.
I had this dream while I was having lunch at my desk. I had many
different dreams and each one was the same theme: How can I get myself
fired in the most epic way ever?
To understand my situation, we need to go back to earlier in my career.
At noon every day, I would go to the local deli with my co-workers and we
would bring our food to a park near our office. We would sit in a circle and
take turns talking about how we hated our jobs and our managers. It
became a ritual.
Our bosses were the most selfish people alive. It was painfully obvious
they didn't really care about us professionally. Our job was to make them
look good. That was it. We were the little people in the organization.
When our ranting at lunch finished, we all felt better. We laughed, we
cried, we made fun of each other, we shared our dreams, but most
importantly we were in this together. We knew this wouldn't last
forever, but we shared a bond that our managers would never understand.
We were all hard workers and many of us worked nights and weekends.
We wanted to do good work and advance within the company.
3 years later, every single person who was part of the "hating group" was
no longer employed by this organization. We all decided that we would be
better off working somewhere else.
What happened to our managers?

I did a LinkedIn search and with the exception of one manager, every
single one stayed at the company and is now a senior executive. Its
extremely tough to become a senior executive within this firm, and
collectively as a group, they did it. I can't say we were wrong for leaving
because I don't think any one of us regretted moving on.
Where I went wrong early in my career
Early in my career, I really didn't have patience and that's where my
expectations went wrong. I wanted to advance as soon as possible and
although my managers told me I would advance, it was taking too long. In
retrospect, I realize I expected my managers to take care of my career
more than I took care of my own career. That was very stupid of me.
I never once looked at it from their angle. I never asked myself what
motivated my managers and how I could have helped them achieve their
goals. It was always about how the company could help me and never
about how I could help myself. I didnt understand I could benefit from
their leadership and expertise to get ahead.
However, it does make me think. It was almost like we were part of one
big social experiment. I wonder if I would have stayed at the company
longer if I hadnt been paired up with this hating group. Maybe if I would
have stayed longer I could have followed my managers coattails and
would be a senior executive now.
If I were able to get the hating group together for a reunion, I would say
this to them:
I miss the endless banter we had as a group, especially the nicknames.

The nicknames we assigned to our managers were the damn that's funny,
but we will get fired in a heartbeat if he or she finds out what we called
them nicknames. They were so bad we actually forgot what their real
names were.
We were wrong for hating for our managers, and it prevented us from
advancing within the company. We directed our dark comedic rants
towards the wrong people. They didn't deserve 90% of things we said
about them. We were pretty nave to think our managers didn't know we
were teaming up against them. Actually, I think we knew, but we just
didn't care.
My problem was I didnt know how to deal with difficult situations and
difficult people until much later in my career.
Working With
Difficult People
It took years to develop, but I was finally able to figure out how to handle
difficult situations and how to work with difficult people.
I've worked with:
The decisive, smart and friendly executive type
The 9-to-5 do everything I'm asked with a smile and actually

enjoy my work type
The let me know if I can help you with anything type
The we all know I'm the smartest one in the room type
The you cross me, and I promise you it will be the worst
mistake of your entire career type
The please give me another day to make this decision type
The let's be real, I don't really give a shit, just tell me what you
need me to do and I'll do it type
The please don't ask me to do anything for you because it's not
in my job description type
The OMG she's walking near my cube, I better act like I'm
doing something before I get fired type
The you used this word incorrectly in a PowerPoint, therefore

I will call an all hands meeting to get this settled type
The I trust you Robbie to make any decision you see fit type
The if I don't get a summary email at 8 p.m. every day I'm

going to assume you didn't do anything all day type
The I'm going to cry instead of making an important decision

so please back off type
The I don't really care what you think about me or my

decisions, just do what I tell you type
The who the hell left an unclean spoon in the sink, your
mother isn't here to look after you so I'm going to leave a
passive aggressive sign above the sink and another on the
refrigerator in addition to an email blast to the entire office
type
The give me your date of birth so we can celebrate your half

birthday type
The I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear you the first time so
I can make this conversation as awkward as possible type
The I'm going to agree to everything said in the meeting then

complain privately once the meeting is over type
The I literally, figuratively and hypothetically do not care what

anybody thinks about me, so just keep paying me every 2
weeks and we'll all be happy type
The if I hear one single piece of constructive criticism about

my work I'm never going to open up my mouth again type
And finally my favorite: The holy shit lady I can hear your
nails click clacking on your keyboard from across the office
type
For the person who creates those passive aggressive, "If you're leaning,
you're cleaning" signs above the sink, I purposely don't clean dirty spoons
and put them in the sink so they can be even more upset. I'm evil like that.
The uncomfortable truth is that not all of these types are easy to deal with.
In fact, many of these types make it much harder to get anything
accomplished.
Deal with difficult people before they deal with you
Difficult people are an interesting breed. They tend to be the last person
in a workflow who has the authority to approve a particular process,
purchase order or contract, so theyre the final decision maker. They are
nitpicky, irrational, insanely busy people who dont understand how many
hours the team has put into completing an activity.
They ask questions at the last minute about verbiage in a contract when
they could have asked the question when you first started on the project.
They make you start all the way from the beginning negating all that time
you and your team spent on it.
And yet instead of engaging this person right away, most people wait all
the way until the end to get their approval, then are in complete shock
when this person demands that additional edits be made.
Why?
Easy. People hate working with difficult people unless they absolutely
have to. Instead of getting answers to their questions right away, they take
the easy route and make assumptions hoping the difficult person wont
ask questions once they review it. Nobody likes awkward conversations
and would rather show the decision maker a finished product so they
dont get negative feedback on something that isnt finished.
Then when it comes time to review the finished product, the difficult
person becomes well, difficult. Of course, this story isnt complete without
the standard everyone blaming each other for a missed deadline when the
executive asks why that task was delayed.
Step up and deal with the decision makers even if they make you
uncomfortable. Dont do it to impress your boss or your teammates. Do it
because you want to make the final approval process easier, and do it to
learn how this decision maker operates.
Do it because no one else will.
Difficult people are often misunderstood. Theyre difficult because their
job requires them to be detail oriented and they have stake in the outcome
of certain activities or projects. They dont care how much time you spent
on an activity. They care about the outcome.
If you can figure out what makes them tick through early difficult
conversations, youll not only have better answers early on, but also a
relationship with someone who others refuse to connect with or cant.
IF YOURE COMFORTABLE, SOMETHINGS WRONG
I was in a packed conference room with about 25 people. All the top
leaders and consultants were in this room to report their status to the CIO
of this company.
It was my third week on the job at the time and I thought I had everything
under control. All I needed to do was relay the status of the project. Since
I was the project manager, I had a good understanding of the details of
the project.
There were multiple projects, and we were first up. I really wanted to get a
feel for this meeting first considering I had never exchanged words with
the CIO and I wasnt even sure what he looked like, but those were the
cards dealt to me and I had to present first. It was a big meeting, but I felt
comfortable with my preparation and Im a great public speaker, so I
knew this would go out without a hitch.
I was 4 minutes into my heres the status of the project talk. The CIO
was on his Blackberry and wasnt really paying attention to me even
though the entire time I was speaking directly at him.
I was finishing my update with, And the project completion deadline is
driven mainly by the technology team. He looked up immediately and
sharply said, WHAT? Thats not right. Thats not right at all! This has
nothing to do with the technology team! Didnt you talk to the business
team at all? Didnt you talk to your boss about this?
SHIT.
I was caught like a deer in headlights. I didnt know what to say. He was
right, and what I had said was inaccurate. I tried to defend myself by
saying what I had said was partially accurate, but before I could finish my
sentence he simply said, You dont know what you are talking about. He
couldnt have cared less what came out of my mouth at that point.
My boss wasnt at the meeting either, so I just nodded my head and
pretended I was writing notes. I apologized quickly and said Id speak
with my boss as soon as the meeting was over. That was the last thing I
said.
He said, OK, you can leave now.
As I walked awkwardly out of the room with everyone staring at me, I was
still a little flustered.
It was embarrassing. I had only been at this client site for 3 weeks and the
CIO of this company just berated me in front of everyone.
I didnt realize he was going to be this difficult. I assumed I knew how to
deal with everyone. I was too comfortable with the project status. I didnt
ask questions about what the CIO looked for in project status updates.
I learned 2 valuable lessons from this experience:
1) Dont say more than I need to. Say exactly what I need to, then
shut the hell up. The more I talk, the bigger chance I will be embarrassed
again.
2) Dont try to defend myself if the CIO of the company tells me
that Im wrong. Refer back to #1. Shut up, take notes and let him know
you will fix it next time. He doesnt have time to hear why you think youre
right. I was wrong by speaking up again. I should have just nodded my
head in agreement.
I quickly let my boss know what had happened and we worked on a
corrective action plan so this would never happen again.
There were 3 more of these status meetings over my 12-month contract.
Before every status meeting, I made sure my boss was well aware of what I
was presenting. This prevented surprises from coming up during this
meeting.
The last company-wide status meeting a few months later ended with a
senior executive stating that the project I led was the best IT Project he
had ever been associated with. The CIO was also present in the room. We
were on time and under budget.
The CIO now knew who I was on a first name basis. He began to
recommend that I lead other projects.
This guy was difficult because he needed to be difficult. This was an
important project, and if it failed, his tail would be on the line. Once I saw
it from his angle, we were one big happy family but it took a lot of
embarrassment to get there.
Deal with difficult people quickly before they deal with you. I viewed this
as a challenge and never once did I think to myself, Man, I really hate
this place because he embarrassed me in front of everyone.
Its a trap to think like that, and you wont get any sympathy wherever you
go. I mistakenly thought I was smarter than everyone in the room, and I
got what I deserved.
Are You Smarter

Than Your Boss?
I took over a big project while my manager was on vacation for the week.
It was the most productive week Ive ever had in my career. No spending
hours on useless PowerPoint presentations, no over discussing issues that
had already been discussed to death and no unnecessary meetings to
finalize irrelevant decisions.
I led all status calls with leadership and the calls were the shortest they
had ever been. Status was discussed, decisions were made, calls were
productive and everyone was happy when calls ended early.
Then it hit me: I could lead this project without my boss. In fact, my boss
was a hindrance to the success of this project.
His absence allowed me to lead the project in a way I felt comfortable
with.
So, what was I to do? I couldnt say, Hey excuse me Mr. Boss, but do you
mind taking a longer vacation? Another 6 months would hit the spot,
dont you think? This person had at least 7 more years of relevant
experience than me and was multiple levels higher than me in the
company.
For a while, I just stepped back into my normal role and kept the situation
the same, but eventually I needed to do something about it.
I didnt know what my next steps should be.
The one thing I did know was that something needed to change. I needed
to either have more responsibility on this project or I needed to be on
another project altogether.
For those of you who find yourself in this same situation, there is only one
mindset to handle it: Youre either going to be the leader of this
project, or you will be the leader of another project. There is no
middle ground.
Too many people think there is nothing they can do but to accept reality
that they will be behind an inept manager while their career stays
stagnant.
Im a firm believer that once you figure out that you are smarter than your
boss, its time to take immediate action with your career.
You have 3 options when you have this realization:
Option 1) Set up a meeting with your boss and tell her you really enjoyed
leading the project while she was gone. You would really like to keep this
leadership position if possible and you think you handled it well. You
think you can add value and make her life easier so she can focus on other
projects.
If this is the only project she is leading, then basically youre out of luck. If
she tells you no, lets move to option 2.
Option 2) Find sponsorship from another leader in the company who
has a project that you can lead. The bigger the company, the easier this
will be for you.
Dont have any relationships with other leaders in the company? Then
unfortunately there is nothing you can do. Building relationships with
other leaders is the ONLY way to make these types of changes.
Unless your boss truly recognizes your talents and cares about you, she
will never tell you about other projects you can lead. She likes your work,
and doesnt want to have to replace you.
The good news is that its never too late to start building relationships
with other leaders now.
Option 3) Quit
Find a job where you can be the lead. The key is to keep moving and stay
challenged. Dont stay in a dead-end job just so your resume can say you
stayed at a job for more than 3 years. If you hate your job and youve only
been there for 1 year, dont let that sway you from leaving.
Worry about how this will look on your resume later. Those things are
easy to fix, assuming you dont do it every single time of course.
The last thing you should be doing is working because you want to show
your loyalty to a company or to your boss. Loyalty is dead.
In my situation, I found another job and left the company.
Loyalty is Dead and

My Boss Killed It
I was the most loyal of them all. I was the golden retriever of corporate
loyalty. I was sipping so much Kool-Aid I could have sworn the Kool-Aid
guy was following me around just to make sure I had enough Kool-Aid to
drink.
I got to work early and I left late. I worked weekends and I never cut
corners. I set up social events when no one else would. I was available
24/7 for my boss to contact me. I worked twice as hard as everyone else. I
was the ideal employee. Everyone loved me. I did whatever my boss told
me to do. I could do no wrong. I was the go-to guy.
On one particular occasion, it was time to discuss our performance
evaluations and raises. I thought for sure my work ethic and my loyalty
would get me the highest performance rating and the biggest raise. After
all, the people I took care of were going to take care of me in return. I had
it all figured out.
Then I got a meets expectation rating and a measly 2.1% raise. The
reasoning behind this: The economy was bad, and I needed to work on my
functional industry skills. That was it. All of those pages upon pages of
self-evaluation I filled out for my performance review really didnt matter.
That whole year I had hustled beyond belief, and dont forget about how
loyal I was!
Another year, I did whatever a manager wanted from me. I then found out
that I was actually hurting my career by being so helpful. How about that
time when I had worked until 3 a.m. 2 weeks straight to complete a
project no sane person could complete on time given so few resources? Or
what about that time I took an international flight to help with a project
on a days notice? That must have translated into a huge raise right? A gift
card, right? Nope, nothing.
Hell, I would have even taken a $20 gift card to Olive Garden. Do you
know how many unlimited breadsticks I can get with $20? Nothing says,
we appreciate your hard work like a gift card to Olive Garden. Come on,
you know you love Olive Garden because of the unlimited breadsticks and
never ending salad. Its OK to admit your weaknesses.
Loyalty doesnt matter. It doesnt matter one bit. What matters the most is
that you get the right work done for the right people. I also found that it
actually doesnt matter how long you work. No one will give you a better
raise if you work late for 2 weeks straight.
Loyalty should be earned, not implied
Ive learned to be loyal to the people I work with and not the company I
work for. There are a handful of people who have earned my loyalty:
The director who immediately honored my last-minute request to

not join a project for personal reasons.
The career counselor who found me a position in the company that

allowed me to stop traveling and work from home. This also
resulted in me losing her as a counselor as well as her having to
replace my spot on the project.
The executive who lobbied to get me an office when everyone else

wanted me to sit in a cubicle (a small example, but representative
of the types of things he did over a long period).
I found 3 people who have proven that they are willing to go out of their
way to help me even if the result is detrimental to their goals.
This doesnt mean I hate or dont trust everyone else I worked with. My
mentality is that I trust everyone I meet until they prove to me they
shouldnt be trusted. I have gotten burned MANY times by adopting this
way of thinking, but I still think its the right approach.
Action Plan: Meets

Expectations Never
Felt So Good
I'm going to ask you something that might seem contradictory to
everything youve ever learned. Everything you have ever been taught is
that to succeed you need to give 110% effort. Get to work early, leave late;
do the jobs that no one else wants to do; be the leader when everyone else
is following. Lead by example.
I want you to stop doing all of that. Stop showing up to work earlier than
everyone else. Show up on time and leave on time.
Dont do the jobs no one else wants to do. Do the job you were hired to do.
Dont lead when everyone else is following. Let someone else lead this
time.
Stop saying yes to every work assignment that comes to you. Learn to say
no. Better yet, learn to avoid situations where people ask you to do more
work.
Stop offering new suggestions to improve a process.
Stop coming through the front door. Come through the back door and be
as invisible as possible.
While youre at it, take that stupid inspirational quote off your cubicle,
too. Newsflash, youre not Winston Churchill. Youre a miserable worker
who currently has no idea what to do with your life. For god sakes, look at
what you are reading right now.
Today is the day you actively pursue mediocrity in your current job and
youre going to love every second of it.
I'm asking you to work as if you wanted a B on your report card. I want
you try your hardest to NOT get an A on your year-end report card. In the
corporate world, the report card is the year-end performance review.
My biggest fear when I was on the receiving end of a performance review
was receiving a "you did everything we asked for and more. That's why
were giving you an 8/10" rating.
Human Resources call this rating a "meets expectations."
Here's how a typical meeting would go during my performance
evaluation:
Me: Did I do everything I asked you to do?
Boss: Yes.
Me: Didn't I do a few things that went above and beyond my

expectations?
Boss: Yes.
Me: Didn't I make your life easier by being loyal to you and the
company?
Boss: Yes.
Me: So, after all that I all I get a "meets expectations."

Boss: Yes! You have done a fantastic job and I want you to keep
up the good work. Don't change anything.
Me: Humor me for a second. What did I need to do to achieve a

"exceeds expectations rating?"
Boss: You could have done blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and
don't forget about blah blah blah blah. Take Jennifer as an
example. She did a lot of blah blah blah blah.
I would stop listening after I asked that question. I knew whatever came
out of my boss's mouth didn't matter and to be honest, I didn't care. I just
spent a year doing everything I could do and more, and all I got was a
"meets expectations." I felt cheated. I felt I deserved more. I would always
leave early after my performance evaluations.
The fact is, in most corporations a "meets expectations" rating is a GOOD
rating and viewed positively.
It means youre doing exactly what they told you. If you look at a bell
curve, meets expectation is the top of the bell curve and the "exceeds
expectations and below expectations" are at the end of the spectrum. So if
you receive a "meets expectations" you should be happy. Right?
So why is it every time I received a meets expectations rating I wanted to
punch someone in the face?
To me, "meets expectations" meant that I failed. To my boss and human
resources, "meets expectations" meant I was doing a good job.
This is actually great news for you. You can do what you perceive as a
mediocre job and your employer will be satisfied with your work.
Kind of like the series finale of the TV show Breaking Bad (Dont worry,
no spoiler alert), the ending of the show was satisfying. It didnt blow me
away with complete awe and shock, but it didnt disappoint me either.
It satisfied me. I was content with the ending. When it was done, I moved
on.
Your employer should feel the same way about your work: Satisfied.
Why pursue mediocrity?
All of the above activities require energy of some sorts for you to do. If you
suggest a new process to make something more efficient, guess who gets
to implement that new process? You do! This takes time and energy.
In order to achieve career freedom, the first step is to limit the amount of
energy you spend on something that doesn't get you closer to your career
goals.
It's the difference between working until 9 p.m. to put additional finishing
touches on a task and leaving at 6 p.m. when it was done and meeting up
with old colleagues for dinner.
It's the difference between enjoying your weekend doing what you enjoy
and working the weekend because you weren't able to finish all of your
tasks during the week.
You need a B on your report card. Thats it. Not a B+, and not a B-. You
just need to shoot for the 3.0.
But Robbie, I'm not the type of person that goes for B's. I either go hard or
go home!
A's take a lot of work, energy and dedication. A typical student who gets
A's in every single class often has no time for anything else. If your goal is
to keep advancing in your current company and to achieve greatness in
your company, then you probably should be reading something else.
What do I do with all this new energy?
In the following chapters I will tell you exactly where you can spend this
new energy on. You just need to know it wont be on your current job. It
will be on activities that YOU want to do and actively get you to where
YOU want to be.
How to make this a reality: Act like an independent consultant
An independent consultant is a person who is self employed and gets paid
by working at other companies on a contract. An independent consultant
is unique in the sense that they can work on one client or multiple clients
simultaneously, but its their responsibility to find clients to work on. If
they dont have a client, they dont get paid. Its that simple.
Achieving this goal is a big task and requires a different frame of mind.
Here is what you need to tell yourself:
You are no longer Michael Smith the full-time employee of Acme
Corporation. You are now Michael Smith, the independent consultant
who was contracted to perform a specific set of activities. Acme
Corporation is no longer your full-time employer; it is your client who
pays you for every hour that you work. You have a 6-month contract with
Acme Corporation in which they pay you for 40 hours of your time each
week. Any time worked outside of these 40 hours must be pre-approved
by the client.
Heres the difference between the full-time employee and the independent
consultant.
Michael Smith, full-time employee:
Hired to perform one activity, often gets involved in many

other activities not specifically related to job function
Jack of all trades, master of none
Expected to work all day and night, including weekends even

if the work doesnt require it
Pay is based on salary, not value of his services
Attends all required employee meetings, whether they directly

pertain to his work or not
Has a secure job for a successful company and doesnt need to

look for next gig
Doesnt take responsibility for something that went wrong if it

wasnt his fault
Michael Smith, independent consultant:
Hired to perform one activity. Contractually not allowed to

work on other work specifically not defined in the
Statement of Work (SOW)
Master of a specific function; Knows a little bit of

everything else, but is known for his specific function skill
Expected to complete the deliverable based on agreed

hours in the SOW If he goes over those hours, it will
require more difficult conversations and approvals in
budget to perform those activities
Hourly rate is determined on how valuable his specific skill

is and how important his skill is to the organization
Attends few to no company meetings so he can focus on

what he was contracted to do
Forced to continually look for new gigs and maintain his

relationships with other companies to see what
opportunities they have coming up
Will stop getting paid once this contract ends, so is always

thinking 2 steps ahead and planning for next gig
Takes responsibility for something that went wrong, even if

it was the clients fault. Puts an action plan together to fix
the issue and fixes the issue once the plan is approved.
See the difference between the 2? They were both hired to do one thing,
however one person ends up getting pulled in a million directions while
the independent consultant has a clear vision on what his job is.
The full-time employee Michael Smith has more stability than the
independent consultant. But since he doesnt have to look for new jobs, he
isnt expanding his network and forming new relationships.
Control your workload
A big part of this months exercise is to control your workload and youre
probably thinking easy for you to say Robbie. And youre right.
Everyones situation is different.
Some of you have jobs where you are a do-er and youre constantly
doing work.
Advice that sucks (Rant)
I read an article recently that said, If you want to control your workload
all you have to do is organize, analyze, manage time and delegate! Well
thank you for telling me absolutely nothing.
I could write an article that says How to Fly to the Moon

1. Raise $100 million from investors
2. Hire smart team
3. Build spaceship
4. Launch spaceship
Well, that was easy! Im so glad someone told me this! Before I thought I
could build a spaceship with my next-door neighbor and $300! Better get
back to the drawing board!
Let me tell you why this article has useless advice.
Organize How many times have you organized your cubicle, office,
folder setup, etc. and then the next day everything is back to mayhem
because everything around you is mayhem? How can you organize
yourself when everything around you is pure craziness?
Analyze You want me to analyze what the quick wins are when Pam
from finance keeps stopping by my desk to help her with a task that Ive
taught her how to do 15 times already?
Manage Time Maybe if IT did their job for once I could do my tasks in
regular intervals, but instead Im dealing with systems not working or
being down every week.
Delegate Ahhh yes the Do what you can do and delegate everything
else advice. I tried delegating that work to Pam, and I ended up doing
twice as much work fixing her mistakes.
Here has what helped me dramatically control my workload, while
consistently making others happy with the work I deliver. Im going to let
you in on a little secret:
Controlling your workload has nothing to do with you. It has
everything to do with controlling everything around you!
You dont have to have decision-making power or management authority
to control your surroundings. But what you do have is the power to set
expectations.
Let me ask you something. How many people in your workplace know
exactly what you accomplished every hour in the day? Does your manager
know everything that you do? How often do you go a full day or 2 days
without interacting with your manager?
The reality is although you report to one manager, youre often doing
activities for many people and many teams at once.
You ever walk out of the office and think, What the hell did I do today?
If youre like everyone else, this happens daily.
So, if you are unable to determine what you did today, that means that
everyone else is unable to determine what you did today including your
manager.
Following me yet? Others perception of you is based on their limited
interaction with you.
Your managers perception is based on tasks that you complete that she
deems to be important.
Your co-workers on your team base their perception on tasks that they
need you to complete.
The project manager from another team bases his perception of you on
the timeliness and completeness of the tasks that you complete for him
every few weeks.
The biggest misconception that employees have is if they dont work 60
hours a week, they wont be able to get work done.
Let me clue you on something. 40 hours a week is a made-up number.
Someone came up with this magic here is the # of hours that I believe
everyone should work a week.
Here is what I do:
Over communicate. I communicate status on something that I dont

have to on a daily basis. If I was supposed to finish something and I cant
finish it on time, I let them know very simply that I cant get it done
because of other commitments, then propose another date to get it done
by.
Over communicating signals that I have all my work under control and
reduces anxiety of people waiting for you to get work done. It also reduces
the chance that a delayed issue gets raised to your manager.
Send end of week reports to my manager(s) I end every week
with what I accomplished that week. I always end the week on a good
note. This is a bonus if your manager never asked for it.
Be amazingly quick on responses I adopted the 5 sentences or less
policy. If I can answer a question in less than 2 minutes and type less than
5 sentences, I answer it right away.
Resist the urge to reply back to emails that dont need your
input If the email doesnt start off with addressing you specifically,
then there is an 80-90% chance you dont need to reply back to it.
Replying takes energy, and most of the time the person who the email is
addressed to is the person responsible for answering. If that person wants
to ask you a question, then they will ask you. Until then, keep your mouth
shut and move on to the next email.
Estimate how long a task should take and multiply that number
by 3. This is a trick used by software developers because in theory a task
should only take a specific amount of time. But these estimates are
normally done as if you live in a bubble and dont have outside influences
that delay when a task can get completed. The system is down, Pam keeps
bothering you, an unexpected urgent task lands on your desk, etc.
So if someone sends you a task that should take you 1 hour that you can
start on Tuesday morning, the number you communicate is that it will
take you 3 hours and you will get it done in 2 days on Thursday.
If you get it done on Tuesday, then you beat their expectations and you
signal that you have your work under control. The mistake many make is
that they say they can get it done by EOD Monday and dont actually get it
done until Wednesday.
Of course there are some tasks that just cant wait any longer that you
have to do immediately, but if you planned everything else properly you
leave yourself time to meet the urgent request while meeting everything
else.
Be absolutely relentless about controlling scope of projects.
In the project management world this is called scope creep. Scope
creep (also called requirement creep and feature creep) in project
management refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a
project's scope.
No matter how defined the processes are and how smart the people on the
team are, scope creep is bound to happen on every project.
If you are involved with big projects, you know how these projects can
quickly get out of hand.
If youre managing a project or part of a project, heres the easiest thing
you can do.
I manage projects with 3 points of emphasis.
1. Get the disagreements and confusion out of the way as soon as
possible. Do not wait one second to bring up an important topic
that can become a hindrance later on.
2. Nice to have vs. must have. Too often people request things that
are nice to have and you spend all your time on the nice-to-have
things that are impossible to do and you mess up the must haves.
Focus on must haves and be relentless about this topic. On a
whiteboard, create 2 columns must have and nice to have. If
you start there, it can dramatically change the course of a project.
3. Deliver consistently. If you agreed to a certain timeline, make sure
you stick to it. This is why I almost never agree to an accelerated
timeline if I dont feel its realistic.
Here are specific activities that will help you with this challenge:
1) No reading email before or after work hours for one full
week.
If you leave at 5:30 p.m. and you get an email at 5:31 p.m., answer it first
thing in the morning.
If you cant get away with not reading emails, you can read, but dont
respond until youre at work.
2) Do not eat lunch at your desk!
No more getting food and eating food at your desk while you work and
answer emails or browse web mindlessly. Eat in the kitchen in your office,
cafeteria or somewhere outside. Eat anywhere but your desk.
Use the full hour of lunch.
3) Say No to any large tasks that arent your responsibility and take
significant time away from completing the tasks your client hired you to
do.
You want to do your original job the best way possible. You dont want
other things to interrupt what youre working on.
If you cant say no, figure out a way to delegate the work or schedule it so
it wont be done until you have the time to do it.
The power of setting expectations: How to go from working 60
hours a week to 40 by sending 2 emails a week.
Im convinced 95% of cubicle workers who work over 60 hours a week
constantly can cut it down to 40-45 hours by sending 2 emails a week to
their boss:
Email #1: What you plan on getting done this week
Email #2: What you actually got done this week
Thats it. These 2 emails will prevent you from working 60 hours a week,
while improving your relationship with your boss and getting the best
work youve ever done.
Heres what Email #1 looks like:
Subject: My plan for the week
Jane,
After reviewing my activities here is my plan for the week in order
of priority. Let me know if you think I should re-prioritize:
Planned Major Activities for the week
1) Complete project charter for X Project
2) Finish the financial analysis report that was started last
week
3) Kick off Project X requires planning and prep

documentation creation. Scheduled for Thursday.
Open items that I will look into, but wont get finished
this week
1) Coordinate activities for year-end financial close
2) Research Y product for our shared service team
Let me know if you have any comments. Thank you!
Robbie
But Robbie, my boss is the one that assigns me the work! He obviously
knows what Im working on! Why would I send him this email?
You are so wrong you disgust me. Seriously I want to throw up. OK, not
seriously but let me clue you in on a little secret. Your boss barely has an
idea of what he is spending his time on let alone knows what YOU are
working on. How self-centered of you to think he knows everything youre
spending your time on at work.
Tips for email #1:
Limit yourself to schedule 40 hours of planned work.
But Robbie, I have at least 60 hours of work to do. How in the world am I
going to do it in 40 hours now? Thats impossible; you have no idea how
busy our group is right now.
Take a look at my sample email #1. Did you break down your tasks into
Must be done vs. Nice to be done or did you put everything into the must
be done category?
Did you schedule yourself for 60 hours a week or did your boss schedule
you for 60 hours of week? I want you to think about this.
Your bosss responsibility is to assign you work that you should complete.
It is not your bosss responsibility to also help you manage your workload.
Thats YOUR job!
Think again. Where did this thought of you have 60 hours of work to do
come from? Did it come from your boss, or did it come from you?
I didnt believe you had 60 hours of work to do, and neither should you.
Robbie, Im being honest with you. I have at least 60 hours of work to do.
I work non-stop and I work through lunch. Ive tried your stupid little
categorization trick too, and it doesnt work. My workload just isnt going
to get any lighter any time soon. Im pretty sure you live in this fantasy
world where you can tell your boss that you would only like to work 40
hours a week and hell be happy with it. I am THAT busy and my boss
EXPECTS me to work non-stop.
OK, OK. I believe you. Ive been there. But before I accept that there is
nothing you can do, let me ask you one question:
Lets say on Wednesday afternoon, a family emergency pops up and it
forces you to take the rest of the week off immediately until the upcoming
Monday. Everything you were working on Wednesday came to a halt.
Meetings were cancelled and deliverable dates were missed. The rest of
your workweek was ruined.
What happens on Monday morning when you come back to the office?
Are your files still there? Do you still have a job? Are your co-workers still
there?
What about the deliverables that were due on Thursday that you couldnt
complete and you were the only one that knew how to complete it?
Did the building burn down because you couldnt complete them? Im
guessing none of this happened.
On Monday morning, you picked up exactly where you left off and guess
what: Everything was OK. The deliverables are late, but its OK because
everyone knew you had a family emergency to take care of. Expectations
were set and because of your family emergency, you could not complete
the deliverables. So, in reality the deliverables were never late because you
set expectations that you couldnt finish them. New expectations were set
on when you could deliver them.
Take that same exact scenario and replace a family emergency with you
just disappearing for 3 days without telling anyone where you went.
How does that change your Monday morning when you arrive?
It will probably end up something like this.
Because you didnt complete your deliverables you messed up everyones
schedule! They relied on you, and you just ruined it! They waited every
day to get the files and you never sent it. Now youre working extra hours
because everyone is waiting on you. What a huge disappointment you are.
Expectations are powerful. Instead of a family emergency, set
expectations on Monday morning and watch how everyone around you
adapts to YOUR schedule. Watch how your 60-hour week turns into a 40hour week and nobody will notice a thing.
The better you are setting expectations at Monday morning, the easier
your life becomes. If you plan for 40 hours, you can get your planned
work done in 40 hours and nobody will complain that you arent working
60 hours. In fact, you have made everyone elses life easier because they
can now plan around you!
Email #2 on Friday: What you got done this week.
It looks something like this:
Completed this week
Completed X Report
Started the planning for the big project
Finished the month-end analysis and sent to financial

controller for review
Created a first draft of the project charter, which is currently

being reviewed by Project Manager Z
Open items
I have some questions about the start date of Y Project, but

should get confirmation by Tuesday morning
We need X Report signed off by EOD next Wednesday. Can

you follow up with Jane to get this signed off?
That is all for now. Have a great weekend.

Robbie
This Friday report is so simple and effective; its amazing that people just
leave on Friday without sending this report.
This report does 2 things very well: It provides closure to the week and
gives your manager an idea of what you can complete in a week. In other
words, it sets expectations!
Tips for Email #2
Focus on what you completed first and open issues second.
Always end Friday on a good note. If you have issues bring that up on
Monday morning. Dont stress your boss out all week, and it will stress
you out as well.
FAQ
Question: My boss is a non-stop worker and expects me to work at all
times of the day.
Answer: Does he really expect you to work at all times during the day or
are you assuming he expects you to work these hours? Just because he
sends you an email at 9 p.m. doesnt mean he expects you or needs you to
respond back at 9:30 p.m.
Question: What if what I had planned on getting done on Monday isnt
close to what I actually completed on Friday?
Answer: So basically you are like everyone else. Be honest to your boss.
Let her know that this is what you wanted to get done, but here is what
got done instead. She will appreciate your honesty.
Question: Im the only one who can do my job and because of this Im
working extra hours. If I didnt, I would let everyone down.
Answer: This is a trick I learned during consulting when I found my
workload to be unimaginable: I took a planned vacation and made sure
everyone knew that I wasnt going be available.
This situation will trigger your boss and co-workers to learn everything
about your job as much as possible so that they can do it while you are
gone.
Now, when you get back, you arent the only person who knows how to do
your job. It will reduce the tension on your activities because know you
have a back up!
Question: I actually enjoy working 60 hours a week and I like that I can
get more work done in a week than someone who only works 40 hours.
Answer: Nothing wrong with that at all. Good for you. Just know that
there is scientific evidence that people who work excessive hours are more
likely to create mistakes and be more inefficient1
http://lifehacker.com/working-long-hours-is-hazardous-to-your-healthand-your-1542562871
1
Everything You Need

to Know About
Performance Appraisals
Performance appraisals are a necessary evil in many companies. They are
usually held at least once a year or sometimes twice a year, but never
more than that.
There are some companies such as Adobe that have completely gotten rid
of performance appraisals.
The hardest part about performance appraisals for many (myself
included) is that this is a completely anxious driven event. I have never
received a bad rating in the history of all of my performance appraisals,
but why is it that when the performance appraisal meeting is done, I feel
like getting out of the office immediately and going for the longest walk of
mankind?
Evidence shows that after certain types of performance appraisals, it
actually negatively affected employee morale.
While objectively it may seem perfectly fine in a job to meet

expectations, the reality was (with two levels above this grade)
many employees felt like they were receiving a C, not an A or
B. And good hard-working employees never like to feel like C
students. Despite considerable management communication on
the topic, many employees still felt like they were getting Cs, and
that bred discontent. 2
http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2012/07/19/the-pros-andcons-of-forced-rankings-a-managers-perspective/
3 http://www.hazards.org/stress/workplacetyranny.htm
2
However, in this months exercise you are focused on achieving a meets

expectation rating. A meets expectations rating is a GOOD thing.
So when you have this meeting, and your manager gives you a meets
expectations rating, you should have the biggest smile on your face
because this is what you wanted.
Getting laid off

A good friend of mine was laid off twice within a few years, and each time
he was the top sales person for the Midwest region, which is no small feat.
One time the company wasnt doing well, so they laid off an entire
department while they figured other things out.
One time the company was doing extremely well, but decided the Midwest
region wasnt their focus so they sold it to another company who then
promptly laid off everyone.
The major lesson in this story is that a great performance appraisal or
your teams performance does not shelter you from getting fired.
How often do layoffs happen?
According to the BLS,
in 2012 there were 6,500 occurrences of
companies laying off more than 50 people at a time. In 2012, this equated
to 1.25 million workers being let go.
What reasons do companies give for laying employees off?
http://www.bls.gov/mls/mlsreport1043.pdf
As you can tell from the below chart the 2 major reasons are seasonal
workers and business demand, which is just code word for we really
didnt need this department anymore.
In reality, a layoff can sometimes be seen from a mile away and
sometimes it comes out of nowhere. Nobody is immune to layoffs. It can
happen for any rhyme or reason. The key is to be prepared.
What states have the highest number of mass layoff events?
California leads this category by a landslide. Of the 6,500 mass layoffs,
they accounted for 1/3 of them, 2,141 to be exact. New York had 441 and
Illinois had 430.
What industries had the highest number of mass layoff events?

Fifteen of 18 major industry sectors registered over-the-year increases in
the numbers of separations in 2012, with the largest increases coming
from the information, administrative and waste services and retail trade
sectors. Among all sectors, firms in administrative and waste services
accounted for the largest number of separations due to extended mass
layoffs in 2012. This represents the first occurrence in the mass layoffs
program history that an industry other than manufacturing has recorded
the greatest number of worker separations (annual data began in 1996.)
Case Study: Getting

Rid of the
Performance
Evaluation
Its not a secret that Im not a big fan of performance reviews.
The good news is that Im not alone. Adobe Corporation got rid of
performance reviews! 5
Morris quickly zeroed in on Adobe's performance-review process.
Each year, in the aftermath of the process, she had witnessed a
significant increase in attrition. Coupling that yearly increase in
voluntary departures with an annual survey in which employees
routinely expressed their disdain for the performance-review
process left Morris understandably worried.
Man, Im not alone! As I mentioned before, I wanted to punch someone in
the face after almost every single performance review.
http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=534355695&
A 2012 survey by San Francisco-based rewards and recognition

consulting firm Achievers found 98 percent of 645 HR managers
believe yearly evaluations are not useful. And nearly 60 percent
of HR executives give their own performance-management
systems
grade
of
the WorldatWork/Sibson
C
2010
or
below,
Study
on
according
The
State
to
of
Performance Management, which reflected the insights of 750

senior level HR professionals.
Wait, what! Youre telling me that 98% of the 645 HR managers believe
that the yearly evaluations arent useful! So, they are self-aware!
So if Adobe got rid of performance reviews, what did they replace it with?
According to Wikipedia, they have over 11,000 employees and 4 billion in
revenue yearly. Thats a big company to just get rid of something so
traditional.
If managers were skilled and effective in their day-to-day
communication and leadership abilities, there wouldn't be any
need for formal performance reviews, says Lawler. The benefits
would have already been realized through ongoing feedback,
guidance, goal-setting, and development activities
Go on
"In a traditional performance review, the employee listens until
he hears the rating and then tunes out because he's doing the
calculation in his head about how that will affect his bonus," says
Carlin. "You never get to any true, honest, candid, constructive
feedback because they are so focused on whether he got the
rating he expected."
DUDE. Is this guy in my head right now? I did this EXACT thing. All I
could think to myself when my manager was giving my performance
evaluation was wondering what my bonus was!
But, OK. I think I know where the article is heading.
HR enlisted Expedia's executive team to conduct town-hall
meetings in which they explained the new process, which
required
each
conversations
manager
with
to
employees,
have
with
informal
a
heavy
one-on-one
focus
on
development and career-pathing, either weekly or bi-weekly.

Wait a minute here. Isnt this what an independent consultant does?
Constant communication with a heavy focus on what you accomplished
and, and planning whats next?
I think Adobe is on to something here. Ill forgive them for creating Adobe
PDF Reader that needs to be updated 500 times every week. I wish they
would switch Adobe PDF Reader to yearly reviews instead of weekly.
Har har har.
Over at Adobe, the company's no-performance reviews approach
has only been in place a few months, but Morris is convinced the
company is on the right track. In addition to saving Adobe
approximately 80,000 hours each year, eliminating formal
performance reviews has also had a positive impact on a number
of key indicators.
I take everything back I said badly about Adobe.
I heart Adobe.
I just wish I didnt have to update my Adobe reader every 2 weeks. Is that
too much to ask?
Month 2: The
Forever Brand of
YOU.
The Most Important

Story You Will Ever
Tell
I always have this dream that somehow I end up at a fancy lounge and Im
telling a funny story to Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Tina
Fey and Brad Pitt. Were all sipping martinis, then I end my story with the
punch line, So I was like Grandma, get off me Im done! and everyone
busts out laughing. Right when I deliver the punch line, an amateur
photographer appears and snaps the most amazingly timed and focused
picture where everyone is laughing their asses off and Im right in the
middle obviously being the person who told the funny story.
The amateur then posts the photo to Reddit, which immediately gets to
the top of the front page and I become an instant Internet celebrity.
The picture gets reposted everywhere, and I win an Internet award for
funniest joke ever told without actually knowing the joke I told.
The picture becomes so popular, I replace ridiculously photogenic guy as
the best-timed amateur photo ever.
Seriously. This is the stuff I dream of on a daily basis. I learned early on

that my ability to tell stories was my biggest strength.
I would have loved to say that I have friends who are also good
storytellers, but unfortunately its not their biggest strength.
I have a good friend who will start telling a story with a group of friends
and then halfway through the story hell look at me and say Robbie,
finish the story you tell it better.
No matter how many tips I give him on how to tell better stories, it doesnt
work. He either takes too long to tell a story or hell tell a story that will
leave me extremely confused as to why he even bothered to open his
mouth. He stutters, he laughs at the wrong part of the story and he
commits the ultimate sin of storytelling: He starts a story he cant finish,
ALL THE TIME.
God bless the guy, but he sucks at telling stories, and chances are that you
do, too.
Dont worry; were going to change that right now.
Helping you tell better stories begins with building an amazing one. Your
problem hell almost everyones problem is a complete lack of
understanding the components. A great story is like a great burger. Its
more than just meat; its the addition of melty cheese, fresh tomatoes,
sauted onions, etc.
So, lets focus on the thing you like best: yourself. Im going to help you
create one story. This one story will be so unbelievably epic that it will be
the best story youve ever told in your life.
This one story, the more you tell it, will lead to more people loving it. It
will spread like wildfire and will be retold upon generations and
generations to come.
Random people will come up to you and say, Hey, are you so and so?
Someone told me about your story and oh man, what a story.
I dont want to add any more additional pressure on you, but this story
will live with you for as long as you live. It will be the thing you are known
for.
It will be more important than some forgotten best man or maid of honor
speech. More important than any speech you ever gave in high school or
college. Bigger than any corporate presentation youll ever make.
Hey people, listen up, because this is serious shit. And shit is getting real
right now.
Oh yeah, the story is only one sentence.
Ready?
Tell the story of your life
Think of the last 4 people you recently met for the first time.
Now write down what their story was in one sentence.
For example, here are a few people I met at an event in Chicago:

1. A guy with 2 or 3 side projects and a full-time job at big company.
2. Bright strategy consultant who believes digital is the only place to
be. She has no digital experience, but is looking to connect with
digital agencies in Chicago with hopes to join a growing company.
3. Someone who enjoys entrepreneurship and wants to learn more.
4. Someone looking for a new IT job.
Of these 4 people, which one do you think has the best story?
Let me rephrase that.
Which one of these people do you think has the simplest and most clearly
understood story?
For me, #2 has the best story. During the 4 minutes I talked to this person
I knew:
1. What her job currently is in very clear terms
2. What job she is pursuing
3. The help that she needs (connect with digital agencies)
Of those 4 people, she is the only one I keep in touch with as I help her
achieve her goal of connecting with digital agencies in Chicago.
The most important part of her story was that I could understand it, and I
could clearly understand how I could help her achieve her next goal.
The other 3 were too confusing for me to understand and I already forgot
almost everything about them.
The difference is palpable because I felt something with her story. You
see, her story was all about WHY. The other 3 were all about WHAT. This
is the fundamental flaw amateur storytellers make every time. They drop
loads of forgettable detail, but never get to the essence that is the WHY.
I want you to write down what your one-sentence story is. This story is
focused on your current skill set. The next step after this is to create one
focused on your future skill set.
Ill show you how I came up with my own story. The key is that I dont
know what the end result will be; I just type what comes to my mind. I
press enter, and I do it again and again until Ive discovered WHY, not
just what or how.
Here is an unedited flow of how I came up with my story:
Im an IT Consultant.
I help clients help themselves.
Im an IT Project Manager who leads complex IT projects.
Im a self-taught developer who manages IT projects.
I lead complex IT projects as an independent consultant,
specializing in SAP Software
Im a technical Project Manager who leads IT projects for
enterprise companies.
I help deliver projects through my communication skills.
Im a Project Manager whose main focus is to manage IT projects.
My goal is to make everyones life easier through leading complex
IT projects.
My mission is to make your life easier by helping solve complex IT
issues and projects.
I will make your life easier by untangling and delivering your
complex IT projects.
I solve complex IT problems, while making everyones life easier.
IT projects all have the same problem regardless of what the

technology is. My specialty is untangling troubled IT projects with
clear guidance from IT and Business.
My specialty is untangling complex IT projects by acting as a
communication bridge between IT and business.
My specialty is turning around and leading complex IT projects by
acting as a communications bridge between IT and Business.
I lead complex IT projects because I believe IT has
power,
but
if
its
not
supported
with
great
communications, nobody knows what to do.

Ah, yes! This one sounds great for me.
If someone asks me in a conversational setting, my answer is I believe in
the power of IT. My specialty is turning around and leading complex IT
projects.
Thats my current story.
The other stories were good, but they werent clear enough and they
werent powerful enough. Lets be honest, were not going to remember
your details, but we will remember what you stand for.
Now lets move on to your future story. Ideally, your future story is what
you will be known for if everything works out the way you planned it.
Heres my unedited flow of how I came up with my future story:
Im an IT Career Coach.
I help IT professionals advance their careers.
I mentor business professionals looking to advance their careers.
I empower business professionals to take ownership of their own
careers.
I help motivated business professionals transition to selfemployment.

I mentor business professionals who were recently laid off.
I
mentor
business
professionals
who
are
interested
in
transitioning into a career in digital marketing.

I mentor business professionals on how to transform from being a
consumer to becoming a creator.
I mentor technology professionals who have built successful
careers in the enterprise and are interested in entrepreneurship.
I help successful business professionals transform their careers to
entrepreneurship.
I specialize in helping successful IT workers build a career in a
non-IT field.
I believe in mentoring recently laid off business and IT
professionals who are looking to re-invent their careers
as entrepreneurs.
The key concept to understand is that my future story will change almost
weekly. It will evolve naturally. But the foundation will never change. At
the heart of it, I believe in helping people. Regardless of how it manifests
itself, the WHY never changes. Sure, WHAT I do may change over time,
but what Ill be known for the reason I do the things I do remains
constant.
The first story will help you make money now.
The second story will help you make money in the future.
Use the first story until it makes sense to transition to the second story.
So, remember that burger? The WHAT is the meat, but WHY is all those
great ingredients coming together as one to create a memorable
experience. When you tell yours story, dont just rattle off numbers,
accomplishments and forgettable bullet points. Tell us what you believe,
tell us WHY you do the things youll do.
Now, thats a tasty burger.
Dont ignore this exercise. This story will be used for the rest of the book.
Do it now.
Action Plan: Build

Your Online Presence
Your new online brand will consist of the following:
1. Your dead simple website
2. Your LinkedIn profile
3. Your email signature
You have your story right? Great. Were going to put it to use.
1) Set up an extremely simple website
Your first version needs to be simple. I have a good friend who has been
trying to create a website for himself for 5 years. Literally. It's been 5
years.
Lets call my friend Jose.
Heres a shortened 5-year summary of our interactions in Joses attempt
to create a website for himself.
YEAR 1
Jose: I need a good theme for my website.
Me: Here are the some themes you can use..
Jose: No man, I need really, really good themes. I don't like those.
<Jose does nothing about it.>
YEAR 2
Jose: I need a good theme for my website.

Me: Here are the some themes you can use.
Jose: Ohh. I really like this one. What do you think?
Me: I like it.
YEAR 3:
Jose: I really need to get this website up man.
Me: I'm not helping you anymore. Pick something simple and just
put it up.
Jose: No man. I need the website to be tight and clean (This is
how he talks.)
Me: Everything I tell you, you just ignore.
YEAR 4:
Jose: Listen man, I'm serious about this. I need to put it up. I have
time this weekend.
Me: Shut up.
Jose: Dude, I'm really serious about this. What about these
themes?
Me: Shut up.
Jose: <Sends me more themes.><Continues to do nothing about

it.>
YEAR 5:
Jose: I created a blog! <Shows me link.>
Me: WOW. I'm impressed man. Congratulations! You actually
did something about it.
<6 months later, he has only written 2 blog posts.>
Jose: What should I write about?
Me: It's your blog man, I don't know.
Dont pull a Jose. Don't wait for the perfect color scheme or perfect layout.
Just do it. Every day you wait, a little kitten dies.
What should you put on your website?
You need 4 things:
1. Your name
2. Your picture (headshot preferably)
3. Your one-story sentence
4. Your contact information
I just ask that you don't do one thing:
Unless your grandfather is Winston Churchill, please dont use quotes. I
don't know what it is, but quotes but irk me to no extent. I see it too much
on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. All your use of quotes shows is that
youre able to regurgitate someone elses brilliant moment.
They all follow the same path:

I dont regret the things Ive done, I regret the things I didnt do when
I had the chance. Unknown
The quote doesnt add any value and your brand perception doesnt
change, no matter how amazing or insightful your life quote is.
OK, Im done with that rant.
Actually, I have one more topic to rant about that I cant even believe I
have to write.
For the love of everything, will you please make sure your website is
readable? Use a solid background so people can read your profile clearly.
There is a special place for people who create a website for themselves and
make the background image match the same color as the text, making the
whole thing nearly impossible for anyone to view what they wrote.
Its the equivalent of spending $400 on clothes to look sharp, then putting
a bag on your head so people cant see your face or hear when you talk.
I recommend 3 tools that will make creating this simple website an
extremely easy process.
Squarespace
Squarespace is my preferred option to create a simple one to two-page
website. It also allows you to accept payments if youre looking to sell a
product or service.
About.me
About.me focuses on websites focused on individuals. The website's

tagline is "Having an about.me page will make it easier for people to find
and learn about you," which is the goal for this month.
Just remember the goal is to focus on your brand, not how many social
networks you are on.
Flavors.me
Flavors.me is similar to About.me and also a good choice.
Wordpress
I actually use Wordpress for my own website and blog, but I dont
recommend it for this exercise because it can take a long time to set up
properly, especially if this is your first website.
2) LinkedIn profile
If you dont listen to anything I tell you, listen to this. Set up a LinkedIn
profile, and make sure its current.
Here are the basics you need to adhere to:
1) Your name
2) Your current job title
3) Your story (the one you just created)
4) Your previous experience
5) Your picture
If youre in between jobs, DO NOT put unemployed or looking for new
opportunities as your job title.
It will hurt you. Your brand will be tarnished immediately. You will not
find a new job this way. Im sorry if I hurt your feelings or if it doesnt
make sense.
Instead, dont use a title at all, or put independent consultant or
freelance consultant. Youre not unemployed. Youre a consultant who
helps clients with specific things that youre good at.
This helps your story when you start interviewing.
3) Email signature
The main problem with about 99% of all email signatures is that they only
give contact information.
Those 99% of signatures are missing an unbelievable opportunity to tell
the email recipient how you can help them. And most importantly, your
email signature is an opportunity to tell your story without actually ever
telling it!
Every email is a new opportunity to build a lasting relationship, and it
starts with the recipient learning more about you.
With a proper email signature, you can control the information the
recipient views. Since you have your story all set up, this all works in your
favor.
Heres my email signature:
Robbie Abed
Independent IT Consultant
E-Mail: Robbie.abed@gmail.com
LinkedIn: http://LinkedIn.com/in/robbiejabed
Mobile: 708.555.5555
My specialty is turning around and leading complex IT Projects by
acting as a communications bridge between IT and Business. Learn
more about me and how I can help you
The learn more links to my personal website, which incidentally has my
picture and story on the front page!
Wouldnt you want to know how many times that the learn more link
was clicked? Fortunately for you there is a super simple way to do that.
Step 1: Go to http://bit.ly.
Step 2: Register for a free account.
Step 3: Enter the URL you want shortened (AKA your website URL).
Step 4: In your signature, use this bit.ly link as the hyperlink for the learn
more link.
Make sure the visible text is the learn more link, and the actual link is
the bit.ly hyperlink behind the learn more text.
Now you can check on bit.ly to see how many clicks your link got!
Everything You Need

to Know About
1) Telling better stories
Emma Coats is a storyboard artist for Pixar who created a list titled The
22 Rules of Storytelling. Its an interesting list.
Here are a few that stick out to me:
#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your
head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.
Have you ever come up with a brilliant idea in the shower and thought it
was the greatest idea of mankind? You get out of the shower and tell
someone. They stare blankly back at you.
A few things about that situation:
Screw that person youre talking to and that dumb blank stare on their
face. I hope that look gets stuck and they have to live with that face for the
rest of their life.
It immediately deflates you. An idea that was going to make you millions
20 minutes ago is now something you will never pursue because it
sounded stupid when it came out of your mouth.
Your friend was right. That idea was stupid.
Put ideas out of your head and on to paper as soon as possible.
#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the
polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
This is what career freedom is about and the only approach you can take.
What are you good at? If youre an amazing engineer, are you bad at
public speaking? Have you tried public speaking? What happens when
you are forced to speak in public?
The same works the other way around. If youre a great public speaker
and bad at technology, what happens when you take a programming
class? What happens when you try to build a website on your own?
#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won't see what the
story is actually about til you're at the end of it. Now rewrite.
Youll get lost along the way, which tends to be the best part.
You will rewrite your story multiple times.
I also recommend getting help in this area if this is something you are just
not good at. One of the best storytellers / speakers I know is Brian
Burkhart from Square Planet (http://squareplanet.com). He helped me
structure my story and I have seen him personally turn many really bad
presentations into top notch with just an hour of coaching.
2) Leveraging your LinkedIn profile
I once went on a Twitter rampage about this topic because its so
overwritten, its crazy. There are probably 50,000 articles out there, and
they all say the same thing about LinkedIn.
Heres my only advice about your LinkedIn profile:
LinkedIn is the center of your professional brand whether you like it or
not. Take a look at your profile and ask yourself, Is this really the best I
can do?
Once you realize your profile is incomplete, your next step is to Google
LinkedIn Tips. They all say the same thing, so dont worry about clicking
on a bad article.
If you dont have LinkedIn, then please get back on your horse and
carriage.
3) Not letting Facebook ruin your brand
If prospective clients could see my Facebook profile, I promise you
nobody would ever hire me. OK, thats a little exaggeration, but I post
things on Facebook that I would never in a million years post on LinkedIn
and Twitter.
Here are my golden rules for Facebook:
1. Check your security settings. For the longest time, my posts were
available to everyone instead of just my friends. I changed it
back to my friends and everything was good again.
2. Dont add and accept friend requests from anyone from work
unless you absolutely trust them. Dont add your boss even if you
do trust her.
3. Your Facebook profile is usually the #1 result on Google for your
name. Turn it off. I would tell you how, but by the time I release
this book, Facebook would have changed the settings 10 times. Try
this link: https://www.facebook.com/help/392235220834308
4) Starting over on Twitter
If you dont use Twitter or dont have any plans on using Twitter, Im not
going to convince you. Just skip this section. Its not for you.
If you do use Twitter, then here is how I use it.
My old way:
Follow 1,500 people. Get lost in my Twitter feed of people

promoting their websites or the endless tweets that are just noise.
Read and click links all day. Barely ever comment on anyones
status.
My new way:
1. Unfollow everyone. I went from following 1,500 people to 0
followers in 5 minutes. It was the most amazing thing ever.
2. I followed 15 people I knew I would like to hear from.
3. I only follow new people I want to build relationships with. I
interact with them more often, and they interact with me as well.
I used to hate Twitter, and now I actually use it every day since my feed is
under control and I can interact with the people I want to.
How did I unfollow everyone so quickly?
If you use Google Chrome, you can use the extension I used, which
worked perfectly:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/twitterunfollow/mmbbkpclbfmdacknjehonbfcilcfnkmb?hl=en-US
This only works if you use Google Chrome as your web browser. You can
just unfollow one by one, but that takes forever if youre following a lot of
people.
If you look really hard, youll see a lot of very successful people on Twitter
who dont have many followers and tweet quite a bit, but dont get much
interaction. These people would love for someone to tweet them, and they
usually respond back.
If you tried to email the same person, you would almost never get a
response since they get so much email in their inbox.
5) Branding yourself online
Lets just say youre Chinese and your name is Yang Jinhai. For my
readers, this thought shouldnt be too outlandish.
Life is going great, and youre in the process of looking for a new job.
Youve updated your LinkedIn profile because you know employers will be
searching for your name.
There are a few other people named Yang Jinhai, so you uploaded your
picture on LinkedIn to make sure prospective employers can find you
more easily.
Youre having your morning coffee and checking up on recent news. Then
you read this on Time.com:
Entering the tiger enclosure at the Chengdu Zoo in Chinas
southwest Sichuan province, a man made vigorous, but
unsuccessful, attempts to entice the animals to eat him, a Chinese
newspaper reported on Tuesday.
I asked them to bite me and let them eat my meat, and so I did
not fight back, 27-year old Yang Jinhai told the
Chengdu Business Daily.
Yang, who according to his brother suffers from mental health
issues, climbed a tree to breach the enclosure. Stunned visitors
witnessed how he made exaggerated movements for 20 minutes
to tempt the Bengal tigers, but while scratching him and
dragging him by the back of his neck, the beasts refused to
devour him. 6
SON OF A $!$%.
Not the best time to be Yang Jinhai, and it comes at the worst time.
Future employers are going to be searching for you on Google, and the
first results are the guy who couldnt convince tigers to kill him.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/02/19/depressed-man-tries-to-feedhimself-to-tigers-gets-rejected/
6
Here are the search results for Yang Jinhai a few days after the incident.
Yes, this actually happened. I did not Photoshop this picture.

This calls for some damage control. You need to figure out how to make
sure your picture and your description appear #1 alongside your name on
Google.
If youre tech savvy and you can navigate the web, check out this
article by Andy Crestodina:
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/personal-branding-seo/
If you would rather sign up for a service that holds your hand
through the process, check out Brand Yourself:
https://brandyourself.com/
Of course this example is a little crazy, but a big part of online branding is
being able to control how you appear when someone types your name into
Google.
6) Blogging or not blogging

The only reason Im able to write this book is because I started blogging
first.
With that said, my recommendation to you is that a blog is probably not
for you. A blog is a good idea for about .03% of the readers of this book.
The rest of you (the other 99.97%) should avoid setting up a blog because
you most likely wont keep it updated.
There are times when I update the blog 5 times a week and then
sometimes I wont post anything for over 5 months.
The only time blogging becomes valuable is if you post consistently. For
every 10 people I hear say they wanted to start a blog, I see about 0.5 of
them succeed in actually making their blog a long-term asset.
If you still think youll maintain your blog consistently, here are some
sites to do it on:
1) Medium (http://medium.com) This dead simple platform is
beautiful, and all you have to do is sign up for it. It was created by one of
Twitters co-founders.
2) Ghost (http://ghost.org) Ghost is another simple and beautiful

platform. Its a little bit more flexible as far as editing the templates, but
still very to use. Its also open source, meaning you can download it and
host it yourself if you would like. But I recommend the hosted platform.
You can also use this for your main website as long as you set up an about
page.
Case Study:
Personal Branding
I remember sitting in a conference room for a work function while
listening to a senior partner talk about personal branding.
She hit all the main points:
You need a 30-second elevator pitch!
Be authentic in your interactions!
Build personal connections with your clients!
You need to differentiate yourself from the others to succeed in
your career!
It meant nothing to me.
I understood and agreed with everything she said, but I didnt know how
to take that advice and turn it into something more actionable.
Im going to let you in on a secret that not many people will ever tell you:
Your personal brand doesnt matter until someone goes out of
their way and endorses you for it.
I joined a mid-size company where my title was a Senior Consultant.
Although that was my title, I assisted with other IT functions in the office
just because I knew how.
A director in my office invited me to a networking event and he
introduced me to everyone in the group as the companys Director of IT.
I corrected him because that wasnt my title. I didnt like representing

myself as something that I wasnt. After awhile I gave up, because he was
still going to introduce me as the Director of IT no matter how many
times I corrected him.
A few months later, a position opened up for Director of IT. This same
director recommended me for the job even though I had never held a
Director of IT position before and didnt even have relevant job
experience for this position, especially for a company of this size.
I was offered the Director of IT job.
I took it.
If it were never for him, I would have never been offered this job or even
thought of myself as remotely qualified for the position.
Let me take this one step further. Justin Timberlake credits Michael
Jackson for giving him the confidence to leave N Sync to go solo7
But Jackson later got back in touch: "[He] called me on the phone
and said that he wanted to cut the record, but he wanted it to be a
duet between himself and I," Timberlake said. "And I said, 'Well
... we've already cut the song as an 'N Sync record. Could we do,
like, ''N Sync featuring Michael Jackson', or 'Michael Jackson
featuring 'N Sync'? And he was very absolute about the fact that
he wanted it to be a duet between himself and I."
That discussion was "the first idea I ever got about doing
something on my own", Timberlake revealed. "It was the first
time I ever really felt the confidence to do it." Though Gone was
released by 'N Sync - minus Jackson - on the boy band's final
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/07/justin-timberlakecareer-michael-jackson
7
album, Timberlake put out his first solo LP about a year later, in
November 2002.
So heres my advice for you while you build your personal brand:
Convince one other person first, then you can convince
yourself.
Month 3: Create
Something
The Hardest Part

About Starting
Anything
Whether youre starting a new job search or exploring different ways to
get out of your dead-end company, starting the process is hard.
Here is a list of excuses you tell yourself.
It takes too long.
Its too risky.
It takes longer than it should have taken.
It shouldn't be that hard to do, but it is.
I don't have the right skill set to start it.
I don't have the right skill set to finish it.
I don't have enough money to do it.
I can't convince other people to give me money to do it.
I barely have enough money for my family and me.
I don't know the right people to get it done.
I don't have a mentor.
The people who know how to get it done won't reply to my emails.
I don't know where to start.

I don't have enough time to start it.
I don't have enough time to finish it.
It's not worth my time to learn a specific skill set.
I don't have enough people on my team.
It sounds better in my head than it does in real life.
My real job takes up all of my time.
My family takes up all of my time.
Surfing the Internet is easier.
People might not like it.
People actually don't like it.
I can't get enough people to use it.
I don't know enough people.
I don't know the right people.
I think someone will steal my idea if I do it.
What I built is amazing, but people don't know about it yet.
A lot of people know about it, but they don't use it.
People are too busy to respond back to me.
Im too old to do it.
People will laugh at what I built.

People won't use what I built.
Im not smart enough.
I don't have enough patience.
I don't want other people to know what Im working on.
Someone already created what I wanted to create.
My idea wasn't really that great to start with.
The biggest obstacle to starting anything is you. You get in the way of
yourself. You care too much about what other people will think about it.
So what if people won't respond back to you? So what if people will laugh
at what you built? When you die, are they going to look over your grave
and say:
"Do you remember how crappy Robbie's blog was? I can't believe
he spent his time on that. I think he paid $10 for that lousy theme.
Actually, I think he created it himself! It was full of grammatical
errors and link bait headlines."
And what if they do say that? You're DEAD. It doesn't matter what they
think! LITERALLY.
Would you rather the conversation over your grave be like this?
"Whatever happened to the blog Robbie talked about writing? He
spent so much time talking about it, but I never actually saw it.
That was Robbie's problem: He had all these ideas, but never
finished anything."
No matter what decision you make, it will always be wrong.

Live your own life and stop caring what others will think about you. Start
something and finish it. Then laugh at how stupid your creation was. Then
create a better version. And repeat it until youre happy with the result.
Once you realize that failure is a made-up word and what others think
about you doesn't really matter, anything becomes possible.
Consumers, Critics
and Creators
There are 3 types of people in this world:
1) Consumers
2) Critics
3) Creators
A consumer is someone who consumes information such as reading blogs,
articles and books. A consumer will criticize once in a while, but will also
say great things about a product or article if they like it.
A critic is a hater. Everybody has at least one friend who criticizes
everything. Elon Musk can send 25 humans to Mars to create a human
colony and your friend would criticize the font used on the spaceships
because it wasnt big enough and that Elon doesnt get digital.
A creator is someone who creates something that consumers (and critics)
consume. A creator opens herself to criticism. A creator opens herself to
hearing suggestions on how to better improve her product even if she
doesnt ask for them. A creator opens herself to the chance that no one
will pay attention to what she created.
Which one are you? If you are like 90% of people, you are a mix of a
consumer and a critic.
Houston, we have a problem.
To achieve your goals, you need to switch from a consumer / critic to a
creator.
This is where most people just shut down and surrender. To change your
personal brand, you have to be creator. There really is no other choice.
Whatever you create will be the center of how you interact with your new
industry going forward. Without creating this, I'm sorry to say that the
rest of the plan becomes a lot less effective.
I will admit it. Creating something from idea to full execution is extremely
difficult.
If you don't create something, you will be just like everyone else who says
they can do other jobs. It's either you tell people, or you show people. I
want you to do the latter.
Action Plan: Move

From I can do that
to I did that
Do what youre passionate about and the money will follow.
I want to gather everyone who has uttered these words and line them up
in one big line where they stand shoulder to shoulder. With the biggest
rubber hand I can find and the fastest golf cart money can buy, I'm going
to push the gas on that cart as fast as I can and slap everyone in the face
with my rubber hand. When I'm done, I'm going to reverse the cart so I
can also backslap them.
Mark Cuban said this on his blog: 8
"Let me make this as clear as possible
1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.
2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it
more.
3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance
you will become passionate or more passionate about it.
4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even
harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.
Dont follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to
your passions and to success, however you define it.
http://blogmaverick.com/2012/03/18/dont-follow-your-passionfollow-your-effort/
8
AMEN!
My passion is food. If I followed my passion, I would have became a food
critic. Except instead of rating the food and writing articles about it, I
would just post the pictures on Facebook and Instagram and fish for as
many likes as I could get.
Too bad I already do that and my followers hate me for it.
So its safe to say that I should just stick with what Im good at.
If youre like me, you dont know why you do the things you do. You just
do it day in and day out. Then all of a sudden, one day you realize youre
actually really good at it.
The purpose of this action plan is to learn by doing. You dont have to take
a Myers-Brigg test to make sure youre doing what you excel at or find out
what flower you are so you can be guided in the right direction.
There is no right direction, so dont be fooled into thinking there is one.
Activity
The goal of this activity is to reduce the barriers that are blocking you
from starting your own company or being hired in your desired industry.
You will do this by creating a company with every expectation that the
actual company will eventually fail, but will generate enough value for you
to be in the industry that you want to be in.
Creating a company will allow you to:
-
Build more professional connections that can help you
Build your brand as someone who knows something about your

desired industry
Accelerate your learning about failure and success
The first problem you will face is that you need help creating what you
want to create.
This activity requires you to do one thing consistently: Tell
everyone and anyone who can help what your idea is and what you need
the most help with.
If only you had a network of people who have done what you have tried
and can give you advice. Too bad that network doesnt exist for you.
However, there is hope for you.
The one secret to getting introduced to successful people
I know the next chapter is going to cover building and maintaining
relationships extensively, but I couldnt help myself.
There is a single strategy to getting introduced to new people that no one
really talks about.
When I quit my job to start a company, I wanted to get to know more
entrepreneurs, investors and other successful people.
The only problem was I didnt know anyone who could help me. When I
say that, I mean zero people. Not a single uncle, cousin or university
alumni. I was completely on my own.
So how did I get to know so many new people in such a little time?
Every time I met someone new at networking event, I told him or her
what I was looking to build. I told them my idea from start to finish. I
then asked for their advice on what I should do next.
Thats it. Thats all I did. Thats the secret.
I told them what I wanted to do, and then I asked for their advice.
Do you know why it was so effective? It was so effective because people

wanted to help me. They wanted to offer their assistance, and if they
couldnt offer any advice they often knew someone who could.
And thats where the introduction comes in. They knew someone who
knew my desired industry in and out and offered to introduce me to them.
They offered an introduction, and before I knew it I was taking an elevator
to the 50th floor of the Hancock skyscraper talking to someone who had all
the answers I was looking for. I got great feedback along with a new
connection.
I would have never met this person at a networking event at least not
the ones Im invited to. This person would have never accepted my cold
email or LinkedIn request no matter how I phrased the email.
To be honest, I would have never even known that person even existed if
it werent for the stranger I just met who kindly offered to introduce me to
them.
Why many people will never do this
I just told you the secret to meeting successful people, and you know why
many people still wont do this?
Theyre afraid someone will steal their idea, and theyre afraid to ask for
help.
Nobody is forcing you to reveal your amazing billion-dollar idea, but if
you dont tell anyone, no one will ever help you. So if someone asks you to
sign an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) or even worse yet, YOU ask
someone to sign an NDA before you tell them your idea, do us all a favor:
Go to the nearest Wal-Mart and buy 10 Monopoly game sets. Open them
all up and take the money out and put it into a plastic bag. Throw the rest
away.
Wait until everyone leaves your apartment or house, and go to your

bedroom with the plastic bag full of cash. Jump on to your bed, turn on
your ceiling fan to the highest setting and start throwing the Monopoly
money in the air like you just built and sold your company for a billion
dollars.
Thats the closest youre going to get to becoming a successful
entrepreneur.
An idea is just that, an idea.
You get connected to successful people by trusting the connections of
others and trusting the introductions of others. As soon as you give off the
vibe that you dont trust anyone, no one will ever trust you and your idea
will remain just an idea forever.
Excuses you will tell yourself on why you cant create something
-
My ideas arent any good Tell that to the millionaires who

created the Pet Rock and the Snuggie.9
I dont have the time So why are you reading this right now,
exactly? Shouldnt you be spending more time complaining about
how you hate your job and how bad the job economy is and how
employers require 7 years experience for an entry-level job? That
sounds like a beautiful way to spend the rest of your life if you ask
me.
I dont know which idea to pick So your solution is to pick

nothing and complain about which idea to pick?
http://www.businessinsider.com/9-ridiculous-ideas-that-made-peopleridiculously-rich-2011-3?op=1
9
My boss will find out and fire me You mean, your boss is
going to find out that you are trying to better yourself and build a
brand name for yourself? Remember, these exercises are built
around you and your brand not some new idea thats competing
with your current employer. If youre building an idea that
competes with your current company, then yes, only share it with
people you trust.
Im afraid no one will like it Now were talking! You should

be afraid no one would like it! This should drive you to create
something great. What happens if no one likes it? Ill let you in on
a little secret: If you create something, someone will hate it. You
know who criticizes work the most? People who consume things
and dont create things. Your goal isnt to create something that
everyone likes. Your goal is to create something that a few people
will like and allow you to build your personal brand.
Here is a list of things that don't count as "creating something"

-
Participating in the #grammys commentary on Twitter. I haven't

seen a worse group of people than those who participate in these
live tweeting exercises.
Sharing the "latest news" in your industry. This is what most

people do. I see it all the time on LinkedIn specifically. All it shows
is that you can post links.
Everything You Need

to Know About
Consumers
What is a consumer? According to Wikipedia:
A consumer is a person or group of people, such as a household, who
are the final users of products or services. The consumer's use is final in
the sense that the product is usually not improved by the use.
A product can also be digital such as Facebook or a newspaper or an

online publication. Every time you read an article online, youre a
consumer of that product.
Consumers are necessary to keep the economy running. But, most
consumers never ever create anything.
Creators
Creators create the things you consume.
The founder of the company you work for is the creator. Someone else
created the event you went to last night. The phone you use every day, you
guessed it, was created by someone else. The fashion show that youre
going to next week: also created by someone else.
What do creators all have in common? They all started with an idea.
I dont know about you, but Im always thinking of ideas. I formulate ideas
by doing 3 things non-stop:
Write it down - As soon as I come up with an idea, I write it down in my
notes app on my phone.
Read non-fiction books - I usually come up with ideas when Im

reading. Im the kind of person who can read an entire page without
actually reading because Im too consumed with an idea I just came up
with.
Meet new people Meeting new people allows me to learn new things
about different industries as well as different problems those industries
face.
Critics
Screw these people. Thats all I have to say.
Job Trends and Digital Innovation
According to the latest statistics released by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the number of contingent workers in the USA today
stands at 2,679,800 nudging the all-time high record of
2,767,300 set in October 2006. While the economy as a whole has
shown a 1.56% increase in the number of jobs available;
contingent work has grown at the rate of 7.5%. What is more, a
recent survey has 40% of employers stating that they have plans
to hire contingent workers this year.
1/3 of Americas workforce is contingent workers. Thats a big percentage.
Here is an excerpt from an Accenture Survey10 titled Trends Reshaping
the Future of HR. The Rise of the Extended Workforce.
http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/AccentureFuture-of-HR-Rise-Extended-Workforce.pdf
10
To compete in the future, organizations will need to push talent

management beyond the confines of the enterprise wall to include
the new extended workforce: a global network of outside
contractors, outsourcing partners, vendors, strategic partners
and other nontraditional workers. By maximizing the potential of
both
an
extended
workforce
and
permanent
employees,
companies can gain critical advantagesincluding agility and

access to valuable talent.
To give you context, this was the front and center to the report and
displayed on a single page.
Outsourcing contracts with Fortune 100 companies have more
than doubled since 2000. According to some studies, about 20
percent of global companies have outsourced or offshored
workers. Outsourcing is now an estimated $6 trillion global
industry and is expected to keep growing
The question is, if companies are increasing outsourcing, who are they
hiring? And maybe more importantly, who are they letting go?
Many of todays contingent workers have high-level skills, deliver
top performance and are deeply engaged in their work. Often,
they have consciously chosen this type of work over permanent
employment.
High-level skills, top performers. Are you reading this?
Employers focus on stable, predictable job roles is giving way to

an emphasis on project work, which lends itself to hiring more
workers on a project basis. Increasingly, jobs may become
replaced by projects. This could give rise to a highly mobile
workforce whose members rapidly assemble and reassemble
around projects. In todays organizations, people are often pulled
onto teams because of their formally defined role in the
organization. We believe that enterprises could radically boost
their performance by sourcing talent for each task from
anywhere inside or outside the organization on one criterion:
who is the best person to perform the task?
This last line says it all.
Who is the best person to perform this task?
So what task are you the best person for?
Im hoping the story you created answers that question. If you cant
answer that question, then you need to revisit your story.
If companies are leaning on outsourcing companies, who are the
outsourcing companies hiring?
Lets look at some of the top consulting companies.
Deloitte LLP (US):
Staff headcount (consultants) have grown 18% since 2011.

The growth of digital innovation for consulting companies
Deloitte Digital was created on May 14th, 201211
Accenture Digital was created on December 3rd, 201312
Accenture, which is the worlds largest consulting company, has no choice

but to stay ahead of the curve.
So where is Accenture heading?
Lets take a look at some of the recent acquisitions:
11
http://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-launches-integrateddigital-capability-to-help-clients-accelerate-growth-through-digitaltransformation.htm
12
Accenture
Accenture to Strengthen Digital Marketing and eCommerce

Capabilities with Acquisition of Acquity Group13
Accenture to Enhance Digital and Marketing Capabilities with

Acquisition of Fjord14
Accenture is a technology company so thats expected of them. What

about the traditional Big 4 Tax, Audit & Accounting firms?
Deloitte:
Deloitte Buys In To Mobile Apps, Pays $40-50M For Apple's

Friend Ubermind15
Deloitte Digital Acquires Digital Agency Banyan Branch Consultant Moves Deeper Into Agency Turf With Purchase16
PWC:
Exclusive: PWC strikes deal to buy BGT Partners17
KPMG
KPMG Acquires Digital Mobility Company Cynergy Systems18
Ernst & Young
http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5740
http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5726
15
http://gigaom.com/2012/01/05/419-deloitte-buys-in-to-mobile-appspays-40-50m-for-apples-friend-ubermind/
16 http://adage.com/article/agency-news/deloitte-digital-acquires-digitalagency-banyan-branch/244848/
17 http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2013/09/24/exclusive
-pwc-strikes-deal-to-buy-bgt.html?page=all
13
14
https://www.kpmg.com/us/en/issuesandinsights/articlespublications/
press-releases/pages/kpmg-acquires-digital-mobility-company-cynergysystems.aspx
18
Semphonic joins Ernst & Young LLP, expanding its digital

measurement19
The conservative risk adverse companies are buying heavily into digital
and focusing on innovation! Didnt see that one coming, did you?
The big 4 are investing in the future and it looks drastically different than
what they are used to.
Why didnt these firms just train their IT consultants in digital interactive
marketing, mobile and innovation?
As someone who has worked as an IT consultant for Deloitte and
Accenture, thats out of the question. The skillset to be a management
consultant is much different than working for an interactive agency or an
innovation practice.
Their consulting practices continue to grow, but their digital presence is
lacking and this is why those acquisitions are necessary.
Take this quote for an example:
When we got the call that Deloitte wanted to send five people up
to Seattle to meet with us, my first reaction was, What? The
accounting firm? because I was not aware of what Deloitte
Digital was doing, said Dave Hanley, principal of Banyan
Branch, although he said he was aware of Deloittes growing
digital clout.
The founder of the company had no idea Deloitte would even be remotely
interested in their work, let alone want to acquire them.
The writing is on the wall.
http://www.ey.com/US/en/Newsroom/News-releases/Semphonicjoins-Ernst---Young-LLP--expanding-its-digital-measurement
19
These consulting companies have no choice but to expand in the digital

space and the only way they can do it effectively is to acquire companies
that have that knowledge.
This is a major gap for these larger consulting firms.
Lets look at industry growth projections.
According to BLS, the top 7 industries expected to be the fastest growing,
3 of them are professional and business services. In fact, of the top 20, 6
of them are professional business service related, which is more than any
sector on the list.
OK, lets look at some other non-consulting companies.

Wal-Mart created @WalmartLabs.20
As the idea incubator for the world's largest global retailer, we
don't just build products. We bring experiences to life. Every day
is an opportunity to reshape the eCommerce landscape while
having a lasting impact on the industry.
So, has Wal-Mart hired internal employees to lead @WalmartLabs?
Yes and no.
20
http://walmartlabs.com
In addition to growing our team organically, @WalmartLabs

has acquired businesses that help us grow our expertise to build
best-in-class eCommerce technologies and talent. These partners,
combined with the assets of the worlds biggest retailer, empower
us to deliver a unique customer experience.
Innovation and digital go hand in hand.
Lets put this into more context.
This guy (Barack Obama)
Hired this guy (Michael Slaby) in 2007 as the CTO of the Obama
Campaign:
In 2011, he hired this guy as the CTO for the Obama Campaign (Harper
Reed):
You dont need to do a double take to see the difference from 2007 and
2011. The types of people leading innovation are much different than they
were in 2008.
Michael Slaby was also the Chief Integration and Innovation Officer for
the Obama Campaign in 2011-2012.
You no longer need to be in a suit to be in charge of innovation. It comes
in all shapes and sizes.
Case Study:
Connections
Newsletter
Goal: Build a sustainable private network of people who can and WANT
to help you when you need it the most.
Mental Activity
The best time to look for a new job is when you dont need one.
One activity I did was to create a connections newsletter. Once a month,
I would email this group to let them know about people looking for jobs
and companies that were hiring. In the process, I helped many people find
new jobs and connected a whole lot of people. I also created this group so
I could tap my connections in case I was desperate to find a new job.
To this day, this private email list is by far the best asset I have created for
myself.
How prepared are you to find another job if you were to get fired today?
For this uncomfortable challenge, I want you to imagine the client had to
do an emergency budget cut and let you go, effective immediately. No
severance pay or 2 weeks notice because youre an independent
consultant.
This challenge is meant to mitigate the risk of you having to start from
scratch again with your job search.
Uncomfortable Challenge
Create a Connections or a Check-In newsletter where you

email a list of people at least once every 2 months.
o
DO include people you met for coffee and co-workers at

previous jobs. The first compilation of the newsletter
takes the longest, so I recommend setting a few hours
out of your day to compile this original list.
DO NOT include people you work with UNLESS you

absolutely trust them. The reason is that you might
need to use this newsletter to look for a new job.
Be consistent with sending the newsletter. I would send

this at the most once every 2 weeks, and at the
minimum once every 3 months.
Keep it private. This is very important. For this to

work properly, it must be a private group of only the
connections you trust. As soon as you introduce shady
or untrustworthy people into your network, others
start to lose trust in you.
After completing this activity, you have now created a private network
that works for you. A private network you can bounce ideas off of and get
leads for new opportunities for you. A private network of people who
know, like and trust you.
In this situation, your client just let you go. Now you have a group of
people you can send an email to and you better believe they will go out of
their way to help you.
If you didnt set up this newsletter, they would have received an email
from someone they havent talked to in like 3 years. Their reaction would
be, Oh wow, this person only emails me when he or she needs
something. They would then proceed to delete your email even if they
can help you.
The uncomfortable truth about this challenge
The uncomfortable truth is that youre afraid to send out a newsletter to
many people at once.
The uncomfortable truth is that youre afraid you will bother people by
sending them an email.
The uncomfortable truth is that youre afraid you wont be able to handle
it when someone unsubscribes from your newsletter.
All these fears are true.
I stare at the send button for at least a minute before I click it. I re-review
it at least 8 times before I send it.
I hate bothering people, so I dont send emails more once than once every
2 weeks even though I know I could get away with sending more.
I have a mini freak-out every time someone unsubscribes from my
newsletter.
But then I keep clicking the send button, and people respond positively to
it. And somehow I eventually get 2 new subscribers for every one I lose.
+1 Robbie.
Month 4 Building
and maintaining
relationships
Your Professional
Network Sucks
Youre eating lunch at your desk. You realize this mini break (although
youre working through lunch) is the best part of your day. The thought
races through your head that its about time to get a new job. You arent
happy with what you have now. You need something new and refreshing
with better career potential.
You think about next steps. You want to start interviewing as soon as
possible and see whats out there. You hate the idea of updating your
resume and applying for jobs online. You need a more streamlined and
efficient process.
Maybe you tell a few close people youre looking for a new job and ask for
their help. Sounds like a great idea. Now the question is whom do you
tell?
Your friends?
Colleagues you work with?
Your favorite Starbucks barista?
You need someone who will keep it private but will also give you great
advice on next steps. Someone who will connect you with the right people.
Isnt this what LinkedIn was created for? You immediately go on LinkedIn
and start browsing your connections for people who can help you.
Then it dawns on you. Everyone in your network is useless. Well, they

arent exactly useless but theyre useless to you.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but this is all your fault.
Here are 5 reasons youre at fault:
1. Everyone in your network is from your current or past jobs.
2. You didnt actively try to meet new people.
3. You helped zero people within your network. No one owes you
any favors.
4. Remember that email that you havent responded back to yet?
Trust me, they didnt forget.
5. No one knows who you really are beyond your previous job titles.
How to fix your network?
The easy answer: Meet people who could help you in 6 months, not who
can help you now. As Wayne Gretzky famously said, Skate where
the pucks going, not where its been.
1. Set up coffee meetings a lot of them. Cant get away in the
morning? Meet during lunch.
2. Meet different people, not just people in your industry.
3. Respond to all those emails sitting in your inbox. Offer your
help.
4. Reconnect with people you havent met in a while.
5. Be consistent. Do it every single day. Its exhausting, but its
worth every second.
Find a Second Home,

Fast
Coffee meetings are a fantastic way to connect with people, but they do
have their limits with the types of people you can connect with. I wanted
to connect with more influential people in Chicago such as investors or
successful founders of startups.
The main challenge with coffee meetings is that influential people
generally dont like to take coffee meetings unless there is a benefit for
them.
So, if I wanted to build a relationship with an influential person, I needed
to have a good reason for them to meet with me. I couldnt email an
influential person and say hey, want to meet up for coffee with someone
you've never met? That has a 0% chance of working.
My solution to this barrier was to find a second home.
I defined a successful second home as:
1. An existing community or organization of people who have skills
close to my desired skill-set.
2. A community that contains a mix of successful people and others
who want to be successful in their professions.
3. A community in which I can have honest conversations about what
Im trying to accomplish as well as provide feedback to their goals.
After some research, I found the company Technori met all this criteria.
Technoris main mission was to connect like-minded entrepreneurs and
celebrate entrepreneurship.
There were 3 reasons why I wanted to get involved with Technori:
1) Technori had a great reputation in the Chicago community of attracting
genuine, successful, motivated entrepreneurs.
2) Technori built a great community in Chicago where like-minded
entrepreneurs met every Friday over drinks. The location of the event
wasnt publicized so you had to be on a private email list to know where to
meet.
3) The co-founder of the company, Seth Kravitz, was a super connector.
He knew everyone in the community and had just successfully exited the
last company he started.
One day Technori sent out an email asking if people wanted to get
involved with Technori for content generation. I replied back to the email
and said I was definitely willing to help.
No response.
I sent a follow up email.
No response again.
So, I found the co-founders email on the Technori website. I emailed her
and told her I wanted to help out Technori in any way. Lucky for me, she
answered and invited me to the private Friday event at a restaurant.
I gladly accepted and I met her there. She then introduced me to Seth and
we talked for 15 minutes where I again told him that I wanted to help out
with Technori because I was looking to get connected in the community
and that I respected Technori.
Long story short, he gave me work to do along with a desk in an office in
downtown Chicago to work out of. I showed up every single day and
started to help out with more Technori related items.
Once I was officially involved with Technori, my ability to meet influential
people increased ten-fold because of the access to keynote speakers who
spoke at the many events Technori hosted.
To this day, the best decision Ive made was to join Technori. It gave me
not only a second home, but also a second family. It worked so well that
Seth Kravitz wrote the foreword for my book.
Which brings me to the main point of this chapter.
You should have 2 families at all time:
Your immediate family
Your professional family that is separate from your job, AKA your
second home
A second home allows you to create a safety net and empowers you to
advance your career.
Your boss will never tell you, Hey Jenny, I was talking with an old friend
who is looking for a new senior analyst at his company. I told him I
thought you would be a perfect fit and that you should leave this company
and work for him!
Its not your bosss job to look out for your overall career path, just your
career within the company. Big difference!
However, someone from your second home will say that to you because
they have nothing to lose if you accept the job. In fact, they will gain
because you will be indebted to this person for helping you find a job.
Every Single
Relationship Counts
Jason Fried wrote a post about how he was selected to write an opinion
piece for the New York Times21. In it, he writes:
When you look back on events, its pretty incredible how things
come together. Nothing happens independently. Everything is tied to
something before it. Sometimes the links are more obvious than
others, but its healthy to take a few moments to reflect on how many
things and people had to come together in order for another thing
to happen. You just never know.
Jason then listed the specific chain of events that led him to meet a New
York Times writer, and its an amazing process.
I started to go through my own chain about how I know the people I
know. It dawned on me that as Ive met incredible people, I have
employed one single mantra: Every single relationship counts.
All of the great things I have going in my life right now are tied to the
great people Ive met. I nurtured every relationship I could, and it has
paid off in spades.
Heres a short example of the chain of events that started 9 years ago:
http://signalvnoise.com/posts/3234-connecting-the-dots-how-myopinion-made-it-into-the-new-york-times-today
21
1. I applied for an internship on the website flipdog.com while I

was in college. Got job offer, later found out that my new boss
had no idea how the job posting found its way to some
random job website.
2. The boss liked me, then asked me if I wanted to build a
website for someone else. I said yes.
3. A co-worker told my boss his friend could do it instead
because he needed the money more than I did. I persisted,
letting my boss know that I was the guy for the job.
4. Through my persistence, I got the chance to create the website
for that new client. He eventually became my mentor.
5. 7 years later, I was looking for a new job and he brought me
on board as the Director of IT for a company he joined.
All of this happened because my boss 7 years prior liked me and was kind
enough to pass along another great work opportunity as a result.
How to make relationships work for you
Put yourself out there. This is probably the easiest step, but the one
that few people actually take. The only way to make relationships work for
you is put yourself out there so you can build great new relationships in
the first place.
Connect others. The best networkers I have seen are the ones who can
and want to connect me with other people who can help me. If youre an
IT person and someone needs social media help, connect them with your
close social media friends.
Have integrity. Integrity matters in everything you do, and everyone

can tell instantly how genuine you really are. Jeff Carter wrote a great
article22 about why integrity matters in everything, and I couldnt agree
more with his post.
In it he writes:
In my own dealings with people, Id rather be blunt and obvious
than hide behind mystery, or phrasing things politically. It cuts to the
chase and saves everyone time-and money. You dont have to be a
dick, but it does help to be transparent. If you dont like something
say it.
Not many people are like Jeff and would rather not respond to your email
request or just lie and say, That idea is great, I think it will make you
millions!
Be consistent. This is by far the hardest to do, but if done right, you will
absolutely reap the rewards. Consistently attend networking events,
connect others and do things with integrity.
Just remember:
Every single relationship counts.
Integrity matters in everything.
You just never know where a relationship will take you.
http://pointsandfigures.com/2012/08/08/integrity-matters-ineverything/
22
How to Get People to

Like You and Help
You
Every time a talented photographer friend posts a picture online, I
mumble to myself, "That mother F%$#%$..." and begrudgingly like his
picture on Facebook and then again on Instagram. He's so good at it, and
it makes me mad. It makes me mad because for most of my life, I thought
I had no real valuable skills.
Have you seen that Seinfeld episode where George doesn't know what to
do with his life?
In this particular episode, George quits his job and is talking to Jerry
about potential career options:
George: I like sports... I can do something in sports.
Jerry: Okay... umm... in... what capacity?
George: You know... Like the general manager for a baseball
team... <cue laughter>
That used to be me, but I think I have it all figured out now.
I've learned how to meet people and get them to help me. Some
influential, some not.
I didn't realize it until I was able to do the following:
Clear My Mind
I always thought I had a clear mind. That is, until I actually had a clear
mind and knew what that meant.
I was able to clear my mind by doing 2 things:
1) Forgive others who screwed me
Forgiving people is probably the hardest thing Ive ever done. Especially
when they don't deserve to be forgiven.
I'm asking you to forgive others who wronged you. Whether it was
personally or professionally.
Stop hating them. Stop being jealous of them. Let it go. Come to terms
with it. Don't try to understand why they did this to you. They did it for
their own reasons.
2) Forgive myself
In the beginning of my career as a consultant, I was so hard on myself. As
I mentioned in the first chapter, the absolute worst time for me was yearend reviews with my managers. They were always positive reviews, except
I always received 1 or 2 constructive criticisms. I always left those
meetings hating myself, even if I got the highest rating.
I didn't need to be perfect, but I was just so concerned with how others
perceived me. I don't know why, it was just the way it was.
So what I'm asking you is to give yourself a break. Forgive yourself for
making that mistake at your job that made everyone including executive
leadership mad at you.
You know that queasy feeling you get in your stomach when you see
another person who you personally or professionally let down and are
unable to look in the eye anymore? It's OK. We all have that feeling once
in a while. Some let it stay with them. Some forgive themselves and let it
go.
Forgive yourself for not taking that job when you had the chance. You
thought you did the right thing at the time. It's OK. Let it go. Theres
nothing you can do about it now. So move on.
Forgive others, and most importantly, forgive yourself.
You are an Equal
I have a friend who hates bothering busy people. I once connected him
with an influential contact. Let's call this influential person Donald. I did
everything by the book. I asked Donald if he was willing to meet with my
friend who needed deeper connections to find a better job. He said yes.
Great.
I sent an email introducing both of them. A couple months later, I asked
my friend how the meeting went. Heres how the conversation went:
Me: How did the conversation go with Donald?
Friend: I sent him an email after you connected us. He never responded
back.
Me: Oh, I'm sorry. Did you follow up?
Friend: Nah, I didn't want to bother the guy. I know he's really busy. I
don't want to be an annoyance.
Me: I already talked with him. He said he'd meet with you. This wasn't a
cold email. You just need to at least follow up one more time. This person
keeps his word when he says yes. I created a warm environment for you,
so you just need to persistent with him to get the meeting.
Friend: Are you sure? Man, I really don't want to bother the guy. He's got
so many things going on and I'm just going to annoy him.
Me: <Shaking my head> Well, you know what this person thinks now
right? Donald's thinking it wasn't important that you needed to meet with
him, so he just ignored the original email. If it were important, you would
have followed up at least once. You're right. He is too busy. He's too busy
to meet with people who never really wanted to meet with him in the first
place. Your loss.
Stop thinking about what this other person will think of you. Chances are
if you don't follow up to a warm email, that person will think you never
wanted to meet with them in the first place.
Which brings me to my main point:
If you think you are an equal, you will become an equal.
You are an equal to Donald. Even if Donald won 4 Nobel Peace Prizes, has
10 Ph.D.s and shot a hole in one as a lefty.
Even if you desperately need a job from Donald and Donald can make it
happen.
Even if Donald is smarter, better looking, lives in a better neighborhood
and buys islands because he's got nothing else to do with all his money.
You are equal to him.
My point is: You have to believe you are an equal or your relationships
with influential people will fail. No one wants to do business with
someone below them.
The same goes for you. You're not trying to do business with someone
who has less credibility than you have, right? The same goes for the
influential. They think identically to how you think.
Strategic Partnerships and Stalking
I had the pleasure to see Daymond John from Shark Tank speak at a
private event, and he spoke about how he started FUBU.
He was able to convince LL Cool JJ (remember this is like 1999) to wear
his clothing for promotional purposes. Gap approached LL Cool J to do a
free style rap commercial for them. LL Cool J said OK, but only if he could
wear a FUBU hat during the commercial. Gap spent $30 million on a
commercial where LL Cool J wore a FUBU hat and even slipped in their
slogan "For us by us.
How much did FUBU pay for this advertisement? Nothing. Zilch. All free
advertising. Daymond was able to use a strategic partnership to his
advantage.
How did he get LL Cool J and other rappers to wear his stuff? He stalked
them. He stalked them until they wore his clothing. He stressed how
important stalking is. He said to create a list of people you want to meet
and start stalking. If you do it properly, youll be able to get in touch with
them.
I also can't stress enough how important stalking is. If you're able to clear
your mind, consider yourself an equal and give incentive to this person to
believe in you or your brand, the sky is the limit.
Getting an Influential Person to Help You

With a little hesitation that you might discredit this entire book, I'm going
to quote the artist Pitbull.
Ask for money, and get advice.
Ask for advice, get money twice.
This works great for many reasons.
I was looking for a new gig and I identified a company I wanted to work
for. I knew a senior level director at this firm, and I was unsure if this
person would refer me to the company or not based on our previous
working relationship.
So I sent him an email asking about the pros and cons of working for this
type of consulting company. I let him know I was looking for jobs at
companies with the same structure.
He responded and let me know briefly about what it was like. He then told
me of a job opening and said he would gladly refer me if I was interested.
Fantastic. What this did was allow me to save face if he didn't want to
refer me. He could have just told me about what it was like working there.
Know, Like and Trust
So, let's just say you need to go in for the kill and ask someone for direct
help.
All you need to know is people do business with people they know, like
and trust. So next time you want to ask someone for help, ask yourself
these 3 questions:
Do they know me?

Do they like me?
Do they trust me?
If you answer yes to all three, go ahead and ask for help.
If you can't answer yes to all three, you can still ask for help. But chances
are they have no incentive to help you and your selfish requests for help.
What if they say no?
Forgive them for not responding positively and forgive yourself for
thinking you look stupid now.
Learn from the experience.
Let it go.
Clear your mind.
Rinse and repeat.
Action Plan: Find

Your Second Home
Goal: To become an extremely active member of a professional
organization that aligns with your objectives.
Whew, that was the most long-winded corporate worded sentence if I ever
heard one.
Im going to teach you how to target, stalk and engage someone, legally of
course.
After befriending them, the next step is for you to move in with them,
assuming they let you into the house, of course. Im speaking
metaphorically, of course.
I could teach you how to gain entry into Brittany Spears mansion without
setting off any alarms, but that wouldnt relevant now would it. Hint: It
starts with starting a love affair with her bodyguard.
This activity requires a LinkedIn account. At this point, if you dont have a
LinkedIn profile, you should stop reading and go back to posting quotes
on your Instagram.
If you pay for a premium account, fantastic. If not, you can still do it.
STEP 1: Write down the people you consider the top performers or the
most professionally connected in your desired industry and city.
STEP 2: Murder them
Editors Note: Please do not murder them. You need their help in the next
step. If you get everything you need from them in the next step, then
well I mean, do what you got to do. Just make it quick and dont rat me
out man. Your serial murderer trademark could be leaving a quote in the
living room of every person you murder. That would be intriguing.
STEP 2: Email them
Assuming you didnt murder them, the next best step is to email them
with one simple question.
So, youre probably thinking, Well, that escalated quickly Robbie. I
havent even met the person and you want me to cold email them?
The answer is, yes.
Lets say you want to email Janet Davis who is a VP of a popular digital
agency.
Your email should contain 2 sentences.
Subject: Hi Janet - A good digital marketing event or
organization that you could recommend?
Im looking for a high-quality networking group to be part of in
the digital marketing space. Are there any you would recommend
in the Chicago downtown or suburban area?
Based on my research, you would be the best person to answer
this question. Thank You!
- Robbie
This email is great for several reasons:
1. Its under 5 sentences (so its short and sweet).
2. You have successfully introduced yourself as someone who is
genuinely curious to join a high-quality group.
3. If she runs a networking group or event, she will recommend that

you attend hers. Voila! This is your in to meeting Janet in a
comfortable environment.
4. Youve shown that you have done research about her, which will
make her more likely to respond.
Once you start your search, you should send at least 5 of these emails.
STEP 3: Plan B: Scope the scene yourself
If you dont get a response, and dont know where else to get good
recommendations about local events, this is your next option.
Find 3 types of events:
1) General Meet & Greet Networking (Network after work, Speed
Networking)
2) General Networking with an emphasis (The Chicago Black
Professionals, Cheers for Moms, Chicago Technology LGBT, etc.)
3) Event / Speaker Focused (Tech Event with a speaker)
What event should you go to first?
I know this answer sounds simple, but exudes many people.
1) Go to the event that has the people that you WANT to meet.
2) Go to the event that you have something in common with.
For example, if you are a graduate of Notre Dame University, and you had
the option of going to the Digital Marketers in Chicago Meetup or the
Notre Dame Digital Marketers in Chicago Meetup which one are you
going to go to?
The Notre Dame event. Your college alumni are the most likely to help
you and connect you. The normal digital marketing group will be less
likely to help you initially because they dont have any common bond with
you.
Whatever you do, dont go to the event where you feel the most
comfortable. Go to the event that will give you the most value.
Heres an easy way to get started
1. Go to http://meetup.com
2. Select your city
3. Select Career & Business
If youre looking to start a company and dont have a clue where to start, I
see 3 events out of the 8 pictured above that can benefit you immediately
in terms of building connections with Chicago entrepreneurs.
I was going to make a joke about there being only one group for you if you
are Asian, professional AND love horses, but then I realized its the year of
the horse for the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2014, so Im an asshole and I
retract that statement.
STEP 4: Attend
Networking events get a bad rap. I hear the same things over and over
Oh, they are such a waste of time. And of course my wife and her
infamous networking is not working line.
My advice on this topic is to use networking events consistently as an

entry point into a new industry, then ramp down the number of events
you go to and focus on a few that keep you connected.
Use them as a survival technique initially with the plan of becoming an
official organizer or leader of a Meetup group. My suggestion is not start
one, but to join one.
Networking events are useless for me now because I already know enough
people to get connected to the people I want to.
Tips:
1) Do not go there with an agenda.
2) Do not go there looking for a job.
The only real benefit of a networking event is when you start to see the
same people over and over.
Here is how a conversation usually evolves if you attend the same event
multiple times:
1st time: Hi John, so what do you do?
2nd time: Hey John, good to see you again. How did your project end
up?
3rd time: Hey John, pleasure to see as always. My project to get more
connected in the digital marketing space has been going along well. Im
actually looking to connect with the founders of digital marketing
agencies in Chicago. What do you think the best avenue is for me to do
this? Is there anyone that you can connect me with?
Note: If you dont have a job right now and youre not creating anything,
there should be no reason why you arent at these events at least 3 times a
week. Going to a networking event is 100 times better than what you are
doing now: looking for jobs online.
STEP 5: Get officially involved

If you found a group you like, its time to get involved in a low
commitment way so that it doesnt interfere with your job.
What are the benefits of getting involved?
I tried to re-phrase this question without sounding like your college
counselor, but I couldnt no matter how hard I tried.
Getting involved and putting yourself out there is the only way to create
opportunities for yourself.
The only difference between this and college is that you arent doing this
to build your resume or show that youve had a leadership position. It
obviously doesnt hurt, but its not going to make a hiring manager
salivate over you.
The purpose of getting involved is to create more opportunities to advance
your career by connecting with people you can help and who can help
you. If the group is active and youre an active member, youll get firsthand access to the other members and build better professional
relationships.
Everything You Need

to Know About
Finding like-minded entrepreneurs
Shared co-working spaces are by far the easiest place to find people
working on entrepreneurial projects.
Take a look at http://desktimeapp.com where you can search for coworking spots. Some offer spaces where you can work nights and
weekends.
Here is a map of all the co-working spaces in Chicago.
As you can tell, there are a lot in Chicago.
NextSpace in Chicago is one of 9 NextSpace locations spread across the

U.S.
If you are looking for entrepreneur events, your first best bet is to look on
meetup.com or eventbrite.com. Start there until you get a better feel for
the city entrepreneur scene.
The true value of networking
If you dont like networking, dont do it.
If you would rather meet people on different terms instead of forcing
relationships at events, then dont go.
If you would rather go to an event, sit in the back and listen to the speaker
and leave when its done without talking to a soul, then do that exactly.
If you think that networking is a waste of time and you would rather
spend time working, then get back to work.
If you would rather put your headphones on and stay working without
engaging in meaningless banter happening around you, then keep your
headphones on.
But when you need a favor and you start reaching outside of your
network, dont expect these people to help you. You didnt care about
them then, so they wont care about you now.
The Only Way to Get a Busy Persons Time
Busy people are busy people. Say that 10 times fast.
There is only one way to get time from an extremely busy person and it
doesnt include waiting for them in the dark parking garage wearing all
black. That works too, but only for achieving short-term goals and a lot of
prison time.
The successful entrepreneur Steve Blank said:23

The meeting requests that now jump to the top of my list are the
few, very smart entrepreneurs who say, Id like to have coffee to
bounce an idea off of you and in exchange Ill tell you all about
what we learned about xx.
This offer of teaching me something changes the agenda of the
meeting from a one-way, youre learning from me, to a two-way,
were learning from each other.
The only way to get a busy person to meet with you is to offer them
something in return. I know this is harder than I make it seem, especially
when you have nothing to offer in return.
Start with the less busy people first, learn more about what you are trying
to create and then eventually you will find out what you can offer a busy
person.
http://steveblank.com/2013/08/12/how-to-get-meetings-with-peopletoo-busy-to-see-you/
23
Case Study: 250

Coffee Meetings in
400 Days
Meeting is the name. Coffee is the game. As the title suggests, I took 250
coffee meetings in 400 days.
My main motivations were 1) I like meeting and connecting people and 2)
I had just quit my job and had no Chicago connections. I wanted to get
connected in a deep way.
Heres a summary of what happened as a result of these coffee meetings:
My bullshit detector improved dramatically. Im not saying its
perfect, but I have gotten good at determining whos telling the truth and
whos exaggerating. Its now easy for me to answer these questions: Are
you just trying to get me to develop your product for free, or do you really
want technology insight? Do you really have 3 full-time employees, or are
they all unpaid interns? Is your startup really doing well, or are you just
saying that to make yourself feel better?
Some people have no business being entrepreneurs. I hate to say
this, but some people really should not start a project or quit their job to
start their dream project. I get the hustle and persistence and follow your
dreams and all, but there has to be a point where you look in the mirror
and ask yourself what youve really accomplished in the past 6 months or
year. No product, no co-founders, no customers, no funding, no industry
knowledge and no real vision. Sure, its a great learning experience, but I
sometimes question why people do it. Get a real job and get paid.
Under no condition should you talk smack or gossip about

another person or their business. I made this mistake once and Ill
never do it again. Gossip was going around about a startup funding
situation, and I repeated what I had heard at a Starbucks. Im 99.9% sure
the companys CEO was sitting right next to me and heard everything I
said. Thats the last time I spread gossip about someone I didnt even
know. I felt like crap for days. Just dont do it. Ive also made the mistake
of telling someone I hate a product, only to discover their best friend was
the founder of that product. It just doesnt pay to talk smack. Nobody
wins.
People are surprisingly open about difficult situations. I dont
know if this is a Chicago thing, a startup thing or people just trust me
thing, but for the most part people are willing to share the troubles their
companies have. I like when a meeting starts with I need help. It takes
guts to say that and although I usually cant do much to solve their
problems, I still want to help this person. I appreciate when someone is
vulnerable and opens up.
Trust is everything. Do I trust you? is the question I usually ask
myself when meeting someone over coffee. My first goal in any coffee
meeting is to understand how I can help this person. Whether its offering
technical advice or connecting them to another entrepreneur, developer,
business owner or investor, I really just want to help. Im a give forward
type of person. If I trust you and like you, well connect. Sometimes Im on
the fence about someone. Im not really sure what this person is really up
to even after a coffee meeting. I will shoot someone else an email or ask
someone I trust what they think about that person. Which brings me to
my next point.
A bad reputation can screw you, quickly. Once word gets out that
youre a bad person or that you do shady business deals, word travels fast.
Actually the word travels to everyone besides you. If I ask a trusted person
about someone else and I hear bad things, I immediately discredit the
other person. It was as if we never had coffee.
Execution matters. Technical or non-technical, I just want to hear you
created something, anything. It shows that you care and you can execute
at the bare minimum. If Im talking to you about the same idea you had a
year ago, the conversation isnt going to last long.
CREATE.CREATE.CREATE. Even if you create something that sucks.
People like other people who create and execute.
The most powerful question you can ask is, How can I help
you? Its a game-changing question. The look on someones face and the
contemplative sigh while they think about how I can help them is
awesome. It needs to be asked at every meeting. This question can open
doors and opportunities.
The more I see you, the more I like you, and the more we can
help each other. The coffee meeting is just the start. The people I see
consistently at meetings and networking events are the people I end up
doing business with. It shows they care about the community as much as I
do, and I appreciate their efforts more.
Being addicted to coffee is awesome, but sucks at the same
time. I was anti-coffee in a previous life. Now, Im all about it. I seriously
cannot imagine a morning without coffee. Its hot and makes me feel
awesome. It sucks because I know its not good for me. I want to stop. But
I probably wont. Coffee is for closers, right?
Being connected in any community opens a lot of doors. The

people I would have never had access to a year ago are now people I talk
to often. And because I have worked to become connected in a
community, I receive more responses to my cold emails.
Yes, coffee meetings can be a huge waste of time. I dont take coffee
meetings to make me feel busy. What I did was necessary to build my
personal platform in Chicago, but not necessarily the best route going
forward.
Overall, those 400 days were amazing. I dont regret taking that many
coffee meetings. It was one of the best decisions Ive ever made.
Month 5: Be
Vulnerable
Rejection and Failure

Definition of rejected:
Definition of failure:
Rejection could mean many things.
Not getting an email reply from someone you want to do

business with
Getting rejected from a job or startup you wanted to work for
Getting rejected for a date with someone you like
Examples of failure include:
Getting fired from a job or client
Getting a divorce
Shutting down a business you started
Getting kicked off the basketball team
How often do we actually experience failure in our lives? It happens, but

actually a lot less frequently than we think it does.
How often do we get rejected? As a starter, the answer is every day. And it
hurts. It hurts badly.
It hurts because I know another person got the best of me. A human being
on the other end said, You know what, I dont want to do business with
you, or I just dont have time to reply to your email. I couldnt care less
this person doesnt want to do business with me, or meet me for coffee, or
whatever it is. Its that I know this person has the upper hand. By
rejecting me, he or she has the advantage. It makes me feel stupid.
This has been by far the hardest thing to work on as entrepreneur. If I was
playing chess and the IBM super computer beat me, I would be mad
but I wouldnt treat it as a rejection or failure. It wouldnt sting. It would
make me work harder, but the feeling of losing to a computer wouldnt
necessarily hurt me.
Now, if I got beat by someone else in chess that I thought was inferior to
my chess ability, then it would hurt like hell. It would hurt because I know
the other chess player is happy as hell and hes laughing all the way to the
bank. It would hurt because now this person thinks he is better than me.
Still, to this day, the hardest type of rejection is when I dont receive an
email response or a phone call back. Its the hardest because theres no
closure.
Being rejected is hard to swallow. I still get rejected every day, but how I
handle rejection has changed since I had about a year to learn.
Before:
I took it personally. It was an obvious attack on me. The other

person obviously has no idea what they were doing. They
didnt know my true capabilities or my companys potential.
I never wanted to see that person again. I would avoid

the embarrassment for both of us.
I felt dejected and inferior. My anxiety increased with every

rejection.
I stayed up later at night thinking about why I got rejected.
I felt like I was doing something wrong.
I felt like I was the only person ever to get rejected.
I un-followed them on Twitter so I wouldnt have to see their

tweets or be reminded of the rejection.
If they had a recent success, I would never congratulate them.

Why would I if they couldnt even email me back?
I felt that they HAD to respond back to me out of human

decency.
After:
I dont take it personally. It is what it is.
I become extremely curious. Why wouldnt this person

respond back to me? What can I learn from this interaction?
Read. Read. Read. I read anything that helps me become more

influential, helps me build relationships or has to do with
building better social interactions.
Write. Write. Write. I write more and make sure they know
that I am still out there.
Refer them to interesting people I think they should meet.
Respond to their tweets.
Learn. Fix. Repeat.
Dont get me wrong. Rejection still hurts, but I take each

rejection as a learning experience. I learn how to get rejected
so I can avoid failure. Thats the only way to move forward.
No Response Means
NO. Deal With It.
Have you sent an important email to someone recently and are still
waiting for that person to email you back? Has it been more than 3 days
since you sent the email? It was probably a question about a business
relationship, job application, coffee meeting or a request to get press for
your company.
But, still no reply. Weird, right?
You probably made up excuses about why that person hasnt replied.
Shes a busy person. Shes probably running across town as we speak
going from meeting to meeting.
He probably has it starred in his email and is waiting to get 20 minutes
of relaxation so he can sit down and respond back to me.
He probably forwarded it to someone else, and that person hasnt
responded back yet.
Let me clue you in. That person already replied back to you, and the
answer was NO.
Except the response isnt in your inbox or stuck in your SPAM folder. The
lack of a response was the response.
Heres what that person told you, without ever speaking a word or lifting a
finger.
No, I dont want to get coffee with you.

No, I cannot connect you with that person.
No, you are not a fit for this job.
You now need to work through the 10 emotional stages of email rejection.
1. Excitement: Send an important email to the person you
want to connect with.
2. Anxiety: Refresh your email constantly for the first 5 hours.
3. Curiosity: Wonder why they havent responded back yet.
4. Investigation: Check your spam folder to see if their
response accidentally got flagged.
5. Confusion: Question your email. Maybe it was too long or
too short? Maybe they didnt like you when you first met
them? Why has that person not responded back yet?
6. Sadness: Be honest, its a little dejecting to send an
important email and not get a response.
7. Anger: Why hasnt that person responded back? How
unprofessional of them. If they wanted to say no, all they had
to do was say NO. That person doesnt know what theyre
missing out on.
8. Acceptance: Accept this person will not be emailing you
back. It is what it is.
9. Lack of Acceptance: Okay, so you havent truly accepted it
yet. They were probably busy and lost track of the email you
sent. So you send another follow up email with a different
approach.
10. Repeat: Go to step 2 and start the process again.
Ive been on both ends of the response-less email transaction. On one

hand, I wish people would give everyone an ounce of respect for what they
are doing and just reply back with an honest answer.
On the other hand, I can understand people who are bombarded by these
types of requests. If they respond back to the email, its just going to lead
to another, and the vicious cycle will continue. Its not that they dont
respect the person who emailed them, its just that they also need to
respect their own time and priorities.
Ive learned to accept NO responses and move on.
How do you avoid the pain of No Response rejection?
The answer to getting a better reply rate to your emails is to offer
something that clearly only benefits the recipient. Its about providing
valuable information and connections for others before you ever ask for
something from them. Be an authentic and useful connection. Dont give
them a reason to say no.
If you continue to do good work and get noticed in the community, they
will email you back eventually. When they do finally email you, just make
sure to not respond. Thatll teach em.
Everything You Need

to Know About
Rejection
My favorite rejection story was my first interview with Deloitte Consulting
when I was in college. The position was for a consulting analyst.
All I could think of at that time was what the hell is a consultant anyway?
Everything was going well until I interviewed with someone who looked
like he belonged in the Adams family. Except this guy was smart, real
smart. He asked me a question about my resume that I didnt necessarily
tell the truth about.
I didnt lie, but I tried to mask my experience as a network engineer
(which was my major) instead of a programmer, which was what I really
did at an internship at another company. He quizzed me on some basic
knowledge and I just could not answer it intelligently because, well, I
wasnt prepared for it. I messed up bad.
The worst part about this interview was, his eye contact. It was PERFECT.
He stared me down and never ever blinked. I was totally amazed and
freaked out about it at the same time. If there were a staring competition,
he would be the national champion 10 years straight.
He was the Michael Phelps of staring. I promise, it was that good. I can
tell this guy hated me. I didnt get past the first stage, as I predicted.
The funniest part about this is that a classmate of mine got accepted to
Deloitte out of college and the guy who interviewed me end up being his
boss. At a BBQ somehow my name comes up and he ended up telling my
old classmate that I was the biggest clown hes ever met. I ended up
interviewing with Deloitte 3 years later and received a job offer, which I
took.
I sent a cordial email to the Adams Family guy when I joined.
He never responded. I dont blame him.
My point is, rejection happens. Just because one person rejects you,
doesnt mean you are done for good. Keep trying.
Success and Failure
Success is like being pregnant. Everybody congratulates you, but nobody
knows how many times you were fucked before you got there.
Anonymous
Honestly, I dont think I need to say anything more about success and
failure. Failure is the only way to achieve success.
Hitting Rock Bottom
There is failure and there is rock bottom.
Its the difference between not being able to figure out how to make your
business work, and not being able how to figure out how to get home from
work because you have no money and your train card has no credit left.
There is nothing fun about hitting rock bottom, but sometimes it can be
the only way to succeed. Hitting rock bottom forces you to focus on
surviving. Im not saying you should shoot for hitting rock bottom, but
you will find out what you are truly made of if you allow yourself to be put
in that situation.
Find a mentor to help you grow your company / ideas

How do you find a mentor?
Imagine youre a 19-year-old teenager and the question was: How do I get
an attractive and smart female to be my girlfriend who I can also bring
home to my parents? I go on all the dating sites, match.com, OKCupid,
etc. but have not met any really attractive smart females that want to be
my girlfriend. What should I do?
The answer to that question, in case you are dying to know, is to be good
looking, successful and to have them chase you, not you chase them. They
will find you, if they want to find you. Straight up asking "Hey, wanna be
my girlfriend?" will likely get you slapped in the face, or in this case they
will ignore your message.
Build it and they will come.
For 8 years, I had a good corporate mentor, but when I jumped into the
startup space I had no one. It wasn't until I quit my job and immersed
myself into the startup scene by helping other people out that other
experienced entrepreneurs were willing to help me out.
Action Plan: Positive

Failure
The word fail has an extremely negative connotation.
To achieve career freedom, you have to go through failure.
You will send important emails that no one will respond back to. You will
create things that almost no one will use besides your significant other or
family. You will work all weekend on your idea and feel like you have
accomplished nothing.
You will get rejected often.
The action plan for this month is to actively work through failures in a
positive manner. Instead of focusing on your negatives, Im going to help
you build a stronger immune system to react from failures.
Step 1: Stop being negative and focus on the positives
Instead of saying:
1. Why cant I succeed in my current job?
2. Why didnt that person respond to my email?
3. I cant succeed because I live in the wrong city.
4. I cant succeed because I dont know the right people.
5. I cant get the job I want because I dont have the right skillset the
employer requires.
6. Im too old and Ive already missed my opportunity to succeed.
Try:
1. How can I use my strengths to succeed in my job?

2. How do I get this person to respond to me?
3. How do I get to the right city, or what strengths does my city have
that I can use to my advantage?
4. Who are the right people to know and how do I get to know them?
5. What is the skillset this employer requires, and how do I learn this
new skillset?
6. Now is the best time to succeed. Better late than never.
Step 2: Understand other peoples motivations and failures

Use this new positive attitude and learn from others.
The goal for this step is to get a deeper understanding of others
motivations and failures.
Here are 4 questions I want you to preferably ask your boss or someone
higher than you in the organization at lunch or after work:
Why do you work? Seriously, what motivates you to work?
Are you happy working here?
What are your longer-term goals?
What is the best mistake youve ever made?
Yes, these are the questions I want you to ask. Are they uncomfortable
questions to ask? Yes, but you will be surprised how many people will
open up to you and you will build a better relationship because of it.
Their answers will shock you and will give you an insight into their brain
The third question regarding goals can be an entire conversation in itself,
so be prepared.
The fourth question dives into failures and good outcomes that only
happened because of a mistake that the person made. You will be amazed
at the responses that you get.
Understanding others motivations has helped me benchmark myself
against other successful people.
Step 3: Build a support structure around you
In previous chapters Ive discussed why coffee meetings and creating an
email newsletter are helpful to building great relationships.
Out of this new community you have carved out for yourself, there are
usually 2-3 people that stick out as close friends that you can use for
support.
I cant stress how important this is that you have at least 2 people you can
email, call or meet if you are having a tough time.
Whens the last time you talked to anyone in this group? Send them a note
and catch up or just say hello. You will need them and they will most
likely need you. Dont lose track of these relationships.
Step 4: Expect and embrace failure
Failure is a good thing.
Failure is a great thing.
Failure is expected.
Did I tell you that failure is a good thing? If I didnt, I just want to let you
know that failure is a good thing.
Embrace failure. Smile when it happens.
Learn and move on.
Case Study How a

Broke Trip to Aldi
Changed My Life
I was shopping at Aldi as a college student, and I only had a few dollars to
my name. I had to take a few things out of my box because I didnt have
enough to buy everything I wanted. I was in between paychecks. I literally
had less than $10 to my name when I was buying groceries.
I was broke.
I still remember exactly how I felt on the way back to my apartment. I was
quiet and deep in my own thoughts. It was the first time I thought to
myself that I would never let this happen again. I would never let myself
get to the point where I had to make life decisions in line at a discount
grocery store.
It was a sickening feeling I could feel deep in my stomach.
Yes, I could have asked my parents for more money, but I couldnt bring
myself to do it. I had convinced myself that I was going to be completely
independent and I would do it all by myself. I had no choice.
I never wanted to feel that way ever again. I wasnt going to let myself
down and I wasnt going to let my parents down. I needed to help them,
not the other way around.
So what was the solution to make sure I was never this broke ever again?
The answer was clear: Work my ass off 24/7. I needed to work more,
because working more = more money. More money = rent payments, food
and tuition payments. I needed more money to be independent. I couldnt
rely on anyone but myself.
I only thought 1-2 months ahead. I didnt think about where Id be 2-4
years from then. I wasnt smart enough to do that. I was in survival mode,
not where do I see myself in 5 years mode.
I started applying everywhere on campus.
Within 3 months, I had 3 different jobs and was working 30-35 hours a
week in addition to attending school full-time. I woke up at 8 a.m. and
usually got home at 11 p.m. These were all standard office and student IT
jobs. Answer phones, fix printers, do your homework when you have
nothing else to do. My third job was working at a small ethnic grocery
store.
My plan worked. My next step was to find a great career in the IT
industry.
When I graduated, I found myself in the same predicament as before. I
was an average student with no connections to the corporate world. I
knew no one who could open doors for me. I had to find a way to do it
myself.
I didnt really have any strategies to landing an awesome career. Scratch
that, I had one strategy:
Work my ass off.
Cast a wide net, and something has to hit. That was my strategy.
I went to every job fair, even if the job fair was just for women or for
African Americans. I got weird looks, but I didnt care. The recruiters still
talked to me. All I wanted was face time.
I sent follow-up emails and applied for every internship and job that I
could.
It was the only way I knew how.
It worked. It had to work. There was no way it couldnt work.
The payoff
I joined a group at Purdue called Minority Peer Counselors (MPC.) By
senior year, I was the director of the organization. We called high school
seniors to let them know they had been accepted into Purdue University
and would answer any questions they had. About 90% of the time, it was
just the high school student screaming in excitement on the other end of
the phone because we called them before they received their official
acceptance letters.
There I met a wonderful woman named Antonia (Toni) Munguia who was
an Associate Director of Admissions and was responsible for this group. :
She was one of the very first people who I met who actually cared about
me and wanted me to succeed.
Senior year I was heads down applying and interviewing. I had 2
internships under my belt, including one with Dell, which was one of the
hottest companies at the time.
A big job fair was coming up. Toni asked me if I wanted to help a recruiter
at Accenture set up an informational session the day before the job fair.
My response was: Accenture? Never heard of the company, but sure. I

think they do consulting, and Im not really sure what a consultant does.
But I will definitely be there. I called off work and arrived the next day to
help the recruiter.
This connection gave me the opportunity to meet the recruiter before the
job fair. I still went to the job fair and asked to speak specifically to her. I
said hello again and she made sure to get me an interview.
I was ecstatic. I became obsessed with a company I didnt know existed 2
days prior.
I pulled out all the big guns. I brought in 5 letters of recommendation
specifically tailored for Accenture to my first interview. Yes, thats right. 5.
Every job I ever worked at, plus the entire Purdue admissions office
signed a recommendation letter. Its safe to say that I wasnt messing
around.
I had no choice.
I had to make this happen.
I didnt just want this job. I needed this job.
It turned out Accenture was looking for technology graduates who didnt
mind working until 7 p.m. every workday. I was a perfect fit. I got an offer.
I had 19 first round interviews with other companies and ended with 4 job
offers (Thats 15 rejections if youre counting.) Accenture was the clear
winner. I started work 2 weeks after I graduated. I would have started the
day after I graduated if they had let me.
I didnt need a break. I didnt even know how to take a break. It went
against everything I stood for. My motivation was purely driven on
advancing my career in the best and fastest way possible.
This went on for about 8 years. For 8 years, I worked every single day I
could. Nights, weekends, you name it. I was working whether it was for
another company or when I quit my job to start my own company. I was
working even when all my work was done. It didnt matter. I found work. I
was always heads down. I was one of the most reliable and loyal people
you could ever meet.
I didnt realize that the same strategy that helped me get ahead was now
hurting me. I was too deep in it to understand what I was doing wrong.
It wasnt until recently I figured out that Ive done enough surviving.
Maybe now I should focus on living and start thinking 5 years ahead
instead of the 1-2 months I am accustomed too.
Being broke at Aldi was the best thing to ever happen to me. It gave me a
fire under my ass I didnt know existed.
Every time I pass an Aldi, I always remember getting the quarter back
from the shopping cart and the feelings it generated every time I did it. It
always humbles me and also generates motivation to succeed even
further.
It was also my first realization that I couldnt do this on my own. I needed
as much help as I could get.
Month 6: Make a
Decision
Whatever Decision
You Make, It Will Be
Wrong
I was scared to quit my first job. I didnt want to tell my boss I was
leaving. I knew she would be mad at me. I was leaving for a competitor
who was also going to pay me more. I was a traitor. How dare I leave a
company for better money? She kept telling me I was making the wrong
decision by leaving and that I shouldnt be making a decision based on
how much the new employer is going to pay me. She was right I
shouldnt base my decision to accept a new job based only on salary. That
obviously wasnt the only reason I was leaving, but she was convinced.
Did I make a wrong decision by leaving? No, I can safely say I made the
right decision. However, if I asked my old boss today if I made the right
decision, she would still tell me no. It doesnt even matter if I had quit and
created Facebook and became a billionaire. In her eyes, I made the wrong
decision. It took me awhile to realize that every decision I make will
always be wrong for at least one person. There will always be someone
who is negatively affected by your decision, even the small ones.
When I quit my job to start my own company, everyone thought it was a
bad decision. Not one person thought my decision was a good one. I had a
great, steady job with marketable technical skills, and here I was quitting
my job and going completely on my own.
I can safely say I made a great decision. Ive reached many of my goals,
and Ive managed to completely rebuild my business network, which had
previously been worthless. I made a great decision. Best decision Ive
made in awhile.
If you ask my previous employer, they still think it was a wrong one. If you
ask my family, theyll tell you they arent convinced my decision was right.
You can make any life decision by asking yourself 2 questions:
What do you want the outcome of your situation to be?
What do you secretly want the outcome of your situation to be?
Choose what you secretly want and never look back.
How do I know the decision is the right one?
You wont know until youve made the decision and lived the results of it.
You can listen to your heart to figure out if its the right decision, but I
dont even know what that really means so I suggest you ignore that
advice.
What if it turns out to be a bad decision?
Even better! The next time someone asks you Whats the best mistake
youve ever made? you have a story to tell.
There is nothing more interesting than someone talk about a bad decision
they made.
Bad decisions are underrated. Not making a decision is just filled with
anxiety and regret. Dont fall into indecisiveness.
What if other people disagree with my decision?

If you take a job in another state, you will disappoint your hometown
friends and family and please the person that hired you.
If you quit your job, you will disappoint your boss who has to replace you
and make the startup community happier because they have a new person
in their community.
If you stay at your job, you will disappoint yourself.
If everyone agrees with your decision, something is wrong.
What happens if it was a REALLY bad decision?
Lets just say you made a colossal mistake and followed through on a bad
decision. What you secretly wanted was to not make a dumb decision,
Robbie!
Ok, Ill admit it. Sometimes you can make a boneheaded decision and its
so embarrassing that you cant tell this story at a cocktail party.
Here are the steps to recover from a bad decision:
Step 1. Do NOT regret the decision you made
It was a mistake, but you learned from it and thats the point. You will
never make that decision again and wont haunt you anymore.
Step 2. Tell others that you were wrong and apologize for
making a bad decision
Do this immediately. Do not let it linger. Get it out in the open. Create
closure as soon as you can.
Step 3. Make another decision Just dont mess this one up

This time dont go with what you secretly want. Go with the safest surebet decision that will get you back on your feet while you figure everything
else out. Youve made enough bad decisions for the day.
Dont make a risky decision with another risky decision unless you can
handle that type of risk.
This is why I always advocate for never burning any bridges with
employers and family.
You never know when you will need someone.
Lie Like Hell On Your

Exit Interview
If you do decide to quit your job for another job or to do your own thing,
youll most likely be asked to do an exit interview.
You know all those nasty things you always wanted to say to people while
you worked there? Well this is your chance to really let it all out. And you
get to do it through a confidential processor, AKA Human Resources.
Yeah right. Exit interviews are worthless. Yes, I said it. They are
absolutely worthless. Exit interviews are your one last chance to burn
every bridge within the company.
HR will make it seem like everything you say is confidential, and no one
else will ever know what you said. Its partly true. They dont tell other
people *exactly* what you said, but trust me, everyone will find out.
Everyone thinks an exit interview is their last chance to let management
know things need to change. Everyone thinks they will be the change
catalyst on the *way out* of the company. Youre going to be the hero! The
hero who changed the company for every other employee who still works
for this horribly managed corporate company.
Here are my tips for an awesome exit:
If you have nothing nice to say, then lie! 24]
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/07/31/you-quityour-job-now-they-demand-an-exit-interview-what-do-you-say/
24
Everything you say can and will be used against you in the court of
burning bridges. Nothing you say is confidential. I dont care what HR
tells you. If you call your soon-to-be ex boss an asshole, they will tell your
bosss boss, who will then tell your boss what you said. Theyll all have a
good laugh, then come to the conclusion that youre the real asshole. And
were all back at square one.
Be Positive Pam and stick to positive things. Negativity is not going to
help the company now or later. Dont burn bridges.
Assume HR knows how bad or great the environment is. They generally
know already and are probably planning an exit just like you (they also
might be reading this book.)
Youre not a hero for leaving. You will think youre better because youre
onto the next place, but the next place has its own issues! So dont act
cocky in the exit interview.
In case you missed my warning a few paragraphs ago, here it is again:
Dont.burn.any.bridges.period. You never know whom youll run into in a
few months or years from now and when youll need their help again.
Everything You Need

to Know About
JOB REFERRALS
I know this news isn't going to come easy to most of you. Employers
prefer candidates who get referred from within the company as opposed
to applying online.
In other words: No Shit Sherlock.
But, I'm still not convinced you still totally understand how big referrals
are.
"Even getting in the door for an interview is becoming more
difficult for those without connections. Referred candidates are
twice as likely to land an interview as other applicants,
according to a new study of one large company by three
economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. For
those who make it to the interview stage, the referred candidates
had a 40 percent better chance of being hired than other
applicants."25
40% better chance!
25
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/business/employers-
increasingly-rely-on-internal-referrals-in-hiring.html?
Human resource departments have recognized the same pattern.

Our analysis shows referred hires perform better, stay longer
and are quicker to integrate into our teams, said Mr. Nash of
Ernst & Young.
As a result, within the last two years, firms like Deloitte, Ernst &
Young, and Booz Allen have created dedicated teams within their
human resource departments to shepherd prospects through the
system. Over all, Deloitte receives more than 400,000 rsums a
year, but recommended employees are guided along by a 12person team.
Long story short, getting referrals should be your first choice, not your
last one.
But, lets say that you dont have any referrals. You have legitimate
reasons to have this problem:
1. You just moved to a new city
2. You are new to a specific job industry so you havent been exposed
to industry contacts
3. You feel uncomfortable talking to random people
Not legitimate reasons to have this problem
1. Youve been too busy working to go to networking events
2. You think networking is for losers
The power of a referral
This graph should tell you everything you need to know about an
employee referral.
26
6.9% of applications come from employee referrals, yet it leads to 39.9%

of all hires.
http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/recruiting-data-employmentstatistics-by-jobvite-index/
26
So, the question to you is: Why you are spending so much time applying
on job boards and career sites when its clear you should be spending your
time on garnering employee referrals?
Read the chapter titled Your Professional Network Sucks again if you
need help on how to build referrals.
RECRUITERS
Let's be clear on what a recruiter is: A recruiter is a salesperson whose
only way to make a living is to SELL jobs. If you get a job through a
recruiter and your salary is $50k, often the recruiting company will
receive $10k payment from the company that they sold the job too.
They are no different than a car salesman.
Do a Google search and see what Google auto-completes for you.
Am I saying recruiters are all useless and you should avoid them like the
black plague?
Are there good car salesmen? Of course there are a lot of great car
salesmen just as there are great recruiters. The issue is the system is set
up in favor of the car salesman. The main issue is you don't know whom
to trust.
Am I saying a recruiter can't help you find a job?
I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is they will find you something
when it suits THEM. The system is set up so that they sell their jobs, not
to help you with your career. If you are a match and they think the
employer will help you, then they will help you.
Dirty tricks that recruiters use

1) Post jobs that don't actually have openings
This is probably the worst tactic a recruiter can use but it is used widely in
the recruitment world. They post these jobs so unsuspecting applicants
apply and the recruiter can use their information to market to them later.
2) Keep a job opening up after it has already been filled
Similar to #1, but if a job opening brought them a lot of resumes, the
recruiter will keep the posting up so they can continue to collect resumes
even if the position is filled.
3) Post jobs for their clients whom they don't have exclusive
rights to
What this means is that companies will often use multiple recruiters to fill
an opening. It's to the hiring company's advantage to use multiple sources
to find the best candidate. So what this means is that you will have
multiple recruiters competing to find one position for the client! So the
recruiter has to convince the hiring manager their candidate is better than
anyone else's!
What this also means is often the hiring manager won't respond to the
recruiter's emails! So, you have to convince a recruiter youre a good fit for
the job, and the recruiter has to do the same thing again to the hiring
manager! It's all messed up.
4) Post jobs that they have no clue about
This is like a car salesman in Florida selling you snow skis when he's
never left the state of Florida and hasn't skied a day in his life.
Again, they are salespeople. There are some really good salespeople, but
most of them don't care about you or really have any incentive to help
you.
5) Bring in extra candidates when the ideal candidate has
already been filled
A recruiter will do this to fill a line-up even when the perfect candidate
has already been located.
How can you verify that the job actually exists before applying
to it?
There isn't an official way to do it, but here are some things I would do:
1) If it never says the company name, it's either fake or a recruiter who
wants to collect "Project Managers in Northwest suburbs."
Why won't the recruiter post the name of the company in their posting?
They do this to limit the amount of information you have to get a referral
in the company. Remember, they make money if you get a job through
them. If you knew the name of the company, you can go straight to
LinkedIn and find a connection to find a referral (which they all know is
the best way to find a job.)
They will tell you it is because of confidentiality reasons between them
and the client, which may be true, but its just too convenient of an excuse.
2) If the job description is very generic.
3) I would copy a few sentences from the job description and then Google
it. If I see the same position on multiple sites, that generally means
multiple recruiters are looking to fill one job. This isn't an ideal situation
as I mentioned before, but at least you know the opening is legit.
4) I would try my hardest to find out who the client is through my Google
snafu. Once I find out who the employer is, I would look on LinkedIn for
that company and see if the posting exists on their page or if I know
someone in the company who can refer me in.
5) If the description starts off with my client is looking for, that means
youre dealing with a recruiter.
What websites have real jobs?

Any website where the company has to pay for every single job posting,
the chances that the position is real goes up significantly. For websites like
Monster, Career Builder and hell even LinkedIn the recruiter can pay a
membership fee to post a certain amount of postings monthly. So as long
as they stay under their quota, they can post any job they want and they
are losing out on opportunities to collect resumes and email addresses if
they don't post generic job postings.
Whats the best approach to finding a job online?
My approach is to use these websites as a STARTING point. Not as an
ending point. I use these job sites to collect information, but never to
actually find a job.
PAY TO PLAY
If anyone asks you to pay them to connect you to people, you should drop
your relationship with that person right away even if you think they can
help you.
Connectors connect people to benefit them in other ways. If they benefit
through accepting payments for connecting, the connection loses all value
because both parties know that you paid to get connected.
Avoid it all costs.

LOOKING FOR JOBS ONLINE
At the highest level, this is my process when Im searching for project
manager jobs in Chicago:
Before I start, I just want to say I have anxiety just going through this
process even though Im not looking for a job. Its a bad, bad horrible
disjointed process. I wish there was an easier way to do this online.
Lets just say for some ungodly reason you wanted to become a project
manager. If I were you, this is what I would do:
1. Go on indeed.com and search for Project Management jobs in
Chicago
Indeed is just a job aggregator from multiple sources. Its a great starting
source to find information, and thats it.
This was the result:
Anxiety slowly building to being unmanageable.
Lets take a closer look at the results:
The first 2 results are sponsored ads, which for some reason I cant put a
finger on signifies to me that I shouldnt click. I dont know what it is, but
I generally just glance right over it. I do the same thing with Google
Search ads too.
If you have to pay in addition to your normal posting fee to get people to
apply, something is wrong in my opinion.
The second warning sign for me was the 30+ days ago, which means the
posting has been up for a while. The rest seems OK, but it still seems very
generic.
Let me try this again by filtering by focusing my search on IT Project
Manager as opposed to Project Manager so I dont have to be good at
sanity design details to find a job. I can already tell that its going to be a
bad job.
Sorry.
I also only want contract jobs and I dont want to deal with recruiters so
Ill click on those filters and try again.
Lets say that Aon seems like a good place to work.

Now, here is where many people go wrong when they search for a job.
They click on the job description, see a wall of unformatted text and either
they:
1. Convince themselves that they arent qualified for the job so they
dont click the apply button. In reality, they just dont want to click
the apply button because they know whats next
2. Click on the apply button and take the next 45 minutes applying to
the job on their website, re-filling out the same fields they filled
out a million times and doing a custom cover letter.
Actually applying is obviously much better than not applying at all, but
still very flawed.
Here is my step-by-step approach.
1. Go to LinkedIn
2. Click on Advanced Search
3. Type Project Manager in the keywords section and AON in the

company section.
I also chose to filter by current company is AON or AON Hewitt.
The top 6 results are 6 people who currently work at AON and are
currently project managers or have been project managers.
Remember, AON is a big company so there are multiple of these
positions.
OK, so whats next.
Of the 6 top results, I actually know someone who works at AON! It is a
previous co-worker of mine who I had no idea actually works at AON. Im
going to message her through LinkedIn. Since were already connected,
LinkedIn gives me the ability to directly message her, even without a
premium account.
What do I say to her?
Since I know her, I would email this:
Well call her Patricia.
Hi Patricia!
How are you doing? I was looking into AON and was wondering if you
could answer a few questions for me since you currently work at AON.
Do you have time for a phone call on Monday or Tuesday next week? It
would be great to catch up.
- Robbie
Why did I purposely did not tell her I was applying for a specific
position and needed a referral?
Oftentimes, there is more to the story than the job posting will tell you.
Maybe there are more job positions available that Im not aware of but
her inside knowledge could help me learn that. .
Also, it helps to re-connect with her so it doesnt seem like youre trying
to abuse her only for a job.
Why contact her if shes not the hiring manager?

At this point, you have no idea who the hiring manager is. Patricia could
have valuable insight and could possibly refer me to the hiring manager or
to another manager who is hiring a similar position.
What do I say when I call her?

Ill never understand why people have a hard time talking to people that
they have had a relationship with in the past.
You tell her the truth!
You can say:
Patricia,
Ill be honest with you. Im in a job right now that I hate, and I have been
looking to get involved in Project Management for a while and I found a
posting for a Project Manager on AONs website. I looked on LinkedIn
and I then I found out you actually work at AON and at one time did
project management!
I was wondering if you could tell me more about project management at
AON and what your recommendation would be for me to get an
interview with the hiring manager. At this point, I dont know who that
is and thats why I got in touch with you!
What if I only have a 2nd degree connection?
Chances are, you have very few connections that work at AON, but you
know a lot of people who know people who do (according to LinkedIn, of
course).
In those cases, my #1 goal is to get a referral within the company and do

everything in my power to not click the apply now button.
How I ask for an intro:
Hi John,
I see on LinkedIn you are connected to John Smith who is a project
manager at AON consulting. Ive been doing my research about working
as a Project Manager at AON and Im looking for someone inside the
company to talk to. Would you be able to connect John and I over email?
Here is a link to his LinkedIn profile <link>.
Thank You!
-
Robbie
I would send this same exact email for every connection on that search
results page I was trying to get in contact with.
What if I am applying at a startup?

If youre looking to join a startup company, then the search concept is still
the same except many startups dont post their job postings that are found
on indeed.com.
Lucky you, the tools available for startup jobs are MUCH better than
The one tool that should be center to your search is Angel List
(http://angel.co).
Just looking at the home page makes me want to adopt a kitten.

Click on Jobs and search away.
Again, use the same methodology you would with finding a corporate job.
You can apply on the website, but your best bet is still a referral in to the
company. Just because the job isnt posted online, doesnt mean the job
doesnt exist.
1. Find company you want to work for
2. Find open position (not always needed, but a good signal they are
hiring)
3. Find someone you know in the company
4. Find the hiring manager
Action Plan
How hard you work doesnt matter anymore.
Your annual performance reviews are useless and ineffective.
All signs are pointing to a job market where employers prefer interim
workers to full-time resources.
Over deliver and all your co-workers and bosses will love you for it. They
will congratulate you, recognize you and reward you. It will make you feel
special. It will make you more motivated to work harder and do better
work.
You will feel wanted. You will feel like you finally work somewhere where
people respect you for your work.
You made their lives easier. They were able to excel because of your hard
work. You made them look good.
You made their lives easier. They were able to excel because of
your hard work. You made them look good.
You made their lives easier. They were able to excel because of your hard
work. You made them look good.
Did the hard work make your life easier?
Were you able to advance your career because of your hard work?
Did you look good?
Who was that reward for? Seriously. Why did they give you an award?
Did you receive an award so you can feel better about yourself? Or did you
get an award so you can be motivated to keep excelling at the pace you are
excelling.
What are the benefits of making sure you keep working harder?
Are the benefits for you or for them?
The last time you were recognized for doing something exceptional, did
your boss ever tell you he thinks you can take this skill and apply it to
other companies? Did he ever tell you that the value for your skillset is
bigger than you think it is? Did he give you a list of companies that will
pay you more for the type of work that you are doing?
Of course not. He wants to keep you employed because he likes your work.
I would do the same, and Im sure you would, too.
Your boss will help you deliver value to the company you work for, when
you need worry about delivering value to a broader industry.
Your boss is not the owner of your career. You are.
The good ol' days of hard-working and career advancement are gone.
Any expectation that your boss is looking out for your best interest is
probably misaligned even if your boss is the nicest boss youve ever had.
You need to understand one thing: If you dont own your career,
someone else will.
This last months action plan doesnt have specific steps for a reason.
Theres nothing else that I can do for you at this point besides stepping
out of the way and support your decisions to own your career.
Do it for you, not me.
Case Study: Paypal

Mafia
Im going to end this book with a little inspiration of how a powerful
network can help self-starters.
This Guy (Max Levchin from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
pitched an idea for a mobile device money transfer service to this guy
(Peter Thiel).
27
Peter said cool, lets do this. Then they buy X.com, which was founded by
some dude named Elon Musk.
28
They decide to name the company:
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/738720/thumbs/r-PETER-THIELFACEBOOK-INVESTOR-SHARES-large570.jpg
28
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/17/elon-muskmission-mars-spacex
27
The company goes public in 2002 and this company buys them:
Then this is where it gets interesting. The Paypal employees hated the
eBay corporate structure. Within 4 years, half of the first 200 employees
quit.
This guy gets fired at Paypal:
Yes, Fired. He made a ton of money anyway and started 2 companies:

The first one is ya know, just some sort of car that only runs on electric
Just whatever. Then he decides that he needs to do more. So he creates

another company that makes spaceships:
Just spaceships, no big deal. NASA SHMASA. They also break some
records about being the only company to return a spaceship from low
earth orbit. Boring shit, really. Then they attached the thing to the
International Space Station. Nothing you cant see on Youtube. Anyway,
this guy
decides he aint done yet either. Invests an early $500,000 in this

company:
for 10.2% of the company. He got ripped off if you ask me, but whatever.
Whats a billion when you got millions?
These guys (2 Paypal engineers and designer):
said were bored with our lives, lets create something new. They quit
and create this company:
Which then gets bought out by this company:
Russel Simmons (left),
29
who was one of the first Paypal engineers has a conversation with a dinner
that Max held.
29
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/04/09/yelp-grows-a-pair/
What do they talk about? Out of all the things in the world to talk about,
they talk about how hard it is to find a dentist. What else are they going to
talk about? So Russell creates this company with another person with
some funding from Max:
Its just a site full of pissed off people ranting about food. The executive
vice president of Paypal, Reid Hoffman:
says screw this, Im going to do something new. Starts this company:
The former, COO David O. Sacks decides to join in on the party. So he

creates:
Yishan Wong, engineering manager at Paypal. Hes just another dude

that can code. Nothing special.
He now becomes the CEO of a website that Im totally not addicted to:
Product Manager Premal Shah becomes founding president of:
and finally Former Marketing Director Dave Mcclure:
starts:
In the meantime, BRB starting company.
But, OH WAIT!
Its BONUS SECTION TIME.
The most normal looking guy ever (Brian Acton, Left),
gets rejected from Facebook:
and then gets rejected from Twitter:
So he says, screw it. Ill create my own company. He creates:
This company tries to buy WhatsApp:
Brian says no, thank you. Apparently you cant survive on $10 billion
anymore.
Then the company that originally rejected him 5 years prior:
says screw you to Google and buys WhatsApp for Nineteen Billion Dollars
You can be a consumer or you can be a creator. Pick wisely my friend.
Dont Do It
This is the point in the book where Im supposed to talk you off the ledge
and tell you to make the best of your situation.
Tell you that everything is going to be OK, and you really dont have it
bad.
Im supposed to tell you that you shouldnt just leave your job when you
spent so much time building up credibility.
You are going to fail.
You will never be on the front page of a newspaper or cover of a magazine.
You are not special.
Your ideas really arent that original.
You dont have the resources to execute your idea.
Not only will it fail, others will tell you I told you so. Do you really want
to be embarrassed like that?
Play it safe.
Save your money.
Plan your finances and have a safe career.
That way youll have enough money to buy yourself a nice casket and a
nice grave with your words of wisdom:
My dreams are stored on a piece of paper in the bottom drawer
in my bedroom. When you get a chance, can you give one of them
a try? I never had the guts.
Bonus: 44 Ways To Be
The Worst Employee
Ever (NSFW)
1) Your boss is psychic, so you dont need to tell her you're
working from home the rest of the week
Your boss knows you spent all last weekend getting hammered at the big
music festival and are in no shape to show up to work. Don't fill up your
boss's inbox with another useless email. She really doesn't care if you
don't show up to the office all week as long as you pretend like youre
getting work done.
She will really appreciate if you can communicate as little as possible so
she can focus on her activities and not worry about taking care of you. It's
the little things like this that get you ready for promotions.
2) That project deadline was totally made up
Remember in Shawshank Redemption when the correction officer asked
Red if he feels like "he has been rehabilitated?" Red then goes off on a
tangent. You should feel the same way about missing a deadline:
Deadline? Well now let me see... You know, I don't have any idea
what that means.
I know what you think it means, Sonny. To me, it's a made-up

word, a project manager's word. So fellas like you can wear a
suit, a tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I
sorry for missing the deadline? There's not a day that goes by
where I don't feel regret for missing the deadline.
I look back at when I agreed to meet that deadline. I was just a
stupid kid who couldn't estimate how long it took me to do
something. I want to talk to him; I want to talk sense into him.
Tell him the way things are, but I can't. That kid's long gone, this
old man is all that's left. I have to live with that.
Deadline... It's just a bullshit word so you go ahead and mark
that status report as red and stop wasting my time. Because to
tell you the truth I don't give a damn.
3) Cry as much as you can during team meetings to build
respect
You know what this team meeting needs right now? It needs someone to
literally cry about the direction the project is going and how it "doesn't
feel like it's going in the right direction." Crying allows other team
members to see your real feelings and allows them to work with you better
as the project progresses.
Crying over meaningless things is very important and crying should be
encouraged in any type of situation in which a decision needs to made. It
really builds confidence and respect from your other team members and
is a beneficial tactic to use throughout your career.
4) Get drunk at office before the company party officially starts
The last thing you need to be known for is the guy who drank like a fish at
the company party. Buy a six-pack before you go and drink it in the
kitchen or break room. By the time you get to the company party you will
already be toasted and won't order as much as you normally do.
Make sure to offer your boss a drink, too. Sharing is caring.
5) Arrive un-fashionably late
You like to get to the office at 9:45 a.m. since youre so much more
efficient than your co-workers. They usually require 45 minutes to an
hour to get situated in the morning with their morning routine. The
coffee, the small talk and replying back to emails they never got to address
since they only worked until 11:30 p.m. last night. You walk in with your
Starbucks coffee and your laptop is on since it never leaves your cubicle.
You would be amazed by the lovely death stares you get from everyone as
you walk in.
Also make sure to leave around 3:45 p.m. so you can give the other
commuters who leave at normal times some breathing room. Make sure
no one in the office knows you left early since you don't want to bother
anyone while theyre in the zone." It's a respectful trick you learned early
in your career. This is why you made sure your cubicle was near the back
exit.
On the days where you couldn't avoid your co-workers when you left the
office early, make sure to let them know to "have a good one" because they
all know you have nothing else more meaningful to say.
6) Make big mistakes often. Your boss totally wont judge you.
Remember when you accidentally sent the entire company's employee

salaries to the Los Angeles office in an easy-to-read Excel spreadsheet on
mistake? Nobody cares; get over it.
Even though Los Angeles found out they are by far the lowest paid office
in the entire nation, they realize it was a mistake and will not use this
information to complain to the corporate headquarters about their low
wages.
It's not your fault Outlook auto completed "Larry" to "Los Angeles Sales
Office." Everyone forgot about this super minor mistake you made. Get
over it. The smallest thing that will happen is a small riot or a union
strike. No big deal.
In fact, your boss will love you more in the long run and never bring up
this situation ever again.
7) Pour yourself the last cup of coffee without refilling it
The best part about showing up a little bit later than everyone else is you
usually get to drink the last cup of coffee and save the company from
throwing away coffee they weren't going to drink in the first place.
Pro tip: The accounting team loves cleaning coffee mugs so make sure
you keep all your dirty mugs in the kitchen sink. Save yourself time and
make them happy. Also, ignore the signs that tell you that your mother
isn't here to clean up after you or "If you're leaning you're cleaning." The
janitors will put these up to compete with the accounting team.
8) It's not who you know, it's what you know
People in power are overrated. This is why there are performance reviews
and metrics in place so employees are promoted purely on merit. I
actually went out of my way to not talk to senior executives in the
company so I could spend more time excelling at my job.
9) Gossip to the new co-worker you just met this morning. He is
extremely trustworthy.
As long as you preface your gossip with, "Don't tell anyone this, but..."
your gossip will remain a tightly kept secret. These types of statements or
code words are extremely important. Make sure to tell your co-workers
that you hate your job, or that you think you heard your boss on a phone
interview for a new job. It builds trust within your close network. Stay
close and you will reap all the rewards.
10) Your colleague is much better at filling out the TPS reports
than you are
Do what you're good at. You shouldn't waste your time filling out boring
and useless TPS reports, especially when there are others who are much
better at it than you are.
Make sure not to tell your colleague that you didn't fill it out, just put it on
their desk so they can be surprised when they get back to their desk.
11) Tell HR everything so they can fix the situation ASAP
When you need action right away, go talk to HR. Not getting paid enough?
Go to HR and let them know. 99.99% of the time, they won't circle back
with the manager that hates you or compare your wages against a piece of
shit, race-to-the-bottom employee. They'll just give you the raise since
they know you wouldn't be doing this if you didn't mean business.
Think someone made inappropriate comments to you? Let HR know that

you really don't appreciate being called a "low life, scrotum sucking, sucks
the dirt off your toes, toilet bowl licking cat litter munching jerk-off who
dances with the Teletubbie rubbing sheep and a cross dressing whore."
They will make sure the person knows what they did was wrong, and then
proceed to promote them for absolute shit work for the next 3 years.
12) Your boss is too good of a person to screw you over
The great thing about bosses is that they only care about the little people
who report to them. They aren't interested in advancing their career in the
slightest. They only do what's best for you. Because of this, its important
that you listen to everything that they say and respect every command
even if it is unreasonable.
When it comes down to promotion, your boss will take care of you. Put all
your faith in this one person to make sure you can get a good nights sleep.
13) Reply all is the most valuable email function
Once in awhile click the reply all button when you receive an email from
the administrative assistant about the refrigerator moving 12 inches to the
left. Let the admin assistant and the entire company know how grateful
you are to receive this information in a timely manner.
It's a great feeling to see a "Thanks John!" in an email that has nothing to
do with any of your work-related functions. Next time you see John in the
bathroom on the third floor that you only use for taking a shit, you can
take a shit in peace knowing that John has been thanked. If the
handicapped stall is open, that's a double bonus.
We all need more emails, and when everyone receives yet another email,
it really generates a feeling of understanding across the organization. It
keeps everyone aligned.
Reply all is your friend.
14) Send a vague calendar invite titled "catch up" at 8 a.m. to
your subordinates
It's great to catch up with your employees once in a while. I recommend
waiting until midnight on a Sunday to send a calendar invite to a lowperforming employee and give it the vaguest title with no description of
what the meeting is really about. I recommend titles such as "Can we
talk?" "Please come to my office first thing in the morning" or "Company
performance." It's better if you send it while the company's stock is at a
52-week low as well.
Employees appreciate thes=e emails right before they go to sleep. If you
described what you wanted to talk about, it would really ruin the surprise
and employees love surprises on Monday mornings.
15) Let's be real, you really didn't deserve that promotion
Don't you remember that day when they asked you to bring your knee
pads and red lipstick to work with you while they did employee reviews?
You forgot to bring both of them last time, and therefore you don't
deserve the promotion. It's that simple.
Someone
like
George
brings
both
of
them
even
when
it
isn't employee review week. George deserves it, and you should
congratulate him the next time you see him. Ask him where he gets that
shade of pink lipstick, too. He wears it really well.
16) Don't negotiate your salary because the company really

needs the money
The company has already banned "smoothie Friday" because of budget
cuts, and you want to ask for more money AND a promotion? The billiondollar company with extravagant executive bonuses really can't afford
your $5,000 annual pay raise. Be considerate and treat the company as
family. It's the least you can do.
That extra money they don't give you even when you clearly deserve it can
go to something better such as the CEO's health club dues. Be considerate
of the other 100,000 people who work in your company.
17) Your boss is totally not doing his job properly and everyone
needs to know
Make everyone respect you more and allow the company to get on the
right track by telling everyone how horrible of a manager Bob is. Make
sure you let Bob's closest colleagues know and even Bob's father who runs
the company. Transparency is always recommended. Be ruthless with the
comments.
18) Make the most out of your short 120-minute lunch break
120 minutes is not a lot of time to eat lunch, but you have to make the
most of it. Make sure to use the first 60 minutes eating lunch and the next
60 minutes napping after you slammed your face with the shitty cafeteria
food.
If you see anyone take a 60-minute lunch break, make sure to stop by
their desk and let them know how stupid they are for not utilizing the
companys hidden 120-minute lunch break rule.
19) 15 minute smoke breaks are really necessary every 30

minutes
If you're not lucky enough to get lung cancer so you can finally get paid
disability, you should work towards getting lung cancer as soon as
possible. Psychologists have proven that people work best in focused
sprints. So do your 15-minute sprint, 15 minutes of relaxation and then 15
minutes of smoking to keep the positive cycle moving towards stage-4
lung cancer.
If you see someone abusing this rule, most likely the non-smokers, buy
him or her a pack of cigarettes and let them know you don't agree with the
destructive life that they are leading.
20) Use your company email for those amazing never-ending
racist, sexist email threads with your high school friends
Are you afraid of sending inappropriate emails on company email? Well,
you shouldn't because your boss or IT Director would never scan the
email system for keywords or read your emails to make sure you are not
doing anything inappropriate.
All email is encrypted and the employees who control every part of the IT
infrastructure would never check your email without your permission. In
fact, I would recommend telling your friends to remove your Gmail
address from that mega camping trip thread and include your
professional work email instead.
21) Your boss can't see any of your tweets. Just do you, B.
Even though you set your tweets to public, Twitter will detect when your
boss is on Twitter and will block those tweets from their eyes. So go ahead
and complain about how much you hate your job and how your boss is a
twat. Your boss has no way of seeing your public tweet.
22) Tell your boss off one last time
Bosses love challenges. This is why right before you quit, you should yell
at her at the top of your lungs. After all, you want to make sure you have a
good relationship when you leave. You should also do things such as write
a list of all the things she has been doing wrong for the past 10 years and
how she can fix them even though you know that woman isn't going to
change a damn thing.
23) Customers can wait while you check to see if that person
you absolutely cant stand liked your Facebook status
Nothing better than seeing that low-life, jealous friend of yours like your
status about how much you hate your job. This is how you get the upper
hand.
If you are in a client meeting, let them know you have to focus on your
priorities right now. Or you can just nod your head in agreement while
you wait for everyone and their mother to like and comment on your
status besides that friend who YOU KNOW saw the status because she
just posted a status.
24) 2 weeks notice my ass
You know who gives their employers a 2-week notice when they quit?
Rich, white people who throw cocktail parties every other weekends at
their mansions. This is your chance to show your employer how important
you really were to the organization and watch them suffer while you are
gone. Once you know you want to leave the company, just send your boss
an SMS. Thats the least you can do.
25) The resignation letter that will teach them all a lesson
Instead of trying to fix things while at your job, wait until you resign so
you can tell them all the things that you don't like about the job.
"I really wanted to let them know everything they did wrong during the 15
years I was there. It was the longest email I've ever written. If they
incorporate all 235 points that I mentioned, I think this company can get
back to profitability," says John Smith. "Actually, I'm kind of hoping they
don't listen to anything I say so I can talk shit about them for the next 5
years."
Employers will really love this unfiltered view.
"I remember when John sent that email a few years ago. It was one of the
most eye opening emails ever. I don't really agree with him telling
everyone that I was a useless slob who couldn't file a TPS report worth my
life, but hey he was honest and you have to respect that.
26) Stay close to your colleagues by dating them
They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. This is why
dating co-workers is such a great idea. Your boyfriend can be your best
friend one day and your enemy the next day. This creates an environment
in the office where everyone is constantly looking after each other and
promotes healthy competition. It creates moments where everyone
around you will totally appreciate your work after seeing you both argue
in the office kitchen.
So, if I were you, Id date someone in the office immediately. If you are
having a lot of problems, both of you should talk to HR so they can
mediate it properly. It's like a free marriage counseling service.
27) Call in sick while everyone else is on vacation
This approach works great if you work in a department that's critical to
the businesss operations. Why should you suffer while everyone else is on
his or her planned and well-documented vacation? Call in sick, and make
sure nothing gets done for a few days. This way when everyone gets back,
you all can work as a team to finish all the tasks together.
When your co-workers come back from vacation, they will appreciate the
work you left for them to do. It will make them feel important. Feel free to
shun the co-worker who says he "needs a vacation from his vacation."
Those people don't know what the hell is going on.
28) The shirt will un-wrinkle itself. No one will notice.
It's a well-known fact that if you wear a wrinkled shirt in the morning, by
lunch it will un-wrinkle itself. By then, you will already have a few stains
on your shirt from not eating lunch properly, so it all works itself out.
So, why waste that extra 8 minutes ironing something that will eventually
iron itself naturally? I'll take natural fixes over things that need electricity
to fix. We have to consider our environment.
29) Talking to yourself loudly will not annoy your colleagues
Sometimes you are the smartest person in the room and the only person
you can talk to is yourself. If you do talk to yourself, make sure you talk
out loud so everyone can hear you.
"Did you say something?" is something you will hear often. Just ignore
them and keep talking to yourself. Eventually, they will figure it out and
really appreciate the fact that you can have a conversation with yourself
even though it's the most annoying thing ever.
30) No one will ever figure out you secretly hate everyone in the
office
Keep up the fake attitude as much as possible. Nobody has a clue that you
don't like coming to work every day. By keeping it secret, you allow the
office to focus on their tasks at hand and not worry about unnecessary
drama.
The best approach is to quietly eat in the corner part of the cafeteria alone
during lunch. This way they will think you want to give everyone else the
opportunity to get to know each other since they know you really well
already. It's a very respectful thing to do.
When it comes to office events, they probably won't invite you or you will
be the last person to know. Make sure to show up to those events
unannounced and when you get there don't talk to anyone and find a
corner to sit in. This way you keep up the same consistent attitude that
you have in the office. Your colleagues will really appreciate it.
31) Come to the office when you're sick. It will really show your
dedication to your job and the office will appreciate it.
"I remember this one time when John came to the office sick as a dog. He
was coughing and sneezing every 3 minutes. But yet, he got his work done
and I really commend him for it. Ever since that day he came in, the entire
office got sick because of him. Did they come to the office when they were
sick? NOPE. It just shows how strong and dedicated of a worker John is. I
wish everyone was like him.
When Michael Jordan had the flu in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, did he
stay at home? Not a chance. He went out there and played like a champ.
Don't be that guy or girl who gets sick and decides to "work from home"
so you don't get anyone else sick. Everyone knows you just can't handle it.
32) No one will get mad at you for using the handicapped stall
as your "shitting stall."
It's no surprise that everyone loves the handicapped stall since it's the
biggest and always in the corner of the bathroom. Using this stall will
make other handicapped people, who have a legitimate use of that stall,
like you more since they will feel a bond with you.
It's not too often that they can say they share the same toilet seat as
someone who is fully capable of shitting while they stand up if they so
please.
If a handicapped person comes to the bathroom looking for the stall while
you are using it, make sure to let them know that you won't be done for a
while and that you are fully capable of using the other 5 open stalls. They
will respect you more for it.
33) Make sure to get road rage as soon as you enter the
company parking lot
Road rage is often misunderstood. By yelling at everyone in the company
parking lot, you will be less likely to be a complete dick once you get to the
office since you "got it out of your system" on the way to work. Your
colleagues will appreciate it.
Also make sure to tell your piece of shit significant other to get off their
ass and do something for once. Only do this when its their day off to
really drive your point home.
34) Walking around the house while you brush your teeth will
really make the rest of the workday better
The more time you have in the morning to worry about the rest of your
shit workday the better off you are. When brushing your teeth, walk
around the entire house to remind yourself that you haven't cleaned your
house in over a month because of work.
35) Dont bring up that time you worked 15-hour shifts for an
entire month 8 months ago on your annual performance review
There are times to brag, and there are times to be humble.
We know your boss doesnt remember anything that happened during
that month anyway, so the last thing you want to do is remind her of what
you did.
Chalk it off as a learning experience.
36) Taking deep breaths before you walk into the office door is
a sign you really do love your job
Dr. Ann Ganzevort says, "Deep breaths before you open the office door in
the morning is a sign that you really can't wait to see what the day is going
to give to you. It's kind of like saying carpe diem every day, but not really."
The office manager says that he loves to see the forced smile on his
employees faces every single morning. "When they get off the elevator
you can tell that they hate their lives, but then they take a deep breath and
give me this half-ass smile when they walk in. It's really awesome to see
that and shows how we work well as a company."
37) Make sure to act like you run the office when your manager
goes on vacation
When your boss is gone, its your responsibility to make decisions even
though you have no business making any decisions and no one told you to
make those decisions. Be a leader and start letting everyone know who's
the boss.
Start with the FedEx deliveries. Sign off on everything, and then ask the
accounting staff why they keep getting those brown envelopes every
Monday. When your boss comes back, act like nothing happened.
38) Be honored when a random person appoints you to take
notes at every single meeting
When someone you don't even know tells you that you must take notes
and send them to the group, you should be really honored. The great part
about this is that no one will ever read those notes, so no one will correct
your mistakes.
The first thing senior executives do is look to see who is taking the notes
so they know that this person is definitely not the decision maker in the
room.
The last thing you want to be known for is making decisions.

39) No one will notice if you delegate all your work
"Jenny never has any work to do. Every thing that she gets, she delegates.
She is a super delegator. This is why I constantly promote her. She has
this get-shit-done mentality."
40) Make sure to add 200 people on LinkedIn at the same time
when you're looking for a new job
When your boss gets the email notifications you added 200 people on
LinkedIn and have left recommendations for 6 former colleagues, he will
really be impressed that you did all this in 8 hours.
"Whenever I see a disgruntled employee randomly become very active on
their LinkedIn profile, I get really happy. To me, this shows that this
person is willing to make this current situation work and is trying to
advertise our company. It's a no brainer for both parties. I also get really
excited when I see the employee dressed up randomly in a suit and tie on
jeans day."
41) Only ask annoying questions when your manager is on an
important phone call
Wait until your manager takes a really important phone call, then start
asking them questions that require a lot of detail. Using random sign
language works really well too if they keep telling you to be quiet.
If they tell you to hold on, make sure to keep ignoring their requests. It's
important that people listen when you talk. When you do get their
attention, talk about something that does not involve work. This allows
you to really build a relationship and a common ground of understanding.
42) Listen to every conversation possible, regardless if it

involves you or not
The best tactic is to pretend like you aren't listening to the conversation,
when in reality you're listening to everything. Make it semi-obvious by
starting at the water cooler in the kitchen for 15 minutes with your good
ear closest to the conversation. Check your phone once in a while, but
make sure you hear everything they say.
43) Grunt as loudly as possible every time your boss assigns
you a task
Show off your communication skills by letting your boss know you
completely understand that you have to get off your ass and work. The
more challenging the task, the louder you should grunt.
44)
Jealousy
of
other
people's
accomplishments
shows
confidence
Whenever someone receives an award such as a plaque for being
employed at the company for 20 years, make sure to let them know how
you could never work at the same company for 20 years and that she must
not be employable outside this job.
Inspiration
I was never really a good writer. I never got good grades on my papers in
high school or college. I quickly found the blogs of 2 entrepreneurs whose
writing really resonated with me. I read every word and they quickly
became the only 2 blogs I read consistently.
As I was learning to write on my own blog, I quickly started emulating
both Marks and Jamess writing styles.
James Altucher (http://www.jamesaltucher.com)
James Altucher is an American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur and
bestselling author. He has founded or cofounded over 20 companies,
including Reset Inc. and StockPickr and claims to have failed at 17 of
them. He has published 11 books and is a frequent contributor to
publications including The Financial Times, TheStreet.com, TechCrunch,
Seeking Alpha, Thought Catalog, and The Huffington Post.30
James is one of the most brilliant writers Ive read and his work was
unbelievably refreshing to read. He was candid, and he expressed himself
in a way that really made me want to read everything he wrote.
Through his blog he taught me how to bleed on the page with my
writing. Writing that was previously off limits for me especially in a public
space is now something I can do because of James.
Mark Suster (http://bothsidesofthetable.com)

30
Bio taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Altucher
Mark Suster is a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC. He
joined Upfront Ventures in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his
company to Salesforce.com. He focuses on early-stage technology
companies.
Marks writing resonated with me because hes able to speak clearly about
issues many entrepreneurs have faced and provides solutions his readers
can relate to.
He consistently wrote articles that provided value to me as an
entrepreneur and I started to follow his writing very closely.
As a writer, this affected me quite a bit because it really made me focus on
just the facts and feel more confident talking about taboo subjects if I felt
I could provide value to the conversation.
Acknowledgements
Betsy Mikel Editor and the You dont know the difference between
their & there do you? Girl.
If it werent for Betsy, you would have stopped reading after the first page.
Im a grown man and still cant tell the difference in usage between their
and there. Luckily, she does. Hell, even this paragraph is going to be
edited because Im sure I wrote something wrong.
Jared Zawada The Hey man, this chapter sucks Guy.
Because of Jared I had to re-write so many chapters. Jared quit his
corporate job to move to Australia to help find himself. Its been a year
and he still he has no idea what he wants to do with his life. He took his
anger out on reviewing early revisions of my book.
Lindsay Lamb The You should read this life changing book which
will totally change everything you already wrote in your book Girl.
Lindsay was the first person outside of my wife who knew of my plans to
write a book. She helped me edit the first version of my book.
Im
thankful this version looks nothing like that version.

Timothy Klein Lets shoot this scene another time because you dont
know what you are doing Guy.
Tim shot my original Fire Me I Beg You video thats on my website
http://firemeibegyou.com. Two days of shooting for a video clip that
ended up to be 2 minutes long. Video is hard.
Nura Othman The I have a dope idea Girl.

Nura designed the first version of the book cover and help me finish the
latest version.
Shazia Hussain The Your grammar sucks Girl.
Shazia helped me edit the second version of my book. As you can tell, I
need a lot of help in the grammar area.
Fernando Avila The Were going to need more equipment for this
Guy.
Fernando took the 2 days of footage that Tim shot and created the final
video. He made sure the audio was perfect. I hate video.

Fire Me IBeg You

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About the Author

If you look at my LinkedIn profile, my specialty is turning around and

Consumers, Critics and Creators ......................................................... 88

Action Plan ................................................................................................ 183

We went on to work together on Technori for 2 more years and I grew a

Dont Hate the Player,

What happened to our managers?

I miss the endless banter we had as a group, especially the nicknames.

The decisive, smart and friendly executive type

The 9-to-5 do everything I'm asked with a smile and actually

The let me know if I can help you with anything type

The please give me another day to make this decision type

The you used this word incorrectly in a PowerPoint, therefore

The if I don't get a summary email at 8 p.m. every day I'm

The I'm going to cry instead of making an important decision

The I don't really care what you think about me or my

The give me your date of birth so we can celebrate your half

The I'm going to agree to everything said in the meeting then

The I literally, figuratively and hypothetically do not care what

The if I hear one single piece of constructive criticism about

Are You Smarter

Loyalty is Dead and

The director who immediately honored my last-minute request to

The career counselor who found me a position in the company that

The executive who lobbied to get me an office when everyone else

Action Plan: Meets

Me: Didn't I do a few things that went above and beyond my

Me: So, after all that I all I get a "meets expectations."

Me: Humor me for a second. What did I need to do to achieve a

Hired to perform one activity, often gets involved in many

Jack of all trades, master of none

Expected to work all day and night, including weekends even

Pay is based on salary, not value of his services

Attends all required employee meetings, whether they directly

Has a secure job for a successful company and doesnt need to

Doesnt take responsibility for something that went wrong if it

Michael Smith, independent consultant:

Hired to perform one activity. Contractually not allowed to

Master of a specific function; Knows a little bit of

Expected to complete the deliverable based on agreed

Hourly rate is determined on how valuable his specific skill

Attends few to no company meetings so he can focus on

Forced to continually look for new gigs and maintain his

Will stop getting paid once this contract ends, so is always

Takes responsibility for something that went wrong, even if

I could write an article that says How to Fly to the Moon

Over communicate. I communicate status on something that I dont

3) Kick off Project X requires planning and prep

Started the planning for the big project

Finished the month-end analysis and sent to financial

Created a first draft of the project charter, which is currently

I have some questions about the start date of Y Project, but

We need X Report signed off by EOD next Wednesday. Can

That is all for now. Have a great weekend.

Everything You Need

While objectively it may seem perfectly fine in a job to meet

However, in this months exercise you are focused on achieving a meets

Getting laid off

in 2012 there were 6,500 occurrences of

What industries had the highest number of mass layoff events?

Case Study: Getting

A 2012 survey by San Francisco-based rewards and recognition

Performance Management, which reflected the insights of 750