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Once more, savvy business titan Steve Gilbert shares some of his insights on business. In a 2008 commencement address at Wharton School, The 10 Biggest Business Myths & Gilbert’s Secret Rules of Business Success, Gilbert says:

“Now, I am going to give you the ten biggest business myths.  Things you hear, or, are told, that sound plausible, but just aren’t true.  Keep these on file, and send me $10 every time you hear one.  I will leave a Post Office Box address in Lichtenstein after the speech.”

That sounds like a real money maker to me.  I could leave my Paypal.com account, to be directed to a Cayman Islands bank, but I don’t think you’d fall for that, even though plenty of people fall for the doozies below, as pointed out by Gilbert:

1. You have more security here at Gigantabank than you do on your own.   Just not true.  One strategic shift, one downsizing, one reorganization, one boss with a bad hangover, and you are toast at Gigantabank.  You have no job security.  You just have less pay.

2. “You’re really smart!” When you are a buyer, every joke you tell is funny and every insight you have is brilliant.  Don’t try these jokes at home.  Most people see your position, not your fabulous personality and good looks.

3. “There is almost no risk to this”.  A good definition of risk is that more things will go wrong than can go wrong.  Nothing is without risk.  Your job is to find the risks, define them, see if you can contain them or live with them, given the return offered.   Nothing is riskless.

4. “This time it’s different”.   Not that I can tell.  The laws of supply and demand, risk and reward, greed and fear, have remained constant since men got up on two feet.   And I suspect it always will.

5. “It’s not about the money”.  When someone tells me this, I am then sure it is about the money.

6. “You can tell me”.  No, you can’t.  When someone entrusts you with confidential information, anyone you give it to won’t trust you to keep a secret.  And, they are likely to pass it on, no matter how sincere they seem at the time.   Keep your own counsel. As Ben Franklin said,  “three can keep a secret if two are dead.”

7. “We are Best-in-Breed”.  If dogs could talk, this would matter.  But who is going to tell you, “we are just a second-rate operation, please do business with us”?  Internally and externally, it is in the interest of everyone to assume they are the best and brightest.   Hopefully, you will be able to tell the difference.

8. “We have no politics here”.  This is true, but only if you have a lights-out, industrial clean room with robots.  If there are people involved, there will be politics. Even in the Bible, they just had Adam and Eve, they had politics.

9. “Everyone is doing it” This is the surest ticket to a custodial experience that I know.  Not only is everybody usually wrong, but they are probably treading on a fuzzy white line.   If everybody is doing it, you probably shouldn’t be.

10. “My word is my bond”. If your word is so good, why won’t you commit yourself to paper?  Because they don’t intend to keep their word, and don’t want a record, that’s why.

As Gilbert puts it, ” Now, armed with the secret rules for business success, go forth and prosper.”

We second that.  Go get ‘em.  And write home…. to us… and tell us your experiences.  Your comments help all of us light the way and see the path.

Tags: business, business myths, business rules

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Steven Gilbert has a resume of extreme and notable success as long as your arm, heading up prestigious companies, doing good works, accumulating wealth.  But he believes the path to success and the rules to follow are very simple.  It’s just that most people don’t follow them. Gilbert comments:

” As simple as they sound, 98% of all MBA graduates cannot, or will not, comply with these rules.  You know who you are.”

Gilbert made these remarks at a 2008 commencement speech at the Wharton School.  Although he didn’t say so explicitly, I think what he had in mind was a phenomenon I noticed about the time I had attended Wellesley, one of the sister schools to Harvard, and graduated from Columbia University in New York.  When you first graduate from college, and particularly from a very prestigious college or university, ( and perhaps even much later in your career) you secretly consider yourself just too smart to be bound by such ordinary and mundane concepts. You consider yourself as someone with a dazzling career ahead who will pen “the great American novel”, come up with a cure for a ravaging disease, turn the planet green and reverse the disastrous effects of climate change.  You are too special for such prosaic rules.  But as Gilbert  points out, those great achievements may be the peaks, but they are not the day to day stuff of which success is made.  He does say, explicitly, somewhat suggesting this point:

“We all know you are smart.  Smart is just the beginning.  The basic requirement.  There is no shortage of smart people in business.”

JobMob quotes Steven Gilbert’s Job Success Formula from The 10 Biggest Business Myths & Gilbert’s Secret Rules of Business Success:

1. Show up on time. You might think this to be humorous or facetious. But, as your career goes on, you will find there are a lot of people who cannot do this. Their plane is always late, they pick up the phone before the big meeting, they can’t meet a deadline. 90% of meetings start late. When your colleagues and bosses know that you will show up when promised, they will have confidence in you, and begin to trust you.

2. Do what you are asked to do. Don’t do what you think ought to be required. Don’t add pages of data to prove your point. Summarize the data so your boss doesn’t have to. Don’t change the assignment. Give your boss what he asked for, and life will be simple. You can add exhibits for recreational reading, but only the first two pages will be read.

3. When asked a direct question, answer, “Yes”, ‘No”, or “I don’t know but will find out”. Don’t tell a story. Don’t obfuscate. Don’t repeat the question you were just asked. Don’t fill the air with information of interest only to you. Answer first. Tell the story second, if you must. You would be shocked at how few people can do this. Always make full disclosure.

4. Handle every piece of paper only once. Paper left on your desk will grow, even without food or water. Looking at the same piece of paper multiple times is wasteful, counter-productive, and cuts down on your recreation time.

5. Make your boss look good. Eventually, this will work. Organizations always know who really does the work. Empty suits can’t hide forever. If you make your boss look bad, you might have to try this at your next job.

6. If it isn’t in writing, it doesn’t exist. Without an email or a piece of paper, nothing anyone says to you means anything. Promises are broken all the time in business, and memories are extraordinarily selective.

7. Everyone works hard, don’t complain or point out how hard you are working. No one cares. They all have their own issues. Your best bet is to act like a duck, looking calm and composed on the surface, but pedaling furiously under the water.

8. Honesty is the best policy. Not just because it is, but also because when things get complicated, you won’t be able to remember all the lies you told. If you are always honest, only your memory for the truth is at issue.

9. Being nice is more profitable than being nasty. It takes much less energy to be nice. People want to work with you. You will be happier and so will your colleagues.

10. Speed is important. Most people will value a quick “no” more than a lengthy “maybe”. Responding quickly is much appreciated. Run to the problem first.

11. Work smart, not just hard. Don’t confuse speed with torque. Sitting at your desk all night is not the same thing as making progress. Figure out, each day, what you need to do to succeed. Determine what you need from a meeting; don’t just blindly enter the room like a lamb.

12. Be realistic. No one is going to make you CEO while the ink on your MBA is still drying. Even for the best, it takes a few years before people are comfortable that you can do all the things you think you can.

13. Don’t be afraid to be bold. You can, and certainly will, be able to get another job. Don’t be afraid to find the door if you don’t like what is going on. The sign on the door of opportunity reads PUSH. Don’t be afraid to suggest a new line of business. Don’t be afraid to stand up for your vision. As Ayn Rand said “Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason.”

14. You have more than one job. You can never be happier than your least happy child. You may have to be a husband, wife, father, mother, a son, a daughter, a nurse or a nursemaid during your lifetime. If you fail at any of these jobs, success in the others will be meaningless.

15. You don’t have to cure cancer to be a success. Being a good citizen, a good parent, a good friend, a productive and charitable member of society is all most of us can hope for. And remarkably few achieve.

I couldn’t agree more.  And I bet you do, too.

Tags: business, careers, employment, jobs, rules for success

To start up a business successfully, you definitely need to be a risk taker.  It also helps if you have the nerves of a cat burglar and the daring of a trapeze artist.  But, in the end, you only need to do a few things well.  And you will need the concentration of an Indian fire walker to keep those things, and those things only, foremost in your mind and vision.

FOCUS on your core skill, service or product. Focus on quality. If you are making cakes, make the best ones.  I was looking a few days ago at Janie’s Cakes and I had to look no further than her list of ingredients to know she would make some of the best cakes available:

Farm Fresh Eggs = Farm Fresh Flavor Others may use the term but at Janie’s Cakes we actually use farm fresh eggs in our cakes. In fact, Janie raises her own chickens (she has over 300 happy laying hens!) and collects the fresh eggs each morning to bake her cakes. You can tell the difference. It’s a fact, pampered farm-raised chickens lay tastier eggs than their cooped-up commercial counterparts! Try one of our cakes and taste real farm freshness.
Vanilla Flavoring vs. Pure Vanilla Extract Because of the high price of real vanilla extract most bakers use cheaper artificial vanilla flavoring in their products.  Not at Janie’s Cakes. Janie uses only pure organic Madagascar vanilla extract from 100-year-old Nielsen-Massey® Vanillas. Vanilla is just one more important example of how Janie will not compromise the quality of her pound cakes because of the high cost of an essential ingredient. www.nielsenmassey.com
Quality Flour = Quality Pound Cakes The primary ingredient of any cake is flour. That’s why at Janie’s Cakes we use only the best unbleached flour available—King Arthur Special Flour®. Established in 1790, King Arthur® Flour is America’s oldest flour company.  For over two centuries its products have remained free from chemical additives. It’s the only flour Janie will use in her pound cakes. www.kingarthurflour.com

The list goes on, but you get the idea.  Any one who puts that much focus and effort into the ingredients…300 chickens laying eggs!…..you know that cake is going to be incredibly good!

If you write a blog, remember, “Content is King.”  You can attract a sizable audience by being known for the quality and thoughtfulness of your content.

And there’s another tip you can pick up from Janie.  She only sells 7 kinds of pound cakes and the sauces which are part of their ingredients.  She has, in fact, streamlined and simplified her product line and created a system.

You can do the same thing if you write a blog:

• Set up your Google or other reader to bring information to you instead of having to go out and track it down
• Write your first draft
• Gather any, graphics or links that will bolster, deepen, add insight or punch to content
• Give it a quick round of final revisions and edits. Sometimes the story changes as you write it. Go with the flow.
• Push the content live and you’re done! On to the next post.

A couple of other areas to maintain your Indian-walker-like focus:

FOCUS on marketing your service or product. Think “blowing your own horn”.  Think “social media” and connecting with others and letting them in on a good thing….what you do and can do for them.

FOCUS on the numbers: they are like a treasure map which will show you the path to success.

And if you have a moment to spare, think about automating or outsourcing anything you don’t absolutely have to do yourself so you can focus on being the best in whatever field you’ve chosen.

Tags: Business and Economy, Core competency, core expertise, focus

Image via CrunchBase

Let’s fact it.  Sooner or later we’re all going to have to learn to tweet. We had to start blogging, even if some of the Net’s world class visionaries were not early adopters…..Guy Kawasaki ratted himself out on this recently on his late blooming blog… we all had to come around.  We came around to Google.  We will come around to Tweet, if we are not there yet.

It’s just hard for a start up entrepreneur, a serious webmaster, a dyed-in-the-wool blogger or just about anybody with a job, except a celebrity with a big staff, to find time to tweet. ( Of course, the answer is, I’m told, you soon get addicted and can’t help tweeting wherever you are or wherever  you go, all hours of the day and sometimes night.)  To get you started however, you can put your tweet on auto pilot and as people start following you, that may give you the inspiration you need to delve deeper into it and invest the time to put yourself more into it.

Automating Social Media Activity | Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing has some excellent advice on this:

“Does automating some of your social media activity automatically make it, well, less social? That’s the question I’ve been batting around a bit with some social mediaists. See, I think that small business owners sometimes stay away from some new media tools because they seem like a lot of work with little immediate return.

I’ve long preached the middle ground that brings some relief for time strapped business owners trying to juggle it all and that middle ground includes the “smart” use of tools that help you get more done with less time invested.

Now, in most cases I suggest utilizing some of these tools in conjunction with good old fashion social networking that is individual and one to one. Automation is not a substitute, more of a supplement.

Here are a couple shortcuts and resources that come to mind.

1) TweetLater or EasyTweets - allows me to auto follow back anyone who follows me and auto send a welcome message via DM. - This one gets mixed reviews from Twitter maniacs as it can be abused - don’t use it to auto send your spam selling messages, use it to greet a new follower in a fun and engaging way. I get lots of messages back from my auto greets as many people don’t sense it’s an auto generated message. You’ve still got to reach out to people and connect, but this gets the ball rolling automatically and saves a great deal of time. (I’ll do a screencast on how to do this if I get some requests)
2) Twitter Tools - A WordPress plug-in that republishes my blog posts to Twitter, effectively letting followers know I have new content on my blog. Again, mixed in with twitter posts of a more organic nature this is a decent way to keep content flowing and generate some traffic to your blog.
3) Twitter application in Facebook - posts my Twitter updates to Facebook status. I seem to have a different network on Facebook than I do on Twitter so this helps spread the content. I don’t think this is a high level use of Facebook by any means, but I do get interaction from Facebook folks from this activity.
4) Feedheads application in Facebook - I read lots of RSS feeds and using Google Reader and the Feedheads application for Facebook I post my shared Reader items to my Facebook profile each day.
5) TweetDeck - Desktop application that allows me to show Twitter searches, DMs and Replies in one screen. There are any number of tools to get this done, but I like the interface of TweetDeck
6) Facebook Toolbar for Firefox - shows status updates of network in the background as I work. This can be annoying but it keeps you in touch easily with your network. I’ve snagged interviews with journalists looking for sources this way.

So, what are some of your socially accepted shortcuts?

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Tags: facebook, Facebook Toolbar for Firefox, Google Reader, RSS, Social media, Twitter, Twitter Tools

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Is your blog a business or a hobby?  If it’s intended to be a business then, aside from the inspiration, discipline and writing skills required for good content….the key driver of any blog…your blog, “under the hood”, will be about numbers. Business is about numbers and every business has a key set of numbers which tells a good manager how the business is doing. You should have a means to track them.

As mentioned before, my website has been on the Net since 1996 and I track my numbers at least once a day. In the beginning there were not so many good ways to do that, aside from looking at your raw weblog.  Now, there are any number of sophisticated and robust analytical tools available.  You should try them and pick one or more which will give you a clear idea of you website or blog business and the direction it is headed. Aside from that mysterious inspiration which allows some people to succeed where others only aspire, there is no more important driver of success that tracking, understanding and responding immediately to the numbers which make up your business: volume of visitors, page views, time on the site, ad or product revenue. A seasoned manager ,who’s been in the same business for a bit, could run that business by looking at those numbers each day. You should let those numbers whisper in your ear each morning and chart your course from there.  Here are some tools to get you started:

20 Analytics Tools For Blogs | Online Marketing Blog by Lee Odden:

“There are a lot of data points that can be meaningful for tracking blog effectiveness. That is, tracking what happens when visitors arrive at and engage with your blog content. It really comes down to the purpose of your blog. Metrics for a blog that’s focused on making a web site more search engine friendly by adding crawlable content and attracting links is quite different than a blog that’s meant to build thought leadership or brand credibility.

Many of the metrics tools used for blogs are also used for basic web site analytics. That makes sense because many blog initiatives do not have the same kind of budget as web site marketing programs do. Therefore, the analytics employed tend to be low(er) or no cost.

Regardless of the purpose, I’ve assembled a list below of the various tools we use, or have tested to report onsite blog metrics. Pick the service or tool you like the most from the list below or something new for your unique purpose and please share in the comments. The list is in no particular order.

• 103bees - Free web stats (ad supported) up to 100k visits per month, then it’s $9
• Enquisite - Free, extremely detailed web stats
• Hittail - Provides suggested topics for your blog by keywords used in referral traffic
• Crazy Egg - Provides overlay, list and heat map web stats
• RobotReplay - Lets you record visitor actions on your site and play them back
• Clicky - Web stats plus feed and Feedburner stats
• Google Analytics - Web stats, not really the best for blogs but it’s free
• StatCounter - Free web stats
• Co.mments - Track comment threads starting on your blog and follow them elsewhere in a feed
• Blog Tracker - Free from IceRocket but limited functionality
• Performancing Metrics - Basic is Free, or $3.99 to $16.99 per month for more features
• Site Meter - Basic Free and Premium versions $6.95 and up
• Mint - Popular web stats with bloggers for $30 per site
• MyBlogLog - Basic blog visitor stats and social networking. Free and paid versions.
• Feedburner Stats - StandardStats Free, TotalStats $4.99/mo
• Wordpress Stats - Free basic blog stats plugin for Wordpress blogs
• Google Analytics and Feedburner Stats - Free plugin for Wordpress blogs
• eXTReMe Tracking - Free web stats with a paid version for $4.50 per month
• Web Stat - Many web stats features for $5/mo
• TraceWatch - Free but you need access to your server which should be running PHP/MySQL

What are your favorite analytics tools for blogs?”

If this was helpful to you or you have other tool to recommend, please write.  We welcome your comments and hope you will share your knowledge.

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Tags: blog, FeedBurner, Google Analytics, WordPress

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Your goal is to stand out and get noticed. The minute you join  Join LinkedIn , you have a better chance of standing out, as you will be in a smaller category, one step down the funnel.

Once in LinkedIn, instead of being a passive member, you should be proactive and use all LinkedIn’s many capabilities to search out contacts and opportunities and put your skills on display. Whether or not you yet have the stature to be out there raising your profile by speaking to groups on industry trends, there are no barriers to responding to LinkedIn Answers questions posed for your industry. Your public profile allows you to display answers you’ve provided which broadcasts your expertise, and that’s your goal. That will make you stand out from the crowd. And there are literally dozens of ways to make Linkedin work for you.

JobMob at Gigantic Tips Guide for Finding Jobs With LinkedIn has some advice on this subject:

Make the right choices first

• Join LinkedIn. 17 million and counting, there’s still room for more.
• Only join LinkedIn once. Having multiple accounts will only dilute the usefulness of each individual profile, and LinkedIn Customer Support cannot merge accounts for you.
• Update your account with all your email addresses that people might use for LinkedIn invitations. This will help you avoid creating multiple accounts by accident.
• Consider upgrading to a premium account with features such as enhanced search results containing relevant LinkedIn users that aren’t yet connections of yours. You can then contact them with InMails which have a much higher rate of being opened that regular email.
• Subscribe to the LinkedIn blog to find out about new features.
• Cancel your account if you decide to stop using LinkedIn by emailing Customer Service. Don’t leave expired information to be found by people researching you.

Develop a LinkedIn strategy

You need to cover 3 fundamentals:

1. Make your profile the best sales document for you so that you can…
2. Get a maximum number of recommendations to build your stature, which will help…
3. Grow your LinkedIn network to increase the chance that your profile will be seen by the right person to hire you.

Supercharge your LinkedIn profile

• The LinkedIn Profile is your online resume or CV. Apply great resume tips, avoid any typical or unusual resume mistakes.
• LinkedIn gives you a lot of control over what appears in your profile and your public profile. The public profile should only display positive elements that are pertinent to your current work search.
• Attract hiring managers or clients via your public profile by only including hard-hitting information such as stellar recommendations from past hiring managers or clients.
• All texts should be well-written, but by YOU, written in your voice.
• Write memorable Summary text, it’s your LinkedIn elevator pitch.
• Although your profile is promoting you, avoid using annoying sales text (”Act now!”) that you wouldn’t have on your resume.
• Display an effective photo on your profile that best conveys the impression you want to leave with the viewer. People remember faces.
• Hide irrelevant connections from your public profile. Typically this means non-work-related friends and family.
• Create a LinkedIn “vanity url” using a format that’s easy to guess and remember: http://www.linkedin.com/in/firstnamelastname
• Publicize your LinkedIn vanity url in your email signature, on business cards and wherever it may be seen by someone who would want your resume.
• Use a LinkedIn-generated email signature to promote your public profile. It will also help grow your network of connections from your email recipients.
• Promote your profile on your blog, other websites and forum signatures with official LinkedIn buttons.
• Update your profile regularly. The easiest way to do this is by constantly adding connections. Every change highlights your profile on connections’ Network Updates pages, giving you more exposure.

Multiply recommendations, yours and theirs

• Write as many recommendations as you can about people in your network, which should help you to…
• Get as many recommendations as you can from people in your network. LinkedIn advises asking for recommendations from “former managers, colleagues and co-workers, customers and clients, business partners.” Start with people you know who have large networks of their own, and use the message to also tell them what kind of work you’re looking for.
• Write great recommendations that will make recipients want to display them on their public profile, giving you additional exposure.
• Never hesitate to ask connections to improve their recommendations to meet the standards of your public profile in promoting you towards your next job. People like to help.
• Be truthful with your recommendations. This is your credibility we’re talking about.
• Hide bad recommendations that are exaggerated or just plain false.

Maximize your connections

Get the best

• Upload your work and personal address books to LinkedIn to discover potential connections and sources of recommendations. Then begin inviting connections beginning with people who are already on LinkedIn.
• Leverage other social networks such as Facebook to find people with whom you can also connect on LinkedIn. Facebook is better than LinkedIn at finding former teachers, classmates and other people who knew you in the past. Once on Facebook, asked them to connect with you on LinkedIn too.
• When you invite new connections, write personalized messages instead of the boring default suggestion from LinkedIn unless the recipient is already waiting for your invite.
• A great way to grow your network is to write recommendations about potential connections. If the person isn’t on LinkedIn, the recommendation will give them a reason to join. Even if they don’t join, you will likely leave a positive impression that may help later.
• Invite or accept connections only with people you trust and share the same social networking values. This isn’t MySpace where the objective is to have as many friends as possible. Your objective is to leverage the network to find a job. You need help from people you can depend on. Only people you trust can possibly write truthful recommendations.
• Remove connections that have lost your trust before they can do any damage to your network or waste more of your time.

Reach the best

• Install the LinkedIn Toolbar for your browser to make searching LinkedIn easy. The Toolbar also allows you to bookmark other users’ profiles from LinkedIn search results.
• Use the LinkedIn JobsInsider (part of the LinkedIn toolbar) if you’re looking for work on major job sites such as Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, Craigslist, Vault, or Dice. It will save you time by automatically display your inside connections for the company mentioned in any job listing.
• Whether via the Toolbar or LinkedIn’s onsite Jobs Search, be specific when searching for contacts. Include job titles where relevant and geographic location if you’re aiming to work in a specific city or region.
• Search for headhunters and recruiters in your domain of expertise. They will always want to talk to you since you represent a business opportunity for them.
• Ask your connections to send over profiles of people relevant to your job search.
• To contact specific LinkedIn users that aren’t in your network even to the 3rd degree, use free OpenLink messages if those users are accepting them or join a LinkedIn Group they’re in. As a last resort, consider buying individual InMails.
• Use Introductions to contact people in your network at the 2nd or 3rd degree. You’ll be more successful if your message includes a suggestion describing how you can help them - even with a simple tip - instead of vice-versa.
• You can also use Introductions to reach inside connections as a way to request referrals to hiring managers. This is especially useful if the inside connections’ companies have win-win employee referral bonus programs.
• Other conversation starters over Introductions are to do company reference checks by asking former employees about a company or hiring manager. This way you get your research done without the company knowing.
• Respond to LinkedIn Answers on topics in your industry. Answering relevant industry questions looks great on your public profile where you can display “questions you have asked, answers you have provided, and expertise you have earned by providing the best answers to questions.”
• Ask your connections to send you questions they think you can answer via the Share This link beneath the question.
• Respond to LinkedIn Answers from employees in targeted companies as a lead-in to generating inside connections.
• Join industry-related LinkedIn Groups, as many as you can handle. It’s a terrific way to meet people and get relevant new connections. Remember that you can contact group members directly as if they’re already connected with you.
• Create your own LinkedIn Group as a way to build stature in your industry, but only if your Group will creates value and so will attract users that you currently can’t reach directly. Simply copying an existing group for no apparent reason will only lower your credibility.

Guy Kawasaki has more tips in his article Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn.

Useful Links

• LinkedIntelligence
• Using LinkedIn to job hunt
• I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???
• How do I use LinkedIn to find a job?
• Official LinkedIn advice for job seekers
• My LinkedIn Power Forum (Yahoo Group)
• Getting Started Building Your LinkedIn Network
• What are best practices for a LinkedIn job search?
• Free e-book: LinkedIn for Job Search

To read this entire post, go to Gigantic Tips Guide for Finding Jobs With LinkedIn

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Tags: career, employment, jobs, LinkedIn, Social network

I have built start-ups throughout my life and also have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by successful entrepreneurs throughout my life. And I can tell you one thing:  They may be fazed and affected, like everyone else, but they are unstoppable and undaunted by droughts, depressions, recessions, and natural or man-made disasters. Entrepreneurs and steely businessmen or women don’t stop, don’t look back, don’t complain, they just keep on powering through, whatever the tough times are. The key is these people know they are in it for life, good times or bad, and they may have to adjust their strategy but the game remains the same and they’re in it to win it. They just keep on going, like the famed energizer bunny.

I got onto the Net, riding the wave of the Netscape browser, surfing on the crest of an Internet boom, then weathered the dot com bust, really not so much the worse for wear, just with a little belt tightening, as I have learned to be a lean, mean operator, which I recommend to you as well, at least when you’re starting out.  See Start Your Own Small Business Using More Ingenuity, Less Cash.

In  10 Reasons This is the Best Time to Build a Startup, NewsCred Blog gives it’s reasons why it’s a great time to start:

“I’m not a blind optimist, but I think the best suggestion in this situation is simple: forget the depressing “reality” painted by the so-called pundits, and just get on with it. Why? Because I really believe the naysayers are full of it, and it really is a great time to be building a startup. Here’s why:

10) You can’t dwell on what you cannot control and change, so this is the perfect opportunity to concentrate on the present and focus on delighting your customers TODAY. I don’t practice Buddhism, but I think Buddha got it spot on: “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future - concentrate your mind on the present moment.”

9) Capital efficiency is your friend (thanks Fred). You always wanted to do it, but now you have no excuse. Optimize spending, optimize investing, optimize hiring, optimize everything. This one is Buddha version 2.0: “Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. What we have today is ready cash - so spend it wisely.”

All your competitors with million dollar burn-rates are in trouble.

7) The current crop of startup winners were all created right after the Dot-Com bubble burst. Naysayers were out in droves in 2001 as well. Look at what happened to some of the entrepreneurs who chose to ignore the doom and gloom and just got on with it. $$$.

6) There are fewer distractions. All the hype surrounding web startups and the Web 2.0 bubble will disappear. Rather than worry about flipping your company or XYZ buying ABC for $100 million dollars, you can focus on your product.

5) Yes, product. In times like these, let your product speak louder than anything else. If you build something people want and need, all you need to do is make sure you can continue providing it. If you stop today, it’s going to be pretty hard for people to get to your product. Don’t disappoint them.

4) Build a great team, and don’t worry about paying them boatloads of money. You don’t have money, they don’t expect money, so its a pretty decent ZOPA (zone of probable agreement). There’ll be plenty of talent available. If said talent comes with high salary requirements, slap them across the face. Then tell them “thanks, but no thanks.”

3) Necessity is a big … mother (of invention). You’re brain synapses should be firing on all cylinders and creative juices flowing non-stop. A little creativity will go a long way, and no one will dismiss your crazy ideas if it can a) save money or b) extend your runway or c) get you sales. Also guerrilla marketing is fun.

2) Remember that business model you’ve been putting away for a while? Well, dust it off and starting focusing on it now. During the good times, things like business models often seem like perks or bonuses. Bad times are a blessing in disguise - you can bring back the biz model and put it front and center. God help you if you don’t have one.

1) You’re an entrepreneur. Your whole purpose of being is so that you can take scarce resources, optimize like hell and get maximum output from the least input. This is your time to shine.

The most important thing to remember is if you quit, there’s a 0% chance of success. Life’s too short to worry, so just go out there and have fun. Build a kick-a.. product that’ll delight your customers.

And don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.”

Now, I happen to wholeheartedly agree.  And I can say, looking back, even in the middle of the dot com bust, I said: “Are they kidding?  Not even 10% of the world is on the Net yet. The Net is only beginning.  This is a blip on the map.”   And this is only a blip on the map as well.  Work now and you’ll be better positioned for when the economy roars back as it inevitably will

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Studies , including a recent one last month by Impact Group, confirm and reinforce the axiom that networking is the best way to find a job.

One key thing to remember as Jeremiah, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research points out, even if you work for someone else, you are a company of one: even though your paycheck is being delivered through your employer, you are solely responsible for your direction, what you learn, how you perform, and how much you’re paid. You’re in control of your own destiny.

Therefore, be part of the party/conversation/network before you need anything from anyone. Start now, and continue to build relationships by giving now: share knowledge, help others, and become a trusted node and connector, not just an outlying ‘dot’ of a comet that swings in every 4 years or so.  Since it takes time, and a certain amount of giving of yourself, and contributing, seeding, nurturing and building of the network,invest the time to build it before you need it.

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Latinas are on a roll—exercising new political and economic clout.

In the U.S. and many areas abroad, we are now entering the era of the Latina/Latino. Americans with ancestral roots in Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Peru, Portugal, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Columbia, the Dominican Republic– indeed, all the Hispanic cultures. These Latinas/Latinos have taken what’s best and most vibrant in those traditions and married them to the energy and innovation of the United States, to create new styles and rhythms for a wide variety of careers and professions, seizing success in virtually every arena of life in the U.S.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett in Latinas: A Strong and Growing Workforce Asset reports:

“This demographic group brings a great deal to the marketplace. Seven million strong and growing, the Latina labor force is increasingly well qualified. Between 1996 and 2006 the number of Hispanic women earning bachelor’s degrees increased 222 percent while the number of Latinas earning masters increased 307 percent. In addition, the spending power of Latinos/Latinas is a huge engine for growth in the U.S. ($928 billion, $200 billion larger than two years ago). Thus, it behooves corporations to pay serious attention to Latinas – as employees and consumers.

The report, Sin Fronteras: Celebrating and Capitalizing on the Strengths of Latina Executives, published by the New York-based Center for Work-Life Policy fills a hole in the research literature. Despite the rapidly growing heft of the Latina market (in terms of both brain power and buying power) rather little is known about this important group. Latinas are little studied and poorly understood. Sin Fronteras begins to remedy this omission with three key findings:

1. Heritage is a huge asset. The data is impressive here, whether you’re talking “cultural smarts,” fierce work ethic or an aptitude for collaborative leadership, Latinas have enormous potential in the executive suite.

2. Stereotypes and stigma are serious on-going barriers. All too often Hispanic workers are seen as “lazy, ignorant, illegal immigrants draining the social services.” As a consequence, employers often have a hard time seeing Latinas as “leadership material.”

3. Cutting edge companies are beginning to get it. A piece of good news: Companies are beginning to leverage Latina talent creating support networks (Goldman Sachs, GE); providing leadership training (J&J); honoring community outreach (Time Warner); underpinning personal and family resilience (Booz Allen Hamilton, Credit Suisse); and tackling stereotypes and stigma (Cisco). All of these initiatives involve the top rungs of management and thus are potential “game-changers.”

Read all of Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s Winning the Talent War posts

Tags: careers, diversity, jobs, Latina, Latinos

We’ve already discussed the importance of creating your own personal brand in order to stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of your audience. Few have done this better than Christiane Amanpour.

When we think of Amanpour what comes to mind? An attractive, sophisticated woman in a safari shirt and jeans in some exotic locale… perhaps the Middle East…engaging in incisive commentary on world events, comfortable asking probing questions of world leaders, often in moments of crisis. Based out of CNN’s London bureau, Amanpour is one of the most recognized international journalists on American television, with a willingness to work in dangerous conflict zones. She speaks English, Persian, and French fluently. That is who we think of when we think of Amanpour. Her name doesn’t bring to mind Images of her as a wife and mother, which she also is, or arriving at an international soiree in elegant evening attire and striking jewelry, which she also does.  Amanpour has succeed in creating her personal brand and melding it seamslessly with her professional life.  You can do the same.

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