It s a shame I've been sitting on this book for about two years now. A friend of mine gave me Never Eat Alone , by Keith Ferrazzi a couple years ago (thanks Rey), and it s been on my bookcase ever since. It was resting there not because I didn't want to read it, but because I already had so many others in the pipeline. I finally got around to reading it last month and I definitely recommend it. In very simple terms, Ferrazzi explains why networking is important and how to do it. From how to make call lists to planning dinners to personal branding to goal setting, it s all here. He also maintains a valuable blog .
Inevitably there will be times when you have setbacks or things don t go your way. Maybe you didn't get a job you thought you were sure to get. Maybe you lost a job unexpectedly, didn't win a contract, or lost a major client. Your car always seems to break down right after you've had some other unexpected expense. These kinds of situations immediately place us in crisis. They don t feel good, but sometimes they re what we need in order to grow. The beautiful thing about crises is that they force us to take a step back and reevaluate what s going on in our lives and rediscover what we truly want and need. When we get over that initial shock and feeling of disappointment, we might realize that maybe that job wasn't really the best for us anyway. Maybe, just maybe, that wasn't what you really wanted to spend your life doing. Maybe that friend was holding you back instead of pushing you forward. The way I deal with crises of these sorts is simple: If something doesn't go my way professionally, I try to create a situation that would be more rewarding than the situation originally planned. A while ago, I was offered a job that looked very promising. After I accepted the offer, they pushed the start date back three times, later informing me (via e-mail) that they wanted to bring me on in the near future but I should feel free to explore other options. I was extremely disappointed. I felt disrespected and angry, but decided to make the best of the situation and follow my dream of working internationally. I then flew to Santiago, Chile and had great professional and personal experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. Later, reflecting back on the original opportunity, I realized that working for a company that avoids a start date three times and then can t pick up the phone to explain the situation is probably not where I need to spend my time. Use setbacks as an opportunity to put your goals in order and act on them. In the moment, it s difficult to look at a setback as temporary, but they are. They happen to everybody. It s how you respond to them that will determine how they affect you.
If there’s something that you are really bad at doing, why do it? Unless there is absolutely no way you can tap into the strengths of others, you will be much more effective if you focus on the things you do well and rely on others for the things you don’t.
Some people are natural strategic thinkers while others are naturally creative. If you don’t know how to use Adobe Illustrator, let somebody else design your logo. If you can’t count, you should probably let somebody else handle the books. In an organization, it’s more important to execute all aspects well than to exceed in one area and fail in all others.
I’m talking about activities and roles here, not talking about personal development, experience, and character. In this regard, I strongly feel that one should continuously work on developing both their strengths and weaknesses when it comes be being an asset to your organization or community. However, when it comes to getting things done, don’t be averse to collaborating in order to get things done right.
When thinking about how to minimize my negative effects on the environment, the first things that come to mind are reducing the amount of electricity I consume, eating local, organic foods, trying not to use plastic as much, etc. Buying organic t-shirts was not an immediate thought. I never really thought about it until I started looking for a company to produce custom t-shirts for a project I was working on. I didn’t know where to start, but I knew I wanted to order shirts from a company that paid decent wages and maintained a high quality working environment for their employees. Then I began thinking about what goes into a shirt besides labor, and such as the source of the cotton, the dyes used in shirts, transportation, etc. Thus began my search for a sustainable t-shirt company.
Rather than turn to Google, I decided to consult my new favorite search tool, Twitter. I sent a tweet asking for a sustainable, custom t-shirt company. Within minutes I received a response from Yeoman Organics. As a marketer, I was impressed with their engagement within the social media space. As a consumer, I was impressed with their quick responses, pricing, and quality of their product. After we exchanged a few direct messages and emails, I had a deeper understanding of the industry and how they address some of the most serious issues created by the industry. A few things I learned are just how large the cotton industry is, that many pesticides used in cotton manufacture contain known carcinogens, and commonly used nitrogen-based fertilizers release massive amounts of nitrous oxide (a major greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere.
Yeoman was created as a response to a sibling challenge: Phil told his brother Joe he couldn’t start a green t-shirt company. What started out as a small operation, selling only a handful of shirts locally, turned into a small company that ships nationally and works with non-profits such as The Breast Cancer Fund, and popular events like the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. When I asked what their mission was, the response was, “Our mission is simple: we want to make clothes that we’re proud to wear. We use organic cotton because in America we should be able to choose if we want clothes from pesticided cotton or organic cotton. We make the clothes in San Francisco because we want to bring green manufacturing to America.”
I know where I’ll be shopping for custom shirts for now on. For more information or to obtain a quote, check out Yeoman Organics here.