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.
I can’t believe that, in just under 48 hours, I will be on my way to China. In the final days I have to prepare for this trip, I am thinking about all the things that come to mind when the People’s Republic of China is brought up. It occurs to me, that although the majority of the products I own are made in China, I know very little about the country or the people who reside there or share a common ancestry. That’s a shame. When the opportunity arose for me to take this ten day study abroad trip, I almost declined it. (I was awarded a fellowship to study leadership in diversity and conservation at the same time in Vermont.) However, as the time passed and the thoughts wavered back and forth, my passions to visit foreign lands, learn about different cultures, and grow through the diverse and meaningful experiences combined to make the decision I had to make increasingly clear. With one day left to register, I found myself walking briskly through the downtown streets of Seattle, finding my way to the Chinese relations office to hand in my passport and visa application form.
Honestly, I have no idea what to expect, but for me, that’s the beauty of it. I have no preconceived notions of what I need to learn nor what I want to learn. I just trust I will. This will be my first time in the East, and I welcome the new experience with open arms.
As China monitors and sensors Internet activity, I will have little to no access to email, Facebook, and other means of online communication. Therefore, if you try to reach me, there’s a good chance that I won’t respond until my return on August 10.
Until next time…Peace
I finally read Switch: How To Change Things When Change is Hard last week. Although I’ve been meaning to read it since its release in February 2010, I was finally cajoled into doing by my summer class—it was assigned reading. Nothing in the book is groundbreaking. In fact, there are a few pieces I feel deserve a bit more research and research. However, I fully recommend this book for anybody who is involved in the practice of influencing others or thinks they may need to create change in themselves. Why do I recommend this book even with it’s flaws? Firstly, I recognize that no one piece of literature will ever be perfect on all accounts for all people. Secondly, and most importantly in my opinion, is that the Chip brothers do an excellent job of making clear the importance of leading with both the mind and the heart. Whereas most literature focus on one or the other, Switch uses facts and figures as well as story to make their appeals extremely comprehensible and accessible. The authors describe both effective and ineffective ways to create change through case studies, psychology, philosophy, and anecdotal evidence. I think this varied approach keeps the read interesting and allows issues to be analyzed from different perspectives.
The reason I say this book doesn’t break new ground is because I feel I’ve read everything presented here before. I constantly found myself thinking things like, “Oh yeah, this is just like what Gladwell says in Blink.” Granted, I understand I may be an anomaly. Not everybody keeps Harvard Business Review case studies, and marketing and psychology books on their night stands. For those of you who don’t find reading endless amounts of business books riveting Switch does a good job of combining the research and findings provided by such works as Influencer (Patterson, et.al, 2007), Blink (Gladwell, 2007), Emotional Intelligence (Bradberry, et.al, 2009), The Brand Gap (Neumeier, 2005) and others. I recommend each of those books, but you can save some time by reading just this one if you wish. I also appreciate Heath and Heath for touching on moral issues when persuasion techniques are used. Although this area could have been more completely explored, that’s not the purpose of this book.
Dan and Chip talk about the Rider (analytical, conscious part of our brain) and the Elephant (impulsive part of our brain), very similar to what Freud would refer to as the ego and id respectively. They also explicitly discuss what they refer to as the Path (situation) and how that plays a major role in behavior, even going so far as to say that when analyzing and judging problems, “The error lies in our inclination to attribute people’s behavior to the way they are rather than to the situation they are in.” I agree with that and think that turning our attention to the situation in many cases will help us look past our various differences and allow us to see others as the generally good people they are.