That Email was from Courtney Clark, and while our Stories Weren’t Quite the Same—I was Widowed at age 26 & She was Diagnosed with Cancer—we could relate to one another. But Clark’s story didn’t end after she beat Melanoma. Since then, she’s had two more recurrences of cancer. And as if that wasn’t enough to deal with, she also survived a brain aneurysm. Yet, rather than become bitter about the hand she’s been dealt, she chooses to spend her time teaching others about resilience.
The “My-Life-Fell-Apart-at-Age-26 Club” is a Group that No One Wants to Join, but When We Do, we’re Always Eager to Meet the Other Members & Hear Their Stories. So when I got an email a couple of weeks ago with a subject line that said, “My life blew up at age 26, too!” it caught my attention.
That email was from Courtney Clark, and while our stories weren’t quite the same—I was widowed at age 26 and she was diagnosed with cancer—we could relate to one another. But Clark’s story didn’t end after she beat Melanoma. Since then, she’s had two more recurrences of cancer. And as if that wasn’t enough to deal with, she also survived a brain aneurysm. Yet, rather than become bitter about the hand she’s been dealt, she chooses to spend her time teaching others about resilience.
Clark, who describes herself as the luckiest unlucky person in the world, is the author of The Giving Prescription, a book that describes how helping others provides physical and emotional healing to anyone going through traumatic circumstances. She’s also a keynote speaker and the founder of a nonprofit.
After several conversations with Clark, I wanted to know her secret to bouncing back after adversity. I asked her how has she’s handled so many health issues without turning into an angry, bitter person. Here are Clark’s five strategies for facing change and overcoming life’s challenges without resentment:
1. Concentrate on the Bull’s-Eye
Life is full of urgent activities—like that email that just pinged onto your computer as you were reading this sentence. In our busy lives, we often get distracted from the tasks that are really important, and start trying to do 25 other things, too. But those 25 things put together are less important than the bull’s-eye. Particularly in times of challenge, you have to focus on what’s most important, and let the rest go.
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2. Be Willing to Go with Plan B
We’re told that successful people have plans. That’s true, but the really successful people are the ones who know what to do when their plan doesn’t work out. The key is learning how to let go of a plan that isn’t serving you. I was diagnosed with cancer at 26 and learned that biological children weren’t likely in my future. Four years later, I met my teenaged son at a volunteer event. Motherhood doesn’t look like I expected, but my son is the child I was meant to parent. We have to let go of Plan A to make room for Plan B.
3. Focus on How You Deal, Not What You’re Dealt
Why did hundreds of people survive the Titanic, but Molly Brown is the only one who became infamous for it? Molly commandeered her lifeboat and organized months-long volunteer efforts on behalf of the other Titanic survivors, rallying everyone around her. Two people can be dealt the same issue, with dramatically different results. Your life story isn’t about what happens to you, it’s about what you do from that moment on.
Forbes.com | July 13, 2015 | Amy Morin
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Employers Want to see a GPA of 3.0 or Higher, & Many Put the Floor at 3.5. Checked in with Dan Black, the Director of Recruiting for the Americas at professional services giant Ernst & Young, which Hires thousands of new U.S. grads every year. He says, Absolutely, he expects to see a GPA on a résumé. “Grades Certainly Do Matter when We’re Recruiting Students,” he says. “It’s really one of the only indications we have of a student’s technical ability or competence to do the job.”
At the end of my son’s freshman year at UCLA, his grades are not what I would have hoped. I won’t print his average here but suffice to say it’s not a 4.0. He did get an A in a history course but his performance in two required science classes was sub-par. This summer he’s making good money teaching tennis at a local camp where he’s worked before, a job where academic performance doesn’t matter. But what about next summer or the summer after that, when he may try to land a paying internship at a consulting firm or ad agency? More important, what effect will his GPA have on his job prospects post-graduation?
I talked to career services directors at four schools—New York University, Brandeis, Rochester Institute of Technology and Purdue—and they all agree: Employers do care about grades. Students shouldn’t think that just because they’ve mounted the admissions hurdle, they can slack off in class. To be sure, many small employers won’t expect to see a GPA on a résumé, but most large companies will. According to a 2013 survey of more than 200 employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 67% of companies said they screened candidates by their GPA. NACE, A Bethlehem, PA non¬profit, links college placement offices with employers. Its members tend to be big companies with an average of 7,500 people on the payroll, including Kellogg, Procter & Gamble and Bank of America.
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I also checked in with Dan Black, the director of recruiting for the Americas at professional services giant Ernst & Young, which hires thousands of new U.S. grads every year. He says, absolutely, he expects to see a GPA on a résumé. “Grades certainly do matter when we’re recruiting students,” he says. “It’s really one of the only indications we have of a student’s technical ability or competence to do the job.”
The career services directors I spoke to all say that Employers Want to see a GPA of 3.0 or Higher, & Many Put the Floor at 3.5. But Black says there is no hard cut¬off. Even a student with a 2.1 could get a job at Ernst & Young if he had a good reason for his lagging marks, like being called up for military service in the middle of a semester. Or a student with a 3.2 could beat out an applicant with a 3.9 if the student with the lower grades were working 30 hours a week to put himself through school and at the same time serving as class treasurer. “I’m always looking for people who can juggle multiple responsibilities,” says Black. One thing Black says that startles me: he has gotten to know the schools where he recruits, like U. Penn., so well that he can evaluate what it means for a student to get a B in a class with an especially tough professor.
According to Trudy Steinfeld, head of career services at NYU, the companies that care the most about grades are investment banks, professional service firms like Ernst & Young and pharmaceutical companies. Even if a student is not applying in one of those areas, if he has a GPA over 3.0, she recommends he include the average on his résumé. Do include honors like cum laude and membership in Phi Beta Kappa, she adds.
Manny Contomanolis, head of career services at Rochester Institute of Technology, agrees. He also says it’s important to be honest because at least a third of the time, employers request a copy of a student’s transcript. Black of Ernst & Young agrees. “Nobody gets hired at EY from campus without an official transcript.”
At Purdue, career offices head Tim Luzader says many large manufacturing corporations like General Motors, Ford, John Deere and Caterpillar, recruit on campus and they all want to see grades.” They see GPA as a threshold to manage their recruitment,” he says.
What should you do if your grades are lousy? There are a few possibilities. At Purdue, students have the advantage of some 30 career fairs a year, where they can stand face to face with company recruiters and sell themselves. “They can tell their story, whether they were working while going to school or whether they had a disastrous freshman year but have done better lately,” says Luzader. Steinfeld agrees with Ernst & Young’s Dan Black that students can compensate for bad grades with a compelling story that they can put on their résumés, like describing an internship where they did an analysis of workflow issues and improved productivity by 20%. Another fix, suggested by RIT’s Contomanolis: If the GPA in your major is better than your overall grades, only list that, or list both numbers.
What about small employers or startups? Do they care about GPA? Not as much. But if your grades are good, go ahead and list your average on your transcript. Dean Iacovetti, director of recruiting at Apprenda, a software company outside Albany, NY, says he doesn’t expect to see GPAs on résumés, but if he does, and it’s a strong one, he takes notice. “If there’s an individual graduating with a 3.5 from Cornell,” he says, “that’s someone I’d like to see.”
Forbes.com | July 8, 2015 | Susan Adams
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Rejection Can Feel Genuinely Devastating. But before you retreat into your tear-stained hovel to plot a new, anonymous life as a subsistence farmer in rural Australia (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), Consider This: Some of the World’s Most Successful People have Failed — Sometimes More than Once.
Instant success isn’t the only kind of success.
We’ve put together a list of indisputably successes, from movie stars to scientists, who experienced massive failure before they found fame and fortune.
Weaker people might have given up. Instead, these folks remained focused on their goals.
Scroll on to see the underdogs who went on to change the world.
Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because his editor felt he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
AP Photo
Several more of his businesses failed before the premiere of his movie “Snow White.” He went onto become the guy who redefined American childhood.
Oprah Winfrey was publicly fired from her first television job as an anchor in Baltimore for getting “too emotionally invested in her stories.”
Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
But Winfrey rebounded and became the undisputed queen of television talk shows before amassing a media empire. Today she is worth a cool $3 billion, according to Forbes.
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R.H. Macy had a series of failed retail ventures throughout his early career.
YouTube/A&E Biography
But at the age of 36, Macy launched R.H. Macy & Co., which grew to become Macy’s, one of the largest department store chains in the world.
Soichiro Honda’s unique vision got him ostracized by the Japanese business community.
Getty Images/ The Asahi Shimbun
Honda was a mechanical genius who idolized Edison and rebelled against the norm. His passion for aggressive individualism was more fit for the United States, and he found himself alienated him from Japanese businessmen, who valued teamwork above all else. Honda then boldly challenged the American automotive industry in the 1970s and led a Japanese automotive revolution.
Colonel Harland David Sanders was fired from dozens of jobs before founding a fried chicken empire.
AP Photo
He traveled across the U.S. looking for someone to sell his fried chicken, and after finally getting a business deal in Utah, Kentucky Fried Chicken was born. KFC is now one of the most recognizable franchises in the world, with over 18,000 locations.
After having trouble adjusting to the culture and his classes, Dick Cheney dropped out of Yale — and then returned, only to drop out for good.
AP Photo/Richard Drew
George W. Bush once joked: “So now we know if you graduate from Yale, you become president. If you drop out, you get to be vice president.”
Sir Isaac Newton’s mother pulled him out of school as a boy so that he could run the family farm. He failed miserably.
Getty Images/Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller
Realizing her son was not meant to till the land, she let Newton finish his basic education and was eventually persuaded to allow him to enroll in Cambridge University. Newton went on to become one of the greatest scientists of all time, revolutionizing physics and mathematics.
Vera Wang failed to make the 1968 US Olympic figure-skating team. Then she became an editor at Vogue, but was passed over for the editor-in-chief position.
Thomas Edison’s teachers told him he was “too stupid to learn anything.”
AP Photo
After that, things stayed bleak for a while, as Edison went onto be fired from his first two jobs, for not being suitably productive.
Edison went on to hold more than 1,000 patents and invented some world-changing devices, like the phonograph, practical electrical lamp, and a movie camera.
When Sidney Poitier first auditioned for the American Negro Theatre, he flubbed his lines and spoke in a heavy Caribbean accent, which made the director angrily tell him to stop wasting his time and go get a job as a dishwasher.
As a child, Albert Einstein had some difficulty communicating and learning in a traditional manner.
AP Photo
Of course, Einstein’s communication and behavioral problems were not indicative of a lack of intelligence. He went on to win the Nobel prize in physics for the discovery of the photoelectric effect, and his special theory of relativity theory corrected the deficiencies of Newtonian physics.
In one of Fred Astaire’s first screen tests, an executive wrote: “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little.”
J.K. Rowling was a single mom living off welfare when she began writing the first “Harry Potter” novel.
Photo by Dan Hallman/Invision/AP
Rowling is now internationally renowned for her seven-book Harry Potter series and, in US currency, became the first billionaire author in 2004.
Charles Darwin was considered an average student. He gave up on a career in medicine and was going to school to become a parson.
AP Photo, File
But as Darwin studied nature, he found his true calling and traveled the world to uncover nature’s mysteries. His writings, especially “On the Origin of Species,” fundamentally changed the world of science by spreading the discovery of evolution.
Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting, “The Red Vineyard,” in his life, and the sale was just months before his death.
After Harrison Ford’s first small movie role, an executive took him into his office and told him he’d never succeed in the movie business.
Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP
Ford’s career went on to span six decades, and has included timeless starring roles in blockbuster films like the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” series.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, had his first book rejected by 27 different publishers.
Lucille Ball appeared in so many second-tier films at the start of her career that she became known as “The Queen of B Movies.”
Getty Images/Mondadori Portfolio
Then she got her big break when CBS picked up her and her husband Desi Arnaz’s vaudeville act and turned it into the highly influential sitcom “I Love Lucy.”
Winston Churchill was estranged from his political party over ideological disagreements during the “wilderness years” of 1929 to 1939.
A young Henry Ford ruined his reputation with a couple of failed automobile businesses.
AP Photo
However, after conducting a search, he was finally able to find a partner who had faith in him. Ford proved he had learned from his mistakes when Ford Motor Company forever changed the automotive industry and culture with his assembly line mode of production.
While developing his vacuum, Sir James Dyson went through 5,126 failed prototypes and his savings over 15 years.
Carey Mulligan was rejected from every single drama school she applied to. An auditor at Drama Center London told her to be a “children’s TV show presenter” instead.
“They were like, ‘Go home! Or at least experience something other than boarding school,'” she recalls. She did, and has since gone onto starring roles on Broadway (“Skylight,” “The Seagull”) and in Hollywood (“An Education,” “Shame”).
NPR icon Terry Gross was fired from her first teaching job after approximately six weeks.
A newly graduated English major, Gross did what many of us do: she took a teaching job in Buffalo’s toughest inner city junior high. “I couldn’t keep the students in the classroom, I couldn’t teach them a lesson, I couldn’t do anything,” she told Marc Maron onstage at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her tenure lasted all of six weeks.
Gross then discovered radio, and her long-running interview show, “Fresh Air” now reaches more than 5 million listeners on 450 stations.
Saul Bellow’s college English professor, the famed Norman Maclean, said he showed no signs of literary greatness and ultimately dismissed him as “a dud.”
Bellow — who went onto write masterworks like “The Adventures of Augie March” and “Humboldt’s Gift” — ultimately won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, a Guggenheim, and the National Medal of Arts. He is also the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction three separate times, and received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Lady Gaga got dropped by her record label, Island Def Jam, after 3 months. Upon receiving the news, she “cried so hard she couldn’t talk.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Now, Stefani Germanotta is a pop icon, the winner of six Grammy awards and a Songwriters Hall of Fame award. She’s a regular on Billboard’s Artists of the Year lists, is known for her activism (LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS prevention), and is worth $59 million, according to Forbes.
Ang Lee failed Taiwan’s college entrance exams — twice. Then he tried to go to acting school, but his English wasn’t good enough.
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
“I was always in shame that I could not focus on books,” Lee told ABC News. “And I failed the college examinations. My father was my high school principle…That was bad.” In theater school, he fell in love with the stage, but his English wasn’t good enough.
Now, he’s an a three-time Academy Award-winning director, and the man behind mega hits like “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,” “Life of Pi,” and “Brokeback Mountain.”
A young Jay-Z couldn’t get any record label to sign him.
REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
Growing up in the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, Jay-Z worked to perfect his flow, his lyrics, and his references. When he couldn’t get a single bite on his first CD, he and his friends sold the record “out of the boot of their car next to Gray’s Papaya.”
Now, the musician — who’s also an investor and entrepreneur — is worth $550 million, according to Forbes.
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While Any Large Companies Use Automated Résumé Screener Software to Cut Down the Initial Pool of Job Applicants, Loading your Résumé with Meaningless Buzzwords is Not theSsmartest Way to Get Noticed.
Get ready to start hitting the ‘delete’ button.
“Nearly everyone is guilty of using buzzwords from time to time, but professionals are evaluated increasingly on their ability to communicate,” says Paul McDonald, senior executive director for professional placement firm Robert Half.
One of the major problems with using buzzwords and terms, according to Mary Lorenz, a corporate communications manager at CareerBuilder, is they have become so overused that they’ve lost all meaning.
Another issue, she explains, is that many of these words don’t differentiate the job seeker from other candidates because they’re so generic. Instead, Lorenz says job seekers should speak in terms of accomplishments and show rather than tell.
“Avoiding overused terms can help job seekers convey their message and stand out from the crowd,” McDonald says. Here’s what you should avoid:
“Anyone can say they are ‘best of breed,’ a ‘go-getter,’ a ‘hard worker,’ or a ‘strategic thinker,'” Lorenz says. “Employers want to know what makes the job seekers unique, and how they will add value to the specific organization for which they’re applying.”
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2. ‘Phone’
Career coach Eli Amdur says there is no reason to put the word “phone” in front of the actual number.
“It’s pretty silly. They know it’s your phone number.” The same rule applies to email.
3. ‘Results-driven’
“Instead of simply saying that you’re results-driven, write about what you did to actually drive results — and what those results were,” Lorenz suggests.
Superfluous words like “responsible for,” “oversight of,” and “duties included,” unnecessarily complicate and hide your experience says Alyssa Gelbard, founder and president of Résumé Strategists.
“Be direct, concise, and use active verbs to describe your accomplishments,” she suggests. Instead of writing, “Responsible for training interns …,” simply write, “Train interns …”
McDonald saying using terms like “highly qualified” or “extensive experience” won’t make you seem better-suited for the job — in fact, it could have the opposite effect. Instead, he suggests you focus on the skills, accomplishments, and credentials you bring to the role.
“Not only does this word conjure up images of curly fries,” says Rita Friedman, a Philadelphia-based career coach, “it is well-recognized as a code word for ‘much, much older.'”
This outdated phrase will unnecessarily age you, Gelbard says. “If you progress through the interviewing process, you will be asked for personal and professional references.”
“For starters, acronyms are capitalized, and all caps are harder to read than upper and lower case,” she explains. “It’s also really difficult to wade through a piece of paper that resembles alphabet soup.”
9. ‘Team player’
TaskRabbit
“Who doesn’t want to be a team player? If you’re not a team player, you’re probably not going to get the job,” McDonald says.
But using this term isn’t going to make you stand out from other candidates. “Instead, use an example of how you saved a company time, money, and resources on a team project or in collaboration with others.
10. ‘Ambitious’
“Of course you would never say you’re ‘lazy’ either, but calling yourself ambitious doesn’t make any sense on a resume,” Friedman says.
“It can imply that you’re targeting this job now, but will quickly be looking to move up in the company because you won’t be satisfied in the role, leaving the employer stuck with doing a new job search in the very near future.”
It’s assumed that you have a basic proficiency in Microsoft Office, Gelbard says. Unless you have expert proficiency, there’s no need to include it on your résumé.
“Words like this make you sound like an automaton,” Oliver says. “Most recruiters would rather meet with a human being. Keep your verbs simpl
13. ‘Hard worker’
War Production Co-ordinating Committee
It’s true that a company is less likely to consider you if you haven’t worked hard or don’t come across as someone who will put in what it takes to get the job done, but that doesn’t mean writing “hard worker” will convince hiring managers of your efforts.
“Give concrete examples of how you’ve gone the extra mile, rather than using a non-memorable cliché,” McDonald suggests.
14. ‘Honest’
Screenshot
Honesty is one of those things you have to show, not tell, Friedman says.
“It’s not as if there are some other candidates out there vying for the job who are describing themselves as ‘duplicitous’ or ‘dishonest.'”
15. ‘Punctual’
Daniel Goodman / Business Insider
Being punctual is great, but it’s also pretty basic to holding down a job. Don’t waste the space on your résumé.
Unless it’s in your email address, avoid casual texting language like @.
“A resume is a formal document and is often the first impression a potential employer has of you,” Gelbard stresses. “Business language should be used to reinforce that first impression and text-style or casual words should be avoided.”
Cliches like “people person” are impossible to prove, Oliver says, and recruiters have heard these phrases so many times they’re likely to feel their eyes glaze over as soon as they see them.
“This one is a pet peeve of mine,” McDonald says. “The expression is unnecessary and doesn’t add value. A recruiter isn’t going to be able to place you if you’re not eager to start the j
Avoid using personal pronouns like I, me, my, we, or our, Gelbard says.
“A person reviewing your resume knows that you’re talking about your skills, experience, and expertise or something related to the company for which you worked, so you don’t need to include pronouns.”
20. ‘Successfully’
Dogma / Wikimedia, CC
“It’s generally assumed that you were successful at whatever you are including on your resume,” Gelbard says. “There is no need to say that you successfully managed a marketing campaign or successfully led annual budget planning.”
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I like Nice People. Who Doesn’t, Right? But, Like Every Virtue,Too Much Niceness can Become a Vice. Of course, Being Agreeable, Affable & Amenable is Often a Great Thing, helping you to Build Trusting & Rewarding Relationships. Likewise, no-one likes someone who is forever forcing their opinion, constantly argumentative and overly demanding. However, if you’re not willing to push back from time to time, you can find yourself feeling increasingly resentful, frustrated and not accomplishing what you want. Or to put it simply – rocking the boat can be risky, but no less than being too agreeable.
When I look back on the not-so-pleasant experiences in my career and life, on every single occasion I can identify where I held back from confronting an issue when I shouldn’t have because I was afraid someone might think I was being difficult, hard to get along with, uncooperative or pushy. I was trying to be a nice person—agreeable, easy to work with. Alas, I was trying too hard.
I like nice people. Who doesn’t, right? But, like every virtue, too much niceness can become a vice. Of course, being agreeable, affable and amenable is often a great thing, helping you to build trusting and rewarding relationships. Likewise, no-one likes someone who is forever forcing their opinion, constantly argumentative and overly demanding. However, if you’re not willing to push back from time to time, you can find yourself feeling increasingly resentful, frustrated and not accomplishing what you want. Or to put it simply – rocking the boat can be risky, but no less than being too agreeable.
If all you ever do is “go along to get along” you will sometimes diminish yourself and deprive others of the impact you would make by speaking up and putting forward your opinion, even if it ruffles the odd feather. Sure, there’ll be people who won’t always agree with you. Some may think you’re being a pain in the butt. Criticism and confrontation may ensue. However, in today’s workplace where “yes-men” are plentiful, those who are willing to speak their mind—courteously, but candidly—not only add more value, but become more valued by those around them. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “If you set out to be liked, you will accomplish nothing.”
There is both an art and a science to knowing how to push back without coming across as pushy. Here are a five ways to help you do just that.
Don’t Make People Wrong
If you’ve ever had someone challenge your opinion, even gently, you’ll have experienced how quickly it can raise your defenses, even when you know you aren’t being personally attacked. Likewise, if what you have to say may be threatening to others, be very clear in distinguishing between the opinion you’re pushing back against and the person who holds it.
When people perceive that you’re trying to put them down or lay blame, they instinctively go into combat mode. No one wins when either perceives that the other is out for blood. So instead of saying ‘yes, but …’, say ‘yes, and …’ The former may come across as combative while the latter acknowledges their view as valid and invites further discussion.
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Inquire Before Advertising
We all like to think our way of seeing things is the right way. So before you try to convince someone otherwise, take time to understand how they came to see things as they do. This moves you from advocating for your opinion to inquiring about theirs. When people sense you’re genuinely trying to understand their perspective, they become more receptive to yours.+
Start With What You Both Care About
Whether it’s a mutual concern for the bottom line or the state of your relationship, make sure you frame your opinion in the context of what you both care about. That way, people won’t see you as arguing against them as much as trying to work with them to create a better outcome. It can subtly shift the emotional space from being combative to collaborative.
Arm Yourself With Solutions, Not Complaints
It’s easy to complain. It’s why so many people excel at it. It’s not so easy to find a practical solution that takes care of everyone’s (not just your own) concerns. So whenever you can, come armed with a suggestion to address the issue along with examples of where your idea has worked for others. Since most people tend towards risk-averseness, sharing how others have been successful in similar situations can lessen misgivings and increase buy-in. If you have no solution, then enlist their support in finding one.
Know When To Let It Rest
You won’t always get others to see things your way so know when it’s time to let it go and move on. At least now people know where you stand and you can either accept things as they are or make other plans. Either way, you’ll have built self-respect for making a stand and likely also earned the respect of those you challenged for the courage it took you to do so.
Saying something that rubs against the consensus opinion can cause friction. However, as I wrote in Brave: 50 Everyday Acts of Courage To Thrive In Work, Love and Life, being too agreeable when you need to speak assertively can put your self-respect at risk. Where is your fear of rocking the boat (and being regarded as bossy, or pushy, or even difficult to get along with) keeping you from speaking up more bravely?
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“It is a Skill That is Developed by a Deep Understanding of Human Mature, of What Truly Motivates People, & of the Manipulations Necessary for Advancement & Protection.” – Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power,”
To acquire power, it’s important to first understand it. Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power,” has some insight.
Power is “the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you,” Greene tells Business Insider. “It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.”
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After the closing bell on Wednesday, aluminum giant Alcoa will report second-quarter earnings, unofficially kicking off reporting season. In the first quarter, S&P 500 earnings grew 1.9% and revenues fell 3.2% year-over-year, according to RBC Capital Markets’ scorecard.
And so the earnings recession that some analysts predicted failed to materialize. But that doesn’t mean the second quarter is expected to be good.
According to Factset, analysts are not expecting earnings growth until Q4 2015, and no revenue growth until Q1 2016. And ahead of second-quarter-earnings season, expectations are that overall S&P 500 earnings will actually be lower than they were in the first quarter.
To get you ready for the season, here are six things to look out for.
1- Once again, earnings expectations have plunged into the season.
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley analysts say forecasts are too low, meaning that results will “show modest upside.”
Analysts are expecting earnings per share (EPS) growth of -3.8% — now the lowest estimate of the year, according to Barclays. The energy, consumer staple, and industrials sectors are expected to report falling EPS, but healthcare, financials, and consumer discretionary will be the highest.
Barclays noted that industrials have seen the biggest downward revisions due to the economic slowdown in Q1. And analysts have raised energy-earnings estimates the most because of the rebound in oil prices.
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2- But the energy sector is not out of the woods yet.
The fallout from the oil crash is not over, and earnings for the energy sector are projected to fall 63% year-over-year according to RBC Capital.
The sector could drag down S&P 500 growth by as much as 8%, they estimate.
3- The dollar will continue to be a big theme.
The strong dollar has been one of the big drags on company sales in the last two quarters. Its rally slowed down in the second quarter, but it was much stronger compared to a year ago.
Here’s how Factset breaks it down: “In the year-ago quarter (Q2 2014), one euro was equal to $1.37 dollars on average. For Q2 2015, one euro was equal to $1.11 dollars on average. In the year-ago quarter (Q2 2014), one dollar was equal to $102.10 yen on average. For Q2 2015, one dollar was equal to $121.42 yen on average.”
According to Barclays, the translation effect could be larger than ever this season, especially because a greater share of S&P 500 sales now comes from outside the US.
Companies like to announce share purchases with their earnings results, and Barclays expects even more this season, noting that buybacks tend to help stocks outperform.
5- Companies will shed more light on the strength of consumer spending.
To start the year, consumers didn’t splurge their savings from lower gas prices, confounding economists. However, personal spending recently rose to a six-year high, and consumer confidence is around its highest levels of 2015.
Economists are again optimistic, and, during this earnings season, companies could provide more color on just how much of a comeback the consumer is making.
6- Look out for mentions of Greece, but don’t expect much.
“While we do not believe exposure to Greece is meaningful, exposure to Europe is,” Barclays strategists wrote. “Europe is the second-largest market for S&P 500 companies. We estimate Europe accounts for approximately 10% of sales for the S&P 500.”
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True Leadership is Not about Rank or Job Titles. It’s an Attitude. It’s Way of Doing What You Do. Having a perspective that extends way beyond the list of tasks on your daily do-list will help you demonstrate your leadership even if you don’t have the title.
I was recently coaching a group of young professionals who work for one of my clients in New Jersey. I was helping them analyze their360Reach personal brand survey reports (disclosure: 360Reach is a product of my company, Reach Personal Branding) so they could understand how they are perceived by those around them. Many in the group saw themselves as leaders, yet their external feedback clearly classified them as “doers.” One of the participants asked, “How can you be seen as a leader when you don’t have a leadership title?” The results of our discussion were eye-opening.
Leadership is an attitude, not a title. Here are 7 leadership characteristics that you can adopt even if you just joined the workforce or are an individual contributor.
1. Take carefully calculated risks.
Doers go along with what’s said and accomplish tasks. Leaders are willing to take on the hard problems – those that most people avoid. They are willing to speak out rather than go along with something they feel will be a mistake. They see the big-picture implications of what they are doing and seek to understand its impact. This means being strategic and looking at all sides of an issue and the consequences of various actions. Sometimes it means questioning authority – in a positive and respectful way – or bringing up important issues that are seemingly unrelated to the task at hand.
2. Acknowledge others.
Leaders don’t wait to receive gratitude; they freely bestow it upon others – thanking their peers, subordinates and managers. They publicly express appreciation, and they recognize others for their contributions. You don’t need a management title to give kudos to your peers. Being willing to share praise and spread the spirit of positivity will make you stand out. You’ll be acknowledged as someone who sees the importance of positive feedback in motivating and engaging others.
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3. Initiate.
Leaders are proactive and self motivated, and they do things without being asked or told. By maintaining a perspective on the ultimate mission, they identify needs, and they act to fulfill these needs without waiting for management direction. They don’t like the status quo. They pursue best processes, innovate and make recommendations that have an impact beyond the scope of their role.
4. Exude optimism.
Leaders stay above the fray and don’t get mired in blame, negativity or office gossip. They remain focused on what’s important and wear their can-do attitude proudly. Positivity is attractive – and it’s differentiating in some corporate environments. Smile, exude your can-do attitude, surround yourself with other positive people and steer clear of Debbie Downer.
5. Think outside the hierarchy.
Leaders think beyond their role, function and department. They have a keen interest in what’s happening in product development even if they work in finance. They engage with others throughout the organization. They volunteer to be part of multi-disciplinary teams. You can put this approach into action by offering to contribute to a corporate-wide initiative, or better yet, by identifying an initiative – something that will be valuable to the company – and taking the lead role. I spoke with one self-described newbie who offered to lead a “go-green” initiative – first for her team, then for her department, then for the office, then for the entire organization. She quickly became known as a leader.
6. Demonstrate leadership outside your job.
Leadership skills are useful well beyond the typical 9-5 workplace (not that 9-5 describes the workday of today any more!). Take on leadership roles in professional associations and causes. Volunteer to lead the next team outing or event. Hone and demonstrate your leadership skills through your commitment to a social cause that moves you. Leadership is not needed just in traditional work environments.
7. Mentor others and reverse-mentor superiors.
You don’t need a long title to make a difference in the professional lives of others. Provide a training course, coach your peers or lead a lunch ‘n’ learn. If your company has a mentoring program, let HR know you are interested in serving. If there isn’t one, start one (either officially or unofficially). Reverse mentoring is another visible, practical way to show your leadership skills to someone senior to you. For example, if you are an expert in social media, and you know that the leaders in your organization are clueless when it comes to social media, offer to support them. It’s a powerful way to get on the radar of leaders.
True leadership is not about rank or job titles. It’s an attitude. It’s way of doing what you do. Having a perspective that extends way beyond the list of tasks on your daily do-list will help you demonstrate your leadership even if you don’t have the title.
Learn more about your personal brand. Download my complete list of 50 eye-opening questions to ask yourself when uncovering your brand here.
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We all have a remarkable capacity to make ourselves happier. Each of the little things we do to boost our mood — from reading an adventure story to keeping a gratitude journal or even gazing up at the stars on a clear night — can add up to greater overall satisfaction.
Adding a little ohm to your day can go a long way.
But happiness doesn’t come easy. We have to work at it.
Here are some of the things that psychologists and social science researchers have found that have the power to lift your spirits and keep them high. Take a look:
Keeping tabs on the things you feel lucky to have in your life is a great way to boost your mood.
In a recent study from psychologists at UC Davis, researchers had 3 groups of volunteers keep weekly journals focused on a single topic. While one group wrote about major events that had happened that week, the second group wrote about hassles they’d experienced, and the last group wrote about things they were grateful for.
Ten weeks later, those in the gratitude-journal group reported feeling more optimistic and more satisfied with their lives than those in any of the other groups and reported fewer physical symptoms of discomfort, from runny noses to headaches.
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Awe is a powerful — even awesome, you might say — human emotion. And a handful of recent studies have found a link between experiencing a sense of awe — that feeling you get when you look up at a starry sky or out across a wide open valley — with feeling less stressed and more satisfied.
Ok, moving to Switzerland might not make you happy, but people who live there are some of the happiest in the world, according to the 2015 World Happiness Report, a ranking compiled by an international team of economists, neuroscientists, and statisticians to measure global well-being.
One of the report’s key findings, based on decades of neuroscientific and psychological research, suggests that keeping the brain happy relies on 4 main factors, which include staying positive, recovering from negative feelings, spending time with loved ones, and being mindful.
“These findings highlight the view that happiness and well-being are best regarded as skills that can be enhanced through training,” the researchers write in their report.
You don’t have to be Don Draper to reap the benefits of some peace and quiet.
Multiple studies suggest that meditating — focusing intently and quietly on the present for set periods of time — can help lessen feelings of depression and anxiety. Research in long term meditators — Buddhist monks, for example — shows that these peoples’ brains have well-developed areas that could be linked to heightened awareness and emotional control. While it’s possible that people with such brains might be more likely to meditate in the first place, other studies do show that people who complete a meditation program tend to show brain changes linked with self-awareness, perspective, and memory.
You may be able to get the benefits of an awe-inspiring experience just by reading about someone else’s. A small 2012 study found that even when people simply read about someone else’s awe-inspiring experience, they were more satisfied, less stressed, and more willing to volunteer their time to help others compared with people who were simply shown something that made them feel happy.
Stressed out? Head for a forest.One study found that a group of students sent into the trees for two nights had lower levels of cortisol — a hormone often used as a marker for stress — than those who spent the same two nights in a city.
In another study, researchers found a decrease in both heart rate and cortisol levels in people in the forest when compared to those in urban areas. “Stressful states can be relieved by forest therapy,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
If living in a big city has you feeling a bit down, there’s good news: A brief walk in nature could be all it takes to chase away those negative thoughts.
At least that’s the finding of a new study published last month.
In the study, a group of 38 Northern Californians (18 women and 20 men) were split up into two groups — one who took a 90-minute walk in nature and another that did the same walk in the city. The nature walkers reported having fewer negative thoughts about themselves after the walk than before the walk, while the urban walkers reported no change.
What’s more, fMRI brain scans revealed less activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC), a brain region that may play a key role in some mood disorders and has been linked with patterns of negative thought, according to the study. Those who went on the urban walk did not show any of these benefits, the study found.
Do things you do when you’re happy — even if you’re not.
Experiencing positive emotions not only appear to have the power to neutralize negative ones, but can also encourage people to be more proactive. “Positive emotions may aid those feeling trapped or helpless in the midst of negative moods, thoughts, or behaviors — for example, grief, pessimism, or isolation — spurring them to take positive action,” write a team of UC Riverside psychologists in a recent paper summarizing these findings.
Participate in cultural activities.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Visiting a museum or seeing a concert is yet another way to boost your mood. A study that examined the anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction of over 50,000 adults in Norway offered an interesting link: People who participated in more cultural activities, like attending a play or joining a club, reported lower levels of anxiety and depression as well as a higher satisfaction with their overall quality of life. So get out there and participate!
Happiness is entirely subjective, meaning that what makes one person happy might affect someone else differently. However, listening to sad music seems to be a common activity that’s been linked with increased happiness around the globe.
In a study that looked at 772 people on the eastern and western hemispheres, researchers found that listening to sad music generated “beneficial emotional effects such as regulating negative emotion and mood as well as consolation,” the researchers write in their paper.
If you’re one of those people who like to make to-do lists on a regular basis, then listen closely: When you’re setting your goals, it’s better to be specific and set goals you know you can achieve. For example, instead of setting a goal like “save the environment,” try to recycle more.
Those two examples were tested on a group of 127 volunteers in a study published last year. The first group were provided a series of specific goals like “increase recycling” while the second group had broader goals like “save the environment.” Even though the second group completed the same tasks as the first group, the people in the second group reported feeling less satisfied with themselves than the first group. The people in the second group also reported a lower overall sense of personal happiness from completing their goal, the scientists report.
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Whether you want to gain industry knowledge or pick up some new skills, there are plenty of resources online that will allow you to learn at your own pace without having to pay any fees.
Coding doesn’t need to remain the exclusive domain of computer science grads.
From Glassdoor’s job review database to Codeacademy’s programming classes, we’ve rounded up our favorite free online resources for boosting your career.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor
Glassdoor provides employee reviews of companies of all sizes with insight into what it’s like to work there, as well as compensation data. You can use the info to prepare for job interviews or to negotiate your salary.
A Khan Academy account will get you access to hundreds of video lectures and exercises on a wide variety of topics, many of them narrated by the site’s founder and executive director Sal Khan.
The site is especially useful if you want to learn specific topics rather than an entire subject, like how the stock market works and how to build a balance sheet.
Coursera and edX may be competitors, but they’re both worth checking out for their selection of in-depth courses from top universities like Stanford and UPenn.
Taking an introductory class in coding isn’t going to get you a top engineering job at Google, but it could help you understand the mechanics of what you’re working with every day, demystifying how software and websites function.
It’s a great way to learn languages like HTML and CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, Python, and Ruby. Whether you want to become fluent in HTML to better maneuver your company’s content management system or take skill-based classes like how to build an interactive website, Codeacademy will help you get there.
Working for your paycheck is one thing, but if you want to learn how to make your paycheck work for you, LearnVest is a great resource. While you can purchase financial advisory services, its free in-depth articles will answer most of your general personal finance questions.
If you never learned how to budget or want to develop a retirement plan, LearnVest has you covered.
Investopedia can be your go-to resource for learning about the world of finance. If you’d like to start taking advantage of compound interest or compound growth but can’t tell a mutual fund from a hedge fund, you can explore Investopedia’s many guides, instructional videos, and encyclopedia entries.
If you’re considering leaving your job to start your own business or are just wondering what it would be like to have a fun side project, Y Combinator’s Startup Library is a good place to get an idea of what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Y Combinator is a seed fund that puts promising entrepreneurs through a rigorous bootcamp-like period that ends with a pitch to investors for serious amounts of capital. Its website’s free library features insightful blog posts from YC cofounder Paul Graham on creating and developing companies, as well as links to external sources, like a guide to writing the perfect business plan from renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
Maybe your company opened a new office in Germany that could provide an exciting career opportunity you’ve been waiting for, but you don’t know a word of German. Before pursuing an advanced course, you can learn the basics for free from Duolingo.
A 2012 independent study conducted by Roumen Vesselinov of the City University of New York and John Grego of the University of South Carolina found that 34 hours spent with Duolingo are equivalent to an 11-week semester of a language course.
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