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The One Skill That Will Earn You Money, No Matter What You Do
Communication
No matter what you do in life, communication will earn you money.
You’re a person working in a cubicle on hard problems. The ability to present your work to the boss during performance reviews will make or break you. The ability to present your work to coworkers will help your project go better. The ability to talk to peers at conferences will open up new connections and possibly new career paths for you.
You’re a person who’s involved with artistic work. Your ability to sell your work relies on your ability to communicate. In many cases, your work itself relies on an ability to communicate - art speaks, does it not?
You work at a minimum wage job at a burger joint. Good communication skills get you to the front counter, where the work is typically more varied and more interesting and you have the opportunity to show off customer relations skills to the manager, who will begin to value you as a key employee, leading to potential raises and better scheduling.
You’re standing at the bus stop. Other people are waiting around, mostly just fidgeting. Keeping quiet will earn you nothing. Starting a conversation with the guy in the business suit holding a copy of one of your favorite books might start a valuable friendship.
Here are ten things you can do immediately to improve that skill.
Introduce yourself to others as often as is reasonably possible. If you’re in a situation where you’re in close public quarters with others that you do not know (like a meeting room, a party, or a dinner table), introduce yourself to them, and initiate some conversation. Likely, if you’re sitting there quiet and nervous, they’re feeling the exact same way. Even in the worst case scenario - the conversation doesn’t go well - at the very least, you got some conversational practice out of the deal.
Make a concerted effort to remember names well enough that you can call them by name later. Always ask for people’s names and try very hard to remember them. At the end of the conversation, get a business card from them and, later, jot what you can remember about them down on the back of the card - the occasion in which you met, any key information that stands out, etc. If you can’t get a business card, jot their name down in a notebook with similar information. This will help you remember. Then, if you think you might be meeting that person again, review the information a bit before you go. This will help you immediately have an impact on them the next time you meet.
Take every opportunity you can get to speak in front of a crowd and give presentations. If you’ve got an opportunity to speak in public, always take it. Not only does this force you to know how to organize your thoughts and communicate them to others, it provides countless opportunities to open up interactions with people who share your interests and concerns.
Put extra care into explaining your work to others. Whenever you have a chance to explain your work to others, put in plenty of care so that they’re able to understand it without their eyes glossing over. Comment your code. Think of everyday analogies for what you’re doing and use them. Try as hard as you can to avoid technical talk unless the situation specifically calls for it. In short, the better you can explain what you’re doing to a layman, the better you’ll appear not only to upper management, but to people in future interview situations.
Share what you know about your work as widely as possible.
It’s always worthwhile to start a blog covering your professional area. Not only does it give you an opportunity to sort through your thoughts and concepts, it also allows you to share your ideas with a wide world. Plus, doing it regularly simply makes you a better communicator. Here are five great examples of strong professional blogs:
Joel on Software is written by Joel Spolsky, a software developer
Seth’s Blog is written by Seth Godin, a marketing consultant
Jeffrey Zeldman Presents is written by Jeffrey Zeldman, a web developer
DennisKennedy.blog is written by Dennis Kennedy, a lawyer
Doctor David’s Blog is written by Dr. Davide Loeb, a pediatric oncologist
Compliment others sincerely. If someone does something well, compliment them, and do it sincerely. Most people go through the drudgery of their workday and their daily life without realizing that people sincerely appreciate their efforts. Thank people for the effort they put out for you, from the company president all the way down to the janitorial staff. Thank the administrative assistant who helped you get your paperwork filed. Compliment the person at the beauty salon who just got an excellent new hair style. I even go so far as to tell people that I see on the street that they look beautiful today or that they’re wearing great clothes (”I love that jacket!”). Even if it gets you nothing more than a thank you, you’d be shocked how often such things come back around in the long run.
Participate in social groups where you have a high likelihood of meeting new people. Find a group or two that match your interests or beliefs (faith, community service, books, etc.) and get involved. Go to those meetings and make an effort to meet new people there. Take leadership roles.
Attend conferences and conventions with the goal of meeting people. Don’t attend conferences in order to listen to the talks. Attend conferences to meet people. As soon as you’ve decided to go to a conference, see if you can get involved in the organization a bit. Help run a session, or be a “substitute” speaker if one is needed. During the rest of the meeting, make an effort to meet people who share your specific interests and work on building the beginning of friendships with them. If you’re eating alone at a conference, you’re wasting that conference.
When people talk, listen and ask occasional questions. Most people prefer to talk about themselves and their own interests much more than listening. If you’re having a one-on-one conversation, most people tend to feel best about it when they’ve done about 60-65% of the talking. That means that you’ll almost always make for a better conversationalist if you shoot for 35-40% of the talking. The best way to do that is to just listen carefully to what the other person is saying. Watch them - don’t let your eyes wander. Ask an occasional question or two. This doesn’t mean you should be silent, but it does mean you should let the other person do the brunt of the talking.
Talk about your own mistakes before ever criticizing others. If you’re ever in a position to criticize others, always be up front with your own mistakes, foibles, and flaws. You will never come off well if you try to create an air of perfection around yourself while criticizing others. It’s never a bad idea to lead with an anecdote about a mistake you’ve made in the past, even in interview situations (of course, there you’ll want to continue by explaining how you fixed the mistake, if reasonable). Trying to come off as perfect makes you seem less human and thus criticism from you seems much less palatable. Show some flaws - you’ll come off better in the end.
Copied from The Simple Dollar Blog
6 Things Money Cannot Help you Achieve
Written on 6/06/2008 by Shilpan Patel of Success Soul
Imagine you are Mr. Bill Gates, czar of the wealth. Life is great; you're the richest man on the earth. You can buy anything in life, right? Wrong. Before you ride on the jet of euphoria and focus your entire life on earning money, know there are simply things that a roll of hundred dollar bills cannot get for you, not even if you are Mr. Gates.
If you are perplexed, let me explain my theory. It may sound like an oxymoron but money has its Achilles’ heel. All of our false perceptions about money have one common flaw - they identify money as something external to us, they identify money as the tool to accumulate abundance to please others by accumulating possessions.
What money can't buy mostly lies within us. Nonetheless, trading our life energy for money can deprive us from inner nourishment that can eventually lead our lives into a downward spiral.
1. Time: Money is a tool for trade. With that said, we spend a good chunk of our allotted time on this earth getting, spending, worrying and fantasizing about money. You can't buy the time and save it in your storeroom even if you are Mr. Gates. On the contrary, money takes away your time that could have been spent playing with your children or having a long walk with your alter ego. When the sun sets, a day goes away from our life forever. No money has power to bring that back to life.
2. Self Awareness: Ignorance is bliss, right? It's a curse. Not having self-awareness and self-consciousness lead to decisions that can cost you dearly. Well, the cost may be life itself. As a result, many people live a mediocre life without living for a true purpose. Their ignorance can't be transmuted into awareness with money. They believe that their ignorance is their awareness.
3. Self esteem: I have a plethora of examples to prove that no money can purchase self-esteem. Self-esteem is earned from within. If you are your worst enemy, gods of money can't rescue you from the self-destruction you inflict on yourself. King of rock Elvis Presley had the best life one can imagine with no dearth of cash. He took his own life with the deprivation of self-esteem.
4. Health: As I write this, I found out that Senator Kennedy has brain cancer, and it is terminal. Of course money can get him the best health care possible but no money can buy insurance for a life. We buy insurance for just about everything including our life but money can never bring life back.
5. Respect: Try this. Slap someone on his face and then hand him $100 to get his respect. Will you get it? I doubt it. We all live our life in pursuit of self-respect from peers, from family members, from our alter ego and even from strangers. No money can buy respect from others if our actions speak volumes about our negativity - insult, rudeness and lack of respect for others.
6. Happiness: This is controversial. Money can buy happiness if it is spent on to bring grater financial security for the family. However, money can't buy happiness if the purpose is to make money to make other people happy. The chase of possession of possessions can never find its destination with incessant desire to accumulate more possessions. Happiness comes from within. When we trade so much time and energy to get money, we deprive our inner self from the food of happiness.
I'm sure that you either are nodding you head in disbelief by now, or you've been enlightened by the revelation that, after all, money can't buy some of what matters most in our life. I'll be glad to get a zap or a hug from you.
A Letter to My Son, on Starting Out In Life
This letter/article is from a site called Zen Habits.
As a father of 2 young boys I thought it was pretty cool
Dear Son,
You’re only three years old, and at this point in your life you can’t read, much less understand what I’m going to try to tell you in this letter. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the life that you have ahead of you, about my life so far as I reflect on what I’ve learned, and about my role as a dad in trying to prepare you for the trials that you will face in the coming years.
You won’t be able to understand this letter today, but someday, when you’re ready, I hope you will find some wisdom and value in what I share with you.
You are young, and life has yet to take its toll on you, to throw disappointments and heartaches and loneliness and struggles and pain into your path. You have not been worn down yet by long hours of thankless work, by the slings and arrows of everyday life.
For this, be thankful. You are at a wonderful stage of life. You have many wonderful stages of life still to come, but they are not without their costs and perils.
I hope to help you along your path by sharing some of the best of what I’ve learned. As with any advice, take it with a grain of salt. What works for me might not work for you.
Life Can Be Cruel
There will be people in your life who won’t be very nice. They’ll tease you because you’re different, or for no good reason. They might try to bully you or hurt you.
There’s not much you can do about these people except to learn to deal with them, and learn to choose friends who are kind to you, who actually care about you, who make you feel good about yourself. When you find friends like this, hold on to them, treasure them, spend time with them, be kind to them, love them.
There will be times when you are met with disappointment instead of success. Life won’t always turn out the way you want. This is just another thing you’ll have to learn to deal with. But instead of letting these things get you down, push on. Accept disappointment and learn to persevere, to pursue your dreams despite pitfalls. Learn to turn negatives into positives, and you’ll do much better in life.
You will also face heartbreak and abandonment by those you love. I hope you don’t have to face this too much, but it happens. Again, not much you can do but to heal, and to move on with your life. Let these pains become stepping stones to better things in life, and learn to use them to make you stronger.
But Be Open to Life Anyway
Yes, you’ll find cruelty and suffering in your journey through life … but don’t let that close you to new things. Don’t retreat from life, don’t hide or wall yourself off. Be open to new things, new experiences, new people.
You might get your heart broken 10 times, but find the most wonderful woman the 11th time. If you shut yourself off from love, you’ll miss out on that woman, and the happiest times of your life.
You might get teased and bullied and hurt by people you meet … and then after meeting dozens of jerks, find a true friend. If you close yourself off to new people, and don’t open your heart to them, you’ll avoid pain … but also lose out on meeting some incredible people, who will be there during the toughest times of your life and create some of the best times of your life.
You will fail many times but if you allow that to stop you from trying, you will miss out on the amazing feeling of success once you reach new heights with your accomplishments. Failure is a stepping stone to success.
Life Isn’t a Competition
You will meet many people who will try to outdo you, in school, in college, at work. They’ll try to have nicer cars, bigger houses, nicer clothes, cooler gadgets. To them, life is a competition — they have to do better than their peers to be happy.
Here’s a secret: life isn’t a competition. It’s a journey. If you spend that journey always trying to impress others, to outdo others, you’re wasting your journey. Instead, learn to enjoy the journey. Make it a journey of happiness, of constant learning, of continual improvement, of love.
Don’t worry about having a nicer car or house or anything material, or even a better-paying job. None of that matters a whit, and none of it will make you happier. You’ll acquire these things and then only want more. Instead, learn to be satisfied with having enough — and then use the time you would have wasted trying to earn money to buy those things … use that time doing things you love.
Find your passion, and pursue it doggedly. Don’t settle for a job that pays the bills. Life is too short to waste on a job you hate.
Love Should Be Your Rule
If there’s a single word you should live your life by, it should be this: Love. It might sound corny, I know … but trust me, there’s no better rule in life.
Some would live by the rule of success. Their lives will be stressful, unhappy and shallow.
Others would live by the rule of selfishness — putting their needs above those of others. They will live lonely lives, and will also be unhappy.
Still others will live by the rule of righteousness — trying to show the right path, and admonishing anyone who doesn’t live by that path. They are concerned with others, but in a negative way, and in the end will only have their own righteousness to live with, and that’s a horrible companion.
Live your life by the rule of love. Love your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, with all of your heart. Give to them what they need, and show them not cruelty nor disapproval nor coldness nor disappointment, but only love. Open your soul to them.
Love not only your loved ones, but your neighbours … your coworkers … strangers … your brothers and sisters in humanity. Offer anyone you meet a smile, a kind word, a kind gesture, a helping hand.
Love not only neighbours and strangers … but your enemy. The person who is cruellest to you, who has been unkind to you … love him. He is a tortured soul, and most in need of your love.
And most of all, love yourself. While others may criticize you, learn not to be so hard on yourself, to think that you’re ugly or dumb or unworthy of love … but to think instead that you are a wonderful human being, worthy of happiness and love … and learn to love yourself for who you are.
Finally, know that I love you and always will. You are starting out on a weird, scary, daunting, but ultimately incredibly wonderful journey, and I will be there for you when I can. Godspeed.
Love,
Your Dad
6 Simple Strategies to Stay Happy
I thought this was pretty interesting. Be satisfied and grateful for what you have will make you appreciate it more. Any other boon that comes along will be a bonus and make you even happier but you won't be sad without it. Cheers MATT
It is a fact that if you want something too badly, it is likely to evade you. And this is truer for happiness than anything else. The reason why happiness seems to evade the millions of people searching for it is because they are looking in the wrong place.
Most people look for happiness "outside" themselves and not "inside". Some feel that they would be happy if they could afford a house of their own. Others feel that they just have to own all the latest gizmos to finally find happiness.
There are some who may not seek happiness in material things but they are still not looking in the right place. They feel that they would be happy if they found the right life partner or if their children loved them more. Even in such cases, these people are searching for happiness "outside" themselves.
Have you ever wondered how most infants are extremely happy almost all the time? Physical discomfort can make them cry for a while but such aspects are transient and last for only a few minutes. The reason why infants are almost always in a state of natural happiness is because they are in constant awe of nature and the world around them. Unfortunately, it is the society, parents, friends, teachers and relatives that influence them with regards to what happiness should mean.
It may be difficult to undo all the layers of perception that have formed on the mind over time. However, it is never too late to try and address the issue and train your mind to be happy. There are some tips that can help you in shedding your inhibitions and breaking away from the shackles of predefined definitions of happiness.
- Accept yourself – One of the key reasons why people are unhappy is that they do not really like or love themselves enough. It is essential that you accept yourself as what you are without any caveats and conditions to attain happiness. Don't get too critical about yourself – your looks, your brains, your capabilities or your financial condition. Just learn how to love yourself as you are. You will realize that once you are comfortable with what you are, others will accept you more willingly.
- Happiness is a state of mind – It is important that you understand and appreciate that your happiness lies within. Consider this – no one can make you unhappy if you have decided for sure that you will be happy in every situation. If you have made up your mind to be happy, you can always seek out the positive aspects of a situation and remain happy. Life may throw challenges at you but solutions will come faster and to you if you face them with a smile on your face.
- Prioritise your life – As we grow older, the demands that various people and circumstances they lay on us increase. While on the one hand your job pressures increase, you may also feel the need to spend time with your family and children. At the same time, you may also want to enjoy life personally by doing the things that you have always wanted like going to the gym or taking off on a mountaineering trek.
It is important that you learn how to balance the various responsibilities that you may have. If any one of these tasks becomes paramount, you are likely to ignore the others. For example, if you get extremely preoccupied with your work, you family life are likely to miss you. On the other hand, if you are too consumed with your plans for your various hobbies, your job and family are likely to suffer. You may achieve momentary happiness but neither of these situations can result in happiness in the long run.- Take care of your health – an unhealthy body cannot be the home of a happy mind. It is important that you understand the strong link between physical health and mental happiness. If you are fit and healthy, you are likely to exude positive energy.
- Stay in the company of happy people – Ensure that you seek out people who are happy and cheerful all the time. Being in the company of people who have a habit of cribbing and criticizing is likely to divert your mind towards negative thoughts. Avoid getting into the sulk mode by choosing the company of happy people.
- Be grateful – Saying a small "thank you" for what you have can make a lot of difference. When you make it a habit to be grateful, you seek out the things that you do have. This helps you divert your mind from negative thoughts of what you do not have. This does not mean that you give up trying. On the other hand it encourages you to think of future goals and achievements in a positive manner.
Take time off to enjoy nature, life and the small things that we take for granted on a daily basis. A beautiful sunset can bring you joy, if only you would take a few minutes out of your daily schedule and look at it.
FROM: 6 Simple Strategies to Stay Happy - Dumb Little Man
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