#millionaires #immigrants #frugality
Just about anyone can become a millionaire.
The big difference between those that become millionaires, and those that don’t, is ambition.
Statistics show that one in 100 people in the world will become millionaires, with the ratio increasing with time. One in 10 immigrants to the United States will become millionaires.
In a story aired on CBS’ “60 Minutes” May 7, 2017, CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported on the case of Roberto Beristain, a restaurant owner in Indiana who had come to the U.S. illegally 20 years earlier. He is in the process of being deported, despite having a wife and children who are U.S. citizens. Before all this, those who knew him said he was a job creator, not a job stealer. It appears he was well on his way to becoming a millionaire.
Master investor Warren Buffett, in his February 2017 letter to his Berkshire Hathaway investors, praised “ambitious immigrants” for helping to increase the wealth in America, according to USA Today.
So why are immigrants being demonized?
In certain public discourse, immigrants are described as either moochers, job stealers or potential criminals or terrorists. Certainly, among any human group, you’ll have bad apples. You will have people who will do others harm, or take from others.
The vast majority of immigrants come here either for economic opportunity, or to escape violence, corruption or other evils in their home countries.
When opportunities are given to immigrants, most take advantage of them. They work hard, they learn what they need to do and many of them look for unmet needs and find ways to meet them.
Some come here for education and, yes, stay. They fill lucrative jobs that American talent apparently is not filling. Some do menial jobs that Americans, in large numbers, will not do. In those cases, the immigrants may not be educated, but they have skills Americans, in large numbers, chose not to acquire.
They are creating products that Americans use. Most pay taxes.
When all the immigrants are gone, what will Americans do? Will they be able to fill the jobs they have vacated?
Some areas of the country have seen their populations decrease, because the young people who grew up there see no opportunity for them to succeed. These areas actually want immigrants to move there, to fill vacant housing, and take unfilled jobs.
So, do you want to become a millionaire? It’s not necessarily easy to do, but you have to find an unmet need, or a met need of which you can lower the cost.
You have to be frugal. You have to save and invest properly. Becoming a millionaire may not be an instantaneous process unless, of course, you win the lottery. If you are so lucky, learn to use your money wisely, so you’ll still have a good bit of it when you die. That may require you to grow as a person, as well as having a good investment strategy.
You may have to look for a vehicle to help you become frugal, and perhaps help you to increase your income. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Millionaires generally are careful with their money. They are looking to spend less, earn more and do what they must to achieve their goal. They do not believe anyone owes them anything they have not worked for.
Do you want to be a millionaire? There’s a difference between wanting it, and doing what you need to do to get it. Most millionaires don’t work for the money. They work for what they can accomplish with the money.
Dolly Parton sings of “a cup of ambition” in the theme for the movie “9 to 5.” You may need more than a cup of ambition to be among the one in a hundred millionaires.
Peter
Author Archives: pbilodeau01
MILLENNIALS NOT KEEPING UP WITH THEIR PARENTS IN TERMS OF WEALTH
#millennials #BabyBoomers #wealth
Millennials are having it tough.
Though most have eventually found work after the Great Recession, they are trailing their boomer parents in wealth, when their parents were roughly the same age.
Gail MarksJarvis of the Chicago Tribune discussed this issue in an article published March 20, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
MarksJarvis tells the story of Julius Givens, who moved to Chicago after graduating from the University of Missouri in 2013. He spent six months delivering sandwiches by bicycle and living with two roommates in a studio apartment, MarksJarvis writes.
On top of that, he had $20,000 in student loan debt.
“It’s tight living with three people in a studio, but you figure out how to handle it,” MarksJarvis quotes Givens.
The millennials came into adulthood amid one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. Though most have found jobs, their incomes are 20 percent lower than what baby boomers earned at the same age, MarksJarvis quotes a study by Young Invincibles, an advocacy group for millennials.
They also have fewer cars, homes, less savings and other assets, and a lot more student loan debt than their parents did when they were young, MarksJarvis quotes other studies.
Givens says he’s actually doing better than his mother did at his age, since she worked and raised six children on her own in St. Louis. He now has a professional job in the medical products industry, and backing for a business he is starting. He now lives in a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate, according to MarksJarvis’ article.
“I’m not hurting for anything. I don’t need a car or a house,” she quotes Givens.
The difference between millennials’ and their parents’ situation boils down to job security. Very likely, most baby boomers came out of school, found a job and got to keep that job for a lot of years. Or, they were able to easily move from one job to another, with better pay at each move.
Many baby boomers, however, got kicked in the teeth with the recession as well. Just as they were beginning to think about retirement, some lost their jobs. Many had a tough decision to make: take a job that paid a lot less than the one they lost, or retire “early,” long before they wanted to.
Many millennials like Givens are starting to see their situations get better, and they have a lot more time, at least in theory, to prepare for retirement. However, though their situations may be getting better now, they can’t presume that the good times will last. The fortunate ones will have jobs for as long as they want. Many, if not most, will not.
Certainly the economy is changing for all age groups. Each group needs to look for ways to make money other than through a traditional, W-2 job. If you are willing to look, and want to check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
The world is changing much more quickly than when baby boomers became adults. For some, change can work for the better. For others, not so much.
The important thing is not to just protest the change, and complain about it. It’s paramount that you take matters into your own hands.
Circumstances will bite, but strong people fight back. You have to decide how strong you are, and how willing you might be to look at something you may never have thought about before.
Peter
TAKING THE LONG VIEW OF FINANCES
#millennials #BabyBoomers #economy
Home prices in Seattle are soaring.
So, Kathryn Jacoby, 30, and Jeff Whitehill, 32 came to a sobering conclusion: buy now, before prices went up further, or they may never afford to own a home. They bought a 72-year-old house for $550,000. It may be more than they can afford on their combined $110,000 annual income, but they felt time was not on their side.
George Erb wrote of the couple’s plight, and that of other millennials, in the Seattle Times.
Meanwhile, Rodney Brooks writes of how baby boomers are bridging the Generation Gap. His article for The Washington Post was based on Lori Bitter’s book, “The Grandparent Economy: How Baby Boomers Are Bridging the Generation Gap.” The book focuses how baby boomers may be taking care of several generations of their family, be they their parents or their children who may not have recovered financially from the Great Recession of 2008.
“The real story is they (boomers) may have two or three generation of people living in their homes that they were working their butts off to support,” Brooks quotes Bitter. That puts their retirement plans in some peril.
Both Erb’s and Brooks’ articles were published in the March 6, 2017, issue of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Meanwhile, Ron Lieber wrote in the New York Times of financial trade-offs people make, whether they know it or not. Some take two or three jobs just so they can raise their kids in a certain neighborhood. Others experience life now, perhaps after the sudden death of a relative, lest they not get to do it again, etc.
Lieber’s article was published April 24, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Let’s break this down a bit further. If you are young, you need to be actively engaged in financial planning, including not only what you earn, but what you spend and what you save. The young couple in Erb’s article believed that housing appreciation was going to continue for the foreseeable future, so they extended themselves a bit to buy a house.
If that holds true, they’ll appreciate that decision later. However, there is much peril in the meantime. They borrowed $30,000 from Jacoby’s parents, and Whitehill has a $60,000 student loan to pay off.
Hopefully, they can pay down those debts and they will earn more income over time. The latter is far from guaranteed, making the former more difficult.
Rather than borrow money from parents to help buy a house, some young people are still living with their parents, as Brooks’ article discusses.
The point here is that all generations alive today face financial challenges. The trick is doing what you need to do to overcome them.
With technology and globalization throwing a monkey wrench into job security, people in all generations might want to think about ways to earn extra income, preferably without taking a pound of flesh from themselves, or having no time to really live.
There are many options available to accomplish this. To hear about one of the best, message me.
With job security far from assured, no matter in what field one is employed, financial risks become that much riskier. Still, taking no risk at all generally doesn’t get one very far. As long as the risks are calculated, and one plans accommodations to alleviate some of the peril, there’s no telling what the payoff can be.
Here’s wishing the millennials great financial planning skill, and baby boomers great coping skills as they deal with their issues.
Peter
NOT EVERY JOB IS FOR EVERYONE
#jobs #employment #income
Is the job you have the one you want?
Are you enjoying what you are doing for work, or are you just going through the motions to draw a paycheck?
Stephanie Merry tackled this subject for The Washington Post. The article was published in the Feb. 6, 2017, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Merry’s article features the story of Dan Nicholson, who earned a physics degree from Purdue University, and got a job as a laser engineer.
He hated it. And it apparently showed. He lost his job.
But, he liked working on houses. So, he became Handy Dan.
His story illustrates that even if you get a degree in the right thing, and get a job in your chosen field, it may not be for you.
Merry points out that some folks would prefer to get back to nature, create something tangible, move to the Caribbean and manage a store or restaurant, or just sit on a sailboat and float around – as opposed to working 20 or more years at what they are doing.
As a reality check, it’s better to make a living than not. So many people want to make a living, but are working hard and barely getting by.
Others are so stressed and overworked that they have no time – even if they have the money – to do whatever gives them pleasure.
Wouldn’t it be grand if we could all dump the jobs we hate and earn a living with the hobbies we love?
Sometimes, it’s not about the job. It’s about the income.
What if one could pursue a hobby, while having a different source of income?
There are many good potential income sources out there, for those who wish to look for them. To check out one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, if you feel you must stay in a job you don’t particularly like so you can make a living, here are a few tips: First, find some things about the job, besides the paycheck, that you like. Perhaps those might be the people you work with, the customers you deal with or some other perks that might have enticed you to take the job in the first place.
Second, keep your job and use non-work hours to find what really motivates you. It may not be working on houses, as it was for Nicholson, but perhaps there is something else you can do that you love, and that adds value to someone else.
“There’s no right path for everyone, and each one has its own risks,” Merry writes.”So, for those who aren’t living their dream lives, what’s the next step? You might start by sitting on a beach. Just leave your phone at home,” she writes.
Of course, sitting on a beach isn’t necessarily going to make you a living. But if you like sitting on a beach, it could give you time to think about what your life will be like five, 10 or 20 years from now, if you keep doing what you’re doing.
If that’s not what you want to be doing long term, it may be time to pursue an alternative.
Peter
STATES RESPOND TO RETIREMENT CRISIS
#retirement #pensions #401(k)s #SocialSecurity
“It’s clear there’s a retirement crisis,” Illinois State Treasurer Michael W. Frerichs told small business owners. “This is a problem not only for families but for all of us,” the quote continues.
Frerichs was quoted in an Associated Press article on the subject by Maria Ines Zamudio. It was published Feb. 22, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Zamudio’s article focused on how seven states – California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon and Washington, as well as Illinois, are in various stages of implementing state-sponsored retirement savings plans.
The plans, the article says, are tax-deductible IRAs with automatic payroll deductions, for which employees don’t pay federal taxes on the money until it is withdrawn.
Americans without work-sponsored savings plans are less likely to save for retirement, the article says. Zamudio quotes research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute that shows 62 percent of employees with an employer-sponsored savings plans had more than $25,000 in savings. Some 22 percent of those had more than $100,000 in savings.
Meanwhile, according to the quoted research from 2014, 94 percent of workers without access to those plans had less than $25,000.
We can certainly debate whether it should be the government’s role to set up savings plans for workers. What isn’t really debatable is that $25,000, or even $100,000, won’t get a person very far into retirement.
A good retirement savings would provide enough so that the person or couple could live comfortably off the interest and dividends those savings would kick off. If one does not have to touch his principal in retirement, he’ll never outlive his money.
Of course, those fortunate enough to get a pension from their employers, combined with Social Security, have a little more to work with, in terms of income.
But will those vehicles be enough to have the retirement you want?
Retirement should be about more than just living Social Security check to Social Security check. It should be about having the resources, combined with the time, to do things one didn’t have the time to do while working. Examples include travel, hobbies etc.
But so many at or near retirement age are not in that position. Some had signed on to work for an employer because of pension benefits, only to find that when the time came to access those benefits, they weren’t there.
Others, perhaps, were forced out of their jobs prematurely through downsizing, technology or other efficiencies. As a result, they lost of lot of work time that could have allowed them to save more. Or, they were forced to take a lower-paying job elsewhere, making saving for retirement impossible, or nearly so.
If you are among those facing tough decisions about retirement – perhaps you tell yourself you’ll have to work until you die – there are a number of good options for earning income that could augment or even enhance your potential retirement income. To check out one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, if you have a job, make saving for retirement a priority. Closely examine where your money goes, and see whether you can trim spending to put money into retirement savings. Presume that there will be very little to bail you out if you are “retired,” but can’t afford to be.
Also, too, think about your time. How are you spending what free time you currently have? How will you spend your time when you retire? Will you be bored? Will you have the resources to perhaps do what you’d like to be doing?
Certainly, retirement is about more than money. But having enough money will take one worry off your plate so you can decide how best to use your time.
If you don’t want to work until you die, do something today to help eliminate that possibility.
Peter
MONEY DOESN’T MAKE YOU BETTER
#money #PersonalGrowth #HoldYourHeadHigh
“If I had more money, I’d be a better person,” some might say.
Leadership guru Jim Rohn, in one of his newsletters, begs to differ.
“We grow personally and then we advance materially,” said Rohn in one of his newsletters.
Last week, we discussed flaunting your most valuable asset: your earning potential.
Rohn puts a slightly different spin on that premise: success is to be attracted, not pursued.
Some old adages your parents may have taught you include: Work hard. Keep your head down and your nose to the grindstone.
In other words, work hard, but don’t draw attention to yourself.
That advice may have sufficed for the person who wants to simply work, draw a paycheck every week, stay in his comfort zone and out of trouble.
For true success, however, hard work certainly is important. But you see true success when others are attracted to you. The best way to attract others to you is to show that you are truly interested in THEIR success, perhaps even more than in your own.
You see, helping others succeed more than likely will bring you success as well.
How does one do this with a “grindstone” kind of job? First, analyze where this job will eventually take you. If it’s unlikely to ever get you out of the work station you are in, and you want out – at least eventually, you may have to find something that you can do within the confines of your work place, or outside of it, to let people know you want to be successful.
If that’s not possible in the confines of your work station, look at other ways to help people, and perhaps earn a part-time income in your spare time. There are many ways to do that, without taking on a “second job.” To check out one of the best, message me.
You can gain personal wealth at the expense of others. Or, you can gain success by helping others achieve success.
Which would you rather do?
If the latter appeals to you, you might have to find ways outside of your normal activity to accomplish that.
You can certainly be successful without being wealthy. Just observe the story of people like Mother Teresa.
She helped people in a very selfless manner.
But if you are not already wealthy, helping people can be a way of creating wealth – for those you help become successful and, as a result, for yourself.
To do that, as Jim Rohn would advise, make yourself attractive to others. Not necessarily physically attractive, but let your enthusiasm draw others to you. Let your desire to help them want them to help you, or do business with you.
Be the one not with his head down, but the one with his head held high, and a smile on his face. Be the one who knows where he wants to go, and who wants to take as many with him as want to go.
Be a magnet that draws the best to you, then bring out the best in them.
Peter
YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET IS YOUR EARNING POTENTIAL
#EarningPotential #jobs #employment #GrowRich
We differentiate the “rich” and the “not so rich” not by a difference in wealth.
We may look at the rich and say something like, “if they paid me what I was worth, then I could be rich, too.”
Brian Tracy’s book, “Your Most Valuable Asset: 7 Steps to Growing Rich,” works on the premise is that your most valuable asset is your earning potential.
Basically, it says that what you do to add value to others can make you rich.
The average working person may not see that. He may see himself as adding value to his boss, but that boss is not adding nearly as much value to him.
He may feel overworked, underpaid and completely used. He doesn’t see himself as wealthy, or potentially so. He may not even see himself as worth much at all.
“Your earning ability is like farmland – if you don’t take excellent care of it by cultivating and tending to it on a regular basis – it soon loses its ability to produce the kind of harvest you desire,” Tracy writes.
Successful people, Tracy adds, work daily to keep increasing (their earning abilities’) productive value, to keep up with the marketplace demands.
The marketplace Tracy refers to is indeed fickle. Once day, your boss loves what you are doing. The next day, you get a termination package or, worse, a layoff notice. The great work you did yesterday becomes meaningless.
Therefore, you must convince someone else in the marketplace that you have value.
Entrepreneurs have to do that every day.
So, if the worst happens, and the current person you are offering value to no longer values you, what should you do next?
First, don’t beat yourself up. The marketplace changes. You’re loved one day, and are dispensable the next. This isn’t your fault.
You might find a new person who values the skills you have.
Perhaps you could re-evaluate your skills, and, if necessary, acquire new ones to better conform to today’s marketplace needs.
Or, you can think outside the box and look for one of the many ways to apply the skills and knowledge you have to something you may have never thought to do. If that idea intrigues you, and you want to learn about one of the best options out there to accomplish that, message me.
Finally, if you have it, lose the attitude of worthlessness. NO ONE is worthless. Everyone has something to offer, or can learn something they can offer, to the marketplace. YOU are your most valuable asset. Cherish you. Protect you. If necessary, enhance you.
The marketplace is fickle, and successful people find a way to wade through changes, or even embrace them.
Look for the best you, that you can be. It may appear through that new person that comes into your life. Be open to improve. Be open to new things. Embrace the fickle marketplace.
Flaunt your most valuable asset. Someone is waiting to check it out.
Peter
TRAINING AN IMMIGRANT TO TAKE YOUR JOB?
#opportunity #60Minutes #immigrants #JobsLost
It’s hard to believe that a company can tell a worker, who has been on the job there for, say, 20 years and has given his life to that company, that he will be laid off.
It’s harder to believe that same company would insult that same person by telling him that he CAN’T leave until he trains his replacement – an immigrant, who will make a good bit less than he did, to do the same work. If he leaves early in disgust, he loses his severance package.
The CBS News TV show “60 Minutes” reported on this practice on its March 19, 2017, edition. The report focused on groups of technology workers at various companies who are facing this.
The report talks about immigrants getting a special H-1B visa to come over here to do specially skilled jobs that could not be filled by Americans. But, as any law, some will find a way to exploit it. Companies are doing just that, the report says.
We can debate for hours what Congress and the president should do about immigration. But this report is not about low-skilled manual laborers. This is about highly skilled, and relatively highly paid, American workers who have needed skills, yet are getting kicked in the teeth.
It’s worse than digging one’s own grave, a worker told correspondent Bill Whitaker.
So, let’s break this down. If you have skills that are in demand, and believe you will never lose your job, think again.
If you believe the immigration problems in the U.S. are driven solely by immigrants, think again. This is a business-driven problem. There can be no reason this is going on, other than companies wanting to make or save money, no matter who is affected. These companies have ensured through lobbying that government isn’t going to mess with what they are doing.
So, logically, one could think, why are these immigrants, who obviously have skills they could parlay in their own country, coming here and agreeing to work for that much less in American dollars? It’s easy to presume that they are doing it because they are still making more than they would in any other country.
That’s may be true, but there may be another reason, and it has nothing to do with doing anyone any harm. It’s been said that one in 10 people who come to the United States from elsewhere become millionaires. That’s an astounding statistic. So these highly skilled folks may see potential opportunity to get rich by, say, inventing something, that they may not have in their home countries.
To back that up, Thomas Heath, in The Washington Post, reports that in Forbes Magazine’s annual list of the 400 richest Americans, a record 42 of them are immigrants from 21 countries. Heath’s story was also published in the March 20, 2017, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The fact that immigrants would make less than their American predecessors did, in the first job that brought them to the U.S., is insignificant to them. The OPPORTUNITY to be in the United States, and to do something great, is what drives them.
There is good news in all this for those displaced, highly skilled American workers. There are many vehicles out there for them to create their own, potentially lucrative, income, too. They may not know about them, or they may even believe that they cannot do what would be asked of them. Yet, they can potentially be not just financially stable, but potentially financially free, without that job they lost.
Such vehicles are available to anyone, regardless of race, education or background. To check out one of the best, message me.
In sum, immigrants WILL come, when they see opportunity. Companies will take advantage of every loophole in every law to improve their bottom lines. As a worker, there is little you can do about it. Your future is in your hands, no matter what happens to you.
Even if laws are changed, new loopholes will be created. The lesson here: ways to potentially fire the boss before he fires you are out there. Don’t be afraid to look for them, and look at them. You never know what someone, either already in your life or who will come into your life, may have his hands on. It could be a lifesaver for you.
As our parents used to tell us when we approached a railroad crossing that didn’t have lights or an arm that came down to block traffic when a train was coming: stop, look and listen. You never know when, or how or from whom, your opportunity will come.
Peter
HOW HARD IS IT FOR YOU TO LEAVE WORK?
#work #All-ConsumingJob #FamilyFriends #fun
You don’t work an eight-hour day.
You don’t know when to leave the office.
Even when you leave, work goes home with you.
Perhaps you’ve made a new year’s resolution to spend more time with family, friends and other people or things that give you pleasure.
But, you feel you can’t.
There’s a crisis at work you have to deal with.
Laura Petrecca discussed this topic in a Jan. 16, 2017, article in USA Today. Here are some figures quoted in the article:
• 60 percent of people have dreamed about something at work;
• 49 percent check work e-mail after work hours;
• 46 percent work during non-business hours;
• 44 percent are up at night thinking about work;
• 15 percent gave up vacation days.
Here’s another stat: the average person in Europe works about 19 percent less than the average American. Thus U.S. workers put in 25 percent more hours than Europeans, according to a study by a group of economists, quoted in an article by Ben Steverman for Bloomberg News. The article was published March 13, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
You may know your job is eating you alive, but you fear that if you don’t put in the extra effort, you may be replaced.
News flash: you may be laid off regardless of how well you’ve performed, or how much extra effort you’ve put in.
“There is pressure globally … to do more with less,” Petrecca’s article quotes Patrick Kulesa, director of employee research at Willis Towers Watson.
So what does one do to bring sanity back into his or her life? One way is to just stop working when you get home. Reserve your home space strictly for family, friends and pleasurable activities.
If you have an after-hours crisis at work that requires immediate attention, deal with it at work, so you can go home with a clean slate.
Or, create a Plan B for earning money in what spare time you have, so you can eventually kiss the pressure cooker goodbye. There are many such ways to do that. To learn about one of the best, message me.
Instantaneous communication has become both a blessing and a curse. Take advantage of its blessing to give you pleasure, and pay less attention to the curse that allows work to follow you home.
In short, give yourself a break. Know that no matter what you do, you are not indispensable at work. Know that your boss will not hesitate to let you go if it makes his numbers look good, regardless of the effort you’ve put in.
Leave work at work. Delegate more of what you do, if you can. If you are good at what you do, look for other options if your situation shows no end in sight.
There’s only one you. You deserve to engage in the pleasure of family, friends and enjoyable activities. Don’t let a job deprive you of that.
It’s OK to enjoy your work, but it should not control you, or keep you from other things. No matter what happens at work, learn to live well.
Peter
STORYTELLING: THE BEGINNING OF BUILDING A BRAND
#storytelling #BuildYourBrand #EverybodyHasAStory
So you are just a working stiff. You don’t need to worry about building a brand.
In fact, we probably all engage in some form of brand-building no matter where we are in life. We build ourselves into the person we want to be, which, in essence, is building your own brand.
Adrienne Weiss and Greg Weiss talk about three breakthrough secrets in their little book, “Brand Buzz.” Their secrets, the book says, are storytelling, club making and country building.
For those who are not professional marketers, we’ll focus on storytelling.
The art of telling one’s story has really come into vogue. We used to compile resumes with facts – what we did, when we did it, what titles we’d held etc. But lots of recruiting and human resources experts today encourage applicants to include stories (short ones, preferably) in their resumes.
A job title may have meant something to you, and those who worked with you, but it means very little to the prospective employer, whose organization probably has different titles for different positions.
So, the experts advise to tell a story about your experience at your past employer. For example, tell what action you may have taken to save the company money, or to boost productivity. Be as specific as you can, i.e. “Because I did this, our department was able to save the equivalent of 30 percent of its budget. “
OK, admittedly some working stiffs can’t say that. Sometimes, you have to tailor your story to what you did. Maybe you can highlight your attendance record. “I took only three sick days in my five years at the company,” would be an example.
Or, “On most days, I reported to work early and left after my shift was over. I never left a task undone for the next shift.”
Sometimes, we have to think about our story before we tell it. Anyone can make widgets, but could anyone do it with the speed and quality that you can?
These days, too, stories become more important. Employers don’t often take the time to call references. Or, if they do, the reference may be under orders to say only that you worked there, from date X to date Y, for fear of a lawsuit or some other type of retaliation.
In other words, you have to blow your own horn by telling your own story.
How one casts a story is as important as the facts in the story. You can spell out the results of your actions with dramatic flair, instead of listing a bunch of boring tasks that you had accomplished.
So, after reading this, do you still believe you don’t have a story to tell?
Are you still in search of that vehicle that will give you a great story? If you’d like to hear about one of the best vehicles to create a great, potentially very prosperous story, message me. Even the most ordinary of working stiffs can potentially not only create a great story, and the resulting potential prosperity, but help others do the same.
Remember, facts ARE important. You want your story to be TRUE. But how you incorporate the facts of your career into a great story can help you build that personal brand that is YOU. It’s not a matter of modesty. Though we love to have other people tell our story, no one can tell your story as well as you.
So, shout it from the rooftops. Tell your story with pride. Impress those prospective employers, customers etc. If you need help crafting your story, message me.
The worst stories are the ones that are never told.
Peter