Why You Don’t Know What You Need to Know Right Now and Ways to Fix That in a Hurry

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“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was supposed to do that. . . “

“What do you mean I overstepped my authority? You told me to do what I thought best.”

“You did WHAT?!?!”

Funny, sad, ironic – we live in an era where we can reach out to anyone, at anytime, anywhere across the globe – yet we don’t talk to those working for us, with us, or among us, be it around the corner, down the hall, or even standing next to each other in the same room.

It’s why you don’t know what you need to know right now.

Communication.

Or, rather – lack of communication – is why we’re constantly apologizing to our staff, our colleagues, our business partners, even our better halves.

It’s why arguments, disagreements, anger, and frustration with each other happens.

It can turn a positive, fun, and enjoyable corporate culture into a living hell.

And it’s dangerous.

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I met with a young person recently, that began as an intern, and was now charged with the task of building the business by his bosses – the owners of the business.

He told me he doesn’t use contracts, but if I wanted one, that I should just “send me anything, and I’ll sign it.”

That kind of attitude could easily cost not only this person his job, but his bosses their company.

Luckily, I’m a nice guy, and just walked away from the company.

I don’t do business on a hand-shake alone.

Though, it’s an example – a blatantly serious example – of how dangerous lack of communications in business is.

The former intern, now business developer, should have been given clear expectations of what is expected in his new role. And, you’d hope that he’d be bright enough to communicate with his boss anything that wasn’t covered, BEFORE taking action.

Because, if I wasn’t such a nice guy, I could have easily given him a lengthy contract, filled with page after page of legal mumble jumble, which he’d sign, giving me some outrageous thing that could easily bankrupt the business.

Think that never happens in business?

Years ago, investigative journalism television show “60 Minutes” did a piece about various male executives in the auto sector, taking clients to strip clubs on the day the “big deal” was to be signed. They did this, because the other male executives would be so caught up with the naked chicks, they wouldn’t notice the last minute changes made to the contracts they just signed.

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Granted, this is a form of distraction – not a lack of communications. However, it paints a nasty picture of how low corporate ethics and values may be at some companies.

So low, that a lack of communications could be a fatal blow to a business’s bottom-line.

Which brings us back to why you don’t know what you need to know right now.

Because you’ve been doing what most people do at work these days – NOT talking to your staff, your teams, your colleagues or even your boss.

Here’s how you fix that – right now.

Get to Know Your Colleagues Communication Styles

Think about who you’re communicating with and how they communicate with you. Introverts think through things on their own – so email with a follow-up call after they’ve had chance to absorb and think about it works best. 

Extroverts like to talk through a solution, so a face-to-face meeting, where you mention the issue, and let them talk, probably is the best course of action. They may also enjoy using a whiteboard, to work out their problems in a mind map.

Meet More Often, But For Less Time

Finding time when everyone can get together is tough enough, but don’t waste precious time. Shorter meetings provide a definitive end time to the meeting, making everyone focus on what needs to be done. Having more frequent short meetings – say a 10-minute checkup the next day – sets the expectation as to what everyone should be accomplishing by the next meeting, and this pattern connects people, while improving the overall workflow process.

Get Out of the Office

I’ve been known as a coffee shop fiend, for constantly taking people out to grab a coffee to discuss important and even mundane tasks. It’s a great way to break the ice, get to know your colleagues, and to establish an open communications dialogue between you and those you work with. Going out for drinks after work, grabbing lunch together, even walking to the parking lot or subway are also great ways to connect with colleagues, and open the doors of communications.

Be Mindful of How You Respond

Quick – your colleague is yelling and screaming at you. Do you:

1.  Yell and scream back
2. Try to talk loudly over their yelling to drown them out
3. Talk softly, slowly, and deliberately in between their outbursts
4. Walk away, ignore them – how dare they yell at you!

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The correct answer is 3 – talk softly, slowly and deliberately in between their outbursts. By lowering your speaking voice, you take the passive stand, and force them to listen to you. By slowing your speaking style, you send out a wave of calm, over their angered storm. And by waiting for them to stop talking, before you talk, you are showing you are listening to them – instead of just brushing them off.

If the yeller is relatively normal, they’ll calm down, so you can both work through the problem, rather than getting into a yelling match, or worse, a fistfight.

Be aware of how your responses can improve the situation, or make matters worse. Try to aim for a calm collaboration, rather than heated debates. Think about what your body language is saying, your tone of voice, your level of volume – all can be just as important as what is actually said.

The main thing from all of this is to get you to communicate with each other. Because not knowing what you need to know right now, is killing your business.

Looking for a Job? Any Job? I’ll Never Hire You

I do a lot of networking, it’s key for entrepreneurs – or really anyone – these days. From social meetups to professional ones, to just bumping into strangers at a ballgame, or while out for a bite to eat, you really never know who you may meet, or more importantly, how you may help each other.

Lots of the fine folks I meet are either underemployed or unemployed. Kudos to them for being brave, and when I ask what they do, they tell me directly that they are looking for work.

When I was – well – younger – looking for work was almost shameful.

“I’m in between jobs,” many would say, as they were ashamed, even embarrassed to be looking for a job.

Everyone had a job, and if you didn’t, others would wonder: “what’s wrong with you?”

Looking back, that’s probably not the right attitude, but that was the prevailing way we thought of ourselves, our work, and our lives back then.

There isn’t anything wrong with being out of work. It happens, people outgrow companies, and companies outgrow people. It’s the nature of our human-driven social structure.

These days, more people are looking for work than ever before. Not because there is this sudden influx of jobs. No. Sadly, it’s quite the opposite. The economy has shifted across our global working world, tossing more than a quarter of the planet’s population out of work.

So, looking for a job is no longer a shameful thing, and it certainly is a lot more of the commonality people have at many networking functions.

Being underemployed or unemployed is so common, the immediate standard response to someone looking for work has become: “so, what are you looking for?”

Or at least, being an entrepreneur that may hire someone, or know others that may be looking to hire people, I always ask that.

“Anything,” or “I don’t know,” or “something better, anything better, than I’m doing now,” are the worst possible answers.

Looking for a job? Any job? I won’t hire you.

I don’t have just any job at my company, and I bet most business owners would agree with me on this.

PASSION is one of the most important things I look for in bringing anyone aboard my team. 

PASSION is falling in love with a specific job, industry or career path. Studies show that those who are passionate about what they do, will do it far better than those who aren’t.

Though PASSION is important for many other reasons too.

In creating the perfect workplace, I want to only hire people that WANT to be there. I don’t want people working for me that dread getting up in the morning, because they have to go to work. I want people that leap out of their lover’s arms, because they just can’t wait to get to work.

Well, okay, maybe not that passionate. But close.

People that hate their jobs, bring down the entire workplace. Negative attitudes about the company, the management, the work, or even the furniture are more easily contagious than positive ones. Even to those that don’t agree – because when someone lacks passion for their work, they usually have an abundance of passion against their work.

Negative colleagues spread rumors, talk behind other’s back, mock management, don’t arrive on time, and may even slack-off at their tasks.

And worse, negative colleagues can turn positive, passionate ones into negative ones, so even those that love what they do and where they do it could become slackers spreading stories.

So if we ever meet and you’re looking for work, and I ask you what you are looking for, you’d better have any answer other than: “anything.”

Because if you tell me “anything” you’ll never work for me – nor be recommended by me to others.

We’re not children, I’m not asking you what you want to be when you grow-up. This isn’t recess – it’s life.

And if you really don’t know what you are passionate about, and what you want out of life, you’d better find it – fast.

Want the Best Working for You? Pay Them When You Say

One of the most frustrating things I endured when I was a consultant were late payments.

It’s one thing to pay your credit card, cable or cell phone bills late. It’s another to pay human beings working for you late, because those people depend on that money to pay their credit card, cable or cell phone bills.

I understand the nature of small business, and how cash flow is king. However, even the most loved kings have been knocked from their thrones, when they’ve failed their subjects.

Not that entrepreneurs are kings, and those working for them are their property.

But you’d think that some have this flawed mentality, by the lack of respect they show those working for them, with the blatant disregard they have for living up to their promises, contracts, or other working relationships.

I’ve had clients who constantly needed to be reminded of their past due payments. I’ve also had clients who had a tradition of paying late, suddenly pay early, only to show their true stripes by requesting additional work, or projects.

It’s nice to earn the respect of a client to the point that they request more. It’s not so nice when they go back to paying late after they no longer need or want those extra services, or if you declined their original offer, because they wanted it done at a ridiculously below market value cost.

Failing to respect those working for you isn’t just unprofessional and rude, but really can lead to major misunderstandings as well.

Nasty rumours start in companies by people that don’t feel welcome being there. It doesn’t matter if the person is a full-time or part-time employee, a contractor, or a consultant – if the higher-ups running the show don’t make them feel wanted, respected and valued, they’ll become a bigger problem quickly.

Because the biggest problem in all the companies I’ve ever worked for is communications. And the biggest communications problems start when the company’s people feel unwanted, disrespected or undervalued.

And the surest and quickest way to make anyone working for you to feel unwanted, disrespected or undervalued is to not pay them when you agreed too.

That’s just common sense, and part of being a responsible business owner, always pay your people on time.

It’s wonderful how business schools these days are teaching the latest in management theory, lean start-up, even basic marketing and bookkeeping. What they should also be teaching those wantrepreneurs is the most valuable lesson of them all – always pay your people on time.

Most employees live pay-cheque-to-pay-cheque, so if you are a bad a boss, they’ll stick with you, until they find another job.

Problem is, finding work in today’s economy isn’t quick and easy. So, while you think you have a loyal and dedicated person working for you, secretly, behind your back, they’ll be looking to replace you as their boss.

While people look for another boss, they often spread rumours, or worse – tell their tales of their woe, their feelings of disrespect, and the horrors of working for you.

Although workplace rumours can kill a company, nothing stops great people working for a company faster than horror stories from those who have or currently work there.

So, by paying your people late, you could be cutting off the flow of the most important resource a company needs – it’s people. 

Why Millennial’s Can’t Get a Job? Here’s a Hint: TXT MSG

Wrap your big brain around this . . .

Out of the hundreds of resumes people send you for a current job posting, you finally narrow down 10 really good ones, so you call them.

You get voicemail. Understandable, they don’t recognize your number. So you leave a warm and polite message, something like:

Hi John, this is Jordan Green at Blurrv Media Inc., I’m calling about a resume you sent us in regards to the Account Manager job. I was impressed with your resume, and wanted to chat with you about the company, the job and learn about you in the process. Please call me at . . . thank you.

I go about my day. No call back. Next day – no call back. DAYS later – still nothing.

Less than 10 percent of the people who send me resumes to the jobs we have posted are calling back.

Then it dawned on me, I remember reading several articles about how people under 30 don’t talk on the phone anymore. They text, instant message, even use it to emphasize key points when gesturing in a restaurant – but they don’t TALK anymore.

“Every time I see my voicemail icon pop up, I think, oh God, who died?” said one young person in one of the reports I read.

So, I decided to try an experiment. Instead of calling people who sent me a resume, I sent a short text message:

Thx for the CV. If u r still looking for work, please call me at this # and we can discuss.

(I even used texting slang. So unprofessional! I know!)

EVERYONE I texted called back. Well, okay, one person texted me back:

Yeah, Im still uneployed. Who is this?

(I even used her txting slang. So unprofessional! She’ll be looking 4work 4ver!)

Upon finally connecting voice with the rest, I’d ask: Did you get my voicemail?

They all said something along the lines of: “Oh, I never check my messages.”

One person admitted that when her voicemail gets full, she just deletes them without listening to them first.

The idea, as ridiculous as it was, to text potential job candidates, because they weren’t checking their messages, came to me because I received a text in regards to a message I had left on a prospect’s voicemail:

Hi, I just got a call frm this numb. If u r a telemarketer, DO NOT CALL BACK. Otherwise, what do you want?

(I even used her rude, unprofessional tone of voice. I know – who’d want to hire her EVER?)

I think our politicians can stop promising job creation, and focus their lies – I mean their campaign pitches – on more productive avenues.

I’ve finally figured out why the under 30 crowd can’t find work.

They only text message. Well, they do a lot more than that on their mobile devices, from snapping self-absorbed pictures of themselves (selfies) to surfing the net, to listening to music.

They just don't talk on the thing, or check it's messages.

(How do they expect to get a job if they don’t answer the phone?)

That’s a very good question.

My answer – wait – let me text it to you:

They prolly dnt farther ahead than their current txt msg convo.

What?

I said, they probably don’t think farther ahead than their current text message conversation.

It’s so unprofessional to text someone that sent you a resume in confidence.

It’d be like a woman sending her boyfriend a romantic text message while his unknowing wife is using his phone – nothing good can come from this.

And nothing good can come from a generation that can’t communicate.

Not that texting isn’t a FORM of communications, it’s just the wrong one for landing a job.

Part of the reason employers want to TALK ON THE PHONE as a point of first contact is to evaluate a potential employee’s communications skills, and get a sense for who they are.

We want to see how they express themselves, get a sense of their personality, their character and so much more than you could ever get from a text message, regardless of how many emoticons you toss in.

Not that condensing one’s thoughts into short snappy sentences isn’t a skill.

But I’m sure even the staff at Twitter needs to be able to use more than 140 characters to do their jobs, because if they didn’t, that company would have closed it’s doors and gone belly-up by now.

So, if you’re under 30, looking for work, and wondering why you haven’t been getting called back, perhaps you should LISTEN to your messages BEFORE deleting them.

(I knw, makes sense! So clear. So concise. Common sense? Too bad ppl -30 dnt this way.)

When Job Interviewees Go Postal on the One Holding the Keys to the Cubicle

We’ve all heard about job interviews that go off the rails, usually caused by potential employers asking things they shouldn’t and forcing job candidates to jump through outrageous hoops just for the possibility of an interview.

What about when a job interview becomes hell on Earth, because of a snippy job seeker?

Last week, a potential employee exploded at me, within the first 15-seconds of the interview. I hadn’t even got off a single question.

I began as I always do, introducing myself, thanking him for his time, outlining the objectives of our meeting, and just as I took a breath he interrupted me saying: “Look, I’ve been around the block a few times, let’s cut to the chase. I currently earn a six figure income, have people begging me to work for them, and really just want to know if this is a contract, if it’s salary-based, if there’s a commission, and when do I start?”

I was completely unsettled by this abrupt interruption, by someone who’s last position on their resume was dated June of 2012.

I hadn’t expected to run into someone working at some mystery company that isn’t listed on their resume, earning a “six figure income” for a job where the industry average is about $60K. 

Nor did I expect to be pushed into a corner by a hostile job seeker that has “been around the block” and has “people begging him to work for them.” Though he did ask when we’d hire him.

I understand looking for work is a precarious and fragile situation. Some may be on their last nickel and dimes literally, as their prolonged job hunt bleeds their bank accounts dry. Others may have gone through the horrendous downsizing that unfortunately has become the new norm, replaced by temporary contractors. They themselves may have fallen into the unstable temporary contractor world, where the only jobs they seem to get are the ones with a start date and an end date.

I understand how horrible all of those pressures are.

But I never, NEVER – EVER – would have anticipated that pressure would explode, unleashing the worst in people – at a time when people are trying to show their best.

I’m not new to hiring people, and I always like to start off introducing myself, the company, the role, and then move into the job candidate’s background. I don’t conduct interviews, I like to think of them as conversations. 

It’s not my management style to lock people in a room and demand action, I’ve always had an open door policy, where I encourage an atmosphere of collaboration and openness.

However, I might reconsider that open door policy, as this hostile job candidate wasn’t the only job seeker to attempt to hijack the interview.

Several others over the course of the week jumped off my traditional job interview course, demanding I hire them at outrageously high salaries, with benefits, because as one job seeker declared: “I’m sick and tired of working on contracts that don’t materialize into anything ever good.”

When I was a kid, growing up, I was taught to always go into a job interview with a freshly pressed suit and tie. I still remember my high school guidance counselor telling our class: “to make sure your socks are pulled up, your shoes are shiny, your hair is perfectly combed and you don’t have any stains on your perfectly white dress shirt.”

I was taught to show up early, give a firm handshake while looking the interviewer directly in the eye and to be respectful and polite at all times.

Back then, the notion of interrupting your potential boss before you even had the job was not even a thought in the most devious of delinquent minds.

Our world certainly has changed for the worse over the past few decades.

I blame recruitment firms, staffing agencies, and the corporate managers gullible enough to think recruitment firms are the messiah of their staffing needs.

Recruitment firms and staffing agencies go in with these slick presentations – I’ve seen them myself – telling employers how it’s not cost effective to hire people anymore. It makes more sense to hire a third-party company (the recruitment firm) to source “resources” (that’s how they refer to people) on a per project-basis.

My biggest problem with recruitment firms is they don’t care about the people resources they deploy. Which is understandable – they are a business, and a business’ primary interest is to make money.

However, they are in the business of supplying people to companies, so it’s ultimately not in their best interests to show such disregard for their primary product – people.

I’ve seen the end result this week – the people that have been shuffled in and out of the meat grinder of the recruitment firm’s temporary contracts become bitter, angry and disenfranchised with the world of work. Because they’ve been spun from contract, to contract, they no longer have any respect for those conducting job interviews.

Again, I get it. I understand the horrors of being bounced from company to company, department to department. One month having a decent pay cheque, the next you are flipping sofa pillows desperately looking for change to buy a loaf of bread as your bank account is negative.

However, I’ll never hire a hostile job candidate.

They don’t give me the respect which I expect everyone in my company to give each other.

And that’s the ultimate tragedy here, because chances are, the hostile job candidate that claimed he was making a six figure income is the guy sifting through his sofa, looking for change, because he’s been without a real job for a very long time.

Lost Your Job? Get Over It In These Five Stages – If You Want a New One

They say losing a job is just like losing a close friend or family member.

I never believed that, a job is not a friend or a family member – it’s a job. 

That is until I started networking and interviewing people for my team. I was reminded of this the other day.

I was talking with someone looking for another job, though he’s only been in his current role for less than six-months. So, naturally, I asked him why he was looking for work.

BIG MISTAKE

I always seem to make that mistake, though as an employer, it’s not a bad thing to know these things. It could be the company is going bust, has been sold and the new management has changed the direction and vision. Or it could be, as I painfully found out yesterday, this guy just wasn’t getting any satisfaction.

For the next ten-minutes, I had my ear chewed up and spit out, as this job seeker complained about how much money the company makes from his hard work, and how little he sees in return. He ranted on, and on, and on.

“Don’t they still advise people looking for work to never say anything negative about their current or past employers,” I thought to myself, as the guy continued his horror story.

I just kept quiet, and let him vent.

What else could I do?

Here’s some complete stranger, coughing up the spittle of spite and angst in his life.

I’m just glad it was over the phone, rather than in person. I hate spittle.

Though I’ve had that too.

I’ve sat across the table from someone I’ve just met moments before, go on a verbal assault of their current or past employer.

And again, I just sit and listen.

Just Let it Go

I realized in these, and other similar situations, that losing a job really is like losing a friend or member of the family. It’s part of the healing process we all go through when anything traumatic happens in our lives.

When we lose a job, a friend, or anything changes dramatically in our daily lives, we all go through the five stages of loss and grief:

1. Denial and Isolation

At first we protect ourselves from the loss, by blocking out the world and hiding from the reality of the situation. It’s a natural defense mechanism that helps us rationalize what happened. And that rationalization leads to the next level.

2. Anger

As we try to rationalize and come to grips with the loss, the pain re-emerges and as we are still not ready to move on, we’re still vulnerable. Because we no longer can deny the loss occurred, because we thought about it, we become angry.

This anger may be aimed at things (like your car, house, or a pillow), friends, family, or as in the case of the job seekers I’ve discussed, complete strangers, like me.

We logically know the thing or person we aim our anger at isn’t to blame, however our emotions run high, as our memories of the loss bring back the intense pain, which makes us more angry, and we need to release that anger.

The best course is to talk it out with someone who'll just listen. It helps to just get it out into the open and off your chest.

3. Bargaining

Eventually, as the anger subsides, we feel helpless, and still quite vulnerable. We try to regain control of our lives by 'thinking what if.'

What if I had worked harder on that last project?

What if I had only gone to the corporate holiday party?

What if I had only tried to be a better person?

Naturally, you don't have to try to be a better person, and there is nothing you can do now that you've already lost your job.

This is our mind's way of constantly rationalizing what happened, while looking for solutions to the problem. It's the lack of immediately available solutions that leads to the second last, yet hardest stage. 

4. Depression

This is the hardest hurdle to overcome for anyone going through these stages. Some people never fully get through their depression, which is the ultimate hardship, because if you don’t get past depression, you’ll never move on with your life.

There are actually two types of depression we go through during the loss of a job, a person, or anything close to us. The first is the actual reaction to the loss:

I don’t have a source of income.

I don’t have a job.

I don’t have a regular routine.

l'll never see my co-workers again.

What will I do now?
How will I survive?
What if I can't find work ever again?

This is often dealt with through talking it over with friends, family or a therapist, all of which offering support and encouragement that you’ll get another job and be in a better place soon.

The second form of depression is the more private and sometimes harder one to get through. It’s that little voice in our heads still trying to rationalize what happened, however at this point, we are now starting to also think towards the future and trying to figure out how to say good-bye to once was. 

Saying good-bye to a job isn’t easy. It’s not like you can just show up where you once worked and start shaking hands as you make your way out the building. 

Security!

Don't do that.

What you can do is WRITE. It helps to write out your thoughts and good-byes in a journal, or even a letter or an email – just don’t send that letter or email! This way, you can actually say good-bye to those you worked with, your boss, your co-workers, even the office pooch if there was one. Some even write a good-bye to their desk, their chair, their stack of papers and projects -- sounds silly -- but it does work.

YOU HAVE TO SAY GOOD-BYE.

That's the hardest part -- finally realizing that your life is different due to circumstances which may have completely been out of your control, yet you MUST SAY GOOD-BYE to the life you once had, or else you'll never move on to the final stage.

5. Acceptance

This is the breath of fresh air that suddenly appears out of nowhere. It’s like a light bulb suddenly ignited into brightness overhead, as you realize you are whole again, and ready to tackle the world. 

You’ve said your good-byes, got over your thoughts of denial, anger, bargaining and depression. You’re now ready to look for your next job – or maybe you’ve learned the hardships of relying on others for a pay cheque, and will take the bold step of becoming an entrepreneur?

Take it from someone that knows. Not just from interviewing potential job candidates, but even I have gone through all five stages.

We all do at some point in our lives. It's the natural course of dealing with a dramatic, often sudden and unpleasant loss in our lives -- be it the loss of a person, a pet, or a job.

And, after writing this, it got me thinking. There have been job interviews that I've blown by going off the handle as I was still going through the five stages of loss and grief while I looked for work while in the corporate world.

I learned my lessons of grief and acceptance, and about work too. It's far better to risk it all and be your own boss, than take the easy road and rely on someone else for a pay stub.

But that doesn't mean I'll never go through the five stages ever again -- that's just part of being human.

Struggling to Find Work? Don’t Flip-Flop Hop-Skip and Jump Your Title

I attend many social and business networking functions, and I’m always amazed and saddened by the number of people at these events out of work and looking for their next job.

A handful of years ago, I’d guess fewer than 10% of the attendees were unemployed. Now, it’s more like 80% are either unemployed, or severely underemployed.

What shocks and horrifies me more is the reason why so many people are struggling to find work.

As I go through the LinkedIn profiles and resumes sent to me, I see many have flip-flop hop-skipped and jumped from job to job, to job.

I’ve seen several LinkedIn profiles where each person has worked for no more than four months at any one employer.

Traditionally, a work history with such brief stints at any one company would be a big red flag. A warning beacon about a person unable to hold down a steady job.

Today, it is a sad sign of the new economy, as companies of all sizes hire on short-term project-based contracts, instead of thinking of the bigger long-term picture.

Want a career, with benefits, a decent salary, and job security? Don’t come to North America – we don’t have that here.

Gone are the days when companies of all sizes – of any size really – hire qualified people on staff.

Gone are the days when companies hire people period. Most companies these days don’t hire anyone, instead they just contract out their work to temporary staff

Temporary staff – AKA you -- are only paid for the hours you work, so any statutory holidays you must take (because the office is closed) or you voluntarily take (so you don’t burn out) are unpaid.

The temporary employment agency that recruited you tells you, there is occasional overtime. However, your “employer” (the agency’s client”) tells you that they don’t pay overtime, yet they expect you to put in those volunteer hours on your own dime.

There is no job security. Your contract can be terminated without any notice, rhyme or reason.

And you are constantly lead to the promised land, as both your temporary agency and their client tell you they love your work, and are considering hiring you on staff, with benefits.

That’ll never happen. They tell that to everyone. It keeps you motivated, and makes them appear to care about your well-being, which they don’t.

They didn’t put you on a temporary contract to try before they buy. Nope.

They put you and most of the other unfortunate hard working folks around you on temporary contracts, so that they can get rid of you.

And they will get rid of you.

You’ve probably already gone through this routine, which is why your resume flip-flops and hop-skip and jumps around so much.

Despite my own understanding of this new world of work, I’m still hesitant to hire someone that hasn’t held a job longer than a couple of years.

Perhaps I’m old fashioned in my aging years. However, a piece of me also knows that many of those titles are manufactured just because.

I know people who have created their own one-person consulting businesses. They tell me they are proud entrepreneurs. They’ll never work for anyone else, ever again.

Yet these very same people change their title on LinkedIn and probably on their resume, every time they land a new contract.

That’s not very entrepreneurial – in fact it reads just like everyone else looking for work, as they flip-flop hop skip and jump their titles.

What’s worse, is it shows how confused and desperate many have become. So much so, that they confuse creating their own job, with being hired on a temporary contract.

So long as you are on any form of employment contract with anyone, you are not an employee, nor are you an entrepreneur working for yourself.

Instead, you are a piece of paper, being filed, stamped, and stomped all over.

So long as you are on any temporary employment contract with anyone, you are no different than a stapler, or any other office resource.

And that’s the real problem with our new economy of temporary contracted out people. Because when you’re nothing more than a stapler, and another stapler comes along, willing to work for less than you, you’re suddenly out of work.

Yet you’ve shown your commitment and dedication by updating your social media profiles, your LinkedIn, your resume, maybe even your business cards.

Don’t Flip-Flop Hop-Skip and Jump Your Title unless you really are an entrepreneur and there isn’t anyone that can fire you but you.

Having a work history that changes every few months isn’t very professional, shows a lack of judgement on your part, and could end up costing you your dream job.

And this is coming from someone that understands the new world of temporary work, and goes through a lot of resumes and LinkedIn profiles as I build my business ventures.

Want a Better Career in 2014? Find Your Own Way.

A new year is upon us, and many New Year’s Resolutions are already out the window. An American university study claims less than 8 percent of us achieve our New Year’s Resolutions.

However, if one of your resolutions was to improve your career, you have a slightly better chance of doing just that. If you heed my advice and find your own way.

Give up on the golden handcuffs, they don’t exist. Used to be, you’d graduate from high school, get a job, and be at that job for your entire working life, retiring with a gold watch.

Not anymore. Uh-na. Nope. Not unless you own the company, there’s no gold in your future.

Have you ever heard about someone making a million dollars working at Wal-Mart?

Unless you’re the CEO, or one of a handful of executives in that company, you’ll be lucky if you can make a quarter of that in your lifetime working there.

But being your own boss puts you all the closer to making a million dollars – and more.

Even better than the potential for a real income, comes the benefit of real job security. You can’t get fired by anyone when you are the ultimate boss. You won’t have to kiss another manager’s hairy butt cheeks, or worry about getting that promotion either. It’s your business, you call the shots.

Of course, being your own boss isn’t for everyone.

Some people like to be slaves to their employers. They enjoy being told what to do, how to do it, and for how long. They enjoy having to always grin and bare it, even if they can’t stand the person they work for, the work they do, or even the customers they serve.

Sounds like such a wonderful life. Here, let me get you a power saw, it’ll be faster to end it all with that than the dull butter knife you’re currently using.

Seriously, working for someone else is like committing suicide with a very dull blade. As hard as you try, it just never ends.

Don’t kill yourself slowly, embrace your skills, knowledge and experience and ask yourself, what would you rather do, than the job you currently do?

Don’t be vague. Don’t be ambiguous. Don’t be shy. Take a moment to ask yourself what you’d really rather be doing than your current job?

Then figure it out.

Piece together a plan with realistically achievable goals and then take action to make those goals happen.

It’s a long, tough road towards success. There will be failures along the way. Keep going. That’s normal. So long as you learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward.

Not like making the same mistake most do, and keep working for the man, hoping one day, you’ll get that promotion, and eventually a nice Rolex.

The only way towards true success, is to do it yourself.

Don’t depend on anyone, ever for your income again. Unless you like working at Wal-Mart.