Failure

Failure is amazing. Failures are what make life interesting. Failure is a driving force people use to keep motivated (or rather the fear of failure).

The best part about failure though is you can see a person's true self at these times of need. When faced with failure, men who act big and tough reveal to the world that they are far from it. People who put on various faces and give the world false perspectives of themselves have their true colors shown.

What should you do about failure?

This is what I propose:

Most of the time failure isn't really failure; it's just a really tough challenge you have to overcome. If you are willing, there are many solutions that can and will bring you away from the prospects of failing. As my professor Babs always said, "Think entrepreneurially." You have to be creative and think outside the box. There will be a solution. This is what separates the weak people who give up at challenges from the dedicated motivated ones who refuse to give up.

(note: there is a fine line between being dedicated and being stubborn. Don't be stubborn. You'll look foolish and won't be liked. People might tell you to go home.)

So what if the situation is actually one that you can't work around and failure is inevitable?

First of all, take accountability. Then embrace it. Love it. Cherish it. You learn so much more from failing than from succeeding. If you've messed everything you've ever done in life, great news. If you are smart enough to learn from your failures, you won't make them anymore. (Granted if you aren't smart enough to learn from past failures, there's not much I can really say or do for you...) If you aren't willing to take accountability, you definitely won't be willing to try and learn from your mistakes either. Anyways, eventually you'll have failed so many times you can't fail anymore and everything you do will be a success!


Don't be weak. And don't whine about it or find excuses. No one likes a weak excuse-finding whiner.

EB

Leaders vs. Managers

People confuse the differences between a leader and a manager all the time. In college, many kids think they are leaders when they are given "leadership" positions in a student club or organization. They get all excited over the opportunity to delegate orders to subordinates while they manage over an organization. Yes, I said manage.

Most roles people attribute to a leader are actually those of a manager. Managers are in charge of groups, projects, teams, etc. Managers have subordinates to who they assign deliverables. Managers check in with these people to see the progress of these deliverables. In short, managers make sure the group, project, or team that they are in charge of accomplishes what it is meant to accomplish.

Leaders on the other hand lead people. Leaders create change they believe in.

"Leaders have followers. Managers have employees." - Seth Godin

Managers lack the innovative properties of a leader. Managers are too scared to challenge the status quo, too scared to think outside the box. Managers fear failure and thus avoid decisions that might not work. Managers do what it takes to get the job done. Managers are scared of change.

Shake things up and break the status quo. Start something new. Be a leader. Don't wait for someone to lead you.

EB

Damn it feels good to be a gansta

Today the results of the Apprentice project were revealed. For people who are not familiar with the Apprentice project, basically the class splits up into groups (there 7 groups in our class and our group had 7 members) and each group is given an envelope with cash (aka seed capital), and we have four weeks to make as much money as possible, with the total amounts submitted with cash on hand the last day of the 4th week. At the way end, all the groups pool their profits together, and the group that created the most value from the initial investment keep all the profits (with the seed capital + an investment return back to the professor). Some basic rules are that everything must be legal, and we are not allowed any outside investment in consumer durables, services, or cash.

Two days before the deadline we were hit with a twist, where groups were allowed to merge with or acquire a single other group. Teams that joined would be graded as one team, thus it was clearly beneficial to join with another group.

I've decided to re-invest a portion of my earnings into books to help develop my entrepreneurial skills:

Business Plans That Win $$: Lessons from the MIT Enterprise Forum
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened
The Successful Business Plan, 4th Edition: Secrets and Strategies

and a fun one:
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Lessons learned:

Poor group dynamics can be the Achilles heel of a project. It doesn't matter how talented the individuals in a group are because if there are poor group dynamics then they are unable to perform at their full potential. It's usually easier and more efficient when there is a single natural leader (if there's more than one leader, there could be excessive friction over disagreements).

Poor communication will lead to failure. Poor group dynamics will most likely lead to poor communication. Poor communication leads to poor logistics which leads to poor execution. Enough said.

Don't overestimate your revenues while underestimating your expenses. You hear it over and over again. Don't overestimate your revenues and underestimate your expenses. You never really know what it's like until you have a hands on experience with it happening. Everything always looks nicer on paper.

Be friendly with your competitors. Gauge the market situation. Know who you're going up against and how they're doing. More information is better than no information. Also, you never know when you might need their help and goodwill goes a long way.

Manage time effectively. Be wary of deadlines. Don't spend too much time brainstorming if it won't leave you with enough time for execution. Have an adequate plan but don't forget to get the ball rolling.

Have fun. If you aren't enjoying what you're doing then overall you won't be as motivated to do what you have to do.

I love life.

EB

Interviews

So for the past couple weeks I've been in the talks with a couple recruiters and had a couple interviews for summer positions. This wasn't necessarily a new process for me, as I've talked to recruiters in the past, and been interviewed in the past as well. I want to say it's pretty much common knowledge that recruiters focus their attentions on Juniors, and since I fit that profile, I instantly had recruiters paying attention to me, some lining up next day interviews within minutes of talking.

Anyways, after these past weeks of interviewing with many different companies, one thing that stuck out to me was that the company I had originally set as my goal for this summer also gave me my most difficult interview. Most of the companies I had interviews with spent most of the time "chatting" with me, about my past accomplishments and other fluff I noted or talked about on my resume. It got to the point where if I was having a bad day, I'd look forward to an upcoming interview for a quick 30 min to 1 hour morale boosting session.

The week before I interviewed for Increo Solutions, the only company I aspired to work at this summer, I was a nervous wreck. I did the traditional "prep work" of scouring their website and every single press release or third party review of their work. I finished the interview not quite confident with how the interview turned out. I kept replaying that hour over in my head, reliving all the moments I "messed up", thinking about how I can improve myself. The interview itself was a challenge. Compared with interviews in the past, I want to say the caliber of an interview is a good judge of the caliber of the work you will be doing. Interviews in the past that have been well, not taxing on the mind at all, led to positions where my mind wasn't stimulated (aka boring jobs). Depending on what kind of job you are looking for, this may be suitable for you; however, for me personally, I want to learn this summer. I want to learn from hands on experience. I didn't want to be a part of a large firm working in the backroom providing support work, but not seeing where my work went.

I guess on a closing note, you can never be too prepared for an interview?

EB

Talking (at the job fair)

I equate presentation at the Job Fair as the single most important aspect of the process of getting a job. Walking up to a recruiter and handing them your resume and then standing around idly is no better than emailing your resume directly to the recruiter with the subject "Please hire me" and no body text. If the recruiter is a current employee, manager, or director, what you show them is that you're passive and probably not really inspired. It shows them that if you were to work on a team or work under them, you will never take initiative; it shows them that you'll only be providing manpower and not much more.

Chat with your recruiter. He or she is also a person. They do more than just recruit college kids to their companies. They do more than just look at resumes all day. In many cases, they are recruiting directly to the department they work for. In all cases, they have lives outside of work. Show them you're a person too. Show them you are fun to be around. No one likes to work with boring people.

Don't talk about what's on your resume. Your recruiter can read. Don't state the obvious. Also, your resume is what makes you just like everyone else in the room with the same credentials.

Be different. I don't like to tell recruiters how I have a competitive advantage over my peers, I like to tell them how I have an attribute that puts me in a completely superior market. Figure out what makes you different from your peers and show it to your recruiter.

Don't lie. It's easy to lie or exaggerate your accomplishments. Don't lie if your recruiter asks you a question and you don't know the answer. It's ok if you don't know everything because you are only a student and they don't expect you to know everything. It's ok if your peers can answer some questions that you can't because you are different from your peers.

Be confident. It's easy to be confident if you truly believe in everything you say. Confidence is key. If you say anything with enough conviction, people will believe you. If there is doubt in your voice, recruiters can tell.

How do you tell if you're successful? If your recruiters legit writes on your resume then that's a good sign. If they're writing a list of random organizations you've been a part of, that's usually not a good sign. The ultimate test is when you leave. If they have business cards and hand you free swag instead, they've basically given you a consolation prize telling you "A for effort, but better luck next time."

Take this mindset and create your own delivery.

EB

Resumes (at the job fair)

Every Business major at CMU has to take a class called Business Communications (aka bizcom), which teaches them basic fundamentals of business writing including resumes and cover letters. In my bizcom class, I learned appropriate times to use different fonts and sizes, different paper weights and colors, as well as proper word choices to maximize the impact of my resume when handing it to recruiters.

Fun fact: I lost 5 points on my first resume because I had a bad email address; my school assigned email address contained the letter "L" followed by the number "1", which looked confusing on paper. I changed my email so fast.

After the section on resumes, I remember walking into the job fair thinking I was hot stuff with my resume on 32 pound Ivory 100% cotton with 3 different fonts and 4 different sizes. Being a prospective Finance track at the time with the typical CMU Business mindset of money = success, I lined up at all the big name banks waiting to for chance to be one of the lucky sophomores to be plucked up and pour coffee for the investment bankers who were too busy to get their own coffee.

I got torn up. No one really cares how heavy your paper is, or how many fonts you used on your resume. Yeah, it looks nice, but it doesn't show your capabilities as a Business major (or whatever major) in anyway whatsoever. You can put a bag of crap in a gift box and wrap it nicely with a bow, but in the end it's still a bag of crap. Congrats, you are good at wrapping gifts. I still have my 100-pack of resume paper that I bought two years ago. I haven't touched it in one and a half years.

If a recruiter has been at a job fair looking at resume after resume after resume, they'll eventually stop caring about what's on your resume. In the end, everyone who walks up to them has basically the same credentials. Everyone is a Carnegie Mellon student, most are studying majors related to the industry they want to work for. Most have taken the same classes and done the same extra curricular activities.

Resumes are definitely good to have, but don't put too much weight on it. If you're at a job fair, and a recruiter spends the entire time reading your resume, you've failed right there. You've missed out on the opportunity to let them know who you really are and what you've really done. At the end of the day, the only thing on your resume that really matters is that the recruiter wrote down how amazing you are, and how they'll move you on to the next round.

EB