The recession threw American men into free fall, completely altering their career trajectories, household roles and expectations for the future. But they don’t have it so bad. It’s much worse in the eurozone countries, and Greece has sustained the heaviest damages of them all. I’m a Greek man living in Athens, and I think that what we’ve experienced could teach everyone a thing or two about crisis 101. There is a lot we used to take for granted that is suddenly no longer possible -- careers, for example. Americans pursue higher education in order to acquire the knowledge and certification needed to obtain a well-paid job. The reality, as unemployment numbers can attest, is that many of you are not finding jobs in large supply, even after spending thousands on a degree. But think of this: Greece, a much smaller country with roughly the same population as New York City, has to carry a much heavier burden. Officially, 1,000,000 are unemployed, and 4,500,000 are economically inactive, meaning they are neither working nor looking for a job. That is roughly half the total population of the country. Having been born and raised in the capital of Greece, I am facing this crisis situation after four years of working in the private sector. I always thought that by the time I was 30 I would have built a proper foundation for my career. You enter the workforce; you start with little and build up from there, hoping to make a name for yourself. But now many major companies are as broke as we are, as was the company I worked for, an otherwise pretty successful publishing house. Most corporations, due to the crisis, immediately downsized, trying to cover past losses. If you don’t get fired, you will probably be forced to quit, since there is no compensation money left. More and more keep working without having been paid for months, some for a whole year. They do it anyway, because finding a new job is even more difficult. I decided to quit, because working somewhere with no future just did not make sense.Base wage in Greece was around $900 per month until recently. The crisis chopped that down to $750 per month -- and you’re lucky if you actually get it. I wake up every day thinking of the money I owe the state, the extra taxes that are forced on me and are paid automatically through my electricity bill. Living costs have skyrocketed, from basic house utilities to provisions. Gas prices keep going up. Owning a car -- or at least being able to afford to drive it -- is considered a privilege. But the crisis does make all other modes of transportation feel like hell. Strike is a word that easily becomes part of your everyday life. Today there might be a subway strike; tomorrow the taxis won’t be on the streets. I won’t know unless I check a pretty smart website that actually puts all strikes into one simple calendar. Excursions, small escape trips during the weekends and drives by the beach, are a thing of the past. Try explaining that a date. Going out? It still costs $10 for a drink in most places, but now everyone wants to find the places with the cheapest drinks possible, because every euro counts. Unfortunately, enjoyment is something I have not experienced in a long time, because no matter what, bitterness and talks about another friend who just got sacked happen every other minute. This broad-based depression brings a sense of defeat among men here, but also anger. We’re no longer able to make it on our own. It makes you feel incompetent. This anger comes from the fact that most of us have to pay for the government’s mistakes of bad managing and numerous misspent funds. There are basically two options right now for us. The first is to narrow expectations of getting promoted, shut up and keep working, even if that means earning less when the emergency contribution taxes from the state keep asking for more. Hopefully the government will find a solution. Option number two is to jump away from the ship before it sinks; the iceberg has already hit us. Even if you’ve never thought of immigrating, it is now a definite possibility. Look for opportunities elsewhere, maybe gain another university degree or just start over in a different country. Many of my friends have already relocated to London and Amsterdam, but they’re still a long way from stability. Australia and Canada keep coming up in every conversation, but few have the means (and guts) to actually go to the other side of the world. I am hoping to do so. People facing the same problems in the States might find it an extreme step, but it’s a step forward, nonetheless. Hard times mean that you have to make the best out of what you have, even if that means having to endure living with much less money or starting from scratch in a different continent. But you do it anyway, because your future is everything.
Have you ever wondered why the tables at Katsuya Hollywood are consistently unavailable between the hours of 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.? Or why it seems like Ghost Bar at The Palms is always filled to capacity? Take a minute to consider the hottest nightclubs and most exclusive restaurants in your own city, the ones that tend to shun the common visitor; these venues build their reputations by utilizing elitist bouncers and the symbolic velvet rope to heavily restrict entry. In reality, this has nothing to do with bad luck or bad timing, but is simply designed to create a balanced male-to-female ratio and to maintain enough space in the club to move around without getting a drink spilled on you every five minutes. If you are fortunate enough to be “in the know,” you can take advantage of this limitation, but no one is just going to hand you a freebie or put your name on the VIP list out of the goodness of their heart. In order to get comped you will need to get your hands dirty, take the initiative and build key connections. Here are a few simple techniques on how to get comped:
Ask the concierge
When you begin to research a trip, reach out to a couple of hotel concierges before you book any travel arrangements. Prepare a list of potential spots to check out and run a few ideas by them. This will help you for two reasons: First, they will share their honest opinion of your selections and, second, they will give you an impression of whether or not they can hook you up. Test the waters and see if they happen to have an inside track at the club that always has a line out the door or the restaurant that never answers its phone. Remember, it’s their job is to make your trip more enjoyable. Just make sure to tip them once you arrive -- that's one of the unwritten rules in the "how to get comped" game.Become a regular
The best way to make yourself known to the bouncers and bartenders at any given scene is to become a regular, but don’t be the creepy guy that lingers in the darkest corner of the bar and gawks at every girl who passes by. Instead, be the life of the party and bring a lively crowd with you every time you show up. Shake hands with the doormen and make small talk on your way inside. Get bottle service and splash some cash around every once in a while to grab the attention of the promoters who run the place. They will appreciate the good energy you bring to the venue and be more than happy to comp you. Learn how to get comped by getting creative...
It's A Man's World" is a column on anything and everything related to the modern man, by Ian Lang. If there are any topics you'd like to see addressed here, send them to us at editorial@askmen.com, or let us know in the comments section.It’s time again for one of those unanswerable rhetorical surveys I like to conduct: How many of you are satisfied with your job? Fortunately, thanks to The Conference Board’s 2010 survey, I know that the answer is roughly less than half of you. Having been involved in human capital consulting for several years now, I know that spells trouble for employers. A dissatisfied worker is an unengaged one, and unengaged workers are less productive and less loyal than those reporting high levels of satisfaction and engagement. In short, more than half of the American workforce is composed of people who are only there because they have to be. Is this the fault of the employers?Maybe a little bit. In an economically efficient world, employees would slot themselves into jobs that best suited them, and vice versa. As the demand for jobs continues to outpace availability, the perceived value of a given job rises. This allows employers to be both more selective and less concerned with their employees’ satisfaction, because there’s really no incentive to be concerned. Yes, the cost to onboard a new employee is high, but at least it can be accounted for. What can’t be as easily accounted for is the more abstract figure of revenue lost due to employee dissatisfaction. Ergo, in a world where there’s an effectively endless supply of asses waiting to fill very few seats, it makes some sense for employers to churn through them until they find the right match.
So how's your job?
So that leaves us. As employees, we’re largely responsible for our own dissatisfaction, and for a very simple reason: We don’t know what to focus on. We strive for a misconstrued version of success, when what we really need to focus on is contentment. The big-time lawyer who makes a million dollars a year but absolutely hates his job is no more a success than the bus driver who loves what he does but is a financial failure. In fact, that lawyer might represent the grandest form of failure, because en route to his lofty but miserable existence he had every conceivable resource at his disposal. The bus driver is just a guy who really likes driving buses and is perfectly happy doing so.Contentment has become a four-letter word lately, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it sounds lazy to generations of innate overachievers or suggests some notion of compromise or settling. That’s not how I think of it. Contentment is that feeling you have when you’re catching up with old friends over a few beers, or that un-erasable smile you have on your face when the weather’s perfect and you or your foursome has the golf course all to yourselves. It’s cuddling up with your sweetie in post-coital bliss because nothing in the world could be any better at that moment. We all want it, but we don’t all know how to get it. Fortunately, I’ve figured it out, and it’s three simple things: talent, ambition and work ethic. The three don’t carry equal weight. Sound too obvious or overly simplistic? Don’t worry guys, I’ve chewed it up and digested it, and now I’m about to momma-bird it right back at you. Let’s look at what those three things really mean, as well as how they interact. Should You Quit Your Job?Talent
I’m talking about talent first for one reason: It’s without question the least important factor involved in achieving career contentment. You don’t have to take my word for it; look around you. Chances are you’re surrounded by people who may be able to complete their jobs but are entirely unremarkable in terms of their talent (if you don’t see these people, chances are you’re the one lacking in the talent department). Talent is complicated, because while as an entity it’s simply your ability to perform a task, it encompasses all sorts of things like intelligence, knowledge and even your physical aptitude for certain tasks. Talent is least important for two reasons: One, there are limitations to how much you can grow your own talent. You may be able to learn new skills, but you can’t easily or cost-effectively make yourself smarter. Once you hit adulthood, you more or less have all the intellectual horsepower you’re going to have. Two, most jobs these days simply don’t require a ton of talent. We live in an automated world where no one has to be all that skilled at anything to do most jobs.You’ll never hear this from employers, because when hiring workers, talent is often the only thing they can quantifiably ascertain. You went to X school and have X work experience, so presumably you have the talent needed to do this job. Also, if you’re in a position to be selective, why not acquire the most talented people you can (besides running the risk of building an overqualified, disengaged workforce)? Ambition and work ethic, on the other hand, can only be observed after the fact, so there’s no real way for employers to factor it into the hiring process. Talent shouldn’t be overlooked, though, because knowing your strengths, capabilities and limitations should play a big role in the next piece of the career contentment puzzle: ambition.Ambition
Ambition pisses me off sometimes, because people tend to use it so flippantly. “He’s ambitious,” they’ll say of the young financier with his sights set on becoming a managing director. Similarly, someone who’s happy in what most people see as a dead-end job is said to lack ambition. That’s wrong, because everyone has ambitions, just not always the right ones.Defining your ambitions is to define exactly what success looks like for you, and almost no one does this correctly. What sort of industry do you want to work in? What do you like to do at work every day (a question that is often tragically overlooked)? How much money do you need to be happy? These are all questions that people need to ask themselves but usually don’t. People talk about their ambitions in very vague terms, usually something like, “I want to make a lot of money” or “I want a prestigious C-level position.” This is so detrimental to achieving contented success, because it’s fundamentally difficult to find happiness if you have no idea what happiness looks like.
For all the hype surrounding Valentine's Day, the truth is that most guys get by doing the bare minimum for their significant others. Generally, women say they receive relatively ordinary treatment during most of their Valentine dates. This year, to prove your partner wrong, treat her to a complete and well thought-out evening she won't forget. To make this evening a memorable one, spoil her with the little things that she probably forgot even mattered to her. We're talking about the intangibles here -- the forethought and care that money can't buy, but that matter to her more than any expensive gift.
Prepare for the date
It goes without saying that this special date will require you to clean up nice. It might be a good idea to buy yourself a new shirt or sweater, something you know she'd like even if it's not exactly what you'd wear if it were up to you. Think about it: how do you react when she buys a new sexy dress? Once you are dressed and ready to go, stop at the local flower shop to buy her a dozen of the best-looking red roses. Go ahead and pop a breath mint before you show up. She'll smell the mint and know you took that extra step, and she'll love it. Yes, this applies even if you're married. Tonight, even if you're the guy who is chronically five minutes behind schedule, you need to show up on time. When picking her up (assuming you have a car), be a gentlemen and open the car door for her. While doing so, present her with the roses and a hello kiss. These little details of opening the car door and handing her roses might seem like fussy details to many men, but for Valentine's Day, this is the crucial stuff, the stuff she remembers and tells her friends about.Getting the restaurant right
Make reservations at least 2 weeks in advance to get a table at the ideal time. Opt for a small and quiet restaurant instead of a busy, mainstream one, and good lighting is key. She'll love you for choosing a low-light or candle-lit environment that she feels most attractive in. Don't go somewhere that plays loud music, like a supperclub or a trendy new restaurant where people wait three-deep at the bar before their tables free up. You need to be able to hear each other speak.
With great professional power comes great professional responsibility. The ability to work well at your job is a must, but being able to continually conduct yourself in a professional manner is equally critical. One embarrassing miscue could send you packing in a hurry. The ever-expanding rulebook of professional etiquette can make it hard to keep up, but the following business blunders are universally condemned. Here's how to spot them and what you can do to stay in the safe zone.
Behavior etiquette mistakes
Profanity, lack of personal space, unnecessary cellular chats, and poor eating habits top our list of behavioral blunders. Bad behavior isn't good anywhere, but it's worse at work where people witness it on a regular basis. Don't swear to make a point. It'll take away your credibility and make you look stupid. In addition to profanity, standing too close to a coworker or being physical with them is also unwise. Your work environment isn't a place for intimacy. An office favors speech over intimacy, but that shouldn't include your cell phone. A sudden call at a meeting or lunch can be irritating, especially if you're talking loudly. Volume and rudeness are also bad when you're eating. Being loud and talking with your mouth full takes attention away from the conversation and puts any business talk on shaky ground. Behavior etiquette tips: Choose humor over swearing, as it will keep the attention on you and you'll be well-liked for your efforts. When you're humoring or even just interacting with someone, give them a respectable distance of 15 inches, smile often and acknowledge them as a sign of respect. Cell phone talk can be lessened through caller ID screening and voice mail, as most calls are unnecessary. Anticipate potential callers and call them first -- before work. Don't answer in a meeting, and speak quietly if you really must take a call. Don't make your phone visible on a desk or a lunch table. When you do eat with others, chew wisely and while they are talking instead of when you are talking. By maximizing good behavior, your blunders will be minimized.Conversation etiquette mistakes
The way you talk to others goes a long way towards establishing your credibility or losing it in an instant. Where conversation is concerned, the worst of the worst blunders are taboo topics, office gossip, interrupting, and shouting. Politics and religion aren't fair game for discussion. You are at work, not with friends. Sex is absolutely off limits, as it induces awkwardness and possible harassment charges. You might feel targeted if a boss or client is angry with you, but you'll make it worse by interrupting and shouting tactless remarks. Shouting and interrupting aren't suitable with coworkers, either. Yelling across the office to start a conversation is distracting and embarrassing, while interrupting another conversation to "join in" shows impatience and lack of respect. It isn't just about how you act or talk...
You landed the job interview, you impressed them with your credentials, skill set and enthusiasm, and now you've been called back for a second interview. You know they want to hire you. The problem is, you'd like more money than they're prepared to offer. How do you persuade the decision-makers to offer you a higher starting salary without taking yourself out of the running for the job? It's all in the preparation, attitude and presentation. Here are eight tips to negotiate a higher starting salary.
use your marketing skills
1- Do your research
Learn as much as you can about the pay scale of the company that wants to hire you. Find out the industry average, as well. You may aspire to a career in scheduling at a major airline, but if the company's practice is to hire from within, you might need to accept an entry-level position. Union constraints may limit any flexibility on salary levels, no matter how many university degrees you have. As part of your research, you need to have a clear idea of what your minimum salary expectations are. Do the math in advance and decide what your deal-breaker point is. There's no point wasting your time -- and the company's -- interviewing for a low-paying job in a company or industry that may not be able to offer the wages you need.2- Don't tip your hand
Leave the salary expectation question blank on application forms, and don't mention a specific salary level in your cover letters. You want to get past the paper screening into the "to be considered" file without anyone thinking your anticipated salary is too high. You also don't want to lock yourself into accepting an offer of $55,000 per year if the decision-makers had budgeted up to $70,000 to fill the vacancy.3- Understand your value
Consider whether you are in a position of power. If you're in high demand elsewhere, you have leverage. Draw attention to it, but be careful not to emphasize it too much. Avoid acting overly confident or cocky. It's OK to mention that you have interviews at other companies, but don't try to force a favorable decision.4- Let the company bring up the salary negotiation issue
Avoid being the first to propose a salary figure. Tell them you're interested in a mutually rewarding career with the company and you're sure you can agree on an acceptable compensation package. If you're backed into a corner, introduce your salary range, but make it clear that it is "up for discussion." Don't ramble on. Say what you have to and then be quiet and listen. You need to be ready to negotiate if you want a higher starting salary...
All social animals communicate with each other: bees buzz, dogs bark, wolves howl, and men trash talk. Whether facing off in a boardroom or going head-to-head on the basketball court, men delight in intimidating one another through the use of disparaging, taunting or boastful comments. If you haven’t already mastered the essential trash-talk skill, it’s high time you added it to your repertoire. After all, you should never enter a war of words unarmed. This article is for entertainment purposes only. AskMen cannot be held responsible if our well-meaning advice results in you being beaten like a rented mule.
Invoke his momma
Nothing gets another guy’s goat quite like insulting his own flesh and blood, and nothing is quite as insulting as targeting his mother as a source of derision. You’ll be sure to ruffle your opponent’s feathers by dispensing the following classic “yo momma” jokes: “Yo momma’s so fat that when she turns around, people give her a welcome back party.” "Yo momma's so ugly her parents had to tie a steak around her neck to get the dog to play with her.” “Yo momma’s so old she’s in Jesus’ yearbook.” “Yo momma’s so poor she went to McDonald's and put a milkshake on layaway.” “Yo momma's so ugly, when she walks into a bank, they turn off the surveillance cameras.” Whether your comments bear any real resemblance to your opponent’s mother is far less important than your ability to keep them coming at a breakneck pace. Tell them what you’re going to do before doing it
Athletes -- boxers in particular -- are experts at verbally prepping their opponents for the beat downs they’re about to receive. Just look at Hall of Fame trash-talker Muhammad Ali. The veteran pugilist once noted of an opponent, “I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.” Or how about Mike Tyson, who once said of Lennox Lewis: "I want to rip out his heart and feed it to him. I want to kill people. I want to rip their stomachs out and eat their children." These men, and others of their ilk, know the value of showing up your adversary before the game even begins.Make it personal
Although generic insults are generally effective, you’ll be sure to inflict far more damage by specifically tailoring your trash talk to your opponent and his lifestyle. Are they cheap? Tell them they make Ebenezer Scrooge look like Bill Gates. Are they dim-witted? Tell them to sell their IQ when it gets to 60 points. Do they work in a dead-end job? Taunt them endlessly about their minimum wage salary and clip-on tie. Making trash talk isn’t for the faint of heart, so check your political correctness at the door and go for the jugular.Be creative
Any moron can swear and hurl invectives. If you really want your trash talk to be memorable, it’s important to be clever and creative. Rather than telling your opponent he’s a horrible player, tell him his game has “more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese,” or casually inform him that he’s like a bundle of firewood because “he’s always getting burned.” Celtics legend Larry Bird was a master of this technique. During the three-point shooting contest at All-Star Weekend in 1986, Bird famously eyeballed his competition for several minutes before saying: "I'm just looking around to see who's gonna finish up second." Bird knew then, as countless other ballers know now, that if you elevate your trash talk to an art form you’ll be sure to stand out from the crowd. You’ll be a trash-talk pro after reading these tips…
This article is sponsored in part by Pillsbury (What's this?) Want to throw a party your friends will be looking forward to every year? Learn the recipes, entertaining tips and sports facts you need to make it happen with our guide to The Ultimate Game Day.There are few things that divide the sexes quite like football. To most men, the game is a borderline religious experience, while to many women, it’s 60 minutes of unabashed violence punctuated by quaint little committee meetings. So, how do you mend the gender divide and convince your girlfriend to actually watch a game with you? The answer is easier than you may think. Simply follow our suggestions below to get your significant other interested in -- or at least, willing to accept -- America’s most popular spectator sport.
Sign her up for a football pool
Money, as a wise man once noted, is a wonderful motivator. Prompt your girlfriend to take an active interest in the game by signing her up for a football pool. Once she puts her money on the line she’ll have extra motivation to keep track of what’s going on. Who knows, her strategy of selecting the team with the prettiest colors and cutest animals may even pay off.Buy her a feminine-cut official jersey
Every woman loves to dress up. Make your girlfriend feel like part of the game by buying her a jersey. Unlike the billowy uniforms of old, there are a wide range of jerseys featuring flattering feminine cuts and pink hues. These attractive new designs have made women's apparel football’s fastest-growing apparel business.Make girly drinks during the game
Let’s face it: You’d probably watch a 12-hour chick flick marathon if you consumed enough beer; the same is true of your girlfriend. If you keep her plied with enough Cosmopolitans and Fuzzy Navels, she won’t mind what’s on the tube!Draw her in with colorful gossip
Your girlfriend will never become interested in football if you begin by explaining the intricacies of the Over/Under 4-3 defense. Instead, draw her in by regaling her with stories about ongoing feuds and off-field relationship news. If you present the stories in the guise of hot gossip you’ll be sure to pique her interest.Throw the football around with her
Does your girlfriend think a quarterback is a refund? Give her a better appreciation of the greatest sport in the world by tossing around the pigskin in your backyard. This simple and fun activity will allow her to better relate to the action on the field and it will give you the opportunity to explain some of the tenets of the game in a way she can easily grasp.Our final tips on how to get her to like football...
Like many of you out there, our annual reviews are around the corner, and it got us thinking: Exactly how much can you get away with when it comes to reviewing your boss? The truth is, it doesn't matter. Because between water-cooler gossip and lunches with colleagues, no formal review process can take away from the real reviews that are already in. Still, having an outlet to vent is healthy, so we asked you, our readers, to submit your most horrible boss stories. Here are the top three. Editor's Note: We've kept these submissions anonymous for obvious reasons. Some of these stories have been edited for length.
The Verbally Abusive Boss
I had a boss when I was starting out at a restaurant who was very verbally abusive. She came up to me once while I was eating my lunch at the bar, and in front of customers said that I looked like a queer and that she would've kicked my ass in the '70s. She also called me retarded when I messed anything up, and eventually fired me for cutting my thumb. The pay sucked, too!The Takes-Advantage-Of-You Boss
My boss was the Emperor of Mean. He relied on me heavily -- my workload required I work 55-hour weeks when everyone else got away with 40. He expected me to skip lunch to complete assignments because as he would say I "didn't work hard enough." I was upset on one occasion because my father was in the hospital due to diabetes complications, and he told me to get over it. He would humiliate me in department meetings -- on one occasion, he actually revealed my salary to the team and joked about how he got me to work so hard for what he considered "so little." He would berate me behind closed doors for two hours every other day, conveniently after human resources was gone for the day, and then he would get drunk over the weekend and call me up early Sunday morning crying the blues about why we didn't get along -- it had to be my fault. Complaints to HR fell on deaf ears because he had the administrator in his back pocket. Dealing with this type of behavior caused me to start having panic attacks, and Valium was prescribed just so I could get through a meeting. I took time off to handle the stress, but it didn't matter. When I got back he was worse than before. The last straw was when he had a colleague pull me out of the bathroom to take a client's phone call. I quit that day. Yes, I walked off the job, and to this day, it proved to be the best thing I could have ever done for ME. Oh, and it took three people to replace me. As far as I'm concerned, the Presidential Suite in hell is reserved in his name. One more horrible boss story, next... 
They say that stuff rolls downhill in a workplace, but a new study suggests a way stop your boss from taking out his stress on you: 30 minutes in the gym. Researchers at Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Chicago found that just 30 minutes of good exercise once or twice a week can cut off the trickle-down effect from an abusive boss. The study examined 98 MBA graduates along with 98 supervisors and asked them to fill out a survey. The graduates answered questions about how abusive their supervisor was in the workplace while the supervisors answered how frequently they exercised -- if at all. The results showed that the managers who exercised more were less likely to take out their stresses on their employees -- even if they were equally as stressed as the other people in charge. So next time you’re pooling in for a gift for the boss, think about a gym membership, the P90X DVDs or some MMA classes. All of those good investments will help him mellow out and pay you dividends in return.
Jon Finkel is the author of The Three Dollar Scholar: Awesome Advice for Acing Life’s Major Decisions and Mindless Debates. He has written for GQ, Men’s Health, ComedyCentral.com, and The New York Times, among other publications. Follow him on Twitter @3dollarscholar. “Think of it as a first date.” “It’s just like dancing with a new partner. Follow their lead.” “It’s a negotiation. Like buying a car.” These are just a few of the worst pieces of advice I’ve ever been given prior to a job interview. I’m sure you’ve heard hundreds of others, and as you know, none of these analogies are correct. A job interview is, simply put, an interview. For a job. Trying to compare it to anything else is a waste of time. Assuming you need a job, there’s nothing like it because no other interaction has, as the major undercurrent throughout your time with another person, the following fact: if you don’t hire me, I can’t pay my bills and provide for myself and my family.That being said, there really is no secret to getting a job if the following things are at play: a) You’re qualified for the position. b) You’re confident that you could do the job. c) You are comfortable talking to strangers. For most people with common sense, ‘a’ and ‘b’ are no-brainers. Maybe you’ll apply for something a little over your head and talk yourself into it, but for the most part, if you’re sitting across from someone doing the hiring, you’re close to worthy of being hired. ‘C’ is where most people run into trouble. Unfortunately, not everybody is effortlessly charming, witty, funny, knowledgeable and/or attractive enough to make a lights-out first impression. Keeping that in mind, here are three very simple things anyone can do to impress the person in charge of your future paychecks.
1. Research. Research. Research.
Research the company and research the person you may be interviewing with. You might not know the latter, but if you know the former, there is no reason you shouldn’t know everything about the company you’d like to work for when you walk in the door. As someone who has dealt with plenty of writers under consideration for staff positions at various publications, it is staggering how many writing candidates simply didn’t take the time to become familiar with the publication they’re trying to work for prior to an interview. This is something that almost every editor on earth will complain about: people applying for writing positions at their magazine who never take the time to actually read the magazine. From my conversations with friends in other fields, this seems to be a common phenomenon that can easily be avoided. If the word "research" scares you, you either really don’t want/need the job or you’re lazy and you shouldn’t get it anyway. If you simply aren’t a great researcher, then try this: read the basic company history or (and this is absolutely something you can do) ask the recruiter/HR person if they can send you some company information if their website isn’t helpful. The second thing you should look up is the latest press releases from the company. Nothing kills a job interview faster than when the interviewer asks, “Obviously you’re familiar with our recent push to acquire Company X, or develop X technology, or our new product X” and you just sit there, having no idea what he’s talking about. Search for the last two year’s worth of press releases and you should get a good idea of what the company has been up to. Also, form a question that you can immediately ask to show you know what you’re talking about. Here’s an example in my field: If you’re a writer and you read that my magazine recently launched a digital edition of our publication to be designed by Company X for iPads and Android tablets, research Company X and then ask, “I heard you guys hired Company X to put together your digital magazine. I love what they did with Magazine Y, are you guys happy with them?” Then, you’ll get the interviewer talking and you’re off and running.More tips on interviewing, next...
Mr. T always said "Don’t be a fool, stay in school," but a new study by academics says that just showing up to class isn't good enough. That’s because those who made the least amount of progress in college were more likely to be unemployed, burdened with credit card debt and even living at home later in life.Using the Collegiate Learning Assessment, researchers were able to filter the college grads into groups. Those who had scored in the bottom quintile of the CLA when in school were three times more likely to be unemployed (9.6%), compared with the students who scored in the top quintile (3.1%), and were almost twice as likely to be living at home (35%), compared with the students with good grades (18%). Also, the students in the lower tier were more likely to have serious credit card debt (51%) when compared with those who graded well (37%).Previous studies have shown that as many as 36% of college graduates make no progress in writing, critical thinking or reasoning. If you thought you could skate by with cramming and copying, you're in for a rude awakening later in life.
Jim Halpert and Stanley Hudson aren’t the only people who feel that meetings make them stupider. As a matter of fact, a new study from Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute found that most meetings actually make us dumber. This comes after scientists discovered that interacting within a group can lower your intelligence. In this study, volunteers were broken up into small groups and matched according to their IQ. First their cognitive abilities were measured with basic problem-solving queries. Everyone did relatively fine in that scenario, but it all changed once the scientists publicized the scores. With the results known to all, the subjects were again tested. In the second round, there was a significant decline in scores. With knowledge that others in the group performed better, the subjects' cognitive abilities declined significantly. They were monitored with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the researchers noted that performance of cognitive functions was clearly tied to social processing. So much for not caring what others think. Clearly, it’s a big part of the thought process -- so much so that it even impedes it.
Reprinted with permission from Harvard Business Review Press. Peter Bregman is a strategic advisor to CEOs and their leadership teams. His latest book is 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done."Peter," my friend Byron emailed me a few days ago. "I haven't been diligent about working out over the past five years and I'm trying to get back in the gym and get myself into a healthier state. I've found that on my quest for a Mind, Body, Spirit balance, my body has been neglected. I need to fix it, and it's very hard for me to get motivated. Any insight?"It's the kind of question that's on many of our minds in the midst of New Year's resolution season.Something you should know about Byron: He recently started a business and he's constantly developing his skills through training programs he pays for with his own money. So it's not that Byron is unmotivated in general. It's just that he thinks he's unmotivated to work out.But Byron is wrong. "I need to fix it," he wrote. He is motivated to work out; otherwise he wouldn't have emailed me. He clearly cares about getting fit and when you care about something, you're motivated.No, Byron's challenge isn't motivation. It's follow-through. Which is important to realize because as long as Byron thinks he's solving for a motivation problem, he'll be looking for the wrong solution. He'll try to get himself excited. He'll remind himself that being in shape is really important. Maybe he'll visualize the partners he'll attract if he looks better or the years he'll add to his life if he gets in better shape.Each attempt to "motivate" himself will only increase his stress and guilt as it widens the gap between his motivation and his follow-through, between how badly he wants to work out and his failure to do so. We have a misconception that if we only cared enough about something, we would do something about it. But that's not true.Motivation is in the mind; follow-through is in the practice. Motivation is conceptual; follow-through is practical. In fact, the solution to a motivation problem is the exact opposite of the solution to a follow-through problem. The mind is essential to motivation. But with follow-through, it's the mind that gets in the way.We've all experienced our mind sabotaging our aspirations. We decide to go to the gym after work but then, when it comes time to go, we think, It's late, I'm tired, maybe I'll skip it today. We decide we need to be more supportive of our employees, but then, when someone makes a mistake, we think, If I don't make a big deal about this, he's going to do it again. We decide we need to speak more in meetings but then, when we're sitting in the meeting, we think, I'm not sure what I'm going to say really adds value.So how do you get out of this thinking trap? That's next...
A new study from the University of Minnesota discovered that male spending is tightly correlated to the scarcity of women. When there are fewer women around, men are more apt to spend more. In the first of two experiments, men read news articles that described the local population as having either more men or more women. Then they were asked about spending and saving habits in that scenario. In the case in which women were scarcer, men said they’d save 42% less per month and borrow 84% more. Separately, men were shown photograph sequences with differing ratios of men and women in the pictures. Then they were asked to choose between taking $20 now or $30 in a month. Again, in the cases where women were scarce in the photos, men opted for the money now. The hypothesis here is that decisions aren’t made on a conscious level. The men were not made aware of the scarcity of women and the mere sight of more men subconsciously made them impulsive, competitive and flipped the urge to spend more now. In the real world, the same proved to be true. After examining the sex ratios of 120 U.S. cities, researchers found that single men have more credit cards and higher debt levels in cities where the sex ratios indicate fewer women.Conversely, women’s spending ratios didn’t change, but they did overwhelmingly agree that men should spend more on their dates and Valentine’s gifts when they’re in the majority.
Reprinted by permission from Harvard Business Review Press. This post is about innovation. But before we get started, imagine the produce area in your local supermarket. Were you able to do it? That seems like a strange question to ask. Of course you could. But the strangeness of the question says something fundamental about the way your memory works. Memory provides you with the information it thinks you need when it thinks you need it. When you are walking through the supermarket (or asked to think about it), information about food and shopping is easy to recall. When you are at a football game, your knowledge of the rules and types of plays is easy to think about, but the texture of fresh romaine lettuce is not. Now back to innovation. When you need to solve a problem in a new way, you have two options. One is pure research and development. The other requires finding knowledge (which we already know) that offers a novel solution. When you gather a group for an ideation session, you are betting that the group already knows how to solve the problem, they just have to find the answer. As I just showed you, pulling information from memory happens effortlessly. That means that in order to solve a problem, you need to ask your memory the right question. To get a sense of what I mean, consider James Dyson. As I discuss in my new book Smart Thinking, Dyson set out to invent a more effective vacuum cleaner. He noticed that vacuums lose suction as the bag fills, because the pores in the bag get clogged. Most people who tried to fix this issue in the past attempted to solve the "bag problem" by crafting a more effective vacuum cleaner bag. Instead, Dyson realized a vacuum takes in a combination of dust and air and needs to separate the dust from the air. Once he thought about the problem in this way, he was able to recall his own knowledge about the industrial cyclones used in sawmills. Industrial cyclones use centrifugal force to separate particles from air rather than a filter. He then designed a small industrial cyclone into a vacuum and created a highly successful business. To solve the problem, Dyson focused on its essence. But what exactly constitutes the essence of a problem? One good exercise in "different" thinking is to consider proverbs. Take the adage, "The noise of the wheels does not measure the load in the wagon." What other commonly-known proverbs does this remind you of? You might immediately think, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." Notice, though, that these two proverbs don't mean the same thing. They are just similar on the surface. Remembering proverbs based on the surface is like a vacuum innovator focusing on solving the 'bag problem' rather than finding a more essential problem to solve. Now, think about the core meaning of the first proverb. It means that the surface form of something doesn't indicate its essence. Once you think of the proverb in this way, you may be reminded of other proverbs like "You can't judge a book by its cover," or "All that glitters is not gold." It turns out that if you practice finding the meanings of proverbs, you can get better at finding the same kind of essential definitions of problems you are trying to solve. Describing problems in this way will help you retrieve the knowledge you have that is most likely to lead to innovative problem solutions. Ultimately, the key to innovation is not to "think different," but rather, to think about different things.
If you’re of the opinion that investing in the stock market takes a certain type of intelligence and knowledge, you’d be right. A new study by Mark Grinblatt (UCLA), Matti Keloharju (Aalto University) and Juhani T. Linnainmaa (University of Chicago) titled "IQ and Stock Market Participation" concluded that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to invest in stocks and be successful at it. Using a database of Finnish investors covering the 20-year period 1982-2001, the evidence was quite conclusive: The lower the IQ of the individual, the lower the participation, which was true regardless of gender or wealth. That’s the case because low-IQ investors tend to make more mistakes, which deters them from participating further. Their tendencies see them fail to diversify their portfolio in place of reaching for big-name stocks they’ve heard of. High-IQ investors were more successful because they minimized their risk with better diversity and had broader exposure to stocks and mutual funds. They also do more research to find the lesser-known value stocks. The bottom line is the smarter you are, the more likely you are to invest in the stock market and be good at it.More on AskMen:The 10 Most Horrendous Things Girls WearThe New Tablet Everyone's Talking About
We know how hard it is to stay focused at work. These tips from inc.com will help you become more productive. If you follow them, you'll also raise your IQ by five points. Promise. Read the original article here. You probably don’t want to admit it but you love distractions. In fact, just like monkeys, you get a shot of dopamine every time something pulls you in another direction. Why do you think you check your email so much?Want to be more productive and get your focus back? There are no secret tricks here… do one thing at a time. Stop multitasking—it’s just another form of distraction.Easier said than done, I know.Recently I sat down with Tony Wong, a project management blackbelt whose client list includes Toyota, Honda, and Disney, to name a few. He’s an expert in keeping people on task, so I thought he’d be a good person to ask.Here are his tips for staying productive: 1. Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks. Writing “launch company website” at the top of your to-do list is a sure way to make sure you never get it done. Break down the work into smaller and smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less: Sketch a wireframe, outline an introduction for the homepage video, etc. That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off your list. 2. Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned. When you’re stoned, your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women). 3. Be militant about eliminating distractions. Lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant messaging. In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and focus on completing one task. 4. Schedule your email. Pick two or three times during the day when you’re going to use your email. Checking your email constantly throughout the day creates a ton of noise and kills your productivity. 5. Use the phone. Email isn’t meant for conversations. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone instead. 6. Work on your own agenda. Don’t let something else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out. You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing. After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day. 7. Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours. RELATED VIDEO: Why You Arent Get Paid What You Deserve
Reprinted by permission from Harvard Business Review Press. Adapted from Harvard Business Review on Advancing Your Career. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved.A 30-year-old midlevel manager -- let’s call her Fatima -- is struggling at work, but you wouldn’t know it from outward appearances. A star member of her team in the marketing division of a large multinational foods company, Fatima consistently hits her benchmarks and goals. She invests long hours and has built relationships with colleagues that she deeply values. And her senior managers think of her as one of the company’s high potentials.But outside the office, Fatima (who asked not to be identified by her real name) would admit that she feels stagnant in her job, trapped by the tension between day-to-day demands and what she really wants to be doing: exploring how the company can use social media in its marketing efforts. Twitter, her cause-marketing blog, and mobile gadgets are her main passions. She’d like to look for another job, but given the slow recovery from the recession, sticking it out seems like her best (and perhaps only) option. “I’m still working hard,” she tells a friend. “But I’m stuck. Every week, I feel less and less motivated. I’m beginning to wonder why I wanted this position in the first place.”Sound familiar? Over the past several years, we’ve spoken with hundreds of people, in a variety of industries and occupations, who, like Fatima, are feeling stuck -- that dreaded word again. According to a recent survey of 5,000 U.S. households by The Conference Board, only 45% of those polled say they are satisfied with their jobs -- down from about 60% in 1987, the first year the survey was conducted.If you’re in this situation, and changing roles or companies is unrealistic given the tough economy, what can you do? A growing body of research suggests that an exercise we call “job crafting” can be a powerful tool for reenergizing and reimagining your work life. It involves redefining your job to incorporate your motives, strengths, and passions. The exercise prompts you to visualize the job, map its elements, and reorganize them to better suit you. In this way, you can put personal touches on how you see and do your job, and you’ll gain a greater sense of control at work -- which is especially critical at a time when you’re probably working longer and harder and expecting to retire later. Perhaps job crafting’s best feature is that it’s driven by you, not your supervisor. This exercise involves assessing and then altering one or more of the following core aspects of work.
Diagramming Your Job
Back at the multinational foods company, Fatima is still frustrated. What would happen if she engaged in job crafting? She’s already been reflecting on her dissatisfaction, albeit in no systematic way. Job crafting would give her the means to diagram a more ideal -- but still realistic -- version of her job, one better aligned with her motives, strengths, and passions.First, she looks at the present makeup of her job. In her “before diagram,” Fatima uses a series of squares to represent the tasks that her job comprises, with larger squares representing time-intensive tasks, and smaller squares tasks to which she devotes less time. (See the exhibit “Fatima’s before diagram.”)She notices that she’s spending lots of time monitoring her team’s performance, answering questions, and directing market research. She’s spending a fair number of hours setting budgets, writing reports, and running meetings. And she’s spending very little time on critical tasks such as professional development and designing marketing strategies. These tasks are in the smallest squares. Looking at the full sweep of her job in this way gives Fatima a clear sense -- truly at a glance -- of exactly where she is devoting her time and energy.What's Fatima's next step in job crafting? That's next...
You’re relatively new to the workforce and you’re eager to make a positive impression on your boss. That’s a great attitude to have, but it isn’t enough. The truth is that when you enter the professional world, you bring some personal habits that may or may not please the boss. And it’s likely that you lack the proper perspective to know the difference. The office environment functions according to well-established and preordained routines. It relies on patterns, systems, cycles, and procedures for it to run efficiently. Such an atmosphere engenders various habits in everyone -- a fact that’s as easy to forget as it is imperative to remember. As you meander about the office, trying to get a footing, it would be wise to remember that good habits generally require an effort to develop, whereas bad habits germinate in their absence. Before it all becomes too familiar to you, learn the kinds of habits bosses hate so you can avoid developing them in the first place.
bosses hate it when…
You don’t show initiative
No boss wants the burden of having to chronically tell you what to do. It’s time-consuming, exhausting and he’ll lose confidence in your abilities. It’s a manner that is lazy and it’s one of those habits bosses hate. Don’t wait to be told what to do, particularly during downtime. Your boss would rather see that you’ve taken the initiative to alphabetize a filing cabinet than surf the web when things are slow. When you give the impression that you’re unmotivated, you send a clear message of disinterest to your boss. Your boss probably has a lot invested in his job, so one of the last things he wants to see or hear from you is a lack of regard toward, or affection for, your job.You show too much initiative
On the other hand, you should also be concerned with showing too much initiative. It doesn’t matter if it stems from excessive ambition, motivation, energy, or even a basic desire to please, it’s one of many habits bosses hate. Be careful not to overdo tasks and assignments; it’s generally unnecessary. Instead of giving the impression that you’re hard-working and creative, it has the potential for seeming inefficient: Why bother adding colors and graphs to a research assignment when that time would have been better spent getting on with other work? An additional danger of showing too much initiative is in showing disrespect toward the office hierarchy. When you go above and beyond the call of duty, there’s a chance that you’ll step on some toes.You make excuses
This is one of the most annoying habits bosses hate. If you give him an excuse, it means that you overlooked some responsibility and are now offering a defense on your own behalf for that oversight. “I didn’t get the research done because I had a flat tire and by the time I got home it was really late.” Whether or not that statement is true, what your boss hears is: “It’s not my fault; a flat tire absolved me of responsibility.” Your boss will be less focused on what you actually said and more on what you imply. More habits bosses hate coming up…
A regular contributor to the New York Times and Vanity Fair, Henry Alford is the author of three acclaimed works of investigative humor. His new novel, Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?, was released earlier this week. But Alford doesn’t just tackle the guy clipping his toenails on the bus. He challenges things like asking a cab driver where he’s from and posting baby pictures on Facebook -- and ultimately concludes that manners are more important than laws.Here's an excerpt from his new book.You need spend only 24 hours in my beloved New York City to unearth the city’s essential truth: People really know how to spit here. These ain’t no dainty, Catherine Deneuve–type loogies we’re talkin’ about, yo—these are liquid blow darts. This shit’ll mess you up.Also: Looking for a fun little fistfight, or to be casually body-checked? Need compelling evidence that “rabble” does not require more than one rabbler?We got you covered.Which is why I’d traveled almost 7,000 miles from my home to Japan.Japan, the Fort Knox of the World Manners Reserve.…Fruit and its ImplicationsAll this graciousness does not exist in isolation, however. If the key word for the Japanese mind-set I’ve alluded to is adherence, this adherence can cut both ways. Consider the conversation I had with a Tokyo cabdriver one night. When he broached the topic of how much magazine writers and book authors get paid, I delicately steered the conversation away. He brought it up again, glancingly; I glancingly skittered away. Then he asked me outright how much money I make a year. Here, the energy and sense of mission that in other circumstances might be directed at an elaborate bowing ritual was instead directed at a series of questions you’d expect to hear from your accountant. Or consider my banana episode. One night, in a grocery store near my hotel in Ueno, I saw some delicious-looking bananas for sale. But because they came in bunches of twelve or fifteen, I snapped four off a bunch. I took them to the cash register.A faint look of horror passed over the face of the cashier, a skinny, fastidious guy in his 30s. He pointed at the fruit and asked me something in Japanese. I pantomimed snapping the four bananas off from the larger bunch.“No. Cannot. Sorry,” he said, shaking his head with what seemed more vehemence than necessary.“Sumimasen,” I apologized.He got the attention of his fellow cashier. Look what the round-eye has done. He has attempted to assert an alien system of portion control.The other cashier shook his head, too, and started talking excitedly. The cheek! Americans: always defiling time-honored and traditional banana configurations!I assumed that the next moment in this chain of events would see my cashier either pro-rating my bananas, or asking me if I wanted to buy a larger bunch.No.Instead, he stowed the four pieces of fruit on a shelf near his register for safekeeping. Bastard bananas. Bananas conceived out of wedlock. Banana untouchables.I happened to have a rubber band in my pocket at the time. And so, producing it, I pointed at first my bananas and then the bunches for sale, and pantomimed a tying motion.“Not necessary,” the cashier said. Pointing at the eight bananas from which I had so brutishly severed the four, he added, “We will make the price of other bananas lower.”And, presumably, incinerate my four bananas in a cleansing ritual at dawn.More from Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That? next...
The start of a new year naturally lends itself to reflection, as men look back on what they've accomplished and set goals based on that measurement. This year, take a few minutes to assess your career. Career satisfaction makes a huge difference in a man's overall happiness. Like it or not, you'll be spending a huge portion of the next year at your job, and unless you win the lottery, that's going to be the case for much of your life. Obviously, the biggest value men receive from work is their salary: unless you're independently wealthy, the job's gotta pay. But don't let cash be the only measurement of your job's worth. Money is critical up to a certain level, but after that it quickly goes from “need to have” to “nice to have.” Studies of happiness in the U.S. have shown that, above a household income of about $70K, additional money is not linked to increased happiness: other factors start to become more important. So don't rule out potential new jobs that pay the same or even less than you're currently making -- other benefits could outweigh the money difference. Here are some key qualities that all men, no matter who they are, find valuable in their work.
Benefits
As we age, a good insurance plan becomes paramount. If you intend to get married and raise a family, these benefits can help you provide the care your family needs. In addition to vacations (to restore sanity) and visits to loved ones, generous time-off packages empower men who want to travel the world have the adventures they've been dreaming of. A 401(k) -- or other -- retirement plan with tax-free growth and employer-matched contributions allows you to plan for the future.The challenge
The ideal job will walk the line between being too difficult and too easy. Studies have shown human intelligence thrives when we are pushed to our limits, but not when we’re past what we can handle. Think back to the sort of summer jobs you worked as a teen, and you'll realize that a job that you could do with your eyes closed isn't such a good thing after all. Without engaging work, the hours and days drag on.The impact
There's tremendous value in working for a company that strives to make the world a better place. The opportunity to contribute to a cause you believe in and to leave a legacy can make going to work every day a joy instead of a burden.Social connections
Many lasting friendships are formed in the workplace. Since we spend so much time there and have such a large portion of our lives in common with our coworkers, these bonds can be very rewarding. From deep friendships to a career-shaping mentor to casual beers after a stressful day, these connections can make leaving friends the hardest part about leaving a job.The recognition
The flip side of finding a challenging job is the recognition that you receive for doing it well. This type of praise can be as simple as an internal pat on the back for meeting a deadline, but any kind of recognition contributes to your overall sense of well-being. Superiors or even coworkers who take time to recognize and praise good work can make us feel better about all the effort we're putting in, even if work feels crazy at times. Other sources of recognition include other members of your industry, the media, and customers and clients. Find out what else is more valuable than money...
The following article is written by strategy consultant Dorie Clark and is reprinted with permission from hbr.org.I recently got back from a month's vacation -- the longest I've ever taken, and a shocking indulgence for an American. (Earlier this summer, I was still fretting about how to pull off two weeks unplugged.) The distance, though, helped me hone in on what's actually important to my professional career -- and which make-work activities merely provide the illusion of progress. Inspired by HBR blogger Peter Bregman's idea of creating a "to ignore" list, here are the activities I'm going to stop cold turkey in 2012 -- and perhaps you should, too.
1. Responding Like a Trained Monkey
Every productivity expert in the world will tell you to check email at periodic intervals -- say, every 90 minutes -- rather than clicking "refresh" like a Pavlovian mutt. Of course, almost no one listens, because studies have shown email's "variable interval reinforcement schedule" is basically a slot machine for your brain. But spending a month away -- and only checking email weekly -- showed me how little really requires immediate response. In fact, nothing. A 90-minute wait won't kill anyone and will allow you to accomplish something substantive during your workday.2. Mindless Traditions
I recently invited a friend to a prime networking event. "Can I play it by ear?" she asked. "This is my last weekend to get holiday cards out and I haven't mailed a single one. It is causing stress!" In the moment, not fulfilling an "obligation" (like sending holiday cards) can make you feel guilty. But if you're in search of professional advancement, is a holiday card (buried among the deluge) going to make a difference? If you want to connect, do something unusual -- get in touch at a different time of year, or give your contacts a personal call, or even better, meet up face-to-face. You have to ask if your business traditions are generating the results you want.3. Reading Annoying Things
I have nearly a dozen newspaper and magazine subscriptions, the result of alluring specials ($10 for an entire year!) and the compulsion not to miss out on crucial information. But after detoxing for a month, I was able to reflect on which publications actually refreshed me -- and which felt like a duty. The New Yorker, even though it's not a business publication, broadens my perspective and is a genuine pleasure to read. The pretentious tech publication with crazy layouts and too-small print? Not so much. I'm weeding out and paring down to literary essentials. What subscriptions can you get rid of?4. Work That's Not Worth It
Early in my career, I was thrilled to win a five-year, quarter-million dollar contract. That is, until the reality set in that it was a government contract, filled with ridiculous reporting mechanisms, low reimbursement rates and administrative complexities that sucked the joy and profit out of the work. When budget cuts rolled around and my contract got whacked, it turned out to be a blessing. These days, I'm eschewing any engagement, public or private, that looks like more trouble than it's worth.5. Making Things More Complicated Than They Should Be
A while back, a colleague approached me with an idea. She wanted me to be a part of a professional development event she was organizing in her city, featuring several speakers and consultants. She recommended biweekly check-in calls for the next eight months, leading up to the event. "Have you organized an event like this before?" I asked. "Can you actually get the participants? Why don't you test the demand first?" When none materialized, I realized I'd saved myself nearly half a week's work -- in futile conference calls -- by insisting the event had to be "real" before we invested in it. As Eric Ries points out in his new book, The Lean Startup, developing the best code or building the best product in the world is meaningless if your customers don't end up wanting it. Instead, test early and often to ensure you're not wasting your time. What ideas should you test before you've gone too far?Eliminating these five activities is likely to save me hundreds of hours next year -- time I can spend expanding my business and doing things that matter. What are you going to stop doing? And how are you going to leverage all that extra time?Let us know what other things save you time and make you more productive in the comments below. RELATED VIDEO: How To Make Money Off Your Hobbies
From 1991 to 2001, an average of 177 fatalities occurred per year in the U.S. from venomous and non-venomous animals. Although some of these tragedies were unavoidable, many of them could have been prevented had the victims known how to protect themselves in the wild. Get a leg up on crusty old Mother Nature by learning how to survive animal attacks with the simple tips below. When you’ve mastered these, please visit our articles on how to defend yourself against a dog and how to fight a bear. Legal Disclaimer: This article is for entertainment purposes only. AskMen cannot be held responsible if park rangers discover your partially digested liver in a clump of cougar droppings.
Shark attack
If lions are the king of the jungle, then sharks are surely the sultans of the sea. These bloodthirsty underwater predators are equipped with razor-sharp teeth, remarkably powerful tails and an unquenchable appetite for flesh. Luckily, it’s easy to hear these freaky fish approaching, since they’re one of the few animals that have their very own theme song. Should you encounter a shark while swimming or scuba diving, get into a defensive position by backing yourself up against a reef, rock or any solid obstruction that will reduce the animal’s angles of attack. If you are with a partner, go back to back to provide yourselves with 360 degrees of protection. Should the shark attack, your best line of defense is to claw at the animal’s gills and eyes. Delivering a quick succession of sharp strikes will confuse the shark, making it believe there are multiple attackers. Once the shark has swum away you’ll be free to return to shore where you can sell your story to the highest bidder.Cougar attack
One of the most unpredictable animals in the wild (and in many yuppie bars), cougars are sleek, muscular killing machines capable of running at speeds of 35 miles per hour and jumping as high as 18 feet from a sitting position. Should you see a cougar in the wild, try to stay perfectly still since even the most minute of movements may cause these powerful predators to attack. If a cougar does indeed pounce upon you, your best -- and perhaps only -- hope is to fight back. Many outdoorsmen have managed to fend off cougars by retaliating with rocks, sticks, fishing poles, and even their bare fists. Another method, albeit a far more dangerous one, is to try to control the animal by placing your hand behind its lower canine teeth on the lower half of its jaw. Simply pull down as hard as you can and try to choke the animal until help arrives. If you exert enough force it’s possible the cougar will retreat back into the wild to lick its wounds.Wild dog attack
Years of watching Disney films and Saturday morning cartoons may have convinced you that your typical wild dog is an amiable, wise-cracking animal. Sadly, this common misconception couldn’t be further from the truth. Wild mutts, such as wolves, coyotes and foxes, are dangerous and sometimes even rabid animals that don’t take lightly to humans encroaching on their territory. Should you stumble upon a wild dog, maintain eye contact with the animal while backing away slowly. Remain upright, and make yourself appear bigger and more imposing by picking up sticks or branches and waving them about. If a wild dog lunges at you, remain standing while kicking the animal repeatedly in the face around the eyes and snout. If you have a stick, deliver full, powerful blows to the animal’s face and ribs until it finally relents. It may be a dog-eat-dog world, but there’s no need for you to become puppy chow if you’re willing to put up a fight. More tips on how to survive animal attacks...
It's a new year, and a new you. So if you've tended to think of yourself as humble, maybe it's time to make a change, according to a new study.Having a huge ego, a need for attention and being an overall narcissist doesn’t sound like a trio of compliments but shows that those qualities can make you a good leader, found the study.A quartet of professors from IMD business school, Penn State, and Erlangen-Nuremberg University found that the aforementioned qualities tend to lead to innovation and daring decision-making.The professors doing the research examined how 78 CEOs and 33 major American pharmaceutical companies did in the biotech boom from 1980 to 2008. They accounted for narcissism by measuring how often the CEOs’ photos were found in annual reports, how frequently they were mentioned in press releases and their overall compensation compared to the person second in command.Then the professors evaluated how fast and intensely the CEOs had adapted to the rise of biotechnology.The result showed that narcissistic bosses are better leaders than the average humble guy. That’s because they tend to see a shot a glory where others might see excessive risk, and that aggression to make a move is where the narcissists are more rewarding to their companies.More on AskMen:The One Thing You Should Never Do At The Gym Why It's Actually Good To Be A Workaholic