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Fight On!!!

A recent news article stated that students can no longer prepare for a single career and expect it to last a lifetime. They should anticipate a Job market that will continue to change dramatically. After all, how many computer programmers did we need thirty years ago? And how many taxi or truck drivers are we going to employ thirty years in the future? As technology advances, jobs and careers change.

Last week I shared on this blog the commencement speech I recently delivered to four hundred graduates of the Leventhal School of Accounting at the University of Southern California. It was a treat for me to return to the U.S.C. campus, and in a single afternoon I learned a lot.

I thought I was calm when I spoke until, as we were driving home, Sprite pointed out that I didn’t put on my reading glasses when I delivered my speech.

“You brought three pairs, and asked me to bring two. I thought I was going to have to bring them to you while you were on stage.”

Lesson number one: I was more nervous than I realized.

Lesson number two: Under stress my eyesight improves. Actually, when necessary we can all perform better than we think we can.

I especially enjoyed lunch with Dean Bill Holder and a dozen accounting professors. We talked about how students are different today than they used to be.

“Students try to multi-task, looking at social media on their laptops while appreciating the wisdom of my lecture,” one tenured professor mentioned.

“We have to edit our thoughts to match society’s shorter attention spans,” another professor added.

“Because our students have grown up with the internet, sometimes we have to work to keep up with them,” said a third.

Every generation is different in some respects, and who knows how college students of today will turn out. I suspect they will do well, but I will also say that life today for them, and for all of us, is quite different than it has been. If you don’t know why, then you might still be relying on a rotary telephone on your nightstand, or never shopped online.

The most intriguing part of my experience was shaking hands with the graduates. Some sported flowers on their graduation caps, one man sat in a wheel chair, and a young mother had somehow tucked her baby partly under her gown.

As each graduate was photographed, shaking hands with the Dean, I was struck by the similarity of their broad smiles while appreciating the differences of their personalities.

I looked each graduate in the eyes, said “Congratulations,” and shook hands will all but those few who rushed by me without stopping. Some were shy, several seemed nervous being on stage, but many waved to the audience. Each was clearly a unique individual.

Walking back to my car after the ceremony I remembered my goal when I was in high school – to become a teacher. My two sons are professors, one in the business school at U.C.L.A, the other in the school of pharmacy at U.S.C. One of my daughters teaches law, another trains her students in yoga. I must admit, I’m a bit jealous.

Teaching on a college campus seems to be an enjoyable and fulfilling career, far removed from my daily concerns of competing with other businesses for “shelf space.”

I know that my writing is a type of teaching, but I also know that in following one path we must forego all others. Sometimes I wonder – what if . . .

Alan

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Five Tips on How to Succeed at Everything

relationship-yours-peopletoolsloveToday I aim to do everything better than I did yesterday.  I want to be a better friend, a better father and husband, a better writer and businessman.  Here are five tips on how to succeed at everything.

  1. Show up.
  2. Do something.
  3. Think timing.
  4. Avoid battles.
  5. Cut losses.

First, you simply have to show up.  You will never succeed unless you show up, whether in class, to a social event, or at work.  I have found I seldom learn a subject until I take a class, read a book, or consult an expert.  I have never met a new friend while I was watching TV in bed.  My writing career took off when I finally finished the book I had been working on for twenty years.

After you show up you have to do something.  Occasionally I find myself at my office, in front of my computer screen, staring into space.  One Saturday years ago I arrived at nine am, started playing a computer game, and suddenly realized that it was four pm and I hadn’t even thought about lunch.  You don’t have to do a lot, but you can do something useful every day, even if it is only making a written note on your calendar of what you want to accomplish tomorrow.  Get into the habit of doing something each day that will contribute to your success.

Think timing.  One morning I accosted my general manager just as she was dropping her purse on her desk, and I peppered her with questions about a problem I had been working on for an hour.  “Alan, you have to say hello first,” she said.  My timing was off.  Also, I find that I am better at solving difficult problems early in the morning, or, sometimes, in the evening.  I schedule easier tasks, such as meetings, in the afternoon.

stopwishing-peopletoolsAvoid battles.  Even if you enjoy fighting with people you are not going to win every dispute.  Why not reserve your time and energy for the more important struggles, those where the outcomes matter most to you?  And be careful to avoid falling into the briar patch of litigation, where your attorney will be the winner.  Five years ago I entered into a large business transaction without thinking it through.  What followed was almost two years of furious litigation that consumed one-third of my business time and most of my emotional energy.  It ended in a costly settlement.  My attorneys celebrated.

Cut losses.  You have limited resources.  I hate to lose, but should I spend my life trying to turn around a small loss, or should I allocate my time, money, and energy to a project that promises a gain.  Cutting your losses is especially important in relationships.  Surround yourself with people who are happy and contribute joy to your life.  Just as you will bask in the glow of their achievements, they will contribute to your own contentment and success.

You have created the life you live today.  You can design an even better life for all of your tomorrows.  I hope this blog will help.

Alan

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The Dream Is Free. The Hustle Is Sold Separately.

by Alan Fox 6 Comments

Dream-cloud-peopletools1As the man in front of me ordered his hamburger, I read the words on the back of his T-shirt.  “The Dream is Free.  The Hustle is Sold Separately.”

When I was a kid I had a dream of finding one product, placing an ad in a single magazine, selling more than $1,000,000 of my product, then retiring on my profit at age twenty.  The dream was free.  As it turns out, the hustle was missing.

In my teens I had the dream of being a better writer than Shakespeare.  Again, the dream was absolutely free. I also dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, winning the chess championship of the world, and of being elected president of the United States.  All were free. Then there was my dream of growing up, falling in love, getting married, and living happily ever after.

Dreams are hopeful, comforting, and the outline for a new reality.  All of us enjoy, or should enjoy, dreaming every day of our lives.  But we must realize that most of our dreams are born, and will live and languish, as fantasies.  A friend of mine once noted, “Dreams are extremely fragile outside the womb of the mind.”

One of my daughters dreamed of becoming an Olympic diver.  After her third lesson she announced, “I’m not going back.  The water is cold.”  As an adult she worked diligently for years to become a yoga teacher.

The restaurant chain Wendy’s televised a commercial years ago with the tag line, “Where’s the beef?”  Similarly, with respect to our dreams, we might ask ourselves, “Where’s the hustle?”

Which of your dreams have come true?  Which of your present dreams would you like to come true?  I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that many of your dreams can and will become real.  The bad news is that you will almost certainly have to personally add some hustle.

Those of my dreams which have come true each required effort over a period of many years.

Dream-hustle-peopletoolsIn my late twenties I began to invest in commercial real estate.  Success – the beginning of real success – was ten years away.   Twenty years ago I established the poetry journal Rattle.  Again, real success began after more than a decade of determination.  My wife and I founded The Frieda C. Fox Foundation in 1999.  Due to the efforts of our outstanding executive director, and dozens of family and non-family members, the foundation has become one of the leaders in youth philanthropy.  And our Junior Board, ages eight to seventeen, works persistently to help others, which is now not only our dream, but their dream as well.

I may be stating the obvious in telling you that it takes effort to get from here to there.  But it does.

And as for my dream of “living happily ever after,” which is part of my own fairytale that began, “Once upon a time,” I’m still working on it.  Few farmers plant seeds, walk away, and return to harvest an abundant crop.  Few relationships flourish without care, concern, and consistent attention.

The dreams are free.  And hustle is the not-so-secret sauce of making your dreams come true.

Alan

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