Scientists did an experiment with a bunch of children where they gave them several tests that got increasingly more difficult.  After the first two tests, they told the children that they had done very well. Group A was praised them for being smart and talented. Group B was praised for their hard work. Next they gave them a very difficult test--so difficult that many children didn't get a single question right. They then told both groups that they hadn't done as well on this test and asked them if they knew why. The students from group A said that it must be because they weren't smart enough. Group B said that it must be because they didn't try hard enough. That in  itself is … [Read more...]

A reader named Susan left an interesting comment on Never Hire an MBA. She doesn't like the article, but what I found interesting was this part of her comment: Are you familiar with discrimination laws, well although there is not currently a discrimination law that would protect individuals from potential employers from discriminating against individuals who are unemployed, I am proud to say that I am one of thousands who have signed a petition against little minded people who discriminate against the unemployed. I hadn't heard of this before, but after a little research I found that some employers are including requirements in their job postings that basically say, "we only consider job … [Read more...]

AppSumo has some free videos of Derek Sivers talking about starting, running and selling CD Baby. Derek wrote the book Anything You Want which I highly recommend--except the cover, I hate the cover. The free deal only goes for the next 60 hours or so.  You have to sign up for an AppSumo account, but it relatively painless and doesn't require a credit card because the cost is $0. If you are interested in starting a business or helping run a business, I'd highly recommend getting this.  You can download the MP3, video or PDF of the talk. I haven't listened to all the videos yet, but I wanted to let readers know about it while there was still time to get it. If it is anything like the … [Read more...]

Normally I've taken the position that an MBA can be well worth the money. Even my arguments that many employers overvalue MBA candidates suggests that the degree may be a very profitable career decision. My article Never Hire an MBA got a lot of attention.  I was surprised at the number of people who missed the point of the article, thought I was saying that no one should get an MBA and tried to defend the degree.  While there were some well thought out arguments, there were quite a few that were---well lets just say, less well reasoned.  Take a look at them for yourself and you'll see what I mean.  Also keep in mind that I moderated quite a few of the really … [Read more...]

Anything You Want is a short book by Derek Sivers.  Derek started CD Baby and eventually sold it to Disc Makers. CD Baby lets musicians sell their CDs online and grew out of Derek's frustration with trying to find a solution to sell his own CDs over the Internet. Usually when I review a book, I try to give enough information that Productivity501 readers can tell if they should invest in reading it for themselves. This is one of the few books where I feel I can safely say, "just go read it."  It is an excellent book and I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't learn something from it. It took me a lot longer to review Anything You Want because I couldn't ever find the book in my house. … [Read more...]

Yesterday we talked about influence. One of the primary keys to influence is good communication. It doesn't matter how good your ideas are if you can't communicate them in a way that will connect with your audience and bring about change.  In this post, we are going to look at three ways to communicate  more effectively. 1. Be visual I once ran an IT department for a non-profit with about 200 employees.  In the work room we had a large color and a large b&w printer.  The cost on the color printer was about $0.15 per page.  The cost of the b&w was $0.015 per page.  I kept trying to ask people to use the b&w unless they had a compelling reason to print color.  When you are … [Read more...]

Einstein was a smart, but the world is full of smart people.  What was different about Einstein that allowed him to come up with the theory of relativity?  Simple.  Einstein was able to take a leap of imagination. At the time, everyone believed that time was constant.  If you and I synchronize our watches and I wait on the ground while you take off and fly on a very fast space ship, it was assumed that when you came back our watches would still match. It was such a fundamental concept that no one even bothered to question it. However, Einstein realized that something didn't quite seem right. The basis of his uneasiness with the modern theories came when he was 16 years old and … [Read more...]

Steven Pressfield is  the author of a number of  books including The Legend of Bagger Vance and War of Art. His newest book Do The Work walks you through a process for getting work done.  This quote gives you a good idea of what you'll find in the book. Our enemy is not lack of preparation; it's not the difficulty of the project, or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account.  The enemy is resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications and a million reasons why he can't/shouldn't/won't do what we know we need to … [Read more...]

Josh Kaufman sent me his new book  The Personal MBA.  His "Personal MBA" started out as list of recommended reading for someone who wanted to really learn how business works, but wasn't sure an MBA was really worth it. The list grew with input from others and now consists of this list organized by topic along with reviews of each book. Eventually Josh decided to distill what he had learned into his own book and the result was The Personal MBA. I think the book is excellent. He first talks about his quest for learning  how businesses really work and lays out a pretty effective argument that top MBA degree programs are: A poor investment - If you use the things … [Read more...]

If you like this article, please share it with your friends on your blog, email, a thumbs up on StumbleUpon, Facebook or however else you share links. A person's mind is their most powerful tool.  Yet very few people take intentional steps toward "upgrading" their brain and trying to become smarter. Here are some scary statistics from an article in The Economist: In 1991 a worker with a bachelors degree earned 2.5 times as much as a high-school drop out. In 2010 a worker with a bachelors degree earned 3 times as much as a high-school drop out. There is an obvious trend toward paying people who have "upgraded their brain" more money. This probably isn't too surprising, but … [Read more...]

If you want to grow you must push yourself beyond where you are at. Sometimes this means reading material that you don't completely understand. Obviously you can't pickup a book in a completely foreign language and expect to get anything out of it, but you can pickup a book on a topic where you don't really have the right prerequisite knowledge to understand 100% of the content and still learn a lot. Lets say you are reading something where 25% of it is completely foreign to you. By foreign I mean that you understand the words, but you don't really understand what is being said. Many people would consider this a waste--because you don't understand it. However, your mind is a … [Read more...]

Here are some of the questions I've received from readers about online degrees.  Most of these were prompted by my post about getting my masters degree from Harvard's Extension School. So would you recommend the Harvard Extension School program? ~ Dana Yes. If they have a degree that fits your needs and you can meet the residency requirement, the Harvard Extension School offers some of the best value in education that I'm aware of. Be aware that some of the students who are full time on campus have a negative view of the Extension School students. One of the main complaints I've heard is that it is too easy to get into the Extension School. Some students feels that their acceptance into … [Read more...]

Over the next ten years, I believe we are going to see an ever increasing shift toward online degree programs in areas where people have traditionally attended a physical university. There are a number of obvious reasons for this trend, but here are a few: Low cost to scale - A well designed online degree program may have a high fixed cost, but a low-cost to add an additional student.  The cost to provide a degree program to 20 students vs. 40 students requires a much smaller percentage increase than doubling the number of student physically coming to class. Tighter focus on education - Online degree programs tend to be much more focused on the actual educational process with less of … [Read more...]

When I wrote Never Hire an MBA, I think some people thought I was recommending against any type of MBA degree. This isn't the case.  If anything the arguments in that post would support the idea that an MBA is valuable. My main point was that employers need to make sure they don't get blinded by the MBA credentials and make sure they are hiring people with more than just a diploma. If you are an employee looking at an MBA, you have quite a few options. In this post I want to discuss executive MBA programs and how one of these programs might support your career goals. Executive MBA programs are designed for people with experience who are in the middle of successful careers and … [Read more...]

Erin at Unclutterer posted an interesting reader question about what you should do with your diplomas. Some of the suggestions in the comments really blew me away.  Here are a few: Hang them in your closet or bathroom where no one will see them. Give them back to your school. Put them in a binder on a bookshelf. Evidently some people feel awkward about putting them on the wall in their home, office or cubicle. Granted, everyone's college experience is different, but I think people are missing out on some of the motivational value of keeping your diploma visible. Inspiring Your Children While I don't believe that college is for everyone, there are many people who could … [Read more...]

Back in June I met Jennifer Armitstead who runs a career coaching company and does a weekly radio program called Job Club Radio. She does career coaching at both the corporate and individual level so she has some great insights into current issues on what it takes to find and get an ideal job. She graciously agreed to be interviewed about some of the current trends in the job market and career planning. You can read more about Jennifer's company at JA Career Coaching and be sure to check out her blog for more career tips. I know you work as a career coach, but what exactly does that entail? Can you give us an idea of what you do for clients? As a career coach, I work with people … [Read more...]

The trick to exercising is to make it a part of your lifestyle instead of just something you attempt to do a few times each week.  This post is going to look at several things you can do to integrate exercise into your life. Do you have anything you do to help keep yourself active?  Please share in the comments. Put your exercise equipment in front of the TV. Move out the sofa and chair and move in the exercise bike.  Your goal is to make it as easy as possible to exercise.  This works particularly well if you are working your way through a set of cliffhanger-type TV shows on DVD.  You still have to put effort into exercising.  Just sitting on a piece of exercise equipment won't … [Read more...]