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Tip of the week - It's never too early to start connecting
In the latest tip of the week, I shared some passages from young entrepreneur and connector (and Never Eat Alone fan) Ben Casnocha's new book
MY START-UP LIFE
What A (Very) Young CEO Learned on his Journey Through Silicon Valley
And I posed a few questions to readers...post a comment with your thoughts.
What are some basic things you wish you had started doing as a teenager to really boost your career and your life?
What advice do you give to young people you know?
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Posted by Keith Ferrazzi on August 2, 2007 | Permalink
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Some Advice For Young(er) People:
* Read voraciously.
* Write often (especially thank you notes).
* Focus on developing social skills.
* Take a public speaking class.
* Exercise regularly.
* Don't get into debt. Avoid loans. Save your money. Learn to be frugal.
* Make the most of part time jobs and internships - find ones that will give you marketable skills and access to successful people who can serve as mentors.
* Write down your short-term and long-term goals.
Posted by: Stephanie | Aug 2, 2007 10:38:34 PM
There are two pieces of advice I give young people, and not surprisingly they stem from my regrets about my own youth and the things I wish I'd focused on when I was young.
1. Focus on people. I've met people who have succeeded in many fields and by many measures (not just money or number of toys). The one thing they have in common is a genuine interest in and skill with other people. Some of them are shy, but they like people and they work at it.
2. Take chances. Especially when you're young. Yes, you'll experience failure, but you're going to encounter that sooner or later anyway, and the world has much more to offer young people who try and fail than to young people who don't try.
Posted by: Tai McQueen | Aug 2, 2007 10:39:05 PM
1. Take responsibility of your life.
No one owns you anything. You are what you decide to do at some point in time.
Your decisions today have an impact on you in the future.
To change (or shape) the future, you must be aware of the decisions you make today.
Posted by: yeksoon | Aug 2, 2007 11:21:18 PM
* Set goals every year.
* Stay focused on your goals.
* Learn from people around you.
* Find your passion.
* Take risks.
* And enjoy the process!
Posted by: Harold Hsu | Aug 2, 2007 11:24:52 PM
- Be brave!
- Try something different
- Always seek the oppurtinity, try to find something that might be the next trend. Be there first.
- Communicate,communicate,communicate!
- Help everyone,share the knowhow, so that it can spread.
- Remember everyone, take notes.
- Always do the right thing that suits you and your personality, dont be a fake.
- Be aware, open your eyes and mind!
Posted by: Alemsah | Aug 3, 2007 3:17:45 AM
I wonder what young is? My advice for the younger set is to see the world backpacking, working on a yacht or at a resort.
I did this from 17 to 24 and had a blast. Meet lots of successful people and learned how not to sweat the small stuff of live. One of the biggest problems you will have returning to your old life is that your friends are still concerned with what they are doing tomorrow an you will be thinking about the longer term picture and how to invest all the money that you should have saved while traveling. (a deckhand on a yacht can make $4,000 per month with no overhead)
I personally did this. Had one business fail, went to college at 25, and now have a niche market newspaper that is read worldwide.
Not to take Nike's logo, but Just do it!
Posted by: reed | Aug 3, 2007 3:37:05 AM
You speak of developing a personal brand.
How does one do that?
Posted by: Luzita | Aug 3, 2007 4:50:42 AM
If I had it to do over again, I would have taken my Grandfathers advice.
He always said that he's never met a stranger.
Anywhere we would go, he would introduce himself to everyone, shake their hand, or hug them(usually the women.. he was a huge flirt even into his 90's)
But, just walking around with him, everyone would say hi and come up to him. He knew the power of building relationships.
And that's what I am trying to pass on to my son and his friends, and put to use myself.
Relationships are the key to everything. My Grandfathers various businesses were successful because of them. His life was richer and fuller because of them.
My customers stay with me not only because I can solve their problems, but because I spend a little extra time to get to know what fires them up.
Thanks for the book, Keith. It helped me focus what I already knew and put it into action!
Posted by: Chris | Aug 3, 2007 5:06:08 AM
I'm a 25 yr old CEO. I bought the book. Kudos.
Posted by: Aaron King | Aug 3, 2007 5:52:33 AM
I am 19 and I have been a music/entertainment journalist since the age of 13. Being young, it was sometimes hard to be taken seriously, so you had to prove that you are capable of doing the job.
In my six years experience, I have connected with and work on a daily basis with great contacts from Vancouver to Toronto and Los Angeles to New York, some of the biggest in the business. I have interviewed countless musicians/bands who you would hear on every day radio. I have been published in countless North American publications (as well as overseas) and my online articles have been seen by hundreds of thousands of people, if not more. I have been featured on press workshop panels alongside respected print, online and television personalities, plus I have been offered a position as an A&R Scout with MajorLabelScout.com. I have also been interviewed for various print, online and even television articles or documentaries.
I've been very blessed with the amount of great opportunities I have been given at such a young age. I have two years of college left, but while most will be 21 and starting out in the field, I will be able to pull out my portfolio, call on some connections and hope my eight years experience will give me the advantage. It's never too early to start connecting and building a brand. :-)
Posted by: Josh McConnell | Aug 3, 2007 5:58:01 AM
Sometimes you've got to look for creative ways to expand your connections and sphere of influence. I realized after about 15 years of working in the same company that my connections into the community were limited.
I decided to join the local triathletes club (eventually was on the board); joined a discussion group around a popular business magazine (FastCompany "Circle of Friends"), and joined a Toastmaster's Club. Each of these put me into great new circles of relationships.
I also made it a point to once every couple of weeks meet with someone that I knew "casually" from being in one of these group. This way, we got a chance to connect and deepen our ability to help each other in the future.
My son is 19, and involved in our local music scene. He started as simply a musician, but he eventually began volunteering to help with the promotion of some local events, which lead to working for some of the larger local promoters, which has continued to expand his connections and sphere of influence. As he is also building a home-based business, and was home-schooled (thus doesn't have public school associations as a base of sphere of influence), he has to be really creative to look for ways to connect with new people.
Posted by: Greg K. | Aug 3, 2007 6:04:22 AM
I think if I had to do it over again, I would have stayed in touch with the friends I made through the years. Because my parents separated when I was very young, 5, I moved between different social circles where I encountered numerous friendships. However, through the years I let social and economic influences impact the circles I kept close without necessarily keeping the old ones. Without knowing where some of those old acquaintences ended up, it's hard to say how much fuller my life could be had they still been a resource to me as an adult.
Posted by: D. Meyers | Aug 3, 2007 7:49:22 AM
Do what you love? To be a true success you must have passion for what you are doing. People spend years in a "job" that pays well and provides for the family, but their is no passion. Success, to me, is measured by the happiness you have in your life.
Posted by: Joe Callahan | Aug 3, 2007 7:58:19 AM
What advice do you give to young people you know?
My advice is very simple--yet profound: Be dignified and be memorable. If you are dignified, please will view you as a classy person. If you are memorable, people will remember you.
Posted by: Floyd H. Griffith | Aug 3, 2007 8:04:34 AM
If you have something (ANYTHING) eating away at you and you're not sure what to do... don't bury it. Work through it.
Talk about it with friends, talk to people you are most afraid of talking about it with, try to believe that everything will turn out alright, and believe in your ability to contribute to positive, long term results.
Why? If you simply bury or ignore something, it will always come back (and possibly with less convenience).
Posted by: Joe Chung | Aug 3, 2007 9:07:54 AM
I met Keith Ferrazzi for the first time about a year and a half ago at the HRPAO conference in Toronto. He was one of the Keynote speakers. I had just started my job as a very young Account Director hired to launch the Marketing Business in Toronto and was full of excitement but also of fear. I was 25 at the time. When I spoke to Keith about my concern about being taken seriously because of my age he pointed out a very key point. The only person who was concerned about my age was me.
With that in mind I put my worry to bed, and since then a year and half later, the Toronto market has received an award for the highest growth in North America, and I have received a top award for sales achievement in North America.
Self doubt cannot exist if you plan on being successful.
Thanks again Keith!
Craig Lund
Account Director - Toronto
Aquent
Posted by: Craig Lund | Aug 3, 2007 9:36:11 AM
Love what you do so much that you enjoy doing it for free. Now, do it so well, people enjoy paying you to do it. I learned this when I started a business at 15-yrs-old.
Posted by: Jordan Olivero | Aug 3, 2007 9:44:08 AM
Love what you do so much that you enjoy doing it for free. Now, do it so well, people enjoy paying you to do it. I learned this when I started a business at 15-yrs-old.
Posted by: Jordan Olivero | Aug 3, 2007 9:44:26 AM
The key things are:
- Respect to people - Relationship
- Respect to yourself - exercise, give time to yourself and your goals
- Trust the Lord
- Learn
It is funny to see that people are not really interested to see the output but the process of getting there. The more you get them involved, make them part of the process, empower, the more they believe the end product to be right or wrong. When it is right, everyone savors it. When it is wrong, everyone will fix it and go through the process again. Just like the saying that the end does not justify the means.
Posted by: da | Aug 3, 2007 10:12:28 AM
A basic thing I wish I had done as a teenager is surround myself with more successful people. It's amazing how truly successful people are more than willing to share their secrets of success.
Advice I give to young people I know are:
- Be open to learning from others
- Stay positive and accept you will come across challenges each and every day
- Get a mentor that you trust and who will share with you good advice
- Share your passions and goals
- Balance your life between work and pleasure
- Be kind to your environment
Posted by: Dana Williams | Aug 3, 2007 1:37:14 PM
My advice to a teenager is to TRY MANY THINGS--GET INVOLVED.
In the summer after 8th grade I went out for the little league travel team. I didn't make the team. I was devastated. The only thing I wanted to do was to play baseball. I vowed that getting cut from a team would never bother me again so in high school I went out for everything. I got on some teams and not on others. No problem. I played football, ran track, played in the band, was president of the science club, an editor of the year book, in 4-H, was an A.V. tech and projectionist . . . I did everything.
Not only did I overcome the fear of failure I learned how to add value in many different ways. I went on to be the president or general manager of six different companies in five different industries. Now I am doing what I love in a totally different field--fund raising for one of the best college prep boarding schools in the country.
My advice? Diversify, try many things, be a quick study, and find ways to add value quickly.
Yea. One more tip: Read the book I’m reading right now . . . Wikinomics.How mass collaboration changes everything. By Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. It's the future.
Dale Spenner
Director of Planned Giving
Culver Academies
574-842-8181
Posted by: Dale Spenner | Aug 3, 2007 1:52:02 PM
Having just turned 20 and already having a business to my name as well as two very successful internships, I will give the following advice:
-never make your career aspirations too well known; makes it easier for them to say 'no.' Peolple will just know if you are going places...
-dress, act, communicate, etc for the job you want, not necessarily currently have...but don't be a know it all...
-cut through the clutter: over dress, over communicate and over impress.
-dont be impatient and try and promote yourself; it should be an organic process as dictated by the organization. This said, always strive to move up the ladder but do it at an appropriate pace and acquire all necessary skills in the process.
To YOUR success,
GM
Posted by: Gregory Murray | Aug 3, 2007 2:23:09 PM
Try to HELP others as much as possible. I ran into this upcoming site for budding entrepreneurs http://www.easy2share.com
Posted by: Nikhil Gupta | Aug 3, 2007 2:55:33 PM
I would have considered a career earlier and gone to college. Women of my generation were taught and expected to marry and have children, the earlier the better.
Still, I am busier then ever in the twilight of life, coaching and writing. Maybe it was supposed to be! Cheers, mjt
Posted by: Marilyn J. Tellez, M.A; | Aug 3, 2007 5:10:47 PM
Realize the Potential.
Positive Attitude.
Forget about the Past Mistakes.
Easy Way Doesn’t Really Works.
Stick to Your Goals.
Take Responsibility.
Focus on the Tasks at Hand.
Plan Things.
Be Realistic.
Posted by: Self Help Zone | Aug 3, 2007 9:23:47 PM
Some of the things I would liked to do is being more social, not believing that I can do it all by myself, you (sooner or later) will need from others, travel a lot, contact with people, take a oratory class and perform your communication.
Posted by: Ruben Gonzalez | Aug 3, 2007 9:39:53 PM
I started building relationships my freshman year in college. However, I wish that I had started in high school. Here are few tips that a teenager can implement:
- Get involved with an organization, such as the Year book committee or Spanish club. With involvement, you will get to know people outside of the school mindset because you will all be working towards the same goal.
- Get a part-time job so you can get more experience dealing with the outside world. You need to know how to talk with people as well as connect with them so get some practice early in your life.
- Host your own event such as an ice cream social or just an after school get together. By bringing people together, you will be seen as a connector and will build your brand. Do this early in life so it becomes second nature to you.
Posted by: Jason Jacobsohn | Aug 4, 2007 5:26:30 AM
I wish I had learned early to recognize the people who cared and learned trust them. I did embody a fierce dedication to trust myself as I got my hands dirty learning as many skill sets as possible so that I would always have the power to make money and never get bored.
My advice to the young:
-Try absolutely everything (within legal reason)
-Embrace your invincibility.
-Decide your passions.
-Develop hobbies.
-Continue to build your skill sets that will support your future endeavors
-Learn to support your friends
-Learn how to say thank you
-Learn how to take a compliment
-Learn how to be a good winner (I've seen some pretty bad behavior after colleagues won a match)
-Become a musician (it's a meditative & powerful brain stimulant)
-Become a painter (this balances the bias of the left brain)
-Trust yourself.
Posted by: EC (Lisa) Stewart | Aug 4, 2007 3:07:56 PM
Check your ego at the door.
Become an effective listener.
Ask for feedback and then consider it.
Talk less about yourself in social gatherings and be interested in others.
Ask for help when you need it as well as offering help to others.
Remember the Four Agreements: Always Do Your Best, Don’t Make Assumptions, Be Impeccable with Your Word, and Don’t Take Anything Personally.
Posted by: Patty Alexander | Aug 6, 2007 3:41:01 PM
If you want to be successful there is a simple 3 step process that I read a long time ago from a billionaire.
1.Decide what you want, what you REALLY want.
2.Decide if you are willing to pay the price to achieve it.Everyone must pay the price.How bad do you want it?
3.Pay the price.
End of story.
Posted by: Mario D. Olaciregui | Aug 7, 2007 9:56:09 AM
Do the most important thing asap... as in NOW.
~ Mel
Posted by: Melvin Ram | Aug 12, 2007 12:16:24 PM
Wow... "If I knew then what I know now." There are many decisions that I would love go back and improve upon. But to choose one...
I'd search high and low for a mentor... Somebody who is stable, respected, a strong leader, trust-worthy, focused, talented, virtuous, philanthropic and successful... then spend as much time with that person as possible. Ask a thousand questions, and observe everything they do. Good attitudes and winning spirits are contagious.
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