Connection

FountainBlue’s June 13 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of Millennials In Our Mids. Please join us in thanking our speakers for taking the time to share their advice and thoughts and to our gracious hosts at EMC. Below are notes from the conversation.

Our panelists represented a range of tech companies, with leaders from many backgrounds and roles, representing different generations – working with and as millennials, all with experience at many different levels within and outside tech organizations and start-ups and consultancies. They have worked with a range of people, leaders, teams and companies, and have generously shared their wisdom and advice.

We started the conversation talking about what a millennial is and what they had in common. Our panelists agreed that although we should not stereotype millennials or any generation group, and we should not mistake lack of experience with traits of being a millennial, and we should not think that all millennials are equal, millennials do have some similar traits.

• Millennials like to chase ‘bright, shiny objects’, in the work context and outside it. To motivate a millennial on the team, speak about projects so that they are motivated to participate, and allow them to move between and within groups to help retain and develop them within the company.
• Millennials are known by some as the ‘trophy’ generation, where they are used to being winners. When reality hits in the work context, and they are no longer winning at everything, or winning because they show their best efforts, it would take some getting-used-to for them. So, sandwich criticism and help them embrace feedback as learning opportunities while continuing to stroke their egos.
• Millennials creatively problem solve collaboratively with others. Give them big picture descriptions for meaningful projects (focus on the why), and avoid telling them what to do and how to do it.
• Millennials love technology and devices, and communicate and connect differently than those of other generations. So accept that they communicate differently, but help them brand and message who they are and what they do in a professional manner. However, when a millennials’ love-of-devices makes them appear unfocused and un-engaged in meetings, someone should help them understand how he/she is coming across and make different choices.
• Millennials may be more experienced and less fearful of trying new things, especially around technology, so use this to your advantage.
• Millennials have an entrepreneurial streak, and enjoy both technical and business challenges.
• Millennials love to continuously learn and grown. The other side of that is that they need to feel continually challenged in new ways, so they may hop from job to job, role to role. But if you understand that, you can create those roles for them and help them navigate through different jobs within the company.
• Millennials tell it the way it is – they are clear and transparent and direct in general. This is great, but some may need a lesson in strategy or tact, in order to be perceived as a respectful team player.
• Millennials want to know the why of things, and want to see the metrics and the data. Explaining projects with this context will help them understand its relevance and impact.

Our panelists espoused these truisms, regardless of which generation you represent:

• Communicate, collaborate and connect with each other – build a relationship, work as a team.
• Accept other viewpoints and perspectives will help us all learn and grow.
• Customer-focused people, teams and companies win business.
• Find your passion, and work with those who share that passion.
• Communicate and message your brand, what you stand for, in a way that resonates with others.
• It’s all about the attitude – be willing to work with the team, do what it takes, learn as you grow, work with others to make something great.

Advice for getting millennials integrated into your workforce:

• Have millennials do a shadowing visit before they join, so they get to know who’s in the company, what the culture is like, and what the work is like.
• Do cross-generational mentoring, especially if it would help bridge disconnects between engineering and sales, for example.

Resources:

• Steve Bilbo, Senior Program Manager and Engineer, You Sound OLD! – Stop Saying This at Work (what boomers need to stop saying) and You Sound Too Young!! – Stop Saying This at Work(what millennials need to stop saying)
• Daniel Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
• Lynn Lancaster, David Stillman, The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace

Those with a “fixed mindset” assume intelligence, character, and creative potential are unchangeable attributes writ in stone since birth — that they cannot be modified in any meaningful way. They further assume that success is simply a result of this inherent talent, and as a result, they often avoid failure in order to maintain an aura of infallibility.

Those with a “growth mindset” have a much more malleable view on success. They do not view failure as a reflection of their ability, but rather as a starting point for experimentation and testing of ideas. Their main advantage is in treating unsuccessful attempts simply as another data point — “This didn’t work out, but I eliminated one option and will now pursue the next.”

As a follow-up to last month’s post on underground motivations, let’s say that you’ve detected that the person you’re talking to isn’t quite comfortable communicating transparently with you. If you need to work with this person, or if you would just like to support this person in her/his growth, consider doing any combination of the following things:

1. Determine *why* that other person might have reservations about communicating transparently with you. Below are some common reasons why she/he is not choosing to trust you and be transparent with you.
   • It’s YOU: they heard from someone else that you may not be as trustworthy as you’d like to think.
   • It’s THEM: they are not naturally trusting people and/or they’ve recently misplaced their trust.
   • It’s the SITUATION: they are reacting to the instability of the circumstances for the individuals, group, company, industry.
2. Once you know *why* someone is not easily trusting or communicating with you, and you’ve decided that you’re willing and able to fix it, decide whether you want to. It’s a commitment of time and energy to do so, don’t just fall into it and leave it half-way done, or you won’t be worth the trust someone else may have in you for next time.
3. Next, have a discussion about whether the other person wants to work with you to figure out how to address the core underlying problem. And be OK with it if that other person decides that they don’t want to solve the problem, that you may not be the right person to solve the problem, that the timing isn’t right to fix the problem, etc. Just having you say that you know there’s a problem will help her/him acknowledge and accept that there’s a problem, and help them deal with it.
4. Assuming that she/he would like your support in solving the problem, scope out all facets of the issue and all the stakeholders involved.
5. Then strategize on how to fix the problem short term and long term.
6. Whether or not you make progress in addressing the core issue, build a relationship based on trust with him/her.
7. Make it OK to share transparently with you – be a safe sounding board and advocate.
8. Remember that trust is a two-way street – act trustworthy, and call the other person on it if he or she is not doing the same.
9. Try not to judge, but use your best judgment in helping him or her resolve any issues which strain your personal moral compass. Even go so far as to spell out your opinion and perspective and provide boundaries and even taboo topics if necessary, to ensure that you are true to your values, while also making it ‘safe’ for someone to share deeply with you.
10. Building a relationship of trust means that you must accept the other person for who they are and be a neutral sounding board in as many areas as you can. Being honest with yourself about areas where you don’t feel comfortable doing so will help you succeed in this endeavor.

We hope that these thoughts and suggestions help you to create and grow relationships of trust with a wide network of people.

Pareto Principle

Wikipedia equates the 80/20 Rule with the Pareto Principle, which “states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” An example cited by Wikipedia is that "80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients." In other words, a business could increase its efficiency by focusing primarily on the top 20% of its customers -- and perhaps by ignoring the bottom 20 percent.

The 80 and 20 aren’t precise numbers. The 80/20 Rule is what’s known as a rule of thumb, a device for expressing and remembering a principle. For example, it is observed: “the richest 20% of the world's population controlling 82.7% of the world's income.” There are many cases for which 90/10 or even 99/1 would be a better estimate than 80/20.

It wouldn’t surprise me if at least 90% of viable career opportunities exist within only 10% of companies. Unfortunately, since it’s impossible to know for sure which companies comprise this 10 percent, job seekers are forced to cast a wider net by contacting more businesses when conducting their searches. However, criteria defined by the job seeker, such as product/service, location, size and reputation, help limit the number of organizations to be contacted and keep the job search manageable. The better the criteria, the fewer the number of companies the job seeker will need to reach out to.

Incidentally, wouldn’t it be great if all job board users read and considered job descriptions, qualifications and locations rather than indiscriminately blast their resumes to every company on the board? Unfortunately, that would violate my rule of thumb that 95% of good resumes come from 5% of job applicants.

Law of Diminishing Returns

While associating the 80/20 Rule with the Pareto Principle is certainly useful, I more often associate it with the Law of Diminishing Returns, which says that 80% of output or results come from 20% of input or effort. Once a critical effort threshold has been reached, the marginal return on additional time and money invested drops off, and further effort is less efficient.

There are two consequences of this version of the 80/20 Rule that I have always found particularly interesting.

How Expert is Expert Enough?

80% of expertise in a subject area can be obtained with 20% of the effort. A person can be expert in something without necessarily being a top expert. Basic expertise might be achievable by reading a few books on a subject in conjunction with testing one’s new-found knowledge in real projects at work. Compromising on proficiency allows a person to master more subjects than if he or she insisted upon acquiring the maximum attainable level of expertise in any chosen field. With business and markets changing rapidly, multiple areas of expertise might help hedge against uncertainties about what the future holds in store.

I’m proficient in about a dozen career-related areas, but I’m a top expert in none. I like to think there’s a high degree of synergy between these various areas but as you might suspect, I’m not certain about that, since my expertise in synergy is fairly limited. In any case, I’m a generalist. With few exceptions, I have been a generalist, the problem solver and data analyst type, throughout my life.

How Good is Good Enough?

80% of results in any endeavor can be obtained with 20% of the effort. I run the marketing department at a small but preeminent watch company. Rather than apply maximum effort to SEO, social media, public relations, email or advertising, I sacrifice thoroughness in each in order to diversify my marketing initiatives. The more time I spend on any one marketing channel, the less time I have available for the others. Tradeoffs in business and life are really unavoidable.

Compromising on achieving in each individual aspect of one’s work can permit greater efficiency, diversification and overall accomplishment than would a more thorough or rigorous approach.

An Important Caveat

Although 80/20 may be good enough for most endeavors, it couldn’t land a spaceship on the moon, and I don’t think I’d ever want to be cut open by an 80/20 surgeon. Sometimes top expertise and maximum effort are indispensable, and I'm a big fan of specialists, even if I myself am not one.

When you are stuck, the following results build up over time:

• You act thoughtlessly.
• You become blind to new input.
• You accept old output without question.
• Your brain keeps imprinting its old wiring deeper and deeper.
• You lose self-awareness.

Getting stuck is the worst thing your brain can do to you, and vice versa. The ultimate responsibility rests upon you, because you are meant to be the user of your brain, not the other way around. When a person isn't stuck, there is a conscious attempt, year in and year out, to renew the feedback loop. To do this, the following pointers will help:

• Question your ingrained beliefs, prejudices, and assumptions.
• Keep lines of communication open with others.
• Encourage opinions from a wide circle of people.
• Respect and understand views that are the opposite of yours.
• Be aware of your negative emotions and work on them without blaming others.
• Value self-awareness and work to expand your awareness.
• Look upon your life as a continuing process of evolution.

Over dinner in Washington, D.C., Bill talked about how he and Melinda built this innovative institutional culture, across business and philanthropy. He made three key points:

1. Innovation comes from collaboration

Great ideas, he said, don’t appear in isolation. Recent research suggests that creativity is less an attribute of individuals than an emergent property that bubbles up within communities of people solving problems together. So the challenge for an organization is building a culture that encourages new ideas while providing a platform to reinforce collaboration.

As Steven Johnson noted in Where Good Ideas Come From, we tend to incorrectly picture innovation as “eureka moments,” when exceptional individuals, plunged in solitary thought, experience a sudden flash of insight.

We talked about how the most powerful innovations arise often within huge institutions, if slowly. It often happens after intensive exchange and collaboration and mostly because of the intersection of individuals with deep experience and expertise that wouldn’t happen elsewhere. This underscores Bill’s personal commitment to understanding an issue in great depth.

When the foundation started looking into global health more than a decade ago, he immediately immersed himself in the field’s technical aspects. I remember vividly a conversation with Bill in 2006 about the development of new drugs for the treatment of HIV. His encyclopedic knowledge of the existing molecules, their mode of action, and stage of development in the industry was dazzling and made me feel enormously grateful that he had taken the time to closely study the issue.

It was clear to me back then, and even more so now, that his ability to grasp even the smallest details had encouraged his teams to do the same, and that, in turn, had created a culture that inspired innovation.

2. The importance of grit

Bill is nothing if not dogged. He exudes grit and is convinced that determination, discipline and persistence are the most important determinants of the most successful people he has known. Steven Johnson made this same point, citing Charles Darwin’s years of meticulously gathering data that led to his insights on evolution in 1838.

Our conversation turned to whether parents, teachers and institutions (educational, military etc.) can nurture these qualities in young people. The South Korean educational system in which students, starting at an increasingly young age, go to school from 7 a.m. until 11p.m., produces students that do very well in international tests, such as OECD’s PISA exams. Some observers have pointed out that this level of rigor may be contributing to the overall willpower and grit of the population. On the flip side, this has generated controversy about the collateral damage that this system is having on the mental health of young Koreans. We agreed that this is an area in which evidence is only now beginning to emerge.

We do know from research done by Roy Baumeister that while it is very difficult to reliably and sustainably increase measured IQ in populations, “willpower” can be built, almost like a muscle. Can countries, companies, educational institutions and even families, foster innovation by helping young people (and old people!) become more disciplined and gritty?

3. Bringing innovations to scale

As Bill has demonstrated in both his business and his philanthropy, generating great ideas is only the first step. Putting great ideas into action and delivering consistent results is both more important and more difficult. For example, translating ideas for improving global health into improved outcomes requires rigorous measurement, adaptation to local contexts, and especially a plan for reaching scale.

I left dinner that evening much more optimistic about the possibility for innovation and impact in our development work, even in the poorest, most difficult settings.

Bill’s message was that we shouldn’t sit and wait for some revolutionary ideas to pop into our heads. Innovative ideas are all around us: in the poorest countries, in the private sector, in international organizations, governments, academic institutions, and civil society groups.

If we collaborate, dig into the details and persist, and focus on scale, we may very well find the great innovations that will lead to healthier, more equitable and more productive societies.

In recent times, it's hard to recall a corporate chieftain losing a gig over an IT failure. Typically, heads roll over IT failures, but the CEO is usually the one controlling the guillotine.

Steinhafel's exit may change that equation. IT is so intertwined with business success that the CEO can't be distanced from technology projects. The key takeaways here break down like this:

1. IT is your business. 
2. Every business is becoming digital. 
3. Leaders need to know IT and be able to align with the business. 
4. Enterprises all run on software and that's going to restructure industries. 
5. IT isn't a cost center. It's an ass saver and enabler.
6. Big data and the ability to use it for competitive advantage will rewrite industries.

Perhaps Steinhafel's exit is a one-off and not the beginning of a trend. But the business stakes are getting higher and IT is what will choose winners and losers. It's only common sense that other IT failures will cost titans of industry their gigs.

Success is based on action, but actions are the result of beliefs – so what do the delightfully successful people I know almost all believe?

1. They believe they don’t have to wait to be “selected.” They can simply select themselves.

Once upon a time most people had to wait: to be accepted, to get funded, to be promoted – to somehow be "discovered."

Not anymore. Access is nearly unlimited; social media allows you to reach out to almost anyone. (Whether or not you actually connect is up to you and how you craft your approach.) Anyone can publish their own work, distribute their own music, create their own products, and attract their own customers.

You can do almost anything you have the desire and skills and drive to do; you don't need to wait for someone else to discover your talents. You get to discover yourself.

The only thing holding you back is your willingness to take the leap and try.

2. They believe being the first matters less than being the best.

Success is often the result of perseverance. When the first person to the game stops trying, stops striving, or starts compromising their principles and values, the person who relentlessly seeks perfection is the person who wins.

Other people may be smarter, better connected, more talented, or better funded. But they can't win if they stop trying.

Don’t worry about being the first one in. Focus on being the best onestill in the game.

3. They believe success seems predictable only in hindsight.

Read all the stories of successful entrepreneurs and it's easy to think those people have some intangible entrepreneurial something: some talent, or skill, or idea, or level of creativity that you don't have. (Or maybe they were just born lucky?)

They don’t. Success is never inevitable. It's easy to look back on an entrepreneurial path to greatness and assume that every vision was clear, every plan was perfect, every step was executed flawlessly, and tremendous success was a foregone conclusion.

Incredible success only seems inevitable once incredible success has been achieved.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future." ~Steve Jobs

Success is never assured. Success is never predestined. If you're willing to work hard and persevere, who you are is sufficient – because when you work hard and persevere, who you become is definitely more than enough to do something significant.

4. They believe personal success comes from service, not selfishness.

I don’t know anyone who has accomplished something amazing on his or her own. Great leaders focus on providing the tools and training to help their team do their jobs and achieve their goals. Great consultants put their clients' needs first. Great businesses go out of their way to help and serve their customers by solving for the customer.

And by so doing they also reap the rewards.

Your odds of success are proportional to the number of people thatwant you to succeed.

When you're in it only for yourself, initial success is always finite — and fleeting. When you're in it for others, they succeed – and so do you.

5. They believe in doing a few things no one else is willing to do.

Only do what the crowd does and your career success will be no greater than the average of the crowd.

Every time you do something, think of a few extra things you can do that others aren’t willing to do. A little more research. Another look at something others have ignored. Another shot at salvaging a failed customer relationship. One more call, one more email, one more attempt to connect and build a relationship.

“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” ~Zig Ziglar

The best opportunities often lie waiting in fields other people can’t be bothered to cultivate. Find those fields and start cultivating.

6. They believe that the depth of their network is more important than the breadth

The downside of the ease of social media is that building a network can become a numbers game.

Few people need numbers. Every person needs real connections: people they can help, people they can trust, people whom they care about and who care about them.

Forget amassing a huge network. Reach out to the people whom you really want to be part of your professional life for a long time.

7. They believe ideas are important… but execution is everything.

Ideas are not a product. There are notebooks, binders and computer files filled with ideas and high level plans that were never implemented.

Have an idea? Great. Craft a strategy. Set up a basic plan to implement it. Then execute, adapt, execute, adapt, and build something useful that wort of works.

Success doesn’t come from ideas. Success comes from executing ideas.

8. They believe leadership is earned, not given.

Leaders don’t just bring in venture capital or negotiate a big customer contract

While certainly examples of leadership, those actions typically indicate a kind of leadership that is situational and short-lived.

Real leadership involves people. Real leaders consistently inspire, motivate, and make their employees feel capable and skilled and respected. Real leaders are the kind of people their employees follow not because they have to but because they want to.

How? They make people feel they aren’t following – they’re on a journey together.

And that means their team has given them the permission to lead, a permission they’ve earned over time.

9. They believe in paying it forward.

Ever heard a colleague say, "I would be willing to work harder if I got a raise”? Or, "We would do a better job if the customer paid us more"? Or, "I would be willing to make a bigger sacrifice if I knew it would pay off”?

Successful people don’t wait to get a raise; they work hard to earn a raise. Successful businesses don’t wait for higher prices to deliver greater value; they deliver greater value to earn higher prices. Successful entrepreneurs don’t wait for a payoff to give their all to a startup; they give their all so they can earn a decent payoff.

It is common for people expect to be compensated more before they will consider doing more. Successful people see compensation as a reward for exceptional effort, not the driver.

10. They believe they will make their own history.

Few people summit the Mount Everest of career success. Few people become household names.

But think about the past 20 years. Technologies, industries, and ways of doing business that were once science fiction are now commonplace.

The next 10 to 20 years will be no different. We can all be a part of whatever the next waves might be. We can all make a change in our industries. We can all make a change in our professions.

We can all stand at the forefront of a minor or major change, even if only in our niches or communities. When we’re willing to try something new, someday we will look back with pride on the part we played in history. Someday we will look back in pride on the part we played in making life a little better for others.

And isn't that the best kind of success? The delightful kind?

I would like to share the best rules that place ignorance at the most unsuspected limits. I’m 
positive you’ll recognize someone close to you who appears to be a true professional but who, in reality, isn’t anything more than an unqualified beginner. These are, in my opinion the most important rules:

1. “Blame others”: whatever happens, there will always be someone who can be blamed for things that go wrong, however much responsibility, or lack of, they have. In the slang of useless people, this rule is called “passing the buck” or saying “the dog ate my work“.

2. “Steal and use the achievements of others”: which is essential for getting to the top, whilst those at the bottom never stop complaining about our incompetence. In the slang of the useless, this is called “taking all the credit“.

3. “Deny having done anything”: even though you’ve been caught on film committing the worst possible crime, deny it all. It could always be thought that it’s a complex plot created by your worst enemy to question your honesty.

4. “Don’t face up to things and avoid making statements”: never try to defend yourself if you’ve done something bad. You will be accused of things that you hadn’t even thought of. It’s better to avoid making statements and mention a brief: “I haven’t done anything, this is a plot against my honesty and good name”.

5. “Look for false witnesses to back up the lie”: there is always an absent-minded friend, one of those who’s dying to be at your side, who will be willing to state anything, and back up our tale. It’s important to have some to hand.

6. “Get others to make statements for you”: if there is no other alternative, and rule 4 can’t be applied, it’s much better to get others to do it for you. In addition to the witnesses from the previous rule, try to get people who are fairly simple to make statements for you; they’ll end up boring everyone to death.

7. “Get a lawyer to make statements for you”: once the previous point has been exhausted, it’s best to get a lawyer to respond with excuses and contradictions.

8. “Invent a Saintly role”: if ultimately we have to say something, it’s important to have created a story that elevates us to the level of Holy Spirit and makes everyone believe that under no circumstances would we be capable of such acts.

9. “Throw stones at the enemy”: someone wants to back us into a corner? However saintly they are, they will always have a dark side. Look for it and hit them hard until no doubt remains that the person is worse than the devil.

10. “Invent a conspiracy”: if someone has backed us into a corner, and we haven’t been able to take them down, there is no other alternative than to plot a conspiracy, using a smoke screen. The most common stories are those that involve the abuse or harassment of women, because they always manage to attract nonsensical parrots.

I enjoy talking about positive things, but sometimes it’s important to mention bad practices, because whether we like it or not, they are the first thing we have to avoid. None of these rules have come from the Internet or a book. I have experienced them all first hand, in trials and attacks, and they have helped me to detect what I call human cockroaches. I always recommend the fantastic book by Fernando Trías de Bes, “El libro negro del emprendedor” -The entrepreneur’s black book-, which talks of the huge mistakes that many entrepreneurs make, and believe me, you learn more from mistakes than from success. Following Fernando’s lead, shortly I’ll be able to publish “El libro negro del coach” -The coach’s black book- (or that of the politician, banker, whichever profession you prefer), because there is no lack of examples of incompetent people.

1) The middle class is dead. A few weeks ago I visited a friend of mine who manages a trillion dollars. No joke. A trillion. If I told you the name of the family he worked for you would say, “they have a trillion? Really?” But that’s what happens when ten million dollars compounds at 2% over 200 years.

He said, “look out the windows”. We looked out at all the office buildings around us. “What do you see?” he said. “I don’t know.” “They’re empty! All the cubicles are empty. The middle class is being hollowed out.” And I took a closer look. Entire floors were dark. Or there were floors with one or two cubicles but the rest empty. “It’s all outsourced or technology has taken over for the paper shufflers,” he said.

“Not all the news is bad,” he said. “More people entered the upper class than ever last year.” But, he said, more people are temp staffers than ever.

And that’s the new paradigm. The middle class has died. The American Dream never really existed. It was a marketing scam.

And it was. The biggest provider of mortgages for the past 50 years, Fannie Mae, had as their slogan, “We make the American Dream come true.” It was just a marketing slogan all along. How many times have I cried because of a marketing slogan. And then they ruined it.

2) You’ve been replaced.

Technology, outsourcing, a growing temp staffing industry, productivity efficiencies, have all replaced the middle class.

The working class. Most jobs that existed 20 years ago aren’t needed now. Maybe they never were needed. The entire first decade of this century was spent with CEOs in their Park Avenue clubs crying through their cigars, “how are we going to fire all this dead weight?”. 2008 finally gave them the chance. “It was the economy!” they said. The country has been out of a recession since 2009. Four years now. But the jobs have not come back. I asked many of these CEOs: did you just use that as an excuse to fire people, and they would wink and say, “let’s just leave it at that.”

I’m on the board of directors of a temp staffing company with one billion dollars in revenues. I can see it happening across every sector of the economy. Everyone is getting fired. Everyone is toilet paper now.

Flush. (robots are the new middle class)

3) Corporations don’t like you. The executive editor of a major news publication took me out to lunch to get advice on how to expand their website traffic. But before I could talk he started complaining to me: “our top writers keep putting their twitter names in their posts and then when they get more followers they start asking for raises.”

“What’s the problem?” I said. “Don’t you want writers that are popular and well-respected?”

When I say a “major news publication” I am talking MAJOR.

He said, “no, we want to be about the news. We don’t want anyone to be an individual star.”

In other words, his main job was to destroy the career aspirations of his most talented people, the people who swore their loyalty to him, the people who worked 90 hours a week for him. If they only worked 30 hours a week and were slightly more mediocre he would’ve been happy. But he doesn’t like you. He wants to you stay in the hole and he will throw you a meal every once in awhile in exchange for your excrement. If anyone is a reporter out there and wants to message me privately I will tell you who it was. But basically, it’s all of your bosses. Every single one of them.

4) Money is not happiness. A common question during my Twitter Q&A (that I give every Thursday from 330-430 PM EST), asked at least once a week, is “should I take the job I like or should I take the job that pays more money”.

Leaving aside the question of “should I take a job at all”, let’s talk about money for a second.

First, the science: studies show that an increase in salary only offers marginal to zero increase in “happiness” above a certain level. Why is this? Because the basic fact: people spend what they make. If your salary increases $5,000 you spend an extra $2000 on features for your car, you have an affair, you buy a new computer, a better couch, a bigger TV, and then you ask, “where did all the money go?” Even though you needed none of the above now you need one more thing: another increase in your salary, so back to the corporate casino for one more try at the salary roulette wheel. I have never once seen anyone save the increase in their salary.

In other words, don’t stay at the job for safe salary increases over time. That will never get you where you want – freedom from financial worry. Only free time, imagination, creativity, and an ability to disappear will help you deliver value that nobody ever delivered before in the history of mankind.

5) Count right now how many people can make a major decision that can ruin your life.

I don’t like it when one person can make or break me. A boss. A publisher. A TV producer. A buyer of my company. At any one point I’ve had to kiss ass to all of the above. I hate it. I will never do it again.

The way to avoid this is to diversify the things you are working on so no one person or customer or boss or client can make a decision that could make you rich or destroy you or fulfill your life’s dreams or crush them. I understand it can’t happen in a day. Start planning now how to create your own destiny instead of allowing people who don’t like you to control your destiny. When you do this count, make sure the number comes to over 20. Then when you spin the wheel the odds are on your side that a winning number comes up.

6) Is your job satisfying your needs? I will define “needs” the way I always do, via the four legs of what I call “the daily practice”. Are your physical needs, your emotional needs, your mental needs, and your spiritual needs being satisfied?

The only time I’ve had a job that did was when I had to do little work so that I had time on the side to either write, or start a business, or have fun, or spend time with friends. The times when I haven’t is when I was working too hard, dealing with people I didn’t like, getting my creativity crushed over and over, and so on. When you are in those situations you need to plot out your exit strategy.

Your hands are not made to type out memos. Or put paper through fax machines. Or hold a phone up while you talk to people you dislike. 100 years from now your hands will rot like dust in your grave. You have to make wonderful use of those hands now. Kiss your hands so they can make magic.

One can argue, “not everyone is entitled to have all of those needs satisfied at a job.” That’s true. But since we already know that the salary of a job won’t make you happy, you can easily modify lifestyle and work to at least satisfy more of your needs. And the more these needs are satisfied the more you will create the conditions for true abundance to come into your life.

Your life is a house. Abundance is the roof. But the foundation and the plumbing need to be in there first or the roof will fall down, the house will be unlivable. You create the foundation by following the Daily Practice. I say this not because I am selling anything but because it worked for me every time my roof caved in. My house has been bombed, my home has been cold and blistering winds gave me frost bite, but I managed to rebuild. This is how I did it.

(another day on the job)

7) Your Retirement Plan is For S**t. I don’t care how much you set aside for your 401k. It’s over. The whole myth of savings is gone. Inflation will carve out the bulk of your 401k. And in order to cash in on that retirement plan you have to live for a really long time doing stuff you don’t like to do. And then suddenly you’re 80 and you’re living a reduced lifestyle in a cave and can barely keep warm at night.

The only retirement plan is to Choose Yourself. To start a business or a platform or a lifestyle where you can put big chunks of money away. Some people can say, “well, I’m just not an entrepreneur .”

This is not true. Everyone is an entrepreneur. The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur: an ability to fail, an ability to have ideas, to sell those ideas, to execute on those ideas, and to be persistent so even as you fail you learn and move onto the next adventure. Or be an entrepreneur at work. An “entre-ployee”. Take control of who you report to, what you do, what you create. Or start a business on the side. Deliver some value, any value, to any body, to somebody, and watch that value compound into a carer.

What is your other choice? To stay at a job where the boss is trying to keep you down, will eventually replace you, will pay you only enough for you to survive, will rotate between compliments and insults so you stay like a fish caught on the bait as he reels you in. Is that your best other choice? You and I have the same 24 hours each day. Is that how you will spend yours?

8) Excuses. “I’m too old”. “I’m not creative.” “I need the insurance.” “I have to raise my kids”. I was at a party once. A stunningly beautiful woman came up to me and said, “James, how are you!?”

WHAT? Who are you?

I said, “hey! I’m doing well.” But I had no idea who I was talking to. Why would this woman be talking to me? I was too ugly. It took me a few minutes of fake conversation to figure out who she was.

It turns out she was the frumpish-looking woman who had been fired six months earlier from the job we were at. She had cried as she packed up her cubicle when she was fired. She was out of shape, she looked about 30 years older than she was, and now her life was going to go from better to worse. Until…she realized that she was out of the zoo. In the George Lucas movie, THX-1138 (the name of the main character was “THX-1138″) everyone’s choices are removed and they all live underground because above ground is “radioactive”. Finally THX decides better to die above ground than suffer forever underground where he wasn’t allowed to love. He wasn’t free.

He makes his way above ground, evading all the guards and police. And when he gets there, it’s sunny, everyone above ground is beautiful, and they are waiting for him with open arms and kisses. The excuse “but it’s radioactive out there!” was just there to keep him down.

“This is easy for you to say,” people say to me. “Some of us HAVE to do this!” The now-beautiful woman had to do it also. “What are you doing now?” I asked her. “Oh, you know,” she said. “Consulting.” But some people say, “I can’t just go out there and consult. What does that even mean?”

And to that I answer, “Ok, I agree with you.” Who am I to argue? If someone insists they need to be in prison even though the door is unlocked then I am not going to argue. They are free to stay in prison.

[Or, you can see my Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Dealing with Excuses.]

9) It's ok to take baby steps. “I can’t just QUIT!” people say. “I have bills to pay”. I get it. Nobody is saying quit today. Before a human being runs a marathon they learn to crawl, then take baby steps, then walk, then run. Then exercise every day and stay healthy. Then run a marathon. Heck, what am I even talking about? I can’t run more than two miles without collapsing in agony. I am a wimp.

Make the list right now. Every dream. I want to be a bestselling author. I want to reduce my material needs. I want to have freedom from many of the worries that I have succumbed to all my life. I want to be healthy. I want to help all of the people around me or the people who come into my life. I want everything I do to be a source of help to people. I want to only be around people I love, people who love me. I want to have time for myself.

THESE ARE NOT GOALS. These are themes. Every day, what do I need to do to practice those themes? It starts the moment I wake up: “who can I help today?” I ask the darkness when I open my eyes. “Who would you have me help today?” I’m a secret agent and I’m waiting for my mission. Ready to receive. This is how you take baby steps. This is how eventually you run towards freedom.

10) Abundance will never come from your job. Only stepping out of the prison imposed on you from your factory will allow you to achieve abundance. You can’t see it now. It’s hard to see the gardens when you are locked in jail. Abundance only comes when you are moving along your themes. When you are truly enhancing the lives of the people around you.

When every day you wake up with that motive of enhancement. Enhance your family, your friends, your colleagues, your clients, potential customers, readers, people who you don’t even know yet but you would like to know. Become a beacon of enhancement and then when the night is gray, all of the boats will move towards you, bringing their bountiful riches.

To assist the Baby Boomers (still in the game) and the Gen X's here are the vague and pretentious terms you should stop saying today, what Gen Y thinks when you say it and a suggested alternative:

I'm Busy, I have been Busy, or just Busy - Gen Y thinks, "This guy is lying. He is just working." SUGGEST: Saying you're busy is like saying "How about the weather?" Tell the truth, be open and engaging.

No Problem, Done, Got it - Gen Y thinks, "Yeah, This probably isn't gonna happen." SUGGEST: Actually making a plan. A more thorough answer about how it will happen.

The Bottom Line is... - Gen Y thinks, "There aren't any lines in our international community." SUGGEST: Tell them what you think.

No Offense, But - Gen Y thinks, "This jerk, is going to say something offensive." SUGGEST: Don't ever say "No Offense...", you will sound like the Clippers owner, Donald Sterling.

So, or So... - Gen Y thinks, "This guy is a jerk." SUGGEST: Never begin a sentence with "So", it confirms you are a jerk.

Call me – Gen Y thinks, “Text me” SUGGEST: “Call me, don’t text.”

Synergy – Gen Y thinks, “Wait, What? Is that alternative fuel?” SUGGEST: “Work as a Team, Cooperate.”

Best Business Practice – Gen Y thinks, “There is no list, this is from the 80’s.” SUGGEST: Never saying it again, the list of BBP's does not exist.

At My Old Job..., We use to... - Gen Y thinks, "Whatevs, doesn't matter everything changed six months ago." SUGGEST: Never talk about the old job, this is a new job with new stuff. Use experience to make decisions, but don't talk about the "old job".

Core Competency – Gen Y thinks, “This dude is a democrat, this used to work six months ago. Is a company competent?” SUGGEST: See the definition of competence.

Corporate Values – Gen Y thinks, “This dude is a republican and very closed minded. Value = cost, so this guy is weird." SUGGEST: "Corporate Neutrality Rules."

Empower – Gen Y thinks, “You want me to do this alone? WTH!” SUGGEST: “You can do it, make the choice!”

I’m Not the Smartest/Brightest but – Gen Y thinks, “Here comes advice…” SUGGEST: Skip to the advice.

Team Player – Gen Y thinks, “We are a team? I never did sports.” SUGGEST: “We can do it together or as a group.”

Next-Gen – Gen Y thinks, “I loved that game, I think it was like Half-Life." or "He is talking about meeeee!” SUGGEST: Say design for the future, iGen, or Generation Z.

Boots on the Ground – Gen Y thinks, “Are we going to war?” SUGGEST: You learn how to use Social Media to Include Twitter/Facetime/Skype/Vimeo.

Five 9’s – Gen Y thinks, “Why didn’t he just say 100%?” SUGGEST: Say “100%”

Too Many Chiefs (Chefs) not enough Indians (cooks) – Gen Y thinks, "This guy is racist, who says, who says Indians.” Or “Who Cooks? What?” SUGGEST: Too many people on oovoo.

Low Hanging Fruit – Gen Y thinks, “I have no idea where fruit grows. Is he talking about Apple?” SUGGEST: “Attack at the iPod level.”

Comparing Apples to Oranges (or Apples) - Gen Y thinks, “Now Im hungry.” SUGGEST: “Comparing Apple to Android (Apple) or Blogging to Facebook (or Blogging)

Phoned it in - Gen Y thinks, “Am I talking too much? Maybe, he didn’t get the email?” SUGGEST: “Remote it in”

Sarcasm - Gen Y thinks, “Isn’t Seinfeld dead?” SUGGEST: Use witty inclusive or self-referential humor.

On my Radar - Gen Y thinks, “WTH is radar?” SUGGEST: Radar is apparently still used in games.

It’s true: “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure”.

I have an addiction and it’s called “yerdling”.I blame Jeremiah Owyang of CrowdCompanies.

He introduced me to Yerdle during his insightful presentation on the Collaborative Economy in April 2014. Like Twitter, I did not initially "get it".

So what is this Collaborative Economy and – what the heck – is Yerdle?

The Collaborative Economy

This “trend” has been a long time coming but was finally given a name that has gained a lot of traction.The term encompasses three societal developments:

1. The Sharing Economy (aka The “Peer-to-Peer” Economy
2. The Maker Movement (or “Maker Culture”)
3. The Co-Innovation Movement

Here Five Nuggets:

1. "Sharing is the new buying”. It saves money, creates an experience, and is efficient.
2. Societal and cultural changes like social media have paved the way. Examples are the Dollar Shave Club that proves that any product can be a service, or #UberTree. Yes, there's an app for that, even for your X-mas tree.Or outsource your clothing choices with Trunk Club.
3. New technology is opening up new business opportunities. Example: Google & Uberare competing in the area of shipping (watch out Amazon). Smartphones and other existing tools are enablers.
4. Sustainability is a driver (but not the main one): See the Patagonia & eBay Common Threads initiative provide a used clothing marketplace.
5. "The highest form of loyalty is shared destiny”, says Jeremiah. Example: TheUHaul Investors Club provides UHaul with capital, while generating customer profits and commitment. Or check out Lending Clubs as a way to avoid banks.

Thanks for reading this post—I just have a few requests. Will you please like it so I know you read it, and share it on all of your social media platforms? I await your comments on the best parts of this post and how I could have improved it; let’s discuss by phone today.

I’ll drop by your office Monday for lunch. That will be the perfect time for you to introduce me to your boss’s boss.

To firm up the plans, I’ll check in with you again tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ve sent an email introducing you to my dentist. He's great, and I know you’ll be very interested in his work, so I gave him your cellphone number. Oh, and we should totally write together—you’ll learn a lot from me.

Finally, please rate my wife on www.hotornot.com.

Inc.com reached out to ask if we could round up a few of the quotes he unearthed. Here's a sampling:

"Your margin is my opportunity."

As Griffin explains "Bezos sees a competitor's love of margins and other financial 'ratios' as an opportunity for Amazon since the competitor will cling to them while he focuses on absolute dollar free cash flow and slices through them like a hot knife through butter."

"Bezos spelled out his focus on absolute dollar free cash flow in his 2004 letter to shareholders. He is not about to run his company based on a ratio much beloved by someone outside the company, such as a Wall Street analyst," Griffin elaborates. Are you looking focused on the right numbers for your business or are you more worried about hitting metrics that someone else told you matter?

"The balance of power is shifting toward consumers and away from companies… The right way to respond to this if you are a company is to put the vast majority of your energy, attention, and dollars into building a great product or service and put a smaller amount into shouting about it, marketing it."

"In the old world, you devoted 30% of your time to building a great service and 70% of your time to shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts," Bezos continued. Are you too focused on how you talk about your business and not on what it actually does? "The very best businesses acquire customers 'organically' without advertising. Great products and word of mouth drives sales at these companies. By contrast, companies which must sell their wares with huge advertising budgets are losing their edge in the Internet era," comments Griffin.

"If you double the number of experiments you do per year you're going to double your inventiveness."

Perhaps increasing your innovation quotient is simpler than it first appears. Simply try more things. Based on this quote, that appears to be the Amazon approach.

"If you decide that you're going to do only the things you know are going to work, you're going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table."

This point is obviously related to the one above. Experiments, by definition, can fail. Avoid failure to spare your ego and you cut down on the number of experiments, and it's often a bigger problem to fail to experiment than it is to experiment and fail. According to Griffin,"“Warren Buffett puts it this way: 'Typically, our most egregious mistakes fall in the omission, rather than the commission, category. That may spare Charlie [Munger] and me some embarrassment, since you don't see these errors; but their invisibility does not reduce their cost.'"

"You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate."

OK, it's not only Bezos who says innovation can be lonely, but he certainly exemplifies the principle. "You can't outperform the market if you are the market. Similarly, you must adopt a non-consensus view and be right about that view to beat competitors," Griffin says.

"Frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out."

Do you spend your days dreaming of a time a flood of money will scour away your business's problems? Your daydreams may be misguided. "More money often equals more problems. Companies with too much money are often less rather than more innovative," notes Griffin. It can, of course, be hard to learn to love your constraints, but this quote suggests there are benefits to be found in doing so.

"The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they overrule the hierarchy."

Many companies make choices based on the seniority or charisma of those arguing the various points of view. Not at Amazon. Could your company benefit from trying a more fact-based approach?

It is my belief that the fanfare and fuss surrounding a leader’s achievements often overshadows how they reached and maintained their position at the summit of success.

There is a cult of personality around Warren Buffett, the revered, even fabled chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway. It is not something he has cultivated, but his billions of dollars no doubt fuel a large measure of interest. If you fall for all the hoopla, you miss the real Warren Buffett – a leader in business and the community virtually without peer.

The tens of thousands of shareholders in his company, attending their annual meeting at CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska, are not fooled. They all know about what I like to describe as A.I.L.C. - or the four states of Warren Buffett.

Authenticity

People respond to authenticity: they need to know that a leader is everything they seem to be. They recoil from baseless bravado and overblown promise. In today’s society, all leaders are on a watching brief.

So, in our era of suspicion and scepticism, that there is a competitive process for the 30,000 places at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting is clear evidence of Warren Buffett’s genuine, real connection with the people and of the high regard in which he is held.

Executive management and directors tend to approach these meetings as highly scripted and defensive affairs, with questions and answers anticipating every possible shareholder accusation or complaint.

In contrast, Warren Buffett hires an entire stadium and conference centre for three days. There is a steak night at his favourite restaurant, picnics and shopping days. And when it comes to engagement with shareholders, there is six hours of unscripted, nothing off-limits interaction. It is the definition of a positive conversation between management and shareholders. It is a celebration rather than an interrogation. It is interaction at a human level.

Instinct

When it comes to making the big decisions, some leaders listen to their natural instinct, whereas others ignore it, consistently deferring to advisers or the safest option to steer their decision.

It is obvious that Warren Buffett sits in the former category. Famously he bought his first stock when he was just 11 years old. He also started a newspaper delivery business which allowed him to buy a farm at the age of 14. How is that for natural instinct?

And it has never left him. He has always had an instinct for value and innately known that it comes with time, not in the moment.

He places a premium on tangible value, trusts his instincts and, with enviable patience, stays the course. Not for Warren Buffett the shifting trends and fashions of Wall Street.

Leadership

One of the biggest lessons in leadership is learning how to let go. This is why recruiting the right people to take with you on your leadership journey is essential. You are looking for authentic, loyal people you can trust and, simply put, that you like being around. Only then can a leader confidently empower their staff with responsibility and delegate decision-making.

Warren Buffett HQ is just 24 people. He has complete trust in operating managers to run the companies in which he buys large stakes. He has worked with his partner Charlie Munger for 54 years. This says a lot about Warren Buffett’s ability to surround himself with people that he believes in.

Empowering staff and delegating decision-making are the hallmarks of great leadership. With confidence and trust comes an ability to invest in your staff, to give them freedom of movement to make their own decisions and accept the risks that come with that.

Community

Real leaders are not takers. For them, success is not about accumulation, it is about how you made your community a better place. How you stimulated positive views, encouraged people to be better and supported those who needed it.

It is clear to me that the essence of Warren Buffett is not money. Whether he is lobbying President Obama to change unfair tax laws that see him paying only 19 per cent tax, when his staff are paying more than 30 per cent, or committing 85 per cent of his fortune to support the lifesaving research and biotechnology work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the essence of Warren Buffett is giving back to the community.

So the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway are not taken in by the fanfare that accompanies one of the world’s richest people. Sure, like him, they are about returns, but they know he is no different now to when he was a boy building his first business. They respect and accept his thinking, and his trust in and his delegation to others.

It appears to me, that money is a by-product of his passion, rather than the core of his focus. Therein lies an extraordinary lesson for those young and ambitious people who are at that stage perhaps of being blinded by "success". It comes with passion and focus, not from a quick trade.

Old fashioned values of loyalty, decency and trust – so much a part of my grandfather’s era - are worth more today than ever before and I suspect are the true source of Warren Buffett’s wealth.

At a time where the United States appears to live in the moment, when once it had the vision to land on the moon, it prompts me to consider Warren Buffett – not the billionaire, but the man who built a culture that will be his succession plan. He reminds the world, and the United States in particular, that traditional values build hard working and big thinking economies. It is time we paused to reflect on this.

When you fail to deal with a toxic employee promptly, much is at stake. Some points to consider:

• You'll damage trust. If you indulge negative behavior and allow it to continue, trust in management will wear thin very, very quickly. In fact, it may completely erode. Think twice before you gloss over behaviors which could be characterized as "acting out" or potentially damaging.
• Motivation can plummet. When you reward negative behavior (even inadvertently), you immediately disrupt the expectancy that hard work will lead to valued outcomes.You then risk top talent running (not walking) out the door.
• Core values will seem worthless. Every managerial action, is an opportunity to either reinforce or tear away at the core tenants of the team. All the groundwork you've laid concerning team values and commitment to those values, will evaporate quickly when damaging behaviors persist.
• Energy wanes. I've seen team after team lose energy and focus, as the result of dealing day after day with a toxic team member. Over time you’ll likely see apathy and lowered engagement. Acting swiftly is truly the best strategy.

Looking at the beginning, middle and end of the path, you don't need to judge where you belong. All of us have felt at least a few instances where we were perfectly loved and completely lovable. For most people, these times go back to childhood or a first romance. How, then, do we regain such a state? By walking the path that lies ahead. The world's spiritual traditions have provided many road maps, but here I'll offer a few common elements without religious overlay.

Step 1: Making contact with your inner self

This implies paying more attention to self-care. Through meditation, self-reflection or contemplation, and the experience of quiet at least a few minutes every day, you make contact with your inner world. You learn to appreciate and enjoy it.

Step 2: Honestly facing your inner obstacles and resistance

Most people don't like to face their weaknesses and flaws because they judge against them. But you are only human, and you will find that your sense of insecurity and anxiety represents feelings from the past that can be healed. In fact, they want to be released if you will give them a chance. The first step in healing is to look inside and let the process of releasing begin. Healing can proceed along many avenues, from therapy and support groups to energy work, massage, mind-body programs and various Eastern medical approaches.

Step 3: Dealing with old wounds

One could also call this advanced healing. As old residues of negative emotions are released, you find that you are stuck with resentments, hurts and scars that must be dealt with. Beneath the scar, such wounds feel very fresh. It takes help from someone else who understands the situation to go into these dark places -- it could be a close friend, mentor, confidant, priest or therapist. No one can do this work alone, I feel, but I'm not underlining any sense of danger or fear. The work can be done safely, without anxiety, and once you start, there's a tremendous sense of exhilaration, even triumph in the process. Just find someone who has walked the path successfully and sympathizes with you fully.

Step 4: Forgiving your past

You shouldn't jump too quickly into forgiveness. It's all too easy to pretend to yourself that you forgive old hurts and abusive treatment, when, in fact, what you are eager for is to escape the pain. The absence of pain, achieved through healing, gives you the right foundation for deep, lasting forgiveness. Self-acceptance is required first, and the realization that you -- and everyone around you -- have been doing the best you can from your own level of awareness. This can be quite a challenge when someone has hurt you deeply, but you can't fully separate from wrongdoing until you accept that others are trapped inside a reality they can't escape.

Step 5: Accepting where you are right now

This, too, is a stage you shouldn't jump into too quickly. The present moment isn't free of the burdens, memories and wounds of the past. They must be attended to before you can look around, breathe easily and love the moment you are in right now. A good beginning is to catch yourself when you have a bad memory and say, "I am not that person anymore." For the truth is that you aren't.

Step 6: Forming relationships where you feel loved and appreciated

The path to unconditional love isn't meant to be lonely. You should walk it with people who reflect the love you see in yourself. You are likely to look around at some point and realize that not everyone among your family and friends is in sync with your aspirations. Without rejecting them, you have the right to find people who understand the path you're walking and sympathize with it. They are more likely to appreciate you for who you are now, and who you want to become.

Step 7: Practicing the kind of love you aspire to receive

Long ago, around the time I wrote a book called The Path to Love, I encountered many people, most of them women, who were constantly waiting for "the one" to show up and sweep them off their feet. But the only way to realistically find "the one" is to be "the one" yourself. Like attracts like, and the more you live your own ideal of love, the more your light will draw another light to you. This single point, I am told, has helped the most people find their love.

If you spend time every day with one or two of these steps, you will find a practical road that takes you to more love than you have in your life today. The steps unfold naturally once you begin to devote attention to them. You were born to be perfectly loved and you are completely lovable. The loss of that status is what's unnatural, not wanting to return to it, and the return means reconnecting with your true self. The path has been walked successfully for centuries, so I hope you take heart and join the fortunate ones who aspire this high. There is no better time to begin than now.

The biggest misconception you can make in business - or life - is that the people around you are somehow limited in ways that make it impossible for them to rise past a certain level. If you perceive this to be true, the limitation lies in you, not them. While there is no magic formula for helping people move past their limitations, I'd like to suggest a strategy that has worked in the past:

Add meaning in addition to money

We all need money, and some people are endlessly motivated by getting more money. But for most people, the promise of money is not enough to bring out their very best. People won't work twice as hard to increase their salary by 3.7%. People won't soar past their "limitations" to earn $1,957 instead of $1,899.

But if you give someone the chance to both support their family and change the world for the better, amazing things happen. Suddenly, working late feels good. You are part of something bigger than yourself. Instead of simply selling another widget, you are doing what you were born to do.

There are many ways to add meaning...

Make a meaningful connection to a social good

On an ongoing basis, you could give one or two percent of your company's revenues to build schools in Africa or to support underprivileged students in towns close to each of your offices. If you do this, don't treat the money as abstract numbers. Encourage employees to visit these schools and bring back photos and anecdotes about the differences your support is making in the lives of others.

Give one day each quarter as an awesome volunteer force

Giving away money can make a big difference, but it sometimes fails to give the donor much satisfaction. Send $75 to Megacharity and you may never understand what difference your donation made versus their $325 million budget. But if four times a year everyone in your office spends a day building a house for Habitat for Humanity or volunteering at the local food bank, you will be able to look into the eyes of the people you are helping.

Reinvent your industry

Not all meaning comes from social good. Being a pioneer can feel just as good. Our world is rife with opportunities to replace outdated business models with much more responsive and flexible approaches. I imagine that all the people involved in these projects long felt grateful that they helped to: put the first man on the moon, invent the first personal computer, create the first profitable e-commerce site in their industry, or even bring a fresh new retail store to their town's Main Street.

Instead of waiting for some dynamic startup to disrupt your industry, why not band your colleagues together and disrupt your own industry?

• Completely eliminate the practices that drive your customers crazy.
• Dramatically reduce the complexity customers face.
• Cut prices by 90 percent (or more). Yes, it's sometimes possible.
• Make stupid objects smart.
• Be utterly transparent, showing both customers and employees how you make money and how your entire firm is performing.
• Make loyalty dramatically easier than disloyalty.

Radical goals are what inspire people to rise past their limitations. They add meaning to an endeavor.

Best of all, reinvent your industry to include social good

If you go to the trouble of radically re-thinking how your company and industry works, why not also consider ways that you can both make money and help others? Build altruism into the very fabric of your culture. Embrace the opposite of self-promotion; if you help other people reach their goals, your reputation will grow based on your deeds rather than your words. Replace greed with generosity; the more you help others, the more people will embrace your services and you will do well by doing good.

Many of us know in our bones that our way of life is not sustainable. I mean this on many levels... "I can't keep driving 45 minutes each day in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 30 more years"... "I can't keep marketing sugar water as though it is the key to happiness"... "I can't keep pretending that money is enough to make me happy"... "I can't accept that my entire career will never be more than sucking up to managers so I can get a 2.3% raise."

We all have different conceptions of what is meaningful. Figure out what is meaningful to the people around you, and you will discover the path to making extraordinary things happen. Here are 20 more ideas to get your imagination flowing...