(Photo from Silicon Forum. Other person is new friend Stuart Robbins.)
The Aspirations of Young People
Sitting outside on the courtyard of my school on this beautiful San Francisco day….
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Friend: "What I’m most looking forward to is someday joining a men’s softball team. I want to go out on Sunday afternoons with a bunch of drunk co-workers in a men’s league. I’ll be like, ‘Hey, there’s Rick from finance in left field! That son-of-a-bitch, I haven’t seen him in three weeks!’ "
Me: [Laughing hard] "Tell me you got that from some movie, since that’s brilliant if you made that up on the spot."
Friend: "Quasi made up…Workplace jargon, I love it."
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And that, my friends, is Generation Y’s loving anticipation of corporate America.
20 Reasons Not to Have Children (Followed by 10 Reasons Why You Should)
At the moment I don’t plan on having kids. This isn’t a hip view, but I think the tide is changing.
Why not? See 20 Reasons Not to Have Children. Then, see 10 Reasons to Have Children (on the same page).
Self-Deprecation vs. Self-Bashing
Perhaps the single biggest divider between the good and the great is self-confidence.
So I hate when people aren’t self-confident. I hate being around someone who says, "Because I’m so lazy…" or "I’m such a terrible writer so…" or "I totally suck at this so…" or "I’m always scatterbrained so…". Come on — be the force!!
A theory came to me today: people who try to self-deprecate unintentionally cross over into self-bashing. It’s a fine line. Self-deprecation is really important. But it’s not something you do through self-bashing.
Richer First-Time Interactions: Every Cold Call Can Be Warm
I get about a couple requests a week from strangers asking me to take some action (look at something and give feedback, talk on the phone, meet for coffee). It’s astonishing the variance in quality of such cold calls. For anyone who has a blog (like me) there is an abundance of material that can make a cold call more meaningful.
So, I hardly ever agree to talk to someone random who says, "Hey Ben, read your blog, wanna talk on the phone this week?" On the other hand, I do like talking to people — like a fellow named Dan did today — who provide more color. Something like, "Hey Ben, I’ve been reading your blog. I share your views on religion and self-improvement. I don’t agree with you on X, but would love to talk about it sometime. Here’s some background on who I am. XYZ. We also seem to share XYZ as friends."
I still write cold call emails to people I want to meet — though far less frequently than I used to, since I’m now usually a degree or two away already — and always try to show that I have looked him/her up and do see real reasons why we should talk. Perhaps similar interests. Common friends. Common career path. Common reading list. Whatever.
There’s no excuse not to make a first-time interaction rich. With blogs and Google, every cold call can be warm.