Volunteer is a Real J-O-B

"Just like a diamond, a person's net worth is based on the perceived value" - C. E. Reid

The only difference between being a volunteer and performing a job is free vs. fee. An intern or volunteer fills real job roles that organizations need and realize benefits. Give yourself credit on your resume for performing a "real" job, as a volunteer. Potential client companies may tend to offer a lesser salary [aka net worth] to anyone that is not working. A volunteer position provides the perception of working, which maintains or increases net worth.

2 things happen when identifying "volunteer" work on a resume:

1. The organization gets some premo free publicity and marketing on YOUR resume
2. A person's net worth is reduced by identifying a valid job role as being a "volunteer".
   

How come doctors, lawyers, management / political consultants and other select careers increase their net worth by volunteering? A doctor at Bellevue Hospital volunteers at a free medical clinic in Harlem. A corporate lawyer volunteers at the "Legal Aid Society" representing people charged with a crime. Both professionals get credit from their peers and augment their income at their next job. What's up with that picture? How come they get ahead?

The answer is these types of professionals validate their volunteer work as a "real job".

1. Blasphemy is never committed, as it relates to their net worth, by referring to free work as being a volunteer. They use the word "pro bono" (Latin for the public good).
2. Not all, but most these professionals list their "pro bono" work as another job in their curriculum vitae (another type of resume used in these circles and other countries).

How to Validate Your Volunteer Work as a Real Job?

1. Understand and be convinced your volunteer work is a real job.
2. Consider moving a volunteer job into the job experience section of your resume, especially if it directly relates to current skills required for a potential job opportunity. This fills a gap, if not currently employed.
3. Ask for a reference letter from the CEO, Executive Director or person of influence within the organization.
4. Request a recommendation on LinkedIn from senior management of that organization.
5. Consider adding the company you're doing pro bono work as a "current" company you work for within your LinkedIn profile.
   

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2009 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Life and Networking Go Together

The trip wire for networking outcomes is separating it from everyday living. Life is an event. Any type of human interaction is an opportunity to network. We mentally stress ourselves by segregating when, where and how we are going to network.

Many years ago I replaced the word "networking" with "enjoying life". Oh sure, I refer to it by its given label when talking to people. Mentally I'm just "living in the moment". I bask in the sunlight of another person's presence. As I listen to the person, I also ask how can I help them achieve their goals. This keeps me at ease. There's no mental prepping. There's no undue pressure to get ready to be ready to network. Each person tells me what s/he wants. Then I try to meet people at their needs, by leveraging my network.

When I took my daughter to the circus or I'm having dinner at a restaurant with my wife, networking opportunities appear or they don't. It doesn't matter. I'm just "enjoying life". My all time favorite is family gatherings. My family gets on my case about it all the time. They each hate it when they see me exchanging business cards, when it's just a simple birthday party. I've been challenged with words like "what do I have to do to make you stop giving out business cards at family gatherings"? My response is "give me a referral or give me the obscene amount of money for 1 month that I pay to rent a 4 bedroom house". So far no one in my family has met either challenge. So I continue to enjoy life.

Below are examples of everyday social interaction meeting technology. Each has its own separate value, but all have one common denominator.

People Interaction	Formal / Business Venue	Social Activities, Family Gatherings, Going to the Beach, Barbecues or Vacation	Everyday Conversation or Per Chance Meeting
Internet Category	Business Networking	Social Networking	Microblogging / Forums
Platforms	LinkedIn	Facebook / MySpace	Twitter / Yahoo News Groups
Common Denominator	Opportunities to Network (Enjoying Life)

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2009 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Use "Leverage"

We use computers. We use calculators. We use power tools. We use a Kleenex tissue to blow our nose and discard it.

In personal relationship development the statements "I can use you" or "we could use your organization" should be avoided. These statements deliver a subliminal message that says "when you outlive your usefulness, I won't need you anymore - next".

We leverage people. We leverage a person's position in an organization. We leverage a person's skills, experience or knowledge. We leverage a person's network. We leverage a person's authority to help us a achieve an outcome.

Every person we meet has potential assets we can leverage. People may not be aware they possess assets. The key is identifying those assets. Make the statement "I would like to leverage your [skills], [experience], [organization], [position] etc . . ." or "I have an opportunity that leverages your skills . . .". Then present (aka sell) benefits to people as to why they should align themselves with you.

Stay in touch long after leveraging a person's assets. This eliminates people feeling like they have been used. People are not a Kleenex tissue.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2009 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

What is ETP Network?

If you've ever wanted a bird's eye view of the ETP Network, your eagle has landed. Now you can answer the question friends and associates ask; What is ETP Network?

Brand new and hot off the press, the ETP Network introduces its newest publication, "The ETP Network: An Organizational Overview" designed, written, and compiled by Editor-in-Chief Chip Hartman and his creative team.

Quick, grab your copy right now through the ETP Network toolbar > CEO Tools > What is ETP Network?

Think of the Organizational Overview as the ETP Network's elevator speech, condensing all of the most important information about the organization into one easy-to-read online document, designed for ease of use with just one topic per page.

If you're new to the ETP Network, here is your guidebook, your road map, your orientation package, and your pocket reference all rolled into one.

So get to know the ETP Network from the ground up. Download your copy of "The ETP Network: An Organizational Overview" today. It's available at an ETPNetwork.com web site near you.

Share a copy with everyone in your network - Do it Now, before you forget!!

How to Get to the Front of the Career Fair Line Quickly

Savvy Intrapreneurs are always training their eyes to spot opportunity. Embrace the current challenges in a way that positions you to adapt, improvise and overcome. In addition to job fairs, the suggestions below can be applied all conferences and events in your local area.

Can't afford to attend a $1,500 conference? Then volunteer.

I'll cut right to the chase.

1. Identify career fairs in your area.
2. Contact the sponsoring companies to see if they need volunteers to help out.
3. Get to the career fair an hour earlier than requested to meet other company representatives.
4. When you take a break, visit other company representatives you missed earlier.
   

Keep in mind, you're interviewing with every company through your volunteer actions and dress. The company "volunteer" badge gives you front line access. Plan on staying all day or as long as the company requires. Remember you're there to work and help out. Networking is a sideline activity, but take advantage of every free moment to do so.

Job Fair Listings And Companies

Carousel Expo - Career Fairs in Massachusetts & New Hampshire

DiversityJobFairs.com

JobExpo.com

JobFairUSA.com

Jobweb.com

NationalCareerFairs.com

NewspaperJobFairs.com

PSIJobfair.com

TargetedJobFairs.com

Other Job Fair Directories

Bestjobsusa.com Career Fair Directory

Careerfairs.com

Job Fair Listings - Davis Advertising

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Movers, Shakers and Rainmakers Are Givers

"No body cares how much you know until they know how much you care" -Zig Ziglar

Givers are the people, others remember most. Networking leaders are connectors who give, without the thought of something in return. Givers are the best marketers of their business or career skills. They understand the concept of keeping their name in front of people.

At your last business meeting, which could have been an interview, did you do the usual follow up? Yes you did. "Thank you for your time . . . yada, yada yada."

Since you didn't get the job or contract, now you have no more use for that person. Now you stop communicating with them. If you closed the deal or received the job offer letter, now you stay in touch with the person. There's something wrong with that picture. Then we wonder why do not get ahead in life.

Movers, shakers and rainmakers stay in touch, no matter what the outcome. Givers leverage relationships. They don't use people. During a business meeting the conversation provided a little insight the interviewer was into collectibles or golf or their company's community service "green" initiatives.

Movers, shakers and rainmakers key in on what is of interest to the other person. They follow up with articles, events, forums or organizations that may be of interest to that person. A year later givers are still performing this process. Movers, shakers and rainmakers are farmers that continue to plant seeds of good will. Eventually there is a harvest that bears personal fruit. When it happens, it usually produces BIG results for the givers.

Every time you send something to someone or call them, you are doing due diligence in keeping your name in front of people. This is called marketing. Have you heard the term "out of sight out of mind"? Any opportunity to share something with a person is marketing YOU. Become a living, breathing, walking, talking, writing marketing machine.

Friends, family and business associates are all part of the giving strategy that movers, shakers and rainmakers include in their selfless marketing strategy.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Selling Lemonade for 10 Cents

In another life hot summer days provided an opportunity for a few enterprising young children to increase their allowance [aka, income]. As a child growing up in the New City Edenwald housing projects, I innately developed a knack for meeting people at their needs. When other kids sold their lemonade for 5 cents a glass, I sold more lemonade at 10 cents a glass. Mind you, Country Time Lemonade wasn't around. My mother funded my lemonade operation, which consisted of 2 choices; some inexpensive lemonade like packet and fresh lemons. I chose fresh lemons. The pulp in the pitcher was the sales clincher. What is your sales clincher?

So a passerby walked by my lemonade stand. I capture their attention with "how about cooling off with a little ice cold lemonade". They respond "how much is your lemonade"? My response was "have a taste first". I pour a little sample. They taste it. I watch their facial response. I say "a full glass is 10 cents". Sold and sometimes a request for second glass . . . next. It was usually a good $2 day when the competition made 60 cents.

When selling ideas or marketing your services, you must meet people at their needs. What you want is of little consequence to another person. People do not care what you want.

That's why asking questions during an interview is crucial. You're not just showing an interest in the job. You're gathering intelligence to see what is of interest to the interviewer. What motivates them? What are their "hot buttons"? What is going to make them buy into your skills?

Do your homework before an interview. Review the company web site and Google the person you are going to meet. Know about the person to interject how your skill offering is within what makes the interviewer tick. If you find nothing about the person, make sure your questions are pointed in a manner that gives you the information you need to sell yourself.

What are the company mission and vision statements? What is the company culture like? The web site will usually provide this information. Use Google to get recent news items about the company.

Do your homework before you step on the invisible interview red carpet. The goal is to make a personal connection with the person interviewing you. It makes all the difference with the next step, salary offer and what you want as an end result.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Write Yourself a Check Right NOW

"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve" -Napoleon Hill.

My wife and I have written each other a check for $25,000,000. Each check is post dated 5 years into the future. We carry the checks in our wallets as a reminder to be committed in taking a little action everyday to make good on the check written to other person. Either way, we both win.

Take out your check book right now and write yourself a check for the yearly salary or income you expect to receive. Date the check for a "realistic" time in the future. Place the check on your refrigerator as a reminder to take a little action everyday.

Fellow entrepreneur, James D. Lee, retells a fascinating true story of how actor, Jim Carrey, used visualization to achieve his goals. Mr. Lee has an excellent blog "Online Business Freedom" with powerful information on achieving success.

Jim Carrey and the Power of Affirmations
Did you know that Jim Carrey used the power of affirmations and visualization to achieve his acting goals?

This is pretty interesting…

I’ve always believed in magic. When I wasn’t doing anything in this town, I’d go up every night, sit on Mulholland Drive, look out at the city, stretch out my arms, and say, “Everyone wants to work with me. I’m a really good actor. I have all kinds of great movie offers.”

I’d just repeat these things over and over, literally convincing myself that I had a couple of movies lined up. I’d drive down that hill, ready to take the world on, going, “Movie offers are out there for me, I just don’t hear them yet.”

It was like total affirmations, antidotes to the stuff that stems from my family background.”

-Jim Carrey, Actor/Comedian

And if that wasn’t enough, here’s something else Jim invoked to attract his success.

(This excerpt was taken from Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles”)

“Around 1990, when Jim Carrey was a struggling young Canadian comic trying to make his way in Los Angeles, he drove his old Toyota up to Mulholland Drive. While sitting there looking at the city below and dreaming of his future, he wrote himself a check for $10 million, dated it Thanksgiving 1995, added the notation “for acting services rendered,” and carried it in his wallet from that day forth.

The rest, as they say, is history. Carrey’s optimism and tenacity eventually paid off, and by 1995, after the huge box office success of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber, his asking price had risen to $20 million per picture.

When Carrey’s father died in 1994, he placed the $10 million check into his father’s coffin as a tribute to the man who had both started and nurtured his dreams of being a star.”

Just gives you something to think about regarding the power of visualization, affirmations, and having clearly defined goals, doesn’t it?

-James D. Lee

Jim Carrey

Taking a Breath Increases Call Backs

What took you so long to call me back?

You didn't call me back.

Did you get my message?

These are the usual statements we think to ourselves or present to people we leave a voice mail. This is the result of an extremely high expectation that people will and should respond right away to our voice mail. Why? Because we think the issue we are calling about is just as important to that person as it is to us. If it is not that important to them, it should be. Shouldn't it? The only way for the 2 previous statements to be true is to make it as easy as possible for a person to call you back. The easier you make it for people to get back to you, the chances of a quicker response increases by a factor of 10.

How do we achieve quicker call backs? Give people a reason to call you back. People always do things for their own reasons, not for your reasons. This includes family and friends.

• Smile as you speak. People can better hear or sense the friendliness in your voice
• Speak clearly and SLOWLY
• Speak with an even tonality as though that person is the most important person in your life at that moment
• Immediately identify yourself
• Say the Time[PM/AM], Day and Date. You just assumed a subliminal posture that your call is urgent. Yes, telephone systems date stamp voice mails. You saying it has a much higher impact.
  
• Say why you are calling, but BE BRIEF
  
• Take a Breath
• Leave your number slowly. Assume the person needs to write it down
• Leave your name one more time "Again it's [your name]". The person may not have heard your name clearly the first time.
  
• Repeat your number even slower this time. Assume the person is still writing, but did not get your entire number the first time.
• Take a breath
• Close with "I look forward to speaking with you soon. Have a nice day."

How many times have you had to decipher who a person is by voice print? They leave a message like "It's me. Call me back". Even though you may be very friendly or familiar to a person, assuming that a person has immediate access to your number can cost you BIG.

Write a script and practice it with friends and family voice mails until you get it down to 30 seconds or less.

"Hello Jim. This is Bob Moyen. It's 4:30PM Monday, June 12. I'm following up ... returning your call ... I was referred by...this is in reference to... [Take a Breath]. My number is . . . Again, this is Bob Moyen. [your number]. [Take a Breath] I look forward to speaking with you soon. Have a great day."

Reasons that stymie quicker call backs:

• If a person has to take time to look your number up, a simple distraction can short circuit that look up; another phone call, someone comes into their office, a meeting starts etc.. Leaving your number allows them to call you back, right now, while they are thinking about it.
  
• They lost or misplaced their cell phone, but retrieved your message from another phone.
• They do not have your number readily available or lost their address book.
  
• They mistakenly wrote your number down wrong the last time you spoke.
  
• There was no sense of urgency or friendliness in your voice tonality
• The message is left at the speed of the star ship Enterprise warp factor 10. Being in a hurry says your message isn't that important. It may sound like you don't have time for that person or they are not that important.

On the flip side, always listen to the complete voice mail before calling a person back. This lets each person know their call is important to you. I'm not referring to those friends that insist on leaving long winded voice messages. An important piece of information could be lost, which could enhance your call back.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

ETP Network Teaches Members How to be Savvy Intrapreneurs

Finally, there is an organization dedicated to teaching members how to manage their career as a profitable business. This is exactly what Savvy Intrapreneurs do. Empowering today's Professionals (ETP) Network actually provides a simple structure to running the business of ME, Inc..

Along with a glossary of ME, Inc. terminology, a comprehensive member benefits package and an awesome Career Swiss Army Knife Toolbar, which boasts having a smart radar system, ETP Network has a free "career management" conference call. It's every Wednesday at 9:30PM EST - Tel: 712-451-6100 - Access code: 171305. Maybe you don't need any career management. That's absolutely wonderful that you're all set for life. Consider sharing this information with someone you care about. You'll be a super star to your friend or associate.

If you look at a ruler, 1/8 (one eighth) of an inch is a very small distance. Being the CEO of ME, Inc. only requires 1/8 of an inch thinking. It's a very small adjustment that makes a BIG 360 degree difference between thinking like an employee that lives from pay check to pay check and managing your career as a profitable business. Some ME, Inc. terms below provide links to more details. This glossary is a "work in progress". Contributions to it are welcome.

EMPLOYEE TERMINOLOGY	ME, INC. TERMINOLOGY
Employer	1 of Several Clients
Employee	CEO of ME, Inc.
Interview process	Selling
Job offer	Negotiable Offer
Job search	Open to Opportunities
Landing a job	Closing a Deal
Business / team / person alignment	Networking
Employee evaluation	Development Plan
Employee manual	Guidelines we work to our advantage
Email, Telephone, Dress code, Speaking	Marketing Tools
Pay check / Salary	1 of Several Income Sources/Profit Centers
Responding to a job advertisement	Providing a Value Proposition
Cover letter	Executive Summary
Resume	Skill / Product Offering Brochure
Organizational chart	Business Intelligence to Key Players
Pitching an idea	Making a Presentation
Networking	Cultivating mutually beneficial relationships
Being a team player	Collaborating
Interview	Business Meeting
Keeping people in the loop	Expanding Your Sphere of Influence
Employee who thinks like an entrepreneur	Intrapreneur
Asking for a raise	Renegotiating a Contract

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Kids are People Too: Children and Teenagers are Savvy Intrapreneurs in the Making

In many cultures around the world the age of 12 is that time when children experience a coming of age as a young adult, with rite of passage ceremonies. This includes introducing children and teenagers to business. If children can learn a second language easier than adults, which is harder, being exposed to basic business and financial management will be a piece of cake. This is highlighted in the article "How to Raise a Child as an Intrapreneur or Entrepreneur".

Our partners over at iTechSpeak published resources and videos for online business simulation games, with their article "Move Over Monopoly: Business Simulation Games Povide Real Life Skills for Children, Tweens, Young and Mature Adults". If you're short on time, a few quick videos you can watch with your children to get them started.

The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) has put together an excellent listing of resources for children and teenage entrepreneurs.

Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs (ACE)
ACE is an international organization that enables students to operate small business ventures and interact with other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization (CEO)
The Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization encourages college students to seek opportunity through enterprise creation. It also offers excellent networking and information resources, including three annual conferences.

Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education
Site provides information on small business design & management, micro-enterprise, home-based business, self employment and just plain business start up.

DECA
DECA/Delta Epsilon Chi is an international association of high school and college students studying marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, marketing sales and service.

Energizing Young Entrepreneurs
A project of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, the site provides resources for young entrepreneurs, particularly those living in rural communities. It also conducts a talent search and seeks to highlight successful young, rural business owners.

Entrepreneur U
Sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, this site provides information and resources for teachers and students that emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship. It also provides a comprehensive listing of scholarships.

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
The Kauffman Foundation has resources and programs for youth and collegiate level entrepreneurs. It also has an Entrepreneurship Internship Program (KEIP), which immerses students in the day-to-day reality of starting and managing a business.

Future Business Leaders of America
Future Business Leaders of America—Phi Beta Lambda is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) educational association of students preparing for careers in business and business-related fields.

Gen-X Idea Café
Idea Café caters to the business needs of Generation-X entrepreneurs with information and advice to feed both mind and business. The site also includes inspirational stories of successful young entrepreneurs.

Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
Presented by Mercedes-Benz, the GSEA Program awards $100,000 in cash, business products and services to student entrepreneurs and is a great opportunity to obtain start-up funding.

Inc.’s Young Entrepreneur’s Survival Kit
Inc. has collected profiles of business owners who started their businesses while students, along with resources related to building a business, links to academic programs and ideas on networking with peers.

Independent Means Inc.
A provider of products and services for youth financial independence, this site offers know-how on starting a business as well as making, saving, giving and growing money. Site also holds an annual business plan competition with $1,000 cash prize.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
The IRS has an online workshop for young people to help them understand the why and how of meeting their tax obligations. They also provide free products for small businesses and self-employed persons.

JA Titan 3.0
A fun and interactive game in which visitors can test their skills running a business in this ultimate business simulation. Players are CEO’s who must run a manufacturing company and master six key business decisions.

Junior Achievement (JA)
Junior Achievement seeks to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics in order to better prepare students for their future.

Kidpreneurs
The Kidpreneurs Konference is committed to developing the entrepreneurial potential of tomorrow’s business leaders. Targeted to children ages four through 18, it gives youngsters a step-by-step approach to business management.

McKelvey Foundation
The McKelvey Foundation awards a total of $40,000 in scholarships annually for young entrepreneurs to attend any four-year college within the United States.

Mind Petals: Young Entrepreneur Network
Mind Petals is a young entrepreneur's blog and networking site that produces informative and inspiring content. This entrepreneurial-focused community seeks to instill ambition, motivation and alternate ways of thinking.

Mind Your Own Business
Sponsored by the SBA and Junior Achievement, this site is designed to support interest in entrepreneurship among teens. It serves as a small business portal for young entrepreneurs by providing essential resources and information.

National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
The NCIIA is an alliance of faculty and students working to advance invention and innovation in higher education. Its mission is to nurture a new generation of innovators by promoting curricula to teach creativity, invention and entrepreneurship.

National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)
NFTE's mission is to teach entrepreneurship to low-income young people, ages 11-18, so they can become economically productive members of society by improving their academic, business, technology and life skills.

Prudential Young Entrepreneurs Program
PYEP is an entrepreneurial development and job creation strategy for entrepreneurs, ages 18-30 years old who reside in Newark, NJ and Philadelphia, PA.

SBA’s Teen Business
This site offers information on starting a business--from brainstorming and evaluating the feasibility of your idea to developing a business plan and making sound financial decisions. It also includes interactive games and motivational success stories.

SBA’s Young Entrepreneurs
A comprehensive list of SBA sponsored online resources for young entrepreneurs. Information is available for young children up to young adults.

Starve Ups
A non-profit entrepreneurial support organization that is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create and sustain successful businesses. The organization sponsors business and networking events and also provides resources and a job listing.

Streaming Futures
This site allows teens to interact with career professionals through live, monthly interactive webcasts. Its goal is for teenagers to get extensive insight into careers by watching interviews of real industry leaders performing their duties.

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE)
SIFE is a collegiate, free enterprise organization for students in 20 countries. The organization focuses on five key areas: market economics, success skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and business ethics.

Teen Entrepreneur
An online division of Entrepreneur magazine, Teen Entrepreneur provides a wealth of information, advice, motivation, tools and other resources for young people who are serious about entrepreneurship.

The Mint: Be Your Own Boss
This site provides middle and high school students with helpful advice, interactive quizzes and fun resources related to money management. There is also information specifically for parents and teachers.

Top Ten Small Business Owners Under 16
An inspiring article by LegalZoom highlighting the successes of young entrepreneurs.

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) Foundation
USHCC offers a Regional Youth Entrepreneurship “BizFest” for students 17-25 and also provides scholarships and internship opportunities. Online videos from the “Bizfest” can be viewed from the foundation Web site.

Young America’s Business Trust
A young startup initiative, YABT combines the energy of young people to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of youth. The site also sponsors the Young Entrepreneurs Talent and Innovation Competition of the Americas.

YoungBiz.com
Geared towards teens, the mission of YoungBiz is to empower youth with entrepreneurial, business and financial skills through innovative education and real-world experience.

Young Entrepreneur Foundation
Created by the National Federation of Independent Business, YEF’s mission is to educate young people about the critical role of small business and to help students interested in business and entrepreneurship further their education.

Young Entrepreneur's Survival Kit
An online resource center for young entrepreneurs provided by Inc. magazine. This section contains expert columns and advice from successful young business owners.

Your Success Network
The goal of the Your Success Network is to continuously build and maintain a global community of young business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs, providing a forum where they can share dreams, goals, experiences and resources.

Youth Venture
Youth Venture empowers young people to create and launch their own enterprises. This site provides information on getting started and examples of successful projects across the country.

How to Make the Company CEO Your Best Friend

"If it's going to be, it's up to me" by Robert Schuller

This is in response to a recent question an associate recently posed about providing recommendations to potential employers or clients.

As the CEO of ME, Inc. your approach is a necessary part of the selling process. References or recommendations are "testimonials" of your skills and business savvy. We can say our skills allow us to walk on water. Testimonials go a long way in holding more weight to address hiring managers' 3 greatest fears.

Testimonials from associates, coworkers and team members become our silent sales force. Each person is selling your skills and enhancing your reputation, without any of them being present. You can never have too many testimonials. I have a very large 3 ring binder with 15 years worth of testimonials, in addition to LinkedIn recommendations.

Testimonials are easy to get. Just listen for the magic words spoken to you by associates, customers, team mates etc., like "I owe you one" "you saved me" or "how can I repay you?".

Testimonials can be formal letters, emails or LinkedIn type. My favorite is what I call the "Power Testimonial". No matter where a person works in an organization, the "Power Testimonial"" can create a guardian angel relationship with the CEO and senior executives.

The next time you hear "how can I repay you?" asked the person to write a letter to the CEO of the company about their satisfaction with your services [and they copy you on the letter]. A reference letter will trickle down the chain of command faster, than a reference letter trickling up, if it is sent to your manager. This is an excellent marketing technique for getting senior management to know who you are and what you actually do. Repeating this process makes for your own built in marketing newsletter to senior executives.

P.S. - hand deliver a copy of every "Power Testimonial" or any company related recommendation [even if it is an email] to Human Resources for submission into your file. When things get hairy (i.e. who gets cut?), those recommendations can make that little extra difference between life and death. You can also reach out to your guardian angels, since they now know who you are.

-------------------------------------------------
Don't Miss Out - There are still a few tickets left.
High Impact Career Management Workshop with Rod Colon
Produced by Hispanic Professionals Networking Group (HPNG)
Sponsored by Starpoint Solutions

** View Workshop Topics - Register Now **
April 29th — 6:00 - 8:30 pm
American National Standards Institute
25 W. 43rd Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY
$25.00 per person
(includes assortment of snacks and soft drinks)


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Creating Something from Nothing

"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve" - from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Contrary to popular belief, the sky is not falling. Anyone who believes that, is foolishly watching the news before going to bed and reading too many news papers.

Out of all the technology humans have created, the most powerful computer in the world is still the human brain. The thoughts and ideas produced by our brain, enables us or disables us. A single thought gets us into situations and can get us out of our current situation.

Right now there are 3 checks (job offers or business opportunities) with your name on each. If your belief in yourself, your skills, your uniqueness is BIG enough, the facts never count. If 3,500,000 people say it can't be done and one person accomplishes it, who's right? This is what Savvy Intrapreneurs do - believe in themselves - write a plan - then take action. Savvy Intrapreneurs also never take advice from someone who isn't doing better than them.

Alex Tew is living proof, as reported by BBC News. From nothing Alex created something. With a deficit in his bank account and a large college tuition bill, Alex Tew created the Million Dollar Home Page. Alex's simple idea of dividing up a blank web page into 1,000 pixels by 1,000 pixels was ingenious. He sold advertising space at $1 per pixel. He grossed over $1million and sold out that single web site page. Alex pushed his profit way over the $1million dollar mark by auctioning off the last few pixels left on eBay.

Alex Tew is definitely a serious contender for the "2008 Savvy Intrapreneur of the Year" award.

SCREEN WORLD TV- Million Dollar Homepage


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Core Foundation in "Trusted" Networking

People join various organizations, because they some how found out that networking will help them augment their business or career. People who exit organizations as soon as they get what they want, do themselves a great injustice. They have selfishly denied themselves the benefit of Endless Referrals for life.

Reading Bob Burg's book Endless Referrals taught me a simple question to ask someone I meet, which has resulted in a very positive cash flow. This result is definitely worth way more than the initial investment of the book itself or the 10 minutes a day I spend reading it. Now that's funny. I benefited from a book I'm still reading.

This is an excerpt from Endless Referrals.

"Now let's take a look at how Webster's dictionary defines the term network: 1. An arrangement of fabric or parallel wires, threads, etc. crossed at regular intervals by others fastened to them so as to leave open space; networking; mesh. 2. A thing resembling this in some way.

Now for the purpose of this book, let's leave out the words and thoughts in both definitions (mine and Websters) that don't apply and keep those that do. Oh, and let's substitute the word people for the words fabric, parallel wires and threads in Webster's. Here is what we get:

Networking: An arrangement of people crossed at regular intervals by other people, all of whom are cultivating mutually beneficial, give-and-take, win-win relationships with each other."

The core foundation in "trusted" networking is captured by 2 words that say it all:

rec·i·proc·i·ty
n. pl. rec·i·proc·i·ties
1. A reciprocal condition or relationship.
2. A mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges, especially the exchange of rights or privileges of trade between nations.

re·cip·ro·cal
adj.
1. Concerning each of two or more persons or things.
2. Interchanged, given, or owed to each other: i.e. reciprocal agreements to abolish customs duties; a reciprocal invitation to lunch.
3. Performed, experienced, or felt by both sides: reciprocal respect.
4. Interchangeable; complementary: i.e. reciprocal electric outlets.
5. Grammar Expressing mutual action or relationship.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

How to Tell If Someone is Really a Team Player

Seasoned human resource professionals and sharp hiring managers spend more time listening, than talking. Listening is a key tool for increasing the chances of selecting the right person.

Listen to how many times a person uses the word "I", as s/he is speaking. This immediately indicates how much a person really walks the walk, when s/he talks the talk about being a team player. The word "I" indicates it's about what "I" need - what "I" want - "I" am the most important person on the team. The over use of the words "I" and "me" are red flags for how well people will actually mesh with other team members. Can we spell "tension"?

Team players use the words "we", "us" and "our". In business and personal relationships, these words have a high impact on the longevity of positive interaction between 2 or more people. Disagreements are minimized or are resolved in a more amicable manner.

Many "I" people still slip through and get hired. At least this little acid test arms us with powerful business intelligence, to prepare for the future.

As a business owner, using "I", "me", "my" and "mine" is a dead give away. You just let a potential client know how big your company is. They now know it's just you. The comfortable level of people purchasing products and services is directly proportional to how large the vendor company is perceived to be. Hearing "We", "Us" and "Our", from a business owner, will exponentially make a potential client feel more at ease, in doing business with a single person company.

When my wife gets a parking ticket and tells me "We" have an issue, my response is "No, YOU have an issue, which you created. You will pay the parking ticket fine". There are times when using the pronouns "We", "Us" and "Our" are not appropriate, if you are trying to influence a person into doing something that is self serving.

So my wife paid the parking ticket fine, but she still continues to use "We", "Us" and "Our".

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2008 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

The Trust Matrix

By Chip Hartman, Editor-in-Chief, ETP Network

Each of us has a personal story to tell about why we decided to join the ETP Network and learn its fresh new approach for building trusted relationships with others. For some, it’s the excitement of keeping apace with social networking and its impact on business and technology. For others, it’s the dismal failures and disappointments associated with the “black hole” network where we learned that countless hopes and dreams can vanish into the void with a simple click of the SEND button. For some, it’s a subtle combination of the two.

But regardless of the reason for joining, there are still certain aspects of membership that occasionally need to be reexamined so that we can all benefit from the inherent value each person brings to the group. It’s time for us to remind ourselves that the heart and soul of networking is the building of connections, and that truly meaningful connections — relationships — are always built on trust.

From an ETP Network perspective, the definitive word on the topic of trust is provided by Stephen M. R. Covey in his book The Speed of Trust (Free Press, © 2006), in which he presents trust as a kind of Rubik’s Cube that correlates the dimensions of character, competence, credibility, capabilities, integrity, and respect. For those who are serious about incorporating the ETP Network’s core values and principles into their daily lives, there is perhaps no more important book to read while spending some quality time with your favorite highlighter.

This article deals with what might be considered a spinoff concept called the Trust Matrix. The Trust Matrix is a way of thinking about the role each of us plays within the ETP Network and how our daily actions either help to build trust (creating trust equity) or wear it away (creating trust deficits).

Some Basic Assumptions
To understand how the Trust Matrix works, let’s begin by laying out some fundamental assumptions about ourselves as a collection of individuals:

• We all have different wants, needs, and desires (W/N/D).
• We are all at different stages in our personal career management or career transition journeys.
• We all have different personalities and therefore probably gravitate to different styles of networking.
• We all have different expectations for what the ETP Network can or will do for us.

Why We Become Members
With those assumptions in place, let’s now examine what draws us to the ETP Network in the first place. There are probably just as many reasons as there are members, but for most of us, these three top the list: Empowering Today’s Professionals

• For those of us in transition, we’re tired of the “black hole” network’s failure to produce any remotely meaningful results.
• We like the prospect of building relationships and recognize both the short and long-term value of developing connections built on reciprocity as opposed to the outmoded methods built on flimsy, disposable, dead-end acquaintances.
• We like the idea of having a social safety net as we venture out into our individual career management adventures.

Fundamentally, we are drawn to the ETP Network because it offers a new way to approach networking, a way based on the gradual but persistent building of trust. We learn early on that the bond of trust between any two individuals is the glue that forms the basis of a relationship, and that the relationship, if it’s meant to last, requires constant nourishment so that the day-to-day exchange of trust transactions between members is always honored, preserved, and revered as one of the highest ideals of membership.

An Individual Experience and a Shared Experience
As we start to embrace the notion of being a valued cog in a giant wheel of friends and associates, we begin to realize that it’s no longer accurate to view our niche in the network as just a solitary, individual experience. Although we never lose our individual identities, we are now, by definition, interconnected — and, for better or worse, interdependent too.

Despite our individual differences, we now find ourselves pooled together in a Warm/Trusted Network made up of a large and diverse group of members. As such, we have some new responsibilities, both to ourselves and to each other.

• As a shared experience with obligations to both ourselves and to others, we conduct our networking activities with an implicit agreement that we will make the best possible attempt to adopt the new networking and career transition methods as outlined on Rod Colon’s numerous conference calls and in the organization’s core documents so that we can make them work and produce meaningful results not only for ourselves but for those to whom we build connections.
• Since the ETP Network's core values are built on the establishment of trust, we now have an obligation to build, with every available opportunity, good solid "trust equity" in our everyday dealings with each other. There is no room for overt selfish behavior since most of us find that to be one of the highest, most brazen forms of disrespect and a full 180 degrees out of phase with the ETP Network Mission statement. Our attention needs to be balanced between a healthy, normal regard for our own needs and a new emphasis on how our specific talents, abilities, skills, and assets can contribute to meeting the needs of others and the well-being of the group.

How Do You Build Trust Equity?
It’s important to understand that once you join the ETP Network, your actions and behaviors carry a significant level of consequences simply because you are gradually becoming more and more involved in the lives of others. It’s very much like leaving a trail of trust transactions behind you wherever you go that’s visible not only to those with whom you interact directly but those who learn of your reputation by association. Without ever intending to do it, your Empowering Today’s Professionals interactions with others leave a kind of trust fingerprint that’s visible across the network so that others gradually learn how to measure your integrity, reliability, and willingness to reciprocate. Based on their assessments, they decide if you are worthy of their cooperation, respect — and, of course, trust.

How do we build up trust equity within the network? The biggest single act of trust-building one can ever perform comes directly out of The Speed of Trust: Determine a value-added reason to make a commitment to someone and simply keep the commitment. Then do it again. After that, do it again. Then do it yet again. And keep doing it, constantly. Using this “Make-Keep-Repeat” 1 cycle practically guarantees a sharp increase in your trust equity.

Let’s remember that as you keep commitments, especially the tough ones requiring an often inconvenient expenditure of time and energy, word of your trustworthiness gets passed along the communication pathways of the network. Your trust profile can easily start to take on characteristics of world-class dimensions when you expend energy to help others and you do it consistently, reliably, and with unquestionable integrity. Beyond that, if you really want to ratchet up the trust accolades, do all of those things but be sure to do them with genuine humility. Recipients of such extraordinary treatment will probably line up at your doorstep — not to ask for favors, but to present opportunities.

How Do You Lose Trust?
It’s far easier to lose trust than to acquire it, but the truly bad news is that, while losing it occurs as a fleeting effortless moment, recapturing it — at least back to its original levels — can seem like climbing Mt. Everest with a backpack full of bowling balls.

Let’s examine some broken trust scenarios to see how a few ill-considered actions cause substantial damage to an ETP Network member’s trust profile. As you read these items, try to keep the full irony of the situation in proper perspective: As members of a social network, the bond of group responsibility pulls on all of us with equal force, yet in a moment of weakness, loss of composure, or a sudden and overpowering urge for the quick fix, we can suddenly lose sight of our niche within the community and do severe damage to our trust equity, equity that may have taken months to build. We’re then forced to expend an inordinate amount of time and energy to recapture it, if that’s even possible.

1. Magic Bullet

It’s terribly easy in today’s age of information overload to fall victim to the allure of the magic bullet. This typically happens when someone, usually under great stress and perhaps otherwise well-intentioned, caves in to the pressure of finding the easy way out of a particular networking challenge. It usually takes the form of a careless phone call or e-mail message in which members clearly step out of bounds with regard to the ETP Network’s core values of integrity, respect, responsibility, and compassion and can make them appear smug, aloof, brazen, presumptuous, self-absorbed – even imperious and condescending.

Magic Bullet people have trouble accepting the fact that the ETP Network has processes in place for establishing good, solid connections. They become agitated, abrupt, and occasionally flat-out rude when they discover that these processes will not be circumvented just to fit their specific timetable. They also tend to forget that there’s another ETP member on the receiving end of the hostilities, and that the recipient will be completely justified in viewing the offensive behavior as a breach of trust, especially if the use of procedural shortcuts seems to be part of a new and disturbing pattern.
Worse, there are no internal rules preventing victims from sharing the unpleasant incident with other members, so gaining a reputation as a Magic Bullet person is tantamount to committing networking suicide.

2. Entitlement Mentality

This method of trust degradation occurs when someone chooses to remain stuck in the old, traditional “employee” mind set instead of gradually migrating to the new paradigm of being the CEO of his or her own business. Those who remain predisposed to wearing an “employee’s hat” have a strong tendency to feel entitled to receive a certain type of treatment, usually related to the preservation of stature they once held within a company’s organizational structure and having little to do with actual accomplishment or proven competence.

True CEOs do not allow themselves to be perceived in this manner since a dependence on entitlements reveals weakness and an inability to take care of one’s own affairs. Those who abuse trust by indulging in the Entitlement Mentality often do so by making absurdly self-centered requests of others that, tragically for them, tend to have the effect of broadcasting their audacity — and their insecurities — all in the same breath.

3. Reciprocity Failure

There are people out there who have a tough time with reciprocity. They just don’t get it. Although it’s not a complex principle and although it’s highly unlikely they don’t grasp it, they nevertheless have a great deal of trouble practicing it.

Unfortunately, within the operational framework of the ETP Network, reciprocity is the transactional currency that members exchange in order to build trust and develop relationships. As relationships develop, we can’t use cash, credit cards, or PayPal to ensure their continued success. Networking currency is built on the trust standard, not the gold standard.

Those who fail Reciprocity 101, especially in a team environment where the natural rhythm of give-and-take has already been adopted as the norm, quickly lose the respect and trust of others. They allow themselves to be branded as an unreliable, bankrupt link in the chain.

4. Deception or Hidden Agendas

Deception and hidden agendas represent a special type of poison for relationships that have managed to build up moderate levels of trust equity over time. This behavior mechanism is particularly insidious because those who become victimized justifiably feel a sense of betrayal once the deception is exposed. The response can range from bitter disappointment to undiluted outrage. Willful deception is not a minor offense. In all of the ways in which trust can be damaged, this is one that almost always provides the most difficult path back to restoration since it is rooted in a willful disregard for the rights and feelings of others.

Of course there are people who just have a difficult time expressing their intentions well, and they can certainly be forgiven and coaxed to improve their communications skills. Some just misstate an occasional fact or two, so no real harm is done. But for others, sorry to say, duplicity and deceit are hardwired into their genetic makeup and couldn’t be removed with a fleet of bulldozers.

It’s worth pointing out that hidden agendas have a nasty habit of exposing themselves in the most embarrassing and inopportune ways. Those who deal in deception very often find themselves publicly humiliated when the truth eventually illuminates their dark side. Bottom line: Garbage in, garbage out.

5. Withholding Information, Communication Failure, Gossip

Being a reliable conduit of good, dependable information is the mark of an esteemed ETP Network member. The flip side of this is willfully engaging in the spreading of misinformation or information that is known to be suspect or questionable.

The behavior of regularly dealing in the spread of questionable information is gossip, and gossip plays fast and loose with the bonds of trust. Some researchers actually believe gossip in the workplace is a form of violence, an actual form of attack. This is because offenders often feel they must emote frequently, aggressively, and with no regard for diligent fact-checking. Workplace e-mail is one of their favorite weapons; ironically, it’s also one of their biggest trapdoors since more and more companies are adopting a zero-tolerance policy on using e-mail indiscriminately and irresponsibly.

6. Closed-Mindedness

Although all of these trust-busting scenarios weaken or destroy bonds of trust between members, some are notable for their ability to cause genuine hurt and pain. Closed-Mindedness is not one of them.

Closed-Mindedness is practiced by those who are totally and completely inflexible about certain matters and could not be encouraged to examine an opposing viewpoint if they were offered weekly shipments of gold bullion direct from Fort Knox. Their single-minded ‘exclusionist’ view precludes them from even considering alternatives and options.

As a link in the ETP Network chain, those who practice closed-mindedness cause a great deal of frustration and anger on the part of those who’ve just received the latest tirade of inflexibility. What makes this an anger event instead of a pain event is that no one ever believes there can actually be people out there who are so rigid in their beliefs and averse to giving even minimal consideration to other points of view.

The questions that trigger the anger response go something like this:

• How can this person ever believe he/she will ever be taken seriously – about anything?
• With that level of inflexibility, how is it possible to conduct even the simplest business with them?
• If there is an unwillingness to budge from one’s point of view, ever, about anything, then why would I want to invest any trust in such a person?
• The answers, of course, should be quite obvious.

Conclusion
Trust is one of the most important things that keeps people bonded to each other in meaningful relationships. It is earned in small but continuous fragments, often over very long periods of time. Once built, it becomes the defining characteristic of almost all human relationships. Once lost, it can be extraordinarily difficult, though not impossible, to win back. A wise approach to networking must always involve paying careful attention to the hard work we must perform to earn the trust of others and the countless ways in which it can be squandered.

The Speed of Trust, Covey, Stephen M. R., Free Press, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney; page 288

About the Author
Chip Hartman is a web communications specialist based in Montville, NJ. As an employee of AT&T Public Relations, he was part of the team that designed and developed AT&T's first intranet news portal, The InfoCenter@AT&T (SM). He's written numerous articles and designed web sites for AT&T's internal organizations such as AT&T Business Services, AT&T Consumer Services, Network Services Division, and AT&T Labs. He was awarded the 1998 NJ-IABC IRIS Award for his work on The InfoCenter@AT&T. Chip is the Editor-in-Chief of the ETP Network and can be reached at halhart@optonline.net

Do You Know What Your Time is Worth?

When we value our time, other people value it.

Many years back I performed an experiment to see what the value of my time was really worth. I must have had too much time on my hands that day. When I completed the experiment, I had a "Wow" moment. Then I began to not feel so well, considering it was gross pay, not take home pay. The good news was, the result motivated me to set some personal goals to increase the value of my time, while giving myself a raise.

I created a spreadsheet to visualize different types of work weeks to identify my hourly rate. Since I was looking around for another opportunity, this was very helpful for me to ascertain how much I should ask for. With this knowledge, I could realistically set how much of a raise I needed to give myself with the next opportunity offered.

If your curious or just for your own edification, below is a partial snapshot of the spreadsheet. Keep in mind the hourly dollar amounts are gross, not net. So your hourly rate will be substantially lower, if you consider take home pay as what really counts.

Yearly	35 Hr Week	37.5 Hr Week	40 Hr Week
Salary	Pay Per Hour	Pay Per Hour	Pay Per Hour
$25,000	$14	$13	$12
$30,000	$16	$15	$14
$35,000	$19	$18	$17
$40,000	$22	$21	$19
$45,000	$25	$23	$22
$50,000	$27	$26	$24
$55,000	$30	$28	$26
$60,000	$33	$31	$29
$65,000	$36	$33	$31
$70,000	$38	$36	$34
$75,000	$41	$38	$36
$80,000	$44	$41	$38
$85,000	$47	$44	$41
$90,000	$49	$46	$43
$95,000	$52	$49	$46
$100,000	$55	$51	$48
$105,000	$58	$54	$50
$110,000	$60	$56	$53
$115,000	$63	$59	$55
$120,000	$66	$62	$58
$125,000	$69	$64	$60
$130,000	$71	$67	$63
$135,000	$74	$69	$65
$140,000	$77	$72	$67
$145,000	$80	$74	$70
$150,000	$82	$77	$72
$160,000	$88	$82	$77
$165,000	$91	$85	$79
$170,000	$93	$87	$82
$175,000	$96	$90	$84
$180,000	$99	$92	$87
$185,000	$102	$95	$89
$190,000	$104	$97	$91
$195,000	$107	$100	$94
$200,000	$110	$103	$96

Plug In and Stayed Connected with the ETP toolbar
Download it at http://ETPNetwork.ourtoolbar.com

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Own It or Shut Up

You know those brainiacs that come to meetings with bright ideas. The next thing you know everyone else is leaving the meeting with more work to do, except the brainiac. Why? Because people allow it to happen. Now that's a very smart person. They are worthless on a team project, but they are really slick about getting out of doing any work.

The next time that brainiac comes up with an idea, invoke your extra work prevention force field with "That's a great idea. Which aspect of it do you want to own?". This statement translates into put up or shut up.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

And So the Learning Continues

During a couple of decades of martial arts training, I found the most pivotal moment is a simple statement the sensei or teacher says in a low whisper to the person receiving their black belt. After 3-5 years of continuous physical and mental training, the sensei steps forward, hands the student their black belt and says " now I can begin to teach you". . . . and so the learning continues.

After spending 12 long weeks in United States Marine Corps boot camp, each Marine graduate is only prepared to assimilate into a highly disciplined military culture, not fight a war. Past boot camp more training is required. After graduating boot camp, I spent another year in electronics school, specializing in microwave and satellite communications. My training was rounded off with 3 months of training with a elite reconnaissance platoon. Now I was ready to enter the "fleet Marine force". . . and so the learning continues.

After 4 years of college, a person only has a foundation to put their training into the "real world" environment. As many of us have found out, it ain't like it is in the books when we enter the job market, from college. Graduating from college is only the beginning . . . .and so the learning continues.

Although this may be a hard pill to swallow, looking for a job is relatively easier than maintaining position within an organization. Usually dictated by perceived economic conditions, the daily skirmishes within the office can be a grueling experience. How do we adapt, improvise and overcome? There is always that air of uncertainty. Anxiety lurks around every corner waiting to sneak up on us. Oh sure, latching on to an inside mentor or 2 has a place in guiding us through the paces. Is that really enough? Are we sure the information provided isn't self serving? Does the mentor always have our best interests in mind, since they work for the same organization we do? Do they give us all the business intelligence required to effectively maneuver around the organization?

One of the fallacies of coaching is people only hire one when they are looking for a job. That is only half the battle and provides a "band aid" approach to developing a Successful career. If a person is only interested in obtaining a job, instead of developing a successfully profitable career, then that coaching strategy may have some short lived validity. Moving from transition to employment is only the the beginning . . . and so the learning continues. Having a coach allows a person to schedule "ongoing" sessions to stay focused in achieving profitable career goals. More importantly, a seasoned coach provides strategies to avoid those daily situational corporate land mines. The best time to engage a Coach is when gainfully employed . . . and so the learning continues.

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Millionaires Are Not Smarter Or Better Than You

We cannot take credit for writing this, but we thought we would share it. Many thanx to the unknown author as we have reaped many personal and financial benefits by following these pearls of wisdom.

Millionaires are not smarter or better than you.

They have just discovered the secrets below and used them to become wealthy.

You can do it too.

(1) DREAM BIG DREAMS.

Thinking Big will change your life.

For a crash course on this read "The Magic of Thinking Big."


(2) CREATE A SPECIFIC PICTURE OF WHERE YOU'RE GOING.

The more specific you are the more likely you are to get there.


(3) THINK AND ACT LIKE YOU'RE THE OWNER OF A BUSINESS,

THE BUSINESS OF EVERYTHING YOU DO.

Even if you work forsomeone else, you're attitude will plant seeds for your independent greatness to grow.


(4) LOVE WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING NOW.

If you don't love it, leave it.

By saying no to doing work just for money youare magnetizing work to you that you can love.


(5) CREATE A MASTERMIND GROUP.

Have a regular meeting withothers who are committed to building great lives.

Share what you`re up to and support each other.


(6) ESTABLISH A HEALTHY WORK ETHIC.

Make taking action yourbest friend.


(7) COMMIT TO CONSTANT NEVER-ENDING IMPROVEMENT.

Every day besearching for how you can learn more.


(8) SEE YOUR WORK AS SERVICE.

Helping others will grow yourbusiness.


(9) KNOW YOUR BUSINESS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM.

That`s your job.


(10) PREPARE FOR OPPORTUNITY.

It will knock. Will you be ready?


(11) STAY PHYSICALLY FIT.

Strong minds create strong bodies.

Weak bodies are the result of weak minds.

Your physical and mental health are the core of your success in life.


(12) PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE.

Do what`s most important first.


(13) DELIVER MORE THAN YOUR CUSTOMER EXPECTS.

This builds loyalty and repeat business.

It feels good too.


(14) DISCIPLINE YOURSELF.

Fill your life with activities andpeople that make you grow.

Discard activities that have negative results in your life.


(15) PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

This is the first rule of the wealthy.

Put money into savings before you pay bills.

And DON'T touch it.


(16) MAKE TIME TO BE ALONE.

This time is for planning andlistening to what`s inside you.

Give your creativitytime and silence to speak to you.


(17) GO FOR GREATNESS.

Value the best and don`t settle for less.


(18) HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.

Know who you are and whatyou want.

Express this with integrity at all times.


(19) MAKE DECISIONS QUICKLY AND BE SLOW TO CHANGE THEM.


(20) FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.

Your mindset is focused on success.

You will have success.


(21) BE DETERMINED TO ATTAIN YOUR GOALS.

Tenacious persistence builds confidence which leads to victory.

The ETP Network: The Uncommon Network

By Chip Hartman, September 11, 2007

In the time it takes to read this sentence, hundreds of ETP Network members worldwide will be contacted for job interviews, sign employment contracts, and make long sought-after career changes. Of course there are many other networking groups that can make similar claims, and after all, aren’t these groups all pretty much the same? You join the group, make some phone calls, share leads over the Internet, and then prime yourself for the big interview, right? Then you accept the job offer, start collecting the handsome paycheck, and toss your networking contact list into the shredder because, after all, who needs it anymore, right?

Oddly enough, ten or fifteen years ago, this might have been a likely scenario. In today’s business environment, however, this plan of action is part fantasy and part death wish. Of course it’s normal to regard the attainment of a career goal as an exhilarating and rewarding event in one’s life, but it’s also a grave mistake to regard it as an endpoint on some career management timeline or as the final link in a long chain of seminars, handshakes, business card exchanges, and 30-second elevator speeches.

What’s become increasingly clear in today’s fast-paced technology-centered business environment is that the power which drives success comes from the networking machinery in use once the career management journey is initiated. The principle in play is simple and elegant: The more unique and polished your networking machinery, the greater your chances of not only attaining your career goals, but re-engaging that very same machinery without missing a beat if the new position suddenly vaporizes.

ETP Network members know that theirs is a most uncommon network, a network built with meticulous care over the years by founder Rod Colon in his mission to empower today’s professionals with the tools, resources, and values needed to achieve their career management goals. But what are the real secrets of its success? What makes the ETP Network such an uncommon network among so many other groups?

1. Becoming CEO of ME, Inc.

New ETP Network members are automatically designated the CEO of ME, Inc. and charged with the responsibility of planning and executing the strategic takeover of their own careers. As CEOs of ME, Inc., ETP Network members are expected to permanently discard the all-too-human traits of tolerating obstacles and wallowing in negativity. Instead, fledgling ETP Network CEOs quickly learn to master the art of problem-solving, put a positive spin on virtually everything they say and do, and convert obstacles into opportunities.

Not long ago, a new ETP Network member contacted Rod Colon seeking to engage his services as a career coach. Just ten minutes into the call, the neophyte member was shocked to discover that Rod did not wish to coach him — at least not right away — because of the negative tone infusing everything he said. Rod assured him that once his inner values were more properly aligned with those of any real CEO, he would be most happy to coach the outer man. So is this a hard-nosed, intolerant, and uncaring approach to dealing with a new member? Not at all. This is the networking equivalent of “tough love” and it’s highly effective because it places the onus for success on the member, not the coach.

2. The Reciprocity Factor

In a particularly insightful book about networking called "Never Eat Alone", author Keith Ferrazzi describes a person he calls “The Networking Jerk.” We’ve all seen networking jerks. They prowl big networking events and view them as parcels of real estate to be bulldozed by relentless invasions of personal space and an abject disregard for tactful introductions. To sum it up, the entire focus of the Networking Jerk is “What can you do for me and how soon can you do it?”

ETP Network members learn early on that truly successful networking is predicated by a genuine desire to offer one's skills and talents to individuals, small groups, or even entire organizations without assurances that favors will be returned proportionally or that “opportunity dividends” will be instantly dispensed. In simple terms, if your goal is to get a job – quickly – and you find it necessary to step all over fellow networkers to get it, the ETP Network is not for you.

3. The Never-Ending Learning Curve

When it comes to networking, hubris ranks as one of the world’s deadliest sins. Once mired in believing that we know all there is to know, it’s painful to admit that we’ve been wrong or that there is far more to learn in the quest to manage careers and form meaningful bonds with people who might want to help us along on our journey. Keith Ferrazzi goes a step farther and proclaims hubris a career management killer.

Everyone, regardless of intellect, experience, wisdom, or self-worth, has the capacity to learn from others and build meaningful relationships. Arrogance is rarely appreciated in networking organizations and tends to build sudden and often disproportionate amounts of ill will and mistrust.

To counteract the tendency toward lapsing into arrogance, the ETP Network offers a smorgasbord of online training, seminars, forums, conferences, and a wide range of other resources that provide nourishment for the eager networker's mind.

4. Staying Interconnected

Harnessing the power of the Internet — the greatest switchboard ever built — ETP Network members live in continuous information-sharing mode. As members both nourish - and become nourished by - fellow members through forums such as LinkedIn, the effect is like a torrential downpour of leads, contacts, and opportunities in which no one seems to mind being without an umbrella.

As exciting as current Internet technologies are, ETP Network members can look forward to even more exciting developments such as unified communications, hybrid networks, cross-connecting contact databases, and MP3-based multiformat resumes. With new web technologies evolving constantly, it’s likely that the Internet will remain as one of the ETP Network’s most promising resources.

5. Mentoring and Coaching

Even CEOs recognize the need for developing special bonds with those who can guide them through particularly difficult business decisions. As successful ETP Network members advance their career goals, the spirit of compassion and comradery that are hallmarks of the ETP Network often compels many to seek out those who could benefit from a unique perspective or two. In this manner, the nurtured become the nurturers and they become eager to share their experiences, forge connections, and guide newcomers through the increasingly complex world of career management networking. The ageless cycle of acquiring and passing wisdom for the benefit of everyone is repeated yet again.

6. Cultivating Your Passion

People who exude passion about what they love to do are like magnets. Put a few in the middle of a networking event and let the natural ebb and flow of conversation take over and simply watch the crowd. Those who speak with genuine passion about their own interests are easy to spot because of the excitement, enthusiasm, and intensity with which they shape their surroundings.

ETP Networking events provide a unique forum for members to cultivate their passion and infect the crowd with their enthusiasm. From keynote speakers to first-time attendees, the opportunities are almost endless for individuals to bring excitement and energy about their genuine interests to the event.

It’s generally considered an impossible task to measure the impact of one person’s passion on someone whose mind is receptive to it. What is known, however, is that passion about work, academics, the arts, or just about anything else is very much like dropping a lit match onto a pile of very dry kindling. Only each individual’s willingness to learn and their desire to achieve true success affects the intensity of the fire.

A Shameless ME-Centric Conclusion

Although I am a new member of the ETP Network, I have found each passing day to be filled with unique challenges and opportunities. The challenges are often daunting but with each new attempt to meet them head-on, I find more and more opportunities also presenting themselves, waiting to be explored.

Yes, I am that new ETP Network member who Rod chose not to coach right away. Of course I now understand why this was a necessary decision for him. After all, I had gotten bogged down with decades of negative baggage and it took Rod all of ten minutes to spot it. After convincing me of the dire need to adjust my values, he gave me some sensible tips on how to make significant improvements in daily interactions with those around me. After putting those suggestions to work, I’m now getting more phone calls, people are starting to contact me again about my web communications business, and in general the world seems a lot brighter.

Then again, there was no way to outsource my values adjustment problem. As the CEO of ME, Inc. along with literally thousands of supportive fellow CEOs in this most uncommon network, the responsibility was all mine.

About the Author
Chip Hartman is a web communications specialist based in Montville, NJ. As an employee of AT&T Public Relations, he was part of the team that designed and developed AT&T's first intranet news portal, The InfoCenter@AT&T (SM). He's written numerous articles and designed web sites for AT&T's internal organizations such as AT&T Business Services, AT&T Consumer Services, Network Services Division, and AT&T Labs. He was awarded the 1998 NJ-IABC IRIS Award for his work on The InfoCenter@AT&T and likes to collect commendation letters from satisfied clients. Email: HalHart@optonline.net

How to Raise a Child as an Intrapreneur or Entrepreneur

Since children learn languages easier, why not teach them to be business savvy? Parents hear their children immediately repeating what they [parents] say. Children are more open to learning new things and asking more questions; animals, colors, their environment, learning new songs etc..

The best gift any parent can give their child is preparing them for success, with everyday experiences. My 24 year old daughter is more business savvy than many of her peers, because she was exposed to the idea of being business savvy from an early age. She has a resume that produces job interviews more often, despite the fact she only attended college for a brief period.

Use what works for you. Discard the rest.

The Dirtiest Four Letter Word: This nasty little word will handicap a child all their lives, if we allow our children to say it over and over again. As a parent, we tell our child they can be whoever they want. Then we teach them that dirty word. I told my daughter "if you ever say that word, I'll wash your mouth out with soap". I only had to keep my promise to her once and she never said that word again. Read More . . .

Everyone Has a Job: As a child, I told my daughter "everyone in the house has a job. Mommy's job is a real estate building manager. My job is programming computers. Princess, your job is to go to school, do your best and behave. This helps mommy and daddy not worry about you. If we do not worry about you, we can make sure you have a nice place to live and buy food that you can eat everyday".

Life Does Pay an Allowance: Income we achieve as professionals, is based on performance. So why not teach our children that principle as early as possible? We found out the hard way. Rather than giving an allowance, I put a monetary value on the grades my daughter achieved. She knew she would receive NO money for any grade less than a "B". Fifty ($.50) cents for a "B". Seventy five ($.75) for a "B+". One dollar ($1.00) for an "A". Report cards were milestone markers with bonus payments. Any subjects with low grades were reviewed collaboratively. We came up with a game plan plan for improving subject grades.

Travel is the Best Education: As I learned from my father and did with my daughter, traveling to different places is the best education any parent can give a child. Local day outings work well, but long distance trips work better. Experiences that allow children to be exposed to different environments, cultures, foods etc. allows them to apply their academic learning in real life situations. Education is worthless, if does not empower people to solve problems or make informed decisions. Travel provides for a more well rounded education. Trips to the zoo, park, movies, the beach etc. all count. Taking children on trips to other countries or outside states provide an even bigger return on educational investment.

I'm in the Guinness Book of World Records for being on the longest car ride, as a child. At age 11, my father drove me from the Bronx, down through Mexico and into Guatemala in Central America. . . . Just kidding about Guinness world record. The car ride is true. It provided me with a better understanding of diversity in cultures, as an adult. As a child, I just thought my father was fearless adventurer. And that instilled much confidence in me.

Parent Teacher Night Develops Communication skills: I always took my daughter to parent teacher night at her school. We had an agreement that no matter what teachers said I would not embarrass her in public. I did encourage dialog between the teacher, myself and my daughter. This was especially helpful to my daughter, because she felt involved in the process. She was also getting practice expressing herself and ideas. If a teacher had a concern or issue with my daughter's performance or behavior, I would allow my daughter to respond [respectfully]. Then we all talked about the next steps for improvement for my daughter. My daughter always told me afterwards she was nervous at the beginning of the night, but became more relaxed as we visited each of her teachers. She gained much confidence.

Networking Starts at the Sandbox: Children make friends easier than adults. Children do not prejudge. They are just glad to have a friend to play with. Whenever my daughter brought a friend over to our house, I always insisted she introduce her friend to me and her mother. I would accompany my daughter to her friend's house. I would ask her or her friend to introduce me to her friend's parents. I would make it a point to introduce my daughter to our friends. These basic actions reinforce basic social skills children require to compete in the business world. The power of networking always starts at the introduction.

Sharing Leads to Giving Back to the Community: I encouraged my daughter to volunteer her time for different school events, even if she was not participating directly. Learning to share as a child prepares for giving as an adult.

Helping Mommy/Daddy at Work: From the age of 12 my daughter was exposed to business concepts by assisting me develop my technology consulting business. During Spring/Summer breaks, I gave her simple tasks to complete. She learned how operate the computer and do word processing. She learned proper etiquette for answering the phone. She learned how to use a calculator to tally invoices. Later she learned to enter those numbers into a spreadsheet. Still later she learned to make travel arrangements. Take your child to work as often as possible. Explain what you do and relate it back to everyone's job at home. Give them something to do at your office, to prepare them for the future.

School is Never Out: As children we believe school is finished when certain educational levels are completed. As adults, we find out that the school of life is a never ending education. My daughter recently encountered life's enduring lessons of sharing an apartment with a room mate. Since she was small, I always asked her "what have learned from this experience".

Do You Want the Yellow or Red Lollipop?: Teaching decision making skills can start very early. From the age of 2, I would present my daughter with options to allow her to develop decision making skills. I presented her choices where either decision was comfortable with me. As she sat in her stroller, I asked her "do want the red lollipop or the yellow lollipop"? She chose the red one. When she finished eating the red lollipop, she gestured for me to give her the yellow one. As basic as I could, I explained to her [paraphrasing] "you decided on the red lollipop. You must stick to your decision." Her mother thought I was just the meanest person. This process continued throughout my daughter's childhood and into the teen years. Decision skills are key to dealing with all the business land mines adults encounter.

Bad Child Bad Child: How a person performs in the business arena is based on how much confidence they have in themselves. If a parent constantly tells a child "You're a loser. You'll never amount to anything", the child will produce that result. Placing the spotlight on the "unacceptable action" is what children need to understand from their parents. I would tell my daughter, "I'm angry at what you did, not you as a person. I love you, but your actions are unacceptable". A child must understand that everyone makes mistakes, but that does not make them a bad person. As an adult, a person can better handle reprimands by as manager as long as they know they still have self worth.

Learning Right from Wrong Develops Integrity: The values we teach children is the cornerstone of who they become as adults. Business situations come up all the time that place people in precarious situations. Integrity is the most valuable commodity any person can own. Its intrinsic value increases every time we make the hard decisions, regardless of what others might say or think. Now is the time to teach our children, while values can be easily absorbed in those spongy brains.


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Savvy Intrapreneurs Are in the Driver's Seat

Smart Resume Power has an excellent article called "Savvy Intrapreneurs Place Themselves in the Driver's Seat". It cuts to the chase with suggested approaches that break the mold on the age old paradigm for creating business opportunities or looking for a job.

Question: What do you prefer?

A) Begging for a job or business opportunity

B) People begging you to work with their company

Read more . . .


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Never Give Away Your Bottom Line

Many of my coaching clients ask me a common question. How should I answer the question "How much are you looking for"" or "What salary are you looking for?"

Over on Find a New Job, there's a savvy article on calculating the value of a vacation week. Jose Anes is obviously a Savvy Intrapreneur, in pointing how we should place a value on our work and so called free time. We should do the same thing in asking for a salary.

If giving yourself a raise is one of your job search goals, then start preparing for the salary negotiation. Notice I said "giving yourself a raise", not getting a raise. We are each in control of how much we earn. That includes owning the process of negotiating for more money. The first money offer does not have to be accepted.

Read more . . .

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

No One is Afraid of Losing Their Job

The root cause of a career professional's fear lies in being afraid of losing the income associated with the job. The loss of a job is inconsequential. It is a terrible situation society has led us to believe in. All hopes, dreams and desires are tied to one (1) solitary income. Vacations, places we live, schools our children attend and leisure time activities are just some those "quality of life" issues all tied to a single income.

Remove the fear and you eliminate all the main cause of anxiety attacks that go along with job stress. This is accomplished by doing what Savvy Intrapreneurs do.

In an article "Offshore-Proof Your Job" by leading career and education expert, Dr. Marty Nemko, the question "How do you develop your skill as an intrapreneur?" is answered. What Dr. Marty Nemko suggests below has been proven to work many times by many people.

1. Always keep your antennae out for a new way to increase the bottom line. If you just keep your head to the grindstone, you’re a worker bee. And good worker bees can usually be found for 75 percent less than you cost in Mumbai, Macau, Manila, or Moscow.

2. Flowchart key employees’ hot buttons and the employees they can influence and are influenced by.

3. Get good at pitching an idea. Practice with a friend.

Read the complete article by Dr. Marty Nemko

Stop living in fear. Start living life, on your terms, as a Savvy Intrapreneur. Savvy Intrapreneurs run their career like a business. The first order of business is Don't Have One (1) Client or Customer [one (1) source of income].

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Being Self-Made is an Untruth

Self made man > self made milionaire > Forbers even provides "Secrets of the Self Made" > self this, self that . . It's more like self sickening.

So let's see now. People can become successful all by themselves. They need no influence from other people. No interaction with other people really allows us to become self made. How about a self made person building a business without clients or customers? No vendors required? No staff resources required?

No people required to be self made and successful. Ooooh, what a concept !!

If success was that easy, then we would ALL be SELF MADE and rich.


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Learn the Rules. Then Make Them Work For You.

As part of the orientation process, Human Resources provides an Employee Manual. These manuals are sometimes small booklets. Others are large books. The employee manual provides us with our entitlements, while protecting the organization with a formulated structure. This document basically becomes the rule book we live by during each work day. It is also the manager's basic guide to shepherding the team.

What about the unwritten rules? These are the rules people are led to believe they are not allowed to try or implement. We encounter these unspoken rules everyday, yet they are not in the employee manual. The very cool thing is we can make these unspoken rules work to our advantage. It's a matter of re-engineering our perspective. Gifford Pinchot touched on some these unwritten rules with "Intrapreneur's 10 Commandments".

The unwritten rules constantly change, as situations or individuals guide their creation. Savvy Intrapreneurs learn how to make both the written and unwritten rules work for them and people on their team. Can you find the page, in the employee manual, where the following rules are written?

Where does it say you can ask for a raise any time you want? Where does it we can't ask for a raise every 3 months? How about asking for a raise 4-6 months after our last raise?

Where does it say we can't create winning situations with our team by utilizing the 10 Rules of Office Engagement?

Where does it say we can politely and professionally terminate a conversation with our manager or coworker, if s/he decides to throw a screaming and yelling temper tantrum? As human beings, we are each entitled to be treated with mutual respect.

Where does it say we ALL have the potential to excel and get the keys to the executive bathroom?

Where does it say we should use every opportunity to market ourselves throughout the organization?

Where does it say we can give ourselves a raise any time we want?

Where does it say we should encourage our manager as much as they support us? Even a manager likes to know they are valued by their team.

Where does it say that we should take it personal, if our manager beats us up on a task "they feel" is not done well? The task is being attacked, not us. Feeling confident that we did the best we could, is all that counts. Other people judging us is purely subjective. Maybe it's not us. It's them.

Where does it say we should allow coworkers to make their issues our issues? If someone creates a situation, we can assist them with a resolution. That person must understand they own that issue, not you.

Where does it say office bullies are actually masking a lack of confidence.

Where does it say all our dreams should be tied to one source of income? Why can't we create multiple sources of income?

Where does it say we cannot run our career as a profitable business?

Where does it say we cannot print those emails where people say nice things about the service we provided and have Human Resources place them in our employee folder?

Where does it say if we take all our vacation, personal and sick days we are entitled to, it may work against us at our yearly review?

Where does it say we can request an assessment of our performance every 3 months, from our manager? This would allow us to make adjustments, to improve our performance. It is an injustice to ourselves if we wait 12 months to get dropped down 15 flights of stairs, because our manager has not been dissatisfied with our performance.

Where does say that being assertive with people up and down the corporate food chain achieves their respect, even if they do not like us personally?

Where does it say we are paid to tell our manager what we think they want to hear, instead of the real answer, just because we are afraid of rocking the boat? Where does it say we are supposed to be in constant fear of being fired? Where does it say providing our manager with honest accurate information, allows the manager to make better informed business decisions? The latter of the 2 rules allows you, your team and the company be more successful.

By now, I'm sure you can start thinking of some other rules that insure YOUR SUCCESS. These unwritten rules are in constant play all the time. There are way more unwritten rules than there are published rules. Can you identify them as they manifest themselves?


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Value Your Time or Others Won't

Contributed by Rod Colon, CEO of ETP Network

Rick Frishman and Jill Lublin in Networking Magic wrote the following on networking:

Don't linger with losers and "hangers-on"

Your time is valuable and if you let them, some people will take as much of it as you allow. They latch onto you, try to take whatever they can get that could help them, and are hard to shake. Usually, they bring nothing to the table and want so much. Furthermore, they block the path for others to approach you. Some are so insistent and persistent that they force you to be harsh and blunt. They can make you feel guilty. Learn to recognize these leeches and cut them off before they completely drain you. Be polite, but also be firm or otherwise they simply won't let go...

Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Why You Need To Be An Intrapreneur

If a Savvy Intrapreneur is running their career like a business, then all our skils become the products we providing to clients and employers. Here's a lively article by Elizabeth McAloon, CPCC that lays a sold foundation to answer the key question"If your career was a product-how would you rate it?".

When a client asks me if I think he or she is a good candidate for starting a new business, I ask several questions (see our free assessment, "Are You an Entrepreneur?"). But the truth of the matter is that these questions are similar to ones that I'd ask someone who wants to move up in an organization or find a new position elsewhere. When people call an executive coach after deciding to make a change or being laid off, those who have treated their career like their own business will have a much easier time.

Having an entrepreneur mindset is a necessary asset for being recognized and rewarded in your organization. The employees who are primarily reactive will not reach the top. Sure, they'll be rewarded to a point for their faithful and accurate adherence to the established goals of the organization-but these are not going to be the people calling the shots for the big games. An entrepreneur mindset means thinking of the gestalt, or whole, of the organization and recognizing where you fit into the scheme of things; recognizing the impact of your actions on the system and how you can craft and increase that impact. It means having great relationship abilities and an uncanny knowledge and intuition of your "clients"-your colleagues, senior management teams, and your staff, as well as external customers.

Read more . . .


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Got Chess?

"Chess teaches foresight, by having to plan ahead, vigilance...by having to keep watch over the whole chessboard...caution, by having to restrain ourselves from making hasty moves...and finally, we learn from chess the greatest maxim in life, that even when everything seems to be going badly for us we should not lose heart, but always hope for a change for the better, and steadfastly continue searching for the solutions to our problems." - Benjamin Franklin

Although I'm not very good at it, playing chess has empowered me to be more successful than I dreamed possible. Knowing just the basic moves, chess is an excellent way to exercise the mind for playing the game of life. Since it allows us to excercise both right and left brain, our creative senses are heightened for solving everyday problems.

Many times I have encountered issues with coworkers or senior level people. Playing a game of chess, even if I lost, has helped me think of ways to resolve issues at the office. Or maybe a manger or client has presented me with a challenging project. At first glance the project seems overwhelming with many facets that require careful planning. As I write out the project plan and organize the resources, I take a time out to play chess. Bada bing bada boom, each issue encountered becomes easier to solve.

Learning tactics and strategy in chess extends itself in helping us resolve personal and business challenges. Chess is not just for smart people, but anyone who plays chess definitely becomes smarter.

Click here to learn the basic moves of chess, while solving life's problems . . .


Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 C. E. Reid, SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

Free Marketing Tool To Promote Your Business

SavvyIntrapreneur.com is providing 5 free elegantly covered booklet reprints of the article "10 Powerful Networking Tips Using Business Cards". This article has been published on over 3,500 web sites, including companies that print business cards. We would like to share the success this article has already provided people and their business.


Click on the image above to enlarge the view

The front cover of each booklet will be customized to promote your business, with your company name, email address and telephone number. Giving out this informative booklet is a fabulous tool, to market your skills or company. Sharing this article shows clients and associates how much you care about their success.

To receive your 5 free booklets, shipped free any where in the world, send an email to MyCompass@Success4U2.net with your postal mailing address, company name, email address and contact telephone number.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Guardian Angel 10 Commandments

As a child, my parents instilled in me the golden rule of neighborly etiquette. "Don't wear out your welcome at a friend's house". This rule is especially true in dealing with your guardian angel within a company organization. Just because your guardian angel is in a senior management position above the person you report to, it doesn't mean one should make a daily pilgrimage to their office.

These are rare instances that a person is blessed with an ally at the top of the corporate food chain. This guardian angel takes a genuine interest in your well being and career development. S/he may even mentor you from time to time. A guardian angel is not always a mentor. Their organizational position may mean you rarely see them, except for a per chance "hello" in the hallway.

Following the 10 commandments of maintaining a relationship with a corporate guardian angel, insures they will make themselves available to back you up in your time of need. A guardian angel in your corner facilitates having a champion to promote you and any ideas you wish to suggest in the company.

1. Don't abuse, take advantage of or brag about the relationship with your guardian angel. Respect their time and space.

2. Provide useful information that helps them do their job more effectively. If you come across an article of interest, email it to them and copy their assistant. Give them snippets of how your team is progressing on a project(s), with a blind carbon copy of "summarized" status reports. Find out their personal interests (sports, art collecting etc.). Then send them relevant articles or announcements about related events they can attend. Guardian angels like to relax too.

3. Show them you can hold your own in establishing your position in the organization. Guardian angels support people. They do not carry people. Your guardian angel could leave at any time. You will be in deep trouble, if you cannot stand on your own 2 feet with established accomplishments to your credit.

4. When having a conversation with your guardian angel, introduce them to any person you know who may pass by. This spotlights your team building skills.

5. Never tell a guardian angel stories about others, unless it is positive or upbeat.

6. Ask a guardian angel about things they do to achieve and maintain success. Show the same interest in them as they have in you. The longevity of any relationship is always based on reciprocity. "No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care" - Zig Ziglar

7. Don't allow guardian angels to base the relationship on making you their personal spy. If word gets out about it, and it will, you can kiss your career good bye at that organization. Even rats don't like other rats. Trust is the foundation of success for people and companies.

8. Resolve issues you may encounter with your boss, on your own. Guardian angels will hear about it either way. Remember commandment #3

9. Having a guardian angel is a blessing and privilege, not a right. They could disappear at any moment. So stay in touch with them after they leave an organization. Refer to commandement #3

10. Align yourself with the guardian angel's gate keeper. Executive and Administrative Assistants are the true power houses behind executives.

Oh! Did I jump ahead about having a guardian angel, without providing the secret on how to acquire a guardian angel?

Hold that thought. . .


Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

From 0 to Success in 6 Months

In order for advice to be valid, consider the relative success of the person giving it. How often do we hear career or business advice from people who have not used that same advice to achieve any results for themselves. Saturday night quarterbacks and back seat drivers are a dime a dozen.

"People who are sure to achieve success are those who can communicate effectively with words used in their writings, verbally and public speaking presentation skills" - LA Reid

Many years ago my brother, LA Reid, gave me that piece of advice above. I never gave the validity of his advice a second thought. I immediately knew my brother's words were powerfully valid, as he has been a very successful IT Consultant working for companies like IBM, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, NYC Health and Hospitals. LA was even the IT point person for New York City Mayor's office the night the scary date change took place from 1999 to 2000 (remember Y2K?). I knew he was employing his own advice to achieve success. LA's words impacted me, like a sucker punch out of no where.

Over the years LA's very simple advice has proven to be an unbelievable source of success for me. Executing his advice made me a better positioned employee and later a very confident entrepreneur.

Simply communicating effectively with peers, senior management and clients makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary results to organizational positioning and the bottom line in your income.

Implementing a steady 6 month plan to improve communication skills, creates an amazing internal metamorphosis. From the time my brother gave me that advice, I decided to do 3 things over the next 6 months.

1. Improving our vocabulary improves all 3 levels of communication. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by reading the New York Times Book Review, included in the Sunday paper. A low cost alternative is to subscribe only to the New York Times Book Review. You acan have it conveniently mailed to you every week. Keep a dictionary handy, as you read through the book review. You are sure to learn at least 5-10 new words, depending on how many articles you read. Keeping up with the latest literature and books published becomes a by product to enhance conversations with people. Encouraging our high school children to read the New York Times Book Review tumultuously increases their vocabulary to ace that part of the SAT. Starting your child as a freshman in high school, is the best time.
   
2. Presentation skills can be improved by reading Dale Carnegie's " How to Develop Self-Confidence And Influence People By Public Speaking". Even a few minutes in a meeting giving a status report is public speaking. Use every meeting as an opportunity to practice your presentations skills. Every conversation at the office, a per chance one-on-one meeting or team meeting provides an opportunity to practice, practice, practice public speaking. This is crucial to being able to deftly pursuade teammates, senior management, your childen or significant other to buy into the beneficial or profitable opportunities you present.
   
3. To learn how to say more with less words, while improving your writing skills, get a copy of Elements of Style by E. B. White and William Strunk Jr. This book is quick reading. It will become a life time reference for writing succinctly. It was the best gift of learning a college professor gave to me, as part of his required books to purchase at the book store. He also recommended reading the New York Times Book Review. English teachers can take lesson out of this play book for using Elements of Style. Forget about that 5,000 page text book for learning the "proper" English. Elements of Style is relevant to the real world of communicating effectively with people, when we write.
   

Investing time to improve communication skills is a sure bet to secure ongoing lifetime achievements that pay BIG dividends in developing a successful career or business.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Can Confidence Be Faked?

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During a recent conversation with a one of my clients I provide business career coaching, she asked an interesting question. She asked "can confidence be faked"? Many people make futile attempts to fake confidence. It takes an inordinate amount of energy to present a confident facade, rather than displaying true confidence.

In the movie "The Usual Suspects"a famous line provided a Wow moment; "the best trick the devil ever played on people, is that he didn't exist". People who lack confidence employ a similar tactic in making people believe they have confidence. The facades for faking confidence come in various flavors to trick people into believing "whoa, this person is confident";

• Intimidating people
• Being loud or boisterous
• Manipulating people or situations
• Bullying people
• Flattering people, then dropping them down 15 flights of stairs
  
• Doing one upmanship - whatever you have done or experienced, they tell you a story which dwarfs your "true story"
• Always talking about past accomplishments, but have no recent home runs
  
• Consistently being self aggrandizing
• Perform "grand standing" actions which make them the center of attraction
• Taking credit for "a job well done" which is accomplished by others on the team
• Belittling or heckling others
• Dominating conversations
• Deflect responsibility for not accomplishing goals by putting the spotlight on others
• Spread untruths about people by whispering in the ear of whoever will listen
• Appear confident at meetings, but their eyes and body language display lack of confidence
• Body language posture holds head down and looks down when walking
• Get other people to do their work or down play the work of others
  
  

People who have confidence can immediately identify people who lack confidence. Confident people display very genuine qualities;

• Possess belief they can and will succeed, despite what others may say
• Use small wins to develop more confidence
• Project confidence by encouraging others to believe in themselves
• Display genuine sincerity in congratulation other people on any small achievement or personal progress
• Do not allow other people to yell or bully them
• Communicate effectively with people to establish goals, team work and espirit de corps to achieve a common objective
  
• Being assertive with people, when something makes them uncomfortable
  
• Encourage and support people
• Engage people in conversation with a true interest in what they have to say - ask questions and let them talk
  
• Give credit to people on the team
• Always place the spotlight on others
• Take a little credit for projects, but give other team members much more credit
• Take full responsibility for actions
• Don't blame others for your shortcomings
• Look people straight in the eye
• Say what you mean and mean what you say - then deliver it
  
• Always walk with head high, looking straight ahead in walking anywhere
• Understand that charisma comes from confidence and body language upon first entering a room, not anything that is said
• Always work on the next home run and down play previous wins
• Love and encourage the confidence fakers
  

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Opportunity Surround Sound

Training our eyes to spot opportunity is an ongoing process for Savvy Intrapreneurs. There's an old saying "if you want to hide something from someone, place it right in front of them". Many times opportunities appear the same way. We are surrounded by not so obvious opportunities. Practice does make perfect, over time.

For example, all of us have been doing something for many years, but haven't been paid for doing it. What is the commonality of various companies like Amazon, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, American Express, Marcal paper products, Kleenex, Kellogs, Ace Hardware, Kenneth Cole, Google, Sharper Image, Office Depot and even social networks like Network2Connect or ETP Network? They pay people, in cash, for buying or referring their products / services. The list of companies is virtually endless that give back cash rebates for buying their products, including cell phone companies, magazine subscriptions, movies, clothing, jewelry, food etc.

Cash back opportunities are only limited by the imagination, because that's how many companies are actually doing it. Although this concept has been around for over 50 years, it's only been in recent years more companies are doing it. Since people focus more on price, they will easily switch between stores. Cash back rebates establishes more long term relationships and the loyalty of returning consumers.

Entertainment companies, such as Sony and Dish Network, have also jumped on the cash rebate band wagon. Even Nielsen media pays qualified people to watch TV. How do you think the TV show ratings are accomplished?

Receiving cash rebates we can deposit into our bank account, brings clipping store coupons to a higher level of tangible profit. And all a Savvy Intrapreneur has to do is buy everyday products s/he needs anyway, from those stores that pay cash rebates. It's like getting paid to shop.

We're doing it. We like it. It is profitable. We don't allow any money to go out of our household, unless the store or vendor pays cash rebates. Doesn't it make sense to make money when regularly buying even the most mundane products, like bathroom tissue, coffee or copier paper?

How about receiving a cash rebate check at the closing, when buying or selling a house? Yes, that too is a reality today, in certain real estate organizations.

This is a WOW moment or it could be one those things that make you go Hmmmm . . . . .

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

The Ultimate Business Land Mine: Dating a Coworker

Savvy Intrapreneurs understand there is a time and a place for playing the game of monopoly and office romances. Let's cut right to the chase about dating a co-worker. Do not pass "Go". Do not collect $200? Go directly to human resources and submit your resignation. Begin a new job. Now call that ex-coworker for a date. This exit strategy should be seriously considered, before the timer is set on the office romance land mine. Tick tock . . . tick tock - This includes a coworker located in another geographical location.

This isn't about whether an office romance is right or wrong. As Savvy Intrapreneurs run their career like a business, it's about making an intelligent and objective business decision. Savvy Intraprenuers are passionate about not letting anyone or anything get in the way of developing their business careers. This is accomplished without hurting or using other people. Sometimes it better to just say "let's not and say we did".

For some very cool statistics on office romances, Abbas provides some insight with an article "What You should be Aware of, If You're Dating at Work".

Thinking about an Office Romance?
Riddle me this batman; answering "Yes" to all question indicates "go for it"

1. Is my developing my professional career worth the dangerous office land mines I will encounter by dating that person?
2. Is that person [and am I] capable of turning the personal part of the relationship on/off, at will, during business hours?
3. Will I be to filter out the office gossip that is sure to blow through the office?
4. Am I willing to cut my losses and move on (i.e move to another company), if the romance fizzles?
5. Will I have an objective attitude to not get involved, when that person has issues related their job with coworkers and their manager?
6. Will I be objective if person has close friendships with coworkers of the opposite sex?
7. Am I willing to spend both my business and personal time with that person?
8. If I have issues related to my job with coworkers and my manager, will that person stay out of it?
9. If I have a heated discussion (disagreement) with that person during our personal time, will I or they be able act in a professional manner at work? Will the resolution be able to take place only during our personal time?
10. Can we both agree on boundaries in maintaining a continuous professional posture during business hours?

Involved in an Office Romance?
Any of the above questions sound familiar? Enough said.

Kaboom: The Office Romance Crashes and Burns?
A wise person learns from a mistake. Only a fool repeats the same mistake twice.
Try to establish an amicable separation. If maintaining office professionalism is not working, go to the exit strategy listed above.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Intrapreneurs Have Rap Songs

Intrapreneurs have finally made the music charts. What's next? A movie deal?

According to Wikipedia, a group of Masters students from Cass Business School in London produced two Intrapreneurship rap songs and videos in 2006. The songs briefly attracted an underground following amongst students in London, and were played at a few popular student bars and nightclubs. The rap videos can be found on google video.

Rap video 1 - http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6420224910570141310

Rap video 2 - http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7151896330344622137

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Give Yourself a Raise

The operative word is passion.

Ms. Savvy Intrapreneur, smartened up one day. She realized she could give herself a raise, when her boss told her the budget was tight. She needed more money to live life, instead of just making a living. Although she did not want to start an accounting service, which was her core skill set, she set her sights on starting a small business from home part time.

Ms. Savvy Intrapreneur remembered she had a passion for helping friends decorate their house from inexpensive items bought at a flea market. Those same friends were not only raving about the results, but started referring other people. Before she knew it, she was almost matching her weekly corporate take home pay just working weekends.

Matching your take home pay with a side line business gives us more options. Life is about choices. The more money we have, the more choices are available. Think about it. If we are willing to put in many hours of overtime to make the stock holders of our company richer, why not put in 5-10 hours a week of overtime to make ourselves richer?

Watching a TV show or sports only makes the bank accounts of those that we view, richer. Why not you? Just 1 hour a day to match our take home pay, puts us in a different frame of mind when our boss asks us "what do you think?" about a business issue at hand. The fear of losing our job disappears when we have alternate income. A manager always appreciates the real answer from a Savvy Intrapreneur, because it allows them to shine by making intelligent business decisions.

Everyone wins, when we decide to give ourselves a raise.

Anything we are passionate about doing, even a hobby, can be turned into a business. Anything, from taking pictures of cats to watching TV can be turned into a business. How do you think TV shows are rated? People are paid to watch TV. Those Hallmark cards with just the right sentiments of words are created by people who are passionate about the poetry of living life. Painting soldiers or a house could be a business, as well as baking your favorite chocolate chip cookies. Hello Mrs. Fields.

What's your passion, interest or happy feeling task? Ka Ching, Ka Ching is the cash register sound that our passion makes.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

It's Person Hours, Man!!

With more emphasis being placed on "Diversity" in the work place, sensitivity in recognizing tasks being performed by both men and women positions each of us strategically better.

As project plans are developed, it is a much better tactical move in referring to "man hours" as "person hours". Wikipedia even makes mention to this consideration; "Obviously the term 'man-hour' was introduced before the use of 'man' as a generic term for a person fell out of favour. More recent alternatives include 'person-hour', 'staff-hour' and 'employee-hour'. Similar terms can be substituted for 'man-month' and 'man-year" .

It's mail carrier or postal worker, not mail man.

It's UPS [delivery] person, not UPS guy.

Etc., etc...

This excellent consideration could mean surviving any reorganization fallout, for those of us who report to a female manager or executive.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Oops!! Wrong Manager

Promoting people from within an organization motivates people and maintains team trust.

Too often people are promoted to the managerial ranks only because they are terrific at performing their core skills. Managing people is a whole new ball game, which requires proper preparation of the person being promoted. Otherwise senior management is just setting up the newly promoted manager for failure. In rare instances, this may be done deliberately [to get rid of someone].

No one comes to work to fail. Preparing people to be successful managers is a delicate process. It should combine mentoring, training and slow practical application on team projects.

Mentoring
A person identified for a leadership role as a manager should be placed continuously in the company of experienced managers. As organizations develop their "fast track" executive programs, mentoring is the key to success for all parties involved.

Training
The organization should invest in its potential new managers' training. Tuition reimbursement for staff attending management/business related courses should be HIGH on the list of employee motivation programs. This facilitates retention of top producers.


Practical Application
A person's manager must step up to the plate by slowly giving a person more opportunities to manage projects, meetings and teams. If a manager grooms staff properly s/he can focus their attention on the bigger picture in producing results for their organization.

Developing "People Skills" is tantamount for any manager to be successful. Being able to pursuade people to accomplish a task makes all the difference between average and phenomenal success in business and personal relationships.

Suggested Reading:




Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Selfless Makes Your Net Work

Social Networking does not work for people who possess a loud Selfish attitude. Networking does work for people who possess a low key Selfless attitude.

Selfish networkers will easily say networking does not work, because they are not interested in what other people want. Building relationships is not their focus. They attend networking events and are disappointed with achieving a "rocking chair" result. A rocking chair gives a person something nice to do, but it doesn't take you anywhere. Have you ever heard one of those cars pass by making a lot of noise through their muffler, like a souped up race car, but go no where fast? A selfish networking attitude presents low impact shouts with words that resemble a focus of "what I need", "what I want", or "I have to get paid". In his book "Networking Magic" Rick Frishman calls these types of people "drive by networkers" Matthew Homann provides an excellent illustration on his "real BIG thinking" blog.

Selfless networkers are winners, because they understand the concept of developing relationships for life. A selfless networking attitude presents concerned, high impact, whispers of "How can I help?", "I am at your service" or "what can I contribute to your success?". Zig Ziglar says it best; "If you help enough people get what they want in life, eventually you'll get what you want". Relationship building pays big dividends in social relationships whether at an event or through Internet interactions. The positive and profitable results of social networking is well documented in "The Virtual Handshake" by David Teten and Scott Allen. People can go from 0 to 60 miles an hour in the first few minutes of a conversation by focusing on what the other person is interested in. No one explains this better than Keith Ferrazzi in his phenominal book "Never Eat Alone". This is highlighted with another statement borrowed from Zig Ziglar; "No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care".

The main cause of networking not working is networking itself. We spend entirely too much time dwelling on the action of networking. It makes us tense. We get stressed by thinking we absolutely, positively have to make a connection at this predetermined event. In a previous article "Stop Networking. Start Living."I elaborate on embracing everyday life as one big social event. Just enjoy the day and let it flow. Meeting people gets easier, because it becomes a secondary "no pressure" task. Live in the here and now. People are attracted to other people that just enjoy life. Enjoy the moment.


Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Make Busy Profitable

"Are you busy?" is the question posed at the coffee machine. "Are you kidding? We're swamped" is the answer returned. The answer is the same in personal everyday living. Unless we are six feet under, life always keeps us busy.

The question to continuously answer is "does being busy result in being productive or profitable?" Jose Anes' article "Be Busy - And Tell People About It" points out that being busy for the sake of looking busy, to an employer or client, is not productive. Down time should be used to attack mundane tasks or learn new skills.

Savvy Intrapreneurs are smart at maximizing time to be productive and profitable. Profit doesn't necessarily mean creating extra income, although that is a serious focus for Savvy Intrapreneurs. Personal and family busy responsibilities must be conducted accordingly.

Suggestions to make busy, productive or profitable:

- Unless a call is expected, queue calls to voice mail. Respond at predetermined times throughout the day. If caller ID does not tell you who is calling, let it go to voice mail.

- Create a reverse spam filter so you can respond quickly to emails from people you know. Everyone else is placed in the "waiting room", for later responses during down time.

- Apologize, but continue to work on a task for small talk visitors to your office

- Use an impromptu visit from a coworker, to take a 10 minute break

- Use free nights and weekends cell phone plans for personal calls, unless the call will be productive for a task at hand or profitable. Use this time to also follow up with new contacts, stay in touch with current contacts or conduct your extra income business.

- Use social and family gatherings to hone your networking skills.

- If you're willing to work overtime at work for the same pay, set aside 1 hour of personal time to create extra income.

- Don't watch the news, before going to bed. It negatively impacts sleep time for being refreshed the next day.

- Read 10 minutes day to improve attitude, perspective or skills. Just before going to bed, is the best time.

- Insure there is an agenda for every meeting, even if you don't chair it. Volunteer to create and distribute an agenda. Meetings will be shorter and more productive.

Time is our most valuable commodity. In order for other people to value our time, we must make the most of the value we place on our time.

Ask yourself right now,
"Is this the best use of my time?"

Make today count.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

The Trust Factor

Frank Schmidt recently posted an interesting question, regarding trust, on his blog.

What is trust?

My comment to Frank's question is:

"Trust is the very core foundation of every human inter-relationship. Buisnesses produce income based on trust. Repeat sales are based on more solid trust. If company does not fix a service or product problem, the trust factor is lost. Next vendor.

A person marries another, because there is a resonable amount of trust. Any immoral infraction weakens the trust. The emotion of love can usually reinforce any fractures. . . but only for so long, if the trust is continuously broken.

The fluctuation of trust is directly proportional to the fluctuation of human nature. Therefore trust is both predictable and unpredictable.

People aren’t just afraid of being used. They are afraid of what they reveal, being used against them."

No one should work with or be involved with anyone they cannot trust.

Cheers!!
SirReid

People are Interested, When You Show Interest

So you sent the client a proposal and never heard back. A couple of people you met recently, said they knew people who could use your services. After giving them your business card, you never heard back from them either.

Here's a quick article "Follow Up is Spelled C-A-L-L" which may resolve that problem.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Stop Networking. Start Living

Why does networking become a chore or doesn't seem as rewarding as people promised?

Maybe it's because we're putting too much emphasis on networking. We're looking for a pay back result at that pre-appointed 6:00PM event. We absolutely, positively have to make a contact at that 6:00PM to 8:30PM social mixer or that professional widget lover's association meeting.

On the iPower Global Solutions blog is an article entitled "The World is an Event". It points out that we are surrounded by opportunities to meet people. Every day living provides an opportunity.

Years ago I worked as a plain clothes store detective, being vigilant for shop lifters. Whenever I wandered through the department store purposely looking for shop lifters, I rarely found any. When I explored the store, with a shoppers perspective and socialized with the other employees, that is when shop lifters would appear. They would appear, because I wasn't looking. I wasn't trying so hard to find them. My job actually became easier over time.

Living every day life and enjoying the simple passing of the day is more important, than any silly pre-appointed networking. There is only 1 simple rule to networking. Always carry business cards. That's it. So you are prepared, in case you happen to make a contact.

In the mean time take your children to the zoo, the park or the beach. Walk the dog. Water the lawn. Go out to diner with your significant other. Stop by the travel store and plan that vacation. Perform the weekend ritual to the super shopping warehouse stores. Go bike riding. How about a horse carriage ride in Central Park or take in a movie at the local theatre. Have a social drink just for the sake of enjoying another person's company.

Living our lives everyday provides opportunities to network, but removes all the pressure. There is no pre-determined time to network. The goal is to enjoy life. There is no pressure. Focus on enjoying the here and now. Enjoy the moment. If we happen to make a connection with someone, that's the icing on the cake.

Networking becomes so much more enjoyable, when we simply enjoy life. Meeting people along the way is only part of the journey.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Best Time to Ask for a Reference Letter

When life is grand, that's the best time to ask for a reference letter. A reference letter can come from a boss, co-workers, clients or customers.

=> You and your boss getting along well
=> The powers that be are raving about a project you just completed
=> You just completed a client project before the deadline and under budget
=> A client just gave your company another project, due to your efforts
=> You're in the middle of a project that is high profile
=> You received an excellent evaluation
=> You received a bonus or a raise
=> You just received a referral from a satisfied client
=> A customer, client, helpdesk caller says the magic words;
"how can I repay you for all your help"

Ask for a reference letter while you're riding a high wave. Don't hesitate. Do it now. Ask for a reference letter while things are on a high note. Don't get so complacent with how well things are currently going. Be realistic about the future. The only thing that stays the same is change. To think this euphoria will last is fool hearty.

So no red flags are raised, just say you're going back to school and credit is provided for a reference letter against real life job experience. It's the truth. You may go back to school at some point.

"References: Don’t Wait Until You Need Them" is an article by Jose Anes that has more cool information on cultivating relationships for acquiring reference letters. You can never have too many reference letters.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Do Me a Favor?

People naturally do favors for those in their inner circle. The eagerness of one person helping another person is directly proportional to how often they stay in touch. There is very little motivation to help someone, if s/he only calls when a "need" arises. In Rick Frishman's book "Networking Magic", this type of person is referred to as a "drive by networker"

An interesting article on "Smart Resume Power" highlights this same point, when approaching people to provide references. If you want people be there for you, then be there regular and often for them.

Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

10 Rules of Office Engagement

There are many unwritten rules when engaging people in an office environment. The key to successful positioning is being "you", but always in a professional manner.

1. No yelling at anyone and allow no one to yell at you, unless the building is on fire.

2. Never make an important decision when angry.

3. Win arguments by being agreeable.

4. Never bring up mistakes of the past.

5. Always smile and say hello to everyone throughout the day.
(including people who empty your waste basket, answer your phone, delivery your mail)

6. Encourage and look out for team members.

7. Leaders serve and support. Bullies discourage and intimidate.

8. If you have to critique someone's work, say something encouraging first.

9. Listen to gossip. Then drop it in the wastebasket on the way out the coffee room.

10. If you make a mistake, acknowledge it immediately. Then correct it.


Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Smile. It's Contagious

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

A smile confuses an approaching frown. ~Author Unknown

People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile. ~Lee Mildon

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. ~Phyllis Diller

Smile. Have you ever noticed how easily puppies make human friends? Yet all they do is wag their tails and fall over. ~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997

The world always looks brighter from behind a smile. ~Author Unknown

Start every day with a smile and get it over with. ~W.C. Fields

Before you put on a frown, make absolutely sure there are no smiles available. ~Jim Beggs

A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks. ~Charles Gordy

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. ~Mark Twain, Following the Equator

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief. ~William Shakespeare, Othello

A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you're at home. ~Author Unknown

If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it. ~Andy Rooney

If you smile at someone, they might smile back. ~Author Unknown

Always remember to be happy because you never know who's falling in love with your smile. ~Author Unknown

Everyone smiles in the same language. ~Author Unknown

If you don't have a smile, I'll give you one of mine. ~Author Unknown

I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. ~Author Unknown

Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles. ~George Eliot

She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket. ~Raymond Chandler

A smile appeared upon her face as if she'd taken it directly from her handbag and pinned it there. ~Loma Chandler

A laugh is a smile that bursts. ~Mary H. Waldrip

If you don't start out the day with a smile, it's not too late to start practicing for tomorrow. ~Author Unknown

Smiling is my favorite exercise. ~Author Unknown

Wear a smile - one size fits all. ~Author Unknown

No matter how grouchy you're feeling,
You'll find the smile more or less healing.
It grows in a wreath
All around the front teeth -
Thus preserving the face from congealing.
~Anthony Euwer

Every day you spend without a smile, is a lost day. ~Author Unknown

Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. ~Mother Teresa

A friendly look, a kindly smile, one good act, and life's worthwhile. ~Author Unknown

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles. ~Washington Irving

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. ~Charles Reade

A smile is the universal welcome. ~Max Eastman

Keep smiling - it makes people wonder what you've been up to. ~Author Unknown

You're never fully dressed without a smile. ~Martin Charnin

It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown. ~Author Unknown

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. ~Janet Lane

All the statistics in the world can't measure the warmth of a smile. ~Chris Hart

If you would like to spoil the day for a grouch, give him a smile. ~Author Unknown

Peace begins with a smile. ~Mother Teresa

A smile is a powerful weapon; you can even break ice with it. ~Author Unknown

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. ~Author Unknown

It takes a lot of work from the face to let out a smile, but just think what good smiling can bring to the most important muscle of the body... the heart. ~Author Unknown

Solutions Diversify Income

The hallowed title of rainmaker is not always bestowed upon the swiftest, fastest, smartest or toughest. A person can establish themself as that "go to" person by looking for opportunities to solve problems. Rainmakers solidify their position by leveraging their network, for any problem they cannot solve.

No person is the be all and end all, unless they increase their sphere of influence. Developing an ever expanding network, insures continous sources for acquiring resources to assist in solving problems. The learned ability to solve problems, always insures several sources of continous income.



Copyright (c) 2006 Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

The World is an Event

P. Shelton, a premo professional event planner and public relations expert, allowed me to submit an article for her readers at iPower Global Solutions. I was honored by her request. Enjoy...

Maybe you just woke up from a 20-year sleep. You are in a foreign place. You have no friends, no family or no familiar faces in your immediate vicinity. To top it off your fish or plants died and your cat ran away. Now you really have no one to talk to, to get you through the day. You don't know anyone that can help you find a job or acquire clients to get your business off the ground. This may sound a bit extreme, but sometimes life's nasty curve balls make us feel lost or forlorn. We don't know where to begin to acquire that little jump-start to recharge our career or business. I have met many people with this dilemma.

Read more. . .

Email; The Electronic Business Card

Email is a powerful tool for marketing skills or services. I'm not talking about email marketing campaigns or spamming people. I'm referring to maximizing everyday friendly, business or social emails we send to people we know.

An email sent to just 2 people, who know you, can exponentially get the word out about your business. That single email to 2 people could potentially go out to 2,000 people in less than 1 hour. It's a natural phenomenon inherent to email, called viral marketing.

The subtle properties and functions of an email are under utilized, as passive marketing tools.

Your Email address: Select an address which reflects a professional image, even with friends. If you want people to take your business seriously, then you have to be serious about your business.

Carbon copy [CC] field: Always include those people they may only be slightly involved in your project. So what, if they only came to a status meeting once. Use email to keep them informed and your name in their face. The commercials you remember are the ones you see over and over. An email is your constant commercial. That person might be a potential referral to a new client.

Email Subject: What you type in the "subject" line is crucial to insuring people actually read your email. Always type something in the subject area of an email, even if you received it with a blank subject line. Keep the subject to 36 characters or less. Be succinct, yet informative in writing something that catches attention in the subject line. People open email based on what's in the subject, not because they know you. This shows people you value their time.

Keep in mind spam filters tend to trap email that has the words "hi", "hello" or just "Re:" in the subject line.

Email Signature: This is THE most important advertising area for you. This area is your billboard. It's also your electronic business card. This is the area where you tell people about your business with:
- your business name
- a slogan
- your telephone contact number
- your web site
- a special sale for this week
- maybe your snail mail address

for example my email signature is
C. E. Reid

CEO & President

NetTECH Systems
"Technology Solutions for Tomorrow . . . TODAY"

Tel: 201-222-5390
Publisher of Free "Savvy Intrapreneur" newsletter

Email Replies: Always respond to emails, even when you may not normally respond (i.e. chain letters). If it's an email you enjoyed reading, send a quick reply. Just say "thank you" or "this note made my day" (keep it very short). . . BUT make sure your email signature shows just below your reply. Click on "reply all" with your quick note. This increases the impact of getting the word out about your business.

Forwarding Email: Again, make sure your email signature shows just below your "FYI" note.

Think BIG Be BIG

Many years back, I received a promotion from working in the mailroom to administrative assistant in Office Services. This new position also made me a supervisor of the mailroom.

This should have been a satisfying position. But nooooo. After a month passed, I was already looking beyond the promotion and raise. I was itching to start my own business as a computer consultant. Ironically, other than a Radio Shack pocket TRS-80 I programmed in BASIC, I did not know very much about computers. Go figure.

Despite having very little computer skills I was determined to have my own business as a computer consultant. I was in the right place at the right time. Working in Office Services and the mailroom connected me to serving 200+ computer programmers on 2 floors at the World Trade Center. So maybe their skills would just rub off on me, so I could fulfill my dream as a computer consultant. At least, that's what I envisioned.

Those were some crazy thoughts I had, but they were all mine. The thought of having my own business sustained me through the madness of day-to-day office politics in the company. I had something to look forward to. Most people in the company had nothing to look forward to, except working at the company again the next day. . . and the next day after that.

A couple of months later, I had a company print up 1,000 pens with "C. Reid, Computer Consultant 333-444-9999" . Woo hoo!!. I was in business now. I still had almost no computer skills. But I had a DREAM.

My business printed pens were prominently displayed on my desk about 1 day, before a manager attempts to drop me down 10 flights of stairs. I had great respect for this manager. I knew he was the person to be around. As he comes in to see my boss, he eyes my printed pens. He picks one up and reads the pen. He looks at me. He repeats what's printed on the pen. He says to me sarcastically "so what do you know about computers" . I respond "as soon as you hire me, I'll know more than I do now" . He laughed hard and stepped off on me.

I was a little embarrassed by his comment, but I was not deterred. I eventually was hired in the company as a mainframe developer. It took quite a few more years and few more jobs later before I did become a computer consultant. I did start my own computer consulting company.

Quite a few years later, I ran into that same manager at a technology conference. His facial expression showed he was in shock, when I answered his "so what are you doing these days?" question. I responded" I not only became a computer consultant, but I am also founder, CEO & President of a successful technology consulting company". He shook my hand and said "Good work. You have come a long way from the mailroom". I felt proud that he recognized me.

The point is I never stopped dreaming. I kept made my dream bigger than I was. It sustained me through the worst of working jobs, because I always had hope. Most people don't, unless they become a Savvy Intrapreneur.

Copyright (c) Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Single Point of Career Failure

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In the IT industry an inordinate, but necessary, amount of time is spent developing disaster recovery plans. I'm sure this happens in many other industries, but is more magnified when it comes to technology.

Time is spent analyzing "what if" scenarios. When single points of failure are identified, creative ideas are considered for creating alternate solutions. This could take weeks, months or even years to complete. Even more time is spent testing the disaster recovery plans. Fine-tuning takes place by scheduling test plans on a regular basis.

How come very few people have disaster recovery plans for their income? One income is a single point of failure. Some very smart persons may say "a 2 income couple creates redundancy". That is only true, if the couple is living off only 1 income. If both incomes are required to pay all required expenses every month, 1 person being laid off, outsourced or even leaving this good green earth could wreak havoc on the other person's biorythms. Our quality of life style is dictated by our income. People are not afraid of losing their jobs or business. They are afraid of losing their income.

If both persons each created alternate income sources, that's disaster recovery planning at its finest. Now this may sound like I'm leading up to a commercial and will be asking you to send 3 easy payments of $9.95 for my program. Not true. I'm merely presenting food for thought to those interested in managing their careers like a business. Take what works and discard the rest.

I started working at 11. At the ripe old age of 12 I realized having 1 paper route would not sustain my fluctuating income. 1 week I might make $2.00 in tips. Another week, I might make as much as $7.00 in tips. I liked having the $7.00. It was way more than the 25 cents a week allowance my mother gave me. I asked her for a cost of living raise, but she wasn't with that program. I hedged my bets by asking Mr. Current for 2nd paper route. He gave me 3 routes. He said "you are reliable and customers call me about your good service". With a little extra effort, I now averaged a steady $10-$12 per week in tips. I was living large ($21) on the weeks where each route provided $7.00 or more in tips.

Since that time, I have always made it a point to create multiple opportunities for income. During 2001-2002 I was still able to pay my bills with no problem, despite getting dropped from a lucrative consulting assignment. If it had taken 3-5 years to land something else, the other incomes would have carried my financial responsibilities with no worries where the next check was coming from. Having alternate incomes allowed me to make good business decisions when other opportunities came up. I could pick and choose and wait it out. Alternate incomes eliminated having to make desperate emotional decisions about taking anything that came along. I had no worries about taking a pay cut. I did not have to take an offer; any offer. When recruiters asked me if I was working [which is a trick question, by the way], I answered "YEAH BABY".

People working or who have alternate income usually get paid what they are currently making, when job opportunities come up. People out of work, with no alternate income, have to settle for less. Many times they settle for much less. Don't take my word for it. Look at entertainers. Those currently working, steadily increase their income deals. Entertainers making come backs, take what they can get.

In my workshops I prove to staff and the corporation that hires me, people are more productive when they are empowered to succeed by running their careers like a business. First order of business; don't have 1 client or customer ( job). You will smile more at work, with less tension, when that 2nd income kicks in. Your boss will be happy with your new attitude to perform better. It works every time.

Career management is very different from career development. Human Resources can help with the latter.

Copyright (c) Savvy Intrapreneur & C. E. Reid

Smarten Up

Being a savvy intrapreneur is good for corporations. Companies embrace those people that think like business owners, as they perform their job. Savvy intrapreneurs get more respect from management, because management knows they can rely on people who do; not just talk.

As a trusted business associate, Rod Colon recently stated "today's business climate has created an atmosphere of quiet desperation for many professionals globally."

In one of my previous newsletter I referred to a report published in 2005 by the U.S. Department of Labor. I thought it was worth mentioning again, for those who do not subscribe to the free "Savvy Intraprenuer" newsletter. This is presented to those still riding that career roller coaster ride.

From the DOL report . . .

"The demand for skilled workers is outpacing supply, resulting in attractive, high-paying jobs going unfilled. When companies do not find the talent they need within our borders, they seek it abroad. Global competition will reinforce the economic premium on knowledge workers, leaving low or unskilled U.S. workers increasingly vulnerable.

The shift to knowledge work will reinforce the ongoing trend of “non-traditional” work arrangements. Today, few workers can count on spending their entire careers within one company, and the average person will change jobs nine times or more before the age of 32. Full-time, stable, long-term employment arrangements will continue to decline. Instead, a growing number of workers will be part-timers, temporaries, consultants, or contractors.

Read more of U.S. DOL Report . . .

Innovative Fund Raising Approach Using Technology

Contact: Phyllis Shelton
Savvy Intrapreneur
Public Relations Director
Phone: 646-201-6597
E-mail: iPowergs@Success4U2.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Innovative Fund Raising Approach Using Technology

New York City, NY, January 23, 2006 - Savvy Intrapreneur, a business career coaching organization, has developed an Internet community for people who previously or currently live in the New York City housing projects of Edenwald & Baychester in the Bronx. The online community is called Edenwald & Baychester Alumni http://Edenwald.21publish.com

"This is a very unique community initiative. It is an excellent opportunity for housing project residents to have an online voice and presence, to speak on past and present issues affecting their community. Former and current Edenwald and Baychester residents, who have succeeded in life, can share their experiences, while helping others succeed." states Carl E. Reid, former Edenwald resident, Savvy Intrapreneur CEO and New York City Chapter President of non-profit Latinos in Information Sciences & Technology Association.

All members who participate in this Internet on-line community will be published as contributors for a book manuscript being developed which focuses on growing up in the Edenwald and Baychester projects and its impact on people's lives, while giving hope for a brighter future to people who grow up in city projects around the United States. All proceeds from the book will be used to build an educational scholarship fund for children who live in Baychester and Edenwald.

Qualifying residents can join Edenwald & Baychester Alumni for Free. It consists of personal online blogs (web logs) each member can create and discussion forums.

Anyone in the surrounding neighborhoods are also welcome to join (south toGunhill Road-north to233rd St-west to White Plains Road-east to Coop City).

About Savvy Intrapreneur
Through 1 on 1 coaching and on-site group workshops, Savvy Intrapreneur, teaches professionals how to eliminate the fear of being fired at work, by creating their own career insurance. Empowering people to run their career like a business - the business of ME, Inc., positions companies to motivate their employees for higher productivity. Companies profit more when staff feel they are in control of their own success. Using Savvy Intrapreneur technques, people can give themselves a pay raise, even when their company can't.

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PosiTalk is Smart Talk

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"Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care." -Theodore Roosevelt

If business is war, words with negative connotations are the deadliest incendiary devices for quickly deteriorating a company's bottom line. Using negative words like can't, won't, don't etc. are claymore mines for impeding the development of trusted relationships. The core foundation of profitibility is built on developing long term relationships, one person at a time. So every conversation becomes an opportunity to get the word out about your company with vendors, partners, business associates and people outside.

According to customer loyalty management firm, Walker Information "It costs more to find new customers than to retain existing ones. It's an old cliché, but there's no disputing reams of research showing positive customer relationships are critical. Taking measures to proactively build customer loyalty - along with satisfaction - will help mine an existing customer base for future business."

My experience in staff training, while building and managing helpdesks, has taught me a thing or two about the powerful affect of positalk. The situational squelch button works best by incepting positalk into a conversation. Positalk improves customer service, client rentention and loyal relationships for the long term. It costs nothing to implement a positalk program in everyday conversation. It just takes a little practice.

Taking a snippet from my interactive "High Touch for High Impact Relationships Workshop", here are a few suggestions for quickly implementing a positalk progam in daily conversation.

Practice replacing:

We can't do that with here's how we can handle this . . .

We have a problem with we have a situation

It's not my job with maybe xyz department [or name a go to person] can help resolve this

I don't know what to tell you with let me do some research to see who can help you

You can't do that with can I suggest this approach?

It doesn't work that way with have you considered this?

That's not our policy with let me speak to someone to see what can be done

Please hold with can I place you on hold?

That's not my problem with here's how we can handle this situation . . .

Positalk emphasizes caring and concern for each individual on the other side of the phone or conversation. That builds trusted relationships. Use or modify what works for you. Discard the rest.

Dirtiest 4 Letter Word

When my daughter was about 3 or 4 I began asking her to do things to push her past her limits. She always felt she performed quite well, because she received a lot of encouragement for just attempting to do things most people would say 4-5-6-7-8 year olds aren't capable of doing. I would get her to do things, like asking her to take her bowl and put it in the sink. Although I knew she couldn't reach the sink, I just wanted her to try to reach anyway. Dropping the bowl was OK. After a couple of futile attempts, I picked her up so she could place the bowl in the sink. She still felt accomplished in feeling like she still did it herself. Another time I asked her to help me clean an imaginary dirt spot on the wall that was out of her reach. After she tried and figured out she couldn't reach, I picked her up. She cleaned the spot. She felt very satisfied with her accomplishment.

Not yet 4 1/2 years old, one day I asked her to count to 10. She hadn't been taught yet, but I thought I would really push her. She responded with the nastiest little word. I told her, if she said that "bad word" again, I would wash her mouth out with soap. I came from the bathroom, with a bar of soap to show her I meant business. I asked her again to count to 10. She said that 4 letter word again, more adamantly. I rubbed my finger across the wet bar of soap and rubbed my fingered across her lips. A soon as she licked her lips, she proceeded to cry from the awful soap taste. She ran to her mother to sooth the distaste on her lips. When I told her mother about my request, she [mother] freaked out. Mother also said the same dirty word, in referring to my daughter's limited knowledge. I was a maniac, as far as her mother was concerned.

I pulled my daughter from the safety of her mother's arms. As I visibly rubbed my finger over the soap bar, I asked my daughter to count to 10. She already knew the result of saying the bad 4 letter word. So she thought carefully. The most amazing thing happened. She turned around with her back to me and said "help me daddy". This was symbolic. She knew every time I picked her up, she always accomplished something.

That dirty word did not appear in my daughter's vocabulary again, until her second year in high school. She didn't do well in history. I asked her "what is the problem". She responded with that dirty word in a complete sentence. I proceeded to the bathroom and she changed her tune with a quick retraction and apology for using that word. So we continued with planning actions for improving her report card. She past all her subjects, including history, on the next report card. It's phenominal how eliminating that nasty word helped her accomplish so many things over the years.

The odd thing is this 4 letter word is socially acceptable in any gathering of people. No one gives it a second thought. Very few people realize the damage this nasty word does to other people. It cripples many people. People hear this word, pass it on to other people and more people hurt themselves saying it. Many parents think nothing of saying this word to their children in every day conversation.

People miss out, on opportunities, raises, going to college, moving up the corporate ladder, starting a business, settling a dispute, forgiving a family member, meeting a new friend, taking a trip, learning something new, negotiating a better deal, just by uttering this word constantly.

Drum roll please . . . the dirtiest 4 letter word, which should be stricken from the English dictionary, is:

Can't

I can't do it *It can't work * You can't have everything you want * It can't be done * You can't do that

Who wants their mouth washed out with soap?

*

"No one is a failure, unless they fail to try" -unknown

What is a Savvy Intrapreneur?

The first question people ask me regarding my workshops or free newsletter is "what is a Savvy Intrapreneur?".

First, let's answer the question "What is an Intrapreneur?" Gifford
Pinchot coined the word "Intrapreneur" in the 70s. Gifford was and still is ahead of his time in vision. An Intrapreneur thinks like an entrepreneur seeking out opportunities, which benefit the corporation. It was a new way of thinking, in making companies more productive and profitable. IBM was one of the 1st companies to execute the Intrapreneur approach, when it spun off a separate company as its personal computer division, in the early 80s. The entire leadership of the new compoany was made up entirely of Intrapreneurs. Visionary employees who thought like entrepreneurs.

A Savvy Intrapreneur takes a good idea and makes it better.
A Savvy Intrapreneur steps out of the comfort zone of corporate security, to insure s/he creates additional income which at least matches their take home pay. An Intrapreneur works overtime helping to run someone else's business, for the company's future. A Savvy Intrapreneur runs themselves like a business putting in 1 hour a day of overtime for their own financial future.

Developing a career while maintaining position at work requires staying focused as a Savvy Intrapreneur. This takes courage. Click here to listen to a brief speech from a person we all know as an expert on courage.

Then step out. Dare to make yourself "fireproof" at work.

Intrapreneur or Entrepreneur? by Andrew J. Birol

The article below, by Andrew J. Birol, shows the pros and cons of Intrapreneurship vs. Entrepreneurship. It's a great article in pointing out the benefits of being an intrapreneur, but there is little too much emphasis on the risk factors. Remember Gifford Pinchot's Intrapreneur Commandment #1, as you read this article.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?
When a company’s growth begins to dwindle, boardroom meetings grow strained and the finger pointing starts. Executives cry out, "We need a new strategy! We need to hire better people! Our culture is to blame! Our compensation is wrong!" The founder, if he or she is still around, sadly states, "We have more people, resources, and money than ever. But now we are so big we can’t even get out of our own way!" Embarrassed, a politically perceptive staffer serves up a popular buzzword. "Intrapreneurs! What we need are Intrapreneurs!" The "hip" executive explains that Intrapreneurs are "Inside Entrepreneurs" who will follow their founder’s example. The Intrapreneur, he or she promises, will buck the corporate malaise, risk his or her career to get things done and, is willing to "do the right thing to serve the customer". As everyone looks around the room for this potential savior of growth, what do they see? Executives’ eyes around the table react in three different ways:

Read more . . .

Cheers!!
Savvy Intrapreneur

Don't Mix Business with Business

After much soul searching and filtering out all the nay sayer advise, you decided to put in that 1 hour of overtime with your own business. That's fantabulous!! Making this life changing decision means the main battle is over. Now you can give yourself a raise any time you want. You only have to put in a little extra effort with your own business. It's the finest hour of being a true Savvy Intrapreneur.

Now you're in "marketing mode" to spread the word to people about your business.

Although you're excited and want to tell the whole world, be gingerly about mixing your business with your career business at work. Your best friends at work, could become your worst nightmare. Why? Crabs in a barrel syndrome. Instead of being happy for you and asking how they can help, right away people may think you're making more money them AND getting ahead of them, faster, in creating a better life for yourself/family. Not good.

Just be careful who you speak to at work about your part time business. Consider offering those you really trust a commission for referrals. This puts them in check, because you now have someone who will make money on the side, if they help you make money. It's a win-win situation. It also insures their allegiance in keeping your secret at work. If they tell, they lose money too.

Your new venture also benefits your employer. No waay. Yes waaaay. Your whole oulook with your employer will change in a major positive way. You will be more upbeat and positively energized. Disagreements at work won't be that important. Your day will go smoother and you will be more productive, because you are empowered with your own business. Due to budget cuts, the Boss can't give you a raise. So what? You can give yourself a raise, with your business. You won't be angry or upset when she/he says "no can do" on your raise. Any flakey excuses are inconsequential. You own You!!

Aren't you a special person to the company you work for? Your positive attitude will become contagious. When people ask you at work "how are you doing?" you say "fantabulous" or "great". This strange phenomenon increases your self worth, while increasing your employer's bottom line. They now have a happy employee. Hoo Wa!!

P.S. - putting your own business name and your role, is OK to put on your resume.