Cheats Codes for Life

If you are a gamer (a person who play video games), you know what cheat codes are.  One of my clients I am currently working with is developing a video game property.  The fact I am working with this client and my reminiscence of my video game days brought this short post to fruition.

I remember when I used to play Golden Eye (James Bond) in college, their were cheat codes that gave you extra guns and let you bypass certain test and boards on the game.  The reason you would do something like that is basically it was either too hard to obtain those guns and extra goodies or it was too much work to get there.

I read the blog and watch the videos of a guy named Gary Vaynerchuck (here is one of his videos that really inspired me), who is a successful business man and social media evangelist, and he really pumps me up when he talks about good old-fashioned hard work.  His best saying is that you have to go out there and “work your face off.” Which is a really great statement.  With all this information at our finger tips and this world evolution of making things faster, smarter, easier,etc., I think we forget that success boils down to  - bone crushing hard work.  I have always felt that having that hard general labor type work ethic (lifting, pushing, busting butt type work) combined with being on cusp of how to be a knowledge worker in the this new age, has helped me tremendously.  I don’t think you can have the experience of knowledge working, without having that bone crushing hard work ethic, and be successful. There are no cheat codes to life, you gotta work through each level, complete each board with strategy, and be apart of the cream that rises to the top. Thats if you want to get to the next level.

Create Your Own Luck

Photo Credit: The Magical Green Lucky One by Oskaline

Thomas Edison once said, “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” To quote from a book I am currently reading, “If you wanted to be a professional golfer, it wouldn’t be unusual to dedicate yourself to hitting 10,000 or more golf balls until the precise combination of movements in your swing were so ingrained in your muscle memory that you no longer had to think about it consciously.” This number, 10,000, is significant and has been made more popular as the basis of OUTLIERS: THE STORY OF SUCCESS By Malcolm Gladwell. The premise of Gladwell’s book is a study by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson. In this study Mr. Ericsson estimates 10,000 as the number of hours Read the rest of this entry »

Gen Y & Boomers Unite in the Land of Corporate

★ How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda

This is right on target. A good study done by these companies.  I think Gen Y and the Boomers are finally beginning to meet each half way.  I have always thought of time as currency.  Part of the issue with Gen Y that I have seen is that some companies have not offered either enough time –   meaning they have required working crazy work hours – or have not offered enough money. Gen Y also has not shown their work ethic, skill-sets, and global awareness as deserving of such benefits.  I think we are beginning to hear each other.

You vs. You: Determining how much to share in the social media space

Whoops didn’t mean to send that last tweet haha
2:47 AM May 10th Anonymous via Twitter

I have to be more careful and look at who I’m sending the message to. I didn’t mean to tweet that earlier. smh.
7:04 PM May 7th Anonymous via Twitter

My hosting provider is a complete prick. No, I don’t (want to) take that back and I won’t regret this tweet.
3:48 AM Apr 24th Anonymous via Twitter

Have have you ever regretted posting a vulgar tweet on Twitter or felt embarrassed that a colleague at work saw your innermost feelings through your Facebook status?

The internet has left the world drunken with constant connection through social media and social networking. Of course you know, because you’ve probably stopped by Facebook 4-5 times today.  This constant interaction started when blogging and personal web pages became mainstream on the internet. Personal written journals never allowed such an open dialogue and has initiated a flurry of interest into sharing personal ideas and thoughts in the public domain of the web. As publishing tools have become easier to use, the easier it has made it to connect with the world within a couple of clicks.

This new wave of social media and networking online allows you to create and share content with followers, friends, family, and professional colleagues.  Through social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, you basically allow instant access to your personal world in seconds. Participating in social media has huge benefits from a human connectivity standpoint, however with that type of openness comes responsibility. Just like me I am sure you have always been taught to put your best foot forward, right? Did you always listen to that advice?  Probably Not. So you ask who cares that you threw up at the bar and your friends have pictures of this debacle on Facebook? Actually, you should care.

With this type of information now flowing through the “internets” (as some call it), how do you go about separating your personal and informal interactions away from your professional image that is shared with the world via the internet? This is the million-dollar question, right? We have a couple ideas that we think will stick with you as you paint your personal brand in a light that’s beneficial to the WHOLE you. Which brings us to the first point:

1) Realize that THERE IS ONLY ONE YOU!
Most professionals feel that as long as they keep their personal life away from their professional life, then they’re safe. This is not a true picture of how personal interaction occurs. The lines between personal and professional  interactions are constantly blurring. The first thing that needs to be realized is that there is only one YOU, which is your personal brand. If you are the life of the party and are always full of fun in your personal life, those attributes can be true selling points in your professional life. The best course of action is to always be true who you are. If you have personal attributes that can be embarrassing to your personal brand, then you need to re-evaluate and focus in on what your personal brand represents. Hajj Flemings, writer/speaker on Personal Branding, summed it up the best at the Podcamp Michigan conference in 2008,  “Whatever you do (online) should reinforce who you are.  As long as you are willing to pay the price for whatever it is that you do, there is no problem.”

2) Take serious what you post on the Internet.
The misconception with posting things on personal pages through social sites such as Facebook, is that you have final control on who sees that content. This is partially true. There are still very murky waters in the evolution of social media. It is not exactly clear whether you own and control the content that is posted on these sites. I am  by no means convincing you not to be in this space.  What I am saying is that you should be apprehensive and know that the content you put on the internet may not always be under your control. The more options you have to control your content, the better. This also applies to the security of your content and who could possible gain access to your personal content via hacking or phishing techniques.

3) Continuous management of  your personal brand on the Internet.
Its up to you whether or not you want to achieve high rankings in Google. A good reason to focus on results is to suppress or eliminate any unfavorable search results that you may be receiving under your name. These bad search results might be caused by a personal indiscretion or by an entirely different person that simply has the same name. The best way to increase better results in google is to create more content that aligns with your brand. Use publishing tools like WordPress, Blogger.com, Facebook, and LinkedIn to increase your results. Because these sites have millions of people using them around the world, search results related to these sites are bumped up to the top of the list.

If this whole idea of only being one YOU sounds too Utopian, we would love to hear what you feel is the best approach.  You may find yourself that there are only two possible outcomes on to how you present yourself online: 1) You could be extremely conscious and precautions to what you say or do online, while hiding the real you; or 2) Be uninhibited and transparent in your online presence and share your real thoughts, ideas, and feelings – the true you. I strongly believe that as long as you are committed to your personal brand and being true to who you are, with maybe a few caveats, you will always set yourself up to win. What do you think? Respond in our comments section, we would love to hear from you.