I just got my copy of a great life and career success advice book, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.  Darren is the publisher of SUCCESS Magazine – my favorite periodical.  The subtitle, Multiplying Your Success, One Simple Step at a Time captures the essence of the book.

Darren lays out a simple formula in the first chapter…

Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE

According to Darren, “Small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference” in your life and put you on the road to the career success you want and deserve.  I agree.

The next five chapters of The Compound Effect are dedicated to five simple success strategies.  If you apply these strategies you can’t help but creating your life and career success…

1. Choices
2. Habits
3. Momentum
4. Influences
5. Acceleration

Darren discusses each of these strategies in depth and then provides several action steps at the end of each chapter.  Below, I’ve listed the action steps that meant the most to me and to which I’ve committed to doing for each of the five success strategies.

Choices

Where in your life are you not taking 100% responsibility for the success or failure of your present condition?  Write down three things you have done in the past that have messed things up.  List three things you should have done, but didn’t.  Write out three things that happened to you but your responded poorly.  Write down three things you can start doing right now to take back responsibility for the outcomes of your life.

Habits

Identify your three best habits – those that support your most important goal.  Identify your three worst habits – those that take you off course from your most important goal.  Identify three new habits you need to develop to put you on track toward your most important goal.

Momentum

List three areas of life in which you are not consistent enough.  What has this inconsistency cost you in life?  Make a declaration to stay steadfast in your new commitment to consistency.

Write down a half dozen key behaviors relevant to your new goals.  These should be behaviors ou want to establish a rhythm with and eventually create momentum.

Influences

Identify the influence the input of media and information is having on your life.  Determine what input you need to protect your mind from and how you are going to keep your mind regularly flushed with positive, uplifting and supportive input.

Evaluate your current associations.  With whom might you need to limit your association?  With whom might you need to completely dissociate?  Strategy ways you will expand your positive associations.

Acceleration

Identify those times you hit moments of truth, so you know when to push through to find new growth, and separate yourself from others and your old self.

Identify three areas in your life where you can do more.  Identify three areas of your live where you can beat your own expectations.  Identify three ways you can do the unexpected.  Where can you differentiate yourself from what is common, normal or expected?

These are all great action items to help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  You can begin working on them now.  Or you can do a really smart thing and get and read a copy of The Compound Effect to help you really understand the importance of taking these actions.  You can purchase a copy on Amazon.com.  Here is the url: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=compound+effect+darren+hardy&sprefix=compound+effect

I like The Compound Effect because it is based on simple common sense principles.  I make many of same points as Darren in my career advice book, Success Tweets.  I also like it because it asks you to take a hard look at yourself.  Many self help and career success books skip this important step.  I believe that before you can get better, it’s important to acknowledge the mistakes you’ve made in the past.

For example, when it comes to choices, Darren suggests, “Write down three things you have done in the past that have messed things up.  List three things you should have done, but didn’t.”  This was tough for me.  I had to acknowledge that I’ve made some pretty poor choices in the past.  However, acknowledging  these poor choices made it easier for me to apply the rest of the advice, “Write down three things you can start doing right now to take back responsibility for the outcomes of your life.”

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  As Darren Hardy points out, small smart actions repeated over and over again, will yield big results when it comes to your life and career success.  If you consistently make smart choices, engage in positive habits, build momentum, spend time with the right influencers and accelerate your progress you will become a life and career success.  Buy and read a copy of The Compound Effect.  Download and complete the free worksheets.  Put the common sense ideas to work in your life and career.  Reread it when you find yourself getting off track.

That’s the career advice I found in The Compound Effect.  I hope you buy a copy, read it and put its wisdom into action.  When you do, please take a minute to share your experiences with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career advice, all in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

I just got my copy of a great life and career success advice book, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.  Darren is the publisher of SUCCESS Magazine – my favorite periodical.  The subtitle, Multiplying Your Success, One Simple Step at a Time captures the essence of the book.

Darren lays out a simple formula in the first chapter…

Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE

According to Darren, “Small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference” in your life and put you on the road to the career success you want and deserve.  I agree.

The next five chapters of The Compound Effect are dedicated to five simple success strategies.  If you apply these strategies you can’t help but creating your life and career success…

1. Choices
2. Habits
3. Momentum
4. Influences
5. Acceleration

Darren discusses each of these strategies in depth and then provides several action steps at the end of each chapter.  Below, I’ve listed the action steps that meant the most to me and to which I’ve committed to doing for each of the five success strategies.

Choices

Where in your life are you not taking 100% responsibility for the success or failure of your present condition?  Write down three things you have done in the past that have messed things up.  List three things you should have done, but didn’t.  Write out three things that happened to you but your responded poorly.  Write down three things you can start doing right now to take back responsibility for the outcomes of your life.

Habits

Identify your three best habits – those that support your most important goal.  Identify your three worst habits – those that take you off course from your most important goal.  Identify three new habits you need to develop to put you on track toward your most important goal.

Momentum

List three areas of life in which you are not consistent enough.  What has this inconsistency cost you in life?  Make a declaration to stay steadfast in your new commitment to consistency.

Write down a half dozen key behaviors relevant to your new goals.  These should be behaviors ou want to establish a rhythm with and eventually create momentum.

Influences

Identify the influence the input of media and information is having on your life.  Determine what input you need to protect your mind from and how you are going to keep your mind regularly flushed with positive, uplifting and supportive input.

Evaluate your current associations.  With whom might you need to limit your association?  With whom might you need to completely dissociate?  Strategy ways you will expand your positive associations.

Acceleration

Identify those times you hit moments of truth, so you know when to push through to find new growth, and separate yourself from others and your old self.

Identify three areas in your life where you can do more.  Identify three areas of your live where you can beat your own expectations.  Identify three ways you can do the unexpected.  Where can you differentiate yourself from what is common, normal or expected?

These are all great action items to help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  You can begin working on them now.  Or you can do a really smart thing and get and read a copy of The Compound Effect to help you really understand the importance of taking these actions.  You can purchase a copy on Amazon.com.  Here is the url: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=compound+effect+darren+hardy&sprefix=compound+effect

I like The Compound Effect because it is based on simple common sense principles.  I make many of same points as Darren in my career advice book, Success Tweets.  I also like it because it asks you to take a hard look at yourself.  Many self help and career success books skip this important step.  I believe that before you can get better, it’s important to acknowledge the mistakes you’ve made in the past.

For example, when it comes to choices, Darren suggests, “Write down three things you have done in the past that have messed things up.  List three things you should have done, but didn’t.”  This was tough for me.  I had to acknowledge that I’ve made some pretty poor choices in the past.  However, acknowledging  these poor choices made it easier for me to apply the rest of the advice, “Write down three things you can start doing right now to take back responsibility for the outcomes of your life.”

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  As Darren Hardy points out, small smart actions repeated over and over again, will yield big results when it comes to your life and career success.  If you consistently make smart choices, engage in positive habits, build momentum, spend time with the right influencers and accelerate your progress you will become a life and career success.  Buy and read a copy of The Compound Effect.  Download and complete the free worksheets.  Put the common sense ideas to work in your life and career.  Reread it when you find yourself getting off track.

That’s the career advice I found in The Compound Effect.  I hope you buy a copy, read it and put its wisdom into action.  When you do, please take a minute to share your experiences with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career advice, all in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

If you read this career success blog with any regularity you know that I love SUCCESS Magazine.  I read it cover to cover as soon as I get it every month.  As usual, the September 2011 issue had some great career advice.  Check out what it had to say about honoring your mentors…

List three people who have contributed to your success.  Not jot down an idea for honoring each then – and do it!

I am a big believer in the power of mentoring.  Tweet 51 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Find a mentor.  Mentors are positive people who will help you find the lessons in your experiences and use them to move forward.”

The term “mentor” comes from The Odyssey.  Odysseus entrusted the care of his son, Telemachus, to Mentor when he set out to fight the Trojan War — and as you know, he didn’t get back for quite a while!  The best mentors will help you learn and grow by sharing their knowledge and wisdom with you.  In this way, you can benefit from their experience without having to suffer the consequences of gaining that experience firsthand.

Mentors are positive people by definition.  It takes a positive person to give of himself or herself to help another learn, grow and succeed.

I have been fortunate to have had several mentors in my life and career.  All of them shared several characteristics.  They all…

• Were willing to share their wisdom, knowledge, skills and expertise.
• Had a positive outlook on life.  They helped me through tough times and showed me how to find the opportunity in the difficulties I was facing.
• Were genuinely concerned about me and my success.  In addition to being knowledgeable, they were empathic.
• Really knew what they were doing.  I respected them for their knowledge and skills.
• Kept growing themselves.  All of my mentors were curious and inquisitive.  Sometimes the roles were reversed.  They asked what I was reading, and then read the books themselves – so they could learn and we could discuss the ideas.
• Gave me direct, constructive feedback.  They held me to high standards.  They congratulated me when I met their expectations.  They corrected me when I failed to do so – but in a manner where I learned what not to do the next time.
• Were respected by their colleagues.  People who are highly regarded in their field or company make the best mentors.
• Sought out and valued the opinions of others.  My best mentor always told me to listen most carefully to the people with whom I disagreed – in that way I might learn something.  And, he was right.

As the old saying goes, a mentor is someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.  This is great career advice.

Do you want to find a mentor?  Just look around you.  Who are the people you admire and want to emulate?  Watch what they do, and do the same.  I’ve had several mentors who never even realized they were mentoring me.

I learned how to build a network of solid contacts by watching Maggie Watson.  I learned the rules of business etiquette and dressing for success by watching Bill Rankin.  I learned how to become a first-rate public speaker by watching Steve Roesler.  I learned how to become a trusted advisor by watching Don Nelson. I learned the importance of attention to detail by watching Howard Sohn.  I learned true courage by watching Sylvia Montero.  I learned how to carry myself with dignity in even the most difficult situations by watching JF and Carol Kiernan.  I learned how to become a better conversationalist by watching Cathy, my wife.  This blog post is one way I am honoring them.

The reverse is also true.  I’ve learned plenty about what not to do to build self-esteem, give performance feedback and treat people with respect and dignity from observing a few of my managers over the years.

I’ve found that if you want to have an acknowledged mentoring relationship, all you have to do is ask.  Go to the people you admire and tell them that you admire their judgment and would like to learn from them to build your career success.  Ask if you can impose on their time to get answers to questions you have.  I have never had anyone turn me down when I’ve asked this way.

Just as it’s important to find someone you respect to mentor you, it also important to mentor others.  You don’t have to be in a formal leadership position or have years and years of experience to mentor someone else.  It’s never too early to become a mentor.  We all have something to give, and the sooner you begin giving, the better.  If you’re in college, you can mentor high school students.  If you’re a recent graduate, you can mentor others still in school.  The best way to honor your mentors is to mentor others.

I take great joy in mentoring other people.  I love it when I can use my experience to help accelerate the growth of someone else and help them become a career sucess.  It takes the sting out of some of the negative consequences I’ve experienced because of poor judgment.  I think to myself, “At least he or she won’t have to go through that.”

In his great book, Love is the Killer App, Tim Sanders tells the story of how he turned one of the people who worked for him from a “mad dog” into a “lovecat.”  The advice is simple: “Offer your wisdom freely… And always be human.”

Tim is right on.  Mentoring is a great way to become a lovecat by serving others.  The more you serve others, the more confidence – and life and career success – will come your way.  Besides that, you’ll grow by mentoring.  As you reflect on your life experiences and distill them into some nuggets that you can share with others, your knowledge will become wisdom.  In addition to being better able to help others learn and grow, you will be better able to take advantage of what you know.  You never learn something so completely as when you teach it to another person.

Any mentoring relationship needs to focus on the person being mentored.  While mentoring someone will most often be a satisfying experience for you, remember that it is not about you – it’s about the other person.  Accept him or her for who he or she is.  Help him or her proceed at his or her own pace.  The best mentoring relationships are guided by the person being mentored.

Mentoring should be a positive experience for both of you.  That means that you need to avoid treating a person you are mentoring as incompetent or incapable.  Rather, think of him or her as someone lacking in experience and who needs guidance in order to create his or her career success.  Don’t criticize.  Help the other person think through the consequences of his or her behavior and to identify more positive ways of handling difficult or troubling situations.

Hold the person you are mentoring responsible for his or her career success.  Give him or her small assignments.  Don’t let him or her off the hook if he or she fails to complete them.  Be willing to give of yourself and your time, but make sure the other person is doing so, too.

Realize that the relationship will end.  If you’ve done a good job, the person you are mentoring will need to move on at some point.  It’s all part of the cycle.  It can be hard to let go, but feel good about seeing someone move on to bigger and better things – and another mentor.

I’ve created an acronym to define what it takes to become a good mentor.  A good mentor…

M Motivates you to accomplish more than you think you can.

E Expects the best of you.

N Never gives up on you or lets you give up on yourself.

T Tells you the truth, even when it hurts.

O Occasionally kicks your butt.

R Really cares about you and your success.

Look for people with these qualities when you are searching for a mentor.  Embody them yourself when you are mentoring others.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Mentors can help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Successful people follow the career advice in Tweet 51 in Success Tweets.  “Find a mentor.  Mentors are positive people who will help you find the lessons in your experiences and use them to move forward.”  You can enter into a formal mentoring relationship.  Or you can just observe people you admire.  They can mentor you without even realizing that they are doing so.  And, it’s never too early to become a mentor yourself.  There is always someone who needs your career advice; someone who needs to know what you’ve already learned.  Be a positive person.  Help others achieve the life and career success they want and deserve and you’ll be helping your own career success.

That’s my career advice on mentoring.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

If you read this career success blog with any regularity you know that I love SUCCESS Magazine.  I read it cover to cover as soon as I get it every month.  As usual, the September 2011 issue had some great career advice.  Check out what it had to say about honoring your mentors…

List three people who have contributed to your success.  Not jot down an idea for honoring each then – and do it!

I am a big believer in the power of mentoring.  Tweet 51 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Find a mentor.  Mentors are positive people who will help you find the lessons in your experiences and use them to move forward.”

The term “mentor” comes from The Odyssey.  Odysseus entrusted the care of his son, Telemachus, to Mentor when he set out to fight the Trojan War — and as you know, he didn’t get back for quite a while!  The best mentors will help you learn and grow by sharing their knowledge and wisdom with you.  In this way, you can benefit from their experience without having to suffer the consequences of gaining that experience firsthand.

Mentors are positive people by definition.  It takes a positive person to give of himself or herself to help another learn, grow and succeed.

I have been fortunate to have had several mentors in my life and career.  All of them shared several characteristics.  They all…

• Were willing to share their wisdom, knowledge, skills and expertise.
• Had a positive outlook on life.  They helped me through tough times and showed me how to find the opportunity in the difficulties I was facing.
• Were genuinely concerned about me and my success.  In addition to being knowledgeable, they were empathic.
• Really knew what they were doing.  I respected them for their knowledge and skills.
• Kept growing themselves.  All of my mentors were curious and inquisitive.  Sometimes the roles were reversed.  They asked what I was reading, and then read the books themselves – so they could learn and we could discuss the ideas.
• Gave me direct, constructive feedback.  They held me to high standards.  They congratulated me when I met their expectations.  They corrected me when I failed to do so – but in a manner where I learned what not to do the next time.
• Were respected by their colleagues.  People who are highly regarded in their field or company make the best mentors.
• Sought out and valued the opinions of others.  My best mentor always told me to listen most carefully to the people with whom I disagreed – in that way I might learn something.  And, he was right.

As the old saying goes, a mentor is someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.  This is great career advice.

Do you want to find a mentor?  Just look around you.  Who are the people you admire and want to emulate?  Watch what they do, and do the same.  I’ve had several mentors who never even realized they were mentoring me.

I learned how to build a network of solid contacts by watching Maggie Watson.  I learned the rules of business etiquette and dressing for success by watching Bill Rankin.  I learned how to become a first-rate public speaker by watching Steve Roesler.  I learned how to become a trusted advisor by watching Don Nelson. I learned the importance of attention to detail by watching Howard Sohn.  I learned true courage by watching Sylvia Montero.  I learned how to carry myself with dignity in even the most difficult situations by watching JF and Carol Kiernan.  I learned how to become a better conversationalist by watching Cathy, my wife.  This blog post is one way I am honoring them.

The reverse is also true.  I’ve learned plenty about what not to do to build self-esteem, give performance feedback and treat people with respect and dignity from observing a few of my managers over the years.

I’ve found that if you want to have an acknowledged mentoring relationship, all you have to do is ask.  Go to the people you admire and tell them that you admire their judgment and would like to learn from them to build your career success.  Ask if you can impose on their time to get answers to questions you have.  I have never had anyone turn me down when I’ve asked this way.

Just as it’s important to find someone you respect to mentor you, it also important to mentor others.  You don’t have to be in a formal leadership position or have years and years of experience to mentor someone else.  It’s never too early to become a mentor.  We all have something to give, and the sooner you begin giving, the better.  If you’re in college, you can mentor high school students.  If you’re a recent graduate, you can mentor others still in school.  The best way to honor your mentors is to mentor others.

I take great joy in mentoring other people.  I love it when I can use my experience to help accelerate the growth of someone else and help them become a career sucess.  It takes the sting out of some of the negative consequences I’ve experienced because of poor judgment.  I think to myself, “At least he or she won’t have to go through that.”

In his great book, Love is the Killer App, Tim Sanders tells the story of how he turned one of the people who worked for him from a “mad dog” into a “lovecat.”  The advice is simple: “Offer your wisdom freely… And always be human.”

Tim is right on.  Mentoring is a great way to become a lovecat by serving others.  The more you serve others, the more confidence – and life and career success – will come your way.  Besides that, you’ll grow by mentoring.  As you reflect on your life experiences and distill them into some nuggets that you can share with others, your knowledge will become wisdom.  In addition to being better able to help others learn and grow, you will be better able to take advantage of what you know.  You never learn something so completely as when you teach it to another person.

Any mentoring relationship needs to focus on the person being mentored.  While mentoring someone will most often be a satisfying experience for you, remember that it is not about you – it’s about the other person.  Accept him or her for who he or she is.  Help him or her proceed at his or her own pace.  The best mentoring relationships are guided by the person being mentored.

Mentoring should be a positive experience for both of you.  That means that you need to avoid treating a person you are mentoring as incompetent or incapable.  Rather, think of him or her as someone lacking in experience and who needs guidance in order to create his or her career success.  Don’t criticize.  Help the other person think through the consequences of his or her behavior and to identify more positive ways of handling difficult or troubling situations.

Hold the person you are mentoring responsible for his or her career success.  Give him or her small assignments.  Don’t let him or her off the hook if he or she fails to complete them.  Be willing to give of yourself and your time, but make sure the other person is doing so, too.

Realize that the relationship will end.  If you’ve done a good job, the person you are mentoring will need to move on at some point.  It’s all part of the cycle.  It can be hard to let go, but feel good about seeing someone move on to bigger and better things – and another mentor.

I’ve created an acronym to define what it takes to become a good mentor.  A good mentor…

M Motivates you to accomplish more than you think you can.

E Expects the best of you.

N Never gives up on you or lets you give up on yourself.

T Tells you the truth, even when it hurts.

O Occasionally kicks your butt.

R Really cares about you and your success.

Look for people with these qualities when you are searching for a mentor.  Embody them yourself when you are mentoring others.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Mentors can help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Successful people follow the career advice in Tweet 51 in Success Tweets.  “Find a mentor.  Mentors are positive people who will help you find the lessons in your experiences and use them to move forward.”  You can enter into a formal mentoring relationship.  Or you can just observe people you admire.  They can mentor you without even realizing that they are doing so.  And, it’s never too early to become a mentor yourself.  There is always someone who needs your career advice; someone who needs to know what you’ve already learned.  Be a positive person.  Help others achieve the life and career success they want and deserve and you’ll be helping your own career success.

That’s my career advice on mentoring.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

I did a blog post last week about an article I saw in the July 2011 issue of SUCCESS Magazine providng some great career advice on the importance of being a learner.  I followed that up with another post on learning yesterday.  As you know, I love SUCCESS, and I encourage everyone I know to subscribe at http://www.success.com.

I found some more career advice in that same issue that I would like to pass on here.  Check it out…

“Connect with a power partner to stay focused on your goals.  How do you find a power partner?  Look for a colleague or friend who:

1. Lives out similar values and priorities as you.
2. Understands what’s necessary to make you and your business profitable.
3. Is focused on improving his or her business.
4. Cares about you enough to hold you accountable for your word.”

I have found a great power partner in J.T. O’Donnell.  J.T. runs two really cool career success sites: www.Careerealism, and www.CareerHMO.  I met J.T. a while back when I became a Careerealism approved expert.  I’ve found that I have a lot in common with her.  When I told her that I was considering creating a membership site to provide laser focused career success coaching to folks who want to go one step beyond what they read on my blog, she immediately offered to help.

I’m happy to say that my membership site, “My Corporate Climb” will be launching very soon.  My Corporate Climb is a membership site devoted to helping people create career success inside a corporation.  J.T. has really helped me with this site.  She exemplifies the four characteristics of a power partner.

1) J.T. and I are both in business.  We want to make a profit.  But both she and I are really interested in and passionate about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve.  We have the same values and priorities.

2) J.T. understands how to set up and operate a membership site.  She has taught me a lot about the best way to get my ideas on life and career success in front of the most people in the most economical way.  While she is way more than 20 years my junior, she is a true mentor for me.

3) J.T. is focused on improving her business.  She is always trying something new.  She is actively engaged in finding the best ways to make her content available to the most people possible.

4) Finally, J.T. keeps me on my toes.  We speak regularly and she lets me know if I’m delinquent or tardy in getting her information she needs to help me get my membership site up and running.  She holds my feet to the fire and gets me off the dime when I am procrastinating.

Who is your J.T. – your power partner?  If you have one, good for you.  Meet with him or her once a week for 30 minutes to an hour.  If you don’t have a power partner find one.

A while back I created an acronym for the word “mentor.”  This is the kind of person you need to look for as a power partner….

M Motivates you to accomplish more than you think you can.

E Expects the best of you.

N Never gives up on you or lets you give up on yourself.

T Tells you the truth, even when it hurts.

O Occasionally kicks your butt.

R Really cares about you and your success.

Look for people with these qualities when you are searching for a power partner.  Embody them yourself when you are acting as a power partner for others.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Power partners can help keep you moving in the direction of your career success dreams and help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  To my way of thinking, power partnerships are reciprocal mentoring relationships.  The career advice in Tweet 51 in Success Tweets applies here.  “Find a mentor.  Mentors are positive people who will help you find the lessons in your experiences and use them to move forward.”  A power partner relationship, like the one I have with J.T. O’Donnell, is to move your drive toward your life and career success forward.  And, power partnerships are great because they are reciprocal mentoring relationships.  You both give help and get help.  Be a positive person.  Become a power partner.  Help yourself and others achieve the life and career success they want and deserve.

That’s my career advice on power partnerships.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.  I hope you think of me as a power partner who is helping you create the life and career success you want and deserve.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

I did a blog post last week about an article I saw in the July 2011 issue of SUCCESS Magazine providng some great career advice on the importance of being a learner.  I followed that up with another post on learning yesterday.  As you know, I love SUCCESS, and I encourage everyone I know to subscribe at http://www.success.com.

I found some more career advice in that same issue that I would like to pass on here.  Check it out…

“Connect with a power partner to stay focused on your goals.  How do you find a power partner?  Look for a colleague or friend who:

1. Lives out similar values and priorities as you.
2. Understands what’s necessary to make you and your business profitable.
3. Is focused on improving his or her business.
4. Cares about you enough to hold you accountable for your word.”

I have found a great power partner in J.T. O’Donnell.  J.T. runs two really cool career success sites: www.Careerealism, and www.CareerHMO.  I met J.T. a while back when I became a Careerealism approved expert.  I’ve found that I have a lot in common with her.  When I told her that I was considering creating a membership site to provide laser focused career success coaching to folks who want to go one step beyond what they read on my blog, she immediately offered to help.

I’m happy to say that my membership site, “My Corporate Climb” will be launching very soon.  My Corporate Climb is a membership site devoted to helping people create career success inside a corporation.  J.T. has really helped me with this site.  She exemplifies the four characteristics of a power partner.

1) J.T. and I are both in business.  We want to make a profit.  But both she and I are really interested in and passionate about helping people create the life and career success they want and deserve.  We have the same values and priorities.

2) J.T. understands how to set up and operate a membership site.  She has taught me a lot about the best way to get my ideas on life and career success in front of the most people in the most economical way.  While she is way more than 20 years my junior, she is a true mentor for me.

3) J.T. is focused on improving her business.  She is always trying something new.  She is actively engaged in finding the best ways to make her content available to the most people possible.

4) Finally, J.T. keeps me on my toes.  We speak regularly and she lets me know if I’m delinquent or tardy in getting her information she needs to help me get my membership site up and running.  She holds my feet to the fire and gets me off the dime when I am procrastinating.

Who is your J.T. – your power partner?  If you have one, good for you.  Meet with him or her once a week for 30 minutes to an hour.  If you don’t have a power partner find one.

A while back I created an acronym for the word “mentor.”  This is the kind of person you need to look for as a power partner….

M Motivates you to accomplish more than you think you can.

E Expects the best of you.

N Never gives up on you or lets you give up on yourself.

T Tells you the truth, even when it hurts.

O Occasionally kicks your butt.

R Really cares about you and your success.

Look for people with these qualities when you are searching for a power partner.  Embody them yourself when you are acting as a power partner for others.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Power partners can help keep you moving in the direction of your career success dreams and help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  To my way of thinking, power partnerships are reciprocal mentoring relationships.  The career advice in Tweet 51 in Success Tweets applies here.  “Find a mentor.  Mentors are positive people who will help you find the lessons in your experiences and use them to move forward.”  A power partner relationship, like the one I have with J.T. O’Donnell, is to move your drive toward your life and career success forward.  And, power partnerships are great because they are reciprocal mentoring relationships.  You both give help and get help.  Be a positive person.  Become a power partner.  Help yourself and others achieve the life and career success they want and deserve.

That’s my career advice on power partnerships.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.  I hope you think of me as a power partner who is helping you create the life and career success you want and deserve.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

The July issue of SUCCESS Magazine is out.  As usual, it is filled with some great life and career success advice.  If you’re not already a SUCCESS subscriber, I suggest you go to http://www.success.com and do so as soon as you finish reading this post.

I was struck by an article in this month’s SUCCESS about Jenni Flinders, VP of Microsoft’s US Partner Group.  The article begins with some great career advice…“Jenni Flinders believes in being a learner, not a knower.”

Tweet 81 in Success Tweets, my career advice book says, “Become a lifelong learner.  The half-life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing.  Staying in the same place is the same as going backwards.”  Tweet 82 says, “Learn faster than the world changes.  In a world that never stops changing, you can never stop learning and growing.”

Ms. Flinders offers three tips on becoming a learner…

1. Listen.  Don’t assume you already know the answer.  Every idea has merit and deserves to be heard.
2. Open your mind – to new ideas, people and cultures, and you’ll find new solutions.  Encourage collaboration and nurture innovation.
3. Be a mentor.  You aren’t just imparting knowledge and experience – you’re gaining it too.

This is great common sense career advice, presently simply.

Let’s look at each of these common sense ideas in a little detail.

Listening is the best way to learn.  I always tell my career success coach clients to listen hardest when their initial reaction to what someone says is, “that’ the craziest thing I’ve even heard.”  You’re most likely to learn something in this situation.

Tweet 109 in Success Tweets says, “Use the 2/3 – 1/3 rule. Listen two thirds of the time; speak one third of the time.  Focus your complete attention on the other person.”  You’ll learn something by listening to understand.  I have three bits of advice for becoming a learner by being a good listener.  1) Ask lots of questions; 2) Pay attention to what the other person is saying; 3) Ask clarifying questions to make sure you understand.

Open your mind. Tweet 124 in Success Tweets says, “Everyone has something to offer.  Never dismiss anyone out of hand.”  It’s easy to dismiss people whose ideas are different from your own – especially if they are from a different culture, race, gender or religion.  Ms. Flinders is right when she points out that different perspectives lead to innovation.

Successful people have a deep respect for the dignity of each individual.  It doesn’t matter if the person in front of you is the President of the United States, your boss, a co-worker, a taxi driver, a security guard or the housekeeper at your hotel.

Cathy, my wife, is the best example of someone who values every person she meets.  She is friends with everyone – the pharmacy techs where we get our prescriptions, the couple who own the dry cleaners where we do business, the supermarket checkout people and baggers, the servers at the restaurants we frequent, and on and on and on.

Cathy is genuinely interested in these people.  She knows their names, their spouses’ names and their kids’ names.  She inquires about their lives.  She knows about their vacations, what grades their kids are in school and lots of other things about them – all because she values them as individuals and takes the time to get to know them.  She is one of the least judgmental people I know.

If you want to create the life and career success you deserve, take a lesson from Cathy.  Pay attention to the people around you.  You will learn a lot and your life will be richer for it.  Don’t judge people by what they do.  Get to know others as individuals.  You’ll be surprised at what you learn.

Mentoring. Ms. Flinders right again.  Just as it’s important to find someone you respect to mentor you, it also important to mentor others.  You don’t have to be in a formal leadership position or have years and years of experience to mentor someone else.  It’s never too early to become a mentor.  We all have something to give, and the sooner you begin giving, the better.  If you’re in college, you can mentor high school students.  If you’re a recent graduate, you can mentor others still in school.

I take great joy in mentoring other people.  I love it when I can use my experience to help accelerate the growth of someone else.  It takes the sting out of some of the negative consequences I’ve experienced because of poor judgment.  I think to myself, “At least he or she won’t have to go through that.”

I’m participating in the Women’s Vision Mentor Walk here in Denver tomorrow.  I love the concept.  I’ll be paired up with two or three people and will stroll around Denver’s City Park talking life and career success.  The summer weather in Denver is beautiful.  The flowers are in full bloom in the park — what a great way to start my Saturday.

In his great book, Love is the Killer App, Tim Sanders tells the story of how he turned one of the people who worked for him from a “mad dog” into a “lovecat.”  The advice is simple: “Offer your wisdom freely… And always be human.”

Tim is right on.  Mentoring is a great way to become a lovecat by serving others.  The more you serve others, the more confidence – and career success – will come your way.  Besides that, you’ll grow by mentoring.  As you reflect on your life experiences and distill them into some nuggets that you can share with others, your knowledge will become wisdom.  In addition to being better able to help others learn and grow, you will be better able to take advantage of what you know.  You never learn something so completely as when you teach it to another person.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  As Jenni Flinders of Microsoft points out, you can enhance your life and career success by becoming a learner.  She suggests three simple ideas for becoming a learner. 1) Listen.  Don’t assume you already know the answer.  Every idea has merit and deserves to be heard. 2) Open your mind – to new ideas, people and cultures, and you’ll find new solutions.  Encourage collaboration and nurture innovation.  3) Be a mentor.  You aren’t just imparting knowledge and experience – you’re gaining it too.  Follow these simple ideas and you’ll learn all sorts of interesting things that will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s my career advice on learning for career success.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

The June 2011 SUCCESS Magazine arrived over the weekend.  As you know, I’m a big fan of SUCCESS.  It has tons of great common sense career success advice.  If you’re not already a subscriber, I suggest you go to http://www.success.com and subscribe as soon as you finish reading this post.

The new issue has a small story called “5 Tips for Creating a Powerful Personal Brand.”  I think that a powerful personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact – a key ingredient in your career success mix.

The article lists these five keys for building your brand…

1. Brand yourself through your professional presence.
2. Brand yourself as a valued partner.
3. Brand yourself with strong communication skills.
4. Brand yourself by staying one step ahead.
5. Brand yourself as being social savvy.

I agree with all five of these common sense personal branding tips.  If you page through my career advice book Success Tweets, you ‘ll see that I mention all of them in one way or another.

I do have one additional common sense personal branding tip to add though…

Brand yourself as a person of integrity.

Tweet 62 in Success Tweets says… “Your personal brand should be unique to you, but build on integrity.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”  Like all of the tweets, this is simple common sense.

According to Wikipedia, “Integrity is consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles.”  Integrity and consistency are intertwined.  People who are consistent in their actions are seen as people with a high degree of integrity.

Oprah says, “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”  This is true.  If you practice situational ethics – doing the right thing only when you’re in the public eye — you aren’t really a person of high integrity, you’re just pretending to be one.

Besides, it’s hard to act one way in public, and another in private.  So to be safe, resolve to act like Oprah.  Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do – not because you’ll get credit, or avoid getting into trouble.

John Maxwell is a well-known business author.  One of his books sends the same message.  It’s called, There’s No Such Thing As Business Ethics: There’s Only One Rule for Making Decisions.  According to John, that rule is the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  In other words, do the right thing.

There’s a practical side to this too.  Mark Twain once said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”  In other words, if you’re always a person of high integrity, it’s easy to be a person of high integrity; there are no complicating factors – like remembering what you did or said in a given situation; more common sense.

Polonius gave similar advice to Hamlet.  “To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the day the night, thou canst be false to no man.”  Roy Blackman, my father in law, passed away a few years ago.  This quote was his epitaph.  It was on the program handed out at his funeral.  Roy embodied it in how he lived his life.  It was the only piece of advice he gave his grandson, Matt, as he went off to college.

Oprah, John Maxwell, Mark Twain and Shakespeare are all in agreement on one common sense piece of career advice.  If you want to become known as a person of high integrity – and I believe integrity is the cornerstone of any personal brand – act as a person of high integrity all the time;  not just when it suits you, or when someone might notice.

Here’s a story to illustrate this point.  Cathy, my wife, was a flight attendant for 36 years.  Seniority is a very important thing in the airline industry.  It governs how you bid for trips, positions on the airplane and vacations – almost anything important to a flight attendant’s quality of work life.

Cathy was very active in her union.  And seniority was one of the union’s most sacred principles.  A few years before she retired, Cathy’s airline made a big push into the international market.  International flights were plum assignments; they went to people with high seniority.

However, the airline realized that it would be to their advantage to have some flight attendants who spoke the language of the country to which they were flying on these international flights.  Most senior flight attendants in her airline spoke English only.  The airline proposed putting two “language speakers” on each international flight.  Many people, including Cathy, were upset with this arrangement as they felt it violated the seniority concept.

Cathy used to fly from the US to London.  One day I said to her, “This whole language speaker issue doesn’t really affect you.  You fly to London; there are no language speakers on those flights.  Why do you care so much?”  She said, “I believe in the concept of seniority.  It doesn’t matter if I’m affected by language speakers.  It’s the principle of the thing.”  That’s consistency – and integrity — in action; and a great career success model.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Creating positive personal impact is an important career success competency.  You create positive personal impact by developing and nurturing your unique personal brand, being impeccable in your presentation of self, and knowing and following the basic rules of etiquette.  Your personal brand should be uniquely you, but it should be built on integrity.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 62 in Success Tweets.  “Your personal brand should be uniquely you, but built on integrity.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”  Arnold Schwazanegger’s revelations yesterday demonstrates how a lack of integrity can lead to serious consequences for a carefully crafted brand.  Take a lesson from Arnold.  Build your personal brand and your career success on integrity.

That’s my career advice on personal branding – especially the importance of integrity to your brand.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career advice book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of careersuccess advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.

The June 2011 SUCCESS Magazine arrived over the weekend.  As you know, I’m a big fan of SUCCESS.  It has tons of great common sense career success advice.  If you’re not already a subscriber, I suggest you go to http://www.success.com and subscribe as soon as you finish reading this post.

The new issue has a small story called “5 Tips for Creating a Powerful Personal Brand.”  I think that a powerful personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact – a key ingredient in your career success mix.

The article lists these five keys for building your brand…

1. Brand yourself through your professional presence.
2. Brand yourself as a valued partner.
3. Brand yourself with strong communication skills.
4. Brand yourself by staying one step ahead.
5. Brand yourself as being social savvy.

I agree with all five of these common sense personal branding tips.  If you page through my career advice book Success Tweets, you ‘ll see that I mention all of them in one way or another.

I do have one additional common sense personal branding tip to add though…

Brand yourself as a person of integrity.

Tweet 62 in Success Tweets says… “Your personal brand should be unique to you, but build on integrity.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”  Like all of the tweets, this is simple common sense.

According to Wikipedia, “Integrity is consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles.”  Integrity and consistency are intertwined.  People who are consistent in their actions are seen as people with a high degree of integrity.

Oprah says, “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”  This is true.  If you practice situational ethics – doing the right thing only when you’re in the public eye — you aren’t really a person of high integrity, you’re just pretending to be one.

Besides, it’s hard to act one way in public, and another in private.  So to be safe, resolve to act like Oprah.  Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do – not because you’ll get credit, or avoid getting into trouble.

John Maxwell is a well-known business author.  One of his books sends the same message.  It’s called, There’s No Such Thing As Business Ethics: There’s Only One Rule for Making Decisions.  According to John, that rule is the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  In other words, do the right thing.

There’s a practical side to this too.  Mark Twain once said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”  In other words, if you’re always a person of high integrity, it’s easy to be a person of high integrity; there are no complicating factors – like remembering what you did or said in a given situation; more common sense.

Polonius gave similar advice to Hamlet.  “To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the day the night, thou canst be false to no man.”  Roy Blackman, my father in law, passed away a few years ago.  This quote was his epitaph.  It was on the program handed out at his funeral.  Roy embodied it in how he lived his life.  It was the only piece of advice he gave his grandson, Matt, as he went off to college.

Oprah, John Maxwell, Mark Twain and Shakespeare are all in agreement on one common sense piece of career advice.  If you want to become known as a person of high integrity – and I believe integrity is the cornerstone of any personal brand – act as a person of high integrity all the time;  not just when it suits you, or when someone might notice.

Here’s a story to illustrate this point.  Cathy, my wife, was a flight attendant for 36 years.  Seniority is a very important thing in the airline industry.  It governs how you bid for trips, positions on the airplane and vacations – almost anything important to a flight attendant’s quality of work life.

Cathy was very active in her union.  And seniority was one of the union’s most sacred principles.  A few years before she retired, Cathy’s airline made a big push into the international market.  International flights were plum assignments; they went to people with high seniority.

However, the airline realized that it would be to their advantage to have some flight attendants who spoke the language of the country to which they were flying on these international flights.  Most senior flight attendants in her airline spoke English only.  The airline proposed putting two “language speakers” on each international flight.  Many people, including Cathy, were upset with this arrangement as they felt it violated the seniority concept.

Cathy used to fly from the US to London.  One day I said to her, “This whole language speaker issue doesn’t really affect you.  You fly to London; there are no language speakers on those flights.  Why do you care so much?”  She said, “I believe in the concept of seniority.  It doesn’t matter if I’m affected by language speakers.  It’s the principle of the thing.”  That’s consistency – and integrity — in action; and a great career success model.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Creating positive personal impact is an important career success competency.  You create positive personal impact by developing and nurturing your unique personal brand, being impeccable in your presentation of self, and knowing and following the basic rules of etiquette.  Your personal brand should be uniquely you, but it should be built on integrity.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 62 in Success Tweets.  “Your personal brand should be uniquely you, but built on integrity.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”  Arnold Schwazanegger’s revelations yesterday demonstrates how a lack of integrity can lead to serious consequences for a carefully crafted brand.  Take a lesson from Arnold.  Build your personal brand and your career success on integrity.

That’s my career advice on personal branding – especially the importance of integrity to your brand.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career advice book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of careersuccess advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.

I was walking through Denver International Airport the other day and I saw an ad for the Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver.  It said, “In five years, business will be dependent on technology that has yet to be invented: Frightening, or Inspiring?”  That got me thinking about how fast things change these days. 

This means that in order to continue to stay technically competent and one the road to career success, you have to be learning all the time.  Tweet 81 in my career success book Success Tweets says, “Become a lifelong learner.  The half life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing.  Staying in the same place is the same as going backwards.” 

In previous posts, I have mentioned that this is an exciting time for me, as I am learning a lot about social media and internet marketing.  However, I’m keeping up with the advances in my traditional areas of expertise – coaching, speaking, training — as well.

The web makes continuing education accessible.  If you want to learn about something, just Google it and there you are!  In fact, you might end up with too information.  Nevertheless, it is a great place to start.  Sites like www.Careerealism.com and www.GenJuice.com are great places for career advice and learning. 

 Blogs are another great way to keep on learning.  I read several blogs every day.  I have learned a lot from all of them.  I also subscribe to several on line newsletters.  I save them in a separate folder and read them when I am traveling.  Jeffrey Gitomer’s Sales Caffeine (www.gitomer.com) newsletter is written for sales people, but anyone can benefit.

 Books – like my new one, Success Tweets (couldn’t help but engage in a little shameless self promotion here – you can download a free copy at http://www.SuccessTweets.com) are another great way to keep on learning.  I have set a goal of reading all of the classic success books listed in the premier issue of SUCCESS Magazine.  I am willing to set up a virtual book club with me as the facilitator if I can get at least five people interested.  Please leave a comment on this post if this interests you.

Seminars and workshops are another way to keep learning.  I continue to do talks and webinars on my life and career success model.  Many of these are part of larger two and three day programs.  Most professional organizations sponsor a variety of learning events.  If you want to learn and grow, join one of the professional societies in your field.  Get involved.  Don’t just be a passive participant.  Teach something.  You never learn anything really well, until you are able to teach it to another person.

Finally, you can go back to school.  It’s easier than ever these days.  If you can’t make regular day or evening classed, almost every two and four year institution has an online option.  You can finish that undergraduate or graduate degree if you are motivated to do so.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  As Tweet 81 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Become a lifelong learner.  The half-life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing.  Staying in the same place is the same as going backwards.” If you want to become  an outstanding performer and career success, you have to be technically competent.  The half life of knowledge is diminishing rapidly.  You need to put in time and effort to remain technically competent.  You can learn by reading books, blogs and online newsletters.  You can learn by joining and participating in professional societies.  You can learn by going back to school.  How you do it is up to you, but like the Nike ads say, “Just Do It.”

That’s my career advice on the importance of lifelong learning.  What’s your take on this?  Please share your toughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I apprecaite you.

Bud

PS — Don’t forget to download your free copy of Success Tweets Explained, a 395 page eBook explaining the tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://www.budurl.com/STExp.