Book Club: Not Everyone Gets a Trophy

So for the record, I am not actually in any formal book club nor have I read this book yet but I did just watch a video book report of sorts by Chris Brogan on it and was interested.

So without going too much into a book I didn't actually read the RED are my thoughts on the book's description "Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y." (compliments of Amazon)


"This book will frame Generation Y (children born between 1978-1991) for corporate leaders and managers at time when the corporate world is desperate to recruit and retain worked in this age group. It will debunk dozens of myths, including that young employees have no sense of loyalty
(I'm not loyal to companies that slow me down),
won't do grunt work
(I'll totally do it, but not for too long. I want be feel like I am valued for my ideas and creativity not a monkey punching numbers... "We got that ambition, baby"),
won't take direction
(I'll hear what you have to say and give your way a try but if I have a better, more efficient way of producing the same result, admit defeat),
want to interact only with computers
(for me personally, that couldnt be farther from the truth. I can't wait to find a job where I don't have to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours straight),
and are only about money
(HA! What money?).

For them it's about what they will do for you today and what you will do for them today, not tomorrow, not five years from today, but today.
(Why put off tomorrow something you can do today? I will work for the future as long as I know it's actually going to happen. Too many times we work day in and day out with little or no hope for things to actually get better.)

He will explain why they have no interest in tying their futures to your corporation.
(See aforementioned reason)

But he will also make clear that they do have a well thought-out plan for themselves, one that requires that every job they take build up their skill sets, so they become more valuable employees for someone else--if and when you do not fulfill your end of the bargain, or drag your feet in doing so. (Could not agree with this more! After years of bosses being spread too thin to be concerned with my career development, I had to take control of my own career. I am learning so much at my job and using all of the available resources to advance my skill set but unfortunately, I'm more likely to take those skills to a company that values them)

But most of all, it will explain to corporate leaders that for this generation their personal life comes first, so that each job they take must accommodate itself to some need defined by their personal life. (I work to earn a living, I don't live to work. I want to be able to have the best of both worlds: A successful career and a family. But if I can't have both and am in a financial position to do so, my family will always be first)"

FINAL THOUGHT - Mr. Tulgan hit the nail right on the head with that bolded statement. In the past, I've gotten upset about not receiving recognition for projects that I've worked on - i.e. my name was left off a winning internal award. And while office politics was the reason I was not included, I felt more like a worthless worker monkey than an asset to the team. Clearly, if the spotlight is what I'm looking for, public relations is not the field for me. My sole job is to make other people look good.

So, I don't need a trophy but I should feel like the skills I bring to the table are valued, appreciated and recognized and if they're not, I am sure I can find an employer who will.

No more work... please... but would still like my paycheck

There are some days at work that I would just love not to go. Overall, I really enjoy my job but today, I would have rather stayed home. Like most of my peers, I find value at work and enjoy a "job well done" but now understand that whole hamster on a wheel metaphor. Sometimes you just feel like your going and going and going but not really getting anywhere.

Most people hate Mondays. I however, normally love Mondays. They fly by and before I know it, it's time to go home. But it is Mondays, like today, that I look at the clock and it's already 3pm and I still have tons of work to do.

I curse the day that email was created. While it has revolutionized how we do work, it also continues to be a minute-by-minute bother to getting your actual work done. I have read enough "Getting work done" type books to know that you should only check your email a couple times a day, but that's not a reality. People freak out if you don't reply within minutes and meanwhile, you're unable to get any real work done.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day to get more work done and to answer more emails :)

Wedding gifts... How much is enough?

Ahh, I am approaching my first summer and winter full of showers, parties and weddings. My roommate and I were chatting yesterday about how much is an appropriate amount of money to spend on someone. Via a text survey, my roomie received the gamut of answers. $40. $50. $20. Spend the same amount as they pay for a plate at dinner? (Don't know who would have said that)

My thoughts were that it depends on who the people are and how well you know them. Well my brother is getting married in August and money still doesn't grow on trees so spending alot of money on him and his fiance is some what out of the question.

I mean, people have to understand that I don't have alot of money and be sympathetic to my situation but is it rude to spend $30 on a spatula, wine opener and napkins? I mean the only way to stretch $30 is to buy as many of the little things on the registry as possible. I once bought 8 washcloths and 2 towels. It looked like a ton but didnt cost as much as one set of flatware - let's be honest... $50 for forks and spoons?

My good friend from college is getting married in December and I've offered to give them handmade Thank You cards as their gift. Mostly because I love stationary but also because it will take me a while to make them all so I can stretch out the cost.

I mean that just covers the gift too. I have 4 showers in the next 3 months and 2 bachelorette parties in the next 5 months, most of which are out of town. Weddings are just so damn expensive but I love them. I love being apart of my friends' big days and really want to spend alot of money on them but just can't.

Might need to look into a second job to celebrate love.

2:39am Online Shopping

So, It's 2:39am and I am online shopping.

I have a really good reason though. Tulle, a really amazing clothing company is having a sale where nearly 100 of their items are under $7 and the sale started at exactly 12am PST. I just bought 3 skirts and 2 tops (all for work) and my total was $30 with shipping. The majority of the items were $4. Amazing!

I have come across some of the most amazing sites all about being frugal and saving money. I read this tip from It's Hip 2 Save I will post more about my new obsession with couponing... but for now, I've gotta go to bed. Apparently I have to go to work in the morning. Happy Shopping :)

Pomp, Circumstance and Uncertainty

On the eve of my big drive down to Dayton for my sister's college graduation, I have been remembering my last days of college. Unlike my sister, I had already accepted a job with a firm start date. There wasnt much time to revel in the fact that leaving college would change my life forever.

It is these life changing moments that should require some form of therapy. So many emotions and not much experience dealing with them can lead to setting unrealistic expectations and the inevitable failure that soon follows. And not that graduate's lives are going to be failures but we have so many hopes and dreams upon graduation and a year or so later, the majority of them have been crushed.

"I have to do this for the next 60 years?"
"Who is going to make my dinner? I am tired and starving."
"Did I just fall asleep on the couch at 7:30 and wake myself with my own snort?"

I can almost remember the day that I realized that the benchmarks of life are few and far between. There is no more high school graduation to prepare for college. There is no more college graduation to prepare for a job. There's just your job... that you prepare for your next job? Ouch.

My parents told me that I could be anything and do anything I wanted. If I wanted to be president, I could.

They neglected to tell me that I would have to join the city council, then become a state rep and then become a senator, and then maybe I could run for president. A lifetime of work for the final destination... some details that would have been useful.

So, the sum of all of this is that no matter what the economic environment or situation, graduating from college is tough. College may be the best 4 (or 4.5 for me) years of your life but the next 4+ can be pretty shitty... so grab that diploma and get a hard hat cause life's rough. But thankfully, there's alot of us 20-somethings that TOTALLY know what you're going through.

Drinking for Charity... Count me in!

In these tough economic times, I think long and hard about where my money is going to go days before I actually spend it. One of the greatest and hardest to resist ways to spend my money is at charity open bar events. For two reasons:

1. I get to drink for $25 - $35 with no suprise tabs at the end of the night
2. Charities benefit from my frugal drinking habits

A total win-win.

I am always more willing to spend money when I feel like it's going to a good place and I get something in return.

I know that sounds a bit counterproductive but I don't exactly have the cash (or credit) to be donating money to my favorite charities. Now that I think about it, I don't even have very many favorite charities for that very reason. I have always wanted to donated to NPR, PIR, WTTW, and the thousands of other worthy causes that I can't afford to help.

I do participate in events that The Linus Foundation hold, not only because my friend is on their board, but because they have fun drinking-based events that all of the friends I would go out with anyway attend.

If more bars held charity nights or charity specials, more people would be willing to use their hard earned money at their establishment. But if you can already do a $25 open-bar drink package for your birthday, why not make it $30 and donate $5 per person to your favorite charity?

People are going to drink on weekends... so why not contribute your Captain and Diet dollars toward something that actually matters.

Meaning is the foundation for success in web 2.0

After reading and pondering open thread from Read, Write, Web in my online travels today, about the future of Web 2.0, I had an moment of clarity on my way to the train. And while I was scribbling down notes on the Blue Line I got kinda fired up. By the time I got home, I was on a roll and quasi-ranted all of my thoughts about social media to my roommate, Andie. Below is the unabridged version of my answer to: What is the future of web 2.0?

Perhaps is due to my current "work-suggested" (but now personally-addicted-to) book choice, "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink the chapters on meaning and value really stuck with me. When faced with the fortune-teller like question of: What is the future of web 2.0, the answer became quite clear. The future of Web 2.0 belongs to those who can bring meaning to it's users.

What makes sites succeed? What makes them plateau? What makes them fail? Anyone can write the code to create a new platform, anyone can create a third-party application that inhances a current platform and anyone can create the next trend that is only popular for 6 months. It is the meaning social media platforms provides to their users that ensures a longevity in an ADD, next-big-thing world. Meaning = Loyalty

My brief thoughts on the evolution of Social Media - MySpace left the gate as the first platform to connect with people in a "flat world." You could connect with anyone and everyone. But honestly who wants to be friends with everyone, virtual or real? Being a voyer to everyone, even to the girl from 5th grade I never really talked to then nor care that much about now, didn't have any value to me. When I joined Facebook, it was open only to college students and provided a new way to connect with classmates, meet new people on campus and be active in student activities. But now that my parents can comment on my Saturday night drinking choices (My dad saying: I didn't raised my daughter to drink Miller Lite) FB is slowly loosing it's relevance. And finally when I joined Twitter a couple years ago, it was viewed as another place to update your status and became a hyper-voyer tool to find out where I was eating dinner. It has since evolved into a forum for anyone to gather as many followers as they can without actually providing any real opportunity for two way conversation, claim they're an expert but providing no original content or sign up because Oprah told them to. Seriously, where's the conversation? How many @replies does Oprah (the real person, not her PR team) have time for?

All of these major platforms have lost their meaning for me because once again, I am just a number in the masses. The AdAge article about Aston hitting 1Mil followers was perfect: A few people preaching to the many. Most times I feel like I am talking in a room full of people - who are screaming for attention. When my voice is lost and I no longer feel like it's valued, I'm out.

Web 2.0's original success was based on the theory of a 2-way conversation. People are preached to everyday in ways that don't necessarily always provide a platform to respond - the government, the media, the education system, the marketing world, etc. But social media is suppose to be just that. Social. Mom-centric communities are successful because Moms visit them. I don't have children so they aren't relevant to me. But to those moms who login 3 or 4 times a day and comment 2 times they're on the site, it's meaningful. Think frequency and not penetration.

Web 2.0 has only just begun but will evolve from large dinosaur-ish platforms for everyone into communities that are relevant to a few. The ones who will succeed in the future are those that embrace the niches and realized that it was never about quantity but always been about quality.

Hello World

I have been thinking that it might be about time that I start writing a blog. It hadn't really dawned on me what to talk about and then it dawned on me... I didn't really need to know. So here it goes...