Category Archives: Fast moves

World Series: How San Francisco and Detroit economies stack up

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As the Detroit Tigers battle the San Francisco Giants in the World Series, the economy of Detroit is battling back. Yet San Francisco’s seems stronger by most measures, though fewer residents own homes than in Detroit.

Here’s a side by side look at the two economies:

                                                                         Detroit         versus   San Francisco

Population (metro area)                                4.3 million                            4.3  million

Unemployment rate                                            10.9%                         7.0%        

 Hiring now                                          GM, Rainbow Rehab        SFO:  Google, Starbucks

 

 

 

Median household income                     $42,241                                 $71,304

Persons below poverty level  –               21% – 34.5%                             12%

Home ownership rate                                    67%                                  37.5%

Total companies                                        137,728                             105,030

Black-owned businesses                           28.6%                                 2.7%

Asian-owned businesses                            3.7%                                24 %

Manufacturing shipments                       $55.9 billion                     $2.1 billion

Biggest exports                                  Cadillacs, Chryslers                  Wine, food

California wine

The Cadillac CTS Sedan

 

 

Sources: U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, SimplyHired

 

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Work hard, be flexible – and make your own luck in your career

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You can make your own career luck – if you work at it.

Professionals in Japan, South Korea and Australia think they are especially good at it, according to a new LinkedIn survey. Three-quarters of Japanese and more than half of the other two say they feel luckier than other professionals. That compares to 48 percent overall who see four-leaf clovers attached to their laptops. and  49 percent of U.S. professionals, who say they’re luckier than their peers.

The LinkedIn research debuts in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, though the luck of the Irish was only 42 percent, near the bottom of the scale.

Overall, 85 percent of Americans believe in luck in work, virtually the same as those in France, Sweden, Austia, Germany, Italy and Ireland.  Professionals from The Netherlands and Australia were the least likely to count on luck, and believe it influences their careers.

“There’s no question in my mind, there’s luck in business,” said Francine Lafontaine, a University of Michigan professor of business economics. She was among a string of speakers in February 2011 at a Skill versus Luck conference at the University of Michigan and had not seen this LinkedIn research.

Anyone trying to create their own luck will need to work hard – especially in the United States. Worldwide professionals said strong communications skills and being flexible contribute to career luck. But in the U.S.A., 70 percent said a strong work ethic will lure Lady Luck, according to the LinkedIn survey of 7,000 professionals from around the globe.

Here are the top luck-inducing factors for Americans:

A four leaf clover for luck?

1.      A strong work ethic (70 percent)

2.      Strong communication skills (59 percent)

3.       Acting on opportunities (46 percent)

4.       Being flexible (44 percent)

5.       Striving to be the best at what you do (42 )

U.S. women were far more likely to believe “acting on opportunities” and communications skills matter in making your luck;  American men put more faith in their work ethic, LinkedIn’s research shows.

Globally, the luck lures were much the same, with a strong network showing up at No. 5.  Some exceptions: 44 percent of millenials said “learning from my mistakes” was important, while India was the only country where professionals believe “having strong technical skills” contribute and Italians say they make their luck by “being observant.”

Career luck, like any form of fortune, doesn’t show up on the schedule we want. And it doesn’t always measure up to a mean.

Sometimes a run of luck or success starts and just keeps going and going, participants at the Michigan luck conference reported.  ”As you get more successful, resources come to you,” said Michael Ryall of the University of Toronto. Then he added another twist: Since so many people are clueless at assessing probabilities and assessing the likelihood of success, “it’s back to a pure luck basis.”

+ + + + + + + + +  + + + + + + +++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Read the Harvard Business Review blog post by the Michigan professor who organized the Skill or Luck conference.

Or read my Washington Post Capital Business piece on the array of charms and tokens people keep on their desks.

Or read my post on how to create career karma with kindness.

Or better yet, write me a comment on what you think contributes to career luck in your experience.

 

 

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What are you waiting for? “Leap and the net will appear” this year

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“Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is.” – Mason Cooley, English professor and American aphorist

What better time to take a leap into something creative and new, meaningful and different than during Leap Year.   And this week, we gain the extra day that shows up on Feb. 29 every four years or so – time that we could claim as our own to advance our careers and our businesses.

In a Wall Street Journal piece, Sue Shellenbarger says the Februaries of leap year are good for business, with airlines booking more travel and accountants having more time to finish taxes for clients (plus a little extra sleep). Disney will keep its Magic Kingdoms in Florida and California open for 24 hours on Leap Day.

So what’s good enough for Disney is good enough for Dan and Danielle and everyone who longs for something more or better in their life or their work.  Here are five of my best tips on making the most of Leap Year for your career:

  1.   Start working on something that makes your heart leap.  Start your slash career, so you can add some creativity, enthusiasm and passion to your basic, pay-the-bills job. The key: Get  started now, and  keep the momentum going. “Doing is a quantum leap from imagining,” said Barbara Sher, author of Wishcraft and Refuse to Choose.
  2.  Give yourself permission to experiment. This could be as simple as answering inquiries on Quora or as complicated as signing up for a job swap for six months. It could mean returning to drawing and painting as Heidi Phelps has (and is bravely blogging about her work too). Take a different route to work each day for a week. “The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.” said musical star and dancer Agnes de Mille.
  3.  Adopt “Leap and the net will appear” as your motto. This quote by John Burroughs urges us to just jump into it, and stop putting on limits or constraints. In the blog Zen Leadership, Jeff Arnold suggests a vision and aligned action are crucial. He tells of an unexpected opportunity that led him to leap and then “literally spent the next year making it up as I went along.”  Your leaps may be modest or massive or a mix of both. What’s important is the action of leaping and the faith that you will find your way afterward.  (Please note: I am not advocating that you leap from a decent but dull job without something else  lined up, unless your bank balance is quite cushy.)
  4. Use your day in dribs and drabs. Divide leap day into 24 parts. This will give you an hour a day through March 23, or even into early April if you skip weekends, to work on a new habit or new project.  If you schedule the hour twice a week – with a pop-up reminder on your calendar – you will have 12 weeks of work in on your book, your business, your social media profile, your salsa dance techniques. Yes, dance could be advantageous for your career since it certainly will make you stand out amid the sea of accountants, engineers and social media managers seeking new jobs.
  5.   Take a Leap Day to advance your dreams. It need not to be on Leap Day, but it does need to  propel your goals or vision for yourself. So set up five coffee conversations with people in the field where you want to work. Or spend the day volunteering, picking causes and charities that will either inspire you or strengthen your resume (best if they do both). Or take a day to attend a small business start-up boot camp or visit the college where you want to earn your master’s and see what kinds of part-time programs and scholarships they offer.  Use part of it to launch your website and part of it to file for your LLC.  The keys here are action and advancement.

This year, I’m leaping into a couple of new philanthropic efforts – the Awesome News Taskforce in Detroit and an exploration of launching an “online hiring hall with a heart,” a project that could help open doors to short-term assignments for long-term unemployed individuals, homeless and veterans among others. So I will use my Leap Year in small pieces – an hour or two a week to advance these causes.  I don’t know what will become of this hiring hall idea, or how I could possibly pull it off, but leap I have.

That’s where we start trusting our creativity, our networks, our persistence, our communities to help us fly after we leap.

“Say your dream is possible and then overcome all inconveniences, ignore all the hassles and take a running leap through the hoop, even if it is in flames. ”  - motivational speaker Les Brown

 

My thanks to BrainyQuote, which gave me the great leap quotes for this piece.

 

 

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Fast, free – 15 ways to spur your creativity

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“Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.”  ~George Scialabba, book critic, essayist.

Imagine your life and work infused with creativity. It’s not only possible, it’s available to us with only a little effort.

Anyone can have more fun while increasing their creative and imaginative muscles. And it doesn’t take a trip to some fancy creativity camp in Sedona, Ariz., or any new software or hardware for our laptops.

All it requires is 15 minutes a day and embracing and acknowledging ourselves as creative people who are opening up to our ideas, interpretations and imaginative approaches to work and life.

Break out the poetry, the balloons, the games. Here’s my 15 ways to increase your creativity in 15 minutes or less:

1. Take a walk around the block. Take time to appreciate the beauty, the energy, the surprises there.

2. Brew a new flavor of tea, and then savor it away from your desk.

3. Meditate. If you are able, use a phrase that affirms your creativity.

4. Browse in your favorite shop for the brightest, the cheapest, the funniest item.

5. Play with your dog or cat — or child. A quick game or a run around the yard will revive your spirits.

6. List your creative projects and successes. Take a few minutes to look back at a favorite project, poem or piece of work – it will reinforce your talents and confidence — and encourage you to use them wisely today.

7. Watch the clouds go by your window. Better yet, go outside and locate the cloud dragon.

8.  Read three poems aloud. Or one chapter in some trashy novel or escapist book.

9.  Call an inspired or upbeat friend for a creativity chat.

10. Pull out your magic wand or your magic feather (ok, a colorful pencil will work too). Be a wizard for 10 minutes.

11.  Take a new route to work. Take a different street to go to the gym. Vary your way to the coffee shop. Enjoy the journey and don’t worry if you get a little lost. It’s part of your creative path.

12. If you work from home or an office with a locker room, take a shower and sing something silly.  Have notebook handy afterward for great thoughts ideas that show up.

13. Develop a daily ritual or mantra that underscores your creative abilities. Write it down. Post it on your desktop, bulletin board, mirror. Doodle it on your to do list or legal pad.

14.  Engage your brain in something frivolous. Here’s two possibilties:  A: Which cartoon character is most like me? My boss? My best friend?  And how could I make one cartoon show that captures what’s happening today, but more funny? B: Which super powers do I really really want?  And which super hero really is the one I most resemble? What would I be doing right now if I were X Man or Wonder Woman?

15. Sign up for a class at the Y, Parks & Rec, the local community college or elsewhere – something new and foreign and surprising. Something that will require effort and put you in new spaces with different kinds of people. (I admit: The class will take more tan 15 minutes – but it could bring you so much inspiration and newness, worth the time investment in creative dividends.)

Only a couple of these  ideas requires you to spend more time hunched over your computer and staring at the same piles and projects on your desk.  Instead, I’m focused on activities that encourage you to move out of  the workspace and into your new groove.

Leave work behind for 10 or 15 minutes and your brain opens up to fresh perspectives and possibilities.  That’s why my favorite creativity refresher means taking a walk outside and embracing whatever and whoever I find there.

Before I head out for a few blocks in the sunshine, I’ll close with this from PBS journalist and great thinker Bill Moyers: “Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.”

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