Sri Lanka need to be mentally strongerIf Sri Lanka aspire to be No.1, they need to be stronger in the mind and maintain high standards when the going gets tough
Russel Arnold
December 8, 2009
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Sri Lankan players behaved maturely in the face of their cruel luck © AFP
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Players/Officials: Tillakaratne Dilshan | Kumar Sangakkara
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Teams: India | Sri Lanka
The end result for Sri Lanka does not make pretty reading. A series they had genuine hopes of winning ended in a comprehensive 0-2 defeat. The quest for a maiden win in India remained unfulfilled once more. The No. 2 Test ranking was sacrificed, as India clambered up to the top of the pile. No doubt the critics back home will start hammering the team. But, from a Sri Lankan point of view, what does it all mean?
Kumar Sangakkara will bear the brunt of the criticism. As captain, that is the harsh reality of leadership and it will be tough for him. Some criticism is fair. Yes, Sri Lanka were outplayed in the last two Tests. They also wasted a prime opportunity to take the upper-hand in the first Test. The tactics were at times, especially in the second Test, difficult to understand. The fielding was extremely poor.
But there is such a fine line between success and failure. When analysing the Tests we need some perspective. There were several factors beyond Sangakkara's control. For starters, his preferred pace attack of Thilan Thushara and Dammika Prasad, both men capable of sustaining pace in excess of 140kmph, did not even make it onto the starting grid due to injuries.
Losing the toss in the second Test was a mighty blow. A bigger blow, though, was the quality of umpiring and the fact that Sri Lanka were given no leeway whatsoever. The run of the green consistently fell in India's favour, often at critical moments. Tillakaratne Dilshan's dismissals in the final Test were the most graphic examples, but far from the only case.
It's tough when you create opportunities against such high-class opposition and things don't fall your way. However, I have to say I was immensely proud of the way the Sri Lankan players behaved in the face of their cruel luck. They had every right to be disappointed, but they did not let their frustrations boil over; they kept their emotions in-check and plugged away as best they could.
The injuries, lost tosses and poor umpiring are not excuses, but they are important factors. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka will also rue several missed opportunities, the first of these being the first innings in Mumbai after Sangakkara won an important toss. The first session went well with Dilshan showing superb footwork and Tharanga Paranavitana batting extremely well.
In the middle, though, Sri Lanka let India into the game with some soft dismissals. Paranavitana will be disappointed to have wasted another good start and Mahela Jayawardene will be furious for being caught off the hook on 29. Considering his brilliant form and the quality of the pitch, he would have been determined to score one of his trademark big hundreds.
I watched him [Sehwag] in the run-up to the game and it was fascinating to see how watchful he was in the nets, trying to get behind the ball and overcome the technical weakness outside off stump exposed by Sri Lanka's quicks in the first two Tests
When Dilshan got a shocker, things could easily have crashed completely. However, Angelo Mathews reacted to the situation brilliantly. He is a naturally positive player with bags of flair. I think he is right to play in the same vein in Test cricket but he needs to work on his shot selection and pick the right balls to hit. Dilshan's departure, though, settled him.
With Prasanna (Jayawardene) providing solid support, Sri Lanka got themselves right back in the game. In fact, as the new ball neared, India were right on the back foot. Had Mathews and Prasanna batted on another 20 overs, things would have been very different. Tragically, though, off the last ball of the 80th over, Prasanna danced down the track and was caught at mid-on.
It turned out to be a killer blow. Sri Lanka were unfortunate to be robbed of Dilshan in full flow, but despite that setback they had a chance to take the game by the scruff of the neck. That opportunity was squandered. Instead of capitalising on the toss, Sri Lanka effectively gifted India the best batting conditions.
The Indian innings, meanwhile, was all about Virender Sehwag. His innings was truly magnificent. The key was the way he handled himself early on. I watched him in the run-up to the game and it was fascinating to see how watchful he was in the nets, trying to get behind the ball and overcome the technical weakness outside off stump exposed by Sri Lanka's quicks in the first two Tests.
In both the first and second Tests he edged early to the slips and was dropped. It was a well-laid plan by Sri Lanka. However, the failure to capitalise on those chances had a huge cost. By the third Test, Sehwag was super-confident. He negotiated his way through the opening overs expertly and then ruthlessly attacked Sri Lanka's spinners.
It is a very rare thing to see batting of that class and quality. It was unbelievable, and definitely the best innings I have seen. The only innings that comes close was perhaps Adam Gilchrist's century in the 2007 World Cup final. I actually thought the discipline and attitude of Sri Lanka in the field was much better than Kanpur, as the bowlers kept plugging away. But Sehwag was unstoppable and all the other Indian batsmen were able to feed off that innings.
Sri Lanka were understandably shell-shocked after the second day's play but they came back well on the third morning, creating chances. With a bit more luck from the umpiring they might still have restricted India to a lead of manageable proportions, something around the 150 to 200 mark. Unfortunately, the fielding started to cost Sri Lanka heavily on the third day.
India's quicks outbowled Sri Lanka's pace attack © AFP
The fielding was in fact a big problem throughout the series. Even Dilshan, Sri Lanka's best fielder, was pretty poor. It's difficult to understand why, as they were working hard on the fielding (arguably too hard as some of the practice sessions were three to four hours long). The big problem is that apart from Dilshan, Mahela and Nuwan Kulasekara in the outfield, Sri Lanka lacks exceptional fielders now.
Faced with such a large deficit it was always going to be tough in the second innings. Dilshan's second unfortunate dismissal did not help Sri Lanka's cause, but Paranavitana batted even better in the second innings and Sangakkara finally showed the class we all know he has. His balance was excellent, he played with a full face of the bat and he picked the gaps beautifully. He was tentative in earlier innings with a couple of careless dismissals suggested the weight of responsibility was disrupting his normal focus. But eventually, he clicked into his zone.
Credit to India's fast bowlers, though. Sreesanth exploited Paranavitana's trigger movement across the stumps - a weakness he must address at this level - with a perfectly pitched inswinger and Zaheer Khan bowled a superb spell. From nothing Zaheer created opportunities, working the angles and getting a smidgen of movement. He created enough pressure to make the batsman tentative and snared Sri Lanka's two most prolific Test batsmen, Mahela and Thilan (Samaraweera).
It was high-class fast bowling, the kind of intelligent effort that Chaminda Vaas at his prime was able to conjure up on the most lifeless of pitches. India's quicks showed what could be extracted from the pitch and they clearly out-bowled Sri Lanka's pace attack. Sri Lanka has plenty of emerging bowling talent, but the pace bowlers need domestic cricket to provide a greater challenge. Right now they are learning in Test cricket and that's a huge risk. The Sri Lankan seam attack can be very good in favourable conditions, as we saw against New Zealand and Pakistan earlier in the year, but to be truly world-class you need to be able threaten even on unfavourable surfaces.
So the end of tour report will have few glowing reviews. Rangana (Herath) was excellent and very unlucky. Dilshan batted extremely well in two innings and was also unlucky. Mahela was brilliant in Ahmedabad, unfortunate in Kanpur, disappointing in Mumbai. Paranavitana showed signs of emerging, but needs to convert more. Prasanna's batting matured, but his wicket-keeping standards slipped badly.
All in all, a very tough tour, although no need for major panic in my opinion. Sri Lanka still has a good combination of players. There is great potential for this team. They just need to work on being a bit stronger in the mind so that they can maintain high standards when the going gets tough. That's easier said than done, but if Sri Lanka aspires to being No.1 in the world then that's the area that needs to be worked on.
Russel Arnold played 44 Tests and 180 ODIs for Sri Lanka between 1997 and 2007
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Friday, December 11, 2009
Think Looks Don't Matter? Think Again
Laura Sinberg, 12.05.09, 10:00 AM EST
The ugly truth: The more attractive you're perceived to be, the more you earn and are respected.
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In Pictures: Seven Easy Ways To Look Your Best At Work
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If you want to get a raise or a promotion, you might want to throw on a pair of heels and suck in that belly. Your looks can help--or hinder--your chances of getting a well-deserved promotion, regardless of qualifications, especially in a sour economy when advancements are few and hard to come by.
Women who advance most at work, studies agree, are more attractive, thinner, taller and have a more youthful appearance than their female colleagues who are promoted less often.
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In Pictures: Seven Easy Ways To Look Your Best At Work
A landmark study from Cornell University found that when white females put on an additional 64 pounds, her wages drop 9%. And according to a 2007 paper from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a statistically significant "wage penalty" for overweight and obese white women. ("Previous studies have shown that white women are the only race-gender group for which weight has a statistically significant effect on wages," according to the paper.) The obese take a bigger hit, with a wage loss of 12%.
Being large leads to negative stereotypes--thinking that person is sloppy, lazy or slow, for example--for women that just aren't true, says Bill Fabrey, a director of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination.
Fabrey recounts incidences of several plus-size female colleagues who have gotten interviews with prospective employers only to be told the job had been filled once they showed up for an in-person interview.
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Unfortunately, this article highlights some of the sad truths of our society.
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"There are interviewers who don't care [about weight], but those are not as plentiful as the other kind," he says.
Being average looking comes with a hefty price, too. The best-looking echelon of attractive females--the top one-third--make about 10% more annually than those in the bottom sixth of the genetic pool, according to research by Daniel Hamermesh, Ph.D., a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Just what makes for attractive? According to Hamermesh in a interview with CNN, "It's symmetry of features. ... But not too [attractive]. It's not perfect. If it's perfect, it's bland. There's got to be a little off, otherwise you lose interest." Apart from a balanced face--and good physical health--a woman's appeal is also reportedly in having a low waist-to-hip ratio.
And youth. A study done this year by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that some 73% of women felt a youthful appearance played a role in getting a job, getting promoted or keeping clients. Many cited difficult economic times as part of the reason--with fewer raises and promotions to be given, the better-looking are the ones advancing.
"In this bad economy, as people age, employers and colleagues perceive them as having less energy and being less effective" notes Gordon Patzer, Ph.D., a psychologist from Chicago who has studied looks for 30 years. "Being older in the workplace is looked at negatively," he adds.
Patzer says bleaching your teeth, wearing appropriate makeup or updating your hairstyle or wardrobe can take years off a person's look.
What's Behind Our Thinking?
Various psychological reasons can answer why we choose to promote better-looking people and keep the rest behind. For ancestral humans, better-looking people were thought to be more productive and fecund, according to Patzer.
And, interestingly, able to bring home more food. From a psychological standpoint, Patzer says, "people of higher physical attractiveness are more persuasive, which is critical in the workplace."
That may be the reason women of short stature get the short end of the stick. Although there is no correlation between height and effectiveness or intelligence, a woman who is 5 feet 7 inches tall--well above the national female average of 5 feet, 3.5 inches--will make $5,250 more over the course of a year than a female co-worker standing 5 feet 2 inches.
"We like to look up to our leaders," says Patzer, noting that a subordinate is more likely to respond positively to a taller manager.
Malcolm Gladwell calls the behavior an unconscious prejudice, a prejudice you reach without even thinking. In his best-selling book Blink, he polled about half the country's top 500 CEOs and found that 58% were nearly 6 feet tall; in contrast, the average American male is 5 foot 9 inches tall.
Also, because most states don't have laws against weight or height discrimination--currently Michigan is the only state that includes either group as a protected category under anti-discrimination law--women stand underprotected.
"Either the judicial and legislative arm of the market have decided that's OK [to favor certain groups], or they've decided that trying to do something about it would be way too difficult," says Bill O'Brien, founding partner at Miller O'Brien Cummins, a Minneapolis firm that specializes in labor and employment law.
"On the subject of physical appearance, there is not much protection under employment statutes," he adds.
What Can You Do?
In a competitive work environment, it is only natural to want to do everything possible to get an extra edge, but if you're thinking pricey cosmetic surgeries are the answer, you're mistaken. Women who go under the knife make an extra five cents per dollar they spend on the dangerous procedures, according to Hamermesh's research. "It's a terrible investment," he says.
Instead, Judy Jernudd, a leadership coach in Los Angeles, recommends honing certain psychological behaviors, like walking upright and with confidence, which will make you seem taller than someone who is slouched over or walking with her head down. It will also trick others into perceiving you as more physically attractive. Heels will also help, but not over an inch and a half, say most podiatrists.
Although there isn't a lot you can do to make yourself look thinner--wearing dark colors and streamlined clothes help--Jernudd does note that women with confidence always come across as thinner and better-looking. "A lot of it has to do with personality," she says.
So what about women who say looks shouldn't matter in the workplace?
"It shouldn't matter, but it does," says Jernudd. "It is competitive enough today. Why sabotage yourself by not giving it the best you can?"
Open Your Body Language
Your body language can actually be a factor in why people think you're attractive. When you're arms are folded and you're lips are pursed, you look less appealing to people, notes Gordon Patzer, Ph.D., a psychologist. And looks go a long way. Those who we consider the most attractive--women with the most symmetrical facial features--earn up to 10% more a year than their less good-looking co-workers.
© Winston Davidian
Update Your Look
In today's economy, having a competitive edge can mean the difference between a promotion and a pink slip. Sadly, employers perceive unfashionable and aging employees as having less energy and being less effective. Although you can't be fired for either, it may work to your advantage to get a new hairdo or change your makeup. It can take years off your age and give you an upper hand at work, says Patzer.
Stand Tall
A woman who is 5 feet 7 inches tall makes over $5,000 more annually than her 5-foot-tall counterpart. But sky-high stilettos aren't the only thing that will give you an extra boost at work, says Judy Jernudd, a leadership coach based in Los Angeles. She recommends walking taller--shoulders back, head up--which will create the optical illusion of being taller. If you do opt for heels, podiatrists warn to go no higher than an inch and a half.
Whiten Your Teeth
People focus on the mouth more than any part of the face, notes Patzer, who recommends teeth bleaching as a way to look younger and healthier. "As we age, our teeth become less white. If we can reverse that, we look younger," he says. Products like Crest Whitestrips and ProWhite teeth whitening products offer less expensive alternatives to pricey dental visits.
Dress Up To Move Up
You may not want to give in to societal standards of how women should look and dress, but those who dress for the position they want are more confident and in turn seem more attractive to their co-workers and managers. Jernudd says going to work looking like you just rolled out of bed will not only make you look less attractive, but it will probably lead to fewer promotions in the long run.
Visit Store Cosmetics Counters
Wearing appropriate makeup can do wonders for your appearance, notes Jernudd, who advises taking advantage of department-store cosmetics counters that offer free makeovers if you purchase a couple of products. "You just don't look polished without it," she says.
©C Ryan McVay
Act the Part
Overweight women face stereotypes such as being undisciplined, says Bill Fabrey of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination. One study found that when a white female puts on an additional 64 pounds, her wages drop 9%. The obese take a bigger hit, with a wage loss of 12%. Dressing well can make a difference, but Fabrey says the best way to gain confidence is to act the part. Employers are less likely to hire or promote a person who projects little confidence.
Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
Susan Adams, 11.11.09, 01:28 PM EST
Body language can speak more strongly than words. Make sure you say the right things with it.
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In Pictures: Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
In 1961, when Joe Navarro was 8, the Bay of Pigs invasion happened six miles from his home in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and his family fled to Miami. The boy knew no English, so he relied on careful observation of his peers, neighbors and teachers to figure out how things were done in his new country.
That close reading of nonverbal clues turned into a lifelong pursuit. Navarro, 56, worked for 25 years as a counterintelligence special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and since 2003 he has been a consultant to the Energy and State Departments and the Institute for Defense Analysis, in Washington. His latest book, Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence, applies all his knowledge to the business world.
In Pictures: Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
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Navarro believes that fluency in nonverbal communication can be as powerful a tool as masterful negotiating techniques or expert salesmanship. The starting point, he says, is what he calls "personal curbside appeal." Project yourself as a confident, welcoming person, and your clients, colleagues and bosses will be attracted to you, keen on doing business with you and on promoting you within your organization.
Curbside appeal has several components, starting with looks. Tidy, neat, conservative clothes are preferable, Navarro says. A good rule of thumb: mirror, don't shock. "Observe how upper management dresses, and follow their lead," he advises. "Casualness can kill credibility." Unless, that is, you work in a place where the top brass wear jeans and polo shirts, like, say, CBS Studios in Hollywood, where Navarro recently discovered he was the only person in a suit.
Even when the dress code is jeans, make sure they are not ripped or stained. Not only will trim clothes impress others; they will help you do a better job, Navarro maintains. "What we wear shapes our behavior and prepares our body and mind for what we need to do," he writes. "In the workplace, you put on the attire of a warrior for business, and that's your persona." One thing he insists on is polished shoes, in good repair. "Men often wear scuffed or worn-down shoes that subvert the effort they spent on the rest of their appearance," he writes.
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Gestures go a long way in conveying your personal message. One of the most appealing: Stand with your head slightly tilted and your hands clasped, and with a smile and a gaze that meets the other person's. The head tilt exposes the neck and says, "I am listening, I am comfortable, I am receptive," Navarro says. By contrast, if you touch your neck or cover the dimple at the base of it, you're saying you are uncomfortable, insecure or concerned.
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While society demands confidence as demonstrated through appearance and presentation perhaps "steepling" and the like are already played out. Body language is important, but there are a million form....
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Sit back comfortably in a chair, with your hands interlaced behind your head, and you project control and dominance. But it can be a little much, too. In a meeting avoid it, unless you're the senior person there.
Steepling your hands means you are strongly confident in the message you are about to deliver. Also, aiming your thumbs up conveys a sense of confidence. Navarro likes it when fingers are interlaced and thumbs are aimed up. Hiding your thumbs--in your pockets, say--gives the impression you are insecure.
Navarro also stresses the importance of making a strong, positive impression on first meeting. This involves blending all his tips and putting them into action. The well-dressed, tidy employee or boss makes eye contact, smiles, gets up from behind his or her desk, approaches the guest either from a slight angle (men prefer this) or directly (which women like better) and extends a hand to shake in what Navarro describes as "a firm but easy grip, lasting a few seconds." Avoid the overly tight squeeze, the pump or any wrist torque, he advises.
FBI agents devote a lot of energy to establishing rapport with people, Navarro says. When he left the bureau six years ago, he was stunned to discover how many business people were clueless about forging effective nonverbal connections. "I wrote the book to give people that nonverbal edge," he says.
Starting Up
Hannah Seligson, 11.20.09, 09:00 AM EST
Forbes Asia Magazine dated November 30, 2009
Ye Tian, all of 29, is one of China's many ambitious entrepreneurs.
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In China's old guard days, people usually needed a connection to make it, whether it was a buddy working at the local land bureau or a parent high up in the Communist Party. The new guard has other ways to succeed. Here's one: Go to a foreign-language school in China, attend college in the U.S., cut your teeth working stateside for a few years and then return to China with business credibility as a bridge between East and West.
In other words, follow the path of Ye Tian. At 29 he's the executive producer of Trail of the Panda, the first Chinese movie that Disney ( DIS - news - people ) has distributed outside of China. He's the chief executive of Back In Time and its subsidiary, JOVI, which is creating lots of buzz with two new restaurants in Beijing. He's also the nonexecutive chairman of Ying Dong Media, a movie and TV production and distribution company in Beijing, and a general partner in Media Plus, a Beijing investment company that focuses on Asia. If that doesn't keep him busy, Tian sits on the board of U.S.-listed China Energy Recovery in Shanghai, which makes equipment to capture and reuse the energy that factories waste during the manufacturing process. Part venture capitalist, part entrepreneur, part fundraiser and part consultant, Tian is making rain in China.
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China's fast growth and freewheeling economy continue to mint entrepreneurs who are quick to seize not just one lucrative opportunity but two or three or maybe four. Many are returnees who not only understand China but also have an immigrant's knack for spotting market openings that locals sometimes miss. Tian's story is another illustration of how some Chinese can accomplish more before they turn 30 than many in the West--where the playing field is so much more crowded--can in an entire career. "Ye is emblematic of this new generation of entrepreneurs in China who are hardworking, have gone to study in the U.S. and then are coming back to China to put that to use," says his partner, French entrepreneur Jean Chalopin.
Tian is living the American dream with Chinese characters. He comes from humble roots in Shanghai--his mother was a high school teacher and his father worked for a state-owned electronics company. Tian attended the Shanghai Foreign Language School, which encourages students to go to university abroad. That was the reason, he says, he considered applying to Harvard, where he graduated with a degree in applied mathematics in 2003. After that he did stints at Appian Corp., a software company in Virginia, and at Loeb Enterprises in New York, where he worked on deals taking Chinese companies public in the U.S.
As part of that job he helped organize a reception for Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, at the British ambassador's residence in Beijing in 2006. That's where he met Chalopin. Tian had already decided to return to China, but now he had a partner. Chalopin, 59 and married to a model, had made a small fortune in the film and television business in Europe.
Tian and Chalopin are working on a patchwork of ventures in China. Their business strategy is flexible and pragmatic. They see an opportunity, set up whatever structure makes the most sense, rally investors and then get their hands dirty. When Chalopin wanted to make Trail of the Panda, Tian became chief executive of Ying Dong Media, which joined with Disney to put it out; Chalopin anted up $5 million to make the film, and he co-wrote the script. "We are value-investor entrepreneurs," says Chalopin. "To be a venture capitalist, you are in and out in a few years. We are in it for the long haul."
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I think Mr.Ye has more advantages than many other young entrepreneurs in China. For instance, I¡¯m a young entrepreneur as well and started up a business center in Shanghai, China (http://www.tiananc....
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Although they seem like an odd couple--Tian is half Chalopin's age, their careers are at opposite stages, and they are from different continents--the collaboration appears to work, with Chalopin taking on more of the creative and conceptual role and Tian working on the execution. "Our relationship is very much a partnership," says Chalopin. "I am making an investment in Ye, but I know he will be ten times richer than I am in ten years." For now Tian works for sweat equity--in other words, he doesn't take a salary-- but he did put money into Trail of the Panda and JOVI.
JOVI, their biggest venture yet, is a budding restaurant-and-entertainment chain that will soon also offer travel services (diners will be able to book trips to destinations around the world). The first location opened a year ago, and revenue grew sixfold from the second to the third quarter, says Tian. The two have plans to open 12 more locations in Beijing in the next year and just signed a lease for a spot in Oriental Plaza. They've raised $9 million from European investors, including executive jet entrepreneur Robert Hersov, who chipped in $1 million, and Italian investment company Sopaf. Tian and Chalopin are involved in every detail of JOVI, down to whether the Häagen-Dazs ice cream machine should be visible to customers.
The decision to go from making movies to starting restaurants came from Tian's analysis that food and beverage is a hot and growing sector. "There is so much more discretionary income in China right now, so it's a golden time for retail of any kind," he says.
Even with the volume of business that is done between the U.S. and China, business and social mores can often be baffling to both foreign companies operating in China and Chinese companies trying to get a foothold in the U.S. So sometimes Tian functions as an ambassador for Chinese companies. Wu Qinghuan, the chief executive of China Energy Recovery, approached him about taking the company public in the U.S. Tian helped find a group of investors and then walked the company through its 2008 initial offering on the over-the-counter market. For his part, Tian thinks of himself as an interpreter. "When we were working on Trail of the Panda and we had one American and one French producer, I was in the position to connect them to the business reality of China," he says.
Tian sees social mobility becoming more common in China. He cites an entrepreneur he knows of who sells barbecued chicken wings out of a 70-square-meter storefront. This businessman earns enough money to drive a BMW 5 Series. "[Mobility] is increasing a lot," says Tian. "I had a little advantage because I went to Harvard, but I know a lot of people like myself who aren't from very wealthy families who are taking advantage of all the capital that is flowing into China."
YOUTH MOVEMENT
Here are five other young entrepreneurs in China to watch.
Robin Chan, 32, founder and chief of videogame-developer XPD Media. Picked gaming-industry capital, Beijing, to start up and is now flush with venture funding.
Shawn Cheng, 30, founder of hoopChina.com, which features user-generated articles, photos and videos about basketball. Boasts 100,000 posts and 5 million visitors daily.
Marine Ma, 33, founder and chairman of BabySpace, which runs an online forum for young moms who, lacking sisters because of the one-child policy, need sources of advice.
Si Shen, 28, founder and chief of PapayaMobile, a mobile platform that allows users to play games and chat with other users. Earned her stripes at Google.
Zafka Zhang, 30, founder and chief of market research firm China Youthology. Takes the temperature of China's youth for Pepsi, Nokia, Nestle and other marketers.
Laura Sinberg, 12.05.09, 10:00 AM EST
The ugly truth: The more attractive you're perceived to be, the more you earn and are respected.
image
In Pictures: Seven Easy Ways To Look Your Best At Work
ForbesWoman
If you want to get a raise or a promotion, you might want to throw on a pair of heels and suck in that belly. Your looks can help--or hinder--your chances of getting a well-deserved promotion, regardless of qualifications, especially in a sour economy when advancements are few and hard to come by.
Women who advance most at work, studies agree, are more attractive, thinner, taller and have a more youthful appearance than their female colleagues who are promoted less often.
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In Pictures: Seven Easy Ways To Look Your Best At Work
A landmark study from Cornell University found that when white females put on an additional 64 pounds, her wages drop 9%. And according to a 2007 paper from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a statistically significant "wage penalty" for overweight and obese white women. ("Previous studies have shown that white women are the only race-gender group for which weight has a statistically significant effect on wages," according to the paper.) The obese take a bigger hit, with a wage loss of 12%.
Being large leads to negative stereotypes--thinking that person is sloppy, lazy or slow, for example--for women that just aren't true, says Bill Fabrey, a director of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination.
Fabrey recounts incidences of several plus-size female colleagues who have gotten interviews with prospective employers only to be told the job had been filled once they showed up for an in-person interview.
Related Stories
* Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
* Girl Power
* The 10 Questions You Should Never Stop Asking
* The No-No Diet
* Starting Up
Related Videos
* Coffee Battle Brews
* Solar Stocks Recharged
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Unfortunately, this article highlights some of the sad truths of our society.
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"There are interviewers who don't care [about weight], but those are not as plentiful as the other kind," he says.
Being average looking comes with a hefty price, too. The best-looking echelon of attractive females--the top one-third--make about 10% more annually than those in the bottom sixth of the genetic pool, according to research by Daniel Hamermesh, Ph.D., a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Just what makes for attractive? According to Hamermesh in a interview with CNN, "It's symmetry of features. ... But not too [attractive]. It's not perfect. If it's perfect, it's bland. There's got to be a little off, otherwise you lose interest." Apart from a balanced face--and good physical health--a woman's appeal is also reportedly in having a low waist-to-hip ratio.
And youth. A study done this year by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that some 73% of women felt a youthful appearance played a role in getting a job, getting promoted or keeping clients. Many cited difficult economic times as part of the reason--with fewer raises and promotions to be given, the better-looking are the ones advancing.
"In this bad economy, as people age, employers and colleagues perceive them as having less energy and being less effective" notes Gordon Patzer, Ph.D., a psychologist from Chicago who has studied looks for 30 years. "Being older in the workplace is looked at negatively," he adds.
Patzer says bleaching your teeth, wearing appropriate makeup or updating your hairstyle or wardrobe can take years off a person's look.
What's Behind Our Thinking?
Various psychological reasons can answer why we choose to promote better-looking people and keep the rest behind. For ancestral humans, better-looking people were thought to be more productive and fecund, according to Patzer.
And, interestingly, able to bring home more food. From a psychological standpoint, Patzer says, "people of higher physical attractiveness are more persuasive, which is critical in the workplace."
That may be the reason women of short stature get the short end of the stick. Although there is no correlation between height and effectiveness or intelligence, a woman who is 5 feet 7 inches tall--well above the national female average of 5 feet, 3.5 inches--will make $5,250 more over the course of a year than a female co-worker standing 5 feet 2 inches.
"We like to look up to our leaders," says Patzer, noting that a subordinate is more likely to respond positively to a taller manager.
Malcolm Gladwell calls the behavior an unconscious prejudice, a prejudice you reach without even thinking. In his best-selling book Blink, he polled about half the country's top 500 CEOs and found that 58% were nearly 6 feet tall; in contrast, the average American male is 5 foot 9 inches tall.
Also, because most states don't have laws against weight or height discrimination--currently Michigan is the only state that includes either group as a protected category under anti-discrimination law--women stand underprotected.
"Either the judicial and legislative arm of the market have decided that's OK [to favor certain groups], or they've decided that trying to do something about it would be way too difficult," says Bill O'Brien, founding partner at Miller O'Brien Cummins, a Minneapolis firm that specializes in labor and employment law.
"On the subject of physical appearance, there is not much protection under employment statutes," he adds.
What Can You Do?
In a competitive work environment, it is only natural to want to do everything possible to get an extra edge, but if you're thinking pricey cosmetic surgeries are the answer, you're mistaken. Women who go under the knife make an extra five cents per dollar they spend on the dangerous procedures, according to Hamermesh's research. "It's a terrible investment," he says.
Instead, Judy Jernudd, a leadership coach in Los Angeles, recommends honing certain psychological behaviors, like walking upright and with confidence, which will make you seem taller than someone who is slouched over or walking with her head down. It will also trick others into perceiving you as more physically attractive. Heels will also help, but not over an inch and a half, say most podiatrists.
Although there isn't a lot you can do to make yourself look thinner--wearing dark colors and streamlined clothes help--Jernudd does note that women with confidence always come across as thinner and better-looking. "A lot of it has to do with personality," she says.
So what about women who say looks shouldn't matter in the workplace?
"It shouldn't matter, but it does," says Jernudd. "It is competitive enough today. Why sabotage yourself by not giving it the best you can?"
Open Your Body Language
Your body language can actually be a factor in why people think you're attractive. When you're arms are folded and you're lips are pursed, you look less appealing to people, notes Gordon Patzer, Ph.D., a psychologist. And looks go a long way. Those who we consider the most attractive--women with the most symmetrical facial features--earn up to 10% more a year than their less good-looking co-workers.
© Winston Davidian
Update Your Look
In today's economy, having a competitive edge can mean the difference between a promotion and a pink slip. Sadly, employers perceive unfashionable and aging employees as having less energy and being less effective. Although you can't be fired for either, it may work to your advantage to get a new hairdo or change your makeup. It can take years off your age and give you an upper hand at work, says Patzer.
Stand Tall
A woman who is 5 feet 7 inches tall makes over $5,000 more annually than her 5-foot-tall counterpart. But sky-high stilettos aren't the only thing that will give you an extra boost at work, says Judy Jernudd, a leadership coach based in Los Angeles. She recommends walking taller--shoulders back, head up--which will create the optical illusion of being taller. If you do opt for heels, podiatrists warn to go no higher than an inch and a half.
Whiten Your Teeth
People focus on the mouth more than any part of the face, notes Patzer, who recommends teeth bleaching as a way to look younger and healthier. "As we age, our teeth become less white. If we can reverse that, we look younger," he says. Products like Crest Whitestrips and ProWhite teeth whitening products offer less expensive alternatives to pricey dental visits.
Dress Up To Move Up
You may not want to give in to societal standards of how women should look and dress, but those who dress for the position they want are more confident and in turn seem more attractive to their co-workers and managers. Jernudd says going to work looking like you just rolled out of bed will not only make you look less attractive, but it will probably lead to fewer promotions in the long run.
Visit Store Cosmetics Counters
Wearing appropriate makeup can do wonders for your appearance, notes Jernudd, who advises taking advantage of department-store cosmetics counters that offer free makeovers if you purchase a couple of products. "You just don't look polished without it," she says.
©C Ryan McVay
Act the Part
Overweight women face stereotypes such as being undisciplined, says Bill Fabrey of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination. One study found that when a white female puts on an additional 64 pounds, her wages drop 9%. The obese take a bigger hit, with a wage loss of 12%. Dressing well can make a difference, but Fabrey says the best way to gain confidence is to act the part. Employers are less likely to hire or promote a person who projects little confidence.
Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
Susan Adams, 11.11.09, 01:28 PM EST
Body language can speak more strongly than words. Make sure you say the right things with it.
image
In Pictures: Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
In 1961, when Joe Navarro was 8, the Bay of Pigs invasion happened six miles from his home in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and his family fled to Miami. The boy knew no English, so he relied on careful observation of his peers, neighbors and teachers to figure out how things were done in his new country.
That close reading of nonverbal clues turned into a lifelong pursuit. Navarro, 56, worked for 25 years as a counterintelligence special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and since 2003 he has been a consultant to the Energy and State Departments and the Institute for Defense Analysis, in Washington. His latest book, Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence, applies all his knowledge to the business world.
In Pictures: Secrets Of Nonverbal Communication
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Navarro believes that fluency in nonverbal communication can be as powerful a tool as masterful negotiating techniques or expert salesmanship. The starting point, he says, is what he calls "personal curbside appeal." Project yourself as a confident, welcoming person, and your clients, colleagues and bosses will be attracted to you, keen on doing business with you and on promoting you within your organization.
Curbside appeal has several components, starting with looks. Tidy, neat, conservative clothes are preferable, Navarro says. A good rule of thumb: mirror, don't shock. "Observe how upper management dresses, and follow their lead," he advises. "Casualness can kill credibility." Unless, that is, you work in a place where the top brass wear jeans and polo shirts, like, say, CBS Studios in Hollywood, where Navarro recently discovered he was the only person in a suit.
Even when the dress code is jeans, make sure they are not ripped or stained. Not only will trim clothes impress others; they will help you do a better job, Navarro maintains. "What we wear shapes our behavior and prepares our body and mind for what we need to do," he writes. "In the workplace, you put on the attire of a warrior for business, and that's your persona." One thing he insists on is polished shoes, in good repair. "Men often wear scuffed or worn-down shoes that subvert the effort they spent on the rest of their appearance," he writes.
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Gestures go a long way in conveying your personal message. One of the most appealing: Stand with your head slightly tilted and your hands clasped, and with a smile and a gaze that meets the other person's. The head tilt exposes the neck and says, "I am listening, I am comfortable, I am receptive," Navarro says. By contrast, if you touch your neck or cover the dimple at the base of it, you're saying you are uncomfortable, insecure or concerned.
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While society demands confidence as demonstrated through appearance and presentation perhaps "steepling" and the like are already played out. Body language is important, but there are a million form....
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Sit back comfortably in a chair, with your hands interlaced behind your head, and you project control and dominance. But it can be a little much, too. In a meeting avoid it, unless you're the senior person there.
Steepling your hands means you are strongly confident in the message you are about to deliver. Also, aiming your thumbs up conveys a sense of confidence. Navarro likes it when fingers are interlaced and thumbs are aimed up. Hiding your thumbs--in your pockets, say--gives the impression you are insecure.
Navarro also stresses the importance of making a strong, positive impression on first meeting. This involves blending all his tips and putting them into action. The well-dressed, tidy employee or boss makes eye contact, smiles, gets up from behind his or her desk, approaches the guest either from a slight angle (men prefer this) or directly (which women like better) and extends a hand to shake in what Navarro describes as "a firm but easy grip, lasting a few seconds." Avoid the overly tight squeeze, the pump or any wrist torque, he advises.
FBI agents devote a lot of energy to establishing rapport with people, Navarro says. When he left the bureau six years ago, he was stunned to discover how many business people were clueless about forging effective nonverbal connections. "I wrote the book to give people that nonverbal edge," he says.
Starting Up
Hannah Seligson, 11.20.09, 09:00 AM EST
Forbes Asia Magazine dated November 30, 2009
Ye Tian, all of 29, is one of China's many ambitious entrepreneurs.
image
In China's old guard days, people usually needed a connection to make it, whether it was a buddy working at the local land bureau or a parent high up in the Communist Party. The new guard has other ways to succeed. Here's one: Go to a foreign-language school in China, attend college in the U.S., cut your teeth working stateside for a few years and then return to China with business credibility as a bridge between East and West.
In other words, follow the path of Ye Tian. At 29 he's the executive producer of Trail of the Panda, the first Chinese movie that Disney ( DIS - news - people ) has distributed outside of China. He's the chief executive of Back In Time and its subsidiary, JOVI, which is creating lots of buzz with two new restaurants in Beijing. He's also the nonexecutive chairman of Ying Dong Media, a movie and TV production and distribution company in Beijing, and a general partner in Media Plus, a Beijing investment company that focuses on Asia. If that doesn't keep him busy, Tian sits on the board of U.S.-listed China Energy Recovery in Shanghai, which makes equipment to capture and reuse the energy that factories waste during the manufacturing process. Part venture capitalist, part entrepreneur, part fundraiser and part consultant, Tian is making rain in China.
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China's fast growth and freewheeling economy continue to mint entrepreneurs who are quick to seize not just one lucrative opportunity but two or three or maybe four. Many are returnees who not only understand China but also have an immigrant's knack for spotting market openings that locals sometimes miss. Tian's story is another illustration of how some Chinese can accomplish more before they turn 30 than many in the West--where the playing field is so much more crowded--can in an entire career. "Ye is emblematic of this new generation of entrepreneurs in China who are hardworking, have gone to study in the U.S. and then are coming back to China to put that to use," says his partner, French entrepreneur Jean Chalopin.
Tian is living the American dream with Chinese characters. He comes from humble roots in Shanghai--his mother was a high school teacher and his father worked for a state-owned electronics company. Tian attended the Shanghai Foreign Language School, which encourages students to go to university abroad. That was the reason, he says, he considered applying to Harvard, where he graduated with a degree in applied mathematics in 2003. After that he did stints at Appian Corp., a software company in Virginia, and at Loeb Enterprises in New York, where he worked on deals taking Chinese companies public in the U.S.
As part of that job he helped organize a reception for Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, at the British ambassador's residence in Beijing in 2006. That's where he met Chalopin. Tian had already decided to return to China, but now he had a partner. Chalopin, 59 and married to a model, had made a small fortune in the film and television business in Europe.
Tian and Chalopin are working on a patchwork of ventures in China. Their business strategy is flexible and pragmatic. They see an opportunity, set up whatever structure makes the most sense, rally investors and then get their hands dirty. When Chalopin wanted to make Trail of the Panda, Tian became chief executive of Ying Dong Media, which joined with Disney to put it out; Chalopin anted up $5 million to make the film, and he co-wrote the script. "We are value-investor entrepreneurs," says Chalopin. "To be a venture capitalist, you are in and out in a few years. We are in it for the long haul."
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I think Mr.Ye has more advantages than many other young entrepreneurs in China. For instance, I¡¯m a young entrepreneur as well and started up a business center in Shanghai, China (http://www.tiananc....
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Although they seem like an odd couple--Tian is half Chalopin's age, their careers are at opposite stages, and they are from different continents--the collaboration appears to work, with Chalopin taking on more of the creative and conceptual role and Tian working on the execution. "Our relationship is very much a partnership," says Chalopin. "I am making an investment in Ye, but I know he will be ten times richer than I am in ten years." For now Tian works for sweat equity--in other words, he doesn't take a salary-- but he did put money into Trail of the Panda and JOVI.
JOVI, their biggest venture yet, is a budding restaurant-and-entertainment chain that will soon also offer travel services (diners will be able to book trips to destinations around the world). The first location opened a year ago, and revenue grew sixfold from the second to the third quarter, says Tian. The two have plans to open 12 more locations in Beijing in the next year and just signed a lease for a spot in Oriental Plaza. They've raised $9 million from European investors, including executive jet entrepreneur Robert Hersov, who chipped in $1 million, and Italian investment company Sopaf. Tian and Chalopin are involved in every detail of JOVI, down to whether the Häagen-Dazs ice cream machine should be visible to customers.
The decision to go from making movies to starting restaurants came from Tian's analysis that food and beverage is a hot and growing sector. "There is so much more discretionary income in China right now, so it's a golden time for retail of any kind," he says.
Even with the volume of business that is done between the U.S. and China, business and social mores can often be baffling to both foreign companies operating in China and Chinese companies trying to get a foothold in the U.S. So sometimes Tian functions as an ambassador for Chinese companies. Wu Qinghuan, the chief executive of China Energy Recovery, approached him about taking the company public in the U.S. Tian helped find a group of investors and then walked the company through its 2008 initial offering on the over-the-counter market. For his part, Tian thinks of himself as an interpreter. "When we were working on Trail of the Panda and we had one American and one French producer, I was in the position to connect them to the business reality of China," he says.
Tian sees social mobility becoming more common in China. He cites an entrepreneur he knows of who sells barbecued chicken wings out of a 70-square-meter storefront. This businessman earns enough money to drive a BMW 5 Series. "[Mobility] is increasing a lot," says Tian. "I had a little advantage because I went to Harvard, but I know a lot of people like myself who aren't from very wealthy families who are taking advantage of all the capital that is flowing into China."
YOUTH MOVEMENT
Here are five other young entrepreneurs in China to watch.
Robin Chan, 32, founder and chief of videogame-developer XPD Media. Picked gaming-industry capital, Beijing, to start up and is now flush with venture funding.
Shawn Cheng, 30, founder of hoopChina.com, which features user-generated articles, photos and videos about basketball. Boasts 100,000 posts and 5 million visitors daily.
Marine Ma, 33, founder and chairman of BabySpace, which runs an online forum for young moms who, lacking sisters because of the one-child policy, need sources of advice.
Si Shen, 28, founder and chief of PapayaMobile, a mobile platform that allows users to play games and chat with other users. Earned her stripes at Google.
Zafka Zhang, 30, founder and chief of market research firm China Youthology. Takes the temperature of China's youth for Pepsi, Nokia, Nestle and other marketers.
Monday, December 7, 2009
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
How to get more out of your life
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"Is this all there is?"
Introduction ..... Why am I going nowhere? ..... Where do I start?
Will it make a difference? ..... Who do I want to be? ..... The way ahead
Not that long ago I noticed that my life was beginning to fly by, and with very little achieved in it. In fact I've noticed that a lot of people are beginning to wonder what they are doing with their lives. It's now 15-20 years since my generation left college. We all went out into the world, and now find ourselves wondering just what we achieved. I think most of us have noticed how fast the time went!
To avoid doing nothing with my life, I've learnt that I at least need to go back to basics from time to time and work out what I am attempting to do with my life. This page consists of good advice to myself. If you can profit from it, you're welcome.
So where am I now? Well, I know that most of us didn't do too badly, did we? But to what end? Say you get married, you buy a house, work 9-5.30 every day, and where does it get you? Children come along, and you just end each day too tired to do anything worthwhile. Life seems an unending cycle of chores and responsibilities. Whatever happened to fun? Whatever happened to those student ambitions? All you find yourself doing is waiting to retire. Whatever happened to those ideals we had as a student? How often we cling to them, as the only thing that defines us as a person any more. Were they the best years of your life? Is this all there is to life?
I suppose this is what people call the mid-life crisis. The former Labour party cabinet minister John Stonehouse captured the feelings of us all by leaving his clothes on a beach, and running off to Rio with a secretary. There must be a good many of us who have wondered whether that option is for them. (Personally I've never been able to locate a secretary willing to go with me, so that option was of course ruled out for me!).
With all this tends to go a fair amount of cynicism and disillusionment. We've all tried quick-fix solutions, and they don't work. So what can we do?
This page contains some ideas to mull over. I don't suggest that they are particularly original. I'm afraid I don't believe much in quick-fix books and self-help manuals. They may work for some people - I don't know - but not for me. I don't really believe in panaceas. If you have reached the "Stonehouse Point", you probably don't either. So if what I have below helps, use it - if not, ignore me. I shan't mind!
And remember, you are responsible for your life, not me. Think it all through. What works for me, may not work for you. Even if what I say is objectively true, it will need some rephrasing to apply exactly to your life, rather than mine! This is not panacea-time - this is real life!
"At this moment you are the only man in the army
who knows what he is doing" (sign in a barracks lavatory)
If you feel you are going nowhere, perhaps it is because you've never tried to go anywhere in particular. If you've just done what everyone else does, you'll end up where everyone else does - dead bored, or maybe just dead! You need to have a dream - an idea of where you want to go to.
"If you don't have a dream, how are you going to have a dream come true?" they sang in South Pacific. The Bible says "Without a vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29.18 KJV). Remember that no-one ever said on their deathbed, "I wish I'd spent more time in the office"! The graveyards are full of people who thought they were irreplaceable.
Without a life goal of some sort, however modest, all of us end up like ants - working all day so we can create the next generation of ants who will do the same. It's no life for an intelligent being. Why have a brain, if we are no better than the beasts? Some modern people think it's clever to say that man is an animal, or only an animal. Aristotle said that some men are fit only to be slaves. If you have got this far, I hope that you are in neither category. That means we have to have a reason.
A caution at this point; let's not get overambitious! Otherwise we just get depressed. A goal for a single day is enough, to start with - something minor. Also, let's not make work for ourselves. Many of us are overworked. I don't want anyone to add another chore to their burden! Keep it light, keep it small, keep it manageable. We don't have to solve world hunger, or make contact with beings from another planet, not today anyway.
What sort of person (in personal qualities) do you wish you were? What would you do if you were like that?
What personal abilities and limitations do you have? After all, if you hate bugs there is no point in dreaming about becoming a jungle explorer!
What do you admire in other people?
What ideals do you admire?
What do you use your brain for? Is there anything else you would enjoy doing with your mind, which you don't do any more?
Browse the magazines in a well-stocked newsagent. Are there subjects you wouldn't normally buy? Or try a reference library one morning. Most have a range of magazines from all sorts of professions and interests. Are there any you wouldn't normally look at, which appeal?
How will I get to Shangri La?
Anything worthwhile in life takes a bit of effort. Usually a plan is needed to get you there. Most of us use our planning abilities only in the office, or to manage our chores. It's very hard to break out of that mindset, and start to apply them to other things.
Plan to do small steps. There is an old adage, "How do you eat an elephant? - a little at a time". If you are too ambitious, or commit more to a plan than you are ready for, it becomes frightening and stressful, rather than liberating. Work within your limits.
Don't rush. Life is short, but serious life-change is simply too threatening for most of us. It took me two years to make up my mind to leave my permanent job and go freelance, because I didn't know if I could handle it. In that time, I thought through all of my concerns, and tried to get answers on how I would manage them. I've known too many people for whom the gap between their dreams and their lives was too big for them. I've talked to people who could double their salaries, and improve their lives, easily, who are simply too frightened. The reason is always that the risk is too much. Do it in small steps, and know how you are going to get back.
Are we having fun yet?
One barrier to getting going is that I find myself wondering if everybody just ends up very much like this.
This is a quite intelligent realisation. There is no point in travelling the stars to escape your problems, if you take them with you because your personality is the problem. Notoriously the famous and successful say that, when you get to the top, you find there's nothing there. Rich kids who have everything are famous for their inability to handle it. It's empty. Often these people then turn to religion, to find some meaning to life. Unfortunately at this stage most of them get taken in by whatever fashionable guru or fakir happens to be in circulation, get ripped off, and abandon the whole idea in favour of a life of quiet self-indulgence.
The problem isn't just you and me, it seems. It's a feature of the whole human race. All of us are made to be dissatisfied, even if we have everything we could want. We need more. In fact people suggest that we need a cause, outside of ourselves, something of not just temporary worth or value.
But what? I get edgy when people try to sell me a cause! I'm not going to try to sell you one. Find your own!
That's most of the points I want to make on this page. The rest is for people who wonder how I took this forward myself. I haven't got all the answers - but I have worked out a set of values I think I'm going to stick with, while I look for Shangri La. Feel free to ignore it, if you feel you have something better!
What sort of person do I want to be?
What sort of person do they want to make me?
This question isn't too easy to answer, except superficially. Most people just pick up ideas like litter, and never worry if they don't make sense, or fit together. If you've followed me this far, you want more - something that actually has depth, and makes sense, something worth living for. This means, along the way, adopting and living by a set of principles. And this means avoiding the stuff that THEY want to shove at us. How do we assess the stuff?
So what should we live for? What 'values' (call them what you like) should govern our lives, as rational people? It would seem that this issue has bugged people down the ages. I don't have a smart answer to this; but I tend to apply a couple of quick tests to anyone offering me an answer:
Any answer to this question is not going to be a cheap popular philosophy which is here today and gone tomorrow. Every age has these. But as soon as the climate of the times changes, they disappear. Edwardian society had 'ethical churches', which were religious in a vague but socially respectable way. They vanished after that society, which prized vague religiosity, vanished in the horror of the First World War. To those who had seen hell, vague pieties had nothing to offer. New Age religion may well be the modern equivalent for the ex-hippy, but we'll only know for sure when this age is gone. Any system that is new, is most probably one of these.
Every society encourages conformity to the group. Ours is just the same. People feel very safe just doing what everyone else they associate with finds acceptable. But these sets of values change, perhaps every 50 years or so. How out of date films of the hippies in the 60's are starting to look - yet it was hugely popular! Let's face it, every society thinks that it is the crown of evolution. The Victorians certainly did. But can we? If our society has the answer, it must be a very silly question! The values of our society were not reached by rational processes, but by political pressures. So I think we must reject the values which are popular, simply because they are contemporary, and will cease to be believed in, just as soon as they cease to be popular.
Any group claiming to have an answer to this must actually think about things. "Don't think, only feel", sometimes known as "California crap", is merely self-indulgence. Nothing worthwhile in life is actually obtained in such a way. I wonder if they fill in their tax returns in accordance with this 'religion'. Somehow I doubt it!
That sweeps a lot of rubbish out of the way. Of course much more could, and should be said - I'm summarising my thoughts on this, because I can only type so much! No-one is paying me, after all, to type this. Mind you, I'm open to offers...
So what are we left with? Well, it leaves us with the long established philosophical and religious groups, and indeed not with all of those. I don't believe that Stoicism is really a live issue. And since I'm not a Jew, I doubt that Judaism has anything to say to me. It really leaves us with Islam and Christianity - and again not all flavours of those. I admit I cannot believe that Islam today, whatever it might be in theory, is really an intellectual movement, rather than a sign of Arab race-consciousness. It seems that all ideals tend to become the badges of political, social or cultural groups, and the criterion for membership then ceases to be whether or not you are one of those who think or live like this, and more a case of "Is he one of us".
The way ahead
I've been left with Christianity. I'm well aware that this is not a socially acceptable option. I'm painfully aware of the unattractive side of religion. But it's been around a long time, and periods when Christianity is rubbished, in our history, coincide with periods of decline and misery. Is it really an improvement, for all of us, that employers can now demand we work on Sundays? I doubt it! The erosion of standards has been real in our day, but I don't notice that I've benefitted. So who has?
But I find most people don't know what I mean by Christianity. It gets mixed up with all sorts of questionable garbage, which I personally do not believe in or live by. This is what Christianity (not 'Anglicanism', not the Vicar, not the Church, not the state, not 'BBC Religion') tells me:
There is a reason why things tend to be pointless. Human beings are all messed up. The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible tells us how life is pointless - at length. And do we really need to be told that all of us are imperfect? Well, apparently we do! I'm not the person I would want to be, and probably you wish you were a better person than you are - more capable, more socially competent, whatever. As the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".
Human beings cannot overcome all their failings by themselves - they need help. The growth in counselling services alone would tell us this. But how many successes do they have? How many wealthy people spend years in therapy? It's hard to say, objectively. Probably some good is achieved. However there are people who have come to Jesus as alcoholics, drug-users, and found radical change was possible, because of him. Not all, by any means. In fact I think for most people, the main change is that with the purpose to life that He gives us, the difficulties of life do not disappear, but instead get used to build character. Maybe it is just that those of us who are professionals have more to lose! But everyone is an individual, including Jesus, and the relationship between one of us and Him is always unique, so it would be wrong to generalise. Christianity is not about 'doing the right thing' (although the Victorians tried very hard to make it so), but about meeting Someone who is worth the following, and isn't out to exploit us.
But this is turning into a sermon, which isn't the intention at all. There are plenty of Christians who will be happy to tell you what they know. Make sure you find out how much is lived, rather than just talk! Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is one - but the real ones have decided to obey Christ whatever it costs, even if they haven't got very far down the road, whereas the fakes are usually out for themselves.
The Bible tells us that the Lord can restore the 'years the locusts have eaten' (Joel 2.25). I think we all know how it feels to look back on years and wonder where they went - the years the locusts have eaten. What it means is that these apparently empty years will prove to have been for some purpose, if they go to turn you into the person you should have been, but for the general messed-upness of the world. I hope so.
Does being a Christian end your problems? No, of course not! For one thing, you still get tax returns to fill in! So why do it? Not because it makes you feel good - drink will do that, in the short term, much quicker. Christ gives his people a purpose, but what that is and how it works, is another subject.
If this page has been of help to you, feel free to email me, Roger Pearse.
(I know there are some very quarrelsome people on the 'net, so if you merely want to tell me I'm wrong, or send me little diatribes phrased as 'questions', please be aware I will bin your email. The reason is that what I have written above comes from personal experience, and as such is a good deal more real to me than anything in an email. Sorry to have to say this, but this too is a personal experience. Best wishes)
Last updated 23rd January 1999.
This page has been accessed by people since 11th December 1999.
or
"Is this all there is?"
Introduction ..... Why am I going nowhere? ..... Where do I start?
Will it make a difference? ..... Who do I want to be? ..... The way ahead
Not that long ago I noticed that my life was beginning to fly by, and with very little achieved in it. In fact I've noticed that a lot of people are beginning to wonder what they are doing with their lives. It's now 15-20 years since my generation left college. We all went out into the world, and now find ourselves wondering just what we achieved. I think most of us have noticed how fast the time went!
To avoid doing nothing with my life, I've learnt that I at least need to go back to basics from time to time and work out what I am attempting to do with my life. This page consists of good advice to myself. If you can profit from it, you're welcome.
So where am I now? Well, I know that most of us didn't do too badly, did we? But to what end? Say you get married, you buy a house, work 9-5.30 every day, and where does it get you? Children come along, and you just end each day too tired to do anything worthwhile. Life seems an unending cycle of chores and responsibilities. Whatever happened to fun? Whatever happened to those student ambitions? All you find yourself doing is waiting to retire. Whatever happened to those ideals we had as a student? How often we cling to them, as the only thing that defines us as a person any more. Were they the best years of your life? Is this all there is to life?
I suppose this is what people call the mid-life crisis. The former Labour party cabinet minister John Stonehouse captured the feelings of us all by leaving his clothes on a beach, and running off to Rio with a secretary. There must be a good many of us who have wondered whether that option is for them. (Personally I've never been able to locate a secretary willing to go with me, so that option was of course ruled out for me!).
With all this tends to go a fair amount of cynicism and disillusionment. We've all tried quick-fix solutions, and they don't work. So what can we do?
This page contains some ideas to mull over. I don't suggest that they are particularly original. I'm afraid I don't believe much in quick-fix books and self-help manuals. They may work for some people - I don't know - but not for me. I don't really believe in panaceas. If you have reached the "Stonehouse Point", you probably don't either. So if what I have below helps, use it - if not, ignore me. I shan't mind!
And remember, you are responsible for your life, not me. Think it all through. What works for me, may not work for you. Even if what I say is objectively true, it will need some rephrasing to apply exactly to your life, rather than mine! This is not panacea-time - this is real life!
"At this moment you are the only man in the army
who knows what he is doing" (sign in a barracks lavatory)
If you feel you are going nowhere, perhaps it is because you've never tried to go anywhere in particular. If you've just done what everyone else does, you'll end up where everyone else does - dead bored, or maybe just dead! You need to have a dream - an idea of where you want to go to.
"If you don't have a dream, how are you going to have a dream come true?" they sang in South Pacific. The Bible says "Without a vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29.18 KJV). Remember that no-one ever said on their deathbed, "I wish I'd spent more time in the office"! The graveyards are full of people who thought they were irreplaceable.
Without a life goal of some sort, however modest, all of us end up like ants - working all day so we can create the next generation of ants who will do the same. It's no life for an intelligent being. Why have a brain, if we are no better than the beasts? Some modern people think it's clever to say that man is an animal, or only an animal. Aristotle said that some men are fit only to be slaves. If you have got this far, I hope that you are in neither category. That means we have to have a reason.
A caution at this point; let's not get overambitious! Otherwise we just get depressed. A goal for a single day is enough, to start with - something minor. Also, let's not make work for ourselves. Many of us are overworked. I don't want anyone to add another chore to their burden! Keep it light, keep it small, keep it manageable. We don't have to solve world hunger, or make contact with beings from another planet, not today anyway.
What sort of person (in personal qualities) do you wish you were? What would you do if you were like that?
What personal abilities and limitations do you have? After all, if you hate bugs there is no point in dreaming about becoming a jungle explorer!
What do you admire in other people?
What ideals do you admire?
What do you use your brain for? Is there anything else you would enjoy doing with your mind, which you don't do any more?
Browse the magazines in a well-stocked newsagent. Are there subjects you wouldn't normally buy? Or try a reference library one morning. Most have a range of magazines from all sorts of professions and interests. Are there any you wouldn't normally look at, which appeal?
How will I get to Shangri La?
Anything worthwhile in life takes a bit of effort. Usually a plan is needed to get you there. Most of us use our planning abilities only in the office, or to manage our chores. It's very hard to break out of that mindset, and start to apply them to other things.
Plan to do small steps. There is an old adage, "How do you eat an elephant? - a little at a time". If you are too ambitious, or commit more to a plan than you are ready for, it becomes frightening and stressful, rather than liberating. Work within your limits.
Don't rush. Life is short, but serious life-change is simply too threatening for most of us. It took me two years to make up my mind to leave my permanent job and go freelance, because I didn't know if I could handle it. In that time, I thought through all of my concerns, and tried to get answers on how I would manage them. I've known too many people for whom the gap between their dreams and their lives was too big for them. I've talked to people who could double their salaries, and improve their lives, easily, who are simply too frightened. The reason is always that the risk is too much. Do it in small steps, and know how you are going to get back.
Are we having fun yet?
One barrier to getting going is that I find myself wondering if everybody just ends up very much like this.
This is a quite intelligent realisation. There is no point in travelling the stars to escape your problems, if you take them with you because your personality is the problem. Notoriously the famous and successful say that, when you get to the top, you find there's nothing there. Rich kids who have everything are famous for their inability to handle it. It's empty. Often these people then turn to religion, to find some meaning to life. Unfortunately at this stage most of them get taken in by whatever fashionable guru or fakir happens to be in circulation, get ripped off, and abandon the whole idea in favour of a life of quiet self-indulgence.
The problem isn't just you and me, it seems. It's a feature of the whole human race. All of us are made to be dissatisfied, even if we have everything we could want. We need more. In fact people suggest that we need a cause, outside of ourselves, something of not just temporary worth or value.
But what? I get edgy when people try to sell me a cause! I'm not going to try to sell you one. Find your own!
That's most of the points I want to make on this page. The rest is for people who wonder how I took this forward myself. I haven't got all the answers - but I have worked out a set of values I think I'm going to stick with, while I look for Shangri La. Feel free to ignore it, if you feel you have something better!
What sort of person do I want to be?
What sort of person do they want to make me?
This question isn't too easy to answer, except superficially. Most people just pick up ideas like litter, and never worry if they don't make sense, or fit together. If you've followed me this far, you want more - something that actually has depth, and makes sense, something worth living for. This means, along the way, adopting and living by a set of principles. And this means avoiding the stuff that THEY want to shove at us. How do we assess the stuff?
So what should we live for? What 'values' (call them what you like) should govern our lives, as rational people? It would seem that this issue has bugged people down the ages. I don't have a smart answer to this; but I tend to apply a couple of quick tests to anyone offering me an answer:
Any answer to this question is not going to be a cheap popular philosophy which is here today and gone tomorrow. Every age has these. But as soon as the climate of the times changes, they disappear. Edwardian society had 'ethical churches', which were religious in a vague but socially respectable way. They vanished after that society, which prized vague religiosity, vanished in the horror of the First World War. To those who had seen hell, vague pieties had nothing to offer. New Age religion may well be the modern equivalent for the ex-hippy, but we'll only know for sure when this age is gone. Any system that is new, is most probably one of these.
Every society encourages conformity to the group. Ours is just the same. People feel very safe just doing what everyone else they associate with finds acceptable. But these sets of values change, perhaps every 50 years or so. How out of date films of the hippies in the 60's are starting to look - yet it was hugely popular! Let's face it, every society thinks that it is the crown of evolution. The Victorians certainly did. But can we? If our society has the answer, it must be a very silly question! The values of our society were not reached by rational processes, but by political pressures. So I think we must reject the values which are popular, simply because they are contemporary, and will cease to be believed in, just as soon as they cease to be popular.
Any group claiming to have an answer to this must actually think about things. "Don't think, only feel", sometimes known as "California crap", is merely self-indulgence. Nothing worthwhile in life is actually obtained in such a way. I wonder if they fill in their tax returns in accordance with this 'religion'. Somehow I doubt it!
That sweeps a lot of rubbish out of the way. Of course much more could, and should be said - I'm summarising my thoughts on this, because I can only type so much! No-one is paying me, after all, to type this. Mind you, I'm open to offers...
So what are we left with? Well, it leaves us with the long established philosophical and religious groups, and indeed not with all of those. I don't believe that Stoicism is really a live issue. And since I'm not a Jew, I doubt that Judaism has anything to say to me. It really leaves us with Islam and Christianity - and again not all flavours of those. I admit I cannot believe that Islam today, whatever it might be in theory, is really an intellectual movement, rather than a sign of Arab race-consciousness. It seems that all ideals tend to become the badges of political, social or cultural groups, and the criterion for membership then ceases to be whether or not you are one of those who think or live like this, and more a case of "Is he one of us".
The way ahead
I've been left with Christianity. I'm well aware that this is not a socially acceptable option. I'm painfully aware of the unattractive side of religion. But it's been around a long time, and periods when Christianity is rubbished, in our history, coincide with periods of decline and misery. Is it really an improvement, for all of us, that employers can now demand we work on Sundays? I doubt it! The erosion of standards has been real in our day, but I don't notice that I've benefitted. So who has?
But I find most people don't know what I mean by Christianity. It gets mixed up with all sorts of questionable garbage, which I personally do not believe in or live by. This is what Christianity (not 'Anglicanism', not the Vicar, not the Church, not the state, not 'BBC Religion') tells me:
There is a reason why things tend to be pointless. Human beings are all messed up. The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible tells us how life is pointless - at length. And do we really need to be told that all of us are imperfect? Well, apparently we do! I'm not the person I would want to be, and probably you wish you were a better person than you are - more capable, more socially competent, whatever. As the Bible says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".
Human beings cannot overcome all their failings by themselves - they need help. The growth in counselling services alone would tell us this. But how many successes do they have? How many wealthy people spend years in therapy? It's hard to say, objectively. Probably some good is achieved. However there are people who have come to Jesus as alcoholics, drug-users, and found radical change was possible, because of him. Not all, by any means. In fact I think for most people, the main change is that with the purpose to life that He gives us, the difficulties of life do not disappear, but instead get used to build character. Maybe it is just that those of us who are professionals have more to lose! But everyone is an individual, including Jesus, and the relationship between one of us and Him is always unique, so it would be wrong to generalise. Christianity is not about 'doing the right thing' (although the Victorians tried very hard to make it so), but about meeting Someone who is worth the following, and isn't out to exploit us.
But this is turning into a sermon, which isn't the intention at all. There are plenty of Christians who will be happy to tell you what they know. Make sure you find out how much is lived, rather than just talk! Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is one - but the real ones have decided to obey Christ whatever it costs, even if they haven't got very far down the road, whereas the fakes are usually out for themselves.
The Bible tells us that the Lord can restore the 'years the locusts have eaten' (Joel 2.25). I think we all know how it feels to look back on years and wonder where they went - the years the locusts have eaten. What it means is that these apparently empty years will prove to have been for some purpose, if they go to turn you into the person you should have been, but for the general messed-upness of the world. I hope so.
Does being a Christian end your problems? No, of course not! For one thing, you still get tax returns to fill in! So why do it? Not because it makes you feel good - drink will do that, in the short term, much quicker. Christ gives his people a purpose, but what that is and how it works, is another subject.
If this page has been of help to you, feel free to email me, Roger Pearse.
(I know there are some very quarrelsome people on the 'net, so if you merely want to tell me I'm wrong, or send me little diatribes phrased as 'questions', please be aware I will bin your email. The reason is that what I have written above comes from personal experience, and as such is a good deal more real to me than anything in an email. Sorry to have to say this, but this too is a personal experience. Best wishes)
Last updated 23rd January 1999.
This page has been accessed by people since 11th December 1999.
i have had a bad attitude and i acknowledge tha t its high time i correct it .me was lazy , defiant,not exp,p ressing myself openly not opening up
then a hell lot of bad attitude no optimism , just scared,threatened.now am slowly developing the courage to express myself as what i really am,not communicating , not sharing with the world money , no respect for self and others etc what i have got etc full complete boredom , no sex , nomoney
then a hell lot of bad attitude no optimism , just scared,threatened.now am slowly developing the courage to express myself as what i really am,not communicating , not sharing with the world money , no respect for self and others etc what i have got etc full complete boredom , no sex , nomoney
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
5 Rules for Pitching the Very Rich
Wonder if even seasoned pros screw it up? Let me count the ways.
By Bill Bartmann | November 02, 2009
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If you're looking to ink a deal with a really wealthy individual (there are plenty of wealthy women, but I'll make this example male, because that's the universal pronoun), here are five rules to put you way ahead of your competition:
Rule No.1: Respect time.
Everyone knows to arrive early, but here's what most people don't know: there may be gatekeepers, but having time to cool your heels in the waiting room for 30 minutes looks sloppy. He'll just assume you must not be too successful.
Of course it makes sense to allow extra time to get to the meeting, because heaven help you if you're late. But if you're very early hang out at the coffee shop across the street, not in the reception area. You should be announcing yourself to the receptionist at precisely the appointed hour.
Content Continues Below
Once shown in, remember to respect his time, too. If you are scheduled for 10 minutes, 600 seconds from when you walked in you should be doing one of two things: Either walking out, or answering questions. If you are answering questions, acknowledge that your 10 minutes is up and let him know you're more than happy to answer his question if you can have a few more minutes. He'll respect you for being a person of your word and will almost certainly allow you a few more minutes.
Rule No.2: Don't tell him his business.
I don't care if you've been in the same industry for years--you still do not know his unique challenges at the moment. Don't insult him by announcing how your solution will revolutionize his operation or be just the thing. He may indeed conclude that your product or service is amazing, but that's for him to decide.
Rule No.3: Give him the facts.
Here's a great question: "How do you stack up against your competitors?" The answer will tell him volumes.
If you feed him that line about not wanting to bad-mouth competitors, you just blew the sale. This is an excuse salespeople hide behind when they either don't know their competitors, or they're worse than their competitors and don't want to say so.
He's not asking you to bad-mouth your competitors, he just expects you to know both your own product as well as your competitors' products. The winning answer will provide him specific details on what your business' strengths are over your competitors. These details le him know you're a pro. He might not even read your matrix, but will give it to someone on his staff to decode.
Rule No.4: Take notes.
An ancient Chinese proverb states: "The faintest writing is stronger than the strongest memory.
Unless you have a photographic or phonographic memory, be prepared to take notes on pertinent information or advice given. Don't make him repeat names, locations, or statistics just because you couldn't be bothered to write them down.
Taking notes is a show of respect. It also means you need to be told something only once and he can rely on you to know it.
Rule No.5: Anticipate his needs.
This is the flipside of the last rule: Don't make him take notes to remember what you just told him. When your presentation is finished, leave him with a concise, factual, well-organized document summarizing the information you've presented.
In my 40 years in business, I estimate that at most 10 percent of salespeople follow any of these rules. That means an exceedingly small group of people will make a great impression on Mr. Big. Are you one of them?
Bill Bartmann is the foremost expert on helping entrepreneurs profit from buying bad loans and a leading authority on entrepreneurship in America. His book Bailout Riches recently became #1 on Amazon's Best Seller List. Bill offers free educational materials for entrepreneurs at
www.bailoutrichesnow.com and can be reached via email ataskbill@billbartmann.com.
Wonder if even seasoned pros screw it up? Let me count the ways.
By Bill Bartmann | November 02, 2009
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If you're looking to ink a deal with a really wealthy individual (there are plenty of wealthy women, but I'll make this example male, because that's the universal pronoun), here are five rules to put you way ahead of your competition:
Rule No.1: Respect time.
Everyone knows to arrive early, but here's what most people don't know: there may be gatekeepers, but having time to cool your heels in the waiting room for 30 minutes looks sloppy. He'll just assume you must not be too successful.
Of course it makes sense to allow extra time to get to the meeting, because heaven help you if you're late. But if you're very early hang out at the coffee shop across the street, not in the reception area. You should be announcing yourself to the receptionist at precisely the appointed hour.
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Once shown in, remember to respect his time, too. If you are scheduled for 10 minutes, 600 seconds from when you walked in you should be doing one of two things: Either walking out, or answering questions. If you are answering questions, acknowledge that your 10 minutes is up and let him know you're more than happy to answer his question if you can have a few more minutes. He'll respect you for being a person of your word and will almost certainly allow you a few more minutes.
Rule No.2: Don't tell him his business.
I don't care if you've been in the same industry for years--you still do not know his unique challenges at the moment. Don't insult him by announcing how your solution will revolutionize his operation or be just the thing. He may indeed conclude that your product or service is amazing, but that's for him to decide.
Rule No.3: Give him the facts.
Here's a great question: "How do you stack up against your competitors?" The answer will tell him volumes.
If you feed him that line about not wanting to bad-mouth competitors, you just blew the sale. This is an excuse salespeople hide behind when they either don't know their competitors, or they're worse than their competitors and don't want to say so.
He's not asking you to bad-mouth your competitors, he just expects you to know both your own product as well as your competitors' products. The winning answer will provide him specific details on what your business' strengths are over your competitors. These details le him know you're a pro. He might not even read your matrix, but will give it to someone on his staff to decode.
Rule No.4: Take notes.
An ancient Chinese proverb states: "The faintest writing is stronger than the strongest memory.
Unless you have a photographic or phonographic memory, be prepared to take notes on pertinent information or advice given. Don't make him repeat names, locations, or statistics just because you couldn't be bothered to write them down.
Taking notes is a show of respect. It also means you need to be told something only once and he can rely on you to know it.
Rule No.5: Anticipate his needs.
This is the flipside of the last rule: Don't make him take notes to remember what you just told him. When your presentation is finished, leave him with a concise, factual, well-organized document summarizing the information you've presented.
In my 40 years in business, I estimate that at most 10 percent of salespeople follow any of these rules. That means an exceedingly small group of people will make a great impression on Mr. Big. Are you one of them?
Bill Bartmann is the foremost expert on helping entrepreneurs profit from buying bad loans and a leading authority on entrepreneurship in America. His book Bailout Riches recently became #1 on Amazon's Best Seller List. Bill offers free educational materials for entrepreneurs at
www.bailoutrichesnow.com and can be reached via email ataskbill@billbartmann.com.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Art of Making Money
The Story of a Master Counterfeiter
There were two things Art Williams never had enough of growing up poor on Chicago’s South Side: his father, who left the family when he was 11, and money. His quest for both would merge at the age of 16, when his mom’s boyfriend—a master counterfeiter—instructed him in the age-old criminal craft. Art would go on to become one of the most skilled counterfeiters of the last 25 years, creating a near-perfect replica of the most secure US bill ever made: the 1996 New Note. The success brought him a lifestyle he had only dreamed about as a child, but he risked everything in an attempt to reconnect with the father who had left him long ago.
In the tradition of propulsive true-crime narratives like Bruce Porter’s Blow and Frank Abagnale Jr’s Catch Me if You Can, The Art of Making Money takes the reader on a wild, fascinating ride through the rarefied world of a master criminal. At the same time it is an emotionally compelling look at the relationships between crime and family, and the destructiveness of greed. Williams's interior journey—that of a damaged man searching for an idyllic family that never really existed—will be familiar to many.
The Story of a Master Counterfeiter
There were two things Art Williams never had enough of growing up poor on Chicago’s South Side: his father, who left the family when he was 11, and money. His quest for both would merge at the age of 16, when his mom’s boyfriend—a master counterfeiter—instructed him in the age-old criminal craft. Art would go on to become one of the most skilled counterfeiters of the last 25 years, creating a near-perfect replica of the most secure US bill ever made: the 1996 New Note. The success brought him a lifestyle he had only dreamed about as a child, but he risked everything in an attempt to reconnect with the father who had left him long ago.
In the tradition of propulsive true-crime narratives like Bruce Porter’s Blow and Frank Abagnale Jr’s Catch Me if You Can, The Art of Making Money takes the reader on a wild, fascinating ride through the rarefied world of a master criminal. At the same time it is an emotionally compelling look at the relationships between crime and family, and the destructiveness of greed. Williams's interior journey—that of a damaged man searching for an idyllic family that never really existed—will be familiar to many.
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