The ChangeThis website has an excellent manifesto at the moment by Mark Cuban.
Basically, Cuban talks about his salad day and starting out in business in Texas. He briefly mentions getting fired a few times in his life, but then goes into his rise to success.
Probably the most pivotal moment of the article-possibly of his life-was getting fired from his dream job as a computer salesman.
If you got a minute, I highly urge you to read it.
I read this yesterday morning. One thought in the article has stuck with me. Cuban says that he was surprised that people in his industry did not read the same articles he did. When he would mention a book, article, or whatever, he expected people to nod and say, “Oh, yes, I read that too.” But it was the opposite.
In fact, the majority of the people Cuban dealt with did not spend a considerable time reading. He, as he confesses, knew nothing of computers-but often knew more than the experts he sold to.
I found this fascinating. I read at least one self-improvement book a week. There are times when I don’t see the point. There are times when I think that the opinions of the entire world are changing at the same time mine is. Then I get hit with what I was hit with today.
If you’ve ever read any books on interviewing techniques (job interviews, not news interviews) you will know that they all basically say the same thing. Dress nice. Don’t try to shock. Try to be funny, but don’t TRY to be funny. And never, never, never bad mouth your previous employers. You could have been working for Satan himself, but you still must grin and say, “they were good people. We had a disagreement from time to time, but that’s healthy in a growing company.” Then, long after you get the job, you can tell everyone what bastards they are and how you might be persuaded to hit them with your car if you ever see them crossing the street.
I know someone who has been looking for a job for two years. His problem? Well, this is my opinion and I think he would disagree with me-his problem is that he likes to talk about how much other people try to screw him over. It’s not that he doesn’t have accomplishments-he’s got loads. If he focused on positives, he would be fine. But he doesn’t. He talks about how great he is and the only reason he isn’t greater is that “those bastards keep holding him back.”
I assume this advice, like most that I read, is really just common sense. Surely, we all know this already. Surely, if we got ready for the interview, combed our hair, ironed our suits, drove to the office building-we wouldn’t want to through in the towel because we can’t let go of a grudge.
Mark Twain said it-“Common sense is not common.”
