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.”

Last night I was at a meeting of one of the organisations I belong to. I won’t tell you which one, since I don’t really want you to guess who this guy was. We had all just entered the pub and I sat down at a vacant table.
This guy sat next to me and said, “How is Eric.” I told him I was fine and asked how he was. “I’ve been made redundant. I have until the end of October and then I’m without a job. I haven’t been to an interview in seventeen years.”
I told him how terrible I thought the situation was and tried to help brainstorming with things he could try. He was very negative about it all. He would say things like, “there are a few jobs over here, but they’re really hard to get. Besides, they’ll probably just hire someone out of university.”
I asked if he had a lot of contacts and he told me he was trying to re-establish contact with other people in his industry. I asked if he could become a consultant, work as a salesman for offshore firms in his industry, write articles, etc. All suggestions weren’t met with too much enthusiasm.
He said he may have to move to Cambridge which would be a drag pulling his kids out of school when the only town they knew was the one they grew up in. He was very negative, but I really felt for him. I’m certain he could turn this into an opportunity if he just looked at it right.
Then I said, “Hey maybe you can find something in London. Sure, it’s a commute, but I do it every day and it’s really not that bad. You can probably double your salary, or at least increase it.”
Then, he and everyone else at the table started talking about what a terrible idea that was. “That’s an 90 minute commute each way!” “Who could never work in London, what a dump.” “Only desperate people commute to London.”
I was shocked. I was amazed. A commute I make every day and think nothing of it-and he would rather move several hours away. But more than the illogical decision was the fact that this guy had taken a very viable (probably the most viable) option off the table for his future.
I stopped offering advice. He didn’t want it anyway and I can’t help someone who won’t help himself.
Having your back against the wall is not easy. It can be horrible. I’ve been out of work more times than I’d like to admit. But the greatest benefit of being backed against the wall is that you open up to whole new possibilities about your life. You can change professions, go into business, work a fun job for less pay, determine how much money you “absolutely, positively” need and look for the job in the industry you always wanted to try.
One of the great things about being a contractor is that being out of work is always-always-on the forefront of my mind. Money has to be invested. Skills have to diversify as well as improve.

Where I’m working at the moment, people are hiring like crazy. I overhear the managers pouring over CVs and saying things like “this guy has six years experience, but this other guy has eight.” I wonder if one day we will hear in the IT market, “This guy has 22 years development experience, but this other guy over here has 25.”
There is definitely a law of diminishing returns when it comes to IT skills. The need to quantify the skills is really funny. IT development is, or should be, creative work. Talent is far more important than skill. I’m sure you’ve seen highly skilled developers produce some very crap products because they never focused on design or gui or talking with clients etc.