Issue 19

In Search of an Excellent You











In this Issue:
Ask a Marketer
Latest Press
Greatness Inspires Greatness
Career Advice: 10 Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes
Purpose

"True nobility isn't about being better than someone else. It's about being better than you used to be." Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
The life of Louis Pasteur, benefactor of humanity, is but a showing of excellent examples. He had to sacrifice thousands of animals for his valuable research. But he so loved living creatures, that he was never able to end their lives under his own hand. When the animal was in his hands, he would caress it and ask its forgiveness. He would tell the animal that this needed to be done for the good of all. Then he would leave the room, heartbroken, while his assistants did their duty. Pasteur was a great friend of work. When he got his first job he wrote his family these words: "Three things are required for human existence: willpower, work and success. Success is acquired with the first two". To willpower and work, the scientist always added faith. He was a fervent believer in spite of the criticisms he received from his colleagues.

Yours in Success and Achievement,

Dr. Manuel Escalante (Dr. E)


Greatness Inspires Greatness



If you live in Philadelphia you probably know this story. An 11 year old boy named Joey Jones is "skating" in his socks across the floor of church shelter he and his mom were staying at in North Philly; homeless because Joey's mom Karen had recently lost her job at a print shop and been evicted from her apartment. Joey seemed to love skating in his socks so one day Karen took him to a real ice skating rink. Joey laced on old skates and loved it. Karen quickly re-employed herself at an auto parts plant at $9.9 an hour. Then, by working overtime five days a week for months and months, she got her and her son out of the shelter and into affordable housing. Joey loves skating so much that Karen keeps taking him. Then 11 months after his mom had first introduced him to a sport he'd only seen on television, a man named Jimi spotted Joey skating at a public rink. The young boy's hunger for the sport shined brightly and it ignited the spirit of generosity in Jimi, a local coach of the sport. Jimi began coaching Joey for free. Young Joey's passion for the sport was pure greatness. He skated with enthusiasm, diligence, fearlessness, and even a sense of play. Most athletes curse when they fail to do what they were attempting. Joey tries, falls and giggles. Soon, through Jimi's introductions, other people were ignited in generosity. A city center designer gave Joey blades and a costume. A choreographer helped him with his routine. Over the next year Joey won 6 gold medals at area competitions, and captured the state championship for pre- juveniles. By becoming a state champion he qualified himself for the inaugural American State Games in St. Louis. Joey's dream, in his own words, is to win two Olympics and a couple of world championships. His mother finds herself wondering how she'll ever pay for such an expensive sport, usually reserved for children of rich parents. Just for Joey to go to the national competition in St. Louis was a $3000 expense. Karen raffled off her TV, cd player, and a camera to neighbors and raised $300. She raised a little bit more with a bake sale. She was still a long way away from the $3000, and not even making a dent in the $25,000 amount that it would take for her son to compete at a national level for a year. Then a reporter for the Philly Daily News, named Mark Kramm, got wind of Joey's story and wrote a moving article about it. Two friends, Anthony Casey and Clement Butterfield, read the story and were touched by it. Casey, only 31 years old, remembered how he wanted to swim when he was Joey's age but was discouraged. He could identify with having a dream once. Butterfield, a man of 40 years old, was sensitive to the difference some help would make during challenging times. He, and many of his friends, had been there and not gotten any. Anthony and Clement decided they should do something, and began taking up donations from their friends and neighbors -- ultimately 700 of the 880 people they asked donated a total of $1,000. Anthony and Clement weren't the only people to donate money to Joey's dream. Within two months of the news paper article, a total of $10,000 had been donated. Karen and Joey were overwhelmed by the generous response. But they were especially amazed by the donation from Anthony and Clement and their 700 friends and neighbors. $1000 from 700 people means on average each person gave only $1.42. That might not seem like a lot until you know that Anthony, Clement and their neighbors all make only .19 cents an hour, because they're in prison. We were all born great, which means we can always remember our greatness. No matter where we are, where we've been or what we do for a living, an opportunity to be great is always present. A chance to be daring. A chance to be selfless. A perfect time to be heroic. Greatness is displayed through the passionate and daring efforts of an athlete. But greatness is also the strength and courage displayed by a loving parent, and the generosity offered up by a community of people.

Until next time, be great.

Career Advice
10 Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes

The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven't job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven't job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop. One of the biggest changes is the shift in what constitutes a strong resume. Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume. Everybody used the same boilerplate phrases, so we knew we couldn't go wrong choosing one of them -- or many -- to throw into your resume. Things have changed. Stodgy boilerplate phrases in your resume today mark you as uncreative and "vocabulary challenged." You can make your resume more compelling and human-sounding by rooting out and replacing the boring corporate-speak phrases that litter it, and replacing them with human language -- things that people like you or I would actually say. Here are the worst 10 boilerplate phrases -- the ones to seek out and destroy in your resume as soon as possible: Results-oriented professional Cross-functional teams More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience Superior (or excellent) communication skills Strong work ethic Met or exceeded expectations Proven track record of success Works well with all levels of staff Team player Bottom-line orientation You can do better. What about adding a human voice to your resume? Here's an example: "I'm a Marketing Researcher who's driven by curiosity about why people buy what they do. At XYZ Industries, I used consumer surveys and online-forum analysis to uncover the reasons why consumers chose our competitors over us; our sales grew twenty percent over the next six months as a result. I'm equally at home on sales calls or analyzing data in seclusion, and up to speed on traditional and new-millennium research tools and approaches. I'm fanatical about understanding our marketplace better every day, week and month -- and have helped my employers' brands grow dramatically as a result." You don't have to write resumes that sound like robots wrote them. A human-voiced resume is the new black -- try it! -Liz Ryan



Purpose
Do you have a definite purpose that guides your ambitions, vision, and goals? "What a different story people would have to tell if they would adopt a definite purpose and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming purpose." -- Napoleon Hill, Laws of Success It doesn't matter how you think you arrived here on this planet or under whose direction - the fact remains that each of us has specific talents and gifts that are uniquely coded within our own DNA. As you go through life, you don't just pick up things you like doing by chance. You discover what you're good at because you were meant to discover it, just as you were meant to figure out what your fingers do, and how your elbows work. Your unique gifts are hardwired into your system just as surely as your lungs are given their blueprint to breathe. And it's from these specific talents and gifts that you're able to define and determine your definite purpose, the reason why you're here. What's in you cannot be found in another living human being. In fact, it's quite possible that what you bring to the table hasn't been duplicated - ever - since time began. That's right! This "purpose" is serious business. If you fail to determine your definite purpose, everything else is wrong. It's like working with a broken compass - you may think you're going North, but you're not. You're not sure which direction you're heading, so, you're just wandering aimlessly. Without your purpose identified firmly in your mind, you will wander through life, never quite feeling that you're "in the flow." I say, then, that it's imperative you recognize what it is you're good at - what it is you really love to do. Your purpose in this lifetime is to do the thing that you love. People will tell you they already know what they're good at, and what they love to do most, but they'll never earn money doing it. Whoever gave you THAT idea? When you're sorting out your purpose, I don't want you thinking about THAT non-issue at all. You can earn money at ANYTHING. Once you determine your purpose, you won't even have to think hard on HOW to earn money - it's as if you're being guided by an unseen hand, heading in the right direction, and everything falls into place. The key to your life is not that you settle for the "safe" thing that will bring in the money. The key is to turn and do what you really love. Fall in love with an idea. That's your life! That's your purpose. Fall In Love With An Idea More often than not, when we think of "love," we tend to think of two human beings in love. When they're in love, they enjoy the same ideas; their feelings are in harmony. Love is resonance. Love occurs when two entities are on the same frequency. So, when a person falls in love with an idea, his conscious and subconscious are resonating -- they're in sync. And, it's what's going on in the mind that dictates the vibration of the body and moves the body into action. So, you must first allow yourself to fall in love with an idea. What is it you really love to do? The psychologist Alfred Adler once said, "I am grateful for the idea that has used me." When you fall in love with an idea, it guides you. You don't guide it anymore. Nor are you going to find yourself digging around for ambition or seeking to achieve your purpose. It'll push you out of bed in the morning long before your alarm clock considers doing the same. When you land on your purpose and truly start doing what you love, it's like being 12-years-old again, waking up to your first glorious day of summer vacation. What might have been drudgery for you just a day before is now grand opportunity and discovery. You're loaded with ambition. Did the weather change? Did the sun rise several hours sooner? Of course not. The only entity that changed between the last day of school and the first day of summer vacation was YOU. In similar fashion, acting on your purpose pushes your ambition through the ROOF. The gifts within you were programmed to SING in a spotlight on center stage! Ambition is the talent agent that promotes these gifts and believes in your gifts to get them to that stage. The performance you do from that stage, that's your life's purpose.


Ask a Marketer
To keep costs low in our business (that targets the casual dining industry) without stopping the flow of advertisement, I decided to get more involved with social media. I read that some businesses create more publicity and boost their online rankings by blogging and twittering. Your recent post mentions how important it is to have a solid web site no matter what you use to draw more traffic to it, but I am still interested in getting more information on blogging for business purposes. The challenge is to make it interesting enough so people would follow it, yet promote our business at the same time. Do you have any suggestions? Essentially, putting time and energy into creating a blog will work only if you adhere to a consistent schedule of blog activity and, most importantly, the audience views the writer as an authority in a particular field. Obviously, in your case, that is the casual dining restaurant business. You would have to be viewed as a valuable resource for insights and information for restaurant owners and managers in a specific area. I would think that would be customer service given the product you are promoting to them. So, if I were you, I would dedicate myself to researching/reading/understanding everything I could regarding the topic of restaurant customer service so that you can - when you feel comfortable - start blogging about various topics of interest in this area for restaurant managers/owners. If you, over time, are then viewed as an "expert' in this area and start building an audience of subscribers, then I think that validates your product since you would then have 'legitimacy' based on your deepening roots within the casual dining world establishment. I'm not saying this will be easy, but, in order for blogs to assist you in the selling of your product, you first have to be viewed as someone with something relevant to say on a big picture topic (i.e. customer service) beyond just using social media to directly sell your product.



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