Believing everything you hear

It is a great talent of us financial types that we do a lot of data gathering before we make decisions.

In any conversation we have we are looking for the reasons why and why not, and keeping a tally count so that we can construct a graph of some kind, I suppose.

This isn’t a criticism. I find myself doing it too, and I should know better. It sort of goes under the heading of “ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.”

Much of what I know about the world, I learned from other people. I listen to what they have to say and my “take away” is ultimately knowledge.

Many years ago I was selling cable TV door to door. (It was a VERY long time ago. I was in college.) Anyway, for part of the time I was on commission, and part of the time I was on an hourly rate. I had these long lists of addresses and as I went door to door I would write down what the people said about why they didn’t want cable. “Not interested” and “can’t afford it” were the top choices.

My point here is that it was totally and completely useless information. When the answer is no, the information you receive after you get that answer is rarely of ANY value.

Yet, I believe many members find themselves absorbing the information they receive as statistically relevant somehow. It isn’t.

What is worse is that keeping track of information of this nature will cause you to lower your energy level and reduce your search activities.

If you want to BELIEVE that the job market is slow, or not hiring folks with your background, and if you in turn ACT on this information, you will tend to do less. Friends, that is a big mistake.

If times for you are slow that REQUIRES you to INCREASE your activities. More importantly, it REQUIRES you to FOCUS your activities into areas where your likelihood of success is greatest.

The publicly KNOWN job market is the one place that rarely works in the favor of senior executives. Listen to the good news announcements from those you know and keep a tally count on that information. Not the totals, but the between the lines details of “How to succeed in business” and you will find it is NETWORKING, NETWORKING, and more NETWORKING that is the most successful for our members.

Although you may feel as if you have been productive by answering 100’s of job postings every week from various sources, the truth is you have most likely accomplished less than if you had been selective and done more networking. An entire day spent trying to network your way into a PARTICULAR company that you know needs your skill sets is most likely time well spent.

Yet another one of those amazing paradoxes that is out there in the world.

Believe the doom and gloom out in the world if you want, but it doesn’t help getting you to where you need to be. People are getting jobs, and that means you can get one too.

Have at it and keep at it. After all, it’s not like you have a choice. (However, like hanging in the morning, it does tend to focus the mind.)

Regards, Matt