The Pursuit of Skill Improvement

Having an MBA degree allows you to mold your career in numerous ways, and if you play your cards right, you’ll reap the benefits sooner than you might think. You’ll learn business tactics, practical how-tos, as well as the theory behind these things. In short, you’ll learn a lot of new skills allowing you to be confident in your business career.

Staying on top, however, requires not only acquiring your skills in the first place, but also building on them constantly. When it comes to being a CEO, no skill is an excess skill, and every type of skill will benefit you in some way, no matter how unimportant or unusable you think it is in the beginning.

For instance, soft skills have long been underestimated in the business world. For the longest time, people used to think that having superior theoretical knowledge and hard work was the basis of success, but what set apart the good from the bad CEOs was their soft skills – listening carefully, verbal skills, teamwork, positive attitude, flexibility, and the like. It put them ahead of their peers by a million, they were much more admired and respected, and, as a byproduct – much more successful. So, remember, no skill is too good for you, you have to keep building up.

This includes some seemingly unimportant things, like making small conversation in the office kitchen, like helping out in the office kitchen at lunch for someone who works for you. Do you see what I mean? And this is not just a gimmick or a trick, it’s actually common courtesy. You can go above and beyond noticing what they prep and buying a cheap unique kitchen tool.

Learning from experience offers you the best lessons you’ll ever learn, but only if you practice self-awareness. Don’t become stuck on what you’ve learned in school getting your degree. All that’s great, but if you don’t allow yourself to be taught by life and learn from your mistakes, you probably won’t get very far.

Please remember that these things complement each other. The one won’t be much of a use to you without the other, and this will set you apart. Just think of it as a wise investment. I know that it will seem frivolous reading this if your attitude about building on skills is different than mine and you think that you should just learn them all at once and then you’re all set, but the reality is, it’s not a one-time thing, it’s a permanent investment and it’ll be worth it.

The Inflatable Craze

Those of us into water recreation have taken note of the inflatable craze. There have always been inflatables, of course, but not paddle boards. There are rafts, towables, tubes, and the like. The field is expanding as it is cost effective as much as it is innovative. If you go to a rental shop to prepare for a trip to the river, lake, or sea, you will find that inflatables are all the rage and there are plenty of them to satisfy customer demand. If you want to replace an old paddle board, now is the time to get with the trend. It is a veritable inflatable craze. Who doesn’t want to save money. Inflatables are made of quality materials and they are durable and last a long time, but they are cheaper to produce. The customer reaps the benefit. Big expensive equipment isn’t necessary when you have alternatives. If you are looking to invest in a new business, think about inflatable water sporting equipment. I know for a fact that inflatable paddleboards rent or sell like hot cakes. An enterprising CEO may want to embark on a satellite business and it doesn’t take a lot to get one going if you have the resources.

Experienced CEOs know that you want to look for a quick profit from a small investment. If you can find a product with a readymade market, you are way ahead of the game. You can take my word for it if you don’t want to research the inflatable craze. Look online if you will to verify my statement. Water recreation is a big business. Just go to any river, lake, or the shore. You will see happy vacationers frolicking about in the water and availing themselves of inflatables at every turn. I personally adore the paddle boards as they are comfortable, soft, and easy to use.

I remember a time when I used my old board that was made of particle board, as many were in those days. I was riding the waves on a seashore vacation and was doing fine for a while. Suddenly, after a few hours the waves got bigger and I had more trouble maneuvering my board. I fell off many times. The last time the board hit me on the head. I got a lump as a souvenir of this horrid experience. I didn’t become unconscious but close to it. In those days paddle boards were also wood and a hard plastic and acrylic amalgam. So it could have been worse. Now I wouldn’t think of going out into the water without the best inflatable paddle board. It is much safer as it is lighter and softer. And who doesn’t fall off their board from time to time?

So anyone can enjoy participating in the inflatable craze and having hours of water recreation fun. There are many to choose from in colors that would smack your eyes. You are in for vacation pleasure so go for it, my friend.

Beachin’ it Like a Boss

A trip to the beach means hauling a lot of stuff: towels, the cooler full of drinks and lunch, an umbrella, and plenty of sunscreen and assorted lotions. If you want to relax in style, you need gear. For me, the beach cooler is the key item among them all and getting a good one is worth the investment. You want it to hold up to the sun and sand and be large enough to contain a day’s worth of snacks. Forget those little kid size ones. You want a full size that you can also take to the park for picnics or on vacation to the mountains. It will have many uses not to mention in the backyard by the pool on a hot summer’s day when all the neighbors are invited over and everyone wants a cold brew.

I never used to use a cooler as I was loathe to carry it around. I had to buy drinks or burgers at the nearby stand. No matter that I had to walk across the hot sand in bare feet to get there. Sure, the food was fine as beach fare goes, but I often passed on lunch rather than make the trek. I started to notice that the people with coolers were not complaining. They had everything they needed close at hand. The families were the ones who really took advantage of them. The kids were constantly demanding food. So why hot me. Okay, I am one person but I often go to the beach with friends. We can spend a whole day luxuriating in the ocean breeze if we have provisions.

Beach coolers are pretty much all of the same ilk but you can opt for a little better construction and have one that lasts for years. They take a beating being toted back and forth and thrown into the back of a van. They get dented and sometimes the lid won’t fit if it has been manhandled. My cooler is a nice one and it is going to get premium attention. I won’t spill anything inside that will cause a sticky mess. I wrap all of the lunch sandwiches individually to protect them as well as their container. You get what you pay for and having a good quality beach cooler suits me just fine. A trip to the beach needn’t be an occasion to manhandle it. I also place it on a towel to protect the bottom from the ravages of the sand. Maybe I am going a bit far, but when you have something new, you want to safeguard it from harm.

A day at the beach is my idea of glorious fun. The waves beckon for some body surfing and the stretch of wet sand welcomes a long walk. People take their pets who love the water. Kids are screaming in glee. It is everyone’s favorite day out: sand, sun, and fun.

The Big Time

Getting to be a CEO means you have hit the big time. You can be proud of how you got there. No doubt you have put in a lot of hard work and experience, perhaps a bit of book learning and mentorship. We all have our own ways of reaching the top. Sometimes it is luck and being in the right place and the right time, but not always. You have to have the goods. Some of us are born with it and others acquire it along the road of life. Being a CEO means you have added responsibilities and a lot less free time. You have to budget your time prioritizing projects, but it is always worth the effort when you are kind of the hill.

Prestige comes with the job and influence over others. A successful CEO is worth his or her weight in gold in advice. Now that you have arrived, there is a lot you can offer others. There is also a lot you can offer yourself. With the title comes monetary reward and often a bigger house. Some leaders feel that how and where they live is a reflection of their standing. For me, I dream of an indoor hot tub to enjoy in those rare moments of spare time. It is the ultimate luxury along with a sauna. A hot tub is a symbol of relaxation and release, something every busy CEO needs. If it is inside the house, it is all the more prestigious. You won’t be getting out of a warm hot tub and running into the house in the freezing cold. Having an indoor hot tub presumes a house large enough to accommodate it. Perhaps a huge master bathroom or screened in sun porch. In my dreams, I haven’t yet decided. It is enough to imagine just the big house on its own. What other accoutrements of wealth will I have acquired? Perhaps a man cave with a home theater and surround sound. A well-stocked bar in the adjacent room with a top tier wine cellar. Entertaining will be my forte. After all, a CEO must have business guests from time to time. Friends and neighbors, not to mention family, will horn in on hot tub time.

My hot tub will be in high grade wood paneling and not too industrial or high tech although it will be sturdy and durable. It will have a great design like that found in luxury spas with the best of interior finish. It will sit on a tile floor to catch any water overflow and there will be big, soft terry cloth towels nearby. You don’t have to have a vivid imagination to see all this in your mind’s eye. It is easy to envision. It is part of the reward of being a CEO. Who doesn’t have that as a life goal? For some, they dream of fast expensive cars and mountain cabins. I have my hot tub fantasy which takes care of my immediate needs right now.

The Modern MBA Job Market

The job market is slowly recovering all over the world. However, not all jobs are created equal, and not all types of degrees are going to be the same in terms of their likeliness to land someone a job. A job market that could be bad for one type of employee could be great for another. In fact, in practice, recent college graduates are all going to be entering very different job markets. The current job market is actually excellent for students who are going to be graduating with their MBA degrees.

A lot of firms are excited about hiring fresh young talent. While many people still haven’t benefited from the recent economic recovery, the wealthiest members of society have. These are the people who are running the firms that are going to be hiring these new MBAs. The fact that these firms are so enthusiastic about expansion might help signal the fact that the economy is starting to enter a new phase altogether, or it might be another situation in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. One way or another, new MBAs are definitely going to benefit from this situation. Recent college graduates are typically regarded as people aged 27 or under, although people under 30 are still going to be in that general area.

People who decide to go back to school for their MBAs based on this information should remember that getting an MBA is no easy task. They will have to go into debt for the sake of their MBAs, and the fact that the job market is currently so good does not represent a guarantee that conditions won’t change by the time they’re ready to graduate. The people who already have those degrees, debt and all, are going to be in the best situation.

However, the people who wanted to get their MBAs anyway should at least take the current state of the market into account when making their decision about when to go to school or go back to school. An MBA is always going to be an asset to anyone. People can’t have their academic credentials taken away, and MBAs can still be gateways to all sorts of jobs, even if people don’t get their dream jobs after graduation. It is possible that the job market for MBAs will only improve. At any rate, college costs are rising in every field, and the sooner people enroll in school, the less debt they’re going to have when they’re finally finished.

The Positives and Negatives of Being an Employee

Being an employee carries few risks, but it also carries few rewards. Many employees more or less end up doing the exact same work throughout the duration of their lives, which can be something of a grim prospect for many people. Some individuals will look ahead a few decades and they will imagine themselves doing the exact same work, at which point they will become somewhat discouraged and disheartened. This emotional state is often what leads people to envy entrepreneurs in the first place.

They try to imagine how different their lives would be if they were working towards something that was uniquely their own, such as a business. People feel as if they are merely part of a greater organism when they are part of a large company. Being an entrepreneur can make people feel more like free individuals again, which is going to have a great deal of emotional appeal for many people.

The lifestyles of entrepreneurs and employees are going to be very different. Employees will interact with a narrow selection of the people who work at their companies. Working at a large company isn’t so different from attending school, in some cases. People have to do the work that is assigned to them. They will interact with a group of people that they did not seek out on their own, and they will try their best to get along with them. Cliques will sometimes form among coworkers just as surely as they sometimes form among students.

These similarities are not coincidences. The modern scholastic system was devised during the later days of the industrial revolution. It was party designed to prepare people for their future jobs in corporate America, for better or for worse. While people do manage to do some learning while they are in school, they learn the rhythms of life in the corporate world as well. College graduates who go from the classroom to the boardroom will scarcely even notice the difference in many cases. They might even be interacting with the same people, if they manage to get jobs with some of their former classmates as a result of their connections.

Employees are also rarely going to be working in a field that they truly enjoy. Some employees are going to have that luxury, but the majority of them are going to have to choose the jobs that offer them the most in terms of benefits and in terms of high salaries, regardless of whether or not they truly enjoy the work.

Entrepreneurs are in a slightly more complicated situation. Entrepreneurs that want to start businesses in their desired fields are going to have to realize that they should try to choose fields that are in demand and fields that are likely to help them generate profit. However, determined entrepreneurs can often make businesses in a wide range of fields work. There’s also the fact that the market changes rapidly. Entrepreneurs can start their businesses in fields that are temporarily fallow, and their businesses will thrive when the field experiences something of a resurgence.

Employees will be at the mercy of the job market as well, but it will always seem as if it is affecting them indirectly instead of directly. They are going to have severance packages and notice when their job has been lost. Entrepreneurs aren’t going to have that safety net, which can leave them vulnerable. People who value security over freedom are often going to prefer to be employees. They accept the costs of security, and they learn to live with them.

Qualities of a Successful CEO

When people are trying to decide whether or not they have what it takes to become CEOs themselves, they should try to pay attention to the people that the media will more or less always present in a positive light. Successful CEOs, for instance, actually do have to be honest with their employees. They are going to be directing entire companies, and their decisions can influence the lives of countless people. Their subordinates need to know that they are trustworthy. When CEOs are demonstrated to be dishonest, they can manage to tarnish the way in which other people see them forever. Many people have the image of the dishonest CEO, which is indeed a dramatic image, but CEOs who really act like that just don’t last very long.

The stereotype of CEOs is that they are extremely cold and unappreciative people who demand a lot from their employees while giving very little in return. These CEOs don’t last very long, and they manage to be ousted from their positions fairly regularly. Employees aren’t going to be motivated to work very hard when they have CEOs like these. They are going to do what they need to do in order to get by, and that’s it. This is not the sort of behavior that tends to promote the growth of a given business or company, and the entire company will suffer as a result. The problem is inevitably going to be traced to the CEO, who will then lose his or her position to the person who is next in line.

When one employee makes a complaint about the boss, it might be dismissed as one person making excuses. When almost all of the employees say the exact same thing, it is going to truly reflect poorly on the CEO in question. In many cases, if several employees are criticizing the CEO, this opinion is going to spread to the other employees fairly rapidly. It has been said that CEOs have to work overtime in order to protect their reputations among their employees, and this is partly a function of the fact that office politics often create a very competitive environment. CEOs who are being criticized by a few people are taking the risk that they’re going to eventually be criticized by everyone.

The CEOs who ultimately succeed are the ones who are firm but fair with their employees. They make their employees feel like valued parts of the team, and they encourage their employees to do well. People will do well when they want to do well, and when they have compassionate bosses, they will want to keep themselves motivated.

Naturally, competence is an important quality in CEOs. Honesty and compassion are important, but CEOs need to understand the job market, their products, and all of the fundamentals of business. People can’t just trust the ethics of their CEOs. They also have to trust in their ability to make decisions, or the business is not going to succeed, and the CEOs themselves are ultimately not going to succeed.

However, many CEOs never even get to the position in the first place without a lot of technical and business skills. Reports of CEOs that fail to exercise proper ethics and proper management skills are more common than reports of CEOs who simply lack competence. The CEOs that are brilliant but lack social skills and restraint are ultimately going to be just as unsuccessful as the CEOs with hearts of gold who lack business sense. The best CEOs are honest, compassionate, and skilled.

Keeping Business Clean

Personal cleanliness goes without saying. We all value it. In business you have to look sharp to think sharp. People judge you on your habits and appearance 90% of the time. You don’t want to let them down. Cleanliness also goes for the entire office environment as it plays a part in client acquisition and retention. Every savvy entrepreneur knows the ropes. Keep surfaces neat and tidy so your staff looks adept and organized. Don’t eliminate everything as it denotes lack of work.

There are many principles involved in maintaining an office space. The floors should be spotless, the carpets stain free. No dust should appear lest it find its way onto a client’s hands. It takes attention and on-going consideration. Even if you don’t do the work yourself, you are in charge of this job.

Metaphoric cleaning is a companion to the physical type. You can have everything in good order but if your files are neglected, it shows. If you are not adhering to good accounting principles, it will affect the bottom line. Consider the following types of offices. Which would you want to be?

Nerd Haven: finicky to the max, this office culture values an absolute pristine workspace. In one of these offices, you’re likely to find an expensive handheld vacuum cleaner right next to every one of the fire extinguishers in their offices. Sometimes, however, you can’t find things that are neatly tucked away. Clients are impressed but does efficiency suffer because you are spending way too much time in the hunt.

Tidy Tender: a clean office takes pride in the lack of clutter and mess. Each employee becomes a tidy tender playing his or her part. They don’t overdo it, mind you, but focus on essentials to create an efficient workspace. Visitors note the neatness and value the effort taken to ensure it stays in place.

Obsessive Compulsive: the minute a piece of paper drops on a desk or floor, it is whisked away, maybe to file thirteen (the trash). While somewhat admirable, this compulsive behavior has its risks. Important documents can be lost forever. You want to put the brakes on these people before they unsettle the rest of the office.

Laissez-faire: the “I don’t care” attitude reigns supreme in many places, especially when the cleaning crew is expected to tidy up. But they don’t get in those dusty nooks and crannies. You ignore it until it starts to stare you in the face and then you sign, and move on.

Pig Sty Specialist: every office has one or two pig pen characters. You can mock it all you want, but clients do care. They associate a sloppy space with a lax mind. They are a bit leery about doing business with a place that tolerates mess.

You may or may not recognize yourself or your colleagues in these examples, but believe me, they are all there. It is human nature and it is diversified. If you are the boss, you set the tone for the masses. Be mindful of the image you want to project and it will serve you well. Offices are public spaces and should be respected as such.

Stereotypes of CEOs

Many people regard CEOs with a certain degree of envy. CEOs are among the most highly paid individuals in the world, so many people are understandably going to want to join their ranks. People will see all of the glamour associated with the profession, and they will want to enjoy some of it for themselves. Many people should know that CEOs have one of the hardest jobs imaginable. Even many of the most talented and intelligent people in the world couldn’t be CEOs if they tried, simply because it requires a very specific range of personal qualities.

People often regard CEOs as the sort of people with absolute power within their organizations. They may almost imagine that CEOs are modern monarchs, and that if the employees and other people don’t like their CEOs, there’s little that anyone can do about it. In fact, CEOs have to work very hard to maintain their power and influence within a company.

Plenty of people all around them are trying to get their jobs, and they have to fight to maintain their positions just like all other employees. No one’s job is entirely secure, not even the job of the current CEO. People should note that companies seem to have new CEOs frequently, and scandals about CEOs are often covered during financial news reports.

The fact that the media focuses so much on scandals involving CEOs can give people a false idea of how much CEOs can get away with, since it creates the false impression that CEOs are all behaving in an unprofessional manner. However, the fact that these reports were created at all means that the CEOs weren’t really getting away with it, and many of these people will lose their positions shortly after the scandals are over.

The Positives and Negatives of Being An Entrepreneur

A lot of people are interested in starting their own companies and living the life of an entrepreneur, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. People find the idea of being their own boss appealing, believing that this is going to give them much more control over their lives. Individuals who have had difficult bosses may actually be motivated to become entrepreneurs on that basis alone. They might be under the impression that the entrepreneurial way of life is going to be one that gives them the sort of flexibility that they have always wanted.

It should be noted that in many ways, entrepreneurs have less flexibility than employees. Employees have to put in a certain number of hours each and every day in order to maintain their jobs, and then they automatically get time off at the end of the day and during their weekends. It has been said that people in business never really get any time off, which is certainly partly true. They have to be constantly promoting and marketing their businesses, or they’re not going to get the clients or the customers that they need in order to really move forward with their lives in the business world.

It should be noted that as difficult as being an employee can be, employees do get to maintain a certain degree of stability. They know that they are going to get regular paychecks at this time. They can plan ahead financially more easily than entrepreneurs, who won’t always know whether or not their businesses are really going to get off the ground and when.

Employees also have the satisfaction of knowing that their work is usually going to be rewarded. It is true that one of the most frustrating aspects of being an employee is the simple fact that it is possible to do a lot of work as an employee and get paid the same amount as someone who is always slacking off on the job. Employees will often feel as if they have very little real motivation to push themselves, since they know they can get away with putting in less effort. However, at least employees know that if they put in eight hours on the job, they are going to be rewarded with eight hours worth of wages.

Entrepreneurs don’t always know that all of the substantial effort that they put into marketing their business is going to pay off at any point. Far too many entrepreneurs put in years worth of effort only to find that their businesses managed to fail anyway. The majority of businesses do not even make it into their first years, and many other businesses don’t make it past the five-year mark. On that basis alone, entrepreneurship can be tremendously difficult emotionally.

Entrepreneurship is a way of life that carries high risks and high rewards. The people who succeed at it can become tremendously wealthy or at least successful and stable. The people who fail at it will have invested a lot of time and money in something that just didn’t work, which is going to carry emotional costs in addition to all of the other costs. However, these entrepreneurs are always going to have the satisfaction of knowing that they actually tried something that many people would have been too nervous to try, which is going to have its own emotional appeal.