Category Archives: Articles

Corporate Ladder 101 Now Available on Kindle!

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For those of you who have asked me over the past year or so when Corporate Ladder 101 will be available on Kindle, your wait is over.  Although I’d like to have been able to offer this e-edition of the book directly through my own website and shopping cart, it looks like the best way to do it is through Amazon.com.  You can find the link here.  The kindle version of the book sells for $9.95 and is 33% off the paperback cost.  The look in kindle is remarkably like the real thing.  Thanks to Jared Healy for doing the conversion work.  Let me know how you like it!

Adam Carolla Explains OWS Movement – Must Hear!

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OK, so maybe I’m too interested in the Occupy Wall Street movement, but it is such a very fascinating thing to observe.  You know, kind of like a massive car wreck on the interstate.  If you haven’t caught it yet, comedian Adam Carolla nails it on this clip from his podcast(courtesy TheBlaze.com).  Warning, it’s a bit “graphic” and about 9 minutes long, but if you can take it, it’s worth the listening.  Enjoy!

Terrorist Turkeys

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So, the Department of Homeland Security decided to issue a warning a few days ago via it’s twitter account about possible dangers associated with turkeys on Thanksgiving.  You can see the tweet here.  Of course, reading that headline conjured up quite a few thoughts about how turkeys could be used by the enemies of the United States to attack us on the most American of our annual holidays.  After all, the DHS is charged with protecting the “homeland” from evil-doers both foreign and domestic.  It regularly issues warnings about terrorist “chatter,” terror threat levels, and the like.

In my mind, I immediately started having images of turkeys stuffed with explosives, maybe poisoned at some point in the food chain, or otherwise used as weapons of mass destruction.  I mean how low would the terrorists be to use the lowly turkey, the bird that Ben Franklin wanted to be the national symbol of our great land, to foist harm on our nation? 

Well, my thoughts of an attack via incinerating Toms were quickly doused after reading that the warning was not about the turkey becoming the latest tool of terrorists.  Nope.  The Department of Homeland Security, the same agency that introduced the airport radiation spewing, crotch-grabbing policies of the TSA, is actually using our tax dollars to warn us about the dangers of using deep fryers to cook our turkeys for this year’s Thanksgiving dinners!

Of all the nanny-state things for the federal government to feel they need to warn about, frying turkeys should be at the bottom of the list.  Hell, it shouldn’t even be ON the list.   We’ve been cooking turkeys in every possible way since before Dolly Madison stitched together the country’s first flag.  If there’s one thing we don’t need the feds to warn us about, it’s how to cook a turkey!  I won’t be surprised when the DHS warns us in December about the dangers of Christmas lights and menorah candles. 

If we even need to have a Department of Homeland Security, they should stick to catching the bad guys and leave the holidays to us.

Best Cities to Start Your Climb Up the Corporate Ladder

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If you are looking for the best places to start your career, you should read this article.  It lists seven of the top cities in the country where the mix of lower unemployment, cheaper rent, higher pay and a younger population all combine to make great launching points for your climb up the corporate ladder.  Of course, I’m biased about the article…two of the cities are in Colorado.  Check it out…Maybe I’ll see you out here!

Possible Good News About Jobs on the Horizon?

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It looks like there may be some good news in the job market arena for college grads.  According to a study reported here, hiring for new grads is expected to show modest, but steady growth.  That sure is a nice bit of good news for recent and upcoming graduates.  It’s also a pleasant turn-around from all the doom and gloom that has been reported about the US job market for the past few years.

Check out the article.  Hopefully it will give you a bit of hope and something to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day!

The Benefits of Capitalism

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If you are a reader of fan of Corporate Ladder 101, I assume you are in the corporate world, or at least aspire to be there soon.  If that’s the case, then you must read this great article written by Gary Wolfram, the William Simon Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Hillsdale College.  This is one of the best explanations of the benefits of Capitalism I have seen and is written in very practical terms.  It goes a long way to explain why the Occupy Wall Street mobs should embrace, not oppose, capitalism.  If you want to know why you’ve made the great choice to pursue capitalism, spend a few minutes reading this article.

By the way, Wolfram references a very funny Monty Python scene, which can be found here for your viewing pleasure.  Think of this scene next time you watch news coverage of the Occupiers.

 

Occupy Wall Street, Denver, etc.

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Corporate Ladder 101 is not at all a political book.  However, the benefit of adding the blogging capability to the website is that I’m able to make comments on really anything.  With that being said…

Saturday as I was in downtown Denver driving by the Colorado state capital, I happened to be there just as a semi riot exploded between the Occupy Denver protesters and the police.  It’s one thing to see the protests on the news, but it’s different when you actually see it in person.  I felt the same thing after visiting the World Trade Center a few weeks after 9/11/2001.  Seeing something with your own eyes makes you think differently, maybe even deeper, than seeing current events through the limited lens of the local or cable news.

From afar, it’s easy to fall on clichéd narratives of the Occupy Wall Street activities.  The left and right both have their predictable descriptions, prescriptions and predilections of the events.  But as I pulled away from the scene, the one driving thought I had is that the Occupy phenomena should not have come as a surprise to anyone.  To me it is the natural extension of a generation that has felt entitled to the results of their labors sans the labor.

The very first chapter of Corporate Ladder 101 is entitled, “And the Award Goes To…” .  The point of the chapter is to challenge readers to really look at themselves and their attitude toward work.  For many people older than 35, the Millennial Generation is perceived as having been blanketed with rewards their entire lives regardless of their efforts. While that broad generalization is not true and not fair for every GenYer, it is a perception they all have to deal with.

As parents and a society, we’ve bestowed the fruits of success upon those who have displayed average or worse performance.  Whether it is in the name of protecting self-esteem, wanting the best for our kids, or whatever, we’ve divorced the cause and effect relationship between effort and achievement. 

As I state in the book, you used to have to win your division in Little League baseball in order to win the trophy.  Now, you get the trophy just for showing up.  Those who don’t achieve are entitled to the same reward as those who do. 

At the heart of the movement, however you want to slice it, is covetousness and distrust between those that have and those that feel entitled to have what they don’t.  To those observing our culture over the past few years, this is not at all a surprise.