Quarter Life Crisis

Dan Pink sent me his quarter life comic book - Adventures of Johnny Bunko - a few months ago. It was quick read but I just haven’t gotten to writing about it. Anyways, it was a pretty entertaining piece - quick to read, nice artwork, with some good career and life lessons for quarter life crisis-ers that are a not quite as generic and more digestible than what you get in most self help books.

Here’s a few questions for his inspiration for writing this book:

‘as it happens, quarter-lifers (and folks a bit younger) were indeed part of the inspiration. at visits to colleges and companies, people would often ask for advice — and i realized that their premises about work were all wrong. (example: everyone seemed to have a “plan.”) then i realized i had the same mistaken premises at their age. so i decided to key the book around the six things i wish i’d known 25 years ago.”

“The demand for VC jobs is way in excess of the supply and probably always will be.”

That just about sums it up. It’s understandable why VC jobs are so highly coveted. I’ve had a flavor of VC and I must say it is pretty exciting. You learn about different industries on a daily basis, work with all sorts of experienced and brilliant people and get a lot of exposure in the community. However, getting a job as an associate at a VC firm is tough. Probably one of the toughest jobs to get. Every year, thousands of MBAs, burnt out I-bankers, and management consultants at the end of their 2 year rotations are looking to move into VC. These people are the creme of the resume crop so competition is intense.

This chart shows that job posts for VC’s are dropping substantially making supply demand gap even bigger.

It is always refreshing to see a successful person remain humble in the face of his or her success. As President Theodore Roosevelt liked to say, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Actually, he took it from a West African proverb.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Generally in short supply among the world’s fastest sprinters, humility is a virtue which defines the life of Tyson Gay.

Winner of the 100 and 200 meters at last year’s world championships and a favorite to duplicate that double at the Beijing Olympics in August, Gay is happiest away from the limelight.

Unlike former world 100 record-holder Maurice Greene who was known for his swaggering, macho image, Gay is softly-spoken and has no desire whatsoever to boost his ego.

The 25-year-old Kentucky native repeatedly talks about staying humble and has a very close relationship with his mother Daisy, with whom he speaks on a daily basis.

“I think I have always been humble,” Gay said. “I’m a caring guy and I always want everyone to do well. I always want my friends to run fast, I always want everyone to be financially sound and that’s just how I’ve always been.

Full article here.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a high school about eleven things they did not and will not learn in school. He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teaching created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

“fueled by a mix of youthful ambition and careerist anxiety”

“For many students, it’s a race for money and prestige that’s starting earlier and earlier.”

These two lines from a Businessweek article about Ivy League undergrad investment clubs where students and future job seekers try to get an upper hand for those ultra competitive entry level I-banking jobs perfectly sum up two of the primary factors of the quarter life crisis.

Pretty interesting interview on CNBC with Tony Hsieh. Never really heard of this guy prior to seeing this. He seems like a low key guy but has a presence about him when he speaks. His demeanor and tone don’t scream CEO, but he communicates very clearly and effectively. Here’s a piece he wrote about ecommerce:

“The e-commerce business is built upon repeat customers. Like most Web merchants in the early days of online, Zappos spend a fortune on high-profile ads to acquire customers. It’s since learned that it pays off to focus on repeat buyers.

1. Word-of-mouth really works online. Unfortunately, WOM can work against you as well as for you, as Zappos realized when customers would CC their friends on complaint e-mails to the merchant.
2. Don’t compete on price. Early on Zappos offered a $10 coupon to anyone who made a purchase. This worked wonders at increasing conversion rates, but did not attract loyal buyers. Once its competitors came out with $15 coupons these customers jumped ship.
3. Make sure your Website is 100% accurate. The company ran into trouble when it used to have the manufacturers drop-ship orders, because their inventory was often off and created backorders and unhappy customers. Even 99% is not good enough, Hsieh said, because that 1% out-of-stock rate can make a big difference” when doing significant volumes.
4. Centrally locate your distribution. Originally based in San Francisco, Zappos started out with a California distribution center. But it took too long for customers on the East Coast to get their order, Hsieh said. Now headquartered in Las Vegas, Zappos fulfills out of a DC in Kentucky.
5. Customer service is an investment, not an expense. The goal is to create lifelong relationships with customers, Hsieh said. That’s why Zappos doesn’t measure call times; it’s also why the merchant will even refer customers to a competitor when it’s out of an item. Sounds risky, “but when they need another pair of shoes, they’ll go to Zappos,” he said.
6. Start small, stay focused. You’re never going to get a situation exactly right, Hsieh noted; “lots of weird little things will come up.” When Zappos made the move from shoes to selling apparel as well, “we didn’t promote it heavily—we’re slowly learning over time how customers by clothing online.”
7. Don’t be secretive. Don’t worry about competitors. “We believe in sharing as much information as possible with vendors,” Hsieh said, including reposts on sales, inventory, and profitability. “There’s a benefit to having 1,200 pairs of eyes looking at our business trying to help it grow” What’s more, “we don’t worry too much about what our competitors are doing—it takes the focus off our customers.”
8. You need to actively manage your company culture. Hire people based on how they will fit into the culture, Hsieh said. Zappos is all about customer service, so employees need to understand that and be willing to do what it takes to provide excellent service. “If you get the culture right, a lot of the other stuff will take care of itself,” he said.
9. Be wary of so-called experts, “including me,” Hsieh said. Zappos spent a lot of money on consultants in the beginning only to find that “we really should have trusted ourselves more.” Remember, he told the audience: “No one knows your customers better than you.””

Margin of safety is the only way to invest!  Benjamin Graham and Buffett style..

Here’s a nice Four hour work week inspired blog entry.  Gotta get some Virtual Assistants, its the way of the new rich!

Great news for DeviceVM as ASUS revealed today that they are putting splashtop on all of its motherboards.

Does a quarter feel a lot bigger than it really is? Check out some of these resources, and try not to worry so much.

Monday, August 6, 2007
Ways to teach your children to find work they love
Talk about how important it is to be happy in what you do, expert advises
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
The Wall Street Journal

I like to think I can talk to my two teenagers about anything. But one topic at our house leaves me feeling as if we’re shouting from separate mountaintops: picking a career.

Although I’m glad my son, 16, and my daughter, 19, are thinking about jobs, their deliberations hold none of the curiosity or sense of exploration that I recall feeling at their age. Instead, they seem rushed and grim. My daughter is anxious about building the right resume to get into med school. And my son talks mostly about finding any job that will enable him to support a family.

My career path was no model; if anyone bothered to draw it, it would look more like an Etch-A-Sketch doodle than the no-exit superhighway my kids seem to envision. But I do recall choosing my life’s work with a sense of adventure that seems to be missing in them.

Blame it on career anxiety, college counselors say. For a variety of reasons, many young adults are more anxious about career preparation than previous generations. (Not all young adults share this, of course; many parents wish their kids had a little more career anxiety, to propel them out of the house.) In my family, however, the evidence suggests I need some new parenting strategies.

The apprehension often begins with the college-admissions race. After striving to win acceptance to competitive colleges, many think they should have “an equally strategic approach to their post-graduate plans,” says Karen Levin Coburn, assistant vice chancellor at Washington University of St. Louis.

Job competition looms earlier. Employers place far more emphasis on internships than in the past, says the National Association of Colleges and Employers; 62 percent of new college hires have completed at least one, based on its survey of 276 employers. Campus competition for internships is starting as early as freshman year.

And the entry bar has risen in many professions. Architects, for example, need a formal internship today and must pass a more comprehensive exam to be licensed, compared with 30 years ago. Even auto mechanics, who used to train on the job, often need a two-year degree.

Such rigor leaves less room for career flip-flops of the kind I did between ages 19 and 25. I set out at various times to be a teacher, an editor for a publishing house, a horse trainer and a long-distance trucker. (Seriously. I still remember the look on the loan officer’s face when I offered him my VW Beetle as collateral for a loan on an 18-wheeler.)

After a couple of aimless years working different jobs, I entered journalism grad school intending to teach writing. It was there that a professor’s inspiring lecture about the principles that underlie good journalism – public service, integrity and truthfulness – won my heart.

Decades later, though, I’ve managed to pass on to my kids only the conventional wisdom – attend career fairs, do volunteer work, and so on. The result is what Jaye Roseborough, executive director, career services, for Middlebury College in Vermont, calls the “doctor-lawyer-teacher-banker syndrome”: Students try to fit themselves into one of a series of career choices as defined by others, rather than using their interests to guide them in exploring the outer world.

How to recoup? “Talk about what’s of interest to them, and how important it is to be happy in what you do,” Roseborough advises. Ask how they envision spending their time. The activities required by a job “must be a way you really like to behave,” she adds. What kind of problems do they like to solve? Explain that many people change careers multiple times. And tell stories about how you fell in love with your own work.

So at my house, at least, I’m shelving the experts’ lists of the 10 hottest careers and the 500 best ways for teens to spend the summer. Instead, I’ll encourage my daughter not to foreclose on exploring her love of design and her interest in business before settling on any profession, even one as worthy as medicine. For my son, I’ll stress that finding work you love can benefit your family too. Perhaps I’ll tell a few old stories about my own missteps. Come to think of it, this could be fun.

How To Find What You Love To Do:
http://www.briankim.net/blog/2006/07/how-to-find-what-you-love-to-do/

Read Some Books:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-Parachute-2008/dp/1580088678/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210098174&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/20-Something-20-Everything-Quarter-life-Balance-Direction/dp/157731476X

Take Some Tests:
Ansir - http://personal.ansir.com/test.htm
MBTI - http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp