I hate shaking hands, I really do, hell I wish we would just bow like the Japanese or even kiss the air by each other cheeks… like cute Latinas do. I admit it, I am one of those freaks who would rather not shake hands with you… but the socially awkward penguin within me does not make me strong enough to just refuse. Want to know why? Consider this scenario: I am networking heavily at a conference of peers when the panel breaks for lunch within the next room. The lunch for the day comprises mostly of finger foods and I am starving and anxious to eat. The line for the food is extremely long however and my partners have to depart… so naturally we shake hands and the only thought within my mind is the dirty, icky feeling that comes with hand to hand contact. It lingers as I stand in line, until it… [Read more]

I have always held the opinion that if you had a choice in your employment ( as in anything above slavery) then you have no place to complain to people about it. To be honest about it, I think this of anything in life; if there is a choice to opt out, then stop whining and opt out! Let me explain further for people sitting in the nose-bleeds; if I work at a bank and hate my boss, during a time where many of the people I know are out of work and unable to get a job much less benefits… the moment I open my mouth to complain about how I hate my job and boss, then I am seen as a whiner. There is a thin line between complaining and whining which is separated by the way it comes off to others. If you use the bathroom in my house and piss on… [Read more]

As students we are given homework, tasks meant to be studied on our own time in order to memorize, master and absorb lessons that may have been missed in the classroom. Good students who make the grade will do as they are told; homework gets done before play and they ace the tests at the end of the semester. As we mature into adults and take on our respective careers, it becomes easy to lose ourselves and absorb the drama of the workplace to where we become our work. Never Make Business Personal One of the best lessons that an employee can teach themselves is how to adopt the gangster mentality of separating work from home. While an overworked clerk may take work home with her, she will not take work home with her. Do you get what I’m saying here? Let me explain. There are people who make our work-lives terrible and toxic, they… [Read more]

Getting laid off sucks man let me tell you. It is a slap in the face of someone who has been a stellar employee and has done everything within his/her power to stay in the good graces of a company. A layoff unlike a firing is unavoidable, you are in the way so you get cut; your company can no longer afford you, specific to this article – your company gets bought out and the new boss wants to wipe the slate clean. If you see the layoff coming you can prepare yourself (at the bottom of this article are some bullet points to help you do this), but if you get blindsided… with no severance… that is the stuff that “going postal” is made of. So how do you know that you’re about to be out of a company, a job and a bi-weekly paycheck? One of the best indicators in knowing that you… [Read more]

Have you ever tried to borrow money and got turned down? How did that make you feel? Mad? Disappointed? Frustrated? Belittled? You might not agree, but that person just did you a huge favor. What do I mean? Well, if you are borrowing money to make a purchase or to pay a bill, borrowing is not the proactive solution. It is much like digging a hole on the left to fill the one the right. Trust me, you will never get ahead that way. I know it’s tough, and borrowing often seems like the best short-term solution. We often borrow with the best intention to pay back right away, but life happens and resentment and avoidance becomes the name of the game. Have you ever done the credit card shuffle where one credit card is used to pay the other, or transferring balances to new cards? This too is like stepping into a sinking hole,… [Read more]

Have you ever made the mistake of assuming a co-worker or classmate is a friend when in actuality you were merely their “work-buddy”? It is a mistake that many people make, given the fact that the joking, stories exchanged and favors borrowed are very much like the interactions we have with our actual friends in life. While I have met a number of real friends through work and school, I always made sure to mentally separate them from the people I am cool with who aren’t truly my friends. Don’t get me wrong, while it sounds harsh on the surface, what it does is to remind me that certain expectations should not be placed on the work-buddy. In our adult lives it can become very easy to have one’s job become one’s life. You start out ambitious, ready to impress but before you know it you’re riding out the clock, gossiping about other employees and… [Read more]

Whenever we hear about token pro-athlete (who made more money than god) lamenting about how (insert outside person or thing) screwed him out of his money and now he’s broke, a huge discussion always seem to follow about financial education. In the mind of many people, the reason why the athlete has burnt millions is always due to ignorance. We think that if the guy had a Dave Ramsey type as his teacher in college he would have gone the way of the “smart pro-athlete” and invested his money well. People envision the athlete as a young, impressionable college student being thrown into a fast life of partying, gold-diggers and shark accountants, then because he is ill-equipped to handle 7-figures, he ends up broke by the time the checks stop coming in. Are all pros this naïve, or is it an individual thing where most people are willingly ignorant whereas others take the time to… [Read more]

Editor’s Note: One of the harshest “competitions” going on in life is the measuring stick of success that people seem to strive for. But guest author The Marksman brings to question “Isn’t success an individual journey?” A journey whose results are subjective at best? Of course it is, at least I personally agree but people still refer to others as being “successful” when they see nice cars, clothes and homes. Having been called “successsful” by quite a few people while feeling quite the opposite, I found the following article to really speak to me personally. I hope you find some value in it too.” – G.Dragon Just because you drive an expensive car or live in a big house, does not mean that you are successful, that is a common misconception in this country. Success is something that people measure differently, and most have opinions that conflict on exactly what being successful means.  Think about… [Read more]