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"A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it."
  
Achievement seems to be connected with action.
"You have to decide in life if you want to influence people or impress them"

Don't follow your heart, Make your heart follow you. The things your heart desire are often the things you're better off without.

Just last week, I was talking to someone and they told me they had nothing to be thankful for. REALLY…Nothing?!? I was initially really caught off guard by her comment, but then I realized there are a lot of people that think this way.

 

"When I hear somebody say, "Life is hard", I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'..

7 Powerful and Amazingly Motivational Quotes from Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar was born in 1926 in Coffee County, Alabama, United States. He is an American author, salesperson and a motivational speaker. He is over 80 years old and still travels around the world attending motivation seminars to help people get stuff done.

Sometimes, a simple quote can change the way you see something, and that is what Zig Ziglar does so well.

With all that said, enjoy the 7 quotes below and think about how you can apply them to your own life. Is there something that can be improved? What steps can you take today to improve what you already have?
  1. "You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
    Being selfish in life might make you happy in the short-term, but sooner or later you’ll realize that what really matters is helping others.

    It is what brings joy into your life and gets you up in the morning. As I went from a professional poker player to a more service oriented business, I started feeling a lot better.

    I am by no means saying to neglect yourself, because if you do not help yourself, you cannot help others, so there’s always a fine line of balance.
  2. "The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches with them, but to reveal theirs."
    Everyone     has at least one gift and one passion in this life, usually more. Sometimes we’re blind to what’s in front of us, and we need someone else to point out the obvious.

    It took me a long time to realize that I really liked writing. Writing is something that comes naturally to me, and I love it. If it is one of my riches I do not know, but for now it certainly seems like it.
  3. "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude."
    It is not your inherent ability that determines your success, but your attitude. I’ve seen people have everything delivered to them on a silver platter and fail miserably. They gave up at the first sign of trouble.

    I’ve also seen people succeed with very little. If you’re determined to succeed, you won’t stop until you do. That’s the way I learned to play poker, and that’s the way I’ve learned to make a living online.

    I didn’t see myself having any other option than to succeed. I really like what I do, and I wasn’t going to give it up easily.
  4. "Every choice you make has an end result."
    What kind of choices are you making today, and how will they affect your life one day, one month, one year, or ten years from now?

    Are you constantly avoiding going after your passion because you’re afraid of what might happen? Are you waiting for the stars to align so you can go after your dreams?

    The decisions you make today are the ones that shape your life, so choose wisely.
  5. "If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost."
    I failed a lot before I succeeded and started making a living online. Although failing hurts, I no longer look at it as defeat. I learn from each failure, and from each mistake I make.

    It may not be obvious what I’m learning all the time, but sooner or later it dawns on me. When you’re starting out with anything new, such as going after your passion and your dreams, you will make a lot of mistakes, and it will feel like you’re failing, but in reality, you’re making progress.
  6. "If you wait until all the lights are "green" before you leave home, you'll never get started on your trip to the top."
    This is an excellent quote, because a lot of people want to wait until things are perfect until they start going after their dreams.

    If you’re one of them, you most likely will be waiting your whole life. If you want to do something other than you’re doing now, then go after it, and start doing it in any little way you can.

    Stop waiting for permission. Stop waiting for things to work out. Start doing what you can do today, conquer your fears and take things from there.
  7. "Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful."
    Adversity doesn’t feel nice, but it is sometimes just what you need in order to be successful. We don’t have a crystal ball, so we can’t really see that today’s adversity is tomorrow’s success.

    Don’t judge the mistakes you make, the failures you have and the adversity you run into, because you never know if all of those things lead to something wonderful.
"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."M.K. Gandhi - October 1869 – 30 January 1948 - political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement

"The public is wonderfully tolerant, it forgives everything except genius" Oscar Wilde

"A picture is worth a thousand words." Fred R. Barnard - from an article by Fred R. Barnard in the advertising trade journal, Printers' Ink

"Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone" Mark Twain
  
"Statitics are like a drunk with a lamp post ...Use more for support than illumination"Winston Churchill

"Praise from the common people is generally false,  and rather follows the vain than the virtous"  Sir Francis Bacon
"A little learning is a dangerous thing."
Alexander Pope - English poet, 1680-1744
 "Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out."JACK BUCK 

"You dont get to choose how youre going to die, or when. You can only decide how youre going to live now" JOAN BAEZ






BigHappyBuddha.com
 Are You Working Towards Nirvana?
Buddha described nirvana as the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflictive states (kilesa). The subject is at peace with the world, has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations. This peace is achieved when the existing volitional formations are pacified, and the conditions for the production of new ones are eradicated. In Nibbana the root causes of craving and aversion have been extinguished such that one is no longer subject to human suffering (dukkha) or further states of rebirths in samsara.
 
The Buddha in the Dhammapada says of nirvana that it is “the highest happiness”. This happiness is an enduring, transcendental happiness integral to the calmness attained through enlightenment or bodhi, rather than the happiness derived from impermanent things. The knowledge accompanying nirvana is expressed through the word bodhi.

IMPORTANCE OF DRINKING WATER
"Success or failure in life is found in your daily routine". 

www.youtube.com

4 luxury brands that lead the pack in social media innovation !

by Matt Rhodes
2010 has seen a marked increase in luxury brands using social media and innovating with it. This is one of the findings in the latest L2 Luxury Digital IQ Index – research led by Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern. The report shows how luxury brands have really pushed their use of social media in 2010, realizing that the benefits for them come from not just having a social media presence but also from engaging people in social media and online communities.
The report takes an analytical approach to the use of social media in an attempt to quantify the digital competence of 72 leading global luxury brands. The ranking highlights some interesting observations – watch and jewelry brands on a whole perform relatively poorly, and a lack of investment in digital has seen brands such as Prada and Dior punch below their weight in the use of social media across their business.
But across luxury brands, the report highlights the innovation and successful use of social media that is happening. It showcases examples that are ahead-of-the-game and examples, not just to other luxury brands but to all brands using social media. Four notable such examples are below.

1. Coach

The leather goods brand is ranked first globally for it’s Digital IQ, notably for its social media enabled shopping and for its blogger collaboration. It has built a social media strategy that is directly linked to sales, and not just to building fans and Likes for the sake of it. This is evident in its use of all social platforms – making clear and contextual links to product from every post of Facebook so that if you are reading about an item you can easily click through to buy online.
In the summer of 2010 they ran a blogger outreach programme, the Poppy Project, which saw them engage 468 blogs to spread a trail of poppies across the web that were part of a competition for people to win gift cards for Coach products.
A great example of using social media to engage, but also to push people directly to sales, rather than just using social media for the sake of it and being unable to measure the rewards.

2. Louis Vuitton

Ranked joint-second overall for their Digital IQ, Louis Vuitton has integrated more innovative use of social media outreach into its overall digital campaigns. Of particular note is the use of video and an emerging trend among video bloggers – the haul video. In these videos, bloggers show on camera items they have just purchased on a shopping trip and discuss each item. This has become something of a craze online and one that Louis Vuitton has engaged to get exposure from these influencers for its products and for the brand.
A haul video created by JuicyStar07 about contents of a Louis Vuitton Speedy bag has had more than one million views online, putting the Louis Vuitton brand in front of other people and allowing consumers to showcase Louis Vuitton products.

3. Oscar de la Renta

Ranked joint-eleventh for their Digital IQ, Oscar de la Renta is a great example of how using social media can help to engage people on a lifestyle level, rather than just with your brand or your product. This can be a successful approach to social media when you are looking to engage (and engage with) a specific target audience that can be defined by their lifestyle. Oscar de la Renta achieve this primarily through their @OscarPRGirl Twitter account, which spent the summer tweeting about yoga, music and summering in the Hamptons. Rather than talking about their brand or products they are targeting people with a certain lifestyle and adding value to them.

4. Jimmy Choo

FreshNetworks client, and ranked 17th globally for their Digital IQ, Jimmy Choo are noted in the report as an overachiever – using social media to compete with search as a source of traffic and conversions – and as an innovator in social media that punches above its weight. The Catch-a-Choo campaign on Foursquare was highlighted as what the future of innovation in social media should look like – notably by taking social media offline and really engaging people in the product.
Also, Jimmy Choo is noted in the report for its ongoing engagement in social media. It is the third most successful global luxury brand at using Facebook not just to attract Likes, but to channel people to the ecommerce site, and so to lead to sales. This makes the report rank Jimmy Choo as an ‘overachiever’, where social media is competing with tradition search as a traffic driver and a driver of online sales.
Image1: thinkretail
Image2: vincen-t via Flickr

________________________________________

 

How to Work and Be an Entrepreneur, Too

You'll need to juggle your time and your budget
Tennille M. Robinson Article written by Tennille M. Robinson.
I am working on a business plan for a retail store concept. I am also a freelance marketer and social entrepreneur, which essentially means I must wait for clients to pay me. This leads me to perusing the Internet to look for jobs, which is something I really do not want to do but may have to, to earn money to live. I would rather be creating and getting the knowledge I need to complete my business plan.

—S. Williams
Via E-mail
Are you determined to see your business dream become an entrepreneurial reality? Do you understand getting there may be via an unconventional and perhaps long path?
You can do both, but it requires finding balance. It’s going to be a juggle of your time and your budget. Tap into your resources and be strategic about the jobs you take on. Payment from these jobs will provide revenue that can go toward, say, hiring a certified public accountant to prepare and review your business plan financials; or the fee to attend an industry trade show in your area.
In the book Make the Impossible Possible: One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary by Bill Strickland and Vince Rause (Crown Publishing Group; $14) the authors write that passion is the fuel sustaining one’s vision in the midst of challenge. In the story “Building Paradise” (see Motivation, March 2010), we detail the inspiring story of Ethiopian serial entrepreneur Tadiwos Belete who worked in the United States as a hair salon owner for several years to save the startup capital for a resort and spa he dreamed of opening in his native country. Today, the owner of Boston Day Spa in Addis Ababa, Belete noted three timeless strategies to maintain resolve during this infancy period of your entrepreneurial pursuits: Be flexible, be prepared, and be principled.

 

 

What Perfect Is

What Perfect Is
Do perfect men have big muscles?  Do perfect women have big breasts?  Do perfect couples have lots of children?  Do perfect husbands earn upwards of $100K a year?  Do perfect wives cook delicious meals?
Do perfect people have lots of friends?  Do perfect people have loads of life experience?  Do perfect people ever fail?
Yeah!  You bet they do!  All of this and soooooo much more…
Perfect men are scrawny.  Perfect men struggle with obesity.  Perfect men can barely do one pull-up.  Perfect men have bad backs that prevent them from lifting heavy objects.  Perfect men were only born with one arm.
Perfect women have tiny breasts.  Perfect women have fake breasts.  Perfect women have breast reductions.  Perfect women haven’t finished growing their breasts yet.  Perfect women have lost both breasts to cancer.
Perfect couples have one child.  Perfect couples have ten children.  Perfect couples adopt because, medically, they can’t have their own children.  Perfect couples adopt even when they can have their own.  Perfect couples never have children because they don’t want them.
Perfect husbands are stay-at-home dads.  Perfect husbands own multi-million dollar businesses.  Perfect husbands are migrant farmers.  Perfect husbands switch careers in their mid-50’s.  Perfect husbands have no idea what they want to do for a living.
Perfect wives don’t cook because they’re too tired when they get home from work.  Perfect wives only know how to cook Italian food.  Perfect wives hate cooking even though they’re good at it.  Perfect wives are chefs at fancy restaurants.  Perfect wives make Ramen Noodles.
Perfect people are introverts with two close friends.  Perfect people are extroverts with five hundred Facebook friends they communicate with regularly.  Perfect people hangout with their marching band friends.  Perfect people have famous friends.  Perfect people have a best friend with four legs.
Perfect people have traveled and lived all over the world.  Perfect people have yet to explore beyond their hometown in rural Montana.  Perfect people still live at home with their parents.  Perfect people are happy where they are.  Perfect people haven’t figured out how to get to where they want to go.
Perfect people fail a hundred times and lose hope.  Perfect people succeed on their very first attempt.  Perfect people don’t like to admit when they fail.  Perfect people see failure as an opportunity for growth.  Perfect people never fail because they never stretch themselves beyond their comfort zones.
Perfect people have scars on their faces and perfect complexions.  Perfect people have long brown hair at 60 and short grey hair at 35.  Perfect people wear wigs.  Perfect people have sex with men, women, both or none at all.  Perfect people can barely see over the grocery store counter and sometimes bump their heads at the top of doorways.  Perfect people have waistlines that are infinite in size and geometry.  Perfect people have skin tones as light as vanilla ice-cream and as rich dark chocolate.
Perfect people come from every corner of this beautiful planet and can be seen everywhere – even in the mirror.
Yeah!  That’s right!
Perfect is the way we are born.  Perfect is the way we are now.  Perfect is exclusively unique.
We are what perfect is.

50 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do

                                        Practical Tips for Productive Living

Marc and

Angel Hack Life

Knowledge is PowerSelf-reliance is a vital key to living a healthy, productive life.  To be self-reliant one must master a basic set of skills, more or less making them a jack of all trades.  Contrary to what you may have learned in school, a jack of all trades is far more equipped to deal with life than a specialized master of only one.
While not totally comprehensive, here is a list of 50 things everyone should know how to do.
1.  Build a Fire – Fire produces heat and light, two basic necessities for living.  At some point in your life this knowledge may be vital.
2.  Operate a Computer – Fundamental computer knowledge is essential these days.  Please, help those in need.
3.  Use Google Effectively – Google knows everything.  If you’re having trouble finding something with Google, it’s you that needs help.
4.  Perform CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver – Someday it may be your wife, husband, son or daughter that needs help.
5.  Drive a Manual Transmission Vehicle – There will come a time when you’ll be stuck without this knowledge.
6.  Do Basic Cooking – If you can’t cook your own steak and eggs, you probably aren’t going to make it.
7.  Tell a Story that Captivates People’s Attention – If you can’t captivate their attention, you should probably just save your breath.

8.  Win or Avoid a Fistfight – Either way, you win.
9.  Deliver Bad News – Somebody has got to do it.  Unfortunately, someday that person will be you.
10.  Change a Tire – Because tires have air in them, and things with air in them eventually pop.
11.  Handle a Job Interview – I promise, sweating yourself into a nervous panic won’t land you the job.
12.  Manage Time – Not doing so is called wasting time, which is okay sometimes, but not all the time.
13.  Speed Read – Sometimes you just need the basic gist, and you needed it 5 minutes ago. 
14.  Remember Names – Do you like when someone tries to get your attention by screaming “hey you”?
15.  Relocate Living Spaces – Relocating is always a little tougher than you originally imagined.
16.  Travel Light – Bring only the necessities.  It’s the cheaper, easier, smarter thing to do.
17.  Handle the Police – Because jail isn’t fun… and neither is Bubba.
18.  Give Driving Directions – Nobody likes driving around in circles.  Get this one right the first time.
19.  Perform Basic First Aid – You don’t have to be a doctor, or genius, to properly dress a wound.
20.  Swim – 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water.  Learning to swim might be a good idea. 
21.  Parallel Park – Parallel parking is a requirement on most standard driver’s license driving tests, yet so many people have no clue how to do it.  How could this be?
22.  Recognize Personal Alcohol Limits – Otherwise you may wind up like this charming fellow.
23.  Select Good Produce – Rotten fruits and vegetables can be an evil tease and an awful surprise.
24.  Handle a Hammer, Axe or Handsaw – Carpenters are not the only ones who need tools.  Everyone should have a basic understanding of basic hand tools.
25.  Make a Simple Budget – Being in debt is not fun.  A simple budget is the key.
26.  Speak at Least Two Common Languages – Only about 25% of the world’s population speaks English.  It would be nice if you could communicate with at least some of the remaining 75%.
27.  Do Push-Ups and Sit-Ups Properly – Improper push-ups and sit-ups do nothing but hurt your body and waste your time.
28.  Give a Compliment – It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, and it’s free.
29.  Negotiate – The better deal is only a question or two away.
30.  Listen Carefully to Others – The more you listen and the less you talk, the more you will learn and the less you will miss.
31.  Recite Basic Geography – If you don’t know where anything is outside of your own little bubble, most people will assume (and they are probably correct) that you don’t know too much at all.
32.  Paint a Room – The true cost of painting is 90% labor.  For simple painting jobs it makes no sense to pay someone 9 times what it would cost you to do it yourself.
33.  Make a Short, Informative Public Speech – At the next company meeting if your boss asks you to explain what you’ve been working on over the last month, a short, clear, informative response is surely your best bet.  “Duhhh…” will not cut it.
34.  Smile for the Camera – People that absolutely refuse to smile for the camera suck!
35.  Flirt Without Looking Ridiculous – There is a fine line between successful flirting and utter disaster.  If you try too hard, you lose.  If you don’t try hard enough, you lose.
36. Take Useful Notes – Because useless notes are useless, and not taking notes is a recipe for failure.
37.  Be a Respectful House Guest – Otherwise you will be staying in a lot of hotels over the years.
38.  Make a Good First Impression – Aristotle once said, “well begun is half done.”
39.  Navigate with a Map and Compass – What happens when the GPS craps out and you’re in the middle of nowhere?
40.  Sew a Button onto Clothing – It sure is cheaper than buying a new shirt.
41.  Hook Up a Basic Home Theater System – This isn’t rocket science.  Paying someone to do this shows sheer laziness.
42.  Type – Learning to type could save you days worth of time over the course of your lifetime.
43.  Protect Personal Identity Information – Personal identity theft is not fun unless you are the thief.  Don’t be careless.
44.  Implement Basic Computer Security Best Practices – You don’t have to be a computer science major to understand the fundamentals of creating complex passwords and using firewalls.  Doing so will surely save you a lot of grief someday.
45.  Detect a Lie – People will lie to you.  It’s a sad fact of life.
46.  End a Date Politely Without Making Promises – There is no excuse for making promises you do not intend to keep.  There is also no reason why you should have to make a decision on the spot about someone you hardly know.
47.  Remove a Stain – Once again, it’s far cheaper than buying a new one.
48.  Keep a Clean House – A clean house is the foundation for a clean, organized lifestyle.
49.  Hold a Baby – Trust me, injuring a baby is not what you want to do.
50.  Jump Start a Car – It sure beats walking or paying for a tow truck.
60 Ways To Make Life Simple Again
Make Life Simple Again
When we were young life was easier, right?  I know sometimes it seems that way.  But the truth is life still is easy.  It always will be.  The only difference is we’re older, and the older we get, the more we complicate things for ourselves.
You see, when we were young we saw the world through simple, hopeful eyes.  We knew what we wanted and we had no biases or concealed agendas.  We liked people who smiled.  We avoided people who frowned.  We ate when we were hungry, drank when we were thirsty, and slept when we were tired.
As we grew older our minds became gradually disillusioned by negative external influences.  At some point we began to hesitate and question our instincts.  When a new obstacle or growing pain arose, we stumbled and a fell down.  This happened several times.  Eventually we decided we didn’t want to fall again, but rather than solving the problem that caused us to fall, we avoided it all together.
As a result, we ate comfort food and drank alcohol to numb our wounds and fill our voids.  We worked late nights on purpose to avoid unresolved conflicts at home.  We started holding grudges, playing mind games, and subtly deceiving others and ourselves to get ahead.  And when it didn’t work out, we lived above our means, bought things we didn’t need, and ate and drank some more just to make ourselves feel better again.
Over the course of time, we made our lives more and more difficult, and we started losing touch with who we really are and what we really need.
So let’s get back to the basics, shall we?  Let’s make things simple again.  It’s easy.  Here are 60 ways to do just that:
Life is not complex.  We are complex.  Life is simple,
and the simple thing is the right thing.
- Oscar Wilde
  1. Don’t try to read other people’s minds.  Don’t make other people try to read yours.  Communicate.
  2. Be polite, but don’t try to be friends with everyone around you.  Instead, spend time nurturing your relationships with the people who matter most to you.
  3. Your health is your life, keep up with it.  Get an annual physical check-up.
  4. Live below your means.  Don’t buy stuff you don’t need.  Always sleep on big purchases.  Create a budget and savings plan and stick to both of them.
  5. Get enough sleep every night.  An exhausted mind is rarely productive.
  6.  Get up 30 minutes earlier so you don’t have to rush around like a mad man.  That 30 minutes will help you avoid speeding tickets, tardiness, and other unnecessary headaches.
  7. Get off your high horse, talk it out, shake hands or hug, and move on.
  8. Don’t waste your time on jealously.  The only person you’re competing against is yourself.
  9. Surround yourself with people who fill your gaps.  Let them do the stuff they’re better at so you can do the stuff you’re better at.
  10. Organize your living space and working space.
  11. Get rid of stuff you don’t use.
  12. Ask someone if you aren’t sure.
  13. Spend a little time now learning a time-saving trick or shortcut that you can use over and over again in the future.
  14. Don’t try to please everyone.  Just do what you know is right.
  15. Don’t drink alcohol or consume recreational drugs when you’re mad or sad.  Take a jog instead.
  16. Be sure to pay your bills on time.
  17. Fill up your gas tank on the way home, not in the morning when you’re in a hurry.
  18. Use technology to automate tasks.
  19. Handle important two-minute tasks immediately.
  20. Relocate closer to your place of employment.
  21. Don’t steal.
  22. Always be honest with yourself and others.
  23. Say “I love you” to your loved ones as often as possible.
  24. Single-task.  Do one thing at a time and give it all you got.
  25. Finish one project before you start another.
  26. Be yourself.
  27. When traveling, pack light.  Don’t bring it unless you absolutely must.
  28. Clean up after yourself.  Don’t put it off until later.
  29. Learn to cook, and cook.
  30. Make a weekly (healthy) menu, and shop for only the items you need.
  31. Consider buying and cooking food in bulk.  If you make a large portion of something on Sunday, you can eat leftovers several times during the week without spending more time cooking.
  32. Stay out of other people’s drama.  And don’t needlessly create your own.
  33. Buy things with cash.
  34. Maintain your car, home, and other personal belongings you rely on.
  35. Smile often, even to complete strangers.
  36. If you hate doing it, stop it.
  37. Treat everyone with the same level of respect you would give to your grandfather and the same level of patience you would have with your baby brother.
  38. Apologize when you should.
  39. Write things down.
  40. Be curious.  Don’t be scared to learn something new.
  41. Explore new ideas and opportunities often.
  42. Don’t be shy.  Network with people.  Meet new people.
  43. Don’t worry too much about what other people think about you.
  44. Spend time with nice people who are smart, driven, and likeminded.
  45. Don’t text and drive.  Don’t drink and drive.
  46. Drink water when you’re thirsty.
  47. Don’t eat when you’re bored.  Eat when you’re hungry.
  48. Exercise every day.  Simply take a long, relaxing walk.
  49. Let go of things you can’t change.  Concentrate on things you can.
  50. Find hard work you actually enjoy doing.
  51. Realize that the harder you work, the luckier you will become.
  52. Follow your heart.  Don’t waste your life fulfilling someone else’s dreams and desires.
  53. Set priorities for yourself and act accordingly.
  54. Take it slow and add up all your small victories.
  55. However good or bad a situation is now, it will change.  Accept this simple fact.
  56. Excel at what you do.  Otherwise you’ll just frustrate yourself.
  57. Mature, but don’t grow up too fast.
  58. Realize that you’re never quite as right as you think you are.
  59. Build something or do something that makes you proud.
  60. Make mistakes, learn from them, laugh about them, and move along.
10 Reasons Not To Drink Four Loko
Read More: 4 Loko, Four Loko, Four Loko Ban, Four Loko Beer, Four Loko Facts, Four Loko News, Four Loko Outlawed, Slidepollajax, College News
Four Loko, the highly caffeinated alcoholic beverage jokingly referred to as "blackout in a can" and "liquid crack," is not all that funny. The drink -- the idea of which was concocted by three Ohio State University graduates in 2005 -- has been implicated in multiple hospitalizations and at least one heart attack. Officials in several states are calling for it to be banned.
Below, we let the numbers associated with Four Loko speak for themselves. Let us know if you have more to add in the comments section.


2
1 of 11

Number of campuses that have banned Four Loko. So far, Ramapo College in New Jersey and Central Washington University have outlawed the drink.
1 of 11 Next >>

10 Tips to Help You Land Your First Sports Job

by Brendan Wilhide|October 27th, 2010

1. Network, Network, Network

Have you heard the adage “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know?” Well, in sports, it’s more like “who knows you” or “who is familiar with your work“. The key to getting your first sports job (or any job) is networking. You need to get out there in front of the decision makers who have the power to hire you, whether that’s the head of the sales department, box office or the general manager.
Attending networking functions is a great idea. Most teams and leagues either run their own career fair or attend sports related fairs every year. For example, job seekers interested in a career in Minor League Baseball should attend the annual PBEO Conference (the same “Winter Meetings” where players are traded and the Rule V draft are held ever year) and network with as many people as possible.

2. Get Ready to Sell

Sales is the most important aspect of a front office. One of the first things you must know about working in sports is that you’re always selling, even if you don’t work in the sales department. Although you might work in marketing, public relations or events, you will be called to sell tickets-or perhaps even sponsorships-from time to time. You’re always selling the value of attending a game at your stadium/arena so the concept of selling tangible goods like tickets really isn’t that different from selling the experience itself.

3. Be Comfortable Wearing Many Hats

Get ready to wear many different hats throughout the day-it’s true of the sports industry and especially in minor league sports. One day you might be driving to the airport to pick up the newest addition to your roster and the next day you might be dressing up as the mascot. Understand that all sports organizations do this to some degree. It’s more prevalent in minor league sports where staffs are small and “to do” lists are long but it occurs in major league sports at times as well.

4. Be a Sponge

Be a sponge. Soak up as much information you possibly can about the sports industry itself and especially about the team or league where you’d like to work. Ask for informational interviews to learn about the positions which interest you the most. The employee you’re talking to was probably in your shoes not too long ago. A little information can be a powerful think, especially as you try to position yourself as the best candidate for a position in the midst of an already crowded and extremely competitive job market.

5. ‘You Are the Team’

For all intents and purposes, this adage is especially true of the sports industry. A fan might only encounter one team employee during a game. It is therefore necessary that all employees represent the team and provide excellent customer service at all times-it is the single most important responsibility you have as an employee. If a customer asks you for help and you can’t help them, find someone who can. This may be your only chance to impact this customer all night–and often times the smallest interactions can leave the greatest impact on a customer and their overall enjoyment that night. The higher you rise in an organization, the more visible you are.

6. Love What You Do

Working in the sports industry is often a labor of love. There are millions of people out there that love sports but only a select few among them work in the industry. You have to be passionate about sports and really love what you do to stay in the sports industry. You will be asked to sacrifice your time on weekends and holidays. If you’re interested in working a traditional 9-to-5 schedule, the sports industry is definitely not for you. There are always college students and recent graduates salivating at the chance to work in the sports industry (and often work for free).

7. You’re Not Going to Be Able to Watch the Games

One of the biggest misconceptions about the sports industry is that employees have the opportunity to watch the games themselves. This is absolutely not the case. In baseball, for example, you might catch an inning or two while you move around the stadium but you will never have the opportunity to sit down and watch the game.
The game itself is your primary chance to interact with your clients which is why watching the game is something you will almost never do.

8. Be Ready to Climb the Ladder

As with athletes, sports employees will often start at the lowest levels of the minors and work their way up the ladder in their respective sports. It’s common for employees to move from one position to a more senior position in the span of several seasons.
Employees will often climb the minor league ladder as athletes do, especially if they work in sales, public relations or broadcasting. Employees have tremendous growth potential in the sports industry if they work hard and tirelessly and build relationships constantly.

9. Be Innovative

Creativity rules in the sports industry. Every year, teams gain exposure due to wacky and off-the-wall promotions, especially in the minor leagues. Sometimes the best sponsorship ideas come from a wild idea someone offers at the end of a meeting. That’s just how it happens sometimes.
If you enjoy coming up with creative solutions to problems and thinking outside-the-box, you’ll enjoy working in the sports industry.

10. Have Fun

Although sports is a business, it is also a fun business. You meet a lot of great people and gain valuable experience by working in the sports industry-experience that really transcends the sports industry itself.
Think about it: where else can you dress up like a mascot or dance with the Blues Brothers on the top of a dugout? Sports is a unique industry and can be fun if you give it a chance.
I’d love to hear the story of how you landed your first sports job. Please let me know in the comments below!
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