Instead of using a resume as a career change tool, use it as a career visioning tool. Every three months, ask employees to write 3 resume bullets they want to add to their list of professional accomplishments at your company.

2. Create interesTED Talks

Even on small teams, some new employees go months without getting to meet the person on the other side of the office. Instead, have new employees do a 20 minute talk about what they bring to the table in terms of their skills, passions, interests, strengths, gifts, talents, and experiences. You may have hired them for one thing, but they may be useful in other ways as well.

3. Create career success plans

Among all of the paperwork a new employee has to complete in their first week, the most important thing they can do is create a plan that describes how they are going to grow their 4 capitals which are their personal, intellectual, social, and financial capital while they work with you. Setting intentions makes them more accountable for how they spend their time daily. Their success plan should also include their retirement speech which helps them create a vision for their long-term career.

4. Create a success dashboard

Scoreboards motivate people because they can see their progress visually. Have each employee sit with their boss and co-create a dashboard for success with their top 3-5 metrics and report on it weekly in team meetings.

5. Create superhero names

Rather than giving everyone the same bland title of manager, sales rep, or associate, allow each individual to create a super hero name that describes how they create unique value for the company. Examples include The Deal Closer, The People’s Person, The Culture Shocker, The Opportunist, The Waste Eliminator, or The Technologists. Relating to one another based on the value each individual offers counters the dynamic of hierarchies and makes the organization feel more flat.

Help them get clarity on why your company exists and how it is impacting lives directly or indirectly. Have some of your best customers come in and share their stories and talk about how your product or service helps them do what they do better.

2. Set a job creation goal

Instead of just setting goals for more money, inspire your employees with a cause. For instance, the cause could be to take part in turning around the economy one new job at a time by having an internal goal to increase headcount by 10. The cause gives them something to wake up for, but it also means that we have collectively have to figure out how to increase profits.

3. Host team board meetings

Instead of making employee reviews 1-on-1, have them be team-based. Every 6 months, employee have to publicly articulate the 3 ways they added value in the past 6 months and how they envision themselves creating value going forward.

4. Allow them to have passion projects

Google allows engineers to spend 20% of their time on a passion project. Out of that has come Gmail and Google Maps. This same philosophy can be applied to non-technology environments. Allow your employees to spend 2-3 hours a week on an internal passion project or problem that they think will help the company.

5. Help them coordinate social events

If you asks, your employees may have passions or hobbies that they like to share, but they are hesitant to mix personal and professional. Perhaps a few of them like yoga, running, knitting, biking, or poker. While they might be able to find others who share their passion naturally over time, you can help facilitate that process be encouraging each employee to host a group event around their passion after work or on the weekend.

Share the P & L with them to inspired them to cut costs or create revenue. If an employee knew the company was sinking and how fast, I’m pretty sure they would help throw water overboard or else they are going to sink with the ship.

2. Bring business school to them

Teach them cash flow, profit, head count, turnover, kanban, just-in time inventory, and all of the important metrics relevant to your business. When they understand that accounts receivable is going up, they can innovate and take action because they know what that means. This will allow them to communicate and move more powerfully as well as keep them learning.

3. Have them write business plans

Instead of just letting people throw out ideas that sound good, have any idea be supported by research and a business case. Create a template for proposals that people use to substantiate their ideas.

4. Give them equity

If employees feel like part-owners rather than replaceable pons, they will be more invested in the growth of the company. Whereas salaires are guaranteed, equity only grows when the company grows. Equity offers another layer of investment and motivation.

5. Teach them the entire business

Many employees operate in silos. They only understand their function and job. Instead, teach them the entire business so they fully understand how they fit into to the larger equation and how things are interdependent. If you don’t do this, this is how it effects this. Educate them on the industry and how the company really makes profit.

When you know how someone defines success, you can use it to motivate them. As long as they feel that they are able to achieve their definition of success through working for you, they will work hard and never leave.

2. Why are you here?

The answer could be money. It could be the problem the company solves. Or it could be the team. We assume that the interview process draws this out, but once an employee is in the door, it’s important to know what attracted them to the company and the job so that you can ensure that those things remain present.

3. What are you passionate about professionally?

It’s important to find that one or two tasks within each employees’ job description where they would love to spend 80% of their time and do your best to help them do more of what they love. Oftentimes, it’s the reverse. Employees only spend 20% of their team doing the things they are passionate about.

4. What problem do you want to take ownership of in the context of our work?

This could be a problem facing the customers, their colleagues, or the company in general that they want to dedicate time solving. Sometimes this problem isn’t within their job description, but they deeply care about it and are willing to set aside time to solve if for the company.

5. What conditions help you perform at your highest?

Everyone has different working styles. Some people work best in the morning. Others work better at night. Some work better in solitude and others work better in teams. But oftentimes, the organization imposes its work style on the individual employee and that may not lead to their best performance.

While self-help is a great concept, it has failed in practice for many. The fact that is it is called self-help is the reason why—it revolves around the self. We can go workshops and retreats, and then we go home (alone) and read books, watch videos, and know exactly what to do and how to do it, but yet we don’t. And the reason is that individuals can’t hold themselves accountable to their highest selves. Period.

Don’t buy anymore personal development programs unless accountability comes with it. We overestimate about ability to overcome the inertia and comfort of life as it is. We can hold ourselves accountable to who we know ourselves to be, but it takes something or someone else to push us further. I have an extremely high level of self-discipline, yet even still, my discipline only takes me to the edge of where, what, and who I know I already am.

How were you able to write a 30 page paper in one night?
Accountability from a teacher (and your parents).

How were you able to complete that marathon?
Accountability from your running group and sponsors.

How were you able to finish your college or graduate school applications?
Accountability from admissions officer.

How were you able to deliver that client what they needed with short notice?
Accountability from your boss and team.

Accountability is the key to your development. And the most effective form of accountability is other people. While friends may be okay accountability partners, a great partner is someone who only cares about you reaching your new higher. They don’t care about your excuses, emotions, or ego. All they care about is your core.

If we look to sports, almost all professional athletes have coaches—even those who play individual sports like bowling, golf, or tennis. A coaches pushes us beyond our perceived self-set limits. When you’ve done 3 sets of 12 reps, they push you to 4. When we think we’ve reached our max, they push us to our new higher.

I’m looking to hire a coach right now. They’ll likely have a coach too or some sort of accountability system in their own life. They’ll be able to see what’s possible through me in such a big way that I get a headache hearing their vision for me. And they’ll tangible results in their own life and the lives of their clients.

The reason I’ve been able to achieve so much so early in my life without a coach is that I’ve always been the youngest in any environment I’ve been in which forced me to play at a higher level. My best friend growing up with 4 years older than me. Imagine playing him in a game of 21 or boxing. My birthday was a few days before the baseball cut-off date, so I had to play in the older division. I entered undergrad with sophomore credits and graduate school 3 years younger than the average so my classmates were older and more experienced and I had to catch up. Being the youngest pushed me, but as an adult, age is less significant and those structured environment are gone.

With coaching and my 30 Day Do It group, I’m certain that this year is destined for more growth inward, forward, deeper, and higher than would be possible for me without them.

How valuable would a coach be to you?

Last year, I had the honor of speaking at TEDx Brooklyn (video here) and TEDx Midwest (video coming soon). As an avid viewer of 100s of TED Talks, this was an amazing experience.

Every morning, I get on my exercise bike, choose a video on TED.com, and start riding and listening as it plays. It’s a great way to start my day—nourishing my mind and body.

After doing this for quite some time, I began searching for other sites like TED.com and here is what I found.

D.R.E.A.M. awake!

Top 9 Websites Like TED.com

Do you know of any other sites like TED.com?

Here are some others people have shared since the original post:
Chicago Ideas Week
Academic Earth

I love playing with language, manipulating words, and even creating words like extra-average. Most dictionaries always have multiple definitions of words but at the end of the day, we give words meaning. When I was younger I used to rap and write poetry—that’s where my relationship to words began. Though I know and use many words thanks to the SATs, I made a commitment to be less loose with my language and become more intentional about what I say. I’ve come to realize that words have power and I want to mean what I say and be a man of my word.

So over a 30 day period, I decided to redefine the 20+ most important words to me that serve as the foundation of my life. Sometimes old language and meanings lock us into old ways of doing things. Forget Oxford. Forget Webster. I saw this as an opportunity to create language and thus new possibilities. I asked myself, what are the 30 most important words in my life and what do those words mean to me and only me?

Below you will find the results of my process which has completely shifted my life. Simply writing down my own definition of the word success for the first time changed how I move through the world. Once I became conscious of my own definition even if I can memorize it, it begins to inform my choices. All of my words below determine my choices whether I am conscious of my definitions or not so I might as well establish a relationship with them as well as begin to understand their relationships to one another.

If you choose to engage in this powerful process, I encourage you to choose the 10 most important words that are foundational to your life and define them for yourself in writing and see how you life begins to shift as a result of becoming aware of the meanings you choose to give them.

Purpose
Purpose is your ultimate reason why.

Failure
Failure is the moment we stop investing in something we believe in because of overwhelming and unwelcomed feedback.

Faith
Faith is being confident in the midst of an uncertain future.

Life
Life is a series of moments created by our relationships.

Leadership
Leadership is the act of creating more leaders.

Fear
Fear is simply information we may not want to hear or feel (but information nonetheless).

Time
Time is a space gifted to us by _________ (your spiritual source) to experience life as it is.

Comfort
Comfort is a seductive drug disguised as candy.

Enough
Enough is the point where the cost of getting one more outweighs the benefits of having one more.

Food
Food is any natural substance that energizes the mind, body, or soul.

Work
Work is the process of changing or moving an individual, organization, or thing from state (what it is) to state B (toward what it wants to be) or from point A (where it is) to point B (toward where it wants to be).

Health
Health is how we feel beyond the threshold of merely functioning.

Success
Success is the ability to:
1. be who you want to be
2. do what you want to do, and
3. have enough of what you need to continue being who you want to be and doing what you want to do

Help
Help is holding a door to an alternative path open as wide as you can for as long as you can for someone.

Trust
Trust is a currency backed by integrity (in the same way the dollar is supposed to be backed by gold).

Truth
Truth is every universal law within a defined universe.

Goal
A goal is a time-bound challenge to test our commitment and integrity.

Death
Death is the ending of any commitment, attachment, and agreement.

Money
Money is an agreed upon storer of value created in the past to facilitate easier exchange in the present.

Wealth
Wealth is a state of wellness and wellness is defined as peace of mind.

Gratitude
Gratitude is appreciation for what you already have.

Love
Love is the unconditional giving of one’s time and best energy.

Family
Family is anyone I choose to share time and presence with just because.

Wisdom
Wisdom is the ability to see what is true and name it.

Luck
Luck is favorable momentum that occurs when one moves in perfect alignment with their purpose.

Diversity
My next word to define…

Does it require receiving? Does it require giving? When is the best time to be grateful—in times of excess or lack?

Dictionary Definition
grat·i·tude [ grátti tud ] 1. thanks: a feeling of being thankful to somebody for doing something

Jullien’s Definition

Gratitude is appreciation for what you already have.

To appreciate means to increase in value. What we choose to give our time and attention/presence—our most valuable assets to—increases in value to us. It also works the other way around—what we value we give time and attention to.

Gratitude is less about receiving and more about giving (time and attention). If we didn’t receive anything else…if the world didn’t get “better,” could we and would we still be grateful? In this scenario, what could we be grateful for? We can only be grateful for what we already have—people, moments, memories, time, the food in front of us, laughter, joy, love, etc.

Gratitude can’t coexist with expectation or entitlement. They are future-based while gratitude is grounded in the moment…in the now. We use the language “Nobody deserves that,” when bad things occur to people, but in reality, nobody deserves anything…good or bad. The age-old question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is because “good people” don’t deserve anything for being good. If they want to be good, they should be good without expecting to get a smiley face sticker from God. I think they will find their lives are more joyful overall when they are “good” but there is no guarantee.

When we are too goal-oriented and focused on the future, we miss all of the “millionaire moments” that occur in our lives every day. Instead of being grateful for what we have right now and where we are, our time and attention is on what’s next. Anytime we leave the present, we leave a gift. We leave an opportunity to just be grateful. The more more more mentality may satisfy GDP (Gross Domestic Product), but there is another GDP to consider—Gratitude & Daily Positives. Being busy, takes us away from a mindset of gratitude because it is based in scarcity (e.g. not having a job, not being able to pay bills, not getting promoted, etc) rather than abundance (e.g. if I create value we all benefit).

There are tons of things to be grateful for now. A great place to start is by listing all of the things in our lives that didn’t have to happen, but somehow did. First off, let’s start with breath. There are some people who are literally on their last breath as you read this. Approximately 2 people die every second. Regardless of how tough life has been, would you prefer or not prefer to breath? What are all of the things that have happened for you that didn’t have to happen?

We can be grateful for what has happened or what hasn’t happened, but through my daily gratitude journal I’ve found that I’m most grateful for the things that I haven’t had any control over. First and foremost, I’ve come to realize that I have very little control over anything except my own thoughts, choices, and time, therefore, a lot of my life is an adventure. Moments will occur like bumping into an old friend, seeing a beautiful flower in the midst of a cement city, the sunset, receiving a beautiful thoughtful email written just for me from someone who was thinking of me, a new client calling out of thin air, or the ability to go grocery shopping and pay for healthy food. I’m also grateful for the few things that I do have control of because the world could work in a way where I didn’t and in some cases/places people don’t have control over those their thoughts, choices, and time.

I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal every day for months now. I take time to acknowledge and capture “millionaire moments” that occur for me. This daily practice has taught me a lot:

• To start with what I have
• To shift my mindset from scarcity to abundance and keep it there
• To honor all of the “small” magical moments life offers us
• To be grateful for the few things I control and the many things I don’t. More of my gratitude comes from the moments/sequences I wasn’t in control of
• To be present. We miss so many blessings when we’re busy
• The anticipation of or search for things to be grateful for increases our happiness alone
• Life is in the minute moments
• Gratitude is an attitude/perspective/awareness. Two people can have the same thing and experience them in different ways
• Gratitude begins with giving (time and attention), not receiving, therefore everyone can access it
• To release expectations. Nothing is promised (breath, sight, marriage, riches, love, etc)
• Everything is of/from the Source
• To release control
• To be grateful just because, not in comparison (e.g. Thanks for this food because others are starving). Having what others don’t have is not the basis of gratitude—that would require lack in the world
• To redefine wealth. We can all experience the richness of life now.
• What we appreciate appreciates in value
• Thou shall not want

What we appreciate appreciates!

Is love an emotion or an action? Does it require two people to generate or can one person have it? Why do we crave it?

Dictionary Definition
love [ luv ] 1. feel tender affection for somebody: to feel tender affection for somebody such as a close relative or friend, or for something such as a place, an ideal, or an animal
2. feel desire for somebody: to feel romantic and sexual desire and longing for somebody
1. like something very much: to like something, or like doing, something very much

Jullien’s Definition

Love is the unconditional giving of one’s time and best energy.

Love is an action. It is the action that initiated the Universe—our spiritual source did something it didn’t have to do and created the world and us. Whether the creation happened in 6 days, an instant, or is still happening in this moment, we have been left with the energy of the sun, food, thought, and heart as symbols of our Creator’s love for us.

Love has no expectation. It gives because it wants to give. When expectation occurs, it is a transaction or exchange as opposed to love. If we apply this to our “romantic” relationships where love is supposed to be at its height, it’s rarely the case. Many marriages, even those that weren’t arranged, are arrangements. Early relationships weren’t always based on love—they were based on family, community, work, and wealth. Are we certain that Adam and Eve loved each other or could we consider the first man and first woman an arrangement?

The reason our “romantic” relationships tend to be a strong source of love and space to give love is because we spend more time with our partners than anyone else. But time isn’t the only function—the second half of the equation is giving our best energy. The distinction between energy and our best energy is the distinction that is made between a store-bought gift that has no meaning and a thoughtful gift that specifically fits the individual we’re giving it to.

Energy comes and can be given in many forms:
- Presence: being with someone
- Attention: thinking of someone, even from a distance
- Action: doing for someone

I also like Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages which include:
1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Receiving Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

Love requires sacrifice, but not in the sense that we lose ourselves. Love requires sacrifice, in that we put our individual interest behind the interest of the unit, which hopefully creates a greater possibility for all. In order for two wholes to come together, they don’t have to become half of themselves—instead, they just create a greater whole. If we lose ourselves in the practice of love, it isn’t love—that’s tolerance and conformity. Love helps us find ourselves in and through each other—that’s true connection.

When we seek love from a place of need or emptiness rather than wholeness, we can create a symbiotic or co-dependent relationship, but nothing new gets created in that situation, energy is only reallocated. While that can be a good thing, it isn’t love. Love transforms energy to a higher state as suggested by the first law of thermodynamics. But the second law also suggest that entropy or the tendency toward chaos is always present. Love’s energy counters entropy and keep things and people together.

The purest love always starts with self in the same way our Creator created us out pure love. We may think love comes from another person or place, but it actually emerges from within and then connects with the love in others. It is so beautiful when two people decide to give the gift of love to each other at the same time without knowing. It transcends someone giving a gift to someone else because they received a gift from them earlier. Self-love is simply an awareness of our power to:
1. create love
2. give love, and
3. receive love.
Each one of us has had a challenge with one of those three aspects, but a person who is truly in love with themselves can do all three.

To love thy neighbor as thyself implies that we must love ourselves first and that have the capacity to do so. It’s from the well of self-love that we are able to draw from and give love to others. Recognizing the love that has been freely given to us by our Creator through that initial act and emotion of creation is enough love to supply the world. And if we are made in God’s image, we have the powerful to create and initiate similar acts of love.

Love freely!

Who is lucky? And who isn’t? Is in random? Can we all access it? How can we be more lucky?

Dictionary Definition
luck [ luk ] good fortune: success that seems to happen by chance
chance: the arbitrary distribution of events or outcomes
event determined by chance: something that seems to happen by chance rather than as a logical consequence

Jullien’s Definition
Luck runs on spectrum, not from unlucky to lucky, but moment-based luck to momentum-based luck.

Most people desire moment-based luck because it requires very little effort. This includes things like winning the lotto. It isn’t earned and it is random. But when unlucky moment-based situations occur such as losing a child, having a debilitating accident, or a house burning down, we’re less likely to welcome the other side of the coin. Either way the world is working against you-the lottery odds aren’t in your favor and the devil is out to get you. In both cases we have very very little control so it isn’t worthwhile to spend our time waiting or worrying about either situation.

Momentum-based luck is favorable momentum that occurs when one moves in perfect alignment with their purpose. In this case we have control of our choice to align or not align and our effort to work hard or not work hard. The Universe wants to and is working for you, always, especially in this case. We can know we’re experiencing momentum-based luck when synchronicity occurs often—we’re in the right place at the right time and all of the stars are aligning in our favor.

Because of inertia-the physical law that an object in motion tends to stay in motion or an object not in motion tends to stay not in motion-the hardest part of creating momentum is getting started.

Getting started is our responsibility and that can occur one of two ways. Either we listen for direction and then apply effort or apply effort in the direction we think is best and then bases on internal feedback from our source make changes in direction.

There is a fine line to acknowledge. All momentum isn’t good momentum, but it easy to mistake. Sometimes we perceive things as lucky that are actually unlucky. Our source may loving accelerate us in the wrong direction to get us going in the right direction. Sometimes we have to go backward to go forward. Our source may give is more of what we think we want until the law of diminishing returns kicks in and we realize that having excess of something doesn’t fulfill us, which leads u on a quest for what does. It’s tough love.

Luck is like yeast, it’s something we can all access to help us grow if we align our effort with out purpose which is the will of our source. Anytime you feel the universe is working against you, receive it as a cosmic nudge suggesting “there is am easier path that would allow me to help you gain more of what you want. You can call it luck, I call it you.”

Consider yourself lucky!