Edison’s electric light did not come about from continuous improvement of candles.
– Oren Harari
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Humor for Today
can’t remember where I read this, but I like this type of humor. What do you call it? Pun?
It’s hard to explain things to kleptomaniacs, they take things literally.
(should this have a comma after “things”, so that people pause when reading it, as it would be said)?
These next ones are from FOCM Member Andrew Smith:
Do you know why a koala isn’t considered a real bear?
They don’t have the koalafications.
Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off?
He’s all right now.
I wasn’t originally going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind.
I’d tell you a chemistry joke but I know I wouldn’t get a reaction.
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
Yesterday I accidentally swallowed some food coloring. The doctor says I’m OK, but I feel like I’ve dyed a little inside.
I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down.
FOCM plays catchup
As some of you noticed, I got rather behind on posting FOCM related events; I am over 12 months behind!!!
This is being corrected; seen below are from August 31, 2015 – when FOCM member Debbie McCoy was in Wilmington and we met for dinner at the Fork and Cork (great hamburgers). Debbie and I have known each other for 11 years having first met and worked together at ICON Clinical Research.
Followed by that is September 15, 2015; I’m not sure where we were but FOCM member Warren Fischer and I met up, probably at a conference. Warren and I probably first met when he worked for ClinPhone at a conference, but didn’t get to know each other until we worked together at ICON back in late 2010.
Then on October 14, 2015, at I’m betting was a conference in or around the King of Prussia, PA area; FOCM member Erica Hill and I met for dinner. I’ve known Erica 14 years; we both started at ICON within a couple months of each other.
Okay, I vow to do better from here on.
Everyone has a double
I am attending the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual convention on behalf of my new employer Lexitas Pharma Services. After about 15 years of attending conferences and actively networking at conferences on clinical data and clinical supply management, it felt a little strange to not see anyone that I know.
What did happen was that I realized saying that everyone has a doppelganger (double) somewhere in the world has merit. I saw so many people that either strongly resembled or just reminded me of people that I know.
As I sat in the lobby of the convention center waiting for a meeting, i watched people and started writing down who these people reminded me of. To those listed below, I think you should know you have a double out there.
Kevin Clover, Greg Cohee, Michael Smyth, Inci Porter, Mark Allen, Steve Raymond, Scott Freedman, Ali Hussein, Neil Hebenton, Sue Craft, Kim Boericke, Paul Mason and Daneil Dixon.
It’s been remarkable to have this experience.
Financial Intelligence – Does it Exist?
I saw the results of this survey and am just utterly shocked at the results. So many people have no financial cushion, spending virtually all of their take home pay. I know it’s easy to get caught up in getting the new smartphone as soon as it comes out, getting the larger flat screen TV, getting a new car every four years, etc. Almost half of people making between $100,000 and $149,000 had less than $1,000 in savings!!!
Personal-finance news website GoBankingRates asked 7,052 people how much they had in their savings accounts.
By Sean Dowling, Buzz60
Upon closer inspection, 34% of Americans have nothing in their savings account.
Lower-income adults struggle with saving money more than middle and upper-income individuals, but no income group did all that well.
Even those making bank!
For instance, 44% of those making between 100 and $149,000 had less than $1,000 in savings.
Given the recommendation for Americans to have six months in expenses saved up in case of an emergency like a medical expense or losing a job, the survey results are particularly worrisome.
First impressions are very important
Saw this on TheMuse.com written by Lisa B. Marshall and it reminded me of how important first impressions are. She sets up the situation that we’ve all been in – introducing yourself at a meeting:
Like you, I attend my fair share of meetings. As a consultant, I’m often meeting with people I’ve only laid eyes on for the first time just moments before and, almost always, I’m asked to introduce myself to them.
“Lisa, tell us a little bit about yourself.”
Ugh. Why is this little question so hard to answer? Perhaps because we are complicated and we’re being asked—usually on the spot—to make ourselves sound simple. Or maybe because there’s an element about it that always makes me feel like I’m supposed to be selling myself.
She gives 3 tips for making a good impression:
- Communicate your contribution (tell why you are there)
- Set yourself apart, be memorable
- Communicate culturally (be aware of where you and with whom you’re meeting)
You can read the entire article at the link below:
Traits of successful salespeople
Saw this on LinkedIn and thought it interesting.
Written by Steve W. Martin in Harvard Business Review
If you ask an extremely successful salesperson, “What makes you different from the average sales rep?” you will most likely get a less-than-accurate answer, if any answer at all. Frankly, the person may not even know the real answer because most successful salespeople are simply doing what comes naturally.
Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of interviewing thousands of top business-to-business salespeople who sell for some of the world’s leading companies. I’ve also administered personality tests to 1,000 of them. My goal was to measure their five main personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality) to better understand the characteristics that separate them their peers.
The main key personality attributes of top salespeople are:
- Modesty
- Conscientious
- Achievement
- Curiosity
- Lack of gregariousness (a surprise finding)
- Lack of Discouragement
- Not embarrassable
Read the full article here:
Positive Trait Can Hold You Back
Well, this sure has rung true for me in my career. I have seen others get promoted when I was doing as well or better than they were. What I noticed was those who got promoted engaged in self-promotion. Not a bad thing at all, just that to get what you want you need to tell those above you what you want to do. If you want to get promoted, you need to talk to your boss about it and ask what things you need to do in order for your boss to recommend you for promotion. Being humble is admirable, but it can hold you back.
An excerpt from the article on this is below the link to the article.
Positive trait that can hold you back
In a perfect world, your completed assignments would speak for themselves. You’d work on friendly, collaborative teams with fair-minded co-workers, and each person would be free with praise and full of self-effacing humility. You’d never have to worry about self-promotion or navigating office politics to get your due.
But the reality is that you need to speak up. Generosity and a humble nature are great attributes to have, of course. They help you keep a team-first attitude, improve your leadership abilities, and generally endear people to you as a professional.
Example of Irony
It was reported that in the early days of Trump’s run to be the Republican nominee that it was a publicity stunt to increase the Trump brand. The thought was that he could get free publicity to help increase demand and interest in a new season of The Apprentice/Celebrity Apprentice, even if he stayed in only for a month or two. Now that he’s gone further than he expected and is in fact the Republican nominee, it appears that the publicity is hurting his business. Since Trump has brought out such strong negative feelings from a significant percent of the population, it’s hurting his brand. This will give his kids the opportunity to manage/promote in a crisis. It appears that people don’t want to be associated with it. For example:
…meeting planners and industry insiders say, the name — and the property’s association with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — is likely to be the largest sticking point for the 263-room hotel, which opened to the public Monday.
“This hotel is the new shiny penny in Washington — the only problem is that Donald Trump has his name on it,” said Chryssa Zizos, president and chief executive of Live Wire Media Relations, whose clients include the Carlyle Group and Raytheon. “People are really, really nervous about utilizing the hotel’s bigger spaces because it’s so polarizing. There’s a lot of stigma attached to it.”
Trump name bad for his business?
July 14 FOCM Networking Event
On July 14, while in the Raleigh-Durham area, I booked a boat through the timeshare boat club I belong to (Freedom Boat Club, (Freedom Boat Club) for Jordan Lake and took a few FOCM members out for after work boating. Present were: Vince Hoefling, Michelle Jacobson, Gayle Grandinetti, Mike Burrows, Nick Macaulay, Carrie Gallagher, Wendy Revenaugh and Kelly O’Brien. And a few of us went out to Tyler’s Taproom in Apex for additional refreshments.
