I read quite a bit of material related to the American workplace–anything from education, to career advice, to financial planning and investing. For the most part, most of these articles and authors dispense advice that is useful to the employee who is just starting out, but most of these “experts” really fall short when it comes to the more experienced employee. The reason why their information is banal and trite is simple: They are usually still receiving a paycheck from a corporation. How honest or how truthful can you expect someone to be when everyone knows their identity, including the bosses cutting them their monthly check. It’s absurd, and you wind up getting watered down information that really isn’t that helpful at all.
Most of these “experts” are usually pushing a book or training material of some sort. In other words, they like to say things like, “Look at all the wonderful advice that I have given people.” The advice really doesn’t help the employee at all, but rather the “expert” who is trying to win more speaking gigs and sell more books to the employees at corporations. The quintessential culmination of this is the “Seven Effective Tips” for doing whatever. Every time I read one of these titles, I have to suppress the gagging reflex than normally ensues. Give me a break. If you want to know what really goes on inside of a corporation, if you really want to know how to best look out for yourself in the realm of capital markets, take it from someone who has the freedom to tell the truth. Take it from someone who writes anonymously, without fear of repercussion. I’m just like you. I’m trying to make a buck in this world. I’m not a CEO or a vice president or anyone of any importance. In the end, I’m only trying to help others from making the same mistakes that I’ve made.
Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about. I have a friend who just got fired from our company. He made a six-figure salary and we live in a very low cost of living area. He’s extremely bright and has a degree from a major university. He also possessed outstanding people skills, far better than most anyone at the company (most intelligent people tend to be socially inept from my experience; he definitely didn’t fall into that category). He was also an avid reader of the “experts” I described above. He liked to follow their advice, and was not informed of any problems on his most recent appraisal (for more about the true reason for appraisals, read here). Yet despite doing everything he was supposed to do, he was still let go. The “experts” would fumble around for some reasoning that justifies their own theories of work and state that the reason was because he didn’t fall rule three correctly. What a load.
The reason he got fired is simple: Our department is restructuring and he was the unlucky victim. It doesn’t matter what advice you’re following if the primary goal of the boss is to reduce headcount. You can be a workplace all-star, but if the company decides to downsize, you’ll still be out on your ass. What all these gurus failed to consider is that the most important indicator of your success will be how lucky you are. They don’t tell you this because it’s hard to sell a book that simply says, “Get a degree, try and do the right things, and try to be as lucky as possible.” You can’t go to a seminar that will make you have better luck, you can’t read a book and change the outcome of randomness. The very definition of randomness is that is can’t be predicted, and therefore it can’t be bought or sold. Some of you will say he should have seen it coming, surely there were signs. In fact, our stock is at an all-time high and the company is more profitable that it ever has been in the past. Read all the “experts” you want, as for me, I find it far more effective to carry a four-leaf clover and hang a horseshoe over my office door. Take it from someone like you, I’d rather be lucky than good.