So Bill Gates is preparing to retire as CEO of Microsoft. Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen founded Microsoft on April 4, 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to make and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, an early computer that was sold to hobbyists. Gates dropped out of Harvard University in his third year to focus on ...

Can you imagine a workplace with no pointless meetings, no boss hovering over your shoulder, and no punishment for arriving at 9:05AM?  Two online friends of mine, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, have just released a new book based on their popular Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) concept, which they pioneered with electronics giant ...

Last week, I participated on a T&D Magazine webcast with Bill Byham, the CEO of Development Dimensions International,  a leading human resources consulting firm.  It got me thinking about a great DDI white paper I saw recently written a white paper on the qualities that predict leadership success.  According to DDI, effective ...

Over at Employee Evolution, Natalie discusses common mistakes people make when starting a business.  According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50 percent of small businesses fail in their first year and 95 percent fail within the first five years.  Among the mistakes, and Natalie’s tips: 1. Business owners don’t create ...

When you get to a certain point in your career, the tendency is to think you’re supposed to be an expert in everything pertaining to your field.  After all, you have years of experience under your belt, you keep up on new developments well enough, and you’re the one people are always asking for advice.    Regardless of your ...

A lot of twenty-somethings and early thirty-somethings e-mail me asking for advice on how to publish a book written for their age group.  While I’m not one to discourage people from anything they have their hearts set on, if you like to write and want to offer proactive advice to people your age or a little younger, my honest advice is to ...

Touche, Scot Herrick.  Over at Cube Rules, Scot suggests that innovation may be overrated, and that innovation means very little without the ability to execute on great ideas.   Innovation is important, says Scot, because we all need to be adapting to the changing business environment.  But too often, we see innovations as meaning ...

We’ve spent some time on this blog discussing the warning signs that you may be in firing range at work, or that you’re unhappy in your current job situation.  This week, CNN.com has an interesting piece on ways we might unknowingly sabotage our own efforts at a successful career.  Among the highlights: Not keeping your skill set ...

Thanks to the folks over at Get That Job for pointing out the story of Sean Aiken, a twenty-something who is figuring out what he wants to do with his life by trying out a new job every week for a year. According to Sean, after finishing college with a business degree, he made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t settle for a career that he was ...

You know those creepy-crawly plastic insects kids play with around Halloween time?  Back in the day, my friends and I would throw a bunch of them against the wall and then see which one would stick.   When I saw these in the store last week, they got me thinking that a lot of people have careers that involve exactly the same ...