At my college reunion, I met a prominent national newspaper editor I’ve admired for a long time.  I had e-mailed her a couple of times to introduce myself over the years, but she hadn’t responded, and I didn’t want to be a nag so I let it go.  When I talked to her in person, I mentioned this, and she replied, “Oh, I don’t think it’s ...

Marketing guru Seth Godin read my mind.  As he says in a recent post: “I don't know about you, but I'm getting plenty of emails asking for more money for various political campaigns.  That's because the systems in place are good at asking for money, and that's what they measure. They're willing to burn out permission, person by person, ...

My friend Pam Slim over at Escape from Cubicle Nation has a great post on how to tread the fine line between expressing admiration for someone and fan worship.  Straight from the ECN blog are 4 “fan traps” to avoid.  I’ve been known to do some of these things in my interactions with bestselling authors, and people who haven’t yet ...

Out of sight, out of mind is one of my least favorite qualities of human nature.  I can’t tell you the number of relationships, which I thought were real and lasting, that went bust because I used to see the person every day at school or work and then circumstances changed.   Though I’ve had this happen over and over again, it still ...

What’s the one time it’s okay to gossip?  When you’re looking for a job.   Discussion of your job search should not be reserved for close friends/family or headhunters or official networking events.  If you’re looking for work or thinking about looking for work, you shouldn’t hesitate to tell everyone you know the particulars, and ...

Nearly all of my friends and colleagues in the career advice sphere regularly promote their media appearances and new projects on their blogs. I don’t do this.  I’ve never done this.  I get as many decent opportunities as the next guy, but I’ve always considered blog content to be fairly sacred – reserved for career and business topics ...