10 Things The Smartest People Never Do PDF

8/14/2015
10ThingstheSmartestPeopleNeverDo
SEARCH THE LIST
VIEW FULL LIST
1 Thing All Successful

CEOs Have in Common
The 10 Fastest-Growing
U.S. Companies
How Fitbit (No. 53) Got

Its Fitness Tracker in
Shape
Succeeding i
Childhood D
Best Reveng
OWNER'S MANUAL
10 Things the Smartest People Never Do

What you don't do matters a lot--especially where people are concerned.
BYJEFF HADEN
@jeff_haden
IMAGE: Getty Images
The smartest thing any of us can do is to help other people succeedbecause that way,
we also succeed.
http://www.inc.com/jeffhaden/10thingsthesmartestpeopleneverdo.html
1/12
8/14/2015
And thats why you should never:

1. Thoughtlessly waste other peoples time.
Every time youre late to an appointment or meeting, it says your time is more
important. Every time you wait until the grocery clerk finishes ringing you up to search
for your debit card says you couldnt care less if others have to wait unnecessarily. Every
time you take three minutes to fill your oversize water bottle while a line stacks up
behind you says youre in your own little world--and your world is the only world that
matters.
NEXT
Small, irritating things, but basically no big deal? Wrong. PeopleARTICLE

who dont notice the
small ways they inconvenience others tend to be oblivious when they do it in a major
way.
How you treat people when it doesnt really matter--especially when youre a leader-says everything about you. Act like the people around you have more urgent needs than
yours and you will never go wrong--and you will definitely be liked.
2. Ignore people beneath your level.
Theres an older guy at the gym that easily weighs 350 pounds and understandably
struggles on the aerobic and weight equipment. Hats off; hes in there trying.
Yet nobody talks to him. Or even seems to notice him. Its like hes invisible. Why? He
doesnt fit in.
We all do it. When we visit a company, we talk to the people were supposed to talk to.
When we attend a civic event, we talk to the people were supposed to talk to. We breeze
right by the technicians and talk to the guy who booked us to speak, even though the
techs are the ones who make us look and sound good onstage.
Heres an easy rule of thumb: Nod whenever you make eye contact. Or smile. Or (gasp!)
even say hi. Just act like people exist.
Well automatically like you for it--and remember you as someone who engages even
when theres nothing in it for you.
3. Ask for too much (especially too soon).
A guy you dont know asks you for a favor, a big, time-consuming favor. You politely
decline. He asks again. You decline again. Then he whips out the Need card. But its
really important to me. You have to. I really need [it].
2/12
8/14/2015
Maybe he does, in fact, really need whatever it is. But a person's needs are his or her
problem. The world doesnt owe someone anything. No one is entitled to advice or
mentoring or success. The only thing a person is entitled to is what he or she earns.
People tend to help people who first help themselves. People tend to help people who
first help them. And people definitely befriend people who look out for other people
first, because we all want more of those people in our lives.
4. Ignore people in genuine need.
At the same time, some people arent in a position to help themselves. They need a
hand: a few dollars, some decent food, a warm coat.
Though I dont necessarily believe in karma, I do believe good things always come back
to you, in the form of feeling good about yourself.
And thats reason enough to help people who find themselves on the downside of
advantage.
5. Ask a question so you can talk.
You ask a guy at lunch, Hey, do you think social media marketing is effective?
Well, he answers, I think under the right circumstances
Wrong, you interrupt. Ive never seen an ROI. Ive never seen a bump in direct sales.
Plus, awareness is not a measurable or even an important goal, and you drone on
while he desperately tries to escape.
Dont shoehorn in your opinions under false pretenses. Only ask a question if you
genuinely want to know the answer. And when you do speak again, ask a follow-up
question that helps you better understand the other persons point of view.
People like people who are genuinely interested in themnot in themselves.
6. Pull the Do you know who I am?
OK, so maybe they dont take it to the Reese Witherspoon level, but many people whip
out some form of the Im Too Important for Thiscard.
Maybe the line is too long. Or the service isnt sufficiently personal. Or they arent
shown their deserved level of respect.
Say you really are somebody. People always like you better when you dont act like you
know youre somebodyor that you think it entitles you to different treatment.
3/12
8/14/2015
7. Forget to dial it back.

An unusual personality is a lot of fun until it isnt. Yet when the going gets tough or a
situation gets stressful, some people just cant stop expressing their individuality.
Look. We know youre funny. We know youre quirky. We know you march to the beat of
your own drum. Still, theres a time to play and a time to be serious, a time to be
irreverent and a time to conform, a time to challenge and a time to back off.
Knowing when the situation requires you to stop justifying your words or actions with an
unspoken Hey, thats just me being me can often be the difference between being
likable and being an ass.
8. Mistake self-deprecation for permission.
You know how its OK when you make fun of certain things about yourself, but not for
other people to make fun of you for those same things? Like a receding hairline. Weight.
A struggling business or career. Your spouse and kids.
Its OK when you poke a little gentle fun at yourself, but the last thing you want to hear
are bald or money or Do you want fries with that? jokes. (Bottom line: I can say Im fat.
You cant.)
Sometimes self-deprecation is genuine, but its often a mask for insecurity. Never
assume people who make fun of themselves give you permission to poke the same fun
at them.
Only tease when you know it will be taken in the right spirit. Otherwise, if you feel the
need to be funny, make fun of yourself.
9. Humblebrag.
Humblebragging is a form of bragging that tries to cover the brag with a veneer of
humility so you can brag without appearing to brag. (Key word is appearing, because its
still easy to tell humblebraggers are quite tickled with themselves.)
For example, heres a tweeted humblebrag from actor Stephen Fry: Oh dear. Dont
know what to do at the airport. Huge crowd, but Ill miss my plane if I stop and do
photos oh dear dont want to disappoint.
Your employees dont want to hear how stressed you are about your upcoming TED
Talk. They dont want to hear how hard it is to maintain two homes. Before you brag-humbly or not, business or personal--think about your audience. A gal who is a size 14
doesnt want to hear you complain that normally youre a size 2, but youre a size 4 in
4/12
8/14/2015
Prada because its sizes run small.

Or better yet, dont brag. Just be proud of what youve accomplished. Let others brag
for you; if youve done cool things, dont worry--they will.
10. Push your opinions.
You know things. Cool things. Great things.
Awesome. But only share them in the right settings. If youre a mentor, share away. If
youre a coach or a leader, share away. If youre the guy who just started a paleo diet,
dont tell us all what to order.
Unless we ask. Whats right for you may not be right for others; shoot, it might not even
turn out to be right for you.
Like most things in life, offering helpful advice is all about picking your spots--just like
winning friends and influencing people.
Why Success Lies in Embracing Weaknesses

Jeff Haden, contributing editor at Inc., describes what you need to do to learn from your mistakes
and get better at what you're not good at.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
5/12
8/14/2015
PUBLISHED ON: AUG 10, 2015
ADVERTISEMENT
INC. 5000
How Couples Therapy Helped Bring This

Company Back From the Brink
A prodigy, Jessica Mah, 25, was poised for Silicon Valley success. Then she discovered
that her San Francisco-based company, inDinero, had a flawed product, an
unsustainable business model, and a soap-opera-worthy org chart.
BYKATE ROCKWOOD
Jessica Mah reinvented her financial software firm, inDinero, to create a stunning growth rate of 2,685.6 percent over
the past three years.
IMAGE: Emily Shur
6/12
8/14/2015
Jessica Mah descends onto the carpet in a pair of Ugg slippers. With no permanent desk
at inDinero headquarters, the financial firm's co-founder and CEO seems to adapt
herself to whatever space she finds herself in. She's in the midst of a video
conference
with her four offices, including those on the other side of the globe in the Philippines.
Splayed on the ground, propped up only by her elbows, Mah digests the metrics being
rattled off as if they were as soothing as guided meditation.
Mah's vibe has become more centered since four years ago, when her company
appeared to be taking its last breath. In 2010, when she launched the "Mint.com for
small business"--as she positioned it--the Y Combinator-backed startup offered a
financial dashboard for business owners to track their cash flow. But Mah discovered
that her product was flawed and its business model wasn't sustainable. To complicate
matters, she was powering inDinero with seven of her closest friends from UC Berkeley,
inclu
ding her co-founder, Andy Su, 24. As the company began to unravel, so did her
relationships. After one particular blowout, Su gave her an ultimatum, threatening to
leave: "I don't forgive you until you agree to do counseling with me." The two suddenly
found themselves in couples therapy, of all places.
A failing business and an organizational headache was hardly the trajectory Mah
imagined for herself when the precocious overachiever conceived of inDinero. Growing
up with an engineer father and entrepreneur mother in New York City and Westchester
County, she was coding by the time she was 8 years old. Mah hatched her first tech
business at 12 (a web hosting services company), dropped out of high school at 15, and
launched inDinero at 19. Other than a college internship, the computer science grad had
never before worked for a company. She graduated from Y Combinator'ssummer 2010
class with $1.2 million in funding, while being hailed by the tech press as "the closest
we've got to a female Mark Zuckerberg." (In 2011, she was included among Inc.'s 30
Under 30.)
But a year after starting inDinero, cracks began to show. Most of inDinero's 30,000 momand-pop-shop customers were using the site for free, rather than paying for premium
tools. Investors had cautioned against hiring buddies, but the young founder ignored
their warnings. Now she was tangled in heated spats with her best friend over mundane
issues like whether to put sales reps' performances on a white board. "Suddenly I'm
screaming at her, and she's screaming at me," says Mah. "We stopped hanging out." The
startup was burning through $80,000 a month, with only $150,000 left in the bank, and
Mah had to lay off all her friends (except two, including Su). "We were racing our Ferrari
into a brick wall," she admits. In one of her darkest moments, she confessed to her
father in an email: "I feel like I'm Bernie Madoff--rich on the outside, but completely
7/12
8/14/2015
broken on the inside."

To salvage what was left, Mah needed to pivot the company, but she didn't know in
what direction. She and Su moved the remains of inDinero into their apartment, with
rent subsidized by their parents. The co-founders used their personal networks for
market research, ultimately discovering their new product: software for small
businesses to outsource back-office tasks, like taxes. The pair quickly learned
bookkeeping, and this time around, as they started to staff up, hiring friends was off the
table. "Unless I'm willing to sacrifice the relationship 100 percent, I shouldn't let a friend
even come into my interview process, period," says Mah.
But the reality was, she and Su were friends, roommates, and business partners--an
overly complex dynamic. Even as the company began its turnaround, their relationship
was devolving because of contrasting communication styles. "A lot of times Jess comes
in and bombards people with a ton of ideas, going a million miles a minute," says Su. "If
I'm thinking about a problem, I might say, 'Here's the best way to go about it.'"
Last summer, the platonic partners' relationship came to a head. Su gave Mah the
therapy ultimatum, which turned out to be transformational. First, she hired an
executive coach, but the two soon upgraded to a marriage counselor, who has helped
them adopt new rituals, like no fighting in front of the kids (employees) and mandatory
date nights, often in the form of hitting golf balls at the driving range or watching a
movie. The understood rule: No talking about work problems. "Marriage counseling has
been golden," says Mah.
Today, the newly incarnated inDinero has become a force in the small-to-medium-sizebusiness software space. Customers--primarily businesses with two to 100 employees-pay three to four figures monthly for the startup's proprietary software, which handles
all accounting and taxes. With another $8.8 million in funding, the company now boasts
a staff of 150. In 2014, inDinero hit $2.9 million in revenue with a growth rate of 2,685.6
percent. "I think a year from now we'll be doubled in everything-- revenue, customers,
head count," says Mah of her company's rapid turnaround.
Along with that feat is another that's just as critical to her: becoming a wiser, more
grounded CEO. Mah's been fueling her managerial self-help journey with lessons from
books--she devoured 100 last year (from volumes on business management to political
memoirs), and she plans to finish another 50 by the end of 2015. She's even repaired
some of the friendships she lost in the initial inDinero meltdown. "At the end of the day,"
says Mah, "all we have is our health, our family, and our friends. That's it."
FROM THE SEPTEMBER 2015 ISSUE OF INC. MAGAZINE
8/12
8/14/2015
ADVERTISEMENT
LEAD
In the Age of Millennials, Here's Why Baby

Boomers Are Getting Fired
Older workers are failing to see the bigger picture--and it's costing them their jobs.
BYJ.T. O'DONNELL
@jtodonnell
IMAGE: Getty Images
I recently shared why Millennials are getting fired, and it started an intense discussion.
Now, it's time to discuss why seasoned workers, a.k.a. Baby Boomers, are getting fired
too.
Over 50? You're more likely to have long-term unemployment woes.

The rate of long-term unemployment is highest over the age of 50. As companies
embrace the value proposition of hiring Millennial workers (in spite of their anger
towardtheir shortcomings), Baby Boomers who can't deliver the same value will be let
go. Yes, there are laws against age discrimination, but when companies follow proper
9/12
8/14/2015
protocol and can prove you aren't being singled out solely based on age, they can (and
will) let you go.
Boomers, here's what gets you fired.

As companies re-evaluate their corporate cultures to determine how to create
environments that support the newer generation of workers, some are learning their
Baby Boomer employees are making the job tougher. The solution? Eliminate the source
of resistance.
1. Employers need affordable specialists, not expensive generalists.

Boomer skills and methodical approaches to work aren't cutting it anymore. The
workplace has become extremely agile. Duties and responsibilities are constantly
changing. Boomers can no longer assume years of experience are enough to ensure
long-term employment --it actually works against you. Why not hire two Millennials for
the price of one Boomer? Restructurings will be the "new normal" as employers redefine
roles so they can eliminate workers with skills not in alignment with what they need to
stay competitive. Heck, Google just did it! You may argue professionalism and industry
knowledge should count for something. Butthey mean nothing if you can't use them to
deliver a cost-effective, timely service. It's not personal, it's business.
Tip: Seek out Millennial workers and politely (see No.3 below)ask for help developing
your tech skills. Speed matters. If you aren't leveraging technology to do more work
faster, and with greater accuracy, you're aging yourself out of the workplace. Not to
mention, the more Millennial co-workers you can befriend, the better. They already
make up half the workforce. It's more than likely one you work with todaycould be your
boss tomorrow.
2. Senior team members are more evolved -- and should act accordingly.
Many Baby Boomers appear to have forgotten they were once inexperienced too. As we
age, the experience we gain feels like a well-fitting pair of shoes. We forget there was
ever a"breaking in" period. The result? Boomers criticizing newer, younger workers for
their lack of skills and professionalism, instead of seeing an opportunity to help them
find their internal motivation for work. Tough love isn't the answer, nor is excessive
praise. What they want is proper coaching: positively constructed feedback on how to
get better; achance to ask lots of questions (regardless of how basic they may sound),
so they can understand the bigger picture and find their purpose and impact. Being
the"Millennial Whisperer" of the office can save your job, whereas being
the"Millennial Antagonist"can help you lose it.
10/12
8/14/2015
Tip: Go back in time and think about all the mentors you had who helped you close the
gap in your knowledge and experience. How do you feel about them? Did they expect
lots of praise and recognition of their efforts to help you? Now, choose some younger
workers and take them under your wing. Don't expect any thanks. Just remember,
you're paying it forward like others did for you.
3. Company culture must be properly represented.

As we age and have increased pressures in life (i.e. aging parents, kids, home, spouse,
financial responsibilities, health, etc.), we can often bring our stress to the job. We may
think we're hiding it, but we aren't. Boomers who aren't properly managing their stress
often show it in their workplace personality -- making everyone around them
uncomfortable. It's not what you say, it's how you say it. Snarky comments and
humorous putdowns may seem innocent and a great way to passively vent frustrations,
but they negatively represent the company. So does losing your cool and having no
patience for less experienced or skilled co-workers. Years of "paying dues" doesn't
entitle you to act this way. You're paid to represent the company properly -- both inside
and out. Employers need seasoned workers who display consistent positivity inthe
workplace. Fact: Your attitude guides the attitudes of all newer, younger workers. No
need to keep you around if you bring the place down. When turnover increases, HR
looks at management and co-workers to see if they're the cause. Moving you out so
Millennials don't keep quitting will be their next business move. They need the
Millennial workers more than they need you.
Tip: Try to catch yourself before you make statements that can be interpreted as allknowing or condescending. Leave out statements like, "when I was your age," and
"you're too young to understand this." Additionally, invest some time in learning about
emotional intelligence in the workplace. Understanding how you are being
misperceived and adjusting some of your communication style can make you more
valuable to employers. They need seasoned professionals who can properly represent
the positive aspects of the company'sculture.
Why Arent We Figuring This Out?

The real generational disconnect lies in both sides afraid of being wrong. Thus, I'm
asking readers:
A) Why are we failing so badly at teaming up?
B) Why does each side think it's the other's job to be more understanding?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
11/12
8/14/2015
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
PUBLISHED ON: AUG 13, 2015
12/12

10 Things The Smartest People Never Do PDF

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

10 Things The Smartest People Never Do PDF

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

8/14/2015

SEARCH THE LIST

VIEW FULL LIST

1 Thing All Successful

How Fitbit (No. 53) Got

10 Things the Smartest People Never Do

IMAGE: Getty Images

And thats why you should never:

Small, irritating things, but basically no big deal? Wrong. PeopleARTICLE

7. Forget to dial it back.

Prada because its sizes run small.

Why Success Lies in Embracing Weaknesses

PUBLISHED ON: AUG 10, 2015

How Couples Therapy Helped Bring This

broken on the inside."

In the Age of Millennials, Here's Why Baby

IMAGE: Getty Images

Over 50? You're more likely to have long-term unemployment woes.

Boomers, here's what gets you fired.

1. Employers need affordable specialists, not expensive generalists.

3. Company culture must be properly represented.

Why Arent We Figuring This Out?

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen