Career Advice on the Back of a Business Card....

Dr. Roger Smith, CTO for PEO STRI, asked me a very thought provoking question:

"What one piece of career advice would you write on the back of your business card? Imagine that you are about to give your business card to a young person entering your profession. But first, you turned that card over and wrote a short piece of advice to help them get started in their career. What would you write on the back of your own business card to help this person? "

If you would like to see the results of Dr. Smith's queries and/or provide your career advice that would go on the back of a business card, then please go to this site.:

Dr. Roger Smith's Advice on Back of a Business Card Site

I think it is very cool that Dr. Smith is doing this because the type of advice that I saw others provide are priceless!

My personal response was the following:

I do have three things that I tell any young person, four things if I think they will listen and five things if I know them.

For any young person, my career advice is:

1) Life is short.
2) Death is certain.
3) If you do not make your own decisions now, time will make them for you.

If I think they are listening to me:

4) Always pay yourself first. I tell the story about the importance of compound interest using the twins story on my blog.


NOTE: The entry above is from the presentation that I give to Colleges and Unviversities.

If I know them well or their parents well, then I add the final piece of advice:

5) Never, EVER, sleep with someone who has MORE problems than you do.