👓 Best Answer to “Sell Me This Pen” I Have Ever Seen | LinkedIn

Read Best Answer to “Sell Me This Pen” I Have Ever Seen by Girish AmanapuGirish Amanapu (LinkedIn Pulse)

I personally never thought anyone would actually say, “sell me this pen” in a sales interview. I was wrong. It will happen to you too. And to avoid panic, you should know exactly what to say back.

I am going to give you the right sales framework to respond perfectly every time.

📑 Best Answer to “Sell Me This Pen” I Have Ever Seen | LinkedIn

Annotated Best Answer to “Sell Me This Pen” I Have Ever Seen by Girish AmanapuGirish Amanapu (LinkedIn Pulse)

Here’s the simple sales framework I used to answer “sell me this pen”. Memorize it for yourself.

  1. Find out how they last used a pen (gather info)
  2. Emphasize the importance of the activity they last used a pen (respond to info)
  3. Sell something bigger than a pen, like a state of mind (deliver info)
  4. Ask for the buy (closing)
  

🔖 The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási

Bookmarked The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási (Little, Brown and Company)

In the bestselling tradition of Malcom Gladwell, James Gleick, and Nate Silver, prominent professor László Barabási gives us a trailblazing book that promises to transform the very foundations of how our success-obsessed society approaches their professional careers, life pursuits and long-term goals.

Too often, accomplishment does not equal success. We did the work but didn't get the promotion; we played hard but weren't recognized; we had the idea but didn't get the credit. We convince ourselves that talent combined with a strong work ethic is the key to getting ahead, but also realize that combination often fails to yield results, without any deeper understanding as to why. Recognizing this striking disconnect, the author, along with a team of renowned researchers and some of the most advanced data-crunching systems on the planet, dedicated themselves to one goal: uncovering that ever-elusive link between performance and success.

Now, based on years of academic research, The Formula finally unveils the groundbreaking discoveries of their pioneering study, not only highlighting the scientific and mathematic principles that underpin success, but also revolutionizing our understanding of:
Why performance is necessary but not adequate
Why "Experts" are often wrong
How to assemble a creative team primed for success
How to most effectively engage our networks
And much more.

Caught an interesting reference to this in an episode of Human Current, but I’ve also recently finished his prior book Linked. I’ll likely read it, but I’ll probably wish I had read the relevant papers instead.

👓 Engage. Disengage. Repeat. | Kathleen Fitzpatrick

Read Engage. Disengage. Repeat. by Kathleen FitzpatrickKathleen Fitzpatrick (Kathleen Fitzpatrick)
I believe that I have caught myself just this side of a major case of burnout. If that sentence is an exaggeration, it’s not by much. A few friends who had the dubious pleasure of talking wit…

🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Human Toll of Instant Delivery | New York Times

Listened to 'The Daily': The Human Toll of Instant Delivery from New York Times

With the rise of online retailers like Amazon, consumers’ expectations about the speed of delivery have been transformed. But at what cost?

👓 Stakhanovite movement | Wikipedia

Read Stakhanovite movement (Wikipedia)
The term Stakhanovite originated in the Soviet Union and referred to workers who modelled themselves after Alexey Stakhanov. These workers took pride in their ability to produce more than was required, by working harder and more efficiently, thus strengthening the Communist state. The Stakhanovite Movement was encouraged due to the idea of socialist emulation. It began in the coal industry but later spread to many other industries in the Soviet Union. The movement eventually encountered resistance as the increased productivity led to increased demands on workers.

👓 Alexey Stakhanov | Wikipedia

Read Alexey Stakhanov (Wikipedia)
Alexsei Grigoryevich Stakhanov (Russian: Алексе́й Григо́рьевич Стаха́нов; 3 January 1906 – 5 November 1977) was a Russian Soviet miner, Hero of Socialist Labor (1970), and a member of the CPSU (1936). He became a celebrity in 1935 as part of what became known as the Stakhanovite movement – a campaign intended to increase worker productivity and to demonstrate the superiority of the socialist economic system.

🎧 Episode 51: More Than Paper Cuts (MEN, Part 5) | Scene on Radio

Listened to Episode 51: More Than Paper Cuts (MEN, Part 5) by cdsduke from Scene on Radio

The #MeToo Movement has shed a harsh light on sexual harassment in the workplace. Just how bad, and how pervasive, is sexism on the job in the U.S., from day-to-day expressions of disrespect all the way to rape? Spoiler: It’s bad.

Reported by Ibby Caputo. With researchers Hannah Riley Bowles of Harvard Kennedy School, Meg Bond of UMass Lowell, Peter Glick of Lawrence University, and Mily Treviño-Sauceda of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas.

👓 What do you want to do when you grow up, kid? | Robin Rendle

Read What do you want to do when you grow up, kid? by Robin Rendle (robinrendle.com)
I fell into web design via books. When I was maybe six or seven I remember reading about polar bears and how they hibernated in a large compendium about all sorts of natural habitats and curiosities ranging from foxes hunting in the desert and wild horses running on the Mongolian plains to Emperor penguins shivering in the Antarctic. And to this day I still remember that giant, double page spread of a bear and her cubs. It was a wondrous illustration but what piqued my curiosity was how the writer described hibernation.
What a great little story here. I may be biased because I love all of these types of things myself.

📺 Workplace Happiness is Your Best Business Strategy | Valerie Alexander | Innovate Pasadena | YouTube

Bookmarked Workplace Happiness is Your Best Business Strategy by Valerie AlexanderValerie Alexander (YouTube)

According to Gallup, American employers lose $450-550 billion a year by failing to create positive corporate cultures that foster accomplishment, autonomy, and appreciation in the workplace.

Employee Unhappiness leads to:
• Higher turnover
• Excessive absenteeism
• Poor customer service
• Theft
• Workplace bullying and violence
• Increased workers compensation claims
• More on-the-job injuries

…and a myriad of outcomes that have no line item in the budget, but still reduce productivity throughout the workplace. Engagement, job satisfaction and worker happiness matter to the bottom line.

This talk will give employees and managers the skills to create a positive work environment through simple adjustments and practices anyone can do, no matter the workplace. Whether in an office, a hospital, a restaurant, classroom or construction site, these techniques work!

In the U.S., the average loss due to unhappiness and disengagement is $3,500 per employee per year. When it comes to happiness, is your workplace above or below average? Can you afford to let it stay that way? Make happiness a priority in your workplace today, and reap the rewards tomorrow.

I remember quite enjoying this talk at Innovate Pasadena by Valerie Alexander about two months ago. They’ve kindly taped it and released it on YouTube for everyone who missed it. If you’re an executive or leader within your company, it’s highly worth your time to absorb these ideas and implement them into your company culture. I’d also submit that it’s worth your personal time as well.

Perhaps not surprisingly, happiness is worth it’s weight in gold in the workplace.

👓 Perspective | Even janitors have noncompetes now. Nobody is safe. | Washington Post

Read Even janitors have noncompetes now. Nobody is safe. (Washington Post)
One of the central contradictions of capitalism is that what makes it work — competition — is also what capitalists want to get rid of the most. That’s true not only of competition between companies, but also between them and their workers. After all, the more of a threat its rivals are, and the more options its employees have, the less profitable a business will tend to be. Which, as the Financial Times reports, probably goes a long way toward explaining why a $3.4 billion behemoth like Cushman & Wakefield would bother to sue one of its former janitors, accusing her of breaking her noncompete agreement by taking a job in the same building she had been cleaning for the global real estate company but doing it for a different firm.
This is just a bit silly… particularly in the land of both “opportunity” and capitalism.

👓 Apple is about to do something their programmers definitely don’t want. | Anil Dash

Read Apple is about to do something their programmers definitely don't want. by Anil Dash (Anil Dash)
Apple spent $5 billion on a beautiful new office, Apple Park. So it’s amazing they’re about to make an extremely costly, avoidable mistake: putting their coders in an open-plan layout. I work at Fog Creek Software, where our cofounder and former CEO Joel Spolsky has been blogging for

🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Rampant Problem of Pregnancy Discrimination | New York Times

Listened to ‘The Daily’: The Rampant Problem of Pregnancy Discrimination by Michael Barbaro from New York Times

A New York Times investigation finds that many pregnant women are systematically sidelined at work, passed over for promotions and fired when they complain.