Help Wanted!

I went to Barnes & Noble tonight to pick up the latest Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers, which I believe is about the factors that make some people more successful than others. I am not an outlier as the book was sold out already. I’d like to know what the secret to success is because hustling these past two weeks has HURT. I said DONE DOT COM would help with the hustle and I hope it has. For me, tonight writing is a bit cathartic at least.

My own work situation has proven more volatile on top of being incredible stressful of late with a number of client deadlines, incompetence in junior staff promoted too quickly and even more incompetent and incredibly indifferent senior executives. Smells like corporate America. Times like these call for a PLAN B. Plan B is like when I talked of reviewing goals. While I’m adverse to change, some philosophies say to be open to change as it means unlimited opportunities.

Creating tangible alternatives means thinking ahead. Sometimes thinking WAY ahead yet at the same time not getting AHEAD of yourself. That’s my problem. I’m a panic attack away from upgrading wine to Xanax. About a year ago I saw the movie Lions for Lambs. It got virtually no promotion because it had a little budget yet some big stars and big ideas in it. Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford. After seeing the movie I snapped out of inertia and into social consciousness. I won’t spoil the film but there are many thought provoking story lines that can kick start different ways you could contributing to society on civic, professional and personal levels.

We all need a little help sometimes. In fact, I’m willing to admit I need a LOT of help to get to where I want to go next. I mentioned Outliers, well I also went to pick up a GMAT test prep book. Yes, I’m considering academia. That wouldn’t be until 2010. That’s some other big help I need. I’ve had to humble myself and ask my manfriend to tutor me in math (he who has never gotten a math problem wrong on a standardized test since he took the PSAT through the GRE) but I’m glad I have the help.

I recently saw a former direct report of mine who left the company to pursue her Masters in Social Work. She told me of some of the experiences she had so far as a white, female counselor in a predominantly black and Hispanic middle school in the Bronx. The one major thing that struck me was that in many classes she observed, it would take the teacher about three quarters of the teaching time just to settle the class down. She also said that on election day, Obama’s victory was their victory the way the kids celebrated. These kids KNOW they need change, too.

Social Workers and teachers have high burnout rates. An article a couple of years back, called “Can’t Get No Satisfaction” http://nymag.com/news/features/24757/ by Jennifer Senior in New York Magazine explored burnout. I admit, living in the city, being single for this long, having gotten passed up for promotions at different stages of my career with no cause, knowing my peers at my job who I outperform earn more than me, working with abusive people at times, not to mention my own personal dramas; I’m getting close to burnt out alright. (And yes, those were all First World Problems again.) DONE DOT COM can help us both keep our sanity.

Post marathon I’ve realized I must stay physical. I’ve noticed mysterious crankiness that occurs when I’ve gone two or more days without some sort of exercise. I recently bought the DVD from Madonna’s latest fitness guru Tracey Anderson. While I’d love the help of a trainer (there’s that h-word again) at least I have a new routine to follow http://tracyandersonmethod.com/. So beyond finding out how I might become and ‘outlier’ http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922 and how I can learn math properly or rather learn how to take a standardized test properly, to how I can stay fit without the threat of a 26.2 mile race ahead of me, the next challenge I’ve given myself is picking stocks. While I’d love a little bit of help from Warren Buffet, he did give the advice of buying American stocks, epitomized by his $3 BILLION investment in GE. My guide so far on what stocks to buy has been dictated by what companies I like, what I’m very brand loyal to and, what I think has growth potential.

I will include a little list below of companies I like that I hope to research and confirm they are American companies. It’s interesting to know who owns what when you look up corporate info. My first discovery was that Power Bar (who makes the gels I used training and during the marathon) is actually a Nestle product, which is a French company. I dig Sarkozy but I’m actually going to try and stick to these shores for this experiment. The hard part is that I know 90% of this list will be chopped once I eliminate companies whose product isn’t MADE in America too. We’ve said the pledge of allegiance our entire childhood and don’t get me wrong, I love me some Italian shoes and French perfume but it’s time to try and put our money where our mouth is.

Wigwam socks
CW-X
Burt’s Bees
OPI
Starwood Hotels
Nike
Gap Inc.
JCrew
Loehmann’s
Bed Bath & Beyond
The Container Store
UPS
Google
Blackberry
JetBlue
Seventh Generation
Cancer
Health/diet foods 365 Organic, Hain, South Beach Living
Mitchum deodorant
Zip Car
Soft Sheen Carson
Wacoal
Smart Car
Whole Foods
Those coil light bulbs
Target/Walmart
At A Glance stationery
Colgate
Apple
Victoria’s Secret (The Limited)
Aveeno
Invisilign
Maybeline