I am motivation. For real.  Pick your flavor, yo.

From KD's Reading Deck:

"If you want to go fast, go alone...
If you want to go far, go together..."

"<insert name of problem employee> is like FEMA, becuase he's never there when you need him."

Boom. That just happened. #youarewelcome #cynics.and.optimists.unite 

Have a great weekend peeps.

Capitalist Note - I'm getting ready to go to a funeral for a neighbor's 18-year old who died way too young.  Everyone has stories about people who have passed that they admired. This is mine. I'm sending it to the parents today.

Natalie and Alex - 

Your son passed away way too young. You've heard hundreds of stories and looked at hundreds of pictures over the last couple of days.  Here's mine.  It's online, so throw it in a gmail folder and look at it when the physical photos aren't available, or when you need to hear that Blake mattered.

My love for your son is framed from where I watched him.  This picture shows you where he had the most impact on me.  It's not an event or a conversation I had with him.

You recognize the picture.  It's looking at our street, where the neighborhood kids play.  That's your house to the left.  This is where I watched Blake.

More to the point, this is where I watched Blake take care of my oldest son - 7 years younger than your boy.  

In 2001, we moved into the neighborhood.  As anyone who knows your family would expect, everyone in your house greeted us with open arms.  But - we introduced a new variable to the lives of your kids.  Here's a picture of that variable:

A roaming, sloppy 2-year old looking for attention, especially attention from older boys in the neighborhood.  The type of thing that sends most older boys running.

Part of watching your kid from the window is seeing them get rejected. That's life and it's part of growing up.

Blake was different from the pack. While many older kids would (and did) run from the kid pictured above when approached for the 1000th time, your son remained calm.

He always had time for the kid in the boots.

Always. I saw it from the window. 

Quality time. He let the kid approach.  He talked to the kid. He let the kid play, even if it meant the game being played was effectively over. He was kind. He always found a way for the kid to feel great about himself.  He showed him how to do things. We see kindness in our kid today that looks a lot like what your son provided.

In short, he was a mentor - and didn't even know it.  Most mentors don't realize the impact they have on others.  It happens informally and it's just who they are.  

Part of that is great parenting, to be sure.  Part of it was just who your son was.

When I heard the news, the only thing I could think about was that window. Hundreds of videos playing in my head of your son - taking care of the sloppy kid in boots pictured above.  

Your son was different and had impact beyond what you know. God bless your son and your family.

If you're 35 or over and haven't been fired yet in your career, one of two things is likely - you haven't looked for a job that stretches you to the point you might fail, or you take zero chances in your jobs/career and are way too concerned with maintaining the status quo, or what Barry Manilow liked to call "feelings".

Getting fired can actually be a depth-building experience.  In a lot of cases, you're going to want to say goodbye with a "thanks for the memories" letter/email that says goodbye to the people you worked with. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason recently got fired and left the blueprint for the "thanks for the memories" email.  Here's the five elements you want to hit to make yourself look like someone that truly "got it" and is someone the masses would want to work with again - or hire - in the future:

1. Act like you didn't get fired, then admit that you did. Mason did it and it's perfect.  "I'm going to explore other options. I'm exploring those options involuntarily, because I just got canned."

2. Say things weren't going great and you're accountable. 

3. Say that the best way for the people working for and around you to reinvent themselves is for you to get out of the way.  It shows confidence in the team and highlights the fact that you know other people were adding a lot of the value - not just you.

4. Add a pop culture reference to tell people what you got out of the experience. 

5. Give them something you learned that you wish you would have done differently, and encourage them to go for it.  Don't whine on this one - come up with something real but stay classy.  No "If I could share one thing, it would be to watch out for the backstabbers".  Come up with something real that shows you're a self-reflective SOB/DOB.  

See Mason's letter below with highlights referencing my 5 things in the order they appear above.

Next time you get fired, drop some science with this type of letter.  You'll get hired into a future job you didn't deserve as a result of doing it.

The Andrew Mason Goodbye Letter

(This is for Groupon employees, but I'm posting it publicly since it will leak anyway)

People of Groupon,

After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.

You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I'm getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we've shared over the last few months, and I've never seen you working together more effectively as a global company - it's time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.

For those who are concerned about me, please don't be - I love Groupon, and I'm terribly proud of what we've created. I'm OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I'll now take some time to decompress (FYI I'm looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I'll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.

If there's one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness - don't waste the opportunity!

I will miss you terribly.

Love,

Andrew

I'm up over at Kinetix client iMomentous talking about the new math related to how candidates find your open positions in today's world, with a big hat tip to Bob Corlett.  Check it out:

"Let’s examine how much mobile really matters looking at some of the numbers shared by Bob Corlett in the Washington Business Journal.  You like numbers?  How about these numbers? (see references for Bob’s stats by visiting his blog at Staffing Advisors):

-Ten times more job seekers start their job search on Google than anywhere else.

-Indeed is now reported as the #1 source of hire for employers in the US.

-How did that happen?  Two out of three searches of any kind originate on Google. And Google job searches often lead job seekers to Indeed. Indeed has three times more unique visitors per month than the job boards.

-More than one out of every three minutes spent online is now spent “beyond the PC” on smart phones and tablets. Already 30 percent of Indeed’s total candidate visits are mobile. They encourage it.

-Only 4 percent of job seekers start their job search with a specific company in mind. So if your ads are not in the right place to be seen, you won’t be considered. And if somehow candidates do see your ad, 34 percent will not apply if your application process is too much of a hassle.

So, the call for a mobile-friendly careers site in recruiting is pretty clear.  The chain of command goes like this these days – Google to Indeed to Your Career Site, where a decision on whether to apply is made. At least one out of three candidates are doing that on a mobile device, so why wouldn’t you have a mobile-friendly site ready for mobile users?"

What do you need to differently with that in mind?  Other than thinking about the impact of mobile, you need to think like a marketer.  There's millions of things for a job seeker to read on the web when they fire up Google - so what makes your openings notable?

Probably nothing.  Which is why you need to put on your marketing hat and write better headlines and copy to your job postings.

The irony - job seekers give your job posting the same amount of time you give their resume as a recruiter - about 5 seconds.  If there's nothing compelling in there, why should they care?

They won't.  At least the right candidate won't.  Start thinking more like a marketer with your copy.