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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Books

I love books. If I could have one thing free for the rest of my life, it would be books. I can drop a fortune in Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.com in a New York Minute. I'll go in spurts where I'll read several books a week. I just like to know what information is out there and how other people look at things. I'm always curious to see what people are reading or talk to them about the latest book they've read. In order to continue your growth once you leave school, try to read a least a few books each year, preferably more. Take a look occasionally at the best seller list, the business best seller list, or the business section at your local Barnes & Noble. Try out a couple of books and find an author you like. There are certain ones I love, others I can't stand, and some I liked to start out, but grew out of. You'll always learn something from every book you read, even if it's as simple as the fact that you don't like that author's writing style and that you'll never torture a reader like that with your own writing. To quote Tom Peters (one of my favorite business authors), "If I read a book that cost me $20 and I get one good idea, I have gotten one of the great bargains of all time."

Let me know what some of your favorite books are.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Do You Know What You Might Have To Do?

Last week, I was having a conversation with one of the graduate assistants who works for me. She was noting that she didn't think a lot of people understand what they may be asked to do in their early careers. She had a few years of work experience in professional sports before coming to grad school and has had the experience of doing some of the, to put it bluntly, crap work that we all have to do in sports, especially starting out. Just because you have an MBA and/or Master's in Sports, it doesn't make you immune to it. You're going to be asked to make copies, man a check-in table for an event, take tickets at a turnstile, or even pick-up trash. If you kvetch and complain about it, or do it half-way, you're not going to do your career any great service. I've seen interns and entry level employees get written off by my colleagues, and I've written off people myself, because they thought that such menial tasks were beneath them.

Right, wrong, or indifferent, this is often part of paying dues in the sports industry. There's always someone else out there who will be willing to do the work. If you're not willing to step up and go the extra mile, you won't survive long.