Those of you who also travel a lot know the feeling: there's a whole different rhythm to your day when you're not 'on the road.' For a couple of weeks I'm dog/house sitting and working from home. It's a challenge to avoid some of the distractions and to create a structure to the day that allows me to focus on my business without slacking off on the 'chores.' But it does put things in perspective and is a good thing to do from time to time. So, my next trip starts in, let's see, 12 days and 32 minutes!
The headline read, "Paralyzed Player Signed by His Former Coach." It was in the sports pages but it should have been shouted from the highest rooftops (It probably made it to TV news but since I don't watch that I wouldn't know). "The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made a notable and poignant free-agent signing Wednesday when they added one of Coach Greg Schiano's former Rutgers players: defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, who was paralyzed after injuring his spinal cord in a game in 2010. "Leading up to the draft, I couldn't help but think that this should've been Eric's draft class," Schiano, entering his first season with the Buccaneers, said in a statement. "This small gesture is the least we could do to recognize his character, spirit and perseverance."
This is a wonderful story which is summed up by this quote from the player, Eric LeGrand, " It’s just something that Coach wanted to do, and I just appreciate that. It’s just a symbolic gesture. It just shows the man he is.” Too often, symbolic gestures have self-engrandizing ulterior motives. I've never met Coach Schiano but he sounds like a guy I would like to know.
Mentoring advice from an article I recently read: "Throughout my career, I had a lot of mentors, and I just adopted them. What I found is that, especially if you’re young, when you go up to people and say, ‘Would you mind being my mentor?,’ their eyes widen. They literally step back. What they’re thinking about is the commitment and time involved if they say yes. And time is something they don’t have. So I would not ask them to be my mentor, but I would just start treating them like it. And that worked very well for me."
Q. What career advice do you give people?
A. I think people in general don’t take enough risks. Some people feel that before they can take on that next challenge they need to be 100 percent ready. It’s just not true. Even people in their jobs aren’t perfect at their jobs. So my biggest advice to people is to step out there. Take the risk and deal with it. What is the worst that could happen? It’s about thriving on risk instead of shrinking from risk.
OTR Job Service: If you're looking to hire someone and haven't engaged a recruiter I'll be happy to post a very brief job description here with your email address. There are a lot of very qualified folks out there and it'd be my pleasure to help you connect with them.
Solutions by Steve Felix: Five clients. Five more on the calendar! I've updated my website (like three times a week!). Comments/Suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
Congratulations to:
Eric Lang who has been named to head the Real Assets team at Teacher Employee Retirement System of Texas (TRS).
Eric Goldstein and Oren Klaber who have joined Korn Ferry in their Futurestep division.
Photo: Sherwood totally blending in with the blanket.
On the road...
May 14: San Francisco: Please join me and a bunch of your industry colleagues in the West coast celebration of the launch of my new management consulting firm, Solutions by Steve Felix. It'll be at Blanc et Rouge Wine Bar, Two Embarcadero Center, First Floor. I'll be there starting at 5:30 and will stay with the last person standing! Dutch treat. I hope to see you. Feel free to invite your industry friends....the more the merrier!
May 16-19: North Palm Beach, FL to attend the annual meeting of The Hoyt Fellows.
May 28-June 8: New York for client meetings and to attend and moderate panels at two excellent events: IMN's U.S. Real Estate Opportunity & Private Funds Investing Forum on May 30/31 and ULI's Capital Markets conference on June 6/7.
Sept. 11-12: Paris to attend the GRI Europe Summit 2012
