Think of your age 10 years ago, 20 years ago, etc. and write down all the things you appreciate about the younger “you.” Spend some time pondering what’s been constant, what’s changed, and how that younger “you” contributed to who you are now. This is an exercise I’m designing for a speech on Living Your Life for younger people. If you’re willing to share, please chime in. What did you like about younger-you?  What’s been constant? What’s changed? (What, that you thought would be constant at the time, changed?)

During our dress rehearsal, I’d been sitting in front of the stage watching one of the other performers and while I was being a perfectly good little doobie, listening to my compatriot’s song, my sneaky, dastardly brain offered up a thought: “This is where you belong.”

The last time I had that thought, it scared me so much I (inadvertently) used self-hypnosis to wipe out every memory I had of performing, including the seven years I spent doing comedy improv. I think this time I’ll keep it and find out where it leads…

• Never help out a colleague too much, because they’re just competition for the top spot.
• Always help your colleagues, because when we work together, we accomplish more than when we work alone.
• Our competitors will never be able to produce a product as good as ours.
• Management is stupid and doesn’t know what they’re doing.

I will be using these in my book. By submitting them here, you give me permission to do so. I would like to list everyone who contributes in the acknowledgements section. If you wish to be acknowledged, just sign your comment with your desired name (first name, full name, etc.).

Thanks!

If so, do you have specific examples, questions, stories, etc. that you’d like me to elaborate on? This could be done as a pretty brief topic, or as a pretty big one…

http://www.SteverRobbins.com/coverletter

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I gave a talk at Harvard Business School about ten myths we have in our culture about careers and success. By popular demand, I’ve posted a copy of the handout booklet here: Ten Cultural Lies of Careers and Success. It’s been annotated to include some of the detail. If there’s interest, I could turn the audio into a CD product. Would that be marketable/saleable?