I’ll share advice with students on how to create a stellar career, truly rise above peers in their profession and get employers to go “gaga” over them.

Perhaps most importantly, I’m offering all attendees of my session a FREE mentor match. I’ll introduce them to a seasoned professional with whom they have common interests and can build a long-term collaborative relationship.

Read more in the press release below.

SJSU Student Organization Conference Release

Hey, I read the news.  I know that the national / world economy is headed to heck on greased skids.  But my clients haven’t received the notice that business is supposed to be bad.  Yes, one particular client, a very large particular client, has been managing its way through some difficult times.  And I know that the unemployment rate is Way Too High.  And I know that between the War and the Economy Obama has almost burned through all his charisma.  But over here?  Our long-term clients are reinvesting in growth.  Our new clients are seeing bright and shiny opportunities.  And our consultants are starting to feel the love again.

I’m a member of a group called Vistage International, a networking / professional development group for CEOs, and one thing I’ve learned from the group is that the successful and heroic leader is the one who can see a way through that no one else can see.  Honestly, some days I’m not sure I can see three months into the future.  But as long as I’m connecting the right consultant with the right opportunity and following through to make sure the match is right — I’m solving the best possible type of problem.

Wired magazine just published a list of what they call “Seven Essential Skills You Didn’t Learn in College” and I think you ought to take a look at it. Take a look at this excerpt from Wired’s course catalog:

Post-State Diplomacy

Why take this course? As the world becomes evermore atomized, understanding the new leaders and constituencies becomes increasingly important.

What you’ll learn: How to practice statecraft without states.
From tribal insurgents to multinational corporations, private charities to pirate gangs, religious movements to armies for hire, a range of organizations now compete with (and sometimes eclipse) the nation-states in which they reside. Without capitals or traditional constituencies, they can’t be persuaded or deterred by traditional tactics.

But that doesn’t mean diplomacy is dead; quite the opposite. Negotiating with these parties requires the same skills as dealing with belligerent nations—understanding the shareholders and alliances they must answer to, the cultures that inform how they behave, and the religious, economic, and political interests they must address.  [more]

Take a read and let me know what you think.

Where do you YOUR new ideas come from? Mine are often borne of sleep deprivation or excessive chocolate.

Steven Johnson is someone who makes sense of where we get new ideas. He’s a science writer with a collection of titles that include Interface Culture and Everything Bad is Good for You.  (That’s where I found out why it was really important to watch American Idol.)  It looks like Johnson is hitting it out of the park again with new title, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. His new book is due to be published October 5, but right now there’s a new video on the net that’s going viral.  It’s a cartoon that summarizes Johnson’s idea and made me put in a pre-order for the book.

I’m not the only one who thinks Stephen Johnson is worth paying attention to.  On Saturday, September 25, The Wall Street Journal published an article by Johnson.  Here’s a snippet from the story:

The premise that innovation prospers when ideas can serendipitously connect and recombine with other ideas may seem logical enough, but the strange fact is that a great deal of the past two centuries of legal and folk wisdom about innovation has pursued the exact opposite argument, building walls between ideas. Ironically, those walls have been erected with the explicit aim of encouraging innovation. They go by many names: intellectual property, trade secrets, proprietary technology, top-secret R&D labs. But they share a founding assumption: that in the long run, innovation will increase if you put restrictions on the spread of new ideas, because those restrictions will allow the creators to collect large financial rewards from their inventions. And those rewards will then attract other innovators to follow in their path. [more]

Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

These are the winners in the 11 categories:

1. Entrepreneurship and small business. Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim.
2. Leadership. Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening.
3. Management. The Four Conversations: Daily Communication That Gets Results by Jeffery Ford & Laurie Ford.
4. Marketing and advertising. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith.
5. Sales. A Seat at the Table: How Top Salespeople Connect and Drive Decisions at the Executive Level by Marc Miller.
6. Finance and economics. False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World by Alan Beattie.
7. Biographies and narratives. The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy.
8. Current interest. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin.
9. Personal development. Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life by Rodd Wagner & Gale Muller, Ph.D.
10. Innovation and creativity. The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger L. Martin.
11. Big ideas. What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis.