Warren Buffett: Focusing Only on Your Resume Is Like 'Saving Up Sex for Your Old Age'

By Myles Udland on Business Insider

Warren Buffet [thelegacyproject.co.za]

I've always admired Warren Buffett and I know he is rich. I also know he did not inherit anything. He also loves his job. And so when it comes to career advice, Buffett somewhat predictably thinks that you too should love your job too. In a lecture at The University of Florida's business school in 1998, Buffett told students to stop thinking about their damn resumes and just think about what they want to do. And then said do that. 

Here's Buffett, via Buffett FAQ:

"I get to work in a job that I love, but I have always worked at a job that I loved. I loved it just as much when I thought it was a big deal to make $1,000. I urge you to work in jobs that you love. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't like because you think it will look good on your resume. I was with a fellow at Harvard the other day who was taking me over to talk. He was 28 and he was telling me all that he had done in life, which was terrific. And then I said, "What will you do next?" "Well," he said, "Maybe after I get my MBA I will go to work for a consulting firm because it will look good on my resume." I said, "Look, you are 28 and you have been doing all these things, you have a resume 10 times than anybody I have ever seen. Isn't that a little like saving up sex for your old age?"

So without putting too fine of a point on it, Buffett's basic idea is that you shouldn't skip out on doing something today because you think you'll be able to do it better in the future. Work a job you love, or work to find a job you love, and don't pursue something because it will — or, well, it might — look good on a resume.

Your resume is an abstract representation of your career and accomplishments that may or may not matter, depending on how you want to leverage it. Your actual job is something real you can love right now. If, that is, you work to find that job. 

Conclude the original article on Business Insider.

The All-Important Balance Between Quality and Quantity of Sales Prospecting

Some of the Sales executives I have had the privilege of relating on best practices of prospecting share the notion of the more the merrier. The more being referred to as the prospect. In other words, the more prospects you email/call, the greater the chances of landing a meeting or closing a deal. In fact, landing a meeting may not translate to closing a deal.

Quantity can be considered important in the retail business but not so in the Internet business. It's vital to be more targeted and truly value-adding to convince a prospect to do business with you.

One of the major tactics is to target prospects through LinkedIn.

Hubspot's Leslie Ye recently shared some thoughtful hints on sales prospecting and the LinkedIn tactic stood out in 2 points.

1) Research Your Prospect

LinkedIn

You really do not need to know someone's entire history before emailing or picking up the phone to call the person. But since this is business-related and there's a unique social media platform for business relationships, then a little digging will do. LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform for such activities. This is important to check this person's qualification for your pitch and possibly have an insight into his role in the decision-making process of closing the deal. 
You can check their recent activity on the platform, job history and also view any mutual connections you have and related skills. I've personally found Google and LinkedIn of great advantage in researching my prospects.

2) One for Many 
Using LinkedIn can greatly improve access to similar prospects. There are 2 features which are very helpful: "People Also Viewed" and "People Similar To". This makes it easier to know, research, qualify and contact related prospects that are relevant to your business. You can build your leads from these options and thus build a quality list of prospects to sell your pitch.

This qualitative approach will increase the chances of a meeting as well as increase the quantity of prospects. And by the way, you don't have to be on the phone all day. Schedule a Skype meeting and close the deal in less time.

Thanks for reading!