Silver Spoons or Scrappers?….Your Child: 40% Less Empathetic….Great Comebacks….How Not To Poison Yourself….Econ Recon: What Else to Be Thankful For….Recession 2019; Depression 2030

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“A good conscience is a perpetual Christmas”

Benjamin Franklin

Silver Spoons or Scrappers?

Vistage Speaker and recruiting guru Ed Ryan once remarked, “We hire people for what they know and fire them for who they are.” The war for talent will never end and we all have a lot riding on good hires. We can’t talk to everyone who might apply to our companies so we rely on resumes to help filter the applicants to a manageable list. This often results in a beauty contest where those who become finalists have the most impressive resumes and the highest grade points from the best schools. 

Regina Hartley, a long time human resources executive at United Parcel Service, calls  these applicants “Silver Spoons.” While these are often good hires, Ms. Hartley urges us in a recent 10 minute Ted Talk to look beyond the resume for the “Scrappers”; those have endured and overcome obstacles that don’t always appear on the resume. She identifies one famous Scrapper that you may recognize. Find out why she warns “The Best Hire May Not Have the Best Resume”

Your Child: 40% Less Empathetic

The holidays bring families and friends together like no other time of year. Family gathering, parties and other events create many opportunities for conversations. According to Sherry Turkel, a professor at MIT, these conversations are declining in terms of quantity and quality due to that device in your pocket: your phone. In her new book, “Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age” Turkel cites alarming research that college students are 40% less empathetic than they were in 2000; a period that has also seen these devices become ubiquitous. However, she takes boomers to task as well for letting these devices come between themselves and their children.

Check out this recent New York Times essay “Stop Googling, Let’s Talk”  which summarizes her book.

 Great Comebacks!

…and speaking of “Scrappers”…how about those who have fallen from the heights and then fought their way back? 

Many may be surprised to learn that Winston Churchill was one such case. During the first World War as Secretary of the Admiralty he led a naval engagement that was one of the costliest in the war, ruining his reputation to the point that one exclusive British club actually had a rule that “Winston Churchill shall not be a member.”

During his “wilderness years” as his exile from political life in the 1920s and 30s came to be called Churchill warned his country early on about Hitler and the Nazis, often to even more public derision. His prescience resulted in his being recalled to lead Britain through World War II. No wonder that he later remarked: “When you’re going through hell, keep going.”

The Atlantic magazine asked those who watch leaders for a living for their nomination of the “The Greatest Comeback of All Time.”  Some of the names may surprise you!

How Not To Poison Yourself

A few weeks ago I featured an article to help you identify The Ten Toxic People You Should Avoid at All Costs. But that’s only half the battle in avoiding accidentally poisoning yourself. How about the thoughts you let define your attitude? Fortunately, you have choices here. How many of these 12 Toxic Thoughts that will Destroy Your Success are residing in your head?

Econ Recon:

What Else to Be Thankful for: We can all be thankful; but we can’t all be thankful for the same things. Every life is different and life itself, as JFK, observed, is not fair. But one of the few things that we must all share aside from the weather is our economy. Economist Brian Wesbury offers a few things about our wonderful (or at least far better than any other) economic system that we may be taking for granted.

Recession in 2019. Depression in 15 years: Here’s a quick recap of Dr. Alan Beaulieu’s recent keynote to a nationwide meeting of commercial real estate developers.