The Earthquake and The Banker….Five CEO Traps….Dustin Hoffman and Your Kid’s Career….Econ: Everything’s Not Bad

“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulsive decisions than most people in business. “

Warren Buffett

 The Earthquake and the Banker

There are some people who are hard to imagine as children; the same goes for giant corporations. But even most giant multinationals started out as a person with a dream. One of the most inspiring stories in this genre is that of Amadeo Giannini who founded Bank of America. Giannini enjoyed a successful career as a merchant and retired at 30. 

Unable to sit still for long, he looked at the burgeoning Italian immigrant population in his native San Francisco and felt they were not being well served by the financial institutions of the day so he created an entirely new business model that persists over a hundred years later. Later, Gianinni’s innovative approach to banking played a key role in rebuilding the city after the 1906 Earthquake had all but destroyed the city. Take five minutes for a Smithsonian video to learn about The Man Who Invented the Way You Bank  

Five CEO Traps

Many companies plan once a year; others are making it a more continuous process. Regardless of the practice in your firm, too many plans assume too much will go right and that little will go wrong. Jose Vasquez, a graduate of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Program shares five events that CEOs and Entrepreneurs often fall prey to. Do you? Maybe these five traps should be a permanent agenda item at every planning meeting.

Dustin Hoffman and Your Kid’s Career

Remember the movie from the 1960’s “The Graduate” starring a young Dustin Hoffman as a recent college graduate? Before reading further, check out this one minute clip of Hoffman being offered some well-meant, but probably less than helpful career advice. Amusing, but have you played out this same scene with a young person in your own life?

The world in which you began your career is very different from the one facing today’s young adult. This one page article from HBR “What Parents Should Tell Their Kids About Finding a Career” by James M. Citrin, author of The Career Playbook: Essential Advice for Today’s Aspiring Young Professional, suggests that as much as you might like to give a young person a career map, it may be more helpful to help them draw their own.

Econ Recon: Everything’s Not Bad

“There is more bad economics, bad math and bad information masquerading as analysis these days than we have seen at any time in the past 30 years”….so says economist Brian Wesbury. The recent market tumult, the supposed connection thereof to the “slowdown” in China and a 24 hours cycle that needs a constant supply of news (preferably bad) all conspire to cloud how we look at the economy. Dr. Wesbury looks at recent events and helps put them in their proper perspective, suggesting that despite the media’s handwringing “Everything’s Not Bad.”