TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

  Would red-haired 40-something Nathaniel Cullerton be so appealing to a 20-something if he hadn't been a partner in an elite law firm and she was an underling at that firm?  That's what most of the coverage of the kissing incident in Central Park by the two Wachtell lawyers doesn't touch. Here is the video by Tik Toker Jay Guapo of their romantic break in the day. It was foreign-policy expert Henry Kissinger who observed: "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."  Since then, organizations have recognized how that reality can create major problems in the workplace. Typically, those take the form of a manager type engaging in an intimate relationship with a subordinate or at least a person with less status. Another issue is that such arrangements can breed favoritism. The subordinate gets goodies others don't. The rest of the organization seethes in resentment.  In addition, it can also trigger penalties for "non-compliance." The subordinate resists th...

  Typical now is this kind of posting on professional anonymous networks (PANs) Reddit, Fishbowl, Glassdoor and Blind. This one is from Blind  and it's by a laid-off employee at Amazon: "This morning I opened my inbox and found out my role had been eliminated. There was reorgs but really no other warning from my manager. Also, no feeling that my team was in danger. Just an email." Forget the regrets about not seeing it coming. Businesses have become more opaque. Managers, more protective about their own jobs, have becoming less willing to alert their reports about possible reductions-in-force. Intersecting factors such as AI, cost-efficiency, offshoring, upstart competition, geopolitics are triggering exponential change. The issue is: Know it could be coming.  Preparation goes way beyond the financial matters such living below your income, building a financial reserve, not taking on new debt and rapidly paying off current debt including student loans. As responders on the...

  When a giant in a profession falls there's a rush to pony up lessons learned. But as super lawyer and influencer Tom Goldstein  is sentenced to six years in prison for federal tax and mortgage fraud, we might not be confident in sizing up what Goldstein should have known, should have done or should not have done.  The collapse involves too many intersecting factors. They range from a superior intellect to the thrill of a double life to the power of addiction. There are no simple takeaways. Maybe we should accept how complex human beings can be. In the blockbuster film "Odyssey," King Odysseus is depicted as heavily flawed. Yet, the positioning and packaging lead us to struggle to understand him - with compassion.  In prison, like Watergate lawyer Chuck Colson, Goldstein might find a new path. Meanwhile, we could be monitoring our own behavior to put a check on our darkest human impulses.  Career Paths? So Over. It’s about Earning a Good Living. No matter wha...

  The supposed wisdom of crowds can generate horrific outcomes. Think back to investor enthusiasm for dot.coms.  Well, currently, the herd instinct seems to be pushing the jobless to post the stories of their (ineffective) searches on high-profile platforms ranging from LinkedIn to BusinessInsider. With a great deal of compassion I approached one of those LinkedIn posters. I shared my own 1987 layoff story. Then I indicated I would be interested to know eventually if this outreach turns out to be counterproductive. The response was immediate: They were worried about the same possible outcome.  My hunch is that for the snippets of sympathy the jobless receive there can be a tragic cost: the optics that go along with not being in the winners' circle, even if temporarily. Our economic system is capitalism. Winning is everything. Do that and all is forgiven. The classic example is Mike Milken. Post-prison he won big in how he did philanthropy.  The manner in which these ...

We all know the feeling, at least in our fantasy life: The unique sense of control in playing with how to outsmart some financial institution - even if illegal. Actually, especially if illegal.  For UK associate in loans at Ashurst Perkins Coie Kieran Ferguson that was a reality.  And, as usual, it went very wrong. The designated watchers got to be watchers because they know every trick in the book. As fun Brit legal tabloid RollonFriday reports today Ferguson did one of those additions on an insurance policy for a particular personal-property item. The insurer was Laka, a specialist in cycling items. The legal issue was that the bike had already been stolen before the date of coverage. As we all know, insurance firms are no slouches for detecting possible fraud. He was charged by the Solicitors Regulation Authority with dishonesty and lack of integrity. In his defense Ferguson got cute: " ... he claimed that he had mistakenly believed he could use his policy to cover the los...

  The surprise is not that 20-cents a word is currently being paid content-creators - and that many on the Reddit post consider that "good pay." The stunner during Q2 2026 is that there really are those who continue to hope to earn a living as generalist writers. You know, preparing material for this or that publication, blog or brand. They're not, for example, in Executive Communications which has bounced back and pays the big bucks. As a number of comments on that Reddit post hammer: Gone for at least two years has been the one to two dollars a word. No indication among them that it's coming back. They, like myself, had exited. A bit of grieving went on. And that was that, at least for us. Meanwhile, those sticking with it let the world know how much they love writing, how good they are at it and how little they are getting paid should they be lucky enough to land assignments or an actual job. That denial of reality mirrors the mindset of some of the middle-aged mi...