First of all, let me be clear: I think productivity is overrated. How do you know you’re being productive? Hell if I know..but you can buy a whole lot of books that’ll tell you how to be more productive without actually telling you what it means to be “productive”. But why do you need those [...]
READ THE FULL POSTHow to Blow Someone Off Like Steve Jobs
September 20th, 2010 with 13 CommentsWhen most people associate Seve Jobs with self-help, they usually think of the commencement speech her gave at Sanford. You remember the one, “stay hungry; stay foolish.” But Steve has an even more important lesson to teach you: how to blow someone off. What? Blow someone off? Why would I need to know how to [...]
READ THE FULL POSTHow to Become a More Prolific Blogger
February 3rd, 2010 with 7 CommentsA long-time blog reader sent me a personal message that I thought I’d share with you. He wrote: I used to read your carlonhaas.com blog. You used to blog once a week or so, then it’s almost like you disappeared. But here you are at a new blog and I get e-mail updates from you [...]
READ THE FULL POST5 Worst Business Clichés Ever
January 21st, 2010 with 15 CommentsOne of the worst jobs I ever had was translating a business proposal from Korean into English. Why? Because it was so laden with business jargon that I had no idea what the document was saying. And the words they were using were DIRECTLY borrowed from English. And when I asked the writer what he [...]
READ THE FULL POSTHow to Stop Internet Surfing at Work in 5 Seconds or Less
January 15th, 2010 with 2 CommentsAre you reading this blog when you should be working? Well…I hope not. A surefire way to get fired is to surf the internet when you should be working. But getting fired isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you. The worst is that you lose precious time from your life. And time [...]
READ THE FULL POSTWhat the Notorious BIG Can Teach You About Sounding Smart
January 12th, 2010 with 1 CommentOne day a man was talking to his co-worker at his office. They talked about many things, but inevitably the subject of work came up. You see, each man worked in different departments and had different bosses, and they liked to talk about the latest goings-in. One man said to the other, “My boss is [...]
READ THE FULL POSTVerbal Power: Figuratively and Literally
January 6th, 2010 with 3 CommentsOne way we get ourselves into deep poop is to say the wrong thing to the wrong person. But what if it’s not intentional? I’m a big believer in the power of words. As a writer, I have told anyone who would listen that writing clearly affects the way people think about you. The same [...]
READ THE FULL POST
