I have decided that this year, I would read at least one business book every 3 months, that is not much but this is better than nothing, and it comes on top of all the business blogs or magazines I am reading already.
I thougt I’d share with you my current top of business books you must read. If you want to add something, be my guest and post it in the comments.

The book everybody should read.

It doesn’t matter if you’re self-employed or not, in a large or in a small company, or what department you work in, you should read Brand Me 50 by Tom Peters. It’s not a new book but everything in it is still true: if you don’t want to see your job outsourced to the Far East or elsewhere, you have to bring enough added value to it. You do that by branding yourself, thinking about yourself as if you were a product and marketing yourself. Peters helps you start thinking about who you are professionaly, how you can give more value and excellence to your work, and how to deal with the bosses who “won’t let you try anything new”.
This book has been helpful to me for years, especially in downsizing times but also when I started thinking about starting my own business.
You need to read this book religiously.

The book for those who want to start their own gig.

I think I alredy talked about that book on this blog, it’s ” The Anti 9-to-5 guide” by Michelle Goodman. Oh, and Michelle has an eponym blog, too!
If you are not happy with your current job and dream of leaving the cubicle for ever, be it to become a self-employed copywriter, a museum guide, a dog-stitter or whatever would make you happier: this is the book you need. Goodman calls herself a Cubicle Expat, she once dreamed of changing careers, so she jumped in the pool of self-employement. And ouch, it somehow hurt, but now that she is doing fine she has collected all the advice she whishes she had received then so that we won’t make the same mistakes (although I guess we might still invent new ones, but still, it is helpful).

I just love this book because it really takes you by the end and leads you through te way, even if at first you only have a vague idea (or no idea) or what you want to become and are motivated only by the desire to change careers. A must-have.

The ones for innovators and marketers.

I am a marketer and I think Seth Godin is the biggest marketing guru of the decade. He wrote several books, also has a fantastic blog, is founder of Squidoo and is absolutely right about how companies need to change their marketing tactics towards permission marketing, which is also the title of one of his books.
His newest book is Meatball Sundae, I have not read it yet but I have a favourite among his writings, that is All Marketers are Liars. The books focuses on relaying products and information to consumers the right way, at the right place and the right time. I also like the definition Godin gives for the marketing work: storytelling.

The ones for improving your working habits.

Another Tom Peters‘ book: Project 50. The 50 best pieces of advice I ever received on project management, I read that book 6 years ago when I became PM and even though now I am doing different things, I still use those techniques whenever I am responsible for a project, even a small one. The book covers all aspects of project management like chosing your team, informing your bosses and colleagues, or even how to gather all the paper stuff in one map (this one I still use, that was a revelation to me).

On a different level, for everybody who needs to make a presentation sometimes (well, nowadays that must be practically everybody), this new book is going to be helpful: Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.  Nobody taught us how to make good presentations, and most PowerPoint presentations you get to see really suck and bore the public to death. This is the book you need to make sure nobody will ever think this way about your presentations.

So, what books would you add to that list?

• I did not expect to lose my job, for example, but when one door closes another opens and now I am in a much better place professionally. Also I have a much clearer vision of what I want my long-term work life to be.
• I was a bit scared about turning 30 but it turns out I like this age very much and am totally zen about it.
• I got certified as a professional webdesigner and I am really proud about it.
• I didn’t put on weight, and every year that passes without me falling back into my old bad eating habits is a victory.
• I have been happy most of the time, and that is a good thing

So I wish you all a very nice New Year’s Eve (please, don’t drink and drive) and a very happy New Year.

I guess we are all the same at this time of the year: not knowing what to offer, and not really knowing what to answer when asked what we would like to get. Well, of course, I know I dream of a Mercedes, a house, an iPhone and many other things, but I don’t think my second cousins would spend that much on my Christmas gift. So I gave that finder a try.

The principle is simple: it is based on the “visual DNA” principle. You pick a picture from a series related to a theme, and  all the pictures you chose determine your profile. Hence, the perfect gift list for you. Including things that cost less than 10€!
I must say most of the things that came out were actually my taste.  So why not give it a try, it works for the USA and UK – and you can also invite friends to take the test and then see their list!

What more do we want?

Advertising as we have known it is less and less effective and sooner or later, it will not be worth the price companies are paying for them, because us consumers find ways to avoid them.

I work in marketing. I understand what companies see in Facebook, they think that if, instead of randomly advertising to people who do not care about their products, they are going to be more sucessfull because they will be targeting better. Like pet food companies won’t talk to me anymore because I have no pet, and make-up companies will talk to me because I am interested in the subject.

Except it is not that simple: there are times when I am open to receiving that kind of information, and times where I want to be left alone with my friends, like on Facebook. Also there are companies I don’t want to hear about, whatever new fancy make-up product they have.

That is why I love Seth Godin”s theory about permission marketing so much. The message to the industry is: stop bothering people and interrupting their life again and again, you’re just upsetting them, they don’t want to hear you. Instead, offer intersting product that people will want to hear about (which is a totally different starting point!) and will want to talk about with their friends, the buzz will do the advertising work without disturbing your potential consumers. And everybody will be happy.

The guy is a consultant in the IT field, and he was telling me that the company encourages them to work from home and telecommute. But then on the days they do that, they have a small pay-cut, because they enjoy a higher quality of life as they can stay home.

Very interesting. I always thought we were paid for:
1/ the time we spend working for our company
2/ the skills we have that the company needs to use

Acting this way, this company says “if working for us is not hard and uncomfortable, then it is worth less money”.
I think this is unacceptable.

What do you think?

In one of her blog posts, she asked for readers to tell her about their worst meeting ever, which I did. This is how I won her book. Yeah, poor me was the uncontested winner.
I received this book on Friday and am very excited about it. I need some time to figure out a few things before I tell you about it, but I think this might be the book I needed to make a move towards a new career.

In the meantime, you can go there and read about my worst meeting ever: unfortunately this is no fiction!

Now last week, my boss and I had a small meeting during wich he told me that management was very happy about my work and truly believed I could do even more for the company. Which is why they would like me to go back to evening school and get a master degree – for which the company would be paying.
Everyboyd I’ve been talking to about this is soooo excited – except I am not. Not at all.

Five years ago I would have killed for such an apportunity, because I was then a youg executive assistant frustrated with the lack of responsibilities and dying to prove what she was worth. But then I got occasions to show what I was capable of, and now I think I am at the right level on the corporate ladder, and I don’t need to prove anything. What I want now, is my job to be done at 5PM so I can leave the office and start living my life.
Because, see, I consider my job primarily as a way for paying my bills. I enjoy that there is some intellectual challenge involved but honestly, if I won the lottery, I wouldn’t go to work anymore. For me real life starts after 5PM, when I have time for seeing my friends or family, for reading and writing, and for doing some copywriting gigs in the hope that I can be my own boss and make a living of my writing one day.
I don’t dream about my boss position, because that would mean working longer hours and travelling – which I don’t want to do at all. And my resume as it is now, is perfect for the kind of job that I have and want to keep.

So, while I am giving this master’s proposition a second and even a third thought, I can’t help but wandering: why should I give up all of my free time during one year to get a degree I don’t need, that would qualify me for positions I don’t want?
Plus, as there is always a counterpart, I’d have to sign an agreement about paying back for those very expensive studies if I leave the company within 2 years – and I hate to be tied by money.

And on the other hand, how am I going to explain this to my bosses?
Because I know where this all comes from: I am young, I am single and I am child-free: this has to mean I am ambitious and willing to dedicate myself to my career. As explained in today’s article on The Anti 9-to-5 Guide blog, this is the number one myth about single women at work: they have nothing else important in their lives, no important people, no important pursuits.

Maybe it is time for companies to realise that, single or not, man or woman, not all of us are ambitious about their careers, because – I swear – there are other important things in life.

This is actually the reason why marketers should not lie to customers. I regret it, but in a market where prices are unreasonably rising (the food market), I see companies making up more and more lies every day.
They lie when they try to lower the quality of their products in order to be able not to raise the prices too much. They tell themselves that customers only care about prices, and that they won’t notice the difference in quality.
They lie when let the customer believe that you can get the exact same thing for half the price with a B-brand, but trust me there are differences between the cheap brands and the expensive ones. And I’m not talking fancy packaging or margin, I am talking quality again.
They lie when they replace an ingredient by a cheapest one to make more money, thinking again that the customers won’t notice the difference.

I say: we should never act as if our customers were idiots. As a marketer, if you do not believe that ethics is good enough a reason not to do so, tell yourself that everything gets known. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sooner or later. And when the word comes out you lied to your customers, it will be the end of your business. I am not even talking about life-threatening lies. I am saying that if your customers realize you fooled them, it will ruin your reputation, and you won’t find anybody to support you.

So yes, let’s tell great stories about great products. Let’s give our customers a great perception. But let us not fall into this trap and tell them lies just because it is easy to.

Of course, there will always be someone to tell me that if meeting men is the problem, it can easily be solved. With a few clicks, on an online dating service. Ah, what cannot be solved online these days?

The truth is, I gave it a try a few years ago. I have no horrible story to tell about meeting total jerks, or guy who had lied about their age or appearance, or married guys looking for an affair… I only met men who were alone and looking for their significant other, just as I was. But it didn’t work.

At first I thought it just didn’t work out for me: I was finding it hard to be online very day, available for anybody who wanted to talk because well, you never know, the one you turned down could have been the right one. I was finding it hard to have 3 dates with 3 different guys on the same week. And I was finding it hard to decide which one of those guys I liked best. If I liked any, that is.
So I gave up.

It was one year later that I read several articles on the subject, and began to think about my experience again. And this is how I see it now (and sociologists see things the same way). When you enter that see full of fish, you look for someone who shares your interests because you need something to start a conversation. Oh, that guy likes Fiona Apple and Bruce Willis, too, I am going to contact him!  And of course the standard questionaire we fill in when we subscribe are full of information of that kind. So we look for someone like us.

But look around you, look at the happy couples, ask them what they love about each other. I bet they won’t tell you that having a favourite actor in common made their relationship last. Actually, it is their fundamental differences that brought them together and made them a good match. One of my friends’husband finds it hard to make any decision; he says that what he loves about his wife, is that she can always decide what to do so quiclky. Unlike him. My best friend, before she had her kids, told me she thought she was going to be a terrible mother because she’s so anxious, but that it was OK because her husband would be a great father. Unlike her, she thought.

What we need in a long-lasting relationship, what we crave for, is someone to give us a hand and help us walk when all we want to do is sit on the side of the road and stay there for ever. And vice versa. And that is something you cannot look for in those standard questionaire.

You will probably tell me that you know someone who met their significant other online. Actually my colleague just married a guy she met online. She kept looking for 3 years, so I guess if you look long enough and have a bit of luck, you might find a partner this way.

But I am convinced that looking for someone this way is mostly unproductive and leaves a lot to luck.

I must admit I am getting rid of about 35% of my items, possibly more. How is that possible?
Well, first of all, I still own a lot of things I was wearing pre- Weight Watchers, and these are now 3 sizes above my current one. It’s been 2 years since the end of my diet, it is time I let fat me go. On top of that, there were some very expensive pieces among those now too big clothes, and I have no equivalent for that in my current size. Somehow, having them in the closet was tricking me into thinking I was still owning that kind of cloth in case I needed them. Now I really don’t have them.
There are the things I bought for some bad reason, when they didn’t really fit me or were not my style, and that I am keeping because I feel guilty to have spent money on them and hardly ever wore them. So I keep them in the hope one day I change my mind and realize they’re great, I guess.

And then there were the very old things. The dress I bought with my best friend when we were 15. It’s green, and my friend owned the same in blue. I am 30 now, of course I am not going to wear it again, and I am sure my friend got rid of hers years ago.
There’s that other dress I wore during a trip in Italy in 1999. A perfect white dress. It doesn’t fit anymore – putting on weight then losing it changed my figure, I can’t zip that dress anymore although I am back to the same weight.

The truth is, when it comes to throwing away things, letting things go, I always feel bad. I feel as if I am letting go the associated memories as well. I never look at those things, but I know they’re in the closet and that’s comforting.
I do the same with all things in general. There was a time I was findin it hard to throw away a movie theatre ticket. Wherever I went I would buy any stupid souvenir just to have an object to remind me of that place and time. Then I woul almost never look at it, but they would be there just in case.

That’s why I was keeping those clothes, too: just in case. In case I’d like to wear them again, or just look at them. Just in case in 6 months or in 2 years, I would regret having thrown them away.
But now it is time to let them go.

I did a bit of research on this, because I was curious to know if I am the only one doing this.

Happiness Project writes: « For me, clearing clutter is a key in striving to be happier. Outer order makes it much easier for me to find inner serenity. Not to mention that it’s easier to find my keys. »

NotMe also feels my pain « For some, getting rid of stuff is easy enough. For others, it can be a real emotional undertaking. Memories are usually attached to everything we own and, because of this, can be difficult to let go. However, with a motivated, enthusiastic approach, the task is like wiping down that kitchen fridge so it sparkles back at you. It just makes you feel good. »

Made of Glass talks about how « clothes make the man », and  finds the right attitude: « and last week, I wore a shirt that I have had since junior year of high school. high school. I have had the shirt almost 15 years. And you know what? I put it on and wore it to work. and felt lame the entire day. I did not enjoy wearing it.
That was that. This weekend, I got rid of it, along with some t-shirts, ties and some other shirts. I have taken the (long-overdue) approach of ‘if I don’t like wearing it, get rid of it’. There is no reason to feel less than good. There is no reason to hold on to items I will never wear or wear out of some sort of perverse guilt. »

The words are out: no perverse guilt.