10 Reasons Companies Fail to Improve Their Customers' Experience

by Rick Conlow

Every year, a top five priority for most companies is to improve their customers' experience and loyalty. Unfortunately, most fail. For example, read the American Customer Satisfaction Index results or the Consumer Reports ratings. Considering the potential payoff for improvement, it doesn't make sense as you review this research.

• According to Harvard Business Review’s Employ­ee-Customer-Profit Chain, a 1.3% improvement in customer satisfaction scores results in a revenue increase of .5%.
• The Profit Impact of Market Strategy’s database found that companies who lead in service have 12 times the profit­ability and 9% greater growth than poor service providers.
• Bain & Co. found that a 12-point increase in the net-promoter score doubles a company’s growth rate.
• A report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index proved that the leading companies consistently outperformed the market. Customer service leaders outper­formed the Dow by 93%, the Fortune 500 by 20% and the NASDAQ by 335%.

Why do so many companies fail to take advantage of the obvious bottom-line impact for improving service? Here are ten reasons companies fail.
1. Ignorance is Bliss
Recently, a company executive proudly shared with me that they survey customers twice a year. (What if this company only looked at sales or profit numbers that often?) The company leaders always talked about service but made no serious changes and kept experiencing the same issues with customers and competition.
2. Vision Without Vitality
One company President said, "We don't want to be the biggest company, only the best service provider." The President gave a five-minute speech everywhere he went; however, no plan or action ever followed. The company floundered.
3. The Panacea Approach
One CEO decided to use a Just in Time production strategy because it worked for his buddy's company. He did it exactly the same way but failed. As a result he had to layoff a lot of people, and within two years lost his job.
4. Frontline Fanatics
A major airline responded to customer complaints by notifying customers of their new "Customer First" initiative for employees. In reality, employees weren't partners they were scapegoats. The airline's service never got better. It eventually went bankrupt, and was merged with a larger competitor. (According to service gurus, 85-95% of service problems are management related not employee related.)
5. Do It All and Have It All
One leader happily reviewed with his team three flipchart pages full of customer service improvement initiatives. Not surprisingly, employees were overwhelmed and business stalled. They had no focus and ended up with negative sales results.
6. I am a Rock – I am an Island
A $27 billion company I know has tried to improve service for a decade, but are still rated near the bottom of their industry. They refuse outside help or assistance. They have settled for dismal service, low stock prices, poor profits and meager growth. Their strategic goals outline a commitment to the customer, but they don't really mean it.
7. Drive by Training
Many leaders send their employees to an online course or to a class to get "fixed." I can't tell you how many times executives have asked me for that kind of training. They never tried to upgrade organizational design, systems, processes or cross-departmental collaboration. Even though training is a vital pit stop on the way to success, it’s not a one-stop solution.
8. The Secret is Technology
One retail organization spent millions to improve customer retention through expensive new technology primarily because a big six accounting firm told them to do it. It didn't help. Their sales growth continued to spiral downward. Investment and support of their people was an afterthought. Now, they are merging with a competitor to survive.
9. The Tool-Chest Dilemma
One company executive told me that they have consultants for everything. Take your pick from TQM, Six Sigma, The Goal, ISO, Kaizen and numerous other approaches to get better. (You have heard the phrase, "program of the month.") These multiple efforts were seldom executed well or sustained. Employees were drowning in meetings, data, paperwork and confusion. Guess how well they give service to customers?
10. The Perils of Poor Execution
How often have you been in a company that implemented a grand strategy (Or, a new customer experience plan.), but failed to achieve the desired result because of poor execution? The promises of change become false exhortations, which of course demonstrates a lack of integrity. The trust within and around the organization dies.
I believe companies need to get back to basics of focusing on understanding customer needs and wants, and valuing their employees. Businessman Ross Perot once said, "Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers." And, Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup added, “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”
By the way, do you want to learn a proven approach for improving the customer experience? If so, I suggest you check out this complimentary white paper: Creating Sustainable Customer Loyalty and Sales Growth.

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The Biggest Job Interview Mistake

by Andy LaCivita

 How many times have you thought, “I’m perfect for the job. Why didn’t the employer hire me?”
If your first thought is, in fact, true, the answer to your question is usually very simple. You, the job-seeker, weren’t able to highlight for the interviewer how you fulfilled the company’s needs. Keep in mind, it’s never a matter of whether you’re qualified, but whether you can convince the employer you’re a great fit.
“Hope, as they say, is not a strategy and you are now driving through the interview without a roadmap.”

Too often, candidates share their accomplishments, work history, and charming personality before they understand what the employer actually needs. During an interview, you’re selling the product you know best—you—and have a very short timeframe to do that. Remember, the first rule of sales is you sell what the customer needs. If you’re spending considerable time highlighting your talents and experience that are less relevant to the job, you potentially leave the employer with an impression that you’re not qualified. Interestingly, the employer mirrors you. When given the chance, they often share their offerings without first understanding the criteria you’re using to determine whether their company is a good fit for you.
The employer often causes these initial missteps by starting interviews with wildly open-end questions that leave entirely too much room for the candidate to guess and wander. Candidly, employers and employees would make much better hiring decisions and career choices if the interviewer simply started the conversation with, “Here is an exact list of what I need. Can you tell me in detail how you satisfy these needs?” The ever-popular “Tell me about yourself” often sends the job-seeker to rambling into areas that are unimportant. The candidate, who often feels pressure to dive into his response, starts a story while simultaneously speculating what the employer needs to know. Hope, as they say, is not a strategy and you are now driving through the interview without a roadmap, which is a significant job interview mistake.
How can you avoid this trap?
Passively gather the employer’s needs. During the early parts of the discussion, adept interviewers will ask questions centered on the areas and skills he needs the newest employees to possess. Pay close attention to these areas and confirm in your responses how your skillset aligns to traits he inquired about earlier in the discussion. People, regardless of who they are, want reassurance that they’re making the correct decision.
Actively gather the employer’s needs. When I teach our candidates how to properly ask a question so they gather insight they actually need to make educated decisions, I show them how to design questions for short- and long-term usage. Any question designed to elicit information you’ll ponder later, is considered long-term. “Can you describe your training program?” is long-term because that typically yields information you’ll consider in the employment decision, but rarely requires an immediate response. During the interview, however, there is a battery of questions you can ask to determine what the employer seeks in a new employee. These are short-term questions because you can use that information to immediately sell yourself. Some potent questions include, “What are the attributes that describe your best employees?”, “What type of person would do well in this role?”, and “What skillset is missing from your current team?” These questions yield information that highlight traits the employer needs. During the remainder of the interview (or interviewing process) you can incorporate these traits into your stories.
Gain control to neutralize the dreaded “Tell me about yourself” request. I honestly wish they could remove this question from the face of the earth. It also makes me wonder whenever an interviewer says to me, “I like that question because it helps me understand how the candidate sees herself. It also allows me to gather information I might not have known to ask for.” Clinically, those statements are true. In an interview, however, that question wastes a significant portion of your “hour” because the candidate will often highlight information that is less relevant to the employer’s decision. Candidates should remember that when an employer asks this question, they are turning the interview over to the job-seeker. So take control. Whenever you get this question, answer it with a question. Instead of diving right in to your 20-year work history, help the interviewer make a good decision by having him highlight which areas are most relevant to the company and position. (This is an extension of the previous technique.) A simple response such as, “I obviously have extensive work experience. It might be most helpful if I focus on areas that’ll help you determine whether I’m a good fit for the role. Are there specific areas in my background you’d like to ensure we cover?
There are obviously several ways to make these determinations. The most important technique to master is always identifying what the employer needs so you can continually reinforce how you satisfy those needs.

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The Meaning of Meaning

by Guy Kawasaki

I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.

—Ludwig van Beethoven

When I was a venture capitalist, I noticed that entrepreneurs whose primary goal was to make money usually failed. This is because this kind of entrepreneur attracts other people who primarily want to make money, and then when the company doesn’t pay out big bucks immediately (and no startup does), these folks look for greener pastures.

• Many people recommend a rigorous process of self-examination before starting a company. That’s good, but entrepreneurs usually ask themselves the wrong questions: Can I work long hours at low wages?
• Can I deal with rejection after rejection?
• Can I handle the responsibility of dozens of employees?

The truth is that it is impossible to answer questions like this in advance, and these questions ultimately serve no purpose. On the one hand, talk and bravado are cheap. Saying you’re willing to do something doesn’t mean that you will do it. On the other hand, realizing that you have doubt and trepidation doesn’t mean you won’t build a great company. How you answer such questions has little predictive power about what you’ll actually do when you get caught up in a great idea. No one really knows if he or she is an entrepreneur until after the fact—and sometimes not even then.

The key question you should ask yourself before starting any new venture is:

Do I want to make meaning?

Meaning is not about money, power, or prestige. It’s not even about creating a fun place to work. The meaning of “meaning” comes down to making the world a better place. You can do this in two ways:

First, you can create, enable, or increase something that’s good. For example, Macintosh increased people’s creativity and productivity. Google and Wikipedia enabled all of us, rich and poor, to access virtually limitless amounts of information.

Second, you can prevent, eliminate, or decrease something that’s bad. For example, Tesla is trying to decrease air pollution and our dependence on oil. Palantir and other cybersecurity companies are trying to prevent the bad guys from hacking our computers.

The desire to change the world is a tremendous advantage as you travel down the difficult path ahead because focusing on a lofty goal is more energizing and attracts more talent than simply making a buck. And if you do make meaning, one of the natural consequences is that you’ll also make money.

It has taken me twenty years to come to understand the meaning of meaning. In 1983, when I started in the Macintosh Division of Apple, I wanted to beat IBM and send it back to the typewriter business holding its Selectric typewriter balls. Then in 1987, I wanted to crush Windows and Microsoft.

I finally figured out that these motivations were silly if not stupid. Focusing on your competition diverts you from what is really important. The DNA of great organizations contains the desire to make meaning – to make the world better for their customers and for their employees. Having this desire doesn’t guarantee that you’ll succeed, but if you fail, at least you failed doing something worthwhile.

So if you’re thinking of starting a company, your starting point is to figure out how your product or service will make meaning. Everything flows from the answer to this question.

Today, I’m launching my first online class with Skillshare, “The Art of the Start: Turning Ideas into High-Growth Businesses.” The meaning that Skillshare is making is providing access to high-quality learning. In the class, Garage co-founder Bill Reichert and I share some of the most valuable startup lessons we’ve learned over the years. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or about to launch your next venture, join us for guidance on getting a strong, successful, and meaningful start.

If you liked this post, please share it and click the FOLLOW button above to get more! And please consider subscribing to my mailing list.
Guy Kawasaki is currently the chief evangelist of Canva and the former chief evangelist of Apple. He's the author of twelve books including APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur — How to Publish a Book,What the Plus!, and Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Action. and Guy shares enchanting stuff on the topics of marketing, enchantment, social media, writing, self-publishing, innovation and venture capital.

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Sometimes We All Need to Shut Up

by Jeff Haden

I was standing offstage with a NASCAR driver as he waited to do a question-and-answer session for around 2,500 eager fans. As the emcee announced him he nudged me and said, "Hey, why don't you go out there for me?" Then he smiled and walked out to thunderous applause.
His publicist leaned over and yelled over the roar of the crowd. "You know, it wouldn't have been that bad if you had gone out there," she said, gesturing towards the stage. "You would have gotten at least one question."
"Really?" I said.
"Absolutely." She smiled and said,"'Who the (expletive) are you?'"
It's a good question and, while phrased a little differently, one you should often ask yourself. Think about the meetings you attend, the presentations you give, the interviews you do, or the announcements you make. Are you the right person to speak?
If your answer is based on some version of, "(Expletive) yeah; I'm the one in charge," your answer is often wrong. And even if you don't realize it, I guarantee your audience does.
Who should actually do the talking? Here's how to decide:
When there's good news, it's never you.
OK, maybe you really did do all the work. Maybe you really did overcome every obstacle. Maybe without you, a high-performance team would have been anything but. Maybe you really were the hero.
Doesn't matter. Give someone else the glory. Pick a key subordinate who played a major role. Pick someone who could use a confidence boost from a healthy dose of public appreciation.
Everyone already knows you were in charge, so celebrate the accomplishment through other people. Stand back and let your employees shine.
And definitely do your best to keep someone higher in the company food chain from delivering good news, especially if that person had no direct role in that news. Otherwise, your team's efforts are devalued in the eyes of the eyes of others and, much worse, are devalued in your team members' own eyes.
When there's bad news, it's always you.
It doesn't matter if a supplier made the mistake. It doesn't matter if a key investor backed out. It doesn't matter if forces beyond your control negatively affected your functional area.
The person in charge must always deliver bad news. To your employees, to your team, to customers and clients... you are the company. So take the public hit. Answer the tough questions.Take ultimate responsibility.
Model the behavior you want your employees to display.
When there's no news, no one speaks.
Everyone hates a useless meeting -- except the person who called the meeting. Everyone hates a meeting that kicks off with, "I know there isn't much for us to talk about, but I still thought it was important that we get together..."
I once worked on a long-term project that included four scheduled hour-long meetings per week. We met, no matter what, simply because the team leader felt we needed to "develop the habit" of attending regular meetings.
In the spirit of forming habits I decided to form my own: I showed up but somehow seemed to get called away mid-meeting. (I'm not proud... but still, many thanks to the people who paged me right on cue to handle an "emergency.")
If a meeting will not result in decisions or plans or actions, cancel it. Let your employees do something productive instead.
That way, the next time, you will have a reason to meet.
Bottom line: Always take a moment and choose the right person to speak. And never assume the right person is you.
What gets said is certainly important, but who says it can make a bigger difference to the people who matter most.

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5 Harmful Career Mistakes To Throw Out With Your Spring Cleaning

by Ilya Pozin

It’s that time of year again; the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and allergy sufferers are sneezing. This can only mean one thing: spring has sprung. Every year, as the weather gets warmer, we all take part in the tradition known as spring cleaning.
Cold weather attire is packed up, your house is dusted off, and everything suddenly looks sparkling and new in preparation for the warm weather months. But 68 percent of spring cleaners feel negatively about the prospect of picking up the broom and tidying up. Unfortunately, for those daunted by the prospect of spring cleaning, your house isn’t the only thing in your life that could use a warm weather update.
Your career could also use a fresh coat of paint if you want to reach the next rung on your career ladder. You don’t want to be a hoarder in your personal life -- and you certainly don’t want to hold on to negative career mistakes in your professional life, either.
This year, it’s time to take a spring cleaning approach to your work life and make sure these five harmful career mistakes end up in the dumpster:
Put Away Your Ego
Your ego might very well be what’s holding you back from accomplishing your career goals. If you think you know it all, you might shirk professional development opportunities, thinking there’s nothing else you need to learn about your chosen industry or position. Others in your company are learning new skills and innovative new approaches to old problems, while your ego is keeping you from growing.
Your ego might also be making you a less-than-attractive person to have on a team. No one wants to work with a know-it-all, and therefore you might be missing out on opportunities that organically arise from networking and team-based work.
It’s time to toss your ego in the dustbin and become a better team player. Really listen and communicate with your coworkers, share what you know, and don’t be afraid to ask for guidance. By deflating your ego, you might just be inflating your career prospects.
Clean Up Your Social Media
In today’s digital age, your personal brand is more important than ever. Yet social media channels provide us with untold opportunities to hurt our professional image with the things we choose to post. If you haven’t been paying much attention to what you put out in the digital ether on social media, now is the time to start.
‘Tis the season to clean up your online image and rebrand yourself as a professional superstar. If you have social media posts with inappropriate language or images, it’s time to scrub them clean. Online services like Persona can help you out with your scrubbing efforts, isolating inappropriate posts to remove and flagging you when you’re tagged in anything not exactly employer-friendly. Social media is a great platform in which to network and communicate with the movers and shakers in your industry, but first you need to ensure your social presence will impress.
Dust Off Those Skills
With technology changing things every day, the skills you had yesterday might not be the same skills you’ll need to thrive tomorrow. This is why continuing professional development is so important in all fields and across all industries. It’s time to dust off your professional skills and give them a polish if you want to progress in your career.
Spend some time researching the trends in your industry and then take out your crystal ball. What does the future of your industry look like? What skills do you envision being essential in this new environment? Look at job descriptions for the positions you’d eventually like to hold and jot down the skills needed you don’t currently possess.
Once you know in what direction you need to develop, it’s time to find educational opportunities in order to grow your skill set. Many employers will pay for professional development, but if they don’t there are plenty of valuable online alternatives like Lynda where you can gain the skills you need. These new skills you acquire will pay off by making you infinitely more employable and more valuable.
Stop Being So Disorganized
Could your messy desk be messing up your career? According to a survey by CareerBuilder, nearly two in five employers said a messy desk negatively impacted their perception of an employee -- and a further 27 percent of employers felt messy desks equated to a disorganized worker. While you can’t always judge a book by its cover, a messy desk certainly doesn’t give your boss or coworkers much reason to assume you’re an organizational all-star.
Devote the next slow day to cleaning up your workspace and making it sparkle. Just like the spring cleaning you do at home, be brutally honest with yourself about whether you really need to keep everything on your desk or whether some of your clutter might belong in the garbage. The CareerBuilder survey actually discovered 33 percent of workers are office hoarders -- you must break free from the hoarding cycle before it becomes a bad habit.
Scrub Away Complacency
It’s easy to get complacent in your career, but you should never stop striving for something better. The most important thing to scrub away during your career spring cleaning is your own sense of complacency. This doesn’t mean you should start looking at job boards and dreaming of greener pastures. Shaking off complacency could be as simple as asking to tackle a project which will challenge you and keep you on your toes.
Maybe you could ask to shadow another department to see how work is done elsewhere in your company and expand your skill sets. Or you could ask to be put on another team, so you can grow your professional circle and impress a new set of coworkers. Whatever you chose to do, it’s important for you to motivate yourself to keep moving forward and never stay stuck in one place for too long.
This spring, it’s time to clean up your act at work if you want to progress towards your goals. After you finish spring cleaning around your house, it’s time to throw away your worst professional habits in order to advance in your career.

What do you think? What are some career mistakes you’d like to throw out with the spring cleaning? Share in the comments!

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7 Reasons Not to Use Internet Explorer ever, ever again

by Zachary Lukasiewicz

Since the recent security lockdown of Internet Explorer (IE) yesterday (read more here) I figured I should write a post to all those people who still may actually be using IE
Drum roll please...

Reason #1 - IE is broken beyond repair. Literally there is no solution.
"We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem," the Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in a post Monday morning.
Since the recent security lockdown of Internet Explorer (IE) yesterday (read more here) I figured I should write a post to all those people who still may actually be using IE
Drum roll please...


Reason #2 - You are safer from targeted software viruses
Because IE was used for so long and by so many people (and it still is to some extent), hackers find it an extremely valuable target to attack very large groups of people. You can be less vulnerable by choosing other browsers or using an Apple product.

Reason #3 - Microsoft is a little slow
In addition, I get the feeling that Microsoft is just slow in fixing Internet Explorer bugs. The last release of IE patches included a fix to a bug that Microsoft had been told about six months ago.

Reason #4 - IE interprets code differently
There are certain "universal" standards by which just about every internet browser interprets coding. This consistency is what allows websites to maintain their design and functionality across multiple browsers on a variety of devices. While most companies work to keep these standards, Microsoft opted to follow their own set of rules. Because of this, you encounter websites that either look incorrect on Internet Explorer or just flat out break.

Reason #5 - No automatic updates
Internet Explorer does not automatically check for out of date plugins / extensions and prompt you to update them - both Firefox and Chrome do this. Out of date plugins are a favorite method hackers use to get inside your computer. In Chrome the most commonly attacked plugins (Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader) run in a safe area of your computer called a "sandbox" so, even if they are compromised, they can't actually do any damage.

Reason #6 - No synchronization
If you use multiple computers, both Firefox and Chrome have built-in features to synchronize bookmarks and more between different instances of the browser. Internet Explorer (at least up to version 8) can't do this.

Reason #7 - No compatibility
There hasn't been a version of IE for Mac since Safari was developed in 2003 despite the fact that there is a Windows version of Safari. Frankly, what Mac user would want it? The lack of compatibility, particularly with mobile devices and the iPad, makes IE nearly obsolete.
Conclusion
 
With other great options available at no-cost, there are very few reasons to continue using Internet Explorer.

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10 Strategies Quick Learners Use To Pick Up Anything

Learning is a skill in itself.
We need to get good at it, since the tools we use to do our jobs are changing every year.
In a recent Quora thread, users answered the question: What learning strategies do people who are "quick learners" follow? We've outlined some of the best ideas for for optimizing the learning process, along with the latest in productivity research, below.  

To understand a problem, ask "why" five times. 

In "The Lean Startup," author Eric Ries offers the "Five Whys" technique for getting to the root of an issue. The idea is to get to the underlying cause of a superficial problem — one that, more often than not is more human than technical error. 
To see the quintuple-why strategy in action, lets look at his hypothetical startup example: 
1. A new release disabled a feature for customers. Why? Because a particular server failed.
2. Why did the server fail? Because an obscure subsystem was used in the wrong way.
3. Why was it used in the wrong way? The engineer who used it didn't know how to use it properly.
4. Why didn't he know? Because he was never trained.
5. Why wasn't he trained? Because his manager doesn't believe in training new engineers because he and his team are "too busy."
By pushing the inquiry five times, Ries says we can see how a "purely technical fault is revealed quickly to be a very human managerial issue."

Keep a positive attitude. 

Worrying that you're not going to be able to learn something is a poor investment of your mental energy, says Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks.
"Anxiety precludes you from exploring real solutions and real thought patterns that will come up with solutions," she says. But when you're feeling good about what might happen, you get into an opportunity-oriented mindset. "So you think of all of the good things that can happen. You're more likely to make decisions and take actions that will make that world likely to occur."

Don't just learn about it; practice it. 

"You can't learn golf from a book. You need to swing a club at a ball," says Quora user Mark Harrison, the head of technology at British financial company FundingKnight. "You can't learn Ruby on Rails from a book — you need to put together a site."

Find an expert, and then ask them about their expertise.

If you're trying to learn a subject, talk to an expert who can explain it. Buy them lunch, and ask them all about their craft. Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek," is a master of this. Whenever he's trying to learn a sport, he'll seek out the nearest silver medalist, arrange for an interview, and then grill them on technique.

Get an accountability buddy. 

Find somebody else who's trying to build the same skill as you — be it rock climbing, cello, or French cooking — and experience the learning process with them. Set up regular times to check in on your progress, whether in person or via Skype, Harrison recommends.

When you don't understand, say so.

Another tip from Harrison: When you don't understand something in a meeting, go ahead and put up your hand and ask, "Sorry, can you just explain why?" Dumb people will think it's dumb, he says, but smart folks will admire the curiosity.
As Mortimer Adler advises in "How To Read A Book," learning is very much a matter of being aware of when you're perplexed, and then following up on that perplexity.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It's not so much that practice makes perfect; it just makes actions go faster. This is because when you do something again and again — recall how you recited the alphabet as a kid — you strengthen bonds between brain cells.
"Repetition leads to synaptic conditioning," shares user Hwang Min Hae, a medical student in Australia. "The brain is plastic, and it allows the neural pathway to fire at a faster pace than before. That's why repetition over a long period of time creates an instantaneous recall — that's why you can recite your ABCs and 123s. Try reciting your ABCs in the opposite way, and you'll have a bigger difficulty than doing it forward."  

Don't just write it out; draw it out.

Dan Roam has written two books about visual thinking, "The Back of the Napkin" and "Blah Blah Blah." He also consults for companies like Google, eBay, General Electric, and Wal-Mart. They bring him in to help explore the "aspects of knowledge that can't be expressed through words."

Words and pictures complement each other.  "Often the best approach to solving problems and generating ideas involves a combination of words and pictures," he says. "When you add pictures, you add layers and dimensions of thought that are almost impossible to achieve with words alone ... It's a way to get your idea down while still keeping it in a fluid state."
You can do that with a "mind map," or diagram, that visually outlines interrelated ideas. 

Learn the difficult stuff at the start of the day.

Willpower is finite, research shows. We have lots at the start of the day, but it gets depleted as we make decisions and resist temptations. (That's why shopping is so exhausting.) So if you're learning a language, an instrument, or anything else that's super complex, schedule it for the start of the day, since you'll have the most mental energy then.

Use the 80/20 rule. 

The 80/20 rule states that you get 80% of your value out of 20% of work. In business, 20% of activities produce 80% of results that you want. Fast learners apply the same logic to their research areas.
Quora user Stefan Jerome, a student at the University of Leicester in England, provides an example: 

When I look at a book, for example, I look though the contents page and make a list from 1-5 with 1 being the chapter with the most relevant material. When looking through a instructional video, I often skip to the middle where the action or technique is being demonstrated, then I work backwards to gain the context and principles.

This works, he says, since the beginning of most videos will be fluffed with exposition, and most books are layered in with filler to make length requirements. So with a little cunning, you can extract most of the knowledge from those materials while investing a fraction of the time.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/strategies-quick-learners-use-to-pick-up-anything-2014-4#ixzz306ICrNUD

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The 22 Most Miserable Countries In The World

According to a analysis published by the Cato Institute, Venezuela holds the disreputable top spot as the most miserable nation in the world.
The 90 countries listed in the misery index were selected based on data from the Economist Intelligence Unit and calculations from Steve Hanke, a professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University.
The formula used to compile the list involves inflation, lending rates, and unemployment rates minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth.
Venezuela's much higher misery score of 79.4 is much higher than every other country except Iran (61.6), and the top 22 countries are above 25 on the index.
Inflation is the major contributing factor plaguing three of the top four nations listed. The other countries are either hampered by high unemployment or interest rates. 
Here is the top 28 (and here's the full study):

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-miserable-places-in-the-world-2014-4#ixzz306DIs6nD

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Over the past 40 years, fewer English majors but more journalism majors

By Catherine Rampell
 
College is still generally a good investment, when you compare the job prospects of those with and without bachelor’s degrees. But if college students really want to maximize their earnings, they might make some different choices about what they study.
Here’s a comparison of the distribution of bachelor’s degrees awarded in 1970-71 (the earliest year for which data are available) and 2011-12:

Source: National Center for Education Statistics.

You’ll notice some big shifts in undergraduates’ choices of majors over time, and the shifts don’t always reflect where the jobs are.
Among the disciplines that have lost share in total degrees awarded: education (21% of degrees awarded in 1970-71, 5.9% in 2011-12); English (7.6% vs. 3%); social studies and history (18.5% vs. 10%); math and statistics (3% vs. 1%); physical sciences and science technologies (2.5% to 1.5%); and foreign languages, literatures and linguistics (2.5% to 1.2%).
My hunch is that the decline in education degrees, in both raw numbers and as a share of all degrees, reflects both changing career opportunities for women, as well as perhaps changes to teacher licensing requirements. (Readers, do you know?) I don’t know how to explain some of the others. Mathematical science occupations are projected to grow rapidly in the next 10 years, yet the country is graduating fewer math majors today than it did in 1971 — in raw numbers, not just percentage of all degrees. Four decades ago, 25,000 bachelor’s degrees went to people who studied math and statistics; today the number is just 19,000, even though college enrollment overall has grown.
The majors that have gained the most share: business (13.7% in 1970-71 vs. 20% in 2011-12); health professions and related programs (3% vs. 9.1%); and communication, journalism, and related programs (1.2% vs. 4.7%).
Isn’t that kind of crazy? That means almost one in 20 bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2011-12 was in communications/journalism. Why, I have no idea. Probably not because of the hot job prospects.

The share of degrees awarded in computer and information sciences has grown since 1970-71, but remember there were almost no computer majors back then. If you just look at what’s happened so far this millennium, both the share and raw number of BA’s going to computer and information sciences has fallen on net, though it’s crept up slightly in the years since the recession.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics.

 From : washingtonpost

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Use the 2-Question Performance-based Interview for Assessing Anyone for Any Job

“How could people I knew who were top performers be judged as failures, misfits and incompetent within 30 minutes by people who didn’t know them at all?”

Since I had worked in industry for 10 years prior to becoming a recruiter, many of my early candidates were people I knew personally. Within a year I knew the interview process used by 95% of managers was fundamentally flawed. My big question: “How could people I knew who were top performers be judged as failures, misfits and incompetent within 30 minutes by people who didn’t know them at all?” This led me to start benchmarking best interview practices of the few hiring managers who assessed every candidate correctly.
After sitting in on hundreds of interviews, I discovered that the best interviewers asked essentially the same two questions regardless of the job, function, industry or level of the position. They also knew exactly what they were looking for, and it wasn’t a job description listing skills and experiences. It was a detailed list of performance objectives describing what the person needed to do to be successful.
When this type of performance-based job description was combined with an in-depth work history review, these two questions became the Two-Question Performance-based Interview I’ve been using for the past 25 years. During that time it’s been fully validated, and is now being used successfully by tens of thousands of interviewers around the world for all types of positions. You might want to try it out by comparing the results achieved to the process you’re using today. (Here’s how to obtain the full interview and assessment scorecard.)
A note to job-seekers: while this summary is written from the perspective of the interviewer, candidates should consider how they’d respond to the questions posed. This is a great way to practice the ideas presented in my recent two-part guerrilla job-seeking posts.
The Two-Question Performance-based Interview for Assessing Anyone for Any Job
Step 1: Introduction
First, provide no longer than a 1-2 minute overview of the job. Then ask the candidate to give you a quick overview of what he/she has done that’s most comparable. Be sure to ask what the person is looking for in a new job and why those factors are important. (Note: the why is more important than the what.)
The purpose of the introduction is to take control of the conversation, find out the candidate’s true motivation for looking for another job, and to get the best people to see the job as a potential career move.
Step 2: Force Yourself to Remain Objective
It’s important to wait 30 minutes before you make any yes or no preliminary assessment. More errors are made in the first 30 minutes of the interview due to bias, the impact of first impressions, and lack of understanding of real job needs. (This post describes how to eliminate most of these types of errors.)
Step 3: Conduct a 30-Minute Work-History Review Looking for the Achiever Pattern
Spend time going through each of the jobs the person has held for the past 5-10 years and why the person changed jobs. Within each company, look for successes and areas where the person has been recognized for strong performance. This could be given more challenging assignments, assigned to important teams, and being promoted into bigger roles.
A pattern of successes like these across multiple companies is indicative of the Achiever Pattern. Changing jobs is big decision. Make sure they were made for the right reasons.
Step 4: Conduct an In-depth Evaluation of the Person’s Major Accomplishments
Ask the Most Significant Accomplishment question to fully understand the person’s major successes in each past position. Use the detailed behavioral fact-finding process described in the linked post to peel the onion and clarify the person’s actual role.
A core part of the performance-based assessment is comparing the person’s major accomplishments to those described in the performance-based job description. The trend of performance and growth of these accomplishments over time is a strong indicator of ability and potential.
Step 5: Ask the Problem-solving Question
Ask the candidate how he or she would solve a realistic job-related problem. Then get into a give-and-take discussion with the objective of understanding the process the person would use to solve the problem.
The answer itself is less important that the process the person uses to solve the problem. The best people in any job function have the ability to visualize a solution to a problem before they begin implementing it. Brain teasers and trick questions are not predictive of success.
Step 6: Allow the Candidate to Ask Questions
Candidate questions asked early in the interview are typically rehearsed. Spontaneous questions asked after the candidate knows the requirements of the job are better indicators of insight, ability and interest.
Step 7: Recruit the Person if the Job Represents a Career Move
The difference between what needs to be done in the job and what the candidate has accomplished represents growth and stretch. This needs to be presented as the prime reason to proceed, not compensation maximization.
Step 8: Measure First Impression Again
Even if first impressions are important to job success, don’t let them affect your judgment. Instead, assess them at the end of interview by determining if the person’s first impression will help or hinder job success. You’ll discover about of the third of the people aren’t nearly as good as you first thought, and another third aren’t as bad.
Using the Performance-based Interview and the companion Quality of Hire Talent Scorecard to assess competency, motivation and fit, starts with the development of a performance-based job description describing what the person must do in the job to be successful. This is essential. The point: if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll never know when you’ve found it, even using the best interview and assessment tools in the world. by Lou Adler

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50 Dead Products and How to Stay Off This List

Will your business go the way of the dinosaur? Of course not will be your answer. That's the same answer producers of the fax machine, the office binder or the yellow pages gave years ago. There just might come a day though that your product might be a thing of the past.

When the rate of change outside is more than what it is inside,
be sure that the end is near. [Azim Premji]

Here's a list of 50 dinosaur products and services on the verge of going extinct soon or even already gone for some time:

1. Amateur radio.
2. Answering machines.
3. Bank affiliates.
4. Bar soap.
5. Board games.
6. Bookstores.
7. Boombox
8. Business cards.
9. Car keys
10. Cassette tape.
11. Coin-operated arcades.
12. Classified ads.
13. Dial-up internet access.
14. DVD player.
15. Encyclopedia.
16. Fax machine.
17. Film rolls.
18. Floppy disk.
19. Incandescent light bulb.
20. Key punch cards.
21. Matchmakers
22. Milkman.
23. Movie rental stores.
24. Office binders.
25. Pager.
26. Paid pornography (Playboy).
27. Pay phones.
28. PDA's (personal digital assistants).
29. Personal checks.
30. Pinball machines.
31. Phonebook.
32. Polaroid photo.
33. Printed road maps.
34. Property rental agents.
35. Record stores.
36. Small portable tv's.
37. Smoking in bars.
38. Stamps.
39. Stand-alone GPS units in cars.
40. Stand-Alone bowling alleys.
41. Subway tokens.
42. Telemarketing.
43. Travel agency shops.
44. Typewriter.
45. TV news.
46. VHS-tapes.
47. VCR player.
48. Walkman.
49. Wall telephones.
50. Yellow pages.

There was a nice overview in the Huff Post on products and services that the Facebook generation will never start to buy, just because they lost interest, like:

1. Televisions, because they are hooked to the internet.
2. Desktop computers, because they are hooked on tablets and laptops.
3. Cigarettes, because they are dropping the habit.
4. Landline phones, because they use cell phones.
5. Cars, because they lost interest in owning one.
6. Newspapers, because they get news via their social media.
7. Beer, because they prefer low alcohol ones.
8. Email, because it's too slow and too formal.

This list of 50 (nearly) dinosaur products is a call for action. Do not stand still in this fast paced business environment. As a business leader, look for ways to innovate your product - or device portfolio in time.
Now you can't innovate your company alone. You need a lot of people to make change happen. Your board, bosses and colleagues will only stick out their necks for innovation if doing nothing is a bigger risk. So you can break the status quo and create momentum for innovation by making them nervous that doing nothing is indeed a big risk. How? Identify key persons in your company and confront them personally with concrete reasons for change that will move them out of their comfort zone. Here are 5 tips for you to keep your company off this list by raising awareness for change in time.
So:

1. Take key persons to Tech Universities to see experiments with new technologies.
2. Take key persons to visit start-ups challenging your market.
3. Invite a known trend watcher to confront key persons how quick the world is changing.
4. Spam key persons with articles of new successful business models;
5. Arrange meetings for key persons with teenagers to ask them what they think of your brand, products and services.

People in your company will say yes to innovation as soon as they get the insight that doing nothing is an even bigger risk.

Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. [Will Rogers].

by Gijs van Wulfen

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5 Ways to Improve Study Skills

As students gear up for state tests and finals, it’s time to start taking a look at how they study. Knowing how to study not only helps boost students’ performance on major exams, it also helps them go into the exam with confidence. Even students who already know how to study can stand to re-evaluate their study skills to make sure they’re maximizing their brain power. These strategies for improving study skills will not only help students learn how to study, they’ll also help make their study time more effective.

1. Start Early

Despite its popularity, cramming for an exam rarely works. Focusing on a lot of the same information at once may make students feel confident that they know it, but often it doesn’t stick. Instead of cramming for exams, students should start studying early and gradually review the information over time. This helps them learn and review a variety of information at once and in smaller amounts, making it easier for the information to stick. It also removes some of the stress because they don’t have to spend the night before a test studying instead of getting a good night’s sleep.

2. Find Your Optimal Study Environment

Sometimes students know the basics of studying, but they don’t do it in the best environment. They may think they can study with the TV on and radio blaring or while sitting in the library with their friends, but that’s not always the case. Students should conduct an honest and thorough evaluation of their study environment to see whether it’s really working for them. One way to do this is to read a paragraph in the normal study environment, test what they remember, and then switch to a quieter environment, read another paragraph and see if they remember more or less.
A few questions to ask when finding the optimal study environment include:

• What do I hear around me? Does it distract me from what I’m reading/doing?
• What do I smell around me? Does it make me feel positive or negative?
• How is the lighting? Is it too dark? Too bright?
• Am I comfortable? Too comfortable?
• Do I have all the resources I need around me?
• What objects/sounds/smells/etc. take me away from my studying in this environment?

Answering these questions will help students determine whether their study environment is working and what they need to add or remove to create the optimal study environment.

3. Learn How to Study

Of  course students can study all the time in the optimal study environment, but it doesn’t do any good if they don’t know how to study. Studying involves more than re-reading highlighted notes or flipping through a stack of flashcards. HowtoStudy.com offers a guide to help students learn how to study. The guide covers aspects of studying such as creating a study plan, taking effective notes, managing stress, and learning how to effectively study and brush up on your skills before a test. While the guide has been designed for college students, many of its principles also work well for students in middle school and high school. Too often students get to college without knowing how to study, so it’s good to teach them how to study while the stakes are lower and they have their parents and teachers around to support them.

4. Think Positive

When students have trouble with a subject and develop a negative attitude, no amount of studying will work. Instead, the negativity will overpower most of the learning that takes place. The goal of studying is to help students learn to master difficult concepts and become more confident in the material and they must approach studying with that mindset.
Parents and teachers can help encourage students to think positive by encouraging them with phrases such as “I know you can get this” or “you’re almost there.” Adding motivational quotes, posters, or other positive pictures and phrases to the study environment can also help students subconsciously think more positively about themselves and their abilities. When studying, students also shouldn’t start with the most difficult material they need to learn. Instead, they should start with easier material so they experience success early on and, therefore, are more motivated to keep going.

5. Use Study Skills Worksheets and Organizers

Study skills worksheets and organizers, like those found as part of Help Teaching’s free printables collection can help students learn the key words, vocabularies, and strategies needed to become better at studying. These worksheets will also help students by helping them with concepts such as creating a study calendar, learning what foods to eat while studying, and even just getting a handle on the vocabulary related to studying.
Focusing on the details involved with studying before actually looking at the material can help students vastly improve their study skills and, therefore, improve their performance on major exams. The following resources offer more advice to help students make studying more effective:

• AcademicTips.org covers the basics of studying and offers other resources, such as inspirational stories and funny jokes, to help students de-stress and feel confident while studying.
• The How to Study Infographic from Rasumussen College breaks down the basics of studying, including research-based facts on the optimal studying strategies.
• Study Guides and Strategies provides hundreds of free guides designed to help students learn to study and provide them with material to study related to major subject areas.
• HowToStudy.org organizes its study skills by subject, showing students that sometimes they must study different for a math test than a science exam.

Have some study tips or resources that you love? Share them in the comments.

From: www.helpteaching.com/blog/5-ways-to-improve-study-skills.html

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When Women Wanted Sex Much More Than Men

 In the 1600s, a man named James Mattock was expelled from the First Church of Boston. His crime? It wasn’t using lewd language or smiling on the sabbath or anything else that we might think the Puritans had disapproved of. Rather, James Mattock had refused to have sex with his wife for two years. Though Mattock’s community clearly saw his self-deprivation as improper, it is quite possible that they had his wife’s suffering in mind when they decided to shun him. The Puritans believed that sexual desire was a normal and natural part of human life for both men and women (as long as it was heterosexual and confined to marriage), but that women wanted and needed sex more than men. A man could choose to give up sex with relatively little trouble, but for a woman to be so deprived would be much more difficult for her
Yet today, the idea that men are more interested in sex than women is so pervasive that it seems almost unremarkable. Whether it’s because of hormone levels or “human nature,” men just need to have sex, masturbate, and look at porn in a way that simply isn’t necessary for women, according to popular assumptions (and if a women does find it so necessary, there’s probably something wrong with her). Women must be convinced, persuaded, even forced into “giving it up,” because the prospect of sex just isn’t that appealing on its own, say popular stereotypes. Sex for women is usually a somewhat distasteful but necessary act that must be performed to win approval, financial support, or to maintain a stable relationship. And since women are not slaves to their desires like men, they are responsible for ensuring that they aren’t “taken advantage of.”
The idea that men are naturally more interested in sex than women is ubiquitous that it’s difficult to imagine that people ever believed differently. And yet for most of Western history, from ancient Greece to beginning of the nineteenth century, women were assumed to be the sex-crazed porn fiends of their day. In one  ancient Greek myth, Zeus and Hera argue about whether men or women enjoy sex more. They ask the prophet Tiresias, whom Hera had once transformed into a woman, to settle the debate. He answers, “if sexual pleasure were divided into ten parts, only one part would go to the man, and and nine parts to the woman.” Later, women were considered to be temptresses who inherited their treachery from Eve. Their sexual passion was seen as a sign of their inferior morality, reason and intellect, and justified tight control by husbands and fathers. Men, who were not so consumed with lust and who had superior abilities of self-control, were the gender more naturally suited to holding positions of power and influence.
Early twentieth-century physician and psychologist Havelock Ellis may have been the first to document the ideological change that had recently taken place. In his 1903 work  Studies in the Psychology of Sex, he cites a laundry list of ancient and modern historical sources ranging from Europe to Greece, the Middle East to China, all of nearly the same mind about women’s greater sexual desire. In the 1600s, for instance, Francisco Plazzonus deduced that childbirth would hardly be worthwhile for women if the pleasure they derived from sex was not far greater than that of men’s. Montaigne, Ellis notes, considered women to be “incomparably more apt and more ardent in love than men are, and that in this matter they always know far more than men can teach them, for ‘it is a discipline that is born in their veins.’” The idea of women’s passionlessness had not yet fully taken hold in Ellis’ own time, either. Ellis’ contemporary, the Austrian gynecologist Enoch Heinrich Kisch, went so far as to state that “The sexual impulse is so powerful in women that at certain periods of life its primitive force dominates her whole nature.”

From: http://www.alternet.org

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The College Degrees And Skills Employers Most Want

 The hiring picture is improving for the college class of 2014. According to a new survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers are planning to hire 8.6% more graduates for their U.S. operations than they did from the class of 2013.  It’s  a big jump from the spring of 2013 when employers said they would boost hiring by just 2.1% over the previous year.

A non-profit group in Bethlehem, PA, NACE links college placement offices with employers. It surveyed 1,015 of its employer members from February 11 – March 26, 2014 and got responses from 161 companies in industries ranging from agriculture to energy to retail. Respondents included Caterpillar CAT -0.1%, Macy’s, Merck , PETCO and Schlumberger SLB -1.02%.

NACE’S questionnaire asked employers to rate the academic disciplines they target for their college hires. At the top of the list: business degrees. Some 68.8% of companies said they want to hire students set to graduate in that discipline. Sixty-six percent are looking for engineers and 59% want accounting majors. At the bottom of the list: health sciences, education and agriculture.  Employers are not too eager to hire humanities majors either. Only 13.9% of respondents said they would hire humanities students. Here is a chart showing employers’ hiring expectations by major:

The NACE survey also asked employers to rate the skills they most value in new hires. Companies want candidates who can make decisions, solve problems, communicate clearly, analyze data and prioritize their work.  Here is the ranking in order of importance:

From:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/04/16/the-college-degrees-and-skills-employers-most-want/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=forbesfbsf

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10 Ways To Get Motivated About Money

Every so often we face a mental impasse that seems impossible to overcome. You’re chugging along just fine and all of a sudden your brain decides, “Optimism, thou shall not pass.” It’s a quick, hard brake on momentum and it can be incredibly frustrating.
So what happens when you run out of steam for your financial goals? It’s rough, to say the least. With burnout comes exhaustion and frustration and (more than) a little guilt. But it’s also an expected part of the cycle of any long-term goal or routine and you should be confident in knowing that you’ll overcome the challenge.
Here’s how to re-energize when you feel like you’ve reached the end of your rope: 

Acknowledge the fact.

First things first – acknowledge your burnout. Trying to ignore or deny the stall will only prolong the time it takes to get back on track. It’s not always easy to admit a challenge, but it’s a part of the path to success. You haven’t been defeated – you’re just surveying what’s next. Success isn’t about being perfect, it’s about knowing how to make adjustments that result in positive growth.

Brainstorm potential causes.

There are many reasons why you may be hitting the proverbial wall. Here are a few possibilities:

• working too hard
• feeling at a loss for new ideas
• unmotivated
• fearful of success
• fearful of failure
• feeling lazy

Honesty is key here. For instance, 'feeling lazy' is a common and completely acceptable reason for a burnout — you shouldn't feel guilty. When you acknowledge the cause, you’re that much more empowered to take it on and find fixes. Additionally, you're much more likely to find out specific ways to deal with it efficiently.

Differentiate between burnout and boredom.

Both are legitimate reasons to take a step back from your financial approach but they aren't exactly the same, either. Boredom might be cured from trying something new or redirecting your attention to another area of your finances in order to regain some of your momentum. Burnout is a little more deeply rooted than that. It includes feeling apathetic and in some cases — hopeless. For most people who experience burnout, they've already gone through the stages of boredom and need more than a new idea.

Set a new bottom line.

Make it relatively simple. Reassess your goals to figure out if they continue to be realistic for your financial needs. One of the reasons that burnout can feel so frustrating is that it seems like there are so many solutions out there. With all the info, shouldn’t we be able to find something? But the vast amount of resources is a double edged sword. Yes, we have access to solutions, but we can also paralyzed by the oversaturation. So instead of relying on someone else to guide you/tell you your bottom line, create a personalized bottom line that you genuinely think meets your abilities and needs. This will at the very least give you something that is crafted just for you, instead of trying to fit an edge piece into the center of your financial puzzle.

Imagine that you’ve already succeeded.

Will you be happier or worse off for making a positive change? It's not meant to be a trick question, just one that more or less shows you that efforts made to learn and grow is almost always worth the energy. It's a little in line with the saying, "you never regret a workout," because of the way that it energizes you and keeps you fit. Even still, it takes discipline and pep talking to leave your bed in the morning to go hit the gym. The same goes for completing a financial project or task. Think about how you will feel once it’s done instead of how much you don’t want to do it.

Make a list of what's working.

We get super caught up with what's not working but there’s a ton of value in focusing on what is working. The small irritations or failures tend to take attention over the incredible number of wins (however small) we experience. Don't gloss over what's been working in your financial plan (such as "I haven't spent money on clothes in seven months"). The things that you’ve already created or succeeded in are great resources. Unpack the hows/whys of the success and try and pinpoint a few elements these successes have in common. For example, my list would look a little like this:

• I consistently work best in the morning and in the late afternoon so I’ve created a schedule that works with my efficiency
• I follow through with financial goals when there’s added accountability
• Thinking about food and travel goals consistently helps be to regain financial focus

Write down your number one goal — and brainstorm detailed steps to achieve it.

Brainstorm ideas and write them down. Even if you know that you’re nowhere close to actually doing them, writing down your ideas is a great way to at the very least get out some thoughts that may spark other thoughts. Get as crazy as you want and open up your brain a little bit. Finance is often very cut and dry but ideas are anything but. Do you want to buy a farm in the middle of Kentucky and start your new life as a farmer? How would you make it happen, etc. Be as specific as possible.

Read people who inspire you.

Creative thinking begets creative thinking. Go ahead and let your mind surf over the ocean that is the internet. Yeah — no bars held back on the nerd scale. Read financial bloggers, research things that interest you, most importantly — make it your mission to learn something and then dive in headfirst. You'll gain fresh perspective and push yourself beyond the limits of your current habits or routines.

Start out by doing just one thing.

Do something you know you can accomplish — even if that's just putting a dollar bill in a jar. On the tail end of a burnout it’s difficult to scale back when you've set (and accomplished) a fairly high standard of success. But when you are facing burnout you’re essentially in recovery mode. If you ran a marathon, you wouldn’t set out for another 26.2 miles the very next day. You need to cater to your mental fatigue and give yourself a little bit of TLC  as you work up again to your previous level of motivation or sustainable effort.

Treat apathy as a learning experience.

Last but not least — be nice to yourself. Know that sometimes you're going to fail miserably, or experience a complete lack of motivation when it comes to your finances. It's important to think of apathy or burnout as a temporary detour. Yes, it takes you away from where you were headed but you will ultimately end up back on the main track. When you incorporate the reality of these occasional meanderings, you map out a plan that is realistic and sustainable.

Read more: http://blog.readyforzero.com/what-to-do-when-your-financial-ideas-burn-out/#ixzz2z9wqM8dH

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ចូល​​ឆ្នាំ​​ថ្មី​​ឆ្នាំ​​នេះ​​ភ្ញៀវ​​ទេស​ចរ​​សម្រុក​​ខ្លាំង​​ទៅ​​ខេត្ត​​សៀម​រាប​​និង​​ចេញ​​ក្រៅ​​ប្រទេស​​

 ក្នុង​ថ្ងៃ​ដំបូង​នៃ​ពិធី​បុណ្យ​ចូល​ ឆ្នាំ​ថ្មី​នេះ ភ្ញៀវ​ទេស​ចរ​បាន​សម្រុក​ខ្លាំង​ទៅ​កាន់​ខេត្ត​សៀម​រាប។ បន្ទប់​សណ្ឋាគារ​ផ្ទះ​សំណាក់​បាន​ឡើង​ថ្លៃ​ខ្ពស់​និង​មាន​អ្នក​ខ្លះ​ខ្វះ​ បន្ទប់​ស្នាក់​នៅ​ទៀត​ផង។ ចំនួន​ភ្ញៀវ​ទេសចរណ៍​ក្នុង​ពិធី​បុណ្យ​ចូល​ឆ្នាំ​ថ្មី​រយៈ​ពេល​៣​ថ្ងៃ​នេះ​ ត្រូវ​បាន​មន្ទីរ​ទេសចរណ៍​ខេត្ត​សៀម​រាប​វាយ​តម្លៃ​ថា​មាន​ដល់​ទៅ​ជាង​២៥​ ម៉ឺន​នាក់​គឺ​កើន​លើស​ឆ្នាំ​មុន​ជាង ៤៤ ភាគ​រយ។ ចំនួន​អ្នក​ចេញ​ទៅ​ក្រៅ​ប្រទេស​ក៏​កើន​ឡើង​ស្ទើរ ១០០ ភាគរយ​បើ​ធៀប​នឹង​ឆ្នាំ​មុន។

ក្រុម​យុវជន​នាំ​គ្នា​រាំ​លេង​កម្សាន្ត​តាម​ចង្វាក់​ខ្មែរ នៅ​តាម​ក្រោម​ម្លប់​ឈើ​ខាង​មុខ​បរិវេណ​ប្រាសាទ​អង្គរវត្ត

 ភ្ញៀវ​ទេស​ចរ​មក​ពី​គ្រប់​ទិស​ទី​ទាំង​ភ្ញៀវ​ជាតិ​និង​អន្តរ​ជាតិ​ដែល​ បាន​មក​ទស្សនា​ខេត្ត​សៀម​រាប​ក្នុង​អំឡុង​បុណ្យ​ចូល​ឆ្នាំ​ថ្មី​នេះ​មាន​ ចំនួន​ជាង ២៥​ម៉ឺន​នាក់​ពោល​គឺ​កើន​លើស​ឆ្នាំ​មុន​ប្រមាណ​ជា ៤៤​ភាគរយ។ នេះ​បើតាម លោក ង៉ូវ សេង​កាក់ ប្រធាន​មន្ទីរ​ទេសចរណ៍​ខេត្ត​សៀម​រាប​ដែល​បាន​បាន​ប្រាប់​វិទ្យុ​បារាំង​ អន្តរ​ជាតិ​នៅ​ថ្ងៃ​អង្គារ​នេះ​។
បើ​តាម​លោក ង៉ូវ សេង​កាក់ ការ​កើន​ឡើង​នៃ​ភ្ញៀវ​ទេសចរ​ក្នុង​ខេត្ត​សៀម​រាប​គឺ​ដោយ​សារ​តែ​ខេត្ត​នេះ​ មាន​រៀប​ចំ​ព្រឹត្តិ​ការណ៍​អង្គរ​សង្ក្រាន្ត​។ ប្រធាន​មន្ទីរ​ទេស​ចរណ៍​ខេត្ត​សៀម​រាប​ឲ្យ​ដឹង​ទៀត​ថា បន្ទប់​សណ្ឋា​គារ ផ្ទះសំ​ណាក់​ទូ​ទាំង​ខេត្ត​ត្រូវ​បាន​ភ្ញៀវ​ជួល​ស្នាក់​នៅ​គ្មាន​សល់​គឺ​នៅ​ សល់តែ​បន្ទប់​សណ្ឋា​គារ​ថ្នាក់​ផ្កាយ​៥​ខ្លះ​តែប៉ុណ្ណោះ។ ក្រៅ​ពី​នោះ​ក៏​មាន​ភ្ញៀវ​ជា​ច្រើន​ទៀត​ស្នាក់​នៅ​ផ្ទះ​បង​ប្អូន​ផង​ដែរ។ ភ្ញៀវ​ខ្លះ​ទៀត​ត្រូវ​ចំណាយ​ពេល​ដល់​រំលង​អាធ្រា​ត្រ​ទើប​អាច​រក​បន្ទប់​ ស្នាក់​នៅបាន។

លោក ហូ វណ្ឌី សហ​ប្រធាន​ក្រុម​ការងារ​វិស័យ​ទេស​ចរណ៍​ផ្នែក​ឯកជន​ក៏​បាន​ប្រាប់​វិទ្យុ​ បារាំង​អន្តរជាតិ​ដែរ​ថា មាន​ភ្ញៀវ​ទេស​ចរ​ខ្លះ​ជា​ពិសេស​ដូន​ជី​និង​មនុស្ស​វ័យ​ចំណាស់​មួយ​ចំនួន​ បាន​ទៅ​ស្នាក់​នៅ​តាម​ទី​វត្ត​អារាម។ បើតាម​លោក ហូ វណ្ឌី ខេត្ត​ផ្សេង​ៗ​ទៀត​មិន​សូវ​ជា​មាន​បញ្ហា​ចោទ​ប៉ុន្មាន​ទេ ដូចជា​បាត់ដំបង​ឬ​ប៉ៃលិន​ជាដើម​ភ្ញៀវ​អាច​រក​បន្ទប់​ស្នាក់​នៅ​បាន​ជា​ ធម្មតា​។

ពិធី​បុណ្យ​ចូល​ឆ្នាំ​ថ្មី​ឆ្នាំ​នេះ​ក៏​មាន​ទេសចរ​ជន​ជាតិ​ខ្មែរ​សម្រុក​ ចេញ​ទៅ​ក្រៅ​ប្រទេស​ច្រើន​ដែរ។ លោក ហូ វណ្ឌី បញ្ជាក់​ថា ក្រុម​ហ៊ុន​ទេសចរណ៍​ជា​ច្រើន​មមា​ញឹក​យ៉ាង​ខ្លាំង​ដោយ​សារ​ភ្ញៀវ​ចេញ​ទៅ​ ក្រៅ​ប្រទេស។ ប្រ​ធាន​សមាគម​ទី​ភ្នាក់​ងារ​ទេស​ចរណ៍​កម្ពុជា លោក អាង គឹម​អ៊ាង ក៏​បាន​ឲ្យ​ដឹង​ដូច​គ្នា​នេះ​ដែរ។ លោក​បញ្ជាក់​ថា ភ្ញៀវ​ជន​ជាតិ​ខ្មែរ​ដែល​ចេញ​ទៅ​ក្រៅ​ប្រទេស​ក្នុង​អំឡុង​ពេល​បុណ្យ​ចូល​ ឆ្នាំ​ខ្មែរ​ឆ្នាំ​នេះ​បាន​កើន​ឡើង​ស្ទើរ​តែ ១០០ ភាគ​រយ​ធៀប​នឹង​ឆ្នាំ​មុន។

បើ​តាម​លោក អាង គឹម​អ៊ាង ភ្ញៀវ​ខ្លះ​មិន​អាច​រក​យន្ត​ហោះ​ជិះ​បាន​ផង។ គោល​ដៅ​ទេស​ចរណ៍​សំខាន់​ៗ​មានដូច​ជា ម៉ា​ឡេ​ស៊ី សាំង​ហ្គា​ពួរ ចិន ហើយ​ឆ្នាំ​នេះ​មាន​ទេសចរ​ជន​ជាតិ​ខ្មែរ​ខ្លះ​ចេញ​ទៅ​រហូត​ដល់​កូរ៉េ​ខាង​ ត្បូង ជប៉ុន សហរដ្ឋ​អាមេរិក និង​អូស្ត្រាលី​ទៀត​ផង។ ទាំង​លោក ហូ វណ្ឌី ទាំង​លោក អាង គឹម​អ៊ាង សុទ្ធ​តែ​កត់សម្គាល់​ថា ការ​ធូរ​ស្រាល​ខាង​នយោ​បាយ​ជា​អំណោយ​ផល​ល្អ​មួយ​សម្រាប់​ភ្ញៀវ​ទេសចរ។

យ៉ាង​ណា​ក៏​ដោយ អ្នក​ជំនាញ​ទេស​ចរណ៍​បាន​សំណូមពរ​ថា កម្ពុជា​គួររៀប​ចំ​ហេដ្ឋា​រចនា​សម្ព័ន្ធ​ឲ្យ​មាន​គុណ​ភាព​ជា​ពិសេស​ផ្លូវ​ ថ្នល់។ ភ្ញៀវ​ទេស​ចរ​ជា​ច្រើន​បាន​ត្អូញ​ត្អែរ​អំពី​ការ​លំ​បាក​ក្នុង​ការ​ធ្វើ​ ដំណើរ​ទៅ​កាន់​ខេត្តសៀម​រាប​និង​ខេត្ត​មួយ​ចំនួន​ទៀត​ដោយ​សារ​តែ​បញ្ហា​ ផ្លូវ​ថ្នល់ និង​កង្វះ​ហេ​ដ្ឋា​រចនា​សម្ពន្ធ័​ទេស​ចរណ៍​ផ្សេងទៀត៕ ពីវិទ្យុបារាំង

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