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Week of October 9 |
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Friday, October 13, 2006
Beware Black Cats, Ladders, and
Your Own Deepest Fears
Happy Friday the
13th! I can’t think of any better antidote to
paraskevidekatriaphobia—fear of Friday the 13th—than
visiting
“Fearless
Voices: Getting More Out of Your Relationships, Your Job, and Your
Life,” a Web page promoting Arianna Huffington’s new book,
“On Becoming Fearless . . . in Love, Work, and Life.”
“Fears—such
as fear of snakes, heights, and closed spaces—are not biologically
specific to gender, but some do tend to be more prevalent among
women than men,” says Huffington, and then she names 11 deadly
female fears: “anuptaphobia: fear of staying single; arrhenphobia:
fear of men; atelophobia: fear of imperfection; atychiphobia: fear
of failure; cacophobia: fear of ugliness; eremophobia: fear of
loneliness; gerascophobia: fear of growing old; glossophobia: fear
of public speaking; katagelophobia: fear of ridicule; monophobia:
fear of being alone; rhytiphobia: fear of getting wrinkles.”
Huffington, who keeps finding new ways to
reinvent herself as she grows older and wiser, going from wife, to
author, to politician, to blogger politicians can’t ignore, writes
about the importance of mastering your fears. Being true to
yourself. Finding your voice. Speaking your mind. “As Marlo Thomas
once said, ‘A man has to be Joe McCarthy to be called ruthless. All
a woman has to do is put you on hold’," Huffington writes. Don’t let
that bias hem you in, she urges. “Fearlessness is about getting up
one more time than we fall down,” she reminds us. “The more
comfortable we are with the possibility of falling down, the less
worried we are of what people will think if and when we do, the less
judgmental of ourselves we are every time we make a mistake, the
more fearless we will be, and the easier our journey will become.”
CLICK HERE to download a free excerpt from the book, and be
sure to visit the Web page promoting the book, where you’ll find
“Fearless
Takes & Takeaways” by other women who aren’t afraid to
express themselves. Then find the courage to try that thing
you’ve been wanting to do with your life.
My greatest fear is not letting myself become all that I
dream I can be. Another great writer, Erica Jong, coined a phrase
for that in a novel of the same name:
“Fear of Flying.”
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Thursday, October 12, 2006
Better Than Santa?
The folks at Wal-Mart have just come up with a Web site that makes
letters to Santa a thing of the past. On it, a holiday elf called
Wally shows off the latest must-have toys and encourages kids to
click yes to send an e-mail to their parents, letting them know what
their little hearts desire. “If you show us what you want on your
list, we’ll blast it off to your parents,” says Wally.
Somewhere a marketer who dreamed this up is going “Ho,
Ho, Ho.” Not only does Wal-Mart capture possible sales, it’s
capturing parents’ e-mail addresses. Expect to see Wally and his
elfin buddy, Mary, turning up in TV commercials and movie-theater
ads soon. Or go straight to the source:
http://toyland.walmart.com.
Parents who’d rather not be spammed by e-mail wish lists
from their kids had better start encouraging them to write letters
to the big boy in the red suit himself the old-fashioned way—or add
Wally and Mary’s URL to your computer’s parental-control list.
What I want to know is: to whom can I send my
wish list from Bergdorf’s “Christmas Book,” which just arrived in
the mail today, containing among its goodies a six-person space trip
charter for $1.7 million; equity membership in perpetuity in
Castiglion Del Bosco (“Castle in the Woods”), one of Tuscany’s
oldest wine estates, dating back to the 12th Century,
about to be turned into a luxury resort, for $3.8 million; the House
of Fath couture archives for $3.5 million; and a limited edition BMW
convertible for a mere $39,000.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Wednesday, October 11, 2005
Open Season on ‘Dummies’?
Fall
is open-enrollment season—for most of us, that’s the one time per
year when we get the chance to review our employee benefit options
for life and health insurance, as well as retirement savings.
According to a Met Life study conducted in August of this year, 43
percent of employees say their company’s open-enrollment period
makes them feel “responsible.” The study also showed that many wish
they had better tools to help them evaluate their choices. Ignorance
is not bliss when you’re shuffling these forms!
Even
though you’re busy, with so much else going on this time of year, it
pays to take the time to educate yourself and review your options
carefully. Your employer may have added new investment options or
insurance packages. Your family’s circumstances may have changed or
may be likely to change within the next 12 months. Now is the time
to look at the big picture: Got a daughter who may need braces this
year? Make sure you’re signed up for dental coverage or a flexible
spending plan that would allow you to reduce your taxable income by
the amount you spend on her teeth. Have you gotten a raise in the
last year? You might want to think about increasing your disability
insurance coverage along with your 401(k) contribution. CLICK HERE
for some more tips on what to consider as you reconsider your
options.
Aetna, in conjunction with the Financial Planning Association and
Wiley Publishing, has produced a helpful booklet called “Navigating
Your Health Benefits for Dummies.” Copies of this free guide are
available at
www.planforyourhealth.com. You’d be a dummy not to take
advantage of it.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow
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Tuesday, October 10, 2006
You Could ‘Car-Less’
There’s that old joke that weekend sailors tell about a boat being a
hole in the water they pour cash into. According to author Chris
Balish in his new book, “How to Live Well Without Owning a Car, “
automobiles are just money pits on wheels. Download a free,
two-chapter excerpt of his book at
www.livecarfree.com, where you’ll find some off-the-beaten-path
suggestions for saving money by reducing the amount of miles you
travel by car or (gasp!) going car-free altogether.
The book is full of first-person accounts
of people who’ve saved thousands of dollars a year doing just that.
Car-cost worksheets and charts outline the true cost of owning a car
and show how much the money you could save each month by using
alternative means of transportation, and they are eye-openers.
“If you currently own or lease a car,
truck, or SUV, this book has the power to give you the equivalent of
a $5,000 to $10,000 raise,“ says Balish, who points out that
Americans spend one-fifth of their income on cars. “Following the
program in these pages can help you slash your monthly expenses, pay
off your credit cards, build an investment portfolio, save for a
house, and possibly pay off your mortgage early. You could even
become a millionaire, or retire at age 40.” He may be onto
something. I rode a bus and a train today and traveled more than 50
miles. The cost: less than $5. Best of all, I met some very nice
people taking public transportation.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Monday, October 9, 2006
Can You
Fail a Test Where There Are No Wrong Answers?
Below, former
MAKING BREAD intern Danielle Bullen reports in again on her job
search. She first wrote for this blog last Monday, October 2.
Here, she describes being confronted with one of those baffling and
frustrating personality tests that some employers give job
candidates. And she thought tests were behind her when she
graduated with a Masters.
For
some useful information on career choices and first jobs, try the
following two links to the BusinessWeek.com site:
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/firstjobs/index.html
and
http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/video/careers/index.html.—Ed.
‘Hi, I’m
Danielle. How Can I Help You?’
I
learned recently that one of my favorite stores, a well-known
national chain, was hiring part-time sales associates. It would be
the perfect fit for me, while I look for full-time work. I’d be
able to get out of my house for a few days a week (eliminating cabin
fever), earn some much-needed cash, and best of all, enjoy the
employee discount.
The job
required me to fill out an online application. At first, the
questions were typical—education, work experience, references. I
sailed through the opening pages, until I reached the next section.
There it was: the dreaded psychological test. I’d heard of them,
but never encountered one outside of school. Disguised as a
questionnaire were almost 100 questions designed to measure my
potential success as an employee. The instructions read: Answer as
quickly as possible. First impressions and gut reactions are key.
I couldn’t believe it! All I wanted was the chance to
stand behind a register or maybe stock shelves. I consider myself a
people person and think I would thrive in a job where I interact
with customers. I couldn’t understand how this part of the
application was relevant to my ability to say, “Hi. I’m Danielle.
How can I help you?”
Between me and that goal remained an endless stream of
inquiries. All the questions were multiple choice, with black or
white answers. I was severely limited in my responses, and, boy, was
that frustrating! After all, almost everything in life falls into
the gray area. For instance, there were many variations on: “Are you
a leader or a follower?” My first thought was: “It depends on the
situation and the personalities of the other people in a specific
group.”
“Was it a trick question?” I wondered. “Was ‘follower’
code for team player or code for spineless. Was ‘leader’ code for
assertive or code for demanding?”
If a manager
were asking me these questions, I’d have the advantages of
person-to-person interaction—eye contact, body language, voice
inflection, more than two-word answers—to press my case. But in the
name of efficiency, I and other hopefuls were subjected to this
impersonal inquisition. I couldn’t help wondering how many really
good candidates were being winnowed out by the process.
Figuring I had nothing to lose, I
answered each question honestly. After submitting the online
application, I got an invitation to come to one of the branches for
a face-to-face interview with a manager, so I must have chosen the
“right” answers. The manager and I seemed to have a good rapport,
but as of the time I wrote this, the outcome is still up in the
air. All I can do is cross my fingers and wait.
Onward,
Danielle Bullen
Follow Up: How DO You Pass Those @#@$! Personality
Tests? Back in March ’05, MAKING BREAD
asked human resources, assessment and workforce training expert Dr.
Janice Presser (www.thegabrielinstitute.com)
for some tips on passing job-related personality tests. Her advice:
“Choose the first answer that comes in your head. It’s probably the
one that’s most true. And try to avoid committing to strong words or
absolutes, like ‘never’ and ‘always’,” she suggests. Take, for
instance, this question: ”I have never taken anything from an
employer.” True or false? “If you choose ‘true,’ they’ll know you’re
lying,” she says. Rightly or wrongly, companies that give these
tests to prospective employees are looking for a certain type of
candidate, she explains. “If you try to slant your answers, you may
end up in a job that you’re not right for. And if you don’t pass it,
maybe they’re not right for you.”
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If you like the blog, you’ll love the book.
For more savvy
finance advice, buy
“Making Bread: The
Ultimate Financial Guide for Women Who Need Dough,”
by Gail Harlow and Elizabeth Lewin, available on
Amazon.com and at your local bookstore |
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