Are Holdouts Possible in the Corporate World?

I thought about an interesting piece the other day. If I were to stop going to work, and demand double my current salary, would my company realize that I save them much more than I make and that their ROI would still be a good one, thus caving to my holdout and actually double my salary?

No. They would not. I'd get shitcanned. Period. However, it brings up an interesting notion. If you know who Terrell Owens or Javon Walker are, you know that these two professional football players are not planning on attending any team workouts or practices until they get new contracts. In Walker's case, yes, he is underpaid ($500k for a top 15 WR in the NFL). In Owens' case, he is not underpaid (he signed a 7 year, $49 million deal a year ago). Either way, their industry allows for one to hold out, because, generally, these people are so critical to their teams that without them, the team is severly impaired.

So, the question is: Are there positions out there that people can "holdout" to get more money in the corporate world? This doesn't count organized strikes; I am speaking solely on an individual basis.

I don't think we're there.....yet.

Perhaps I'll become an admissions consultant!

Perhaps not. I'll leave that to Clear Admit, among others.

But, I helped my former roommate secure his place at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He will be commuting and doing the part-time thing, but he's in. I'm proud of him, not just because he's my former roommate and Kellogg's "ranking", but also because I was his main essay proofreader. I was tough on him, no doubt, but it all paid off! Congrats, former roomie, congrats...

The interns have arrived!

I work for a big company. So big, that we hire something like 200 interns at our facility alone. That means two things:

1. Parking is nearly impossible to come by - unless you arrive before 8:30
2. It's almost time to be done with work and return to school myself.

I'm awfully excited about #2...

Congrats, Kendra!

So you'll have to hold off on that Vegas real estate thing for a bit.

I know there are at least a couple of ya out there who read my teeny-tiny piece of cyberspace, so you knew there was a post on this coming! (Since I can type fast I'm willing to bet that this is one of the first posts regarding her obvious victory)

Her win is the right choice. And it brings up a good point about leadership versus management. A great manager, while not exactly "a dime a dozen" is far easier to find than someone who can actually lead. The best quote I have ever heard regarding leadership sums it up like this (my apologies for the gender bias in the statement...): "I have never known men who could be managed into battle. They must be led." That's a great snippet. If you ever wonder what the main difference between leadership and management is, remember that quote. Leaders coach. They inspire.

In organizations leaders and managers are both very important. Both must exist for an organization to succeed because of the general qualities that each have. Leaders, being more chaotic, tend to focus much less on individual details and more on emotions and motivating factors. They align and convince people to steer ships. Managers are the people who do the dirty work: the steering, the planning, and the reporting. Sure, everyone has some elements of both, but most have a tendency towards one side or the other.

Martin Luther King was a great leader. He appealed to people's emotions and inspired them. That's what leaders do.Funny that an MBA is actually a degree in "Management". So, when you think you're truly this great "leader" ask yourself if you really are that, or a manager. I am biased to those leaders. The coaches of this world who convince people to do things that they didn't think could be done. To me, that defines greatness.

So, congrats Kendra, on getting it. "Leadership". A rare trait. And an obvious choice.

What to do when you've chosen your school

1. Cry. Your school will be very nicely demanding your money almost instantly.
2. Jump for joy. You're about to start a new phase in your life - a very exciting one.
3. Buy an Xbox or Playstation. Face it - no more GMAT to study for, no more essays to worry about, no more applications to fill out, no more application statuses to check hourly, and reduced BW Forums action. You're going to need to kill that time doing something!
4. Figure out what to do with your car.
5. Thank everyone that helped you along the way. Give gifts to your recommenders, and thanks to those who chit-chatted with you.
6. Blog about nothing.
7. Travel. Well, if you can afford it. Or, even if you can't.
8. Drink. What better time to re-acquire your tolerance. You're gonna need it in a few months anyhow.
9. Workout. That darn job and the app process caused a little bit o' weight gain.
10. Do absolutely nothing and love it!

B-School Laptop

On BW forums, LBSgrad had an idea that is so simple, yet brilliant. Go buy a USB hard drive and use it to back up data on your laptop everyday. All you have to do is buy a drive that's near the size of the installed drive on your laptop and save your critical stuff. (Why do you not need the same size? - the operating system files aren't helpful to back up, they'll need to be reinstalled if anything catastrophic happens).

LinuxGhost reiterated this suggestion, and I must say that every b-school student should do this. If you can't afford one of these drives, you can't afford b-school. Or - don't go out to the bars two nights, and buy a drive. I recommend doing your hard drive shopping on Pricewatch. I have built entire computers using only this portal - so I actually recommend buying pretty much any computer item there.

Once in a while, though rarely, my slightly-dated computer engineering background actually comes in handy!

Discipline

In a meeting this morning, I thought about discipline and how important this trait is.

As an investor and trader, I am pretty disciplined. I always cut my losses and trade my plan. I have to learn how to unlearn everything I have ascertained from my engineering / corporate career because those lessons defeat one as an investor. Things like the need to be right, the ability to manipulate situations and crises - they just don't work in the markets.

What happens to me on an almost daily basis is that I take what I learn about psychological barriers and behavior from trading and apply it to the workplace.

This morning was no different. I realized that discipline is important in every career path. Engineering, accounting, lifeguarding...whatever. One must be disciplined in following the rigor necessary to do a good job. For engineers, they must follow the disciplined plan / process that has been developed to create a quality product that customers want. Shortcuts only create problems - BIG ones. A lifeguard must be disciplined enough to constantly be paying attentiong - otherwise the mistake is also potentially very big.

Funny thing though. When is the last time you heard the word DISCIPLINE at work in this context? It seems to me that discipline is perhaps taken for granted a little too much. Food for thought...

The MBA App Process

Most of the mba-related bloggers are going to post one of these reflective posts wherein we look back and think about what we would have done differently.

1) Know what you want to do
Most candidates know that they want to change careers or they want to make more money. For career changers like me, this part is easy. If you're one of those who just wants to enhance your career by getting an MBA, I hope you have a BS in BS because you're going to need to BS your way through essays and interviews.

Remember your goals and remember that there are smart people and idiots everywhere. My girlfriend's new aparment is owned by an entreprenuer who has one of the most successful restaurants in our entire metro area. He came here from Detroit to start it when he was 20. He's got 125 employees now. Not bad for a pizza place. If you met him and first learned that he didn't go to college you might perhaps think he's a dumb guy. I would say he was very smart, and already knew what he wanted to do. Point #1 outweighs just about everything else in your career. I'll say it again. There are smart people and dumb people everywhere. EVEN AT HARVARD.

2) Don't get caught up in rankings
You might say to me - "Well, you should say that because you're not going to a top 20 school." Some of my evidence for this comes from the story in point #1. Your education might open doors, but it's up to you to actually do something to achieve your definition of success. Where you went to school is not actually that important. Jerry Rice went to Mississippi Valley State university and will retire as the greatest wide receiver in NFL history. The CEO of my current business got his MBA from Robert Morris College. The stuff in b-schools is all relatively the same - some schools just focus on one thing or the other.

3) Start studying early and relaxed for the GMAT
Unfortunately it IS important to do well on the GMAT to ensure that you'll get in. You might even qualify for scholarships or assistantships if you do really well. I had a 3.71 in Electrical Engineering and a 660 GMAT, and, trust me, schools focus more on the GMAT than on the undergrad GPA. I got very little in the way of merit-based financial aid. DO NOT CRAM FOR THE GMAT. Most people who did really well (700+) did not cram. I did and my score reflected it.

As for books, use the Official GMAT Guide, a stopwatch, and an error log exclusively. It's all you need.

4) Research your schools
Based on point #1, this should be easy. You'll know what you're looking for and you'll know not to worry too much about rankings. Go where you feel you'll have the best opporutnities.

5) Start your apps early
Write your essays, have your fairly intelligent friends proofread them, walk away for a few days, and then come back to them and revise. Then repeat the process until you are comfortable with what you wrote. I wouldn't suggest paying a service to look at your essays unless you like the idea of tossing 50 bucks in the toilet and flushing (unless you have absolutely no confidence in your writing ability and there's no friends or family you can turn to for help).

In short, know what you want to do. Then, start early - if you do not, your personal life will take a huge hit during the b-school app process.

When to give notice?

The big question now is, When do I give my notice? My plan is to wait until my 5 year anniversary, which means I am vested in my pension plan. I figure that will be 4-6 weeks advance notice, which should be sufficient. I also really don't feel like paying for additional months of health insurance, among other expenses - especially with no income.

Many others have already announced their intentions to head back to school. "Back to school, back to school..." gives me thoughts of Adam Sandler singing in Billy Madison. Anyways, Iceman07 has detailed his experience in a pretty comical way. Read it!

Not a day passes that I don't think of my soon-to-be experience. It will be shortlived, like most things are, but you can bet your butt I'll have a smug look on my face!

Academia and the markets

I am in what I believe to be a very unique situation. I'll be heading to a school that has honed a huge number of successful money managers in the past 30+ years - especially for its size.

I will come to this program with few pre-concieved notions. I've watched how markets work from an "outsider's" perspective. By "outsider" I mean that I have not had formal accounting classes, nor have I ever taken a university-level finance course.

But, I have observed the markets for years. I've been a participant for even longer - and I've been an investor as a complete market idiot. Thus, I've some great experience in what NOT to do when buying a stock. Don't buy them because someone gave you a tip, or you like a company's product / think the product is cool. Don't buy when you simply *think* that a stock's price cannot go any lower. Don't even buy them just because a P/E is low.

I've also had quite a bit of experience as a much better investor. I've studied, and even profited from some of the runs that stocks like Research in Motion (RIMM), Apple (AAPL), and Valero Energy (VLO) have had in the past year. I've read countless numbers of trading, trading psychology, general investing, and money management books. I've won on positions, and I've lost on positions. LOTS of positions, sometimes using options as a tool to hedge risk or leverage price. Does B-School teach you what to look for en route to a possible short-covering rally? What, exactly, is WRONG with short-term profits? I'll tell you what, a dollar in my pocket today is much better than 2 in 10 years! I am not saying this is the only way to play in the markets, but they are ways that money can be made.

After all, that's the only reason the markets exist. The purpose the markets serve is to provide a place where cash transactions take place. In short, they exist to make money.

I will, nonetheless, come to the Applied Security Analysis Program at UW with an unusual, "real-world" perspective. In fact, my knowledge of the "real-world" way that the markets work in terms of greed, fear, and frequent irrational exuberance got me into ASAP. Had I not known about such things, I would have bombed the interview - the interview was a very specific and potentially intimidating exercise (however, I would like to toss out that my FBI interview in 2003 was much, much more intimidating - don't ask me for details, I signed a form that said I'll never disclose them and I am true to my word).

From my observations, the academics of the markets are great, but they are not always the most important thing. I have yet to even begin my copy of "When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management", but I plan on reading it during my off-time this summer. Just because a stock is "worth" something, doesn't mean its price will get there. I've seen it. Frequently. Sometimes it will get there, and sometimes it won't. The markets are a great price wargame, unfolding every second of the day.

So, will I battle the very people I am paying to teach me in B-School? I don't know. Time'll tell on that one.

Go Kendra!

Now that the Apprentice is down to two - I thought I'd just shout out a big "Go Kendra!" To be honest, both her and Tana are great at what they do, but I think that Kendra is well, a) better looking - which means nothing in terms of job qualifications, and b) good at doing what the client / customer wants and not getting to emotionally attached to doing things like attaching rhinestones to t-shirts when it's a marginal addition to the product.

Craig's gone. Finally. That was overdue. He's alright, but the show just made him look a little bit indecisive and inflexible. Bottom line - these two are the final two and they deserved. I look forward to the final show.

Yep - I'm a dork.

A buy signal!

Not b-school related, but I am issuing a technical buy signal today. The $NASI crossed it's 5day MA, the TRINQ and TRIN spiked, then fell, and the volatility index (VIX) made a nice drop after it's typical double bounce pattern. Combine that with yesterday's follow through (though a mediocre follow thru day), along with a bullish divergence in the McClellan Oscillator used on the Naz, and we get a go.

I believe this rally will be a short one before we flip back to an overall bearish tone for much of this year, however. This rally could provide a great opportunity to get short.

HOW WORK CAN SUCK THE LIFE OUT OF YOU…

I wish all aspiring b-schoolers the best when it comes to their lives and happiness. See, I believe that over half are going to b-school and yet they still have no idea what they want to do in the future. Further, I believe that most of them are going predominantly because they wish to advance up the corporate ladder.

Since I am a man of analogies and metaphors, let me say that going to school for this reason (mainly the bigger paycheck) will only result in you learning that your ladder is made of twizzlers (the licorice). Now try climbing it. (Ok, so the twizzler reference loses a bit because they’re tasty – but you get the point).

I should know. I am one who got an undergrad degree in something that I had little interest in but a) was good enough at math to do and b) had one of the highest starting salaries among undergrads (according to the Peterson’s career guide book we all look at in high school). Wow – I was going to be wealthy!

The money is not worth it. When you wake up every single day and simply cannot stand the work, it puts a drag on you. This drag flows over (or, BOILS would be a more correct word) into your personal life. You may feel depressed or helpless, and your energy to do things and socialize with others will dwindle. Remember, this is the stuff that will happen to you outside of work.

The irony is that there’s nobody to blame but you; despite the fact that most of the people you work with will, in some way, irritate the hell out of you. It’s not their fault, though! Unfortunately, you do both your employer and yourself a huge disservice when you enter a career that you aren’t passionate about, and I intend in my career – when I have the responsibility to do so – to hire people who are energetic about their field.

I used to work out religiously – it’s something I love to do (even today) but my workouts have come few and far between because of my lack of energy in general. I’m nowhere close to being in the shape I was in when I started this job. But, I can change it.

Don’t chase the money. Your personal life will go to shit. A b-schooler on BW forums has started a thread about some of the greatest one-liners ever. Which did I choose to post?

“THE MASS OF MEN LEAD LIVES OF QUIET DESPERATION.” - Henry David Thoreau (referenced in one of my favorite books, Come Into My Trading Room, By Dr. Alexander Elder)
Don’t be one of them.