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A popular tip I’ve been reading lately during my job hunt (and therefore my resume reconstruction) is that resumes are a like a brochure of oneself and one’s skills – they’re meant to be a sales pitch and a marketing tool, rather than just a plain list of all your skills and qualifications. Consider resumes to be a way to express why they should buy you and you’ll be a million times more successful in your endeavors.
Not only should resumes be a marketing tool, but I believe now that the best way to be successful is to run oneself entirely like a business. Here’s how.
Energy, Time, and Money Performances
In business, every year, quarter, or even day, a few sheets are produced that show how successfully a business has been run. They are the balance sheet, the income statement, and a few other papers detailing important accounting stats. I think people should produce similar audits regarding their performance in work, in play, and in other areas that are important to them, such as family time and networking. Check to see if your investments (of time, of energy, and, of course, of money) were worth your while. Find a way to calculate a return on investment and stick with it over time. You should see positive trends. If not, it’s time to make a change.
Treat yourself as an employee
In business, we have something called human capital or human resources, which refers to the people who are involved in production. Most businesses periodically do performance reviews of every employee to give and receive feedback on what can be done to ensure the company runs as a well-oiled machine. I suggest periodically doing a performance review of yourself, where you defend decisions, provide feedback, and check to see what could have been improved upon, and then make necessary changes to enhance productivity.
Think about it: Do you deserve to keep your “job?”
Invest in yourself
Small businesses in particular have to invest in themselves in order to continue operations – usually over a period of a few years, until business picks up enough to support the company as a whole. Similarly, people require investments to keep running. It is insanely difficult to improve oneself without expending time, energy, or money. So if your investments send you into the “red” temporarily, it’s okay, so long as you get a high return on investment as I mentioned above. A vacation to keep your sanity also counts as an investment.
Outsource
Most executives do very little work directly involved in production. That is because they have better things to do, like running the company. Similarly, if you are to be truly successful, you must outsource some of your own tedious tasks in order to focus on what gives you the most return.
Perfectionism
Not that any of this has to be perfect. As long as your system is working for you and advancing you to higher levels of performance, it is fine. You may never be where you want to be – indeed, few of us ever are – but you will be moving forward, which is the important part. I define success as moving out of survival and into comfort because that seems to be the single factor that ties together the people who I consider successful: comfort.
What do you think? Am I way off on my assumptions? After all, I’m not the most comfortable person ever.
