You've got to find what you love! by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios)

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
THE FIRST STORY IS ABOUT CONNECTING THE DOTS.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
t wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
MY SECOND STORY IS ABOUT LOVE AND LOSS.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
MY THIRD STORY IS ABOUT DEATH.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.Thank you all very much for reading all the article, wait untill next speech deliverd by Varaprasad ;)

Forget the Past -- The Future is Now!

"What's the score?" the basketball coach asked his star rookie during halftime.

"We're down by 20 points," said the rookie.

"Wrong answer," shot back the coach. "From this moment on, the score is 0-0. What happened in the first half is history, and there's nothing we can do about it. But if we go out and play a great second half, we can outscore the other guys by 21 points and win the game."

I love this story, not only for its optimism, but because it addresses so many aspects of our professional life.

For example, many rookie recruiters feel they can't compete effectively against recruiters with much more experience. Or that cold calling is a waste of time, because it didn't work the last time it was tried.

But they could be wrong; from this moment on, the score is 0-0.

I've found that an enterprising rookie recruiter has just as good a chance to open a large account or find a high-quality candidate as a ten-year veteran. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't BE any ten-year veterans. And in terms of cold calling, recruiters sometimes give up too easily, especially when confronted with gnarly gatekeepers or a painful string of rejection.

Whatever your failures or mistakes have been, it's best to leave them where they belong -- in the past. While it may be true that insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result, it's just as crazy-making to switch horses every time the race becomes contested.

As Jim Cramer of CNBC's Mad Money says, it doesn't matter how much money you made or lost in the past by investing in a particular stock. The only thing that matters is where the stock is headed in the future.

The Flip Side is True, Too.Just because you had a terrific client yesterday doesn't mean the client still needs you today. Or that the expertise you worked so hard to develop will forever guarantee your success.

According to Tom Friedman, author of The World is Flat, the U.S. has been asleep at the wheel for over a decade. During that time, the Chinese were quietly taking our manufacturing jobs, the Indians were taking our technology jobs and the Argentines were taking our Olympic gold medals in basketball. Our response? Hit the snooze button.

The U.S. was so dominant for so many years, we never felt the need to look over our shoulders. But that's no longer the case. We're now ranked 17th in the world in math and science, and new technical schools are popping up all over the planet to satisfy our competitors' insatiable appetite for skills that drive innovation and job creation. And you can bet our global high-value rivals aren't racing us to the bottom.

Should we worry about losing our jobs to a team of bright and enthusiastic 22-year old recruiters working from a 24/7 call center in Bangalore? Maybe. But from this moment on, the score is 0-0, and if we go and play a great second half, we can outscore the other guys and win the game.

The Recruiter/Telephone Connection!

What's the only activity you can actually control? Your phone time.

You can't force a hiring manager to give you a job order and you certainly can't force a candidate to go to a job interview.

But you CAN force yourself to pick up the phone more often. Simply put, the fastest and easiest way to make more placements is to make more calls.

That's not to say that skill, good judgment and quality work aren't important. They are. But no amount of brilliance can compensate for a silent desk.

A Tortoise or a Hare?We know that more calls will result in increased activity, which in turn will translate into more placements. But will two recruiters who make the same number of calls get the same results? The answer is no, because of differences in desk specialty, job order difficulty and so forth.

Plus, some recruiters are simply more efficient than others and will get better results, even when they apply no more physical effort than the recruiter in the next cubicle. Whereas one recruiter may need to arrange eight interviews in order to make a placement, another may need only three.

There are no absolutes when it comes to how much effort you should put in, as long as you recognize that in general, the greater your output, the higher your billings. In terms of style, some recruiters are tortoises, others are hares. Some are flashy and ADD, while others are understated and sharply focused.

That being said, there are four basic quadrants that recruiters tend to fall into when it comes to the activity/result quotient. Which of these stereotypes best describes your recruiting persona?

High Activity High Billing
Low ActivityHigh Billing
High ActivityLow Billing
Low ActivityLow Billing

1. High activity, high billing. You generate lots of calls, produce a consistent flow of activity, make a lot of placements, and rarely experience a slump.

2. High activity, low billing. You make lots of calls, write plenty of job orders and send out a slew of candidates, but you close very few deals.

3. Low activity, high billing. You're a sharpshooter who makes up for low activity by working more efficiently. You also experience peaks and valleys in your billing, due to a lack of consistent activity.

4. Low activity, low billing. You're just getting started in the business, and you're too reticent to push for results. Or you're in a slump.

Rookie recruiters are the ones who most often fit the high activity, low billing profile. That's because their competency hasn't yet caught up with their activity.

I saw an extreme example of this phenomenon a few years back, when my management team was considering firing a new recruiter for not making any placements after eight weeks on the job. Then we looked more carefully at his activity, and lo and behold, he had 56 sendouts.

The new recruiter might have been slow in figuring out how to make a placement, but he had no problem in generating activity. So we stuck with him, and sure enough, within two years he was out-billing every single recruiter in our 35-desk office.

Who knows? Maybe there's a recruiter out there who makes a ton of money just by sending e-mails. But that's about as likely as a politician who expects to get elected by simply issuing press releases.

In our business, direct contact—with lots and lots of constituents—is the only sure-fire way to win.

What I Learned from Warren Buffett

I've been on a Warren Buffett kick lately. Not only do I think he'll be remembered as one of the towering figures of our time (as were Carnegie and Ford in theirs), I believe the principles that underlie his success can be applied to recruiting.Take time management, for example. If you consider time as an asset that can be invested, then why not utilize the same strategies as the greatest living investor in order to maximize your returns?Where To Put the EggsMost financial advisers want you to invest in mutual funds. They'll tell you it's foolish to put all your eggs in one basket.Yet that's exactly the opposite strategy that made Buffett a multi-billionaire. In his view, diversification is okay—if you're looking for average results. To get outstanding returns, forget about diversifying. Do your homework, ask tough questions and make an informed decision. Then, invest heavily in one or two stocks—as opposed to the hundreds that make up a typical mutual fund—and stick with them over the long haul.The same strategy applies to recruiting. You can adopt the "mutual fund" mentality and divide your time, trying to serve many different clients. Or, you can do your homework and carefully choose one or two clients to work with, based on objective criteria, such their willingness to work with you, their ability to attract industry talent, and so on. By building "key accounts" with a small number of companies that have multiple, ongoing hiring needs, you'll focus your energy, deepen your understanding of their needs and establish long-term relationships.Risk vs. RewardTrue, there's an element of risk any time you concentrate your resources. But the payoff can be huge. Top recruiters know that it only takes two or three key accounts to put up big numbers, and that the more scattered your attention, the harder it becomes to work efficiently. Besides, you can always hedge your bets by keeping your eyes open for new clients. When you need them, they'll be there.Here a few more gems from the Warren Buffett playbook that directly apply to recruiting:1. Focus on what you understand. It's not necessary for you to be able to perform your candidates' work, but if you can't visualize or explain in plain English what their job entails, it'll be difficult for you to match up jobs and people.2. Make decisions with your head, not your heart. We sometimes maintain relationships that are no longer (or were never) useful. By breaking dysfunctional attachments, you'll do yourself a favor.3. Sidestep problems that are beyond your control. As recruiters, it's our job to fill positions. And by so doing, we solve personnel problems. But if the company is unwilling to pay a competitive wage, or can't put together a realistic set of requirements, or make decisions in a timely manner, it's no longer a personnel problem. Rather, it's a structural problem. Occasionally, we can coach our clients to correct their mistakes; or serve as management consultants to address some of the business issues they face.But when employers act as their own worst enemies during the recruitment process, there's not much we can do, unless we want to fight with them or spend countless hours trying to solve a problem that's not of our making, and beyond our control. The Running of the MillsWhen Warren Buffett gained control of the Berkshire Hathaway textile mills in the 1960s, the U.S. textile industry had already begun its slow, downward spiral. Rising to the challenge, he spent the next two decades trying to turn the business around. Finally, in 1985 Buffett closed the mills. Despite all his efforts—and his reinvestment of millions of dollars in new equipment—Buffett couldn't solve the underlying problem: offshore competitors could produce the same products at a fraction of the cost. Though his failure was painful (and expensive), Buffett learned an important lesson, which he summed up this way:"After 25 years of buying and supervising a great variety of businesses, I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. "What I have learned is how to avoid them."

Avoiding Interview Disasters

Is it possible to control our candidates' behavior during their job interviews?
As recruiters, we'd like to think so. That's why we spend so much time coaching them how to handle the questions they'll likely be asked.
But once the interview begins, we're no longer the ones gripping the wheel. It's the candidates who must steer themselves squarely in the direction of a job offer -- or hurtle, Titanic-style, into the nearest available iceberg.
"Oy-vay" Moments I'd Like to Forget Bob was a sales candidate with a terrific track record. Best of all, he was perfectly matched for the job I was trying to fill.
"Don't be shy," I told him prior to his interview. "You increased sales by 1,000 percent in less than three years, and landed several major accounts."
"Right," said Bob. "I'll be sure to highlight my strengths."
I was so confident Bob would get the job, I nearly pinned my invoice to his jacket. Unfortunately, things didn't go exactly as planned.
Just as I had coached him, Bob stressed his accomplishments, plus his mastery of the latest sales techniques. He frequently referred to his powerful closing skills -- but without ever asking for the job.
"Sorry," said the employer after the interview. "We're going to pass on Bob. We've found that great closers know how to ask for the order."
Okay, so I forgot to prep Bob to be more assertive. Fortunately, I had Jerry, another outstanding candidate, lined up to interview. So as not to make the same mistake, I instructed Jerry to go ahead and ASK for the job.
Which he did. But it seems Jerry also told the employer he really needed the job because he was unemployed, and might lose his house if he didn't land a position soon.
"No dice with Jerry," said the employer following the interview. "Enthusiasm is fine; begging is something we're not real comfortable with."
More than Animal Attraction The experience with Bob and Jerry reminded me of what can realistically be gained from a thorough pre-interview preparation session:
Confidence. A well-informed candidate will perform at a higher level than one who's caught off-balance or asks dumb questions.
Better use of time. An intelligently briefed candidate will use the allotted interview period more efficiently -- and will help save the interviewer's voice.
Insight into the intangibles. Every company (and every hiring manager) has a corporate culture or unique personality. The more accurately you can describe these traits in advance, the better the potential "chemistry" between the parties involved.
At the same time, Bob and Jerry also made me painfully aware of the limitations of interview prep, and how it's unrealistic to anticipate every conceivable question or script a response for every potential situation.
If the candidate is fundamentally suited to the job and clicks with the company, great. But in the real world of interviewing, no amount of perfume can sweeten the smell of a pig.