Jullien Gordon on How Dashboard Tool Improves Goal Planning and Achievement

In Chapter 12 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon shares why creating a dashboard is helpful in managing success metrics contributing to goal planning and achievement. Gordon emphasizes dashboards to overcome pitfalls of adopting societal success - fame, money, power - or family success - parent suggestions - to personalize goals at the individual level. By choosing the right variables and monitoring them over time, Gordon pushes those he teaches to maximize their performance. Gordon holds an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University and a BA from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  Why do encourage people to create personal dashboards and why are they helpful?

Jullien Gordon: If you try to drive a car without a dashboard a lot of things can happen.  You can get a speeding ticket. You can run out of gas.  You can be overheating. So, I think if we don’t create our own dashboard for success, we just adopt society’s dashboard, which is wealth, fame, beauty, etc.  And so you can end up moving the needle on all those metrics and still be unfulfilled because it doesn’t align with your personal dashboard, and I think from generation to generation, especially the dashboards change drastically.  So, if you were living a life based on your parents’ dashboard of success, even though your parents want the best for you and they are the ones pushing you into a particular career path and certain decision, they want the best for you but they want the best for you based on their dashboard.  So, it’s important to define our own dashboard and our own metric of success and then live a life that moves those needles every single day.

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Jullien Gordon on Why a Modern Resume Should Be More Portfolio and Pitch Than Paper

In Chapter 11 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon shares why the traditional resume is dead and what should be included in a modern resume. Gordon focuses on value creation, not job responsibilities. The resume should communicate the value you create wherever you go. He also believes the next generation resume should not be a one-sheet resume; rather, it should be a pitch complete with a portfolio of previous projects. Gordon holds an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University and a BA from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How do you define the modern resume?

Jullien Gordon: The resume 1.0 is dead.  There is just so much information A-symmetry in the career search process.  A lot of people think of resumes as a job description, ‘I’m going to take the job that I did and I’m going to put the job description as the bullet points.’ But at the end of the day, what you really want to show an organization is how you moved something within that organization from point A to point B.  So, this is not your job description and what you did on a daily basis, but what value you created while you were actually at that organization.  They could care less about the education – the school you went to and your GPA.  That might get you in the door and decrease that barrier to entry but at the end of the day your resume should communicate the value you create wherever you go. 

In addition to that I also believe in this notion of the resume 2.0.  It’s more of a – it’s in the same way that business do these ten slide decks.  I think you should have a deck about who you are, what your purpose is, what your passions are, how you create value, what problem you are committed to solving, everything that’s a part of the 8 Cylinders of Success, and you should also have a portfolio of your best work.  That can be a business plan that you wrote in school.  It can be a paper that you wrote in school.  It could be an even that you coordinated.  When you go to an interview, instead of coming with this one sheet resume, you should come with your entire portfolio and lay that out on the table and say, ‘This is how I’ve been creating value at all the organizations and spaces I’ve been in the past five years and this is what I can bring to your organization.’ That alone, bring your portfolio and your resume 2.0 and your resume 1.0 written in the value creation way will set you apart from any other candidate.

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Jullien Gordon on How to Use Bridge Jobs to Develop a More Rewarding Career

In Chapter 10 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher, Stanford MBA and entrepreneur Jullien Gordon shares why bridge jobs - short term 40-hour per week jobs that last 12-18 months or allow you to save six months savings - facilitate a better planned, and ultimately rewarding, career. Gordon also highlights how a bridge job increasing short term contribution and engagement, given the deadline is known. Gordon continues by sharing how today's workforce no longer relies on one career employer and that given the high number of jobs individuals will have, the workforce must get embrace change.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What are bridge jobs and how have you used these in developing your own career?

Jullien Gordon: Bridges jobs is a concept that I created that it’s basically a job that helps you get to point A to point B and some of the principles is that it’s eighteen months or shorter or six months of savings – savings being covering your coast of living for six months.  So, coming out of business school I wanted to be an entrepreneur but the company that I was creating at the time wasn’t ready to support me.  So, I took a bridge job at a non-profit organization.  Another key principle of bridge jobs is that it only works you forty hours a week so that you have the other forty to sixty hours of your week to create what you want to create. 

Because a lot of people say, ‘Oh yeah, I want to go work and then I want to become an entrepreneur.” But they’re working sixty to eighty hours a week and they’re too tired to contribute or invest time in real good energy into what they ultimately want to do.  So, I took a bridge job.  I was at an organization that I love called Management Leadership for Tomorrow, working there for seventeen months, which is where I met my six month savings goal in January 2009, in the middle of the financial crisis.  I just left and stepped into my path as the CEO of the Department of Motivated Vehicles.  So a bridge job is so important because another beautiful thing about bridge job is when you set a time period, in terms on when you’re going to leave, rather than saying, ‘Oh, I’ll leave when the time is right.”  When you set a time you actually start maximizing that opportunity because you see that end of the tunnel.  So, you start developing the relationships with customers, future customers or with people within the organization, you’re more intentional about developing your personal, intellectual, social, financial capital because now you’re trying to get the most of that opportunity in this short, condensed amount of time. It’s Parkinsen’s Law, work will expand to fill space but if you condense the space you realize you can get equally as much work done.

I really encourage people who are considering changing their careers or stepping into entrepreneurship to really look at their current opportunity as a bridge job.  Set a time stamp on it or a savings goal and then just commit to making that transition. In the video “Shift Happens” which is a video online about globalization, it says that by the age of thirty-eight our generation is going to have 10-14 careers.  So, this whole notion of being with one company for your entire life no longer exists, just get that out of your mind unless you’re creating the company.  Even then, Steve Jobs went from Apple to Pixar and back to Apple so this whole notion with one job for the rest of your life doesn’t exist and we have to get comfortable with change.

Jullien Gordon on Why Groupthink Limits MBA Student Potential

In Chapter 9 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher and Stanford MBA Jullien Gordon shares why groupthink limits so many MBA career plans. During his MBA, Gordon was stunned to see a group of extremely talented and passionate classmates focus on a limited set of career options, namely brand marketing, management consulting, investment banking, private equity and venture capital. Gordon implores MBA students to focus first on applying their passions toward solving the biggest problems rather than making the most money. Gordon references a young Bill Gates and how that problem solving - getting a computer in every home - translated to later career philanthropic efforts. Gordon holds an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University and a BA from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How does group think limit MBA student potential and why is this a problem worth solving?

Jullien Gordon:  Oh my goodness! So, I wrote this blog post recently called “A Letter to an MBA” and it came after sitting at a panel at Columbia Business School and just realizing – and I went to Stanford and when you think about the admission rates there. These are literally the most talented – some of the most talented people in the entire world – 350 of the most talented people, and it just makes no sense to me how 350 of the most talented people can all want to be the same five things.  They all want to consultants, bankers, private equity marketers, whatever.  And it just makes no sense to me. 

Instead of thinking of the career paths based on the recruiters that come to campus and what makes the most money, really what MBAs should be thinking about is ‘What is the biggest problem I can solve in the world?’  When you look at Bill Gates, that was the question he asked himself. “How do I get a computer in every single home?”  And what Bill Gates has done is, instead of – he really is a problem solver, technology was the one avenue that he explored his purpose but at his core he’s a problem solver.  Now, he’s taking his problem solving ability and taking it to Malaria, education equalities and other health issues in the developing world because at the core he’s a problem solver. So, if MBAs thought of their career paths in the sense of “What is the biggest problem that I can solve in the world?” then I think that could transform the world in general.

Jullien Gordon on Why Underemployment Limits Career Potential

In Chapter 8 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon shares why underemployment, where employees are not engaged, using their passions, and reaching their potential. Gordon believes that creating clarity of purpose allows individuals to align with the right professional role and create the most value. Gordon holds an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University and a BA from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What is underemployment and why do you see this as being such a massive problem today?

Jullien Gordon:  Oh, man! Underemployment is the biggest problem in the world today and I’ll tell you why.  A lot of people think unemployment is the metric for a bad economy, right?  But if you look at the economy only 10% are unemployed, and that’s a lot of people, but when you think about it – when you look at research from Gallop and other statistics, in fact 50% of employees are underemployed.  Which means that they are not using their passions, they’re not reaching their full potential, they’re not making the highest contribution, therefore they’re definitely not creating the most value possible for the organization that they’re in.  A lot of us don’t even know how we end up on certain career paths, we just know we’re not happy there.  You probably hear once a day people say, ‘I have my job.’ Right?  You just look at people on the subway you know how many people hate their jobs.  The actual economy suffers when you have somebody who actually wants to be a teacher being a consultant, right? When you have somebody who really wants to be a healer or a doctor being a banker.  So, you people misplaced. 

I call it ‘Career Music Chairs’ where people are bouncing around musical chairs and nobody is in the seat where they can create the most value in.  So, that’s why I think underemployment is the biggest issue that we face as an economy, but it gets overlooked because it’s like ‘You know what? People have jobs, so they’re good.”  But when you look at the emptiness that they are facing and knowing that they’re not happy at work.  When they – going back to when they’re not happy, therefore the customer isn’t getting the best service, therefore the company and the investors aren’t getting the greatest return on their invest and it just starts this loop.  So, we have to get people aligned with their purpose and professions, so going back to the quote, ‘A man who knows his why can bare almost any how.”  When you have somebody who is in a professional path where they are clear on their purpose and that they can be themselves in that space, that’s when they’re going to create the highest amount of value.

Jullien Gordon on How Stanford Grad Uses MBA and Education Masters Degree in Career

In Chapter 7 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon shares why he chose to earn both a masters in education and a masters in business administration (MBA) from Stanford University. Coming out of college at UCLA, Gordon works for Students Heightening Academic Performance Through Education (SHAPE). There he learns his passion is education, but not of the classroom type. Gordon chooses to attend Stanford to craft a career as a motivation teacher, using education classes to provide the tools, systems, and processes to help people self motivate and learn. He pairs this with business school knowledge - marketing, finance, etc. - to create value and make a living doing what he loves.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What motivated you to purse dual master degrees in education and business administration when going back to Stanford University?

Jullien Gordon: Coming out of UCLA, I was committed to – I was working at an education outreach program called The Shape Program – and so my passions were both in education and business but I never saw myself necessarily in the educational system but I really wanted to understand – the education degree was to understand how people learn and the business degree was to how to create value, and that’s what I do. I’m a motivation teacher now.  So, I teach people – not a motivational speaker.  A motivational speaker comes and get you excited, “Rah, Rah” and as soon as they leave all the energy dies.  As a motivation teacher, I leave people with tools, systems and processes that allow them to motivate themselves and self motivate.  So, I’m a teacher and I understand how people learn and how they consume information and what sticks and on the business side, that just gives me the skill set to make a living doing what I love.

Jullien Gordon on How Stanford MBA Creates His Own Career Path

In Chapter 3 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon learns from an alcoholic parent that choosing from a career option menu is not the only way. Instead, Gordon creates his own career path as a motivation teacher and purpose finder. Gordon believes we all have the capacity to create our own careers. Most importantly, Gordon advises others to pursue a career where you answer "What do you do?" with "I'm just me all day." Gordon holds an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University and a BA from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What did your mother’s battle with alcoholism teach you about self-education?

Jullien Gordon: In the past generations they were under the premise that ‘go be a teacher, doctor, lawyer, engineer ’ and you’re just guaranteed success and happiness and so people were actually choosing from a menu of career options rather than exploring who they are and who they wanted to be and coming out of business school at Stanford, I realized that ‘You know what? I’m looking on all these recruiters coming to campus and things like that and I don’t see myself – see any opportunities for me to step into one of these organizations and actually be myself’ and I had to carve out or create a career path that I wanted to be – that I wanted and so that’s where the notion of purpose finder came in, I mean how many purpose finders do you know? Right? So, it was a career path that I created. 

I think the number of career paths that are actually in the world are exactly correlated to number of people in the world, right? But instead we try to fit ourselves into these boxes, ‘I’m a marketer. I’m a banker. I’m a consultant. I’m a teacher.”  When at the end of the day, the best career is the one where you can say – when someone asks you, ‘So, what do you do?’ – ‘I’m just me all day.’  That’s really what we want and so – but you have to have self awareness or else that fear and that gap will force you or cause you to choose something you think you know.  Because many times we don’t even know the career path that we say we want to be.

Jullien Gordon on How to Achieve Success by Aligning Purpose to Career

In Chapter 1 of 14 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon aspires to help others better identify and align purpose to professional goals. Gordon does this by helping others make ideas happen by providing a 30-day goal support framework. Gordon finds inspiration in studying clarity of purpose in growing up with an alcoholic parent rich with material goods but lacking in fulfillment. He builds upon this focus by creating methodologies, including a "30-Day Do It" framework to help others execute on ideas and achieve incremental goals in set time periods. Gordon earned both an MBA and Masters in Education at Stanford University and a BA from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: To what do you aspire?

Jullien Gordon: There’s two things. One is to help as many people as possible get clarity on their purpose and align that with their profession, since I think our profession is what we spend so much of our core life and that’s where we have to make our highest contribution and then secondly is to - in the concept of the New Years Resolution, introduce this idea of the New Month Resolution where people set goals and community every single month.

Erik Michielsen: What was the genesis of those two core goals?

Jullien Gordon: Having an alcoholic parent who had a three story house, Mercedes Benz, all that and seeing them still feel empty and so that’s where the purpose and the profession piece came in, where it’s like you can these notions of success and chase these things that people deem successful and still feel empty inside. So at an early age my notions of success got challenged and it made me just think differently about success and start defining it for myself. Next for the Thirty Day Do It Movement, which is the goal setting – nation wide goal setting movement, it was really all about people just having great ideas and not getting done.

It frustrates me so much when people are talking about all the great ideas that they have and the next call you get on with them and it’s just a new great idea and then it’s another one and another one and I really just want to see people move aggressively – not aggressively but progressively towards what ever it is that they truly, truly want in the depth of their heart.

Why to Prioritize Patience When Building Your Career - Adam Carter

In Chapter 15 or 16, micro-philanthropist and humanitarian Adam Carter meets a Tasmanian attorney traveling the Middle East in 1998 who teaches him the value of patience in building a career. Carter, uncertain and stressed about his own career, finds wisdom in the attorney's words, specifically the need to understand what you want before jumping into a career. Carter uses this experience to continue cultivating his experiences and shaping them into his own micro-philanthropy career. Along the way, Carter creates the Cause and Affect Foundation (www.causeandaffectfoundation.org).

How Entrepreneur Works Through Isolation Challenges - Michael Olsen

In Chapter 15 of 16, social entrepreneur and technology consultant Michael Olsen shares the challenges that come with flexibility enabling him to work with anyone in the world at any time. Olsen finds it challenging to build connections over email and the phone and looks for other ways to build rich interactions. As a result, Olsen is prioritizing more in-person interaction on projects to build stronger, more trusted relationships.

How to Build Sustainable Cross-Cultural Professional Relationships - Michael Olsen

In Chapter 7 of 16, social entrepreneur and technology consultant Michael Olsen shares how to best build cross-cultural professional relationships. First, Olsen highlights shared goals. Second, he recommends at minimum one in-person introduction. After forming his non-profit Kilifi Kids (www.kilifikids.org) in 2006, Olsen found an in-person visit to meet with the Kenyan project team in 2007 proved valuable building relationships and improving communication. Lastly, Olsen recommends persistence to maintain consistent progress working as team toward shared goals.

How Stanford Symbolic Systems Studies Direct Career - Michael Olsen

In Chapter 2 of 16, social entrepreneur and technology consultant Michael Olsen channels his broad interests into studying symbolic systems at Stanford University. Olsen's studies take a multi-discipline perspective - computer science, history, philosophy - in his studies. Upon graduation, Olsen continues to work in insurance industry and founds an Internet consulting firm. The interdisciplinary approach helps Olsen balance pitching clients ideas and technology project execution.

How Window Shopping Informs Product Design - Richard Moross

In Chapter 1 of 17, Moo.com founder Richard Moross admits his pleasure in window shopping and embracing the consumer experience. An entrepreneur, Moross enjoys making things people will consume. A consumer and lover of product, Moross learns to understand product design and market demand through window shopping, spotting emerging trends, scoping newly released products. The experience propels Moo's ongoing pursuit of design excellence.

Why British Stationers and Tailors Inspire Product Design - Richard Moross

In Chapter 2 of 17, entrepreneur and Moo.com founder Richard Moross finds inspiration in fine crafted goods. Certain trades, including bespoke tailors and custom English stationers, are dying, being replaced by cheaper, mass produced product. This is a tragedy, notes Moross, as the fine attention to detail and personalization provide a personal consumer connection that raises confidence. The classic made to order craftsmanship inspires Moross in his own endeavor at printing company Moo.

How to Create Transformational Consumer Experiences - Richard Moross

In Chapter 3 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross shares what he learned working and world renown design agency and experience consultancy Imagination. Today, Imagination is the largest independent design agency in the world. Here, Moross learns firsthand what authors Pine and Gilmore termed "The Experience Economy". Moross learns premium pricing comes from experience integration. At his company Moo (www.moo.com), he integrates this experience element in nearly every consumer interaction, pushing the relationship into what Pine and Gilmore term a "transformational business" in line with Maslow's Self Actualization stage in the hierarchy of needs.

How Details Enable Sustainable Design Differentiation - Richard Moross

In Chapter 4 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross provides background into why increasing consumer intelligence, via research and education, makes details as important as ever in product and experience design. Moross aspires to create differentiated produce in an increasingly homogenized world in what he does at his company, Moo (www.moo.com). From ordering to fulfillment to messaging, Moross always looks for new ways to stand out in what he creates and how it is shared.

What Tiffany and Apple Teach About Brand Storytelling - Richard Moross

In Chapter 5 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross uses Seth Godin's phrase "Be Remarkable" to unify his company, Moo (www.moo.com) around a common goal. Moross references Tiffany and Apple as inspirations behind why innovative product packaging creates winning consumer experiences and lasting brand stories. Moross frames this approach as shipping product that takes into account sympathy for the surrounding box.

How Manufacturer Institutes Green Business Practices - Richard Moross

In Chapter 6 of 17, manufacturing company founder and CEO Richard Moross shares the ongoing rollout of green business practices for his printing company Moo (www.moo.com). Moross and his team constantly seek ways to innovate printing technologies, materials, and packaging to create more environment-friendly product.