In Top 10 Quotes From Trust Agents, I explained my new way to review the books I read. I reviewed Career Distinction too.

Today I will review Linhcpin by Seth Godin. This is my 1st read for Seth. I feel shy for not reading at least 5 books for him. It’s an excellent book & must read for EVERYONE. This book inspired people around the world to meet and discuss the book. June 14, 2010, Linchpins in Jordan met & have very informative discussion. I’m not planning for explaining what is Linchpin as you can find on your favorite search engine.

I tweeted many quotes  during my reading and for those who miss them, here are my top 40 quotes from the book:

1 – This new dream isn’t about obedience. It’s about vision and engagement.

2 – Now, like or not, the world wants something different from you. We need to think hard about what reality looks like now.

3 – STOP asking what’s in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have achieved your potential.

4 - You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do, and you must.

5 – Instead of focusing on complying with management as a long-term strategy for getting more stuff and being more secure, we have a chance to describe a powerful vision for our future and to actually make it happen.

6 – The indispensable employee brings humanity and connection and art to her organization. She is the key player, the one who’s difficult to live without, the person you can build something around. The indispensable employee-I call her/him a linchpin-is a person who’s worth finding and keeping.

7 – Being a tall helps you become a star in basketball, but how many of us have a shot at playing in the NBA? It’s not about what you’re born with; it’s about what you do.

8 – It’s easy to fool yourself into believing that genius works for them, but it won’t work for you.

9 – The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds.

10 – Organizations that can bring humanity to their interactions with other human beings will thrive.

11 – If the game is designed for you to lose, don’t play that game. Play different one.

12 – It doesn’t matter where you live on the long tail, as long as the tribes of people you connect with are eager to seek you out and help you succeed.

13 – If you are remarkable, amazing, or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

14 – Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs people kill for–those jobs don’t get filled by people e-mailing in resumes.

15 – If your Google search isn’t what you want (need) it to be, then change it.

16 – The resistance is working overtime to be sure that you wont actually do anything remarkable. As a result, the list of excuses in reverse is longer that you might expect.

17 – The challenge is in being alert enough to write them down, to prioritize them, to build them, and to ship them out the door. It’s a habit, it’s easy to learn, and it’s frightening.

18 – By separating the hard work of preparation from the scary work of insight, you can build an environment in which you’re more likely to ship.

19 – I don’t want to be around people who are in frequent cycles of pain and fear.

20 – It’s impossible to be a linchpin if you agree to feed your anxiety.

21 - The goal is to quit the tasks you’re doing because you’re hiding on behalf of the lizard brain and to push through the very tasks the lizard fears.

22 – The resistance will help find the thing you most need to do because it is the thing the resistance most wants to stop.

23 – The art of challenging the resistance is doing something when you’re not certain it’s going to work.

24 – All the creativity books in the world aren’t going to help you if you’re unwilling to have lousy, lame, and even dangerously bad ideas.

25 – The lizard brain is the reason you’re afraid, the reason you don’t do all the art you can, the reason you don’t ship when you can. The lizard brain is the source of the resistance.

26 – The reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is preciously why I can’t tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there’d be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map.

27 – If you accept that human beings are difficult to change, and embrace (rather than curse) the uniqueness that everyone brings to the table, you’ll navigate the world with more bliss and effectiveness. And make better decisions, too.

28 - You can’t make a map unless you can see the world as it is. You have to know where you are and know where you’re going before you can figure out how to go about getting there.

29 – The most successful givers aren’t doing it because they’re being told to. They do it because doing it is fun. It gives them joy.

30 – Great bosses and world-class organizations hire motivated people, set high expectations, and give people room to become remarkable.

31 – Connections are valuable in and of themselves, because they lead to productivity, decreased communication costs, and yes, gifts.

32 – Giving a gift makes you indispensable. Inventing a gift, creating art-that is what the market seeks out, and the givers are the ones who earn our respect and attention.

33 - Don’t let your circumstances or habits rule your choices today. Become a master of yourself and use your will power to choose.

34 – You can either fit in or stand out. Not both.

35 – Either you are the drama of your everyday life or you are seeing the world as it is. These are all choices; you can’t have it both ways.

36 – To stand out, not to fit in. To make connections, not to be an invisible cog. To do otherwise is a loss.

37 – Every successful organization is built around people. Men and women who don’t merely shuffle money, but interest, give gifts, and connect.

38 – You have a genius inside of you, a daemon with something to share with the world. Everyone does. Are you going to continue hiding it, holding it back, and settling for less than you deserve just because your lizard brain is a afraid?

39 – Don’t ask your boss to run interference, cover for you, or take the blame. Instead, create moments where your boss can happily take credits. Once that cycle begins, you can be sure it will.

40 – If you want to be a linchpin, the power you bring to the table has to be very difficult to replace. Be bolder and think bigger. Nothing stopping you.

Share your review for the book or let me know your favorite part or advice in the comments box. Let’s have discussion.

After the successfulness of my guest post 15 Personal Branding Tasks You Can Do Everyday and my post 31 Tasks a Job Seekers Can Do Every Month.

I’ve decided to continue this type of posts so I used Twitter to tweet some of  my twitter friends and asked them: Give me one tip/advice a Gen Y needs to know/aware of today?

Here are the 20 things a Generation Y needs to know today:

1 – Social means engaging, sharing, and relating. Enjoying, rather than selling, is key. ~ @mkrigsman

2 – One way to motivate entrepreneurship among young people .. Mentoring 2.0 = Young with experience with Web (Gen Y) + Entrepreneur – Business man . Win-win relationship ~ @KimAuclair

3 – The cloud computing, in all it’s incarnations. ~ @mrdatahs

4 – Don’t trust any company that thinks it owns your data. ~ @dsearls

5 – Gen Y tends to focus on their position in the formal organization chart. The informal one may matter more. ~ @chuckhollis

6 – Online presence is as important as your offline character. Your online identity will become your real identity. ~ @maltaee

7 – Please stop it with the IMing, Texting, Chatting, and use of SNS at work. ~ @jason_pontin

8 – Resist the temptation to buy 1.0, no matter show shiny/sparkly it is. 2.0 is almost always worth the wait. ~ @dsilverman

9 – Learn how to turn the stuff off and go low tech for personal sanity. http://bit.ly/bwN9ku ~ @jperlow

10 – Gen Y should be aware of fair use/copyright freedoms and limitations. ~ @tonyvincent

11 – Persistence is all. ~ @brendachrist

12 – Learn how to use technology to communicate better – writing, speaking, and visual plus online gesturing as data. ~ @furrier

13 – Don’t do dumb stuff that will cost you a job on your social graph. ~ @ldignan

14 – Technology should simplify your life not make it more complex. Make sure new tech works for you not you for it. ~ @Enderle

15 – The best communication tool is a pair of ears. ~ @edyson

16 -  Location aware apps on smartphones are the future. laptops etc. are the past. ~ @clf99

17 – Always use the most advanced technology (if you can afford it). Doing so will keep you and your career oriented to the future. ~ @gcolony

18 – Careful what you post on your social networks, nothing goes unseen… > you are what you post. ~ @lammiia

19 – Having technical expertise can take you only so far. Using your skills to mentor others and build community is the real power of social technologies. ~ @WalterAkana

20 – GenYs are in a prime position to influence the technical shift required in most organizations to better collaborate. To achieve this transition however they must be able to engage within the current culture.

Millennials can provide the insight of what new tools can be used. The value proposition of the shift, however, must come from a mutual understanding of the business opportunity between both parties.

Each generation has gone through this paradigm shift when a fundamental shift has occurred in corporate demographics. However, there never has been a time where the gap is more achievable. By finding the common ground between GenXs and GenYs, we can use this generational mashup to redesign how businesses can be managed and led.  ~ @rlavigne42

Feel free to retweet or share any of these tips but try to include the author name or the author twitter handle.

Share your tip or advice below or let me know if you have any question.

Recently, I ended my presentation at Amman International Toastmasters Club with a quote by Author Tim Sanders who said:  “Someday this will be true for all of us: Our network will equal our net worth.”

The quote is true for me and it’s the reason I write this post. In the near past, we used to have a circle of friends who we met offline and it was the only way to be connected.  But today, for many of us, our circle of friends is mostly our online network, i.e. the connections that we add everyday are our net worth. Think of your net worth potential as a job offer from one of your Facebook friends, a Follow Friday #FF from your Twitter followers that could get you another 10 followers, or an invitation to write a guest blog post as I’m honored today. Think of net worth as a new opportunity that could bring a new business, career or the most valuable thing, a new connection to your network.

Here are some proven ways to build a high value network:

1 – Engage your followers and friends through interesting updates, don’t just be a broadcaster of normal information. Read an article and share your favorite statement as a tweet or make a question from an article and share it with your friends. Engagement is must-have skill in today’s social media revolution.

This is a guest post so continue reading it at Tim’s Strategy

In Top 10 Quotes From Trust Agents, I explained my new way to review the books I read and today I will review Career Distinction. It’s an excellent book and must read for recent college graduates and even professional job seekers. I tweet many tips and branding statements that I like  during the reading and for those who miss them, here are my top 20 quotes from the book:

1 – You must be crystal clear about the value you bring to your organization and the specific project.

2 – Your personal brand must be powerful enough to impact colleagues and managers even when you are not physically present.

3 – Those who embrace change and accept it as a constant will reap the benefits of this ever-changing environment.

4 – To succeed and find fulfillment, in your work in this dynamic age, you must change the way you think about your career and you must treat your career management as an going activity.

5 – Seek strength in yourself, not your circumstances.

6 – To succeed in any professional endeavor, you must make your unique value memorable.

7 – You are your own 24/7 billboard and interactive ad campaign. Every day, in everything you do, you tell the world about yourself, your values your goals, and your skills.

8 – Personal branding about unearthing your unique attributes—your strength, skills, values, and passions — and using them to stand out from your peers or competitors.

9 – A successful personal brand is authentic: It reflects your unique personal attributes or qualities. That’s why you need to know yourself before you can build successful brand.

10 – To succeed today, you must demonstrate that you are a member of the larger community. Increasing your external visibility builds your brand with additional people who can influence your career now and in the future.

11 – Your personal brand statement serves as a constant reminder of what you want to do with your life.

12 – To have strong brand, you must be clear about who you are and who you are not.

13 – The exciting part of Personal Branding is that it helps you achieve your goals while simultaneously increasing your personal and professional satisfaction.

14 – To build solid reputation, you must be known for something, not a hundred things. So build your online identity around who you are and what makes you relevant and compelling to those people who need to know about you.

15 – Strong brands ensure that everything that they do and all that surrounds them—the technologies they use, the cloths they wear, the way they speak, where they conduct business meetings—communicates their brand message.

16 – When the members of your network respect you and understand your brand, they give you their support as you advance your careers.

17 – The more people you know, the more easily you find the resources necessary to manage your job responsibilities.

18 – All your professional interactions collectively communicate your brand and thus determine your career destiny.

19 – As you track your progress toward your goals, ask yourself whether your brand still aligns with your goals and whether you’ve developed the right communications mix to make your brand visible and credible.

20 – All strong brands contribute to the world at large in some way.

Feel free to retweet any of these quotes but try to include the book name or the authors twitter handles @WilliamArruda or @KirstenDixson

Share your review for the book or let me know your favorite part or advice in the comments box. Let’s have discussion.

This is the 4th article of 1212 project. In case you miss them, read them from here: 6 Ways To Destroy Your Personal Brand, How Dubai Builds Brands & ALTAEE Wikipedia: Brand, Branding, Personal Brand and Personal Branding.

After the successfulness of my guest post 15 Personal Branding Tasks You Can Do Everyday, I’ve decided to continue this type of posts so I used Twitter to tweet the best career experts in the world and asked them: Give me a task a job seekers can do once per month?

Many said the question is not easy, I agree. The reason I asked for that is to be realistic and not to impose many daily tasks on job seekers, I want it to be once per month so job seekers can plan in ahead and use any of them to improve, update, or track their job search strategies. This question inspired Jason Alba to write a blog post about it which is shown in task #31

You can follow the career experts using my Career Gurus Twitter list. I asked everyone in the list and only got the answers from the following so thank you for sharing part of your experience and hope that all job seekers can benefit from these tips.

1 – Attend a networking event that is targeted to their industry or to business professionals (not just jobseekers). ~ @ResumeStrategy

2 - Review all applications, results and look to see how to improve the percentage of interviews. ~ @scotherrick

3 - Do an eval of your network (people, groups and organizations). Stop using resources that are non-productive and add new ones. ~ @TimsStrategy

4 - Cultivate his/her social network. Just takes 10-15 minutes a day. GREAT results! ~ @ErinKennedyCPRW

5 - Update your resume. ~ @heatherhuhman

6 - Review his/her job search traction (activities/results) and CELEBRATE then find something NEW/different to do to shake things up. ~ @ValueIntoWords

7 - Stay active and building relationships online! ~ @MsCareerGirl

8 - Attend a trade association or professional association meeting to network with others in your field. ~ @eExecutives

9 - Keep track of performance on a daily basis … evaluate progress at month’s end. ~ @billiesucher

10 - End your resume to 5 friends/connections asking for feedback and any suggestions, great icebreaker and people will want to help. ~ @kufarms

11 - Customize resume / cover letter to *specific* position. Way too much competition in market today for one-size-fits-all approach. ~ @EmilyBennington

12 - Job seekers should evaluate the things they’re doing monthly, and figure out how they can do them daily. ~ @WalterAkana

13 - Get a haircut. Important to maintain appearance (& self-esteem). Everything else in search must be done MUCH more often. ~ @DawnBugni

14 - Prepare and deliver a 5-7 minute speech in front of at least 20 people, to keep the confidence going. (Try Toastmasters!) ~ @JorgenSundberg

15 - Keep an on-going tally of job successes, so updating one’s resume is less painful and more effective. ~ @teenarose

16 - Every month go through their database + note when was the last time they connected with someone, then connect. ~ @mariaduron

17 - Connect with people on linkedin. Review lists and see who you can contact. ~ @GayleHoward

18 - Once/month job a seeker can convert her physical connections into Linkedin connections. ~ @laurentbrouat

19 – Get out and network! (should be more than once / month-but a good starting point). ~ @KristenJacoway

20 - Assume wider duties in line with brand: mentor a coworker that lacks your strengths or suggest initiative centered on your expertise. ~ @resumeexpert

21 - Join an association in their field and network. ~ @DarrylRMSG

22 – Connect with & give back to their network to tap into the hidden market. Lot’s more tips here http://bit.ly/4oumVv ~ @annemariecross

23 - Keep reference suppliers up to date with a copy of latest resume version, and list of jobs applied for. ~ @ExpertResumeMan

24 - Get two new referrals from every contact you have. ~ @LindaNoland

25 - Start a blog and add one posting per month. ~ @animal

26 - Strive to learn something new once a month (or every day) & continuing to learn ramps up your options in. ~ @JulieWalraven

27 - Attend local networking events – and bring your career-seeking business cards. ~ @HeatherEColeman

28 – Write at least 1 Linkedin recommendation, 10 #FollowFriday tweets, and 30 blog comments for people in your network.  ~ @maltaee

29 - Sit down for 5 minutes and go through your file special accomplishments and customer/peer/supervisor/president feedback and thank-yous to remind yourself that the people who know you, think you are great. You have great value. Landing that new job is a matter of “when,” not “if.  ~ @CareerBranches

30 - Look at your contacts. Are there key people you haven’t talked with in a while? Reconnect, finding a way to add value to them. ~ @TheJobQuest

31 - What’s on your Chicken List? ~ @JasonAlba

You can tweet any of these tasks but make sure to include the author’s Twitter handle.