LiFT Magazine Launch Edition

FOR THE ASPIRING AND SUCCESSFUL

PATHS TO REINVENTION HOW TO LIVE A LIFE YOU LOVE THE AGE OF SUCCESS HOW MILLENNIALS, GENXERS AND BOOMERS SUCCEED DIFFERENTLY

GUIDE TO LEADING WELL TAKE YOUR LEADERSHIP TO THE NEXT LEVEL

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THIS ISSUE LAUNCH EDITION VOL. 1, NO. 1

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Viacom’s Michael D. Armstrong on Success and Family

PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHEW GILSON

And wife Lori’s leading role

For the Aspiring & Successful

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FEATURES & PROFILES

20 What Success Looks Like The beginning of an ongoing dialogue about success, starting with how Millennials, GenXers, and Boomers define, plan, and achieve it.

28 Black Girls Code Why founder Kimberly Bryant is on a mission to diversify Silicon Valley and create the first female Steve Jobs.

32 New Faces of Leadership A conversation about blending work and family with Calvin Butler, the new CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company.

36 The Path to Reinvention Feel a necessary ending coming on? Determined to finally go after your dream life? Here’s how to develop the courage and the plan to reset your path.

60 The Making of a Museum Founding Director Lonnie Bunch prepares to make history with the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

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DEPARTMENTS

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10 14

32

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Points of Interest Tips and information for a happier, more productive, better life.

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Next Growing trends in business development and wearable technology.

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Travel Here’s to bold endings. Four year-end travel-destination ideas.

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Wellness Inspiration for the beginner yogi or runner in you.

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Financial Savvy Sage advice for your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond.

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The List A surprising list of top cities for career-changers.

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Reading List Good reads for business, creativity, relaxation, and thrill.

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White Space How busy people stir happiness.

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Point of View How gratitude changes everything.

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FROM TH E E DITOR | ON SUCCESS

STAFF

& CONTRIBUTORS

FOR THE ASPIRING AND SUCCESSFUL Like happiness, success takes on many meanings. It can be ever changing and evolving, and there doesn’t seem to be a single mold or equation for it, as it is defined differently for everyone. Still, with so many interpretations of success, we all seem to go for it at an early age, even before we know what it is, exactly, that we’re going for and before we develop the emotional intelligence required to picture or define it for ourselves.

In the immediate sense, success can be defined as winning — anything from a Little League softball game to a new piece of business. But, in a larger sense, what successes are we measuring that really make life worthwhile?

Ultimately, after we consume all of our heart’s desires, what does success look like?

That’s the question we began to ask ourselves here at CPG Publications. As the answers came in and our curiosity mounted, we decided to take the question broader and opened a dialogue around the very thing we all, in our own unique ways, desire to achieve: Success.

The dialogue has resulted in the creation of LiFT Magazine, “For the Aspiring and Successful,” launched to inspire readers to LiFT themselves and others to a higher level of living, leadership, and achievement.

To launch this publication is . . . well, a success, but we are nowhere near the last word on the topic. We hope the pages of this edition, and many more to follow, help you to expand your view of what it means to be successful, starting with The Look of Success, beginning on page 20.

A huge part of our success has been powered by our readers, who are stretched across the nation and achieving greatness in various fields and walks of life. We thought it would be fun to interview a few of them — Millennials, Baby Boomers, and the “in between-ers,” who include my contemporaries — the GenXers. For The Look of Success, we asked them their viewpoint, and, not surprisingly, we found that their definitions are incredibly assorted, rich, and layered, just like the individual lives they lead and the stories they tell.

In 2013, Arianna Huffington told the graduates of Smith College that the definition of success is “well-being, wisdom, our ability to wonder, and to give back.” These are themes you’ll see over and over again as you read LiFT. We hope this magazine not only extends our conversation, but also our worldview. May it inspire you to live richly — in whatever way that has meaning for you.

N. Michelle Webb Editor

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Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Georgia L. Clark Executive Editor N. Michelle Webb Associate Editors Carmen Lopez Jennifer Wolf Art Director Janet Crouch Digital Media Dustin Ackart Everett Johnson Copy Editor Frank W. Kresen Contributors Jacqueline Bodnar Shari Held Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. Sean Silverthorne Advertising Sales Jim Corning Matt Barnes Client Services Sylvia Arciga Kimberly Flores

LiFT Magazine (ISSN 2373-1591) is published by CPG Publications, a division of CPG Communications Group, LLC. Copyright © 2014 by CPG Communications Group, LLC, 7300 W. 110th Street, 7th Floor, Overland Park, Kansas, 66210.

All rights reserved. Cover and contents may not be reproduced without prior written consent from the publisher.

Connect with LiFT Magazine 7300 West 110th Street, 7th Floor Overland Park, Kansas, 66210 Phone: 913.317.2888 Email: connect@liftmagazines.com Subscriptions, Samples, and Reprints: Order online at www.LiFTmagazines.com Advertising Inquiries: Reach affluent, culturally diverse consumers and professionals. Call 913.317.2888, or view media kit online at www.LiFTmagazines.com Editorial: Send letters and content queries to editorial@LiFTmagazines.com. Every effort is made to ensure accuracy at time of printing. Advertisements placed in this publication are not affiliated with, or authenticated by, LiFT Magazine or CPG Communications Group, LLC. Content inclusion does not constitute an endorsement.

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P O INTS OF INTER ESTS | T IPS FOR B E T T E R L I VI NG

TIP #1 GET ORGANIZED If, when you’re trying to organize your stuff, tasks, or projects, you find that you have a whole mess of things before you, then it’s time to reduce the clutter. What’s the use in an organized closet or schedule if it’s still too crammed to make sense of it? The solution: reduce, eliminate, and simplify before you organize.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. — Steve Jobs

TIPS FOR BETTER LIVING AT WORK AND PLAY

Some people are what we call high performers. They are the ones who are exceptionally focused, insanely organized, and, therefore, incredibly productive. They are detail oriented, task masters who remember things well, manage deadlines and responsibilities like a pro, and usually beat the alarm clock when getting out of bed.

Others are … well, not. So, for those of us who are big performers with big dreams and big goals but need of a little help packing it all in, here are six tips that might make your life a little easier to manage.

TIP #2 WHEN WORKING AT HOME, INVITE SOMEONE ELSE IN TO WORK WITH YOU Talking with an accountability partner over the phone is one thing; having someone work with you in your home (on their own, separate business) is a whole different story.

Desiree M. Frieson, president and CEO of Mahogany Communications, a marketing firm in Brooklyn, New York, suggests inviting someone into your home and working in the same space. “Sometimes, when it is too quiet, you end up doing other things; having a peer or group of colleagues around you can help you focus,” she says.

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TIP #3 AVOID BURNOUT We all have things to do that drain us. These are the things we dread and feel exhausted after doing — anything from long meetings to laundry. Make a list of the tasks that stifle your creativity, and delegate them. Compare your list with others in your organization, and you might be surprised to find someone who actually enjoys the tasks you can’t stand.

TIP #4 DON’T DRIVE YOURSELF TO THE AIRPORT THIS HOLIDAY SEASON Airport parking prices take a steep hike around the holidays (which makes sense, because parking is more in demand). See if a friend can drive you to the airport, call a cab, use public transportation, or order car service. Depending on the length of your trip, it may cost you less to arrive in style by paying a round-trip car service than it does to drive yourself and pay airport parking fees.

TIP #5 INCREASE TAX SAVINGS WITH CHARITABLE DONATIONS The holidays are a popular time for giving. You can also use it as a time to lessen your tax burden. Clean out your closets, basement, and other storage spaces to find items that you no longer need or want. You can claim the value of those items as a charitable deduction on your tax return.

Also, do you have appreciated stock that you haven’t sold because you don’t want to pay the tax bill? You can donate the stock to charity and take the gains as a deduction. You’ll also avoid the 3.8 percent tax on net investment income.

TIP #6 MANAGE YOUR ONLINE SECURITY Julia Angwin, senior technology and privacy reporter at ProPublica and the author of a new book on Internet privacy, Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance, says, “It helps to log out of social-media sites after each visit since trackers usually can’t find you when you’re logged out.” She also says that you can download free software that blocks Internet tracking tools, like Disconnect (disconnect.me) or Ghostery (ghostery.com).

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NE XT | BUS INESS & T ECHNOLOGY T R E NDS

Wearable Technology

HUNTING FOR

BUSINESS IDEAS? There may be still be economic uncertainty, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to launch a business. Here are a few ideas expected to see healthy U.S. revenue growth between now and 2018, according to research conducted by business intelligence leader, IBISWorld.

Social network game development You might have guessed — we’re spending more time on social networks, with an ever-increasing number of hours online, thanks to the rapid adoption of mobile devices. We are also spending more time playing games that are embedded into their social networks — at an increase of 184% per year on average, IBIS reports. By the end of 2014, U.S. sales in the industry are expected to surpass $6 billion.

TV and home theater installation services Americans spend a lot of time in front of the tube. You already know that approximately 98% of U.S. households have a TV, but did you know that 25% of them also have a home theater system? Currently, there is no market leader in the installation-services industry, leaving ample space for startups to make room for themselves. Revenue in the industry has been climbing by more than 4% year on average in the past

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five years and, by the end of this year, should exceed $12 billion, according to IBIS.

Online travel agencies Travel agents took a hit in 2009, as consumers pinched pennies and took “staycations” in their time off from work. But the industry is rebounding, with revenues jumping by almost 7% to nearly $21 billion so far this year. The era of storefront travel agencies is largely over, but IBISWorld predicts that online travel agencies will see an increase in sales of 2.2%, to approximately $23 billion by 2018.

Translation services In an increasingly global business environment, with more non-Englishspeaking people living in the U.S., the demand for translation services is on the rise. Also, as online businesses look to gain customers in other countries, they need translators to help make marketing materials and websites accessible in other languages. While automated translation services offer some competition, a computer program will never be able to translate nuance and cultural expectations. In the past five years, sales in the industry grew at an annual average rate of 2.4% to top $3 billion.

What industries do you think are especially hot for starting up right now?

Tell us on @LiFTmagazines.

As consumers become aware of the wider benefits of getting fit, technology is revolutionizing the way they can track, record, and motivate themselves. In much the same way as the iPod transformed the way people enjoy music, fitness devices such as the Nike+ FuelBand®, UP® by Jawbone, Fitbit®, and the new Apple® Watch (available early 2015) are helping people take their training to a new level. All of these devices provide revolutionary systems that guide you to a better, healthier you. Each system gets to know you — tracking your activity, diet, and sleep, depending on the device you choose — and shows you how to make simple adjustments that, over time, add up to an all-new you.

Not only that, for the most part, they are attractive. At Fitbit, fashion meets fitness with the recent launch of a new fashion-forward line inspired by designer Tory Burch.

Jawbone’s sleek design offers a variety of color options, enabling the wearer to choose one that fits his or her personal style. And the highly anticipated Apple Watch will provide enough personal customizations to rival your favorite jeweler.

Future wearables Already, Google has announced it is developing a contact lens with microscopic sensors that can monitor the blood-sugar levels of someone with diabetes, using the tears as a fluid source. The lens has tiny sensors, a tiny processor to analyze the sample, and even a small antenna that allows it to send that data to an outside device.

And now anyone can show what the world looks like through their eyes with wearable imaging from developers like Pivothead. The company set out to create the world’s first 1080p Full HD experience recording eyewear — and to do it with style. The product launched in 2012 as the first truly wearable HD camera enabling users to record, capture, and share their lives, hands free.

Diverse workforce, diverse ideas.

At Sprint, we hire people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

Inclusion is a big part of who we are. It builds a more unified workforce and a stronger company. After all, the next big idea can come from anywhere. Our hiring practices ensure it won’t 9 go unnoticed.

T R AV E L | YEA R-END DEST INAT ION I DE A S & T R AVE L T I PS

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BOLD ENDINGS FOUR DESTINATIONS TO EXPLORE BEFORE YEAR’S END It’s that time of year again.

Holiday distractions at the office are in full swing, as are year-end performance reviews and budget approvals. But if you’re like many professionals, you’re probably also distracted by the number of vacation days you have left to use and could be thinking about taking a year-end excursion.

A recent Harris Interactive study conducted for the travel website Expedia. com found the typical American worker uses only about two-thirds of his or her vacation time. On average, we earn 14 vacation days per year and use only about 10 — so start planning. You owe it to yourself to take a break from work, see the world, and enjoy time with family before year’s end.

Here are four destinations to consider.

LA or San Francisco every few months, an “old” favorite restaurant (circa 2006) is Artisan, famous for decadent lamb-leg dip and Cuban sandwiches.

“It’s been exploding — for good and ill, says Jon Bonné, wine editor for the San Francisco Chronicle. “There’s more tourist infrastructure — restaurants, small bakeries, places aimed at visitors who might not have appreciated Big Bubba’s Bad to the Bone BBQ.”

Paso Robles, CA Napa and Sonoma wine-tasting rooms can get crammed with cheesy honeymooners, but Paso Robles attracts an earthier oenophile — which isn’t to say that the wine’s not excellent. Dubbed “the anti-Napa,” Paso is slowly transforming into one of America’s foodiest little towns.

“You can feel the energy,” says Steve Heimoff of Wine Enthusiast Magazine, which recently named Paso Robles “Wine Region of the Year.” “Over the past two years, these winemakers have been making crazy, wild blends of red. It would be hard to do that in Napa: It’s so traditional there.”

Since 2000, the number of wineries in Paso Robles has quadrupled to 200. And while it seems a new chef moves in from

TRAVEL TIP: Wearing comfortable and casually elegant clothing to tasting rooms sets the tone for a sophisticated outing and is a sign of respect for wineries. Be sure to take weather-appropriate gear, especially if outdoor activities like vineyard treks and picnics are on your agenda.

Don’t wear perfume or heavily scented cologne to tasting rooms; the scents can overwhelm the subtle aromas in wine and interfere with your own and others’ experience.

Quick note on decorum: Wineries are wineries, not bars per se. Although alcohol is being served, it’s a relaxed and conversational environment. Save loud banter and raucous activities for later.

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T R AV E L

DO VACATIONS MAKE YOU HAPPIER? Researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Research in Quality of Life, suggested that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.

After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. How much stress or relaxation a traveler experienced on the trip appeared to influence post-vacation happiness. Also, the stress of returning to work was enough to reduce post-trip happiness levels by 70 percent.

Brazil If Brazil took over your living room during this year’s World Cup, and you can’t shake the images of Sugarloaf and Cristo, now is a great time to head there for a quieter visit. Brazil’s real magic is in the jungles and beaches of its 8,000-km coastline.

In the relatively unexplored northeastern state of Alagoas, a succession of rustic-chic laid-back beach pousadas (hotels) offer fabulous cuisine.

Try Pousada da Amendoeira, with its well-appointed bungalows and amazing beachfront views. Beaches aside, anyone heading to Brazil should make time to explore the world’s greatest tropical rainforest and stay at Pousada Uacari — a floating lodge in the heart of the jungle.

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HOW TO PREP YOUR CHILD FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL Leanna, founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs, is raising her two sons to embrace global citizenship, alongside her Costa Rican husband, from their all-American home in California. Leanna’s tip for preparing young kids (especially those who are introverted) for cultural-travel immersion is to maintain a bit of their routines while on the go. She says, “Routines are very important for us, so we reassure our son that a few things will stay the same during our trip, while gently preparing him for what would change (‘We’ll be sleeping at Tia’s house, but we’re taking your favorite bedtime stories!’).”

Paris, France Paris is at its most Parisian in winter. Without the crowds, there’s space to linger over a morning café crème and croissant at Le Bar du Marché and wander through the Louvre. The low tourist season means some lower rates, too. Several museums and monuments offer free admission on first Sundays (November-March), and the first of the biannual Soldes (statemandated, six-week sales) begins on January 8. The nationwide discounts (up to 50 percent or more in every store) are designed to make room for the upcoming season’s wares. The sales return in June, but by then, so will the crowds.

This time of year, it’s easier to find a room at the intimate Hotel RelaisSaint Germain. Each of the 22 rooms is named and styled after a different author connected with Paris, such as Balzac, Hemingway, Joyce, and Proust. The hotel, comprising side-by-side townhouses, is a short walk from the Louvre and a block from the Odeon metro station, particularly helpful when it’s raining or cold outside.

At mealtime, Les Papilles takes the stress (and guesswork) out of ordering in French. The retour du marche (seasonal market menu) is set daily, so make a reservation and arrive ready for whatever chef Bertrand is preparing (like potato leek soup, poached cod, and blue cheese and dates). The venue (a delightful combination of bistro, wine shop, and grocery) and price (about $42 for starter, main course, cheese, and dessert) add to the comfort level.

Costa Rica’s eco-friendly Harmony Hotel.

CULTURAL TIP: Indoor spaces (restaurants, shops, cafés) tend to be smaller and more intimate in Paris than in the U.S. Instead of complaining about the tight quarters, embrace the coziness and esprit de corps — and remember to use your “inside” voice.

Costa Rica Looking for a little piece of paradise? Set your sights on Costa Rica. With beautiful beaches, rainforests, and volcanoes, this tourist-friendly country has become a favorite stop for eco-trekkers and the surf set alike.

Surfers and expats have discovered Costa Rica’s Pacific Nicoya Peninsula, yet the Nosara beaches — Playa Guiones, Playa Pelada, and Playa Nosara

— remain relatively undeveloped and uncrowded. Each beach has its own personality. Low-key Guiones is an expat community and surfing hub. Rocky Pelada is a favorite with locals. Blacksand Nosara is isolated, accessible only by fording a river. Sign up for a weeklong Nosara Paddlesurf SUP (stand-up paddle) Camp to explore this idyllic section of the Costa Rican coastline.

The eco-friendly Harmony Hotel includes a 24-room Playa Guiones retreat with 10 rooms, 13 bungalows, and 1 two-bedroom suite. The retreat also includes the hotel’s Healing Centre with outdoor yoga studio. Bungalow 15 and the suite are closest to the ocean, or book bungalow 12 for an up-close look at the local monkeys that hang out in the pochote tree on the private deck.

December thru April is dry season in Costa Rica, which typically means little or no rain. Most restaurants and shops in Nosara accept both U.S. dollars and Costa Rican colones. Not all accept major credit cards, so it’s a good idea to be prepared to pay in cash.

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W E L LNE S S | YOGA & RU NNING

LET’S TALK YOGA THE LIFE-IMPROVING BENEFITS OF AN AGE-OLD PRACTICE

Why I Practice Yoga Ranise Gillespe Holistic Health Coach New Creation Charlotte, North Carolina “I practice yoga daily not just because it’s a great workout; it’s also highly meditative, and the benefits to flexibility are huge! The secret is in the breathing. The constant deep breathing, or pranayama (Sanskrit for “breath”), really oxygenates the brain, increasing mental energy and clarity. This condition spawns a level of expressiveness and creativity that’s exhilarating and a whole lot of fun.”

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If you practice yoga, chances are you’re sleeping better, getting fewer colds, standing taller, or just feeling more relaxed and at ease these days. Western science is starting to prove how yoga works to improve health, heal aches and pains, and keep sickness at bay. Yet 70 percent of you still aren’t prone to pose, according to a recent WebMD pole. So to encourage you, here are just a few of the ways that health and happiness go up with every Downward Dog. Increased Flexibility For starters, improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. In the beginning, you probably won’t be able to complete a backbend, but if you stick with it, you’ll notice a gradual loosening, and, eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You’ll also begin to notice a reduced amount of aches and pains. That’s no coincidence. Tight hips can strain the knee joint, due to improper alignment of the thigh and shinbones. Tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain. And inflexibility in muscles

and connective tissue, such as fascia and ligaments, can induce poor posture.

Detoxification When you contract and stretch muscles and move organs around via targeted yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph — a viscous fluid rich in immune cells. This process helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste.

Lowered Blood Pressure Two studies published in the British medical journal The Lancet compared the effects of Savasana (Corpse Pose) with simply lying on a couch. After three months, Savasana was associated with a 26-point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and a 15-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number). As it turns out, the higher the initial blood pressure, the more significant the drop.

Nerve Relaxation Yoga encourages the brain to shift your body from the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter is calming and restorative; it lowers breathing and heart rates, decreases blood pressure, and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive organs — comprising what Herbert Benson, M.D., calls the “relaxation response.”

This is only the beginning. Benefits associated with yoga can be life changing, so I hope this gives you a bit more motivation to step onto your mat and strike a healing pose.

GOOD REASONS TO START RUNNING

If you’re going to set a big goal like running a marathon, why not do it internationally?

Here are four of the world’s most acclaimed marathon locations to inspire you to lace up and get training.

You can probably come up with countless reasons for why you just can’t run. You don’t have enough time or enough energy or the right neighborhood or the right sports bra. You don’t have the body or sturdyenough joints or the desire to compete in a race.

You’re just not crazy enough to be a runner.

To all of those reasons and more, we say: How do you know until you’ve tried?

1. Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris. Between 35,000 and 40,000 racers start on the Champs-Élysées and run a winding loop through the city. finishing near the Arc de Triomphe.

Here are just a few convincing reasons to start running. Let us know if you agree Twitter.com/LiFTmagazines.

1. Because you can do it anywhere. We think

Why I Run

it’s safe to say that the more accessible your fitness routine is, the more you’ll stick with it. Traveling for work? You can still go for a run! On vacation? You can still go for a run! Snow, sleet, rain, hail? Yep, you can still go for a run!

Melanie Miller Supply Chain Director DEMDACO Kansas City, Missouri

2. To remember. Learning a new language isn’t

the only way to keep an aging brain sharp. Research suggests that staying physically active is even more important in preventing cognitive decline.

3. To protect your bones. Weight-bearing exercise like running is key to building strong, healthy bones and slowing bone loss. (And no, running won’t cause arthritis.)

4. To stay sniffle-free. You just might breeze

through cold and flu season thanks to your new running routine. Moderate amounts of exercise (particularly if done outdoors) seem to bolster the immune system’s ability to ward off viruses.

4 MARATHONS WORTH THE TRIP

“I started running to offset the impact of my slowing metabolism in my late 40s. I am not a natural athlete, so getting started was the hardest part. I found a partner, and, together, we completed a ‘Couch to 5K (C25K)’ program.

We ran our first race a few months later, and I continue to do between 8 and 12 a year. I keep running because it helps maintain my weight. But more important, it helps me feel fit and healthy.

Running gives me a sense of accomplishment. It’s something I do for me — something that makes me happier and healthier.”

2. Virgin Money London Marathon.

The race route passes the most iconic landmarks of England — Big Ben, the Tower of London, the London Eye — and runs along the River Thames and across the Tower Bridge at mile 12 (a high point — literally — for racers).

3. Great Wall Marathon, Tianjin, China. If visiting the Great Wall of China is on your bucket list and you’re a glutton for punishment, then this marathon may be for you.

Runners should expect the race to take about 50 percent longer to complete than an average marathon, due to extreme ascents and descents (there is an 8-hour time limit).)

4. Athens Classic Marathon. Run the race where it all started. The trek begins on an ancient battlefield in the town of Marathon, climbs up toward Athens, and finishes at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896.

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FI NANCIAL SAVVY | FINA NCIA L M OVE S

IN YOUR 20s You must...save for retirement.

FINANCIAL MOVES FOR YOUR 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, AND BEYOND With so many steps involved in building financial security, it simply isn’t possible to do everything at once. Knowing which of your goals to tackle (owning a home? saving for retirement? paying for college?) and when to do so has never been more important.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, reports that the proportion of workers ages 25 and older who have saved for retirement has fallen from 78 percent to 66 percent over the past 12 years. Meanwhile, an AARP study notes that the number of retiree households with debt has increased sharply: In 1989, one in five families with a head of household age 65 to 74 had mortgage debt; that number today is approaching 50 percent.

Is it tough to tackle long-term goals when you’re struggling to pay everyday expenses? Of course. But as we wind down another year, I ask that you do your very best to keep a brighter, more solvent future in your sights. Adopt the following age-specific tactics before you make any other moves to build the financial security you need and deserve, one decade at a time.

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Yes, you’re scrambling to pay the rent.

But please listen to me: Pushing yourself to save even a small amount now is, hands down, the single smartest investment play you can make. It’s all about the time your money will have to marinate — “compounding” is the technical term — before you need it in retirement.

In a perfect world, let’s say you invest $5,000 a year starting at age 25. Assuming your money grows at an annualized 6 percent, you’ll have approximately $820,000 by the time you’re 65. Now let’s suppose you don’t start investing until age 35. You’ll have to sock away about $9,800 a year to wind up with the same nest egg. (A $5,000 annual investment for 30 years will yield just $419,000.) And don’t kid yourself that it’s easy to save money as you grow older; you’ll likely have children and a mortgage tugging at your purse strings.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU...FALL BEHIND ON STUDENT-LOAN PAYMENTS. Even if you were to declare bankruptcy, your debt would likely not be forgiven. If you’re having trouble paying your bills, visit studentaid.ed.gov to learn about deferment and forbearance options.

IN YOUR 30s

IN YOUR 40s

IN YOUR 50s

Don’t let today’s historically low mortgage rates seduce you into ownership.

Just because something is on sale doesn’t mean you should buy, right? Besides, the Federal Reserve has indicated that it intends to keep interest rates low until mid-2015, so there’s no need to rush.

I also wouldn’t jump at buying if you’re considering moving within the next five to seven years. It could take at least that long for your new home to appreciate enough to recoup the costs of selling it, including a 5 to 6 percent real estate agent commission. But if you plan to stay put, and you can cover a 20 percent down payment, focus on buying the least expensive property that meets your needs. The difference between a $300,000 30-year mortgage and a $270,000 30-year mortgage at today’s rates is $133 a month. That’s nearly $1,600 a year you could apply toward other goals.

Yes, your kids should go to school. No, you shouldn’t bankroll their degree, whatever the cost. You’ve spent your life creating a sound financial plan; don’t upend it by suspending your retirement savings or taking out a home equity line of credit to pay for a pricey college.

Instead, consider a financial-safety school that’s likely to offer your family a generous scholarship package. If you opt for a more expensive school, have your kids borrow fixed-rate federal loans, which you can supplement with federal PLUS loans; take out only as much as you can afford to pay off before you stop working.

If you don’t have children and plan to retire in your current home, you absolutely must...get ahead on your mortgage.

Try to make additional monthly payments now to shorten the life of your loan. Pay off your mortgage before retirement, and that’s one less bill you’ll have to worry about when you’re on a fixed income.

Unless you are already in poor health or have a family history of medical issues, chances are you will live a very long time. In fact, the average life expectancy for a 55-year-old woman today is 83.

And what you may need at that age is a long-term-care (LTC) insurance policy, which covers ongoing medical costs such as physical therapy, extended nursing-home stays, and home healthcare visits. Why worry about LTC now?

If you wait until you’re older, you might discover that the annual premium cost is too high.

You must...be honest.

Ready to settle down in your own home?

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU...SET ASIDE MONEY TO PAY YOUR CHILDREN’S EDUCATIONAL EXPENSES IF YOUR RETIREMENT SAVINGS ARE NOT ON TRACK.

If you have children, you must...be smart about college costs.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU...TAKE ON MORE DEBT BY TAPPING A HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT OR BORROWING ON CREDIT FOR UNNECESSARY LUXURIES.

You must...explore long-term-care insurance.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU...ASSUME YOU CAN AFFORD TO RETIRE EARLY. Stop working at 60 or so, and your savings, Social Security, and pension might have to sustain you for 25 to 30 years.

more...

Read more tips by Suze Orman in The Money Class: How to Stand in Your Truth and Create the Future You Deserve (Spiegel & Grau). Follow on Twitter @SuzeOrmanShow.

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T H E L IS T | TOP C IT IES F OR M ID-CA R E E R PR O FE S S I O NA L S

TOP CITIES FOR MID-CAREER PROFESSIONALS

If you’re a seasoned professional looking to get a fresh start, you may consider moving to a new city to help boost your career. Naturally, high-paying jobs and an affordable real estate market are likely to be key deciding factors. So, based on research conducted by Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic prosperity, we compiled a short list of cities that offer reasonable living costs, strong employment growth, and populations that score high on measures of education and tech-savviness. Other factors for making The List include homeownership affordability, commute times, and income growth.

With the cost-of-living index (the measure that calculates how expensive it is to live in a particular city) averaging 100, Huntsville, Alabama, and Fayetteville, Arkansas, make The List, in part because both cities offer a lower-than-average cost of living along with a fairly high potential for income growth.

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1. WASHINGTON, DC POPULATION (METRO AREA): 5,582,170 COST-OF-LIVING INDEX: 136.3 INCOME GROWTH: 15.8% The nation’s capital boasts all things diversity — from cultural make-up and neighborhoods, to job sectors, arts, and culture — which means it’s easy to find your niche. Don’t peg greater Washington as just a government hub — DC’s biggest growth area is professional services, including consulting companies and defense contractors. Biotech rules in the Maryland suburbs, and, in the area stretching from Baltimore to the District, cyber-security jobs are growing.

2. DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA POPULATION (METRO AREA): 504,375 COST-OF-LIVING INDEX: 103.4 INCOME GROWTH: 15.9% Durham is a hotbed for tech start-ups. It’s home to Duke University (part of the Research Triangle, which includes the nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University). And it’s next to Research Triangle Park, a center for companies specializing in biological, environmental, and computer technology. The Durham area also hosts big employers, such as IBM and GlaxoSmithKline.

3. HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA POPULATION (METRO AREA): 417,593 COST-OF-LIVING INDEX: 93.7 INCOME GROWTH: 13.4% Home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal, including the Marshall Space Center, Huntsville jet-propels careers in aerospace, defense, bioscience, high-tech manufacturing, and computer technology.

4. ANCHORAGE, ALASKA POPULATION (METRO AREA): 380,821 COST-OF-LIVING INDEX: 130.8 INCOME GROWTH: 11.8% Juneau may be the state capital, but Alaska’s largest city houses the majority of the state’s government jobs, including those at University of Alaska, Anchorage. In the private sector, the biggest employers are in healthcare. Military installations and a healthy tourist trade add jobs, too.

5. FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS POPULATION (METRO AREA): 366,383 COST-OF-LIVING INDEX: 96.8 INCOME GROWTH: 14.1% Nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks, Fayetteville is home to the University of Arkansas and is 30 miles from Walmart’s corporate headquarters. Both the university and feeder companies for the mega-retailer (Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Tyson Foods) offer jobs, and Walmart’s move toward sustainability has sparked the growth of green-industry start-ups.

OTHER GREAT MARKETS Austin, Texas Austin has a dynamic and storied history in a state that’s well known for being a good place for a fresh start. The capital of Texas, Austin traditionally has a comparatively low unemployment rate and has offered a plethora of flexible work options.

Charlotte, North Carolina A globally recognized center for the banking and finance industries, Charlotte is a dynamic metropolitan area that offers career-changers a range of sectors. The city’s high quality of life and its thriving cultural activities make Charlotte an ideal place for starting a new career as well.

Dallas, Texas With a population approaching 7 million, Dallas is part of a sprawling megalopolis where everything is big — job opportunities included. The Dallas-Fort Worth area serves as headquarters for a long list of U.S. corporations and is also a major tourist center.

Denver, Colorado Denver has grown from a gold-mining town into a sophisticated-yet-outdoorsy Western city, with something for just about everyone. Home to eight professional sports teams and a slew of corporate headquarters, Denver has a wide range of options for career-changers as well as for those just starting out.

Houston, Texas The biggest city in an outsized state, the city of Houston is itself a major local employer. Beyond jobs with the city, Houston boasts a ton of opportunities across virtually all industry sectors, making it fertile territory for job seekers looking for flexible work.

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis serves as corporate headquarters for companies such as Target, ING Group, and Wells Fargo.

The metropolitan region ranks high on several lists of the nation’s most livable cities — especially for young professionals.

Seattle, Washington Known for being headquarters to companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Nordstrom, and Starbucks, the Seattle area is also home to numerous startups across a range of industries, most notably technology. Careerchangers and career-starters looking for opportunities in Seattle will also find options in the environmental, academic, healthcare, and telecommunications fields.

San Francisco, California Beautiful and vibrant, San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area offer myriad opportunities in the high-tech industry. The city’s youthful vibe makes it especially attractive to young people just starting out in their careers.

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A S PIRE | WHAT SU CCESS LOOK S LI KE

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WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE > By Jacqueline Bodnar

AS THINGS AROUND US CHANGE, SO, TOO, DOES THE IDEA OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SUCCESSFUL.

Dr. Mae Jemison once said, “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” Had she never pushed beyond preconceived ideas set forth by society, she wouldn’t have become successful as the first AfricanAmerican female astronaut. We all know success is something that we want. Yet there is not one definitive idea explaining what it means to be successful or how we can go about achieving success. Many things evolve over generations, and the idea of success is not immune from those changes that take place. Still, there are some factors that will likely always play a key role in reaching success.

“Hard work, honesty, social intelligence, and perseverance all undoubtedly raise success chances in life,” explains Arnout Van de Rijt, an associate professor of sociology at Stony Brook University. “Sheer luck can dramatically impact success as well.”

SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH Dr. Van de Rijt has done extensive research in the area of success, including experiments that showed those who got lucky were more

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A S PIRE

STRIVE NOT TO BE A SUCCESS, BUT RATHER TO BE OF VALUE — ALBERT EINSTEIN likely to become successful. Additionally, his research has shown that, indeed, “success breeds success.” For example, musicians whose first single is a hit will see their second single sell well also, while unknown musicians with better-quality music remain undiscovered.

“As much as we would like to think differently, evidence shows that success is predominantly determined by past success,” he explains. “Of course, each culture defines success somewhat differently. Nonetheless, most people in our society would agree that fame and wealth are the principal dimensions of success.”

Dr. Benson has worked with numerous professional athletes who have achieved fame and fortune yet have a difficult time transitioning toward that type of success.

He works with these people to address the issues that have come with their fame, including grieving the losses that come with success, such as competition issues, connection losses, and even confidence losses.

“Success conditions you for certain beliefs, thoughts, and attitudes,” he explains. “Once you achieve a certain level, the environment can change. If you don’t learn to adapt, then it may not keep you there.”

UNFULFILLED WEALTH

BEYOND FAME AND FORTUNE

While society may look at fame and wealth as signals of success, many people who achieve them find that they are still unfulfilled. If those with financial wealth feel this way, it forces us to consider the possibility that there has to be more to success than just what money can buy.

“Success can be the biggest obstacle to growth,” explains Dr. Timothy Benson, who has been on the clinical faculty of Harvard Medical School for 10 years and is author of a forthcoming book entitled Surviving Success: The 7 Critical Skills Needed to Thrive in the Athletic, Academic, and Professional Spotlight.

We asked people from each of three generations about their ideas regarding success. What we found was that the ideas tended to evolve over generations. Sure, society may set forth some standards regarding success, but once we have our own experiences and begin to trust ourselves more, we tend to widen the lens for defining success. From Millennials to Baby Boomers, read on to learn the many ways that people define success over the generations — and to see how your own ideals stack up, too!

18-a3r4s ye

MILLENNIALS M ILLE

35-a4r9s ye

G GENXERS EN

50-a6r8s ye

B BOOMERS OO

Millennials fall into the age group

GenXers are those 35–49 years

Boomers are those 50–68 years

of 18–34 years old. They have lived their lives with computers and cellphones, and are techsavvy. They tend to leave some Boomer traditions behind, such as religious affiliation and patriotism, and are more liberal and accepting of things like gay rights and environmentalism. Millennials are also proactive and look to get involved. Many have also been taught to pave their own way by becoming entrepreneurs.

old. This generation is making more money than their parents, yet they also have more student loans and have financial-security fears regarding retirment. This generation was raised to be independent, as well as more structured and punctual. They have adapted to technology and maintain a strong work ethic. Their views on issues often fall between the Millennials and Boomers.

old. They tend to have a strong work ethic, place a high importance on being respectful, and have well-defined morals and values. They know who they are and are comfortable with it. They have also come to terms with the idea that they want personal fulfillment, family time, and to do things that they enjoy, even if they don’t make them as wealthy.

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MILLENNIALS

MILLENNIALS

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ESMERALDA SEGURA

SARAH FLETCHER

DETAVIO SAMUELS

Auto Cad Technician B&S Engineering

Mental Fitness Coach Welcome Sarah

Advertising & Marketing Executive Radio One

Esmeralda Segura sees herself as successful today, but she has had to overcome many challenges along the way. Her mother worked hard to support five children, and her grandmother worked hard as well. Seeing that had a huge impact on Esmeralda’s life and goals.

“My grandmother worked in a factory cleaning cow skins, and she had to support 10 kids,” she says. “I remember stepping into her work, and it smelled so bad, I walked right out and said to myself, ‘I never want to work this hard.’”

Always maintaining a vision to succeed, today she has an associate’s degree. As a single mother, she works hard, like her mother and grandmother, but in vastly different fields. Even when there are setbacks, she focuses on making improvements that will help her and her son be able to live a fulfilling life.

“Success, to me, means following your dreams and being more than what you think you are,” she says.

Sarah Fletcher grew up thinking success was tied to accolades and accomplishments.

But, as she became an adult, she realized that was a narrow vision and began expanding her ideas. Today, she believes not only that the idea of success is individual but that it includes a variety of aspects of life.

“It integrates my happiness, my passions, self-care, and love of myself in pursuit of my goals which generate my success,” she explains. “Aside from my family, mental fitness has been an integral part of my success.”

As a mental-fitness coach, her company, Welcome Sarah, helps others get the right mindset and overcome their fears so that they can go on to achieve success.

“Your desires and goals hinge on whether you can actually see them being fulfilled,” she says. “After that, fear must be moved out of your path continually. If not, it will keep creeping back and slowly debilitate your goals.”

“Like snowflakes, no two personal definitions of success should be the same,” explains Detavio Samuels. “Ultimately, your definition of success should be individually crafted around a formula that makes you happy and maximizes your potential.”

As an advertising and marketing executive and public speaker, Detavio’s professional accomplishments have helped provide him fulfillment in a variety of other areas of his life. He feels he is successful, because he gets a chance to use his God-given gifts daily, and he lives his life with integrity and without regret. He also feels that people have to define what success means to them in order to be happy.

“One of the biggest reasons people are not happy with their lives is because they are chasing someone else’s carrot or evaluating success based on a limited or antiquated definition,” he says. “Each individual is responsible for making sure his or her ladder is up against the right wall before they climb too high.”

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GENXERS

GENXERS

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HYLEAS FOUNTAIN

YOLANDA FORTIN, PHD

MARK KUZNOF

2008 US Olympic Team Heptathlete

Lactation Consultant/Owner PhD Milk

Captain Allegiant Air

Hyleas Fountain achieved her goal when she become a silver-medal winner in the 2008 Olympics and for years was considered one of the top heptathletes in the country, having won multiple championships. But the path began decades earlier.

“I had been dreaming about it since I was seven years old,” she says. “I put my all into it for so many years. I never gave up or let anyone get in the way of my destiny.”

Jackie Joyner Kersee helped to define what success was for Hyleas at an early age, because she set an example for her that women of color could compete and be successful in sports. From there, she believes, success is largely defined and achieved using your mind.

“I think a person creates success by imagining that they are successful,” she says.

“Once you have that, then you find out what your purpose and goals are in life.”

Yolanda Fortin was a PhD neuroscientist when she began feeling a pull to do something else. Then she became a mother, and the pull became stronger, motivating her to take a new path that led to starting PhD Milk, offering lactation and postpartum doula services.

“I think my father is the source for my definition of success,” she says. “When I was growing up, he always said that my goal in life should be to work for myself and define my own future, with the goal of providing for my family’s comfort — not just our survival.”

While she may not have always known what that vision would be, today she works toward it daily. She also believes becoming successful requires more than just your own efforts.

“As I have gotten older, I realize that success depends not only on the drive and resilience of the individual but even more on the support of those around you,” she says.

Mark Kuznof feels he is successful because his dream job as a captain for Allegiant Air has allowed his family to enjoy their lives more. He also credits his parents for helping lead him down the path toward success.

“My parents were very influential in my framing of what success is,” he says. “Because the example they set made me realize what my goals in life are.”

While his parents never put a lot of pressure on him, they did establish expectations regarding being responsible and staying out of trouble. Even so, he feels success doesn’t come easily for everyone.

“My advice is that hard work, integrity, how you carry yourself, and sacrifice help determine success,” he says. “Also, let’s face it — luck and circumstances out of your control, like who your parents are, the socio-economic situation of your parents, and parental involvement also have a lot to do with becoming successful or failing.”

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GENXERS

40s TRACIE ANDERSON Consultant TransUnion Tracie Anderson works with TransUnion in Chicago, spending her days working with financial institutions. While she is in a good position, it’s not the only way that she sees herself as being an overall success. For her, success includes giving back, which means that volunteerism is important in her life.

“If you are always seeking for your own gain, it is unfulfilling,” she explains. “I’m always striving to help have a big impact where it is needed the most, which will bring its own reward.”

She believes that her ideas of success were developed early and are a combination of the values she was raised with and her experiences in college. She was able to see the range of paths that people could take, and that helped her to define the type of life she wanted to live.

“To be successful, you have to have a full quality of life,” she adds. “That requires constantly re-evaluating in order to make the most impact.”

GENXERS

42 MEGAN HUGHES ALLISON Vice President Genesco Sports Enterprises Learning from her parents, Megan Hughes Allison was taught that the meaning of success includes such things as having a healthy marriage, stable career, meaningful friendships, and putting family first. She also continues to grow in her personal and professional life.

“Success doesn’t mean the same thing to everybody. You become successful by identifying what it means to you,” she explains, “and then basing your decisions and life choices around that definition.”

She lives following five truths on a sticky note on her computer, which she believes lead to living well and to success. These five truths include being nice, loyal, smart, patient, and truthful.

Megan feels GenXers and Millennials have something in common in terms of professional success, which is finding success through entrepreneurship.

“We have been encouraged to be innovators, thought leaders, and risk takers, so more and more of us are paving our own way through unique career opportunities,” she adds.

43 TIMOTHY G. BENSON, MD Author and Clinical Associate in Psychiatry Harvard Medical School To those looking in, Dr. Timothy Benson is a prime example of success. He’s been on the psychiatric clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School for more than 10 years, has an impressive list of accomplishments, and has a new book coming out. Yet, from his perspective, there’s a lot more still to come.

“I’m just getting warmed up,” he says.

“Whether I see myself as successful depends on what day you ask me. Success is really relative.”

Dr. Benson believes that success starts with how people define it and that our individual ideals evolve from what society and those around us perceive as being successful. For him, being raised by a single mother who was a good role model helped lay the foundation. Then, when he was in high school, he happened across the book The Magic of Thinking Big at a garage sale.

And the rest, as they say, was history.

“That book was life-changing for me,” adds Dr. Benson. “It had a significant impact on my life, and I picked it up for only a quarter.”

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BOOMERS

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FRANK WHITE III

TONI SHELTON

REGINALD PAYTON, SR.

Vice President Brokerage Heartland Financial Group

President Toni Shelton Productions

Owner Payton Studios

Growing up in an inner city, Frank White III’s parents did something he feels set him on the path toward success. Today, he’s a financial marketing executive and feels he’s achieved more success than most would have thought possible.

“My parents had the wisdom and foresight to enroll me into a Catholic grade school called Notre Dame de Sion, and it changed my life,” he says. “Not only did I receive a premium education, my mind was exposed to people, philosophies, and ideas that I use to this day.”

He feels success leaves clues, and, if people follow them, it leads them down the right path, as well as minimizes their learning curve. He also actively tries to learn from other successful people.

“Doing this allowed to me reach the elite level as a business and sales professional in a short amount of time as well as avoid mistakes I would have made had I done it on my own,” he adds.

“Success, to me, is getting past barriers that have held you back and being comfortable where you are in your life,” says Toni Shelton.

Toni grew up in Chicago, and her mother died when Toni was seven, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother, who died before Toni reached 18. Lacking role models, her mother’s premature death motivated her.

“This traumatic experience, as well as many others, motivated me to get out and do better things with my life,” she says. “I wanted to live a life that many of my family members had never lived or had the opportunity to live.”

Carving out a path for herself, she has had a successful career in the entertainment industry, including doing modeling and management, but she still feels success is more than just money and possessions.

“I feel I have reached my idea of success by accomplishing a great deal in my life, despite my upbringing,” she adds.

As a commercial photographer and owner of Payton Studios for nearly 30 years, Reginald Payton considers himself a success. He is his own boss, has flexibility, and doesn’t have limits placed on his income. For him, he is living the life many people strive for.

“Success means happiness, taking care of the family, traveling, having a good life, and having less stress,” he says.

His father helped lead him down the path of self-employment. He watched him work hard for decades, only to be one of many who were suddenly displaced. Seeing how companies treated their employees, along with his father encouraging him to do his own thing, sent him in the direction of having his own business.

“I decided early on that I didn’t want to work for anyone else,” he adds. “If you work hard, you can reap rewards. The goals I set for myself years ago have all come to fruition.”

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BOOMERS

BOOMERS

DEFINING SUCCESS What does success look like for you? Three thoughts to help you define your own success.

1. Clarify what success means to you. Be brave, bold, and most importantly, be honest with yourself.

55 PETE ESPINOSA Owner Bottletree Properties After spending decades in the field of technology sales leadership, including 20 years at IBM, Pete Espinosa decided that he had had enough. His countless days spent traveling the world weighed on him and kept him from what was most important — spending more time with his wife and three children. So he retired and started Bottletree Properties with his wife, a company that purchases small businesses, including a laundromat and golf course, and allows him to be home every night.

While he feels everyone has to determine for themselves what success means for them, he believes that it is maintaining a balance of three main areas: Ample family time, career rewards and achievement, and the financial aspects.

“I want to have done well enough on the professional side that my family can do what it is that we want to spend money on,” he explains. “Success is like a three-legged stool. If any one area is out of balance, then things become wobbly.”

55 VALERIE NICHOLSONWATSON President and CEO Harvesters – The Community Food Network Valerie Nicholson-Watson sees success as something that changes over time. Many of us start out with the typical idea of what success is, as set forth by society, but, as we grow, we tend to see that success may include having a good career and social status but that it’s really so much more than just that.

“I consider success the state of being fulfilled,” she says. “I’m looking forward to having a positive and lasting influence on the lives of the people I love and on the community to which I belong. If that is a continuum in my life, I will feel that I have had a lifetime of success.”

While making money and having things is a valid measure of success, she doesn’t believe they are only the only measures.

“Making a positive impact on people’s lives is something that I see so many people equating with success,” she says. “And I think it is a very positive perspective.”

2. Pursue goals that are both important and meaningful. Being no. 1 may bring external success but not necessarily fulfillment.

Do your goals add meaning to your life?

3. Believe that you can achieve success from any starting place.

It’s never too early or too late to turn your ideas into action.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION> @LiFTmagazines LiFTmagazines LiFTmagazines

SUCCESS IS LIKING YOURSELF, LIKING WHAT YOU DO, AND LIKING HOW YOU DO IT. — MAYA ANGELOU

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I MPA CT | KIMBERLY BRYA NT

BLA KIMBERLY BRYANT’S

If black girls can rock, then they can surely code, right? The statistics show otherwise. Women of color represent less than 3% of the people in technology fields. But if it’s up to Kimberly Bryant, pretty soon tons of black (and brown) girls will be coding, which is the art of creating computer programs.

She is the founder of Black Girls Code, a Bay Area organization whose mission is to increase the number of young women of color in the field of digital and computer technology.

"When you teach a woman, you teach a nation."

— African proverb

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So far, the organization has trained more than 2,000 girls to work in technology fields such as robotics, video-game design, mobile-phone-application development, and computer programming.

“We aim to change the image of what it means to be a ‘techie’ and are on target to teach one million girls by 2040,” says Bryant.

Kimberly describes the organization’s founding as somewhat accidental but highly motivated by her college experience. “I recall feeling culturally isolated,” she says. “Few of my classmates looked like me. While we shared similar aspirations and many good times, there’s much to be said for making a journey with people of the same cultural background.”

Before starting Black Girls Code, Kimberly was an engineer in the manufacturing, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries, but she craved a change. She looked to launch a healthcare start-up and began to ideate by attending meetups in the Bay area where she frequently found herself to be the only woman — and only woman of color — in the room.

She recalls that, at the same time, her then12-year-old daughter had developed a passion for gaming, and, at $60 per game, Kimberly was growing tired of supporting her expensive habit.

So in an attempt to encourage her daughter to

ACK GIRLS CODE BRINGING MORE WOMEN TO SILICON VALLEY embrace the gaming market not just as a user but also as a creator, Kimberly enrolled her in a one-week summer camp for game creation at Stanford. By the end of that week, her daughter’s perspective had changed. She wanted to develop game technology! Kimberly’s work was done.

Or so she thought. “When my daughter reported back to me that she was one of only three girls at camp and that she was the only brown or black girl, well, suffice it to say that my perspective changed that week, too,” Kimberly recalls. She figured she had about ten years to make a difference on her daughter’s behalf, so she launched Black Girls Code the following spring, in April 2011, and began teaching girls 7–17 how to contribute to the innovation economy.

The first class was held in one of San Francisco’s small African-American communities. “We launched with 12 girls, originally planning to focus on middle-school girls since middleschoolers represent the age when girls tend to opt out of STEM fields,” explains Kimberly. But parents brought their younger siblings to the informational

meetings and asked if they could attend the class as well. Kimberly noticed that the 6-to-8-year-olds appeared to grasp the concepts faster than their older siblings. In fact, they were like sponges, she says. “That’s how we ended up serving the age range that we do.”

The organization’s mission is to work with girls to embrace the current tech marketplace as builders and creators by introducing them to skills in computer programming and technology.

They want to grow to train 1 million girls by 2040 and become the “girl scouts” of technology.

Pointing to data that predicts a precipitous decline in female representation throughout technology, Kimberly says, “In the 1960s, women represented about 15% of all Computer Science degrees awarded in the United States. That percentage has dropped each year since 1981, with Black women comprising only 1% today.”

She goes on to say, “If the majority of software continued to be created by men, we’ll miss out on the perspective of 50% of the population. Women and minorities are consistently early adopters of technologies, includ-

ing social media and gaming, but they are noticeably absent from the actual creation of these technologies.”

According to the National Center for Women in Technology, only 25% of computingrelated jobs in 2009 were held by women. Only 2% of those women were African American.

Four percent were Asian, and just 1% were Latina.

Why is that a problem?

“One of the things that’s true about the computing-talent pipeline in this country is that it’s really in jeopardy,” said Lucy Sanders, CEO of the National Center for Women in Technology.

“With the degrees we’re granting now, we’re going to graduate enough people to fill only a third of the jobs … We’re not going to fill this talent pipeline if we go only to the places where we’ve traditionally always looked.”

Girls Learning Code, CODE, and Codecademy, but they develop a culturally rich curriculum that speaks to the unique challenges of their audience. They integrate entrepreneurship as well, in the sense that students create projects rather than simply learning how to use a tool.

Additionally, the classes provide access to female role models — women of color who currently work in technology-based fields.

“Imagine the impact that these curious, creative minds could have on the world with the guidance and encouragement others take for granted,” Kimberly says.

With chapters currently located in eight U.S. cities and Johannesburg, South Africa, Black Girls Code is on track to make a global impact for many generations to come.

THE BGC SOLUTION The BGC way is to deliver technology-centered workshops and classes for girls from underrepresented communities. They consider themselves to be a part of the larger learn-to-code-movement, which includes CoderDojo, For the Aspiring & Successful 29

W ORKS TYLE S | COLLA BORAT ION

WHY

LEADERS NEED TO BE COLLABORATORS We all want to enable organizational velocity. We know that, as we lead, we not only need to make right decisions ourselves, but we need to help our teams make good decisions as well. But how often do we step in, make the decision, and then wonder why our team is not “engaged”?

Many a leader sees himself in this scenario.

“Lucas,” a general manager at a major mediaservices company, told me he wanted his team to step up and figure out how to tackle a huge growth opportunity for his business unit. He had the vague sense his people were somehow holding back. At the same time, he gave more specific direction than made sense, given the talent of the people reporting to him. Employees strive to understand the unwritten rules that their boss operates by. Lucas didn’t recognize how his actions signaled to the team that their ideas were not valued.

Lucas’ natural strength as a gifted problem solver was somehow more compelling to him than his less-developed collaborative skills.

He tended toward a smartest-guy-in-theroom approach to strategizing and winning.

But this dynamic was holding back Lucas’ team and, by extension, Lucas himself.

If you see yourself in this story, you’ve got company. This is more the norm than the exception. And the more complicated the business issue, the more likely people are to “go it alone” and make decisions without consulting others. The upshot is that leaders often figure out “the answer” solo or in small groups; then they set the direction and tell their teams to “execute.”

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Here is what I later said to Lucas — something I wish I could say to all GMs, VPs, directors, and managers in similar situations: Crowning yourself the Chief of Answers sets your team up to be the Tribe of Doing Things. You become the bottleneck that restricts productivity, because you have to be involved in every decision.

Our past successes as individual contributors bias us. They reinforce our tacit worldview that, as the smartest person in the room, we can avoid the messy dynamics of group problem solving.

We often treat collaboration as the cherry on top of the cake, but a better metaphor is the yeast that lets innovation rise.

Collaboration doesn’t work as an afterthought; it must be baked into the process for the organization to rise. It is just as important as the “what” of a big idea that garners so much focus. Both the “what” and the “how” are needed to create the vital organizational context that can enable the rise.

The Chief of Answers model fails the organization on multiple levels. Here are a few: Scalability. Having everything go through one leader (or a small set of leaders) limits growth. The number of different kinds of business challenges grows as the market speeds up. The Chief of Answers cannot know the multitude of issues as well as the people who are closer to the problem.

The speed of changing issues, the trend of that rate of change, and the speed at which the organization must react are crucial to competitiveness going forward.

Ownership. When people understand why things are broken, why decisions are made the way they are, and so on, they

> By Nilofer Merchant

ultimately own the thinking. This means they can own the outcome.

Without this understanding, only a few people feel ownership for the success of the strategy; the rest are collecting paychecks.

Retention. Our incoming workforce of Millennials expects to play a big role in setting direction.

Motivation. Sitting outside the room doesn’t motivate people. They want a seat at the table. The best people go to organizations where they can make a more meaningful impact.

The Chief of Answers model rests on individual smarts. But we all know that setting direction requires more than an accumulation of facts, the latest Web 2.0 technologies, specific processes, formulas, and individual insights. It is about going beyond data, insights, and models. It’s about applying many different perspectives and challenging the status quo, making shifts inside the organization, and jointly steering it toward a new, compelling future. It’s how we get many people to understand, believe, co-create, and co-own the outcome of a strategy, thus turning a direction into reality.

And that’s what really matters.

Nilofer Merchant, CEO, strategist, and author, is a leading authority on creating business strategy to achieve success. Her original article first appeared on Forbes. com and was adapted by permission. She has honed her unique, collaborative approach to solving tough problems while working with and for companies like Adobe, Apple, Nokia, HP and others. Contact the author at Twitter @nilofer.

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For current career opportunities, visit us and take e the lead at verizon.com/jobs.

Verizon is an equal opportunity employer m/f/d/v.

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SPECIAL CHEF NE W FA CE S OF LEAD ER SHIP | EX E CU T I VE PR O FI L E

CALVIN

BUTLER CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER BALTIMORE GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY

BLENDING WORK AND

FAMILY > By Shari Held

CALVIN BUTLER’S LIVING THE LIFE OF A MODERN, SUCCESSFUL EXECUTIVE, AND HE HAS THE LONG DAYS, FREQUENTFLYER MILESM AND JAM-PACKED BUSINESS/ SOCIAL CALENDAR TO PROVE IT. WHAT MAKES IT ALL WORK IS HIS UNFLAGGING COMMITMENT TO FAITH AND FAMILY.

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This March, Bulter, 45, took over the leadership of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. It’s the culmination of a journey he began right after graduating from law school.

“I knew I wanted to run a business, and I knew I wanted to be a CEO,” Butler says. “Then I started navigating my career to get there. It’s been a tremendous ride, but I can honestly tell you I haven’t been on it by myself.”

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS Throughout his career, Butler had mentors who encouraged risk-taking. When he was senior director of government affairs at R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., one of them asked him if he’d consider running operations. Butler would have had to forego schmoozing with governors and senators for working the second-shift bindery and learning the business from the ground up. He didn’t hesitate.

“That was the turning point of my career,” Butler says. “And it’s been tremendous ever since.”

When he took over the operations of one of Donnelley’s manufacturing plants, he faced one of the most difficult decisions of his career. After assessing his five direct reports, he let four go.

The one he kept was a “good person,” but he struggled to meet the expectations Butler set for his team. It took Butler nine months before he let the person go.

“What I learned from that is once you’ve followed your gut and made a decision, you need to move on it,” Butler said. “Don’t delay.”

CALVIN

Butler and son Blake at Superbowl XLVII in New Orleans

As BGE’s new CEO, Butler brings a wealth of leadership experience to the table but admits that an unfamiliar culture makes leadership a totally new experience.

Most nights, he doesn’t get home until 8:30, so, at work, he encourages a collaborative, positive-energy atmosphere where no one, himself included, takes themselves too seriously.

“I’m going to surround myself with talented people who are comfortable in that type of environment,” he says.

Butler doesn’t need much sleep, and he’s at his best from 4:30 to 9 a.m.

That’s when he strategizes and sets the stage for the upcoming day. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., he executes that plan. “Early evening, I’m sitting back thinking what I could have done differently,” he says.

BLURRING THE LINE BETWEEN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL Weekends often consist of one or two black-tie/business functions, and Butler decompresses by surrounding himself with friends as well as business associates.

His wife Sharon, who possesses the patience of Job, does draw the line when Butler tries to pass off a black-tie

BUTLER

Education: Juris Doctor, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Mo., Bachelor’s degree, Bradley University, Peoria, Ill. Family: Wife Sharon, son Blake (age 19), daughter Raini (age 16) Inspired by: Making a difference in the community and in people’s lives and motivating young people Device he can’t live without: His Samsung Galaxy 5 phone.

“That’s unfortunate, but that’s the society we live in.”

Mobile app: BGE, followed by his newspaper apps Recreational activity: Golf — for the fellowship and recreation Way to unwind: Reading — (current: Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War) (previous, HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton) Fiction authors: James Patterson and Brad Thor

Butler and daughter Raini celebrating her Sweet 16 in Aruba

Way to spend a long weekend: Getting the family together in their Florida home. Playing some golf and drinking some nice wine.

“That’s just great!”

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The Butler family at a reception hosted in Calvin’s honor by David Wilson, Ed.D, Morgan State University president.

Pictured left to right: Thelma Crawford (mother-in-law), Blake, Sharon, Calvin, Rainy Crawford (father-in-law), Raini

event as a “date night.” They carve out time together by setting aside a few hours to relax and catch up before attending events.

Most Sundays are reserved for church and family, with everyone gathered around the table for Sunday dinner. That’s when Butler gets some quality time with his kids. “When I can get my daughter to talk to me, that’s a good day,” he jokes.

If he’s lucky, he’ll get to hit the links.

His golf buddies are typically business associates. “It’s always about business,” he says. “That’s okay, though, because we all recognize we’re working hard every day to make a difference. And along the way, they become your friends, so you get a 2-fer!”

TRADING FREQUENT FLYER MILES FOR TOGETHERNESS Throughout his career, Butler’s spent three or four days a week traveling.

That didn’t stop him from coaching his kids’ sports when they were growing up. “I took the late-night flight to be home to coach a baseball game, and

Left to right: Blake, Sharon, Raini, and Calvin

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then I’d be on the 6 a.m. flight the following morning so I could attend a meeting,” he says. No matter what his role at work, he’s always cognizant of his role as a husband and father.

That was evident when Butler made the move to BGE. He had Sharon’s support — her goal was to have the entire family together. But rather than uproot the family immediately, Butler commuted between Baltimore and their “dream home” in the Chicago area until his son Blake graduated from high school and Raini, his younger daughter, had time to get used to the idea.

On long weekends and school breaks, the family traveled to Baltimore. By the time they moved, they were familiar with the area and had already made friends. “I continued to do the sacrifice of the travel until they felt comfortable and were ready to go,” Butler says. “And they jumped right into it.”

Now that the hectic traveling schedule’s behind him, maybe Butler can relax with a James Patterson novel and a great glass of wine!

Shari Held is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis, Ind.

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BAL A NCING ACTS | T HE PAT H T O R E I NVE NT I O N

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PHOTOGRAPH BY RACHEL ESTRADA

THE PATH TO REINVENTION DEVELOPING A PLAN AND GATHERING THE COURAGE TO RESET YOUR LIFE > By Jacqueline Bodnar

Camille Holder-Brown and Omar Brown are the reinvented owners of the Kale Cafe Juice Bar & Vegan Bistro in Daytona Beach, Florida

PLATO ONCE SAID THAT COURAGE IS KNOWING WHAT NOT TO FEAR. WHILE THIS CAN COME IN HANDY WHEN PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO REINVENT THEMSELVES, THEY ARE STILL FACED WITH NUMEROUS CHALLENGES. THESE CHALLENGES MAY BEGIN WITH THEIR OWN WAY OF THINKING AND THE THINGS THEY TELL THEMSELVES OVER AND OVER, OR THEY MAY BEGIN WITH WHAT OTHERS NEAR THEM ARE SAYING. IN OTHER WORDS, IT’S DIFFICULT TO KNOW WHAT TO FEAR AND WHAT NOT TO FEAR.

Everyone wants to be courageous, especially when it comes to being who and what they want to be, when it comes to reinventing their lives in order to become what they may have always envisioned for themselves.

But self-reinvention takes a lot more courage than many other things people may do in life.

But make no mistake: For those who go forward with reinventing themselves, the rewards are often well worth the effort. People usually feel more in control of their life, pursue their passions, and feel more as though their life is in line with what they always had in mind for it.

Considering the Path For anyone who may be wanting to make a change, the first thing that is important to realize is that it’s not an overnight process. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association (APA),

lifestyle changes are a process that takes time and requires support. Anyone who is looking for an overnight success story or a quick-fix reinvention is not likely to find one that is authentic or lasting. They are more likely to become disappointed and frustrated, as they learn firsthand that their quick-fix aspirations are not based on reality.

Understanding that any reinvention is going to take time is the most important step that someone can make on the path. This will help put things into perspective and help avoid setting themselves up for failure.

Real change in reinventing yourself takes courage, but it also takes time and a real commitment to making the change.

Getting Started Once you have made the decision that reinvention is something you want to pursue, then

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INTRODUCING THE NEW YOU When it comes to establishing credibility as the newly reinvented you, there are numerous options, depending on what your new thing is. Here are a few ways you can establish credibility as the new you: • Create a blog • Use social media tools • Write a book or article • Give a speech or presentation • Join an organization • Change your behaviors • Get interviewed for an article • Know a lot about your new field and journey • Always be honest • Strive to be consistent • Join a meet-up group

it’s time to set goals and set up a support system. Many people find that a complete reinvention of themselves is difficult without a mentor or someone who supports their decision to make the changes. You will also want to consider what you will say to those around you, because the topic will come up at some point as they see changes taking place.

“It’s critically important that you create a narrative that explains your transition. Don’t assume that others will instinctively ‘get it.’ They probably won’t and probably aren’t paying close attention to you, anyway,” explained Dorie Clark, who has taught marketing communications at numerous colleges, including Tufts University, and is the author of the book Reinventing You (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013). “Instead, take charge of your reputation, and create a short and succinct explanation of where you’re going now and how your past experiences add value to your new endeavor. Once they hear it, others will grasp your story and can become ambassadors explaining your new identity to others.”

Attitude Matters As in most other areas of life, the attitude that people take while trying to focus on reinventing themselves is going to help determine their success. It’s just like the idea that if you believe you can do something, you will have won half of the battle.

“One important step in reinventing yourself is to increase your social-positivity ratio — the positive things you say — and do — to others, compared to the negative things (criticisms, suggestions, commands, ignoring, changing the topic, etc.),” says Dr. Ed Diener, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. “Everybody can be happier, make those around them happier, and be better liked, if they give more compliments, express more gratitude, ask people about things in their lives, listen attentively, and offer help. Over time, this will become a habit and will make everyone around you happier.”

Maintaining a positive attitude is crucial to being able to reinvent yourself. Those who have always been pessimists will have to work on changing that, so that

the negative self-talk (or always focusing on what could go wrong) doesn’t get in the way of making real progress. The more you can focus on being positive with others, the more positive you will feel. It’s important to remember that the world is like a magnet: Whatever you are putting out is what you will attract in return.

Overcoming Obstacles Life is one big problem-solving process. From the time we are born, we are solving problems.

We get so good at solving them as we master each one that we tend to forget that that’s exactly what we are doing. But make no mistake: You are doing it, and you are doing it all day long. At one time, getting dressed was a challenge, as was driving a vehicle. Once you had mastered them, they seemed trivial in nature.

As you are on the path to reinvention, you will also encounter obstacles and challenges that will make you pause. They may even make you want to give in, because they seem too difficult to figure out a way past them. But if you do, you will look back upon

UNDER STRESS? If you are under stress, it may not be the best time to be deciding on making changes.

The Association for Psychological Science reports that research demonstrates that, when you are under stress, you are not weighing the risks and rewards as you would when not under stress. In fact, people making a decision under stress will tend to look at the upside more and may overlook some of the negatives that are associated with making the changes. They actually believe that the stress may keep people from learning from negative feedback. What’s one to do? De-stress before making any decisions about reinventing yourself. Do some meditation, yoga, journal, or take a vacation. Once you’re no longer feeling stressed out, you can make the decisions with a clear mind.

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PROCRASTINATE MUCH? If you are like many people, you may be thinking that you would love to reinvent yourself, yet you keep putting off when that will happen. Procrastination is a common problem and one that researchers say comes from our mixed or negative feelings about doing a particular task. Whether those emotions are a mixture of passion and fear or something else, it tends to make us put off taking action. The good news is that you can overcome this by focusing on the positive outcomes that you are after. When you can imagine feeling good about the reinvention of yourself, you will be more likely to finally stop procrastinating and to start putting things into action. The bottom line is that you have to have a clear commitment to reinventing yourself in order for it to really happen.

them and appreciate having made it through them that much more. You will also learn that they probably weren’t nearly as difficult to cross as you had built them up in your mind to be.

Finding a Mentor, Getting Support If possible, try to find a mentor who can help guide you into your new life. If you can recruit someone who is already doing what you want to do, that person would be an ideal candidate. If you can’t find a mentor though, don’t worry. Just having the support of someone around you can make a world of difference.

“Not everyone will have access to a traditional mentor — someone who is like them (perhaps at the same company or in the same industry) but a little older and wiser. It is critically important, however, to gain insight from others so you don’t constantly have to reinvent the wheel,” added Clark. “That’s why, in my book, I encourage people to form a ‘mentor board of directors’ consisting of multiple people.”

As she points out, you may not want to emulate them exactly, but you can learn from pieces of what they do well — such as one friend who is great

at social networking or another who’s a master at delegation — and create your own curriculum for learning.

Setting Goals Once you are determined you are going to reinvent yourself, the best next step is to determine your goals. Where do you want to be with your reinvention at one, three, five, and ten years from now? Once you know where you want to be, it makes it easier to create the roadmap on how to get there. You can determine what needs to be done along the way in order to meet each milestone.

According to the APA, this is when you should make a plan that you will be able to stick to.

This is the plan that will be used throughout your journey.

It is important when making the plans and setting goals that you are specific, because those types of goals are much easier to work toward, as well as evaluate to see what you succeeded at doing.

Rather than make big changes all at once, opt for making smaller changes. All of the smaller ones will add up to create a new you after a while. Also, it is better to focus on making one change at a time, rather than

trying to do everything at once.

Doing this will help improve your success rate. Be sure also to celebrate your successes along the way. There is no reason to celebrate only the final reinvention. Celebrate with each small goal that you meet.

Introducing the New You At some point, you are going to introduce yourself and allow people to see the new you. It will be important that you are confident about the changes that you have made. You will also likely get a few questions about what motivated you to change.

Being prepared to answer those questions will just strengthen your resolve as to who you have chosen to become.

“If you meet a stranger and announce your new identity, they’ll say, ‘Great — nice to meet you,’” added Clark. “But if you do the same thing with an old friend or colleague, they’re likely to challenge you and ask if you really know what you’re doing.

You have to win them over if you’re going to be successful in your reinvention, because they’ll be your best source of support, referrals, clients, information, and more. So take action to convince them that you’re serious and credible.”

GETTING REAL ABOUT REINVENTION If you think you want to reinvent yourself, there are some questions you need to ask yourself, including: 1. Be completely honest with yourself. Will you be able to make realistic goals and stay committed toward achieving them?

2. Are you sure that where you see yourself ending up is where you want to be? Is there any conflict within you that may produce doubt about it being a good spot for you to be in?

3. Have you considered the other priorities in your life to determine if your reinvention will fit in? It’s important to be honest about whether or not the new you will cause conflicts with other commitments you may have in your life.

4. Will you have the patience that it takes to reinvent yourself, considering that it is usually a slow process?

5. Do you have the ability to celebrate your small successes and be confident with who you are once you make the changes?

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ANGELA PITTMAN At 34 years old, Angela Pittman has already had 14 years invested into the auto-industry field as a quality-assurance auditor. But, like many other auto-industry positions, hers was soon sent south of the border, leaving her to wonder what she would do next.

Rather than go out and try to fill the void by applying for other positions that would most likely be less fulfilling for her, she moved to a new state and started down a whole new career path to become a Registered Cardiac Invasive Specialist.

“I always wanted to work in the medical field in the cardiac area,” says Pittman. “When I found out I would be losing my job, I decided to go back to school to do what I always wanted to do. The biggest challenge was being back in school after being out of school for so long, and re-educating my brain.”

She studied hard to overcome those challenges, and, when she got her first “A” on a test, her resolve was strengthened, as she thought to herself, I can do this!

While she left behind Michigan’s auto industry, she also left behind an unhappy marriage and attended a college program in Florida. Her reinvention included a new state, a new career, and a new, happier, and more fulfilling life. She advises others that, if they have the opportunity to do what they want, then they should not hesitate for even one minute.

“Just jump in and do it, and let God lead the way,” she says, “because without His guidance, I would not have achieved my goals.”

BARBARA ARCHER For decades, Barbara Archer went through the motions of life, feeling mainly like a self-proclaimed failure who wasn’t going anywhere. She also reached a point in her life when she had lost everything, including her home, and was left with nothing more than high credit-card debt to show for it.

“It seemed the only thing I did right in my life was raising my children,” says Archer. “After three failed marriages, I really began to feel more anxiety and frustration with life. I would look around and see other people moving along, and I would question God, ‘Why me?’”

The challenge she encountered was with herself and all the negative things that she had told herself for years, which, ultimately, held her back from moving forward and achieving the things that she wanted to do.

“I discovered the battles we fight are in our minds, and, if we can win the battle over our minds, then the way we think will change the way we live,” she added, “and it did.”

This year was a turning point for Barbara, as she went to work writing a book and started a radio talk show, called “From Insanity to Sane,” aimed at helping women renew and change the way they think for the better.

“Once you discover your purpose, align yourself with other people who are in that same arena,” she advises. “You must surround yourself with successful people. It takes determination and a will to persevere in hard times, but, if you do not give in or give up, you will see all your dreams coming to pass.”

Article continued on page 42.

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SOPHIA SEERAMLAL Sophia Seeramlal was on a typical path that many people are on when they start college. She was getting her degree in psychology, which she did do, with aspirations of becoming a child psychologist.

Then something happened that completely stopped her in her tracks and sent her full speed in another direction, reinventing herself along the way.

“I suddenly had an eye-opening experience that educated me about the biggest issues facing the world,” says Seeramlal. “I was so moved that, almost overnight, I decided to dedicate my life to compassion and inner healing.”

Being inspired to go on to earn a master’s degree in humane education, she took her passion for making a difference a step further. She opened her own business, called “Sophia’s Soul Care,” which allows her to use both of her degrees in psychology and humane education, combined with her intuitive skills, to help others lead a life that is best aligned with their deepest values.

She advises people to single-mindedly pursue the passions that fuel them, on their own terms, and never to stop until they achieve those goals. Her first mission of reinvention was with herself.

“I’ve realized that, before I could advise anyone to live a life that reflects the best version of themselves, I had to learn what this truly meant to me,” she added. “I had to learn who I am, face my deepest fears, and work through my most inhibiting belief patterns. As I’ve reinvented myself every day, I’ve had to learn to embrace and welcome change as progress along my true path.”

CAMILLE HOLDER-BROWN & OMAR BROWN While living in New York, Camille Holder-Brown and her husband Omar Brown and her family were getting by just fine. She had a master’s degree in film, and he was an engineer. But everything changed when he got laid off. The loss began a chain of events that would end up completely reinventing both of their lives.

Since Camille had grown up in Florida, they packed up their family and made the move back to Daytona Beach. This college-educated couple found themselves on food stamps and unemployment, and wondering how they would support their family. Then they turned their passion into profit.

“What did I love to do with no real expectations that had to be met? Cook,” she says. “We found peace and harmony in forfeiting the expectations of everyone else for our own happiness.”

Today they are nearing the one-year anniversary of their restaurant, Kale Café Juice Bar & Vegan Bistro, to which they both dedicate their days, while homeschooling their four children.

For Omar, the difficult part of the reinvention was being true to himself and staying focused on not doing what everyone else wanted for him, but on what he wanted for himself. The most rewarding aspect for him has been the confidence that he has gained through the journey.

“One piece of advice — stay positive,” says Omar. “Listen to self-help audio books, and follow your passion.”

Article continued on page 44.

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PROFILE SPOTLIGHT

LANDON TAYLOR HIS PATH: THE REINVENTION AND DISCOVERY OF TRUE WEALTH When it comes to success, some would say Landon Taylor had it all: A great executive career pulling down good money each year, a nice home, a vacation getaway, meetings at the White House, and a host of enviable luxuries and perks.

With a professional career that spans the launch of start-ups like Paradigm Shift Advisors, LLC, a boutique strategic advisory firm serving CEOs and Executive Directors, to leading the creation and deployment of nationally implemented corporate business strategies for Fortune 500® entities, Landon’s executive-leadership experience is undeniably vast.

His corporate career, which culminated earlier this year, included senior executive roles with CoreLogic, Dorado, and a stint as president of First American Corporation’s Strategic Markets Division. While at First American Corporation, Landon also served as creator and director of First American’s New Market Ventures Fund and as founding president of the company’s Home Ownership Foundation. In recognition

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of his exceptional business acumen and inspired leadership, he won many awards and was appointed to the Board of Directors for First American Title Insurance Company, the corporation’s largest subsidiary.

But all that didn’t do the one thing that is more important than all the other things combined: They didn’t make him feel fulfilled. He also didn’t feel like he was doing the work that he was put here on the planet to do.

“I woke up one day and realized that it’s great and that everyone would think that it’s ‘the life,’ but I didn’t,” explains Taylor. “I had a choice to keep living the same life to please others and die slowly from betraying myself, or face the pain of the unknown to pursue the joy that comes from living a life of authenticity and congruence.”

Shocking those close to him, he decided to take the latter and reinvented himself by stepping away from Corporate America, diving in to the expansion of Paradigm Shift Advisors, LLC, and creating a new business called Wealth Triangle. Once he determined how to fuel his passions and overcame his own fears and doubt, he began to use what

FORMAL EDUCATION • Grambling State University • California State University-Hayward • Harvard Graduate School of GovernmentStrategies for Executive Influence • Stanford University Graduate School of Business-Advanced Management College • Pepperdine University, Bachelor of Science in Management/MBA BIRTHPLACE San Francisco, California CURRENT HOME Irvine, California

So, what’s holding you back from reaching your highest potential? What prevents you from discovering and living in your truth? As illustrated in Landon’s new book, Wealth Triangle: Your Success Framework for Building and Sustaining True Wealth, it’s likely one or more of these 7 Deadly Shackles.

1

Fear. Fear can be a debilitating emotion. We instinctively need it in order to protect us from perceived dangers, but it need not be present in our daily lives.

he had learned to empower others to become their greatest selves. Today his focus is helping others overcome the fears that are holding them back from reaching their true potential.

Leveraging more than 25 years of high-impact market, organizational, and human-development experience, Landon has created a human-development formula called the Wealth Triangle Principle. This dynamic training paradigm empowers performance-driven men and women to attain external performance and internal fulfillment and live fully in their truth by overcoming what he calls “The 7 Deadly Shackles” — first among them being fear.

“You cannot eliminate the fear, but you can manage it by allowing yourself to be pulled forward by the power of the promise of the future,” he says. Plus, he points out that freedom is the best part about facing your fears during the process of reinventing yourself.

“Once you’ve faced the enemy of fear, you know you can do it again anytime you need to,” he adds.

Landon also advises people that they need to spend time thinking about the new life they want to live. He recom-

mends they visualize what a typical day would be like and how it feels to be in that new life. Too often, he says, people choose careers and businesses that don’t actually suit the type of lifestyle they want to live.

He has found that the most challenging aspect to reinventing oneself is to realize that there will be some people who are disappointed. There may even be negativity from those you feel are the closest to you. As you continue down your path of reinvention, you may see some of your closest relationships either end or be tested.

Another major barrier that he had to cross on his path to reinvention — and that he coaches others through today — is to really know who they really are. He advises people he works with that they need to spend a lot of time discovering who they are at their core self. Determining what one’s core values are is a major part of being able to live the life they were meant to live.

“You can’t reinvent what you really don’t know,” he added. “You will be just slapping another coat of paint on a faulty structure.”

2

Ego. The ego is many things, but, mostly, it is what clouds our vision and holds us back from the truth.

3

Debt. Financial freedom means different things to different people, but, no matter your definition, debt has the power to chain your freedom and limit your choices.

4

Poor health and fitness. Unleashing your greatness takes energy.

Little can be accomplished in the absence of mental clarity and focus or physical stamina.

5

Limiting beliefs. Your thoughts and beliefs have tremendous power over you. Negative ones have the power to create a self-defeating cycle that retards the body’s healing process and, ultimately, your success.

6

The opinions of others. One of the hardest aspects of making positive changes in your life is dealing with the opinions and feelings of other people — your family, “friends” and colleagues — whose own fears can sometimes hold you back.

7

Dysfunctional relationships.

Unhealthy relationships rob our energy and derail our success in many ways.

Be careful who you invite in, and share your dreams wisely.

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RE ADING LIST | EXCERPT S & REV IEW S

Business Without the Bullsh*t Business publishers must be gnashing their teeth at the appearance of Geoffrey James’ new book, Business Without the Bullsh*t: 49 Secrets and Short Cuts You Need to Know, which hit shelves earlier this year.

James, a prolific business journalist and blogger (most recently at Inc.com), is a long-time student of human and organizational behavior.

His new book hacks through the abundant verbiage of most management lit to help readers be effective in their jobs while parrying the ubiquitous forces of distraction, deceit, and disaffection.

Contrary to popular belief, the business world is not that com-

49 Secrets and Short Cuts You Need to Know

plicated. While every industry and every profession requires specific expertise, the truth is that the “business of business” is relatively simple.

In Business Without the Bullsh*t, readers learn surprising but triedand-true secrets about being an extraordinary boss, about coping with annoying coworkers, and navigating the thorny problems that recur in every workplace.

INVISIBLES

Seed to Harvest

What does an interpreter at the United Nations have in common with a cinematographer who lights a movie set or a man who tunes the piano for a symphony orchestra?

Not much, you’d think. But in a society driven by narcissism and fake celebrity, it’s nice to know that there are people out there who share a passion for hard work yet get their satisfaction not from “likes” but from the inherent value of what they do.

Through Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion, the first nonfiction book by David Zweig — a journalist and musician who has also written a novel — we meet an elite group of professionals connected by an ambivalence toward acclaim, a focus on being meticulous and a willingness to shoulder responsibility for the behind-thescenes tasks they perform.

It’s a refreshing point of view, written with the precision and

In her classic Patternist series, multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner Octavia E. Butler established themes of identity and transformation that echo throughout her distinguished career. Recently collected for the first time in one volume, we have these four novels: Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark, and Patternmaster. It is in Patternmaster, the first published book of the series, that the reader is introduced to a future in which humanity, through selective breeding, has produced a race of telepaths.

The series starts with Wild Seed. Set in the 17th and 18th centuries, the story involves the relationship between two immortals — Doro, a man born in Africa thousands of years ago, who survives by transferring his consciousness from one body to another, and Anyanwu, a shape-shifter with perfect control over her body. They struggle to live together over generations as Doro attempts to create a new race through a selective-breeding program.

The series’ history continues with Mind of My Mind, in which Doro’s breeding program has created a society of networked telepaths that he struggles to control.

Clay’s Ark, the last book of the series, deals with a colony of people who have been mutated by a disease that astronauts brought back to Earth from outer space. The group struggles to keep itself isolated enough to keep the disease from spreading throughout humanity.

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detail of the magazine fact-checker Mr. Zweig used to be. The values he champions are those that could surely benefit our society (and economy) more than our current obsession with personal status, a condition being driven largely by the mass self-surveillance of social media. Everybody is watching and evaluating everybody else all the time, something that normalizes “the expectation for recognition of everything you do,” Mr. Zweig says. But the expectation is itself misguided, he argues, and only gets in the way of achieving true reward and satisfaction through self-challenge.

BO OK E X C E R P T

DARING GREATLY How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead > By Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW

The perception that vulnerability is weakness is the most widely accepted myth about vulnerability and the most dangerous.

Vulnerability isn’t good or bad: it’s not what we call a dark emotion, nor is it always a light, positive experience. Vulnerability is the core of all emotions and feelings.

To feel is to be vulnerable. To believe vulnerability is weakness is to believe that feeling is weakness. To foreclose on our emotional life out of a fear that the costs will be too high is to walk away from the very thing that gives purpose and meaning to living.

Our rejection of vulnerability often stems from our associating it with dark emotions like fear, shame, grief, sadness, and disappointment — emotions that we don’t want to discuss, even when they profoundly affect the way we live, love, work, and even lead. What most of us fail to understand and what took me a decade of research to learn is that vulnerability is also the cradle of the emotions and experiences that we crave. We want deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives. Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, and creativity. It is the source of hope,

empathy, accountability and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper or more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.

I know this is hard to believe, especially when we’ve spent our lives thinking that vulnerability and weakness are synonymous, but it’s true. I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. With that definition in mind, let’s think about love. Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow — that’s vulnerability.

To put our art, our writing, our photography, our ideas out into the world with no assurance of acceptance or appreciation — that’s also vulnerability. To let ourselves sink into the joyful moments of our lives even though we know that they are fleeting, even though the world tells us not to be too happy lest we invite disaster — that’s an intense form of vulnerability.

The profound danger is that, as noted above, we start to think of feeling as weak-

ness. With the exception of anger (which is a secondary emotion, one that only serves as a socially acceptable mask for many of the more difficult underlying emotions we feel), we’re losing our tolerance for emotion and hence for vulnerability.

It starts to make sense that we dismiss vulnerability as weakness only when we realize that we’ve confused feeling with failing and emotions with liabilities. If we want to reclaim the essential emotional part of our lives and reignite our passion and purpose, we have to learn how to own and engage with our vulnerability and how to feel the emotions that come with it. For some of us, it’s new learning, and for others, it’s relearning.

Either way, the research taught me that the best place to start is with defining, recognizing, and understanding vulnerability.

Excerpted from Daring Greatly by Brené Brown by arrangement with Gotham Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., Copyright© 2012.

The quote that inspired the book “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

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W HITE S PA CE | SEIZ E T HE WEEKEND

CHOOSE HAPPINESS

SEIZE THE WEEKEND HOW BUSY PEOPLE STIR HAPPINESS We get only a few thousand weekends in life, so the happiest people know better than to squander them. In her book What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend, time-management expert Laura Vanderkam outlines how to make the most of this sacred time off from your harried workweeks.

MAXIMIZE YOUR MORNINGS Weekend mornings are very easily wasted in lying about. Instead, set them aside for personal pursuits.

Vanderkam writes, “If you’re training for a marathon, it’s less disruptive to your day if you get up early to do your four-hour run rather than if you wait until the middle of the day. To get up early, you’ll probably have to avoid staying up late the night before, but this is a good idea in general.”

CREATE WEEKEND RITUALS “Happy families often share some special weekend activity that everyone loves,” Vanderkam writes.

It could be as simple as making pancakes or taking a stroll on a Sunday evening. Whatever you’d like to implement, make it a ritual. Soon they will become traditions, and traditions become comforting memories, which are proven to boost happiness.

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PLAN SUNDAY NIGHTS Planning something for Sunday nights is an easy way to avoid stressing about Monday. Aliza Rosen, a reality-TV producer, goes to yoga at 6 p.m. on Sunday nights and says it is a great way to sweat out the toxins of the week and center herself for Monday.

UNPLUG Have a tech “Sabbath” day — or at least a few hours on the weekend when you unplug from your email and professional life.

Although it becomes harder to do that with smartphones and demanding careers, Vanderkam recommends hiding your mail icon on your phone during your “Sabbath,” so you’re not tempted to click on messages that spill into your inbox. You may not be able to completely avoid working on the weekends, but you should at least carve out a few hours.

By the time the weekend arrives, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and simply do nothing (or meaningless things). But Vanderkam calls that a trap that often leads you to miss the best parts of your own life. “What the most successful people know about weekends is that life doesn’t happen in the future. It cannot wait for some day when we are less tired or less busy.” So start with this weekend, and do something to stir your happiness.

About one-third of the U.S. population describes itself as “very happy,” according to the polling agency Harris Interactive — a higher number than any of us might expect.

Studies show that half of happiness is determined by genetics. The other half is governed by how we internalize external events and the choices we make. Happier people realize this, and, as a result, they make seven key choices every day.

1. They choose to exercise.

2. They choose to spend time outside.

3. They choose to focus on their families.

4. They choose to make time for friends.

5. They choose to find meaning in their work.

6. They choose to contribute to their communities.

7. They choose to get enough sleep.

Happy people might not always have as much time as they’d like, but they find a way to interact with friends.

G U ID E | L E A DI N G W E L L

A GUIDE TO

LEADING WELL

FOUR LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES THAT WILL TAKE YOUR CAREER TO THE NEXT LEVEL. Leading well takes practice, energy, grit, and good advice.

Compiled within the next six pages, you’ll find expert guidance, real-life examples, and action-oriented steps to help raise your leadership profile, increase your credibility, and manage how others experience your personal leadership brand.

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THINK LIKE AN INNOVATOR > By Sean Silverthorne

In the Economist review, The Innovator’s DNA, the reviewer wondered whether genius-level innovators such as Marc Benioff, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs challenge the idea that working adults can really learn how to think differently and become innovators.

We don’t think so. Remember, it was Steve Jobs who jump-started the now-famous “Think Different” advertising campaign as a way to inspire consumers and recharge Apple’s innovation efforts. It worked. Reflecting back on the campaign, Jobs said. “The whole purpose of the ‘Think Different’ campaign was that people had forgotten what Apple stood for, including the employees.” And the best way to tell people what Apple stood for was to tell them who the company’s heroes were. The campaign reminded everyone — consumers and employees alike — that the “crazy ones ... see things differently.”

Reams of relevant research (including our own) proves Jobs right. Innovators excel at connecting the unconnected.

They engage in associational thinking. At Apple (or at any innovative company), they take a little bit of this, sprinkle in a little bit of that and that and that to churn out marketbusting ideas such as iTunes, and the iPod, iPhone, and iPad (along with a few market disasters like the G4 Cube computer).

But neither Steve Jobs nor Apple nor any other highprofile innovator or company has a corner on the thinkdifferent market. In fact, a study of more than 5,000 entrepreneurs and executives shows the opposite: almost anyone who consistently makes the effort to think different can think different.

Take Gavin Symanowitz, whom we recently met in South Africa. His original business, GetAGreatBoss.com, lets great managers showcase their skills to attract talent and boost their own careers by conducting a 360 review of the manager by his or her staff, and, if the results are favorable, he links the results to job ads that the boss is trying to fill, making these job ads far more appealing. By connecting the unconnected — 360 leadership assessments and help-wanted ads — Symanowitz forged an online business that sprouted in Africa and now grows globally.

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As a leader, how often do you think different?

How often do you brainstorm? How often do you hunt for solutions in new environments?

Thinking different is easier said than done.

Innovators (of new businesses, products, and processes) spend almost 50% more time trying to think different compared to non-innovators. In other words, non-innovators do occasionally think different (answering “at least a little bit” to questions like “I creatively solve challenging problems by drawing on diverse ideas or knowledge,” to hit the 48th percentile in our global database). Yet compared to innovators, they just don’t do it as often. Generating new business ideas that make a positive financial impact takes time. Innovators who spend more time thinking different (scoring in the 70-80th percentile) consistently engage in associational thinking by “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” with questions like the one above, and they deliver innovative results more frequently than those who don’t. It’s that simple.

If thinking different can make such a positive difference, why don’t more people spend more time doing it?

Researchers at Harvard Medical School opened our eyes to one compelling answer. Sixty to eighty percent of adults find the task of thinking different uncomfortable, and some even find it exhausting. When adults must connect the unconnected through associational thinking, it wears them out. Why? Because most adults have lost the skills they once had (just watch almost every four-year-old who relishes the chance to think different. And all of us were once four-year-olds). We don’t lose this skill because genetic coding automatically shuts it down on our 21st birthday. Instead, most of us grew up in a world where thinking different was punished instead of praised (at home or school). So, while roughly one-third of anyone’s innovation capacity comes from their genetic endowment, two-thirds of it is still driven by the environment. So here are a few simple suggestions to ratchet up your associating skills, the essence of thinking different.

Just do It. Nike’s slogan is not a bad starting place when it comes to creative thinking. Do it by frequently forcing associations or connections across different ideas when they don’t naturally emerge. John Hunt, Global Creative Director at TBWA Worldwide, told us how his company uses role-playing to help their clients think different. Clients assume the persona of an innovator from

another company such as Apple or Virgin, a form of roleplaying that encourages clients to look at a challenge from a different point of view.

Shake it up. When associations don’t come naturally, try forcing them to surface unnaturally — by shaking things up randomly. For example, try the Idea Generator app, which randomly combines three words together when you shake your smart phone. Shake it again, and three more random words show up. You can get even more creative combinations by adding your own words to the mix (including foreign ones) and seeing what you get. For example, we just shook up the app while writing this blog and got three words — perforated, bite-sized, and humane — which might help generate a new idea.

Perhaps putting bite-sized perforations into a new product could make a difference. That’s exactly what David Mullany did in 1953 by transforming a solid plastic ball into the Wiffle ball, a completely new product with bite-sized perforations in it.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that, if adults practice associational thinking long enough, the task no longer exhausts but energizes them. Like most skill-based activities, if we slog away at it and practice over and over again, the task becomes not life taking but life giving. And that’s when the most creative ideas pop out.

As a leader, how often do you think different? How often do you brainstorm? How often do you hunt for solutions in new environments? Thinking different is easier said than done. We don’t claim that folks can jump from the low end of the bell curve of creativity performance to the high end just with practice. But when it’s done frequently enough by just about anyone, it can transform good ideas (and not so good ones) into great ones that might even disrupt the world. We have found that most people can actually do this reasonably well if they choose to put in the time and effort that’s required to think different. That’s what disruptive innovators do, day after day.

Do you? Can you? Will you?

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Create time when nothing is required of you except to breathe and feel. A few minutes here and there is a good start.

Soon, your momentum will slow, and your ability to make real choices and shift direction will grow.

2. Pursue failure You can’t experiment without failure. But the whole idea of experimentation is that even failure is a success because it informs you. It teaches you what doesn’t work, which is just as important as knowing what does. As long as the failure impacts your behavior, it’s a success. Also, pursuing failure means you will take bigger risks and, much of the time, be pleasantly surprised. If you’re expecting failure most of the time, you can’t help but exceed your expectations.

3. Say “No, thank you” We have limited space in our minds, and, each time we say “Why not?” to something — or even consider saying “Why not?” to something — it takes up room. If we learn to automatically say, “No, thank you” to things that don’t fit into our main areas of focus, we’ll simplify our lives and free our minds to focus. “No, thank you” paves the road for “Yes, please,” and it simplifies your life. It helps you do more important things and fewer unimportant ones. I developed a “No, Thanks List” consisting of 27 simple examples when, in my opinion “No, thanks” was the best response to eliminate distraction and help me maintain my focus.

GET THE

RIGHT THINGS DONE > By Pascal Dennis

Peter Bregman is strategic advisor to CEOs and management teams and author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. According to Bregman, people are interrupted, on average, four times an hour, and, the more challenging the work, the less likely you are to go back to it after the interruption. In other words, we are most likely to leave our most important work unfinished.

Here are Bregman’s five most recommended tips to reclaim your life from distraction.

1. Slow down Momentum is powerful. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, it’s going to be hard to reverse direction. You need space in your life — space for change. Start with a single deep breath. See how that feels. The feeling of one deep breath will make you crave another.

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4. Define and communicate your boundaries We live in an ADD world where there are few, if any, boundaries. Phones, computers, and tablets — we can do work anywhere, anytime. And we do. So we end up exhausted and overwhelmed.

Even though we seem to be working all the time, we end up far less productive. Because trying to get everything done is impossible, and — like overeating at a buffet — in the face of unlimited options, we often make the wrong choices — choices that are not in our own best, long-term interests.

We work on the wrong things. In this world with no boundaries, we need to create some intentional ones of our own. We need to know what we care most about accomplishing, and we need a process to keep us focused on those things that matter most to us. And, just as importantly, we need to learn how to communicate those boundaries politely but with firmness. It’s how we stand up for ourselves.

5. Learn from each day Someone once asked me if I could teach an organization only one thing, what single thing would have the most impact on an organization? My answer was immediate and clear: Teach people how to learn by looking at their past behavior, figuring out what worked, and repeating it while admitting what didn’t work and changing it. People should take five minutes at the end of each day to ask themselves how the day went, what they learned, who they need to connect with, and what they plan to do differently — or the same — the following day.

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DO THESE

NINE THINGS TO INCREASE YOUR SUCCESS > By Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D.

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals but not others? If you aren’t sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggest that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. “Lose 5 pounds” is a better goal than “lose some weight,” because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you’ll “eat less” or “sleep more” is too vague — be clear and precise. “I’ll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights” leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do and whether or not you’ve actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals.

Given how busy most of us are and how many goals we are juggling at once, it’s not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today?

No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., “If it’s Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I’ll work out for 30 minutes before work”). Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go.

Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you, yourself. If

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you don’t know how well you are doing, you can’t adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means, engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence.

Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that, no matter what we do, we won’t improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

snacks; do 100 sit-ups a day; stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching; try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don’t. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur (“If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.”). It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that’s the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step up your self-control workout.

8. Don’t tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it’s important to always respect the fact that it is limited and that, if you overtax it, you will temporarily run out of steam. Don’t try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don’t put yourself in harm’s way — many people are overly confident in their ability to resist temptation, and, as a result, they put themselves in situations in which temptations abound.

Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

The good news is, if you aren’t particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don’t have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking ... well, there’s no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but it will also do wonders for your grit.

9. Focus on what you will do, not on what you won’t do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., “Don’t think about white bears!”) has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken. If you want to change your ways, ask yourself, “What will I do instead?”

For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like “If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down.” By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time, until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along.

Even more importantly, I hope you are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don’t need to become a different person to become a more successful one.

It’s never what you are, but what you do.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control “muscle” is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn’t get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time.

But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you’d honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D., is a motivational psychologist and author of the new book Succeed: We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today. Her personal blog, “The Science of Success,” can be found at www.heidigranthalvorson.com.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

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KNOW WHEN NOT TO

DELEGATE > By Sean Silverthorne

One of the accepted rules of 21st-century managers is that we must delegate. Empower your troops closest to the customer to make crucial decisions. Give them the chance to show what they’ve got.

But I wonder if we sometimes overdo this wise advice, expecting that redirecting a job is as easy as changing the channel with a remote. Are we setting up middle managers for failure when we hold them accountable for decisions they aren’t prepared to make? Are we handing off responsibilities that should stay with us? Harvard Business Review blogger Whitey Johnson had similar thoughts recently and developed three reasons you shouldn’t delegate.

I’ll summarize her three rules and add one of my own.

Don’t delegate when: 1. The task has not been thought through. If you can’t

explain the task and the goals in concrete terms, then you have more work to do before handing it off to someone else to accomplish.

2. You are the best person for the job. If it’s something

you know well and can add real value to, do it yourself.

3. You could learn from making the decision yourself. The best learning comes from doing, so don’t

shortchange your own development by letting others take your place.

I think there is a fourth reason not to delegate: You can’t find someone to reward. Delegating a responsibility should be considered an honor for the recipient, a time to practice what they have learned and create a real accomplishment. If no one on your team buys into the responsibility you are bestowing or has shown enough skill to deserve a chance, the job should remain on your plate.

Looking back on your own advancement, did you ever delegate a job that came back to bite you? On the flip side, did a boss give you a responsibility that became a real career-enhancer?

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Diversity at AT&T spurs innovation.

At AT&T, innovation happens every day: in our AT&T Foundries, on our Innovation Platform, and among our 30,000-strong employee-led diversity groups.

Unique people, fresh ideas, and an inclusive culture — that’s diversity at AT&T.

©2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. Service provided by AT&T Mobility. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.

57 All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

MY LIFE | MIKE & LORI A RM ST RONG

THE ARMSTRONGS:

A SUCCESSFUL PAIRING > By Shari Held

PHOTOGRAPH BY PHELAN MARC

Michael and Lori Armstrong are typical GenXers — highly educated, ambitious, active, balanced, and family-oriented. They’ve nailed success, by anyone’s standards.

As senior vice president and general manager for Viacom’s international division, Michael’s responsible for three of the company’s brands — BET (Black Entertainment Television), Paramount Channel, and Spike. He’s the guy putting together the overall strategy for marketing the brands’ programming to international cable networks and ensuring that the daily operations run smoothly.

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Besides focusing on doing what you’re good at and what you love, Armstrong has another component for success: “Make sure you contribute and leave a mark on the world,” he says.

“You have to figure out every single day how you calibrate your life to fit the moment.”

Michael’s isn’t the only heavy-hitter career in the family. Lori has served as chief of staff to a former New York City Council member, director of communications for Newark d Mayor Cory Booker’s transition team, M aand regional director for former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. In 2009, Y sshe launched her own consulting firm tto focus on strategy and relationship brokering. b Communication is key to success for both Michael and Lori, although their b ccommunication styles are very different.

“Lori can take a 30-second occurrence aand tell it to you in 30 minutes,” Michael ssays. “I can take a 30-minute occurrence aand tell it to you in 30 seconds.”

Michael and Lori attend Centric TV’s 6th Annual Soiree at Martha’s Vineyard.

THE ARMSTRONGS TITLE: (Him:) Senior Vice President/General Manager, Viacom, Inc. (Her:) Principal & Chief Activation Officer, Verbify AGE: (Both:) 42

A focus on reaching out to others The dynamic couple are united when it comes to supporting causes they believe in and helping others. Michael serves as board chairman for Dance Theater of Harlem, and they recently took their two sons, Caleb (10) and Coleman (4), to an event.

“It’s a family value,” Lori says, “and, because it’s a value, we make time for it. We wanted to expose them to the organization culturally and also have them see the kind of things their dad does to help other people.”

Michael also serves as board chairman for the National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) and on the advisory board for Fairchester Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Lori has worked with Girls, Inc. and the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence and is helping organize a foundation to honor a friend who succumbed to breast cancer. Then there’s PTA, fundraising events, and galas.

A marriage and family life founded on mutual respect Their marriage — 15 years this October — is a huge source of comfort and inspiration for these “best friends” who met as undergrads at Hampton University.

As marketing majors, they had both classes and friends in common and became great friends. It wasn’t until a few years after graduation that they realized there was more to their relationship than friendship. They made a promise to each other that if they took their friendship to another level, they’d never turn back.

“We never wanted to jeopardize the best part of it — our friendship,” Lori says.

And they haven’t, even when facing some potentially career-changing questions young power couples face such as: How do two highly driven, ambitious GenXers start their own family — with no family nearby to help? It wasn’t easy, and, after their second son was born, Lori started her own consulting firm so she’d have more control over her hours and more flexibility.

“My schedule pretty much wraps around theirs and tends to accommodate Mike’s travel schedule and other activities,” Lori says. “For the most part, that works out.”

EDUCATION: (Him:) B.S. Marketing, Hampton University; MBA (Marketing & Strategy), University of Chicago

Michael never takes it for granted.

“Lori stepped back from her career to make way for me to grow professionally, so I need to make sure I’m balancing my work life in concert with what’s needed at home,” he says.

He works a “pretty solid 10-plus hour day” and travels 30 to 40 percent of the time — sometimes on the weekends. But when he’s home, he’s the family cook —breakfast is his specialty — which he makes before dropping the boys off at school or summer camp. When he’s traveling, he uses FaceTime and Skype to keep in touch and help Caleb with his math.

Lori obtains balance between work and home by putting family events on the calendar and then working around them. She also ensures the kids get to bed on time once she and Michael have spent time with them in the evening.

“It’s important that Mike and I have parent time to decompress, talk about our day, have dinner, and watch TV before we crash,” she says.

A time to relax They love travel, and Lori’s accompanied Michael to Barcelona, London (for the launch of BET), and Amsterdam (for the European music awards). Recent family travels have included El Salvador and Dubai, and then there’s the annual vacation at Martha’s Vineyard.

It’s not always that glamorous, however. Often the couple relax by “binge-watching” TV shows and movies. Lori likes her spa time — she gets a massage every other week — and Michael devours 20 to 30 articles daily from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Popular Science, Hollywood Reporter, and others. When possible, he cherishes uninterrupted time on the patio, drinking coffee and reading a paper edition of the New York Times — no iPad, please!

“That’s the best,” he says. “It’s a rare occasion when it happens, but, when it does, it’s magical.”

(Her:) B.S. Marketing, Hampton University; Juris Doctorate, Wayne State University Law School; Master of Laws, Loyola University Chicago School of Law CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: (Him:) Launching BET international — a network that “means so much to so many people around the world” — and creating the Paramount channel “from scratch” (Her:) Organizing and hosting the first African-American and Latina women’s fundraiser for then-Senator Hillary Clinton (it was Standing Room Only) and visiting Trey Whitfield School — a top-performing school in a troubled Brooklyn neighborhood serving an AfricanAmerican and Hispanic population SUCCESS...WHAT IT IS: (Him:) A happy balance between family life and a fulfilling career (Her:) Consistently being true to yourself, your family, your values, and your community HOW YOU CREATE IT: (Him:) Focus on doing the things that you’re good at and the things you love (Her:) Have a high level of ambition, determination, diligence, and a strong work ethic WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: (Him:) In the workplace — Entering and leaving the workplace with a smile and having the social capital to get things done inside the organization (Her:) Socially — Consistent and meaningful engagement with the people who matter most to you (Both:) Economically — A level of comfort where you’re not worried about the daily basics, can invest in your future, and help others

Shari Held is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis, Ind. For the Aspiring & Successful 59

AT TRA CTION S | T HE M A KING OF A MU S E U M

THE MAKING OF A

MUSEUM > By Lonnae O’Neal Parker

Lonnie Bunch can’t say enough about the 380,000-square-foot museum he’s building from scratch on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Soon, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture will be a place where all Americans can learn about the richness and diversity of the AfricanAmerican experience and how it helped to shape this nation, a place that transcends the boundaries of race and culture that divide us, and a place that becomes a lens into a story that unites us all.

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Bunch’s father died two years ago, before he was able to witness the groundbreaking. “Part of my urgency in getting this building completed was that a community has waited too long for this story,” Bunch says. “I wanted my father to realize not so much that I did something but that this museum was a way for average people like him to be remembered.”

Scheduled to be open by 2016, the museum is under construction on a five-acre tract adjacent to the Washington Monument. As founding director, Bunch, 61, is on a mission as well as a deadline.

Two years ago, he was joined by President Obama and other dignitaries in breaking ground for the 19th Smithsonian museum, a $500 million project, with costs evenly split between public and private funds. And just like a river, he’s been running ever since.

There’s still about $100 million in private funds to be raised. There are

artifacts from nearly 400 years of the African-American experience to be collected, staff to hire, a massive construction process to oversee, and no time to waste.

As expressed by Lonnae O’Neal Parker of the Washington Post, “There’s no time to waste because the museum is supposed to open late next year.

“Because Black people have been feeling an urgency ever since they first got to this country.

“Because some of them, including Bunch’s father, have died waiting to have their stories told.”

With just slightly more than a year left until the scheduled completion date, Bunch visits the site at the beginning or end of almost every day, and he’s fluent in the language of poured concrete, metal pilings, and loading docks curving around Washington’s 14th Street. It’s true of anybody “who has been living with this for as long as I have,” says Bunch. “My job was to make everybody believe this would really happen, and first I had to believe it.”

GRAND OPENING The National Museum of African-American History and Culture will be the first green building on the National Mall. Its public grand opening is slated for the beginning of 2016.

For the Aspiring & Successful 61

ATTRACTIONS

His decision to leave Chicago, where he headed the Chicago Historical Society (now the Chicago History Museum), to take the founding director job in 2005, was animated by that faith, along with substantial doses of calculation.

“The reality is that I was willing to come back and do this job because I felt that, in some ways, everything I had ever done pointed in this direction,” Bunch says.

Prior to his four years in Chicago, he held a number of positions with the National Museum of American History, including overseeing the curatorial and collections-management staff as associate director. For much of the 1980s, he was a curator and program manager for the California Afro-American Museum in Los Angeles, which he helped to build. He held teaching positions at George Washington University and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and had been an education specialist at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in the late 1970s, which is where he met his wife Maria MarableBunch, now director of education and public programs for the National Archives.

Bunch’s father died two years ago, before he was able to witness the groundbreaking. “Part of my urgency in getting this building completed was that a community has waited too long for this story,” Bunch says. “I wanted my father to realize not so much that I did something but that this museum was a way for average people like him to be remembered.”

Three or four nights a week, either Lonnie or Maria have someplace to be: A museum program, a formal dinner, a speech, presentation, media appearance, meet-and-greet with donors. “We’re

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always thinking about what is going to be important for the museum. Where do we need to be, and who do we need to be talking with and sharing with?” says Maria. “Building a museum from scratch, you have to think about every little thing,” she says. But her conviction equals her husband’s. “We live our lives saying there is not another option here.

This is going to get done.”

Since 2008, nearly $250 million in federal construction dollars has been appropriated. General Motors donated $1 million earlier this year, and other private donations, including $10 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a total of $13 million from Oprah Winfrey, whose name will go on a 350-seat theater, have brought the total to nearly $400 million raised.

Bunch calls the end result — the museum opening on the Mall in late 2015 or shortly thereafter — a foregone conclusion. But there is a staggering amount to do between then and now.

Stamina is crucial to his success. The reality is “People have certain expectations. They expect you to be able to move them with the stories you tell.

They expect you to be very clear about why General Motors should support this museum. And so, in many ways, the challenge is that you are never winging it. You are always trying to make sure you have thought this out carefully and that you can give the best presentation you can.

“What it really means is that you give everything you can — and then collapse when you can’t.”

The historian in him knows one thing for sure: If the museum is historic, then every handshake, every dollar raised, every bit of get-up-and-hit-it that he does every day is all part of that history.

COLLECTIONS A small sampling of artifacts recently curated for the new museum.

•

Items owned by Harriet Tubman, including eating utensils, a hymnal, and a shawl given to her by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

•

The glass-topped casket used to display and bury the body of 14-year-old Emmett Till.

•

The dress that Rosa Parks was sewing the day she refused to give up her seat.

•

A Selmer trumpet owned by jazz musician Louis Armstrong.

•

A dress owned by actress and singer Pearl Bailey.

•

Costumes designed by Geoffrey Holder for his 1976 musical, The Wiz.

•

A cherry-red Cadillac convertible owned

by Rock ’n’ Roll singer Chuck Berry.

•

A railroad car used by African-American passengers during the Jim Crow era.

•

Garments worn by African-American slaves.

•

The desk of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, editor-in-chief of the Chicago Defender.

•

President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign office from Falls Church, Virginia.

PO IN T O F V IEW | GR ATI TU D E

GRATITUDE

TAKES LEADERSHIP TO A NEW DIMENSION No matter how you personally define gratitude, it is an important emotion, positively affecting people’s personal and professional lives. A once raved about bestselling book, The Secret, discussed the power of gratitude in relationship with the Law of Attraction, suggesting that everyone can attract the things that they want most into their lives by being grateful to others and for their entire present reality.

If gratitude can affect what results we have in our personal lives, can it affect the results that we have in our professional lives? And, if we learn to harness the power of gratitude as a leadership skill set, can we improve our impact on others and, ultimately, our organizational results?

To fully understand the relationship between gratitude and leadership, you need to first understand how to define each concept.

Defining gratitude can be challenging, and, throughout time, it has had a number of definitions. In 1976, Adam Smith defined

gratitude as “the sentiment which most immediately and directly prompts us to reward.” In 1994, Lazarus and Lazarus defined gratitude as “empathetic emotions that reflect recognition or appreciation of an altruistic gift.”

One of the basic definitions of leadership is to take others where they would not be able to get to on their own. By learning how to combine attributes of strong leadership with the act of expressing gratitude, your effectiveness as a leader will grow exponentially. How?

SUPPORTING RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTS OF GRATITUDE Research on the subject looks to examine whether expressing gratitude in the context of a work environment can work to improve the organizational culture, employee satisfaction and, ultimately, the level of tangible results.

In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2003, the research strongly points to a positive correlation between expressing gratitude and an individual’s state of well being. The authors Emmons and McCullough state, “The experience of gratitude, and the actions stimulated by it, build and strengthen social bonds and friendships.”

Research in the areas of employee retention and employee satisfaction points to

increases when there is a strong social bond or friendship in the workplace. Therefore, this research suggests that gratitude can work to strengthen social bonds and friendships, ultimately working to improve employee satisfaction and retention in the workplace. Emmons and McCullough also suggest that “gratitude not only makes people feel good in the present, but it also increases the likelihood that people will function optimally and feel good in the future.”

Emmons and McCullough go on to suggest that emotions such as gratitude can also enable those who receive it to increase their levels of creative thinking, a helpful skill set within the workplace. The authors also found that expressing gratitude to others worked to broaden the scope of cognitive thinking and capacity as well as worked to enable individuals to cope with adversity and stress.

Emotionally intelligent leaders use gratitude to inspire others and to help themselves. One of the fundamental principles of leadership is that you will get the behaviors from your team that you recognize, as well as those which you expect. Adding the ability to express gratitude to your team as a leader will have positive impacts within your organization, for your organizational results, and for you personally as a leader.

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T HE GOODS | DO M ORE FA ST ER

DO MORE FASTER:

MOBILE APPS AND TOOLS FOR BUSY PEOPLE > By Frank Addante

Five-time entrepreneur Frank Addante shares digital gems that help him stay organized and save time. All of his recommendations are available for download on both the Apple and Android platforms.

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1. STAY FIT:

MICOACH

Exercise keeps your mind sharp. The miCoach iPhone app acts like your personal trainer. I lost 20 pounds using it at home and while on the road.

Tips: Set up your workouts in advance. I selected Get Lean for running and Get Fit for gym workouts. Buy the heart-rate monitor and stride sensor; it’s worth it. What gets measured gets done.

2. SLEEP BETTER:

ISLEEP

It’s important to get a good night’s rest. If you’re like me, your mind is constantly racing, and the day’s work never ends. The iSleep meditation app helps you fall asleep and stay asleep.

It’s particularly helpful when you have jet lag or can’t fall asleep. I use the Deep Sleep playlist at the end of a long, stressful day.

3. ASSEMBLE YOUR TRAVEL PLANS:

TRIPIT

TripIt files all your itineraries in one place. You can even have it automatically send your itineraries to your significant other, kids, or alwaysworried mom. The Pro version alerts you of flight delays and gate changes.

Tip: Download the mobile app, and put it on your home screen. Create a contact for plans@tripit.com, and forward all itineraries to that contact.

4. AUTOMATICALLY TRANSCRIBE YOUR VOICE-MAIL MESSAGES:

YOUMAIL

This voice-mail service transcribes your voice-mail messages and sends them to you by email or text (or both). The mobile app makes it easy to view, listen, read, and forward your voice mails.

5. COMMUNICATE IN REAL TIME WITH YOUR WHOLE TEAM:

YAMMER

Yammer is like a private Twitter stream just for your company.

Tip: Get everyone in your company to sign up, and then use it as your primary tool of communication.

Encourage your team to post both “business” and “fun” material.

Find the

power of you.

One of the nation’s leading energy utilities can put your skill sets to work right now. With a diverse and growing range of services that is helping us define the next generation of energy delivery and management, BGE recruits from various academic and professional disciplines, from engineering to accounting, from systems design to customer care. Whatever your strengths or level of utility experience, you’ll find the right fit here for a rewarding career.

Visit BGE.COM/Careers to get started.

ENERGY WORKS SMARTER

together

OUR MONEY IS ON DIVERSITY. At TIAA-CREF, diversity isn’t just an afterthought.

It’s at the core of who we are. Across every level of our organization you’ll find professionals with an array of backgrounds and unique perspectives.

After all, the best way to serve a diverse client base is with a diverse workforce.

Find out more at TIAA.org/diversity

TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers Personal Investors Services Inc. ©2014 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017. C15751