Bouncing Forward with my guest blogger- Sam Cawthorn

Hello there!

Today I am pleased to introduce you to the amazing Sam Cawthorn. It has been my privilege to have worked with Sam during my time with Career Advice Australia. His wisdom, wit and common sense making him a valuable mentor for the 13 -19 year olds we were working with.

Here are some of the things people have said about him:

‘You are the most extraordinary person that I’ve ever met. Your courage and will to overcome adversity is commendable. I truly feel privileged to have witnessed such an amazing talent. You are changing the world one person at a time. You’ve changed us.’
Google

‘Inspiring and entertaining the room was transfixed by Sam’s message of optimism in both business and in life. ’                                                                                 CEO Citibank

“Sam is a very engaging speaker and his message of “bouncing forward” resonated with our team.  He’s a living example of how important it is to stay positive, to be resilient and to keep pushing forward no matter what challenges come”
BP President

“Extraordinary, if you’ve met Sam its a unique experience.”                                   Kevin Rudd, Former Prime Minister of Australia

“You speech was thoroughly inspiring and crafted with just the right amount of humour, drama and showmanship. Once again, thanks for your magnificent effort in closing the National Speakers Convention”
President – The International Federation for Professional Speakers

“Without a doubt the BEST speaker we have ever heard and one of the most inspirational hours of our lives.”
Pymble Ladies College

‘I have been coming along to these type of conferences for over 15 years, this session is by far the BEST session that I have ever attended.’
Manager
Commonwealth Bank

So here is Sam’s thought for the day!

Adversity Growth

Only those who have managed to fail greatly have succeeded greatly.

 While many fortune 500 companies where laying off and going through massive changes at the start of the Global Financial Meltdown, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi (one of the most amazing woman on the planet) decided to do something different. She travelled around the world boosting her employee’s morale and encouraging them to see the good in every bad situation. This action had a profound impact on the company and also her as a leader. In fact Fortune Magazine named her the most powerful woman in the world in 2009.

Financial crisis can ignite our greatest innovation & creative leadership. There was a 34% rise of Australian Millionaires in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis.

 People such as Oprah, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and some of the greatest ever people had significantly worse crisis throughout their lives, then 90% of people in the world. Yet they ended up being in the top 1% of the most successful people on earth. The bigger your challenge, the stronger you become!!!

 If you want growth, you HAVE to be open to adversity. Those who succeed have had more adversity than most but they are willing to go through this in order to succeed.

 Many want success through innovation but they are not willing to have adversity first.

‘I will try that only if you can guarantee a success.’ I will innovate in this area, only if it is a guaranteed that I will win. Our fear of failure stops us from innovation and creativity, and inevitably taking risk & going forward.

 What this means is that having adversity can ignite some of the greatest of opportunities in our life. Sometimes we need a failure in order to see the new opportunities that were right in front of us all along.

 The fastest growing company in history was founded in the middle of the recent recession. In just 18 months from start-up, Google offered them 5.3 Billion dollars, which they declined. Today they are only 2 years old. This is the organisation known as ‘Groupon’, a group-buying phenomenon.

Bouncing back from adversity will help you get back to the place you were before. Yet if you want success through innovation and creativity within your life & workplace, sometimes the only way that this can happen is if you fail, and then focus not on just bouncing back,  but bouncing forward.

Allow yourself to fail, allow yourself to get frustrated, allow yourself to hit rock bottom. All research is telling us that these adversity moments ignite our greatest creativity and innovation as it helps us see opportunities.

This is called Adversity Growth.

Keep Bouncing…
Sam Cawthorn
Expert & Thought Leader in BOUNCE                                                                                Tasmanian 2009 YOUNG AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR                                    http://www.samcawthorn.com <http://www.samcawthorn.com/>
http://www.cawthornfoundation.org <http://www.cawthornfoundation.org/> Twitter: www.twitter.com/samcawthorn <http://www.twitter.com/samcawthorn>                                                                                      Facebook, Skype & Linked In: Sam Cawthorn                                                                Blog: www.samcawthorn.com/blog <http://www.samcawthorn.com/blog>

Wishing you radical career success!

Melody

Melody Green is a career advisor specialising in career advice and planning workshops for women in Sydney, Australia. Her workshops offer practical tools to get your career on track and  to empower you to express and engage your fullest potential in your career. Checkout the Radical Career Lunchbox Series for details: www.radicalcareermakeover.com

With so much free career advice – why do I need a careers advisor?

Hello there

A few of my colleagues tell me they have been asked this question  – and so I researched among them to find out how they answered it.

The results are below:

1) No amount of written advice can replace the place of someone working with you side by side to help you get the job search skills you need to find the job you want!

2) Written advice is generic while personalised career advice from real advisors is about the local knowledge and understanding of the job market for that particular region.

3) ‘Garbage in – Garbage out!’ You are not doing yourself justice if you only rely on the same advice everyone else is receiving.

4) The real worth of a careers advisor is in facilitating your hidden story. This means

• finding out what your real strengths are and how best to promote them
• how to help you minimise weaknesses
• how to find the gaps in your skills and show where you need to pick up more skills
• to advise you on market trends
• to review your resume, cover, letter, selection criteria answers and interview techniques (NOT WRITE THEM FOR YOU)
• to coach you in how to search for jobs
• to help you create career networks

AND

5) Discover your core gifts. This is my specific area of expertise. When  you know what you are here for, what gifts and talents you are on earth to contribute it cuts down the guessing game of where to next. It hones and focuses your job search and makes you the arrow aimed for your target career. This is a very powerful place that written advice can never offer.

My clients always comment on my ability to take a few comments they have made about themselves (sometimes of the cuff comments at that) and bring them together to ask really pertinent questions about careers they have never thought of. So the final tip is:

6) Two heads are better than one at seeing the path ahead.

A career advisor is worth their fee.

You would spend money on training for a career you detest when the much smaller cost of a careers advisor may have saved you thousands of dollars in investment and the subsequent career disappointment.

I hope these points answer the question.

To your radical career success!

Melody

Melody Green is a career advisor specialising in career advice and planning workshops for women in Sydney, Australia. Her workshops offer practical tools to get your career on track and  to empower you to express and engage your fullest potential in your career. Checkout the Radical Career Lunchbox Series for details: www.radicalcareermakeover.com