Thing I Learned from my Boss
September 3rd, 2010About the Author: John J. Walters is a freelance associate at Wasabi Ventures and CEO of MeetingCaptain.
I realized while I was filling out my invoice for last month that I’ve been working freelance for Wasabi Ventures for nearly a year now. It’s been an education experience to say the least, and I thought I’d jot down a few things that I’ve learned from my boss during that time. Not all of them will work for everybody (see numbers four and five), but hopefully you’ll find a few of them helpful. Oh, and they’re in no particular order, for the record.
1.) Never be late to anything. This usually means showing up early by as much as 15 minutes, as travel times can be unpredictable. But lateness can ruin a first impression, or erode a long-standing one.
2.) Keep up with your email and your personal network. It reflects very poorly on you when you can’t be bothered to answer a simple email — so no matter how many emails you get and how many people you have to connect with, do your best.
3.) Take short breaks/vacations. Regularly scheduled time off is all well and good, but try to stay on top of emails and small projects in your spare time during these anyway, and don’t plan very many long trips that will keep you out of the loop for too long.
4.) Don’t sleep too much. It seems like no matter what time I send my boss an email, day or night, I get a quick response. This includes 4 am on a Sunday.
5.) Don’t go to bed when you travel. I’ll admit I’m not sure exactly how he does this, but my understanding is you schedule as many meetings as possible during the day and keep up with the rest of your work at night.
6.) Enjoy life while you work. Even though my boss seems like a workaholic robot sent back in time from the future to work way too hard, I frequently hear about short trips he’s taken with his family or quality time he’s spent at home. Find some balance. I guess the way he does this is by working hard at odd hours. Scheduling is key.
7.) Make mistakes. This is how you learn. I can’t tell you how many times he has said this to me. It’s both empowering and nerve-wracking, but it helps.
8.) Do stuff right away. If you have a moment and identify something that needs to be done, do it right then and there or send a quick message to the appropriate agent. This avoids too many things falling through the cracks.
9.) Stay up on the news. Read quick articles and send them around to your coworkers to keep people in the loop and promote conversation.
10.) Know when to be formal and when to be informal. Adopt the appropriate style for dealing with each scenario and individual to get the type of outcome you desire. Different people like to deal with things differently. If you go the distance for someone that will put them at ease.
11.) Go in a lot of directions at once. Not every project will pan out, so don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Test the waters, do your research, and don’t be afraid to try new things (see number seven).
So there you have it. Eleven quick (and random) rules that you may or may not be able to easily integrate into your own work life. I’m sure there are plenty more, but those are the ones that stuck out to me as I was mulling over my past year’s employment. Best of luck folding them into your daily routine.


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