You can write the most thorough resume with strong action verbs, the nicest layout, with the best schools and GPA, printed on the finest paper, but if it doesn’t communicate that you 1. Create value and 2. Get money, the chances of you getting hired is slim.

Size does matter.

The sizing of each section of the resume, is extremely important. 80% of your resume is about your performance and 20% personality. A lot of resumes are full of fluff. If you are overcompensating by filling up your resume with achievements and awards from high school or words typed per minute, it’s probably a sign that the size of your impact isn’t that great. Where you went to school and your GPA don’t matter that much—even 4.0 won’t get you hired today. The baseline is that you have finished college, created value, and some sort of leadership beyond self.

As I stated in my last post “How To Write A Real Resume” (link here), a resume should not be a carbon copy of your job descriptions. Instead, each bullet-point should communicate how you moved the organization or some aspect of it from Point A to Point B.  Potential employers are more concerned with what you MOVED FORWARD than what you DID BACK THEN. You can even take it one step further and create a resume 2.0 (see mine here), which is more like a visual portfolio of your value. An addendum to your portfolio should include physical examples of the quality of your work (i.e. business plans or essays you’ve written, presentations you’ve created, an actual website or product you designed or marketed, etc).

Employers trust results, not resumes.

Let’s face it, most resumes are lies. There is so much information asymmetry in the career search process. Companies lie by posting job descriptions that don’t truly communicate the nature of the job and potential employees exaggerate each and every bullet-point on their resume falsely presenting their true nature. It’s easier to search the dictionary for the perfect SAT word than it is for someone to actually create real value. Employers see you as a risk until proven otherwise.

Every company is hiring…even in economic downturn.

In other words, no company is NOT hiring. When a company is down, it will hire anyone who it thinks will take it higher. The only way to bounce back from an economic downturn is to either layoff people and hope that things return to the good ol’ days or hire great people who will be intrapreneurs (=entrepreneurs within an existing company) and think of new ways to reposition and repurpose the company through innovation.

If someone great knocks on the door, they won’t shut it. But keep in mind that I don’t mean great as in great person or personality—I mean someone with a great performance track record. Leading people over the past 10 years has shown me that nice people don’t always produce nice results. It’s sad but true—unfortunately, personality and performance aren’t correlated. Personality only gets you so far. Sometimes nice guys do finish last because they don’t perform.

Have you created EXTREME value? If so, how?

The best resume I’ve ever seen is Jay-Z’s (click image on right to enlarge). His resume is full of ways that he has created EXTREME value for companies he has started and worked with. School doesn’t prepare us to create EXTREME value—it prepares us to be employees. An 8am-3pm workday become 9am-5pm and homework becomes work that you have to take home.

Bill Gates (Microsoft) Steve Jobs (Apple), Michael Dell (Dell), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Ralph Lauren, Jack Taylor (Enterprise) and others dropped out of college because they saw ways to create EXTREME value in the world that college wasn’t preparing them to do. Imagine if Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg followed the rest of his classmates and ended up being a consultant or investment banker. I probably wouldn’t be typing this to you on a PC or a Mac and you probably wouldn’t be reading it on Facebook.

I’m not saying this to encourage anyone drop out—I have three degrees and I value each one, because I used the free time and risk-free space to practice value creation. I failed at 5 business during college and grad school. Instead of seeing yourself as buying an education, see it as buying two or four years of time to educate yourself and demonstrate you can create value through on-campus leadership, entrepreneurship, event execution, and internships. Even if you don’t want to be an entrepreneur, you need to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit.

Everyone expects to have a job, but few are creating them.

The last time I was speaking I asked everyone who intended to have a job to stand up and of course everyone stood up. Next, I said sit down if you’ve never created $1,000 of income in a year through any form of work and about 30% of the room sat down. And finally I said sit down if you’ve never created $1,000 of income on your own outside of a company before. Only a handful of people remained standing. This is the problem with our economy—everyone wants a job, but nobody is trying to create them. There is an imbalance between entrepreneurial-minded people and employee-minded people. Companies need both, but the entrepreneurial-minded person will always get hired first and the employee-minded person will always get fired first.

Value is that which causes a transaction.

True value forces whoever is being offered the value to make a choice. It causes the exchange or movement of time, money, and other forms of capital. Most people are indifferent and happy with who they are and where they are even though they may say they aren’t. Value makes them admit that they want to be somewhere else, somewhere better, and then helps them actually get there. In my book, The 8 Cylinders of Success, I define this ability to close space between point A and point B for someone else as your professional velocity. The higher your professional velocity is, the faster you will get hired. You communicate this on your resume through using point A to point B bullet points.

Unemployment is caused by bad resumes, not a bad economy.

Unemployment is not a sign of the lack of jobs in the economy. Unemployment is a sign of a lack of people who have and can demonstrate that they have created value for others in the past. That’s why 50% of workers are underemployed, meaning that that they have jobs, but they aren’t using their passion, they aren’t reaching their full potential, and they aren’t making their highest contribution to the world every day. Whereas the national unemployment rate is only 10%, underemployment is five times that. This cycle starts with your resume.

So many people drive to work, leave half themselves in the passenger seat, and drag the other half of themselves inside the office. Note that underemployment has nothing to do with one’s salary—You can be making $200,000 a year and still be underemployed. Economies fail when too many people are underemployed. Employees get mad when companies cut dead-weight and employers get mad when they realize that they hired dead weight. Are you dead weight or are you helping your company soar? It’s hard for dead weight to move, so it simply holds on as long as it can.

It is what it is.

At the end of the day, a resume 1.0 won’t get you a job and a resume 2.0 might land you an interview. A resume is exactly what it means…without the accent (‘) over the e. It’s a document that employers use to answer the question “Will this person be able to resume (pronounced re-zoom) their past success here?” But if you haven’t been creating value where you are right now—even if you hate it—it’s going to be difficult to communicate your value to another potential employer. If you hate your job, remember that you chose it by way of your past choices and actions which ultimately shaped your future choices. So seek to create value wherever you are because it will only position you to do things that you truly value in the near future.

I’ll leave you with the quote that inspired this blog entry. It came from Jeremih’s “I’mma Star”—an unexpected place.

“So here I am, check my DNA
Gettin’ money is the only thing on my resume
I thought I told you I’ma star”

Are you a star? Is creating value in your DNA? And is gettin’ money evident on your resume?

Related Posts

• How to Write a Real Resume
• Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself: Jullien’s Resume 2.0
• Interview Tips To Get You Hired
• The Art of Inner-Viewing Part 1
• The Art of Inner-Viewing Part 2
• Letter To An MBA

Many spiritual teachers’ such as Jesus, Confucius, La0 Tzu, and Buddha have left legacies that lasted milennia. Many inventors have left legacies that have lasted centuries like Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone or the Wright Brothers and the airplane. Artists of all types like Leonardo Davinci also leave legacies that last centuries. Some entrepreneurs and civic leaders tend to leave legacies that last decades or centuries as well. Below are four ways that you can consider leaving a legacy through some sort of vehicle or body. The higher your personal velocity during life is, the further your legacy will carry on after your engine conks out.

1. Baby bodies: How great a parent are you committed to being?

This is perhaps the easiest way to leave a legacy because almost anyone can have a child. We know that if we have kids and then they have kids, etc, etc, then our name will live on. In essence, we’re all a part of someone’s legacy biologically, but simply having kids limits your legacy to your family when your sphere of influence could actually be wider. The risk one takes to make a child is low, therefore the impact isn’t guaranteed to be great. The dilemma here is that some people think they have to give up on their non-biological legacy to ensure that their kid can leave a legacy, but we all have a legacy to leave whether we have kids or not.

2. Body of work: What are you creating that could impact the world for decades or centuries?

Musicians, artists, filmmakers, actors, authors, athletes, inventors, and others leave legacies through bodies of work. They leave behind music, paintings, films, books, inventions, and more. The risk one takes to make a living doing what they love—overcoming the predominant rumors of “the starving artist”—is great and not everyone makes it. But those who push the envelope and challenge the assumptions, limitations, and status quo of their field, industry, or genre usually aren’t forgotten because of their boldness and innovation. Examples include Michael Jackson, Charlie Chaplin, Edgar Allen Poe, George Washington Carver, Ben Franklin, and more.

3. Institutional body: What spaces are you creating to empower other people?

Entrepreneurs, spiritual and civic leaders, and educational pioneers fit here. They create companies, non-profits, governments, religions, colleges, universities, associations, and systems. The difference between a body of work and an institutional body is that an institutional body creates space for other people to grow and develop whereas a body of work typically comes from an individual. The risk of creating an institutional body includes all of the risk associated with creating a body of work in addition to financing buildings, supporting other people, and push back from existing institutions that yours may threaten. Once they grow from their cultish state to impacting overall culture, they are integrated in fabric of society. However, unless institutions evolve beyond their founder’s original vision and stay relevant to the times, they can become hollow buildings with no purpose except to keep going for the sake of continuing to go.

4. Body in service: What cause are you willing to die for?

Martyrs, soldiers, and servants to society give their bodies in service and they are remembered for their selfless sacrifice moreso than something they created and left behind. The legacies of those assassinated in the 1960s will live on, not just because they were assassinated, but the beliefs and principles that publicly stood for so strongly that caused their assassinations. And then there are servants to society like soldiers and those doing Mother Theresa-like work giving up their lives and worldly possessions to ensure that the forgotten members of society are loved and supported.

The tumultuous weather seems to be following us. The weather was terrible at UC San Deigo and Davis. It was snowing in Albuquerque when I landed, and now a hale storm is approaching Oklahoma. The event at Oklahoma State got canceled because school is closing for the next two days. The event at The University of Oklahoma was great! We had 87 people show up. Last night, we were competing against a OU basketball game, music festival, Dr. Drew interview, and Obama’s State of the Union address. I told them that the real scoreboard is in their head, the real song is in their heart, and the real healing is in their spirit.

We also had a lot more males than normal. A fraternity filled up the first few rows. EJ Carrion, the Student Accelerator (http://www.ejcarrion.com), an up and coming motivational speaker told all of his freshman pledges to come. Normally we only have one freshman, but they were a majority this time. EJ and I are forming a relationship. We talked on the phone today and will hopefully meet in person this weekend. He has a lot of potential. You can see it in his YouTube videos.

The end of the event is where I always get the power of the message reflected back to me. A young woman came up to me and shared that the Route 66 stopped her from dropping out of school. She has been disappointed and frustrated with her time at OU and was ready to leave, but Route 66 made her think about college in a new way. Instead of relying on OU to do things for her, she felt empowered to use OU to get her where she wants to go. Amazing! Quite a few people came up to me afterward, more than usual. I think I’m getting better at connecting with the students and making each one feel like they’re being spoken to.

I’m at the Wydham now. My bed is so comfortable. I talked to my lady in the evening before going right next door to Club Rodeo to see how they party out here. Black and White people of all ages were in their having fun. A lot of people were smoking and beer only cost a quarter. They played a mix of hip hop and country music. I have a new favorite song called “She’s Country” by Jason Aldean. It’s like the country version of the Hot Boyz “Hot Girlz” song. Remember that? On the weekends, they have an actual rodeo in the club, but tonight was just ladies night. Entrance was about $6. I observed for about 30 minutes until I couldn’t deal with the smoke anymore.

Finally, I got a call from Cheri Peter, the mother of Jackie from Boise State. After my presentation there, Jackie said that her mom and I have to meet. Cheri is touching millions of lives all over the world through faith-based programs for youth and addicts. She has built a multi-media empire and successful brand that allows her to follow her passion and make a living doing what she loves. I love it.

Off to the grocery store to stock up for the next few days. They say that the chances of the power going out it high. By the way, a Chipotle burrito only cost $5.95 in Oklahoma. They costs $8.95 in New York.

When I got to Albuquerque, I rested. I wanted to shake this congestion in my face. Besides, when I asked the young woman at the front desk, “What’s there to do in Albuquerque?” she laughed at me. Natives rarely know. We take things for granted when we live places. If someone asked me “What’s there to do in Oakland?” I would probably shrug the same way. On Monday I went to campus and worked there all day. I got to play a hour of pool at $4 per hour. That’s amazing! Pool is one of my favorite hobbies. I also had a to do list and I was guided. I found or bumped into everything I needed naturally without even asking.

I’m learning that being on the road is a game of resource management. I have to manage my underwear, food, transportation, money, and health. I’m doing better in some areas than others. I’m doing good on the underwear game. I washed at Angelo’s in LA and then I’ll wash again at my cousins in Atlanta. The sink and tub come in handy. For food, I’m taking full advantage of the free breakfast at the hotels. They don’t offer much, but I pack a few pieces of fruit and thermos full of juice for the road. When I felt myself coming down with a cold, I took a cup full of lemons from Fuddruckers to suck on through the night. I’m more in tune in with body. It is telling me what to eat and when to stop eating. It knows exactly what it needs. I’m only averaging about $20 a day for food which isn’t bad. I realized that my health and voice are my two most valuable assets on the tour and I have to protect them. In the first week of the month, I used up all of the 5GB of data I have on my wireless card. It was my first month so I didn’t know how to pace myself. Now I see that it should only be used for the necessary stuff. My bad.

As many of you know, I’m a community builder. I build community wherever I go. But being away from my community has helped me see the other side of individuality (not individualism). I’ve noticed that sometimes, being alone is easier than being in community. There are a lot less responsibilities, expectations, and demands. Still, I choose community. I strongly believe that it’s through community that we grow and move forward. An individual can do so on their own, but one of greatest challenges we have is learning to love, work with, and communicate with others. Self-love is only the first step. The real challenge is to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The essential question that I’ve been meditating on wherever I go is “Why am I here?” Whether I’m at the airport, in my hotel room, in a new city, or on a campus, I ponder why I’m there and then just let Spirit guide me to the answer. I really encourage you to try it. The results have been awesome.

We had a great mid-sized group at the University of New Mexico. For the 7th time in a row, we had our token freshman. Everyone stood up to take Route 66.

Off to Oklahoma…

UC Davis was a full house despite the rain. They had over 120 RSVPs and over 70 students attended. I think my “OVERSOLD” reminder email 4 hours before the event got people to arrive on time. Sean and his team did a great job marketing. Their number one tool was classroom announcements wearing the Route 66 t-shirts.

Tonight I had some special guest in attendance: My mom, Dwight Taylor, and Chardonnay Harris. My mom and I linked up in Oakland around 2pm and took a slow few hour drive up to Davis because of the crazy rain. It was so interesting because I was in the driver’s seat, but she was still trying to drive and tell me what to do. I had to tell her to sit back and relax. This is exactly what happens in the lives of young adults as many end up driving their parent’s lives instead of their own. Some parents hide behind their kids and give up on their dreams because of their kids, but how can someone tell their kids to follow their dreams when they didn’t follow their own?

A good friend from high school and fellow purposefinder Dwight Taylor also came by. He lives in nearby Fairfield. We recently reconnected via Facebook and we have been inspiring each other. He encourages young Christians to follow their purpose through his music and speaking. It was so good to have him, his wife, and friend, JD, from Australia in attendance.

Finally, one of my SHAPE students from my time at UCLA was also there. I tutored Chardonay when she was in 5th and 6th grade at Audubon Middle School. She was one of our best students. To see her at UC Davis was amazing because that’s what SHAPE was all about. SHAPE is an educational outreach program that specializes in peer advising and homework assistance for youth in Inglewood and Los Angeles. I worked there as a tutor, peer advisor, and assistant site coordinators while I was student at UCLA before going on to become the Director upon graduation.

The energy of the group was live. It felt like everyone was engaged and participating. Every joke landed perfectly. They even laughed at things that were necessarily jokes. Everyone stood up to take Route 66 at the end of the presentation and we took a huge group picture at the end to capture the energy and moment.

On to the next one…

I spent most of the day working on the NSCS Route 66 Tour Promo video (link here) to the sound of the heavy rain. I just got all of the footage that morning and I wanted to get it up early enough for the UC San Diego team to use. I’m far from being a film editor, but it came out alright. I’m in awe at the capabilities of iMovie and all of the technologies that we have access to. These are the kinds of things that students should be learning in high school and college in addition to all of the theory.

This was the first night that everyone didn’t stand up to take Route 66 during my call to action at the end of the presentation and it surprised me. Questions ran through my mind like “Did I fail? Was my energy low? What did I do differently? What can I do differently?” At the same time, just because everyone stands up doesn’t mean everyone is committed. My primary concern is that people apply as many items on the Route 66 list to their self-education. Measuring that isn’t easy, but the idea of asking people for Route 66 stories to feature on our website every month might give us a better barometer of the integration.

I want to share a quick story about a young man named Kevin who has a passion for building things. He is known as the guy on campus with the wooden bike. Tommy has a picture of Kevin and I with the bike which we’ll upload soon. He said that it all started with legos when he was a kid and it just “built” from there. He served as a great example of someone committed to and demonstrating their passion for a long period of time. Becoming an expert at anything takes 10,000 hours of practice (20 hours/week, 50 weeks/year, for 10 years) and Kevin is well on his way.

Tommy and I went out to dinner and I discovered that Waldorf salads are my favorite. I’m headed home to Oakland next before I reach UC Davis. We had to increase their tickets to 125 since they oversold. Patty said that their secret has been doing classroom announcements for the past week. I can’t wait to get there.

On to the next one…

Route 66 at Cal State Fullerton

Last night we had another group of 55 come out. This was huge considering that they are still on Winter break and that it’s a 3 day weekend. Big thank yous to Rosa and the NSCS team there for doing such an amazing job. The Fullerton group was extremely engaged in the presentation. I felt like I connect with everyone at the heart.

One brother started at Fullerton in 2000 when I started at UCLA, dropped out after 2 years, and just returned back to finish up. He said that the presentation made him feel okay about his decision to leave school, find what he wanted, and then return because he didn’t know when he arrived as a freshman. Now he is maximizing every opportunity that comes to him. Sometimes letting go teaches us to appreciate things more.

Another young woman came up to me afterwards with watery eyes on the verge of crying. She said that presentation really helped her release some assumptions and beliefs that she was holding onto. She didn’t specify what, but I could tell that she felt free to get in the driver’s seat of her life and that she could live according to the things she already knew were true inside of her.

And finally, an older woman shared her story of leaving her job to take care of her grandmother who was ill. But guess what, her grandma is better now and the Route 66 moved her to stop hiding behind her grandmother and reengage her passion for cooking. I told her to consider every old person as her grandmother and use her passion for cooking to prepare love-filled meals for them. That’s a huge business opportunity. We’ll see

Two potential partnership opportunities have opened up with The Princeton Review (Hey Anthony, Sheen, Catherine, &) and Universum (Hey Jonas, see you and Paula soon).

My teammate Patty is headed back to DC. Without her, none of this would be possible. Thankfully, Tommy is coming to San Diego with me to fill her shoes.

Other MVMTs

Dwight Transparent Taylor, is an old friend from high school. We were on the same basketball team then, but now we aligning on our passion for purpose. He is Christian hip hop artist. Check out his latest CD “LIFE” on CD Baby. I get to see him in person for the first time since we graduated from high school at Bishop O’Dowd in 2000 when I arrive at UC Davis next week. I can’t wait for the moment to hand him a signed copy of my books and for him to hand me a signed copy of his CD.

I also got a chance to connect with Nick Kislinger, a friend of my good friend Michael Cox (rock star!). Nick is organizing reading groups in Los Angeles and DC for social entrepreneurs. He and I share a passion for building community through food and action so we talked about potlucks and 30 Day Do It groups. He is working with a team to build a HUB is Los Angeles. If you haven’t heard about HUBs, they are amazing work spaces for people on the frontiers of various industrries to converge. Imagine a TED conference but everyone actually working together, not just talking.

And finally, I got to meet Suparna Bhasin who also shares my passion for purpose and building community. We connected through Maritza Alacaron. She runs an organization called She Creates Change that inspires women to transform their lives. We’re definitely going to partner when I get back to New York. I can’t wait to meet in person.

One last story. I got a call from a sister in Brooklyn and she said that her circle of 30 powerful sisters called The Fast Girls has chosen to read the 8 Cylinders of Success together over the next 90 days and that they want to document their journey inward online. How amazing is that! 30 women in search of their purpose and sharing that journey online with the world. Wow! More to come on that.

For the weekend, two more 30 Day Do It groups are starting in Los Angeles and I’m having dinner with friends at Derrick’s Jamaican Cuisine tonight. UC San Diego is on Tuesday.

Read more updates on the Route 66 Tour Blog.

On to the next one…

The event was almost sold out in part due to the fact that Patrick brought half of his fraternity and Nick Papajohn’s leadership. We got 90 students to commit to taking Route 66 last night. I condensed to presentation to cut down on the time and go slower so that the information can sink in. The Anteaters…yes, the anteaters…were so participatory. I felt like we were having a conversation which is how it should be. As I went through the Route 66 list, I asked people to raise their hands iif they had done the item and only 1-5 students did any given item meaning that I’m sharing new information that is expanding who they are. You know that I believe if you love something you should push it and if it comes back to you, you should push it harder because it’s not until you push someone to their perceived limits that they realize that they’re limitless.

I want to say thank you to Anthony of The Princeton Review for stopping by and dropping off some free giveaways for the students. They are considering partnering with NSCS.

I’m doing my best not to eat fast food on the trip, but I had to stop by In & Out Burger on my way home. I got a cheese burger animal style (meaning that it has grilled onions on it). The fries are the best.

It’s raining this morning, but it’s still 54 degrees. No presentation tonight, but I have a lot of back office stuff to handle like emails, phone meetings, and logistics. I’m supposed to connect with one of my mentors Scott Sherman of the Transformative Action Institute and then have a 1-on-1 dinner with Angelo, my best friend. I’m so grateful that he’s letting me stay at his new home. I feel loves, welcomes, and at home.

Read more updates on the Route 66 Tour Blog.

On to the next one…