Bob Sutton

Escape from Corporate America: The Book and the Quiz

Ever since I wrote The No Asshole Rule, I get a lot of requests to write endorsements, or “blurbs” as they call them, for the jackets of book. This is somewhat ironic as, of the four books I wrote, only The No Asshole Rule has no blurbs, yet it is has outsold all my other books combined. And having gone through the process getting endorsements multiple times, one of the weirdest things that happens is that my editors and literary agents always tell me “They don’t matter for sales, but you have to have them anyway.” So even the people who want these things think they are suspect.

Regardless of the effect on sales, I do enjoy being asked to write blurbs. I turn down most of the requests as I only endorse books that I like a lot. Of the half-dozen book or so I’ve endorsed in the past year, perhaps the best is Pamela Skillings’ brand new Escape from Corporate America. This lovely book blends tools to help you decide if you ready to make your escape, great advice about to how to implement it, and compelling stories about people who have made the escape.  I also love the cover. 

I think the book especially resonates with me because I seem to be surrounded with so many people who have made the escape.  My wife Marina did so after 25 years at her law firm and is wildly happy in her new job as CEO of the Northern California Girl Scouts. I also do a lot of teaching at the d.school with Debra Dunn and Michael Dearing, both of whom have made recent escapes – from HP and eBay in their cases. And Pam wrote this book --- her first book – because she made her own escape and it made her curious to learn more. In my blurb, I said it is the best career book I’ve read – and that is still how I feel about it.

Check out Pam’s blog as it is filled with information.  Also, as I learned from ARSE, everyone loves quizzes, so here is Pam’s quiz, which I found unusually useful

QUIZ: ARE YOU A CORPORATE CASUALTY?

From ESCAPE FROM CORPORATE AMERICA by Pamela Skillings

Do you really need this book? Are you just having a bad week or are you at the end of your rope?  Take this quiz to find out if you need to make an escape from Corporate America.

1. Rate your general job satisfaction:

a. I love what I do.

b. I have more good days than bad days.

c. It could be worse, I suppose.

d. I hate my job.

2. If you won or inherited a million dollars tomorrow, would you continue on the same career path?

a. Definitely.  I'd take a great vacation and buy a few toys, then get back to work.

b. Probably not.  With a financial cushion, I would likely take the time to explore my options.

c. Hell, no!  Are you crazy?

3. Which statement best expresses your feelings toward your job?

a. I enjoy what I do for the most part.

b. Sometimes I fantasize about quitting to do something else.

c. I am actively exploring other career options.

d. I only stay in my job for the paycheck. If money weren't an issue, I would leave.

4. What are your long-term career goals?

a. I am on a good career path, and my current job is a step along that path.

b. I feel a bit stuck and unsatisfied, but I'm not sure what I want to do instead.

c. The idea of staying on my current career path for the rest of my life gives me the cold sweats.

5. Are you pursuing your dream career?

a. Yes.

b. I'm not sure.

c. No.

6. Do you get the Sunday-night blues?

a. Not really.

b. Sometimes.

c. I get the every-night blues.

7. How do you feel at the end of an average workday?

a. Proud and happy.

b. Tired, but satisfied.

c. What was the point?

d. Miserable.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

a. In a bigger job at my current company or at a similar firm.

b. On a different career path within the corporate world.

c. I am actively exploring other career options.

d. I only stay in my job for the paycheck. If money weren't an issue, I would leave.

9. Do you feel energetic and positive at work?

a. Most of the time.

b. Occasionally, but not as much as I'd like.

c. Rarely or never.

10. Which of the following are among the positive aspects of your current job?  Check all that apply.

__ Interesting work.

__ Growth opportunities.

__ Great boss.

__ Pleasant co-workers.

__ Fair pay.

__ Good benefits.

__ Flexibility.

__ Fulfillment.

__ Pride in what I do.

__ A company that cares about me and/or treats me well.

11. Which of the following are among the negative aspects of your job?  Check all that apply.

__ I spend excessive amounts of time in meetings, documenting meetings, and scheduling follow-up meetings.

__ I can't remember the last time I felt truly excited about a work project.

__ I put in long hours mostly because of other people's ego trips.  This includes face time, cleaning up messes, or staying late because others screw up or delay decisions.

__ I need at least two levels of approval on any decision.

__ Knowledge and ability are less important than who I know and how well I can BS.

__ I'm not quite sure what my job accomplishes, aside from making money for shareholders and senior management.

__ I don't feel passionate about anything I do at work.  It feels like I'm putting in time for a paycheck.

__ I dread going to work most mornings and come home exhausted.

__ I don't see a future that I can get excited about.

__ I have been a victim of or a witness to bullying or blatantly unfair treatment.

Calculating Your Score:

* For questions 1-9, give yourself 3 points for every A answer, 2 points for every B answer, 1 point for every C answer, and 0 points for every D answer.

* For question 10, give yourself 1 point for every item you checked.

* For question 11, deduct 1 point for every item you checked. Deduct 2 points each for checking either of the last two items.

What Your Score Means:

28-37 You are ridiculously satisfied. Against all odds, you love your corporate job.  You might want to read on for a true appreciation of just how good you've got it.

17-27 You are on the fence.  Your corporate job is okay, but something is missing.  If your current career isn't your true calling, what is? This book can help you explore your options.

6-16  You are disgruntled.  You don't like your corporate job, but you're trying to make it work. Unfortunately, your feelings of frustration and rage may be starting to take a toll on your personal life.  Read on for some solutions.

Less than 5  You need an intervention. Stat.  Your corporate job is making you miserable.  You desperately need to read this book and figure out your escape plan.

I just took the quiz, and I scored 32. I better count my blessings. I complain about Stanford now and then and even tried to escape to UC Berkeley once. It was a most instructive failure, as I realized that the Stanford Engineering School was a much more flexible and open-minded place than the Haas Business School at Berkeley. I also learned to ignore my salary, and especially, to not use it as an indicator of my self-worth. I took a huge (about 35%) pay cut when I returned to Stanford (because business schools pay a lot more than engineering schools). I’ve always said that it was one of the best decisions I ever made and Pam’s book and quiz reinforces the point.  Also, in my exit interview, I told the Berkeley dean that one of the reasons that I was leaving the UC Berkeley was BECAUSE of the pay system. They had one of the most dysfunctional pay systems I have ever seen (it wasn't her fault, that is how the entire university operated), as it seemed to mostly reward people for going out to other schools and getting large offers -- which it often matched, or failing that, at least gave faculty big raises. As such, the smartest faculty, or at least those most motivated by money (or perhaps those who were massively underpaid) seemed to devote huge chunks of their time to looking for jobs in other places rather than devoting energy to helping their home institution. Stanford is sensitive to the market, but is much better about rewarding people for giving back to the institution and NOT rewarding people who are constantly trying to game the system with external offers. I think everyone -- including the students --win as a result.

Back to Pam's book -- I think it is going to a best-seller, at least it deserves to be one. I also think the timing is good as lots of people are being forced out of jobs and, even for those who aren't, things can be lot less fun as companies push to cut costs and salaries and to squeeze ever more of every employee.

P.S. If you buy the book and love it as much as I do, please write Pam a 5 star review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. When a book is brand new, especially for a first-time author like Pam, those kinds of things really help.

Hemingway on Writing

I did a little online interview this morning with Jason Alba over at JibberJobber about the process of writing and publishing books.  It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes about the writing process, from Ernest Hemingway.

"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it."

It stands the test of time well.

Sticky Book Titles

I was listening to a great show on the other day on Fresh Air, where Terry Gross interviewed Bob Sullivan, the author of Gotcha Capitalism. I started getting quite agitated by the interview, as Sullivan talked about all the ways that credit card companies, hotels, and especially, cell phone companies “get us” with hidden charges and related sleazy practices (listen to it here).

It also reminded me of the time that my wife accepted an offer that was being pushed by Verizon salespeople for text messaging that sounded like a great deal. She was assured by the salespeople that this deal was good for as long the contract held. But after accepting the offer, my wife went online and read the terms of the offer on their website, which said it was a short-term deal that would revert to very high texting charges after (as I recall) three months. When she called back to cancel the deal and explain why, they resisted doing so and also kept accusing her of getting the facts wrong (even though she was reading them the contract, they didn’t believe her). So I think that Mr. Sullivan is onto to something (Indeed, one of the things I loved about Tranquilo Bay, the lovely  little eco-resort we went to in Panama, is there were no hidden charges, it was all inclusive, including the drinks).

Mr. Sullivan not only gave a great interview, it got me thinking about how important book titles are to the success of a book. I love the title “Gotcha Capitalism,” as it captures the emotion so well. Perhaps I have a jaded view, but my two most successful books had titles that we decided on at the outset, and that we had to fight for to get past book marketing people. My co-author, Jeff Pfeffer, had a huge battle with the people from Harvard Business School Press about The Knowing-Doing Gap, the title that we used from the first day we started writing the book. They kept insisting that we call it “Louder Than Words.” And we almost rolled over (in fact, I have a framed copy of the Louder Than Words book jacket in my office). Then after Jeff talked to the CEO of another publishing company and he talked to Suzy Wetlaufer (then the deeply talented editor of the Harvard Business Review, now Suzy Welch, Jack’s wife), and both pressed Jeff to fight for the book title. And he fought hard, and won. 

And, as Guy Kawasaki has written, as much as I love working with the people at Harvard Business School Press (despite the occasional disagreement), I decided to walk away and go to another publisher when they didn’t want to call it The No Asshole Rule. At the time, I commented that the title would likely be good for book sales, but I understood completely why they didn’t want to have a book with that title. Indeed, as I told them at the time, if I was them, I wouldn’t want the title either because it would be bad for their very respectable brand. But I couldn’t imagine, and still can’t imagine, that anything else would have grabbed attention so well.

Of course, this is the kind of thing that Chip and Dan Heath write about in their great book Made to Stick.  Picking a “sticky” book title isn’t easy as you want to have one that describes what the book is about, that surprises the reader a little, that provokes vivid images, and that readers will pick-up to look at, and will remember. I thought of a few of my favorites:

Randy Komisar’s The Monk and the Riddle. A great title for this “anti-greed” book that appeared at the height of the dotcom boom.

Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek. I confess I haven’t read the book, but it sounds good to me!

Gordon MacKenzie’s Orbiting the Giant Hairball.  As I have said many times here, the best corporate creativity book ever written.

Harry Frankfurt’s On Bullshit. A title that clearly attracted attention, and without it, The No Asshole Rule would never have been published. Frankfurt paved the way for books with dirty titles that were written by professors from fancy universities (he is a retired Princeton philosopher).

Arianna Huffington’s  Pigs at the Trough. I never read it, but what a great title!

Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. Great book and great title.

David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas. On the building of the Panama Canal. One of the best books I have ever read on anything. An astounding tale of human weakness and strength, and the power of sheer will. Wonderfully researched, and as good a story about the best and the worst features of the American character as you can find. Also, a reminder that some of the greatest innovations in history have been funded and implemented by governments.  The pyramids are another example! And, yes, both entailed exploiting a lot of people.

I would love to hear some of your favorite titles as well.  And some of the stinkers too. One of the worst titles I've seen in recent years is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design.  Somehow, everything about it seems wrong. It sounds like a parody, but is not.

P.S. As I said, I love the title of Gotcha Capitalism, but I am less enthusiastic about the cover design. Those colors a little bit too much for me, and also something about it undermines the seriousness of the subject.  On the other hand, if the goal was to design a cover that would stand-out, they succeeded.