When interviewers ask about your greatest weakness, the biggest mistake would be to respond with some cookie-cutter answer like “my greatest weakness is that I am a perfectionist” or “I work too hard.” Those answers are just sucking up. Interviewers weren’t born yesterday and are not going to fall for the “spin that slightly negative thing into a really positive thing” approach because it sounds too rehearsed and insincere.… Read the rest

Companies hire you because they think you have skills to do a job. Clients want to work with you because they think you have something to add to their business. 

You face competition from millions of other people around the world.… Read the rest

Anyone that has ever claimed to be able to “forecast” certain events into the future has been wrong most of the time. Just ask Naseem Taleb.

The future is by no means inevitable and there are forces at play which billionaires can’t even control.… Read the rest

One of my good friends in middle school — I’ll call him J— came from a poor family and lived in a trailer park with his mother. His parents had divorced at an early age (I later found out his father was abusive).… Read the rest

A friend of mine was living in England and interested to relocate back to Japan with her family where she was originally from. At that stage of her career she was already quite experienced and looking for a step up.

The problem was that she didn’t have much recent work experience in Japan.… Read the rest

I once sat down to have a casual coffee chat with a company. I was told that it would be a more informational conversation and not in an interview format, and “just go get to know each other.”

I felt good and less-pressured going to the meeting.… Read the rest

Yes, I forget to change a tablecloth. Fortunately this was one of my jobs as a high school student so I wasn’t struggling to put dinner on the table, but it still serves as an important and timeless lesson.

When I was 14 years old I worked at an upscale French restaurant as a waiter and busboy.… Read the rest