The Worst Job in America

For the last two years I have been receiving calls from a sales rep for the Charlotte Bobcats. Every time she calls I remind her that she has the worst job in America. I think she finds it amusing but I’m telling her this because it’s the truth. She is trying to sell me tickets to the Bobcats…who wants tickets to the Bobcats? Come on. This product she is selling is broken, it does not work, there is not interest in the product locally or Nationally! “Hi this is Jenn calling on behalf of the worst basketball team that ever existed can I interest you in some tickets?”

Imagine the great Steve Jobs selling iPods that didn’t work. His sales pitch would have went something like “This is going to be a great product right now you can buy it and in a few years you can play music from it, eventually it will work and get better I promise.” That’s the biggest joke ever, that is what every sales person who works for the Charlotte Bobcats has faced everyday for the past few years and will face for the near future. As I wake up in California this morning staring out my hotel window, I can’t imagine how low morale must be over there.

Here is my PLEDGE…I will interview any SALES person who works for the Bobcats. I want nothing more than to hire a sales rep from the Bobcats. Even better if you play on the team, I’ll interview you and consider hiring you. In fact any HR, accountant or professional staff who can’t take it anymore call us. We will do anything we can to find you a better job with a winning company. 704-332-8702

Speaking with Medieval Leaders

Image via Wikipedia

Recently I was having a conversation with a friend about people who I never met nor could ever meet that I thought were powerful people in a time when things were a lot different. We weren’t looking to talk about Steve Jobs or even Ben Franklin. We wanted to get medieval so to speak…. The first person I thought of was Niccolò “The Prince” Machiavelli. He was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, writer and most famously a politician.  He lived during the early 1500’s and his reputation has managed to survive century’s.  Machiavelli wasn’t always popular but he did make some interesting comments that have lived on.  Below are just a few of his quotes that I think are still very relevant. If anyone has a favorite, I would love to try to relate it to modern-day business/HR next week.  Please feel free to comment…..

 “The end justifies the means”

 “The first way to lose your state’, he tells the Prince, ‘is to neglect the art of war; the first way to win a state is to be skilled in the art of war.’

 “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”

 “A good man will come to ruin among so many who are not good.”

 “Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better”

 “Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”

 “The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.”

 “Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.”

 “Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.”