Building Successful Careers

My long lost friend May called me out of the blue yesterday. Three minutes into the conversation, we talked about life. Life is made up of events. Although individual events seem accidental, woven together they form relationships and experiences which impact how you feel about yourself. In that sense, nothing is accidental. Everything intertwines impacting your future life, ultimately creating your present and future life experiences. May joked that there are two types of people in the world. One type creates stories and the other listens to stories. Story creators are full of surprises and new initiatives, their life experience is exciting. Listeners get excited just observing them, wanting to be included in these stories. At lunch time, I was five minutes early and while waiting for my friend I noticed a table with four ladies talking and laughing. What a happy table! I could not help notice that one lady was radiant with happiness and excitement. That made her so beautiful and

Many people would say I am a process junky because of my extensive experience at IBM DB2, and many years of practicing sophisticated software development processes to build large scale mission critical enterprise software. The perception from people who don’t know me well is their perfect reality. Indeed, Elizabeth is a process junky on paper from afar. People who know me well see a different Elizabeth, who has a passion for innovation. Research, innovation and creativity inspire me, and fuel me through many “boring” days and activities. Without innovation, one would never paint the most moving scenes and objects; one could never build killer apps. Without innovation, the iPhone would never reach our palms. Well, can we build an iPhone without any process? Despite the many birth defects the iPhone IV born with, it went through very strict processes to achieve such consistency, friendly user interface and it is a piece of art. When I go to an empty parking lot, I can zigzag whateve

The first time I really heard the word of the “Collaboration” was in 1998 when I still worked at IBM. One of the Sr. VPs spoke to us about the difference between the 20th and 21st centuries. He referred to the 20th century as the century of super heroes, who either destroyed or saved the world, companies and communities. Due to the vast amount of information and accelerated rate of information addition and exchanging, it would be impossible for one person to digest the vast amount of information and provide penetrating messages beyond the noise of the ever growing information universe. Then the 21st century became the century of team collaboration, that groups of super heroes would work together, utilize their expertise and strength, process information that they could best understand, providing their expert strategy and methodology, flawlessly execute the team’s plan and reach the ultimate goal. Since then, collaboration became popular as well as frequently abused, and it is risi

Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman: What Men Know About Success that Women Need to Learn By Gail Evans If you want to learn how to win like a woman, this is not the right book. It is about how to play like a man. "win like a woman" is a pink scarf to attract female readers. a Nice small book to read, a lot of useful tips. Enjoy. Elizabeth Xu

My friend Suzy’s New Year party has been the one that everyone looks forward to each year, not only for the great food, but also for gathering with friends hard to meet. The party turns to magic and we laugh for hours. Suzy is a great business person, mom, wife and friend. We chat about life and our careers at her party. Suzy finds much wisdom among her friends and shares it with all of us. She recently visited a successful business woman in her late 70s. The lady shared the secret of her success. “A person who thinks he is very capable, that’s not enough, People around them must think he is capable. Well, that’s not enough, His manager has to think he is capable, however, that is not enough either, His manager must be capable; Even his manager is capable, it is not enough, he must have great health. Without health and energy, it is not enough to be successful” The take away from Suzy’s party is: Exercise for great health, work hard, demonstrate your skills and strength, follow a

Pat gave me this book when I visited her last month. This would be an excellent book for you if you want to live to your fullest potential. It presents a different perspective toward life, time, dream, gift, relationship and more... Enjoy the enchanting story, my sons loves it.

*PKUAANC Career Development team proudly presents* *Career Development Forum Series #3 – The N Habits of Effective Time Management (Panel Discussion)* We are way into 2010. After making all the new-year resolutions, do you still find yourself asking, “Why am I so busy and yet have not accomplished anything?” or “How can I use the minimum time to achieve the maximum results?” or “What are some effective ways to manage my time?” If you are wondering about such questions, we have some answers for you. Come and join your fellow alumni and other friends at this interactive panel. Our successful speakers will share with you some practical habits in time management. You will also be able to make more friends and network with other professionals. *Event Details:* Speakers Elizabeth Xu, Managing Partner, Business Innovation Services, LLC Haiyan Song, Vice President of Engineering, ArcSight Larry Chang, Independent Consultant at Haier; Co-President at Ascend – Northern California Chapter;

Many people complain about having no time for work or life. I suggest they keep a daily log of what they do with their time. Each person is unique in spending their time on different things, but they share one common theme. The more positive person has more time and control over his life. When you are truly in charge of your time, your mind is full of positive images and energy. No time is spent on negative thoughts, churning and idling, no sleepless nights. Organizations share the same theme, negative activities waste time and negatively affect productivity and morale. That's why a negative leader can destroy the organization. A positive, result-oriented leader can drive the organization; unleash untapped positive energy channeling positive force in the right direction. Be positive, get rid of internal mental friction, oil the gears in your mind and make your mind more efficient. You will be in control your time, your life and work.

Happy Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year! 祝您虎年吉祥如意，心想事成，合家欢乐! Pat and Elizabeth

Pat has recommended this book for over a year, Finally I got a copy from library. It is indeed the greatest inspirational classical reading. I hope you will find it helpful in 2010.