EDITORIALS

For those of you who are sailing fans and/or history buffs and saw the movie Master & Commander: The Far Side of The World, there was a scene where Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany were having a heated argument about the merits of flogging. The comment made by the captain was that the go...

It is not well known, but there are very few people in the world who actually know how to do things. I would suggest to all of you that, yes, I’m talking about YOU.As the world slowly crawls out from under all the changes that have happened as a result of COVID-19, opportunities will be ap...

I often wonder if people really want to be found.It ranges from the lack of an outgoing signature with your FULL contact information on the emails I receive to voice mail that repeats your phone number when I call, but doesn’t indicate whose phone it is. The latest wrinkle in the past few ...

One of the great challenges we face as financial folks is explaining to non-financial types what we do for a living. And, some of us financial types do things that are so esoteric that we need to work hard to even explain what we do to fellow financial types.At one time, I was Chief Financ...

Okay sports fans, the new year has begun. It is now January 19th and time is slipping away. At the moment this year promises to be filled with as many challenges as last year, but don’t allow that stop you. (Sadly, the light at the end of the tunnel may indeed be a speeding locomotive.) ...

For those of you who don’t know my entire background, please know I served in the United States Army for two years, 1969 and 1970. I can’t say it was a happy time, but I was fortunate to perform my entire service at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. For those of you who have attended my meeting...

At the beginning of time itself in 1995, there was only a Westport Chapter of The FENG. In fact, the name of entire organization was The Financial Executives Networking Group of Fairfield County Connecticut. Over the past 25 years we have grown into an International organization with 37,00...

I’m sure I don’t need to go into the details, but it goes without saying that the past 9 months of unending stress have been hard on all of us. I don’t know what happened to it, but when I worked for “the great corporation,” I had a bulletin board in my office with one section covered in c...

When I became Chairman of The FENG in 1996, there was at the time an emerging technology called the Internet. (Rumored to have been invented by Al Gore.) I was working for The Thomson Corporation at the time and had learned how to use email. Some days I got as many as 10 emails! (This was ...

Top of the list is, of course, to vote if you have not already done so. My second suggestion is to NOT call anyone until at least Thursday. Everyone is “deer in the headlights” over the election. Hopefully it will be decided by end of day Wednesday so we can all get back to doing whatever ...

From time to time I get inquiries about the services of career consulting firms. (Please understand I am not talking about recognized and well respected outplacement firms such as Right Management and Lee Hecht Harrison, nor am I talking about a few individual Career Coaches who are known ...

It’s always best to try to make the best of a bad situation. What was forecast as a tropical storm, apparently was a lot more severe by the time it hit Connecticut. At about 2PM yesterday I was on the phone with an old friend when the lights went off, not to return. Sadly, it looks like th...

Sailors are a naturally friendly lot. (Yes, another sailing analogy!) As one of the other couples my wife and I met at a marina pointed out, it would be considered more than a little strange to go to a motel or hotel and start introducing yourself to other people and ask them if they wante...

The name of Rodney Eaton may or may not be familiar to you. Or, you may be saying to yourself that you recall seeing that name, but you don’t know where. Rodney has been a member of The FENG since 2013. And, during that time he has sponsored 184 new members. The reason you know the name is...

There isn’t much I personally can do about the job market. I caught a few minutes of the evening news tonight, and as many as 20% of the work force in the USA is now unemployed. These are staggering numbers. Equally staggering is that almost 64,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. With h...

As all of you know, The FENG is going “all in” on Zoom. To prove my commitment to all of you and to our mission of educating members about the job search process, I will be hosting a daily 30 minute Zoom meeting. Details about tomorrow’s meeting appear below. I hope you will join us. The d...

I spent almost the entire day today learning how to host meetings on Zoom. In addition to my desk station, I had two laptops set up in my office so I could see what you will be seeing. I also roped my wife and son (who is also The FENG’s webmaster) into helping educate me on the ins and ou...

As we head into yet another week of lockdown, I hope that tonight’s editorial finds you and yours in good health and good spirits. If you and yours are at least in good health, I would be happy with that alone. I will admit that with each passing day it is getting harder and harder to reme...

With each passing day, it has become clearer that face to face meetings of The FENG are not going to be happening any time soon. At the beginning of time itself, when The FENG consisted of only the Westport Chapter and was only about 50 members, some folks in Philadelphia got wind of the f...

As we begin another week with a significant percentage of the US economy shut down, I hope tonight’s newsletter finds you and yours in good health. In terms of everyone’s priorities, I would politely suggest that this be your primary focus. With respect to the economy, at this point in tim...

During this period of time when all there is going to be over the next few weeks is bad news, it is hard to think about a path forward. I’m sure there is one, but I don’t see it yet. Earlier today I got a call from a Demetria Clark. As we began our conversation, I think she picked up on th...