Archive for August, 2012

Labor Day symbolizes many things: the end of summer, back to school, football season and no longer the ability to “officially” wear white. Technically though, the true meaning behind Labor Day is to “pay tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers”- according to Wikipedia. So in honor of celebrating all of our hard-working contributions, we’ve compiled some inspiring and fun quotes from famous Laborers.  Happy Labor Day!

“Chose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vince Lombardi

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

“You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play.” – Warren Beatty

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” -Theodore Roosevelt

”I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” –Thomas Jefferson

“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work” - Oprah Winfrey

Entrepreneur.com quoted KellyMitchell CEO Cassandra Sanford in their “10 Inspiring Quotes from Women Tech Leaders“ article.

“If this is something you really want to do, if you believe in it…simply keep forging forward because success will come.”

In 1998, after a happy-hour revelation that tech outsourcing was the wave of the future, Cassandra Sanford and two partners decided to start an IT personnel company. What evolved out of $10,000 and some computer equipment was St. Louis-based KellyMitchell Group. Click through to read more!

After 17 days of non-stop sporting action, the Olympics are officially over. The closing ceremonies are complete, the flag was passed on and the torch extinguished until summer Olympic action picks back up in Rio 2016. And we all probably have a lot more free time! The sporting action certainly lived up to all the excitement, but it was the non-sporting extras such as social media, apps, tools and news that also caught the attention of spectators and participants during the games. In addition to  lessons on social media etiquette, by observing the athletes and circumstances of the games the world can learn other rules and lessons to live by.  Here are a select few:

1. Practice may not always make perfect, but it’s still necessary.  It’s very rare that someone or something can be perfect and success takes a lot of hard work. Most of the athletes devoted their lives to make it to the Olympics. Too often, many think that we shouldn’t have to work that hard to be successful, but the reality is that few things in life come easily. As all athletes demonstrated, if you want something badly enough, then you must be willing to do the hard work to get there.

2. Motivation, inspiration and drive are critical for success.  Athletic skill is clearly an important component for excelling at competition, but most athletes in the games exhibited more than just physical excellence.  Their significant achievements can also be credited to continuous motivation, drive and faith in themselves.  They live by the mantras: never settle for just good, always strive to be great and push yourself beyond limits.  For South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a dramatic feat had already been accomplished by simply him competing in the games as a double amputee.   And USA track athlete  Manteo Mitchell ran the entire 4×400 relay on broken leg.  These incredible obstacles did not stop them from their ultimate dream and their sheer will drove them to success.

3. Teamwork is critical to success. Surround yourself with colleagues, friends and family who will help and support you. In team sports, athletes obviously work together to win, but it is also important to acknowledge examples of non-traditional team events.  Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete ever, thanked his relay team for helping him to win all those medals.  Without them as a supporting cast, he wouldn’t have won as many medals as he did.  Another common sight seen was of the families and coaching staff supporting and cheering the athletes along as if they were themselves competing. This support was critical in contributing to the athlete’s success. No one can truly do it alone.

4. Learn from your mistakes. At the end of practice or their performances, the athletes recapped their mistakes to see what they did wrong and learn how they can be better next time. The USA women’s soccer team lost the World Cup to Japan last year, but when facing them in the Olympics a short time later beat them to win the gold.  Surely they reviewed and watched and analyzed their past matchup to ensure a better performance for the future.   Same is in life where we need to observe ourselves, ask for feedback and measure our actions so we can strive to be more effective in the future.

The Olympics were certainly action packed with all the athletic events we awaited and anticipated. These last two weeks also reminded us that Olympic athletes should be admired not only for their athletic skill, but also for the behaviors and examples they set for us to follow and live by.
What was your favorite Olympic moment or lesson learned?  What will you remember most about these London games?

Cassandra Sanford Is 2012 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year from WBDC

CHICAGO, IL, July 2012 – Cassandra Sanford, CEO and co-founder of KellyMitchell Group, of St. Louis, Mo., will receive the 2012 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year Award from the Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) at the organization’s 26th Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference to be held on Thursday, September 20, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

Click here to read the full press release.

Congratulations Cassandra!

The Olympics are halfway over and alongside the extravagant opening ceremonies and record-breaking results, another hot topic continuously being talked about among athletes, viewers and media is social media and the pivotal role it has played so far during these games.

With over 15 million people currently following the Olympics via social media, this is by far the most social Olympics yet. It appears however, that this social behavior is taking the gold medal on the gossip podium—and unfortunately it’s not all positive.

Let’s take a quick look at the social media good, bad and ugly of these Social Olympics thus far:

The Good:

1. With the Olympics across the pond and in a different time zone, social media has allowed us to follow our favorite commentators and athletes while making it easy to get a personal look and experience the games from their “eyes.”

2. Improvements, developments and enhancements to social platforms are already resulting from the exposure:

a.  Starcount is a new website that shows currently who the most talked-about and trending athletes are on social media.

b. The International Olympic Committee has teamed up with Facebook to create the Olympic Athletes’ Hub, a website dedicated to keeping fans updated on current happenings in London.

The Bad & Ugly

1. While the personal touch of social media is great for some fans, for others it’s ruining the games by leaking the results in real-time, long BEFORE the broadcasts air on TV.
2. Earlier this week, GPS and communication tools were failing during the road races which was possibly caused by too much social and online activity.  Spectators were directed to Tweet only in cases of emergency to avoid any further interferences and outages.
3. Overall security was potentially threatened due to pictures of badges, including entry barcode Tweeted by some athletes.
4. Due to threatening comments and posts made on Twitter towards a British diver, one fan has already been arrested.
5. Two athletes (a Greek triple-jumper and Swiss soccer player) were expelled from their teams and unable to compete in the games due to racist tweets.

Social media has given the world a backstage pass to the Olympic Games, but it has also provided fans and athletes with a variety of new ways to get into trouble.   Hopefully, all the delinquents have learned from their mistakes and the rest of the social world has learned from them as well.  As professionals we need to remember that social media is publicly published content- just as other traditional forms of communication are and should be treated with the same care and professionalism, regardless of the context and situation.

We should all learn from these experiences, focus on the advantages and benefits of social media and be thankful to be part of the connected social society that we live in today.

What’s your opinion of how social media is shaping the Olympics? How do you think social media will change based on experiences from these games?