Tough Things First podcast

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Ready For Love with Hilary Silver

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#80: Dating Over 50 is Actually The Best Time 11:59

18 hari yang lalu11:59

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11:59

Most women I talk to over 40, 50, and 60 say the same thing: “I never thought I’d be here, dating at this stage of life.” And let’s be honest, midlife dating often gets a bad rap. But the truth? It can be the BEST time in your life to find real love… if you know how to approach it. In this episode, we talk about why dating now can be easier, more authentic, and more fulfilling than ever—and how shifting your perspective can change everything. Episode Highlights: Why dating now can feel easier and more authentic than ever The freedom that comes from wanting—not needing—a partner How showing up as your true self changes who you attract Why self-acceptance is magnetic How trusting yourself shapes every choice you make in love Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Dating Over 50: Why It’s the Best Time for Love 00:53 Meet Hilary 01:47 Midlife Dating Truths 02:07 Reason 1: Maturity & Clarity 03:44 Reason 2: Desire, Not Need 05:08 Reason 3: Authentic Self 07:06 Reason 4: Confidence & Magnetism 08:52 Reason 5: Self-Trust & Boundaries 10:28 Why It’s Never Too Late for Love Dating now isn’t about chasing chemistry or proving your worth—it’s about finding a true, equal partnership that adds to your already beautiful life. ✨ I’m Hilary Silver, LCSW, former psychotherapist turned master coach and founder of Ready for Love. I help high-achieving women show up in love as confidently as they do in their careers. 💡 Through this podcast, I share my WOMAN-centered, SELF-centered approach—time-tested methods that blend psychology, brain science, relationship skills, and no-BS dating advice. 🎙️ Since 2017, we’ve helped over 10,000 women with a 98% success rate, making Ready for Love the #1 program in the world for women who’ve tried everything else. 🎯 Watch my free masterclass to learn the proven 4-step Ready for Love Method: https://readyforloveinc.com/masterclass 💬 Apply for a free Love Breakthrough Call with my team: https://readyforloveinc.com/apply…

Tough Things First

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Discipline, servant leadership, entrepreneurial success

90 episode

#Marketing #Ray Zinn #Business #Entrepreneur

Tough Things First

263 subscribers

updated 5 hari yang lalu

Beranda serial•Feed

Discipline, servant leadership, entrepreneurial success

90 episode

#Marketing #Ray Zinn #Business #Entrepreneur

Todos os episódios

1
Mental Toughness 8:22

5 hari yang lalu8:22

8:22

How do successful people master resilience for career and life success? In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn says it comes down to mental toughness and the key to that comes from within you. Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, let’s talk about how we can develop mental toughness to adapt, to change, and overcome setbacks. This goes to mastering resilience for career and life success because we do need to be resilient. In doing so, we have to develop a certain mental toughness. I wonder if you have an idea of what mental toughness is in your mind. Ray Zinn: Yeah, it is based on confidence. It’s all about confidence, and how do you develop confidence? Well, that’s the key to our podcast today is how do we get confidence? Actually a trait that we have to develop even as a young person, whether you’re primary school, child or teenager or college. Developing confidence is the key to having this resilience. The way to develop confidence, it goes back to what your standards are, what your beliefs are, what drives you to do anything, whether it’s work or play or school or whatever, is you have to have that confidence that you can succeed. Rob Artigo: Can we be overconfident because we’re overestimating what we can accomplish? Ray Zinn: Sure. The way you become overconfident is an ego. It’s all relates to your ego. So if you have a really a pretty large ego, then you’re going to have what we refer to as overconfidence, and of course that can lead to failure just as fast as a lack of confidence. So you want to have a kind of balanced level of confidence so your ego doesn’t get in the way of your progress or your insecurity gets in the way of your progress. Rob Artigo: Well, in investing, we talk about being risk-averse. Can people be change-averse? Ray Zinn: Yeah, I think change is difficult for almost all of us. We all resist change, whether you’ve got overconfidence or underconfidence, or whatever your problem is, you do have this lack of focus and that prevents you from developing the proper level of confidence as you would or the proper level of risk that you’re willing to accept. Risk-averse is a challenge for all of us. We all resist change. It’s like when I was learning to swim as a five-year-old, my uncle, my dad was watching, I actually can remember it even though it’s many, many years ago. I can remember it as clear as day. My uncle told my dad, he’s not going to learn to swim unless you just throw him in. Okay, just letting him paddle around is not going to get him to… So here I am, five years old, he grabs me and he throws me in the pool and my dad was ready to jump in and my uncle stopped my dad from jumping in. My uncle said, “It is not going to hurt him to take a few gulps of water.” So how do you learn to swim? Is by not letting your head stander too long. A student asked Socrates, “How do I gain knowledge and wisdom?” And Socrates says, “Well, I’ll show you.” And he says, “Meet me down at the ocean tomorrow morning at six o’clock and I’ll show you how to do it.” So the student was actually there by 5:30 and Socrates walked out into the ocean about chest high and he said, “Come on out with me.” And so then the student went out to where the Socrates was standing in chest high water and Socrates dunked his head under the water and held him there until he could see him gurgling and swallowing amounts of seawater. And then he pulled him up and the student was spitting and shaking his head, and Socrates looked him right in the eye and said, “Now what did you want more than anything else while your head was under water?” And the student says, “I wanted air.” And so the Socrates said, “Well, when you want knowledge and wisdom as much as you wanted air, you’ll find a way to get it.” And that’s the way it was when my uncle threw me the pool, he turned to my dad and said, “Look, he’s learned to swim already.” So, anyway. Rob Artigo: Yeah, I don’t know. I have seen this technique done before. I’m not sure I’d want to do it because, like your dad, my impulse would be to jump in the water and rescue. But I have seen this technique where they’ve taken basically babies and dropped them in the water and within a few minutes they’re swimming around. Ray Zinn: Well, there’s that saying, Rob, sink or swim. You ever heard that? Rob Artigo: Yeah. Ray Zinn: Okay. That’s what we’re talking about is sink or swim. Years ago when they had that research vessel capsize in the Baja California or whatever it is that ocean in between Baja and Mexico, there’s that research vessel overturned. There were like 10 researchers that were lost in that tragedy. I think it was, what they call it, chubasco. A big storm came up and caused that vessel to overturn, but three of them made it back to shore. So seven were lost and three survived. They were interviewing them and said, “Well, how did you survive? And the others perished?” And the three said almost simultaneously, “We didn’t quit swimming.” So obviously that says something about persistence and what we’re talking about being risk-averse. Sometimes you just got to keep swimming, as that saying goes, sink or swim. So if you don’t want to die, you better keep swimming. Like Socrates says, when you want knowledge and wisdom as much as you want air, you’ll find a way to get it. So this all ties together, Rob, about how do you have mental toughness and resilience is you just got to keep swimming. You can’t quit swimming. Rob Artigo: Right. That goes for your continuing education, your physical fitness, all of those things work together to help bolster your chances of success. Well, Ray, join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Your questions and comments are always welcome. Follow Ray on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and of course pick up Ray’s books, the Tough Things First book and of course Zen of Zinn Series 1, 2, and 3, and on sale now, The Essential Leader. Thanks, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks Rob. Good to be with you.…

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Charlie Kirk 12:09

11 hari yang lalu12:09

12:09

This isn’t politics, it’s madness. In this Tough Things First podcast Ray Zinn discussing the murder of Charlie Kirk and the sickness that plagues the American political landscape. (At the time of this post, no suspect had been arrested.) Ray Zinn: Hi Rob. How’s it going today? Rob Artigo: It’s a tough day because we had a 31-year-old conservative activist who was at a speech on a college campus and he took a bullet round to the throat and is dead. And so it’s like hate to have a downer podcast, but it seems like it’s important for us to talk to a little bit about this. Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. Give me your reaction right off the bat. Ray Zinn: Well, listen, as you started out, this is a horrible way to start a podcast, is talking about something as devastating as the death of a young man, father of two little children, just 31 years old, really just starting his career and then to end it in such a tragic way. He was giving a seminar at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, which I know very well. I’m involved with that school in my program called Zen Starter, and so that’s a very touching thing for me. It hits right at home because I’ve had grandchildren attend UVU. I don’t have anybody there right now, but I did have children that attended there and graduated from that school. It’s a very good town. I know it well. I’ve been there to give talks and to teach there at that school. I know the faculty, some of the faculty quite well. As I said, I’m involved philanthropically there, and it was just very, very problematic to have that happen, especially since I’m involved with that school. And it is a very conservative area, that whole area of Provo and Orem are very, very conservative. It was just very surprising to have it happen there, especially given the forum. He had a tour, I think of 15 universities he was going to speak to. He is very engaging with young people, the college-age, young people that follow him on social media. He’s an extremely well-known figure, and I guess he felt perfectly safe, obviously I would too. I mean, I would never, ever expect it to happen there. Maybe that’s why the shooter felt comfortable, because nobody was expecting it. Very little security, that speaks to the problem that we have in this country right now, that you have to have security or you’re in trouble. Like that young girl, Ukrainian girl a couple of days ago that was stabbed on that train, just minding her own business, sitting there by herself, and then this perpetrator came up behind her and slashed her throat. And the violence that seems to be prevalent in this country speaks to the problem we’re having in this country with violence. Of course, there’s violence in Israel, there’s violence in Ukraine, in various other parts of the world. This violence has just seemed to be increasing at a dramatic rate. We’re also honoring, or we’re celebrating, I shouldn’t say celebrating, we’re recognizing the 9/11 tragedy that happened in 2001 on September the 11th. Here again, I mean, it is kind of coincidental that we had that killing of that Ukrainian girl, that young 23-year-old, and then that became national media or national recognition. And then we had this shooting of this well-known political figure or political activist, I should say, Charlie Kirk. And then today, I think it is today, we honor those who lost their lives in that 2001 incident where these airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. What’s interesting is that just as a sidelight is I had just returned back from a long trip just a few hours before they shut the whole airport system down. So I don’t think I’ve was home more than six hours when they shut everything down. So that was kind of an interesting thing that I got back in time. But of course, the tragedy of that 9/11 is still with us, and we recognized that every single year. And then we had this incident yesterday where this very well-known political figure, Charlie Kirk was shot to death by some unknown assailant at this point and looks like it was done professionally. It was very well planned out. I guess these tours are planned well in advance, and somehow or another, this perpetrator had this thing well, looks like well, well planned out. They haven’t found him yet or her, and so the person still remains at large. But it just shows, in my mind anyway, the tremendous violence that is occurring around this world at this time, and it needs to stop. We need to bring this thing to an absolute halt. And my heart goes out to his family, to Charlie Kirk’s family, his wife and his two children, and Charlie’s parents, and actually all of us. All of us are affected by this sort of violence, whether it be in Gaza or whether it be in Ukraine, wherever it is, it does have an impact on us Rob. Rob Artigo: I wonder, Ray, if you’re saying that in the past you’ve had relationships with people at the school and the students are there, I mean, a lot of them are directly traumatized by this because they witnessed it happen. And like you said, it extends beyond the campus to everybody else because we now have this specter of assassinations kind of lingering over political discourse in this country, which is really devastating to open dialogue. So I don’t know, Ray, is there something we could tell the students and young people particularly about this, to tone it down, to bring it back to a rational conversation instead of violence? Ray Zinn: Well, we have to reject what’s going on. I know that on social media today, some of the students were celebrating the death of Charlie. We got to quit that. We got to quit celebrating death, whether it be in Gaza or Ukraine or wherever. We just got to quit celebrating animosity. We have to show more love and concern for each other no matter what our political beliefs are and where we differ in our political beliefs or religious beliefs or whatever, we need to tone that down and show more love and concern for our fellow man. This anger which is being perpetrated around the world, we have to show resilience and condemnation for it. So what I recommend, and hopefully the people who are listening to this podcast will do is on their own just reject this sort of animosity. As I pointed out a minute ago, on social media there are people who are celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. I mean, I don’t care what your political belief or religious belief is, you shouldn’t be celebrating death of any kind. This has got to stop. Rob Artigo: Yeah, it really is a, I’m at a loss for words really when it comes to this kind of thing, because I just can’t believe that we’ve gotten to this point in this country where people do celebrate an assassination. Ray Zinn: Yeah. Rob Artigo: Openly, openly on social media. They do videos, these social media videos celebrating this, and it’s mind-boggling to me. Ray Zinn: And it just shows how crazy things have got in this country that we celebrate this sort of anger and animosity. We shouldn’t have animosity toward anyone. I mean, that should not be even part of our culture is having animosity toward anyone irrespective of their differences in belief. And so I’d like to call a halt to this animosity and focus more on trying to find ways that we can get together and relate better to one another as opposed to being so angry and celebrating the death of a very wonderful young man, irrespective of your differences in your beliefs. We did this podcast today, Rob, because it is central to themes that we’ve been promoting here on our podcast, and that is to show more respect and love toward our fellow man, and let’s not celebrate this sort of animosity. Let’s reject it. Let’s show anger toward the animosity as opposed to anger toward people who differ in our beliefs. Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, the audience can join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Your questions and your comments are always welcome. Follow Ray Zinn on X, Facebook and LinkedIn, and of course, pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First and the Zen of Zinn series one, two, and three, and on sale now The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals That Make up the Essential Leader. Thanks, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.…

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The Yes Resume 13:52

20 hari yang lalu13:52

13:52

If you had more than four decades of experience and knew all there was to know about hiring people for important positions, what would you say described a winning resume? Let’s ask Ray Zinn in this Tough Things First podcast. Rob Artigo: Ray as CEO of Micrel, I’m very interested in your take on this, and you were involved in management your entire adult life, basically at different levels, and obviously the longest period was as CEO of Micrel, semiconductor for 37 years. So you’ve seen your share of resumes for everything from the entry-level positions to the second-in-command at Micrel, for example. I just want to pick your brain a little bit about the kinds of things that you like to see and you don’t like to see. Are resumes your first impression of an applicant? Or do you get something before the resume that gives you a hint as to whether or not you want to talk to this person? Ray Zinn: Well, the first thing I do, of course, is look at what the job opportunity is so I can size it. Otherwise, I say, “Okay, this job requires a certain education. It requires a certain amount of experience.” And then I kind of put in my mind what the ideal candidate should look like. In other words, whether they’re going to be a janitor as you would, or they’re going to be a vice president. And so I know in my mind, excuse me, what I’m looking for before I actually begin the interview process. Then getting that description out to the public as you would, whether it be through LinkedIn or X or however you use, whatever media you use to get your job opportunity out there, you want to make sure it properly explains what you anticipate. So if you over exaggerate what you want, in other words, if you say, “I need a PhD,” when I only need a high school graduate, that’s going to discourage some applicants and knowing that, but you’re liable to attract the wrong kind of applicants. Because an applicant, when he looks at that job description, can say, “Well, this doesn’t require a PhD. This company must be a bunch of bozos.” So you want to make sure that your requirements, the needs of the job are realistic. In other words, don’t exaggerate what’s required for the job. Because you’re going to get the wrong kind of candidates when you put out there the wrong requirements for the job. So that’s the first key is if you’re the hiring company, make sure that your description is realistic. If you get the wrong applicants coming in, you’re going to be wasting your time and you’re wasting their time also. Okay, so that’s the first thing is make sure that your requirements are properly identified. Don’t underestimate them and don’t overestimate them as you would. Be realistic. Look at other apps that are, I mean, other job descriptions for a similar job, and that’ll give you an idea of some of the requirements of your competitors. Okay, now let’s go to, we’re switch hats here and you’re going to become the applicant for that job. Okay, so what happens is that remember that the hiring company is going to be what we call skeptical. I mean, the first thing is that remember, they’re going to be skeptical. You’re not going to be preaching to the choir. You’re going to be preaching to people who are not going to believe what they read. And so you want to make sure that you know that you’re preaching to a skeptic, okay? So make sure your resume is very, very, very, very realistic. I can’t emphasize that because they can tell from reading your application or your resume, they can tell whether you’re blowing smoke or whether you’re a very humble person. You want to look humble. So don’t exaggerate what you’ve done or what you can do. Be humble, make the application or the resume, make it look like you think it’s a privilege to go to work for that company and then what you anticipate learning. So again, don’t blow smoke, okay? You want to appear very realistic and very humble in your application on your resume. Rob Artigo: Is it a good idea to tweak your resume, not just send the same one out to everybody, but know the audience that you’re going to be pitching to, whoever the hiring company is, tweak it, maybe skew it a little bit in the direction of what you believe that company might want as opposed to a different company? Ray Zinn: Well, sure, because you have the job description, I mean, that’s been posted, so you already know what they’re looking for. So don’t have what we call a canned resume. You want your resume or the application that you send in, you want it to be matched where they’re headed. In other words, what they want to see. Don’t make it a canned resume or canned response. You want to ensure that your capabilities match what the job description is requiring, and they can tell that too if it’s just a canned resume. And so if you’re not skewing your resume or your application to the job, they can know that. Yeah, I would make that very, very specific to the job opportunity. Rob Artigo: Yeah, it’s worth the time, I think. And also there has to be for you, one of the things that one, two, whatever those things are that you hate to see on a resume that automatically makes you not want to call somebody in for an interview. Ray Zinn: Well, sure. I mean, if you exaggerate your work experience, and I can tell that, I mean, I can see, especially if I really have done my job description properly, I can tell if you’re exaggerating your education or your experience, and I’m also very dubious people who puff themselves up as you would that pump and dump thing where you just pump yourself up. Because you’re not going to sound humble. So the last thing I want to see is a resume from a person who’s just pumping themselves up. Rob Artigo: It can be a minefield in that respect because some people feel like, well, you have to go in there and show confidence, but you don’t want to go in there and show overconfidence. Obviously, somebody who goes with a has salary range that they want on their resume. I’ve seen that. I don’t know why people do it. The job description probably already has a salary range on it. You don’t need to put it in there. That can be a problem. But also if you really don’t do any work on your resume and it’s just a bland, flat piece of paper, you didn’t work at it. I’ve noticed also, what do you think about length of a resume if it’s three pages long. Ray Zinn: One page. Okay, one page. And you want to hit the highlights of what you can do, avoid overstating what you have done or what you can do. You want to come across with just the simplest, straightforward details that will catch the eye of the reader and invite you in for a resume or personal interview. So one page, the best resumes are a page long. Rob Artigo: I want to also say that you mentioned that before you even do the job description, you’re getting an idea of what that person looks like. And by that you mean the whole person. You’re not talking about what they physically look, but what they, is this person going to be right for these jobs? And it has nothing to do with race or gender or anything like that, and it’s just your standard operating procedure is make sure I know what kind of person’s going to fit well in this position. And I just wanted to point that out for our listeners. There was also something that I saw once in a resume where the person at the start at the top of the resume talked about goals. It said, “I don’t want to work with a team that has a certain number of race color people, white people or whatever on it.” They wanted to work with a diverse team that had a transgender person and an alternative lifestyle people, depending on how you want to look at it. But it was a very odd thing to have on a resume. Does that concern you deeply when somebody puts that kind of demand? Ray Zinn: Yeah. I mean, well, again, you don’t want to talk about what you do and don’t want. You can’t say, “Well, I want to work for a company that’s ethical.” I mean, that’s obvious. I mean, don’t state the obvious and also don’t state things that are going to raise a red flag like I only want to work for a diverse team. I don’t want to work for all white or all black or whatever. You don’t want to state what you want and what you don’t want. Just stick to the facts, as they say, “Stick to the facts, buddy.” And they’re going to do reference checks on you anyway, and you want to make sure the reference checks match what you’re saying, who you are. And so again, just state the obvious, how it matches the requirements of the job, and then hopefully they’ll bring you in for a personal interview. Rob Artigo: Yeah, Concise resume that is tailored to the job you’re applying for. So tweak your resume and of course, don’t make any of those major mistakes that’ll raise red flags that you might be a difficult person. Ray Zinn: Let’s bring up another comment because of the oftentimes is a Zoom type of interview as opposed to a personal. So in a Zoom, make sure that where you are, where you’re doing the Zoom properly reflects how you want to project. I mean, if you’re, you’re doing it from your home and it’s a mess in your house, that’s going to be a turnoff. So make sure that whatever location you’re using to Zooms the interview gives a proper indication of who you are. So I’ve heard a lot of Zooms that find out pretty clearly what kind of person this is, how they’re dressed, and I’ve even heard of them doing a Zoom with their pajamas on and with their hair up and curlers, so to speak. So make sure that how you come across in a Zoom, especially if it’s a video Zoom, not just on audio that, your room, the location that you’re doing the interview from is proper and that you’re dressed properly. Rob Artigo: The listeners can join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Questions and comments are always welcome. Follow Ray on X, Facebook and LinkedIn, and of course, pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First, and the Zen of Zen series one, two, and three. Also on sale now, The Essential Leader. Ten skills, attributes, and fundamentals that make up the essential leader. Thanks, Ray. Ray Zinn: You’re welcome, Rob. Thank you.…

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Never Give Up 11:54

20 hari yang lalu11:54

11:54

Some challenges are financial, others are personal, and some are life changing where only you can decide if you still want success badly enough. Ray Zinn discusses how to persevere through worst kinds of challenges. (Watch on YouTube) Ray Zinn: Hello, Rob. Good to be with you today. Rob Artigo: You may not, and others may not, immediately know the name Richard Allen, and you may know the name of his rock band, Def Leppard. He’s famous for not only being a legendary drummer in Def Leppard, but he has one arm. He faced this unique challenge. His left arm was amputated, and you imagine a drummer, you always see these drummers waving their arms around and they’ve got all these drums set up around them and all kinds of things going on. They’ve got to hit all those cymbals and whatnot. And I’m not a drummer, but I know that it looks like it’s a hard thing to do. Imagine doing that with just one arm. And then he got his arm amputated after being with the band for quite a while, but the band hadn’t reached the pinnacle of success. It was only after he lost his arm that they went on to have their greatest period of commercial success and really make the band a Hall of Fame type of band. I know that you’ve had your own personal and professional challenges, including we’ve talked about your eyesight situation, you’re legally blind, but also you wanted to launch Micrel Semiconductor back in the day, I think it was, was it ’76? Ray Zinn: ’78. Rob Artigo: ’78. So 1978, you go and you decide, “I’m going to found Micrel Semiconductor.” A microchip company, and you faced a $50 million challenge right there, right off the top. Ray Zinn: Right. So, I’ll need you to understand that in context. See, the average semiconductor company startup at that time in the seventies and eighties was around $50 million, and I didn’t have that kind of money. And to think about trying to start a semiconductor company without $50 million was a gargantuan task, because I would’ve had to use venture capital, and I did not want to use venture capital for all of reasons that why they call it bolster capital, actually was kind of the nickname for it. And that’s the reason I didn’t want to use bolster capital, or venture capital. So, I had to figure out another way of starting the company with my own money, basically. Rob Artigo: And you could have given up, but you set out on a mission to get it done even when people said you were crazy. Many people,- Ray Zinn: Everybody said I was crazy. Not one single… The only person that was supporting me was my wife. Rob Artigo: And you needed- Ray Zinn: And she’s not a semiconductor expert either. Rob Artigo: Right. They said that you needed 50 million to get there. You did it with 600,000, roughly, and that did the trick, turned it into a massively successful semiconductor company. And stayed in business the whole time you were a CEO and profitable all but I guess two cycles, or two periods or something. Ray Zinn: Well, just one year. Rob Artigo: One year. Ray Zinn: Yeah, one year. So, that was right at the end of the dot-com implosion, and it was in 2002. We had lost over half our customers because of that dot-com implosion. And so, we had to reinvent ourselves to try to stabilize the company and last that cycle, that dot-com implosion cycle. Rob Artigo: Again, another one of those periods where all of a sudden you’re sinking, but you were prepared for downturns at Micrel. And that preparation made it possible for you to do something that a lot of people didn’t do in Silicon Valley during that period, which was stay in business and stay on track. But again, this is a thing where a company CEO faces a challenge and could just say, “All right, look, I’m done. I can retire now or I can quit.” Or whatever, or leave it to somebody else to deal with it. But you didn’t, you persevered. Ray Zinn: Well, it goes to the concept that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And we were prepared, as you mentioned, we were prepared for a downturn. We always hope for the best, but we expect the worst. And so, with that mentality, with that thought in mind that you hope for the best, but expect the worst, that means you’re prepared. You don’t just ignore reality. And reality is you’re going to have bad times. What goes up has to come back down. And so, we knew it would happen, we were prepared for it. I had predicted it in May of 1999. I actually predicted the downturn that occurred in 2001, as a result of the dot-com implosion. And so, we were ready, because we had forecasted it or we had foreseen it, and that allowed us then to get ready so that when it did happen, we didn’t go under. We were able to continue on. It was a struggle. We had to do some very difficult things, cut back headcount, reduce salaries. We had to do a lot of things to stem the red, as you would, when the implosion happened, but we came out the other side even stronger. So it’s like breaking a bone. If you break your leg, actually your bone grows stronger. It’s painful at first, and you have to be in a cast and on crutches and stuff, and we were, we were on crutches and we had a cast on, so to speak, but by just knowing that we’d come out the other side stronger gave us that confidence that we would come out the other side even better. The story is told about this Olympic marksman. He was from Germany, and this is back in the Olympics, he’d won the Olympics, this is many years ago. I don’t remember the exact year, but he was a German marksman, pistol shot, pistol marksman, and he had won it with his right hand. But then he had an automobile accident and he lost his right hand, and so the next Olympics, four years later, when it came around, he actually won it again, but with his left hand. Now that’s extremely hard, especially if you’re right-handed and right-eyed, to come back and win with your left hand. But he did, he came back and won the Olympics with his left hand. Just because you have a setback… I lost my vision in 1994, and at first I was in a state of depression, “Oh my gosh, how am I going to move on from here?” But then I said, “Well, it’s like if you get thrown from your horse, you get back on again and keep riding.” So I just said, “Okay, I’ll have to deal with it. I lost my vision, so I still got to deal with it.” And I did. I built a company even stronger after I had lost my vision, because you become resolute. If the challenge doesn’t knock you down, if it doesn’t put you under, as they say, then you can come out the other side even stronger, because what you do is you compensate. You develop that ability to build, make weak things become strong. And that’s what I did, I made a weakness become a strength. And so, I lost my vision, I became better. My memory improved 10 times over what it was, because I wasn’t relying on my eyesight to memorize or to record information in my head. So, actually my memory improved, and that was one of the best things that happened was my memory got better, and that was an advantage to have my memory better. We do compensate, just like this fellow, this one-armed drummer, you compensate for that lack of shoulder or arm, and you become actually better. He was a better drummer than he was before when he had two hands. So, just because you have a deficit, or because you have some kind of handicap that comes along, doesn’t mean you can’t succeed. Success comes from desire, from that ability to pick up the pieces and move on. And so, anytime you have a challenge or a deficit, a problem that crops up, rather than looking at it as, “Oh, woe is me.” Then you become the victim. You look at it as, “Okay, I’m going to make this a strength. I’m going to take this challenge and make it a gain.” In fact, that’s what we do really when we run businesses. All we’re doing is taking difficulties, problems and challenges and using them to our advantage. That’s how you become successful. Look at an artist. They start off with a blank sheet, and then they have to create the image that they want to project on the piece of paper. We all start with a blank slate sometime. We didn’t all start as CEOs when we were born. Rob Artigo: Right. Well, turning a challenge into a triumph inspires others around you, and then they feel like they can do it too, they see how much you’ve done, and so that’s why you’re an inspiration to so many people. So thank you, Ray. The listeners can join the conversation at Toughthingsfirst.com. If they have comments, they can leave them there. You can follow Ray on X, Facebook and LinkedIn, and of course his books are out there, Tough Things First and the Zen of Zinn series. It’s Zen of Zinn 1, 2, and 3. And on sale now, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills and Attributes and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader. Thanks, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.…

1
Market Recovery 10:00

6 weeks yang lalu10:00

10:00

It has been quite the ride on the stock market in 2025, but it hasn’t been the one many expected in January. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn talks about how the market tanked but came back in what seemed like record time. Ray Zinn: Hi, Rob. Good to be with you today. Rob Artigo: Well, it wasn’t very long ago, Ray. We all remember it. This is 2025 and early in 2025, the stock market plummeted and there were talks of deep drops that were going to come after that and fears about recession. How did the markets find their way back to new record highs in such a short period? Ray Zinn: Well, let’s talk about how the market goes through cycles. So like in life there’s always ups and there’s downs, so there’s no straight up as you would. And so a cycle is something happens and causes the market to retrench in 2008, 2009. And that real estate problem, it’s generally caused when there’s over exuberance, when things are going much better than they really should. The .com bubble was another one. Each cycle starts because it has this massive run up. And so if things stay on an even keel, you don’t have these tremendous ups and downs. You just have these little burbles that happen. But a cycle is a consequence of something major that happened that where there’s over exuberance and then the market just takes about a year and a half to two years to recover. That’s a normal cycle. Let’s say somewhere between a year and two years is a normal cycle to recover from a bubble or from something that was over exuberant or over inventory or whatever. This last downturn that we had, which occurred in early 2025, which I think it happened sometime in February or March, the market was taken for a loop as you would because of the tariffs and other things that the Trump administration were attempting to put in to strengthen the economy. That was a view anyway. They were going to do this massive tariff thing and the market got spooked. They thought that, oh, everything’s going to crash, and companies, the businesses are not going to report good earnings because their costs are going to go up and the taxes are going to go up and all these other negative things are going to happen. And so it was more emotional than over exuberance. In other words, it wasn’t… the market was not at a peak as you would, it was kind of dawdling along. And so it wasn’t over exuberance at all. It was more of just we were at a certain point the market was not doing well or poorly, it was just kind of moving along. And then the Trump administration announced all these tariffs that they were going to do, and the market doesn’t like uncertainty. And so there was a negative reaction to that because they thought that everything was going to go to heck in a handbasket and they started dumping these stocks. So again, we’re talking about why did the market recover so quickly? And the reason is because it’s not non-discretionary spending. It was what we call the discretionary spending, which is things that you don’t have to have that you would like to have, cars, refrigerators, whatever. I mean, televisions. So those discretionary items were the ones that were the focus of the market were the ones that they thought were going to tank. And so as it turned out, this emotional thing, again, it wasn’t over exuberance on the upside, it was negative on the downside. And so the market recovered much quicker once the emotions kind of got out of the market. So emotions are generally short-lived. And so all of us, well, some of us I should say, took advantage of it. When that market dropped, I jumped right in and I bought when the market was down, because I knew it was going to be short-lived because I knew the reaction was going to be more emotional than reality. It actually recovered a lot faster than I had anticipated. I had a lot of money that I was putting in the market, but I still had some yet to invest. And then as we have seen happen, once the market got comfortable with what the Trump administration was doing, or at least got less emotional about it, the market started recovering. And now the NASDAQ, the Dow, the S&P, those are all at record levels and so we’re kind of back where we should have been or were to be in less than a month actually, or maybe two months. So when we react emotionally to something, it generally is wrong whether it’s being on the upside or on the downside. So we got to be careful about overreacting, either plus or minus. Rob Artigo: Okay, we could wrap it up with this next thought, and that is putting your prognosticator hat on and talking about looking forward. So what risks such as the tariffs, inflation, and global trade tensions could knock the market sideways or just stop its current trajectory towards more highs? Ray Zinn: It depends again what the Fed does on interest rates. Trump has not indicated he’s going to fire Fed Chairman Powell, and so interest rates will still remain where they are. They may take a small cut toward the end of the year. I’m not expecting it. I don’t expect a recession. What I mean don’t expect it is, I don’t see that’s anything that would cause the market to collapse again. And so as long as we go, steady as she goes, as you would, I think things are going to be all right. So my economic prediction predictions are more of a standard cycle as you would Q1, which begins in January, is usually a down quarter historically. And then Q2, which begins in April, is usually a little stronger because we’re coming out of the Christmas slump as you would from that Q1. And then Q3 tends to be stronger even more because we’re going into the Christmas season. And then Q4, which begins in October, it tends to be flat to down. So I expect this to be in a more normal cycle. So looking forward, I think Q3, which we’re in now, which began in July, I think is going to be good through the end of September. And then the market will start retrenching toward the end of September going into October. And then we have a normal cycle again, which is January. We’re going to see the business go down. Rob Artigo: Okay, Ray, I want the listeners to know they can follow you on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and your books are available. Tough Things First and the Zen of Zinn series one, two, and three. On sale now of course is The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals that Make up the Essential Leader. Our listeners should rate this podcast, continue to keep it growing, and we appreciate everyone who is listening right now. Thank you, Ray, and thank you to the listeners. Ray Zinn: Thank you.…

1
Ray Zinn: Commencement 18:46

7 weeks yang lalu18:46

18:46

Tough Things First Podcast: Ray Zinn discusses his commencement speech at San Jose State. ( Watch ) Rob Artigo: Well, you have the honor to do the commencement speech at San José State recently, and you described it as a bucket list moment. What was it that you felt was so special about doing it? Ray Zinn: Well, if you think about all the things in life you want to accomplish, your bucket list defines what your goals are. And education is extremely important to me and always has been. And so, this is going back, I would say probably 25 years ago. I was talking to a friend of mine who was asked to do a commencement address. And I got thinking, I wonder why I haven’t been asked to do it, given my help with the schools, and the things I do as end starter and other programs that I have scholarship-wise, why I haven’t been asked to be a commencement speaker. And so, it was just something I didn’t really voice out loud. It was just something I was thinking about. So, there’s this movie called The Bucket List, if it’s called The Bucket… but anyways, a movie about this fellow who had a bucket list. And he was striving to… before he left this world and went on the other side as they say, there’s some things he wanted to accomplish. Ray Zinn: And so, I added that to my bucket list or my things I wanted to do. I added that goal to being a commencement speaker. I did not ask, by the way, to be a commencement speaker. So, it was something that was offered to me, just like it was to my friend 25 years ago. Because if you ask for it, then of course, that’s different than if they want you to come and it was their idea as opposed to yours. So, it was very important that I do that and I enjoyed it immensely. And it was just something that I’d been looking forward to for years and then had opportunity. So, that’s what happened. Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, I have a clip here. I want to play the video so people can get a feel for what that was like. It was really a great picture of you on the podium there and you did a great speech, and so I wanted to share that with them. When was this recorded? Ray Zinn: I believe toward the end of April. Rob Artigo: Okay. So, I guess that’s about the right time for college graduation. So, yeah, it sounds about right. Let’s play that clip. We’ll come back and we’ll talk a little bit more about it. Presenter: Outside of his work as an inventor, Ray is the author of five books on leadership and has been featured in titles like Jim Fixx’s The Complete Book of Running, and Greg McKeown’s Essentialism. Please join me in welcoming Ray Zinn. Congratulations, Ray. Ray Zinn: I found one bank in San José that was willing to loan me $300,000 if I matched it with $300,000. So, Micrel, my company that I started in 1978 was the very first semiconductor company or technology company, I should say technology company that received financing from a bank. The very first one. And that spawned another bank called Silicon Valley Bank, spun off of that because of the success that the bank had with us. So, anyway, I had to personally guarantee millions of dollars and I had to be profitable in the very first year. And if you think about that, as a technology company, being profitable in the very first year caused me to revise my business plan. Now, most semiconductor companies in my time period in the ’70s had to raise $50 million to start their company. And here I’m doing it with $600,000 and my friend says, “Are you crazy?” And I said, “Yeah, I’m crazy.” I’m going to do something no one’s ever done before. That’s me. I like to do things that no one has ever done. And so, that prompted me then to start this semiconductor company and I had to be profitable the very, very first year. In other words, I could not lose money. So, when I started the company, I had to change and revise the business plan, such that we became a service company, semiconductor service company, and not a product company. We weren’t able to start our own products until 1985, and when we developed our first data book with our own products. So, it took me seven years in order for me to get the money I needed to actually become a product company. So, in 1994, we were successful enough that we were able to go public on the Nasdaq market with the symbol MCRL, which became a very promising startup or IPO for Silicon Valley. And I’m very proud of that, the fact that I was able to take the company from $600,000 to a company that was doing millions of dollars, to go public in 1994. So, it was on my IPO. And I was in London doing my road show that I lost my vision. And I became legally blind in 1994 and I’m still legally blind today. But the board said, “How can you run the company if you’re legally blind?” I said, “I don’t know. I’m a graduate of San José State University, I’ll figure it out.” Anyway, no joke. San José State is one of the best universities in the entire country. It was that learning process that helped me being legally blind to run the most successful semiconductor company up to that point that had ever existed. And so, I was proud to say that we were profitable 36 out of 37 years with a loss in 2002. With the dot com implosion, we lost $50,000. Can you imagine only losing 50,000 when hundreds of companies were going out of business? We only lost 50,000. Thank you. Our focus was on our employees. My people, I loved my employees. I loved every single person. I knew every person. Even though we had thousands of people working for us, we knew our people and we loved our people. And that was important to me to have that kind of culture. So, our culture was honesty, integrity, dignity of every individual. We had respect for everyone. No matter what your role was, you were respected as though you were the CEO. And the last one was doing whatever it takes, no excuses. In other words, you don’t offer excuses, you just solve the problem. And so, that became a hallmark of our company, do whatever it takes. Then in 2015, I sold the company to Microchip. And then instead of retiring, I started writing books. And my first book was called Tough Things First. And the focus of Tough Things First is learning to do what you don’t like doing and doing it well. Professor Basu told me she hates to grade papers. And I thought, well, that’s something you got to learn to love to do. So, doing what you don’t like doing and doing it well is discipline. And that’s the thing that’s the most important for you to do, is learn discipline. And so, in my book, Tough Things First, what I did is I prioritized all the things I didn’t want to do first thing every morning. In fact, I’d even make a list the night before and I tackled those things very, very first thing. So, by doing that and getting that habit established of doing the tough things first, I was able to improve my productivity by 20%. And that became a hallmark of success of our company, was getting our employees to learn to do the tough things first every day. It’s called loving the things you hate. Now, I know that sounds strange, but loving the things you hate is important, because you avoid procrastination. Procrastination is the bane of mankind. As a student, the thing I hated to do, much like you, I hated homework. Homework was something I hate. I had to learn to love homework. How many of you love homework? I didn’t see anybody raise their hand. I loved homework, because I focused on it first thing. I got it out of the way. You see, only 20% of what you do is important. The things that really benefit you is only 20%. The other 80%, like grading papers or doing homework, is mundane. And so, the tendency is to avoid doing it. And that’s called procrastination. And so, avoid it like it was the plague. My other books, Zen of Zinn, I’ve written three of those. And my newest book, Essential Leader, has just came out. And that talks about the 10 principles of being a successful leader. So, I want you to take away from my talk to you today, is to learn to do the tough things first. Learn to love, love the things you hate. Now, it’s dead quiet in here when I said that, but that’s what you learn to do. Now, the last thing I want to tell you that’s important for you to know before I sit down, and that is you have a limited amount of time to develop your career. Your career has to be developed within the first 10 to 15 years. Write that down, 10 to 15 years, you’re dead otherwise. After that, you’re done. You might as well just retire. So, 10 to 15 years, don’t waste that time. You’re on the precipice of a great experience. You’ve got the education, now you need the experience. Experience and knowledge is wisdom, and you need to develop that wisdom. As I said earlier, you have attended one of the best universities in the entire country and you deserve to promote that. And I hope that when you graduate and you get up like me, that you’ll give back. And I did that with a program called ZinnStarter. ZinnStarter is a program at San José State University, where we help fund students who want to develop or learn to start a company, run a company, because nine out of 10 companies fail after the first three years. And so, we want you to be successful at that, and so we have this program at San José State called ZinnStarter. And you’re welcome to become involved in it if you want to become an entrepreneur, but you have to be in school to do it. So, maybe for you, you’re going to have get your advanced degrees. But anyway, remember, don’t give up. Keep pushing harder. People who give up are losers, and you guys are not losers. Thank you, and God bless you and your endeavors as you now proceed forth in the next important phase of your life. Go Spartans. Rob Artigo: That, of course is, Ray Zinn doing the commencement speech at San José State. Nice work, Ray. Congratulations. Looked like it was a lot of fun for you. Ray Zinn: It was fantastic. Rob Artigo: Now, I would call it an energized speech. And the takeaways from the clip that we played are that these students that are graduating now, going into the world, should keep two things in mind. They need to do the tough things first and use it to develop discipline. Ray Zinn: Exactly. Discipline is doing what you don’t like, doing it, doing it well. And I focus on that during my commencement speech, because we’re always going to be faced with challenges that we really don’t want to have to deal with. Rob Artigo: Yeah. You also mentioned that you are legally blind. And the teleprompter is there. I don’t know if you noticed that, because I know that you have some sight. It’s just you’re legally blind and you have some visual cues. You can see shapes and things like that going on around you. But the teleprompters are there, like the president speaking. And I think somebody who didn’t know that you were legally blind would think that you were using the teleprompter, but you weren’t. You were going right off the top of your head in that speech. I mean, I guess you practiced, but it came across like you were reading off the teleprompter. And I mean if you were reading off the teleprompter, it was really well done. But obviously, you weren’t doing it on the teleprompter. Ray Zinn: So, when you talk about legally blind, it means I can’t drive on the highway or I can’t drive period. And so, my vision’s limited to distance. In other words, I can see things a little bit further away. And I see things, it’s just that it’s not clear enough for me to read. So, if the pitch of the words were large enough, then I could read it. But the speech was relatively long. Not long. I should say it was 2,000 words. And to put that up on the teleprompter, I’d be focused too much on it. So, to your point, I did somewhat memorize it and then gave it just verbatim as though I was reading it. Rob Artigo: Did you gauge reaction to the speech afterwards? Did you talk to some of the students? Did people come up and congratulate you on the speech? And did they give you any inspiration from it? Ray Zinn: Sure. I mean both written and verbally at the commencement, sure. They loved it. And according to the president of the school, it’s one of the best commencement speeches they’ve ever heard. Rob Artigo: Well, you being a real alumni, the first and only master’s of science degree holder from San José State, from so many years ago in that challenge as well, I’m sure they appreciated it. And I want to tell people, we will put the link for that whole commencement speech up, so that if you want to listen to it or watch it, you can and get the whole flavor of it. It’s not a long speech. Like you said, it’s 2,000 words. I think it ends up being somewhere around 16 minutes or something like that. It’s a pretty tight speech, but it’s also a great story. If you want to get the full flavor, you can watch the video. Also, join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Your questions and comments are always welcome. Follow Ray Zinn on X, and Facebook, and LinkedIn. And of course, pick up Ray’s books. Tough Things First, and the Zen of Zinn series one, two, and three on sale now. The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader. Thank you, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.…

1
Inspiration 7:52

8 weeks yang lalu7:52

7:52

Do you often think of the words that exist within words and how they expand and deepen meaning? In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn talks an about the word inspiration. Rob Artigo: This is a good reading that we’re going to do here. This is from the Zen of Zinn 3, your third book in this series, inspirational quotes, Proverbs and things like that that you have written over time. And let me just read one of them. This is from page 215. I flip through these every once in a while just looking for different ones that catch my attention and might be worthy of a podcast. And I think this one is, so let’s read this one. It’s very short. You wrote, “Blended into the word inspiration is the word spirit, so having inspiration is receiving ideas or thoughts by being in spirit. This happens when we are contemplating deeply in almost a spiritual way. To be truly inspired takes a thoughtful meditation, somewhat prayerful in nature, keep our thoughts pure and devoid of worldly things will greatly enhance inspiration.” So that was interesting and that’s the end of the writing there. Talk to me about inspiration having the word spirit blended in it, and what was your thought process when you came up with this? Ray Zinn: It came to me that people who are truly inspired tend to be more spiritual. In other words, they’re not just out there in your face. These people are more humble. They’re more reflective. They think more deeply about something. They’re not casual. And so that’s what I meant about people who are thoughtful, who are inspired. And that’s how you write a book. Actually, a book is written because you’re inspired, and that comes across in the book. Otherwise, it just becomes something like physics book or something. You want to be inspired. Like when I gave my commencement address, you want to inspire those young people or those people you’re trying to reach. And to do that, you have to be thoughtful. You have to be deeply humble and prayerful and inspirational in the way you address people. Being upfront, not condescending, avoiding using vulgar language also helps you to be more inspirational. Rob Artigo: You think that one of the contributors to positive motivation comes from that part of contemplating the deep spiritual idea and thinking? Ray Zinn: Yes, sure. Absolutely. People can tell when you’re inspired because you’re not coming across worldly. You come across more authentic. And that’s what people want. People want you to be authentic, real, not made up, not false, not doctored. You want to come across as a real person. Rob Artigo: It’s interesting you talk about authenticity. That’s something that has come up a lot in politics these days. The politicians are doing lots of videos and they’re putting them on YouTube and X and whatnot to garner attention and things. One of the criticisms often is that they don’t come across as being authentic, and part of that is that they aren’t really coming from a place of authenticity and of spiritual fitness. Ray Zinn: Well, we all have our, as you would, ghosts or skeletons in the closet. And so people don’t expect you to be perfect. They’re not looking for a perfect person. But what they are looking for is somebody who’s authentic, who is real, who is looking out for their best interest and not their own. So if you look like all you’re doing is pumping yourself up, if you’re just focused on you, if everything that you say is I and me and whatever, then you’re not going to come across as authentic. The most authentic people are people who are interested in you, the listener, as opposed to interested in themselves. That’s where you’re going to get the authenticity or genuine response from an inspired person. Rob Artigo: Yeah, I suppose that if you are authentic, that will inspire other people just by kind of a reciprocal thing. If you’re inspired and you come across as authentic, the person who’s perceiving it also can be inspired by your words and your actions. Ray Zinn: You want them to be listeners, okay? And if they’re turned off, if you turn them off, then they’re no longer going to be inspired because the only way you’re going to inspire somebody is if they’re listening and they’re listening intently. So you want to come across as a very humble, very humble, and genuine person. I’m interested in you. I’m not talking about me. So avoid talking about yourself. People don’t care to hear about yourself. They want to hear about them. They want to know how you’re going to help them. How can I help? When you do your inspirational conversation, as you would, just say, “How can I help?” in your mind. Not that you’re going to say it out loud, but you would just say, in my mind, “How can I help this person?” That’s when you become inspirational. Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, good conversation. I should tell the listeners that if they want to continue the conversation, they can check you out at ToughThingsFirst.com. Questions and comments are always welcome. Also, follow Ray on X, Facebook and LinkedIn, and pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First and the Zen of Zinn series, 1, 2, and 3. On sale now, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals that Make Up The Essential Leader. Thank you, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.…

1
When is Dishonesty Justified? 8:42

9 weeks yang lalu8:42

8:42

There are differing views on justifying dishonesty. Revenge or righting wrongs with more wrongs seems to be the default position of many these days. But in this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn says there is an honest answer to this question. Rob Artigo: Ray, you recently wrote a musing that caught my attention. I thought this is surely going to be a good conversation because people need to hear it in modern times, we definitely need to be reminded of this. This is what you wrote. There is no legitimate excuse for dishonesty. In Victor Hugo’s famous story, Les Miserables, the main character, Jean Valjean, stole a loaf of bread because he was hungry. It was still dishonest for Jean Valjean to take something that wasn’t his just because he was trying to survive. We often try to rationalize dishonesty because of some reason we believe is for the better good. There is nothing good about being dishonest, no matter our motive. We can choose between the lesser of two evils, but evil is still evil and we will need to live with the consequences. Just remember, we will need to live with the consequences of our choices, whether they are good or evil. And I would imagine, Ray, that the inspiration behind this was just seeing so many people, including politicians, justifying their actions by saying, well, because somebody else is doing something wrong, I have to do something wrong. And it ends up becoming a problem for everybody. Ray Zinn: Yes. Last night I was talking with a friend of mine who was in the Vietnam War. He was in the trenches, as you would. He was over in Vietnam and actually fighting literally with a gun and a rifle or whatever. What was interesting was he felt because the Vietnamese were so dishonest, in other words, they didn’t follow, as you would, the Queensborough rules of conduct, as you would, that they were allowed then to do similar, in other words, fight fire with fire. And I thought that was kind of interesting because oftentimes we tend to fight fire with fire and rather than whether what we’re doing is honest, so is there an excuse to be dishonest or not to be doing what’s correct or right? I’m sure there is an excuse, but it doesn’t make it right just because we have a good excuse. And I thought this would be good in this podcast to talk about, is there a good excuse to do something dishonest or not something that’s ethical? And we could get a lot of argument and people not agreeing with this, but it is worthwhile talking about how important is being totally honest. And I think that at the end of the day, no good deed goes unpunished and there’s a lot of truth to that. Often helping somebody else, you end up hurting yourself, as you would. We could get a lot of people disagreeing with, is there any reason to be dishonest? And I stand by my statement in my musing that there is no good reason to be dishonest. Rob Artigo: Yeah. And just simply doing wrong. The saying is, ends justify the means. And I think we live in an era right now where a lot of people think it doesn’t matter really how bad my behavior is, if the end justifies the means, and whether that is stopping law enforcement from doing their jobs or setting a church on fire or something like that. People get it in their heads that whatever their motive is and whatever the end goal is, that they can do anything necessary. There’s even a protest organization out there called, By Any Means Necessary. Just in the name it’s very threatening. By any means necessary, and I think that that’s what you’re talking about here is that just because you feel like you’ve been wronged doesn’t mean you should go wrong other people. Ray Zinn: Well, it’s that end justifies the means concept. As I said, I was talking to this friend of mine last night about his experience in Vietnam. We had certain rules and rules of engagement, as you would, and they wanted to go around those rules of engagement and kind of fight fire with fire, and it was difficult for them to not, as they call clipping in football, or there’s another term for it in hockey where you slam them up against the boards and anger is what drives people to do dishonest things, is really the root of it’s called anger. We deviate from our honesty, as you would, our integrity, when we’re angry. So to avoid doing that, you just try to avoid being angry. Try to look at the positive side, try to, as you would, let them slap the other side of your face, that biblical saying. Rob Artigo: Yeah, turn the other cheek. Ray Zinn: Right, strike, if they strike you on one side, turn the other side, let them strike you there. I know that sounds hard. I mean, I know that sounds bad. I know that some time ago a woman whose daughter was raped and murdered by, this is in Germany, this German mother, her daughter was raped and murdered by this criminal. She went into the court with a loaded gun and shot him seven times. Of course she’s going to pay for that. You say, is that justified? Is she justified taking this into her own hands? And some people would argue, yes. I mean, yeah, because he killed her daughter, then she had a right to kill him. That’s why we have rules. That’s why we have laws. If we don’t obey the laws, then we become a lawless society. While I might empathize with that woman for wanting to kill or did kill that criminal, that murderer, we still have to follow the laws. I mean, it’s like going down the freeway. Just because you feel that the speed limit is not authorized or not correct, doesn’t mean you should go ahead and break it because you will pay a price for it. There’s no deed, no bad deed will not ultimately go unpunished. So they say that there’s no good deed that goes unpunished either, but certainly no bad deed will ultimately go unpunished. Rob Artigo: Well, I’ll give you another saying as we wrap this up. When you first set out for an act of revenge, you first dig two graves because it’s going to be both of you that go down. I think that’s the lesson here is that if you try to correct a wrong or a perceived wrong and you do it by creating another wrong, then like you said here, you have to live with the consequences of your choices, good or evil. Ray Zinn: That’s right. Rob Artigo: Join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Your questions and comments are welcome. Follow Ray on X, Facebook and LinkedIn and pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First. And as you know, the Zen of Zinn series is out there, one, two, and three. On sale now, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader. Thanks, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.…

1
Professional Development 12:29

10 weeks yang lalu12:29

12:29

It’s not enough to succeed at first. We must continue to excel. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn talks about the need for constant self improvement and professional development. Rob Artigo: So I guess the question here is when is it okay to neglect skill building and updating knowledge, your knowledge of work or whether just self-improvement? I think that based on what I know about you, the answer is you should never stop. Right? Ray Zinn: Yeah, exactly. I mean, you stop living too, and that’s kind what it is. I mean, if you want to be considered wise in your profession, it’s coupling knowledge and experience together. You just can’t have just experience because if experience would do it, then you wouldn’t need knowledge. I mean, the trades type things, Walters Carpenters and so forth, that’s a trade okay? And if you’re just going to rely on your experience to create your product or your output, then you’re going to be stagnant. You’re not going to advance yourself. As an example on welding, they started out with stick welding, which is using a stick along with metal, I mean a welding router along with your welder to create the joint that you want to create with that weld. But now they got lasers. And so without that knowledge, without keeping enhancing your knowledge on welding and the technology available, you’re going to stagnate. Just having purely experience is not going to help you grow. You need that knowledge to advance yourself. As they say, you got to stay up with the times. That’s how you get it through knowledge or education. Rob Artigo: The technology changes. And if you are working only on the old technology, when it’s time for you to work or keep up with everybody else, you’re not going to be able to do it. I remember my father working with AutoCAD, but before he worked with AutoCAD to design circuit boards, he used rolls of tape that were a varying thickness, and he would line them out on that. He would use a drafting board, and he would create this poster basically with all these lines showing where all these different items went. And so he’d create for amplifiers for example, it has different resistors and whatnot all around it. And so he would design these things using tape, and then if he never went to AutoCAD, which is a computer-based form of doing that same thing, when the technology was just emerging, he learned how to do it. So when it was happening, he was learning it. If he didn’t do that, he would’ve just been left spending hours rolling these tapes out, whereas the technology allowed him to do it much faster and he had to keep up with that. So it sounds to me like the value in telling people you need to stay up on knowledge is very broad and the value is there across the board. But if you just take it down to the fact that, hey, if you’re using this technology in your work right now, chances are it’s going to change in the next year or two years or three years. You should be aware of those changes as they’re happening and stay up with it if you want to show your value to your employer. Ray Zinn: Well, it’s even more critical now than it has been 50 years ago because technology’s changing on a monthly or daily basis. I’ve been out of semiconductor industry for 10 years now, and I’m already losing it. I’m already falling behind because the technology has advanced so much in the last 10 years that I have no idea what they’re talking about now even though I was an expert in that area in my younger years. It is just that being out of the industry now for 10 years really caused me to fall behind. So don’t underestimate the need for staying up to date, whether it be computerization or whether it be some other skill set that you need to enhance your skill set. Rob Artigo: Yeah, I mean, we’re talking about your bottom line. It’s going to go to your pocketbook, it’s going to go to whether or not you stick around at a company. Really, one of the problems that people have is they’re not motivated to do it. They go, “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t care about that. I don’t want want to take any more classes.” I think… How do we motivate people to recognize the value in staying up to date? I mean, like you said, it’s changing so rapidly. It’s an imperative that you pursue knowledge to stay up to date. Ray Zinn: Well, they say there’s no substitute for experience, and I agree basically with that. But there’s also no substitute for knowledge. Just relying on experience only will stagnate you. So the combination of knowledge and experience will get you wisdom. And that’s the key is to strive for wisdom with staying up to date technology wise with the knowledge and learning, but also keeping your experience close at hand. So use it or lose it as they say it. Rob Artigo: Yep. Yeah, it definitely worked out for me in radio, I mentioned my dad already once, but I’ll mention him again. He would go to the National Broadcasters Association conference every year. And when he was there one time in Vegas, he came back and he bought me a Compact Disc player. And this Compact Disc player was a recording device. So when I did interviews for radio, I could do the interview in the street on the street or whatever, and I could actually splice the video up or the audio up so that I can line up sound bites one, two, and three, and I could plug a speaker in and then play the sound over my phone in succession. So sound bite one, sound bite two, sound bite three. And then that set me apart, so much more advanced than the other people who were still using tape decks that it led to me getting jobs because I was ahead of the game. I was bringing technology that other people hadn’t even thought of using into the workplace. And so I was an easy… people wanted me to work for them because I was advanced. And I think that that was a lesson that always stuck with me that I should always try to be ahead of the game if I can. And so learning was always a priority for me. Ray Zinn: I remember talking to a friend of mine who was in his 70s, so he got a new phone, new mobile phone, and he was saying, “Well, I’m going to have to get my grandkids to help me get this thing set up.” And I thought, “Well, you can’t do it yourself. Well, no. Well, these kids know this stuff and I don’t know it.” And you probably heard that before, that the older generation is not keeping up to date with technology and they’re being ridiculed for not even knowing how to operate a computer. But our younger generation, our kids, they know that stuff hands down because they got that knowledge. I mean, that knowledge was passed through them through schooling or through their friends or other ways. They gained that knowledge that the older people just are not staying up to date with the technology and they just don’t know how to use it. I also know a fellow who’s in his 80s who’s never had a mobile phone. He just uses this landline, but now in his area where he lives, they’re oscillating the landline. You can’t get landlines. So I said, “Well, now how are you going to communicate?” And he says, “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have to start writing letters again,” he says. I said, “Well, once you get a mobile phone…” “Ah, I don’t [inaudible 00:08:29] device [inaudible 00:08:31].” But technology is now advancing to the point where he’s not going to be able to communicate because his landline is going go away. And landlines are a thing of the past now almost. Rob Artigo: Yes. I don’t even have one anymore. Ray Zinn: Well, there you go. You know what I’m saying? Now you either keep up to date or you’re going to lose capability, so anyway… Rob Artigo: And then technology changes and does make itself obsolete too. I mean, that mini disc player I was talking about, if you buy one, you have to buy it used, and it’s an old one to get the same productivity out of it that I got, but it’s so outdated that they don’t even make them anymore. So it was so great back then, but it’s not helping me out now. Ray Zinn: Well, I mean the first car was you didn’t even have a starter motor. You had a crank in the front. Rob Artigo: Yeah, you had to crank it. Ray Zinn: And you cranked it to start it, and then you would advance the throttle and the way it would go. Now the cars are so complex that you have to have some basic knowledge of a computer or you can’t even drive it. Rob Artigo: I know we’re running short on time. I was watching a TV show called Banacek, an old TV show from the 70s, and he’s an insurance investigator who goes and looks for lost or stolen items and recovers them so the insurance company doesn’t have to pay the whole $3 million for something. And one of them was a smart computer where you put in symptoms for medical information and it would spit out the diagnosis and the treatment. And the funny thing was is the computer took up the entire room and my wife and I were commenting that our phones can do the same thing with 1000% more accuracy. So yeah, great podcast, Ray. Thanks a lot. I should tell the listeners that if they’d like to continue the conversation, they can at toughthingsfirst.com. If they have questions or comments, they can submit them there. I know Ray, you get them and you answer them so you can follow Ray on X and Facebook and LinkedIn and the books are out there, Tough Things First and the Zen of Zinn one, two, and three. On sale now, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills and Attributes and Fundamentals that Make up the Essential Leader. Thanks, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks Rob. Good to be with you today.…

1
Chat Bot Quandary 13:12

11 weeks yang lalu13:12

13:12

It turns out chat bots for chat or phone-in help lines are a mixed bag of results. Is the pendulum swinging back in favor of live human help? In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn talks pros and cons of Ai assistance and human communication barriers. Ray Zinn: Hi, Rob. Good to be with you today. Rob Artigo: I thought we’d talk a little bit about chatbots. If you call an organization, and you get a voice comes on, and it’s an artificial voice, and you’re sort of navigating the choices of what you want to get to using this computer voice. Or it could be also doing one of the … If you’re online, and you’re doing a chat with a artificial intelligence giving you the answers right there instead of a person. Rob Artigo cont: Well, this company called Klarna had switched to chatbots 100%, and they were all in for chatbots. I read this story about them. It says Klarna … Swedish company. It’s called a FinTech firm. Initially, they replaced much of their customer service staff with AI chatbots, claiming they performed the work of 700 employees. That’s the lure. That’s what you … You’re like, well, hey, look, if I can have a 24/7 auto voice that doesn’t need to get paid or eat or need a break, then that should cut down on your employees. This story goes on to say, due to declining service quality and customer dissatisfaction, the company’s now rehiring human agents. The CEO acknowledged that the overemphasis on cost-cutting led to poor service and emphasized the necessity of human interaction for customer satisfaction. The new hiring strategy involves remote, contract-based roles targeting students and rural workers, raising concerns about job stability. This shift highlights the limitations of AI in handling complex, empathetic customer interactions and underscores the enduring value of human support. We have talked about on this podcast … And if I remember correctly, you were somewhat fond of the idea of like, “I don’t care if it’s an AI voice. All I want is the result.” You get on there, and you’re going to talk to a computer. Fine. I just need to navigate where I need to go and get the answer I want. Have we gotten to a point where the trend to cost cut in the direction of AI as a good thing … Is that the trend we’re still going to see, or are we starting to see a kind of reverse of that- Ray Zinn: Well, it’s interesting you bring that up because a lot of companies like Home Depot use that AI thing to try to help you with finding what you are looking for. I hate those kind of things, at least right now, because they’re not very good. They get confused. Either your accent or some other form of communication fouls up the AI, and you get off and to a different thing. And I’ve actually hung up at least half the time Home Depot because I would just give up. They’re often women’s lingerie when I’m looking for timber. It’s totally ridiculous, and we’re seeing it online too. The search boxes that you can do to find what you want … Unless you can do it pretty accurately what you want, you’re going to be searching for the … You’ll find the wrong thing. I’m sure it’s going to improve over time. I mean, it’s got to get better, but as we know, everything has a learning curve, and sometimes companies move too quickly to depend on things like AI to reduce our head count and cut costs. Are we there yet? We’re getting there, but we’re not there. In other words, the search engines are getting better. I’ve noticed that. I was looking for some sprinkler parts. And in fact, this was two days ago I was looking for sprinkler parts. And now I was able to find what I wanted more quickly than I did three or four years ago. I was looking for sprinkler parts, but sprinkles came up. The stuff you put on cookies or cakes. It’s improving, and I’m sure over the next several years you will be able to get what you want or find what you want using these chatbots as you would. And by the way, I have noticed they’re getting better. It’s just that there’s just nothing like having a human on the other end. Now, I’ll admit that another company that I’ve had trouble with is Dish network, which is a TV app, and I found out that they’re using foreign countries. In other words, they’re using people in Indonesia or Philippines, and their accent in English is terrible. And I’m talking to a real human, but I can’t understand what they’re saying, and they’re not understanding what I’m saying. It’s a similar thing that we’re facing with AI. It’s a different language, as you would, whether it be Russian, German, English, or Spanish or whatever. The accent that we use … And I like that word accent because accent means that what emphasis you’re using doesn’t affect how the results you get. It will get better. It’s not there yet. I wish Dish didn’t keep using these countries that I don’t have any idea what they’re saying because of their accent. That’s causing a problem. Not just AI, but using customer service and countries where their accent, as you would, is not good enough for communication. It’s not just AI. It’s also communicating with other humans that have a different language barrier than you do. Rob Artigo: I was literally on the phone trying to order a medication, and the person who was in the United States had an accent. And it’s not my fault, and it’s not their fault, but it’s just a communication problem. And literally, at the end of our conversation, I was in the same boat I was in when I called them on Friday, so I ended the conversation. And she thought that I was asking for one thing, and I was not asking for that. I was telling her I already did that. It does happen, and it doesn’t have to be a foreign party. Another thing I have is I can listen to, watch TV, and then I have a person with a British accent come on, and I’m okay with the British accent, but for some reason the tone of the voice with the British accent makes it drop out in my ear. I have no idea why, but I can’t hear them. I don’t know what they’re saying. It’s funny because here we are talking about the chatbot, where the chatbot would be an easy solution for that kind of a problem. It turns out that you also have the same kind of problem with the chatbot because the chatbot will misunderstand what you’re saying as well. Ray Zinn: Well, again, when you’re talking to a person that has a different accent or different language barrier, your brain’s not working the way it’s meant to work. It’s still trying to translate. For example, if you’re not familiar with a particular language, and you’re trying to get some instructions or directions, you’re trying to translate that language into English, and so that’s why you’re not hearing it is because it takes time for you to translate it. I speak several languages, and I don’t think in English. I think in the language that I speak. That allows me to do it more fluently. If I have to do a translation, then I could use my phone or some other app a way to communicate that I rattle it off and to translate, and then it gives it to me in their language, and I can hand them the phone and let them read it. It’s slow, but that’s the way you can do it is you’d have to actually have a translator that allows you to communicate in your native tongue as you would. There’s certain languages that I don’t know as well, and I have to translate it back to English or start with English and then try to convert to their language. I remember I was at the grocery store, and I was looking for some eggs. And I said, “[Spanish 00:09:33].” The girl got very incensed because huevos has a more negative term and to some Spanish-speaking people, but in Spanish, or in classic Spanish, huevos means eggs, but it also has a bad connotation to other Spanish-speaking countries. And they use the word blanquilla, which that’s not a word that I use in speaking Spanish, but in other words, the word I used initially, huevos, has a bad connotation to certain countries, and so they use a different word. You got to be careful about the words you use. Even though you’re speaking in quote quote their tongue, their language, it may not be the dialect that they’re familiar with. When communicating, communicating is not easy at all, and that’s what AI is supposed to do, is it’s supposed to help us communicate. I was writing a speech, and somebody told me to use AI to do the speech. You give it certain clues as to what you want to do. You tell them the subject. You tell them certain key things you would like to say, and you also use your own speech for the AI to understand your words. They create the speech for you. When I read it, I said, “Holy mackerel. That’s not me. That’s not the way I would’ve given this speech,” and so I had to start with my own ideas of the speech I wanted to give. I couldn’t use that one that was created. You got to be careful. Right now, the technology is not good enough to output what you want. Rob Artigo: One day, it may be, and it probably will be good enough, but it definitely is a word of caution to be careful when you’re using it. Well, join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Your questions and comments are always welcome. Follow Ray on X and Facebook and LinkedIn. And of course, pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First and the Zen of Zinn series one, two, and three, and on sale now, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills and Attributes and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader. Thanks, Ray. Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.…

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