Inside this issue:
-Message from Joe Pelayo
-Steve Wozniak ~ Words to live by
-This issue’s Networking events – featuring two events for your HR Team
-Job Market update
-A heart-warming story from Network Newsletter subscriber Mike Goldman

Golden State Warriors

On April 3rd I attended the barbecue for Warriors season ticket holders. As I approached the former Director of Finance, and now President, of the Golden State Warriors Robert Rowell, I noticed that he wasn’t smiling. I was surprised – did he not recognize me without the suit and tie? I had helped get Robert as a speaker for a BayCFO event I helped organize last year…

“How are you doing, Robert?” I asked.

“Not so good” he said

“What’s the matter?”

“I didn’t care for your recent newsletter” He said.

“Oh you mean the one where I got down on the Bay Area sports scene. I wasn’t down on just the Warriors, heck look at the Raiders and the Niners – I got down on all the teams. Admit it Robert. The whole Bay Area had a bad year.”

“Well, I still didn’t appreciate it.”

Listen, I didn’t mean anything by it. I just want my team to win. It was a rough year for bay area sports… Robert, I’m a huge Warriors fan… you know that. You should see what I wrote in my new book about my Dad & I at our first Warriors game. I’m a season ticket holder for goodness sakes! You just watch. I’m gonna be your biggest ally.

“Okay.” He finally shook my hand.

Guess what. The Warriors started winning, seemed like every night out! They went 18-10 to end the season. Who did they beat? Playoff teams like Sacramento, Phoenix, Seattle and Houston. And they beat the Lakers by nearly 30 points!!! You heard it hear first, I, Joe Pelayo, herby guarantee that the Golden State Warriors will make the playoffs next year. I’m telling you it’s the beginning of something great. The new guy Baron Davis in Awesome! It’s going to be a great year! See you out there next season, Robert.

Words To Live By

“I found out when you are short of resources, which we were…and you don’t know how it is going to workout (at Apple)… I found out… the best work you do sometimes is when you haven’t done it before & when you’re short on resources.”

Steve Wozniak ~ speaking to the UCLA Anderson Alumni and the www.YEO.org, at the World Trade Club on February 9th, 2005

This Issue’s Networking Events
featuring two events for your Human Resources Team

Two events coming up might be of interest to your Human Resources Team.

First the 19th annual HR Symposium on May 11th,
The Future of HR: the Path Ahead at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
Details at http://www.hrsymposium.org

On Friday May 13th at the Sun Micro Systems Auditorium – Santa Clara Campus
“Seed the Future” – Practical tools for OD and HR Professionals
Details at http://www.sbodn.com

Job Market update

On April 20th I spoke to the Construction Financial Managers Association. Yes, there is a niche networking group for everything. They are having the hardest time ever finding executives.

As outlined in the excellent book, Impending Crisis, we are about to begin a time that will make recruiting in 1999 look like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s already started. We are now in an interesting time, where the candidates know it’s a “candidates market” and the companies don’t quite get it yet.

I researched articles from most of the country’s major newspapers for my speech and I can tell you for sure, the red hot national job market is heating up like a microwave and moving west. If not for the dotcom bust, we’d already be feeling it, even more so. You’ll be reading more and more about it. This is the beginning. Things get tougher every years starting in 2005. Don’t believe me, read the facts and statistics in Impending Crisis. The summary: 10,000,000 more jobs than people in 2010. To give you a point of reference, in the year 1999, remember how hard it was to recruit people back then? We were short 3,000,000 workers. Each year they track the new jobs created and the new graduates, retirements, etc. furthermore the Baby Boom Generation is retiring, 76,000,000 workers are being replaced by Generation X. Only 65,000,000! 15% fewer, as I said, things are going to get very interesting and you heard it here first in The Network!

Put the “golden handcuffs” on your best people A.S.A.P.

The Old Phone

THE OLD PHONE – a long one but worth it…
– Submitted by The Network! Newsletter subscriber Mike Goldman – Austin, Texas.

When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was “Information Please” and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone’s number and the correct time.

My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy.

I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear. “Information, please” I said into the mouthpiece just above my head. A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear.

“Information.”

“I hurt my finger…” I wailed into the phone, the tears came readily enough now that I had an audience.

“Isn’t your mother home?” came the question.

“Nobody’s home but me,” I blubbered.

“Are you bleeding?” the voice asked.

“No,” I replied. “I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.” “Can you open the icebox?” she asked.

I said I could.

“Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger,” said the voice.

After that, I called “Information Please” for everything. I asked her for help with my geography, and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me with my math. She told me my pet chipmunk that I had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts.

Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called, Information Please,” and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was not consoled. I asked her, “Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?”

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, “Wayne always remember that there are other worlds to sing in.”

Somehow I felt better.

Another day I was on the telephone, “Information Please.”

“Information,” said in the now familiar voice. “How do I spell fix?” I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much. “Information Please” belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me.

Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about a half-hour or so between planes. I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, “Information Please.”

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well. “Information.”

I hadn’t planned this, but I heard myself saying, “Could you please tell me how to spell fix?”

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, “I guess your finger must have healed by now.”

I laughed, “So it’s really you,” I said. “I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time?”

“I wonder,” she said, “if you know how much your call meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls.”

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

“Please do”, she said. “Just ask for Sally.”

Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered, “Information.” I asked for Sally.

“Are you a friend?” she said.

“Yes, a very old friend,” I answered.

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” she said. “Sally had been working part-time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago.” Before I could hang up she said, “Wait a minute, did you say your name was Wayne?” “Yes.” I answered.

“Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you.” The note said, “Tell him there are other worlds to sing in. He’ll know what I mean.”

I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.

Never underestimate the impression you may make on others.
Whose life have you touched today?
Lifting you on eagle’s wings. May you find the joy and peace you long for.
Life is a journey … NOT a guided tour.

Warm Regards,
Joe Pelayo

Joe Pelayo, C.P.C.
Joseph Michaels International
Global Recruiting Solutions
800-786-1099
Email: jpelayo@josephmichaels.com
Website: http://josephmichaels.wpengine.com
One of the top 75 Recruiters in the United States ~ Recruiter Life Magazine