Oct 19, 2011
my mistakes have been some of the best teachers of my life.
Kelly Cutrone
seen from Argentina
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from China
seen from Italy
seen from Italy
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Mexico
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
my mistakes have been some of the best teachers of my life.
Kelly Cutrone
be the first one in and the last one to leave
“many young people who arrive at my office and say they want what I have are not going to get it for one simple reason: they’re not willing to do the work.” be consistent. don’t be great one day, but slack the next because you feel you pulled enough weight the day prior. be your best, always. if you are consistently great, you will move on to greatness. you get out what you put in. plus it makes the end results so much more worth it. to know you came from nothing, but you never complained and you were always willing to put in the work, you are more appreciative of your success. i remember seeing this during school. i left the art institute of seattle with only a few friends. not because i’m not friendly. nor were others not worthy of being my friend. but because only a few individuals had the same work ethic as i. we wanted something for ourselves. and instead of expecting our professors to pass us through because we were cute and we showed up, we worked our asses off to get the grades that made us worthy to move up in the program. to this day, i hold these girls to a much higher standard than any other graduates and students i worked with or met. that may sound like they have more pressure to be great, but one, more pressure isn’t always a bad thing, and two, they are some of the most respectable, intelligent, hard working, persistent women i have ever known and they are completely worthy of high standards. not to mention that they each hold impressive positions in impressive companies. my colleagues, my friends, made something of themselves. and to this day they pull some major overtime to ensure their projects are given more than the proper attention needed for completion.
give good phone
i’ll touch on this more in my communication month, but always keep in mind that everything you do is a reflection of you. and sometimes, especially in today’s “loss of human contact” society, you set yourself apart by just closing your email application and picking up the phone. not to mention you get results and answers much quicker.
if you have to cry, take it out back
if you make a mistake, fix it. don’t whine. don’t cry. it’s not about feeling sorry for yourself. take that energy outside. sure, you may have times of feeling overwhelmed, or mistreated, but it doesn’t benefit anyone to act out or tear over it. it distracts from solutions. and frankly, as I know from a past personal experience, it can forever portray you as less professional or more fragile. your future work will not be taken as seriously and you will create a negative atmosphere for yourself and maybe even others. vent all you want… after hours. additionally, once you enter the workplace, all of your other problems should disappear. you paste a smile on your face that even the cheshire cat would be envious of. your coworkers and employers are not your friends (well of course some are, but in a slightly more guarded way), and they most certainly don’t get paid to provide therapy. you are being paid to do a job. period. having said that, if you are working in an environment that holds an “open door policy,” don’t be afraid to pop in from time to time if you need to ask for more time on a project, so long as you are being honest about the size of the project and doing it early enough in its execution (not an hour before deadline), but keep your chats strictly professional and you will forever be seen only as that.
mama wolf speaks
this is the idea that your workplace is like a wolf pack (cue in zach galifianakis from the hangover). just like any wolf pack, there is the alpha. the mama wolf. or papa. but there is always a leader. now no matter the industry you work in, though she focuses on the cutthroat industry of fashion, you must absolutely look at yourself in order of the pack. or in work terms, you should have a title, which entitles you to act as such (i.e. assistant’s assist, director’s direct). this means you must absolutely respect your position and your ranking order in the pack. you may be entry level and think you know it all, fresh out of graduation (let’s face it, unfortunately, my generation believes it with or without the degree), but you are not senior unless you are the boss. this also means your daily tasks, which many youngins would think as small, are all a part of a bigger picture. menial jobs are just as important as any other task. you must always treat it as such. in addition, don’t think you are going to get a gold star every time you do these tasks. you get paid to do it, your employer knows you do it, whether they tell you or not. you may never get a thank you for coming in early or taking out the trash, but by treating it with great importance, it will be noticed. “if you fail to treat your internships and early work experiences as the amazing learning experiences they are, you sabotage opportunities with the company you’re working for and you fail to cultivate the friends and mentors who might be resources or might give you recommendations in the future.” these early years are the years you learn to hunt. but always keep in mind, that your mama wolf will always share her food with her pups. this means she will look out for you, she will support you, trust you, and invest more into you.
and other things your mother never told you
as we near the end of my first month, it’s time to discuss one of the most relevant topics of the workplace. at least for a woman in the work place today. a man too, actually. kelly cutrone speaks to it in her book, in the eighth chapter in which the book is named after, if you have to cry, go outside. and just as she says at the beginning of the chapter, “get ready for a no-bullshit, to-the-point instruction manual for the real modern workplace that details the unspoken rules you must know to pole-vault forward on your sword of truth, light, and ambition and not get stabbed by it.” i’ll speak to it in the next few posts.
finally, understand that selling the world--or your industry, or even just your boss--on your brand takes time. as already discussed, you know that the roads of your dreams are not paved with yellow brick; in fact, they may be paved with rejection letters. the people who succeed are often not just the people with the best-articulated brands; they're the people who respond to rejection by brushing themselves off and moving on, again and again.
Kelly Cutrone
ultimately, no matter how fabulous and well articulated a brand you have, it's of little use to you if you can't sell it to others. i'm talking about getting a job. the best thing you can do for your brand early on is to align it with powerful brands the represent your highest aspirations.
Kelly Cutrone