Occupy Wall Street has gone viral. As of today, “occupations” in solidarity are now in dozens of US cities, from Austin, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Denver, Illinois, Knoxville, Portland (Maine), Tennessee, Texas, as well as more than 20 other locations in California and Florida. Demonstrations are also taking place in Australia, Canada, Japan, and Mexico. And most recently, major labor unions are now on board, bringing millions more.
Statement of Occupy Wall Street:
“We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we’re working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.”
Last night, Occupy Wall Street had their biggest protest to date. Approximately 10,000+ were there, including dozens of other organizations focusing on anything from labor to environmental issues.
So what’s going on?
Simple: people are tired of waiting and trusting others have their best interest at hand. Tired of trusting those who promise to take care of them and then do the opposite. Mainly government and big business.
Occupy Wall Street’s strategy is an excellent one for those also wanting work. Instead “looking” for a job, consider taking on the mindset of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur (corporate entrepreneur).
And create it.
Five Steps to Creating Your Dream Job (or customer):
- 1. Skills baby, skills—identify your top three. Just three. What are you best at and have a track record at doing well? And/or who can vouch for you around those skills? Crucial: merge these skills with your passion… what do you love to do.
- 2. Your Top 10—list the 10 companies you would most love to work for. Rank them in order of favorite to least.
- 3. Where it’s hurting—determine each of those company’s top 2-3 pains. What are they struggling with most? Make sure those pains pertain to your skills. Often the company may not necessarily know what you come up with as their pain. That is usually great! Research to get the answers.
- 4. Pain relief—using your skills and experience, determine UnReasonable (but realistic) solutions to those pains. Ones they can implement with someone like you helping them. Can’t figure out how to do this alone, find a team of experts to join you.
- 5. Aim carefully—identify the key decision maker at each of those 10 companies. Then go after that person. Put an amazing package together for them and hit them up. Don’t know them personally? Find someone who does, or who knows someone who might know him/her.
These five steps are no different than what entrepreneurs do. They identify a challenge or problem in the marketplace. Then they come up with a solution.
Next they identify the target market and customer and determine how best to deliver the marketing message to them.
Then they go full out to get it to market.
And that is what the Occupy Wall Street folks are doing. They have identified a serious problem and their solution is to communicate loud and clear that it is not OK for the 1% to take more than its fair share at the expense of the other 99%.
And I was there last night helping them deliver this message to Wall Street and government.
Action Steps for the Week:
Looking for a job/work or a customer?
If so, stop! Instead, create it.
Use your creativity and ingenuity. Use the five steps above to guide you to identifying UnReasonable solutions for 10 companies you would love to work for.
Once you’ve got them, approach them in reverse order (i.e. start with the company you would like to work for least.) Make your mistakes on them before going to your top choices.
Many managers and entrepreneurs will welcome the ingenuity you would bring them. It will put your name at the top of their list for new hires, without a doubt.