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Monday June 15th, The WSJ had an article “Negotiating that Raise or Promotion” (Tessa West) I will comment on today.

Unless you are self-employed, most of us today aren’t negotiating for raises, we’re “negotiating” for holding on to our jobs and not being axed in a crashing economy. Forget the raise -nobody is giving any raises, folks. I’m thinking 30% of investment bankers are going to lose their jobs in the next year or so – and they don’t even know it. Who goes out the door first ? Juniors, of course.

I said negotiating with your BB as in Big Brother. See, I call your boss the Big Brother. (of course I know the biggest brother we often use the word for is the government, but what are you going to call your boss, Little Brother ?)

The only way you’ll still have a job in the next few months is if you’re hooking up yours to your boss’s.

We’re not living in a normal economy. We’re living in an economy suffocated by incompetence and artificial status hierarchies.

Back to the article

Tessa West says you need to ascertain your boss social hierarchy status: “hierarchies constantly shift”. Of course they do.

“What does your request ‘cost’ your boss in social capital ?”

Tessa West

“What problems does your request solve for your boss ?”

TW, The Wall Street Journal

Oh ya, like you thought bosses are those little angels here to help people in need. You can read the rest of the WSJ article at your leisure.

Know this: the boss, BB (nice sounding name by the way, bee-bee), whatever, only cares about his/hers social (organizational) status. You either understand this or you don’t.

What have you done for me lately ? is the name of an old song by Janet Jackson, but it is also your boss’s OS.

There you go, Adam Galinsky, “getting inside your boss’s head”.

Here comes my 20+ years of experience dealing with bosses: a very confident boss is just as bad, or worse, than an insecure boss. Bingo ! (Please don’t make this quote into another meme, I’ve had enough of those already).

You need to bring your boss up the ladder of confidence or he’ll lose you faster than a speeding bullet.

With a very confident boss, and we’re talking C-level here, you need to get him out of the stratosphere and back to breathing though the face masks we’re going to be using around one another for at least some time. Unless you’ve discovered a Covid-19 vaccine, he doesn’t care about you.

Talking about Covid-19, remember: there’s no such thing as an “invisible enemy” (I know you’ve heard that term a lot lately.) Your boss is vulnerable no matter what industry you work in or how high up in the hierarchy he’s in.

Let him know the higher up they are, the harder they fall.

I wrote this Book, The Book of the Underdog for people like you, who’ve had enough of being pushed aside and away. After dealing with the wild card bosses are for a very long time, I gave you straight up the truth about bosses, careers, negotiations and lifestyle improvements. Written in 2018, BOU is still the Manual for handling your bosses.

Mr. Savage: Max I am thrilled to have you here, even it’s just for 10 minutes.

Max: And I am thrilled to be here with you, even if it’s just for 10 minutes. As I like to say, if you don’t know what you’re doing in 10 minutes, 10 hours won’t get you there. So go ahead.

Mr. Savage: You’re going to double publish it on Medium, you said. Isn’t that a public relations risk ? After all, you’re not exactly mainstream.

Max: No, I am not. But I have to let the larger public know what I’m about.

Mr. Savage: The value proposition of you writing this personal blog goes beyond anything I’ve seen. And I’ve seen a lot.

Max: I am one of the most controversial bloggers in the world, and I have fans beyond the finance industry. In fact, some of my biggest fans are from outside this industry. I’ve opened a lot of doors for people who’s improved their lives with the tips and “School of Hard Knocks” I’ve kept running for 7 years.

Mr. Savage: Right. One of the latest thing we’ve seen is your fascination with the Game of Thrones. That series ended earlier this year.

Max: I am a late fan of the show, and I had to watch it all. You see different types of leaders throughout the show, and they all have something to teach. For example, the saying the “Night is Dark and Full of Darkness” could be the World is Worse and Full of Scumbags.” I wrote an amazing book last year. And you know what ? Your *leaders* and *fat cows* kept it under wraps. So I say: If anyone working here has it, you’d better not tell your co-workers and supervisors. There’s a tremendous amount of ill-will toward those who are getting up the career ladder. The elites have embraced virtue-signalling and the kakistocracy is full-swing. It is now the hardest it’s even been to be promoted from low-level or mid-level to upper-level employee. True in almost ANY industry or occupation. The most typical letter I get from readers starts with: “I’ve been here for so many years and haven’t been promoted once…” The managers refuse to promote the hard-workers. I’ve tried to give you some tools in that book.

Mr. Savage: The Book of the Underdog, yes. Are you saying the managers and C-suite keep a “blind spot” to the achievers that should otherwise get promoted ?

Max: Totally. It’s a willful blind spot. You’re not part of their “tribe”, a term I’ve used in the book.

Mr. Savage: And you told us how to deal with it. Word by word.

Max: Managers stage conflict all the times. Remember, they want to see you -the underlings- fight each other and lose. They will beat the dead horse (an unreasonable issue) so the messenger falls with it.

Mr. Savage: Ok, Max. What is the next direction for your blog ?

Max: You’ve seen we got a “Free Resources for the Free Minds” where the suggestions come from readers. Readers like you. Courses, classes, white papers, suggestions, it’s a lot in there. Since I moved the blog, readership has decreased. By a lot. Like 97%. We’re not interested in paupers and jumping jacks “trolls”, but in committed and serious readers. Readers who have a mission and purpose aligned with mine. Strap on your belts, this is going to be a rough road.

Mr. Savage: Any other messages for your readers ?

Max: You need to cull and curate your reading. Cut back or completely cut your social media consumption. Social media (especially Twitter) has become a cancer. Delete your social media apps from your phone. Spend time reading books, not social media feeds which are garbage.

Mr. Savage: Which books go well, or let me say it, which 3 books go best with reading the Book of The Underdog ?

Max: Good question. I would pair the Book of the Underdog with The Magician’s Way: What It Really Takes to Find Your Treasure by W. Whitecloud and with David Goggin’s Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds. The former is not so well -known and is fiction while the latter is a 2018 best-seller readers might already have. But there are dozens more that go well with mine.

Mr. Savage: Thanks, Max.

Note: Mr. Savage insisted he needed to watch a movie.

There

The two-tiered partner system has some lawyers who are equity partners while others are not (on salary only). The result of this partner system, modeled after investment banks operating system is the spread between the highest and lowest-paid partners is high, 43-to-1. Among its equity partners, the spread is nearing 9-to-1. Traditionally, “the best-paid partner made no more than three or four times the most junior at the nation’s top law firms.” -WSJ

Meanwhile firms that cherish seniority are fewer and fewer. There are some still, such as Cleary, Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP who are using a “modified lockstep model”.

Profit Machines

“In 2000, 78% of partners held equity in the firm, according to American Lawyer’s ALM Intelligence. Last year, 56% did.

Making partner doesn’t just take longer. It takes hustle. A few decades ago, partner titles were handed out largely on the basis of being technically proficient. Now being a business generator is a crucial component.”

WSJ

Hopefully you see how much harder it is to get to the top now.

If only there was something of help. Oh, no, here it is.

Head over to AMZ and get your copy today before your partners do.

I’m giving you this Christmas a Chapter from the Book of The Underdog, all free for your reading pleasure (the book consists of 30 chapters). At the same time, I lowered the price of the print book to $11.99. It’s all yours, so grab it today (I’ll end the special pricing in one week !) If you use the code GIFTBOOK18 on Amazon.com, now through Dec. 21, 2018 you get $5 OFF $20 or more of paperback books shipped and sold by Amazon !

But that’s not all.

I want you to go through this list of 10 Books that your Boss doesn’t want you to read  put together by Geoffrey James, Sales Machine writer at Inc.com. The books listed are dated, but they are still very good. Good material is valuable, it doesn’t matter if it came out in 2001 or whatever ! I have those books. You should, too. (Thank, you, Geoffrey) The links to the books are inside Geoffrey’s article.

G. James’ 10 Books Your BOSS DOESN’T WANT YOU to Read

21 Dirty Tricks at Work: How to Beat the Game of Office Politics by Mike Phipps

The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

Crazy Bosses by Stanley Bing

Cubicle Warfare: 101 Office Traps and Pranks by John Austin

Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the China Production Game by Paul Midler

The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible! by Otto Bettmann

Ask the Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job by Nick A. Corcodilos

The Gnostic Gospels edited by Willis Barnstone

The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams

The Book of The Underdog by Max Cantor: Chapter 21: book excerpt

21. How to Shun A Competitor

Suppose you’re competing against an individual of extreme ability who’s laden with awards; you’re not even close.

1. Paint them as freaky or weird. Use nicknames. Nicknames work because they leave a lasting impression in people’s mind. If this guy is an Olympian in rowing or swimming with a massive frame, you can start calling him Manatee. Of course, the relationship is not direct or precise, but manatee -the water mammal- suggests lazy, and overweight. Manatees are also known as sea cows.  Some of the best nicknames you get from real life behavior. If he is a martial artist, you could name him Sparrow. If she is a woman who is a runner you could call her Bops or Shuttle. Two-words pairs always work: Dumb-Dumb, Clam-Clam, Beem-Beem.
   
   
2. These are not complimenting: “Don’t fall over backwards”, “Don’t go to the hardware store for milk”, “Did you get a moon burn?” If you use those on people, you’re subtly insulting. Use them on the competition.
   
   
3. Hierarchies exist only in people’s minds. Here’s a question I was asked:

“What do I do if my coworker is getting all the accolades, all the attention. I know that he/she is not that good. (seriously?) He is popular, he is first at all [the company’s] presentations, outings, sponsorships and awards. Please help!”

I get it that someone presumably is assuming all the glory while voted low on merit. Salespeople are judged based on their numbers, researchers on their academic paper peer-recognition rankings, tech industry folks (software) are evaluated on functionability (System Integration Testing (SIT) & User Acceptance Testing (UAT), user growth, user engagement. Now you’ve got a Superman outranking you. No matter how good he is, this person will have an Achilles heel. In: (Carleson), J. C. Carleson says we should dissect our performance down to the micro-expression. The same thing you must to your competitor.

Give him a lot of test-and-try remarks and see which ones he reacts to. Perhaps you find the relationship with his significant other is on squeaky wheels.  Employ a “human vulnerability model”: Does it appear he has relationship qualms? Is his girlfriend/wife not firing on all cylinders? In the business of hedge funds, we see managers who perform poorly and underperform the market at around the same time they get divorced. That is not a coincidence. Performance is not totally dependent on markets and skill. Does your Superman coworker have any infidelity, or marital discord going at home? Even the best -the hedge funders- get off-course. You can go as far as telling your own false stories, stories with an inkling of semblance with what’s going on in Superman’s life. Chances are your sob stories will resonate with Superman. Plant the seeds of suspicion. Co-opt your target with a false story with some common roots from his own life.

Example: He is married. His wife and your telltale wife are of the same generation. Maybe they’re both artists. Then you say: you know what happened with my friend’s wife? He found her in bed with his tennis coach. You’ve opened up and shown your vulnerability to him. He’ll think long and hard about his wife if only because his wife has the same age and occupation as the telltale in your story. The human brain works by association. The mind is a computer searching for patterns. Work those patterns. Your boss may be evil, but he is still susceptible to patterns.Shun these badgers if they are your direct competitors. Make them fit into your world instead of them trying to fit you into their superlative world of Spartans.

Copyrighted work © 2018 By Max Cantor reprinted with permission.

I will be putting together a free Bonus material for the early buyers (Aug. 9- Oct. 24) of The Book of the Underdog , available exclusively on this website on October 24th. I want to answer questions that are both practical and useful. What are some of the situations you find yourselves in and get hammered? We can step out of the office into our daily life.

Update: Post re-scheduled to Nov. 1, 2018

For Men:

• How do you answer the question “How do I look” posed by your gf/wife ?

• What do you say when you’re late, and your gf/bf/wife is waiting for you, not happily about it. These types of situations come up whether you’re hedge fund manager sitting on $200 MM or a student siting on a $0 bank account. These questions are always relevant. Your happiness depends on it.

Quote of the day: “Anger cannot be dishonest”-Marcus Aurelius

These practical situations and others will be covered [can’t promise you all, but will try as much]. If you have suggestions, other topics you would like me to cover, please leave them in the comments or shoot me an email.

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