In "The One Minute Millionaire", authors Mark Hansen and Robert Allen quote the Upanishads:
"Out of abundance He took abundance and still abundance remained."
Hansen and Allen believe that "abundance is your natural state" and advise repeating an affirmation twice daily to reinforce that belief. I felt their affirmation was a bit "hokey" for my personality, so I revised it to fit my values and sensibilities.
Here's my version:
"I have endless opportunities and capabilities. I will successfully make the best use of this abundance to build my wealth -- materially, emotionally, and spiritually -- then share my blessings to better the world around me and the people I love. Wealth is mine to have and share. I can make a difference for the world."
I hope my resume reflects my confidence in the abundance of talents I have to offer.
Mike
505.480.5000
First: start from the beginning and read my resume and my introduction ("cover letter").
Martin John Yate, author and career consultant, calls this format a "functional" resume, making the following points:
1. It focuses on the professional skills one has developed over the years.
2. It is suited for mature professionals with a storehouse of expertise and jobs.
3. It is also suited for career-changers who want to focus on skills rather than credentials.
However, this is more than a skills-based resume; it is a "talent-based" resume. Authors Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton distinguish natural talents from things one can learn. "Talents are naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior... Knowledge consists of the facts and lessons learned. Skills are the steps of an activity."
In this resume, I have chosen to directly address my talents: leadership, creativity, and a natural ability to relate to a broad range of people.
As time goes on, I will add (on this website) some proof of my claims, that is, the traditional stuff one might see in resumes -- positions, projects, results, etc. But for now, my focus is on stating clearly who I am, not just what I've done.
The short version:
Someone you know knows someone who needs to know me. So, please take just five minutes to get to know me better. Then remember the concept of six-degrees-of-separation and mention my background when and where appropriate.
The longer version:
To my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances:
I'm sharing my resume with you and asking you to do just two very simple things.
First, take a few minutes to read it. Hopefully, my description of myself will reasonably match your knowledge of me. However, it's also quite likely you will discover some aspect of my background and personality you were never aware of.
Second, when you think there may be a possible match between someone's needs and my abilities, let him or her know how to find my resume -- and let me know how to make contact.
Don't presume that I wouldn't be interested in a particular opportunity just because it isn't in line with my lifetime of military and defense-related experience. Quite the contrary, I prefer to escape from the "bombs & bullets" jobs I've held for so many years. Recently, I declined to return to a job I have jokingly referred to as "Dr. Doom and His Dandy Death Ray" and would like instead to bring my many talents to the private, commercial sector.
I have purposely avoided the typical approaches to writing a resume. None of the "I supervised such-and-such" or "I saved X millions of dollars" or "I worked on umpteen gazillion projects, such as blah-blah-blah". Why? It's certainly not that I haven't done enough of those things. In fact, it's precisely because I have "been there, done that!" As I hinted in my resume, I've done far too many things to squeeze those kinds of details into just two pages, while still doing justice to my many under-utilized talents. The "old" kind of resume is too likely to garner me the "old" line of work -- when I'm really focused instead on pursuing the many diverse, new, and exciting challenges for our communities, nation, and world.
So, let your imagination run free, once you've become acquainted with my resume. At this point in life, I'm opening my options, in the hope that somewhere there is a special endeavor I can enhance through the strengths I bring "to the table".
We know that serendipity is a phenomenon not to be discounted: somewhere, some time, somehow you will connect with someone who needs to know me -- and vice versa.
Many thanks, muchas gracias, muito obrigado, und so weiter...
Mike