In this week's rolling across my desk (RAMD), I'm going to share the origins of Never Search Alone – it goes back to the days I was in a wheelchair on welfare. ---------------------------- 1. Have you ever lost all hope? --------------------------- After college, I had a hard time and lost hope. I tell this story for the first time in the College Edition of Never Search Alone. And I'll share it briefly here. (Note: you can sign up to get notified when the College Edition is available: https://0sulml7kjpu.typeform.com/to/E9w5PGgU) ---------------------------- 2. Wheelchair on Welfare --------------------------- This is back when I was in my 20s and had moved to NYC from LA, where I had grown up. Within months, I got sick. I ended up in a wheelchair, on welfare, in a walk-up apartment. I was stuck. Literally. I could not leave the apartment without friends coming over to carry me down the stairs. ---------------------------- 3. I was hopeless --------------------------- Sitting in that apartment alone, I lost all hope. I thought my life was over. Then I remembered something my mother taught me: ask for help, build a support group. And that's what I did. ---------------------------- 4. I created a proto-Job Search Council --------------------------- With some friends, I formed the first Job Search Council (we didn't call it that). They helped me climb out of my hole of despair and begin calling around and asking people what kind of work they thought I could do. This was the first Listening Tour. The answer I got back from several people was to get a job as a journalist (this was my first encounter of what I would come to call "Candidate-Market Fit"). I had been a student journalist, and there were lots of journalism jobs in NYC in the early ’90s. There was also a possibility that a magazine or newspaper would let me work from home in my wheelchair. But there was a problem: I didn't have a computer. ---------------------------- 5. No computer --------------------------- And NO money to buy one. Welfare was $350 a month, and that was to cover everything: food, rent, etc. Obviously, that was not enough, and I was lucky to have friends who would bring food over or give me $5. How was I going to work as a journalist and write without a computer? Further, I didn't even have a desk or a chair. ---------------------------- 6. Cockamamie idea -------------------------- We came up with a cockamamie idea. Reach out to 60 computer companies and ask if any would be willing to donate a computer, software, a modem, a desk, a chair, and a printer. So that's what I did. Crazy. 59 said no. But, unbelievably, David Malmberg, president of National Computer Systems in Minneapolis, said yes. I'm still in touch with Dave today, and I dedicated the College Edition to him. He changed my life. ---------------------------- 7. The moral --------------------------- The moral of this part of the story is not that if you write to 60 computer companies, one will say yes. It's that if you have a support group, then they will help you come up with ideas to try. Some work. Some don't. OK. So now, with a computer, I called around to see if I could get an internship or a job as a journalist. Alas, that did not work. No one wanted to hire me sight unseen or even give me a chance. So I lost hope again. ---------------------------- 8. Second Listening Tour --------------------------- My council told me to do another Listening Tour. Oy! I didn't want to, but they nudged me, so I did (that's what good councils do!). This time, the answer that came back was to try computer programming. I had a background in it and was good at math, so that obvious answer (which had not been obvious to me) became what I pursued. Bonus: The New York State Disability office arranged for me to take computer classes over the phone (these were pre-web days). And three years later, as my health improved, I got out of the wheelchair and landed a job in the tech department of a Wall Street firm. Wow. ---------------------------- 9. This is how Never Search Alone was born --------------------------- It would take me three more decades to develop and test these ideas extensively, including 10 years to write the book, but this is how Never Search Alone was born — out of hardship and hopelessness. So if you, like me, find yourself in a position where you have lost all hope, know that you can't manufacture hope by yourself, but others can help you create it. ---------------------------- 10. I put this story in a video --------------------------- I put this story in a short video on LinkedIn. Please go like, comment, and share it so we can reach more people with this message of hope at a time when so many feel hopeless. https://lnkd.in/p/gjPnNMcZ ---------------------------- 11. The CG Council Meetings in Philly ---------------------------- We are getting ready for our twice-yearly meetings in Philly later in October. These are the Councils we've been running for 25 years for product leaders, CEOs, C-level executives, marketers, and others. I can't wait to see everyone. It's a magical two days of intense trust, collaboration, and asking for and giving help. If you want to learn more, reply to this email. ---------------------------- 12. NY Meetup/Daytime disco --------------------------- Never Search Alone volunteer Aly Kasberg is piloting a series of in-person meetups in NY for our community. The first one is this Mon, Oct 5, from 5 to 8 p.m. in Manhattan (it'll be at a bar with outdoor seating). It's almost full, but if you want to come, click here: https://form.typeform.com/to/jsVDDEaG And a group of about 30 people is going with me to the ’80s Daytime Disco on Saturday, November 21, at 2 p.m. Join us? More info here: https://0sulml7kjpu.typeform.com/to/jCPwAOVS ✨ ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ 💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃 With love and sequins, Phyl P.S. Do you work in sales or biz dev? I ask because a Never Search Alone member, David Ploshay, is seeking to host periodic virtual gatherings for people who work in sales or business development. If you're interested in participating, please post in the #role-sales-careers channel on the Never Search Alone Slack or send David a LinkedIn invite or message: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidploshay ....He will notify you of the date and time of the first gathering. P.P.S. We thrive on volunteers (including me). If you want to help, please review the volunteer opportunities below. ---------------------------- 1. First a message about book sales --------------------------- Book sales are our sole source of funding for Never Search Alone. I donate every dollar I receive from those sales to run the program. Our book sales have declined this year (all self-help book sales are in decline), and we are now running a deficit. That means we are not generating enough to pay for the technology and operations that keep the free program running. If you know someone who's looking for a job, consider buying them a copy: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Search-Alone-Seekers-Playbook/dp/B0BJ486SJ1 You'll be helping that person and helping us keep Never Search Alone free for everyone. ---------------------------- 2. Social Media Volunteer - URGENT ---------------------------- We need someone who can develop a social media strategy, create campaigns, and track engagement for Never Search Alone. https://forms.gle/fvjAD58HNyxcXu5H6 --------------------------- 3. NYC 2027 Pride March Coordinator ---------------------------- We are looking for someone to coordinate a successful NYC 2027 Pride March for our NSA Community! This will be our third year and it's a lot of fun and communtiy-building. Learn more and apply here: https://forms.gle/1p5hwrAUwH2zFxf47 ---------------------------- 4. High School and College World of Business Reading Group (WBRG.org) --------------------------- Our high school and college business literacy program is going really well. Based on the philosophy of Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett, it is live taught in a small zoom class by senior executives with serious business and investing experience. You can sign-up to be notified when applications open for our summer 2027 program: (they will open sometime in Jan of 2027 and typically we run out of space quickly) https://www.wbrg.org/student-notification ---------------------------- 5. JSC Moderator Application for Alums ---------------------------- We are looking for Job Search Council alums who have a job and are willing to come back and moderate a Job Search Council. Details here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Du74FGMpr32jG3Nv4LPZO38b__1pHpd2dj4dJEH1K1w/edit?usp=sharing Apply here: https://forms.gle/yB74Xjz4tMYsECeJ9 ---------------------------- 6. Looking for Recruiters ---------------------------- If you are a recruiter and you want to help job seekers discover their Candidate-Market Fit, please consider volunteering. You control how many sessions you do a month and it's great way to give back. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5vLUurBne89xPMpM8whVfnhc-dNCTm-v6PMHrAr0A4BCWxg/viewform ---------------------------- 7. Podcast Contacts? --------------------------- To help spread the word about Never Search Alone, we are trying to get me on to some larger podcasts (like Lenny's, which had a huge impact). Do you know anyone at the podcasts listed in this document or other larger audience podcasts? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PmcXy4ZTmW_IcXZQ3qB7-Y6-AtCsnv-U/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.ndit9t56zy2y If you have contacts, please let our volunteer Liz Nilsen know at liznilsen4@gmail.com. ---------------------------- 8. Media Contacts? --------------------------- Business Insider published a feature following the journey of one of our Job Search Council members who was laid off while pregnant. It opens with: "Getting laid off broke my heart... and I couldn't stop myself from crying." Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7374445590107176961/ Note: this came from a job seeker talking to a reporter. If you know any reporters, please encourage them to write about us or reach out to Liz Nilsen at liznilsen4@gmail.com with potential contacts. ---------------------------- 9. More on the "extinction risk" --------------------------- How would AI make humans extinct? What is the actual sequence of events that gets us there? Not millions of people dying. Not even hundreds of millions. The extinction of the human species. More than 8 billion people. Every single one of us. Human beings have survived some extraordinary things. There is a long-running scientific hypothesis that roughly 74,000 years ago, the human population went through an extreme bottleneck and may have fallen to only a few thousand people. Scientists still debate exactly what happened. But Homo sapiens survived. Think about what an actual extinction event means. Bioweapons can do terrible damage. I think the possibility of AI helping someone create a biological weapon is a serious risk, and one we need to safeguard against. Same with nuclear weapons. Cyberattacks can do terrible damage. But extinction risk? I have yet to see anything evidence that allows anyone to put a number like 10% on it. That is science fiction. And don't forget, a lot of people in Silicon Valley grew up reading science fiction. There is something exciting and important about imagining yourself at the center of a story about the survival of the human species. This email was sent to [email address suppressed]. If you are no longer interested, you can unsubscribe instantly: https://collaborativegain.createsend1.com/t/t-u-ydjrdda-l-r/ Collaborative Gain, Never Search Alone, Slow Art Day, and WBRG 1350 Avenue of the Americas, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10019