This is a book about analytical thinking. Yes, this is a book about getting a job and succeeding at work. Yes, this is a book about starting and successfully running a business. But most importantly its goal is to provide you with the information you need, or more accurately to teach you the skill set you need, to make the proper decisions that will result in your success, be it as employee or entrepreneur.On a monthly basis we learn of tepid increases in the number of individuals hired in the United States. As the monthly unemployment rate slowly creeps downwards, we also hear of the shrinking number of individuals actually seeking employment. The sad truth is that a growing number of unemployed have simply given up and have removed themselves from the monthly unemployment statistics.The good news is, many of these individuals will start their own businesses. Hopefully, with success, they will eventually be in a position to hire employees of their own.Of course, as I write these words, the albatross flying over all business owners is Obamacare. It is widely reported that business owners are refraining from hiring workers because of not wanting to pass the 50 employee threshold which will make the law applicable to them. Similarly, some employers are cutting back employee hours and only hiring part-time staff, also in an effort to save themselves from the financial burdens which the law would otherwise impose.Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, is some 1,000 pages in length. There are over 20,000 pages in regulations that have been instituted to implement it. The result is confusion and fear amongst business owners and trepidation amongst employees who are worried about their future.Of course, if employees know the secret to job security they have nothing to fear. So here it is: make yourself indispensable and you'll have little about which to worry. Naturally, there are no guarantees, but very few employers can afford to let the cream of their crop go. That is the aim of Part Two of this book: to teach you how to get a job and keep it.On the other hand, many employees who excel or, through no fault of their own, lose their jobs, decide to follow the entrepreneurial path. In Part Three, I'll show you how to start and run a business. Spoiler alert! Here's the secret to entrepreneurial success: excellent customer service. Throughout the book I will take you on a journey. In Part Two, we begin with the job search, proceed to hiring, and finish with being indispensible. In Part Three, we travel down the entrepreneurial road from the idea of starting a business, to actual formation and, finally, to success.But what, you ask, happened to Part One? We begin the book with the things that are common to both the successful employee and the successful entrepreneur. You see, an employee can consider their job to be their own business, and an entrepreneur knows that, at the end of the day, they are just an employee of their clients or customers. So, in reality, there's little difference between them. The reasons for success are the same no matter what you are.
About the Author: Bruce A. Hurwitz, Ph.D., the President and CEO of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing, Ltd., has been an executive recruiter since 2003. The author of "A Hooker's Guide to Getting a Job: Parables from the Real World of Career Counseling and Executive Recruiting," he is a recognized authority on career counseling, recruitment, and employment issues, having been cited in over 550 articles, appearing in more than 375 publications, throughout the United States and in 22 foreign countries. An Ambassador with the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Hurwitz hosts their weekly radio program, The Voice of Manhattan Business. Invited to be an on-camera talent for eHow.com, his video, Good Responses to Interview Questions Regarding Weaknesses, was a "2012 Top Performer." In addition to writing his own blog, www.employmentedification.com, he occasionally contributes to the National Association of Sales Professionals blog. An honors graduate of the Department of International Relations of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, from where he received his doctorate, he teaches "Professional Development" and "Professional Business Development" at the Mechanics' Institute of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York.