Robbie Abed's Personal Blog

You ever meet someone and about 2 minutes into the conversation, you think something is extremely weird with their story or background?

I had a conversation with someone recently and the summary of our conversation was “I am a doctor looking to quit and intern as a social media analyst”. I kid you not. 8 years of medical school, exams, well-paying job at a hospital, etc. and now he is interested in a low paying social media job.

Not social media for doctors type deal. Just social media.

The one thing I pulled out of this conversation was “I don’t think this person is really a doctor”. He was making really good money, and just wants to drop it to learn more about social media? Doesn’t make sense, and it shows.

I just don’t see the point of faking it or lying about what you do. I think people underestimate how easy it is to spot when someone is lying.

Tell me the truth. Tell me how it is. Tell me of how you tried something and it didn’t work. I’ll like you more. I promise.

Not only will I like you more, I’m more inclined to help you more.

If you don’t tell me the truth, I’m just going to make up in my head what I think the truth really is. Trust me, the truth I told myself is a bigger lie than the lie you just told me.

When I write, I don’t necessarily write for one specific type of person or demographic. I just write whatever’s in my head. Wether it’s a rant about technology, or career advice, or just personal life, I generally just write without thinking about who it’s for.

However, I will notice that some of my blog posts do well in countries that I don’t expect it to do well in.

For example, This post titled “No Matter the Decision You Make, It’s Always Wrong” was a huge hit in russia. It actually was translated by two different russian sites and they had 17 comments, and 62 comments. Apparently, nobody being happy with decisions people are making is a big thing in Russia.

Here is a translated version of the second link top comments:

As you can imagine, I had no idea the Russians would relate to it so much.

Recently, I posted a short, funny informative post called the “Paypal Mafia.”  This post was really targeted towards technologists and entrepreneurs in the US, since it’s all about entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

Which country loved this post the most? India. Don’t ask me why, but my India traffic skyrocketed. Here is a screen shot of my latest twitter feed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love it. It’s just interesting.

I’ll leave you with one more funny tidbit about my blog. What search phrase / keyword do you think brings the most traffic to my blog? Career Advice / Mobile / Entrepreneurship / Rants???

NOPE.

“Jake from Statefarm”.

I wrote a post a long time ago about how I loved the jake from statefarm commercial. I can’t tell you how many emails I get from people who ask me who the actress is in this commercial. It’s hilarious.

I once wrote an email that was full of emoticons. My boss dared me to send it, and I did. That was 10 years ago and that was for a company outing. It was a funny email.

Now Facebook says screw this, If MSN allowed you to create emoticons on chat 10 years ago and Gmail does it already, let’s join the party.

I saw a taco in my newsfeed and I almost freaked out. Why in the world is there a taco in someone’s status updates.

I just don’t know how I feel about it. They obviously want to learn more about what people are doing, and instead of allowing third party apps to provide this data.

Good for them. I refuse to use the taco but I know my feed is going to be full of these things now. Good for the taco’s I guess.

I got a message from a loyal reader that said this:

Here’s a blog post you should write:

If you owned a company, give your workers 1 day or 1 week where they can write whatever they wanted without getting in trouble. See what people’s real reactions are to stupid people in the office and their lazy work ethic….

I just got a stupid email from someone..

and I wanted to respond with…how the hell should I know, am I supposed to do your job for you too????

yet, we all know we cant..

My response was:

Preaching to the choir buddy! I would LOVE if this happened, but  yet it will never happen. People can’t handle the truth because there are feelings involved. Can you imagine if that reader actually responded with that?

What do you think would happen if your office was allowed to write whatever they felt without getting in trouble for it? Use comments section below.

I’m one of the most selfish people you will ever meet.

I chose a job out of college that had me travelling everywhere except home. I had a great time doing it, but my family (wasn’t married at the time) was at home. They never understood why I had to get on a plane and go to different places. What’s wrong with chicago? Why couldn’t I be closer to the family?

I moved downtown even when my family was in the suburbs. This might not seem like a big deal, but for a middle eastern family whose family tends to be within 5 miles of each other – this is a huge deal.

I quit a well-paying job so I can do something that I was more passionate about. Nobody understood how I could do that. Wasn’t I happy with a stable job?

I quit my job 6 months before my wife finished school and started working. Couldn’t I wait instead of putting my immediate family at a bigger risk?

I did things because I wanted to do them, and no other reason besides that. I didn’t care what my close family told me to do.

However, there is one thing that I am extremely selfish about. It’s about helping others in areas that I failed in and eventually overcame. The one area that I failed a lot in was my career and interviewing. [ See how I failed over 11 interviews in detail (Part 1), (Part 2)].

I created a private newsletter that helps people get connected better in Chicago, and help connect people with jobs. I constantly connect people who I think can work with each other. I’ll take phone calls during the day for people who need advice or just want to talk about what’s happening in their life. The crux of my advice is to be selfish when it comes to your career. This is the only way to get ahead.

You’re probably thinking how in the hell is helping other people selfish? That sounds like the opposite of selfishness?

I do this, so one day if I need their help – they will help me back. That’s why it’s selfish of me.

I recently got burned by someone who I helped extensively over a long period of time. When I needed a favor back, that person said no. I selfishly assumed that this person would help me back. I was wrong.

I just have to accept the fact that this person is just as selfish as I am. Good for that person. They learned how to be selfish from the best…