A minimum of 9% of your salary is paid into a special retirement fund (think mutual fund) in addition to your salary. The program also allows you to built your super with your own contributions, which take advantage of super’s favourable tax treatment. Like a 401k, you choose the fund that the super money is paid into.

If like me, you are a temporary employee in Australia, you can claim the superfunds when you leave the country (minus some taxes). This benefit is HUGE. Sadly, I’ve read that many migrant works don’t know it can be claimed, so the funds are returned to the Australia Tax Office (ATO).

This allows anyone working in Australia to save 0% of their net wages and still have at least 9% of their total lifetime income waiting for them at retirement. Incredible.

I dislike the term “networking”. Perhaps it’s because when I think of networking, I think of a bunch of douchebags trying to artificially “connect” with someone because of what they need, not because they have something of value to offer.

Most things in life come through the help of other people, which means that the stronger your personal & professional relationships, the more you and those around you will succeed. If you’re looking to take more than you give, you won’t get what you want and in the process, you’ll look stupid and piss a lot people off.

Most people think too hard about “networking”. Isn’t it really just about building genuine relationships that are mutually beneficial? It’s about helping. Not looking to get anything out of networking is one of the best networking techniques.

Stop networking for personal gain and strive to create win-win situations. You might be surprised what you’ll gain by doing so.

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A journey can only begin with your decision to embark. – Michael Dell

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. – Marcus Aurelius

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. —Oscar Wilde

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. – Alexander Hamilton

Those with more talent require fewer props. – Hugh

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. – Dr. Seuss

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

It’s not about being treating like a superstar, it’s about being treated like part of the family. – Steve Lawler (DJ)

I work extremely hard doing what I love, mainly to ensure that I don’t have to work extremely hard doing what I hate. – Hugh

You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not. -Isabel Allende

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? – Maurice Freehill

Success is the culmination of failures, mistakes, false starts, confusion, and the determination to keep going anyway – Nick Gleason

I’m beginning to think so after reading an article in the May Harvard Business Review entitled, “Mentoring Millennials”. In it, the authors discuss millennials desire for near constant feedback, or “microfeedback”. They describe microfeedback as “performance assessment for twitterholoics”.

Hmmm…is feedback limited to 140 characters what it’s come down to?

Yes, a thirst for guidance and constructive feedback is normally positive. And yet, I fear that my generation has crossed the line from wanting feedback for personal and career development into needing constant feedback for validation.