Careers in Wine

Robert Mondavi

  • June 18, 2013

Like a lot of us in the wine industry Mr. Mondavi was more than just another employer or vintner ..he was a true inspiration. He valued  the connection between people, food and wine and family. It is a great honor for us at Benchmark Consulting to honor Mr. Mondavi and hope to continue on in his shadow of undying commitment to the best.

“I went throughout the world to find out what my competition was. And then I stopped at nothing to improve what we are doing, to excel. But you have to have faith in yourself; you have to be willing to work hard. You’ll have many naysayers who say ‘No-no.’ Plow ahead! If you have it in your heart, you can achieve it. And that goes for any business. Put your heart and soul into what you do. Work hard. You have to gamble, but gamble intelligently. That takes dedication. But that’s all, it’s very simple!” –Robert Mondavi

This June 18th marks what would have been Robert Mondavi’s 100th birthday; he passed away in 2008 at the age of 94. It’s been almost six yearsand we are still commemorating the man who is best known as the Father of American Wine. His life story reads better than an epic novel rife with risk-taking, vision and of course family drama. Born in Virginia, Minnesota to Italian immigrant parents, Cesare and Rosa, wine was always part of life for Mondavi. The family moved to California where Robert later attended high school in Lodi and eventually Stanford University. In 1943, his parents, after much urging from Robert, purchased Charles Krug Winery in Napa and Robert joined the enterprise along with his brother Peter.  The drama began in 1965 when Mondavi was ‘fired’ from the winery over major disagreements about winemaking direction and vision. Shortly after his dismissal, Robert purchased his own winery in Oakville with the specific goal of making world-class wines that could compete with anything in Europe.

It all sounds so obvious to us now, but in the 1960’s Napa was just farmland. According to the late Mondavi’s wife, Margrit Mondavi, ” In 1960 the Valley was still kind of like a little country town, I think there were 17,000 acres of grapes, today there are 40,000. There wasn’t a paved road. Much of the Valley was for sale; it was still sort of recuperating from the war and the Depression and all of that. Many people didn’t believe in it. But he went forward, built a new winery, the first new winery since Prohibition.

Today the winery is in corporate hands, but the legacy of Mondavi’s belief and passion lives on though the countless small producers who populate the Napa Valley, and the United States as a whole. His philanthropy is also a legacy with his $10 million dollar gift to the University of California at Davis for the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and $25 million for the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. He not only championed premium wine, he elevated the very idea of American wine and food as something to be celebrated, shared and savored.

The winery will be hosting several events to honor this anniversary, including a concert with Martina McBride. Festivities begin on June 29th, for additional information and to purchase tickets, Click Here or visit eventbrite.com or call 1-888-769-5299. All additional inquiries can be sent to concerts@robertmondaviwinery.com.

Robert Mondavi: “I went throughout the world to find out what my competition was. And then I stopped at nothing to improve what we are doing, to excel. But you have to have faith in yourself; you have to be willing to work hard. You’ll have many naysayers who say ‘No-no.’ Plow ahead! If you have it in your heart, you can achieve it. And that goes for any business. Put your heart and soul into what you do. Work hard. You have to gamble, but gamble intelligently. That takes dedication. But that’s all, it’s very simple!”

Margrit Mondavi, wife of Robert Mondavi: “He gave everybody advice. Bob’s ecumenical spirit: ‘the more good wine that comes out of Napa Valley the better it is for me.’ So he shared, he was generous, he was philanthropic and I believe that was his biggest contribution to Napa Valley. ”

Glenn Workman (Robert Mondavi Wines Vice President & General Manager): “I used to give him a bad time once in a while about not having a rearview mirror in his car because he was so focused on the future and what was in front of him, that, yeah even though we had accomplished something, there is a lot more that lay ahead. He was in his 50s and still had an incredible drive. He was setting the tone not only for Robert Mondavi Winery but for Napa Valley wines as well as the wine industry in the United States, in my opinion, and it was a passion that was exciting.”

Peter Mondavi (Robert Mondavi’s younger brother): “We can be very thankful for what he did for the wine business. I’m talking overall, especially Napa Valley. He was the real ambassador of it. Of all the people I’ve known in the wine business, and I’ve known quite a few of them, there’s no one that could compete with him as far as I’m concerned. And I don’t think there will ever be another one who can do what my brother did. He did wonders for the Napa Valley.”

Genevieve Janssens (Winemaker, Robert Mondavi Winery): “I was very young when I moved to Napa Valley and I was under the absolutely incredibly vision of Mr. Mondavi who was quite a detail-oriented, passionate man. I think it’s a great way to live and make wine.”

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Katie Kelly Bell

Forbes Contributor

Hiring

College Graduates Fare Well in Jobs Market, Even Through…

  • May 4, 2013

A recent jobs fair in New York. The jobless rate for college graduates in April was 3.9 percent.

By 
Is college worth it? Given the growing price tag and the frequent anecdotes about jobless graduates stuck in their parents’ basements, many have started to question the value of a college degree. But the evidence suggests college graduates have suffered through the recession and lackluster recovery with remarkable resilience.
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The unemployment rate for college graduates in April was a mere 3.9 percent, compared with 7.5 percent for the work force as a whole, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. Even when the jobless rate for college graduates was at its very worst in this business cycle, in November 2010, it was still just 5.1 percent. That is close to the jobless rate the rest of the work force experiences when the economy is good.

Among all segments of workers sorted by educational attainment, college graduates are the only group that has more people employed today than when the recession started.

The number of college-educated workers with jobs has risen by 9.1 percent since the beginning of the recession. Those with a high school diploma and no further education are practically a mirror image, with employment down 9 percent on net. For workers without even a high school diploma, employment levels have fallen 14.1 percent.

But just because college graduates have jobs does not mean they all have “good” jobs.

There is ample evidence that employers are hiring college-educated workers for jobs that do not actually require college-level skills — positions like receptionists, file clerks, waitresses, car rental agents and so on.

“High-skilled people can take the jobs of middle-skilled people, and middle-skilled people can take jobs of low-skilled people,” said Justin Wolfers, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. “And low-skilled people are out of luck.”

In some cases, employers are specifically requiring four-year degrees for jobs that previously did not need them, since companies realize that in a relatively poor job market college graduates will be willing to take whatever they can find.

That has left those who have spent some time in college but have not received a bachelor’s degree to scramble for what is left. Employment for them fell during the recession and is now back to exactly where it began. There were 34,992,000 workers with some college employed in December 2007, and there are 34,992,000 today.

In other words, workers with four-year degrees have gobbled up all of the net job gains. In fact, there are more employed college graduates today than employed high school graduates and high school dropouts put together.

It is worth noting, too, that even young college graduates are finding jobs, based on the most recent data on this subgroup. In 2011, the unemployment rate for people in their 20s with at least a bachelor’s degree was 5.7 percent. For those with only a high school diploma or a G.E.D., it was nearly three times as high, at 16.2 percent.

Americans have gotten the message that college pays off in the job market. College degrees are much more common today than they were in the past. In April, about 32 percent of the civilian, noninstitutional population over 25 — that is, the group of people who are not inmates of penal and mental facilities or residents of homes for the disabled or aged and who are not on active military duty — had a college degree.

Twenty years ago, the share was 22 percent. Given the changing norms for what degree of educational training is expected of working Americans, employers might assume those who do not have a four-year degree are less ambitious or less capable, regardless of their actual ability.

These forces might help explain why there is so much growth in employment among college graduates despite the fact that the bulk of the jobs created in the last few years have been low-wage and low-skilled, according to a report last August from the National Employment Law Project, a liberal research and advocacy group. Today nearly one in 13 jobs is in food services, for example, a record share.

Clearly, positions in retail and food services are not the best use of the hard-earned skills of college-educated workers, who have gone to great expense to obtain their sheepskins.Student loan borrowers graduate with an average debt of $27,000, a total that is likely to grow in the future.

But nearly all of those graduates are at least finding work and income of some kind, unlike a much larger share of their less educated peers. And as the economy improves, college graduates will be better situated to find promotions to jobs that do use their more advanced skills and that pay better wages, economists say.

The median weekly earnings of college-educated, full-time workers — like those for their counterparts with less education — have dipped in recent years. In 2012, the weekly median was $1,141, compared with $1,163 in 2007, after adjusting for inflation. The premium they earn for having that college degree is still high, though.

In 2012, the typical full-time worker with a bachelor’s degree earned 79 percent more than a similar full-time worker with no more than a high school diploma. For comparison, 20 years earlier the premium was 73 percent, and 30 years earlier it was 48 percent.

And since a higher percentage of college graduates than high school graduates are employed in full-time work, these figures actually understate the increase in the total earnings premium from college completion, said Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an independent research organization.

So, despite the painful upfront cost, the return on investment on a college degree remains high. An analysis from the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington estimated that the benefits of a four-year college degree were equivalent to an investment that returns 15.2 percent a year, even after factoring in the earnings students forgo while in school.

“This is more than double the average return to stock market investments since 1950,” the report said, “and more than five times the returns to corporate bonds, gold, long-term government bonds, or homeownership.”

Hiring

The Right Keywords Are Essential When Applying for Jobs…

  • May 2, 2013

Make the most of any opportunity by using these tips and tricks to be sure your resume goes to the top of the list

Applying for a job online can be a lot like a guessing game.

For all the effort you put into marketing your experience and qualifications, the deciding factor that gets your resume into the hands of an actual person often comes down to using the right keywords.

Most companies rely on computer software programs to review thousands of resumes and select the ones with particular keywords — not necessarily impressive accomplishments — so they can then be reviewed by a recruiter and, eventually, a hiring manager.

Unfortunately for job seekers, these all-powerful keywords aren’t revealed in the job description — at least not overtly.

Abby Kohut, a former human resources executive and founder ofwww.absoluteabby.com, said the best way to crack the code of theseapplicant tracking systems (ATS) is to put yourself in the mind of the recruiter and take your best guess at what phrases they would use to search for the best applicants for the position.

“You look at the job description, read it word by word and say ‘would the recruiter use it to search for resumes?’ ” said Kohut, who recruited for 16 years at companies in a variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, health care, publishing and education. Now, she helps job seekers and is launching a nationwide tour to teach the tricks of the modern job search.

One of the many challenges that she says her clients face is conquering these robotic searches.

“When it comes to the automated systems, the problem you have is that the only way a recruiter is going to actually find you is if you have keywords in your resume that they have in their brain at the time,” Kohut said. “The person who shoots to the top is the person who has more than one keyword.”

But the journey to the human recruiter doesn’t stop there. Once the keywords are identified, Kohut says they need to be used early and often within the resume, possibly in multiple forms.

For example, she said if an aspiring accountant is applying for a job that cites “deep knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley” in the job description, the phrases “Sarbanes-Oxley” and its common acronym “SOX” should each be referenced in that resume several times so it will be noticed and given priority by the ATS.

Of course, you don’t want to repeat the same sentence either, so Kohut recommends changing the context each time.

If a job description stresses a “high proficiency with Microsoft PowerPoint,” for example, she said that can be reflected in three parts: having made PowerPointpresentations, having taken PowerPoint classes, and havingedited PowerPoint presentations of senior executives. It won’t win you any literary awards, but at least the strategy will get your resume in front of some eyeballs.

“It’s really just a big game now,” Kohut said. “You have to get the computer to find you instead of getting a human to find you.”

Experts have taken to calling this the “recruiting black hole” because so many resumes — good resumes — fall in, seemingly never to be seen again. But keeping in mind these tips on getting your resume through applicant tracking systems and the rules about e-mailing your resume to a recruiter will help you optimize your chances for getting noticed and moving on to the next step, snaring an interview.

Careers in Wine

Six Tips for Crafting a Professional Resume

  • May 2, 2013

A professional resume will make a significant difference in the time spent searching for a job and the amount of interviews secured. In the 21st century, when the majority of the application process is online, your resume is the first impression you’ll make on a future employer. Take the time and invest the money to ensure your resume is accurate, professional and thoroughly proofread.  It’s worth the investment to ensure you’re remembered for all the right reasons.

1) Tailor your resume to match the position you’re applying for: Slight variations in the descriptions of your previous jobs and the wording of your professional skills will make your resume stand out to different employers. Ensure accuracy, you obviously must be able to deliver on everything promised and take the time to briefly explain how your skills will benefit the employer’s company.

2) Use effective titles and bullet points: Clearly divide your resume into sections including contact information, education and job history. Use bullet points to list schools, positions and job descriptions for easy reference and reading.

3) Keep it short: Your resume should not exceed two pages. Avoid irrelevant information such as your religion, political party or high school work experience (unless it’s applicable to the position you’re applying for). Focus on the job you’re applying for, all relevant experience and reasons why you’ll benefit the company.

4) Paper/Ink: Keep your resume professional by avoiding graphics, bright colored ink and cheap paper. Invest in quality resume paper and standard blue or black ink. Keep a few copies on hand at all times.

5) Include all relevant contact information: Your name, address, phone number and email should be clearly and prominently displayed at the top of the page. This note on emails: if you’ve had yours since high school and it included nicknames or slang – upgrade it to something professional and simple. Include your contact information on both pages of your resume in case they’re separated when the prospective employer prints or copies them.

6) Keep it current: Ensure your resume is regularly updated with new information, job experiences, internships and opportunities. Present your best self.

Contact us for more helpful tips. We’re here to assist you.

Careers in Wine

Sonoma County Winegrowers Announce New President

  • March 7, 2013

Sonoma County Wine Growers Announce NeKarissa Kruse says one of her top priorities when she assumes the position of president of the Sonoma County Winegrowers is to continue the joint marketing effort developed by the organization and the county’s vintners and tourism groups. Kruse, who had been hired as the Winegrowers’ marketing director in August 2012 has been picked by the group’s board to replace outgoing president Nick Frey, who will officially retire May 1. With the industry associations in Sonoma County already linked by the same marketing strategy, Kruse said the next step is to leverage that cooperation to elevate the reputation of the county’s wine and grape industry both nationally and internationally.

“What a win for the growers to have such a strong relationship with the vintners,” she said. Getting to know their neighbors Kruse will also continue to implement the group’s community outreach program to help Sonoma County residents who don’t work in the wine industry gain a better understanding of it. “They often don’t even know as much about our vineyards and wineries as our visitors,” she said. And while the county’s wine and grower groups have improved the region’s reputation in the wine trade and press, Kruse admitted the same isn’t necessarily true for the people living in the group’s own backyard.

“We haven’t done as good of a job of relating to our community,” she said. Some of the tension between growers and county residents has stemmed from vineyard development. Just recently, Sonoma County and conservation groups worked out a $24.5 million deal to preserve 19,652 acres of land, of which nearly 1,800 were to be developed into vineyards in a plan backed by the state employee retirement fund CalPERS, according to a report by the Santa Rosa, Calif., Press Democrat newspaper. Kruse said the proposal and deal were worked out well before her transition into the president position, but she views it as a “win-win” agreement for conservationists and growers. Simple supply and demand economics indicate there’s benefit to not having a large amount of new acreage getting planted with vines. Kruse said the winegrowers are focused on producing the highest quality fruit and improving the region’s reputation for fine wine. “It’s nice that it doesn’t have to go into development,” she said. Keeping the transition smooth Nick Frey joined the county’s grape growers association in 1999 and led the group through its reformation as a state commission in 2006. He will stay with the group through the end of the year to help ensure a smooth transition. When the change is complete, Kruse will oversee the roughly 1,800-member group, which recently changed its name from the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission to the Sonoma County Winegrowers. The organization has a small staff including a grower programs manager, winery and sponsor-relations manager and a part-time bookkeeper and part-time web developer. Growers pay $1.2 million to the group in assessments collected from grape sales.

“Karissa has been a great addition to the commission staff in just six months,” Frey said in a statement released by the group. “She is quick to learn and motivated to represent growers’ interests to the wine trade and local community. Karissa’s experience and energy are what is needed to continue moving the commission to new heights.” The promotion came at the end of an 18-month recruiting and succession-planning process, during which the group’s board identified Kruse as someone who could first help the group’s marketing efforts and then follow Frey.

Kruse earned a master’s degree in marketing and a bachelor’s in economics from the The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the winegrowers, Kruse worked for General Mills, Universal Studios and the Dairy Management Inc., a national marketing group for the U.S. dairy industry. Kruse came to Sonoma County in 2007 to purchase a vineyard and pursue a career in wine. She owns a 25-acre parcel in Bennett Valley AVA, of which 5 acres are planted to Syrah, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The grapes are used for Kruse’s Argot Wines, a company she owns with a partner. Kruse said she makes about 2,000 cases with fruit from her vineyard and also buys grapes from county growers. “I’m not just the president, I’m a client,” she said.

Original Article Here

Careers in Wine

Why are you at your desk on Sunday?

  • February 18, 2013

This interview with Daniel T. Hendrix, president and C.E.O. of Interface Inc., a designer and maker of carpet tile, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.

Q. What were some early leadership roles for you?

A. I would say that my first real leadership role was with sports in high school. I was the quarterback on the football team, I played basketball and I pitched on the baseball team. I would say that one of the better foundations to be a leader is to play organized sports.

Q. And in your college years?

A. When I went to college, I was a phys ed major. My father kept saying: “You’re not going to make any money. Why are you majoring in phys ed?” So I changed to accounting in my last quarter, and it took me about two years to get an accounting degree.

I got my first real job when I went into public accounting with a major accounting firm. That’s when I met Ray Anderson, the founder ofInterface. In fact, the company was my first client, and it was still a very small company. I joined it at the age of 27. Within a year and a half, I was the C.F.O., and Ray would dump as much responsibility on me as he could. I think I was running customer service, planning, human resources, I.T., financial accounting, treasury, and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.

That’s when I learned a lot about business. I was in way over my head, but I thought I had to be the smartest guy in the room. I was dealing with a lot of bankers because we did a lot of public deals and were trying to finance acquisitions and so forth. I thought I could outwork anybody. I was working 24/7 and really had two jobs: C.F.O. during the day, then an investment banker at night, in effect, doing acquisitions and deals. Delegation wasn’t really part of the equation because I was afraid that if I gave it to somebody, they would fail and then I would fail.

The company brought in a president above me who was really charismatic and dynamic. One day he was in the office on a Sunday and he said: “Every time I’m in here on Sunday, you’re in here working. I’m not impressed by somebody who can’t get their job done in five days. I’m really not. It’s about balance.” And I had two young kids. He said, “Go out and hire some people and have a life.”

So I started hiring people, developing people, building a team, and I learned that you have to delegate, have to have accountability and have to make sure that people have the tools to do the job. Then you check in — you ask what’s going on.

Q. Obviously that Sunday conversation had a big impression on you.

A. Big impression. His message really resonated: you’re going to burn out if you keep doing this.

Q. What is your company doing in terms of innovation?

A. You have to keep reinventing yourself in this world. Everybody is a fast follower and so you’ve got to find a way to create an innovation environment. It’s all around collaboration. It’s all around engaging the shop floor all the way up to the top. You have to fund, fuel, encourage collaboration and engagement to get innovation, and you’ve got to go inside and outside to do that.

Q. So how do you do that?

A. We developed something called the Innovation Farm. It’s a platform where everybody can participate within the organization, and you can also go outside with it. So you pose questions: How would you solve this problem? And everybody gets engaged in how you might solve it. Or you just ask an open question: What do we need from an innovation standpoint? Then people vote, and the best ideas surface over time as people vote and start tweeting and talking about that idea. It got our people engaged in this whole open-architecture structure.

And we really tried to get out of the box. We didn’t want a closed architecture, because I think we had one to some extent. We wanted to create an open-architecture structure for anybody in the company, and even outside. So we’re going to post questions on the Web. “How would you solve this problem?” Then, if you get something that’s really interesting, you close off the conversation and discuss it further in a smaller forum.

Q. Let’s shift to hiring. What are you looking for?

A. The thing I want to know is whether they are a cultural fit. To do that, we’ve got to talk about their personal experiences, their family. I’m always trying to figure out how much balance they have. What are their real career aspirations? Are they smarter than me? That’s a big thing. I like to hire people who are smarter than me, and I like diversity. I like somebody who can think differently.

And do they get the idea of servant leadership? I think the biggest misfits for us are people who won’t put the company and the vision ahead of their career. If they’re not of that mind-set, they won’t fit with us. One of the things I look for is hard to find, but when you find this person, they’re gold — it’s a person who can see in three dimensions.

Q. Can you elaborate on what that means?

A. When you ask them a question or give them a project, they come back and give you a lot more than what you asked them for. They give you a lot more questions to the question that you asked them, and they see something that’s a lot different in the third dimension.

Then there are the people who are just sort of linear, and you ask them to solve a problem and they give you the obvious answer and say, “Here’s the answer to the problem.”

But I look for that person who thinks on a different level. As I said, it’s hard to get at that in an interview — I haven’t figured out a way to do that reliably yet — but when you find that person, and I’ve found a few in my career, they are gold. They are the people whom you really want to keep and build your company around. They see implications, they see around corners, they see other possibilities. They’ll come up with a different way to think about the problem, a different solution to the problem.

 

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Uncategorized

The Secret Ingredient for Success

  • January 23, 2013

WHAT does self-awareness have to do with a restaurant empire? A tennis championship? Or a rock star’s dream? David Chang’s experience is instructive.

Mr. Chang is an internationally renowned, award-winning Korean-American chef, restaurateur and owner of the Momofuku restaurant group with eight restaurants from Toronto to Sydney, and other thriving enterprises, including bakeries and bars, a PBS TV show, guest spots on HBO’s “Treme” and a foodie magazine, Lucky Peach. He says he worked himself to the bone to realize his dream — to own a humble noodle bar.

He spent years cooking in some of New York City’s best restaurants, apprenticed in different noodle shops in Japan and then, finally, worked 18-hour days in his tiny restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar.

Mr. Chang could barely pay himself a salary. He had trouble keeping staff. And he was miserably stressed.

He recalls a low moment when he went with his staff on a night off to eat burgers at a restaurant that was everything his wasn’t — packed, critically acclaimed and financially successful. He could cook better than they did, he thought, so why was his restaurant failing? “I couldn’t figure out what the hell we were doing wrong,” he told us.

Mr. Chang could have blamed someone else for his troubles, or worked harder (though available evidence suggests that might not have been possible) or he could have made minor tweaks to the menu. Instead he looked inward and subjected himself to brutal self-assessment.

Was the humble noodle bar of his dreams economically viable? Sure, a traditional noodle dish had its charm but wouldn’t work as the mainstay of a restaurant if he hoped to pay his bills.

Mr. Chang changed course. Rather than worry about what a noodle bar should serve, he and his cooks stalked the produce at the greenmarket for inspiration. Then they went back to the kitchen and cooked as if it was their last meal, crowding the menu with wild combinations of dishes they’d want to eat — tripe and sweetbreads, headcheese and flavor-packed culinary mashups like a Korean-style burrito. What happened next Mr. Chang still considers “kind of ridiculous” — the crowds came, rave reviews piled up, awards followed and unimaginable opportunities presented themselves.

During the 1970s, Chris Argyris, a business theorist at Harvard Business School (and now, at 89, a professor emeritus) began to research what happens to organizations and people, like Mr. Chang, when they find obstacles in their paths.

Professor Argyris called the most common response single loop learning — an insular mental process in which we consider possible external or technical reasons for obstacles.

LESS common but vastly more effective is the cognitive approach that Professor Argyris called double-loop learning. In this mode we — like Mr. Chang — question every aspect of our approach, including our methodology, biases and deeply held assumptions. This more psychologically nuanced self-examination requires that we honestly challenge our beliefs and summon the courage to act on that information, which may lead to fresh ways of thinking about our lives and our goals.

In interviews we did with high achievers for a book, we expected to hear that talent, persistence, dedication and luck played crucial roles in their success. Surprisingly, however, self-awareness played an equally strong role.

The successful people we spoke with — in business, entertainment, sports and the arts — all had similar responses when faced with obstacles: they subjected themselves to fairly merciless self-examination that prompted reinvention of their goals and the methods by which they endeavored to achieve them.

The tennis champion Martina Navratilova, for example, told us that after a galling loss to Chris Evert in 1981, she questioned her assumption that she could get by on talent and instinct alone. She began a long exploration of every aspect of her game. She adopted a rigorous cross-training practice (common today but essentially unheard of at the time), revamped her diet and her mental and tactical game and ultimately transformed herself into the most successful women’s tennis player of her era.

The indie rock band OK Go described how it once operated under the business model of the 20th-century rock band. But when industry record sales collapsed and the band members found themselves creatively hamstrung by their recording company, they questioned their tactics. Rather than depend on their label, they made wildly unconventional music videos, which went viral, and collaborative art projects with companies like Google, State Farm and Range Rover, which financed future creative endeavors. The band now releases albums on its own label.

No one’s idea of a good time is to take a brutal assessment of their animating assumptions and to acknowledge that those may have contributed to their failure. It’s easy to find pat ways to explain why the world has not adequately rewarded our efforts. But what we learned from conversation with high achievers is that challenging our assumptions, objectives, at times even our goals, may sometimes push us further than we thought possible. Ask David Chang, who never imagined that sweetbreads and duck sausage rice cakes with kohlrabi and mint would find their way beside his humble noodle dishes — and make him a star.

Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield are the authors of the forthcoming book “The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well.”

 

Careers in Wine

Curiosty

  • January 5, 2013

The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity. 
Albert Einstein

 

Curiosity is an important trait of a genius. I don’t think you can find an intellectual giant who is not a curious person. Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, they are all curious characters. Richard Feynman was especially known for his adventures which came from his curiosity.

2013 is a new year. A new time for all of us to discover what makes each of us unique and wonderful and how we pull that back into the universe.

In the Wine Industry, curiosity is the mainstay of our existence. Ask any Winemaker, if it wasn’t for curiosity wine would not be what it was is today. With the shrinking of the individual family wineries and the drive to recreate over and over again the same wine flavor profiles we may be losing what makes us special on many levels.  Not allowing ourselves to take the time to allow curiosity and discovery to take over we will lose what makes us special.

When looking at yourself or your team or your company…ask yourself, “Are you curious?”

If you discover that you have been in the weeds and lost your way to curious behavior..I have listed a few ways to take it back.  

But why is curiosity so important? Here are four reasons:

  1. It makes your mind active instead of passive
    Curious people always ask questions and search for answers in their minds. Their minds are always active. Since the mind is like a muscle which becomes stronger through continual exercise, the mental exercise caused by curiosity makes your mind stronger and stronger.
  2. It makes your mind observant of new ideas
    When you are curious about something, your mind expects and anticipates new ideas related to it. When the ideas come they will soon be recognized. Without curiosity, the ideas may pass right in front of you and yet you miss them because your mind is not prepared to recognize them. Just think, how many great ideas may have lost due to lack of curiosity?
  3. It opens up new worlds and possibilities
    By being curious you will be able to see new worlds and possibilities which are normally not visible. They are hidden behind the surface of normal life, and it takes a curious mind to look beneath the surface and discover these new worlds and possibilities.
  4. It brings excitement into your life
    The life of curious people is far from boring. It’s neither dull nor routine. There are always new things that attract their attention, there are always new ‘toys’ to play with. Instead of being bored, curious people have an adventurous life.

Now, knowing the importance of curiosity, here are some tips to develop it:

1. Keep an open mind

This is essential if you are to have a curious mind. Be open to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Some things you know and believe might be wrong, and you should be prepared to accept this possibility and change your mind.

2. Don’t take things as granted

If you just accept the world as it is without trying to dig deeper, you will certainly lose the ‘holy curiosity’. Never take things as granted. Try to dig deeper beneath the surface of what is around you.

3. Ask questions relentlessly

A sure way to dig deeper beneath the surface is asking questions: What is that? Why is it made that way?When was it made? Who invented it? Where does it come from? How does it work? What, why, when, who, where, and how are the best friends of curious people.

4. Don’t label something as boring

Whenever you label something as boring, you close one more door of possibilities. Curious people are unlikely to call something as boring. Instead, they always see it as a door to an exciting new world. Even if they don’t yet have time to explore it, they will leave the door open to be visited another time.

5. See learning as something fun

If you see learning as a burden, there’s no way you will want to dig deeper into anything. That will just make the burden heavier. But if you think of learning as something fun, you will naturally want to dig deeper. So look at life through the glasses of fun and excitement and enjoy the learning process..

6. Read diverse kinds of reading

Don’t spend too much time on just one world; take a look at another worlds. It will introduce you to the possibilities and excitement of the other worlds which may spark your interest to explore them further. One easy way to do this is through reading diverse kinds of reading. Try to pick a book or magazine on a new subject and let it feed your mind with the excitement of a new world.

 

 

 
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