Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Are you checking up on your potential employees on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?

Why not? Businesses, banks, legal firms and government agencies have been known to conduct background check on people using CTOS, CCRIS and other means.

After all, foreknowledge on people, companies and markets we are dealing with will be much useful to ensure higher success for us.

Sun Tzu even says, “Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge” (故明君賢將，所以動而勝人，成功出于眾者，先知也)

So, why can’t employers check on job candidates before hiring them? One justification is that, hiring the wrong employee is not only costly to the company, but also detrimental to the employee who comes into the wrong job.

But are you aware of the dangers of doing such online background check?  Feel free to comment on my presentation done in December 2009 below or on SlideShare.net.

Thanks everyone for taking the “Have You Got A Lady Boss?” survey!

I have indeed learned how to administer a questionnaire using Google Docs. It’s so convenient!  Thanks to recommendation from friends on the Internet and social media.

As promised, the results are being released online.   But first of all, have a look at what respondents told us about a lady boss.  Click to enlarge.

Don’t blame me for anything.  I’m just reporting the findings…

Below is the part of presentation on data collected and analysis.

Disclaimer - I’ve got the permission to put up photos of the pretty lady in the slides

Click here to view or download report data collection & analysis in PDF format.

What conclusions can you make out of these results?

Right after my secondary school, I joined one network marketing company.  I managed to recruit over 40 downlines in my group.  Within a few months I rose to the so-called Manager post.

We were trained for positive thinking.  One compulsory reading we must have was Think & Grow Rich.  We were trained to visualize success and think “if I think I can, I can”!

I believed in the “law of attraction”, though it may not be called this name at that time.  I believed I could achieve anything I wanted, anything my mind focused on and attracted.  At the age of 19, I thought I was at the top of the world.

But things did not turn out well:

• My group collapsed.  Many downlines migrated to another network marketing company.
• The company also folded itself in a few years.
• I lost money and trust of many friends.
• And many other setbacks in life.

Recently I made a presentation on the concept of self-efficacy.  It is the belief that we can complete a certain task completely.  It also refers to our general trait that we think we can succeed in a variety of situations.

To make a long story short, while self-efficacy is very important, it is not everything.  We humans have limit on what we can do, and we need to be humble enough to recognize our limit.

However, as Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, proposes that as we focus on what we can do now (our circle of influence), and not on what we are concerned of but can’t do now (our circle of concern), we will stretch our circle of influence bigger and bigger.

Please go through my presentation and see if you can find out anything or not