Hasta La Gadget!

This is part of the #CareerAdvice series – featuring successful professionals who share their advice to people who would want to take their career to the next level.

Push. Learn. Think. Listen.

These are probably four of Brad Paterson’s favorite verbs. These verbs are part of sentences which have resonated in his life and his core values.

Brad Paterson VP & Managing Director, Asia-Pacific at Intuit

Push yourself.
Learn new things.
Think big.
Listen actively.

These sentences are common, concise, and simple yet very powerful if one applies them to their daily lives. These simple sentences have the power to make the common unique as well as turn your life around by 180 degrees.

These sentences have been Brad Paterson’s mantra – principles by which he live by.

These are the same sentences that keep him dynamic and relevant no matter how many times the business landscape changes. These are what keep him at the top of his game.

Humble Beginnings, Hugely Impactful Career

Brad came from a family whose male members have a knack for starting their own businesses. His grandfather and father have a small bakery and consulting practice respectively. He found this common trait later in life when he started desiring to start his own business.

Prior to all of these, however, Brad worked as a customer retention officer for a telecommunications company after graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Newcastle in Australia.

After taking several other jobs in the IT&T industry, Brad joined his father in his consulting firm. This, eventually, jump started his career in international business. The opportunity came when he was offered a regional position at only 25 years old.

The offer came with a catch – he should be willing to relocate to Singapore.

His doubts and hesitation regarding the big move were put to rest with his father’s encouragement to go for it stating that it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

As the saying goes that ‘Father knows best,’ Brad was grateful that his father forced him out of his comfort zone because it broadened his horizons and made him more open, flexible, and
adaptable.

After the Singapore stint, he found himself back in Sydney with a more challenging role – help start PayPal Australia.

However, fate must have destined him not to stay in Australia for a long time because PayPal gave him a regional position which brings him back to Singapore. He worked with PayPal for a few years, but eventually decided to pursue his lifelong dreams – to start his own business.

However, there must be something about him that attracts pioneering organizations and companies because halfway through his personal pursuit, Intuit approached him to head their Asia Pacific operations.

He had second thoughts at first but as he learned more about the leading business and financial management solutions provider for small businesses and its advisors, and its core values, he discovered that it mirrored his own.

Thus, the next most logical and wisest step is to join the organization. He did not regret that decision because at Intuit, he was able to build an amazing team while keeping close tabs with Small Businesses in the APAC region.

Precious Lessons from the Workplace
There is a saying that if we constantly keep our eyes open, there is always a lesson to be learned in every situation. A very keen and introspective observer, that’s what Brad did – learn from every experience he had. Most of those lessons have become his guiding principles which led him to where he is right now – the place of success.

His first job as a customer retention officer taught him the power of listening. When you truly listen to people instead of trying to sell them a solution, people will see the genuine interest and concern you’re showing them. That genuineness is the most essential factor that will cause people to stay because they know you truly care.

On the other hand, working at PayPal taught him the power of small teams. He discovered that no matter how small the team is, they are able to achieve the impossible if they cooperate and push themselves to be always dynamic, relevant, and relatable.

Where the Fearless Tread
There are many adjectives you can use to describe Brad and his principles but one word that stands out is fearless.

He is never afraid to fail. He is never afraid to get out of his comfort zone. He is never afraid to think big. He is never afraid to keep quiet and just listen. He is never afraid to maintain his integrity.

On failure and thinking big, he said that one of the precious advice he got from another CEO was the mindset that it is OK to bat .333, which means it is OK to try and fail. The focus there is you have tried rather than not try at all.

He further added that failure is inevitable. You can never stop it from happening. Everybody is bound to fail. You cannot control it. However, you can control how you react to it or how you view it. Your reaction to failure will determine whether you will continue to fall or stand up and succeed.

When you fail, never be afraid to ask questions in order to get down to the bottom of things. Go back to the game plan and examine why it worked or didn’t work. As he said, the answer often lies in the observations rather than the answer.

The odd home run of course is great. Most people and organizations fear failure. However, we really only learn from our mistakes. Of learning and getting out of his comfort zone, Brad said that learning does not necessarily mean getting more education.

Instead, valuable learning mostly comes from experience and observation. When you begin to observe people and understand the how and why of their actions, you will gain powerful insights to make you more effective and efficient. It also helps you innovate and create powerful solutions that will really work.

Of listening actively, Brad always quotes his current CEO Brad Smith who said that, ‘You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that ratio.‘

Active listening, according to Brad, does not mean that you wait for the other person to stop speaking so you can start talking. Instead, it means understanding a situation so you can glean insights and experiences that will inform the choices you make in the future.

This kind of listening will help you remain “present” and “in the moment”, which, in today’s age of hyper information consumption, is more important than ever in helping you build relationships at work – and at home!

Of maintaining integrity, Brad always encourages his team and the people he works with to always ‘do the right thing.’ The advice might be overused and sounds old-fashioned but integrity can always take you places which are farther than you can imagine.

In fact, “Integrity without Compromise” is the cornerstone of their values at Intuit.

He further added that “if you’d be embarrassed to have your mother read about this on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, don’t do it.”

Simple yet powerful advice.

These are the golden nuggets he give to anyone who would ask him for advice. In fact, he said he would give the same advice to his younger self should he be given the chance to go back in time.

Learn more from Brad by connecting with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Enjoyed this? Watch out for the next #CareerAdvice series or share your own. Connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that Republicans can go after his immigration programs in the courts and in Congress, but his confidence will not be shaken.

“In the short term, if Mr. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have a vote over whether what I’m doing is legal or not, they can have that vote,” Obama said at a town hall in Miami hosted by MSNBC and Telemundo’s José Díaz-Balart. “I will veto that vote because I’m absolutely confident it’s the right thing to do.”

Obama’s appearance at Florida International University came at a rocky time for his 2014 executive actions on immigration, which would expand deportation relief to as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants who are either parents or came to the U.S. as children. Those programs are the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents policy, or DAPA, and an expansion of the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA.

A judge halted the programs from moving forward last week — the administration has sought to overturn that decision — amid a lawsuit from 26 states contending what Obama did was unconstitutional.

And in Washington, Congress is held up on funding the Department of Homeland Security over the issue of Obama’s immigration actions. The Senate has agreed to a two-part approach that will fund DHS, to be followed with a vote on defunding Obama’s 2014 immigration policies. But many Republicans, particularly those in the House, say funding for DHS must be tied to measures that stop Obama from carrying out deportation relief policies. Current funding for DHS runs out on Feb. 27.

Obama said that instead of fighting over immigration during the effort to fund DHS, he hoped Republicans would turn to reform. The Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013, but it went nowhere in the House.

Obama said voters who care about immigration should get to the polls, and press candidates over their views.

“When they start asking for votes, the first question should be, ‘Do you really intend to deport 11 million people?'” he said.

The president said he believes comprehensive immigration reform will happen eventually.

“Over the long-term, this is going to get solved because at some point there’s gonna be a President Rodriguez or there’s gonna be a President Chen,” he said. “The country is a nation of immigrants and ultimately it will reflect who we are and its politics will reflect who we are.”

For those undocumented immigrants currently awaiting reform or deportation reprieve, Obama said to take heart that his new policies go beyond the programs halted by the judge. He said the administration is also instructing immigration and border agents to follow new guidelines to focus on certain undocumented immigrants for deportation, such as recent border-crossers, criminals and national security threats.

But Obama acknowledged that issuing priorities doesn’t always work, and said he and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson would push to ensure they were being followed.

“If somebody’s working for ICE and there’s a policy and they don’t follow the policy, there’re gonna be consequences to it,” he said.

The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration, foundation officials disclosed Wednesday.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s prime minister held a marathon meeting with his party’s lawmakers Wednesday, briefing them on pledges made to European creditors to win a four-month extension of the country’s bailout amid simmering party discontent over what some see as a capitulation.

The meeting, which was held behind closed doors, lasted more than 11 hours. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected last month on the promise to repeal bailout austerity measures, including spending cuts and tax hikes, has been at pains to persuade hardliners in his radical left Syriza party that Greece succeeded in its European negotiations.

Greece won its extension Tuesday by pledging a series of policy measures, including adherence to certain reforms and highlighting its will to crack down on corruption and tax evasion. It also promised not roll back privatizations as it had promised before being elected on Jan. 25 and not take any unilateral action without consulting with Greece’s creditors.

But some party members and ministers have insisted election promises should be kept.

Energy and Environment Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, a party hardliner, has repeated he will not go ahead with privatizations, which were part of initial requirements for the 240 billion euro (currently $272 billion) bailout.

Lafazanis told the daily Ethnos newspaper that the privatization of the power grid and of the country’s power utility would be halted as final binding bids had not yet been submitted.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, speaking on RealFM radio Wednesday, said the policy measures list he sent to Brussels to win the extension included “constructive ambiguity” on the issue of privatizations. The text of Varoufakis’ letter to Brussels says completed privatizations will not be rolled back and for those where tenders have already been launched, “the government will respect the process, according to the law.”

“The law gives the government possibilities to both change the terms of the procedure and at some point to check the legality of this procedure,” Varoufakis said. “Our position is very simple. The sell-off of family silver at rock-bottom prices and in a way that doesn’t lead to development for the economy must stop.”

The most direct, and symbolically damaging, criticism came over the weekend from Syriza’s European parliament member Manolis Glezos, famed in Greece for removing the Nazi flag from atop the Acropolis during the German occupation in World War II.

Glezos wrote an open letter over the weekend publicly apologizing to the Greek people for backing what he said was the “illusion” that the hated bailout austerity measures would be immediately repealed.

Greece’s list of policy goals is being used as a starting point for the creation of new reform measures the Greek parliament will have to vote into law.

The International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, both bailout contributors, have expressed reservations about the Greek pledges, saying they were enough to approve the extension but were vague and needed to be translated into concrete action.

Without the four-month bailout extension, Greece faced the possibility of bankruptcy, limits on bank transactions and even a potential exit from euro, the joint currency used by 19 European nations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is the largest single contributor to Greece’s rescue loans, said she was glad the eurozone “found a starting point for negotiations with the new government.”

But, she said, much work lay ahead.

“We must continue along this road,” Merkel said, adding that “will of course remain challenging, I have no illusions about that.”

___

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

For TueNight.com by Heather Barmore (originally written Nov. 25, 2014)

Heather (bottom right) with her three brothers (photo courtesy of Heather Barmore)

My anger was palpable long before the announcement by the grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri. I was already antsy, wanting to fight, craving some sort of confrontation, as I often do when life doesn’t hand me lemons but lobs them at my head. When I learned that a decision had been made, I was ready. I wanted to go in and tell people what I really thought of them and, most importantly, their silence.

I am a feisty person, and when I hurt, I use my words not for good but for bad. This pain was amplified by knowing full well that Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson wouldn’t be indicted, a feeling that many of us had sitting at the bottom of our guts like a heavy meal. I wanted my friends, my largely white, female following, to feel that hurt, to get angry, to say something. So, as a writer, I used my words. I put out 140 characters that explained exactly how I felt:

I would love to see those social justice/social good folks to at least mention Ferguson. I bet you think this tweet is about you. It is.

I took aim at a select group of women who I know are prolific in the social-good space. When the United Nations Foundation asks for their help to spread the word about vaccinations, they are there. When the ONE Project asks them to participate in a trip to Ethiopia, they are on the first plane. In a split second of compounded anger, I questioned why their loyalties were so tied to the people of Africa but they couldn’t bring any attention to what was happening in their own backyard.

See? Anger.

I followed up on my tweet by writing this gem on Facebook:

Systemic racism doesn’t hold a candle to vaccinations.

People might not have said so publicly, but I was being an asshole. I was in the mood for a fight. I felt like challenging others and being challenged right back. I was coming across as the “angry black woman” — a persona I don’t ever wish to be, as it is quick to turn off engagement and cause others to shut down. But there was a deep ache and an inability to breathe in the hours leading to the announcement made by District Attorney Bob McCulloch, a feeling that spread around the Facebook pages and tweets of my black friends. This wasn’t just about Michael Brown’s death, Darren Wilson or Missouri. This was about decades of being treated as less-than-human by those who had sworn to protect and serve us. We are exhausted and exasperated. And, for me, this was about the very real impact of excessive force by police officers like those who’d shot my black brother nine times. This was personal.

I pulled back, however, and am grateful that I had the sound mind to not allow my outrage to get the best of me, because it could have easily swallowed me whole. I then went back to Facebook and presented the following question:

A no BS question:

Why is it that many of my White friends have no problem chiming in when global organizations need something but when it comes to discussing and speaking out on an event close to home – racism, in this case – you all remain silent?

It makes me sad and a little upset but I really want to know. Is it fear? Is it because you don’t know what to say? What’s going on?

I thought that I would receive a few replies. I sat back and braced myself for the deafening silence that would prove my point. I steadied for a fight. Below are five responses out of 133 comments.

Sue Davis:

I think there might be a fear of causing offense. Or maybe it’s like how a lot of men won’t comment on women’s issues, assuming it isn’t *their* issue. It’s interesting, but many of the white people I see who WILL comment are LGBTI – I think that they might have a better idea of what discrimination feels like, so they’re more willing to speak out.

Miranda Wicker:

It’s hard to comment when you’ve been told to sit down and shut up because you’re white. But I want to speak up, and I do when I can.

Margit Detweiler:

Honestly, I always say the solution is “walk a mile in my shoes” –not enough people actually spend time with people who aren’t like them. So there is fear and just a lack of one on one commonality. It goes both ways. My husband and I still surprise each other with stuff.

Amber Adrian:

I get paralyzed. I get slammed with every emotion on the spectrum – grief, anger, love, sadness – and it ties up my thoughts and my fingers and my opinions so all I can manage to do is sit and watch. This isn’t how I would choose to interact with the world but it’s often all I can manage. It took me 36 years to be able to sit calmly and observe, rather than scream and cry and shake. Hopefully, it won’t be another 30 years before I’m able to weigh in with something useful.

Meagan Francis:

I sat on this overnight because I wanted to choose my words wisely. Like many of your white friends I live in a racially not-very-diverse, conservative area. My Facebook friends list represents people from all walks of life, from the people I went to a small rural high school with to my friends on the coasts and abroad and nearly every socioeconomic status. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what to say that will HELP rather than just add to a noisy chorus. Anything I say risks being misunderstood by one or more groups and devolving into a flame war that completely misses the point. Also, I’m just a muller in general and not usually one of the first voices to speak up on ANY topic. I think many of us are not silent, but just take longer to figure out what to say.

I read every single one of the replies. There were comments from women who are normally reticent to discuss difficult issues, especially anything having to do with race. These are women with family-friendly brands. They have made their livings online by being noncontroversial and avoiding the icky parts of life — the icky parts that I love to dive into head first. But there they were, chiming in and telling me of their own fears and worry, thus mitigating my own ache. I didn’t tell anyone that last part, but I am telling you now: I was infuriated, outraged, aching beyond belief, and I continue to find synonyms for each of my feelings. But with each thoughtful, profound, honest answer given in response, that outrage abated.

Often anger is a manifestation of not being heard. The people of Ferguson, Missouri, have risen after not being heard for years; the events surrounding Michael Brown’s death woke the sleeping giant. I am largely speaking for myself here, but I am more than aware that those of us in traditionally underrepresented communities simply want to be listened to. Last night all I wanted was for someone to hear me and know that I was hurting. Last night a group of friends from all moments of my life participated in a civil, informative discussion.

I often wonder if people are really reading what I’ve said or if they’re simply skimming through. But last night you heard me. You listened. You digested. You felt my pain and my exhaustion. You told me that you sometimes don’t comment or click “like,” but you have always been there and continue to be.

And for that I thank you.

Read more of Heather’s posts on TueNight:

• “I Wore a Bikini. That’s What I Did.“
• “On Being the Friend Who Doesn’t Like Friends“
• “Butter“

TueNight is a weekly online publication for women to share where they’ve been and explore where they want to go next. We’re nobody’s ma’am. For more, visit tuenight.com.