This didn’t surprise me at all. I have nothing against Groupon. In fact I’m a happy customer who had bought a few Groupon deals in the past.

However, I also had the unfortunate experience of negotiating with a Groupon salesperson. Here is what I learned.

• The Groupon salesperson never gave us his phone number. Every interaction was via email. We emailed him, and he would call us back.
• He was super aggressive, and said during our first call “let’s meet at 2PM in two days, and I’ll have our CEO and VP joins us for the call.” I doubted his CEO and VP would join our next call, but he was speaking with certainty.
• He pitched us against our competitors. He vastly exaggerated about the potential size of the deal. The problem was that he knew so little about our industry, he was talking like a fool. We could easily structure a deal to mislead him and he would have no idea until the deal started selling.
• There was no consistency in whatever he said. Talking to a Groupon salesperson is like talking to a car salesman.

As we all know, Groupon’s business model is built on sales. It didn’t have much competitive differentiation in term of technology and intellectual properties. The way their sales people work, I have serious doubt about the long-term viability and sustainability of their business model.

The way their salesperson carry themselves and interface with external parties is a reflection of the company culture and leadership. Based what I have experienced, I am not a fan of the way Groupon does their business.

One thing for sure, I will not be buying Groupon stock.

Earlier this morning Yahoo announced that it would slash 2,000 jobs and that it would begin the process of notifying employees immediately.

Here are 7 tips to survive Yahoo layoff:

1. Immediately fill out the required government forms so that you can start receiving unemployment checks from government.
2. Cut your expense, save money and conserve cash. Know your cash expense, your cash reserve, and your burn rate.
3. Find 30 – 60 minutes of time for yourself each day — take a walk. Go to the gym. Read a book. Do something you enjoying doing. You need the break to maintain your sanity during a very stressful time.
4. Put together a structured program to look for a job –   see 5-day personal boot-camp to beat layoffs
5. Look for temporary work and/or alternative income streams. Can you apply to be an adjunct instructor for an online school? There are a lot of online universities out there. What about selling used stuff on eBay or Amazon? What about starting a blog/web site and earning affiliate or Ad Sense income? Post an ad on Craigslist.org to provide a service. There are a lot of ways to make some extra money. Be creative and be aggressive to pursue those opportunities.
6. Have you considered to go back to graduate school (e.g. business, law, graduate school, etc.) but have been putting off the idea? If you know what you want, and have a strong reason to go back to school, spend some time to prepare for the exams and start your application process. The application process takes time. You should get started as soon as possible while you’re looking for a job. If you’re interested in getting an MBA, , please read Seven Lessons I learned from attending business school during recession.  If you’re still wondering if you should go back to school,  make sure you read Should you go back to business school to hide from recession.
7. Go out, make friends, and continue to help others. This might sound counterintuitive. "Why waste time helping others while I’m struggling to find a job?" You might ask. Interestingly, the world doesn’t work that way. The more you give, the more you’ll get back. Continue to be involved in associations, non-profits, and other organizations you’re part of. Do let people know that you’re looking of opportunities. But, don’t make that the focus. Instead, focus on contributing and helping others. You’ll be surprised how many people will be offering you help along the way.

Finally, let me tell you the single most important lesson I learned when I was laid off by a dotcom start-up in 2001 – the layoff has nothing to do with who you are. Never associate your self esteem with the layoff – it’s NOT your fault. Keep your chin up. Onward and forward.

This book is not perfect. In fact a large portion of the book is pure propaganda for Linked since one of the authors founded LinkedIn.

However, there are a couple of big ideas from this book that I really like.

The first idea is the notion of “pivot”. If your current job or career is not working, you should look to way to pivot your career just like the way a start-up business pivot from one business model to another.

The second idea is the notion of “A, B, Z” career management. The basic idea is that you should have 3 plans: plan A, Plan B, and Plan Z. Plan A is your current job. Plan B is where you want to pivot to. Plan Z is your back-up plan in case your pivot doesn’t work out.

A few years ago when I was about to graduate from business school I came up with the notion of “three anchor points” for my career. And that’s exactly what “A, B, Z” is about.

You need to have a plan for what you’re doing now, a plan for your next job or career, and you need to have a back-up/contingency plan.  This idea is common sense, but I think it’s something that every career minded person should spend some time to think through.

This is a guy who just went through a humiliating drama in Denver. But he didn’t say a single bad word about his former employer.

Here are some quotes from his conference call with the media:

“I’m so excited about the opportunity to play for Jets. They are an awesome organization”.

“I had a great time at Denver. They’re such a classy organization.”

When asked if John Elway kept him in the loop while they were pursuing Peyton Manning.

Tebow said: “You know everything is on ESPN. That’s how I kept track of things just like you guys did. It’s really interesting. You know, Denver is a classy organization. I had a great run. And I’m excited to join the Jets.”

He didn’t take any shot at his former employer. He sounded super excited and positive.

Tebow will make a great corporate employee – the guy knows how to cultivate a positive perception for himself.

If you’re a frustrated, angry and disgruntled employee, I suggest you to watch and/or listen to Tebow’s conference call.

You might have 100% legitimate reason for your frustration at work. But, the moment you show your negative emotion, you’re increasing your chance to lose.

You need to have the discipline, strategic thinking and communication skills to navigate corporate politics, and put yourself into a better position.

I can deal with the politics of a much larger organization. After all, I have seen and experienced plenty of corporate politics.

What is driving me and my colleagues crazy is the number of management consultants we have to deal with.

The acquiring organization is largely run by former management consultants. They ask a lot of questions. But they have a very superficial way of understanding how our business is run.

They do all of their planning using spreadsheet. They never consult us – the general managers who have been running the different business lines for years.

They put together a budget with goals for us to hit, but they never talked to us about how to achieve the goals.

It’s basically building a business plan in the air.

Absolutely bullshits.

And most of these people used to work for Boston Consulting Group, as well as a few other top tier management consulting companies.

They’re not dumb, but they have absolutely no clue of running a business. And they don’t have the humility to learn. They think too highly of themselves.

I absolutely hate to work with management consultants – they’re useless.

“I work for clear channel and it has come to my attention this week that there will be layoffs and/or firings sometime next week.  Until yesterday I had no clue, however, my boss, a local sales manager, informed me that our program director heard rumblings from an online forum that there will be layoffs next week (week of 10/24/11).

I researched this and found this… http://insidemusicmedia.com/  I am not willing to pay to subscribe to find out how big the layoff will be and what regions will be affected.  I look at it like… more people will have to go hungry so Limbaugh can remain fat and happy on his $400 Million salary from clear channel.”

I guess we will find out if there is a massive layoff at Clear Channel sometime next week. This blog started in 2008 during the financial crisis. In fact, one of the most popular features on this site is the Great Depression 2.0 Layoff Tracker.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that I need to start updating the layoff tracker more frequently in the next 6 to 12 months – in fact I believe we’re heading to another financial crisis soon, and it’s going to be worse than 2008.

Stay tuned. I have a lot in the plan to make this blog more informative, more useful, and more action oriented to help you navigate the difficult economic environment for years to come.

This will result in high inflation and high interest rate.

Is housing price going up or down during inflation? You might argue that during inflationary period prices of products and services will go up.

But, there are also downward pressure on the housing price. High interests make it harder for an average American to afford the monthly mortgage payment. Additionally, the job market is still pretty bad. As long as people are not feeling secure about their employment prospect, they would tend to rent instead of buy.

I could be wrong, but I think the housing price will go down further in the next two years due to higher interest rate and high unemployment. It might eventually increase again due to inflation, but we are not there yet.

Do you agree? I’d love to hear from you.

I actually felt worse than the 2008 financial crisis because I think we’re running out of options.

In 2008 the government was able to use stimulus packages to temporarily “stop the bleeding”. China was able to implement its own stimulus package to help stabilize the global economy.

This time around, the world governments are running out of options. European Union is absolutely in a mess. China is having its own issues. And United States government is in serious debt.

As of tonight, according to Market Ticker, “After being down 634 points today the DOW futures are down 264 more overnight at this point, or approximately 900 points in less than 24 hours.” I cannot predict what’ll happen tomorrow or next week or next month. But ,I do think we have not seen the bottom of this.

What will happen to job market?

Are we going to have hyperinflation?

How will the housing marketing react to recession and hyperinflation?

What should be your strategy for your career and personal finance?

I started this blog exactly three years ago to help people to go through the “depression 2.0”. Well, I have a feeling that I’m about to getting busy again to write about depression 3.0.

That’s okay – let’s get ready together – let’s  follow Warren Buffet’s advice:

“Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful”.

As a result, Zynga founder Mark Pincus will finally join the billionaire club.

We don’t know Zynga’s “cap table” – how many shares are owned by employees? How many millionaires will come out of Zynga’s IPO? Unless an insider reveals the details, it’s going to be hard for us to find out.

For an average silicon valley worker (software developer, QA engineer, product manager, customer support, sales, etc.), hitting the IPO homerun is the “Silicon Valley Dream”.

Things have changed in the past 6 to 12 months. The IPO market suddenly becomes more active. The successful LinkedIn IPO brought back hope – IPO can still happen and one can still make some money from the start-up game in the Silicon Valley. The Zynga IPO will only fuel the burning “IPO fire”.

Are you envious of folks who work at LinkedIn, Zynga, Facebook, or other "hot start-ups”? Are you anxious to leave your big company job and find a hot start-up to join?

Maybe I’m a little bit older (and hopefully a little bit wiser) as I went thought the last great bubble in the Silicon Valley during the mid-to-late 1990’s. I want to share with you my perspective on this.

First, the number one reason for people who become rich in start-up is luck. For a start-up to have a home run like LinkedIn, it doesn’t matter how smart and hard-working the entrepreneur and his team are, they need a lot of luck for all of the stars to align and create a successful start-up.

Second, timing is everything. To have a huge exit, the capital market has to be ready to support such an IPO. For a low-to-middle level employee to make a lot of money from the IPO with fairly small number of stock options, the company needs to have million of dollars of market cap after the IPO. And the employee’s strike price should be low enough for him to reap the benefit. Timings for aforementioned events must align.

Third, statistically there are not many exits over $100mm. On his  blog, famed venture capitalist Fred Wilson stated

“There are on average 1,000 early state financings every year. I suppose a few of those 1,000 financings are for the same company, but I doubt that many are. So we can use 1,000 as an approximation of the number of companies that get funded in a given year.

And somewhere around 50 and 100 of them exit for more than $100mm every year. So 5-10% of the companies financed by VCs end up existing for more than $100mm”

Why am I telling you these? Because I think if you’re an entry-level or middle-level worker in the high tech industry, it is virtually impossible for you to pick the winner of the start-up game.

You’re at a very disadvantaged position – venture capitalist needs one home run out of ten investments to make a lot of money. Entrepreneurs and senior management can make good money even though the company’s exit is moderate because of the higher number of stock options they own.

But, you, as a hard-working worker bee, are risking your career and money (you probably will take a pay cut) while working your tail off for a tiny chance to make it.

Do I sound too negative and discouraging? – I’m not telling you not to join start-up. I want you to understand your odd in the start-up casino – you are just like many people who are visiting Las Vegas casinos – the house has an upper hand over you although you might get lucky once a while.

So, instead of chasing the money, make sure you’re really interested and passionate about the product the start-up is making. Joining the start-up should help accelerate your career, make you more fulfilled professionally, and set you up for next stage of your career.

Please don’t join a start-up with the high expectation of hitting a home run because it’s highly likely that you’ll be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you join the start-up for your passion and the opportunity to learn and grow, you might get lucky to have a base hit, or even hit the home run.

“That, he explains, is a running tally of how he’s spending his time, and whether he’s sticking to a big goal he set for himself years ago: to spend 50 percent of his workdays on creative pursuits like research and writing books, 30 percent on teaching-related activities, and 20 percent on all the other things he has to do.

These aren’t ballpark guesstimates. Mr. Collins, who is 51, keeps a stopwatch with three separate timers in his pocket at all times, stopping and starting them as he switches activities. Then he regularly logs the times into a spreadsheet. “

This article really made me think: how am I spending my time? Am I spending time on things that is my calling and I can really make a unique contribution?

I have to say that I have a tendency to be very emotionally invested in my work. Very often when I get home, although I’m physically home I am still thinking about work.

As I’m getting a little bit older (I’m in my mid 30s), more and more I feel a sense of urgency – I want to work on things that really matters. Time is precious – why spend time on things that are not meaningful to me? why spend time with people who you don’t enjoy working with? Warren Buffet said that he chose to work himself because he wanted to choose whom he worked with.

I recently came back from two-week vacation. During the vacation I thought a lot about the importance to consciously knowing and managing how I spent my time everyday.

I’m actually very excited because I feel that a lot of exciting things are in the horizon, but I need to make it happen. I’ll share with you my learning and doing along the way

How are you spending your time everyday? Do you feel fulfilled and enjoyable? I’d love to hear from you.