47. ‘Serial Innovator’ Freed from Fear
Mike O’Horo
Mike O’Horo calls himself a serial innovator. His current venture, Varsidee, is software that reimagines the broken hiring process, replacing resumes and credentials with concrete demonstrations of capability. For candidates, this eliminates screening bias completely, and makes opportunity available for all. For employers, it eliminates all but qualified, genuinely interested candidates.
How Did You Start Using Your Talents?
After college, a top advertising executive advised him he’d “end up living under a bridge” if he held out for an ad job during the recession. So Mike set his eyes on precious gems, loving it. Unwittingly, he created a manager training program that eventually paved his way into a career coaching executives.
The Most Impactful Turning Point?
The failed start-up of a forward-looking electronic recruiting service–launched before many high-speed digital breakthroughs now taken for granted–set him free. (Like Janis Joplin, “nothing left to lose.”) Soon he was coaching lawyers on how to build their practices, ultimately coaching 7,000 and creating an interactive virtual business development training system.
The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?
Most people go through their careers with the club over their head–the fear of getting fired, Mike observes. “Getting fired is really inconvenient, but it is not life-threatening, and the ones who fire you don’t have any power over you anymore.” There is freedom when the fear is gone.
On His Bookshelf
The Small Big: Small Changes that Spark Big Influence, Steve J. Martin and Noah Goldstein
The Rare Find: How Great Talent Stands Out, by George Anders
Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom, by Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius
Born on a Blue Day (autistic savant), by Daniel Tammet
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, by Norman Doidge
Albert Einstein’s Essays in Humanism, by Albert Einstein
Heddy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Innovations of Heady Lamar, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, by Richard Rhodes
Connecting With Mike O’Horo
Website:
varsidee.com
Facebook:
facebook.com/mikethecoachohoro
Twitter:
@salescoach
LinkedIn:
linkedin/in/mikeohoro/en
