MarquisParker.com // Business Strategist, Speaker, Advisor, and Coach

By now, I’m sure all of you have heard about the passing of The King of Pop, Michael Jackson. I was completely SHOCKED when I heard the news this afternoon and I’ve been watching new coverage about it ever since. At first, I didn’t want to believe it because CNN was reporting that he was only in a coma and not dead. But, then the LA Times reported that he’d died and all of the other news services reported the same thing. I’m still stunned by the news and haven’t been able to look away from the news coverage for… Read the rest

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Hey, peoples. I hope you all had a nice and relaxing weekend. I’d also like to send a Happy Father’s Day shout-out to all of the dads out there. Ever since hearing President Obama’s comments about fatherhood on Friday, I’ve been thinking a lot about the topic, particularly as it relates to pursuing a high-flying career. I won’t dive too much into my thoughts on it because I’ve written a LOT about work-life balance over the past few weeks. But, I do hope that all of you hard-charging career-focused dads out there are setting aside time to spend with your… Read the rest

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What’s going on, y’all. I’m writing this entry with a big smile on my face because today was the second warm day in a row here in Chicago. That may be a weird thing to be happy about, but y’all weren’t here on those days when the temperature was in the -20′s a few months ago. Walking outside and not needing a coat here is amazing. I know that it’ll probably get ridiculously hot soon, but I’m loving the few days of Springtime weather that we’ll see in 2009. Even better, the folks outside just looked happier now that the… Read the rest

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OK, I know that some of you are going to roll your eyes when you see this, but it made me smile so I’m going to post it…Gotta love getting nice shout-outs every now and then This isn’t the first one of these I’ve ever received and I don’t post most of them, but this one caught me at the right time, so here it is…

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PS wrote:

“Hi Marquis,

My name is PS. I just wanted to share my thoughts about your blog. I started reading your blog in 2007 because you are from GSB. As I… Read the rest

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Hey there, everyone. I hope you’re all having a great Sunday and are getting some decent rest in before starting another week of work. As for myself, I’m on my way out to check out the Chicago Ribfest to likely eat waaaaay too much and do some major damage to my swole. I’m going to have to hit the gym pretty hard tomorrow to make up for this afternoon. So far, the month of June has been pretty cold and rainy in Chicago, so it’s nice that we have a day in the 70′s and folks are outside in droves.… Read the rest

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Hello all. Happy Friday! If any of you have been grindin’ hard like I have lately, I bet you’re really looking forward to the weekend. I’ve been doing so much traveling lately that I haven’t had a chance to rest, so this weekend will probably involve a whole lot of doing NOTHING…gotta love it, right?

As a nice way to start off the weekend, I’m posting a couple articles about real life stuff that I thought might interest some of you. One is all about following one’s passion into a career path and the other is about living a much… Read the rest

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What’s good, peoples. The message below is from a prospective Stanford GSB applicant who is interested in pursuing a joint-degree program while there. He’s concerned about whether the second degree will distract him from his MBA studies and has asked about my experience with that as I pursued the MA.Ed along with my own MBA. I’ve been asked about issues related to the joint degree before, but I think this may be the first time the question has come from this angle. Hopefully, my response gives him the kind of info he’s seeking.

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SO wrote:

“Hi Marquis,

I’m a… Read the rest

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Hey there, peoples. OK, y’all know I love to pass along information about useful stuff when I find it, right? Well, this is another quick entry to inform you all of another potentially valuable career resource…This new resource is a site called GottaMentor.com that was launched to provide career prep advice and resources, job postings, and access to networking and mentoring to young professionals from college age through their mid-30′s. The founder of the site is a Stanford GSB alum named Andrea R. who has done some amazing things in her career, including launching Management Leadership for Tomorrow… Read the rest with her

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