One of my favorite things about LinkedIn is that it hasn’t succumbed to spam. With the larger social networks, it’s difficult to manage user spam and preference abuses. I’ve been on Linkedin for a couple years now, and I’ve yet to receive a spam message in my inbox. Everything on the site seems genuine and professional. Restricting users from sending cold messages to people they don’t know is a great way to reduce spam and avoid overflowing inboxes. If LinkedIn is able to maintain this solid structure, we’ll definitely see more effective networking and collaboration online.

I was inspired to write this post after reading Fortune Magazine’s story in May’s issue entitled: “How LinkedIn Will Fire Up Your Career.” Writer Jessi Hempel emphasized the importance of having a LinkedIn profile and how more and more companies are looking to the 7-year old site for future employees. Accenture, one of the largest private consulting companies in the world has said it will be hiring 50K new employees in the next year. Head of Global Recruiting for Accenture John Campagnino announced that 40% of those new hires will be from Social Media. (Hint: If you’re looking for a job, it might be a good idea to create a profile on LinkedIn). Even if your not looking for a job, it’s good to have a presence on a site that spotlights your professional talents.

Coming out of college I had no idea about LinkedIn. Granted it wasn’t as big then as it is now, LinkedIn quickly became my “go to” site for jobs, networking and potential connections. Before I knew about LinkedIn, I would often use the career office at my schools to find future employment. The problem with this was that the choices were so limited and rarely offered any appeal. I’ll admit I did find a few jobs utilizing the school’s database, but the options were bleak. With the help of LinkedIn, we are no longer boxed into certain careers or job opportunities. We can now research those people in the positions we want to be in and find out how they got there. The resources are limitless and definitely worth exploring.

As important as it is to know what you what to do after high school, college, etc… We shouldn’t let the “norm” force us to make a decision right away. By “norm” I’m referring to the over saturated plans of life: Go to college. Graduate. Get a job. Have a family. Live happily ever after. I agree that the faster you know what you want, the faster you will be able to achieve it, but what’s the point if you rush into a bad decision. Try to figure out what it is you really want to do and go for it. Every person’s journey is different and their is no right way to achieve success.

I can’t give specific advice on how to “Discover Your Future” but I think it takes time and experience. I’m a huge advocate for trying out whatever it is you’re interested in. One of the best ways to do this is through internships or on the job experience. For those of you who are already graduated and think it’s too late, think again. Last summer, Grammy award winning rapper/producer Kanye West took an internship with the GAP, as a way to learn the fashion business inside out. Being a highly successful multi-millionaire dollar artist didn’t stop Kanye from chasing his dreams and it shouldn’t stop us either. If you feel like you don’t need the experience and know exactly what you want to do… then do it. As simple as this sounds, many of us get caught up in the social pressures of our industries and don’t want to look a certain way by joining or starting our own endeavor. In the end, its about what you know, who you know and how you are going to execute it. And what better way than through hands-on experience to learn each of these important traits.

Persistence, determination and a strong work ethic are also great recipes for success. As cliche as they may sound each of these qualities, will allow us to gain confidence in the work we do and become leaders in our industry. At the end of the day, it’s really about embracing our work and doing what we want to succeed.

I can honestly say that I didn’t start reading for recreation until I graduated college. My reasoning behind this? “Why would I want to read for fun, when I have 3 textbooks and 2 chapter books to read for my other classes.” I never felt like reading outside of my classes mattered. Not in middle school, high school or college.

In retrospect, I think this was a big mistake. By abandoning recreational reading, I was missing out on ideas, thoughts, and all the other cool revelations we get when we read. The question I often ask myself is, why is reading so unpopular to the younger generation? In the past twenty years, we’ve seen a wealth of multi-million dollar projects aimed at emphasizing how important reading is. From the NBA’s “Reading is Fundamental” program to the NAE “Read Across America”, large organizations continue to push the “reading movement.” I can definitely admire their intent and concern, but I wonder what other avenues we can propel to activate reading amongst the youth.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen the buzz from Apple’s iPad take over the web and popular media based on its futuristic innovation. As we continue to progress through next decade of this century, we will see more content turn digital. How will this change reading for our youth? I think it has the power to redefine schools, institutions and the traditional model of reading. Textbooks will be in the next 10 years and teachers will be forced to revamp the traditional lecture/note-taking style that is currently taught today.

Being that I’m an advocate for new technology and embrace most innovative new techologies, I may be biased in my outlook for the future. But, I definitely think that in the near future we’ll start seeing new behaviors in the way we read, annotate and consume the written word. I’m optimistic that this new way of consumption will not only “save trees,” but also make reading fun for the youth.