How does Nike do it?

This weekend found me in beautiful Portland, Oregon. To borrow the motto of that area's pre-eminent employer... just do it!:

So, yes, Readers, a weekend spent in Portland, Oregon visiting my cousin & cousin-in-law, and also a b-school classmate. Both Erich and Aaron work at Nike, and in addition to enjoying the great Northwest, I learned a thing or two from their Nike experiences that apply to you, dear Readers. (See all $100K+ jobs at Nike now.)

Portland is gorgeous, green, and God-blessed. I suppose I'd seen that pine tree on Oregon's license plates a million times before. But to see thousands of them in person, lined up majestically along the roads and the rivers, covering the land like huge green sentinels, well, Readers, that is some type of beauty for your New York City correspondent.

Saturday a group of us rolled through the hills of Willamette Valley, wandering among the vineyards there. My absolute favorite was Cuneo. We had white table cloth lunch under a tent, on top of the hill, and seemed a lifetime away from the ordinary cares of day-to-day. We whiled away the afternoon playing bocce on top of the world (with some key tosses from my buddy, Aaron and I won, 14-4!) You can see the bocce courts right on their homepage, and if it's to your taste, I'd recommend the Two Rivers Bordeaux and any of their Pinot Noirs.

Later, at Lange Winery, I bought one of those enormous bottles that contains four 'regular' bottles. I'm told it's called a Jeroboam. Whatever its name, we found it an excellent way to wash down hot dogs and hamburgers off the grill that night. And it not only washed down our barbecue, but whisked us off to an early, snoozy, bed.

So it was a lovely day in Oregon -- one can imagine that there are no other type of days in this great corner of the land.

But what struck me most in chatting with the Nike folks over the weekend wasn't just the fine diversions of Oregon living, but even more their dedication, their passion, and their commitment to their business. As Erich told me, Nike's way of thinking is: "take care of the athletes, and help find ways to make athletes perform better, and everything else will follow." And this comes through in the excitement and the energy with which all of the Nike-ites speak about their jobs and their love for the company.

So those Nike people are really, really committed to seeing athletes soar higher.

Which is a bit like our calling at TheLadders.com.

We want to help the nation's leaders do better in their careers. And to our way of thinking, if we focus on that, all else will follow.

That's why we come back each week to you with advice on your resume, branding yourself in your career, and ever more information about our 20,000 plus new opportunities each month.

We want you, the nation's and the world's high-end professionals, to succeed.

So I often get asked by the more money-minded folks of the world: why does TheLadders.com keep its membership prices so low? After all, when we help somebody get their new job one month earlier, that's worth $10,000 or more to a typical subscriber. Why don't we make more loot off this valuable product? Why not charge $1,000 or $5,000 per year? It would certainly be more lucrative.

Well, folks, our calling is to help ever more of the nation's top professionals. And I think that if we focus on that; if we focus on making sure you soar in your career; if keep membership fees low; and just focus on making each and every one of you more successful every year, then all else will follow.

And to my friends at Nike, I owe them thanks for their wonderful hospitality, and for inspiring me to make TheLadders.com an ever better place for the world's best professionals to fly high.