Fast Company - Great Business Magazine and Great Website

Whether you work, are thinking of starting your own business, consult or are retired - you will find something in this magazine that is of interest to you. The articles are written on topics that reflect what's happening today. I store these magazines and go back to them again and again to look up interesting articles the I remember. One cover story in particular - "Brand Yourself" has been reprinted in a small brochure that I refer friends to that are thinking of making some sort of change.

The magazine is broken down like this:

Cover Story - past issues have included: "Brand You", "Betrayed/Inspired by Work", and "How to Design a Life That Works". Each article offers an insight on a topic in today's workplace with real-life examples of interesting people as a part of the story.

Letters from the Editors - this section explains what this issue is all about from an editorial viewpoint.

Loop - is the Community Pages of Fast Company. This section contains all of the letters from readers - good and bad. It also has a Company of Friends profile. The Company of Friends is a networking group that is sponsored by Fast Company to get people within a certain discipline talking. I am a marketing of the PR/Marketing forum and I find it very useful.

Report from the Future - is a section that talks about new ideas and new technologies. In the November issue, as an example, this section included articles about: free agents & the web, an ad agency that reinvented itself for the web, smart people accepting tough jobs, web sites that are designed to sell, and more.

Unit of One - profiles people on a particular topic. In the November issue the topic is Time Management. Here are some of the quotes from this section:

* Steve Fredricks - COO and CEO of Digital Domain, Inc. "You can always choose whether or not to twist yourself into a pretzel over work -- and I always choose not to.

* Todd Krizelman - co-CEO of theglobe.com contrasts this quote with "Always push yourself, even when it hurts, because every second counts"

In my Humble Opinion - this section deals with views with a point on change, technology, work and life.

Network - this section looks a different ways of team building and networking. In the November issue there is a whole article written about an experiment. They took 10 talented businesspeople and put them on a raft trip in Idaho in the summer to test speed team building. Was the experiment a success? You'll have to read the article to find out.

A Spy in the House of Work - wraps up the magazine with an really interesting column. The premise is that you (the reader) follow Fast Company's spy into the far corners of business. Sometimes its an IPO party, or someone reinventing their career or confessions of an online auction junkie.

If you'd like to get a free trial issue, go to www.fastcompany.com and sign up for one or simply read the current issue online.