For me, I decided, or at least decided to decide a long time ago.
It was 1998 on a clear, yet hazy evening, pungent with the smells of Singapore, with freighters bobbing offshore, their lights glistening and shimmering against the water. The resort we were at seemed frozen in time, an Andromeda strain version of luxury, but without any people.
There were three of us, and it's amongst the most clear moments I've ever experienced. We spoke of our motivations, our fears and anxiety. The dreams we had came into focus that night, and the plans to realize them also - though perhaps less clear on those.
It was one of those moments in life when you just knew things - you experienced clarity that was was uncommon. You had a vision unencumbered by the day to day stuff of life. Moments like that are few and far between.
It hasn't worked out of course, I suppose it rarely does. That's not a bad thing, or a good thing, it's just a thing. But I do recall that evening, and the three of us who had - for that one shining night, a clear view of what we should be. In a way that's enough. By that I mean it's enough to know that the answer is actually out there, its feasible to see it, grasp and understand. I'd certainly like to achieve that place again, but having climbed that mountain it's not as important anymore to do it again.
I don't imagine anyone wishes to drift with life from day to day, reacting and bumping along from where the current takes you. It's the whole point of wanting to establish goals, set plans in motion to achieve them and manage your life. And so I offer here that you can realistically hope to get to a place where you know what to do, what you really want....and then you can choose to accept and embrace it, or choose not to.
So now I know. And you - what do you want to be when you grow up.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
The joys of travel
Indignities. That sums it up.
Terrorism succeeds when we are forced to wonder what might happen to us, powerless in our own minds. I refuse to succumb. I refuse to stoop to be frightened. I refuse to believe I am powerless.
Bad guys beware, I'm watching for you.
And you ? Are you a victim or vigilant ?
Terrorism succeeds when we are forced to wonder what might happen to us, powerless in our own minds. I refuse to succumb. I refuse to stoop to be frightened. I refuse to believe I am powerless.
Bad guys beware, I'm watching for you.
And you ? Are you a victim or vigilant ?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Are you disgruntled ?
Conan O'Brien probably has many things to be unhappy about, but his misery is serving up very pointed and unique comedy.
For anyone not in the know, Conan is the host the Tonight Show on the NBC network in the US. This is the grand-daddy of all late night talk shows, sets the standard for the genre and has had legendary hosts like Steve Allen and Johnny Carson.
Conan unfortunately is being yanked from the show as host, because the previous host wants back in. Ouch. So Conan is now on his last few shows and making the most of the situation. Recognizing he has has control over only a few aspects of the creative process, he's decided to have some fun (literally) at NBC's expense. Check it out.
My question for you naturally, is what would you do ?
Do you Google Yourself ?
It's nothing to be ashamed of.
It's probably healthy. Your doctor probably does it to him/herself.
Understanding how you appear online, where you're referenced, what Facebook or Twitter postings are featured is an important piece of knowledge for you to have. Employers look at it, School Principals look at it, and those you may wish to connect with - they look at it too. Your drunken online rantings against the last person or company who did wrong by you probably isn't the image you want out there. Or maybe it is. Either way, Google yourself - or if you want it to feel a little different, Bing yourself. Understand that in these connected times, anything we place online is associated to us, and colours people's impressions of us. If you don't like what you see, change it by removing the offending wall scribbles, posts, pictures or video.
Remember the internet is forever.
It's probably healthy. Your doctor probably does it to him/herself.
Understanding how you appear online, where you're referenced, what Facebook or Twitter postings are featured is an important piece of knowledge for you to have. Employers look at it, School Principals look at it, and those you may wish to connect with - they look at it too. Your drunken online rantings against the last person or company who did wrong by you probably isn't the image you want out there. Or maybe it is. Either way, Google yourself - or if you want it to feel a little different, Bing yourself. Understand that in these connected times, anything we place online is associated to us, and colours people's impressions of us. If you don't like what you see, change it by removing the offending wall scribbles, posts, pictures or video.
Remember the internet is forever.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Our Element
In his book “The Element” author and celebrated speaker Sir Ken Robinson speaks about the nature of creativity, education and innovation. The central thesis of The Element is that when we find the meeting point of our natural talent, and our personal passion, then incredible things can happen. Being in your “element” means everything seems to work a little bit better, the outcomes are more substantial and rewarding, and pushing ourselves towards excellence isn’t a chore, rather we’re driven to it.
In many ways, working on anything together from a business partnership to a marriage behaves in the same way – it can seem effortless and inspired, even when tremendous energy and thought has gone into its creation and on-going management.
Sir Ken has some wonderful ideas, and they are delivered in an entertaining fashion. As a treat for yourself, sometime when you need to be inspired (and who doesn't occasionally), pop open TED and seek out Sir Ken. TED stands for "Ideas worth Spreading" and it's true to it's word, if not quite its acronym. It's here for those amongst us that like a silver-platter approach to being introduced to new ideas.
My greatest wish for you and myself is to discover and thrive in your own element. Clearly, this is a good read, and an idea worth spreading.
In many ways, working on anything together from a business partnership to a marriage behaves in the same way – it can seem effortless and inspired, even when tremendous energy and thought has gone into its creation and on-going management.
Sir Ken has some wonderful ideas, and they are delivered in an entertaining fashion. As a treat for yourself, sometime when you need to be inspired (and who doesn't occasionally), pop open TED and seek out Sir Ken. TED stands for "Ideas worth Spreading" and it's true to it's word, if not quite its acronym. It's here for those amongst us that like a silver-platter approach to being introduced to new ideas.
My greatest wish for you and myself is to discover and thrive in your own element. Clearly, this is a good read, and an idea worth spreading.
The Lessons of the F500
I'm such a fortunate guy.
My job has me spending time with the sales leadership across various different large and VERY large companies. I get to gain insight into a veritable who's who in the business world. As impressive as any of these campuses are, and as intimidating as the reputations that these firms have, I see they are all dominated by people.
I've found in my travels and experiences, that people are people pretty much everywhere you go. And they're more or less the same. While there is no doubt that some incredibly bright and innovative individuals populate great companies, the other end of the spectrum is also true. There's averagely talented people in these places as well. This means opportunity the way I look at it.
Stay with me here for a moment...if I want to move my organization's average talent towards greatness (and thereby move my company along with it) , should I be focused on those individuals that are already fantastic, those that can get a mind-blowing job anywhere, or whose primary task is dusting their Nobel prizes ..? Or should we focus instead on those that have less to offer. Perhaps these folks could benefit from some attention, some remedial talent development, and some skills assessment and focus. And perhaps if we did that - moved the average folks towards greatness, then the overall performance of the team would improve in a more significant manner than if we just brought in another ringer. That, I put forward to you dear critic, is the answer - focus on those with the most upside.
To do this, move the averagely talented person along the performance scale towards excellence, should I be using the same tools and methods that the phenomenal performer uses ? No, I think not. You see if we had a wolf in sheep's clothing, we wouldn't actually need to teach them to be a wolf. I recommend a different approach, a different tool-set, one geared for them specifically. Let's give them a defined path for success, and let's knock away the barriers to follow it.
I'll go on record as being a fan of tried and true, tested methods to accomplish a specific task. Few things succeed better than that which has succeeded numerous times before. While we always have to be cognizant of change, that has more to do with delivery media I would put forth, than core concept changes. If I need to fell a tree, I need to sever it at the trunk. Whether I use a saw, my teeth, a chainsaw or a light-sabre, I'm approaching the problem in the same way fundamentally. After cutting through the base, I need to be aware of how it will fall, and the potential for problems if it falls "wrong". What we need to teach people to stretch this analogy is to fell trees smarter and faster.
Then we'll have higher performance. Across the forest, and the organization.
My job has me spending time with the sales leadership across various different large and VERY large companies. I get to gain insight into a veritable who's who in the business world. As impressive as any of these campuses are, and as intimidating as the reputations that these firms have, I see they are all dominated by people.
I've found in my travels and experiences, that people are people pretty much everywhere you go. And they're more or less the same. While there is no doubt that some incredibly bright and innovative individuals populate great companies, the other end of the spectrum is also true. There's averagely talented people in these places as well. This means opportunity the way I look at it.
Stay with me here for a moment...if I want to move my organization's average talent towards greatness (and thereby move my company along with it) , should I be focused on those individuals that are already fantastic, those that can get a mind-blowing job anywhere, or whose primary task is dusting their Nobel prizes ..? Or should we focus instead on those that have less to offer. Perhaps these folks could benefit from some attention, some remedial talent development, and some skills assessment and focus. And perhaps if we did that - moved the average folks towards greatness, then the overall performance of the team would improve in a more significant manner than if we just brought in another ringer. That, I put forward to you dear critic, is the answer - focus on those with the most upside.
To do this, move the averagely talented person along the performance scale towards excellence, should I be using the same tools and methods that the phenomenal performer uses ? No, I think not. You see if we had a wolf in sheep's clothing, we wouldn't actually need to teach them to be a wolf. I recommend a different approach, a different tool-set, one geared for them specifically. Let's give them a defined path for success, and let's knock away the barriers to follow it.
I'll go on record as being a fan of tried and true, tested methods to accomplish a specific task. Few things succeed better than that which has succeeded numerous times before. While we always have to be cognizant of change, that has more to do with delivery media I would put forth, than core concept changes. If I need to fell a tree, I need to sever it at the trunk. Whether I use a saw, my teeth, a chainsaw or a light-sabre, I'm approaching the problem in the same way fundamentally. After cutting through the base, I need to be aware of how it will fall, and the potential for problems if it falls "wrong". What we need to teach people to stretch this analogy is to fell trees smarter and faster.
Then we'll have higher performance. Across the forest, and the organization.
About Us (Me)
Have you noticed in just about every website there's an "About Us' section. It happens to be amongst the most popular pages on a given website, whether business or personal. Yet at the same time, it's considered a smaller link - sometime you have to search the home page to find it. It's interesting that something so sought after by numerous people would at the same time be created in a manner that's difficult to access.
Why we do we go there...what value does it offer..? There's a 100% guarantee that either a man or a woman is listed there. It'll be about people, and perhaps have a mission statement if it's a business. Ideally they'll share their value set with the reader, and as we live in a PC world, they won't say whether they prefer BBQ to steamed vegetables, or support abortion personally or share how they voted in the last election. Rather that section will outline some gobbledygook (I'm not even certain how to spell that word!) about serving their client base, and being committed members of their respective community. We're not really looking for that "spin", but at the same time we're so attuned to hearing and reading it, we're looking for divergence away from that message. Ultimately the truth being sought is whether we should believe these people. That applies whether we we're considering buying their goods, services or advice, or whether we just want to laugh and are unwilling to allow ourselves to do it with a bunch of Neo-Nazi sympathizers.
With all that in mind then..(the pressure builds)..you should know whether your author is a wack-job or a insightful voice amongst today's cacophony of noise. As always - you do get to decide.
I'm a North American male and have lived and worked in numerous countries. I'm a father of two, married for almost twenty years and I do give back in a couple ways to the community that I live in. So what does this tell you ?
So, what does your own description of yourself say about you. What would you like it to say..? Think about it and then carefully craft your own 39 works - but if you do it on the fly, or don't think through its implications, don't be surprised if people arrive at a conclusion you're unhappy with.
Why we do we go there...what value does it offer..? There's a 100% guarantee that either a man or a woman is listed there. It'll be about people, and perhaps have a mission statement if it's a business. Ideally they'll share their value set with the reader, and as we live in a PC world, they won't say whether they prefer BBQ to steamed vegetables, or support abortion personally or share how they voted in the last election. Rather that section will outline some gobbledygook (I'm not even certain how to spell that word!) about serving their client base, and being committed members of their respective community. We're not really looking for that "spin", but at the same time we're so attuned to hearing and reading it, we're looking for divergence away from that message. Ultimately the truth being sought is whether we should believe these people. That applies whether we we're considering buying their goods, services or advice, or whether we just want to laugh and are unwilling to allow ourselves to do it with a bunch of Neo-Nazi sympathizers.
With all that in mind then..(the pressure builds)..you should know whether your author is a wack-job or a insightful voice amongst today's cacophony of noise. As always - you do get to decide.
I'm a North American male and have lived and worked in numerous countries. I'm a father of two, married for almost twenty years and I do give back in a couple ways to the community that I live in. So what does this tell you ?
- I have a pro-western, probably capitalistic, probably conservative view of the world
- I may have interesting insights and multiple perspectives by virtue of living and working in different cultures
- I am probably not self centered, will understand the role of compromise and will write somewhat paternally, bordering on selflessly
- As I live in the west, and am creating a blog, I have fewer money issues that the majority of planet earth - read the 5.5B+ people that aren't in that situation
- There's probably been some higher education, as determined from writing style, and so there may be some educated opinion. (emphasis on "may")
So, what does your own description of yourself say about you. What would you like it to say..? Think about it and then carefully craft your own 39 works - but if you do it on the fly, or don't think through its implications, don't be surprised if people arrive at a conclusion you're unhappy with.
Starting Out
I've heard that if you can't reasonably create the first 10 posts, you shouldn't undertake the blog adventure ride. You see creativity is a well that sometimes runs deep, but more often shallow. And there's enough of the 200million + blogs out there that are stale, infrequently attended to, and read by the bored and those that enjoy Google's "feeling lucky?" button.
The purpose of this blog is to capture key ideas and thoughts, craft words around them and publish them. The exercise is one of spewing - not top of mind observations though occasionally it'll dip to that. Rather spewing in this sense means to put down in some place semi-permanent the interesting ideas, concepts and experiences that occur.
The output will be mundane and fascinating all at once. And it depends upon your perspective which you view it as. That - for what it's worth - is something I intend on challenging, as we're all a little too set in our ways in a perception sense. There's nothing like seeing the world, or a given experience through another set of eyes to open our own.
So, as we embark on this together, I wanted to say congratulations for you've been promoted to the position of critic. There's few things you can do that will lose this chair, and likewise, there's only a few things you can do right to be promoted from it, and into the debate.
The purpose of this blog is to capture key ideas and thoughts, craft words around them and publish them. The exercise is one of spewing - not top of mind observations though occasionally it'll dip to that. Rather spewing in this sense means to put down in some place semi-permanent the interesting ideas, concepts and experiences that occur.
The output will be mundane and fascinating all at once. And it depends upon your perspective which you view it as. That - for what it's worth - is something I intend on challenging, as we're all a little too set in our ways in a perception sense. There's nothing like seeing the world, or a given experience through another set of eyes to open our own.
So, as we embark on this together, I wanted to say congratulations for you've been promoted to the position of critic. There's few things you can do that will lose this chair, and likewise, there's only a few things you can do right to be promoted from it, and into the debate.
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