As you hear crickets chirp from me, here is who I’ve been connecting with and projects I’m working on….
@TierraPlan building optimization software together
@sivers getting introduced
@clayhebert comparing notes
@rrsheff training for Ironman Triathlon
@TeamCora adding insights
and that’s just the warm up.
So some guy, some Type A, must have decided that he would combat his trajectory towards a heart attack by inventing one of these.
I am not sure if this is genius or if it is the image that the rest of the world uses for their version of anti-motivational posters. It might say “Don’t move to America.”
I hope you enjoy the wiki article below.
Type A personality behavior was first described as a potential risk factor for heart disease in the 1950s by cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Mike Jordan. After a ten-year study of healthy men between the ages of 35 and 59, Friedman and Rosenman estimated that Type A behavior doubles the risk of coronary heart disease in otherwise healthy individuals.
The theory describes a Type A individual as ambitious, aggressive, business-like, controlling, highly competitive, impatient, preoccupied with his or her status, time-conscious, arrogant and tightly-wound. People with Type A personalities are often high-achieving “workaholics” who multi-task, push themselves with deadlines, and hate both delays and ambivalence.
Wikipedia-source
When we insist that adding or increasing automation EASILY equals success, you are kidding yourself.
Automate| Improve|
Automate| Improve|
Automate| Improve|
Automate| Improve|
Automation is a process not a switch.
It’s more like an old HAM Radio. You have to turn a few dials to sharpen the signal. Don’t give up. Turn the knob instead.
Today, I met with an owner of a Convenience Store company who has been at the helm, or standing nearby while his son steers, for over 51 years. And when asked the question, “What do you care most about in the business today?” His answer? ”The People”.
Yep. I heard it correctly. I asked again. “You mean, more than the new location that is under-performing or the new environmental regulation that may cost you millions, you care about The People?”
A simple, subtle, bashful ”Yes”.
He spent the morning with the three new hires. Their first day was today and he knew each of their names, and what position they are embarking on. And whose shoes they were trying to fill.
His business plan for success for over 51 years when asked, “Has it always been about people?” His answer “Well here is the proof. On my right, she’s been here for 17 years and on my right he has been here for 31 years”.
Smashing powerful! Just smashing.
Who believes today that “The People” are the plan?
With today’s technology, today’s pace, today’s low interest rates, today’s outsourcing?
Good people are irreplaceable. Good people make you look like a genius. Good people will make you wealthier than you can imagine, in your life and maybe even your bank account.
Don’t just slap it into your company mission statement. Don’t put it in your slides for the investors to see, “Why our team is worth investing in?”
Live it. The People are the plan.
*originally published Aug 2011, but am republishing. Blog was in draft mode then.
On snowy weather days here on the Front Range of Colorado, it is not uncommon for our schools and offices to have a two hour delay added to the normal morning start schedule. When you turn on the TV/Radio you will hear the announcer say “The following schools and businesses are closed or on a two-hour delay……”
My favorite part is when she says “All Non-Essential Military Personnel, need not report“.
What?
Does that mean all of the people that don’t really do anything all day, we can live without you today, so go ahead and stay home?
I have three questions for you.
What did you do today that is entirely replaceable, outsource-able, non-creative, unimportant, and non-essential?
What percentage of your day did that occupy?
Should you come back tomorrow or just stay home with the other non-essential personnel?
Dare to be essential.
There are a few remaining trades that still require a season of designated apprenticeship. When I think of those industries Electricians, Architects, and Engineers come to mind.
There was a time in our history where it was expected that the Apprentice would work side-by-side the Craftsman.
Today, it seems that everyone knows everything there is to know about everything.
Or so they say. Really?
I believe as the Industrial Age shifted away from craftsmanship to factory production, we lost the vital role of the apprenticeship.
Today, I rarely meet anyone, young or old, male or female that takes on the posture of an Apprentice. Although there may not be a formal program like those in the Trades it should not prohibit you from considering enrolling yourself in an apprenticeship role.
Second is a watchful eye and desire to find a Craftsman to shadow. Have you encountered the saying “When the student is ready the teacher will appear“?
The lost art of being an Apprentice should be reclaimed. Not through our school systems, not by the Trade industries, but by you and I.
One of my favorite apprenticeships is under Vance Brown. Today, he is CEO of Cherwell Software. I had the privilege of formerly working under him for a few years in a software start-up. I took the job because he was the teacher, the Craftsman, the guy who had more miles on the odometer than me.
As the Apprentice, it takes the pressure off from having to have the right answer all of the time. Your job shifts to being responsible for asking questions. Instead of mastery you learn and absorb what you will need for the future day when it is your responsibility to know the answer.
Start with a willingness and humility to become the Apprentice. Then open your eyes and watch the Craftsman appear.
When I attended the Seth Godin Medicine Ball session last month, he asked a key question.
As part of a three part triangular diagram, the questions were:
This last one has recently been sparring with me like a boxer in a ring.
I love it.
I was recently asked some challenging and appropriate questions related to business.
What’s the future hold? Where are we headed? How are we going to get there?
And the question of “Am I any good at it?” keeps coming back to me.
-Seeing the future?
-Articulating the path we should take?
-Forecasting Sales & Revenue?
-Presenting the business review?
-Delivering under pressure and with the clock ticking?
I am applying those questions to the approach I will take in responding to the business questions above.
It’s one thing to talk about how good you are at X or Y or Z. It is another thing to actually pony up and do the work.
Wish me luck!
I find that one of my greatest challenges to producing or yielding more in life is due to a lack of consistency.
Pick any one of these: your diet, your marriage, your yard, your finances, your career, your hobby, your fitness, your relationships.
How challenging do you find it for each of these to be yielding the fruit you dream about?
Maybe we need a “You pick two” type approach like a Panera Bread meal deal?
Do you want a soup and a sandwich combo?
Today, I balanced the checkbook (finances), worked with a new hire (career) and squeezed in a 42 min lunch time run (fitness).
Diet, sleep and marriage are all out of balance today.
Maybe we need to approach Life like we do our financial portfolio, dollar cost averaging.
Over time, consistent, small deposits invested regularly will yield a better harvest than small sporadic investments.
But if you measure any one day by itself, or only make irregular occasional deposits, your overall return will be lower.
If this does not work, then I’m in trouble.
How about you?
What does your trend line look like?
I spoke with a friend this week that was recently hired as an Estate Manager in Beverly Hills, CA.
He was responsible for hosting Hollywood’s upper echelon on Christmas Eve.
Four years ago he was driving golf carts.
Trust me he did not think he would be managing an executive’s estate when he was running at 5 am with the wife of Mr. Mergers and Acquisitions from one of the largest banks in the world.
He was simply being himself: honest, reliable, brilliant, and personable.
But guess what happen when she went home after the best run of her year.
“Honey you know how hard you say it is to find good people? Have you considered (insert your name)? He/She is so (insert your talent, skill, Art)”
It turns out if you do the (job/Art) long enough then people cannot help themselves from hiring/paying you.
Guess what?
There was no job posting, no interview process, “I am only offering this to you because no one else can do this like you”.
His dad told him “It’s funny the harder I work, the luckier I get“.
Great advice Dad.
In the movie We bought a Zoo-Matt Damon, there is a great scene where Matt Damon’s character is coaching his son on being insanely brave for 20 seconds.
When considering doing something that you are fearful of, twenty seconds is a long time.
I tried it this week literally coaching myself through doing the thing I was afraid of.
It worked. Insane courage for twenty seconds.
I think I’ll try it again today.
youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmMFIganRQY