Be Brave Not Safe

Jul 27 2015

Leadership

Left or Right: Which Party is Correct?

Why do I ask this question?

As mentioned, I do my best to forsake the practice of dumping raw sewage into my head. You, know, the kind delivered by the newspaper, TV and online media.

The reason: MUCH of it is the sharing of information which has been sensationalized and spun towards “someone’s” agenda.

Cindy and I have some quality, firsthand experience…You see, several years ago a person very close to us, and his buddy, pulled a teenage prank. One that ANY young lad would have been proud to execute 🙂

And, most of us have done worse; much worse…

It involved the mixing of household chemicals in a plastic bottle, resulting in a chemical reaction. Once the bottle was capped the plastic bottle would expand and ultimately POP. As you might imagine, the more chemicals and the larger the plastic bottle, the louder the – outcome…

Well, on this particular occasion these boys decided to let one of these contraptions loose in a city parking garage. The goal: maximize the echo factor. And, they did just that. With a BANG!!!

I can just imagine the sound 🙂

The police came out in full force!

Why? Because the following day one of our presidential candidates was visiting this fine city. And, understandably, they wanted to contain such matters.

Did these boys know this? Highly unlikely. It is not clear if they even knew who the current president was at the time.

Ultimately, these 2 lads were apprehended and charged with felony offenses. Their mugshots were on the news and in the local newspaper as the authorities shared how they had apprehended a couple of potential terrorists.

All, for a science experiment…

Fortunately, the charges were later (months later) dropped. But, that doesn’t erase the images of these boys as they were portrayed by the news media, sensationalizing the story to get some eyeballs looking in their direction.

As a result, whenever we hear of a story we take it ALL with a grain of salt. The story may not be 100% wrong, but it is just as likely to NOT be 100% accurate. They have ALL been spun to support “someone’s” agenda!

Why am I writing about this?

I am really not a full-fledged Facebook’er.

When I do “go there” it is mainly out of boredom. And, I poke around to see what is happening in the lives of people close to me: my brother and his family who just returned from a month long mission trip to Africa, for instance. I’m also able to get updates on my nieces, nephews, etc.

Like others, I have managed to accumulate a number of Facebook “friends” who range from my grade school to college days, along with others I’ve worked with more recently.

There are some on my (I suppose EVERYONE’s) “Friend List” who seem to take pride in sharing how one political party is comprised of complete idiots, while those who make up the other party are simply geniuses from birth and are well on their way to solving world hunger.

People, please realize. Both parties are sometimes correct (I won’t say right 🙂 ) and sometimes not.

Neither party is perfect nor will either of them get us to the promised land?

Blasphemy, I know 🙂

How can I say this? Because, if you haven’t realized, all political parties are made up of people. People just like you and me. And, like you and me, they make mistakes: consciously and unconsciously.

Let’s not expect anything less from members of “our” political parties.

We are obviously now hearing from presidential candidates and all the greatness they promise to bring to the table along with the horrors their opponents have created. We’ll also hear from pundits and other spin doctors as they dredge up “stuff” (some of which will be true, half-true and untrue) about our candidates.

Realize: All the candidates have “stuff” (a.k.a. baggage) that can be “spun-up” to support “someone’s” agenda. Just like our young lads in the story above.

As such, we must not get ourselves all fired up in a tizzy because of a particular incident or fact shared in the media (which may or may not be true, partially true or completely false).

Instead of listening to someone else’s judgement for or against a candidate or party, it would be more prudent to base our decisions on our own research.

A few, simple, research guidelines we might consider include:

Viewing a candidate’s “official” track record. What have they actually done (supported) and/or not done (not-supported)?
Learning about their personal background and experience (political, academia, business, entertainment, sports, military, etc.) and thinking about how it applies to what is needed for our country?
Realizing, that regardless of candidate, the party they belong to has “tendencies.” Following is a very rough / high level diagram of the political spectrum and these related “tendencies”:

2 observations:

While the United States may waiver slightly to the left or right, the overall “tendency” is that we are smack dab in the middle.
I suspect that most readers of this blog will agree that the extreme left or right is, well, VERY BAD!

The good news is that one of the things that makes this country great is that our party system “tends” to keep things “in the middle”, ensuring the pendulum doesn’t swing too far in either direction.

In closing, the spin doctors (of all forms: political parties, political action committees, the media, as well as individuals on Facebook) just love to fire-up the masses (who don’t like to think for themselves) with views, stories and facts that have been sensationalized to create an emotional response for or against a particular candidate or party.

Let’s not get caught up in that crap.

Instead, let’s THINK for ourselves.

All the Best!

p.s. – Enough of this talk of politics. Time to catch some fish!

Jul 25 2015

Too Many Forms of To?

In response to a recent post, someone pointed out to me that a common Facebook friend of ours had grossly misused the word “to.”

Oh, my heavens 🙂

I had seen it “too” but hadn’t yet addressed the matter. I could, however, sense a blog post coming on…

Normally, I would have simply let it go. However, it was a Facebook post intended to promote awareness of this person’s profession, with the goal of attracting would-be clients.

So, it really does matter! That is, if this person wishes to be viewed as a professional vs. an amateur.

Prior to going into this, I’ll admit that I’m not above committing grammatical abominations myself 🙂

There are likely several in this very article…In fact, there have been a few occasions when readers of this blog courteously pointed out my infractions, to which I dutifully made corrections. Thank you for this!

Many years ago, when I was still enslaved (I mean employed) by Corporate America, I commented to my wife that [this woman who worked for me] had again sent me an email correcting a number of grammatical mistakes that I had made in a business document.

My wife responded: Doesn’t that bother you?

To which I answered with an emphatic: NO – She makes me look good!

After I left Corporate America to launch my business, I engaged this same person as editor for the newsletter articles I had been publishing to promote my business, to make sure we looked good.

It is in the spirit of helping others project a professional image (and look good) that I thought I’d, well, hammer on this a little 🙂

First, let’s be clear. At the end of the day, whether we use “to” or “too”, it is not hard for the reader to figure out what we are truly intending to communicate. However, there are many, MANY among us who will, very quickly, dismiss us as an amateur, unfit to engage with, due to improper grammar.

Like it, believe it, or not. It is real – very real.

And, if you intend to project yourself as a professional, this matters!

Now, let’s do a short lesson, because there are so many 2’s to consider (some may say too many 🙂 ):

Too
- Definition: a higher degree; in addition; also
- Examples: Too many; Too far

To
- Definition: expressing motion in the direction of; identifying the person or thing affected
- Examples: To go forth; To see

Two
- Definition: equivalent to the sum of one and one; one less than three; 2.
- Examples: Two Strikes; Two Turtledoves
- Note: I know people don’t have trouble with this form of 2, silly. Just threw it in for fun!

If you (like me) would like to continuously improve your grammar a highly recommended reading is: Woe Is I, which can be acquired at Amazon.com by clicking on the image below.

Remember, if you wish to be viewed as a professional THIS MATTERS!

That’s about all the talk of grammar that I can stomach today. I need to catch some waves here at Hampton Beach and body surf to shore, on this beautiful Thursday morning 🙂

All the best!

Jul 24 2015

Good “Service” and Monkey Business

Have you ever heard the phrase “Who’s got the Monkey?” as a principle in business related to time management?

The Harvard Business Review published an article on this topic, many years ago, which it boasts as one of its two most popular reprints ever. You can view this VERY GOOD article by clicking here.

In a nutshell, it discusses the topic of ownership of tasks or issues, and how/where that ownership should be placed, as relates to time management.

Let’s take this concept to a very generic place, which can also apply to our personal lives.

Each one of us is a customer as well as a service-provider to someone else.

Another, much better way of saying this is: we are in an endless number of reciprocal (a.k.a. give and take) relationships. This includes, with our: spouse, siblings, parents, children, neighbors, fellow church goers, co-workers in the company in which we are employed as well as customers or vendors of that same company.

Bottom-line: Never make the “customer”, in a given scenario, chase you for something that is YOUR responsibility. Said another way, keep that monkey (the issue or task) on your back until and/or unless the other person can do something for, or with you, to close it out.

Example: If I were to send an email asking someone to do something for me, there are really “up to” 3 expected responses:

A confirmation that the thing being asked can or cannot be done (at all, or in the timeframe requested).
Any questions needing to be answered to clarify the request (if applicable).
A confirmation that it was done!

We ALL receive requests for our time. We must acknowledge, however, that simply responding to that person to tell them we’ll get to it “as requested” isn’t enough. Far from it!

Because, if we don’t subsequently follow-up to let the requestor know that it was done, then as far as the requestor is concerned – IT IS NOT DONE. They then must follow-up with us to find out the status, if it is not obviously clear. And/or to make sure that what “might be” obviously clear, is clearly completed or if it still remains in progress.

In this example, we have:

Placed the monkey, which we own, on the back of the other person – where it does NOT belong.
Wasted their time – It doesn’t matter if it was merely seconds, minutes or hours.
Created for ourselves an image of an amateur, in the eyes of our “customer.”

I HATE monkeys on my back, when they are not mine! I mean, why should I care for and feed someone else’s pet?

Another example: I was commenting to one of my son’s about the situation being experienced with the service provider mentioned in the prior post (Email and the use of Crayons)…I had been receiving a bunch of emails that were literally meaningless: I couldn’t tell if I had to do something, what to expect, when and if the problem was EVER going to be solved. And, I was repeatedly asked the same question which I had already answered.

I said to my son: I REALLY only want them to tell me the problem is resolved – NOW! I should NOT have to chase them for resolution or crisp, clear updates.

Oh, how close they came to losing my business 🙂

In closing, do you want to be viewed as a highly competent professional, in all things?

We, the person responsible for fulfilling requests of our “customer”, must maintain full ownership of all aspects of the request (communications, etc.) to ensure complete, clear and accurate understanding of status, through closure.

Thus, instilling confidence in others that we can be counted on.

Anything less and we are viewed as an amateur, who is treated (and paid) accordingly.