Time Teaches…

In the business world we deal with timelines all of the time, true?  Most of the time, a timeline is an untimely topic.  The Buddha tried to help us in the time of the 5^th or 6^th century, BC: 

Forgive yourself for not knowing earlier what only time could teach.  The seed does not apologize for not being a tree yesterday. 

What have we learned?  For me, in seven decades and counting, I’m still in the learning phase – slow learner, for sure!  I did learn these from our favorite Unknown Sage: 

A few meanings:

• Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
• Live a good, honorable life.  Then when you’re older, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. 

One thing is true, I am enjoying things in my life a second time.  After years, perhaps decades, Americans (hopefully) are learning, too.  Today, people are sharing what they're learning about technology and social media.  According to this piece by "CNBC Make It": 

I think people back then used to take a break from the real world by going on their phone, but now people are taking a break from their phone to spend time in the real world … 

Going chronically offline is the latest trend to grip young people and, ironically, its going viral on social media. 

Going offline and promoting that trend online, what???  

Then there is the activity known as “planning”.  Recently, I was a guest in a meeting with the Strategic Planning Committee formed by my residential community.  It was facilitated by an outside consultant.  They were focused on the project timeline to roll-out tactical elements of the agreed upon Strat Plan.  There was a time when I found this topic fascinating. 

There was a time when I admired outside consultants and their ability to logically organize project phases, tasks and activities into a concise timeline.  There was a time when I trusted others when they assigned expected completion dates to each element.  And there was a time when I was present as the customer questioned, no interrogated, why the timelines were missed! 

This time around, I was simply an observer, when they started affixing due dates to their plan. One of the committee members noticed my amused, facial expression and paused the discussion to ask for my input.  I suggested they consider using a different unit of measure for their project timeline.  Rather than hours, days, or due dates.  I suggested: 

Project Management Timeline

• Phase One Completion:    Soon

• Phase Two Completion:    Pretty soon

• Phase Three Completion:  Someday 

Interestingly, the committee agreed; even the consultant.  Then, predictably, they went back to assigning days and due dates to the project.  They’re hopeful – it’s like growing a tree. 

As of this writing, the implementation is behind.  And it just started!  Obviously, I’m not surprised nor am I discouraged.  I know our Strategic Plan will eventually become a tree – soon, pretty soon, or someday. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Pundits, Pontificators, et al

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are coming.  What a terrific sports festival for our modern era!  Interestingly, the 2022 Winter Olympic gold medal for women’s figure skating was only recently determined.  Finally, after two years of debate, discussion, and controversy.  I wonder if that’s how the Greeks did it 2,800 years ago? 

America has our own “modern game”.  Did you join in the aftermath?  It was Monday, February 12^th.  Ring a bell?  How about this: It was the day after the most watched television event in history with an estimated 123.7 million viewers.  Actually, the phenomenon I’m referring to started the night before; even before the fans left the stadium. 

Monday February 12^th brought out the rest of the seers; soothsayers; second-guessers, pundits; pontificators; doubters; experts; gurus; quarterbacks of the arm-chair and Monday-morning variety, and (of course) the critics. Some are still grinding on it.  I chuckle about the pontificators: 

“Pontificator” 

in British English 

NOUN a person who pontificates 

Yes, yes, I’m a pontificator, too.  Even so, are these other gurus worth listening to?  All the hoopla reminds me of Dale Carnegie’s pontification: 

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. 

I’m talking about Super Bowl LVIII.  (That’s 58 to us non-Latin-Speaking-Romans).  I get it.  Sports fans, bettors, media, and even the 123.7 viewers have their opinions about whether the Chiefs won the game or the 49ers lost it.  Is Kyle Shanahan an elite NFL head coach who has yet to win a Super Bowl?  Or is he a bumbling idiot who blew the game over a coin flip? 

Shanahan certainly unleashed the “What if’s”.  Especially the “if’s”.  And we all know: 

If the Hamm’s Bear drank Schlitz, there’d be no land of sky blue waters. 

Unknown Sage 

I could join in.  “What if” it turns out that the Kansas City Chiefs are one of the greatest NFL teams ever assembled.  In spite of the Bills Mafia (a favorite fan base of mine), Buffalo couldn’t beat the Chiefs at home.  Not even the Baltimore Ravens with the best regular season record, home field advantage, and the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 2024 could beat KC. 

Personally, I admired Shanahan’s confidence.  Score first; hold KC; and the debate shifts to whether the Superbowl MVP should have been Brock Purdy or Christian McCaffrey.  Oh, Kyle could have doubted; played less aggressively; feared Patrick Mahomes; anticipated the punditry.  But try as they might, the post-game media experts couldn’t get him to say he made a mistake.  He remained confident in the face of criticism just as Michael Treacy wrote about in his book The Discipline of Market Leaders ©: 

            Courage in the face of doubt is essential. 

Oh well, criticism of defeats have been with mankind as long as there has been mankind.  I’m sure you and I face the doubters and second guessers every time a decision we made doesn’t turn out very well.  I’d rather heed the ancients: 

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing; say nothing; and be nothing. 

Aristotle 

Nonetheless, the debate and the criticism continues; especially the criticism in spite of what the ancients might think.  As for the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has published this historical perspective: 

The Original values of Olympism as expressed in the Olympic Charter were to encourage effort, preserve human dignity, and develop harmony.  

Hmmm… No mention of coin flips by a single seer, soothsayer, or pontificator. 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

A peek inside…

I was writing at the coffee shop recently.  Sharing my opinions and observations has been part of my weekly routine since 2009.  At the coffee shop I was reminded of a topic I first wrote about in 2015.  I thought it would be fun to reshare it today. 

From the beginning I have been conscious on how long it takes me to say what I have to say – or better said – I worry about the impatience of my readers. 

I posted recently about “throwing more words at it” (see Land the Plane).  Since I know I can be verbose when I write my blogs I pay attention to exactly how many words it takes to express myself.  Let me offer you a peek inside… 

600.  The number of words that comprise my posts is 600 – exactly.  Not 599; not 601; each blog must be 600 words.  Truth be told I bang out an initial draft on a particular topic in less than an hour.  Then I typically spend 6-7 more hours editing; re-writing; word-smithing; eliminating words until (A) I like the piece, (B) I think there’s a chance you will enjoy it too, and (C) it is exactly 600 words.  Welcome to my world. (LOL!) 

OK we’re 208 words in, still reading?  I like sharing my personal experiences and observations of this thing we’re engaged in called “life”.  It’s not for self-promotion and certainly not for monetary gain (I haven’t figured out how to peddle these pieces… yet).  I do wonder sometimes whether I’m being read, and if so why: 

People who read me seem to be divided into four groups; Twenty-five percent like me for the right reasons; 25 percent like me for the wrong reasons; 25 percent hate me for the right reasons.  It's the last 25 percent that worries me. 

Robert Frost 

It’s all good, though.  Writing is my way of “thinking out loud”.  I like to pose situations to my readers. Then you can:

·         Read about it briefly (600 words briefly)

·         Quickly decide if it’s of interest

·         And if it is, allow you to observe my thoughts so you can;

o   Determine if I am a blithering idiot offering nothing more than a little comic relief in your day

o   Make you feel good that if I was able to make a living being as inept as you believe I am, there is hope for you

o   Invoke you’re knowledge and experience with the situations I write about helping you to come to the conclusion, “Nice try Gary, that’s not how it works; what you should have done was thus and so…”

o   And as a result provide you the service of reinforcing in your mind what not to do in certain circumstances, which is of equal value 

Sometimes, I might even offer sound advice based on something my wife refers to as common sense and good judgment.  My wife would say I don’t have much of the former, but I believe I have learned where good judgement originates: 

Good judgement comes from experience.  Experience comes from bad judgement. 

Unknown Sage 

Of course, I hope my readers don’t take my judgements too seriously: 

Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own.  You may both be wrong. 

Dandemis 

So there you have it; for better or worse; a 600 word peek inside the process and the paradigm behind these little ditties.  I hope you enjoyed. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Land the plane…

I feel that I am similar to you.  When we have an idea, anecdote, or opinion on our mind we like to share it with others, true?  We try to be a patient receiver when we’re on the listening side as well, but we know that can be a challenge. 

In my case, it’s not “what” I have to share but rather “how” I share it that is worrisome.  If you look up the definition of “verbose” you’ll find several definitions.  Perhaps the most appropriate for today’s purpose is: 

Wordy 

Guilty.  

I’d like you to know that I’m not blind to my tendency to “throw more words at it”.  That’s a common trait many salespeople have.  When we don’t know the answer to a prospect’s question, when there is dead space, or when we’re nervous, we have a tendency to hold onto the talking stick too long.  

I bet you’ve been in that situation on the “buy-side” of a sales presentation.  You ask the salesperson a question and after sitting through a lengthy, sometimes confusing, occasionally contradicting response you decide not to ask any more questions for fear you’ll have to bring in dinner before the sales rep leaves. 

I’m retired from the technology sales profession now, but still selling.  I prefer to think of it as story-telling.  Either way, deep down inside I want my audience to listen to me and to like what I have to say.  I bet you do, too.  Thanks to a long-time friend of mine, Debbie Ryder, now I can tell.  She cued me during lunch recently.  I was relating something or other I thought was of interest.  When I started heading down the wordy path she smiled and said, “Gary, land the plane.” 

Similar feedback was offered by my friends Pat and Monica.  Two steps involved with preparing to self- publish my book, The Peace and Power of a Positive Perspective, are a “Summary” as well as “About” the author.  After sending them a draft they responded firmly and politely, “wordy”.  

I suppose my readers (all readers really) take a different approach with writers; even apologetic writers: 

I apologize for writing such a long letter. I didn’t have the time to write you a short one. 

Pascal   

Readers simply stop reading, yes?  Here’s a test… how many of your incoming emails and instant messages do you read start to finish?  Makes one want to tell the writer, “Land the plane”.  This is not a new phenomenon, just ask Norman R. Augustine: 

There are those individuals, both outside the federal government and inside, who are endowed with that special talent to take fairly lucid concepts and, through subtle embellishment, make them very nearly incomprehensible. 

Ah yes, embellishment, guilty again.  But in my defense, it’s not because I’m oblivious to my verbosity: 

If I am to speak for ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now. 

Woodrow Wilson 

I try to heed the advice from Pascal and Norm Augustine.  I’ve read much about Abraham Lincoln.  Sometimes I worry that he was referring to me: 

He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met. 

Abraham Lincoln 

So if you find one of my little ditties is too wordy for a small idea, please feel free to hit reply and say, “Gary, land the plane”. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.