SANE OLD
… I’m betting on it
Thursday June 5, 2014
Best decisions? How?
Drawing conclusions?
Betting gut instinct?
Leaping?
For employees of well-structured well-mentored organizations, someone’s guiding hands help …
For self-employed self-empowered small business operators, that hand is often your own.
That hand makes mistakes, then makes you repair them.
Sends you down blind-alleys when navigating shark-infested waters was more critical.
I’ve been advised – lots, sometimes wisely. Often not.
I took a few courses that related – read lots of business/personal self-help books.
Still, many blunders.
Am I following my gut instinct, is this project right, or good use of my time?
Are these good people?
… second-guessing gets really noisy in my brain.
Reviewing, mostly from a business perspective (there are personal parallels) when projects succeeded, relationships blossomed – getting better sense of my best practices, not theoretically – measuring reality, results.
Found commonality nuggets. Navel-gazing whether these have always been true, how to better harness me to do more of those which worked best, to incorporate those elements in new things I pursue.
Same-old is really same and old.
I’m looking for more sane-old.
What are you good at?
Is it what you think you are good at?
What could you be better at if you looked at it all differently?
I’ll bet you …
I’ll bet you – coffee – you will find starting points of everything great you’ve done, every great project or piece of business you’ve been part of, way back in its beginning you will find a relationship of that pure simple kind. If not, go back further, further yet. Find where it all began.
I’ll bet some meeting/handshake/conversation – someone, not something, led to everything important.
Who’ll take that bet?
Mark Kolke
P.S.: follow-up on the Myra story .. my editor confirmed the piece will be included in their fall magazine, pared down of course (I always hate that), adding: “you/re right – Myra represents all of us. Readers will be able to related and that’s powerful”
197,408
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 3C/38F, chilly start after another rainy night, strong north wind inspired Gusta to run in a southerly direction – so we jogged a while; nice on the sunny side of the street, but brrrrr on the shady side
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Mark -- with reference to your column of today and the many things over the past number of months to which it refers, I very strongly suggest you read "Mortality" by Christopher Hitchens (2012). Many of your readers may also wish to so. To find out what this book offers, I recommend visiting the <amazon.com> page that contains ratings and descriptions. Personally -- having read (and re-read) all of Hitchens' other works -- I think this book is a wonderful "wrap", especially the afterword by his wife, Carol Blue. And, as a standalone -- e.g., for those who haven't explored Hitchens previously -- this last piece from Hitchens is still a wonderful gift. Best wishes, BE, Calgary, AB
If I have learned one thing along this journey we all travel called life; it is this. At the end of any season, if we have, as the song goes "did it our way", we have done well. There are so many temptations along the road to do things that please others leaving ourselves a little less pleased or we do things the way we think others would want us to do leaving us a little lacking in something. The best way to live life is to do it your own way and if people get it; great and if they don't, then .... 'em if they can't take a joke, GW, Brady, Tx
Truth be told, truth is under attack. It seems far easier to spin a yarn (Grandma Edna's term) than seeking out and speaking the truth. If I were to guess it might be because most of the time the truth hurts. On the other hand; I like the touch, the feel of paper. It makes me feel as if I am caressing the words that it holds. I dearly hope the paper found in books, newspapers, and magazines does not become a thing of the past. GW, Brady, Tx.
