Every once in a while my idealist balloon gets closer to the ground, where my realist ground crew gives it a reality check. That's fine, unless the ground crew wants to keep the balloon held for too long and the idealism fades.
The mediator, partly pragmatic but with a soft spot for dreamers, must give the balloon permission to fly again with a firm hand and a tear in the eye.
It's nice to get fired up again when you've been dragging on the pavement under a high pressure situation!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Using What You Have to Get What You Want
You Can't Use What You Don't Have!
Growing up with a stepfather involved in politics in a small town allowed me to see inside the lives of the affluent. Because he was not my real father, I did not consider that my real life. My real life involved a great deal of creativity and daydreaming, along with a few really good friends, rich or poor.
I saw the way lawyers lived, I hung out with their kids and I even got to ride on the Mayor's boat, which, if memory serves me correctly, was exactly four feet longer than my stepfather's boat (his was only 42 feet long). I got to ride in the newest Lincoln Continental every year or so and I went on several fishing trips, duck hunts and even spent a great deal of time at the family cottage. Then, eventually (and inevitably), the family broke up, my mother moved us to another town and we had a significant drop in family income. Eventually (and inevitably), I started to work at the age of thirteen.
I knew that the option of driving the Lincoln was out of the question and I didn't even ask my mother if I could drive her Impala when I was 16. So, I was without a car until about the age of 27, which suited me just fine because I had a bike, I could draw and I could make super-8 movies - activities which didn't require huge sums of money. I also began to teach myself how to play guitar when I was 17, because I wanted to experience what rock stars experienced.
I mention the movies and the drawing because that's what got me into college when I was 18. The constant guitar playing got me into a band in college and eventually I formed a fairly successful band of my own with two other wanna-be rock stars. That led to me learning how to record music since I was the one with some experience with it (I began recording at the age of 11, but nothing so formal as music). That led to a couple of CD's distributed world wide, a couple of music videos, some sync licenses for music used on film and TV and a few years of touring on and off.
All of that led to the opportunity to write articles, start working as a freelancer, teach some classes and speak in public with the goal of becoming a consultant. That led to more opportunities including travel, more articles and getting decent sums of money to showcase my expertise. That leads me to now - my career is still evolving.
So, when I look back and take stock, I remember two main things I told myself over and over that kept me going in the direction I wanted to go and those are:
1) Never listen to somebody who tells you that you 'can't' or 'shouldn't' do something you really want to do, and
2) Never let a lack of tools prevent you from doing what you want to do.
It's your life, live it the way you want.
Cheers!
- Buck Moore
Growing up with a stepfather involved in politics in a small town allowed me to see inside the lives of the affluent. Because he was not my real father, I did not consider that my real life. My real life involved a great deal of creativity and daydreaming, along with a few really good friends, rich or poor.
I saw the way lawyers lived, I hung out with their kids and I even got to ride on the Mayor's boat, which, if memory serves me correctly, was exactly four feet longer than my stepfather's boat (his was only 42 feet long). I got to ride in the newest Lincoln Continental every year or so and I went on several fishing trips, duck hunts and even spent a great deal of time at the family cottage. Then, eventually (and inevitably), the family broke up, my mother moved us to another town and we had a significant drop in family income. Eventually (and inevitably), I started to work at the age of thirteen.
I knew that the option of driving the Lincoln was out of the question and I didn't even ask my mother if I could drive her Impala when I was 16. So, I was without a car until about the age of 27, which suited me just fine because I had a bike, I could draw and I could make super-8 movies - activities which didn't require huge sums of money. I also began to teach myself how to play guitar when I was 17, because I wanted to experience what rock stars experienced.
I mention the movies and the drawing because that's what got me into college when I was 18. The constant guitar playing got me into a band in college and eventually I formed a fairly successful band of my own with two other wanna-be rock stars. That led to me learning how to record music since I was the one with some experience with it (I began recording at the age of 11, but nothing so formal as music). That led to a couple of CD's distributed world wide, a couple of music videos, some sync licenses for music used on film and TV and a few years of touring on and off.
All of that led to the opportunity to write articles, start working as a freelancer, teach some classes and speak in public with the goal of becoming a consultant. That led to more opportunities including travel, more articles and getting decent sums of money to showcase my expertise. That leads me to now - my career is still evolving.
So, when I look back and take stock, I remember two main things I told myself over and over that kept me going in the direction I wanted to go and those are:
1) Never listen to somebody who tells you that you 'can't' or 'shouldn't' do something you really want to do, and
2) Never let a lack of tools prevent you from doing what you want to do.
It's your life, live it the way you want.
Cheers!
- Buck Moore
Seeing Your Work Situation from Another Perspective (Something to Think About)
This is a true story as told by a retail store employee:
"I used to work in a retail store as a warehouse manager. I wasn't a 'manager' per se, but I did manage the warehouse and developed inventory systems and everybody left me alone. There were a lot of talented people on staff who felt like they were too good to be working there, but they had to work somewhere in order to eat. The store manager and the owner didn't seem too concerned about anything except sales and their motto for staffing was, and I quote: 'Get cheap tires and rotate them frequently.' Needless to say, animosity was everywhere.
We used to be frequently visited by a fellow by the name of Ben. It was the popular opinion that Ben was not operating at full mental capacity, but we just let him walk around the store to look at all the cool equipment with his eyes lit up. The new staff members made fun of him and the old ones protected him. Ben was pretty harmless, but we did have to let him know that sometimes we got busy and had to do our jobs, so we had little time for chit-chat.
On one fine, sunny day, my supervisor and a lifer on the sales floor were sitting outside the front of the store talking and Ben came by to say hi. They were amused by Ben and my supervisor asked him: 'Ben, you're here so often , why don't you just get a job here?' Ben didn't hesitate for one second when he said: 'Naw, the money's no good, besides, I don't like to be taken advantage of.' The supervisor and the lifer stared at each other for a moment frozen in time."
Makes ya think, huh? Why were so many unhappy people sticking it out in a job they didn't like? I'm not saying every person there had to be unhappy, but from the description, there had to be an air of dissent permeating through the store and it seems to have been caused by poor leadership. In fact, this person had also stated that, during a Saturday morning staff meeting, the emphasis was put on 'shrinkage' caused by the employees. The store manager blatantly directed the blame toward the staff and made everybody feel uneasy because they were all treated like they were guilty even though there were only a handful of employees ripping things off.
The proper way to handle a situation like that would be to focus on the brightness of the future because, in the long run, staff who respect you are less likely to steal from you. The proper way to change the attitudes of the staff members would be to get them to understand more about the company, how the profits can benefit everybody and allow them to respect you. So, rather than running around putting out fires, why not focus on preventing fires? I dare to sound Machiavellian when I say that people judge leaders by the quality of people they have around them.
Have a great work week!
- Buck Moore
"I used to work in a retail store as a warehouse manager. I wasn't a 'manager' per se, but I did manage the warehouse and developed inventory systems and everybody left me alone. There were a lot of talented people on staff who felt like they were too good to be working there, but they had to work somewhere in order to eat. The store manager and the owner didn't seem too concerned about anything except sales and their motto for staffing was, and I quote: 'Get cheap tires and rotate them frequently.' Needless to say, animosity was everywhere.
We used to be frequently visited by a fellow by the name of Ben. It was the popular opinion that Ben was not operating at full mental capacity, but we just let him walk around the store to look at all the cool equipment with his eyes lit up. The new staff members made fun of him and the old ones protected him. Ben was pretty harmless, but we did have to let him know that sometimes we got busy and had to do our jobs, so we had little time for chit-chat.
On one fine, sunny day, my supervisor and a lifer on the sales floor were sitting outside the front of the store talking and Ben came by to say hi. They were amused by Ben and my supervisor asked him: 'Ben, you're here so often , why don't you just get a job here?' Ben didn't hesitate for one second when he said: 'Naw, the money's no good, besides, I don't like to be taken advantage of.' The supervisor and the lifer stared at each other for a moment frozen in time."
Makes ya think, huh? Why were so many unhappy people sticking it out in a job they didn't like? I'm not saying every person there had to be unhappy, but from the description, there had to be an air of dissent permeating through the store and it seems to have been caused by poor leadership. In fact, this person had also stated that, during a Saturday morning staff meeting, the emphasis was put on 'shrinkage' caused by the employees. The store manager blatantly directed the blame toward the staff and made everybody feel uneasy because they were all treated like they were guilty even though there were only a handful of employees ripping things off.
The proper way to handle a situation like that would be to focus on the brightness of the future because, in the long run, staff who respect you are less likely to steal from you. The proper way to change the attitudes of the staff members would be to get them to understand more about the company, how the profits can benefit everybody and allow them to respect you. So, rather than running around putting out fires, why not focus on preventing fires? I dare to sound Machiavellian when I say that people judge leaders by the quality of people they have around them.
Have a great work week!
- Buck Moore
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