Connecting the dots of life and business

Tonight, my siblings and I retrieved some old boxes from my parents’ attic.  A few were even labeled with our individual names.  We found old photos, baseball cards, trophies and toys from our childhood.  My brother and I were excited to see his son (my nephew) play with toys we found entertaining years ago.  Sesame Street and the firehouse were pretty cool, but Hulk Hogan and the other wrestling figures were just awesome!

Hopefully you didn’t spend this day working and instead enjoyed time with family, friends or loved ones.  And maybe, you had something that surprised you as much as seeing our old stuff.  The perfect visualization of that surprise factor was shown by my nephew when I snapped this photo.  Here’s wishing you a very, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or whatever December 25th means to you.

FYI... this has to be the best Christmas picture I've ever taken

Sometimes when you hear of a business concept you have to look twice, but this one was for all the wrong reasons.  I mean what woman wouldn’t want to use a coin-operated machine to style her hair in a club, restaurant or mall bathroom?  For those interested in creating a passive income stream, feel free to learn about their “amazing” business opportunity.  Here’s their pitch…

GlideHair vending and business opportunities are genuine low cost, low risk investments providing you with the ability to grow a large network of units with limited capital thereby creating real passive income.

For those who can’t “get” sarcasm, please re-think what you might ask in the comments.

Fire hose outside our office

Twitter has been referenced as a waste of time, pithy non-sense and a time suck.  However, it’s best description for my use is drinking from a fire hose.  There are so many people typing so much information and even with just 140 characters it can be hard to manage.  I’ve written before about my struggles with the Twitter stream, but one benefit the fire hose does provide is tapping the collective knowledge of Twitter.  I agree with Micah that this is NOT necessarily crowdsourcing.  It’s just searching for information or asking a few (or many) people a question and getting an almost instant result.

In the past few months, Twitter has helped me find new restaurants, backup software, news sources, software, home improvement contractors, immediate sports updates and new music.  Why would you search Google for an answer to a question others might immediately give you?   Google has to crawl all those web sites and although its fast, Twitter is faster and I usually know who I can trust.  There is a much bigger discussion over the ascension of real-time search and Twitter’s fire hose provides that too at search.twitter.com.   For detailed research the fire hose may only give you a start, but almost every time I need a simple answer I can poll or search Twitter.

Our society seems to only increase its need for convenience and immediacy, so how do you find quick information?  Do you search online?  Look in a phone book?  Read the local newspaper?  Call or text message a friend?  I’m curious to know.

We successfully filled a tech position a month ago and looking back on that process, I now see what top traits we MUST have in any employee.  I know people talk about experience, education and training, but there’s more to sort through with quality candidates than what’s on the resume.

Since we’re now actively seeking sales pros right now (please forward to others), I figured I would post a few things I consider as non-negotiables.  (Hint: If those who are applying are smart, they’re search my name and find this blog, read this post and reference it in the interview.  Just sayin’.)

1. Attitude – In a small any organization, attitude will affect others negatively.  Pessimism can’t be tolerated and let’s be honest, we prefer to spend time with happy people.  Getting excited about working with good people is infectious and I’m thrilled we have that in spades today.
2. Resourceful – I may value this trait over all others.  To be able to “MacGyver” something with limited resources is critical for our business.  We have to solve problems that can’t just be searched on Google and sometimes with no budget for a customer.  It’s a tough thing, but keeping to look Learn to do things on your own and not wait on your co-worker to complete a task.
3. Customer love – I’m not talking about being cordial or pleasant (that’s a given).  My friends, Deryl and Rusty share this sentiment with their company, DormBuys.  Both of our companies are committed to a level of customer service unmatched by others.  We both MUST have people who love serving others.  Not everyone wants to do this and I truly get that, but don’t apply with me.  For us, I’ve seen the challenge of some geeks love the tech toys, yet hate the users.  I’m happy to let those types stay in the ivory towers of corporate tech because small, nimble companies need and WANT the customer to be first.

I found even just this small list helpful as we filtered through too many resumes.  I recognize I haven’t covered things like integrity, morals or honesty, but I’d hope those are a given for any candidate.  So what are your top traits you seek out?  How do you stay true to those even when someone looks great on paper.  Please, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Lately I’ve been running with my brother and my nephew, but last night I ran by myself.   With an iPod full of tunes, my RoadID and my watch, I navigated the neighborhood on a nice, cool night.  I regularly peeked at the minutes to see if I was speeding up and calculating what pace I was keeping.  The constant concern over my “number” made it easy to distract my mind.

I recognize some would prefer a calculator to work out the numbers, but I’ve always liked math and let’s be honest… we focus a great deal on numbers.  Balance sheets, weight scales, account balances, pant sizes, tv channels and bill amounts each can impact our daily lives.  We struggle to find what these numbers mean or rationalize how we feel about them.

A big number will be celebrated by my family this weekend as my Dad turns 60.  For me, it’s hard to believe he’s that age as I’m old enough to realize as he ages, so do I.  While I never worried about Dad reaching this point, I know that number affected him as my Grandfather didn’t make it that far.

We seek out numbers to compare ourselves to others, gauge our progress and even to choose what’s important.  I’ve been thinking less about the comparison or progress and loads more on the importance.  One number I’m recently pondering is the number of days left on earth.  I know it’s a “heavy” topic, but it’s a fact that figure is finite and the catch is we (typically) don’t get advance notice if our number is nearing zero.  I suspect no matter what its size we’d almost all agree… it’s insufficient.  So rather than debate the afterlife (yes, I believe in heaven), I think the real challenge is how we act/react given we know our number exists.

If you tell me I’m only on this earth another 12,654 days (which is exactly the number I’ve been alive today), I’d tell you it’s not NEAR enough.  There’s so much I want to do.  So much I need to say to the right people and so much I’d change, wouldn’t you?  My guess is you could be like me and you ignore your number not because of awareness of its existence, but you may struggle (like me) with accepting it is a reality.  And just to avoid the debate of extending one’s number through healthy changes, medical advances etc… I’m saying the bigger issue is what we each do given we HAVE a number, not how to change it.

If you’ve read this far and are hoping I’ve had some divine intervention about your number or mine, I’m sorry… I haven’t.  Don’t think I haven’t asked God to give me some hints, but nothing has come through yet.  Instead, he’s given me a healthy does of perspective lately and I’m making changes accordingly.

In case you wondered, my running “number” last night was twenty-two seconds per mile faster than my last three runs.  The challenge is not to let the number distract me from a better run.

P.S. – I’m posting this on 11/11 and unless you’re a numerologist… that number shouldn’t matter either.

Most of us spend a majority of our waking hours working because we’re required or we voluntarily choose to labor.  Some even consider their work as part (sometimes too great) of their personal identity.

There’s no question during this economic downturn business can be very serious.  Just recently, I’ve heard work compared to war, a long slog, a roller coaster and a daily grind.  These arduous cliches and somber overtones quite frankly are unnecessary.

It’s my contention work doesn’t have to be so negative.  It CAN be fun and productive.  We add to this pessimistic view by stereotyping job roles such as HR, Legal, IT and Accounting as rigid and yes, sadly some people encourage that view.  However, there are some that refuse to fit that mold despite their discipline.  Which is one reason, I love Christy, the Accounts Payable (AP) person from a client’s company.  Not only do they pay regularly (which is HUGE), but she (an accountant by trade) does her job with flair and humor.  Christy’s entire department was recognized yesterday in a meeting for being a pleasure to work with.  Yes, you read that correctly… an Accounting department is dare I say, FUN!

We each have to make a living, but we have to also live.  Seriousness at work is just overrated and I believe it won’t get you ahead.  Don’t confuse dedication or professionalism with being rigid and hiding your personality at work.  I’ve saved a few of Christy’s emails and pasted them below to remind us all to lighten up at work and enjoy the people.

Quarter til 5:00, with plans to go to the TRC Bash,
Wouldn’t you know, my computer decides to crash!
Void the checks, re-start the process,
Such is the life of an AP goddess!

Three nearly-deaf old men sat on a bench. The first one said “It’s windy” to which the second replied, “No, it’s Thursday” causing the last one to say “Me too, let’s go get a beer”.  If any of you are “Thursday”, come get your check and go get a drink.  Have a great night!

Sorry I fell behind
but want to keep it “above the line”
No excuses, blame or gripe
I’ll just bid you a quick “Good Night”

Waiting on your check . . . well wait no longer! Your ship has come in, your egg has hatched, your gift has arrived . . . your check is now awaiting you on the sunny 5th floor! Now aren’t you glad you worked late!!!!