Unvarnished

I have friends who write blogs, books, articles, poems, haikus and who knows what else.  I’ve personally written 3 books in my imagination. I haven’t committed pen to paper or, in this modern age, fingers to keyboard.  

One might call this my first effort at blogging, my most recent “note,” or simply my first deliberate effort, in a very long time, to share my thoughts with the universe.  HHHmmmmm….what shall I write about…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock.

I’ve thought about writing about my fear of writing.  I think about those who will critique my writing – not the words and the ideas so much as the grammar.  Grammar is a butt kicker.  I happen to think that mine is better than average, but that is because I am capable of being an incredibly deliberate writer; I can buff and shine and polish a letter or a proposal or an email with the best of them.  The problem is, with this little venture, I am unwilling to dedicate the time necessary to buff and shine my thoughts.  I want them to come out as they are:  rough, sometimes jagged, with odd twists and turns.  I want to let them meander aimlessly and race down the hill in and of their own accord withOUT my editor and my filter firmly in place.

Before I go further you need to know a few things.  I love my job; I love the people that I work with (and yes I know that SHOULD be “with whom I work” –but I didn’t want to say that).  (No I don’t love them all equally and I most assuredly do not love them unconditionally.  That is reserved for special family members.)   I love waking up in the morning to go work on stuff, make things happen, help people, and accomplish things.  So, I am not going to name names, or specifics, I am not going to call anybody out or beat anybody up.  I am not going to become a blogging statistic “Rich said infinitely stupid things on the web and then couldn’t figure out why he was fired.”

So here goes, unvarnished ramblings from me... 

I recently had the opportunity to observe several interesting business situations. People working on projects and putting deals together, this is big stuff folks, the little ones are a million dollars the big ones are big…really big.  At least they are to me - any time you count with more than 7 zeros on the left side of the decimal, I think it’s big .  More importantly, everything that is on my mind applies whether you are working on a multimillion-dollar-deal or trying to decide who to date next weekend.

So here-it-is, here is my sure fired, guaranteed, or I will pay you a million dollars, plan for life long success.   

Ready?   

Think. Engage. Plan. Act.    Now you could go to Wharton, Thunderbird, Oxford or Yale if you want and I am sure you would learn much about business and would know much more than I do.  That said, I have just revealed one of my biggest business secrets.  Think.  Engage.  Plan.  Act.  I am not perfect in the execution of this complicated little process, but I generally get it more right than wrong.  As a result, I keep getting paid to do cool stuff. 

THINK:  folks, the grey space between your left and right ear, behind your forehead and above the top of your neck is your brain.  It is one of the most powerful tools in the history of the universe.  It does things that none of us will ever fully comprehend. Use it.  Feed it.  Nurture it.  Protect it.  USE IT!!!  Exercise it every day.  Think about the problems, challenges, opportunities, crises, that have come your way.  Think about the ones you are dealing with today.  There is a tremendous body of research that says you are fully equipped with many of the answers you need already….use your brain to analyze, reflect, and organize your task.  This doesn’t mean you know everything, or that you are an island.  It does mean that you are CAPABLE of answering most questions if you engage your brain and the people around you… (Don’t believe me, go pick up some Malcolm Gladwell.)

ENGAGE the right resources. Who is going to be impacted, positively or negatively?  Who has a stake in the game, a dog in the hunt, or a chip on the table? If you fail to engage these people, at a minimum, you’ll be making your work harder than it needs to be.  At worst, you’ll be arming a potential enemy with ammunition that will likely be pointed right at you in the not distant future.   Part of engaging is communicating.  Moreover, nowadays, there is just too much data out there for us to KNOW all of the issues, nuances, subtleties, ramifications, alternatives and impacts of a particular situation.  ONE of the great things about being social animals is that humans have the capacity to share data among different people and to gather that data when required to reach some greater good. 

PLAN: this means considering alternatives.  It means analyzing the cost and benefit of sets of actions.  It requires, frequently, an ability to see several moves into the future.  Planning is an imperfect science.  It is imperfect for a bajillion reasons.  Data changes.  Circumstance changes.  Truth changes.  People change.  What all of this means is this… your plan, no matter how good it is, is not going to survive.  What you do will not be completely, accurately reflected in the most comprehensive planning process you can imagine.  It also means something else…come up with a good plan and GO…EXECUTE…ACT!

ACT because ultimately it is our actions that are judged the most.  It is simple really. Think.  Engage.  Plan.  ACT.  I don’t understand the hesitation, the reserve, the intransience that holds people back from doing what they know is the right thing to do.  This is what our customers, our peers, our subordinates and our bosses, want us to do.  Moreover, if your actions are guided by sound ethics and integrity, your ACTION is not just wanted by your customers, peers, subordinates and bosses…it is EXPECTED.  Failure to act expeditiously is tantamount to doing the wrong thing.

I’ve observed in others and especially in me the paralysis that can come from too much thinking, too little engaging, planning and acting.  While I think many who know me would say that I have a bias for action, this paralysis strikes all of us at one point in time or another and we all just need to stop it.  So consider this your license to go do the right thing, if anybody pushes back give them my number.

WHEW so glad I got that out.  I feel better.  You?  Are you gripped with the desire to go DO something? 

Now that this is out of the way, for my next action…I think I am going to go take a nap….aaaahhhh comfy. 

OH PS….do you have any idea how long it took me to actually ACT and put this out there into the universe?