"Easy" doesn't enter into grown up life

This past Saturday morning, somehow and through some nice twist of fate, turned out to be the third of what I hope to be many, "do nothing" Saturday mornings for 2009. By "do nothing" I mean there is nothing scheduled for me to do, nothing for the kids to do, nothing for anyone that has to be done. So what was the first thing I did after starting the coffee maker, I turned on the Telly and started surfing until I happened upon a Nicholas Cage movie; "The Weather Man" in which he plays Chicago weatherman Dave Spritz(el).

If you have not seen the movie, while I will try not to spoil it for you but I feel that I will have to reveal something in order to get to what I want to write about, therefore be warned: SPOILER ALERT!!!

In the movie, Dave Spritz is the son of a famous writer, he is also a father to two kids each with their own problems, ex-husband to a woman who has moved on but knows he hasn't. He has a job he likes, except for the fact that people throw food at him, however, he is being courted by a network to do their national morning show. Long story short, he is at a crossroads of needing to move forward but struggling with the fact, that moving forward means change. A change he is or is not ready for…hmmm when are we ever really ready for change?

There is one scene where Dave is talking to his father (who is struggling with his own mortality in the form of cancer) and the last bit of real fatherly advice that the Michael Caine characters gives Cage is "Easy doesn't enter into grown up life."

Family, Career, and one's self have to interact in harmony (or as close it as possible). We hear that all, we know it, yet we find it so difficult to do. However, we must constantly work at it. Constant work means that it will not be easy. Remember when we were young, our parents provide everything we needed; food, shelter, clothing, and money. Therefore, for the first 18 or so years of our lives it was easy. Then we were out on our own, we had to work to make money to buy things, to buy food, to live. Throw in a relationship or two and things get somewhat difficult.

Of course, some things are more difficult than others. It is usually when things get difficult that we start to realize that “easy” has quickly become a thing of the past. It is also at this point that we yearn for the past and all the "easy" stuff we had back then. As times change, no matter where we are or what we are doing, "easy" starts to become a distant memory and something that we see as the only answer.

Whether in our personal or professional life no matter how hard you try things will never be easy. We can try to get as close to "easy" as possible, but it just won't happen, I know I have tried one too many times.

FYI, here is the trailer for The Weather Man:




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It is never too early to start preparing for the next Disaster

A couple of weeks ago, an article in the trade magazine Processor titled "Resolving Disaster Recovery Problems: What To Do When Even The Best-Laid Plans Hit Snags" by Carmi Levy started dialogue on the issue of Disaster Planning. The article talked about issues that even the best Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) can face. Chiefly, the realization that DRPs are still subject to too many internal and external influences that can slow it down or stop it dead in its tracks.

Carmi Levy's article raises some very good questions, as well as providing some very good answers and ideas on which to build on.

As of today (2/16/09) we are 104 days from the start of the 2009 Hurricane Season. Folks, the clock is ticking and June 1, 2009 will be here before you know it. So, it is never too early to start preparing for the next one.

I invite you to read the article for yourself. You can get
• a PDF copy of the Carmi Levy's article in Processor Magazine (Volume 31 Number 6) for February 6, 2009.

or

• visit the Processor.com website to read the article there.

Check it out and find out who was so graciously quoted in the article.

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Aren’t we the lucky ones?

This past Friday morning out on the Tom Peters website was a very interesting line that got me thinking: “I hear often that we are just unlucky to be leading in a very tough economic time…”

As you read you will see that I am taking the same affirming stand that, the author, of that line, follows within his blog post. However, to get there please read on.

In addition, earlier this week I read somewhere else about selling a house in tough economic times, such as now. In the article about selling a house, it was said that a seller should never use an agent who has not sold during an economic down turn. This makes sense in that how can someone sell your house when that person has no experience selling when no one is buying. If you are using one of those “Johnny/Janie Come Lately” real estate agents then you might as well resolve yourself to the fact that your house will sell once the economy turns for the better if you stick with people that are living in 2006. Their sales methods are still stuck on the notion that everyone is buying because everyone is selling and money is being made every time hands shake. So why not get with someone who has experienced the bad and most certainly the good?

Getting back to the “we are just unlucky to be leading in a very tough economic time” thing, personally, I feel very lucky to be living, leading, and managing in a very tough economic time. How can anyone feel unlucky?

Think about it, we worked and rose to where and what we are now: Leaders. Remember, we were given praise and applause as we were leading when the gravy was flowing and everyone was happy and gasoline was being poured at somewhere around $1.50 a gallon.

As the economy starts to sour things will only get worse before they can start getting better. Yet we have already seen the worst in the businesses and we have certainly seen the worst in people (a la Madoff).

There is an up side to all of this, in that we get to experience the world from both sides. Now we get the honor of leading people when times are tough. This means that as a leader you now become a follower. You get to follow and learn from the mistakes of those that caused the problems, which led to where we are today. You also get a chance to share the same learning experiences with your peers. You now will have to deal on a more personal level with the people you lead. You will, now more than ever, be allowed to enter their world of fears and insecurities. You now get to see how layoffs are affecting those that lost their jobs, but most of all you get to see the affects it has on those that are left behind. You will also get an opportunity to share common experiences with your peers.

All is not doom and gloom, after we come out of the economic turmoil as it always does, we will have a common point of reference that will continue to remind us that this will happen again. No matter how hard everyone tries to prevent it, it will happen but this next time we will be prepared. We will be prepared because we will be able to recognize events in the future that may lead an individual or organization down a path much like the one, which we are currently on. Remember the old adage “that which does not kill us, only makes us stronger” well my friends we will only get stronger. We will become stronger leaders and most importantly stronger individuals.

Rest assured as a leader during this time, the current economic downturn will certainly make us stronger; it is this kind of opportunity that comes once every two or three generations. As we are right smack in the middle of this opportunity I, and so should you, consider this the best Luck anyone can have.


image courtesy of ConsumerAffairs.com

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Salary Cap ain't just for the NFL

I have to tip my hat to President Obama on his move to put a salary cap on those executives who are part of organizations that stepped up with their hand out and received government assistance in order to help prevent the Total Collapse of the entire US economy. If a company asked for help and got it, the CEO and other top tier executives have had their salary cut to not exceed $500,000 until they have repaid what they asked for and got.

As a proponent of the Free Enterprise System, I am not for telling a company how much to pay its employees but when those companies find themselves in tough times then everyone has to do their part. Even if it means some at the C-Level have to take a pay cut.

The New York Times ran an article on the salary cap, "The new rules would set a $500,000 cap on cash compensation for the most senior executives, curtail severance pay when top executives left a company, restrict cashing in on stock incentives until government assistance was repaid and prod corporate boards to closely scrutinize luxury perquisites like private jets and country club memberships."

Therefore, I am fully behind this decision as plenty of others are. Really, I just can't see how anyone could be against it, especially if it is in the best interest of keeping the company alive, employees working, and the shareholders happy.

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Demanding Change = More Innovation

Over the past few months news reports have run rampant about how companies are having to cut back in order to survive. Clearly, an understandable route for any organization to take, especially when things are tough all over. However, some cut backs just don't make sense.

On Friday (01/30/09), the Wall Street Journal reported on how "Car-Industry Slump Imperils Role in Spurring Innovation." This is just another warning sign that as times demand change, change continues to look like the same old thing.

Think about this: The only real way that we are going to get out of this economic mess is for people (not banks, not big business, but real people) to spend money. The only way they are going to spend money is to be motivated to want something that catches their eye and stimulates their want and need part of their medulla oblongata, or wherever that is in the brain. The only way that is going to get stimulated is not by selling the same old looking car or truck or SUV, I refer you to the picture of the East German Trabant, you do remember East Germany don't you?


Having lived in what was then West Berlin, I can tell you that these little buggers were all over East Berlin and the East German countryside. They came in various Warsaw Pact colors such as Soviet Grey, Hungarian Green, Yugoslavian Yellow, Czechoslovakian Black, and Romanian White. However, with such a wide array of colors the people of the Soviet bloc had many choices, but for all their colors they all were pretty much the same style that you see here. It is difficult to imagine that at one point there was a six month waiting list to get a Trabi, which explains the fact that "it was in production without any significant change for nearly 30 years." No wonder Communism died a cold and bitter death in early November of 1989. The people wanted change and change meant that it was time to "tear down that wall".

Folks, this is not going to be that much different, I understand that times are tough but cutting funding to those things that will help set one company apart from another is not too bright. I mean there has to be some help from within to help foster change, to stimulate the imagination and ultimately make something that the customer wants.

If those that are making and selling cars are perfectly happy laying-off employees and shut down production for weeks at a time because no one is buying really should not consider going back to Washington, D.C. to ask for more of our money, especially if they have no intentions of making sustainable change with that money. I am talking about the kind of change that moves away from the Trabant mentality of "why change if it sells" to one of "Hey now, let's make something cool!!!"


Trabant image courtesy of KFZ.DE

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