For a few days I had been toying with the notion of a blog post that relates to people having a dormant profession lying within them. And all of a sudden it hit me (not like a ton of bricks though). “We all have our job alter egos, waiting to take flight like Superman”. If you chalk it up to superheroes, we all know that Superman moonlights as Clark Kent or vice versa. On one hand he works as a news reporter and on the other hand he saves the world from one villain at a time. The question is “is he a superhero that has a job as a reporter or is he a reporter that has a job as a superhero? It may seem a bit confusing but let’s look at it this way, are you a teacher who works as a waitress or a waitress who works as a teacher. The reason this intrigues me is that I found myself haphazardly contemplating an escape from my current profession and wondered what I would do, not only to occupy my time and gain an income but how would I ensure that my new occupation brings me greater satisfaction. I got to tossing around career choices that I could sink my teeth into and here’s a short list:
Tour guide (1st job out of school)
Travel agent (seeing the world)
Masseuse (no comment)
Pyrotechnics (family business)
Landscaper (the great outdoors)
Event planner (who doesn’t like a good party)
Cake decorator (I’d gain 10lbs in a week for sure)
Cruise Ship worker (again the prospect of waking up in a different country is very appealing)
My list could go on for another two pages but at least you get the general idea behind where I’m coming from. Some of you may or may not have a “side hustle” or have not realized it as yet. A side hustle is essentially a hobby that has the potential to bring in a few dollars e.g. cake baking, sewing, tutoring, writing etc. It may or may not be lucrative enough for you to quit your main job and dive head first into your passion (s). Whatever the case may be, having one is always a plus. When it begins to blow up though, you may be faced with a hard decision. After all you can’t work two 40hour jobs at the same time (unless you work for the government) and expect not to be bone tired at the end of the week.
Though I am fresh to the world of work I heard a gentleman say something last night that caused me to think. He made it known that he had been working at the same company for thirty years. This in itself was not alarming but he went on to say that he strongly doubts that the present generation has that level of loyalty. To be quite honest, I believe he was absolutely right in his statement. With the way technology and society is rapidly advancing, who among us would want to be in the same position 30 years from now? Imagine seeing two generations pass by and you’re still in the same position. Pretty strange if you ask me. Though this may be what some of our parents are currently doing, I do not believe that many of us (age 22-30) want this for ourselves.
The getaway job is not abandoning your job and spending days on the beach sipping pina coladas (sounds inviting), rather it is a chance for you to fulfill that sense of adventure and enjoyment that you may be lacking in your current position. But before you make a mad dash for the door screaming “free at last free at last, thank God I’m free at last”, think about what you would rather be doing if you weren’t at your current job. Start with a short list and keep going until you’ve exhausted all your possibilities or until you end up backlit your current position. I cannot say what happens after that but keep it in mind next time you’re sitting in a four hour meeting or staring at your quarterly evaluation. This might be the motivation you were waiting for to get your job alter ego the chance it’s been waiting for all along.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Friday, April 20, 2012
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Jobs : the man, the legend, the ideas
So I came across this article via a family member. Needless to say that it hits home in more ways than I can imagine thus I am reposting it for those who may have missed it.
12 lessons for us all from the life of Steve Jobs Commentary: What Apple co-founder’s achievements tell the rest of us
The death of the Apple AAPL -0.25% co-founder has dominated the news from Cupertino, Calif., to Kuala Lumpur. Many are focusing on the way his products and services changed our world. Others are talking about Jobs, the man. But this was the most successful business leader of his era, and one of the greats. Few have achieved so much, so quickly, and so publicly.
It got me thinking: What are the lessons we can all take away? What do his extraordinary achievements tell the rest of us? Here are 12 lessons from the life of Jobs:
1. Yes, you can make a difference Anyone trying to achieve real change — in life, in a company or in any organization — probably feels the urge to give up half a dozen times a day. The naysayers and seat polishers will do everything to slow you down. No one is suggesting that what Apple achieved was the result of Jobs alone, but his career is proof of just how much one individual can change things.
2. You need a vision It’s not enough to conduct opinion polls and customer surveys, and rely on consultants’ projections. Those are all based on the conventional wisdom and the world as it is today. Jobs imagined things — most obviously the iPod, and the iTunes services — that didn’t yet exist and for which the market was uncertain. While his competitors were still building the products of yesterday, he was imagining, and building, those of tomorrow.
3. It’s not about you It’s horrifying how many business decisions are still made on the assumption that “well, we have to do something with the XYZ division, so let’s give them this project” or “Buggins has seniority, so he’s in charge.” Do you think the customer cares about Buggins or XYZ? Jobs built Apple into a streamlined operation, focused on the output, nothing else.
4. Focus, focus, focus Hard to believe, but mediocre managers everywhere like to keep their staff “busy” because they think that’s “productive.” It isn’t. (Ask them what their top priority is, and they’ll name two things. Or four. Or 16.) Apple sure was “busy, busy, busy” when Jobs arrived. And it was going bust. One of the first things he did was ax about 90% of the company’s activities and focus — first on the iMac, then on the iPod.
5. ‘OK’ is not OK Look at the way Apple’s competitors keep putting out mediocre or unfinished products and thinking they’ll get away with it. Are they for real? The days when you could get by with second best are so over. Jobs was famous for a fanatical perfectionism. It was a core element of Apple’s success.
6. It’s not about the money Steve Jobs’s life was a thumping rebuttal to all those who are obsessed with cash. The guy had billions: far more than he could ever spend, even if he had lived to 100. Yet he kept working, and striving to achieve greater things. Money? Bah. Something to think about the next time a CEO demands another $20 million a year as an incentive to show up.
7. It ain’t over till it’s over Fifteen years ago Steve Jobs appeared to be a has-been in Silicon Valley. And Apple was circling the drain: plagued with losses, executive turnover, reorganizations, desperate asset sales and research cuts. Apple’s stock hit a low of $3.23 in 1996, and hardly anyone wanted it even at that price.
8. Give people what they really want Sounds obvious, right? But most companies don’t do it. They simply produce what they’ve always produced, or what’s comfortable, or what Buggins thinks people want. For years the computer industry churned out ugly, clunky beige products with complicated operating systems. They all did it, and they all assumed that’s what people wanted. Turns out it wasn’t at all. 9.
Destroy your own products — before someone else does Jobs made sure that Apple kept innovating, and rendering its own products obsolete. Creative destruction came from within! That’s why Apple is a $354 billion company, and, say, Palm has vanished from Earth, even though a 2004 iPod is just as out of date as a 2004 Treo. How rare is this? Jobs knew full well that his $500 iPad threatens to cannibalize sales of $1,000 laptops. But he moved forward nonetheless. Most companies wouldn’t.
10. We are all spin doctors now Critics point out that a lot of what Jobs achieved at Apple was put down to hype and hustle. But that was the point. And Jobs was a master at it — the product teasers, the showmanship on stage, even the black turtlenecks. Truth be told, we live in a superficial age of infinite media. We are all in the spin business. Deal with it.
11. Most people don’t know what they’re doing It takes nothing away from Steve Jobs to point out that he couldn’t have done it without his competitors. Microsoft, Palm, Nokia, Dell, H-P — the list goes on. They missed opportunities, stayed complacent, failed to innovate and generally mishandled the ways their industries changed. It’s normal to assume that the people around us — and in power — know what they are doing. As Jobs proved, they often don’t.
12. Your time is precious — don’t waste it Steve Jobs was just 56 when he died — a comparatively young man — and yet during his short spell on Earth he revolutionized the way we live, several times over. What are we doing with our time? It is the resource we waste the most — and it’s the one we cannot buy. Make the most of your short spell on this planet.
Make each day and hour count.
12 lessons for us all from the life of Steve Jobs Commentary: What Apple co-founder’s achievements tell the rest of us
The death of the Apple AAPL -0.25% co-founder has dominated the news from Cupertino, Calif., to Kuala Lumpur. Many are focusing on the way his products and services changed our world. Others are talking about Jobs, the man. But this was the most successful business leader of his era, and one of the greats. Few have achieved so much, so quickly, and so publicly.
It got me thinking: What are the lessons we can all take away? What do his extraordinary achievements tell the rest of us? Here are 12 lessons from the life of Jobs:
1. Yes, you can make a difference Anyone trying to achieve real change — in life, in a company or in any organization — probably feels the urge to give up half a dozen times a day. The naysayers and seat polishers will do everything to slow you down. No one is suggesting that what Apple achieved was the result of Jobs alone, but his career is proof of just how much one individual can change things.
2. You need a vision It’s not enough to conduct opinion polls and customer surveys, and rely on consultants’ projections. Those are all based on the conventional wisdom and the world as it is today. Jobs imagined things — most obviously the iPod, and the iTunes services — that didn’t yet exist and for which the market was uncertain. While his competitors were still building the products of yesterday, he was imagining, and building, those of tomorrow.
3. It’s not about you It’s horrifying how many business decisions are still made on the assumption that “well, we have to do something with the XYZ division, so let’s give them this project” or “Buggins has seniority, so he’s in charge.” Do you think the customer cares about Buggins or XYZ? Jobs built Apple into a streamlined operation, focused on the output, nothing else.
4. Focus, focus, focus Hard to believe, but mediocre managers everywhere like to keep their staff “busy” because they think that’s “productive.” It isn’t. (Ask them what their top priority is, and they’ll name two things. Or four. Or 16.) Apple sure was “busy, busy, busy” when Jobs arrived. And it was going bust. One of the first things he did was ax about 90% of the company’s activities and focus — first on the iMac, then on the iPod.
5. ‘OK’ is not OK Look at the way Apple’s competitors keep putting out mediocre or unfinished products and thinking they’ll get away with it. Are they for real? The days when you could get by with second best are so over. Jobs was famous for a fanatical perfectionism. It was a core element of Apple’s success.
6. It’s not about the money Steve Jobs’s life was a thumping rebuttal to all those who are obsessed with cash. The guy had billions: far more than he could ever spend, even if he had lived to 100. Yet he kept working, and striving to achieve greater things. Money? Bah. Something to think about the next time a CEO demands another $20 million a year as an incentive to show up.
7. It ain’t over till it’s over Fifteen years ago Steve Jobs appeared to be a has-been in Silicon Valley. And Apple was circling the drain: plagued with losses, executive turnover, reorganizations, desperate asset sales and research cuts. Apple’s stock hit a low of $3.23 in 1996, and hardly anyone wanted it even at that price.
8. Give people what they really want Sounds obvious, right? But most companies don’t do it. They simply produce what they’ve always produced, or what’s comfortable, or what Buggins thinks people want. For years the computer industry churned out ugly, clunky beige products with complicated operating systems. They all did it, and they all assumed that’s what people wanted. Turns out it wasn’t at all. 9.
Destroy your own products — before someone else does Jobs made sure that Apple kept innovating, and rendering its own products obsolete. Creative destruction came from within! That’s why Apple is a $354 billion company, and, say, Palm has vanished from Earth, even though a 2004 iPod is just as out of date as a 2004 Treo. How rare is this? Jobs knew full well that his $500 iPad threatens to cannibalize sales of $1,000 laptops. But he moved forward nonetheless. Most companies wouldn’t.
10. We are all spin doctors now Critics point out that a lot of what Jobs achieved at Apple was put down to hype and hustle. But that was the point. And Jobs was a master at it — the product teasers, the showmanship on stage, even the black turtlenecks. Truth be told, we live in a superficial age of infinite media. We are all in the spin business. Deal with it.
11. Most people don’t know what they’re doing It takes nothing away from Steve Jobs to point out that he couldn’t have done it without his competitors. Microsoft, Palm, Nokia, Dell, H-P — the list goes on. They missed opportunities, stayed complacent, failed to innovate and generally mishandled the ways their industries changed. It’s normal to assume that the people around us — and in power — know what they are doing. As Jobs proved, they often don’t.
12. Your time is precious — don’t waste it Steve Jobs was just 56 when he died — a comparatively young man — and yet during his short spell on Earth he revolutionized the way we live, several times over. What are we doing with our time? It is the resource we waste the most — and it’s the one we cannot buy. Make the most of your short spell on this planet.
Make each day and hour count.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)