Comments on: Hone your sense of urgency!

By: Bill Fisher

Bill Fisher — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:19:51 +0000

This was a great reminder to stay fresh. I’ve always thought that the dynamics of our brain were governed by the degree of challenges before us. When we have something new to resolve, all of the synapses in the brain are firing as the mind searches for solutions, and creating a high level of brain wave activity. As we get more comfortable or familiar with our daily tasks that activity turns into a sine wave that becomes more and more flat lined as time goes on. This leads to what we refer to as burnout. The lesson you’ve offered can help to keep those synapses firing and the sine wave from becoming a flatline. I met you at the Godfathers Sit Down at the House of Blues in Hollywood and enjoy each of the letters you send out. Thank you.

By: Jim Fallgatter

Jim Fallgatter — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:25:12 +0000

Most important is realizing what challenges you the most…and often that is what you do best. I worked nationwide for Ford Aerospace, Loral, and Lockheed in interface positions between Information Systems and customer organizations. There was never a dull day (except people problems…and their sense of urgency). The real challenge was prioritizing which opportunity for automation (best ROI) to go after first. I always had a long queue. The opportunities called out to me URGENTLY from everywhere…and automating them gave me great satisfaction.

By: Harry Keller

Harry Keller — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:12:03 +0000

When I look back on all of the jobs I had and companies I worked for or did work for, it seems that jobs became stale after about two years. When I went to work for DEC, I had three promotions in three years and so did not become stale. Then, I took a job that basically did not change for three years. That last year was dull, and I changed jobs.

For 15 years, I did independent software contracting for mostly Fortune-500 companies such as Amoco and TI. This work is so intense that you’re always reinventing yourself. Once, however, I was doing maintenance during a recession for over a year. I had fixed the first 100 bugs in three months. After a year, the challenge was gone. Fortunately, the recession had ended.

Since about 2006, I’ve been an entrepreneur for science education (online hands-on science labs — http://www.smartscience.net). I had been working on this business part-time before that. There was no “first day.” However, every day feels like the first day due to the rapid evolution of technology and the ferment of the various market segments. If I slow down, I must then work twice as hard to catch up.

The pressure never ends. Every failure feels like a disaster. Each success is just another stepping stone. Once we get to around 20 employees, it will become too much paper-pushing, and I’ll be ready for something else. 😉