Its fun to talk to new people…especially when they are receptive to the story you are telling and when that story is authentic.

When the story is real and right, people listen. When the story has holes or isn’t backed up by facts and experience, people tend to stop listening – or worse – never start to listen.

I sat through quite a few meetings this week and it was clear after about 30 seconds that the story that we were telling was interesting.  We were peppered with questions. We were asked about deliverables, schedules and processes.

Contrast that with other meetings where the story isn’t heard.  You spill out your story to blank faces and glazed-over eyes.  You try to connect with the people in the room but nothing works.  You continue talking but never connect. Why? Well…it could be that you suck at storytelling and presentations…or your story sucks.   Or…you are presenting to a room full of mannequins.

How can you know that your story is right?  How will you be sure people will listen?

You can’t be sure…but with practice and refinement, you can get close. Ask for feedback from friends, neighbors, colleagues and clients.   You’ve also got to take the time to make sure that you story is worth telling.

That said, I think most stories have an audience. One of the hardest things to do is find that audience…but once you do, practice the story.  Get the story right and people will  listen.

But…be careful to not take advantage of that audience. Make sure you can deliver on that story. Make sure you don’t change the story in mid-stream either.  There’s nothing worse than believing in a story (or person) and then finding out half-way toward the destination that it was a big fat lie.    Remember…you want to tell a story of truth…not one of fiction.

Once people listen, watch out…because things will start lining up in your favor then. Whether you;re selling SEO services, photography, technology consulting or widgets…get the story right and people will listen.

Image Credit: listen closely By twenty_questions on flickr

I’ve watched many of the No Reservations episodes and have always come away from each show with some new-found piece of of knowledge and/or appreciation about a new part of the world.   Anthony does great work on No Reservations.

The episode last night was different than usual.  The episode, titled “Into the Fire“, places Bourdain back on the cooking ‘line’ in his old kitchen as a cook.  No longer is Tony the ‘Executive Chef’…he’s a line cook responsible for delivering many (many) dishes throughout the lunch and dinner shifts.

Throughout the episode, Bourdain is able to keep up but you can tell he’s not quite up to par as he was when he was a younger chef working the line.  It was obvious that he was out of practice as he was scrambling around trying to find ingredients and pans and trying to remember what orders he had ready or not ready.

It was an excellent episode.

For one, it showed just how tough it really is to be a line cook.

But even more importantly, to me, was the fact that Bourdain, a well-respected chef, author and TV personality, had trouble doing a job that he used to be able to do extremely well (according to him).

Now….given enough time, I’m sure Bourdain could get back up to speed as a line cook but the point is – he couldn’t just waltz in after years of not being a line cook and be a good line cook.

I have a point. I really do. Read on….

Tony used to be a good line cook. In fact, he used to be a great line cook (he says…and I believe him).

But…he stepped off the line years ago to be an Executive Chef. He’s been making menus, ensuring there are enough supplies to run the restaurant, etc etc.  He’s even stepped away from that job lately and has been a TV star and author.

So…what made him think he could step into the line and be a cook again? I’m sure part of it was for TV…and it made a really good TV show.  But…I wonder if he thought that he really could step in and be as good as he used to be?

That said…if Tony stepped into any kitchen in the world and told the line cooks how to do their jobs better, wouldn’t those line cooks listen?  I’m sure some would see him as some ‘old dude’ and not pay attention, but the smart cooks will pay attention and try to learn from that ‘old’ dude.

Regardless of whether Bourdain can still cut it as a line cook, he’s still someone worth listening to, no?  He still has a great deal of experience and can provide some great insights that might help a young line cook in their career.

So what’s the takeaway from my rambling?

How many times have you been in a meeting and the CEO, CIO, VP or even a senior IT professional try to step into your role and tell you ‘how things should be done’?

In many instances, I see eyes role or glaze over. I see the ‘young’ IT professionals snicker and joke around about how things are different now in 2011 (or whatever year it is).  Maybe there’s an age different between you and the CIO or older IT pro’s, but they’ve been in your role and have seen most of the things you’ve seen.

Just like Tony had a hard time stepping back into a line cook role, a CIO might have a hard time stepping into the role of a Systems Administrator – but that doesn’t mean her insights and experience aren’t valuable.

Learning from those who ‘did’ or ‘used to do’ is important.

Just because someone isn’t doing a role any more doesn’t mean they aren’t worth learning from.

Image Credit: chips reading the star wars incredible cross-sections book to nick – _MG_9778 on flickr

There are tons of professionals out there. Professional sports players. Professional money managers. Professionals in the medical and legal industrys.

Over the last 10 years, there’s been a move to make darn near every type of job a ‘professional’ type of job – “Professional” project managers (PMP), Professional HR managers (PHR / SPHR) and even developers / IT personnel have gotten in on the act with certifications like the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP).

Now…there’s nothing wrong with the above certificates at all.  If you’ve earned a cert, be proud of it…but don’t expect to be immediately seen as a ‘professional’ just because you’ve got a piece of paper. Same goes for degrees too…go read a great piece by JK Allen that touches on this topic in a post titled Who Needs a MBA (or any Degree) When You Have Hustle?

But…if a piece of paper / certificate doesn’t make you a professional…what does?

Simple – an attitude.  Yes…an attitude.

Of course…don’t try to be a Doctor or Lawyer with just your attitude…you’d definitely need to have the requisite school/cert/paper there.  But…for most everything else in life – attitude works wonders.

A few examples of Professionalism

My wife and I recently listed our house for sale. While getting the house ready for sale, we noticed a few issues that would need to be fixed. A couple of our windows had their seals broken and needed to be replaced and a few sprinklers needed to be fixed.

We listed these issues on the Seller’s Disclosure listing and made note that they’d be fixed before selling.

We called out a Window repair company, a Carpet Cleaning company, an AC and Heat company and a sprinkler repair company.   I was really surprised to find that each and every person that came out to the house was a professional.  Not necessarily because of a certificate or license – but because of their attitude.

Their attitude was focused on service and professionalism. They all wanted to do the right thing for me…they also all went above and beyond.

The window folks – JJ’s Window Services in Dallas – did a great job.  Highly recommended.  If their website was working, I’d include the link…will add it if their website starts working again.

The Carpet guy - Infinity Carpet and Tile Cleaning – what an awesome job they did.  The owner, Michael Adkins  is a professional…..he spent way more time at our house cleaning our carpet than he really needed to.

The AC & Heat Guy – Dwight from Dwight’s Heating and Air – is a consummate professional.  I know that if I need any service for air conditioning or heating system repair or help, Dwight’s there for me. I’ve used him 4 or 5 times over he last 8 years…awesome service.

The Sprinkler repair guy – Mac from American Irrigation and Landscape – is just as awesome as the others.  Mac was a professional with a capital “P”.  I want to take a second to highlight what Mac did for…he’s actually the reason for this post.

Mac the Sprinkler Pro

Mac was supposed to be at the house between 5 and 6PM.  He called at about 5:30 to tell me he was running late and would probably be about 45 minutes to an hour late.  I wasn’t happy that he was going to be late – but at least he had the professionalism to call and tell me.

When Mac arrived, he immediately set out to solve my sprinkler problems.  First step though – a free sprinkler system tune-up…I like that

After the tune-up, he dug (literally) into the sprinkler problems.  I had one sprinkler head that had come loose and needed fixed along with a leak that had sprung from a capped sprinkler head under my patio.

Rather than stand around and think about the problem, Mac got to digging.  He fixed the first problem within about a minute and jumped over to problem #2.

While Mac worked, he kept me in the loop on what he was doing and why.  He explained why he was digging where he was digging. He explained why he was digging the way he was (because he wanted to save the top layer of soil and grass).

He fixed both problems within about 15 minutes.  He wasn’t slacking…he was digging and moving fast.    For a man / company that was paid by the hour, he was moving a lot faster than I expected him to.

In addition to solving my immediate problems, Mac gave me some hints on ways to not have these problems again.  He told me where to go buy my sprinkler heads and supplies (local irrigation supply store…don’t but them from Home Depot). He also gave me some hints on keeping the grass watered while not wasting water.

Overall, Mac was a great guy.  He solved my problems and he educated me.

He also made me a customer for life.

You see…it wasn’t the fact that Mac had a license from the state of Texas that made him a professional.  What made him a pro was the fact that he had the right attitude. He approached service the right way.  Sure…he was late….but he let me know he was going to be late before he was late.

The key to Mac’s professionalism – his attitude.  He was focused on doing the job and doing it right. He was focused on providing the best service he could provide too.

So..for everyone out there who’s relying on a certificate, degree or some other form of validation of your professionalism - you’ve gone down the wrong path.

Professionalism isn’t found in a certificate or piece of paper.  Its found in your heart and in your mind.  Its your attitude toward your job, life and the world.

Get the right attitude + some ‘hustle‘ and you’ll have it made.

Image Credit: Picture 079 By BurningQuestion on flickr

There’s some extremely loud sounds out there. A Mower.  An Edger. A Blower.

Why can’t these guys hush it….I’m trying to relax dangit. All I really wanna do is spend some time with some  relative piece and quiet.

I get pretty upset….why can’t these guys do this earlier in the day?  Why choose now?  As I try to filter out all the noise I consider sending a fairly scathing email to the owner of the lawn company.

Then…I realize how wrong this is.

Here I am….sitting on my couch in a nice air conditioned home.  While I sit, there’s some underpaid, extremely under-appreciated guys outside mowing my yard for me….while I sit on my butt being angry at a little interruption and noise.

Geez…talk about taking things for granted.

I pay a relatively small fee to have these guys do this work for me….their effort saves me from having to do the work – and I’m extremely thankful for that during the 100 degree weather during the Texas summers.

And of course….I immediately started thinking about all those other people that I’ve taken for granted. Of course…there are plenty of people that I’m sure I’ve taken for granted in my life…parents, family, friends, colleagues- the list goes on and on.

We all take people for granted, don’t we? I think its part of being a human…we all forget how important others are and how grateful we should be for those people.

Now…before I go off the deep end into a land of mushy-ness, let me take a step back into the world of business.

Who do you take for granted in your organization?

Is it the janitor?  The security guard and/or team?

What about your sales team or your customer service organization?

What about your IT staff / team? Do you take them for granted?

Would your organization run without them?  Would you be able to ‘keep the lights on’ without your IT operations team?  Would you be able to sell the next ‘widget’ without the web/server team?

I know many organizations that have taken their IT group for granted. Many in the organization talk about the IT staff as though they are somehow less important than other folks. Many make fun of the IT professionals…and normally, the IT staff gives just as good as they get.

Often times, those same IT pro’s take many other teams/groups for granted as well. They look at requests for new technology or services with disdain because ‘those’ people don’t understand technology.   Stop thinking about ‘those’ people…you all work for the same company, right?

Whether at home or at work, let’s stop taking people for granted.

Start looking at your colleagues as the people they are rather than the position they hold…you may be amazed at how much less you take their work for granted.

Not really sure what I’ve been looking for, but I feel like something is missing. I feel like I’ve been reading and writing about the same thing over and over (and over).

So I’ve been surfing around reading a bunch and really good stuff in the interwebz – most has been around topics not related to my core areas of IT and  technology.

I worked my way through tons of blogs and read some great posts…but there was something in my subconscious gnawing at me.

I wasn’t really sure what that something was until later when I jumped over to my Hootsuite tab to take a glance at what was going on in twitter-land. The stream looked kind of slow and repetitive so I jumped over to one of my saved CIO & IT streams that I like to look at for ideas for new posts and it seemed repetitive to me too.

And then it hit me. I realized what I’d been searching for. I was searching for something new.

That’s what my blog surfing was all about. Something new. New insights. New stories. New directions.

And my CIO / IT twitter stream helped highlight it for me.

Why?

With no disrespect meant to anyone on the stream, what I was seeing felt like the same thing I’ve been seeing on the stream for many months. Lots of people talking about the same things. Cloud computing. Virtualization. IT Leadership. IT Innovation. Alignment. Etc Etc.

Don’t get me wrong…all excellent topics and all worthy of discussion…but I don’t see anything new out there. Nor do I see any real change happening. I see a lot of people talking about the need for new thinking, re-thinking and innovation in IT. I see people talking about aligning business with IT.

But…all things that have been talked about for months and years. Has there been any real progress on any of these topics?

Oh sure…I’d like to think there are plenty of people out there making these things happen in the real world…but I haven’t run across anyone really talking about the “new IT”. I haven’t seen anyone talking about the real-world implementation of the Re-imagined IT group. I’ve yet to see any new case studies or new stories about real-world IT groups taking the reigns and leading innovation within the business or recreating themselves to make the ‘new’ IT a reality.

Am I just missing these stories? Or…are those stories just not there? Perhaps all of us blogging and tweeting about it are just talking amongst ourselves while the real IT pros out there are keeping their head down and doing their jobs to the best of their ability.

So…what’s my point with this post?

Its not really a critique of the IT & CIO bloggers and twtitterers….er…tweeterers….er…twits…er whatever the name is. Not at all….I love reading these guys. Heck…I love writing about IT, the New CIO and other topics. I grew up in IT and technology and will continue to write about these topics.

But I have to ask….is it doing any good?

Is the stuff I’ve been writing about, thinking about and reading about for the last few years doing any good? Are we making any difference in the ‘real world’? I’d like to think we are but for some reason I keep seeing the same topics repeated year after year.

That repetition tells me that most in the IT world are working too hard to ‘keep the lights on’ and a lot of what is being written about is ignored. Does this mean all of us bloggers and writers are just talking amongst ourselves? Or are we just not hitting the topics that real-world technologists and IT pro’s are looking for so they can do their jobs better? Or…am I just missing out on the real deep case studies from those companies that are doing the things we are all talking about?

I realized what my subconscious was telling me. I’ve been subconsciously searching for something new. New topics for IT. New Topics for CIO’s. New topics in marketing / technology. New topics for you and for me

I’d love your thoughts on the subject…what are some new topics that you’d like to see covered in IT, Marketing, Project Management and Technology?

Image credit – Search Help By misterbisson on flickr

If you don’t know who ISITE Design is, you should…especially if you are in the digital marketing space. Those guys are top notch. I tried to hire them many times when I was working at the Boy Scouts but could never get the projects funded (might just be why I’m not there anymore).

Note: I tend to use “CMS” to mean “Web CMS” or “WCMS” – in this article these terms/acronyms are interchangeable to match what David originally used it in his post.

In Avoiding the CMS Death Spiral, David writes a nice piece that anyone looking at choosing a Content Management System should read.  In the article, David offers up a few pieces of advice, with one being:

Realize too that if you invest in a CMS, you’re now in the software business – whether you like it or not. A CMS project is never “done”. Staff accordingly for post-launch maintenance and support, or be prepared to pay an agency to maintain the platform for you (to one degree or another).

A CMS project takes on a life of its own, much like any other software project. That said, most organizations undertaking a Content Management System project fail to understand that real underlying issues that they will face during and after the project. Most people think a CMS project is as simple as selecting, paying for and implementing a CMS….but it isn’t.

A CMS project is everlasting.  There will always be ‘something else’ to do.  There will always be a new feature or some functionality that will be needed for some new web feature or function.

Done never shows up on a CMS project.  Done never is.

Of course…there are times of ‘done’ according to a project plan.  The goal of a project can be reached.  There is a point when a CMS is ‘implemented’. But…there will always be changes  and there will always be new items to add.

That’s what organizations need to understand. Many think a Content Management System is something you buy and install and use.  But, I’ve never found that to be the case.  There’s always something more to be done.

So…if you are currently looking at implementing a Web Content Management System, think long and hard about how you are staffed today and how you will be staffed in the future.  Don’t make the mistake a former client made in thinking that after the purchase and implementation of a CMS, he could reduce headcount. In fact – he needed to increase headcount or at least move headcount around to ensure proper staffing.  That particular project was never staffed properly for the long term from the IT group’s side.

I’ll leave you with part of my comment on David’s post. I wrote  (I noticed a typo in my original comment – I’ve left it here for completeness – but should be buy):

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen with CMS projects is the failure to staff. Most clients but [sic] a CMS platform, pay a vendor to implement it and then expect ‘done’ to arrive one day.

That day never shows up because there are always constant changes coming. Always new features and functionality for CMS driven websites. Done never arrives so clients always feel like they are spending way too much to ‘implement’ their CMS…when in reality they are just seeing the reality of the software business. Done never is.

Image Credit: Never By Olivier H on flickr

That’s all it takes.

One day is all it takes to cause tragedy or triumph.  One day is all it takes to change for the better – or the worse.

There’s been a lot of ‘One Days’ in my life.

One day, I saw the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building destroyed. One day, I watched the life drain out of a person’s body while I held their head.  One day, I watched the World Trade Center Buildings Destroyed.

One Day, I saw my niece Kiley born, and yet again..One Day I saw my niece Erica born.  One Day, I married my lovely wife.  That was a wonderful One Day.

One Day, I buried my grandmother and yet another One Day years later I buried my grandfather.  One Day this week, I found out a friend from high school passed away – RIP Junior.

One Day I graduated from college and later, another One Day I finished up grad school (two times).  One Day, I’ll finish my doctorate.

One Day, I had to lay off an employee.  There was another One Day where I had to lay other people off too..in fact there were many One Day’s where that’s happened. There was One Day where I went to the funeral of one of those men that I laid off. He died from injuries he suffered from an accident while driving to a job interview…I blame myself for that particular One Day. Rest in Piece Jim N.

I won’t bore you with more One Day stories from my life….but you get the drift.  These One Day moments happen all the time.

You see…we all have many “One Day” moments in our life.  These One Day events can be wonderful, terrible, happy or sad.  Are we prepared for that One Day when it happens?  Probably not…nobody can truly be prepared when some tragic accident occurs.

But…we can do our part to create the more memorable One Day events. You know those events I’m talking about.  The One Day when you are going to start your new business.  The One Day when you are going to lose weight. The One Day when you’ll start that something ‘new’.  The One Day you’ll finally be happy.

Recent tragic events like the earthquake / tsunami in Japan and the death and destruction happening in the middle east should make you realize that life is short and your One Day may not arrive.

So…why do we wait for the good One Day’s?  Why not make those One Day events happen now?  Why do we tell ourselves that ‘one day…I’ll lose weight’ or ‘one day…I’ll be happy’.  Don’t wait…make your One Day happen today.

That’s what Seth Godin talks about in his new book Poke the Box (amazon affiliate link).  He talks about starting something today….not waiting for One Day.  He talks about taking initiative today…not waiting for the One Day when someone gives you permission to do something.

I used to tell myself that One Day, I’d be doing what I wanted to do. One Day, I’d be in charge of my own destiny.   Well…I waited around for a long time waiting for those One Day’s to happen.

I got tired of waiting and started to make my own One Day’s a reality.  Have I reached my goals? Nope. Am I working toward them?  Yes…I am.  Have my One Day’s happened? Some have…some haven’t.

Don’t wait around for your One Day…you may find you waited too long.

Turns out, I have sleep apnea based on the outcome of the sleep study.   So…I get to go back to do another sleep study with a CPAP machine.  Joy!

What I didn’t share in my earlier post was that, in addition to the sleep study, I’ve been having some other health issues.

A few weeks ago, I’d been noticing that my legs were feeling numb, tingling and just felt ‘weird’.  I attributed this  to the fact that I’d been doing a lot of ‘sitting’ lately with little exercise.

Here I am…a 37 year old male in OK health but I get little exercise due to a hectic work/school schedule.  I don’t get out into the ‘wild’ as much as for photography as I would like, which is about all the exercise i usually get.

So when my leg issues wouldn’t go away, I started researching what the troubles might be.  I started seeing things like ‘poor circulation’ and Multiple Sclerosis and Diabetes.  I started to get worried. Very worried.

I also noticed i was feeling a little fatigued. And I just generally felt ‘weird’.

I made an appointment to see my doctor and was told it would be a few days before they could get me in. I didn’t feel like it was an emergency so I didn’t bother pressing for a visit sooner.

I focused on these problems for days on end. I got myself pretty worked up about the health issues and I think I even got myself into a panic attack one day thinking I had some really wrong with me.

I searched Google. I searched WebMD.  I looked at all the info out there. I saw things about diabetes causing poor circulation. I saw all the heart troubles. I saw the many many health problems that all had symptoms like mine.

I don’t have to tell you that I was pretty worried. Downright scared even.

One day last week, I started feeling really weak. I started sweating and my chest felt tight. I was dizzy and just generally felt like poo.  I came very very close to droving myself to the emergency room that day but the feeling went away after I had some orange juice. Note: I’ve always had a low-blood sugar problem – if i don’t eat enough protein for breakfast, I have problems all day.

Once I settled myself down and started feeling better, I realized that it might be that I was worrying myself into poor health. Of course, my lovely wife told me the same thing…that it was all in my head….but did I listen to her?  No. (I do listen sometimes…just not this time.)

So i took a step back and thought about what got me to where I was.

I had a strange feeling in my legs. So….how did i get from that strange feeling in my legs to feeling like I was about to have a heart attack?

Simple…I was taking things into my own hands. I was googling. I was searching. I was picking and choosing symptoms. Heck…at one point, my symptoms pointed to menopause. MENOPAUSE dangit. I’m too young for that! (<~~~ that’s funny right there…because I’m a man.)

All the Google searches in the world won’t help. All the generalist knowledge I have or can obtain about medical issues means very little when it comes time to diagnose and treat those issues.

My doctor’s appointment came and went. He took blood and ran tests. He used his (and the medical lab’s) expertise to find out more specific information about what my problems might be.

Turns out – I don’t have poor circulation. I don’t have diabetes nor do I have any heart problems. What I do have is a bad back that is pinching my Sciatic nerve causing discomfort in my legs. In addition, I have a vitamin D deficiency and a very minor case of Polycythemia (too many red blood cells), which has some of the exact symptoms that I was experiencing. This Polycethemia is something that I’ve got to keep my eye on but isn’t anything to worry about right now as its very minor. The doctor told me to get some exercise and take baby aspirin. I love me some baby aspirin, so I’m good with that approach.

Now…I’m feeling fine. I know there is something wrong with me and I know what lies ahead, which is taking baby aspirin and exercising…horrible i know

There’s a lesson here though for those of us in business – that lesson is this: While generalists are good and can provide real value, sometimes you need specialists. Sometimes you need experts.

There are times that you have a problem that can’t be solved with your regular consultants or employees. Maybe the problem seems simple but turns out its difficult….but you keep throwing generalists at the issue.  There comes a time when you just have to stop searching and reach out to an expert to solve your problem. The key is knowing when to reach out for help…and who to reach out to.

I’m glad I decided to reach out when I did. At least I know now that I don’t have menopause.

Image credit: Trust us, we’re expert By phauly on flickr

Are you ready to accept failure?  Can you live with yourself if you don’t succeed?

When I was growing up, winning was a big thing.  You won or lost. You won at sports.  You succeeded at school.  Or you didn’t.  There wasn’t anything good about losing…no ‘participation’ trophies…no recognition for losing.

Succeeding and winning was everything.

Everyone fails though.   Nobody is perfect.  Nobody succeeds at every thing they do. With success comes failure. When one person succeeds, someone else is most likely to fail.  That’s not a bad thing though…failure is acceptable if you learn from that experience, right?

Take an example from my new found interest….the world of trading & investing. In the investment world, nobody succeeds all the time.  Heck…most traders are happy if they have 50% win ratio (I’m currently at a 53% win ratio…and I’m ecstatic about that) The key to succeeding long term when you ‘only’ win half your attempts is to ensure you manage your risk appropriately. Peter Lynch, that icon of the investing world, sums up the idea of success / failure in the investing world with:

In this business if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten. (HT @Fibline for the quote)

Failure is perfectly acceptable, if you’ve approached that failure correctly and learn from your failure.

Are you allowing yourself to be right six times out of ten?  Are you happy with a 50% win ratio?

How about a having win rate of 5% (1 win out of 20 attempts)?  Would that you make you happy…or angry? Most people would absolutely hate a 5% win rate.

But…some folks can accept that rate and move on.  They learn from their successes and failures.

Take OfficeMax as an example. Scott Brinker recently shared a story about OfficeMax’s digital marketing efforts in a post titled Experimental Marketing: 1 out of 20 ain’t bad.  OfficeMax had 1 successful website (their “Elf Yourself” website) out of 20 attempts.  They built 20 different websites, each with a reason behind it and expectation that it would work.

But…out of those 20, only 1 of them – the Elf Yourself site – succeeded.  The remaining 19 were quietly turned off.

Would a 5% win rate be OK with you? Would it be OK with your company?

Would you or your company ever allow a project to kick off that had a 1 in 20 chance of succeeding?  Probably not…but what if you kicked off 20 projects, each with compelling business cases, and only 1 succeeded?  Would you take the time to understand what worked and what didn’t in those 20 projects or would you fire the people in charge of those projects?

Success is wonderful.  Failure is just as wonderful…if you learn from it.

Now…in the trading world, you wouldn’t really want a 5% win rate…you’d quickly run out of money.  In the world of Marketing, IT and Technology…a 5% win rate isn’t ideal either..but sometimes you’ve got to have the guts to make a decision that might just lead to a low success rate on projects…and you might just learn a great deal about how to get better the next time.

Today’s IT project success rate is hovering around 30 to 35 % depending on what study you read.  Are organizations & IT groups learning from the failures of those projects that aren’t succeeding?  In my experience, no….those failed projects are written off and never looked at again.

So…are you prepared for failure?  Ready to accept it and learn from it?  If you want to succeed more in the future…you should be.

Image Credit: “Success 02 by By PaDumBumPsh” found on flickr. Make sure you jump over and read the small print…It’ll make you giggle…at least it made me

Sheeple By rhiannonstone on flickr

Social Media has brought a real danger to the forefront of society.

It’s not the security risks that might be inherent in social media, although there are many of these types of risks.

It’s not the many inherent dangers that might be found in social media, although they are valid dangers.

It’s not the very real and very serious issues parents and children must be aware of when dealing with social media.

What is the real danger found in social media today?

Its the same danger found in all aspects of life but social media seems to exacerbate it.

What is it?

Blindly following others and allowing them to form your opinion for you.

Of course, that’s always been a danger for anyone at anytime in history.  But…the adoption and widespread use of social media is leading to more and more ‘sheeple‘ in existence today.

In the past, these sheeple could always find someone’s opinion or idea to blindly follow but social media has given rise to a much more dangerous world for these folks.

Its quite easy today to find someone on Facebook or Twitter to follow.  Someone who seems to know what they are talking about. Someone famous perhaps…or someone who labels themselves an expert.

Sheeple base their opinions on the opinions of those they follow. In most instances they blindly accept as truth/fact/gospel whatever comes across their twitter stream (or email or web brower) without taking one nanosecond to think about whether that ‘fact’ is true.

Sheeple are nothing new…but social media has opened up a growth industry for the this non-thinking class to thrive.

Think for yourself.  Analyze for yourself.  Be yourself.  Heck…disagree with the people you follow (but disagree cordially of course).  You might find that you’ve learned more from non-agreement than you ever learned from simply nodding your head and moving on.

Don’t be a sheeple…plenty exist already.

Stop being lead by the sheeple shepherds and start thinking for yourself.