Rodent Regatta

The ways people describe their jobs:

• Like scratching nails on a blackboard
• Like having a root canal every day!
• A wife shared that her husband was ”like a butterfly caught in a spider web and she was watching the life being slowly sucked out of him.
• I feel like a ball in a pinball machine
• I feel like Ive lived my whole life by accident.
• I feel like Ive been given six seconds to sing and Im singing the wrong song.
• I feel like my life is a movie thats almost over, and I havent even bought the popcorn yet.
• Ive lived my life up until now as though driving with the parking brake on.

48 Days

What’s your impression of people who sell things for a living? Does that impression vary based upon what they are selling? Is there a sales style that you like?

Sales as a career is tough. For those who are good, it’s incredibly rewarding. For those who dread the rejections, it can be devastating. How do the people who are successful in sales get past the abruptness of those who don’t want to be contacted?

Is sales ability based upon personality type? Is there any circumstance or industry or method that transforms the saleman into a professional?

Many of the natural tensions in life involve finding balance. Balance between work and leisure; balance between family and self; balance between stress and depression; balance between instrospection and extroversion. Only when that balance becomes natural to you will you realize you’ve found your passion in life.

When I’m not busy with a million and one things I get depressed and feel worthless, but when I do have a million and one things going on I am stressed and overworked. There is no middle ground.

A Life Uncommon

I’ve been watching and reading this site for some time now. Today, I was torn between discussing the words above and asking questions about today’s photo. Do you remember when many of the great photography magazines included all the details of how a photo was taken: Nikon F2, 300mm, Ektachrome(100), 1/125sec., f5.6?

I find myself wishing for the same sort of instructional information when looking at great digital images. Just how much ”retouching” has been done? What equipment was used and how was it set?

Dawn does a great job in her FAQ of giving information about the equipment and tools that she uses. She also provides an excellent list of instructional sites and resources that have helped her.

Dave Winer has pointed to several sites that are blogging notes from the Supernova Conference.

Supernova is a new conference exploring the distributed future. With the bursting of the Internet bubble, businesses, end-users, investors, and technology vendors face a bewildering array of challenges. Yet a common theme runs through the fundamental questions facing software, communications, and media. That theme is decentralization.

Intelligence is moving to the edges, through networked computers, empowered users, shifting partnerships, fluid digital content, distributed work teams, and powerful communications devices. Each industry sees only a small piece of the picture. Supernova is the first event to bring these threads together. Those who understand the business opportunities, technical underpinnings, and policy implications of decentralization will have a competitive advantage in any economy.

If you’ve been in that funk that so many technical folks are in, these notes may stir some new creative energy for you. Here’s a link to the conference weblog.

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Jeffrey Zaslow wrote the Moving On column. It was titled Once We Were Hot, Now Maybe We’re Not: Boomers Face Becoming Has Beens.

Just in case you needed a subscription to see it, I’ll give you this excerpt:

STAYING RELEVANT

Here are some resources to help baby boomers fight off hasbeenhood:

New Directions: Firm helps boomers become ”radical career changers” and ”free agents for life.” Contact: www.newdirections.com ”50 Plus” by Robert Dilenschneider: The career strategist’s new book advises aging professionals on how to please younger bosses and master youth-oriented workplaces. www.thirdage.com: Web site offers discussion groups, dispels retirement myths. Career Counselors Consortium: Service helps aging boomers rediscover their missions and passions. Contact: www.careercc.org ”Rewired, Rehired or Retired” by Robert Critchley: Tips from an executive at outplacement firm DBM to help older workers remain invaluable.

One of the most telling quotes in the article is this:

Such a rediscovery process will be crucial for boomers in the years ahead, says Dave Corbett, founder of New Directions, a transition counseling firm in Boston for aging executives. His ”Me, Inc.” philosophy encourages them to mold self-employment to suit their needs and passions.

This points to a time when each of us is simply too old to get hired. For some that may come at 40, 45 or 50. For others it may be the basis for a second career after retiring from the first. In any case the age at which age discrimination sets in is much lower than it was even 5 years ago.