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Thursday, June 26, 2003 |
Looking for a Job
The more I think about it, the more I think that looking for a job is ridiculous. Here's why.
What are you doing when you look for a job? You are trying to tag along with someone else's business, hoping that you can help that owner fulfill their business dream. This is true whether you look for a job at a big company or a small company. Somewhere there is an owner, or group of owners/shareholders, and they have a vision for where they want the company to go. That vision fulfills something inside them (hopefully). As companies get larger, that vision becomes more and more cloudy, until you've got a publicly traded corporation that really exists only to make a profit for its stockholders (flowery vision statements notwithstanding).
You, as a person, have certain things inside you that you need to have fulfilled. What is the likelihood that you can get that fulfillment by tagging along with someone else's vision (or lack of vision)? I guess it's possible, but unlikely.
Okay, it's nice to talk about "vision" and "fulfillment," but I need money coming in. I got bills ta pay! I need some job security!
Uh-huh. You're going to get job security at a big company? I remember when a company that I co-owned went bankrupt. I decided to start another company (risky, huh?) and my co-owner felt he needed the secure income of a big company. He looked for a while, found a company that would hire him, negotiated a good salary and job description, and started work. Nice steady paycheck! For two months. Then they laid him off. Tough times, they said. You didn't bring in enough business for us, they said. Meanwhile, my solo effort was doing fine. (Great, actually.) Who had the job security? Who had more control over their destiny (read: job security).
Job security comes only in the form of skill sets. If your skills are up-to-date and polished, you've got all the security in the world. In an independent business, you need a wider breadth of skills, particularly with sales and marketing, that many people don't have. But it is possible to gain those skills. And when you do, you're secure.
Am I crazy? Or just an avowed entrepreneurial cheerleader? Is there a friggin' difference?
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More to come soon on...
- the naturopathic debate
- holistic diagnosis
- "poverty is holy"
[The Holistic Health Phreak]
My students have been debating whether they should seek the "safety" of a real job or become Free Agents. - Here is some good advice
10:09:34 AM 
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I've been learning more and more about Halley, first from Dave's post then I read a recent article but missed this most notable quotes. I need to ask for her permission but that is the best short answer for what are weblogs I've come accross to date.
"Like women in business, weblogs in business are the next big thing, and the two will work in concert to make the workplace radically new and transparent." Read Me..
The conclusion of Halley Suitt's Read Me, an impassioned and insightful social comment:
Like women in business, weblogs in business are the next big thing, and the two will work in concert to make the workplace radically new and transparent. The Net brought transparency to the travel business, to the financial business, to many other transaction based businesses. As for weblogs, the most innovative initiatives will not be in the arena of weblogging technology, but rather the innovation demanded of business as business grows more transparent, more open to the stories of all people who need to tell their stories and need to bring business back into reality and a place of truth.
It'll take ten minutes to read the whole thing. Make the time for one of this generation's leading metabloggers. [aka klogs]
[a klog apart] [Blogging Alone]
WOW!!!!
10:07:51 AM
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I was reading Dina's weblog this morning as she talked about how few executives are aware of blogging. So typical that a huge movement such as blogging should be building and that senior executives know nothing about it.
It struck me how weird it is that many senior executives also tell me that they have no time to read. Why are these intelligent people so out of touch? They all read as students. Some still read fiction.
My theory is that in the traditional organization the focus is almost entirely inward. The awareness issue is not external performance but how well you rank in the internal politics. So as an executive you become a courtier. This game of being a courtier is hugely demanding on time and energy. Is this not a Ptolemaic world where the enterprise is the centre of the universe? Where courtiers swarm around the Sun King hoping for a rise in favour? Is not the great opportunity the Copernican breakout to "see" the enterprise as only part of a system? Would not such a breakout allow them to be free man and women again?
9:46:51 AM
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In the middle of my birhday bash last night, Jay - our dog - re-entered the barn and cut a wedge through the crowd. He had been skunked again! Poor guy.
Jay is not skunk virgin and so nor are Robin and I. We have found that the Hydrogen Peroxide and Baking Soda mix (See link)works best with a shampoo of "skunk off". Jay is a bit out of sorts this morning - so am I with a killer hangover - but most of the smell is gone. It will take about 2 weeks for it all to go. But he is huggable.
My advice if you have dogs and a large garden is to keep a stock of the key material. Our first skunking was awful as we had not a clue what to do and no gear. As these events almost always happen at night you are on your own if you have no remedies.
8:38:28 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Robert Paterson.
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