Monday, December 22, 2008

Black and white

These last few weeks there are certain people that's been endlessly telling me to know my strengths and to face any situation in such a way that it suits my strengths...blah blah blah.
I thinks it's better to know your weaknesses.
Concentrating on your strengths tends to lead towards overconfidence especially when successful and that ALWAYS leads to you doing something very very stupid.
Without giving details I can vouch from experience that this is definitely the case.
Change your approach towards working within boundaries set by your capabilities you may not have as much success in the beginning but the end result will be better.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Leadership

Well this last week has been a long one...too long and I fear the next might be even longer even though there's a holiday somewhere in there.
I've had many things on my mind but I think what occupied me the most was questions about leadership.
Be it a boss or a team captain, all of us have someone above us calling the shots.
So what makes a good leader?
I think its one of the most difficult questions there is so I'm going to try and answer the opposite:

What makes a bad leader?
First up I think everyone would agree that no tyrant will ever be popular.
But is it necessary for a leader to be popular i hear you asking.
Well, if a leader was to make an unpopular decision but the end result was to the liking of most wouldn't that in the end make him popular?
It's all about end results isn't it?
I think so.
So maybe a leader doesn't need to be popular, but I believe its impossible for a good leader not to be popular.
They should be someone that doesn't feel the need to force people to do things but rather inspire them.
Yes, a good leader would be someone that has the ability to inspire the uninspired.
Someone that can make people who have no believe in themselves have self believe.
Someone who can make the value of the people under them as a group or team more than the sum of the capabilities of those people.
A good leader is not one who has the capability to force people follow his/her leadership but rather someone who inspires people to follow him/her even though they may not want to be leaders.
Someone everyone else looks up to no matter how hard they may try just to be one of the crowd.
Above all I believe that a great leader is someone who is a servant to the people not someone the people serves.

Friday, December 5, 2008

The grass is always bluer on the other side of graduation

Eish...the things I'd do to be able to relive my school years.
Gone are my fears of tests and exams and so are my wishes that it could all just be over and time to get a job and just get out of your parents house and do whatever you want when you want to.
I bet everyone wish at school that it would all just be over.
And I'm pretty sure soon afterwards everyone of those folks ask themselves what the hell they were thinking actually believing it was going to be a whole lot more fun.
I'd give my left kidney to only have to worry about stupid tests and homework.
Failing tests ain't that serious...it won't get you into the unemployment line and it sure as hell won't let you go to sleep hungry.

Call me crazy but the thing I miss most of all is the discipline.
It's way too hard to have to watch yourself.
I bet a lot of guys get married just to get that "I'm watching you and you'd better not be doing what I told you not to!" feeling that reminds us of mom and dad.

Fitness and keeping a watch of your weight is also simply impossible to the most of us since there ain't no coach promising us something terrible if we didn't perform as he wished.

All that matters now is to suck up to the boss just enough not to draw attention and to finish that assignment before the deadline.
Then there is your budget.
Hell, I never even knew what a budget was until I moved out of my parents' house.
Talking about dropping you into the the deep end with chains around your arms and legs!

So kiddies, make the best of your schooldays because even though you;d probably disagree I promise you life after school has way less perks that sponging on your beloved parents.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The scourge of modern life

Some guy was talking about Facebook, and whether it was good or bad, on the radio last night and it really got me thinking not just about Facebook but the internet and technology and everything else associated with our modern times.
I tried to imagine how life would be if there was some disaster that fried all electronics on earth and left us back in the iron age.
At first I smiled thinking how OTHER people would suffer thinking that I wasn't really going to be touched too much...but after a while I came to the shocking conclusion that it would in fact change even my life drastically.
I'd probably oversleep because my cellphone alarm doesn't work anymore but hey I couldn't get fired because my work would be non-existent since the company I work for is defendant on two of SA's cellphone service providers.
But now I'd have to worry about how to get money to spoil the girlfriend that didn't dump me because she didn't catch me flirting with other women on Facebook since the internet doesn't exist anymore and neither does my laptop or high speed broadband wireless modem work anymore...

EISH!!!

To think just a couple of years back you'd call a buddy's house and if he wasn't there it was no real big problem because no one is going to sit around the phone the whole day waiting for a friend to make arrangements for a joll and you realized that.
Now you can go where you want when you want because you've got a mobile phone in your pocket (if you don't then get out from under the rock you've been living under).
Suddenly when you call your buddy and can't get hold of him it feels as if the world is going to end because "the whole bloody reason someone invented a mobile phone is so that you can be reachable 24/7!!!!"
No more wishing you've taken your 2kg camera along when you see a lovely sight because your cellphone has a digital camera (if you don't then get out from under the rock you've been living under).

No more snailmail, email has taken over and mailing a friend halfway around the globe and receiving a reply back in minutes is nothing strange.
Any kind of information is right at your fingertips and it's getting cheaper and faster by the day almost, but at the same time porn and other things are also available to anyone that looks in the right places.

So yes, just like everything else there is two sides to the story...

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The greatest gift

I originally wanted to call this piece "swallow your pride" or "the bite of pride" or something like that, but in the end I decided on the greatest gift worth giving.
Right throughout my life I’ve felt the bite of pride may times and even right up until this very last weekend I’ve felt it clear as daylight.
The feeling that no matter how good you are there is someone better at something.
For parents or older siblings it comes along the lines of maybe your son or younger brother being a way better rugby player than you ever were.
Well, my brother played for the Griffons and could have gone a whole lot further if he hadn’t quit, but that’s a story for another time.
For a long time I felt it burn deep inside my heart especially when my parents made a point of it.
But later on I realized that much of what he’d become was thanks to me, because I was always there showing him little things and watching as he excelled at what I was just good at or simply capable of.
Pride showed its ugly head at times but mostly I was just plain proud of my little brother.
I’m sure many a father may have the same feelings.
Point I’m trying to make is that whatever your son/daughter/younger sibling turns out to be may very well be thanks to what you’ve done for him/her.
At the moment I’m giving training and there is one specific person that is really excelling at what he’s doing.
He’s doing things at 2 months I only really overcome after about 4 months...I used to be proud of what I’d overcome but ever since this guy came along he’s really been busting my “records” if you can call it that.
But thinking about it a little bit I realized that it’s been my little tricks and shortcuts and general knowledge that I’ve passed down to the guys under me that’s made things easier for them, maybe opened their eyes.
Maybe I can never be great but if I can have a hand at making someone else great in whatever task, then I’ve realized that that really feels a lot better than anything else.
So go out there and share you knowledge.
Maybe you weren’t exceptional but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a hand in making someone else exceptional.

The greatest gift is knowledge..both to someone else and yourself...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

House of cards

Well, after a bit of a rester from the local cricket club I've returned to play my first game of the season this weekend.
I'm all sad and stuff and things don't feel the same anymore.
I've no more real friends in the group and I generally feel a bit left out.
I've also lost my standing in the team.
After 11 years of hard work to get up the batting line-up and getting to bowl during games I've been rewarded with last position in the line-up and only touching the ball 3 or 4 times with not even a thought of bowling.
But that's life.
You work hard to put the shaky pieces all together without everything falling all apart and then something else catches your eye and right while you are turning your back the whole thing falls into a seemingly unrepairable mess.
But my friends, NOTHING is unrepairable.
With just a little faith and patience you might even built something better out of it all...Actually I'm sure you WILL build something better out of it because without you even realizing it life has taught you a couple of new tricks along the way and all you have to do is make use of it and you will quite possibly even have a hell of a ball rebuilding everything.

A thing I've realized is that one of the most important things a man need to be truly happy is a challenge in his life, a battle to be fought if that sounds more like fun.
In modern times men tend to try and avoid it.
Avoiding a fight has been imprinted into us.
Fighting is bad according to schools and parents alike, but it's made us weak.
People, you must go out there and find something that makes you feel alive!
Find a challenge, a battle to be fought, something that makes you feel alive.

I've tried my hand at another sport and turned out to be quite good, but the challenge just wasn't there.
I'd originally made this change because even though I was no superstar with a bat in hand the exccitement had gone as well.
But now that the house of cards has tumbled into chaos I feel alive again.
I've got to work my way up the ladder again.
Maybe I ain't as young and mobile as I used to be, but I've got experience on my side and I really tend to see and "sense" things that I've never had before.

I'm cutting this a bit short now, but all I'm really trying to say is that I believe that everyone should pull the bottom card right out from under their magnificent 10 story house of cards and smile as it all tumbles down...
The rebuilding will be more fun than you think and the end result will be even more magnificent that the previous one could ever have been!!!

Leeches of life

Wouldn't it be great to have a boss that really wanted to understand what we "servlings" go through everyday and who truly want to make our jobs as painless as possible?
Well, I'm sorry to say that I doubt that any of us really have that much luck.
Some may know what we're going through to make them money or look good, but very few indeed would go out of their way to try and make things easier for us.
I've been through my fair share of bosses and only at one job was I lucky enough to have an absolute saint for a boss who gave me like R500 worth of biltong almost every other week and generally went out of his way to make my job heaven.
But hey, life ain't supposed to be fair and I ended up working under a new manager.
Next boss was a real "doos".
The thing that really bust my b@lls was when he told me last december that unfortunately he couldn't pay me my whole salary since the company had a bit of a cash flow problem...hell that was okay right until he took the so-called non-existent money and left on a 2 week holiday 2 days later...WITH MY FU@#$ng MONEY!!!!!

Anyway these days I work for a wonderful lady that really likes chucking you in the deep side and then commanding you to walk on the water...hell, keeping head above water just doesn't do it for her, you have to do miraculous things otherwise she'll step right on you head and push your head right under the water.

Luckily for me I appear to be able to breath underwater and "sometimes" that seems to be miraculous enough for her to at least leave me in peace to drown without her constant yapping, bitching and moaning to aggravate all this wonderful suffering we have to constantly endure under her.

Shame, must be hell if even you own parents hate you.
Can't imagine what it must be like to look herself in the mirror every morning.
If you can't stand the look of you own reflection then I guess it's normal to take your hate of everything and everyone out on the world.

Point is, if I was in management I'd really go out to make thing easy for the folks under me. I believe that a happy employee is a good employee. No person that is constantly attacked will EVER go out of his way to do a great job.
But people who are rewarded, not necessarily with money, ALWAYS do n little bit more for their employers.
For me a tap on the shoulder and a grateful smile will do wonders and I'm sure that's the case with most if not all people.

I think the biggest reason that very few people in management positions are like this is because of a chain reaction.
Somewhere along the line they were under such a person and people tend to forget the good things and simply remember the bad things especially when one day they themselves get into "power".
Right then it's time for revenge even if it's against innocent people.
Please people, try and remember how it felt when you were in that situation and try and be the person you wished your manager had been instead of the idiot he/she turned out to be.