Redoing the redone

So sometimes in life mistakes are made. Sometimes in graduate school, you write a self-reflective paper and sort of miss the point of the assignment decide to re-write starting at 1130pm on the night before it is due at 830 in the morning. Here is the paper that (sort of) missed the point of the assignment. Enjoy. This [year/month/post's] cultural topic is:

Personal Development/Self-reflective Planning

I am present two (of many) social media platforms which require brief description in my profile. Twitter: “MBA candidate in marketing strategy, photographer, musician...pretty cool guy interested in interesting things!” LinkedIn: “President MBA Society, Photographer, Aspiring Marketer”…but are these synopses really indicative of what I believe? Are they who I am or are they what I do?

What would I do if I won the lottery?

I often ask myself this question and the answer is consistently: travel, motorcycle, take photos, write about it…but beyond these seemingly selfish wishes, my thoughts consistently come back to the impact on/benefit I receive from my friends and community.

Why I do what I do

I spend a great deal of my leisure time in the Calgary area riding motorcycles. The freedom of the open road allows time for self-reflection, coupled with a group activity (often ride with close friends). I have spent over 18 months living and traveling abroad in 32 countries on 4 continents and I do not consider a country visited unless I have actually “experienced” local culture. Balance is very important in my life and while many people have a hard time finding time, I find refuge in simple things like watching sports, having coffee with my mom or going for a hike. I often act impulsively, but balance is the pinnacle for me to seizing opportunity, open-mindedness and keeping a positive outlook on life.

I was raised without any formal religion, but raised to be curious and open-minded. I am outgoing and outspoken. After an interdisciplinary undergrad degree, at age 22 I set off on a number of trips to that took me to southeast Asia, USA and Central America, where curiosity and (lack of) communication lead me to learn Spanish. But knowledge bug wanted more. At 24, I impulsively moved to the UK and even more impulsively set off on a 5 month, 14 country tour of Europe and north Africa which included a 33 day pilgrimage through northern Spain, “El Camino Santiago”. It was during this hike that I began to truly embrace the act of self-reflection, the ability overcome pain in pursuit of a goal and to appreciate the journey en route to the destination.

Mulligan on life: second chances

A mentor of mine once told me I could make as many mistakes as I wanted – as long as I didn’t make the same one twice. I enjoyed my most recent “previous life” as a sales manager but I was not passionate about it. I had a team of 15 and was part of a management team of 4. I respected my boss because he knew how to “get things done” in a business sense, but I was respected by my team because I explained the high-level, customer-centric, “why”. (As it turns out, focusing on the customer can actually make tons of money!) I was selective in recruitment and lead in a consensus-based way – as I like being lead – in a sort of pay-it-forward type system. Coming back to MBA (also impulsively), I hoped to get more out of life than a grind, find personal clarity, career direction and ultimately, guidance in trying to find my passion. I have many talents and while I have acquired many new skills (as well as business contacts and close friends) throughout the program, I am still uncertain that I have found my true calling.

I believe in seeing problems as opportunities and, while it has become somewhat of a joke with those in my class (along with having a reputation of being incapable of stress – a reputation I appreciate), I rarely say no to opportunities and always find time to try new things (including parties, social events, networking). In the short and long term, I hope to maintain this outlook.

My people: why I am who I am

I seek counsel from anyone willing to give it (but mostly my close friends, brother and parents) and I am in the position of MBA Society President because I trust myself to trust others and others trust in me (and because, while I was not planning to run, a good friend of mine convinced me that it was my destiny). My inner circle has diverse viewpoints and I consider most of them to be smarter than I am, so I can learn from them, but (equally important) they from me. They have made me the man and leader I am today and I maintain my unconditional trust in many of them. I follow the golden rule: I treat my friends and community the way I expect to be treated and hope they do the same for me.

Onward and upward: goals and actions

In the short term, I will continue to get on the motorbike to encourage solo-reflection; I will continue to watch the Flames to maintain a sense of community (and because I like hockey), and I will go for drinks with my friends to hear their ideas.

I also plan to cook more. Evening classes have not afforded me time to eat at home or as healthily as I would like. I play guitar, bass, sax and keyboard, but weekly playing hours manage to be absorbed into other activities. I will attempt to stop taking freelance photography gigs, as event photography is too scripted and my love of photography is in the relaxation found by uncovering new points of view and natural beauty. I also intend to read more books instead of watching TV (though several documentaries can be quite good as well). I currently have a mentor and am mentor to two undergrad business students. Both experiences are rewarding and I hope to stay in touch with all three of them for years going forward.

In the longer term, I will continue to keep an open mind. I plan to travel again: my goal is 50 countries by age 50 (one per year shouldn’t be so hard). I will continue to work with charities, particularly cancer, arthritis, diabetes and mental health (all conditions that have affected my family). I would also like to have a family, but mostly so I can teach my kids to skate.

In business, all there is is integrity and reputation; I believe the same goes for personal life. I admit when I’m wrong, I don’t do anything I will regret, but I don’t regret anything I’ve done. On the “Open road of life”, say no to saying no. Stay balanced, stay on the bike. 

How to make friends and learn something too

“Stay Hungry, stay foolish” – Steve Jobs

Shortly after beginning the program last fall, I was in a conversation with a guy who was about to finish. He told me that to him, MBA meant one thing: “MBA means ‘I’m better than you’”. I humoured him and laughed at the time, but after completing my 1st year with good grades and a successful CV of handshaking events and networking, I respectfully disagree.

FIRST YEAR MBA

One thing that is interesting to me about the way programs like the MBA are set up is that “cohorts” (I dislike this word…different story for a different day) move through the program and end at various times but end up in courses together, even though one part-time student is in their third year and a first year full time is in second semester. One result is a mixing of what I will call “generational ideologies” where older/more experienced students have become jaded and lackadaisical, while the other is fully dedicated and hyper eager. One looking forward to the end of the degree, while the other looking for nothing short of an A. What’s funny is that we all did that once the first time around.  “This is the last exam I’m ever going to take”. WRONG. What we should have said is “this is the last exam I’m ever going to take until I decide I don’t want to work at the job/jobs I will have in the next few years until my company offers to pay for a parttime program in something or I quit and dedicate two years to school!”  That would be more appropriate, anyway.

“I don’t give a [crap] mode” is a special period of time in everyone’s career (work or school) when they know a transition is imminent. This happens for students who have a good idea they will be finishing their program within the semester and to workers as they hand in their letter of resignation. If you’ve never experienced this felling, go: quit your job (but actually, do what makes you happy).

I have really enjoyed my time over the last months. Not only did we have long weekends every week, but the program is actually much more difficult than I had expected (in a good way) and low and behold I learned a thing or two. Grad school is a whole new world: B- is minimum pass, professors (usually) actually care what your name is, and going to class really does matter. Like many grad school programs, MBA is difficult to fail but easy to do poorly. Unlike most grad school programs, we pay a great deal to do it!

Truth of the matter is I, as did many of my classmates, expected the MBA to be a daily gathering of our class to discuss intellectual matters, write a couple of papers and BOOM: Degree! Well, turns out they actually want you to learn something this time around (as compared to many people’s fluffy first degree *cough* engineering or comsci *cough*). I started out with experience in sales, recruiting and sales management and I wholeheartedly believe that I have a background that suits the curriculum. Without supervisory/management experience (especially in tasks like conflict resolution, hiring, etc) I wouldn't have had the right background to actually learn anything…which would have make the whole exercise purely academic.

The great debate: full-time or part-time. Full-timers are seen as the academic types. University (as it was in undergrad) is designed to show prospective employers that you know how to learn. Of course, the running joke is that MBAs are entitled and don’t actually know how to do anything, even after graduation. Well, I don’t have the most spectacular GPA and never have and care less about amazing grades than actually getting something out of the education. Sure, exams and grades are a supposed measure of how much of the course you understand, but “common sense” and “analytical skills” more important than memorizing the formula for “master budgets” or the definition of “hollowed out”.

I believe in doing the right thing. I believe in doing things that make you happy. I believe it is possible to do the right thing, be happy and make money all at the same time. Call me naïve, but I believe you get out what you put in. MBA is about creating relationships and developing skills.

So, if being happy while doing the right thing makes you happy, and being happy makes you a better person, maybe MBA does mean I’m better than you…or maybe we’ll just turn out like this guy:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vx1BTBhg4c

Now there’s something we can look forward to. But for now, I’m just going to continue the journey and see what happens. 

Here's a video I put together for the Haskayne MBA Society:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXCljkgjHD8

PS I’m working doing marketing for the University this summer. WOO!

WHY do you do?

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. - John Lennon 

As many of you know, I work at Western Canada’s largest self-serve automotive dismantling/recycling store. Yes, I work at an auto-wrecker. But it’s not just an everyday run of the mill auto dismantling recycling facility: it is a used Auto-Parts Retail Outlet. I told you that to tell you this: 

People don't buy things from companies, they buy ideas. 

Customers don’t realise what they are buying; for this reason, many staff equally do not realise what they are selling; therefore, all parties involved believe that they are buying and selling used car parts from a field full of old cars. WRONG. 

We sell ideas. We not only sell ideas, we sell knowledge. The biggest “idea” we sell is that we are going to do whatever we can do to help the customer “believe” so that they leave satisfied and we create the IDEA that it is a good idea to come back again one day. Of course, optimally they do go home with someTHING as well. 

Companies call this “creating repeat clientele” and see it from an economic/financial standpoint: 

Repeat clients=Greater Revenue=Higher Profits 

Of course, companies are in the business of making money, but it has become increasingly apparent to me over the last few years that many companies (as well as many individuals) do not know WHY they do what they do. Do companies and individuals simply want to make money (to please shareholders and bring home a paycheque), or is there a greater good that can be accomplished by doing what they do? Companies want to create demand for their customers. But WHY? If we have customers that still come to us to buy THINGS, we aren't selling ourselves properly. We haven’t created the DESIRE for them to come back…You can buy things anywhere, after all. 

Companies tell us WHAT to do, but they don’t tell us WHY we should do it, so it is difficult for these companies to have truly engaged staff. Of course, some staff will take it upon themselves to find why they do things or what makes them happy, but without engaged staff you just have people going through the motions and not actually believing in what they are doing. Happiness is everything and if you aren’t happy doing what you do, don’t do it. Each day you have to ask yourself why you do what you do in order to be successful; if money is the ONLY reason that you go to work, then you should likely reconsider what you do for work. 

Personally, I wholeheartedly believe that I go to work each day to help people. Companies look at quarterly reports and financial statements and write missions statements, but they are ultimately accountable to two groups: stakeholders (including shareholders and employees) and their customers (who rely on the company’s services for their own wellbeing). So if the company is not doing what is right for the customer, writing mission statements doesn't mean anything. 

Corporations (which I have interchangeably called companies) often give their stores or branches or locations (or whatever you would like to call it) many tools to be successful. Tools can be in the shape of coupons, promotional sales, extended warranties, loyalty cards, radio or print ads, etc. but if the employees are not using these tools to their full potential, these tools are useless: this ends up failing the company (because of wasted investment (both creatively and financially)), the employee(by not living up to full potential) and in turn, the customer (who suffers the most). Promotions are designed to give all parties a mutually beneficial result.

Remember:

"We miss 100% of sales we do not ask for", and 

“You can’t buy something you don’t know exists”. 

Poor customer service comes in many forms. Some might think having to bag their own groceries is unacceptable. Some might not like the prices of something and believe it is the fault of the cashier (caused by customers’ unrealistic expectations). Some might think that when a customer service agent is blatantly rude that they should their business elsewhere. I agree with (and only with) the latter. 

Having worked in customer service and sales for the better part of the last 15 years, I can assure you it is a two-way street. Customers bring money, but good customer service brings the clients back. Customers often lash out; unacceptable. Employees of companies can also lash back: MORE unacceptable.  

Sometimes all it takes to put things in perspective is to take half a step back and to put yourself in the shoes of the other side. Picture yourself talking to you and see how that makes you feel. Maybe the employee is slouching over or avoiding eye contact or seems to be more concerned with what their co-worker is having for lunch than what the customer is ready and willing to spend money on (ie WANTS and/or NEEDS). Angry customers should consider how they would like to be spoken to and conversely, lazy employees should consider how they would like to be treated when they go to a different store run by a different company. Everyone is a customer, but not everyone is a customer service agent. Having said that, it is not all about courtesy, but it is all about respect. 

When I started working at Pick-n-Pull, I was a 19 year old student who needed a part time job to pay for my partying habits. I worked there because I had friends who worked there and it was convenient and fun. I also got to learn about cars but really I didn’t care about cars and still don’t. I never thought that 7 years later (after being gone from the company for almost 3 years) I would get a phone call from the newly promoted Store Manager (who started the month before I did) to ask if I would like to be a part of his sales management team. I would consider this among my top two greatest professional accomplishments. I have been successful in my career so far for one main reason: I do everything I do because I believe in what I am doing and I try to have a good time while I do it. 

Every day, my goal is to learn something new. I learn from my manager, I learn from my staff and I learn from my customers. I learn about how to manage, I learn about how to be compassionate, I learn about cars and most of all I learn about how to teach other people how to learn like I do. I walk through the doors every morning interested in getting better at something. Business is about meeting goals and making contacts or new customers or whatever but it is really truly about doing something that you love to do and being happy. 

I don't LOVE stacking up tires or buying cars or filling antifreeze or cleaning batteries but I love helping people. As it turns out, by doing these simple things, I can help make people’s (customers and staff) lives better. 

 I want to come to work to work hard and have fun while I do that. I know you all want that too.  

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. 

You like what you read, watch this for further insight: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Being Cold vs Having One

*Cough, cough*
“Robitussin!” It’s like bless you for coughs...

Of course, bless you is like bless you for sneezing, which most people say to sneezing. With the World Junior Championship of Hockey starting today in Calgary and Edmonton, it's only fitting that people in the media are talking about how mild a winter we are having so far in the great white north. This week’s topic is:

Cold Season

More often than not, I find myself having the sniffles. I usually have excuse – it’s allergy season, or I’m just getting over a cold, or I’m just getting sick, or I am allergic to your horse/cat/dusty dog... of course, I’m stubborn so I won’t go to the doctor, but as I get older I feel like it might be a wise move – that is, seeking the council of professionals. On a different topic for a different day, it has likely been about fifteen years since my last visit to a scheduled doctor’s appointment (though I have been for filling prescriptions or emergency anaphylaxis treatment).

It’s not that I don’t go to the doctor because I don’t think they will help – obviously it’s their job to be helpFUL and for the most part they are competent, but it’s just the general inconvenience of driving down there and waiting in the waiting room and then waiting in the mini room and telling them what’s wrong (even when there may, in fact, be nothing blatantly wrong other than the fact that you just waited for an hour to get a little chicken scratch of a piece of paper requesting the pharmacy to give you a bottle of pills or a vile of serum that you requested by name. I do understand why the process is in place, but for a non-drug abuser like myself it is just a simple pain in the figurative rear end.

People often complain about the horrible conditions they have endured in Alberta hospital waiting rooms and as recently as this last weekend, my cousin, a BC paramedic with a nurse wife had the joy of visiting the Rockyview hospital after eating cashews in a chexmix. Yes, he is allergic. Of course, he was admitted nearly immediately – not because he is in the Canadian health care system, not because of his large and sometimes intimidating stature, but rather because of the severity of his ailment. My experiences have yielded similar VIP treatment as well. When it is an emergency, the triage nurses are pretty good at identifying them as such. Sorry to say, but if you are not in some sort of trauma, please don’t take up the seats in the emergency rooms. It is the people with non-fatal, non-emergency injuries or sicknesses who have generally bad experiences in the hospitals and skew the data for long wait times.

I complain about being sick, but it’s really my fault whenever I am. Not sleeping enough, not washing my hands thoroughly enough or often enough, not drinking enough water, or in a more obvious and general sense, working in a service industry, dealing with not only a close-knit coworker group, but with the general public as well – touching money, talking to close-talkers, or dealing with close-dealers. When I was in Japan in 2003, this was around the tail-end of the big SARS outbreak. At this time, many germ-conscious Japanese were sporting masks and even to this day (as I saw my mom’s photos of her recent trip) I was interested to see that many still do. Maybe they’re on to something.

Of course, there are varying degrees of what one might refer to as “being sick”. From a working standpoint, being physically unable to safety and effectively do one’s job is a reasonable excuse not to go in. But I’m the kind of guy who got the “attendance award” in junior high because I missed so few days in the school year. People who just “call in sick” make me question the goodness of the human race. Being sick for the sake of using up sick days is immoral and unjust to the people who are generally healthy. Many companies have ways to incentivise workers who do not use their sick days positively by adding vacation days, or negatively by docking pay for missed days. I remember hearing of kids in high school calling in for each other to skip class or even better calling in sick for themselves, but doing so first thing in the morning while their male voices were lower and more adult sounding. Crafty, but I never did that mainly because I was going to have to be at school anyway so I might as well go, but also because I would have been scared of the consequences I might face if my parents ever found out. And I don’t have a low voice.

What can you learn from this post? Well, don’t lie. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough. If you’re smarter than I am, you’ll visit a doctor more than once every ten years but if you aren’t really all that sick, do yourself and everyone else in the waiting room a favour and don’t go to the emergency.

Thanks for stopping in.

Here's a photo to warm you up.
Huntington Beach, California

Get the Clean On - Make the Mess Gone

You shower, everyday, right? I hope so. Or at least every second day...the point is you have a personal hygiene schedule, I would expect, so why is it so difficult to maintain a certain level of hygiene for your house? The laissez-faire attitude of someone-else-will-do-it can only get you so far, but eventually there comes a time when you just learn to shape up and clean up. This week's topic is:

HOUSEWORK

There was a time when chores were chores and you had no idea why your mom and dad would make you do them. It was because they were mean parents, the WORST! and didn't remember what being a kid was like. They just make up chores cause they can. Vacuuming, picking up clothes, stacking shoes nicely, hanging up your coat. Some were easier than others and of course, being kids, you took shortcuts or lied and said you did something but really just swept the crumbs under the counter...

Well, now we're all grownups. We have our own places to live and we all have jobs. Guess what: chores still exist. Of course, we don't have kids to do the work for us but chores being chores are just that - chores. If chores were fun we would call it fun time. But then we would avoid fun time like the plague.

So if you don't want to do chores, why do we? Well, they have maid services. Paid people who come to clean your house. It doesn't cost all that much and they generally do a pretty good job. That's all fine, but I live in a 1200 sq ft townhouse. I don't want to say it all comes down to money, but when you don't have a lot, why would you pay someone to do something you can do just as well in about an hour.

Well, procrastination is the key to this puzzle. I hate cleaning the bathtub more than anything in the world and I'm often unmotivated to pick up the vacuum and walk it up and down the stairs. It is, however, somewhat gratifying running the vacuum over the carpet and hearing nothing but the clickity-clack of little rocks and dirt flying up through the vacuum hose and into the canister. It's gross to think about it but it's one small victory in the battle of home maintenance satisfaction.

I love to cook. I'm not all that good and my food usually comes out too spicy, too salty, too burnt or a mix of all three. For this, my kitchen MUST be clean. We're not talking countertops made out of Lysol, but a little bit of daily TLC wouldn't hurt the kitchen's ego. To make matters worse, we don't have a dishwasher. I know it's a pain but it just means dishes have to be done literally every day. There is no way to hide them away, close the door and walk away to clean dishes. It's a horrible job, but with no kids around, it has to be done...but grownup people. Movies often portray horrible messes in kitchens with dishes stacked to the ceiling and garbage bags flung all over, empty beer cans astray on the floor and a fat guy with a half eaten pizza lounging around in a mustard stained la-zee-boy recliner. Well, my house doesn't have enough dished to stack to the roof but if it did, it would be impressive (damn you, raise ceilings). Alright, so my point. I like the kitchen clean and these days it's because I like it clean, not because my parents tell me I should.

I have no problem with mess, either. But selective mess is the key. You see, the key itself is the difference between DISorganized and UNorganized. Disorganized, of course, if your average "oh my god, it's time for work and I don't know where my keys and wallet are" versus the unorganized "I, personally, know where everything is that I need but if YOU came to my place to try to find it, you would be as lost as a sheep with no herd (or something else that gets easily lost)". For those keeping track, I'm the unorganized type.

Sorry to jump back to kitchens, but this is a place where I will always be lost. Moving to a new kitchen is like falling asleep on a road trip and having no idea where the heck you are when you finally wake up. The plates are in the corner, in the side, up top, to the left, on the bottom on the right...it's insane. Don't even think about finding a specific kind of glass! Glasses organized by colour, size, weight, genre... Even cutlery drawers are confusing sometimes.
But it all comes down to chores. Maybe the kitchen owner was having a bad/great day that day and thought it would be a horrible/great inconvenience/prank if they put the spoons in one drawer and the forks in another. Maybe they just don't really care about how messy the food cupboards are, or maybe they were being lazy and they asked their kids to do it for them. Maybe all or none of this is true and maybe, just maybe (and most likely) they just really didn't want to care about anything because it's just another chore.

Thanks for stopping in.