Bitter Defeat or Sweet Success - Stepping forward into One from the Other

How belief breaks down the imaginary wall between success and bitter defeat

There is no doubt in my mind that I have made as many mistakes as I have made good decisions in my life thus far! In fact, I would argue that ‘the more I learn, the less I know’ as my world view widens and deepens with the years. Needles to say, this is nothing new, which is why I wonder at how folks become irrationally afraid of failure and at times obsessively proud of their successes?

The answer is complex with things like societal attitudes, culture and external circumstances playing an important part in shaping our view of the world but ultimately is outside of our control So, in life’ trials and triumphs why should we:

1. Become overly concerned about what other people may think?
2. Pay homage to a culture that depreciates our contribution by not ensuring we collectively benefit from our efforts in a fair and reasonably distributed manner?
3. Dwell on the actions of others, good and/or bad that we cannot influence or control? 

As a guy with a few life tales to tell, I can say this! If we respond to the above with “I will do it anyway” and not change our outlook to one where we recognise the uncontrollable elements for what they are; then possible success turns into a certain failure.

So, after figuring out that the struggle within is where all enrichment starts and ends, it’s my view that we should change ourselves by:

Understanding the external forces at work in our environment and not dwell on things we truly cannot change. Steve Jobs did not reinvent Apple by obsessing over the poor treatment he received when he was removed from the company. He looked to himself, changed from within before returning to Apple as a ‘hero’ so many years later. In essence, he learned to let it go to a point where he could achieve his goals!

Quiten our minds when making big decisions at big junctures in life. Ever sit back and wonder about what you could have achieved if you had just listened better, remembered something or sought better understanding before deciding friends are enemies and enemies are friends? I know I have some regrets on poor decisions but undeterred by social taboo, I have chosen to learn from them. A good tip is to learn to meditate for 5 to no more than 30 minutes a day for leaner, stronger and a more controlled mind. It remembers more, processes information quicker and provides a better sense of well being. Even if you do not meditate, when you consider your position on an important topic, try to focus on 2-3 good breaths, then focus on the topic at hand excluding all background noise in your mind. Quieten your thought process to a single thread of the matter in front of you only.

When challenged, pure focus must be fuelled by pure belief. If you are right, but don’t assert your beliefs, then you will fail. Those opposed have to by definition play a dirtier game to rewrite the definition of correct... so don’t let them! Firstly, be clear on what is needed, be sure of what you are doing then use your belief to ensure a genuine ‘win’ is realised after finding out what is right for the situation, compelling others in consultation with your belief and stepping past failure to success with a ‘group’ effort. A solid approach like that with pure focus delivered by pure belief cannot be easily derailed.

Too often, folks fall prey to the temptation of bitter recourse for a situation that “may” harm one’s enemies but ultimately will harm themselves. Gandhi once said “If you change yourself you will change the world.” I like to think we can… all we have to do is believe and our journey starts from within illuminating the road ahead.

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.123rf.com

www.tinybudda.com

https://stocksnap.io/photo/XPNTVEF1SZ

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Career Ambition... Moving with the times

Ensuring Adaptability and Happiness Dance with Passion and Ambition…

Are you loving Life?… So what’s next?? A promotion, a new job, hobby or even a new chapter in your life??? Or maybe none of the above??? Maybe it’s better to wait until a better time economically to think about oneself and reflect on such questions? Maybe status quo is ok?? Maybe it is.. But what is certain is that they are piercing questions, which demand exploration!!!

Too often, good folks move along Maslow’s hierarchy of needs without really thinking about what they are looking for from psychological needs to self actualisation. On that note, I recall a talk with a life coach who talked of a very successful Merchant Banker and self actualisation. He was trained at a young age as a clerk in the bank, which was led and co-owned by his father. His father, the President showed him no favour in his career making him work hard for every promotion, sometimes trying many times to get promoted until he climbed every rung of the ladder to the top of his profession as President of a Merchant Bank many decades later. He lamented to the life coach about how hard he worked and how successful he was, yet when he reached the top of the ladder, he realised the ladder was facing the wrong wall to truly fulfill him as a human being! On paper, his success was incredible yet in his heart, he felt a gap where his true passion was left unfulfilled.

A sad story of enormous success may leave some slightly confused as to why he can be sad at all? He doesn’t have to worry about a roof over his head or food on the table, right? Very true, but his success is testament to the fact that we are all human and at a human level have very similar needs in order to be whole in this life no matter who we are! We need “to be”, not “nearly to be!”, which is about remembering that life’s true bounty is in the journey, not the destination.

So how does that translate into career ambition and choice? In my view, there is a direct correlation between our work and our lives as the former is such a dominant feature in the latter. If we just follow the societal viewpoint, we will select role and compensation that reflects on what standing we think we deserve in society. In all this focus and decision making, where does happiness and passion fit? Do we dismiss it as folly or embrace it on equal terms with ambition and adaptability in a world that is changing every faster than it did before! I think it would be wise at every career juncture to map out choices in the following areas and rank them from negative to positive as one sees fit!

• Passion: Is my passion stirring great interest in the role description and/or proposition?
• Purpose: Do I see purpose in what is been done at the company and/or industry and/or profession? Also, does this purpose give me a “feel good” feeling that I cannot fully describe when things go well? Do we make a difference?
• Culture: Does the company and/or industry have a culture that relates to my core values or at least does not offend nor challenge them at a core level?
• Adaptability: Am I prepared to be adaptable to my circumstances whilst maintaining my core values as a human being? Will I think outside of the box when it comes to planning my future in a structured manner allowing me to see threats and opportunities in a clearer and more structured way?
• Ambition: Does my ambition align to my passion, purpose, (company) culture and/or adaptability? Will it override who I am as a person or develop who I am into a better version of myself?
• Self-Actualisation: Will all my efforts from this point on lead to me becoming successful, happy or both in life?

If your answer to the self-actualisation question is “both”, then you are truly lucky to have gained the vision to see what you want to become as a whole package and the courage to see it so! If like so many, you are effectively asked to trade happiness for success, then I leave you with a quote from Steve Jobs in his Stanford 2005 graduation speech: “If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.” When we look back on our life, we just want to see a full heart that was made whole by our decisions in the here and now. We are the culmination of these decisions and who we are should ultimately reconcile with who we want to be. When they reconcile, we take our place in this world as we have seen ergo our legacy is not an echo of what could have been!

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.en.wikipedia.org

https://stocksnap.io/photo/NVEEDW9B33

www.zengardner.com

Credits:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by Simply Psychology at http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Steve Jobs quote from Standard Speech in 2005 by Goodreads.com at http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/445070-if-you-haven-t-found-it-yet-keep-looking-don-t-settle

Open Source Software (OSS) - Let's Show The Love

Why community matters for the future of software talent, products and the industry as a whole

We all love those stand up guys who volunteer first, arrive early and are last to leave from meetups, collaborations and indeed anything software related. They are sharing the passion, they are showing the love!! This is the good side of software as defined by the people within the industry who seek a better world through software using their passion to drive progress in an impressive way.

These channels of passion ultimately lead to the open source movement and in recent years have transformed the industry into a collaborative landscape where more and more software professionals are building their own products. They are contributing to more and more engineering led projects that are “pure” software in terms of process and culture. Many in established business are not comfortable with this as the threat of disruption is ever present when you have a collaboration of highly skilled software professionals in a room focused on a single problem. This may in part arise from the need for management ‘control’ (v ‘influence’) in allot of company cultures. This has often caused culture clashes between software professionals and management trying to stamp a traditional leadership style on a team leading to resistance and culture clashes to boot. It’s my view that this lack of understanding coupled with passion for software is one of the elements that has fuelled the transition to the open source model where software professionals freely collaborate over common problems they are passionate about leading to real world solutions that often carry commercial value.

So, with the rise of Web 2.0, the startup industry and the freemium model for tech companies in full swing, there are some highly profitable businesses out there that have their origins in the open source movement and prove the open source paradigm of collaboration does work turning more and more its detractors into supporters as time passes. Since the “OSS” train has left the station, we all should not forget where we are and where we come from when it comes to the open source movement. We should show the love in OSS through the following:

• Enable a better quality of life with a life long commitment to the open source movement and the real world problems it solves
• Widen scope from the selective and often poorly structured curriculum of education, which produces newly minted software developers and engineers. This should be done by providing entry points into software through community education free of charge for those aspiring to be software professionals
• Provide continuous learning and development for established software professionals in upgraded and newly released products via community learning and education
• Provide facilities free of charge to identified open source community groups that engage in community education and learning for new as well as established software professionals
• Understand what actually makes a good software professional and identify these personalities upon entry into a the community education network ergo the community will retain and develop such individuals as part of OSS succession planning.
• Work with industry under a common mission statement on what makes for a successful partnership with the open source software movement

What makes it all happen? I think it's simply passionate software professionals who by nature, not by training or experience care deeply about they do and want their skills to make a difference in the world. The more we actively show the love, the bigger the impact we have as a community. If we draw from our past and not let our past draw from us, we can make a better future that allows the OSS movement to take its rightful and sustainable place in the world today as the premiere software partner to business and society as a whole.

About the author: John Mulhall is a Community Manager and newly Minted Software Developer. John is also a committed blogger and from February 2016 onwards, will be publishing blogs every second week on topics around Technology, Leadership and Sustainable Capitalism.

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

https://stocksnap.io/photo/W8P1FJHOZ8

www.linkedin.com

www.blog.worldlabel.com

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Reputation - An individual cornerstone for all in society

Why reputation feeds happiness and enables success

We all have being shocked of late by the extremist sound bytes coming from Donald Trump in the US Presidential Election campaign where apparently dirty politics, insanely imbalanced thinking and a neo conservative thrust for power has affected reputations both positively and negatively on all sides.

Donald Trump somehow managed to build a business empire in spite of some colossal errors in judgement and even more spectacular business failures that he has on his resume. He did so for many reasons including the fact that he managed his reputation astutely keeping an eye on how the world viewed him along with reconciling this intelligence to his goals and objectives. All was apparently well enough until his aspirations for higher office seemed to have sent him off the deep end in reputation management by thinking his extremist rhetoric would not have consequences. As the Presidential Office becomes apparently out of reach to Mr Trump, what are the lessons we all should learn from his performance in the management of our own reputations:

• Understand Your Interacting Environment - It’s not good enough to assume your ideas are going to be openly accepted with open arms. If you have a good point (in the eyes of your audience), make it! If you have a bad point, understand how it will affect your reputation because regardless of who you are, you will be judged!
• Embrace who you are - True power in society by definition always lies within the group. By understanding the dynamic of your group interactions, you can understand who you are to ‘your world’. Its their impression of you, not your impression of yourself that matters in reputation management. If you are it, own it and understand the shrewdest of networkers and reputation managers know they can only ascend in the social order so far thanks to inherent ability and/or their situational dynamics.
• Own your ego - Don’t let your ego own you! As you can’t force someone to like you, you should not try. Ego leads to arrogance and thus blinds one to the possibilities of influencing someone to freely chose to like you, trust you and/or even vote for you. An individual’s world should not to be blindsided in the present by lies, misinformation and incessant badgering in some cases. This will be found out and when uncovered, your reputation will be appropriately punished for your ego driven misdeeds.

 As the US presidential race heats up, the outrageous behaviour by Donald Trump should serve as a reminder to us all on the dangers of not embracing your own reputation as a critical aspect of who you are.

Now for my confession. For years, I ignored proper networking, reputation management and personal branding on the grounds that I was honest, trustworthy and technically competent. Apparently, the world saw me a little differently as I had forgone the opportunity to develop my brand and sell myself to the world for who I am, not what some guy with half an opinion and an agenda wants me to be! With my kernel error uncovered in recent years, I have worked hard at personal branding, updating my skills and networking as hard and as fast as I can. The experience has transformed me from a technically competent process manager to a technically competent Technologist who believes in people, process and technology.  Reputation management is now part of who I am thanks to my embracing of it, owning it and using it to be a better version of myself! In refactoring my life into a community based iteration, I face new challenges that starts with where I belong and continues to a happier tomorrow.

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.abtopimages.com

http://www.gratisography.com/

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Career V Lifestyle - Walking The Line

How much is enough when giving to your career?

A simple question was asked of me a while back “how much do I have to put into a startup for it to be a success?” Well my first thought was if you do everything right, you can still fail in a start up. The environment controls many critical elements of a successful outcome, which you can only influence at best.

Enthusiasm is a great asset, but if experience has taught me anything, it needs to be tempered to a wider frame of life.  If we don’t succeed in reframing to a wider view of life, we can get trapped in eternal failure by unrealistic ambition, over dedication to work and vulnerability to those who would abuse our commitment to their own ends. A great way to stay framed to a wider view of work is to think of where one is at and what they will get back in return for all their commitment. What will all those late nights of work bring? Money, status, influence, power and/or promotion??? Maybe, but can’t your boss “steal your credit?” Yes he can but the fact is that overfocus on our desire for money, status, influence and power has made us vulnerable to its dark side. We need to be smarter and think about what we WILL get from all those late nights that is ours and ours alone? If happiness is not on the list, then one is not at the races for a decent lifestyle! In such a case, lifestyle then becomes a career of servitude and unhappiness. It does not need to be that way if we assert our true nature in society! We need to find our own way and own our future!

As with startups, careers working for others require goals, a reward and a limit where we call it a day and continue our search for a better working arrangements elsewhere. Here are some points I have found to be helpful over the years when trying to balance career and lifestyle. Bear in mind I learnt more from my mistakes than from my successes.

• Core Values - Write them down, “I value... “ This may sound strange, but in order to think about our core values, we need to detail them and when they are offended, know when to call it a day. If our deep seated values are not defined, then others will invariably push against them allowing us to become derailed from our true selves.
• Passion - Always too easy to think… “ohh, I’d love to be an astronaut but the family need me to be an accountant, so I won’t think about it!” Well spaceman, if being an accountant doesn’t inspire your passion, find something that does and plan your route to it. If you really can’t join NASA, then find another passion to become your next career and plan your way there in detail. As the old saying goes “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!”
• Goals - Write down your goals in life, your “bucket list” if you will! If you want to get married and have children, then make sure your path in life leads down that road. However, if you also want to be a 90 hour a week Wall Street executive, then maybe you should reconsider your goals in life; for realism is the ointment on which we heal from bad decisions and see in a better day!
• Balance - Balancing work and personal life is never easy but if you need to take a break from your personal life to make a work dream come true (or vice versa), make sure it’s short term and is defined by a plan to achieve a detailed objective. It invariably requires sacrifice, so be sure the cost is worth it. For example, I have sacrificed much to train up as a Software Developer and at this early stage am starting to see a return for my sacrifice in increasing competency in programming along with an increasing thirst for more knowledge in the software area. Such change is a very tough yet rewarding process. That’s part of ‘my journey’. What’s yours?
• Flexibility - Like all things in life, our intended plans rarely go as planned so be prepared to be flexible based upon your deep seated core values. Maybe a career setback becomes an eye opener as you see a chance to find your way to a career you love, not tolerate “a job” for a paycheque! Being flexible in a grounded manner is a way of life, which demands sacrifice to say on the right path. However, if you travel the right path, opportunity will invariably come knocking and being flexible is key to grasping it in whatever form it takes. Many paths lead to the oasis of happiness!

The above are guiding principles, which I hold dear based on a good upbringing and sometimes harsh experience in life that has knocked me on my ass more times then I care to remember. What I’ve learnt is that truly successful people won’t worry about failure, falling down or what the peanut gallery of doubters think of them. They focus on their journey, how they will achieve and when knocked down by life’s tribulations, they focus on getting up and brushing off the dirt so they can get on with their journey to a bright, brand new day!

Sources/Credits;

Pics;

www.pain-freelifestyles.com

www.boldbeautifulblissfulu.com

https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1444069265785-78ef227de54f?ixlib=rb-0.3.5&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&s=3497761ffdc6be3a9ede9247c902c6be

Credits;

Feature photo by Angela Litvin on www.unsplash.com

Gifted with hope… The reward of the Continuous Learner

Learning becomes a vocation in life for those who truly embrace it finding… the value of passion, understanding and purpose

When at school, my main aim was always the gate, to get home in the evening, the summer holidays and of course for my ‘education’ to be ‘over’! When I finally completed my secondary education, I was relieved it was all over and was ready to be an adult...woohoo.. I’m all “grown up!” <<sigh>> Anyway, I eventually become a real adult and with it came maturity and perspective. The giddy hum of the teenage idling mind became a curious, passionate and purposeful drive to find out more about my place in the world and what my passion is... my “raison d’etre” if you will.  After the Military and Financial Management, I found a deep passion for Technology and with it a natural curiously for how things worked. If I had only connected with this sooner???

The irony of wasting time on things we think others want us to do and then struck for time chasing our true passions and place in life is nothing new. It’s something we all feel and the opportunity cost can weigh on us in an unfair manner when we eventually come to terms with it. At that point, we always look back on that part of our lives with the clarity of hindsight connecting the dots accurately.  Needless to say, it’s not so easy to be that wise in the moment ergo the challenge life has laid out for us on our path is duly set. So, how do we overcome this conundrum and find our passion in what we do before it’s too late?

After considering this at length, I have come to some realisations as follows:

• It’s never too late to find your passion and start again. If you find your passion, remember it’s a key ingredient to your happiness.
• Society may expect a certain standard, if its your path to rewrite the book of standards, make sure it’s a good read and you fit into your own narrative.
• For every problem, there is a solution. As Lao Tzu said “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Analyse and develop a step by step plan to change career and/or occupation and/or lifestyle based on passion, ability and real interests.
• Learn to love the world you’re living in. Be bold and curious about the world and harness your remaining time in it to become richer in character for being here. It’s not enough to skirt past life hoping no-one will see you and/or will not like you... embrace your passion and the world around you with both arms. Without the negative, you can not really live in the positive. 

 If we can do that, then the tenants of continuous learning become very relevant and useful indeed. What might once have seemed like a hostile concept becomes a cherished companion on life’s journey lighting up our minds and hearts with understanding along the way. If I was to say anything on continuous learning, it is that the more I learn, the less I know. Its that fascination with the world around me that drives my passion, purpose and contentment becoming a little wiser and happier at the end of every day when I think of lessons learnt, both good and bad that have been visited upon me during the day. When all's said and one, I can say... “hmmm that was a good day”. Not a bad ending for the bad days and only getting better from there… What do you think? Can understanding lighten your load along life’s path? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment…

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.communication4m.blogspot.com

www.digitalpromise.org

https://stocksnap.io/photo/1YE1LLNXGB

Credits;

Strategic Decision Making - Cognitive Bias V Data Driven Decision Making

What gives cognitive bias a competitive edge today.. and why data driven decision making prevents it from being a liability in tomorrow’s world

As we head into 2016, it’s natural to think of the future, what it holds and how we will fair out when it arrives! Shall our children enjoy an uninterrupted run of good luck and will our lives only get better with the success we have worked so hard for?? All very natural questions to think about in the new year yet we rarely think of the strategic decisions made by others that can impact events creating missed opportunities and/or unseen dark clouds on the horizon of our life’s path.

Thinking about this strategic review of our lives, how many of us have thought strategically about the future assuming patterns of future success based on a summation of our past experiences? How many have done so without any real interrogation of the past to see if it is feasible to repeat into the future? This oversight of thought is known as cognitive bias (aka intuitive bias), which by Webster’s definition is “Common tendency to acquire and process information by filtering it through one's own likes, dislikes, and experiences.”

Cognitive bias has its origins in evolution. We created a mental filtering system to manage the large volumes of data we receive every day and through a learning process of experience, education and observation, we developed a short cut list of actions to speed up our reaction times, which to date increase our chances of survival. Whether it’s steering clear of an angry Lion on the Savanna or under pressure in the office where we “skim” through a 200 page report by reading the 2 page bullet point summary; our ability to maintain performance under pressure relies on our ability to make lightning fast decisions that rely on prediction based on past experiences. In essence, the decision we made “successfully” in a 100 near-similar cases to date will gain favour with us over a perfect match solution someone else told us about just the other day.

So, sounds like all is well? I would agree if the decision was based on 2 minutes before work to get a Mocha Latte or an Americano coffee. However, what is the case when you have a major decision to make on strategy that affects many people along with large amounts of resources in an organisation?? After all, if you have the right man in the driving seat, then trust his gut, it’s worked this far… right?? 

My considered answer is this. The “gut call” is fine to a point but our world is changing even faster than ever. We cannot rely on even successful past experiences to solely guide our future strategic decision making. We need to embrace data driven decision making by creating a process pipeline for it; where we can evaluate a data rich and clearly presented issue(s) before reaching any swift conclusions based on our experiences, likes and dislikes (aka cognitive bias, the “gut call”). Companies who embrace data driven decision making will increasingly build a competitive edge over those who don’t for the following reasons:

• Dynamic Markets - they change and trend even faster with the onset of the information era and if you don’t understand your customers wants and needs nearly at an individual, real-time level based on their behaviour, then you will lose out to the competitor who can
• Impact Awareness - the age of industrialist capitalism is coming to a clear impasse where the impact of strategic decisions on staff, internal productivity, performance, regulatory compliance and social responsibility all matter as much as the impact on revenue, which in times past (and present for some companies) was the sole consideration. The need for transparency and accurate insights by mapping the impact of strategic decisions is increasingly more important than ever
• The Disrupter Effect - the information age has levelled the playing field to a great extent for new tech start ups who have proven to be vibrant, savvy and able to disrupt pre-existing non tech industries. Apple’s disruption of the music industry is a classic example of this. Microfinance based start ups like Grid Finance shows great disruption potential to the retail arms of banks and lower level investment companies providing a direct investor - beneficiary platform at a fraction of the cost a bank or investment company would take in fees and/or equity
• Faster to Market - the onset of the information era and web 2.0 technologies (cloud) has made it possible to develop and bring to market new products in a fraction of the time to times past. The effect of this in the marketplace is felt by shortening the cycle of new product generation, which in turn is making product life-cycles shorter and more prone to disruption

Staying ahead of the information game is becoming increasingly more dynamic, harder to predict especially if the decision maker has no access to data when making the decision.That said, as the onset of technology has driven the information era and the rise of disruption. It also drives the data driven decision making approach, which companies can now use to their competitive advantage. Companies wanting to embrace it are well advised to consider the following:

• Risk Management - develop risk management structures for enterprise that cover your risks in the main areas of business, finance (including FX) and operations. Use tools like risk registers, risk mapping, scenario planning and risk assessments in all major strategy decisions.
• Data Management - a data management platform should be built and structured so as you know how to get to your data in a highly available state, retrieving what you want, when you want.
• Process Management - process management structures should be easily maintained, executed, highly effective and auditable via control points in the process flow that feeds into metrics for the business. This should be automated to the extent that it is feasible based on company size and data quality. If the control points don’t enforce data quality, then they need to be revised until they do.
• Predictive Analytics - transactional data feeding analytical data sets is one of the biggest tools one can get in the modern era. That said, if a robust process management structure does not guarantee good quality data sets, then predictive analytics will produce no qualitative analysis. The need to get the quality and structure of your data sets right from input to analysis cannot be overstressed. It’s the basis of a value creating “data pipeline.” 

Technology is marching ahead at strength in all areas above, which is why a business considering how they make their senior level decisions should be considering the above points plus more to create an infrastructure of awareness that will make the enterprise more able to meet dynamic markets and act and/or react in time to build upon prior success into an ever uncertain future. The future is here, do you use a data driven approach to decision making? Do leave a comment with your thoughts...

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.forbes.com

www.etlsolutions.com

www.reviewpro.com

https://stocksnap.io/photo/EC50CC8658

Credits;

Cognitive Bias: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/cognitive-bias.html

https://www.grid.finance/