Thought For Today

A Short Lesson in Perspective

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

A Short Lesson in Perspective.

Countless late nights and weekends, holidays, birthdays, school recitals and anniversary dinners were willingly sacrificed at the altar of some intangible but infinitely worthy higher cause. It would all be worth it in the long run…

This was the con. Convincing myself that there was nowhere I’d rather be was just a coping mechanism. I can see that now. It wasn’t really important. Or of any consequence at all really. How could it be. We were just shifting product. Our product, and the clients. Just meeting the quota. Feeding the beast as I called it on my more cynical days.

So was it worth it?

Well of course not. It turns out it was just advertising. There was no higher calling. No ultimate prize. Just a lot of faded, yellowing newsprint, and old video cassettes in an obsolete format I can’t even play any more even if I was interested. Oh yes, and a lot of framed certificates and little gold statuettes. A shit-load of empty Prozac boxes, wine bottles, a lot of grey hair and a tumor of indeterminate dimensions.

Life Underwriting Expert Witness (for now)

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

It’s up to you to carve out your place, to know when to change course, and to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years. To do those things well, you’ll need to cultivate a deep understanding of yourself—not only what your strengths and weaknesses are but also how you learn, how you work with others, what your values are, and where you can make the greatest contribution. Because only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence.  And we will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.

Peter Drucker

If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be doing expert witness work 10 years in the future I would not have believed you.  Read Drucker’s quote above and read it again.  Let these words sink in, especially the wisdom about knowing how and when to change the work you do.  I’ve changed the work I do multiple times in my life.  I’ll probably change again at some point in the future.  Don’t fool yourself.  Change of this nature is not easy but it will become increasingly necessary for your career.

Why Idleness Is the Best Investment You Can Make

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In today’s Western culture, we mistake productivity for the appearance of productivity. The frantic attentiveness to smartphones which characterizes corporate ambition, for example, is a display of how hard someone is working, not an actual measure of their productivity.

via Why Idleness Is the Best Investment You Can Make | IdeaFeed | Big Think.

I am not doing very much today so that I can be more productive.

How to Rewire Your Brain For Success

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

In neuroscience, the previous prevailing belief had been that the adult human brain is essentially “hardwired,” so that by the time we reach adulthood we are stuck with what we have. Now we understand that the adult brain retains impressive powers of “neuroplasticity”—the ability to change its structure and function in response to experiences real or imagined.

via How to Rewire Your Brain For Success | Experts’ Corner | Big Think.

Luck v. Skill – Finding Success as an Expert Witness in Life Underwriting

/ SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

Economist’s View: Luck vs. Skill.

Here’s a nice blog post to get your cognitive processes started on this fine Sunday morning.  Success – luck or skills and hard work?  This is a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.  Unlike other missives I will purposely avoid politics.  To me,the answer is quite simple.

Both.

I work hard and have worked hard for a very long time to achieve success.  But at the same time, I recognize and appreciate how luck is as crucial a factor to success as skill and hard work.  Think about it.