We partner with others to barter tasks and resources as well as to synergistically enlarge our vision. We let them do what they enjoy and are good at so that we can do what we enjoy and are good at. The only trick is to find people who love to do things that we do not enjoy and partner with them to do it.
Dr. B. Curtis Hamm received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and is Professor Emeritus of the Spears School of Business and Consultant to the Oklahoma State University Foundation.
You have to get people to make good decisions. Wherever you are in life, good or bad, it’s because of the choices you make. Choose to succeed rather than fail. Choose to work hard rather than to loaf your way through it. We had a plan, a vision and we wouldn’t compromise our core values.
Lou Holtz at his induction ceremony into the College Football Hall of Fame
Lou Gehrig’s famous speech was reproduced in yesterday’s local newspaper. It was the first time I read the entire speech. This speech was an awesome speech. Gehrig’s attitude in the face of certain death remains impressive 70 years later.
Whatever your struggle, try to maintain a positive attitude.
“For the past two weeks, you’ve been reading about a bad break. Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.
I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
When you look around, wouldn’t you consider it a privilege to associate yourself with such fine-looking men as are standing in uniform in the ballpark today? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have (Yankee owner) Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow. To have spent six years with such a grand little fellow as (Yankee manager) Miller Huggins? To have spent the next nine years with that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Who wouldn’t feel honored to room with such a grand guy as Bill Dickey?
When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, that’s something. When the groundskeepers and office staff and writers and old-timers and players and concessionaires all remember you with trophies, that’s something.
When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter, that’s something. When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that’s the finest I know.
So I close in saying that I might have had a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”
Compiled by biographer and author Jonathan Eig.
When the Thrill of Blogging Is Gone … – NYTimes.com
After reading this article I thought it would be appropriate to let my readers know why I blog:
I read a lot more than the article links provided in my posts. I write a lot more than just the words in my posts. My sincere hope is that the reader finds the information here to be useful and of value in their work and careers.
All I do is point. The rest is up to you.
Career Women at Midlife: Sadder and Sicker – BusinessWeek
Reading this article should be a stark reminder to managers in all industries of the growing need to provide flexible work arrangements. Remote work, telecommuting, flex hours, work from home, job sharing, reduced work schedules, whatever. Sad and sick employees cannot be a good thing.
Hence another strong motivator to get your underwriters out of the office.
If you’re reading this post and looking for a remote underwriting position do revisit this blog periodically. I offer up some good tips on job search websites. Additionally, UWS LLC may have a need for contract underwriters in the near future.
Remote, of course.
The insurance industry has shed 8,140 jobs since November 1, 2008. This is according to Bloomberg News and Challenger,
Gray & Christmas, the Chicago-based outplacement firm. I intend to continue writing posts on job search sites and articles of interest for underwriters who may be searching for their next opportunity. If you are searching out of necessity feel free to contact me and I’ll do what I can to help.
And with this post, I’ve started another intermittent series titled Survival Strategies. I hope you find this useful and best of luck in finding what you’re looking for.
There’s a piece of scrap paper I’ve been carrying around with the following thoughts on it:Try many things. Find what you love and do that. Then figure out how to make a living doing it. Work is transformed when we change our attitudes towards work.
I didn’t write these words ( and my deepest apologies to the original author whom I would credit if I could remember who it was ) but I want to preserve these thoughts and the ideas because they are powerful ideas. As time goes by, this simple approach towards work has been changing my attitudes about success. Lately, I’ve been listening a lot to the music of JJ Cale, an OKC native who seems to embody this simple yet powerful idea in his life and work. One of his songs which was rerecorded on his recent collaboration with Eric Clapton consists of one chord. One chord! And to top it all, the guys were winners of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album “The Road to Escondido”.
One chord. Simple is good. Do what you do. Be good at what you do.
The author Thomas Moore has written:
“Power that comes from unexpected places. It comes from living close to the heart, not at odds with it. The soul appears in the gaps and holes of experience. We have all experienced moments when we’ve lost a job or endured an illness only to find unexpected inner strength. Be good at what you’re good at. Many of us spend time and energy trying to be something we are not. In considering who we are not we may find the surprising revelation of who we are.”
Several years ago I began to recognize what seemed to be a growing imbalance between underwriting supply and demand. I decided then to refocus on my underwriting skill set. I figured there would always be work and so far, I’ve been right.
Michael Novak is an esteemed theologian, author and former US ambassador who has written over 25 books. In one of his books titled Business as a Calling. Novak writes about the four characteristics of a calling. First, each calling is unique to each individual. Second, a calling has certain preconditions that involve more than just desires. A calling requires that the individual have talent. For the calling to be right for a particular person it must match and use his abilities. Third, a true calling reveals itself through enjoyment and a sense of renewed energies that engaging in the calling brings. Fourth, callings are not easy to discover. Many false paths are taken before the truth path is recognized.
It has taken a long time to be me.
lifeunderwriter.net 