How you chunk up

daily commute time  

reveals the real you!

Ever wonder what you can learn about others based on how they spend their work commute time?

As unorthodox an HR assessment tool as it may seem, it’s probably as effective as any other. How a person commutes to work (i.e., by what means and process) indicates, after all, a little something of each of the following career attributes:

1. time and stress management skills
2. concentration and organization skills
3. entrepreneurship
4. motivation and prioritizing skills
5. sense of initiative and responsiveness

The first pair of these itemized attributes (time and stress management skills) signals a person’s ability to adhere to a schedule while juggling interferences, interruptions, and delays. It also offers some clue about tolerance levels associated with the daily barrage of pin-pricks and nit-picks (and occasional flair-ups) of fellow-commuters.

Yes, there are still carpool goof-balls who jam an unsuspecting neighbor between them in the backseat and proceed to laugh as they spill coffee on the sandwiched lap at every pothole.

Yes, there’s always a sprawling snoring (and probably drooling) sleeper to awaken and/or climb over who’s commandeering two (or three with luggage) rush hour train (or subway or bus) seats — always, of course, when there are no other seats available.

What’s a poor commuter to do? Standing for an hour of jerks (both kinds) and bounces is not usually a great option for starting the day, especially when the time window was planned for laptop or paperwork. And please don’t start with defensive comments from “business class” express trains or some limo drivers union. We’re talking real life here. 

The second pair of attributes (concentration and organization skills) assumes the first pair can be readily met and dispensed with. It’s almost always easier to concentrate and be organized when you’re on schedule and able to fend off anger, annoyance, and upset!

Then there are also some who thrive at concentrating and being organized in chaos and turmoil. (A terrific qualifier for government job applicants!)

Next is, aaah yes, entrepreneurship! First of all, most of these folks only commute a flight or two of stairs in their bathrobes. Hey, there has to be some trade-off with corporatesville, right? And if any of these types are not officially running a basement or garage or kitchen table operation already, they are planning the moment of great escape, and aren’t reading this anyway.

Motivation and priority issues surface as various commuters face the grueling daily ritual of “Commuter Mental Block.”  Not sure about that? Just stand back and watch how many smiles disembark commuter vehicles balanced atop those suits and skirts as they enter work zones and re-enter home zones.

You’ll get volumes of information to match up with Maslow’s Hierarchy theory of motivation and a truckload of clues about those with strong prioritizing interests.

Responsive individuals with a sense of initiative rarely keep commuting . . . except perhaps a bathrobe-clad flight or two. These are the innovators, the catalysts for change, the emerging entrepreneurs who will gladly move to live on the edge of their venturesome ideas. They are the people who happily leap from the daily traffic battles and 9 to 5 status quo monotony to take their chances with their own self control. For the rest: Don’t give up your day job!    

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No, this isn’t about donuts!

Here are a dozen leadership arenas:

• Corporate
• Military
• Political
• Industry
• Community
• Organizational
• Family
• Neighborhood
• Religious
• Sports
• Classroom
• Worksite

Where do entrepreneurial leaders fit?  Everywhere!  What about other leaders –those who are not entrepreneurs– are they locked into the individual arenas where they perform?  Not to suggest this is a bad thing; it’s just limiting. 

It’s part of the great appeal of entrepreneurial life that there are no limits.  Yes, there are laws, but no: there are no rules. 

Neither are there any theories to dictate performance because there are no theories of any value because (beyond some common character traits like poor school performances, engagement in childhood enterprises, rejection of authority, and childhood exposure to family business) entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial behaviors cannot be quantified or categorized. 

Yes, entrepreneurs take reasonable risks, but –no– there’s no traditional action plan approach to follow.     

Entrepreneurial leaders pop up in each of the arenas noted above (and many more as well) because in every arena on Earth there is always room for improvement.  Entrepreneurs are the agents of change who step up to the plate, who bring improvements to the table, who have the foresight and resilience to attack a problem over and over to produce the answers they believe in.

Alexander the Great was an historic entrepreneurial leader who proved that innovative strategies and tactics can defeat even the most overwhelming of military odds. 

“America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani was a great entrepreneurial political leader for his time and place, and the circumstances that changed our world. 

Cal Ripkin, Jr. was a dedicated entrepreneurial leader with his never-say-die attitude that re-invented value systems in the world of baseball – and all of sports. 

Mother Teresa, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Ghandi, and so many more you could surely name . . . people whose entrepreneurial spirits have in some way made a difference to us all.  Though each of the kinds of leaders we’re talking about here made their mark in one arena, none ever limited themselves in the lives they live or did live.  Who would be on YOUR list?

What do those noted above (plus those you can think of) share?  What qualities would you list?  Here are a few for starters: Persuasiveness, Assertiveness, Communication, Self-Reliance, Self-Confidence, Insight, Recognition that behavior is a choice, a strong focus on the present, the ability to cultivate (cross-pollinate?) leadership in others.  What would YOU add to this list?   halalpiar

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 151 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

” Entrepreneurs are agents

of change BECAUSE they

reject traditional approaches.”

     I just read a blog post that goes into the depths of theoretical discussion about what is attracting entrepreneurial innovation and it suggests that entrepreneurs care about this slop. 

     The author goes so far as to toss out my 30 year-old “Entrepreneurs are the agents of change” quote that I picked up from Entrepreneurial guru Bob Schwartz when I attended his New School for Entrepreneurs in Tarrytown, New York, back in another lifetime, and this Disneyland bloggette uses it as justification for further suggestions that entrepreneurs run on theoretical fuel.

     Please people.  Entrepreneurship is a state of existence brought on by those with independent business streaks running through their blood that are far beyond being able to be classified in any kind of theoretical dissertation.  Entrepreneurs are agents of change BECAUSE they reject traditional approaches to doing things.  And certainly, they have no regard for theory under any circumstances.

     Let’s put away all the B.S. rationalizations and just accept the fact that entrepreneurs cannot be quantified or categorized by any standard or traditional measure.  And you know what?  Thank God!  Entrepreneurship is what’s made this country great.  It’s the reason there is even a shred of optimistic existence in today’s economic suckiness. 

     Leave entrepreneurs alone.  Be grateful they exist.  Nurture them.  But stop trying to figure them out, and PLEASE don’t pretend they care about your theories.  They care only about pursuing their ideas and convictions.  They care only about making things happen.  If you’re going to analyze them, be one first.  You’ll realize how foolhardy your psychoanalysis ambitions can actually be.    halalpiar   

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 150 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.