I don’t see many bosses invest in their teams unless there’s a problem. I wonder if that’s the wrong approach. I also notice that many orgs have “learning” benefits, but typically come loaded with a bunch of red tape. Why can’t development be easier?After talking with so many different people, I am re-affirming my opinion that the only person who you depend on to invest in you is you. A friend of mine, Brian, says he’s investing in himself so that he can develop the ability to fly. I love that. I’m investing in myself so that I have the ability to explore deeper along the margin. Invest in yourself — read blogs, go to libraries, hang out with people wiser than you. Learn form them. Dead people are often the most insightful.

You might think you have a 50% chance of getting heads or tails if you flip a coin. However, as I’m learning from statistics, you’d need to conduct a huge number of tests to average out to 50% probability. Biggest learning: when the odds are up/down, yes/no, good/evil — my hunch is choose the option that helps people the most and doesn’t cause unnecessary pain. You won’t find out until the very end whether it was right or not. Life is about leading indicators.

I wrote this to my team.A customer success team is a team of partners – (someone special) always says that.  We are partners and advisors to our providers.  Our goal is to challenge them with questions and partner with them to achieve their goals.  We are coaches.We are not order takers and we are not customer service or support professionals.  I value service and support professionals, and their skill sets are different than ours.Your customers, your clients, trust you to look after their investment.  They have dreams and goals they hope their investment realizes for them.  They want to tell themselves a better story about themselves and their business – they want you to help make that happen.  Never take the responsibility you have for granted.I think you could say that about almost any profession.

I’m experiencing some exhaustion from work… or the onset of it. Best thing I’ve done is to say “hey, I’m starting to experience this, so I’m going to take time off.”I highly recommend! Listen to your body.

I don’t think we stop to deeply understand what’s communicated when one person says to another, “I don’t care.”If you and I engage in conversation about a topic, you respond to my idea with “I don’t care,” what you are communicating is that you don’t care about my idea. In one sense, that makes sense. In another sense, why bother asking for my ideas? What incentive do I have to share more?We need a new phrase/statement to communicate, “your idea may have merit. I am more curious about this other thing.”Perhaps expressing gratitude for being brave and generous enough to share combined with an acknowledgement that we’re not on the same wave length is what’s needed. I care too much about a person to “not care”. Leaders: we need to cultivate teams and environments where that language exits stage right from our lexicon. If we want teams that contribute and engage, we need to use language that helps guide people towards what would be helpful.

I changed my belief that before I can judge a book I must completely read it.I recently quit Bernard Lewis’ “The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam.” The history of the sect is fascinating; however, Lewis is taking a bit too much time, for me, to share how this group came to be and, I don’t know that I trust Lewis to tell me an “accurate” story. History is hard. How do you separate the fact from the fiction? Deeper still, it must be challenging to separate one set of accounts from another. Who had an axe to grind? Who didn’t? The decision to quit the book is good. You and I have a finite amount of time to learn and grow. We must use that time wisely.

I saw “Madame Webb” the other day. The junior popcorn was $8. I wonder if movie theaters are making their money back on popcorn sales?Thinking it might be better to eat before I go.

I dive into so many topics that I forget that not everybody is on the same journey with me. And you know, I forget that obvious fact at the most obvious times. A good reminder: you’re not always on my wave length, and I’m not always on yours. We have to tether ourselves to something that matters for both of us if we’re going to explore some ideas together.

The gig I played yesterday will likely pay me $175 to $200. I arrived on site at 4:45pm to unload my gear. I sound checked at 5:15pm/5:30pm. I left the site at 11:00pm. in total, I spent ~6 hours on site and about an hour to do some work while I waited for the show to start.Let’s say I get $200. If I divide that $200 by the number of hours I had to be on site, 6, plus the 30 minute rehearsal earlier in the week, we’re looking at $30.00/hour. Musicians and non-musicians may believe that’s good money. I am thankful and privileged to earn that money doing something I enjoy. I hold that last belief to be true and at the same time I have a contrary belief. I don’t know that value is worth the time I invested. I’m at a point in my life where I enjoy being in my home, reading, listening to music/podcasts, or watching a movie. If I’m going to load and unload gear for something, I want it to be something that I’m “fuck yeah” about. Why invest my time in anything less?As conflicted as my thoughts can be; I am thankful for last night’s gig. I am thankful for the people I shared the stage with, and the enjoyment we brought to a whole bunch of fun loving nerds last night — the crowd was awesome. Thanks for wading through my inner conflict with me. Perhaps you’ve had similar thoughts yourself.

When businesses change, what happens next? It’s uncertain.Don’t try to predict the future. Embrace the unknown.Be a explorer, stay on your journey and see what happens. Get as much as you can from your experiences and have fun. Only fate and fortune know what’s ahead.