CameronMathews.com: April 2015

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Eliminating the Fear of Failing

By geralt on Pixabay

Last week, I stumbled across Gary Vaynerchuk and John C. Maxwell both talking about failure within a few hours of one another. And both stressed the importance of failure and learning from it to move yourself, your business, your career all forward.

I mentioned Thomas Edison's famous thousands of failures leading towards discovery yesterday, but in today's world, people tend to live in fear of failing, as if a single failure will destroy their career. Any business seeking sustained success has to modify the culture so that it eliminates that fear of failing and allows for innovation to organically grow. Otherwise, you entrench the culture of "playing it safe" and stifle true development and growth.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Who Is The Visionary?

One morning last week before work, I got into a discussion on Twitter with Tom Peters and several others on the meaning of the term "Visionary" as it is applied, particularly to business leaders, but the conversation morphed into discussion of George Washington, Steve Jobs, and various others.

As we progressed, my thoughts tended to align with the idea that visionary is a term that gets applied retroactively to describe those who accomplished great things. As you can see in my tweet above, that can, in my opinion, in part be attributed to the objective of those using the term. Journalists, Biographers, and others who label individuals as visionaries are typically those telling the story of someone's life.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Rise of the Expectations

By gaelipani0 on Pixabay

I watched 300: Rise of an Empire the other night. In case you're not aware, it's the sequel to 300, a bloodbath gory fight-fest pitting 300 Spartans against the Persian empire of Xerxes. So, aside from the gratuitous violence which was to be expected, the sequel had a few other notable moments. First, it served, much as the first movie did, as a reminder that I need to do a little more abdominal work. After this post I think I will go do twelve crunches. That should get me started. Second, I thought "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath was an interesting choice for outro music. Finally, I thought the CGI blood spatter truly outdid the first movie in terms of overall gushers in slow-motion, so if that's what you expected, go watch this movie.

Monday, April 27, 2015

The incredible shrinking computer

By JESHOOTS on Pixabay

I have heard all kinds of predictions about technology. Sometimes they are true, sometimes they are not. The other day I heard someone predict that by 2020, our phone may be the only computer that we utilize. According to the Pew Research Center, that is already almost true for seven percent of Americans, for whom the cell phone is the only device they utilize for browsing the Internet.

Friday, April 24, 2015

What do you want to be when you grow up?

By Markgraf-Ave on Pixabay

Several years ago, I had a chat with a coworker who was leaving (I try to have a conversation with everyone I know who is leaving to see if there are things that I can do to prevent others from exiting). I asked her why she was leaving, point blank, and she answered simply, "It's time for me to decide what I want to be when I grow up."

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Answers To Common Lawn Problems

Picture by Hans on Pixabay

I received an email the other day with this very subject line from a major lawn and garden product manufacturer. From the outset, it had me hooked. Even though I knew that inside that email was a sales pitch to try to get me to buy their lawn products, that's not what they were offering. They were offering answers. Answer to weeds, insects, crabgrass (if only there was a real answer to crabgrass), and I was hopeful to find answers to any of my problems inside. So I clicked on the email to read it.

The reason this pitch worked was that it did not overtly try to sell me anything. Instead, it only tried to give me something for free. Answers that would otherwise have required at least a five minute Google search to obtain. When someone else has compiled those answers, or at least what they think them to be, and delivered them to my inbox for free, well, I should at least pay them the courtesy of reading, right? And what if one of those answers perfectly matched a problem I actually had? I might be inclined to purchase whatever solution they were peddling at that point.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Measure Everything

Photo by EME via Pixabay

"Expect what you inspect" and "What gets measured gets done" are two phrases I hear quite frequently touting the benefit of metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) in driving business forward. They also drive through the point that metrics only drive behavior when management is utilizing those metrics to monitor actual behavior and manage to that.

These adages also stress the idea that if you are measuring too many variables, you will dilute the overall impact those metrics have to drive change.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Anticipating the Alarm

Every morning at the exact same time, my alarm starts honking violently at me, telling me to wake up. Some days, it's a battle, with my old friend the snooze button granting me an extra seven minutes of less-than-satisfactory sleep. But every now and then, I catch it early. See, my alarm makes a very slight, almost imperceptible click before it starts to fire. The sound is just like when you first turn on a speaker or guitar amp, but no sound is coming out yet. Just a click.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Icons

By Ted Quackenbush [GFDL 1.2
(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)
or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)],
via Wikimedia Commons

I was late to hear the news, but I read a story the other day about the return of Eastern Airlines to American skies. I remember Eastern competing with Delta, TWA, and American when I was young. That field has narrowed since, and airlines continue to merge.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Passwords and Absurdity

From XKCD

InformationWeek last week offered up several alternatives to our traditional passwords. My first inclination, as it is with any reference to passwords, is to think of my favorite XKCD comic (above), regarding password strength and "correcthorsebatterystaple" - a password I still think would be entertaining to use in some inconsequential website requiring credentials.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Power of Planning

I have always heard the difference between a resolution and a goal is a plan to make it happen. There's something to that.

I don't know what causes it, but checking a box on a to do list gives you a tiny little burst of excitement, a little dopamine rush that says, "Hey, you did something good today, keep it up!" In case you don't recognize it, that's your body telling you it appreciates accomplishment.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Taxes and Taxes

by stevepb on Pixabay

It's Tax Day here in America, meaning the 1040s are flying (mostly electronically) as Americans scramble to file their taxes or to get an extension request in. Several, likely those who are receiving refunds, have filed months ago, but the procrastinators are all on task today.

This year, we ended up paying a little more than we would like, the first time we have had to pay in several years. We've fixed that for next year, but it reminded me of several basic tax facts to remember, so I thought I would share a few:

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Dress For Success?

by Unsplash via Pixabay

We're all aware of the old adage "Dress for Success." What the original phrase intended was to demand a certain level of business attire in order to make one appear ready to succeed.

I have an alternate theory. It's more about dressing for perception than for success. Putting on a tie doesn't make you magically more talented at anything. Nor can I downplay Internet geniuses who made millions in t-shirts and shorts. But for everyone locked in the corporate world, your attire does say something about you.

Monday, April 13, 2015

What Do You Produce?

[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

No matter what your line of business or what you do, you are involved in producing something. It might be an actual product, it might be a service. But the nature of commerce is that the only way you are making money is that someone is paying you for something. What is that something in your world?

Friday, April 10, 2015

The Danger of Price Wars

By Milad Mosapoor (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I read an article in CIO lately that warned of price wars in the IT outsourcing industry. While the article went through the winners and the losers in this scenario, it made me think about price wars in general - airlines have done it, telecom providers have done it, among others, and it seems like nobody wins. At least nobody battling on price.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Moving the Target

By Leviathan.Leviathan1983 at de.wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

When I was younger, I wanted to be a rock star. I played in bands throughout college, and I got to really enjoy being on stage playing songs for people, particularly when we would get a few dedicated fans that would know every word to every lyric and sing along. My dream of being a rock star, however, never quite materialized. If you did not know, there are a few barriers to making it in the music business. Still, I managed to learn a little about building a fan base and maintaining relationships with individuals who appreciate your product.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Make Use of the Commute

Photography by: Osvaldo Gago
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike
2.5 Generic License

I used to have a forty-five minute to one hour commute to and from work, every day for five years. That also coincided on my timeline with working alongside several East coast coworkers who scheduled meetings starting at 8:00 AM Central on a fairly regular basis (if that doesn't seem early to you, recognize that in Texas, lots of businesses start around 9:00. Not sure why, but that's not uncommon.). As it turned out, 8:00 AM was also the time when I would generally get in my car and start heading towards the office. So, speaker phone in the car as my cell phone rested on the center console converted my vehicle into a rolling office of sorts, with ongoing conference call taking up much of my commute.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Getting MORE Stuff Done

So, two weeks ago, I challenged you to get one thing done every day. Did you do it? If not, start there and get one thing done a day for 2 weeks. You should be able to list for yourself fourteen (or more) things that you accomplished. I did a few more than fourteen, but the key is making sure to finish something every day.

Monday, April 6, 2015

The Power of Momentum

By bukk (Own work)
[GFanalyDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)
or CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)],
via Wikimedia Commons

When you are learning to ride a bike as a kid, lots of things come into play at once. Even if you have training wheels on to let you ignore the balance part at first, there is still the combination of pedaling while steering and paying attention to what is going on around you. Let's not forget starting and stopping as well. That complexity can be overwhelming at first, and you might choose to stop pedaling just to get your bearings.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Something Different

Here's something different for this Friday, an opinion that is not my own. Ever since seeing this video, Drive by Dan Pink (full disclosure, that's an affiliate link, so I get paid if you buy it) has been on my to-read list (I fully intend to mark that one off this year). Take yourself 10 minutes and 47 seconds today and watch this video, which is a really cool way of taking some summary soundbites from a 2010 book talk he gave about motivation and some studies that show just what gets us going. For more information on Dan Pink himself, visit http://www.danpink.com/ .

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Brand ID

By Photo: Andreas Praefcke [GFDL
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)
or CC BY 3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

In the old days, cattle ranchers used their brand to lay claim to their cows, putting a mark that would differentiate their cattle from those of other ranchers. Today, brands differentiate much more than livestock. Brands differentiate companies and their missions. Corporations pay millions to marketing and development firms to create just the right brand image, making sure their logo, public presence, customer service, and overall corporate perception matches with their mission statement, goals, and objectives.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Playing the fool

By Thomas Davidson (fl. 1863-1903)
(Rosebery's) [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Hey - it's April Fool's Day, which likely means that the internet will be full of more pranks than a joke shop today.

This isn't one (though maybe next year I will be more creative on that front).

Instead, I'm just writing a note on playing dumb at the office. I don't mean literally pretending to have no intelligence, as I am not sure to what end that would get someone. And I don't mean literally asking what you might caveat with, "This might be a dumb question." Honestly, that is likely seeking an explanation without injecting your own opinion into the answer - something I think is quite admirable.

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