As you may have guessed the “you” in this article is actually “me”.  I often interchange the two terms.  Like many aspiring authors I love the stories in my mind.  I love the idea of telling these stories to millions of adoring fans but I do not, however, love editing, rewriting, and the other tedious processes that accompany my story.  Writing, like any other craft, takes hard work and discipline to do a competent job.  If your goal is to be outstanding then the work grows exponentially.

With this in mind how do you get to the point where the wonderful fantasy in your (often sick and twisted) mind is adequately represented in thousands of words on the page?  I must reluctantly admit that I don’t know the answer to that question.  I do however, know that the first and most interesting step is to start writing.  Yes, you heard me.  The first step is to start writing your story.  If you are like me then you are passionate about your story.  Sit down and start typing.

Before you start typing make sure you have the right mind set.   You are not writing for your tenth grade English teacher.  No publisher is going to read your first draft.  The story flowing from your thoughts should be dedicated to your passion.  Completing a first draft story is immensely rewarding.  Reading the whole story for the first time is exciting.

I started my novel over a year ago.  With the story mapped out in my mind I sat down to type and hammered out chapter one in very short order.  You can read it here.  After completing the first chapter I hit a wall and lost my discipline.  Rather than give up, I decided to write short stories for a while to get my creative juices flowing.  Voice And Shadow, my first effort, is nearly complete.  My second short story, The Goat Eater, is in process.  Writing these stories is teaching me how to write and also gives me ideas on my novel.

Before you leave this page and start writing your first story there is one more important step.  Find a local writing group of passionate writers.  I started attending the East Valley Writing Workshop and my first meeting was fantastic.  I received both encouragement and critical advice about my story.  Not only that but I also met other people who had the same passion I have for reading and telling stories.  This meeting gave me a much needed boost of adrenaline.

Of course I would not be writing this now if it were not for my beautiful and supportive wife.  She always believed in me and always encouraged me to write.  She not only tells me how great I am but she gives excellent advice on my story.  Now it goes without saying, you cannot have my wife, but I hope you have someone in your life that encourages you like she does me.

Alright, enough chatter.  It’s time to go out and write.  Start up your trusty word processor whether it be VI, Word, Google Docs, or some bright and shiny Mac app.  Take the story in your head and write it down.  You may find that writing the story is far less daunting than it once looked.

Without further ado, here are the lessons I learned from my presentation at Ignite Phoenix 6.

1) Match your slides to your presentation

• I turned in my slides then worked on the presentation
• I believe it is better to create your presentation then find slides that enhance your presentation
• Creating the slides and presentation should be an iterative process.  My advice is to work on the verbal presentation then the slides.  Do this in several cycles so that your verbal presentation and slide set improve over time

2) Contain your nervousness

• I was extremely nervous this time around and it showed.
• Some time alone before the presentation would have helped
• a glass of wine would also help

There are two main types of meeting bloat that decrease productivity.  Both of them have simple solutions that can be implemented quickly to increase your productivity.

Meetings where you provide no value add: (Use good processes to replace meetings or at least your own meeting attendance)

Few things provide the total vexation one feels when sitting in an hour long meeting where you are absolutely not needed.  Most no value add meetings are imposed on us when we send a member of our team just to “keep an eye on things”.  I was recently required to attend a meeting where data center managers spoke with system administrators to create landing plans for new equipment installs.  The reason for me being in this meeting is because my team was having a difficult time getting landing approval for new equipment purchases.  I attended this meeting as a snitch.  If they didn’t do a good job I had to report out.  It was a complete waste of my time.  In the end we came up with a process where each new landing was discussed and if it didn’t obtain landing approval there was a report out and tasks were assigned.  This allowed a local systems administrator to replace me in the meeting.  With a little process I was able to free up 1 1/2 hours per week.

To prevent no value add meetings create processes where you abstain from the meeting but require the meeting attendees keep good notes and have clear report out responsibilities.  In some cases you can use a SharePoint list or something similar to track tasks and issues.

Meetings where there are too many people invited: (Fewer invites make more productive meetings.  Good meeting minutes enable fewer invites)

I once sat in a meeting where fourteen people from at least three countries were debating the color of a line separator on a web page.  I also frequently attend meetings where a complete team meets to discuss a project that only a small subset of the team is actively working on.  Each time this happens I calculate in my head the total time wasted by inviting too many people to the meeting.  The solution to this problem is very simple.  Whenever organizing a meeting decide who is essential to the meeting and who is not essential.  Only invite the essential people.  Everyone else can receive meeting minutes, tasks, and updates without attending.  Be sure to take detailed meeting minutes with clear tasks and ownership.

Organizing this way has two benefits.  The first is direct time savings.  The second is that you will have more efficient meetings with fewer distractions.  If you lead a team of ten people.  Consider creating a core team of three or four members.  Meet regularly with them and invite other team members as appropriate.  If you are designing an application there is no need to have a graphic designer sit through two hours of business logic discussions.  On the flip side, your database administrator does not care about the new graphic or color scheme.

I called HTC expecting a Warranty repair but they refuse to do it.  At best they can fix it for between $55 - $335.  That is the best estimate they will give.  The drop should not have caused the damage it did and it should be repaired under warranty.  I could understand if the case or screen were cracked.  That would show severe stress from a fall and would not be covered under warranty.  However, I small fall that does not damage the case or screen should not damage the functionality of the phone.

After speaking with a “supervisor” I was told that he will “escalate” my issue.  I asked about the process and he said he will “send it in” (not sure what “it” is) to the repair center.  When pressed further he said he will get back to me “when they get back to him”.  He cannot give me any estimate in hours, days, or even weeks.  This is horrible customer service and leads me to believe that nobody at HTC is taking this seriously.  Unless they cover my phone this will be the last HTC I ever buy.

Fact # 1 - I dropped my phone from the bottom of my car to the ground (about 1 foot)

Fact #2 - The screen and case are still in new condition

Fact #3 - The power button has a tiny chip and will not depress

Opinion # 1- This fall should not have broken the power button.  The button is cheap quality and should be much better on a $500 phone.

Fact #4 - HTC will not repair the phone under warranty at this point

Fact #5 - HTC will “escalate” my issue but cannot give me any time frame when I should hear back from them

Fact #6 - Ben [last name removed] (A warranty Supervisor) has the authority to repair under warranty but refuses to do so

Fact #7 - This is the second poor quality HTC phone I’ve owned.  My T-mobile Dash fell apart and had to be replace once then fell apart again (not from dropping)

Opinion #2 - HTC has very poor customer service and support.  They should fix my phone or replace it as the fall should not have done the damage it did.

Where I work we use many Microsoft SharePoint websites.  SharePoint allows you to quickly create sites to organize your team, perform meeting management, task tracking, and other common tasks that allow collaboration.   I often make custom lists to track lite processes.  With all these abilities SharePoint has become an important cog in many corporate environments.  One of the major drawbacks to using SharePoint is that it is generally very slow.  Every click requires a post back to the server (unless using Data Views).  In my environment simply loading a team site or custom list may take 5 - 15 seconds.  Other sites I access also have similar performance problems.

One common solution to solving this problem is to open multiple Internet Explorer windows open to the sites you most commonly visit.  This can really clutter your task bar and desktop.  Another solution is to open tabs for each instance of a site you commonly access.  While not a bad solution it is often difficult to know what is in a particular tab.  Clicking on a tab moves your focus from the web page.  The solution I decided on utilizes several iframes on a single Web Page to load and display the common websites that I access.  I use the JQuery library to hide and show iframes when I click on the appropriate link.  What makes this nice is that I can give the file to a co-worker and they can type in the links that they want to use.  No coding or design is needed.

To use this solution download JQuery from http://jquery.com/ and rename the downloaded file to “jquery.js”.  Then save this file to your hard drive http://www.leogodin.net/MultiLinkLoader.html.  Edit MultiLinkLoader to add the links you want and make sure it is in the same directory as jquery.net.  From there you can double click the file and enjoy faster access to slow intranet sites.

This is not an elegant solution but it works well in my environment.  I’d like to hear how other people are solving similar problems.

Just as not everything is bad about the corporate world not everything is good either.  Huge corporations are inherently bureaucratic. Security concerns require that much of the IT equipment works against your productivity instead of for it.  Standardization, which makes an environment supportable often meets the lowest common need while offering low performance.

If there are benefits and detractors in any environment why not try to emphasize the benefits and minimize the detractors of Cubicle Nation?  My newest passion at work is to do just that.  I want to find novel solutions to minimize the impact that various corporate constraints have on my productivity.  This effort will combine technical, process oriented, and cultural changes to make a super productive environment. I will chronicle this effort here on this site with progress reports and how-to articles.  If anyone is out there in cubicle nation going through the same process please contact me.

There is something powerful about real passion. When a person is passionate about what they do their passion draws others to them. Are you passionate about something? Maybe it’s a charity or cause. It could be a sport or even a profession. I am convinced that passion is one of the key ingredients to living a happy and successful life. When you are passionate about something success is not measured by the world’s standards but instead by your own measurements. With passion you do not care how everyone else views your progress because your goal is to live out and feed your passion. In doing this you choose what is successful or even better yet, the measure of success is innate inside of you.

If you are truly doing what you are passionate about then you will draw others to your passion. As a kid, teenager, and young adult I hated writing. Any school assignments that involved writing were tedious to me. Later on I took a college English course taught by a tremendous teacher named Tracy Mendham. She was soo passionate about writing and reading what others wrote that I could not help but love writing. You see her passion drew others not so much to her but to what she was passionate about. I am now writing a novel. This never would have happened without the passion of a great teacher.

A more recent example is when my son and I took a free 15 minute golf lesson from a professional instructor. We had each played golf less than 5 times in our lives and had very old equipment. The instructor spent over an hour with my son teaching and encouraging. He also spent about 45 minutes with me. He was soo passionate about golf that we both got excited. His passion made me want to play golf. His encouragement and love for the game tremendously improved our swings. We signed up for a 15 minute lesson but he had time and there was nothing he would rather be doing then teaching us. This is true passion. I will certainly go back and pay for lessons (when I can afford it). This man will do well as an instructor not because he is phenomenal but because he absolutely loves what he is doing.

I could go on and on about various passionate people in my life. I may write posts on specific people from time to time. For now, just find something you are passionate about. If you are spending lots of time on things that aren’t your passion then stop and look for something better.

I recently presented The Power Of Fail at Ignite Phoenix. You can view the presentation here. In reviewing the presentation it seems to me that I was unclear about what the Power Of Fail Actually is. The five minutes allowed gave me the opportunity to encourage people but not explain fully. Over the next couple weeks I will post a few articles that explain further what the power of fail is and what it isn’t. Let us start with two simple lists.

The Power Of Fail is…

• A proven method to manage failure
• A time honored tradition of experimentation
• An attitude you can incorporate into your processes
• A system of failing gracefully
• A method to achieve greater success
• The freedom to make mistakes and learn from them
• Essential for real innovation
• A culture of success

The Power Of Fail is not…

• A dogmatic process or paradigm
• A culture of fail
• A panacea
• A way of life
• A way to avoid proper planning
• Anything new or created

Simply stated: The Power Of Fail is an attitude that fosters innovation by allowing you to make mistakes and a system for failing gracefully.

The attitude is one where we are free to experiment. The system is one where our experimentation is greater early in a project and less in the final stages. We are free to innovate while at the same time managing risk as appropriate for the stage of a project we are in.

Nobody created the Power Of Fail. The Power Of Fail is something I’ve observed while watching or working with people who truly foster a culture of innovation. In observing these highly successful people I noticed some common threads. They may have different processes, abilities, and levels of organization and administration but they all embrace the power of fail in one way or another. They all allow employees to experiment and try new things. They all promote informed risk taking. This is the essence of the Power Of Fail

One key to understanding The Power Of Fail is to understand that it does not replace or add to any processes you currently use. Instead you weave The Power Of Fail as a thread into your current processes. In upcoming articles I will provide some concrete examples. For now just understand that you should experiment and try new things. You should expect that not all will succeed. However, once you do fail you should study the failure and understand why you failed. Finally, you should expect to experiment more early on than later in a project.

What I’m looking for is discussions among real conservatives. neo-cons need not apply

For the sake of this post I’ll define a conservative as someone who wants a small government, low taxes, and is socially conservative.

Once thought of as a panacea for race relations, affirmative action as practiced today is at best a band-aid when stitches are needed. It helps a few at the expense of a few others. It is heralded as a great equalizer but rarely do it’s recipients feel equal. It improves the financial situation of some but leaves the majority of intended recipients out in the cold. The time of affirmative action needs to come to a close. Now is the time for long overdue reparations.

Affirmative action, as practiced today, is a failure. The reason it failed is because it forces the few individuals who are affected by it to pay the price for a whole country’s sins. The better applicant who is passed over for a job or promotion pays the price. The more qualified person who cannot get into an ivy league school also pays the price. All the while, society as a whole never pays the price. Modern affirmative action also fails because it gives positions based on the color of ones skin instead of merit and ability. For instance, an underrepresented minority may obtain a position in medical school that he or she is not qualified for. The repercussions of such actions may be minor in that the student will have to work harder to graduate or they may be serious such as a student dropping out, or worse, having an unqualified doctor.

I’m not sure how affirmative action morphed from it’s original intent to what we have now. Affirmative action started as a method to ensure that we advertise jobs in what was then considered non traditional methods. For instance, advertising in predominantly black markets would be likely to draw applications from black people. At some point, this morphed into what we have today which is to give jobs and school positions to people based on the color or their skin. This new affirmative action has helped some underrepresented minorities but has not solved our racial problems. It has not helped the large minority populations that are living in poverty stricken and crime riddled neighborhoods. It has not brought blacks and whites together in any meaningful dialog.

If affirmative action is not the answer then what is? No one solution will solve all of our race related problems but there is one solution that can seriously alleviate the disadvantages that many blacks face today. In time a comprehensive policy of reparations can alleviate much of the economic and social disadvantages blacks face today. While pondering this five principals came to mind.

1) Reparations should enable blacks to achieve equality
2) Reparations should not require preferential hiring or school placements
3) Reparations should last for a finite amount of time
4) Reparations should be final in that they solve a problem 5) The affect of reparations will probably take a few generations to become fully realized

With these principles in mind reparations should take the following form.

1) No federal taxes Ending federal taxes will immediately benefit the economic situation for middle and upper class blacks.

2) Free college education and immediate creation of local colleges in urban areas with large black populations. Making college free will increase the earning potential of blacks who cannot afford to go to college. However, the free college would have to include room and board. More local college options need to be created as well. For instance, college classes can be taught nights at high schools or during the day in public offices.

3) Free psychological counseling One frequently hears about the psychological pressures of being black. This appears to be particularly true about black men who face the challenge of succeeding in life while not forgetting where they came from. Brewing anger and resentment needs a healthy release. As such, counseling is an extremely important part of reparations.

4) Free business classes and no interest loans to start black owned businesses. Throughout American history, small businesses have been the vehicle to economic stability. Small businesses create jobs and create a sustainable wealth for the owners.

Reparations will not solve all of America’s race problems. Here are a few things to consider:

1) Exactly who should receive reparations? Only descendants of slaves, All black Americans? 2) How long should these reparations last?
3) It will take at least a generation for the majority of poor blacks to feel any benefit from these proposed reparations. How can we speed that up? 3) How do we deal with the ever increasing separation between whites and blacks?