CheckMate

This is an old discussion, but I’ve never seen anybody nail it any better than this guy has…

Larry Dignan at ZDNet asks, “Do you have to be in every conversation?” Well, I most emphatically say “No.”

No question technology has its uses. For example, you’re reading this online, on a computer or maybe a smartphone. You may have just “stumbled upon” this blog via something like Digg or StumbleUpon, or as the result of a search. Or - I hope - you’re signed up to my RSS feed and are a regular reader, which means you’re using Google Reader or Bloglines or any of a number of other ways to look at RSS feeds. And, of course, I’m writing this on a computer, posting it on a website, and using Wordpress to do it.

Throw on top of that that all of what we’re talking about can pretty much now be done from anywhere, 24/7/365. Which, for the most part, is a tremendous thing.

But, that said, it’s very easy to become completely overwhelmed by technology, especially the specific type of “keep current” stuff that Larry is talking about - in fact, it’s worse now than it’s ever been. Services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, etc., all of which have an “instant update”, real-time quality, are very easy to become sucked into. While some of those services are very useful, I still remain unconvinced about some of the others, and the trade off (and, yes, there is a trade off - there always is) hasn’t been worth it to me so far.

Larry asks some specific questions - you should look at every one of them, and ask yourself the same questions (and likely a few more):

• When do you have a conversation for real?
• When do you play with your kids?
• Is everyone so busy Twittering and tracking 140 character ramblings that you forget it’s sunny outside?
• If you boiled down the comments on all of these services how many are truly valuable?
• What exactly are we striving to keep up with?
• What’s wrong with the sound of silence?
• What’s the threshold between “neat service” and “waste of my time?”
• Would a better filter be to just decline the latest newfangled Web 2.0 service and be a lackadaisical follower?

This isn’t some holier-than-thou lecture from me, I’d be the last guy to suggest you just get rid of technology altogether (although there are days…), and you may have a totally different response to using some of those services than mine.

But, whatever you do, you really have to ask yourself - just how useful is something to you, and what price do you pay for that usefulness?

I’ve always loved stories about people who’ve overcome great odds to succeed in life, in particular those people who haven’t let severe physical limitations hold them back. I recently ran into a tremendous new book along those lines that I don’t see getting a lot of press, so I wanted to let you know about it here.

Ascent is a new autobiography by Bruce McGhie, a 75-year-old quadriplegic who’s been paralyzed since he was 22, and yet has lived a remarkable life. After he graduated from Harvard in 1954, Bruce entered the Air Force, where in January 1955 he was severely injured on the obstacle course at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. He fell head first from a 40-foot tower, severely damaged his spinal cord, and was instantly paralyzed from the chest down with the exception of retaining very limited use of his hands.

In the ensuing 53 years, Bruce has gone on to do a great number of interesting things. For many years, he traveled the world as a financial public relations consultant, not only working but thriving in a tough business environment where someone in a wheelchair was rarely, if ever, to be found. In 1980, Bruce became the first quadriplegic to be licensed to fly a glider using hand controls and went on to enjoy many airborne adventures, including flying over the 14,000+ foot Grand Teton in Wyoming. He also has become a very accomplished photographer and artist, with his photographs of African wildlife being compared with those of the best professional photographers. Last but not least, Bruce and his wife of 52 years, Barbara, have raised two very successful grown children; their son John is a former Navy F/A-18 pilot who now flies for Southwest Airlines, their daughter Anne is the director of special education for a school district.

Difficult as all of that would’ve been at any time, it’s important to remember that most of it was done in a time before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), handicapped-accessible bathrooms, curb cuts, reserved parking spaces, and so on.

This video of Bruce flying will probably tell you all you want to know:

You can read more of his story in these articles:

Bruce McGhie: A Life Well-Lived

Soaring Beyond Any Boundary

There’s also a wonderful 30-minute interview with Faith Middleton available here:

Faith Middleton August 2007 Interview with Bruce McGhie

No doubt you know what I’m gonna tell you, and I’ve told myself the same thing many times: “Next time you think things are tough…”

Enough already about the recession.

I don’t know about you, but, personally, I am really tired of reading yet another daily gloom-and-doom story about whether we’re in a recession or not. Maybe we are, maybe we’re not, but let’s just assume that we are - when I see somebody like Warren Buffett say a few days ago that “…by any common sense definition, we are in a recession.”, that’s good enough for me.

And, look, I’ll also readily acknowledge that there are people having some real problems, and I don’t mean to minimize those, but for most people, I think the recession is a lot more of an attitude issue than anything else.

The title of this post sums up just what I mean. It comes from a Dave Ramsey comment a couple weeks ago where he said “I talked to a guy the other day, he said, ‘There may be a recession, but I refuse to participate.” Exactly! (You can see that whole video interview with Dan Miller here.)

What Dave was driving at was the other end of the deal - the current slowdown is creating opportunities, as slowdowns always do. People are leaving companies - some voluntarily, some involuntarily, and maybe even with great severance packages - and that’s allowing (or forcing) them to pursue a new career or their lifelong dream.

More specifically, here’s where I see that effect in the financial services area in the two main groups I deal with - those making a career change to become financial advisors, and those experienced financial advisors looking to make a move to a different firm.

Bottom line, as I keep saying, is that there are lots of opportunities for both groups.

For the “newbies”, even with some of the cutbacks that have been made, there are still loads of open positions. The normal life cycle for advisors goes on - people leave the business or retire, and that creates an ongoing need for new people.

At the experienced financial advisor end, demand for top performers seems to be actually increasing, if anything. We continually see opportunities for and get requests to find peak performers, especially those who are over the $1 million annual production mark.

So, if you’re thinking about becoming a financial advisor, or if you’re an experienced financial advisor with a solid book of business thinking about making a change, don’t let all the current talk stop you. Sure, things are tough, but do you ever remember a time when there haven’t been challenges?

In the end, I’m with that guy Dave Ramsey talked to - just refuse to participate.

I addressed this subject before back in October, but I guess everybody doesn’t read my blog. At least this guy didn’t, or if he did, he wasn’t paying attention.

Yet another case of somebody “embellishing” things on their resume - this time it’s Robert Irvine, the guy who hosts Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network. Actually, I should say “hosted”, because he’s been let go ( “Food Network Drops Tainted Chef” ).

“Embellishing”? Well, that’s how it’s being described, but that’s putting it mildly, I think - seems like “lying” would be a lot more appropriate word. You tell me - here’s a list of some of the things Irvine said he did, but didn’t really do:

• cooked for four U.S. Presidents, including being the chef at the Inaugural Dinners for both Presidents Bush
• worked on the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana
• had a B.S. in Food and Nutrition from Leeds University
• was knighted
• was given a castle by Queen Elizabeth

Irvine’s comments about the knighthood give a good insight into how people get caught up in this sort of thing:

“When I first came down there and I met people down there with all this money, it was like trying to keep up with the Joneses. I was sitting in a bar one night and that came out. It was stupid.”

Sounds just like an old Jon Lovitz routine, doesn’t it? “Yeah, I’m Mister…uh, Doctor…uh, Sir …yeah, that’s it, Siiirrr Robert Irvine….yeah, that’s the ticket.”

Irvine has issued a statement apologizing…well, sort of. Here’s the first sentence, which is pretty revealing:

“I was wrong to exaggerate in statements related to my experiences regarding the royal family.”

“Exaggerating”? Yeah, OK.

It’s one thing to toot your own horn, put yourself in the best light, or emphasize all your great accomplishments on your resume, and it’s another to just make things up. That said, it can be pretty easy to start crossing the line between the two once you start heading that direction, and you need to be very, very careful.

Make sure you are crystal clear about the difference, and don’t ever “embellish”, “exaggerate”, or - to be more blunt about what it really is - LIE on your resume.