As I perused my journals from the past, another theme emerged. It was obvious that I was going through an intense emotional struggle in my first couple years adjusting to my new environment. Sometimes when the times seem difficult, people seem cruel, and the environment seems unbearable, you must remind yourself a few thoughts:

These times do not last forever.
They are not as bad as it may seem.
Many people around you care about you and are ready to help.
Someone next to you has it harder.
You can handle far more difficult challenges.
You …

My father brought back from my childhood home my journal where I had written a few poems in my teenage years. As I read them again, I was struck by the contrast of the feelings I must have had when writing these and the complete lack of any feelings currently for the objects of my childhood love. Coincidentally, a friend recently also posted Life probabilities: Memories …. Aside from my slowly fading and gradually distorted memories of the past, that journal is the only evidence left from my emotional teenage …

I met a very nice couple over the weekend who had just bought their second home, a condominium, and were in the process of selling their brand new white appliances to replace with stainless steel equivalents. I can certainly understand when someone wants a certain brand or type of appliance or furniture to satisfy a particular need, perhaps for cool looks, image, brand name, acceptance, keeping up with the Jones’, resell value, or whatever that need may be. The topic here is the cost of the white appliances.
In the real …

For the last couple days, I’ve been dealing with project management issues. Training, textbooks and authorities on the topic say that you must have a clearly defined scope, timeline and resource plan. There are even contract writing solutions, all kinds of methodologies, and even books that go into detail on how to arrange the parts and execute to succeed where success is defined as completing the project on-time within budget. From my experience so far, all of this is not sufficient and is ineffective at guaranteeing a truely predictable successful …

I spend most of my time working which for me involves dealing with people and machines all day. The machines are easy, predictable, and obedient creations that do exactly what they are told. People are often quite the opposite. In People, Relationships, and Trust I already wrote about trust which is just as critical in the workplace. Here are a few further thoughts on people that we meet at work.
I have worked with a few hundred people over my working career so far. Over the years, these relationships and actually …