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October 28, 2017
Deadhorse to Tierra Del Fuego: A Journey to the Ends of the Earth
Chapter 1: Inflection Points
I intend, as part of this journey, to try to summarize, pre-humously, advice to my just-under-the-wire teenage daughter.
Like, I've certainly given her my advice to the point that she's completely nauseated by my ramblings and glad to have escaped away to college.
But, as the time comes for me to depart on my solo journey across Latin America, it occurs to me now that I might focus on a few words of wisdom in a way that she could easily digest and in a manner that might stand the test of time better than a laptop on dad's dresser with a cat sitting on it.
Some of these ideas are doubtless scattered across this website in other areas, but if so, I'll try to cobble some of these ideas together in a manner which might be easier to share with my daughter should I not be able to communicate so easily from a Peruvian prison.
And, if I am repeating myself and just talking in circles, then please just nod and smile with one eye on the exit, knowing that I'm doing the best that I can.
Inflection Points
In Calculus, they talk about inflection points, which is where a graph makes a radical change in direction. Whenever I've had a radical change in my life, and I've had many, it's been a time for reflection and introspection.
The first radical change in my career was when I was transferred within the company I was working for in Dallas, Texas. Basically, I was in a role where I was running payroll for a few companies and, at one point, my boss came to me and said that I was being transferred to a different department within the company.
"How long would it take you to wrap up what you're doing here so that you could hand it over to someone else?"
This question was really shocking to me. It's a fairly simple question, but not one that I could readily answer. I had never really considered the question "how long would it take me to complete the tasks I've been assigned" because a) I didn't really care much about what I was working on and b) I was a salaried employee and I got paid the same whether I got a lot done or precious little and c) there really was no incentive to do anything at all except come in every day and try to do as little as possible without getting fired.
But now, I've got someone asking me "how long would it take you do wrap all of this up?" and, in all honesty, I said..."I don't know...probably 2 weeks".
But it was a wake-up call, of sorts, because I'd never thought that way before. At all. I'd never really tried to do anything at work except come in, and do just enough not to get fired.
My point in this observation is that I suspect that's how 95% of the population behaves. Most people are working for someone else, not directly following their dreams, stuck in some dead-end jobs, doing just enough to get by without being fired.
Chapter 2: Chasing Summer
Posted by Rob Kiser on October 28, 2017 at 9:41 AM
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