Today has been clean out day for part of my email archive and as usual it is filled with the detritus that you pick up over the months. But this clean out is slightly different because it had a distinct theme, this folder was full of emails from people who were promising to develop stuff, send stuff, contribute stuff and generally do stuff. And how much of this stuff did they actually do…..Fuck All. The biggest culprits seemed to be the people who inhabit LinkedIn which seems to be Facebook for people with jobs. I have probably half a dozen messages from people saying they are developing this and that piece of software and they would like input into it. Fine I say – send it over and it wouldn’t surprise you to note that none of them ever have.
I am always surprised that people are surprised that their lives are like they are. People in general are where they are because that is where they are comfortable. Homoeostasis is not merely a biological phenomena, the notion of expending just enough energy to get by applies to all aspects of life and the majority of people are simply getting by.
If you actually want to change the direction of you life how about doing something radical. Do what you say you are going to do and stop telling me you are going to do it.
I had the pleasure for my last assignment of 8 years – to work with an American company who was the first I encountered in my career – who did what they said they would do at the time they said they would do it. The experience was very refreshing – particularly against the interviews I attended in 2006 looking for a job in Oz having come “home” after 25 years working throughout Asia and living in 3 Asian countries. OZ politicians and business people babble a lot of nonsense about Asia but a very uncomfortable in talking about the detail of Asian business and culture – often preferring to employ and consult with those that have traveled to Asia (but never lived) or perhaps have occupied the Anglo-Saxon safe spots eg., Singapore and Hong Kong. ANZ is now in it’s 2nd adventure to Asia having shut-down their offices during in Asia during the 1996-97 financial crisis.