Stress is the snow on the road
As with blizzards and clippers, stress events can be forecast if somebody knows what the precipitating patterns will be and then can explain it to the rest of us in ways that we can relate to. A typical example of a major stress event that could have been, and maybe even was, forecast, is the abject collapse of Target in Canada. Failure to pay rent? A no-brainer for those of us who are or have been tenants or landlords. A clear and distinct signal. It is said that Target misjudged the Canadian market. 17,000 people are going to lose their jobs. Why? Did no-one read the signs? Not tell them about it? Or maybe there weren’t any other options?
Let’s consider what happens when we misjudge the severity of a winter storm: people are over-confident in undertaking road trips and skid into ditches
On Friendship and Getting Ahead
A business guru’s best-selling book told me some time ago that I have the wrong friends. The advice was that, if you want to be a winner, you have to associate with winners. It was clear from the text that by ‘winner’ was meant someone who had a track record of being a success in their chosen field, and by implication, someone who had/is making money and establishing a name for themselves. Winners are people who are leaders, innovators, visionaries, and above all, who are financially secure beyond most folks’ wildest dreams…..I have come to disagree totally with the notion that you need to cultivate friends who can help you get ahead. Those aren’t friends: they’re tour guides, agents, mentors, coaches, and even well wishers, but they move on. Friends are the ones who know what makes your heart ache and what music makes you leap up from your chair.
THE SEVEN CARDINAL RULES IN LIFE – YES, BUT…(or the more PC Yes, and…)
I often wonder how deeply folks think about all the sayings they circulate and receive on social media, forwarded emails, and the like. At first glance they always seem to make sense. They’re sometimes attributed to well-known people like Albert Einstein or some ancient sage – always from ‘away’ as we say in Nova Scotia. I’m a contrarian. I am as naturally drawn to an alternate perspective (or lens, as we say nowadays), as a fish is to water, and so I decided to be more deliberate about one of these circulating messages, and here it is: My take on the ‘7 Cardinal Rules in Life’.