Memory Almost Full. Defeating Technology and Frustration!
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Tyler Longenecker asked:
I was on my way home from the office tonight and I caught an interview on the radio with Paul McCartney. Usually I’m not very in tune to these kinds of things but the title to his new album “Memory Almost Full” caught my attention. He went on to say, and I loosely quote…”When I talk to the business people in my life I always tell them…I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”. As a small business person I thought to myself “how convenient for you Paul!” A little jealous I suppose, I got to thinking about this feeling that there are no such conveniences in the small business world, and that perhaps, there should be. If we go beyond the point of “memory almost full”, or perhaps more appropriately to our technological advances, “virtual memory running low”, and lose site of the creative process could we be allowing the onslaught of technical information to “crash” our success?
What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for technical production today than they did two years ago? What percentage would have said the same thing two years before that? Even those of us (myself included) who have prided themselves on a neat and tidy worldview seem to be at a cross roads between a calm, happy lifestyle on one hand, and being consistently “frustrated” with the competition and complexity of a maturing on-line marketplace.
When it comes to the challenge of succeeding in the face of technical adversity and simultaneously successfully managing our private lives, how can we tell if we are on the right track? What can our frustrations tell us about the direction of our small business in relation to the general marketplace? Are we on information over-load or are we simply chargning down the path to success?
Allow me to innocently suggest a barometer for judging when to say when to the demands of life, put your feet up and kick back into a looser mode of thinking. Just as the thermometer isn’t either hot or cold but rather tells us what the temperature is, allow me to propose a modern day thermostat that can shed light on how small business owners might be able to draw a line between the need for production, and the need for sanity.
Ask yourself this right now—> How many minutes or hours of television (or reading) does it take to unravel your thoughts and put you in a mode where you can actually fall asleep?
The first clue that we could be over-taxing ouselves is when it takes more than 5 minutes of mindless television to calm down from the last 15 hours of positively brain-thumping thought patterns. If it’s going to take a steady drip of digified ignorance just to catch some ZZ’s it might be time to consider adjusting our modus operendi. Increase this demand for mindless activity to an hour of television and it could be time to consider therapy.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BUT! IF EVEN THAT WON’T CUT IT AND YOUR MIND JUST DOESN’T WANT TO SHUT OFF AT NIGHT, AND YOU CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR NEXT MOVE, AND WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF GOING IN THIS DIRECTION VS. THAT DIRECTION…AND SO ON AND SO FORTH….
My friend, congratulations! You crossed the threshold and are hanging in their with the best of the best creative minds. Now all you need to do is cut out the mindless television and find better ways to relax!!!
What!?
What I am pointing to with this article is this: If we are insensed about tehnology and technical information as small business owners we are probably on the right track, despite what we might recognize as “frustration”. Think supply and demand. What if there is a strong demand for something, but there lacks an equally strong response to meet the demand? There’s an imbalance. When things are “out of balance” it’s naturally going to take a stronger effort on the supply side of the scale to make things right. In this particular case we are discussing a complex marketplace that demands quality technical production. What we typically view as frustration and feeling behind the 8-ball, is simply our natural tendency to want to gain control over our surroundings and reclaim our position as masters of our domain. In this market, it’s going to take quality technical production to achieve that, and for most of us, we just aren’t where we want to be.
Allow me a few more closing points (as if I’ve even made one yet!) before I close ———————
The best example of supply and demand frustration is illustrated through our innate supersensitivity to ’quality’. Everywhere throughout our lives we can see a very strong demand for ‘quality’. This yearning has been with the human race since the beginning and it’s one of the great blessings that God our Creator has given us. Our need for ‘Quality’ is one of the strongest demands that we will ever face. Every encounter, every interaction, every bite of every burger across our blessed nation demands ‘quality’. We demand ‘quality’ products, ‘quality’ service, ‘quality’ friends and ‘quality’ leadership. When we don’t get ‘quality’ in whatever we are dealing with we have an almost supra-natural tendency to spin ourselves into an assortment of negative emotions. Someone throws us a weak response to our demand for quality and it literally puts us in a whirlwind! If we really think about it, how many times throughout our day can we trace back our frustrations to a lack of ‘quality’?
Now let’s refrase the original question. What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for QUALITY technical production today than they did two years ago? Duh! …So what’s the cause of this? Simple, it’s greater complexity. We live in a world where it’s getting harder and harder to keep things simple. It’s the great challenge of our day. We’ve all heard “keep it simple stupid” (KISS) but how many times do we find that it’s not quite that easy? If we can understand a balance between two very opposite pieces of advice we might just have the answer that we are looking for.
First we are told to “keep it simple” and then we are told “if your not frustrated you’re probably on the wrong track.” So what gives? The truth is nothing truly gives. We run small businesses and we run the risk of failure if we can’t find our niche in this “e-world” type marketplace. We have to be masters of both principles if we want to be at our best. We have to take the complex and make it simple, but not be swayed by the frustration we will encounter in the process.
We could sum this all up by saying that greater marketplace complexity equals a greater demand for ”quality technical production”. Sounds innocent and detached but what cuts deep is the reality that the results inevitably fall on us. It’s easy to associate ‘quality’ and ‘lack of quality’ with other people and the products and services that they provide. It’s easy to make excuses about our B2B solutions and the inefficiency we are getting from our vendors. What’s not as easy to swallow is the fact that whenever we talk about frustration over quality we are likely missing the point. In the end it’s the quality of our own production that we are really frustrated with no matter how many hands are in the pot.
If you’ve felt these same frustrations and ever wrestled with yourself over gaining control and balance over your business life and your personal life, I can only tell you what I think has helped me tremendously. Work hard, play hard, and take whatever time is necessary to keep your head clear and your thoughts in the right direction.
Now, I can’t pretend that I am going to Paul McCartney’s next small business seminar, but I do feel that when “memory is running low” it’s time to take my frustration and turn it into something useful like every successful business person does. It’s time to step back, take a deep breath and think about what I’ve been thinking about. Am I using my frustration well? Am I improving on my own production? Am I learning fast enough? More importantly though, what about my faith and my family? And you know, once in a while it’s not too much to think — what about me? How’s my thinking? What do I need to get tuned in? What do I need to do to prepare myself for market?
Depending on how well I can answer these questions I can start to feel out if it’s maybe not such a bad time to be out of balance or if it’s high time for a family vacation or even just a long walk or a good movie.
Maybe I might learn something, have some fun, or even get some good sleep that night… and who knows it might be nice to wake up from sleep rather than trying to wake up from being awake. Perhaps Paul McCartney has given us a new motto to consider when he said “I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”.
Hector
I was on my way home from the office tonight and I caught an interview on the radio with Paul McCartney. Usually I’m not very in tune to these kinds of things but the title to his new album “Memory Almost Full” caught my attention. He went on to say, and I loosely quote…”When I talk to the business people in my life I always tell them…I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”. As a small business person I thought to myself “how convenient for you Paul!” A little jealous I suppose, I got to thinking about this feeling that there are no such conveniences in the small business world, and that perhaps, there should be. If we go beyond the point of “memory almost full”, or perhaps more appropriately to our technological advances, “virtual memory running low”, and lose site of the creative process could we be allowing the onslaught of technical information to “crash” our success?
What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for technical production today than they did two years ago? What percentage would have said the same thing two years before that? Even those of us (myself included) who have prided themselves on a neat and tidy worldview seem to be at a cross roads between a calm, happy lifestyle on one hand, and being consistently “frustrated” with the competition and complexity of a maturing on-line marketplace.
When it comes to the challenge of succeeding in the face of technical adversity and simultaneously successfully managing our private lives, how can we tell if we are on the right track? What can our frustrations tell us about the direction of our small business in relation to the general marketplace? Are we on information over-load or are we simply chargning down the path to success?
Allow me to innocently suggest a barometer for judging when to say when to the demands of life, put your feet up and kick back into a looser mode of thinking. Just as the thermometer isn’t either hot or cold but rather tells us what the temperature is, allow me to propose a modern day thermostat that can shed light on how small business owners might be able to draw a line between the need for production, and the need for sanity.
Ask yourself this right now—> How many minutes or hours of television (or reading) does it take to unravel your thoughts and put you in a mode where you can actually fall asleep?
The first clue that we could be over-taxing ouselves is when it takes more than 5 minutes of mindless television to calm down from the last 15 hours of positively brain-thumping thought patterns. If it’s going to take a steady drip of digified ignorance just to catch some ZZ’s it might be time to consider adjusting our modus operendi. Increase this demand for mindless activity to an hour of television and it could be time to consider therapy.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BUT! IF EVEN THAT WON’T CUT IT AND YOUR MIND JUST DOESN’T WANT TO SHUT OFF AT NIGHT, AND YOU CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR NEXT MOVE, AND WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF GOING IN THIS DIRECTION VS. THAT DIRECTION…AND SO ON AND SO FORTH….
My friend, congratulations! You crossed the threshold and are hanging in their with the best of the best creative minds. Now all you need to do is cut out the mindless television and find better ways to relax!!!
What!?
What I am pointing to with this article is this: If we are insensed about tehnology and technical information as small business owners we are probably on the right track, despite what we might recognize as “frustration”. Think supply and demand. What if there is a strong demand for something, but there lacks an equally strong response to meet the demand? There’s an imbalance. When things are “out of balance” it’s naturally going to take a stronger effort on the supply side of the scale to make things right. In this particular case we are discussing a complex marketplace that demands quality technical production. What we typically view as frustration and feeling behind the 8-ball, is simply our natural tendency to want to gain control over our surroundings and reclaim our position as masters of our domain. In this market, it’s going to take quality technical production to achieve that, and for most of us, we just aren’t where we want to be.
Allow me a few more closing points (as if I’ve even made one yet!) before I close ———————
The best example of supply and demand frustration is illustrated through our innate supersensitivity to ’quality’. Everywhere throughout our lives we can see a very strong demand for ‘quality’. This yearning has been with the human race since the beginning and it’s one of the great blessings that God our Creator has given us. Our need for ‘Quality’ is one of the strongest demands that we will ever face. Every encounter, every interaction, every bite of every burger across our blessed nation demands ‘quality’. We demand ‘quality’ products, ‘quality’ service, ‘quality’ friends and ‘quality’ leadership. When we don’t get ‘quality’ in whatever we are dealing with we have an almost supra-natural tendency to spin ourselves into an assortment of negative emotions. Someone throws us a weak response to our demand for quality and it literally puts us in a whirlwind! If we really think about it, how many times throughout our day can we trace back our frustrations to a lack of ‘quality’?
Now let’s refrase the original question. What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for QUALITY technical production today than they did two years ago? Duh! …So what’s the cause of this? Simple, it’s greater complexity. We live in a world where it’s getting harder and harder to keep things simple. It’s the great challenge of our day. We’ve all heard “keep it simple stupid” (KISS) but how many times do we find that it’s not quite that easy? If we can understand a balance between two very opposite pieces of advice we might just have the answer that we are looking for.
First we are told to “keep it simple” and then we are told “if your not frustrated you’re probably on the wrong track.” So what gives? The truth is nothing truly gives. We run small businesses and we run the risk of failure if we can’t find our niche in this “e-world” type marketplace. We have to be masters of both principles if we want to be at our best. We have to take the complex and make it simple, but not be swayed by the frustration we will encounter in the process.
We could sum this all up by saying that greater marketplace complexity equals a greater demand for ”quality technical production”. Sounds innocent and detached but what cuts deep is the reality that the results inevitably fall on us. It’s easy to associate ‘quality’ and ‘lack of quality’ with other people and the products and services that they provide. It’s easy to make excuses about our B2B solutions and the inefficiency we are getting from our vendors. What’s not as easy to swallow is the fact that whenever we talk about frustration over quality we are likely missing the point. In the end it’s the quality of our own production that we are really frustrated with no matter how many hands are in the pot.
If you’ve felt these same frustrations and ever wrestled with yourself over gaining control and balance over your business life and your personal life, I can only tell you what I think has helped me tremendously. Work hard, play hard, and take whatever time is necessary to keep your head clear and your thoughts in the right direction.
Now, I can’t pretend that I am going to Paul McCartney’s next small business seminar, but I do feel that when “memory is running low” it’s time to take my frustration and turn it into something useful like every successful business person does. It’s time to step back, take a deep breath and think about what I’ve been thinking about. Am I using my frustration well? Am I improving on my own production? Am I learning fast enough? More importantly though, what about my faith and my family? And you know, once in a while it’s not too much to think — what about me? How’s my thinking? What do I need to get tuned in? What do I need to do to prepare myself for market?
Depending on how well I can answer these questions I can start to feel out if it’s maybe not such a bad time to be out of balance or if it’s high time for a family vacation or even just a long walk or a good movie.
Maybe I might learn something, have some fun, or even get some good sleep that night… and who knows it might be nice to wake up from sleep rather than trying to wake up from being awake. Perhaps Paul McCartney has given us a new motto to consider when he said “I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”.
Hector