Great Quotes

I read this quote in "The 4-Hour Workweek" that I have to share. Especially since I often hear from friends, co-workers (and myself!) about the drudgery of the corporate world. This quote puts "the worst case career scenario" in perspective:

"Getting fired... is often a godsend. Someone else makes the [difficult] decision for you, and it's impossible to to sit in the wrong job for the rest of your life. Most people aren't lucky enough to get fired and die a slow spiritual death over 20-30 years of tolerating the mediocre." - "The 4-Hour Workweek"

Another related quote comes to mind

"All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer." - Niccolo Machiavelli

I have heard a lot of positive feedback from the Steve Jobs speech posted in my blog, however the Steve Tomlinson speech is even better! Since many people prefered to watch Steve Job's speech than to click the little play button of Steve Tomlinson's, I found a link to the text of his speech that is pretty close to the one I liked so much. I hope you have the strength to get through a fairly long text (10-15 min read). Also assuming the audio is working (sometimes the site is down) feel free to try the link again from my blog Less is more & Doing what you love!

Filet-O-Fish

Advertising is funny, because what cuts through the clutter may not appeal to a broad audience (hopefully it at least appeals to your target). Well anyway this one cut through the clutter and spoke to me. But I'll never eat a filet-o-fish! Wacky world of advertising! Enjoy!

10% of a Promotion

"Love of bustle is not industry" - SENECA

I got a promotion at work today, only it had nothing to do with my career. I officially got approval to my proposal to work Less Than Full Time (LTFT) at 90%. What does this mean? It means I don't have to go to work every other Friday and it's genius. I consider it a promotion to 10% freedom!

At work we have a Flexible Work Schedule (FWS) in which you can work LTFT. Often women with young children or returning from maternity leave work LTFT. Not so often do men take advantage of this, even less often men who don't have children yet. Just last week I thought, "Why not me?"

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw

Since I knew immediately that I wanted to do this, it really happened fast! The timeline looked a little bit like this.

Monday (Memorial Day) - Reading "Living the 80 / 20 Way" on the porch with Shelby. Since I enjoy these days off - a lightning bolt hits me to work LTFT.
Tuesday - Research company policy and plan my proposal (including convincing argument)
Wednesday - Approved by Human Resources
Thursday - Approved by Section Head
Today - Approved by Director

By no means should you take my excitement to be boastful. I know how fortunate I am that my company has this policy, and that I am in a position to take it. And certainly this is not for everyone. The career implications on paper put me a mere 10% behind, but to many "old-school" managers it is an unwritten black mark I am sure. At the very least the communication to "management" is probably "take me off the fast track" and I am comfortable with that (see my previous entry entitled "Less is more & Doing what you love!")

I could go on and on about my passion for Work / Life balance but Penelope Trunk sums it up better. So I will just end with a Top 9 list that my co-worker Rachel wrote (I only get 90% of a Top 10 list).

Here are the Top 9 Reasons I am working LTFT according to Rachel:
9) More time to create Shelby YouTube videos.
8) Minimize the number of QA compliance days to participate in.
7) Safe way to test if he can make a living blogging.
6) One less commute every other week reduces his carbon footprint.
5) Figured it would be a way to kick start his plan to drop living expenses to zero (inside joke).
4) Court ordered community service had to be squeezed in (not really).
3) Uninterrupted day trading.
2) Couldn't fit in enough Guitar Hero practice without cutting into sleeping.
1) Shelby's modeling career is taking off and this allows more freedom to schedule her photo shoots.

Since the LTFT program is completely reversible on my part, there seems to be very little risk. I will blog in the future about how I am using my "days off" and the value I would place on them.

Also be sure to post a comment to share your thoughts on Work / Life balance.