My Problem with the NBA Lockout...

I have to admit, I’m a pretty cool guy. Soooooo cool that I’ll give you the privilege of buying me a house so I can throw my INSANE parties with all the top celebrities and because you bought me the house you’re now invited as well. But I there’s rules you have to play with. Once you buy me this house, I can do as I choose. I can throw parties, or not, and that’s completely up to me.

You in?

Probably not.

You see I’m a firm believer that business owners should have the right to do whatever they want to do with their business as long as they 1) obey laws and 2) pay taxes. But when they take a bite of the forbidden fruit and accept public funding those rules change. At that point they have an obligation greater than themselves. And this is where my problem with the NBA Lockout starts.

Owners (some not all) wanted tax payers to pay for new arenas, and they did. But now they are in the middle of a labor dispute and have chosen to completely disregard the hand that fed them.  In any other business context, I wouldn’t be at odds with decision. But the NBA isn’t any other business. Those owners that accepted public funding have to understand that they have a moral economic responsibility to the municipalities that help fund their place of business.

They made their bed and now is their time to sleep in it.

But this is just my unqualified opinion…..

How will Millenials Change the Way Companies are Managed?

The moment man created a vehicle called a business to increase his personal net worth, he understood that the Management of this vehicle's people/resources would is critical. Hundreds of years later, the manners in which companies are managed have changed but the interest in finding effective methods remains in high demand. This is why if you go to any bookstore and you will find entire sections dedicated to the topic of 'management,' as a matter of fact, management even has its own genre.

From Carnegie to Drucker and from Scott to Gladwell, the underlying message rarely differs. As a matter of fact, each author's respective messages are quite congruent to one another, and that is "to effectively manage people you have to understand how they function."  Thus as society's general mindset evolves as each generation passes, the methods of how to manage them will evolve as well. Which begs the question; "How will companies manage its employees' once Millenials like myself start to dominate the workforce?"

Photo was obtained from http://www.flowtown.com/blog/who-are-the-millennials

I predict that The Google approach to managing employees will be even more dominant in the market place then it is now.  That is ‘provide an employee with an environment that induces and rewards high performances, but also maintains accountability for production.’ In addition, although the prototypical corporate ladder will still exist, the interaction/compensation between the different layers will differ as drastically as we value work life balance just as much, if not more than our career advancement. This will lead to many superbly qualified employees choosing to stay in their job roles instead of advancing to the next level. However, as they are 'high performers' companies will find ways to still maximize their potential without requiring the prototypical promotion.

But this is just my unqualified opinion…..

My Promise to Myself.

Some say that people really learn to grow up during their college years. Personally, I think that’s a bunch crap. College is intended to be fun and class is what you do in your spare time.  Yeah, you have to deal with commitments, priorities, all your teachers intentionally scheduling all exams on the same week, and outside sources of stress (I.E. family issues, personal issues, having to find out where the best party is at, etc.). However during those years, the structure of the environment hinders your ability to be tested on a personal note as your exams ALWAYS have a right answer, and unfortunately most of the greatest issues we deal with in life have none..........I had to this the hard way.

 I would be lying if I told you my transition immediately following college was easy. I was forced to change the routine I had perfected and was forced to bid my farewell to the carefree, easy-going life I once had. No longer was I able to spend countless hours at the gym, or just hanging out with friends.

As the supply of my free time was now scarce, I had millions of reasons as to why it's okay for me to not spend time at the gym and work out. However, somewhere in between my 14 hour work days that consisted of me sitting at a desk, and the endless supply of brownies, M&M’s, Snickers, cupcakes, Skittles, Starburst and cookies that exist in audit rooms, I realized I had to change my ways. If not, the consequences could be damaging to my personal health. This is when I made the following promise to myself:

“I don’t care how many hours I work the day before, or how scarce time truly Is, nothing is going to stop me from waking up every day and going to the gym. I may not be able to spend multiple hours anymore, so that means I have to go as hard as possible for the 45 minutes to an hour I do have.”

Prior to making this promise to myself I was NEVER a morning person. However as I never knew what time I’m going to get home, but did know what time I was going to be waking up, morning workouts were the only option to build consistency.

The results of this promise have been great.  I feel better physically than I ever have before, although I still sit behind a desk up to 12-13 hours a day on many occasions.  And I encourage you to do the same. We all have priorities, we all have time constraints and we all can make a million excuses. However, the beautiful thing about personal fitness is that no one else can do it for you. You just have to get up and do it. And I promise you that with time the 'forced' feeling you get will diminish and your routine will become a habit.

Lastly, this is NOT a promise that I made to please other people and I hope it's the same for you. Instead this was just my reaction after I was confronted with a problem that had no ‘right’ answer and this is something I didn’t have to deal with in college.

But this is just my unqualified opinion….