Rothacker Reviews

You Should be a Writer Dave!

I just got back this past week from the largest international trade show of its kind, in my industry, in the world. If I had a nickel for every person who said I should write for one of our industry's trade journals, I could buy a small fry at Mickey Dees.

To begin with, as a result of attending this trade show, I spent my first two days back home in bed. Due to chronic pain and fybromyalgia, I presently cannot work. Three hundred word posts you read here sometimes take days to write.

Let's pretend however, that I didn't have this condition. I still would rather not write for official publication. My industry is filled with talent laden writers brimming with professionalism and steeped in journalism degrees. For the most part they tow the company line, with the company keeping their voice in back of the line. The folks whose voice you can hear in their writing, are usually not paid. These people write to support their own agendas like consulting or selling products.

I consider it a privilege and honor to exercise my right to the first amendment while writing on my two Web sites. But perhaps for a more selfish reason, it just feels good. Being censored and getting your words along with their meaning hacked up by an editor, does not feel very good. I wrote a monthly column for three years for a large publication. I had an excellent editor who allowed me to be me and write me. And while this did feel good, it still wasn't the me that writes here at Rothacker Reviews.

Closer to home, Rosemary tells me I should be a writer too. The seeds of a book related to my industry sprouted up in 2004. I have worked on it on and off since, and created my other site last year to serve as sort of a laboratory as I continue to work on it. I wrestle with whether or not I truly have the passion to move forward with it though. And health issues grinds progress into the dirt at the most inopportune times. Rosemary says that my knowledge and experience combined with the fact that no one else has written anything like it, are enough reasons. 

I am looking out the back of my house towards the lake. I see a small green and brown frog attached to the window. As I move closer, I notice that his mouth is moving. I pause while I attempt to decipher his words, like a novice taking Morse code. No, it cannot be. I rub my eyes and look again. And then I write his message down on my pad: You should be a writer Dave!

Managers and Goals

Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm.

That is what is known as drone, a continuous low dull humming sound. It is the audio that accompanies the axe that managers bury into their coworker's heads.

The Axe

In chapter four of The Cluetrain Manifesto, authors Doc Searls and David Weinberger describe the axe in our heads:

We know that the real purpose of marketing is to insinuate the message into our consciousness, to put an axe in our heads without our noticing. If the axe finds its mark we toe the line, buy the message, buy the product and don't talk back.

Substitute manager-speak for marketing. Their message is everything surrounding the practice of goal setting and goals. The difference in our example is that the axe of goal setting was buried into our parent"s and grandparent"s heads. Although management gurus spew out the low, dull humming of the importance of goal setting, we are immune to it. It's like that hair that grows out of your ear. Your body inherited the ability to do that from your parents. You never think about it until it becomes unsightly. When it does you cut it off. On another note, it kind of reminds you of the torture incurred while being reviewed by your manager, doesn't it?

So, how do we dig the axe out of our heads? Marketing is still a most worthwhile endeavor. How does the marketer get through to her market? Being different creates awareness and loosens the axe. The basic concept of goal setting is worthwhile. To create an awareness however, we need to be different. While the marketer is an essential cog in getting out the message (is she really?), I am not entirely sure the role of manager as we now know it, is to the goal setting/achieving process.

Moving forward I am going to introduce different terminology related to goal setting. I suspect that those of you who get tripped up on the semantics, are those who have found success in goal setting and goal achieving. That's cool... "I hear two ladies out there singing in harmony. That's all right though this is a free country live like you wanna live, free country, nobody's gonna bother you."

Also, moving forward in the spirit of, do we really need managers? I'm going to look at this through the window of the person who takes hold of his own work, education and career to grow and get results.

Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Maybe we're onto something Davo?

Cluetrain Manifesto Note: If you haven't read this book, you must! The authors spoke about everything you see and hear today about social communities and the value of relationships, conversations and voice... eleven to twelve years ago.

I Despise Goals!

Yes it's about semantics. And ridiculous expectations. And out-of-touch-with-reality managers. And corporate. And I state that with every ounce of conviction that I can muster like the big ugly wad of gum stuck on your shoe that it is. And it's about lack of achievement. And crutches for managers. And reasons to not engage. And big ole hockin' stomach aches.

The gurus say you must have goals and grade to those goals. So those of us who secretly disagree with the whole notion, keep to ourselves. I was recently talking to a twenty plus year ex-manager and she told me that she HATES goals. I was shocked. Did I mention that she was an extremely successful manager? It turns out she just did to her corporate manager what most teenagers do to their parents. "Yes mom, yes mom, yes mom." They did the goal thing on paper and then she went about working with her coworkers in ways that produced excellent results. I believe that the physical description of this event involves taking one's hand and sliding it up and down a fictitious pole.

I do not disagree with the practice of setting a target and then striving for it. There's just so much muckety-muck slimed around the practice of what is known as goal setting and in most cases the inevitable failure to achieve such goals, that I think a change in both terminology and view are in order.

Marcus says that most people don't change much. I agree. I don't however, have the time, energy and evangelistic characteristics needed to mount a crusade. So all you folks out there who are goalies, no sweat, keep on keepin' on with your goals. I am more interested in folks like the young ex-manager above who despises goals. 

How deep-seeded have this woman's sentiments run? Well I've known her since 1974, married her in 1977 and produced offspring with her in 1981 and 1992, and I never knew she despised goals. For one stretch of twenty years when we were both managers at the same time, we spoke every single day after work, about all things management. I think the whole goal-crap thing is burnt so deep by corporate and the gurus into our neural pathways, that we have become desensitized to it...kinda like going to the bathroom. Given our druthers we'd rather not do it, but its part of human nature so we just do what we have to do.

I'll follow up this post with some different ideas in terminology and viewpoints.

The Book Writing Process & Brett Farmiloe

The closest answer that I've ever come to the question, what do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be like Brett Farmiloe when I grow up. My mission on the road would be slightly different than Brett's, but not much, not much at all. (I even have a name for it and have reserved its URL)

The Book Writing Process

View more presentations from Brett Farmiloe.

What is Pursue the Passion? Load up the gang in that RV and cruise over here to find out.

Pants on the Ground Guys

By now you've no doubt heard the latest tune sweeping the nation. Pants on the Ground by General Larry Platt. Larry strikes out at the practice of wearing one's pants below the waist exposing their underwear.

I'm not a fan of this style. I don't like it. And while I really do admire the general and his creative social statement, I am not going to rail against pants-on-the-ground-guys . I can't help but to transport back forty years in time and hear my parents and society rail against Hippies and the way I dressed. Even though there is an underlying expression associated to those who wear low slung pants - are they expressing their sexuality? - I still say let them be.

In 1972 Chuck Berry wrote a song containing lyrics that will forever define how I feel about pants-on-the-ground-guys, goth's, punkers, metal heads and even those who wear suit coats. Here are those lyrics:

I hear two ladies out there singing in harmony. That's all right though this is a free country live like you wanna live, free country, nobody's gonna bother you.

<

Cool  Cat Chuck Berry

Digibonics

Born in 1992, she grew up in the age of the Internet. From computers in preschool to My Space in ninth grade to Facebook in twelfth grade, she'd run the gamut. Not that long ago her Dad told her it was a quarter to eleven. She lowered her eyebrows and scrunched her cheeks, "duh Dad, in English please." "Sorry, it's ten forty-five."

Inching into adulthood, she'd be going off to college this year. Inching toward future debt, she figured she'd go check out apartments close by to campus. You know how wise real estate people advise to not begin looking at houses that you can't afford? You know how wise parents advise their kids to not begin looking at apartments out of their price range? Of course you do. And you know how kids listen...

Back home after a full afternoon of chasing down apartments in Paris Hilton's price range, she approached Mom and Dad with enthusiastic excitement: "Mom! I found this great apartment. Briarhill Eeeeee--state."

Mom looked at Dad and smiled. Those nasty digibonics again!

Somewhere between My Space and Facebook she must have missed the class that suggested words like estate were pronounced differently from words like iPhone.

I can't help but to wonder how modern culture in the early 70's influenced me. Did any of it have a lasting effect? Quick check list - long hair - no(not by choice); bell bottom jeans - no; short shorts - hell no! As for the language of the times? I think age, jobs, society and family tend to have vanillized me. Most likely in years to come, our 1992 model female will say the same thing. So relax moms and dads, it's all good man.

The Rise of the Real Mom & How Dads Can Help

So easy, even a caveman can do it.

The Rise of the Real Mom is a white paper published by Advertising Age, written by Marissa Miley and Ann Mack. I found this paper and an excellent summary of it at Michele Miller's site Wonder Branding. I discovered Michele at Roy Williams' site the Wizard of Ads when Roy began to partner with talented marketing folks like Michele a few years back. Michele's review and link to a free download of The Rise of the Real Mom.

When I was a manager and needed to learn more about Gen Y & Gen X, I studied websites like Brazen Careerist. Penelope Trunk and her crew teach the younger gens how to build and nurture a network of trusted peers. And, they teach these folks how to optimize their experiences with older people like myself. So in essence, I went undercover to learn.

To become a better hiring manager I studied Richard Nelson Bolles' book What Color is Your Parachute? Richard gives job seekers advice on career building and how to get jobs. I went undercover again.

Married dads with kids, consider going undercover to learn more about your wives...

Married dads with children, would you like to better understand your significant other? Take a break from the relationship gurus. Listening to a relationship guru is like Bear Grylls telling you that you can be just like him. You know Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild, right? You could do what Bear does, if you had his gear, right? Riiiight! Just like you could be the head hunk author in a book titled, How I conquered 20,000 Women by 20, right? Yeah riiiiight! So, put the guru on hold and think about what you can learn, looking at it from a different point of view.

The survey and author's aim is to focus on how marketers can change their strategies to more effectively communicate with women, particularly those between the ages of 18-44. (Don't be distracted by just this age group, common sense will tell you it's applicable to most moms). The data is the result of more pragmatic, business-like questions and less emotional ones. As you read through this business-like report, you can't help but feel the cold, harsh realities that women are up against. If you care about your wife, the answers for how to better communicate with her and how to make her life easier, will permeate your conscious.

Sure a caveman can do it. Now how about you!?

btw, I love the Brazen Careerist web site and still visit often and I am now on my third edition of What Color is Your Parachute? (bought first in 1981).

A Place of Great Significance That Needs to be Seen

Kyle Cassidy is a photographer. One day he had the opportunity to step inside author Michael Swanick's home office. Kyle thought, "this is a place of great significance and it needs to be seen. It was like I'd cracked open his skull and seen the gears of genius." Kyle's glimpse into genius spurred on his project Where I Write: Fantasy & Science Fiction Authors in their Creative Spaces.

Kyle spends a lot of time thinking about people's environments. Where I Write is a project designed to explore whether or not there is a connection between where writers work and the work itself. Wow! If you're a writer and that last sentence doesn't cause a pause for introspection.

Is your writing a product of the environment where it is written? Is there a connection?

I am including a snapshot of my lair below. At first I thought, "OMG, I better clean it up before I invite ya'll in." Then I reconsidered. It is what it is. I'm going to have to think about that connection, but there is a gravitational pull towards what flies off my fingertips and a sense of place...

One other thing that struck me in regards to Kyle's "...a place of great significance...needs to be seen" is my own reaction to stuff I see and my need to write about it.

Btw, the books you see here are the ones that I refer back to most often, pretty much my babies. The rest are scattered on shelves throughout our house and garage.

You Can't Touch Him

Some say he lives on the edge. One more step and he would leave the world of conventionalism, the world of status-quo, the world of 9 to 5, which in reality is 6 to 6. But although he does live in this world, his heart and mind do not. As the great poet MC Hammer once said, "you can't touch this!"

Oh but they do try. With mind-numbing policies designed to break the will and spirit of his and the other middle managers along with his company's general inability to attract and keep hungry and passionate coworkers, they try to penetrate his psyche, strangle desire and render hope useless. 

By light of his coworker's eyes and body movement, they have succeeded. Knowledge and decision work have been reduced to placing a widget in the next box as it comes down the belt. 6 to 6 robots and it takes 6 drinks after 6 to uncover their humanness.

But not him...

He places them, his company, in a tiny compartment and labels the door fuel. Their mindless mission and its incessant hunger to take other people's money, fuels his life. It fuels his children's education, his new Dodge Challenger and his wife's Beemer, his photography and writing habits and his wife's gym membership. It even fuels the pet's boarding house fees when he takes time off and they go away on vacation.

There is no meaning and fulfillment to be found at work. And that's okay because he isn't looking to find any there. He figures that that's his coworkers' main problem.

There was only one Babe Ruth and it is possible to punch out one's mind and heart at the door as one punches in to work. But the incredible power that it takes to keep the hounds at bay while at the same time sacrificing twelve hours of one's day, twelve hours devoid of meaning and fulfillment, is not worth it.

It is true, the Man cannot touch him. But are those twelve hours worth the price of freedom?

The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing

I mentioned once before how much I admire Berrett-Koehler Publisher's newsletter.

Do you like to read books? Do books inspire you to write? Are you insatiably curious about author's lives? How do they write? Where do they get their ideas? What are others saying about them? How in the universe do they get published? How amidst all the competition, other writers, blogs, youz, mees...how do they do it?

I am going to send you to a link that originates in BK's latest newsletter: The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing. You're going to get ten cold hard shots of reality followed by seven coordinates on the GPS map of HOW.

Here's the link: Link

Click on the link below to read BK's latest newsletter.

'Click the Share button to create links to this email on popular social networking and bookmarking size like Facebook, Twitter, and Digg.'.