Showing posts with label Corner Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corner Office. Show all posts

April 7, 2018

It Rises To The Top

So one of my friends who is dealing with some bad people in his work told me about his situation using a very interesting descriptive phrase:
"Cream may float to the top, but other things float too!"

Ah yes, in many cases the best ("the cream") climbs/rises to the top of the corporate ladder and extraordinary people are recognized with positions of leadership and influence to progress things. 

But in other cases, some really bad people (i.e. the sh*t) floats to the top based on lies and baloney promises and payback, malevolent power grabs, undermining of the competition, cronyism, or plain old corruption in the leadership suite. 

Yes, both the cream and the crap float to the top.

It is important to recognize who is who, and what is what. 

Not everyone who occupies the corner office belongs there. 

In some cases, they should never even be allowed in the building. 

In the end, you gotta believe that the stars shine, and the sh*t stinks and that's how you know who is at the top when. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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June 17, 2012

On Every Corner, Real Hope

There is a guy who stands on the corner in the 90+ degree heat here every day trying to sell his book. 

Calling out to passer-bys, he repeats, "This is a motivational book. It has my autograph."

Again and again, the people pass him by without even a second look.

I see him in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening--whenever I go down this street--and he is still standing there trying, trying, trying to sell his book.

The feeling I got was, not only didn't I want his "motivational book," but also (not to be mean), it was completely de-motivating watching him trying to sell it.

Usually with marketing, I would imagine that people want self-help books from other people that have clearly demonstrated success.

Those who have a compelling story to tell can tell us about a dragon they have slain--where we can transfer the feelings of success, the challenges overcome, and the lessons learned from the author to ourselves.

But because this guy is standing on the street corner, no one wants to purchase his book or give him a chance.

The guy standing on the corner is not the person in the "corner office."

Yet, I have a feeling his story would be an interesting story to hear.

Perhaps, his story is even more compelling, because it's from "the streets" and not from someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

But he is a stranger, selling a book on the corner, and I don't go up to him to ask.

Standing on the corner, in the heat, peddling a book for a few bucks, could be you or I--it's too easy to forget that.

I pray that G-d has mercy to help us all earn a fair days pay for a decent days work--not everyone is so blessed.

On every street corner, there can be real hope. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Hanne)

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