Herman School of Business
Time is what you make of it...
Don’t we all have more to do than we have time to do it? Other cultures go much slower, expect a pace that doesn’t completely stress them out, and don’t fret if things take just a little longer. We freak out if we can’t do it all right now, today if possible, this morning if we can.
If you really look at the way we do things it’s not just a lack of time…it’s more about controlling our time.
Demands on your time are bombarding you every day. My friends were talking about bowling making a comeback. Young people enjoy getting together at the bowling alley and having a conversation with their friends, maybe drink a few beers with pizza, and compete in a weekly league. Each of us had done this thirty years ago. What happened? We all agreed we gave up the bowling league not because we weren’t having fun…we just didn’t have time to show up every week and spend an entire night committed to bowling.
We were starting families, taking on second jobs, becoming volunteers for our children’s sports and scouting activities. There wasn’t enough time for bowling. Today you are doing too many things…things that steal your time…if you let them!
This year I gave 25 speeches because that is what I want to do. I see myself as a teacher today…because I want to impart the knowledge gained to others and the students who come invariably ask if I can be their mentor. Often more than one per event. That means more than 25 times this year there has been a request to help one specific person work out their issues and problems…and give them guidance to help them become successful. The first few times someone requested my help I was awed by it. Wasn’t this exactly what I wanted to achieve…they got something in my message and wanted more of it…one-on-one style. I started saying yes and time started flying out the window. Listen, it is very gratifying to be able to give someone else a boost in life. Could I just give them one hour a week? After all, I am supposed to be “retired” and therefore I must have time for them.
Some want to know the answers to questions that I have already answered in my books. But they haven’t read my books…they don’t have time…couldn’t I just tell them what is in there? In other words, could I use my time to save their time?
From now on I will have a new crash course mentoring program, one I will name, “The One-Minute Mentor” so don’t steal my idea. In one minute I will tell the students asking where they can get answers and send them off to the Internet, the Book Store, and the Newspaper and Magazine stand. While I applaud students for wanting to short-cut the process by simply asking someone else what they should do and help them actually do it, being a mentor to multiple students means having almost no time to reach thousands of students.
Who or what is stealing your time? Let’s go bowling together this week and discuss it over pizza.
- Posted: 17 November 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business failure
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