Picking up a hundred dollar bill

Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends. (Jawaharlal Nehru)

Picking up a hundred dollar bill

Bending over to pick up a hundred dollar bill is a bad investment of your time if you are Bill Gates. He has averaged earning more than that every two seconds since Microsoft started. I did the math.

Bill Gates has focused his career on multiplying his effectiveness. He has focused on using internal and external resources to dominate the computer industry. Microsoft did not create the PC operating system they sold to IBM. They sold IBM something they didn't own, but had negotiated a right to buy. Bill Gates saw an opportunity and ran to make it happen. That is the way Microsoft has grown: a little internal innovation and a lot of focus on using other's ideas.

If you focus on the innovations happening around you it can change your career. When an idea, technology or procedure is new, it takes a week to become an expert. A year later it takes a year to become an expert.

I became a database expert in a week when Oracle 1.0 came out. I talked my boss into springing for $100 to get a copy. I parlayed that into becoming a DB2 guru by buying a book. One book. I became a data modeling expert because no one else had a clue what that was. One innovation led to another, and my bosses had no idea how to stop me. All the industry magazines and experts were using the buzzwords I could implement. I was on the leading edge. I was riding the wave of innovation.

Do like Bill Gates. Do a little internal innovation and focus on using other's ideas. It is always easier to become an expert when technology and techniques are new. What is new in your field?

Something to do today

Try it again. The greatest lunch topic you can talk about with your boss is, "What is the emerging world changing technology, technique or skill in our field?" Figure out what the buzzwords are that people are barely starting to define in your field.

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Tomorrow: Grandpa rotated crops for free

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Message Added: January 9th, 2008 at 5:40 am