Listen (Better Business by Creeping)

Keep an ear to the ground.

This is of course an idiom meaning “pay attention to what’s happening around you/pay attention to rumors“. Your greatest enemy in social media can also be your greatest ally – the open forum (Facebook, Twitter, etc). If you’re not doing well in social media spheres, it’s easy as hell to figure out why. All you have to do is creep. Creeping consists of following updates on groups (and individuals, but that’s a bit stalker-esque), not interacting with it/them, and taking note of what they say. For all intents and purposes, it’s like producing a poll about your products; however, you don’t have to goad people into answering. They’ve already answered without you even producing the question. Of course, you must at some point supplement these with polls to truly get a grasp on the direction your market is heading. The search boxes on Twitter and Facebook are officially your best friend and companion.

Happy creeping.

(image obtained via scientificamerican.com)

Talk TO me or WITH me?

This is a short post I thought about while exchanging e-mails earlier today.

Does it slightly (and I mean that in the most minimalist sense possible) bother anyone else that some people insist on saying “I’ll talk TO you later” as opposed to “I’ll talk WITH you later” when concerning a collaborative effort? I definitely admit it’s something I’ve done in the past (maybe even today!) and something I’m looking into fixing.

I know it’s not necessarily something people do to purposefully offend (and I can’t say it truly offends me). My question is, is this just a subconscious extension of the “me, me, me” complex that is prevalent in many people, across all industries and professions? This thought kind of goes along with the widely used idiom “I’ll let you go”, as if talking one-on-one is some kind of conversationally-imposed imprisonment; however, that’s just a side-note.

ANYWAYS, back to the point:

Don’t talk TO me. Talk WITH me. Listen. Collaborate.

Just a thought.

(obtained via adjustafresh.com)

“I don’t have time for that.”

The quote in the title is one of the biggest things that irks me about people these days.

“I don’t have time for that.”

You know what I say?

Leaders may not “have time” but have the drive to make time. Followers may not “have time” and lack the drive to make time. Do you want to become a leader and an asset or a follower and dispensable?

Think about that.

(obtained via justseeds.org)

38 Days Later

I’ll preface this entry by stating that technology in the oil industry and ecological disasters aren’t exactly my cup of tea. However, I have never been more moved by any disaster before than by the BP oil rig explosion on April 20th. Figureheads like Rand Paul said, “I think it’s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen”. Mr. Paul, this wasn’t an accident, it was negligence. An example of an accident is when you rear end someone’s car via a brake check by the ever so lovely driver ahead of you. Accidents don’t contaminate ocean currents stretching over 120 miles with thousands of barrels of oil. Accidents don’t threaten to wipe out an entire ecosystem by killing off vital parts of the food chain. Accidents don’t look like this:

(obtained via yahoo.com/AP Photo/Eric Gay)

I’d be more comfortable with it if BP just came out and admitted their mistake and took responsibility for it. But no, they’ve only taken responsibility for their lack of response to the crisis. Is it me, or does this sound like something my 14 year-old sister would make up in order to avoid getting grounded for three days? While I’m talking about the response to the crisis, don’t you think that they would have better solutions to the problem than shooting synthetic mud at it praying that it’s going to stop so they can try to salvage some kind of positive image out of the ordeal? While BP tried to change their image from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum in 2000, this regression caused by the oil rig explosion makes it look like this is the first time they’ve ever struck oil. Nothing really “beyond petroleum” here.

So, where do we go from here? I’ll tell you where. Stop buying gasoline from BP and send a message that ignoring your own safety protocols is not a way to responsibly run a business. These children should not be rewarded for their inability to take responsibility for their actions.

Will this be the spark we need in order to usher in exponentially more research for oil alternatives or will people assume ignorance is bliss and pretend as if the livelihood of many people and a vast ecosystem hasn’t been potentially ruined?