Random thoughts on a sunny Friday here in January in Atlanta:
- I worked with a guy named Ceasar some years ago. He was a big tall guy, had to be 6'8", and he was from Colombia. He'd had some sort of run in with the authorities there that left him with some extended time incarcerated, and once he came to the U.S. he worked as a handyman and painter. He was relentlessly upbeat. No matter when I asked him how he was doing, he'd respond, "Happy to be alive today, sir." No matter when you asked him, no matter the weather or current events or whether it was payday, Ceasar always said the same thing: happy to be alive. it strikes me today that you'd have to look long and hard to fashion a better philosophy for living. Hats off to Ceasar wherever he may be.
- Buzzwords abound in the world of Project Management. Most candidates we interview for jobs, and those I interview for published interviews, pepper their speech with phrases like stakeholders, C-suite, PMO, best practices, sponsorship, visibility, executive sponsor, and on and on. There are a ton of them, and in true fashion, we have an upcoming interview with one of our repeat experts on project management in which he will offer up some candid feedback on why we have all these buzz words and how we might cut down on them. Stay tuned.
- Movies recently seen and recommended: The Adventures of Tin Tin (my 5 year old loved it and so did I), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (long, very good, and faithful to the novel), Mission Impossible (entertaining but totally absurd), and Sherlock Holmes (liked it the most of these).
- Looking for some Program Managers to interview for this blog. If you read this and are one, please email me. I'd specifically would like to talk to someone managing some very large efforts. There's no compensation but I do promise to somehow mention Metallica's song "Enter Sandman" when we speak (which I will do to win a bet with our Director of Sales, Tracy).
I'm happy to be alive.