Posts Tagged ‘baby bird’

Last week I told you about my passions and I described what a mess they make of my life and of our house and office!  But how do baby birds fit here?  And how do YOU fit here?  Those college students I mentioned are the baby birds.  They seem to always be waiting for the next college class to feed them information, the next semester of study that will give them what they need to be good . . . and so on.  They seem to be intentionally ignoring information on medically-related subjects because . . . well . . . I am not really sure WHY they are doing that.  Here are four possibilities:

  1. Other Plans. They are secretly planning to go into car repair instead of medicine and they just haven’t told anyone.
  2. Embarrassed to Admit: They have already secretly earned their PhDs in their chosen fields and are embarrassed to admit that they have already read those articles, or maybe wrote them.
  3. Hedging. They are hedging, not allowing themselves to get excited about a career, not digging in and investing time now, because they are afraid they may not make it into the medical field they have set their sights on.  And they don’t want to set themselves up for disappointment later.  If this is the case, they need to snap out of it.  Viking ship captains burned their boats on the beaches so the message to the disembarked troops was clear:  We are STAYING here, boys, so make it work!  Same for mamby pamby students – – – get committed, get resourceful and make it happen.  Immersing yourself in the subject now could teach you something arcane (look it up) and give you just enough head start on other more hesitant colleagues that you might beat them out of a slot in medical school or in that nursing program you want.  Being hesitant or unsure now might keep you from learning that one item which, in a competitive interview, could actually have WON you the admission slot!
  4. Waiting to be FED. Like baby birds, they are just waiting to be FED all the information required for their profession, as part of upcoming college and medical/nursing school courses, and they see no reason to try to learn any of that stuff now.  (This is my current theory to explain their behavior, although I also like the second one.)

I am the opposite of those people.  I am voraciously hoovering-up information like a human vacuum cleaner, wherever I find it.  I am “going for it” and sucking the marrow out of the bone, licking up every tidbit of info I can find on the subjects that interest me.  And I have waded in with both feet, by DOING those things, not just reading about them.  I saw a great T-shirt that read:  “When I have money, I buy books.  When I have extra money, I buy food.”  That’s me.  The family usually will not enter a bookstore with me because it is so hard to get me out of there.  And now that they all have coffee . . . oh . . baby.  Plus, the family gave me a Nook Color so my nose is going to be welded to that thing!  I’ll be LIVING at Barnes and Noble, surfing through the e-books there!

And I have news for any baby birds out there.  Wake up! Get out of the nest and get up to your EARS in your chosen field.  Make it a job/profession that people are (or will be) making a living at.  Whatever it is, you can spend an (enjoyable) lifetime in it, if you just will get all the way IN IT.  Business, retail, real estate, banking, dentistry, chiropractic, farming, nursing, appliance repair, EVERY FIELD can provide you with a lifetime of thought and involvement if you will just dive in and commit to being the best at it.  Commit to a lifetime of learning, and staying current, and pushing the edge of the enterprise.  Plus being the go-to person makes YOU the expert.  It means other people will come to YOU on that subject.  And here is the good news – – –  the years will FLY by, you’ll travel and meet great people, and you’ll feel GOOD about yourself.  An entire profession will be indebted to you, as well as all the professionals in it!   And on that pillar of respect and success, my friends, you can build a great life and support a family.

As we asked in a previous blog, do you have a “fire in the belly”?  Three years ago I saw a plaque on the wall of a castle in northern Germany that said:  “Most people believe they need money to be happy.  But all you really need is something to get lost in.”  Go find that subject (or two or three) and get yourself lost for life!  Trust me, It’s great!

Copyright: Solid Thinking Corp.

Leader driven Harmony #9: Don’t Be a Baby Bird (Part I)

by Mack McKinney on January 28, 2011

Have you ever watched birds feed their babies in the nest?  As the parent bird swoops in, the baby birds open their beaks and the parent plops a juicy worm or insect right into junior’s gaping mouth.  The baby just sits and eats.  The parent does all the work.

I recently met some people like that:  They were college students headed for careers in medicine.  I subscribe to Science News and there were some medically-oriented articles in the current issue (new theories for brain repair, a new blood component that physicians were concerned about, etc.).  I handed the magazine to one of these young folks and said “look at this”.  I expected a reaction such as “THAT is interesting” or “Wow, how can that be?” or at least “I’ll read that later”.  But instead I got an expressionless gaze and no response at all, followed by the magazine being laid onto an adjacent table.  I asked if the articles were of interest and got a “yea, I guess” answer.  I hope my expression didn’t give me away but I was horrified: A future physician was unmoved by medical news articles that could change the profession forever.  But then I thought back and realized that this has been a common expression from this person whenever I have offered similar magazines or books: Ho hum, I might read that some other time.  But then they don’t.  Not ever.

Bizarre!

Now here is why that seems so bizarre to me:  I am an aviator.  I have been flying since 1983.  I enjoy reading, talking and thinking about all things related to aviation.  Some things interest me more than others but I at least scan EVERYTHING that crosses my path that deals with aviation: civilian, military, airplanes, pilots, radios, radars, airfoils, airspace, weather, legislation, etc.  – – – Everything – – – .  In my bedroom there are seven books partially read (five of them about flying) and about 20 magazines beside the bed (I have flagged articles that I want to copy, things I want to act on, people I want to contact about something, etc.)  I also contribute articles to flying magazines and have several in various stages of completion.  I belong to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association.

I also fly young people (for free) in introductory flights every chance I get, including at fly-days sponsored by the Young Eagles organization. I also fly and maintain our corporate airplane including oil changes, engine tune-ups, minor repairs, refueling, etc.  So there are aircraft maintenance magazines everywhere in our house and in Solid Thinking’s offices and the hangar.  And we live in a residential airpark and I serve on our property owners association’s Board of Directors, so there are government regulations and county runway easement proposals laying on chairs and tables throughout the house this week.  And I am working on my next rating so there are instrument flying study plans on the kitchen table and flight-in-clouds checklists near the potty (I know, TMI).  But wait, there is more!  These aviation-related things are only one of my passions.

There’s more…

I am also a practitioner and teacher of advanced Project Management techniques.  I write and teach courses on the subject and am interested in a number of related areas: how to portray complex data in easy-to-grasp ways; ways to get engineers, scientists, program managers, marketers and other disciplines to collaborate on project teams; and ways to get Generation Y-ers, Generation X-ers and Baby Boomers to stop sniping at each other and come together on project teams.  I have just finished reading four books on that last subject and plan to write one this spring with my friend and colleague Ken Pardoe.  I have begun teaching advanced collaboration techniques in our Project Dominance courses so I have notes and articles on that topic laying all around the house.

So what?  Big deal.  Are you asking “What does that have to do with me, or with baby birds?”  Next week I’ll tell you.  And it will probably scare the crap out of you.  And if it doesn’t, THAT will scare the crap out of me!

Copyright: Solid Thinking Corp.