Category Archives: serendipity
April 26, 2013 Knock Knock
Funny thing: I was writing a new post and went to my drafts to work on a different one that’s been in the hopper and I stumbled upon this. This is the job I just took. This meeting took place just after Thanksgiving of last year. What do they say about all good things again?…
I think I was interviewed today. The reason I’m not sure is that nobody ever said we were doing an interview. The reason I think I was is that I’ve never been asked to meet with these guys without a meeting agenda and never for an off premises lunch. This was both.
That and they started the conversation with this question: have you ever been a product manager?
So I told them the truth: I haven’t been, but I have acted as one on a couple of occasions. Then the conversation wended its way into my past positions, responsibilities, and work product in each. Last time I was interviewed, we covered all that.
Then we started talking strategically and about product features and product benefits, how to determine which features should be included and which shouldn’t. How to prioritize customer wants over industry meeds amd compliance-related musts. Sounds like more feeling out to see if I fit the role of product manager in their eyes.
We ended the interview, er lunch, and started getting coats on to leave. I asked them if they had all of their questions answered since there was no agenda for this meeting. They said they did and that we should do this more often. Then the senior guy uttered a personal aside, out of earshot of the other two: I’m sure an opportunity will present itself.
So now I guess I wait for that opportunity. It would be nice if it presented itself for Christmas.
Tags: interviews, who knew
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- Posted under career, goals, interviews, serendipity
November 14, 2012 Yes, No, Later
I can be impatient. Sometimes with people, often with traffic, but even with God.
Most people think I’m a good guy. I try hard, work hard, provide for my family, love my wife, play with my kids, go to church, and thank God daily for what I have.
I also really like to hear “Yes” as the answer to the questions I ask and the prayers that I offer. But when I do, I stop myself and remember what my pastor said one day in 2006 that has not left me since. In teaching one Sunday morning, he told the church that God was like any other father in this one way – that when you ask for something, he’ll answer with either a yes, a no, or a later.
Yes is obvious. You get what you prayed for and your are elated that your thought processes and life plan are in line with the Almighty. You are thankful. Pass Go and collect $200.
No is sometimes hard, but is often for the best. How many times have you wanted to get that new job only to find out that the company went under a mere two years later? Who hasn’t thought they met “the one” before they actually met “the one” and had the relationship go up in flames that would make Evel Knievel blush? The key here is not to consider these unanswered prayers, but to understand that the silence is in fact a no. Which brings us to…
Later. It feels like no for a while but becomes yes, often at a time that couldn’t possibly be better. Because you didn’t know the plan ahead of time, you have given up hope so your emotional well-being soars. You couldn’t have fathomed this being on the horizon so you made alternate plans, prepared in other ways, forgotten it was even a possibility. Now this opens up so many other possibilities. Your gratefulness cannot be measured.
Which brings us to yes. Yes rocks. Yes is a slam dunk. Yes is a goal in the top left corner. Yes is a home run. And yes can be the worst possible thing that could happen to you.
You read that right – sometimes yes is a lesson in why getting what you “want” isn’t what you need, in why getting what you prayed for is short-sighted and shallow and all too human. Only after your prayer has been “answered” do you realize how badly things will work out for you, how much more complicated your life will become, how much more responsibility and burden you are laden with. You’re so stupid! How could your world be so narrow? Now you have to fix it.
So you learn your lesson, you move on, and you realize: sometimes yes means no.
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- Posted under blessings, faith, gifts, grace, serendipity
October 20, 2012 Even in Australia
One of my favorite children’s books is Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. Mostly because it’s funny but also that it keeps referencing Australia. I’ve always wanted to go. And not just on holiday (as they call vacations). To live. Or at least spend a couple of years. It has always seemed so near because of he language and so far because of the distance and, well, the language. But I’ve not known anyone from there so my infatuation was nearly baseless. Unless you count Alexander.
Recently, I’ve made my first contact with Australia and I’ve learned some things:
- There are Australians who think we Americans at exotic
- There are Australians who are scared to death of America
- There are small towns and big cities and hardened people and even what we in the states would call rednecks in Australia
- They have a rockin’ Olympic team
- There are just as many stories there as in the naked city I come from
What I’m getting at is that people are people everywhere you go (I hope you end up with the same Depeche Mode snippet in your head that now saddles mine). And we’re all flawed and we’re all awesome and we all have regret and accomplishment and cynicism and faith in our fellow man.
I still want to go to Australia some day. I think I’ll be looking at it as more of a confirmation trip than one where I seek some panacea. Heck, the trip is so long, I’ll be cactus by the time I get there (look it up. I had to).
Then again, it is Australia.
Tags: Alexander and the terrible horrible no good very bad day, australia
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- Posted under blessings, country, introspection, moving, serendipity
February 21, 2012 Gooooooooaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllsssssssssss
Before I left South Carolina, I did a bit of a life assessment to make sure what all was bugging me and that the primary issue was the job. I set 1, 3, and 5 year goals. I confirmed that it was the job, but the 1 year goals I set forth were all improvements on things that were lacking as a byproduct of the burden the job’s hours put on me. I also didn’t look at or change that sheet again until I stumbled upon on just yesterday. 586 days ago, to be exact – if you believe Google Docs.
Here are the 1-year goals:
- Do better at eating healthy (and not eating late at night)
- Get back to being fit with a half marathon goal (hard to do when you’re working 75 hour weeks)
- Set more aside for retirement (harder to do when your benefits are horrible and you’re underpaid)
- Read the bible cover to cover (difficult when work calls even when you’re in church!!!)
- Get a new job in a market that gives me flexibility
- Make sure that market has the educational options my children need to be positioned for success
So how did I do?
- Pretty good. I now exercise to support my ice cream habit, but all in all I do pretty well
- Ran a full marathon in the fall and a couple of halfs before that. Pretty much crushed this one
- Converted to full time after just a few months and contributing to the 401(k) again
- Found an audio book of the NIV. Listened to about half of the Old Testament and read the entire New Testament in 90 days last fall. Just a few books to go to have it all read. I’m thinking about doing it again in chronological order instead…
- Done and done
- Done and the school is beyond my expectations
Now the 3-year goals, on the other hand:
- Think of a new business idea to contribute to/create that will let me transition over the latter part of my working life into something I enjoy more
- Max out retirement
- Get to the doctor more when nothing is wrong
- Watch less TV and read more books
- Become better friends with my kids
And so far (with 18 months to go):
- Squat. Bupkis. Writing blogs is all I’ve got. Unless I can publish these things somewhere that wants to pay, I think I need another alternative career option
- Not quite, but we’re making progress
- Where’s the doctor’s office?
- Spurts. I’m watching “better” TV. When it’s not sports, it’s more often documentaries or classical stuff – much less fluff
- Totally making progress. Watching football and now basketball has really given us something to spend a few hours together talking and learning about each other’s lives. It also makes them want to go outside and try it, which is even better!
So, no, not perfect. But certainly pretty darned good, especially since I hadn’t seen my goals list for over a year and a half!
Go write some stuff down and tuck the list away, revisiting it in a year. If they’re really important to you, you’ll be surprised at how many you get through. I was.
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- Posted under faith, goals, serendipity, writing
November 30, 2011 Perfect Strangers
While running this morning, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, called The Moth. It’s a storytelling competition where anyone from a celebrity to a person off the street or from the audience tells a story for 5 or 10 minutes based on the theme for the night. Think poetry slam without the rhyme and interpretation requirements. Often times, these talks relate a pivotal point in the storyteller’s life; that watershed moment that made the difference in what they decided to do for a living, who they married, whether they helped someone in need, or how they reacted to adversity. The theme of today’s show was “Into the Wild”.
About halfway through, there was a story about a woman who had moved to a new town (St Louis, apparently her version of wild) and fell on hard times based on a confluence of events related to health, jobs, and the rest. At one point she related a scene where her child – who had just finished chemotherapy – wanted a small toy on the way out of a store. She had no money and couldn’t. The man stocking the shelves overheard this exchange and, though the child took it well and didn’t throw a tantrum (or maybe because he didn’t), he called the child over and allowed him to pick as many as he wanted. He expected nothing in return.
This incident gave her the strength to persevere through the rest of her time in St Louis; gave her the faith in her fellow man that things would eventually work out. In describing the man, she called him (inadvertently, I think) a “perfect stranger”. We’ve all thrown this term around like it’s nothing. It’s just someone you don’t know from a hole in the wall, right?
But examine it for a moment and it truly describes the man in this story. He was exactly what she needed at exactly the right time. He was more than just someone she didn’t know. He was the perfect person she didn’t know doing the perfect thing for that moment in her life. I can only hope that, at some point in my life, I, too will be someone’s perfect stranger.
Tags: Perfect Stranger, serendipity, service, The Moth
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- Posted under perfect stranger, serendipity, service, take a chance, The Moth
November 8, 2011 Sentences
One question. One answer. One statement. One thought left unspoken. They can all change your life. Forever.
Who among us hasn’t had that moment (or several) that changed life in ways we could never have imagined? A job not taken. A house bought at a bad time. A witty retort thought of an hour later that would have crushed that guy! A long walk late at night, to find a place for coffee that you never find – and you never say what you would have across that table. Adopting a child.
We’ve all been there. We move in these moments sometimes without thinking, certainly without realizing that this – this conversation, this door I decided to hold open, this train I missed by 30 seconds – this small stitch in time will change everything.
I find it unfair that there aren’t flashing lights when these times arise to make sure we know what’s at stake. So many people I’ve talked to have so many examples of what they would have done “had I known” or “if only I hadn’t been in such a rush”. The consequences vary greatly – sometimes your the guy who could have been Google employee #5 but you missed the elevator; sometimes you get hit by the bus; and sometimes you meet – or fail to meet – the person of your dreams.
We all have these moments and we have to own them, when the results are both glorious and regretful. They make us who we are. That’s something we can’t change.
But maybe next time you feel like something is going unsaid, find the coffee shop. Call that guy and tell him off over the phone with that witty retort. Kiss the girl. Change a life.
You’ll always wonder what could have happened if you don’t. And that’s a life sentence.
Tags: random events, serendipity, Sliding doors, take a chance
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- Posted under serendipity, take a chance
Do I Really Have Anything to Say? 