Joel's Mutterings

I have to admit this is affective for me as I generally do not frequent the restaurant near me do to harder parking then other places I frequent but I am a push over for expedited service.

I am more then well known at the Jamaba Juice at the Beverly Connection for calling in my Blue Banana Blast with an Energy Boost at least once a week and I tend to baffle the other patrons as I walk in and get handed my drink and pay before while they wait for their drinks.

I used to call in my Baja Chicken Burrito orders to Baja Fresh as I drove to their Burbank store but some times I can get their faster then I can get them on the phone and place my order. So for me this move by Chipotle will gain them some business and in today’s economy every bit of edge counts.

I do have to wonder if the the company is good enough that this gets into their order entry system directly or whether or not it is simply a fax redirect.

Not all networkers are created equal. There are broadcasters, procrastinators, collectors, clubbers, et al. Moreover, they can be karmic and/ or transitory. See the descriptions below to find out where you fit in.

Broadcast: Creating content and picking up connections based on the value of that content. Network value is tied to the audience that was drawn to the content. [attributes: Past, Present, Uni Directional Flow, little follow-thru, Open]

By Title or By Position: Network is built upon who you are and what you do. The question is will those connections exist when you are no longer doing the same thing. Tends to not network outside their industry [attributes: Past, Present]

Open Networking: This style involves becoming connected to anyone and everyone on the theory that any connection might be of value to you and or your other connections and therefore having thousands of connections is valuable. [attributes Present, Future, Online, High Flow, Open]

Collecting: This is a variant of the Open Networker but collectors are not interested in sharing their connections unless it is for specific gain. [attributes:Low Flow, Past, Future, Closed]

Mega Network: This person who typically has 2,500 to 25,000 connections (not to be confused with followers on twitter) and probably does not know many of them well but provides real value by passing connections back and forth between their massive network. [Past, Present, Future, Open, Heavy Flow, Low Follow Through]

Karma Networking: Doing what ever can reasonably be done for any of your contacts without expecting anything specific in return. Generally open contacts if one has met and or interacted with the other party in more then just passing. [attributes: Open, Past, Present, Future, Reasonable Flow & Follow Through]

Procrastination: This person always means to get to it when they have the time but never actually cultivates whatever network they happen to have and certainly is not actively growing their connections. They will go to events, register for services and groups but rarely truly participate in networking. [attributes: Low Flow, Closed by default, Present Focused]

Transition: This is a style adopted when someone who is not an active networker is placed in job transition. It is all about survival and getting a job.

Sales: This person is all about sales and does not typically want to network past a 1st or 2nd degree and is mostly interested in immediately gratification of closing the sale. [attributes: Future, Open, Good Follow Through]

Moving On: This person is focused on the present needs and once those are met they move on to new contacts and do not ever circle back. [attributes: Future, Open,]

Clubber: If you are part of the same club or organization all is good with this networker but otherwise you might find them difficult to approach. [attributes: Present, Closed, Good Follow Through]

Attributes:

• Focus: What is the goal of your efforts? Are you building a network for you or your employer?
  
• Open/Closed: Open Networking is a come one come all approach and closed networking is very selective.
  
• Online v Offline: Some people are face to face or only over the phone while on the other hand some people use Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, and Linkedin to maximize and drive their efforts.
  
• Flow: How much traffic are you moving through or with your network? How much activity is going on with your network and you
  
• Follow through: How much do you act upon or follow up with your connections.
  
• Past, Present and Future: Are your efforts focused on your past, present or future connections?

If this post interest you we will be discussing it at the first ExecTec of 2009!

I  came across this many years ago it is a parable often used to talk about dating and picking a mate. However it applies to many situation in life. It was a bit hard to find so I thought I would post it here as well.

There may always be one better, but life rarely gives you the chance to go back and change the choices you have made.

The trick is to make the best choice you can and be satisfied with that choice.

Once a man who was told by the landlord of the sweet corn’s field:  “You can pick and keep the biggest corn from my cornfield but with one condition: as you pick the biggest sweet corn, you have to keep on running without stopping until you reach the end of the cornfield. There is no turning back and no going back as well. To top all these, you can only pick one corn.”

The man said: “Well, that is easy!” and off he goes to run in the cornfield. Then he saw a sizable corn a few meters away, he said to himself: “this is one big corn.” BUT when he reach the corn stack he decided that he might find a bigger one in the middle of the field so he did not pick the corn. This goes on with the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and an almost countless big corns he just did not pick thinking that farther on the field there will be a much bigger corn.

Then the man reached the point that he could already see the end of the cornfield. He panicked then he pick the biggest corn he could see in sight. He ended with a mediocre size corn.

I also came across this which is clearly a different version of the same parable but seems be directly related to Love and Marriage:

What is Love?

A student asks a teacher: What is love?

The teacher said: in order to answer your question, go to the corn field and choose the biggest corn and come back.

But the rule is: you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick.

The student went to the field, go thru first row, he saw one sizeable corn, but he wonders….may be there is a bigger one later. Then he saw another bigger one… but may be there is an even bigger one waiting for him.
Later, when he finished more than half of the corn field, he start to realize that the corn is not as big as the previous one he saw, he know he has missed the biggest one, and he regretted. So, he ended up went back to the teacher with empty hand.

The teacher told him, this is love… you keep looking for a better one, but when later you realize, you have already miss the person


What is Marrage?

The student asked: What is marriage then?

The teacher said: In order to answer your question, go to the corn field and choose the biggest corn and come back.

But the rule is: you can go through them only once and cannot turn back to pick.

The student went to the corn field, this time he is careful not to repeat the previous mistake, when he reach the middle of the field, he has picked one medium corn that he feel satisfied, and came back to the teacher.

The teacher told him, this time you bring back a corn…. you look for one that is just nice, and you have faith and believe this is the best one you get…. this is marriage.