Re: An experiment in Attitude

On Sep 16, 12:10 pm, Brian Running <brunn...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Holy "me, me me" rambling. Sorry. Shuttin' up.

Hey, Jeff. I agree on all counts.

I think another way to look at "professional relations" in a broader
sense is that you should always keep yourself in a position where you
are in control of your future, and never, never wait for someone else,
or allow someone else, to make choice for you that affect your future.
Following that rule will put you in plenty of positions of confrontation
along the way, especially when you are young and coming up. Not only
are you dependent then on others to provide you with professional
opportunities, you're also inexperienced and naive enough not to
recognize the situation you're in for what it is. I made the mistake
several times (and by several times, I mean, oh, about 1,536) in my life
of letting others make choices that would affect my future for me, and
worst of all, WAITING for someone else to make choices for me that would
affect my future. In a couple of circumstances in particular, I was
trusting enough to believe that others would look out for my interests,
and inexperienced enough not to believe that greed, ambition, pettiness,
selfishness and just plain ol' meanness are a big part of the business
world. There are a lot of, well, assholes out there, looking for ways
to try to take you down, that's their mission in life. Fifteen to
twenty years ago, I was still shocked, absolutely stunned, when I found
out that people were actually working behind others' backs, stabbing
them in the back to get ahead. Having learned that lesson the hard way,
I don't put anything past anyone anymore. My motto has become, "Don't
trust anyone, but be the kind of person that others can trust." And
when I say don't trust anyone, I mean absolutely ANYONE. That doesn't
mean you have to be paranoid and suspicious, just always keep in mind
that you are the only person that truly has an incentive to look out for
your interests. Always keep yourself in a position where you're the one
making the choices that will affect your future. That means make
yourself able to handle any situation that comes your way, get the
skills, the abilities, the credentials, whatever it is in your chosen
profession, to make yourself portable -- make your worst-case scenario
that you can simply walk away from the situation you're in and land on
feet in good shape somewhere else. I'm in that position right now, as
long as I stay healthy, I'm bulletproof, but it was a long, hard process
getting here. If I could go back, things would sure as hell be
different, and the main difference would be my recognition of bad
situations and ending them as soon as they got bad. No fireworks, no
histrionics, just ending them the instant they got bad, and moving on.

Um... we seem to have either an imposter, or a second Brian Running?
Would the real Brian Running please come forward?

If there truly is a second Brian Running, I find myself wondering what
this world has come to...

Corey

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