Are You a Specialist or do you Wear Many Hats?
I don’t like tunnel vision. Many times multiple disciplines allowed me to draw in from those experiences and approach problems from different angles. “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders,... Read More
Would You Do It For Free?
“I love my job.” “Would you do it for free?” Even since hearing this exchange a number of years ago, I’ve since used it to identify what I truly love doing. The idea behind it is not destructive or sarcastic, but an attempt to get you in touch with what motivates you and what you are truly passionate about. I love writing. Would I do it for free?... Read More
Stay Away From Those With The Crab Mentality
Crab mentality, sometimes referred to as crabs in the bucket, describes a way of thinking best described by the phrase “if I can’t have it, neither can you.” The metaphor refers to a pot of crabs. Individually, the crabs could easily escape from the pot, but instead, they grab at each other in a useless “king of the hill” competition (or sabotage)... Read More
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Subtitle: Breaking the rules The only time a person should break the rules is when the basics have been mastered, and only then if there’s worthwhile merit. Here is the rule for breaking the rules – Only break a rule if there will be a better outcome than following a rule would provide, or have reached similar results but with less effort. This of course implies not... Read More
Latinos: Stay Vocal. Be Recognized.
A disturbing piece came out in CrainsNY that recognized 50 of the Most Powerful Women in New York. There were no Latina women present in the count, and only one Black woman. (This is one major reason I did the Education series posts on two family members with educational accomplishments – I’d also like to see a list incorporating influence outside of business, but... Read More
An Interview with my Wife – A Latina Educator
Subtitle: Latinos in the 2% club – Masters Degree. Continuing from my interview with my brother - A Talk With My Brother, a Latino with a PhD in Physics – I decided to follow up with a chat with my wife, who works in the NYC Department of Education system. While the meaning of success will differ from person to person, you will hardly find anyone supporting the idea that... Read More
A Talk With My Brother, a Latino with a PhD in Physics
Sub-subtitle: Latinos in the 1% club – PhD’s. Latinos Silent about Science If getting Latinos to vote is hard, try getting them into science – specifically life sciences. In the U.S. the amount of Latinos who hold a Masters degree is just above 2% and the amount of Latinos who hold a doctorate is less than 1% Those statistics are disheartening. After participating... Read More
3 Times the Innovation
Subtitle: What’s under the hat? This post serves a few purposes: One is to test the WordPress mobile app. So, if you are reading this then it works. Two is to announce a collaborative writing partnership in the next couple of weeks. Very exciting. Also in a couple of weeks (which brings us to no. 3) is the launch of a solution-based service to better serve the Latino (and... Read More
The Art of Reading
Subtitle: What to keep in mind when you read – anything. There is a lot more to reading than just what you have read. Contrary to appearances, reading is an active process. Here are some things I keep in mind when reading. Read More AKPC_IDS += "4410,";Popularity: 6% [?] Read More
Latinos should be #GameChangers
NOTE: I don’t enjoy writing self-help or motivational styled entries, so I tried to keep this as simple as possible with the hope that it does not sound like an inspirational talk – not that I have nothing against that. After social media report on top of social media report, and after the Census it is undeniably clear that the numbers of Latinos are the major factor... Read More
Longevity
I just looked at my first ‘serious’…that is targeted, blog post I wrote almost 8 years ago. Nothing is a better testament to commitment than showing up. And that’s what you have to do day in and day out. PERSISTENCE Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent Genius will... Read More
Maintaining a Razor Focus
Subtitle: Keeping Yoda Happy Recently, I tweeted that I’m plagued with constantly coming up with new ideas: By itself this is not the problem – I’m actually grateful that there is a constant flow of ideas – the problem comes in when my focus gets diluted and everything slows or some things don’t get done. I believe in multi-tasking, but in recent... Read More
When to Follow Rules
Rules are put in place to control. They work great when you need order, but when the nature of business demands creativity it can be stifling. Discipline helps the creative process, but don’t be a curator of innovation. Rules set standards, but each situation is unique so you may have to make some tailor-made adjustments. Because it is challenging to unlearn what we’ve... Read More
Some comments on my Interview on Fox News
Subtitle: There’s no eraser when you are live. Yesterday, I was on Fox News Live along with Being Latino founder, Lance Rios. Being a prolific writer, I can’t help but to carry over my editing discipline and think about how I could have done or said something differently while live. Overall, I think it went really well, but here’s what I would of said a little... Read More
Why I’m stepping back from Social Media
Subtitle: Social Media, not a measure of Influence Frankly, toward the end of 2010 I’ve been frustrated with social media – namely Twitter and Facebook – and the perception of influence. With Klout scores, and digital tallies of followers and friends I have a case of social media reflux. It’s a game, and if you play the game well, you too can be an influencer. Hardly. Think... Read More
