Ryminate

Focus and Opportunism--Two Competing Values?

I heard a good piece of advice the other day that flies in the face of the credos of many young, opportunistic "knowledge workers" out there:

Keep your head down and work rather than constantly popping up and asking, "Why am I doing this?", "What other opportunities are there out there?" You can certainly "pop up" so to speak on a periodic basis, once you've covered some ground and reached certain milestones, but on a day-to-day, month-to-month basis keep focused on your tasks and roles at hand.

Such focus will actually expand the opportunities to "do other things," and these opportunties will in fact be there when you do actually "pop up" at the junctures, milestones, and vistas.

I would agree that the younger generation seems to be overly focused on the grass on the other side of the fence.  Loyalty to self trumps loyalty to organizations.  In some ways this makes markets more efficient, however, when taken to extremes this can frustrate potentials. 

I have to imagine that to the older generations this "opportunistic mentality" seems akin to family car trips with the drone of kids asking, "Are we there yet?"  

24 Hour Run

Yesterday, I ran a 24 hour relay race with my Dad and nine of our friends, which began in Idaho Springs, CO and ended in Glenwood Springs, CO, a distance of 170 miles. I'm quite stiff this morning, but what a marvelous experience.