Holy moly, the World Cup is almost here. No more next month or next week, it’s simply ‘Friday’.
This will be our first World Cup experience in New York, where there is more everything here (people, bars, etc.) than in San Francisco, where we watched the last World Cup.
Zeytin, the bar & restaurant on the corner, started prepping their outside to announce they are showing the games. On the inside, they’ve draped the bar stools with jerseys, and are even adding a second TV.
I can’t wait.
Rolling Up Your Sleeves and Getting Your Hands Dirty
That’s the title of a post from Fred Wilson from earlier this year. It’s always neat to see how successful folks get to the position they are in today, especially the mis-steps and how they dealt with it.
This piece of advice doesn’t only apply to early in your career, either. It has even more of an impact as you mature and grow in your own career, providing valuable insights for a range of people.
I just moved to a new firm, one that I’m really excited about (more on that later). Every opportunity I had during the first few weeks, I made every attempt to learn as much as I could about the operations and people, much like Fred Wilson did:
I met almost every employee and learned what each job entailed. I even did some of the jobs.
I follow this line of thinking no matter which position I’m in. Think about the amount of information you can share the next time the topic comes up: “Oh, you can’t use that size widget because of the radius of the wadget to the wall.”. And you can back it up.
The by-product of rolling up your sleeves is that you get the respect of everyone in the company. New to a company or position? Give it a try.
Did you know the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is right around the corner? FIFA did every bar in the world a favor by scheduling the USA v. England match on Saturday afternoon, eastern.
With the recent submission of our 23-man roster, I think we’ll be in good shape to get out of the first round and challenge the semis and beyond. How do we do this? Let’s start with the eleven players that should be on the field when the opening whistle blows…
With South Africa entering it’s Winter season, the games are going to be fast. With the lineup above, we’ll be able to not only keep up with England and Algeria, we’ll be able to push the tempo at our own pace. I say you bring in Gomez and Buddle when things get a little rough up front (ie, when we play Slovenia and eventually Germany), along with Holden when Dempsey decides to take a break, and Onyewu when the games get late and we need a big boy for set pieces (he’s nowhere near game shape).
Also, there is no reason Jonathan Bornstein should ever touch the field outside of practice matches. If I was Brian Ching, I’d be livid he took my spot on the roster.
I won’t hide my bias – I always believed John O’Brien was the missing link in creating a world-class soccer team. The single characteristic that O’Brien had that was missing from other central midfielders on the USMNT was a creative mind, one that is being recognized in this year’s young midfield maestro Jose Francisco Torres.
When O’Brien was picked up by the New York Times to add some depth to the training and preparation of this efition of the USMNT, I was excited to read his thoughts and how they might translate into everyday business planning and creativity.
In a recent article, O’Brien was talking about how he was given advice by Jan Wouters about a complex part of playing soccer:
“When you get the ball on the field,” he said, “look up and see the furthest player away, in doing so you can see everything in between.”
Sure seems like sound business advice. For each project (or activity, or task), if we’re able to look up and see how this project might affect other departments/projects and what the outcome may (and may not) turn into, we can see all the little pitfalls and mis-directions that might fell us.
It’s not always easy to see through some of the other noise (colleagues, projects, etc.), especially when pressured with time, but it’s a great exercise to get into.
