An Expert's World

You’ve just been informed you’re being sued.  The transmission blows in your car.  You have mind-numbing pain in a tooth.  You’ve just been told you have a rare form of cancer.  Your child is suffering from autism.  

These are circumstances, of varying degrees of seriousness, which we all hope to avoid.  None are fun and a couple are downright scary.  But when these things occur (and they do to hundreds, perhaps thousands of people every day), who do people call?  Experts.  They want to find the person with the highest qualifications to help deal with the challenging circumstance in which they find themselves.  Most often people are more than willing to bare the higher cost of that expert care.  Think about it.  Much of our world is intricate and complicated and most of us have neither the knowledge or skills to deal with the challenges ourselves.  But we want the BEST results.  

So who do we call?  Oh, we have choices.  Lots of choices.  How many mechanics are out there?  How many dentists?  Doctors?  Do we turn to the internet for the answer, or the yellow pages?  DEFINITELY not the latter!  Typically we look to friends who we think will know who the “best” is, or we ask experts who should already know who the “best” is and where to find them.  We all tend to trust a reference because that person referring us already has some knowledge or, more importantly, the experience to know.  Because experience matters.  I guarantee that when you are told you have cancer, you won’t be looking for just anyone recently out of medical school.  You will look for someone with many years of expertise in your particular kind of cancer.

But this is an extreme example.  Every day we need help from others and we always hope we are getting a qualified expert, whether it is to repair the dishwasher or treat your sick dog.  And generally speaking, those with greater knowledge and skill charge higher fees, get more referrals and have more successful outcomes.  Where would you like to be on that scale?

The strange thing is, EVERYONE is an expert in something.  If nothing else, at least in themselves.  Nobody is more expert in you, than you.  But what you become expert in depends very much on what you spend your time doing.  An expert mechanic doesn’t get to be so from spending his days in front of the TV.  If he did, he’d be an “expert” in TV programming, not repairing cars or dishwashers.  (and last I checked, there’s not much call for experts in TV watching!)  Over the course of your life, you WILL become expert in something, maybe even several things, but you can CHOOSE in what area(s) you’ll become expert.  Choose something productive and rewarding.  Find something you enjoy doing that means something.  Become an expert by doing it a lot.  The more other people value your knowledge and skill, the better you will be compensated.  Do it better than ANYONE else, and you will be VERY well compensated.  Just remember, experts become so only through hard work, perseverance and incremental improvement over time, but they all started where you are today.

In what will you become expert?

Dan Scheerer, SmartGeorge

Living Life's Priorities (from The Octopus Solution)

Sometimes I come across pieces that just need to be forwarded.  The following piece was in an email blog from The Octopus Solution, so the best way to forward it out to SmartGeorge was to copy it into my blog.  It’s a quick read with a great message.  It seems to me I’ve heard it before, but I was glad to find it in print (the formatting did some funny things, but it’s mostly clear):

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee!

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.' The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things: your family, your children, your health and your favorite passions, and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else---the small stuff. 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life; if you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18 holes. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee!

Dan Scheerer

SmartGeorge