Common Sense

A couple hundred years ago Thomas Paine wrote in
Common Sense that society is the joining of
people together to accomplish good. Government is
a necessary evil which exists to protect us from
the bad stuff out there, and in doing so protecting
our lives, liberty and properties.

Here's an alarming story reported by Bloomberg Neww,
and the first thing that came to mind was, "where
is the common sense in all this?"

Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry of Bloomberg write,
"The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over
the past two years and pledged to provide up to $5.7 trillion more if
needed." According to Pittman, these gigantic pledges are nearly
enough to "pay off every home mortgage loan in the U.S., calculated
at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve."

Now that's a bailout package, for every single mortgage holder
in the US to have their mortgage paid off. And it has the
ring of common sense to it. But you've got
to wonder, who's protecting whom here? And where has
all the common sense gone?

Other than writing endlessly to our representatives, the
best thing we can do in either a 'good' or 'bad' economy,
is to invest in our selves. As Dan Kennedy says, there is
no good or bad economy, just different economies.

No one, including the government, will look out for our individual
best interests as we do for our own. Keep learning,
keep studying, and stay sharp at whatever it is you do.
That's common sense, and that's the best protection we have.

the Super Bowl and Your Job

This may be sacrilegious to say to sports fans the day after the
Super Bowl, but I'm not a big sports fan. I do however, like to
tune in to the Super Bowl for a few minutes. This year I tuned in
a split second before James Harrison's interception turned into
a record-breaking 100 yard return, never before
seen in Super Bowl history.
Now that's cool!

It's amazing what a fine line there is between phenomenal success and
just doing OK or worse--failure. Harrison could have made
the interception and returned it for 10 yards. It would have been a
great play. Or he could have missed by half an inch and it would have
been a touchdown for the Cardinals and failure for the Steelers. (To
all you Cardinals fans...I'm not taking sides!)

But that's not what happened. He was just a little bit faster here, a
little more agile there, pushed just a little harder against the
next guy in his way. Each tiny extra effort combined to make a huge
difference in the end result.

So this morning I asked, and we should all ask, "what little extra
effort can I make today that will make a difference?"

It's a point I try to make over and over with bindery
work. You don't have to be the fastest. Or have the most
up to date equipment. Harrison certainly was not the fastest,
and he was doing something he wasn't designed for.

But he didn't give up.
He was just a little bit faster than the other guy.
It was one tiny little success after another that
put him in the record books.

We can do the same.
If we produce a job at 5500 sheets an hour instead
of 5,000 today, we're outrunning the guy who
says "hey, we always run this job at 5,000/hour."
If you can do 3 operations to a sheet as it passes
through the folder, you're ahead of the guy who
does 2 operations on one machine and 1 on another.
If you've figured out how to cut down on double
sheets on a press, folder or any other machine,
you're a little faster and better.

And you don't have to be a superstar to do it.
So here's a challenge.

What are you going to improve today?
Take a minute or two and give it some serious
thought. Perhaps it's an idea you've been meaning
to try, or a different system you want in place.

Do one tiny NEW thing each day this week.
By the end of the week, you will have tried
5 new things. Out of those 5, the odds are
at least ONE will do something to make you
more successful.

Let me know how you do!