The Element of Insight & Its Hope for Getting Us Unstuck

Alexander Fleming was the first to suggest that the Penicillium mould must secrete an antibacterial substance. It came to him in a flash of insight.

Sometimes, all we really need to become unstuck from a situation, is to look at ourselves – or the problem – in a new light. A flash of insight; a moment of clarity; a new perspective….…..and we break through to the other side.

Something we should keep in mind every time we are in a situation, face a quandary or problem, and it feels like we are stuck.

The solution is out there.  

It could be round the next corner.  Or the corner after that. Or the one after that. 

It may take a while. But it's out there. 

It can come out of the very next conversation we have. Or the very next book we read. Or the very next experience - which could well turn out to be serendipitous.

I discovered this in 2010, when I was out of a job...

My Out Of A Job Story

In 2010, I left my job. I was unsure what to do next. Then I had a conversation with my sister Rosie and the answer came to me.

Rosie had attended a job search talk, and during my conversation with her, she shared with me all the advice given to her by the job search coach. 

One of the pieces of advice stood out to me and it was this:

Research skills employers are looking for.

Start the process for enrolling in classes for those skills.

Include this in your resume, even if you haven't started the classes as of yet. “Planning to do and complete in the next few months..........(example Project Management, Lean Six Sigma, World at Work Elements in Sales Compensation) ” or something to that effect, is what you would say on the resume.

This was an 'Aha' moment for me!

Suddenly I knew what I should do.

Companies were moving from Excel to SaaS incentive compensation solutions such as Xactly, Callidus, Nice and Cognos Incent.  Why not sign up for training in one of these applications so I could put it on my resume? On the Xactly and Callidus websites, I read that training was available only to employees of clients.  But I decided to pick up the phone and call the Xactly trainer to see if I could get around that. I said to the trainer: “I know your training is only for clients. But I am unemployed and  I am hoping you will consider letting me do Xactly training as an independent. I will pay out of my own pocket. If you let me do that, I will be very grateful to you because it will improve my chances of getting a job in this economy. ” My situation struck a chord, and the trainer said she would get back to me after checking it out. I was happy to hear back from her in the affirmative. 2 weeks later, I was sitting in on the 3 day Xactly Administrator’s course as an independent.

And within less than 2 months, Don Gootee had taken me on as an apprentice implementation architect on his team

Don said he took a chance on me because of my domain expertise. I will translate that for you: my experience in commissions administration. He was also impressed that I had the courage to pay out of pocket for the Xactly training. 

The point of this story is a solution can come from anywhere. 

 

The very next conversation we have, the very next book we read, the very next experience we have, the very next sleepless night.

So we should keep our eyes and ears peeled, and be on the alert. 

Here's another story:

My Out Of A Car Story

If shopping for new Commissions Administration skills wasn’t enough excitement for 2010, I had to also shop for a car.

This was because, on a rainy day in Feb 2010 (make that a very rainy day), I got into an accident. 

It was a single car accident – that was the good part. I did not need to go to a doctor because all I had was whiplash. 

My car, however, was totaled. So, for the next 2 months, I used public transport to get around, while I researched cars in my available free time.

New or used? Dealer or private party? What brand, what model, what year…..I was faced with a bewildering number of choices.

But things came together – as they have a way of doing.

Several roads were leading me down the same path - to one particular brand and one particular model: Hyundai Elantra.

I read Consumer Reports – on the advice of friends.

I checked out different car buying options – Hertz Rent To Buy appeared to be the best option for me, because I could rent the car for 3 days and then make a decision.

But the idea of buying a Hyundai Elantra came out of a conversation I had with a private party seller of a used Toyota RAV.

This seller had listed a Toyota RAV for sale on Craigslist and I called him to ask about it. He was at a car wash, washing the car and he said another buyer had beaten me to the purchase, but he was a chatty fellow, so we got talking.  He said the only reason he was selling the RAV was because he and his wife always bought a new car at the 100,000 miles mark.  I asked him what car he had bought to replace the RAV.  He told me he had bought a Hyundai Elantra.  I had not heard about Elantras, so I asked him about it. He said you could get a new Hyundai Elantra loaded with great features and a 100,000 mile warranty for the price of a used car.

I was intrigued.  I went back and checked the ratings for Hyundai Elantras in Consumer Reports.  I then checked the Hertz Rent to Buy website to see if they had any Hyundai Elantras.  And indeed they did.

Within less than a month, I had tested and bought a used Hyundai Elantra from Hertz Rent To  Buy.

A conversation I had with a stranger over the phone was where it all started.

For more personal insights that came out of conversations, read my post You Are a Mosquito in Somebody's Room. 

For personal insights that came out of books I've read, read Connected Minds - a post which tells you how I learned to meditate, and the benefits I have derived from it, Resume Tips from Fortune 500 Hiring Managers and Can a Book About Job Hunting Show You the Path Back to Yourself? , posts which can help you in your job search, and I Am A Good & Faithful Wife - I Deserve To Be Loved, a post which can help you think correctly about the most important relationship in your life - your relationship with your spouse or partner. 

For the lessons learned from my accident, read my post 4 Lessons Learned From Spinning In the Rain.

For tips on buying a used car, read my post……5 Secrets to Buying a Used Car With Confidence.

For the flash of insight that helped me deal with my grief over my mother's death, read my post The Path To Change.

Thanks for reading and hope you have an insight-filled week, in which you find the answers to whatever is puzzling you, troubling you, or challenging you right now…..M…..a Pearl Seeker like you.

The Element of Challenge and Its Hope For Pushing Us Out of Our Comfort Zone

The Cat in the Hat Came Out of a Challenge to Its Author (You can Read About it Here)

What gives me hope that we can get out of our comfort zones and turn ‘I can’t’ into ‘been there, done that’?

Knowing that everyone, moi included, has done so many times in their lives.

Back when I was a copywriter, I wrote words. Lots of them. Had someone looked in a crystal ball (the Dolores Pereira mentioned in my post The Man In the Bath-tub, perhaps) and seen me becoming a bean counter – I would have gone “Psshhh”.  Anyone who knew me at that time would have gone “Pssshhh” too.  Especially all the accounting and finance people I knew. After all, I used to be someone whose eyes would glaze over as soon as you talked numbers. My friend Ajay probably remembers.  I bought some stocks through him.  After doing so, I would harass him regularly about why my stocks were fluctuating in value. I did not know how the stock market worked in those days. And I did not care to learn.

 

Yet, from a numbers illiterate, here I am, making a living out of numbers in America. Thousands and thousands of them. On hundreds of Excel spreadsheets.  Sometimes running to 100,000 rows and over 60 columns.

The fact that I became a Commissions Analyst (a career you can learn about from my post My Day Job. Xactly. More Or Less) is a miracle of sorts.

Or not.

We set ourselves artificial boundaries by identifying with particular careers and areas of expertise. When in fact, we can choose to pursue any new avenue at any time. 

We also tend to have tunnel vision about the boundaries of our area of expertise. After being a Commissions Analyst for a while, I got used to thinking of myself as one.  So did everyone else. Then suddenly I was not just a Commissions Analyst, but an ICM (Incentive Compensation Management) implementation architect as well. Who could have predicted that?

Certainly not all the Commissions Managers and Analysts I worked with. If Rob Bresny (mentioned in my post The Element of Creativity and Its Hope for Reinvention in Our Lives) said he saw Project Management and FRDs and Unit Testing and UATs and “Going Live” in my horoscope, I would have said “You have got to be kidding me.  You have got to be kidding me!”

Yet, 6 months after leaving my last full-time job as a Commissions Analyst, there I was, the newest member on a fast-growing and reputed ICM implementation team.

So ‘never say never’ has become my new motto.

And I hope its yours too.

Sometimes all that stands between us and a leap to a different level of thinking, attitude, behavior, performance or expertise, is believing you can make it to the other side.

And being ready to act.

Because opportunities to grow, change, or start a new life, often come disguised as challenges. You are confronted with a situation you are ill-prepared for. At first, you go “What just happened? What should I do now? How will I handle this when its completely out of my comfort level? I feel so alone and inadequate to this challenge."

At this point, your best friend is courage.  You should be willing to trust yourself. Or have faith in a higher power.

One of my friends recently made a decision to go on a vacation of a lifetime with her husband. It was a vacation she had dreamed about all her life. Her husband was very fearful about the immense cost involved. She quoted this passage from Matthew 6:34 to him:

    25“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?27“And who of you by being worried can add asingle hour to his life?28“And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,29yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.30“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!31“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’32“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

    34“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own

So, yes, you do need to have courage and faith.

And you also need to be prepared to make mistakes. You should not expect when you are doing something new to have instant success. Or to immediately pull it off with style and grace. You may have to fall and get up a few times. There will be situations you come out of, barely scraping through. You should be prepared to say “phew”. Or “appa!”, as a Chennai denizen might. And move on. No matter how much embarrassment and humiliation is involved.

I have some real-life stories to narrate from my own experience.

In my new avatar as an SOS Commissions Analyst and an ICM implementation architect, I have had to endure withering criticism; get cut from projects; be told Pivot Tables and VLookups do not qualify for an “Advanced Excel” label; and in my most recent assignment, deal with a VP of Sales, who kept me on my toes, by saying something to undermine all the work I had done to date. Every month. Without fail.

It was all to the good.

If I once had a Functional Requirements Document decimated and soundly trashed by 5 or 6 different people on an ICM project, I recently heard these words from an experienced and highly regarded ICM implementation architect:  “Minoo, your FRD for……(company name withheld) was the best FRD I have ever read.”

If I once was taken down a peg or two by being told Pivot Tables and Vlookups did not qualify for the label “Advanced Excel”, I have now expanded my portfolio of Excel skills to include Sumifs and Advanced Filters and Macros and Conditional Formatting.

If I once had a VP of Sales complain every month, I made incremental changes to the point where I could see the complaints dropping off.

So the “voila” is out there. I promise you.

It just may take a few false starts, and a few blunders and bloopers before it happens.

In general, I’ve observed the harder the challenges, the bigger the psychic rewards of achieving them. And the more humiliating the initial defeats, the more gratifying the subsequent victory or victories.

Because here’s the thing: Every time you take on a new goal and achieve it, you make a deposit in the bank of optimism and confidence.

A deposit you can tap whenever you feel low. Or unsure. Or inadequate. (If you ever feel uncertain, stop and take inventory of how far you've come, as I recommend in my post How to Feel Good About Yourself When The Chips Are Down).

Meanwhile, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

By limiting yourself to what you currently are, you are stopping yourself from all the things you could become.

Don’t cling to an artificial identity.

You are not what you’ve been educated to do. Or what you’ve been doing up to this point. You can do other things.  And you may be surprised that it’s not that tough to do them.

I know of an advertising copywriter who became a Commissions Analyst and an ICM implementations architect (guess who).  I know of an Advertising Account Executive who became a stock broker and is now getting ready to publish his first book on Kindle. I know of a civil engineer who became a successful tech recruiter and then became a very successful realtor and a loan agent.  I know of an advertising secretary who became a justice of the peace.

There may be hard work involved.  There may be the humiliation of being a newbie after being Ms. Big Shot or Mr. Big Shot. There may be the risk of making a fool of yourself. But you shouldn’t let that stop you. I didn’t.

Life is not meant to be full of dead ends.

You can make U-turns. 3 point turns. You can ascend to a higher level. You can start over completely.

Minoo, you may ask - why would anyone give me a chance to do something, when they are unsure I can handle the work involved? Aha – good question - here’s where you may have to be creative. To be given the chance to be part of my first implementation team, I agreed to apprentice pay.  I knew I had to do something to get my foot in the door.

So if you are seeking a particular challenge, and there are obstacles, try and think of ways you can get your foot in the door.

Above all, keep an open mind. 

The more I am handed challenges, I initially think I am not up to the task for, but subsequently learn that I can do, the more comfortable I am about taking on new challenges.

Challenges that once seemed like a stretch, but have now become ‘been there done that’ for me, include writing Amazon book reviews (you can read 3 of them here, here and here) and writing White Papers. 

Yes, as we speak, I am adding the finishing touches to some ICM White Papers I have written, slated for publication by Spectrum Technologies,  one of the premier and most visionary ICM implementation companies in the SFO Bay Area.

Once again, you need to think long-term when you are presented with an opportunity disguised as a challenge.

The immediate payoff, in terms of comfort, convenience, money, or recognition, could be small.

It’s the long-term payoff that should be your goal. The confidence.  The credibility. The expanded portfolio of skills. 

Who can beat that?

So what challenge will you say yes to?

What challenge will you seek out?

I hope you will take on the very next challenge that comes your way.

2,4,6,8

Who do we appreciate?

The one with the guts

To put aside the “buts’

and go out on a limb to try something new.

And that would be....

You.

Dear Reader…..thanks for reading and have a great day and week.  See you next week…..M……a Pearl Seeker like you.