Wayne’s Blog

Great love, great achievement, great success, great legacy, great profits, great benefit to society, great impact, great results…

well, pretty much everything GREAT…

requires GREAT RISK!

This can’t be denied… the question we have to ask ourselves… and answer… is are we willing?  Do we have what it takes to take that great risk?  If not, do we want what it takes?  If yes, what will it take for me to get or develop or learn what it takes to take the great risk that’s required for me to do all of those great things?

A lady or gentleman is one who considers the rights of others before her or his own feelings and the feelings of others before her or his own rights.

Focus!  I’ve got lots of shortcomings, problems and weaknesses but focus… or more precisely, the lack of focus… may be my biggest.   I want to be great at so many things, know so much, and do so much that my lack of being able to control my focus may make me less than adequate at everything.

I think it was Confusious who said (it was somebody really really old and wise I’m sure) “If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.”  Think about that in actuality.  If you’re running along there right behind a couple rabbits, fully intent on having both for supper, what are you going to do when they split and go in opposite directions?  If you maintain the intent to catch both, will you?

Being an old Redneck and hunter, I like hunting analogies.  The one I use all the time to talk about focus is “shotgunning.”  Shotgunning means to try to hit all the targets at once, which usually results in you missing all the targets completely, even if you’re really shooting a shotgun.  The only way to successfully hit any single target is to focus on it and it alone, yes, even if you’re really shooting a shotgun!

So, the only way to be great at anything is by focusing on it.  Even if you’re naturally talented, you won’t be great without focus.  Michael Jordan focused on basketball, Jeff Gordon on racing, and Donny Gay on bull riding.  They were all talented, but we would have never heard of them if they hadn’t focused.  And, for those of us who have no talent or intelligence, we have to have laser focus… or we’ll miss everything!

This bears repeating.  I’m trying to concrete this thought in my brain.  It’s gleamed from Seth Godin in Tribes.

The key point in making mistakes, failing, or just simply being wrong about something is not avoiding making a mistake, or avoiding failure, or simply avoiding being wrong… no, the key to mistakes, failure or being wrong is not being afraid to make mistakes, or failing, or being wrong.

So, go on and make mistakes, fail, and be wrong.  Learn from them.

Resistance to change.  Though we talk about this issue in management classes all the time, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it since the announcement of the restructuring of LSUS.  The faculty wasn’t told about the restructuring beforehand and many were (and still are) mortified and mad that they would not be consulted on such a massive issue.

I’ve maintained a positive outlook on it, mostly because I’m an internal locus of control kind of person, very self-reliant, an entrepreneurial type, and I’ve always seen the opportunity in disasters.  I’ve always been comfortable with, and even excited by, great disasters like storms or whatever.   The LSUS event is the same, lots of folks just seem focused on how they’ve been wronged, when I’m excited about a new direction… good or bad, right or wrong, it doesn’t really matter.  All that matters to me is the excitement of change, growth, and the thrill of creating something new… a new LSUS hopefully.

I’ve maintained that the faculty were not consulted for several really good reasons.  First off, it was not a faculty decision, it was a strategic decision made at the executive level where strategic decisions are made (and we’re business professors in a college of business supposedly teaching this very thing!).  Second, being a non-academic type, a simple Redneck country boy in academia, I’ve long said that the best way to kill a good idea is to put it in front of a committee made up of higher education people.  To go even further, if you want to get rid of your most innovative people, the change agents, make them run their ideas by an academic committee.  Change agents won’t be around long.   

Now, some things really do need to go through committees (though I can’t really think of any right now), but never ever innovative cutting edge ideas.  Committees are rigid and stifling at least and produce a vanilla product at best (if a product is ever produced in the first place).  Committees are extremely time consuming and in today’s fast changing world, thinking about an idea too long, which is the essence of a committee decision, may be the easiest way to kill it.  Also, committees are expensive not just in lost ideas, but even in monetary and productivity costs as well. 

However, I think the main reason faculty were not consulted about the reorganization is because academicians are the most resistant to change bunch of folks I’ve ever been associated with.

I had figured out why I think that’s so, and then the other day I saw my explanation supported by someone else in a book I’m reading.  Jeff Herman, who has been in the publishing business for over 20 years, said that industry is also very resistant to change.  His explanation was something like this:  we all start out as explorers and many (maybe most) end up as experts (academia is loaded with experts).  When we’re starting out, we begin as an explorer and gradually (imperceptibly) transition into experts over time… especially the highly educated I think. 

He went on to say (with my comments in parentheses): “Explorers keep moving, looking touching, consuming, and discovering.  Experts stand still and cultivate their crops.  Each harvest is likely to follow the same template as the ones before, though the goal is to expand the bounty by making better use of the available resources (increase productivity by specializing).  A responsible farmer does not leave his land; he roots himself into the soil with every seed he sows, and conjures the earth’s power to make food out of dirt, water and light.” (Ever known an old farmer?  Try telling an old farmer how to grow better corn or watermelons or pigs or whatever and you’ll find out right quick what the definition of resistance to change is!  Believe me, I know.  Are old professors anything like old farmers?)

“Without experts we’d all be nomads like our pre-historic ancestors.  No steady homes; no security; no nuclear families; no settlements; no growers of wheat and barley, and no commerce between them.  To this day, we would be herds of two-legged entities chasing after herds of the four-legged kind.  But without the explorers our cars would have square tires.  Without the explorers we might have nothing.  In fact, we might be nothing.  The experts probably held their ground as the fury of serial floods, droughts and ice ages swatted them into oblivion (resistance to change!).  To the contrary, the explorers instinctively shrugged off what was left behind, and discovered the future; our future.  And that’s still what they do every day.”  Jeff Herman from Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents.

I liken the idea of explorers and experts to how we all are in our jobs.  When we first start everything’s new and exciting, we’re growing and expanding.  We’re explorers.  Over time, we become experts and we eventually find ourselves standing still, specializing in our field (field of knowledge in academia).  Our plates are full and we’re good at what we do, we’re experts!  We know what works and what doesn’t. 

That’s what I like about the way the Methodist church does their pastors.  No matter what, pastors have to change churches occasionally just to keep the explorer alive. 

LSUS has a lot of experts.  They’re all spectacular at what they do.  The university has some of the greatest professors I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.  I would put my colleagues up against any other university’s professors on earth.

Though I have to say that the biggest experts we have at LSUS are not faculty.  If we’re going to make LSUS into a new university, those sure enough experts have got to go or those of us down where the rubber meets the road, us change agent explorers, won’t be around for long.

How easy is it to be remarkable?  Very… because 99% of the world is not.  Most people are completely happy and content with being average.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that because that fact of life makes being remarkable even more valuable, important, and easier to achieve, though it’s not easy at all.  

It’s easy to blend in, acheive average, develop mediocrity…  to be unremarkable.   There’s no pressure in it, and probably for most people it’s where they ought to be, it’s all they can hope to achieve.

Being remarkable takes courage more than anything… and a thick skin.  To be remarkable is to put yourself out there, open for criticism, open to failure, open to being wrong.  I like what Seth Godin said about being wrong in his new book, “Tribes”:  …the secret to being wrong or making mistakes is not to avoid being wrong or making mistakes, the secret is to not be afraid to be wrong or make mistakes.

The biggest difference between remarkable and average is the courage it takes to be remarkable.

I watched my boys, 11 & 13, do something stupid the other night.   I love them, they’re both really great kids so they weren’t doing anything wrong or bad or harmful, it was actually very innocent and, on some level, cute.  I just thought they made a stupid decision.   

They’re kids so they’re supposed to do those kinds of things, that’s how we learn the most valuable lessons in life: Do something dumb= Find out what not to do (though some of us need several repetitions before we finally figure it out).   The reason it irked me, as it turns out, goes back to something I used to say all the time and something that I realize I still feel very strongly about… I hate stupidity! 

It’s not really a hate, like I hate cheaters, drug dealers, and criminals, the hate I’m talking about here comes from inside.   It’s guttural, visceral, and self-centered.

For my entire life, as long as I can remember, nothing, I mean nothing even comes close, nothing makes me madder, angrier, or more disgusted than me doing something stupid.   Sadly, I’ve made myself aware of that fact waaaaay to many times in my life.  In fact, I may not know much about life and success and happiness, but there are some things that I would bet my life on that will NOT lead to more success and happiness in life: stupidity, ignorance, and laziness.

Analyzing the concept, there’s two kinds of “stupid:” conscious stupidity and ignorant stupidity.

Ignorant and dumb are simply not knowing; from being uneducated.  Ignorant and dumb can be fixed with education.  Most of the time stupid is lumped into the same category because a lot of the stupid things we do are because of ignorance, or, more simply put, we are just too dumb to know any better.  

We all consciously do stupid things for entertainment, or showing out, or just for fun.  Being a Redneck and an old Bull Rider, I know this fact well.   Conscious stupidity becomes damaging when people take it too far (and someone is always taking it too far) and other people get hurt physically, emotionally, or simply get their feelings hurt.  There is a conscious stupidity line that should not be crossed!

Thinking about this stupid concept in detail while working on this article, I realize now that my dislike of stupidity is one of the major driving forces (maybe the main force actually) in me getting college educated and my obsessively continuously learning new things and developing new skills.  My absolute dislike of being stupid motivates me as much as just about anything motivates me!   I don’t have a problem with that.

I hope that maturity and education have helped me reduce the amounts of my conscious and ignorant stupidity.  Wish I could bottle it up and sell it!

Why does cheating bother me so much?  Why does it make me so mad?   I’ve been asking myself these questions… and many more… so I thought I owed it to my students to try to explain it.  I hope this helps.  I also hope this will help future students.

As it turns out, the answer to the question is also the exact same reason I hate excuses, and thoroughly dislike late work, lackadaisical performance, poor attendance, coming into class late, etc., etc., etc. 

The answer is because I feel just as strongly, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, about my job and each and every one of my students.   I really do love teaching and every single one of my students.  That love is the main reason those things bother me so much.  If I didn’t care, it wouldn’t matter.

I put everything I have into every class I teach.  When I have really large classes, by the end of the semester I’m completely drained both physically and mentally.  I make my classes much more labor intensive for me than I have to, but I believe I have to teach work ethic by example.  I think you learn best by doing and thinking, by active learning.  That’s why late work is disrespectful to me, I feel like all the work I assign is good for everyone… or I wouldn’t assign it.  If it has no real-world value, I don’t do it.

Then, when I’ve given it all I have, and I’m worn out, when something happens like cheating, or several excuses offered in a short period of time, I react more harshly than normal because it bothers me more.  Things like that will just sap any energy or compassion I have left.  It’s proof that when you do something for the shear love of it, like I do with teaching, that energy can turn against you.

Usually over the semester break I reenergize and at the start of the new semester I’m always excited to get started on a new semester; a new adventure.  That’s the way I look at it, like I’m guiding my students on an adventure.  It’s my job to show them all I can.  I’ve been there before so I have a little knowledge about where we’re going, or, I at least have an idea about what’s most important to see, do, and learn.  As the guide, I’m supposed to show everyone all the important stuff that we have time for.

I also don’t see my students as students; I see each student as a colleague; friend; equal.  I have to look at it that way, because we’re all in this together, I’m growing as much as any of my students.    

I guess in reality students are the customer, but what they’re buying is not a product from the shelf.  From most college classes, students are simply buying the knowledge they need to be a better employee in the future.  They’re buying the opportunity to pursue a degree that will prove they know some stuff, and prove they’ve accomplished a long term difficult goal which involved figuring out how to play a bunch of different professor’s games. 

In my classes, I want my students to gain so much more than just knowledge so I made the decision long ago to take it a lot further.  There’s a whole lot more that students can get from college, things that aren’t in textbooks, things like learning how to network, build character, develop work ethic, and gain valuable life experiences, how to give and get respect, and develop civility and sophistication, and many more things that are incredibly valuable in life.  Things I learned the hard way.

I know that the earlier in life you learn to play the game, the better chance you have of reaching your definition of success.   And, for most people, I know that what happens in the high school and college years will have an exponentially larger impact on how your life looks than any other period.  Wish I could go back, but since I can’t, the best thing I can do it try to get my students to see that.

Students who realize there’s so much more to college than just lectures and tests are the ones who get the most from it.  These students look at college as an opportunity instead of a necessary evil.  College isn’t about grades or education at all really; it’s about transforming yourself into a confident person solely and completely in charge of your own future, destiny, and success or failure.

That’s what I intend for students to get from my classes.   When students choose to take my class, I try my best to show them all of that as well as the content of the class itself.  Sometimes, I’ve learned, those lessons are hard for some to learn.

I still get a thrill at the feeling I have in my chest when I look around a room of my students.  It’s more than just pride.  It’s exciting to be so conscious of the fact that I’m helping my students become the kind of people they’re becoming and I’m getting to watch it happen.  It’s an awesome feeling to know I’m having an impact, positive in most cases I think.

I know I’m not kidding myself when I say I care a great deal about each and every student and their potential.  I know it from the sadness or sense of loss I feel when I have students in my class that I don’t get to know well.  Some students simply keep a low profile and if I’ve got too much going on they can go through an entire semester without me having the opportunity to get to know them.  I regret that happening every time it does.

I thrive on developing friendships with every student… every single student, so missing out on a friendship is hard for me, but then a friend doing you wrong is too.

Which brings me back to the question at hand, why does cheating and all the other things bother me so much?

If you haven’t figured it out already, when I have all of the above invested into each and every student, and when I completely trust everyone in my class because I have nothing but the best of intentions and I expect nothing but the best of intentions from every one of my students, it’s personal and painful if that gets violated.   I don’t like the obvious lack of honesty, integrity, and poor work ethic, but that’s not what bothers me the most.  It’s the violating my trust that bothers me so much.  It’s the stabbing me in the back and then spitting in my face feeling I get when someone disrespects all that I put into my classes.

That’s the problem with caring; the people you care about can hurt you the most.  And, when you feel like you bend over backwards to give your students all you can, all you have, any disrespect is personal.

I know why most professors keep a distance between them and their students; I know why they don’t get to know students very well.  The disappointment and pain is too much for them.  They probably learned from experience that there’s just too much risk in letting students get too close… I understand that!

I hope I never reach that point.

Thursday night, December 11th, 2008.  I finished giving my final exams today.  Thank God today was uneventful.  I’m so thankful for a day with no anger. 

I gave tests every day this week, and each of the first three days there was cheating going on.  There were several people cheating on my Leadership final, a class with a logo containing the words Character, Integrity, Values, Morals, Honor, Honesty, Trustworthiness, etc., etc., etc..

I can’t think of anything that makes me madder than somebody cheating.  Nothing. (And I really hate people who ride in the left lane of the interstate.) 

Most of the students cheating are basically good people, some really good people, though maybe stupid and most assuredly lazy.  They at least have the sense to go to college to get an education.  However, most are too stupid to even cheat well enough to get a decent grade.  Most of the people that I know were cheating didn’t even make a high enough score to pass the class or make a C or B.  Several in my Leadership class where over half of the 70 students made A’s.  Stupid and lazy!

I did have one student who really made me feel good.   She got sick of some cheating going on and tried to do something about it.  We need more people like her.  Lots more.

So, I got to thinking about some things:

Why do people cheat?  Do cheaters always get what’s coming to them?   What does it hurt?  Do cheaters reach the same levels of success as non-cheaters?   Why should I care if students cheat?   Why does it make me so mad (mad may not be strong enough… insanely furious may be more accurate)?   How can I get students to see how disgusting cheating is?  How can I keep cheating from ever even crossing student’s minds?   I know there’s no such thing as an incorruptible human, I break the speed limit all the time, so is simple cheating on a test any different?   Why don’t other students who are not cheating get as mad about the cheating as I do?  Why don’t more of them do something about it?  If cheaters knew everyone in the class was watching and would not stand for cheating, would cheating cease to happen?

I’m going to try to answer my questions in future blogs.

Being Remarkable is standing out above the crowd… being a rebel is almost always standing out below the crowd.

Which one do you think leads to greater success and more fun in life?