The World's Worst Boss!

That would be you! The boss is you. You manage your career, your day, your responses. You manage how you sell your services and your education and the way you talk to yourself. Odds are, you're doing it poorly. If you had a manager that talked to you the way you talked to you, you'd quit. If you had a boss that wasted as much as your time as you do, they'd fire her. If an organization developed its employees as poorly as you are developing yourself, it would soon go under. I'm amazed at how often people choose to fail when they go out on their own or when they end up in one of those rare jobs that encourages one to set an agenda and manage themselves. Faced with the freedom to excel, they falter and hesitate and stall and ultimately punt. We are surprised when someone self-directed arrives on the scene. Someone who figures out a way to really make a difference. We are shocked that someone uses evenings and weekends to get a second education to be the very best at what they do! And we're envious when we encounter someone who has managed to bootstrap themselves into happiness, as if that's rare or even uncalled for. There are few good books on being a good manager. Fewer still on managing yourself. It's hard to think of a more essential thing to learn. Merry Christmas!