zerotomillion

The older and more seasoned I become the less I like people that are fast talkers.  In the past I have been accused of being a fast talker myself and when I was younger, there were times I confused verbal skills with charisma.  Now that I am older, I have discovered a different kind of charisma.  I was feeling nostalgic this morning and I was thinking about all of the places that I have worked at as a consultant.

Once upon a time I spent three years of my life at Amercian Express, designing and implementing their Gift Card system.  There were several of us on that project, all of us with different personalities.  We were all consultants, and all of us were being payed very well.  I guess there were about thirty of us in all.  All of us were under the age of thirty and we were all earning between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand per month.  My point is that all of us were fairly successful, young, people.

Now that about ten years have passed and I think about all of us, and where we are at now, it is very interesting.  Of the thirty of us on that project, there were a few of us that were more charismatic.  At the time, those of us that had great verbal skills and natural outgoing personalities were probably earning the most money.  When I think back to that group of guys (sorry girls there were no women on the team) the outgoing folks have not fared as well as some of the quiet guys.

One of the guys on the team was Ed Mathews.  Ed was from Canada, and had brought his family down for the duration of the project.  Ed never had much to say, but when he did speak it was well thought out and always made sense.  He was the same in his personal life.  He was quiet and reserved, never overally emotional and just always seemed to exude a quiet confidence.  Whatever came out of his mouth – you just knew that there was no reason to debate it.  He generally just made sense.

In comparison there were several charismatic folks on the project that talked fast, moved fast and made decisions fast.  At the time, those people generally won the internal debates, probably because it was just too exhausting to disagree.  Most of those guys are now broke…

In contrast the guys that thought things through, and were more deliberate in their thinking are now halfway to a million dollars.  Most of them have successful consulting businesses, and they are generally very happy.

There is a reason that Zen Masters are Zen Masters.  They do their best to concentrate on the here and now.  They see every step before they take it, they breathe every breath, with absolute concentration, while at the same time understanding the world around them.

So my advice this morning, is to move slower, think more clearly, talk slower, and just generally be more aware of your actions and decisions.  Move though life with a purpose.

I truly believe the tortoise wins the race…