FREE SWING

If you ever played baseball you will get this (If you haven't you will also get it, don't worry):

Picture this:

-You are at bat, game tied, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, 2 outs and your batting average has been a solid .357 the whole season. You take a look at your third base coach and you see him giving you the divine signal: YOU ARE FREE TO SWING LIKE HELL TO THE FIRST BALL YOU LIKE.

DAMN! Doesn't that feel good? You are free to swing, you can take it out of the ball park and smack that ball into a windshield of a car parked 3 blocks from the stadium. You can be the hero, you can bring all your people home, you can untie the game, you can be the winner and ONLY YOU CAN STOP YOURSELF BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE IS GONNA. Your destiny at that moment, and the destiny of your team depends solely on your bare hands. And best of all...YOU HAVE CLEARANCE FROM YOUR COACH. They trust you so much, the order for you is: Hit it like the devil and make us proud.

Such chances are precious and there should be a painful and shameful punishment to those who pretend they can afford the luxury of not taking advantage of them. Even if you strike out, even if you send a sissy fly to left field or if you bat for a triple play scenario (If you do this, you can also go and kill yourself choking to death with a bunch of shaving cream), but at least you can go down with HONOR, knowing that you gave it every pound of passion and braveness that runs through your veins. And maybe, just maybe, if you focus yourself and prepare your skills for this moment, you can write history.

But for the third base coach, sending a free swing signal is not always easy. There are several factors restraining him from taking the risk of being successful or a complete and sorry failure: There are your other fellow coaches looking at you with the evil eye ("What is this idiot doing? I knew I should be third base coach"), the fans judging your actions with sharp edges and with no mercy, your personal records shouting at you: "Don't do it, play it safe!",there is also sacred team protocol, popular wisdom and why not: fear. All these factors are fighting in the coach's head versus the good and positive outcomes that may come from a successful free swing. A coach with enough balls to send this signal should be respected and admired. However, sometimes in the business world, this is far from reality and you will seldom see it.

Please don't take me the wrong way: Sacrifice bunts, hit and run, base stealing or even a high fly to the outfield are valid strategies too. That's why the free swing strategy is the queen of them all. In the business world, when stars align and everything is going in your favor, you are allowed -almost obliged- to free swing. If the market is strong, you have a great product, your salespeople are empowered and your operation is right on the money, it is a capital sin to miss the chance.

However, sometimes, at the sign of FREE SWING, lots of people just get paralyzed. Seems like they understand FREE SWING as FREE YOUR BUREAUCRACY SPIRIT AND CLOG EVERYTHING UP. Instead of swinging with force, they will start developing processes for making the swing, analysis of the swings made 18 years ago, meetings to program new meetings to make daily swing reports reviews, and at the end, no swing was made and we went down on 3 straight strikes, just watching. Evidently, the next 3 months meetings and processes are programed in order to understand WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?? Bureaucracy is the perfect excuse for lazy schmucks."Yeah, I didn't make the sales quota, but I have a massive report that explains why I am not such an asshole, just a moron striving to make payday and keep on screwing things up...Wanna see the power point?".

Avoid these morons. Make them feel uncomfortable. Confront them. And if you are the coach, make sure that everyone understands that free swing is FREE SWING and nothing else. Fire anyone who doesn't get it. The world needs more idiots and you will feel great if you release some from your team and donate them to the cause. Grab your balls and give it all you've got. That's the spirit of free swing and nothing else.

Do Something! You are at bat. 

Aureliano García.

WHO THE F#$% IS MALICE?

I was about 18 years old when I heard this crazy song for the first time at popular"Señor Frog's" in Cancun. The reggae singer was a natural born leader and he moved the crowd as he pleased. The apotheosis came when he asked for this girl named Alice in his song (Originally sang by Smokie):

"I don't know why she's leaving,
Or where she's gonna go,
I guess she's got her reasons,
But I just don't want to know,
'Cos for twenty-four years
I've been living next door to Alice. (Alice? who the fuck is Alice?)"

Alice? Who the Fuck is Alice?!! And the crowd (including a younger, skinnier and more pimppled version of myself) would scream our lungs out, as if we could find this damn Alice girl.

18 years later, when I decided to write something about the importance of allowing some Malice get into our bloodstream, the song just popped out in my mind. Love it or leave it.

Anyway! Let's leave Alice alone for a minute and talk abut Malice.

Being naive in this modern world is more or less the equivalent of being bathed in blood in front of a hungry pack of mad wolves.

Malice, when applied in rational dosis, can basically save your ass. You just have to be honest enough to trust your gut and think that every story has two sides and that not everything is 100% black or 100% white.

Don´t get me wrong. I am not looking to turn my readers into an army of psychotic paranoids that won't trust their own shadows. I am only sending a warning sign. Honestly, I prefer to have around me , the kind of people with a slightly twisted point of view of the world, not only because they are fun, but because they can give you a whole new optic of any given  situation.

So, if you are a pure, immaculate soul looking to get some dark spots to pimp your already boring life, here are some tips:

1) Think Ulterior Motives. A Guy or girl in the office, good position, never spoke to you in your whole miserable life and suddenly he/she wants to be your friend?.Cool, uh?. Think: ¿Why?

2) Background Check. If a story sounds too good to be true, normally there is a trick. Do some research, check some backgrounds, google some stuff. Don't take the bait without at last hesitating a little.

3) Bullet proof your positions: Before stating your opinion, bullet proof it. What's the worst that can happen?..What questions will I receive?..If my worst enemy could ask me some questions, what would they be?..What are the answers?. Done?..Now, you are ready to speak your mind.

4) Question Everything. Nothing happens spontaneously. Everything has a reason. Question things around you. When you stop questioning, religions start blooming.

5) Grow a thicker skin. You will eventually get screwed, one way or another. Deal with it.Don't make a big drama out of the situation. But most importantly, LEARN from it. Getting fucked up once can happen to anyone, but twice, well, that just deserves another name. Be clever, be reasonable, but above all, don't be stupid. Ah! and don't be a crybaby, it's just annoying.

World is a fun place to live in. But it can also bitch slap you in the face if you allow it to. Have fun, have some more malice and give your vision a more interesting angle. Or else.

In the meantime, you can always sing the Alice song.

Aureliano García

WHAT IF?

Your world could change dramatically if you only developed the courage to answer one simple question:

WHAT IF?

What if you decided to really pursue your dreams?

What if you started showing up on time?

What if you became reliable?

What if you stopped being an asshole, for a change?

What if you started treating people with  respect?

What if you overcame your fears once and for all?

What if you stopped procrastinating?

What if you put your family first?

What if you showed some dignity to the world?

What if you had the will to speak up your mind?

What if you stood up for your convictions?

What if you decided to work more on your future?

What if you gossiped less?

What if you helped more people without expecting anything in return?

What if you put your money where your mouth is?

What if you executed at least ONE thing fast and accurately every day?

What if you were more coherent?

What if you went all the way?

What if you defied the status quo?

What if you strived for outstanding excellence instead of just a job well done?

What if you made a difference?

What if you became trascendent?

What if you took the tough road instead of the 8 lane highway?

What if you said NO from time to time?

What if you said YES from time to time?

What if you didn't cave?

What if you had the balls to make things happen?

But specially and most importantly...

What if I stopped writing this article in front of a mirror and started taking some serious action?

Gotta go!

Aureliano García

GET A BRAIN

I got the news yesterday. My good friend and also friend of this blog, Kelley Robertson, was robbed. Yeah, robbed over the internet. Robbed by this guy who published an article originally written by Kelley and posted it as his own.The article stealer is Michael J. Roman. I refuse to put his webpage here, because people like him don't deserve the link back.

Plagiarism has existed since the beggining of times. Mozart suffered from it, Jesus suffered from it, and basically every talented guy on earth has either suffered from it or is brutally exposed to get their ideas robbed. Talent has always been exposed to The famous "Copy, Edit ,Paste" process used by people with limited ideas.

Here is the deal: If you don't have anything good or original to say...shut up. Really, shut up. And don't steal other's ideas to appear smart. Plagiarism is the last resource of the brain impaired. I despite these behaviour and it is only fair to express my opinion about the one's who practice it: YOU SUCK!

I am outraged by the lack of respect there is among several "bloggers" who steal and rip off creative people by publishing other people's ideas as their own. Maybe they think that being the net so big and full of information, they just can get away with it. Well, it turns out YOU CAN NOT!. There are no secrets between the earth and the sky. Everything comes up to the light of truth, sooner than later.

Plagiarism begins at early ages too. There are different processes in High Schools and Universities today, that help teachers find out if their students have robbed their homework from the net. It is an alert sign, in my opinion, to be so young and already have no values or scrupules regarding other people´s property.

I feel the pain of robbed writers. I have seen my articles published out there with no credit given to me or no mention of the source. I even saw one of them presented as a PPT presentation, with a bunch of photographs and absurd stuff "decorating" my ideas. I felt sorry for the poor people who did it, I felt angry for having to deal with this but also, I felt happy because, at the end, I realized that copycats depend solely on someone else's talent. They will NEVER be able to create anything. They are parasites, with a sad, sad life. For the rest of us, all we require is a blank sheet of paper and a spark of inspiration to do our thing. No dependency. Pure passion and skills required. Sorry robbers: evidently this is not for everybody.Specially, not for you.

I think we can't stop writing because of fear of being copied by lesser minds. This is our risk and we are willing to take it. But we can not be quiet when we find out about this activities going on. We need to defend writer's rights and face cheaters courageously. We love when somebody finds our ideas interesting and worth sharing, but we love more the fact of being credited when the sharing is done. It doesn't cost much and it makes you a bigger person. Don't forget to always mention your sources and give credit to the one who deserves it. Is just the classy and honorable thing to do.

Stop Plagiarism!

Aureliano García

PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE? MAKE UP YOUR MIND!

Cowards. That's the only word that comes to mind when I have to describe people who uses passive aggressive techniques to get their way done. They "throw the rock and hide the hand". And they feel they are sooo smart, so clever, so witty, so acid, so incredibly smooth the world just doesn't deserve them. If you ask me, (and if you don't ask me too)I think these people are just plain and sorry schmucks.

Passive Aggressive is a term that has a big conflict implied. how come people are aggressive but they express their anger in a passive way?..what the hell is that?. I just hate the word and all it stands for. It is a synonim of whimp.

I think a choice has to be made when we decide how to face problems or discrepancies with someone (human, corporate or government). Either you are passive or aggressive, but you can't be both because it will explode in your face sooner or later.

Not only is a passive aggressive attitude repulsive and annoying, it also is very harmful and expensive for companies. I remember being in Colombia once, and the airline had some kind of strike going on, but instead of not working, employees would slow the pace of business to a histerically slow pace in order to get their demands met by the corporation. They called it "Turtle Operation". Words can not describe the level of tension and anger from the crowd in that airport (myself included). There was nothing we could do. Part of this passive aggressive strategy included to make sure they screwed our day too. Nice going Avianca. I love you too.

You can find Passive aggressive behaviour everywhere: when your waiter takes as long as he wants to bring  your damn (and now cold) soup just because he hates his life; it exists inside corporations when different areas play power games and hit below the belt everytime they can just to "win" small and stupid battles; when there is gossip and "watercooler chats" regarding someone in the organization; when things are not said face to face; when people work in the dark just to cause some damage; When anonimacy is used to degrade people and when there is no coherence between words and facts, then you will know you are in front of it: passive aggressiveness at its best.

So, if you want to be aggressive, be aggressive and active.Don't be a passive moron. If you like to be passive but you are mad at someone or something, well, drink a freaking RedBull, stand up and face the music like a professional. We can save tons of time and money if we say things like they are to the correct people. To people who may take action. To people with the right sense of urgency and importance of things. Don't try to make people tripover, either you get rid of them completely or stop crying like a baby and live with them. But don't put personal interests prior to your company or group interest. That's just not right and it shows lack of courage.

I don't encourage aggressiveness. I encourage bluntness. I encourage direct, honest communication. I encourage actions visible to others and with names and faces to hold accountable for them. Basically and to sum up, I encourage the truth and the guts to make things happen or not happen but always with a good reason and playing it straight.

Show your face!... You will keep it buried for a long time when you die, so you may just enjoy the bluntness ride.

Aureliano García

BETTER THAN YOU THINK

I have met my worst enemy. He has been around me all my freaking life. The most thrilling part is: The bastard lives inside my head. It's me. The biggest blocker of great stuff happening for me, is myself. Lucky for me,I know what to do to defeat myself, as weird as this may sound. I´m on my case. I hate that little "mini me" telling me stuff that just makes me a lesser and stupid person. And I am gonna get him. Believe me.

For what I see, I guess there is a "mini me" inside of every brain...and some of them are stronger than others. Normally, all of us are aware when we tend to obey a hidden force that leads us to failure or mediocrity. If "mini me" wins, we will end up in a miserable poverty and hating ourselves. This is the normal "mini me" pressure to every thinking human.



In my case, the little "mini me" not only tells me things such as: "You can´t do that, you idiot" or.." "That´s not for you, moron". Those lines are easy to overcome, because I am as stubborn as a crazy mosquito that just  filtered into your tree house in the amazon river, and it's nagging you in the ear until you cry for some fucking extra strength Raid or at least a rolled up newspaper to kill me with. I am aware that I can be a pain when I put my mind onto something. This is an easy fight. Me: 1 "Mini me":0.

But the truly difficult part is when "mini me" is screwing with us and we don't even see him coming. And it happens that sometimes our worse enemy is when we get arrogant, cocky and  we become so full of ourselves, that it's just sickening.  This is "mini me"´s masterpiece. Making ourselves believe that we can't get any better because we are sooooo damn good at what we do, that it's virtually impossible to improve anymore.

Well,  sorry to dissapoint you. Let me tell you about a real experience I had this week. I confess: I have always thought I was highly skilled for public speaking. Then I went to this training and found out, that I am not bad at all, but I still have a huge room for improvement. Learning new techniques, new skills is always a big rush for the head, but most of all, for the heart. I am really glad I went to school again. It helped me forsee how my decisions and attitude will determine my future.

I learned that the dumbest mistake a human can make, is to think he has mastered something. You can be devilishly good, but you can ALWAYS improve. Of course, making it better will suffer economies of scale, but those small improvements for someone who is already well thought on any matter, will be noticeable and will polish our performance over and over again. These extra efforts will separate the artists from the competents. The memorable from the "very good". Or the man from the boys ( I always wanted to write that!!)

There is always room for excellence. For being memorable. But most importantly, there is always room for giving ourselves the chance of being amazed of where we can extend our competencies and skills if we make our pride aside for a couple of days and focus on learning something new.

You are better than you think. I am better than I used to think I was. And from now on, I will make sure I don't forget this.

Be careful "mini me", I'm coming after you!

Aureliano García

RESUMÉ: A NIGHTMARE IN BLACK AND WHITE

When I want to have a good, loud and healthy laugh, I read some resumés. Man!, are we good at lying or what?

In fact, a few weeks ago I was reading my old, kind of dusty resumé,  and I honestly think it sucked!, big time!. You know why?..Because maybe I need to know when to stop adding stupid and worthless facts to that poor piece of paper. I am still surprised companies hired me with this lame, boring and long personal soap opera. (I guess they did because I kicked some serious ass in the interview, thank God!). I am destroying it and re-doing it all over again, for the sake of personal honor and because I can't read it again without crying instead of laughing.

Please, don't get me wrong: Resumés are OK, they are the first impression we make and the key to enter into almost any hiring process. No doubt they are important. But they can not be trusted for a fact and they should always be double checked with a good, deep and thorough interview with the creator of the Curriculum Vitae ( Why the hell do we say this in latin?..:who do we think we are, Julius Caesar? uh?).

I would never advice to disregard any candidate based only in the way he/she wrote a life sheet. Always try the interview. A lot of surprises come up in the one on one situation. But, having hired (and fired) lots of people in the last 10 years, I have come to some conclusions regarding the things that I like and dislike about resumés.
Here they go:

I LIKE:

1) Short and precise information. And please, oh please!, include your god damn photo. I won't discriminate you for how you look, but if I have to review 350 CV's, at least make sure I don't confuse you with somebody else.

2) A different way to present the data. Once, I got a Resumé from a candidate, written in the form of a newspaper: "He graduates from an MBA! said one of the "news" printed on it with a picture of the graduation day. Beautiful job, which caught my eye immediatly. Interest me or lose me! It happens in seconds!

3) A story that tells me what YOU can do for ME, and not the other way around.

4) Real Life examples of what you are saying. If you say you speak 87% english ( I have actually seen this odd numbers on resumés) and when I start interviewing you in english you don't stare at me with your eyes and mind blanked, but you REALLY speak 87% english, well, you are OK then.

5) A curriculum that leaves me wanting to know more about you, and forces me to conduct an interview, one on one, in person, not by phone..

I HATE:

1) Longer than life Resumés. I don't want to know where did you go for Kindergarden education. I will know if the candidate went there when I see him at the interview and he shows at least some basic manners, took a shower, dressed properly for the event, arrived on time and cleaned those shoes.

2) Bullshit Skills. God!, this is the funniest part of them all. It really takes some nerve to write egocentric, narcisist and plain stupid stuff like: "honest", "TeamPlayer", "Creative beyond belief", "good with people"(imagine this shit if you are loking for a Vet Specialist, epic fail!) etc. Who are we trying to fool? I don't doubt you are all that and a little bit more, but please, SHOW it to me, don't just READ it to me ok?. I remember once I found the skill "Honesty" in some guy's resumé. I asked him during the interview, how much was the normal "bribe" for a traffic policeman if you exceeded the speed limit or passed a red light (very common practice in México,I am not saying that it's OK, but hey! it happens). He answered: "Well, around 100 pesos, but I have been let off the hook for $50!!". And he said it with pride, as if he was showing off his "negotiation" skills. After that, I took my red pen and crossed over the word "honesty" and asked him: OK, we are doing fine now. Any other bullshit you want me to cross over before I dismiss you?. Real case.

3) Typos. This is your life you are talking about!!. At least have the courtesy of writing your bullshity story with proper grammar.If anyone has typos in their CV, immediatly look for "attention to details" in the "Fantastic Skills" section. So typical.

4) Reading about your ambitions. Frankly, I don't care if you want to be master of the Universe and VP of sales in the next five years unless you are acually working for me. Then we will talk about a career development plan. But I just met you and you are already asking me for favours and telling me your plans?. Sorry pal, I am hiring someone because of what he/she can do for my business. What about if I tell YOU my plans and you tell ME what can you do to help me (or my company) reach them?

5) Lies intended to cover periods of unemployment. Don't tell me you decided to take a sabbathical at age 24. Don't tell me you decided to "find yourself" in Tibet. Truth prevails.I appreciate dealing with direct, honest people that are humans and that at some point in life, had a dry season. Nothing wrong with that.  Once, I interviewed (and hired) a candidate who wrote something I found inspiring: "You will find a 5 year gap in my resumé. I spent this period of time perfoming the most amazing job I will ever have: Being a mom." Truth prevails and it can open doors you did never imagine could exist. So don't lie. It works. Unless you want to be a politician (God forbid!)

OK, I said it. Finally, a heavy burden I get off my back. Good for me. Now, go out and smash the corporate world with a nice, honest, different, cool and interesting Resumé. Nothing else should be allowed.

Have a great weekend

Aureliano García