I swear, over half of the Golden Rules were put out there by guys and gals with a huge sense of humor that I can truly appreciate. Like the Early Bird Gets The Worm and all of the ones you have heard about Procrastination being a bad thing.
Whoever came up with them is still laughing their Butts off as they are trotted out by people like they are spun of Gold or something. I also think they laid these out there to clear the field for them to swoop in and grab the profits from their less adroit competition.
I have seen a number of these recently on Facebook and Twitter with lots of accolades.
Well, let me give you something to think about before you swallow these axioms whole. They are only correct in certain situations and they are totally wrong in many, many others. Especially those involving money.
I am going to give you a couple of examples of how they are wrong.
When you are interviewing or making a presentation, you DO NOT want to be one of the first ones. The last one in has the greatest chance of leaving a good impression by far. You have about an 80% greater chance with all things being equal of getting the job or the contract if you are the last or one of the last to be interviewed or to give you sales pitch.
How is that for a monkey wrench upside the head of the Early Bird?
As far a procrastination, this is an Art that took me quite sometime to appreciate. Procrastination in many things where other people think that there is a fire, can actually self-extinguish said fire all by itself. Just because they fail to plan or think that you must jump on something does not mean that you can’t procrastinate to the point where the finally realize that it was not that big of a deal in the first place.
Also, by procrastinating, it can force you to focus on just the nuts and bolts of the situation and not mess with the non-essentials.
So, the Early Bird can be the first to get Shot Down and Procrastination can make troubles dissipate. How is that for a different twist on things?
Call me after 10:00 AM please… 🙂
Cheers,
Andrew “Easy” Anderson