moi621 (imported) wrote: Wed May 12, 2010 12:01 pm Why Bother <sigh> trying to be a good person.

bobover3 (imported) wrote: Thu May 13, 2010 12:25 am Or, if this were a Charles Bronson movie, you could get a bazooka. But be sure to use it in a kind, loving, and good spirit.

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Mon May 17, 2010 4:27 am The posts here touches on several issues.

At one time in my teens, twenties and into my thirties I would have agreed with you. A couple of things have happeed since then. Once is that I totally embarassed myself once giving a briefing. It was so tramatic that it forced me into looking for solutions. I ended up joining Toastmasters. A funny thing happens when you learn better how to communicate with people. I used a corporate downsizing as a time to go a couple of times to a shrink. He had some helpful solutions, but ultimately said that I had aready done 60% of the work.

My first job overseas was a camp job in South America. There were 15 of us in a two bedroom "house." I am a standard issue dour Germanic person. Latinos there have this habit in the morning of individually greeting each person (no matter the personal feelings), patting them on the back and smiling. You know, it doesn't take much of that to drive away my God given dourness.

I could probably go on, but you get the jist. A large part of perception of the world and its people is in the mind of the observer. That can be changed. To a large degree, you have control of your thoughts and your fate.

I feel it is true that there is no job security now. At least in my business, which has always been boom or bust. On all of the personnality tests, I fall right down the middle. I am 50.1% northern German and want to wear a belt AND suspenders to my retirement job as a postal clerk. I am 49.9% Bavarian and want to skydive buck-assed naked. Life in the 60s, 70s and 80s appealed to the 50.1% of me. But that world has gone. There is not a mega-corporation that will hire a person of my age. But I try really hard to keep by technical skills up, make it a point to meet people whom I do not know and always provide value on a timely basis. I have become like the story about the two bulls up on the hill, one old and one young. Looking down at the cows below, the young one says, "Hey, lets run down and fuck a cow." The old one says, "No, lets walk down and fuck them all." Youngsters walk the mountains faster than me. But when I start I know what the finished product will be and I walk directly to the points needed for that final product. In short, I produce a valuable product in shorter time because of my experience. Some people want youth, some value experience. Enough value experience that life is much, much more interesting now with no job security than it was. Skydiving naked is actually kind of exciting.

I realize a big part of that also is the luck of the genetic draw.

Anyway, the long and short of my answer would be that in part it is the inheretance of the person, but a big part is also determined by things that each person can control, including outlook on life.