Greg Crisp

A year in the Gregorian calendar is just as good as any other, arbitrary measure of time invented by mankind for structuring your life, so here we go…

“My resolution for 2009: To whack the BS and valueless distraction from my life with a very large set of loppers, metaphorically speaking.”

2007 was a disaster. I changed my industry focus away from Telecom, which put my career and life in moderate turmoil. I lost thousands on a couple of bad real estate investments, got months behind on debt, and nearly filed for bankruptcy. November and December of that year were largely sleepless for me.

The nice thing about hard times is that you learn a lot about yourself, life, and what’s important. I learned a lot in 2007.

2008 was largely about recovering from 2007. I maintained steady utilization in my consulting business, closed out the last, lingering investment property, and got my life largely in order, while re-establshing some old friendships. I also worked on building new relationships, some of which washed out in the process, but a few have potential. I’m re-learning that it’s better to fast-fail a situation rather than have it linger in limbo for months, wasting time and energy for naught. A partnership that is not mutual, with a partner that cannot carry their own weight, traveling under their own steam, is no partner worth having.

I’ve also been working on being more genuine in my communications with those around me. We’ll see how that works out long term, since many seem to have a hard time with extremes of truth and openness. I’ve turned down work that I can’t do, which in the past I would have tried to do and failed. Committing to something that cannot be, or that you have no ability to deliver, is not fair to either party. Letting someone know up front that I can’t meet their expectations has been the most fair to both, as the other party is not expecting me to meet a commitment that can never be met.

When you aren’t certain which direction to go, any path will do. But once a direction is established, you should pursue that with all deliberate speed.

Strategically, 2009 is to be about cutting the crap, building relationships with those who will be a positive influence on my life, and removing or minimizing the influence of those who can’t or won’t add value, or frankly, really just need to grow up a bit. I’m looking for associations that will be open and mutual, neither party accepting commitments they can’t make, withholding the truth of what they want as an end-goal, nor being non-geneuine with their communication and availability.

See also: Trust, Performance and the Sharing of Time

Pragmatically speaking, I will be maintaining my consulting business in web content management for the forseeable, while also spinning up a new line of business focussed on iPhone development and consulting. I’ve done mobile device development on and off for years, and did a lot of C and C++ stuff earlier in my career, so its sort of like coming home, but to a redecorated house with all new appliances. It’s the first thing I’ve felt really passionate about in a while. More to come on that later.

I expect anyone to call me on any of this, should I fail to live up to my stated ideals. I promise to listen with an open mind.