So I was trapped in a local selectman’s meeting recently.  If you’ve never done local or town politics, I can confidently say Dante would have reserved an inner ring of hell for what I experienced. 

I love efficiency. When I was taking French I often dreamt in French, but now I just dream efficient– probably because it has been beaten into me over time and sealed off when I had twins.  One can not be inefficient and have multiples.

So back to the meeting. I was there on a pretty serious matter– a stray bullet zippin’ across a neighbors’ yard, breaking a window and firmly entrenching itself in the bench the kids sit to take off their muddy boots.  Investigations, issues with the local gun club all found myself and my neighbors at the local selectman’s meeting.

Not the top of the agenda, I waited as the selectmen debated for an hour and half on boat hoists and a request for proposal for a new dock.  I was impressed with how thorough they were for the RFP, and was really not happy that I would, given the nature of my business, be there most likely for the long haul given the time and depth spent on boat storage (which I know now more than I ever hope to.)

So imagine my surprise when they spent a total of 20 mins on the matter and basically left it as a status update with no resolution. 

 What?

Yessir. 20 minutes and I was home before Ugly Betty was over.

The ridiculousness of the situation gnawed at me until I actually realized what was going on.  It’s only natural actually, I mean haven’t you found that the more important, more crucial the task, the more it gets put off until it reaches a “critical” level.  I’ve done it personally, because if I only had more information, waited until the price went down, or had more time to complete it, the best possible outcome would be achieved.  Right?  Wrong.  Usually I forget about it or postpone it (stressing all the while) until I realized I wasn’t ever going to get any more info or the price had going back up or it’s backordered, or I had so little time left that only “merely adequate” end product was derived.

Let’s give it a name: Inverse Proportion of Immediate Action to Importance of Task*  (*the exception being life-threatening instances where it is a direct proportion– we all seem to rise to the occasion when a tornado is a comin’.)

Do you suffer from IPIAIT?  Take a look at your day-to-day projects and I bet you’ll find at least three that are in a holding pattern while you’re waiting for some key piece of data that, given a second look-see, really might not be that key.  Waiting for the moons to align will leave one waiting longer than really necessary.  I know from personal experience that the times I’ve “just did it” were often my best work product.  So from an efficiency and a productivity perspective, when you know you have around 80+% of what you need* (*outside of something like the space shuttle or nanotechnology where this doesn’t work so well) just do the first draft.  Anything extra is gravy.

As for my fair Selectmen.  Seeing local politics in action I don’t envy the job one bit.  Of course there maybe other reasons at play so it might not be absolutely fair — but I will say it was my first impression… and, as far as I’m concerned… they count.

And just because, an inspirational little video for your viewing pleasure:

I was just reading Mark Cuban’s blog and he has some sage-like advice.  He’s made a ton of money, dedicated to speaking his mind and ticking people off. Plus he’s smart. So I take note.

His latest piece on the economy resonated me like tin drum.  He gives a broad list of scary facts about the U.S. economy (and I won’t go into it but just say, you should read it)– the end result is… with respect to the economy, no one knows squat.  No one knows where it’s going: up, down, sideways.  And these are the experts, the pundits, the people in charge.  With mounting stress, your average U.S. citizen that holds a job, pays into a 401K, saves for their kids college and holds a mortgage is like a deer in the headlights.  We are at an economic psycho-social paralytic standstill.  What do we do?

We all need to find our inner Hustler. We need to start doin’ the Hustle.

Before you click off, think about it.  The real definition of a “Hustler” is less 70’s Pimp, Disco and dirty magazines and more about attitude.  So where one might see visions of Starsky and Hutches’ friend (and Snoop Dogg Doppelgänger) Huggy Bear, I see the people, and more importantly, personalities that will not only survive life’s rotten episodes but thrive.  Classic examples? Rhett Butler AND Scarlett O’Hara, The Wright Brothers, The Greatest Generation (who survived Depression AND won WWII AND brought the atomic age…,) Oprah, Post-WWII Japan, Martin Luther King, Estée Lauder, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela,Thomas Edison, James Bond,The Founding Fathers, MacGyver, Tina Turner, Madonna, and the list goes on and on…

The one thing all these people (real or fictional) had is that they refused to be hindered.  Their progress (professional, personal, economic, political) was not going to be halted by anything. Not the economy. Not politics.  Not tragedy.  They looked at the issue from the perspective of “there is success to be made and the path to it might be different than expected.”  So they got creative, they rewrote the rules,  they re-invented themselves/their company/their country, and they SOUGHT OUT NEW WAYS of doing things.  The new opportunity is always out there, you just have to seek it.

So how does this apply to you?  We are in tough and uncertain times, no arguments there.  It is time for you to tap your inner “Hustler” and “hustle” for new ways to do business.  Your business. New products and services that can affect your company’s bottom line by either saving you money or helping you make money faster or (even better) DO BOTH.  The old way of doing things is exactly what everyone else is doing, and that doesn’t make it right, it only means you’ll all be (sinking) in the same boat.  Seth Godin, in his new book Tribes (read it if you haven’t yet) subscribes that playing it safe isn’t exactly safe.  He believes the world is ever-changing and new rules apply.  The Hustler learns how to play them.  Or else get played.

And just because, under the you-know-you-thinking-about-it file: