In between working, polishing my resume, and shopping online for ties, I somehow starting thinking about things so difficult to do, that if you could master any one of them, you could probably print your own money. I think these are the types of things that have never been mastered ever, by anyone, in any century. Of course, there are things like predicting the future and walking on water, but where’s the intellectual value in discussing that?  Here are 2 other things that readily come to mind: Eliminate ambiguity from any business, and change people.

1) Eliminate ambiguity from any business

Ignoring the obvious benefit of eliminating ambiguity in general, removing it from business is something I think a lot of management consultants would admit they build entire businesses around. They say that people with higher tolerances for ambiguity are better business people. I think as long as you deal with humans, there is always ambiguity. But it sure would be nice to be able to start a business and have everything work out as planned, or to come to work every day and never have to get upset because people can’t communicate their requirements well which forces you to redo half the work you’ve already done. (note: eliminating ambiguity from any business would put at least stock analysts out of business for sure. I think anytime you can render an entire segment of the working population obsolete, your value goes up.)

2) Change people

People always tell you “you can’t control what people do, you can only control your reaction.” I often wonder why people continue to deal with other people they obviously don’t get along with. And they complain about it all the while. OK, I’ve fallen into this trap, so I should be called a hipocrit. Sometimes it’s just easier to complain than to take corrective action. But I know you could make a killing if you were able to change people. It’s one of those things that I think every human tries to do at some point, and I doubt anyone ever succeeds. But it would probably be a double-edged sword. Especially if two people both hired you to change each other. I think there was a movie like that with Jim Carey and that chick from Titanic.

Posted by tommy on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 7:53 pm.