The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness. A major aspect of your personal wellness and that of your family is where you choose to live. The place where you live has multiple effects on your life. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Choose Where You Live.
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It doesn’t matter whether you are planning to retire or you are just looking for a new place to live, deciding where to go is not a natural choice to make. There are so many cities and towns, suburbs, and municipalities to choose from. It’s always smart to look at your options and move to what you feel is the best location for you.
But where do you begin? Choosing where to live takes research. You’ll need to know where the jobs are and how the real estate market is looking (and Peter Barlin makes this easy for Austin!). You need to see if you will have the right amenities in your new place, and you need to find out whether you are in the right place for everything that you will need. So, what do you need to consider when choosing where you should live the rest of your life?
Town Size. Whether you covet the city or you swoon after the suburbs, you need to choose the size of the town that works for you. You want to find somewhere to live based on your needs, and it starts with the size. The internet is invaluable for this, as you can find out what the populations are for all the areas you are interested in.
The Weather. If you hate rain, Seattle is not a good idea. If you love the sunshine, then Miami could be for you. The weather affects your mood, and it affects everything that you want to do – especially if you love the outdoor life. Choose the right climate for you, and you’ll be able to enjoy the new area in which you are basing your life.
Entertainment. Are you looking for a quiet life, or do you hope for jazz clubs and buzz? Living within the right area can make a big difference in the way you look at life. It would help if you considered what you enjoy and what’s close by to you. There’s no use in feeling isolated and living so far away. Be aware, though, that the more built-up the area, the more expensive it can become.
Employment. Are you moving for your job? Do you hope to find a new job when you do eventually move? These are essential questions that you need to answer because without doing so, you’re going to find it hard to settle without means to pay your way.
Amenities. Are you moving with children? Well, you’ll need to consider schools you may also want to know about public transport and local hospitals just in case you need this. You will need to live somewhere that ticks all the boxes, whether that’s a town or city to start with!
The Great Outdoors. Nature is a big deal for a lot of people, especially if you love hiking and walking to new areas. Beaches are also a big deal if you love water sports. Choose your area based on your interests, and you can’t go wrong.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two focuses are Career Discussions and Health/Wellness. Whether its your personal life or your professional life, there are principles that lead to success in both arenas. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Life Principles That Will Help You Professionally and Personally.
Life is a deeply complicated thing, to say the least, and there are all sorts of different ideologies, viewpoints, and approaches on how to live the best life, and how to get the most done with the time that you have on this mortal coil.
The self-help section of any bookstore will contain a vast number of tomes dedicated specifically to such topics, and there are of course all sorts of proprietary systems that have been suggested by various entrepreneurs and celebrities, for the express purpose of making money, and helping you to achieve your dreams – whatever those might be.
As it is often difficult to figure out exactly how to move forward in a specific situation, or how to sift through and select between the different strategies, approaches, and personal and professional achievement techniques that you have encountered, one of the most consistently useful things to do is to have a set of general principles that can be applied in the broadest possible range of situations, with good effect.
So, here are a few life principles that will help you professionally and personally, in almost all situations.
Use the right tool for the right job
There’s a very old idea, that has been spoken about by learned people, for a very long time. That advice is to always use the right tool for the job, and there are various related sayings and bits of folk wisdom that imply some of the hazards of not doing this.
Take for example the saying; “when the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.” Though this doesn’t precisely make the same point, outright, it implies it by painting a picture of a person who crudely and inappropriately misdiagnosis the various situations he is confronted with, as a result of his bias and narrow framework of understanding.
The idea of using the right tool for the job applies both very literally, and also more abstractly. In a literal sense, the need for specialised equipment, specialised tools, and specialised materials, is precisely why companies such as Clinton Aluminum and Stainless Steel exist and thrive.
In a more abstract sense, you can use this concept as an injunction to stay dynamic, develop a broad range of skills and outlooks, and try to exercise a bit of nuance in your understanding of the world, and your approach to resolving different issues.
This could have implications for everything from your interpersonal interactions, to the way in which you attempt to make a success of your business.
There’s a lot of power in old proverbs and aphorisms – the older and more widely spread there are, the more likely they are to be meaningful
These days, we all generally tend to subscribe to the idea that the ultimate truth and wisdom in how to act, moment by moment, is to be found within the broad world of “science.”
In practice, though, there are many problems with trying to use science as a catch-all insight-generator for how to handle personal and professional issues. For one thing, science generally addresses the “how” of material and rationalistic phenomena, but doesn’t address the “why” of the subjective world, including questions such as which course of action might promote the greatest degree of human flourishing and meaning.
Another issue, is that scientific consensus is often not clearly established in different areas – and even when it is, paradigm shifts may always occur and throw out a previously unshakeable understanding of the world.
Then, there’s the fact that virtually no one who isn’t an academic scientist themselves, has the time, training, or contextual understanding, to really weigh up the body of literature on any given area and make sense of it in something approaching an objective and balanced manner.
For all of these reasons, among others, the author Nassim Nicholas Taleb – writer of such works as “Fooled By Randomness,” and “The Black Swan” – argues that, instead, the best way of orienting yourself in the world is often to turn to ancient proverbs, aphorisms, and traditions.
As a general rule, it makes sense to think that the longer a particular proverb or aphorism has been around – and the more cultures it is dispersed among – the more “true” it is likely to be on some fundamental level that pertains to the human experience. This is true, largely as a matter of a sort of Darwinian process. When an idea has endured for centuries and millennia in popular consciousness, it is heavily implied that this idea provided some adaptive benefit for the people who subscribed to it, whereas ideas that were fundamentally destructive and “out of sync” with reality, would have died off as their adherents died off.
Therefore, when you’re looking for insight into how you should act at any given moment, consider turning to old sayings and bits of folk wisdom.
Always be prepared
Life will often catch you by surprise and throw many strange and unwelcome circumstances your way, and your most effective bulwark against these kinds of woes and unwelcome scenarios, is to always be prepared, to the greatest of your ability, and to directly face whatever eventualities may present themselves.
Whenever you have an intimation of there being some kind of challenge or problem on the horizon, do what you can to plan for it and pre-empt it, today.
This might mean something quite large-scale and dramatic, but it could just as easily be something relatively small-scale that would nonetheless have outsized consequences.
For example, if you have no lunch cooked for tomorrow, and you know that you will likely be tempted to spend money you shouldn’t spend on junk food you shouldn’t eat, you could rather short-circuit the whole process by spending some time tonight cooking for tomorrow.
Preparation, generally speaking, gives you a degree of control over the future that is often extremely valuable.
There is no easy way
As has often been observed over the broad sweep of human history, there is no “easy way.”
Many people preach many systems and doctrines for achieving your dreams and overcoming obstacles with minimal effort, from the Law of Attraction to all sorts of other systems.
Always and everywhere, though, the most reliable standard to keep in mind is that hard work solidifies real results.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Health/Wellness. There are several aspects to a successful life. Unfortunately, many individuals are only taught to focus on a few pieces and not the entire picture such that our lives become incomplete and even disjointed. The following contributed post is entitled, It’s Time To Take Charge Of Your Life.
When you’re a kid, it’s easy to feel as though everyone else is in charge of you. You’re told when to eat, when to sleep, who you can see, and where you can go. But when you’re a teenager, you’re right on the cusp of being a real adult, and it starts to feel like you have a lot more freedom over what you do. Now, this can be an amazing thing and something that a lot of teens spend their lives waiting for, but it can also be pretty intimidating. After all, for the first time in your life, you’re faced with the idea of actually having to make your own choices and be responsible for the consequences. It’s enough to make some people want to retreat to their rooms and go back to being a kid. Of course, you can’t go back, so here are some ways in which you can start taking charge of your own life.
Working
Once you’re old enough, there are few things more exciting than the idea of being able to start earning your own money! After all, do you really want to spend your life asking your parents for money every time you want to go to the movies? Of course not! However, finding work when you’re still young can be really tough. There are plenty of places that will hire you; they just might not be your dream job right now. That’s okay. The job that you have now won’t be the one you have forever, and it’s more about being able to enjoy the freedom that earning your own money provides than finding your lifetime career. Don’t put it off either! Get started on applications for things like Barr-Nunn corporate jobs, as well as any other applications! Sure, fast food places, retail stores, or restaurants might not be the most glamorous places in the world, but they help you gain that independence that is so important as you get older.
Studying
When you’re younger, you’ve often got teachers and parents staring down your neck all of the time in order to make sure that you’re pushing yourself as hard as possible and that you’re studying as much as you can. However, you’ll find that once you’re in college, that’s all going to change. When you’re in college, the only person who’s around to hold you accountable is, well, you! This is something that a lot of people struggle with at first because it’s something that they’re really not used to. Because of that, it’s important that you start being more independently motivated by your studies. Sure, you might still have your parents and teachers around right now, but if you can avoid leaning on them and push yourself forward independently then not only are your studies going to improve a lot, but you’re also going to be in a much better position to move onto a more independent stage in your life.
Your relationships
Relationships are hard. That’s something that just about everyone would be able to agree on. When you’re younger it’s all terribly simple but as people mature and become more complicated, so do the relationships between them. One of the hardest things to do when trying to take charge of your life is to avoid falling into toxic or unhealthy friendships whenever you can. This can often be tricky because no one sets out to end up in that kind of relationship but being able to recognise the warning signs is always a good idea. Are the people in your life taking more from you than they’re giving back? Do you feel worse about yourself when you’re around them? All of these things are serious red flags that you should keep an eye on. If you find yourself in this kind of situation then the best thing that you can do is to just walk away altogether.
The reality is that, if you want to do something with your life, you have to be willing to put the work in. Life isn’t going to throw anything into your lap. People who spend their time waiting for the world to hand them the things that they want are almost always sorely disappointed. Fortune favors the bold and you’re never going to get anywhere if you don’t take risks and push yourself to take control wherever you can. You have to get out there and make it happen for yourself.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two key focuses are Career Discussions and Professional Development/Skills. Most career tracks are not straight lines and do involve some adversity and setbacks. Reaching your goal will ultimately require perseverance. The following contributed post is entitled, 3 Reasons Not to Be Disheartened by Your Personal and Professional Setbacks.
Whether in our personal or our professional lives, setbacks and failures are an unwelcome but ever-present reality and inevitability.
While, of course, success can and should be pursued and achieved, it is seldom ever won without a significant dose of trouble and challenge along the way. But one of the things that most consistently separates high-achievers from the rest of us, is that high-achievers know not to be disheartened by their personal and professional setbacks.
Here are a few reasons not to be disheartened by yours.
Because failures and setbacks are an excellent opportunity for addressing a weak point and improving for the next round
First and foremost, failures and setbacks identify some kind of weak point or error in your plan, system, approach, attitude, or business model.
On the one hand, you could allow those setbacks to completely crush your confidence and convince you that the particular weak point in question is insurmountable – but how accurate is this sentiment actually likely to be? And more importantly, how does it help you to give up all hope?
A much better and more productive approach is, instead, to treat your failures and setbacks as excellent learning opportunities that show you the way to strengthen and improve yourself or your business, so that when it’s time for the “next round,” you will be in a much better position to meet and overcome your challenges.
If, for example, you ended up in a situation where clients of your business were indebted to you and were in no way holding up their end of the bargain and actually paying, that could be a great lesson to outsource some elements of your business going forward and to utilise the services of a collection agency.
The most capable businesses and people are generally that way because they have systematically identified and addressed many weak points along the way.
Because your destiny is largely shaped by how you respond to circumstances and occurrences
There are always going to be things in life that are out of your direct control, but that nonetheless significantly affect you or your circumstances or environment.
That’s true for everyone. But it doesn’t do any good to sit around feeling sorry for yourself and complaining about circumstances that you can’t do much about.
When all is said and done, your destiny is primarily going to be shaped by how you choose to respond to circumstances and occurrences. There are always more and less proactive and empowered ways of dealing with things. Your challenges, then, are an opportunity for you to show and develop your character.
Because all the best stories ultimately include an element of adversity
We are all the protagonists of our own stories, and life should be an exciting, fulfilling, and gripping tale for each and every one of us.
So, when was the last time you heard or read a great story that didn’t include any element of adversity whatsoever?
In all likelihood, it’s impossible to find a story that anyone cares about where nothing challenging ever happens, and where no failures or setbacks are encountered by the protagonist. As a human being, you need challenges in order to keep life interesting, and to keep you on your toes.
Of course, some challenges and setbacks are going to be absolutely tragic, and it might feel completely inappropriate to use the metaphor of a “plot device” to refer to them. The point remains, though, that you are the one with the ability to shape the course of your life – of your story – largely by how you respond to the challenges that confront you.
Instead of allowing your challenges to break you, meet them in as heroic a way as possible, and write a story that can uplift others.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and three key focuses are Athletics and Sports, General Education, Health and Wellness. Hobbies are critical to everyone’s health wellness both physically and mentally. They keep both our bodies and minds, youthful, stimulated and engaged. If you don’t currently have any hobbies, you should consider some for the new year. The following contributed post is entitled, Hobbies to Try in the New Year.
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Do you have time for hobbies? Most adults struggle to find the time to enjoy their hobbies around work, family life and other commitments. We go through life trying to fit everything in, struggling to make time for things that we love or even the people that we love. This is a shame. Having hobbies that you enjoy can improve your skills, boost your health and confidence, help you to find balance and peace and reduce stress. Hobbies can help you to make friends or improve existing relationships.
Unfortunately, however, when we fall out of practice, it can be hard to get back into the swing of things. Sometimes, it’s easier to try new hobbies, instead of attempting to get back into old ones. Here are some new hobbies that you might enjoy in 2020.
Golf can be a great hobby. It’s an excellent way to get your steps in and enjoy a workout without hitting the gym. It can be a fantastic way to meet new people or spend quality time with your existing friends, and a good way to see some beautiful landscapes. Oh, and it can be good fun. If you’ve never played golf, look at Golf Drivers Reviews for help with what you need.
Fishing is another great way to see more beautiful scenery. If you fish, you’ll travel to different locations and really get out there in nature. One of the most significant advantages of fishing is that it’s stress-relieving. You’ll spend time away from work and family commitments. It’s a great chance to take a bit of a digital detox and enjoy time by yourself. Even if you fish with friends or other people, you’ll spend long periods sat quietly with your own thoughts. Think of it as meditation, with fish. Or not fish, as the case may sometimes be.
Reading
Even those of us that were once keen readers often get out of the habit as busy adult life gets in the way. You might have started going to bed and scrolling through social media for an hour before going to sleep instead of reading.
But reading is better. Social media and screens keep you awake. Reading can help you to relax and unwind. It’s excellent escapism, a great way to keep your mind active and alert and a wonderful way to get away from the stresses of life. Try to read for at least a few minutes every day, taking back some time for yourself in the process.
Drawing or Painting
Having a creative hobby is great. It can help you to think more creatively in other areas of life, boosting your problem-solving skills. It can give you a new way to express yourself, and help you to unwind. It’s also good fun.
If you don’t feel particularly skilled when it comes to art, try adult coloring or scrapbooking instead of freehand painting or drawing. There’s a creative hobby out there for everyone, regardless of your skillset.
Swimming
If you are looking for a hobby that boosts your fitness without pushing you to your limits or getting sweaty, swimming might be a good choice. Swimming is easy on your joints but works your whole body. You can go with friends or alone, and there’s no pressure to be fast. Swimming is an active, yet restful hobby, that lets you go at your own pace.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is General Education. There are a lot of moving parts to the actual learning process. A major part is environment. Creating the optimal educational environment for students can be the key them excelling or faltering. The following contributed post is entitled, Creating the Perfect Educational Environment.
When you think about the classroom, everyone has pretty much the same image. There is the teacher’s desk, a whiteboard, coat hangers, and desks. All of these are important, but some might consider some more so than others.
There’s no such thing as a hierarchy of importance when it comes to education, though. Whether it’s kids venturing into academia for the first time or adults searching to improve their skills, everything matters as much as everything else. However, some things are often neglected or even downright ignored, but this is no way to create the perfect educational environment.
A Place to Sit and Think
An indisputable essential for the perfect classroom environment is having educational furniture that means students can sit and think in comfort. There are many ways to do this, from desks to tables to beanbags, but whatever it is, your students should be able to get on with their projects without discomfort.
Lousy posture can hinder productivity and affect concentration, while awkward seating arrangements make it near-impossible to fulfill potential. It’s a simple thing, but it’s also crucial to help create a positive school experience.
An Encouraging Atmosphere
You should also strive to create an encouraging atmosphere that celebrates achievements and helps pick people up when they’re down. Classrooms of the past may have chastised those for getting answers wrong, but this is something you must avoid.
From teachers to other students and parents or significant others, a culture of support is vital for ensuring everyone feels safe within the classroom, and once they get home. By creating this support network, you give everyone the chance to succeed and enjoy their time at the school.
A Willingness to Adapt
All teachers understand that sometimes things do not go to plan, so a willingness to adapt is an outstanding quality to have if you want to create the perfect educational environment. Things change, activities don’t go as planned, and all your preparation goes entirely out of the window.
It’s easy to panic when this occurs, but while you may be screaming on the inside, you’ve got to keep cool on the outside. Stay calm, and move onto the next thing if possible. It always helps to have a contingency plan just in case you encounter difficulties.
A Space Not For Learning
A space where students both old and young can embrace the creative side of education is another way to foster a superb environment. This allows them to take a break from the rigors of memorizing and critical thinking while still working on skills that are essential for real life.
You can make the space somewhere for musical instruments, painting, or even interpretive dance. It gives the students a chance to try something new and also prevents burnout from sitting down working throughout the day. Once they come back, you’ll find them more energized and ready to get back to learning.
The Perfect Place to Learn
Students should enjoy your lessons, so doing everything you can to make their time there as enjoyable as possible will only have positive effects and positive outcomes during their educational odyssey.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success. A key focus is Professional Development and Skills. No matter what kind of organization you’re running, managing and operating your office space is key. Your office space can impact your employee’s productivity both positively and negatively. The following contributed post is entitled, How to Improve the Ambience of Your Office.
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Your office is more than just a space to get some work done. It’s an extension of your company and plays a direct role in how well your employees are able to work. As such, it’s in your interests to cultivate a positive working environment. Not only will it make going to work more enjoyable for you and your staff, but it’ll also help to boost productivity, and help to give your visitors a positive impression of your business, too. We take a look at a few tried and tested methods for doing this below.
The ambience of the office stems from you, the boss. When you walk into an office, you can normally tell pretty quickly whether it’s a happy office or not. Whichever it is, it’ll be because of the person in charge. If you want to create a positive environment, then you’ll need to bring the positivity. The best way to do this is to work on yourself and make sure that you’re a good boss. If you’re viewing your staff as people, not robots, then you’ll be on the right path.
Hire Pleasant Employees
Of course, while you can help to create a pleasant environment, it’s worth remembering that your staff is going to have a big role in the overall atmosphere, too. You might do all you can to push it in the right direction, but if you have staff members who are not interested in bringing the positivity, then you’ll run into trouble. So how do you get around this? By hiring pleasant employees. Talent and experience do count for a lot, but they’d have to be pretty special if they’re not going to bring a cheery attitude, too. When it comes to interviewing, consider their ‘pleasant factor’ before offering the job. It really will have an impact on how nice the office can be.
Tidy and Spacious
Of course, you could hire the nicest people in the world, but if the office is dark, dingy, and dirty, then it’s not going to be a pleasant atmosphere. The people are only one component of the ambience. So take a look at making your space more enjoyable to be in by making it spacious and clean. You can add more space by getting rid of any old documents and other belongings that you don’t need (you can throw them away, or put them into storage). To keep things clean and tidy, hire a company such as Southern Cross Cleaning. They’ll ensure that your space is neat and organized, without disturbing your staff or operations.
A Touch of Color
Finally, take a look at the decor of the office. There’s nothing wrong with the old, boring grey decor, but there’s not a whole lot right with it, either. You can liven things up by adding some color to proceedings, be it through the choice of paint for the walls, works of art, or by adding plants and flowers. It’ll help to make the space especially inspiring.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Health and Wellness. Keeping our homes properly running is a job all in itself. With careers and in some instances having additional commitments and tasks can make managing a home a gargantuan task. The following contributed post is entitled, Managing A Busy Home And Helping You To Stay Sane.
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When it comes to the home, we can all feel a little overwhelmed and lose our minds with bills, tasks and keeping things running smoothly. However, no matter how hard you try, life can always be a busy and hectic. With that in mind, here are some of the best ways to manage a busy home effectively.
When it comes to a busy home, it is understandable that the finances can get a little ignored over time. This is when you tend to let things leave your account, or just let a direct debit run its course without realising that you could be making a saving. This is when it is vital to ensure that you get regular checks such as energy deals and car insurance quotes to ensure that you are always paying the best possible price.
The food bill is one of those weekly or monthly expenses that we need to have, but we also have complete control over. As a mom, this job can often be down to us, so it’s important to ensure that you manage it right, rather than overspend. After all, every little saved can be put towards other things like vacations or days out. If you find that the food bill is getting a little out of control, then consider writing a list before you head to the shops. Changing the supermarket in which you shop in, or even consider batch cooking or meal planning as an alternative habit.
Create a cleaning schedule
Cleaning is one of the biggest pet hates of many people. No matter how hard you try, it can often feel like huge task each and every time you take it on. However, there is a solution to this dilemma, and it can help you manage the cleaning activities for your home, rather than feel drowned by them. Creating a cleaning schedule can help you keep on top of the chores in your home. From the things that need to be done daily such as cleaning surfaces or wiping down toilets, to weekly and monthly chores, it will help you keep accountable for what needs doing, and also help you manage it more consistently. It helps to spread the jobs out over the course of a week and a month which means that the tasks themselves shouldn’t feel too demanding on your day, and subsequently should free up more time for you as a mom.
Delegate chores
While on the subject of cleaning and managing your home this shouldn’t be something that is left solely to you, no wonder many of us can feel too overwhelmed by the task at hand. It’s important to delegate some jobs. Children as young as four can be accountable for their own bedrooms or make their beds. Older children can put their clothes away and even take on some of the general chores like vacuuming or dusting the furniture. You can ask your partner to take on some other chores like putting the bins out or doing some of the bigger tasks like cleaning windows or clearing out the gutters. There are plenty of jobs that can be shared amongst the family and this can really take some of the stress away from you, freeing up time to do other things that will ultimately be helpful towards you family and your home.
Let’s hope these tips help you to manage a busy home.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Career Discussions. Becoming an Event Planner can be a lucrative career choice. Event Planning is a world all its own with nuances and keys for success. There are several mistakes that novices make. Avoiding the mistakes can propel you far beyond your competition. The following contributed post is entitled, Mistakes Made By New Event Planners.
If you have recently become an event planner or this is a career you are thinking about, learn from the mistakes that others have made by avoiding the errors we discuss below.
Not mastering the world of online marketing
There is only one place to begin, and this is with online marketing. All event planners need to have a good online presence today. If you do not have any knowledge or experience in this, or you do not have the time to dedicate to marketing your services, hire a SEO company. They will be able to help you with everything from building an effective website to producing quality content and ensuring you have a good presence on social media.
Using fresh flowers all of the time
Virtually all events require flowers. Without them, it can be difficult to adorn a venue beautifully, or create the right ambience. With that being said, read on to discover more about artificial blooms and why they are a must for your business.
As briefly touched upon, all occasions, be it a wedding or a birthday party, require flowers. This is a must-have decoration. It can help to make a venue look show stopping while also creating the right mood, from excitement to romance. But, why should you look for cheap artificial flowers in particular? There are many different reasons, but mainly it comes down to the fact that fresh blooms are too much of a hassle and risk.
When dealing with fresh flowers, you will need to get them delivered on the day of the event to make sure their appearance does not deteriorate and they do not lose their beauty. This can be very risky for any business. What if they do not get delivered on time? If you take the opposite approach, i.e. you buy fresh flowers in advance, you run the risk of not using them at an event, and thus you are going to make a loss. With artificial flowers, you don’t have to worry about any of this, you can order them in advance for minimal hassle and you can use them again and again to make sure you get your money’s worth. Not only this, but artificial blooms make sure you can cater to the demands of all of your clients, as you are never restricted to what is in season.
Putting all of your eggs in one basket
Last but not least, it can be a very big deal for any event planner when they manage to secure a big client. However, you need to be mindful and make sure you do not put all of your eggs in one basket. What would happen if this client then decide to take their work elsewhere?
“The coaches at some of the other Yale Cup schools thought I had an unfair competitive advantage because of the intramural program I started at Hutch-Tech!”
The first principle of my blog is “Creating Ecosystems of Success”. I originally published this series on the Examiner back in 2014 and have subsequently began adding to it. As a teen I dreamt of being a basketball player just like a lot of kids – a dream for which one must have lots of ability, drive, and luck to achieve. My experience turned out to be quite the adventure, and I didn’t formally play basketball beyond high school. The lessons I learned there however, not all of them happy and pleasant, helped me as I progressed into adulthood and into my Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) career. As mentioned, when I began reposting this series, I’ve started working on an ambitious writing project chronicling my early basketball journey in Western New York.
If I’m able to get my project published, one of the things that will be special about it is that it’s a story involving real people. The project has required me to do multiple interviews. It has been both an interesting and fun experience. As noted by well-established authors like John U. Bacon, who has written numerous books on Michigan Football, some people are open to being interviewed and being characters in book projects, while others are reluctant. Some agree and then drop out of contact, while others are difficult to contact. As a writer I now understand why some names must be changed in the final story.
I consider my breakthrough interview to be that of Jason Rowe, which led to interviews with others, and I want to thank everyone who participated; some of whom I’ve never met personally. My interview with Jason was followed by an interview with Coach Pat Monti and then his star guards, Carlos Bradberry and Tim Winn. It’s been a fun ride with at least one more big interview on the way, so stay tuned.
One of the key figures in my story is Dr. Kenneth Leon Jones, who was the Head Coach of the Hutch-Tech Boys’ Basketball Team during my freshman, sophomore and junior years. Before he passed away at the end of 2018, Coach Jones told me that he was okay with being a character in my story. In my piece about his basketball camp, I discussed Coach Jones, what I learned from him and what he meant to me.
That was just my perspective though and I discovered many other points of view on Coach Jones in my research. I actually started learning of other peoples’ views of Coach Jones in my junior season where I hit some personal adversities. My struggles, in part, contributed to our team’s struggling and spiraling out of control that season. During my personal storm one classmate sought me out one day and told me that he disliked Coach Jones because he had ‘cut’ his brother years earlier. It was then that I realized that there were many backstories to Coach’s tenure at Hutch-Tech in addition to the successes he experienced my freshman year.
“Most of the time, when somebody is giving you orders and instructions, if you’re not emotionally ready – if you’ve got your mind on the wrong part, you’re not going to try as hard. You’re not going to be into it. You’re not going to absorb as much,” said a player I’ll call “Curtis” about Coach Jones in my interview with him. Curtis was the ‘engine’ that powered Coach Jones’ 1990-91 city and sectional championship team. He said a lot of powerful things during our interview, but this quote very much applies to the relationship between coaches and players, much which I experienced myself, or witnessed with teammates.
One of the cool things about working on a project where you’re interviewing multiple people is that you get to hear multiple points of view. Amazingly, my interviews for The Engineers revealed that Coach Jones was multiple things to multiple people. While there was a group of us who held him in high reverence, appreciated his teachings and the mentoring he gave us, he had several detractors as well. Again, he was multiple things to multiple people. His detractors fell into three groups, some of which might surprise you.
The first group consisted of some of the other coaches in our league called the “Yale Cup”, which was the league for all the Buffalo Public Schools. For those readers unfamiliar with the Yale Cup in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it consisted of fourteen schools. Three schools that no longer exist today are: Buffalo Traditional, Kensington and Seneca Vocational High School.
The Yale Cup was a poorly funded league which lacked a Junior Varsity (JV) program at all its schools to properly prepare its players for Varsity competition. Coach Jones and the Buffalo News called this a “feeder system”. The result was a 14-team league where all of the teams were run differently, and where all the coaches had varying levels of experience and interest. This led to drastically different levels of coaching and attention to detail. Some of the Varsity coaches (Coach Jones included), ran an informal JV program for no extra pay simply because there was a need for it.
We also played in outdated and antiquated facilities. Many of the gyms in the Yale Cup league looked like antiquated factory storage rooms with peeling paint and old industrial smells. Most of our gyms had solid white backboards without ‘break away’ rims. Only a few of the courts, like those at Grover Cleveland and McKinley for example, had ‘regulation-size’ courts with the proper dimensions. Our old little gym at Hutch-Tech was more of a small box than anything. Someone I interviewed recently jokingly said that Performing Arts’ gym resembled a bit of a bowling alley.
“The coaches at the other schools thought I had an unfair competitive advantage because of the intramural program I started at Hutch-Tech,” Coach Jones said during one of our interviews. He shared a lot of things with me that I didn’t know as a teen and probably wouldn’t have understood. There were so many layers – so many things happening at once surrounding the Hutch-Tech Boys’ Basketball Team in plain sight and behind the scenes. The same is true for Coach Jones’ two immediate successors who I’ll keep anonymous at this time.
One of the hallmarks of Coach Jones’ tenure at Hutch-Tech was his intramural program. The program was for all the boys in the school so that everyone could get taste of competition and where a champion was crowned. More specifically, it allowed Coach Jones to scout the talent in each class. It wasn’t something he was doing for extra pay, but instead it was something for the students and for the school.
“Some of Jones’ players played angry,” a former player also from Coach Jones’ city and sectional championship team who I’ll call “Pep”, said jokingly. My interview with Pep might be my favorite of all of the interviews I’ve done simply because I could hear that he was having so much fun talking about his playing days. In any case, Coach Jones’ second group of detractors were surprisingly on some of his rosters.
Before getting to Hutch-Tech, the program looked like a utopia from the outside. My research though revealed that there were several conflicts and perpetually hurt feelings involving some of Coach Jones’ players. In some instances, there were personality conflicts. In other instances, there were players who felt they had to prove themselves repeatedly and in general felt unappreciated. Some players felt that they didn’t play enough, and others didn’t play at all though they were given roster spots.
The third group of detractors were outside of the team, but in the student body. The individual who stands out the most for this group is the classmate described above, but there were others. The reality in life is that there are winners and losers, and there usually isn’t enough of everything to go around. This particularly applies to a basketball team where a coach can realistically keep up to 18 players, while only being able to play 8-10 regularly.
In short, not every kid at my school who wanted a roster spot got one, and there are any number of reasons for that. I may write another teaser-piece just on the criteria Coach Jones presented on his ‘invite list’. That’s right, during his tenure, you couldn’t just come out for the basketball team, you had to be invited. This cut a lot of kids out of the picture from the start even before having a chance to show him they could dribble the ball, make baskets, play defense or even run one of his offenses.
Why does this all matter? Like the entire story, it was a sample of what was to come throughout the rest of my life in college and then in the adult world. For some of us who earned roster spots and submitted to his coaching, Coach was father figure, a mentor and a leader. Others on his teams felt like his whipping boys and even underappreciated. Other students didn’t feel like they were given a fair chance to play. Some didn’t like his fundamentals-based way of teaching the game. Some of the other coaches in our Yale Cup league thought he was cheating.
This is why interscholastic sports are good teachers going forward in life. Two of the things you learn about in addition to your sport, are people and leadership – neither of which are easy aspects to manage. As a leader, whether it’s a coach, a college professor, a clergyman or a supervisor, not everyone sees you the same way. Depending on our backgrounds, our values, our individual natures, and where our minds are in seasons of our lives, our experiences with that person will vary, and in many instances, vary greatly. It’s also true that because we may see a given person differently, our truths may be different.
Whether it was the Hutch-Tech Boys’ Basketball Team, my research lab in graduate school, or now within the government agency I work in everyday, there were always individuals charged with leading larger groups or teams. Some people within those teams possess different levels and proficiencies at their crafts. All possess different levels of emotional intelligence. Some are better communicators than others, and some are just better team players than others.
“If I could go back, I would be just as demanding, but more understanding,” Coach Jones said to me several times during our talks. He knew that he drove his players hard and demanded a lot from us. He also concluded that he could’ve been a little more understanding of each player and what they were going through as each of us came from different homes and had different life struggles in our teens.
“If you look at that team that almost made it to Glens Falls, Coach Jones let that team do a lot, but that was all earned. He said, ‘Hey, I’ll let you shoot a three-pointer or a long jump shot outside the offense because I know that we’re playing good enough defense that we’re going to get a possession back,” said a former teammate named “Chris” who played under Coach Jones for four years. Chris was a captain on our team in my sophomore year and a true leader. Some of Coach Jones’ critics thought he was too restrictive and controlling of his teams, particularly on offense.
“When I went to college, I played Division III at the Coast Guard Academy. I didn’t play Varsity, but instead played on the equivalent of our JV squad. We played against a bunch of junior colleges and prep schools. I’ll say that I was able to shoot the ball a lot more,” Chris said. “I look back though, and I think if we were able to play defense like we did in high school, we would’ve been able to keep up with a bunch of those teams. So, shooting the ball wasn’t always the best policy.”
I’ll probably write another teaser-piece just talking about the program Coach Jones created at Hutch-Tech, but for now I’ll just say that if done right, while it can be rewarding, coaching isn’t easy. You must not only have to know your sport and its evolving nuances, but you must also assemble a team of players, develop them and get them to buy into a common goal. That isn’t easy as coaches must also play psychologist, in addition to a quasi-parent in some instances, especially for kids who don’t have fathers or who come from tumultuous homes.
This piece isn’t unique to Coach Jones. He was my coach. If you read my interview with Jason Rowe, Jason stated that while his Coach, Joe Cardinal, was highly scrutinized, his players loved him. Ironically, even though Coach Cardinal was highly criticized, his Bulls coincidentally made deep runs in the post-season play most years. The same is true for Coach Pat Monti who led the LaSalle basketball dynasty. During his 10-year run of dominance leading the LaSalle Explorers, there were numerous critiques about him and his program from the outside. Talking to him and his players on the inside was completely different though.
The first picture used for this post is the schedule for the 1989-90 Hutch-Tech Boys’ Basketball Team. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Pepsi-Cola of Western New York used to create cardboard schedules for the area high school teams in addition to hosting the Al Pastor Memorial Basketball Tournament for a select number of schools. It was Coach Jones’ second season at Hutch-Tech. I was an eighth grader looking to go into high school and was learning about Coach and his teams through my brother Amahl who was a sophomore that year and his Hutch-Tech yearbooks.
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