Faith in people.. and in your work..

My wife was having a conversation with her sister last night that I overhead from my office. Her sister has been having a run of bad luck in her life, and is also job hunting at the same time. When I say a run of bad luck, I mean it. Her car caught on fire a couple of weeks ago.. really.. that bad..there are pictures and everything..

In the course of the conversation, you could hear my wife continuing to give her encouragement about looking for work, and kept telling her that she can do almost anything she puts her mind to, which is absolutely true, her sister is one smart person. But as I was listening, it occurred to me that my wife just generally has faith in people. Not only that she sees the good in people, but that she truly conveys her faith that you can do whatever they put your mind to. She has constantly said that to me, and has put her faith in me many times, but I am her husband. This is her general attitude, and she really is genuine in her feelings. One of the many reasons why I love her, and one of the reasons she is a spectacular doctor.

That got me thinking about faith in your work, and how having faith in what you are doing can allow you to overcome many obstacles, and put aside things that might be bothering you. When you feel like you are contributing, moving an organization forward, and helping the business meet their goals and objectives, that leads to faith in the organization and the work you are doing. Other issues can then be handled, becuase they are merely small obstacles to overcome for the greater good.

I don't want this to sound like a sermon, what I mean is that faith in your work and what you are doing is a significant contributing factor to how satisfied you are with you job, and allows you to set the small annoyances or issues aside, and keep pushing forward. I know it is a large motivation factor for me.

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Hershey Park

Completely off topic...

My wife and I took our 15 year old, 3 of her friends, our 10 year old daughter and a friend of hers to Hershey Park this weekend. And while it could easily have been a disaster, everything worked out great and the girls had an awesome time.

We left at 6:30 on Saturday to get an early start. Picked up all the girls, who were on time and eager to get going. I drove the first half into Pennsylvania, and Donna drove the second half. We arrived around 11am, which was amazingly short drive time, checked in at the Hershey Lodge, and were at the park by 11:30, not bad at all.

It is a lot bigger then I expected! The park has 11 roller coasters according to my oldest, and she and her friends wanted to make sure to hit them all. A couple were out of commission for maintenance, but they managed to get on every one that was working, at least once, and a couple 3 or 4 times! One of the coasters, called Fahrenheit, has a 90 degree vertical ascent (yes, straight up on your back) up 121 feet, a 97 degree NEGATIVE drop, and a top speed of 58mph! I was nervous just looking at the thing! See here for information on the coaster. Here is a picture..

Of course it poured rain while we were there. The girls actually went on a ride in the rain and got soaked as Donna and I hid under a Dippin' Dots umbrella LOL. We spent a total of over 8 hours at the park on Saturday, and finally went back to the Lodge after the world's slowest bus driver took us back (anyone need to get off at Cocoa RRrrrrrrr?). Girls tried to go swimming in the pool, but they closed it due to the thunder and lightning.. lol closed an INDOOR pool! Too funny.

Breakfast the next morning, early but not too early, 4 more hours in the park, a tour through Chocolate World, bought a ton of candy we didn't need, and finally on the road again at a little after 4pm. Took us a bit longer to get home, some traffic in jersey and Staten Island, but surprisingly the Belt parkway was clear. Everyone home by 9:30, and exhausted.

I would definitely recommend a trip there, everything went well, plenty of activities for everyone, kids, young adults, adults, and wide variety of food, even a kosher and a vegetarian restaurant! Hershey Lodge was very nice, comfortable and clean rooms, not very spacious, but how long are you really going to spend in the room anyway? Very convenient bus service from the lodge directly to the park, so no parking hassles. It was crowded Saturday, but Sunday was a breeze, with lines no more then 5-10 minutes at most, even for the popular rides.

Great weekend, girls had fun, which is what the trip was all about. Everyone is wearing their matching t-shirts to school today!

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Lunch with former colleagues

I had lunch yesterday with some of the old gang from a past job. It is always fun to get together with these folks, we have all gotten along well over the years, and have amazingly kept in touch over the past 10+ years since last we all worked together. It hasn't been regular, or as often as anyone would like, but still, it is always a good time when we do.

It is amazing to see how their families have changed (a daughter married, a son playing college football, etc), and talking through the changes in your own family. It is great to get reflected back to you how much your own kids and family have grown and changed.

We had 3 no-shows (you know who you are!), which is par for the course, and as I was driving there, I kept thinking of people we should have invited along.

Driving home from lunch, I thought about the company and situation where we worked together. Man did we complain about things, and think we had a messy situation back then. Thinking back on it though, it was probably the most enjoyable job I have ever had. And it wasn't the work, although we had some very interesting projects and worked with some pretty cutting edge technology. (See this link as an example.) It was the people that made the experience enjoyable and memorable. Whether it was my peers, subordinates, or others in the organization, we worked hard, got the job done, and had fun doing it. The best thing about almost the entire IT organization at the time was the amount of teamwork displayed, but without all the melodrama and rah-rah that seems to accompany "team-building" these days. It was just a good group of people that got along, had fun, and helped each other along the way.

Soon after, we were acquired, new management came in with new directions and new attitudes, and slowly almost all of us ended up leaving in one way or another. Some of us ended up at other jobs at other companies, some still work at the old company.

But 10+ years later we still get together and hang out periodically.. that was, and still is, a great group of people..

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