Can we get along?

On May 1, 1992, Rodney King said, "People, I just want to say, can't we all get along? Can't we all get along?" As I dialog with folks here in 2020, I feel compelled to ask that same question. 

We didn't have social media polarizing us back then in 1992. Social Media is just one cause of the great divide in this country. Scott Adams of Dilbert fame likens us today as watching two different movie screens. Our Media is going after a specific audience and tailoring their coverage to that segment. That leads to bias journalism. We are becoming what Simon and Garfunkel proclaimed in their song, The Boxer; "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." We have talking heads that preach only to those who have taken the "blue" or "red" pill, in more than just the political context.

So how do you communicate with those on the other side? I mean another side because there if figuratively now no neutral ground. To quote another song, "There's battle lines being drawn." Nobody's right if everybody's wrong."— Buffalo Springfield. We gather in our little tribes and echo chambers and begin to suffer confirmation bias. 

Now we sit in a circular firing squad waiting to draw, like the final scene from, "The Good, the bad, and the ugly." 

Even polite conversation turns political. Like. How's the weather?" It is affected by human-made climate change, comes the retort, and the fight starts. 

Families are being torn apart. Old long time friendships are dissolving. Communities are erupting in fights and hostility between neighbors with warring political signs in their yards. 

I grew up in the '60s when this country was very divided. The difference was, I think, focused mainly on the Vietnam War and Civil Rights. Women's issues and abortion followed in the '70s. 

We pulled closer together as a country under Reagan and Clinton during their 2nd terms. How ironic is that? Maybe we united after the events of 09/11, but not for long. 

Let's look at a case in point. The USA men's hockey teams, "Miracle on Ice" in 1980 and the women's World Cup soccer win in 2019, stands in stark contrast as to how much of a unifying event they were. The Mexico 1968 Olympics protests were focused on race relations and injustice. Forty some years later, the NFL athletes protested racial injustice and by kneeling during the National Anthem. But in the latter event, they lived in a country with a Black president. 

Back to Rodney King. If we can't get along, its the end of the American Experiment. Remember Abraham Lincoln, " A house divided, can not stand!" Jesus Christ said, "Blessed are the peacemakers..." but He caused a lot of division as well. That is the root cause of the issue. We will be divided as long as we let our selfish interests and individual preferences take precedence over the biblical command to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

Let me leave this off by offering a song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTBx-hHf4BE

A place to call home for Virtual Assistants

The AVA Slack channel offers interaction, such as channels for job opportunities, training, learning, pricing guidelines, just to name a few. The VA's are from all over the world, so the channel spans time zones. The input you receive is from a diverse group, as well. The AVA has members from all walks of life. The fellow members also have all levels of experience and skillsets.

On the AVA Slack channel, one can call on the vast collective experience from a pool of very talented and experienced individuals. This group is a talent stack of warm and welcoming people. Fellow AVA's support and encourage in a positive and nurturing environment.

So far, if I haven't convinced you to join the AVA, please visit the website and explore all the vast benefits the group offers. Going it alone it hard and tough enough, so don't put yourself at a disadvantage by being a total loner.


https://associationofvas.com

Presidents Day 2020

Today we are celebrating or at least it is a Federal Holliday, Presidents Day. The country is as divided as it ever was on its opinion about the President. We, as a country, always were somewhat polarized about politics. Thomas Jefferson was the first real controversial President. Lincoln was extremely unpopular and dispised at the time, and so was Kennedy. Martyrdom trumps history (no pun intended).

I was born under Harry S. Truman; history paints him as a mass- murderer for dropping the A-bombs on Japan. The bombs had to be used, or we would have had many more casualties.  The greatest decade, in my opinion, America ever had was the 50's. The media portrayed Ike as the President who slept and golfed during his time in office.

John Kennedy's term was teetering, and of course, assassination has a way of coloring history's opinion of him. The first man on the moon speech, although forward-thinking, didn't solve the problem of the looming Vietnam War or race relations. LBJ moved us into one step closer to socialism with the "Great Society." Then came "Tricky Dickey" he could have been a great President, but he was paranoid of the press. That era marked the politicizing of T.V. Ford was a placeholder with no vision. Carter was as phony and, in my opinion, a weak man. He had intellect, but his spiritual condition (which he made an issue) was found wanting.

Now we come to Reagan. The greatest POTUS in our history, in my opinion. He defeated Communism by his wit and wisdom, not with war.

The Bush's were political hacks both. Clinton was a great politician and pulled off a great maneuver when he ran toward the center after the Republican takeover of the House and Senate in '94.

Obama was a globalist and a Saul Alinsky activist who parlayed his skin color to gain a platform.

Trump's plan is summed up in Scott Adams's book, "Winning Bigly." If you don't read this book, you will never get Trump. He further polarized American's because he knew after McCain and Romney there was no middle ground anymore in American politics.

Change and the ability to keep up

Everyone agrees the world is changing at a blinding pace. The internet has been a massive accelerator. Knowledge and information are whizzing by us at speeds unprecedented in all of human history. When and at what pace will the ability of the human to keep up mentally and emotionally. No one has that answer yet.

I believe there will be some movement to return to a simpler and slower time. Maybe there will be a renewed interest in becoming like the Amish. I think that is quite possible. People may desire to move to third world countries or trade places with those folks.

For those brave souls who remain in the rat race, narrow focusing will be a way to cope. The disadvantage, of course, will be a limited perspective. Narrowing one's focus can lead to tribalism and confirmation bias. In an age of specialists who are an inch wide and a mile deep, there is the genuine danger of tunnel vision thinking. There is no room for thinking outside the box because you can't conceive of anything outside of that box.

The third option is collaborative mastermind groups. Collaborative communities would be a synchronization of many diverse occupations and skillsets that seek to become a group thinktank that can ward off the effects of each individual's narrow and limited scope of knowledge.

Beginning with my original unquestioned premise about the rapid increase in information what other scenarios are possible. Artificial intelligence to support and supplement our brainpower, maybe? The AI-human connection would be the stuff science fiction writers have warned us about for decades. Science fiction's prophecies about man-machines evolving into half human half robot beings may become a frightening possibility.

There may be other ways of slowing down the information tsunami. I think more filtering of the flow and mechanisms to digest information at a slower pace would be an option. But, that would require a filter with a capacity to have critical thinking skills programmed into it.

As we speak, we see a world divided. Even a country very divided as never before. Sure we had divisions back in our past, but they were usually over a few, although very important issues and problems. Now we are fundamentally and irrevocably divided. Scott Adams puts it this way people are watching two different movie screens.

The social media interconnectedness did not solve the problem; it exacerbated it. We gather into tribes and reinforce our cognitive bias.'  The more the people reinforce, our views are the ones we want to agree with. If you disagree, we find ways to cast you out of our circle of trust and can dismiss your viewpoint.

Division and distrust are a symptom of too much information too fast. It is at present too voluminous and rapid to mentally digest and discern with any sufficient preciseness.

At any rate, I am suggesting in the meantime for all you people in business who can't keep up; hire Your Office SOS as your Virtual Assistants. As we say, "Before you drown in a sea of stress, call Your Office SOS."

What exactly is a Virtual Assistant and why do I need one?

I attend networking events where we usually give thirty-second speeches. I have a pretty good one. Even so, I often get asked during follow up time after the event, "What is it you do again?" I then explain what we do, and some folks still don't seem to understand what a Virtual Assistant is. Remote Worker doesn't capture the essence either. It might sound like we work in a co-working space. Back-Office is too much of a bookkeeping connotation. Back-Office can also seem like an app. or software.

Here is my thirty-second speech:

Hi, my name is David Rockey. My company is Your Office SOS. SOS stands for supported outsourced services. We offer a variety of remote solutions, such as business development and administrative functions. If you're drowning in the waves of the details of your business, you had better send an SOS. We bring one hundred years of experience to the rescue. 

My ideal client is someone you know who would like to recover their life and their time. We can turn their life from crappy to happy. Before you drown in a sea of stress, call Your Office SOS.

With that stated, I am still talking about the Virtual Assitant industry as a whole. The VA industry, as a concept, has been around quite some time. The advent of high-speed internet and other technology breakthroughs has increased the number of VA"s. The boom in entrepreneurship has increased the demand for VA's as well. 

The benefits of a VA today are starting to work powerfully against having a brick and mortar office with a staff of employees. The payroll, taxes, benefit packages as well as all downtime and non-productive time are a few drawbacks.

The one factor that is common in the reaction to having a VA is control. Yes, you may lose a little of the power you have when doing the work that doesn't necessarily have to do with the essentials of your business. We like to say, "We let you do what you do best, we handle the rest." For instance, if you invented a magic widget, you need to be at trade shows, speaking engagements, in front of clients or investors. It would be best if you stayed focused on refining and updating that widget. You do not need to take care of scheduling your appointments, keeping up with social media, sorting through email, booking travel, etc. Some other aspects to consider: market research, blogging, finding images for quotes, 

Some of your valuable time is wasted on tedious and repetitive tasks. In today's world, some of these tasks can be done remotely successfully and effectively by a remote or virtual worker. 

Your Office SOS is unique in this way. My wife and I are a team. She has 50 years' experience as an administrative assistant, most of it at the c-suite level. I have 50 years' experience in sales, marketing, and business development. We have seen the evolution taken place in those fields and have kept up with the latest skills and knowledge in those areas. We bring wisdom acquired from as I like to quote the Farmers Insurance commercial, "We know a thing or two 'cause we've seen a thing or two."

So please give us the work that surrounds the essence of what you do. We will free you to devote your time to what is essential. We give you back the one thing we all possess the limited fixed amount of, and that is 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week.