My Goals

It has been a long time since I decided to write life goals, but I have.  With the baby coming in September, I think I need to start off on the right foot.  My work at Dell has improved over the last 3 months and I feel like I have reached a new level. 

So my problem is what are my goals.  Are they financial, are they personal, are they family, are they a combination.  I think over the next few weeks I will be looking at all aspects of my life to figure out what my goals are.  So that I can stay on track, they will be posted here and I will share my experiences in how I achieve them.  So stay tuned, the goals page will be updated soon. 

Week 2 MBA 560

Well the second week of a six week course is almost over.  Contracts and project management were the topics.  Since I have been a project manager at Dell for 7 years, this week went by rather smooth.  My goal for this class is to get at least a B plus.  This time around for this class I have been very diligent with the assignments and learn as much as I can. 

A life long learner, I read every day.  For these last few weeks, I have been reading the Enterprise Risk text book and reading simulations on-line.  I am definitely in the school mode and when I get in this mode, I know exactly what is expected with me through out the class. 

Week three begins Tuesday and I am ready.

Working in a Cube . . .

I read an article request of what its like to work in a cube. 

 http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/553160/20141438

Here are three things that I have noticed.

I work in the cubicle world at Dell and I have been there for 10 years so I know a thing or two about working in the cubicle nation. I have three things I would like to share.

1. During the ten years at Dell, I have been moved abbot 30 times. Every 6 months, a re-org happens, and cubes get switched. I gotten to the point where the only thing i keep on my desk is my laptop that I pack up every night.

2. In my building space is at a premium. So about 2 years ago facilities and management decided that all individual contributors will have half cubes, these are desk without walls. About a quarter the way through, it cost to much to reconfigure the desks, facilities and management abandoned the project. I was one of the unlucky few that got stuck in a tech small desk as a PM it is hard to do my job with all the distractions.

3. Looking at all the people in the desks as I walk up and down the aisles, the one thing that I notice are iPods. Yes iPods. Just about everyone on my floor has some sort of music playing device to keep out the distractions of the phone calls, conversations, and planning meetings that go on around them.

The cubicle nation is alive and well at Dell. There are times when I go to a conference room to escape and get some work done and to dream about an office of my own that has no shared printer and a closing door.

MBA Class Started — Week one is complete

This week was the first week of my forth class in my MBA degree from the University of Phoenix.  I am taking a class called Enterprise Risk.  This week we discussed the different types of law and how the law helps a nation become wealthy or not.  It all comes down to the idea of property being the right to exclude others from the use of resources.  Incenting people to develop those resources to make a profit. 

This class is 6 weeks and this first week went by without many problems.  Lots of interesting reading.  Week 2 begins . . . NOW. 

Nelore Churrascaria . . . New resturant that I visited in Houston.

Well I found a place that is better than Fogo de Chow.  Yes a Brazilian restaurant called a Churrascaria.  This type of resturant has servers that bring around skewers of meat where they cut for you at your table side.  I enjoyed the place very much. 

The salad bar was big with many different types of food on it.  Cheese, Ceasar salad, and salmon were some of the things that I had from there.  But I was waiting for the meat, their were 13 different cuts of meat that were being run around.  My favoites were the New York strip and the bacon wrapped chicken.  Mmm. 

We went with my wife’s family.  Her brother and sister with their spouses and kids were there.  We all had a great time!!

New Movie: Transformers

Well last night while it was raining I decided to invite my brother and sister in laws for a late night without their kids.  After hearing so much about the movie the previous days, we decided to go and see the movie Transformers.  You know the Hasbro owned cartoon that most 30 year olds grew up with.  Well this was a different type of movie that is for sure.  There was nothing cartoon about this movie.  A perfect mix between the story and the action and the action was where it was at.  Like Godzilla on steroids.  Check on the trailer, and then I would see it two or three times.  I have to say the Fourth of July movies are back. 

Just a thought on Project Management and Selling

I was having a conversation with a manager friend of mine today.  We were discussing the role of the outside project manager and how they are the ones paid to have the blunt and difficult conversations with a customer.  This got me to thinking about communication between a customer and a project manager and lead to the similarities between selling and project management.  Check out my Project Management blog soon for more information.  Project Management Work

Happy Fourth of July!!!

I wanted to start my blog off with a bang. It is the 4^th of July and I decided to write about some of the blogs that I read on a regular basis. Despite some people thinking that to many feeds are a bad thing, I think that the more one reads and listens, the more one understands. One of my mottos is Think, Listen, Understand, Act. This reminds me to make sure that I understand a situation before I act on it. So here is a list of Blogs that I read. To the writers of them, thanks for effort and information.

• My first blog is actually one of my online mentors. Tom Peters. He has about 50 blogs that his company posts to. Check out www.tompeters.com blog for the blog roll. I began to read much from this site as his principles are in line with mine.
• The next one is one of my favorites as this person posts his personal financial information on his blog at the last count, 8922 readers have subscribed to his blog. My Money Blog by Jonathan takes his readers on his quest to have a net worth of 1 million dollars. A very lofty goal, good luck Jonathan. http://www.mymoneyblog.com/
• Web Worker Daily is a blog that distinguishes the differences of being just a worker and a web worker. A Web worker according to their definition is anyone that uses the internet or the subsequent technologies to be more productive or just that is how they work. Many authors write there about a variety of topics. Since I do work on the internet and the web, and virtual team work and project management is an interest to me, I enjoy reading their stuff.
• For those of you who long to get out of the Rat Race per say, the http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/ is a great place to get inspiration. Since I do work in the heart of a cubical nation, I enjoy reading this every day. The funny thing is the establishment where I work, Dell, Inc. has blocked this while working. I guess they do not want the workers to revolt. I think it is humorous as Google reader allows me to read it anyway.

As the next half of the year progresses, I will have much more to say. As I to am declaring my independence. No longer am I a slave to my performance plan or to Dell. I am a free agent on loan to Dell. I enjoy working on cool out of the box projects and that is what I am going to go and do. With the help of my motto, think, listen, understand, act, and working on cool stuff, my experiences will propel me where I want to go; more on business next time.