Hey, recently I wrote a blog post outlining some of my philosophies, and mentioned that there was more to come. I figure I should follow through.

On Time Management and Effectiveness – 

When I think about effective orgs, I ask, do they have the ability to actually get things done? Because that’s not true of a lot of nonprofits or other well intentioned people or groups.

A lot have good intentions, but there’s a saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s important to mean well, but also have the ability to get stuff done.

Let’s say if an org smells good, in that direction, then I turn to the people who actually know stuff, the team around me. I may have some inclination that a group can get stuff done, but I’m not a nonprofit expert.

When looking for effectiveness, I look for people’s ability to conduct themselves briefly and well. If you can articulate what you’re about in 45 seconds or less, then I’m more generous time-wise and I try to be a nicer person. But anyone you want resources from will be judging you based on how well you can articulate yourself.

On Passion and My Sunset Years- 

I’m kind of tired of passion, especially as I enter my sunset years. But the deal is, you really want commitment from people. You want the excitement, but then they need to follow through. Following through is the hard part, and that’s what I look for.

In addition to passion or excitement, I’m looking for commitment. People can get excited about something, realize it’s hard, then that passion might not count for anything.

By the way, when I talk about the sunset years, I’m not far from claiming my AARP discount. I’m not kidding as much as you think I am.