Dabbling

There is a difference between a job and a hobby. When you decide to do something for fun, to help you relax or to take your mind off your problems, you don’t have to do it well and you don’t have to do it forever.

These are revolutionary ideas to most people.

My friends love to talk about the number of things I’ve quit. I used to take ballroom dance lessons, but I quit. I did some painting, but I gave that up, too.
I strung beads on wire and made my own jewelry for a while. I took a camera out into the woods and photographed nature. Ten years ago, I took up sewing. I made a dress and two skirts, but I haven’t sewed anything since.

These are what I call hobbies. Hobbies aren’t things I ever want to do professionally. I don’t need to be good at them.

I can spend every spare hour for weeks on a hobby, and then abandon it and never go back.

I dabble.

So often, other people seem to feel the need to apologize for dabbling. If you ask someone whether they play golf, for instance, most people will say either yes or no. Yes, if they work hard at the game, play regularly, take lessons and generally care about it. No, if they don’t do all these things.

People don’t understand the freedom of dabbling.

I can sit down at a piano and pick out a simple tune, but I can’t really play. The pleasure I get from my simple tune is just as great as it would be if I could play Beethoven’s Fifth, which I never will because I don't care that much. It takes dedication and passion to accomplish that. You can't dabble your way to Carnegie Hall.

There's nothing wrong with dabbling when it comes to golf or photography, but if you are a consultant, you can't dabble at networking. You can't dabble at maintaining your skills. You can't dabble at managing you career. Or rather, you can, of course, but you are giving up success and security.

There's freedom in dabbling with your hobbies. With your job, the freedom comes when you stop dabbling.

The Consultant's Ultimate Test

The US Airways pilot who saved all those people with a perfect, precision landing on the Hudson River yesterday was Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III. Captain Sullenberger has spent the last 40+ years honing his skills as a pilot, first as an Air Force fighter pilot and later flying gliders and commercial aircraft. He is also a consultant who has advised NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA on safety guidelines and procedures.

His consulting company, which is called Safety Reliability Methods, Inc., works with other industries to apply safety techniques that he has developed to their procedures. He teaches classes and provides traditional consulting services in his particular specialty. According to the Web site of his company, Sullenberger was "instrumental in the development and implementation of the Crew Resource Management course used at his airline, and has taught the course to hundreds of his colleagues."

Yesterday when birds turned his jet into a giant glider, he proved that he is not just an advisor when it comes to safety matters. He is a real expert in every sense of the word. He executed the landing perfectly and Mayor Bloomberg said he “walked the plane twice after everybody else was off to verify that there was nobody else on board, and assures us there were not."

Cool in a crisis. Extraordinarily prepared and skilled.

Most consultants believe they can execute their own recommendations flawlessly, but how many of us would pass the test with such spectacular results?

Job Insecurity

For consultants, changing jobs (projects) every few months is a way of life. This can be a source of stress if you are the nesting sort, rather than an adventurer, because part of a consultant's responsibility is to eventually work himself out of a job. The goal is to leave a happy client behind and once again find yourself looking for work. I call this "job insecurity".

I had lunch with my friend, Dave, today. Dave is an extraordinary consultant who has been experiencing this job insecurity for nearly ten years. He pointed out that he was better prepared for the stress than many consultants because he was involved in the movie industry before he became a highly-paid and widely-respected IT consultant. (Okay, there were a few steps in between, but not as many as you'd think.)

Dave is right. There are many parallels between, say, Tom Cruise's career and mine. (Stay with me, here.) I've done a lot of different kinds of projects all over the country. Some were unexpected hits, some received critical acclaim, and some were complete bombs. Each one had a clear objective when we started and my role was fairly clearly defined, though I was allowed a certain amount of creative freedom during production. Before each project ended, I had already started looking for the next one.

The difference is that Tom Cruise gets paid a fixed amount for each movie, where I am usually paid an hourly rate for my participation on a project, regardless of how long the project lasts or whether it is ever completed. That, and the noticeable shortage of paparazzi at Comdex.