God has graciously blessed me with a new (to me) Palm m515. This is fantastic because not only was it a hand-me-down (el freebo!), but because it’s the peak of Palm computing from the era of Palm computing I was used to.
I bought a Palm Pilot Professional back in 1998 and it packed a whopping 1MB of memory. I upgraded it by the end of the year with the 2MB + IR (beam) port upgrade chip. I still remember finding other Palm users who had beaming capabilities. We were the ultimate clique of nerds. “Hey, let me beam you my contact information!” “Great! How about I send you my orthodontist’s number!” I added a lean, mean keyboard to the mix but alas, too many drops (and Jonesing) left my three-year-old lookin’ kinda shabby. On September 10, 2001 (one day before 9/11), I ordered a Palm m505 from a store in Manhattan of all places. This baby was thin, sleek, and had room for an SD slot for way more memory than I could have imagined.
While taking a trip to Galveston in the summer of 2004, I left my Palm m505 in my car in Dallas. Not being used to the climate, I came back to discover that some important internal elements of my m505 had been, well, melted. Or heat damaged. Or just plain not giving a care anymore. I zipped up my Palm user archive and have been Palm-less since, and the Palm wagon has moved on to greener (and less Mac-friendly) pastures.
So, it’s a great blessing to get this Palm m515, the pinnacle of Palm OS 4-era devices, and restore all my old Palm stuff on it. It’s like having my old Palm back, only with more memory and a better screen. :o)
One of the things I loaded back onto it is the eBook of Robert Kiyosake’s Cashflow Quadrant. I was reading that tonight and was reminded of some things that I have gotten away from. I personally find the topic of the book provocative and interesting, a challenge. Anyway, I thought about the types of things that he claims people of the E (employee) mentality say vs. those with an S (self-employed) mentality. The other day I realized that I had been treating my photo lab team members too much with an S mentality.
In other words (if the above made no sense), a person who has a self-employed attitude (me) generally likes to do their job their own way and do it well. They have a problem trusting others to do a job as good as they themselves would do it. I sent two of my team members to do some tasks that, up until that day, I had always done myself because I always wanted it to be done right.
That’s really stupid.
In other words, if “S’s” work hard, they expect to get paid for their work. Those who are “S’s” do not like having the amount of money they earn dictated by someone else or by a group of people who might not work as hard as they do. If they work hard, pay them well.
Substitute “amount of money” for “respect.”
I need to get better at pulling together quality people and motivating them to do well. I have quality in my lab (oh, it’s not my lab anymore. Today was my last day as photo lab specialist) but I didn’t put enough weight in it to its full potential. It’ll be a different story in charge of 40+ cashiers and the photo lab.
Thankfully, I’ll still get to keep my hand in the photo lab for a while longer. I really have loved nearly every day I came into work at the lab. There were times late last year, after I had been in the lab for a few months, where I told Rosanna while driving home, “Man, I just really love it in the lab!” I wish I could have stayed. But God has brought a new challenge and a new opportunity my way, and I know He wants me to go for it right now.
That’s all for now. More to follow. And I mean it. I actually intend on updating with genuine regularity.
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