Call Me A Smart Ass!
Spring Time has arrived and now more people are out on the road. That's both good and bad.
Recently, I had to make a road trip back home to bury a 15 year old cousin. A family member dying is bad enough, but to bury a young family member is a soul ripping pain I hope few ever have to experience. The drive down home was a rather silent one. Mostly eyes on the road, mind not wandering as much, and just reflecting on life and the meaning of life.
As for me, I really enjoy taking road trips. If I can drive somewhere and have it still meet my schedule demands I would rather drive than fly. There is nothing like the open road. Does not matter to me whether it's an old car, new car, my car or my Harley - I love road trips. For me the road trip is a way for me to gather my thoughts, reflect on recent goings on, get a mega dose of talk radio and to dream up new ideas or inventions.
Anyway, back to the un-fun-funeral road trip. On this particular road trip I found myself observing the way other people drive in great detail. Many times on a road trip you have the fortune (or misfortune) of driving alongside or behind someone on for several hundred miles, and you know what?
Peoples' driving habits area a direct reflection of their personal lives as well.
Take this test and see where you rank?
1. When there is a merge and you are in line and someone wants in do you:
A: Inch by inch refuse to let them in
B: Sometimes I let them in - if they look nice or drive a cool car
C: I Try to use the rule- for every car merging let one car in; to keep traffic moving
2. When coming to a red light, and you see people trying to enter from a side parking lot, do you?
A: Make sure you pull up and BLOCK their ability to enter traffic since it could delay you a second or two?
B: Sometimes I let them in - if they look nice or drive a cool car
C: Since the light is red anyway, I leave room and stop so more people and enter the road and get along their way
3. BACK TO MERGES: When approaching a merge clearly marked "1 Mile Ahead" do you?
A. Move between my lane and the merge land and assume the role of a traffic monitor and make EVERYONE merge behind me!
B. I immediately move over when I see the merge 1 mile ahead sign so I am in the correct lane.
C: I merge AT THE MERGE - which is 1 Mile Ahead.
4. When traveling behind an auto or motorcycle, I...
A. Ride right on their ass to make them move out of MY way
B. I do various kinds of zig zag driving and really just focus on myself
C: I keep a safe distance in case of emergency and if someone is too slow, I'll pass and then once safely clear, I move back over
I really could keep on with these questions and probably do a great test and prove that one's driving habits are a direct reflection on their social and personal habits. But here is what I learned..
If you are the ones that answered A to any of the questions, you're an ass! Dumb Ass to be extact.
Why? Your driving gets people killed. If you are a B then you are a normal smoe, too focused on his or her life to worry about others and you are probably the kind that worries about what you wear, drive or own and how people will view you. If you're a C, I call that a CLEAR. You have a clear head and clear focus and you are probably the kind of person that makes a great friend.
Now as far as the road trip and being behind someone for hundreds of miles. That same person who answers A to the questions above and rides everyone's ass on the highway, is the same person who (if you pull over to get gas when they do) will be a white guy dressed like a gangsta rapper, or a young girl dressed like Paris Hilton trash. They'll be loud when they pay for the gas, they will still be in the cell phone - even when they are holding up the check up line and they most likely will spend an extra 15 minutes at the pump, not pumping gas but , primping in the mirror of their car while keeping other people from getting their gas. A Narcissistic dumbass!
But who am I other than the smart ass who created the "You are how you drive test" anyway!
What do you think? Does driving skill mimic ones being?
posted by Social Commentator @ 7:09 PM
4 Comments:
Jovan -
I agree that most people have lost their common sense when it comes to driving.
However, in March 2001 I started a new job. On the very day I started, yes, my very first day, they called us all into a big meeting room to tell us the good/bad news. The good news was, the company was pulling the IPO, the bad news was the company had enough money to run for three months. Not the best news you want to hear on your first day.
My position, IT Project Manager. The company you should be very familiar with, Digital Convergence.
I asked all the questions during my interview and was told about "deep" pockets, 80 million dollars, and all the other lies.
I just wanted to personally thank you for the hell my family and myself went through for over a year due to the lies I was told. I doubt you experienced the same hell.
I hope you are not running your current company in the same manner and relying on Feng Shui to lead your life.
I did not have the chance to tell you this before, and I feel much better now that I have had to opportunity to communicate this to you.
Thanks again.
Dear Anonymous, although I don't know who you are and would not of interviewed you personally, I fully understand your pain.
When you build a company with over a Billion Dollar Valuation and 1000 employees with offices in Dallas, LA, Hong Kong, London and Los Angeles - things can get too big too quick. There are two things at play:
(1) The small company I built from scratch and ran at huge growth and profit, became an unrecognizable giant, and;
(2) Once that happens there are too, too many Cheifs and not enough Indians.
Believe it or not, I wanted to keeop the organization to less than 200 people. But, WallStreet had an image of what we should be and become and soon you begin to play the WallStreet Game. People's common sense seems to get flushed.
You and at least 700 other people should of never been hired until the IPO was successful. Many, many people bought into the original dream, but the original dream morphed into a WallStreet Driven Nightmare.
AS for me, I lost my wife, my family, my home, all my finances, my automobiles, my credit and most of all - for a long long time my pride, self esteem and my will. So, YEs, I fully understand the personal hell you went through.
I would never wish that on anyone and frankly, I would of been in afar better position if wife (and family) would of stuck with me as they obviously stuck with you.
In the end, the lessons: Family is far more important that a billion dollar wealth, don't think becasue someone has a great banking record and great powerful connections that they can run a company, don't let Executives HIRE friends and just use the company to pay back old debts, don't grow too fast, don't let anyone become an Executive in the company BEFORE they have proven themselves to be able to do the jobs themselves, don't ever create a New York office, hire only people that have strong beliefs in true values, not just beliefs in the almighty dollar and last of all - going along with don't grow fast - don't ever hire anyone when you know the business is in trouble and may run out of cash. That's just wrong and shitty.
Wish I could of saved you the heartache my dream caused you and your family. I would fo called it like it was and saved you the pain.
No, I am not running my current company or any other company the same way. My "picker of people" is much better. I will stick to my core values and beliefs no matter what any banker or WallStreet says. It was a Billion Dollar mess, but also a billion dollar education for me.
As far as Fend Shui, a husband needs to support his wife, and she believed in that garbage. I stood by her. She stood by me as well, that is up to the end of the comany, the bankruptcy and the no cash. Then she moved on. Guess the Fend Shui worked for her.
Please accept my apologies for the company hiring you when it did. Please let your wife, family, friends and children know, I would of rather of had you avoide the heartache and would of saved you, the company and all involved if I could of. I hope the experience made you more "better" then "bitter".
Thank you for believeing in the dream called Digital Convergence when you did, I am sure you were a fine and important addition to the team. Hope your future has been and will continue to be better.
I actually did not think you would post my comment and I did not really think to get a response from you. So thank your for that.
As you know the Internet business was already tanking at that time and it took almost a year for me to finally get back into the business.
The experience did make me a better person, because during that time I realized just how much I truly hated doing Project Management and also I went back to college and finished up my degree. I got out of Management and back to being a techie again.
Reading your response and judging that you probably did not got through the same hell was wrong of me to say. You obviously went through much worse. Sorry about that. No one should ever have to go through losing their family, let alone their inner person.
I appreciate you telling me what happened with the company and where things went wrong. I did believe in the dream. In fact, I still have my cat (in a box somewhere), the Cross Pen, a polo shirt that I still wear to work and everyone asks me about, and two t-shirts.
Thanks again for the response and apology. I wish you well in your current and future endeavors!
Charles Dobbs
Hello, Charles and I am sure at some time we met, and I thank you for coming out from Anonymous.
Yes, the end of Digital was hell and we all learned alot. I have nothing to hide and yes the press grilled me, but then again I was creator, founder, Chairman and CEO, so in the end it rests with me.
Great to hear you rebounded and your endeavors are going well.
Thank you for your apology for the remark, but none was needed. I understand your pain. Thank you much for the well wishes to my endeavors. Best of luck and feel free to contact me anytime.
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