shovelhd

Psimet2001 

Neither do I. Blame GE and CAT.

I don't need to gain anymore weight. - I naturally flit around - I like it.

I have considered taking that route many times. Have been told by many that I should go down that road. Used to report to the HR manager here and she even said flat out near the beginning, "Honestly Rob your time here is going to end up being limited to when it dawns on you that you need to be a consultant. That's where I see you going."

Flip side is I have always had issues with consultants. I generally have a problem with anyone who has a vested interest in you continuing to have a problem.

One other approach I have been after kind of silently has been as a cycling industry independent sales rep. If I could pick up some small lines to help augment....it would start to be a no-brainer.

Congrats! Let me know if you want to rep some bike wheels to help pay the bills.

jwible

Cathartic isn't it?

jwible

Yo Rob, why don't you get together with some local machine wonks and some carbon guys and start prototyping some stuff. And I woulda been interested in investing too.

Psimet2001 

roadiejorge 

Well done and best of luck! I can't remember one job I've left where I felt it was a mistake, when you feel it's time to go then moving on is often the best idea.

Yeah I'm going to take it really easy and I've been hydrating all day to prepare for a ride through the oven. At least it's not a long ride home unlike the time I foolishly rode to Bear Mountain on a day like this without preparing properly.

big john

Good luck, caloso. I did not give notice, but I am taking a 4 day weekend. The idiot has actually been accommodating toward me for a couple weeks. Maybe he knows if I leave it will cost money, at least in the short term. I need to htfu and make the decision.

ericm979

Thinking that way is a bridge-burning operation.

I always worked to make my solutions useful and reasonably priced, on the theory that the additional work I'll get from doing a good job will be worth more than milking the current contract. I got enough repeat business (and got hired full time a couple times) that I think it worked.

But consultants are the first fired when the economy or business sector has a down turn. You need to put a lot of money aside and be good at marketing yourself.

waterrockets 

+1 caloso. Nice work.

Flatballer

I also have some money I'm looking to put somewhere short term (6 months or so). CD rates are so terrible, and savings are a joke, so I might as well invest in somebody I like. If you need some more, let me know too.

caloso

All of a sudden all the things that were driving me nuts, keeping me up at night, frustrating me because I couldn't do anything about them, are not my problem any more.

big john

I need me some of that.

agoodale

That's precisely why you'd be like gold to a good CEO. Imagine the trust you'll create when you get paid to analyze a problem and then come back and say: "There is nothing I can do for you. Here's why..." Trust = gold.

Psimet2001 

Nice. I find the flip side of this comes around to me every now and then. I often think about projects I had going at previous places and when I used to work there and I remember them like one would all of a sudden remember they have to go to a test they forgot to study for.

ridethecliche

Yo rob. How about you be the consultant you want to be then?

Companies will always have problems. Be the one that fixes them. The more you fix, the more they and others will need you to do what you do. It's not like there is a shortage of companies with problems...

This isn't a 'work yourself out of a job scenario'. Take advantage of it. You've apparently got the brains for it. And if you have 'downtime' you have another avenue where you can put that while finding other gigs.

Psimet2001 

Starting a consulting gig from scratch for me would be kind of tough. Passion is more on the wheels although consulting has less overhead. I'd have to change my approach. In real life I go into situations and assess them extremely quickly. Example would be sitting down in a meeting, listening to the dialog for 30 minutes and then standing up and leaving. When asked why I usually say something like: "well I could be wrong but it appears that the issue is fairly systemic and it seems like you have 2 anchor draggers who aren't going to change unless you fire one of them and the rest of the room is showing support only because you said they should come be a part of the project. This is the new flavor of the day and all you are doing is paying lip service to it because you went to a seminar that told you that it was essential for top management to 'support' change. You guys could sit in that meeting for another 3 days and come up with some mediocre ideas that will get lost during implementation due to the daily grind and everyone's propensity to chuck improvements in the name of getting parts out the door.

Sure, sure you're lost and you don't know how to make big changes or apply new thinking especially because you can easily see how those tools are 'great for the other guys where their business is straightforward but that won't work for our business'. I understand. This place is in fact totally unique. It has a brand, or at least that's what those marketing consultants sold you on last year. This place can actually make parts to specification and deliver 95% on time and will use those two "benefits" as reasons customers should not see this business as a commodity based business. I guess making good parts truly is a differentiator....

....tell you what, I'm going to go check out bike forums and see if I got any new wheel inquiries. I am also going to meet up with a customer in the parking lot during lunch and leave early so that I can get a good ride in If you get around to the point where you decide that it's time to change the people or else you need the CHANGE the people then let me know."

I'd have to change all that into, "Hmmm...OK....I see. So you're telling me that your challenges are x, y , and Z? Am I understanding this correctly? OK what have you done to try to solve that? How has that worked out? Uh-huh. I see. So how does that make you feel."

gsteinb

rule of thumb: get advice from RTC and then do the opposite.

Grumpy McTrumpy

it's always good to find a reliable contrary indicator.

hammy56

via real cyclist FB...funny-

substructure

I have to till the garden tonight. Really didn't want to. Looks like rain coming in on the radar. Yay me.

jwible

My tiller has decided to eat belts.

miwoodar

I hate tillers. They remind me of when I was a kid and my pops would make me till our massive garden (1000+ SQFT) with a relic POS. That hunk of junk weighed more than me, barely stayed running, and tipped over to the side so often I was actually afraid to run it.

My current garden is a nice little raised bed. No tiller required.

shovelhd

A tornado just touched down about 10 miles from here (work). I guess my evening recovery ride is not going to happen.

JohnKScott

Congrats!

ridethecliche

Mike has hit a snag with a RD hanger that bent causing the RD to assplode. Might have broken a few spokes as well.

Toughin' it.