It’s more than that.

The commercial mind is aware of other competences in the company and uses the sinergies of all to empower the company and brand. Whenever we undertake a project (door expansion, product launch, or new business unit) I make sure to include participants from the product, marketing, retail, logistics and others as needed. Sometimes that means I have to balance resources and needs in lieu of the sales department. But that is exactly what the commercial mind does: it looks beyond short term sales and into long term company needs sharing execution with other teams.

Not every process needs input from every department. Most day-to-day operations is very basic and sales focused. But any project of tactical and strategic value deserves a multi-functional approach, best addressed when the commercial mind drives it. The commercial mind has but one agenda, the common good of the organization. When the commercial mind drives a project, it does so with the best interest of everyone in mind.

A great place to dine!

If you are ever in Panama and in the road happen to pass Penonome City, please stop by Sweet Tamarindo, one of the nicest restaurants in Panama.

The location is a little hard to get to. We found it by mistake once with my brother and our respective wives while looking for a place for coffee. My brother joked we wouldn’t a decent place. Then out of the blue we found this distinctive old house redecorated fusion style.

The food is based around fish and seafood with Panama taste and modernized versions. The desserts are awesome, and if instead of lunch you want to do coffee, its outside patio is the place to be in the afternoons.

A great place to dine!

Somewhat motivated by this notion I took a Sales position which came with a sort of promotion. I rationalized that coming from Strategic Planning (and before that Marketing), the change would help me build valuable skills such as customer management, team management, character building and such.

Many months into the position I began to develop such skills. I had to take difficult decisions, say no many times, establish strategy and order, and work more hours than I had previously done. The goals set by my regional superior where being met. I was working the schedule set and developing some important new set of abilities for professional growth.

Some time later I began to detect a dangerous pattern. Despite performing my job and dedicating ample time, my mood and attitude towards people was quickly changing. I would lose patience with people, I found it hard to treat customers well, and I started to miss my previous positions a lot. Soon I was hating my job and all it implied.

This is going on today, and it is the reason why I put a date on which I will quit. Some might think I should quit now, as working with no passion is perhaps the worst thing an executive can do. But management has requested my presence at least for the end of the fiscal year.

Yet what I want to focus on is the existence of something opposite to the comfort zone which is perverse in nature: the discomfort zone.

The discomfort zone is dangerous because it puts a manager in the worst spot possible: one where he or she dreads to be. This is not to mean the person is doing a bad job. The manager could be doing a stellar job yet hating every moment of it.

The discomfort zone affects a manager in several ways, but four of them are specially poignant to a career.

The first effect is diminished performance. No matter how good a manager is, the loss of passion and care will catch-up and performance will drop. If the effect is not immediate, it will boil down inside the person until it explodes in disaster. An executive who loses performance is risking it all, for a proven track record is vital for future promotion.

The second effect is forthcoming from the previous. The loss of performance will lead upper management to consider the removal or reassignment of said manager. Reassignment can be benevolous, but it is usually not, and just as nefarious in effect as being fired. The danger of remaining in one’s discomfort zone could jeopardize the very position one works – and hates.

The third effect – and to me the more dangerous – is lost time. A passionate manager doing a job he loves will go to extremes to deliver. This includes results, team building, innovation and creative jumps. If you are spending time doing something you hate you are also losing invaluable time where you could be reinventing the future somewhere else. To me losing time is the biggest loss of all.

The fourth effect is the personal change that affects attitude. In me it involved a sudden shift in mood towards colleagues and family alike. I began to avoid people and act violent in meetings and projects. Other times I would fall into long periods of silence unlike me that took everyone by surprise.

The discomfort zone is an area that instead of taking you into new fields and developing your skills takes you into negative territory and draws your creativity and passion. It should be avoided at all costs, as it brings the worst of you and adds little to developing your career.

Kudos, I wish everything was this easy in life.

Six Pixels of Separation

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus (January 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446559385
• ISBN-13: 978-0446559386
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: Be the first to review this item
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #795,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Six Pixels of Separation is the book Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image and a long time precursor of the Internet and one of the most important authorities on blog marketing. Mitch is someone who knows his way in and out of the Internet enough to secure him talks at Google and articles at Wired magazine.

I purchased the book to better understand the world and its connection to social media, blogging, and Internet marketing. In my mind, reading this book was the key to improve my blog, which I had neglected for the last two years because of tremendous time crunch at my day job.

The book tries to take the reader through the importance of online media at the present day, how important social media and blogging have become for a company, brand or business, and how the consumer can now interact with the companies, brands and business that have a presence online.

If you are a very high level executive or a very traditional type, this is mandatory reading. I say this out of experience, having a superior who finds the idea of an intranet too radical, and is just now letting go of his fears of social media and Twitter. If you – like me – have years following blogs, podcasts, and started using Twitter years ago, the reading will feel a little dry. Maybe I was expecting geekier or techie recommendations. Maybe I was expecting ideas on new blog engines, or at least how to fix the PHP code on my WordPress implementation. The result is more an essay on how to organize your corporate presence in the web, how to engage the community, what pitfalls to avoid, and some of the more important tools to measure success. These are all legitimate topics and required reading for any organization whose presence in the web is still pending or has not been so successful.

With nice acronyms like UNM2PNM (using new media to prove new media), the book is full of ideas for the new comer who might need a little help designing his or her corporate web presence. Once you read this book you will feel more empowered and knowledgeable about implementing a successful Internet/social media strategy for your own company. The knowledge is still very much strategic and feels like a bird’s eye view. But for most managers who will never touch CSS, blog engines, and will treat the theme as a marketing tool without interest of any of the technical aspects, it does a lot to instruct and perfect your long-term marketing plan, building with strong bases for future growth and evolution.

A recommended read for those interested in implementing online marketing strategies tied to blogging, social media and online communities without the hassle of technical implementation specs and code.

I downloaded the ISO image from the website, which took a little over twenty five minutes, and burned a DVD. Installing Mint Linux is very easy. Just burn the DVD and insert from the Windows 7 desktop. Click on Install with other OS and Mint does the rest. Someone mentioned I should shrink my main partition and manually create a partition adjacent to Windows for installing Linux, but Mint does everything for you. It will suggest a partition size, install the OS, download updated packages, and then install a boot program so you can easily decide between Windows and Linux at start-up. The whole process takes around 25 minutes, and you are set to go.

The basic installation comes loaded with software for all the common chores:

• OpenOffice for word processor, worksheet, data base and presentations
• Firefox
• Thunderbird email
• Tons of multimedia programs for playing music, video, and what not
• Gimp image program
• Excellent terminal
• Very easy administration panel

My version of Mint runs on Gnome, but there are KDE versions available. I never understood how to program C and Gnome libraries, but then I am not that good at C++ to use Qt libraries either (I have read Qt manuals and because of my Java background understand a lot more about how it works, but I will stick to Swing for the moment.) If you have no idea what this means, rest assure it’s all transparent for the user. Let’s just say Gnome is cute, and now you know where Windows Vista stole its look.

The system uses a Software Manager that simplifies updating and installing packages. I like using apt-get but I found the Software Manager so friendly and inviting, I have hardly used the command line at all. Repositories and a little bit restricted unless you look from Universe and Multiverse, but I guess that is intended to keep the integrity of the system. I downloaded wxPython libraries in a breeze, and installed Netbeans in less time than what it took to do the same in my Mac. I had problems installing Komodo Edit, a great editor for Python, Php, Perl and Ruby. I can not still make the program run from desktop icon, but launches from the command line (and I guess it’s my mistake for not setting properties for the folder correctly…)

When I look at Linux Mint, I can not believe how far it has come from the early versions of Linux of days past. This is such a mature system, that I wonder how much leverage a Windows computer has. I would recommend Linux Mint any day for the beginner to medium user who wants a fun, easy to use Linux distribution in their machines.

The bad thing is the poor and sorry state of the installations. The walls are missing plaster, the floor is dirty beyind repair. Every time we looked up to the ceiling we saw big chunks of insulation foam peeling off AC ducts, and lose wires from unknown sources overhanging. The bathrooms are clean but way outdated, and the carpet has seen better days, with far to many coffee stains.

I reckognize it is a better location than many in Central America. Panama is building a new convention center, part of the reason that maybe no one is investing in maintainance. Yet there is something very dangerous about advertising ATLAPA as a premium location to unsuspecting speakers who might be annoyed when reviewing the premises for the first time. The feeling of over exagerating the reality of the infrastructure is palpable. Many might decide to take their business elsewhere and some might even write about it in their blogs.

There is no second chance for a first impression. ATLAPA’s first impression on me was one of doubt and not of praise.

Boxes of shoes...

Today the sales team was packing shoes and apparel for the big upcoming trade show in Panama. I noticed they needed a hand and I started assisting in what I could. Working in marketing and strategic planning, I felt the team needed the assistance, not so much for the real manual help (I was more of a liability than an asset when it comes to packing shoes…) Rather, I thought they needed the presence of a Director, since the Sales Director was anywhere to be found. And not a Director to give orders, but one to humbly be quiet and help pack. It sends a strong message to the masses: that management cares and that sometimes sharing the work helps everyone integrate and feel better.

And I admit, I hate packing and there was probably an equally – but not better – use of my time. This is a disciplined, self-directed team. Yet, why do some managers/directors/whatever lose sight of their team like this? Being proud about managing a discipline, self-directed team is something to be reckoned with. Being a creep who dismisses people and petty task and loses sight of the team is not.

I installed a simple theme for the moment but I will try to install Arras or F8 Lite again, or the excellent theme Modern Clix by Rodrigo Galindez.

But it still is a bummer…

Not one to postpone things, I got my self to a terminal with a hard line to the net to check-in electronically. And that’s when the magic stopped. Posting my passport data time and time again, I got nothing but error messages. After four times, I gave up.

If you are going to couple e-mail alerts which are supposed to be followed up with web services, make sure the coupling works! Maybe all the mails were sent at the same time and that chocked up the system. I am only guessing here. But the dissappointment is great. Which is a shame. I was probably going to do the web check-in sometime tonight and I would have felt great about my airline. It’s only when you over-promise and under-deliver when the customer gets angry.

One for the do-less achieve-more crowd.