Over time, I've cited many examples here of lessons the business world taught me. And I think they're valuable because they not only work, but they're also predominately based on pure common sense,which brings me to today's subject.
I distinctly recall a time quite a few years ago when I was doing poorly at my job as a regional sales manager in which I was measured and compensated primarily based on the production of my sales team, as well as myself. Upon being reviewed by my manager who asked why my results were so dismal, I replied that I honestly had no specific excuse or reason and in fact that each and every one of us was "trying as hard as we could."
Hearing my "excuse," he replied that significant effort alone wasn't always the answer to success and gave me the graphic description of a person striving all day to push down a thick brick wall with his shoulder. However, by quitting time even though the person had "worked" very hard for hours, that wall would be still be there because it was simply not possible to get the job done that way, it required a different method and approach. Consequently, it made no difference how much effort was spent if there weren't positive results, and in the end, folks buying from me was the only proof of hard work that counted.
I thought of that situation today when reading an item by Charlie Spiering in The Washington Examiner on-line stating that in talking to a show host, Chuck Todd on MSNBC, "Obama campaign deputy manager Stephanie Cutter dismissed today's CBS/New York Times poll showing that 67 percent of people believed Obama made his decision on gay marriage for political reasons. Only 24 percent said that Obama did it mostly because he thinks it is right.”
Todd admitted that the methodology of the poll was different, because it was a callback poll, but said "Put those caveats aside that's a lot of people saying that he did this for political reasons," noting that it was a 3-1 margin. Cutler replied that "We can't put the methodology of that poll aside, because the methodology was significantly biased," and that although she didn't want to bore the viewers with talk of methodology, she repeated that she believed the poll was flawed.
As for me, in keeping with today's personal example, I don't think a discussion of what political flunkies say about poll samples being flawed matters at all, it's only people's votes that actually count. And at the moment, although the administration's circling the wagons and spouting all kinds of political pap and gibberish, their brick wall's getting thicker by the minute and their shoulder's wearing out.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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