Women in Business

The saying "Work smart and not hard" is great, sometimes, as you find. I however, cut it in half and just say work smart. It doesn't mean to me not to work hard, it just means to stay on top of things. If you can't work smart, you find yourself floundering and not getting any work done. Maybe if we cut some of the better sayings in half and think of them as a way to improve work habits, not cut down work time we won't feel so bad for answering that late night work phone call!

I cannot tell you the amount of deals on both sides that I have had over the last 10 years in the mortgage business. Especially now with all the changes in the market; it makes it increasingly hard to get deals closed. I try to stay on the positive side and have told my clients when it didn't work out that there was a better opportunity around the corner. My problem comes in when I keep hearing all the negativity that is surrounding this business right now. We lost deals before the market turned down, what makes those negative talkers think that we won't lose deals now? It can ruin your day when you get stuck on the phone with a client or Realtor that is having a pity party. I just want to hang up!! Instead, I try to swing them to the positive side and quickly get off the phone as politely as I can. (And remember the Serenity Prayer!) ...

You hit the nail on the head on this one! The commercials, the speeches, they all play on everyone's emotions and make you feel how wonderful it would be to have a united country all working for the same thing. Even though it will never come true, the fantasy of it is working for him. And then there is Hillary. You fall asleep listening to her after all the fanfare of the "Obama Team". I for one would love to see all of Congress working together to fulfill a need for our country, but the fact is they never have and they never will. It is split into sides and they fight it out, unfortunately in front of the press most of the time. But who would have ever thought a man that literally came out of nowhere would be the front runner for the most prestigious position in our country? That's what the fantasy brings. It will be a shame when America wakes up and realizes it was, in fact, only a fantasy. But what a salesman!

There is little doubt that Obama has charisma on his side; Bill Clinton did also in 1992 which barely yielded him the election, but he was Governor 5 x first. In any business, inspiration is critical to action. Hillary has a paid for building full of furniture with few employees. Obama has leased a building with no furniture but many employees, and expects to build his business on taxpayer dollars. Who has the better prospects: Amazon or MA and Pop's store? Inspiration is great but doesn't pay the bills.

Guess Hillary thought that highly educated women in business would be aware of the bottle necks that no women in Government creates. It's too bad she wasn't more careful in her communications with executive women to explain what a woman in the White House could do for them, in reducing those bottlenecks. Or perhaps, Executive has tunnel vision, and are insufficiently aware of the problems of women being elected in legislatures across the country through which their employers arrange to get those tax credits and subsidies in order to hire them. Streamlined communications would definitely prove to be advantageous to women in understanding that decisions are often timely and subject to a variety of strategic and tactical political pressures that must be managed within the context of organizational behavior. Perhaps Executive Women give up on Hillary too easily, interpreting lack of decision making as lack of commitment.