Thursday, August 04, 2005

LATE BLOOMERS WEAR DIFFERENT COLLARS…

Based on the way I have presented things in the past articles, I could understand if someone would think that when I refer to a Late Bloomer, I am only talking about someone who goes from little or no ambition, straight into the Information Technology field. For this I apologize. Allow me to clarify.

I have known early bloomers who were motivated to learn some pretty brainy stuff; mathematics, sciences, computers…etc. These are the areas which would surely land them a higher-paying white-collar job later in life. The same holds true of those who are ambitious enough to learn the mechanics of an automobile, or the skills required to be a great carpenter or electrician. One of my best friends as a teen was heavily interested in cars. He was mechanically inclined and had the motivation to learn as much as he could. Right out of High School he attended Porter and Chester in Connecticut. The last I heard, he was making a great deal more money than I am. I have another friend who many people would not think of as a bloomer at all; early or Late. (I won’t mention in too much detail the facts, but only the basic idea.) He may be socially unskilled. He may be rough around the edges. But that man bloomed in his occupational field early in life and is now considered by many of my white-collared friends as a go-to guy for getting projects done…and done extremely well. So an early bloomer does not simply fit into the nice, clean and tidy world of white collars. There are many early bloomers who have some pretty grungy blue collars.

The same will hold true for the Late Bloomer. He does not need to go into the technology field in order to bloom. I worked in kitchens for most of my working life. But, being a Late Bloomer, I did not focus on my craft or hone my skills in the culinary arts. I did just enough to hold a job and get by. I understood the basics of sauces and cooking methods. I knew how to coordinate foods to go well together. I knew how to balance a meal. But anyone could do those things with minimal training. What I lacked was the motivation to take what I knew and make things better, even excellent. I lacked the motivation to learn to make things more appealing to the eye (which is 70% of all of the foodservice industry. Funny how I still remember that lesson in school). I was a chef for 20 years before I got out of the industry. But if I chose to bloom there, I could have.

For the Late bloomer, it is not a matter of a major career change but a major mind change about how he views his future. It is a matter of how he thinks about learning a new skill or accomplishing a new task. It is a matter of how aggressively he will go after achieving the next goal or task. So don’t think that you have to take all you know and chuck it to the dogs as irrelevant dumpster fodder. If you like what you are doing, then bloom where you’re planted. Grow your roots deeper and take in the nutrients needed to make the flowers more abundant. (I know…corny line.) You’ll have at least a working knowledge of what you do know, and the benefit of knowing what you don’t know. (Did you follow that?) But if a new career is what you want, think through it carefully. Remember. You will hit the “wall” and have to push through. So you had better be sure that you want to do what it is you decide to do.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

LATE BLOOMERS FINISHING THE TASK…

What you are reading right now is proof that tasks can be completed by Late Bloomers. When I listed out the tasks about a week ago, I actually doubted I would write them all out:


  1. - Start small

  2. - Get Motivated

  3. - Talk about your task

  4. - Ask for help

  5. -Finish the task

  6. -Start all over again

Seriously, I really doubted. I didn’t have all of the thoughts fully developed. Nor did I have the desire on some days to put forth the effort. Yet here it is; the last step to the “How does the Late Bloomer begin this trek” section. (I know, it looks like there is another one to come…but it’ll be tied in with this article.)

You may or may not have noticed that I took some precautionary measures to make sure I stuck to this thing.


  • First, I started it. That is, in and of itself, a huge step. If I don’t start…I don’t finish.
  • Second, I wrote out the steps in advance. I laid out what I was going to talk about to the whole WorldWideWeb so that I would have to finish or be ridiculed for being a hypocrite.

  • Third, I printed these out and showed them to others who don’t go online. This gave me incentive because I knew that they were going to ask me about the rest of this section.

I understand that finishing the task is the hardest thing to do. I know that motivation comes and goes in fluctuating amounts, even if you have help from other people, and the required skills and knowledge to get it done. The Late Bloomer rarely sees this side of the “wall” and therefore considers it a foreign place, viewed only by those who have drive, ambition, and a hunger for completing things. But here I am; a Late Bloomer sitting on the edge of a completed task. It feels pretty good, actually.

HEY YOU!!! WAKE UP!!! (I know…I know. Typing in all caps is considered yelling at someone online. Forgive the offense. I just needed to get your attention for a second.) Keep in mind that there will be times when, the closer you get to completion, the easier it is to slow down. This is similar to a marathon runner who knows he’s not going to win a race and complacently jogs across the finish line. Finish lines are meant to be crossed with fervor spawned by the thrill of completing the run. So don’t give it just enough energy to get the task completed. Give it all you have and put a deep notch on the “win” side of your “tasks completed” record book.

Now hold the thrill just a bit longer because it’s time to look the last step in the face which, ironically, is to start all over again. Yep. Grab your list of tasks and scratch off the easiest one. Now grab the next one and follow the same steps all over again. You will find that the more “wins” you have, the easier it will be to take on a task. You will even begin to look forward to them. Really.

Monday, August 01, 2005

LATE BLOOMERS ASK FOR HELP…

As has been laid out in the past couple of articles, the Late Bloomer usually needs help from outside sources to stay motivated. He has a friend who acts as a motivator, and he has been talking about his task trying to find others who, themselves, are interested in that task. But I cannot deny that sometimes motivation is not all that is needed to complete a task. Sometimes more knowledge is needed. Sometimes skills are required that have not yet been acquired. The bigger the task, the more potential there is for further knowledge and skills. Therefore the Late Bloomer should not limit himself to his motivator and the insights gained from others alone. They may not possess the proper knowledge and skills needed. (Remember, your motivator is simply being a friend who will help you stay focused.) He must ask for help from outside of these sources. Let me describe a few of them.

This is the age of electronic data. There are millions (or more likely, billions and quite possibly trillions) of pages of data on the internet just waiting for someone to read them.

Is your task something a little more difficult than finishing a book as was the example used in previous posts? Perhaps it’s something that requires a bit of skill and extra knowledge (like replacing a deck or painting a room…ok…those are a bit large for the Late Bloomer to start with. Let’s try something simple like replacing an air filter on a car.) This is a topic close to my heart because just this morning I paid someone else to change the air filter on my own car. And judging by how quickly it was done, I am left to conclude that this is an extremely easy thing to do. So I will take a few minutes to find out if someone has posted this useful data on the internet. I’ll be right back…
Ok…I was online for about 20 seconds and I found this: http://www.ehow.com/how_112770_replace-air-filter.html
It came with instructions and a graphic. You gotta love the internet.


Are you not internet savvy? or perhaps you are not online at home? (Obvious question is “How are you accessing this?” But that’s trivial at this point.) If either one is the case, then try Barnes and Noble or Borders. You can go in there and read any book on the shelf for free. Take the time, take some notes, just don’t take it out of the store without paying for it.


But what if you don’t have all day to spend at a book store? What if you need to grab something off the shelf and get home? There is always the old standby otherwise known as “the library”. They have free videos and books for the taking. The variety and amount of information may not be up to Barnes and Noble standards, but if you live in a large city there is bound to be something useful there. You may perhaps find a book or video on the “how-to”s of auto mechanics. (The Late Bloomer will almost always choose a video over a book.) Who knows, you might get lucky and learn something more than just how to change an air filter.

Below are a few more you can try.

Free magazine subscriptions.

Try this spot first. http://freebies.about.com/od/magazinesubs
If you don’t find what you want there, then use Google or Yahoo, or whatever search engine you want. I have been receiving several free magazines for years relating to the IT industry. There is usually some great stuff in some of them.

Free email subscriptions.

If you don’t like clutter then try free email newsletters. If you look hard enough and keep your ears open you’ll find someone who has a free email newsletter chock full of information you can use. I get several every day. Some political, some technically oriented, and some just for fun.

Take a class.

If you are really ambitious you could take a course on the subject.


I am quite sure that there are other methods of getting whatever knowledge and skills are needed for you to complete a task. But these are a few that will help the Late Bloomer ask for help and actually get it.

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