I spent part of the weekend pondering the recent market turbulence, political posturing and the flood of information surrounding individual health, community health and business health – should some of these predictions come to fruition. Yet, I can assure you, it was much more enjoyable to think about and research the characteristics of heroes and the methods to inspire heroism (as an automatic and/or permanent trait) within our friends, family and business colleagues.
Of the resources I found, the following three articles meant the most to me:
– Heroism Vs. the Bystander Effect
– Cultivating Heroism in Your Everyday Life
– The Characteristics of a Hero
As I pondered the characteristics of what makes a hero, I started to ponder the creation of my own list – but one that would help inspire greater heroism from my family and friends. Here’s my first two characteristics of a hero:
1. Rooted in the care for others, heroism is the altruistic preparation of logic-based plans, with contingencies, that serve to protect during crisis and/or prevent any crisis from worsening.
2. Heroic readiness is possible when one commits to a personal accountability, well before any crisis, by engaging forethought, skills development and the confidence that can only be created from both.
I thought about my family a great deal when preparing these first two; but, also recalled the words and actions of my grandparents and parents, during my lifetime as well as their behaviors during World War II and the Great Depression. While both these crises from 70 and 80 years ago are dramatic examples and most likely not to be that dramatic in the remainder of my lifetime, there is value in readiness during any sustained market turbulence.
For those in enterprise IT, there is no better period than RIGHT NOW to invest time and energies into exploring proven solutions that can cut costs – especially IT budgets. Cost containment now can save jobs later, should revenues or margins become flat or head into the red. While a company-wide cost-containment mandate may become essential in the future, heroes are most often identified by the heroic readiness they possess, as well as the confidence they exude from the skills and knowledge they’ve developed.
If you’d like to learn about the most effective means of proactively reducing data center or networking hardware operating expense, please visit xsnet.com or contact XSi to discuss your interest with one of our Subject Matter Experts.
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