Be a man Jack, they are playing your song?

Rap a tap tap, "Jack"

Music or dreams

or

just some "Jack" specialists

Formally and informally, as a church job and for my own network of business contacts, I have worked as a employment specialist, on the side, for a number of years. It is interesting to see the difference in what options a young person just getting out of school has vs's a person that has been employeed over a lot of years. Whether one likes it or not they evolve into being a specialist.

In some ways it is a good thing because specialists seem to make more than generalists and it can be easier to fine a job. So good. I guess. Then on the other hand I compare this to some advice that veryfew folks seem willing to take.

J Paul Getty said in his book published back in 1976 ( read for the first time by me back about then) that he would not rely on a executive with single function orientation to conduct negotiations. He said what he prefered would be to have people who could solve problems and make decisions on the spot. He said the type of person he would want would be well rounded individuals whose education had enriched their intellect and judgment and he suggested that was best done with a liberal arts education. Does it mean that liberal arts is only for a manager or what is often just a generalist. Someone who is master of nothing? Why liberal arts? He assumed that one would be better able to think with that type of education. Better able to think. Better able talk to someone else. More likely to have had experience in thinking about a wide range of subjects. More interesting. Better able to get up and do something proactive rather than reactive. Good way to find a job. Better able to after it.

Playing our Song: dreams and music seem to

reflect or maybe cause thought pattern.

Plato theorized that human-behavior patterns are controlled by three factors: appetite, emotion, and thought, all of which should function in harmony. So what then controls thought. Guess the first step is to have some thoughts. Next is to make some choices.

I guess in some ways it seems clear that businessmen like Getty were existentialists. Thinking that someone who is well rounded and polished may be driven by those facts assumes a belief that reality can be chaned by experience. Why is this so obvious? Why is it that people are so hesitatant to just think it through. Or is this just me thinking it through?

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run

- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!