Passion Is A Major Driver

Today I was procrastinating. It is a wonderful sunny Sunday and I have set myself the task of fine tuning some questions for a TV interview I am doing this week so I turned on the TV while I ate my lunch and I "met" a truly inspiring woman as I watched her story on TV.

That woman is Pat O'Shane, an aboriginal woman who grew up in a tent in the bush at the end of a beach near Cairns in the 1950s. No power, no water, mostly fed on bush tucker, fish and their own free-range eggs and chooks Chickens for non- Australians.). She went to school, taught her mother to read while she was doing her homework in the tent and won a scholarship to teacher's college. Later she went to University and graduated in law and became a magistrate! How difficult that was for her and how focussed and driven she had to be to reach her goal.

When I was first married I lived near Cairns for 9 years, my children were born up there in FNQ in the late 1960s and I taught biology and maths at Atherton High School. My home group were mostly Aboriginal and were a lovely bunch of kids but faced horrendous odds if they wanted to do more than menial jobs or get the dole. I know about the prejudice that they faced at that time in FNQ so I was deeply impressed by the enormity of Pat O'Shane's achievements.

My normal topic is management systems and how to prevent irritating and even major interuptions that can be prevented with simple safety, quality and environmental systems.

But working with small business I meet so many inspiring people who passionately drive their businesses and who look for systems as a way to move their businesses forward and free up some time to lead a more balanced life. Most of them don't realise how inspiring they are. Like Pat, they are down to earth, practical people who push their envelope to do the things that matter to them.

Or like Kellie who is the most efficient and effective PA I have ever come across and who has almost finished implementing a Safety system in the business she works in, regardless of the fact that she has fibromyalgia, is in constant severe pain and the doctors think she should be on a disability pension.

I so much enjoy working with these people. Practical small to medium business owners and managers who are increasingly sick of staff errors, staff turnover, increasing regulatory changes and red tape and just want to get on and run their business.

People clearly tell me that they want a virtually no paper system providing a tool to save their business time and they definitely don't want systems they see elsewhere with mountains of paper and additional staff r to keep track of it and I certainly agree with this..

The real problem with many people working with management systems is that they do not have a deep understanding of systems so they cling to mountains of outdated forms and build a wall of paper to hide that ignorance and lack of understanding.