Sunday, March 13, 2016

My Secret Sauce

1) Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique. What is it about you, exactly, that makes you different? Write this up in a detailed list.

1.  I am a very fast learner
2.  I am extremely proficient at fixing computers both Windows and Macs
3.  I am effective at planning and implementing my ideas and life goals
4.  I am a very loyal and loving family man
5.  I can run for long distances without tiring; my cardiovascular system is pretty good. 

2) Interview the five people who know you the best. Ask them what they think makes you different -- remember, focus on your knowledge, skills, abilities, emotions -- in other words, your human capital. Try to stay away from discussing your other types of capital (such as who you know). Record each interview. In your blog post, please post each interview, as well as a two-three sentence summary of each interview, explaining what your key takeaways are.



My good friend Cisco, he reinforced pretty much what I mostly see in myself.  


My brother Aquiles covered my emotional state fairly well.  He also touched on my love of reading and knowledge in general.  



My sister Miggy captured me pretty well in the sense that I like to learn and read a lot all the time and I hope I never lose that trait.  



My Mom, who is my reason for being, touched on my family life and how I love them a lot and would do anything for them.  



My brother in law Brent touched on my patient nature with my daughter whom I think is pretty funny and makes me laugh regularly.  


My daughter thinks I'm great which is pretty cool.


3) Reflect on the differences.

How do you see yourself, and how do others see you?  Its not too far off per se, but there are obvious differences.  They do not encompass or include all of the aspects of me that I think I exhibit but that's fine.  

Are there differences in how you assess yourself compared to others? Yes.

What do you think causes these differences? My own skewed perceptions of how my life is and how I’ve lived my life so far.  The sum of all of these experiences make me who I am so the way I see myself will be different from people who haven’t been there through it all I guess. 

Do you think your interviewees are correct about you? Yes, they have known me for a long time and are people whose opinions I trust.


Finally, going back to your list from part 1, would you make any corrections to the list?  How?  I wouldn’t, as I see myself a certain way and that’s my perception of course and that’s been cultivated and created over a very long time.  Not that they are wrong or I am wrong, but I think the truth about me lies somewhere in the middle. 

5 comments:

Grey Williams said...

You had some great reflections about the interviews you conducted and how they related to your expectations. One extra thing that this post could have used is the addition of more detail to your list of strengths. An explanation of how you exhibit these traits, or examples of times that they have helped you would provide a clearer view of why they make you unique. Now, you did not need to do any of these, the above are just my thoughts about how to make a good post better.

Unknown said...

Ruben,
It seems like you have a pretty good perception of yourself and what makes you uniques. Although it did seem like you left out one trait that a couple people did mention which was about your reading skills and love for reading in general. But most everyone agreed on how great of a family man and father you are. A strength of mine is being able to understand people and that include my family and my patience with them as well. Check out my blog: http://kmorton-entrepreneurship.blogspot.com/2016/03/my-secret-sauce.html

Able Chow said...

Hi Ruben:

I think you need to add introspection as one of your secret sauces. Few can produce such in depth reflection upon one's own strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes we only hear what we want to hear.

Able Chow said...

http://eny3003ablec.blogspot.com/ my blog

Unknown said...

Good post, Ruben. Being a family man makes you a strong, dependable person. That will be important if you pursue your own business. Your family - and eventually several employees perhaps - will be relying on you to be strong and successful. I think that responsibility will be a great characteristic to have when going into the risky world of entrepreneurship! You can check out my blog at http://poweredbysuccess.blogspot.com/