{"id":22894,"date":"2018-08-06T01:08:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T05:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smps.org\/?p=22894"},"modified":"2023-06-20T14:03:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T14:03:51","slug":"what-have-i-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smps.org\/2018\/08\/06\/what-have-i-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"What Have I Learned?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Your life is made of two dates and a dash. Make the most of your dash.<\/em><\/p>\n

Those 16 words are a distillation of a poem written by Linda Ellis in 1996. As I pondered my last\u00a0QuickLook<\/em>\u00a0message, I realized that SMPS has been a big part of how I live my dash. I found Linda\u2019s explanation of the origin of\u00a0The Dash<\/em>\u00a0particularly relevant to our industry. She was working in a very large, successful corporation with a tense working environment. We don\u2019t know any place like that, do we?<\/p>\n

Linda noticed how priorities had become misaligned. People were worrying more about making a living than about making a life. She had also been touched by a colleague\u2019s wife, who, aware that she was dying, advised, \u201cWe\u2019re all going to die. Stop worrying and start loving and living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of us didn\u2019t plan to become marketers, communicators, and business developers in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. But it seems once we get here, we stay. There\u2019s something about living under stress for 60 hours a week that we just can\u2019t get enough of.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So whether we are new to the industry with a desire to learn more, or like Linda Ellis, we are looking for a saner path to how we live our work days, SMPS becomes the source we turn to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Here, we get the knowledge to improve ourselves and help our firms achieve their goals for growth, market share, visibility, thought leadership \u2026 even becoming a better place to work.<\/p>\n

We learn how to do our jobs better. We recognize that we aren\u2019t the only ones facing similar challenges. We discover that networking is fun and colleagues are willing to share best practices. We gain perspective and wisdom. Even better, our friendships lead to teaming arrangements that lead to work for our firms. We become better leaders. We bring value!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly a year since I accepted the gavel from Past-President Craig Galati, and in a few weeks, I will pass it on to President-Elect Chris Rickman. Here is some of what I\u2019ve learned over the past year:<\/p>\n