Conrey is for Closers

Leaders are rarely the people that are the most popular folks in the room. Leaders are often eccentric, stubborn, loudmouthed and downright unreasonable. Their power comes from their convictions and their ability to convince others to see things their way. Reasonable people don’t like to push people out of their comfort zones. Reasonable people like to please as many people as possible even if it means sacrificing some of their own goals. Unreasonable people scratch their own itch and move on to change the world.

Brandon doesn’t have a blog, so he wrote a great article on his Thoughts on Gangplank.   Since he’s unable to have comments I figured I’d use this platform to respond and allow others to as well.   First read his article then come back for my responses. I speak for me, not for Gangplank or anyone else at Gangplank:

1) Multiple Monitors -  There is a 30″ monitor that sits here unused 50% of the time that you would be welcome to use, also you are more than welcome to bring your own in with you.   We even have a couple of little ones available right now.   As for Gangplank providing them for people – that costs money and Gangplank as you know doesn’t charge rent or anything so the math gets tough to justify.

2) Plugged in VS Wifi – there are actually a couple of switches with open slots for CAT5 if you wanted to plug in – no one has ever asked before – including Brandon.  I know that I’m more than happy to help find a solution for little problems like this if people ask.

3) Laziness – Nothing I can do about this but with the aim to get to 24/7 that can hopefully alleviate it.

Now for the really big stuff – the whole Gangplank Brand vs Location vs Movement argument.  I see what you’re saying with the Gangplank is a place argument, and I think that there’s some valid points there.  But you don’t really address why it can’t be a “movement” or idea as well.   As for equating us to the Civil Rights Movement or Pro-Choice Movement – I think you’ve taken this to a distant reach – an edge case to use programmer language.   You completely ignore the ability for people to say “I support Gangplank”

The name actually is quite fitting if you look at the definition for Gangplank:

A board or plank, with cleats for steps, forming a bridge by which to enter or leave a vessel.

A Gangplank is a bridge, a way to get from one place to another, a connector. All of these things are what Gangplank is really all about. The actual physical location means next to nothing to me as a part of Gangplank. If it were in the current location, in someone’s garage, or in a corporate office park it wouldn’t matter SO LONG AS the energy and interaction was the same. Rather than trying to define what Gangplank is – something that has been avoided purposefully I belive – people should just be a part of it.

Personally I ignore anything associated and branded as a movement, because they paint with too broad a brush for my tastes most of the time. We don’t need another movement, we have one already that people are a part of even if they don’t use those terms.

Looking forward to more of this discussion.

Are you comfortable with what you are doing every day?  If so then you aren’t being challenged enough by either your team, your employer or yourself.  Comfort leads to complacency – when you don’t have anything snapping at your heels you stop running so fast.  A great guy that I work with today bemoaned that he had been comfortable with the project he was on and didn’t want to move to a new one.  I was shocked that he wasn’t looking forward to the challenge of a new thing, of overcoming new obstacles and learning new ways to do things.   How many people you work with though, or even more importantly are competing against, are like that?  Ready to just sit back in their comfort zone and not reach for the next level.

Don’t get comfortable, don’t get complacent, and don’t get caught by all the other people running up behind you.