You know, it's funny but I've always known that your position on the totem pole is usually proportional to the amount of bulljive you have to put up with. The lower you are, the more you get. I think Saving Private Ryan sums this theory up rather nicely: "**** rolls downhill soldier, not up."
On a side note, here are some exerpts from an amusing blog about corperate America and how it relates to cagefighting. I like them a lot
.
Cagefighting easier than corporate america
Current mood:
cold
If you are in corporate america, take up cagefighting. It is so much easier than the miscommunication, catty, blah blah blah of the suit and tie world. Iwould much rather get punched in the face than sit through a meeting about nada....unless it is directly about the money in my pocket. Anywhoo, I have to go back to work now. I will prolly post more about this.
Yeah, like I said, I think anyone wanting to be in managment should be forced to fight MMA. Win or lose, I think if they were put in a postion to where they would be forced to submit to the will of a superior individual, I think they would be more understanding of the needs of the people that they "Manage". Really, look at the "bosses" of your jobs, could they win a fight if their life depended on it......or just a dollar. Think about that, and ask yourself the same question when you meet the bosses boss.
Cage Fighting easier than corporate america pt.2
Current mood:
awake
There is some serious anxiety about the upcoming changing of the guard. I mean I am all for as much change as the next guy, but seriously. This is a moment where I wish a bell would ring or a ref say go and the whole place turn into an awards show!!! Waiting around for how ATR is going to be effected by the manager leaving sucks, why can't stuff be 3x5minute rounds?
Cage fighting is easier than corporate america vol 3
Current mood:
aggravated
Do you know what the first thing happens when you get in a cage. They lock the door. One of the main reasons is to keep spectators out and to keep the combatants in. This is universal in all situations involving cages. Even in the movies, if I am mistaken I am sure I will be corrected.
Now locking the cage is one of the easiest jobs in cagefighting. But for some reason this skill does not transfer over to the corporate world very well.
For instance, I go to the bathroom(there are three at my place of occupation) I go to one and the door is closed. Normally if the station is empty the door is left ajar. This time the door was closed.
Some of you may say,"Well, that is where you ****ed up Ken" if you know the social norms you should have knocked. So anywhoo, I open up the door the customary half-inch, and then proceed to push through and I hear a voice," ....hey uhhh I'm busy..."
My bad. That was easy enough.
I then venture to the next Men's room. Not that it is any different from the womens room, but that is a different story all together. As I approach the door I notice that it too is also closed.
This is the part where you all would say,"This is where you ****ed up Ken" if you know the social norms of your place of occupation then you should have knocked. So anywhoo I push the door open the cutomary half-inch and no visual so I push the rest of the way through and I hear a voice,"...Hey man can't you see I am in here..."
My Bad. Easy enough. **** that man. We some grown as men in this spot and to of these jack offs can't even push the damn lock on the door. At this point I am pissed and I have to piss and I have to use my least favorite bathroom, assuming that no one else decided to use the head without locking the door.
Ref's never forget to lock the cage. Neither should people at their jobs, but then again....cagefighting is easier than corporate america.
Kenichwa *****es!!!+1
Cagefighting is easier than Corporate America Vol 4
Current mood:
chipper
Category:
Blogging
You know in the the world of suits and ties, you have to make nice-nice with everyone in it. If you offend someone, at some point you will pay for it. If you don't know who a person is just because you are suppose too you pay for it. Hell, I am sure we all know someone that would rather swallow a grenade with a string attached to it rather than work with/next to a Ichiban douche bag.
If you don't know someone, then you are prolly the ichiban douche bag.
Don't be angry, just except it. we all have roles to play at work, you just happend to luck out douche bag.
The moral of the story is that in the land of suits and ties you have to eat **** and like it.
But not in cagefighting!!!
The other night I had the oppurtunity to meet some other combatants in the 4 man tourney on the 13th Check it out at
www.xffonline.com . Granted we are sportsman and I feel no ill will torwards any of these guys. But the following is funny:
Me and my trainer Cam are posted up just chillin and what not. And this guy walks up and introduces him self. I shake his hand and say, "what's up, My name is Kenneth". He goes," Oh I know who you are". It was loud in the club so I was like,"HUH". He then replied," I SAID, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE"!!
I was really perplexed because I had know Idea who he was or how he knew me. I don't really have any fans and he didn't have a girl nearby so I really didn't have anything to say other than the norm whenever some dude that I don't know. So I just looked at him. He was then like," you are in the 4 man on the 13th right. I was like, "huh" and I asked cam what he said. The guy was then like, " I'm fighting in the 4 man too!" . His chest was kind of poking out.
I looked him dead in the eye and said," That's nice".
And then I went back to checking out the ring girls.
Had I been at work I would have been forced to engage this guy, who I have every intention of beating the crap out of in some sort of dialogue for at least 7 minutes.
Not in Cage fighting. You only have to talk to people you want too.
CageFighting is easier than Corporate america VOL 5.
You know when you are a cage fighter, you are expected to fight the person in the ring in front of you......It's part of being a cage fighter, hell it is even in the name. Now the two people who otherwise have no grudges against each other meet in the middle of a ring and beat the crap out of each other for at least 10 minutes. At the end of it all it is all good.
At the end of the fight everything is fine and dandy and you may even go and drink later that night. I mean everybody is happy at the end of the cagefighters day.
I wish corporate america could be that easy. See you can get into a fight with someone at the office(by fight I mean, disagreement, misunderstanding, calling someone out etc), and never really have it settled. In cage fighting everything is laid out in the ring. This corporate stuff drags on and on. I mean people could have the decency to bring issues they have to the front. Voice their concerns and then be done with it so that they group or individuals that they work with would still be proficient in whatever endeavor that they embark on.
When the competetiors in corp america decided to not let things go, it becomes a pissing contest. And ultimately the people that you are suppose to be working for suffer because somepeople can't check the ego's at the door. So that means every meeting somebody has to look stupid. To think that people that fight other people for fun and profit don't have those kind of issues.
So corporate america should take a lesson from the cagefighters:
Bring your issues to the table, square off and decide what's what, and then let it go.
Or find a rematch down the road.
Cagefighting is easier than corporate america vol. 6
As a fighter, nobody makes you do anything. You decide when you want to fight and you show up and do your thing. Win or lose, you showed up, which in of itself, is really the hard part of the evening. Now you can't fight yourself, so there is always someone in front of you wanting the same thing as you. Now, more often than not, a fighter will have to fight TBA. Sometimes refered to by it's proper name "To Be Announced". Now TBA is the baddest dude in the whole fight game. TBA will fight anyone, anytime, anywhere,at any weight class, sometimes even more than once in the same night.
Now TBA, is and odd fellow, namley because he will back out at the last minute, and someone will fill in and get the job done. Now filling in for TBa is not a bad thing at all. If you step in to do the job TBA was listed for, more power to you. Too bad the reverse is not the same.
Sometimes in Cagefighting, real fighters will haved obligated themselves to show and compete. Then next thing you know, TBA has gotten on the card and TBA will ultimatly not show. Now the fighter that has trained hard has no fight, the promoter now has one less fight, and the whole situation is just not fun.
Most promoters will do everything in their power to keep TBA of the card, for as long as possible.
In corporate america, you can be asked to do things that require more time for no extra pay. Regardless as to what it is, you got it cause you asked for it, plain and simple. Now the twist is that Corporate america does not have a TBA. So when indivduals are not there to make everything fit(I.e. to have a fight you need (2)fighters, (1)ring,(1)ref, and (3)judges). When you start messing with the dynamics of groups in corporate america, things fall apart and it is very easy to point the finger at what is wrong with the puzzle. Can it be changed, yes. Can it be for the better or worse, of course. Is it better than what you had, DAMN RIGHT!
So why is it that in corporate america, people find it so easy to not do what they themselves obligated themselves too? I am sure if I was not able to do something I would say so, and I am the worst at spreading myself uber-thin. In the sport of mma people who do not show for their fights are very soon blacklisted from the sport. No one is angry at the end of the day, it is just business. If you say you can but you can't promoters will make sure you do not have the added stress of having to fight on their shows.
In corporate america, there tends to be a whole lot of supressed anger when the reality of a situation goes head on with fiction. I honestly think people can learn alot from cagefighters, responsibility, honesty, integrity, and skill can all be seen in and out of the ring.
I hope the suits and ties can see this too.
Why Cage Fighting is Easier than Corporate America vol 7.
In the last installment of the WCFISTCA, we talked about how TBA was something that should never be allowed to compete, becuase TBA will back out at the last minute, and everything becomes all discombobulated. Now since everyone is aware of TBA's behavior, promoters will band and Tba will not have a Venue to not show up too at the last minute. Take the time to surf
www.mma.tv and you will see the lengths people through to make sure TBA's don't ruin another show
All hail the graciousness the corporate grinder, for even when one coffee bean misses it's turn at destruction again and again, the sharp teeth smile, and welcome it's safe return to the grind.
This is the funny thing about corporate america and Cagefighting. Sooner or later human resources will catch or someone's triangle choke will. You just have to be patient. I was once told that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, that is so true for cagefighting also. While I have seen first hand what happens to people when they push an agenda that is not congruent with the needs of the people, and witnesses and also been apart of banter that concluded in grown men beating the crap out of each other. I can say one thing with a clear conscious,"All this **** has a timer, and when it hits all zeros, that is your ass!"
The big difference is that the timer in cage fighting is a whole lot shorter. You can't get all willy-nilly on the internet typing in all caps and **** without someone calling someone and having a fist to face negotiations meeting to see who was really right. Corporate america on the other hand has to run this marathon of red tape(you know how they do it at the end, cept this stuff starts off in the begining), and after we have killed enough trees to create a paper trail marveled only by the distance this group of people had to travel from Georgia to Okalhoma back in 1838.
I guess that is the problem with the human dynamic, everyone loves drama.
Give me four minutes and a cage anyday.
Why Cage Fighting Is Easier Than Corporate America Vol. 8
Current mood:
discontent
You know, in cage fighting nobody ever takes appearances very serious. I mean the more normal you look the better you ultimately will be off. I mean take a look at luke cumo(he has a myspace and he is one of my friends), this guy is a self admitted nerd, and he was picked last on the TUF 2 long story short, he wrecked shop on a bunch of people even though they saw him wreck shop on other folks. I wonder why? Prolly cause they were trying to equate appearance with skill. If you watched the show, we saw how that worked out.
Off topic, anyone remember BTK..That Mother****er was like a boyscout troop leader or something like that, and he was straight up dealing with folks on the daily basis, but he looked nice enough so I guess it was ok.
Anywhoo, so in cage fighting you can look anyway you want, and the opponent on the earlier end will assume that you have trained just has hard if not harder to have you hand raised instead of there.
That ladies and gentlemen is an equality that has yet to manifest itself in any other facet of life.
Now that does not mean to say that everyone has the same 50/50 chance of beating whoever they are fighting. I am saying that everyone has a punchers chance.
In corporate America things are very different. See within the walls of office buildings where printers are cursed at, the water coolers could send everyone up the river if it ever decided to turn states evidence, TPS reports, comp time, expense reports and everything else everyone with enough sense to not piss on an electric fence would run away from
Is dangerously different.
See in this arena all you really have to do is have the look. If you look like everyone else(realativity)and you dont make the right waves you will end up with a very cush set up, and you can be dumb as bricks.
Now dont get it twisted, the mere fact that the writer has an AFRO that he is very much a big fan of does not disregard the truth of the situation:
If you are overweight, you got problems
If you are unattractive, you got problems
If you are white above, you got problems
If you are white above and a woman, yeah it is going to be difficult
If you are black above, man you in some real **** now
If you are black above and a woman, hang it up. And I am sure that there are a multitude of combinations of ethnicity and body type combinations that could raise more trouble for a person than screaming jihad on an American airline flight. I mean what this really says is that it doesnt matter what your education level is, how high your aptitude for learning is or what your previous experiences may be. If you dont look the right way then well too bad, you could be the next best thing, so what. Question, What are we really buying into if success is based not on what you can negotiate against your resume, but how you would look on a runway wearing god knows what?
For example, I have an Afro. I also hold a college degree.with my name on it. I have been passed over for jobs because I have an Afro, but it is cleverly disguised as not making it passed the first round of interviews, people being slightly more qualified(whatever that means), or just not wanting to take a chance on the guy with the skills but just not the look.
Oh, by the way, if I was truly beat out for a job because I was not able to intelligently do it, I would not apply for it. If I truly was beat out by the better man/woman I would also admit that.
What is this thing I am buying into again?
In MMA, you have at least a fighting chance, no matter what you look like. Whatever the outcome reveals it is a merely a function of ability and education of the science of fighting. This whole corporate thing is really just pro wrestling you know, where the guy walks out does his best but it doesnt matter, he already knows they have already picked the winner.
Keep your hands up, and protect yourself at all times
Why Cage Fighting Is Easier Than Corporate America Vol. 9
Current mood:
annoyed
Category:
Life
Why Cagefighting is easier than Corporate America Vol 9.
You know in cage fighting, there is not a whole lot of variation once you get past TBA(read the earlier vol.). You have your opponent and you train for it, if they talk **** on a message board, you know it. If they are not training to the best of their ability, you know it. Every fight that your opponent has ever had has been committed to video and people are more than happy to let you have a look-see to be better prepared for the battle.
Man if you really wanted too you could find out all about the dudes personal life just by reading a myspace page. The point is, you have all the factors that you need to prepare to fight Lets take a look at what you have weeks out from a fight
Name
Height
Record
Skillset
Team Affliation
Trainers
Years in the Sport
If they are a douche bag
Man All sorts of ****.
In corporate America on the other hand, you are not so lucky to have all of the info on who is trying to destroy image. Sometimes you may only have your gut feeling and a rumor or an unsigned note that someone was nice enough to say," I can't tell you who told me this, but blah blah blah" What kind of **** is that? So you walk around the office, not sure as to who the enemy is but they are out there. Of course paranoia is not suppose to be the result of a covert attack, but it is most certainly a by-product of it. Now in the event that you can fill these items for the at work battle:
Name
Job title
Years at job
Known Cliques
Mentors
Are they a douche bag
If you can fill in the above then you are ****'in winning. But everyone is not always that methodical to the approach of corporate office covert operation. Potential victims never go on the counter-offensive, they never ask the right questions to the wrong people or even throw a little bait out there to see who bites and more importantly, who brings it back. By the time it is all said and done they have lost their sanity and have ostracized from any help from management because they cannot fill in the above.
Ain't that a *****
So what can we learn, well for one keep your guard up. Don't leave your chin out. Second don't take fights on short notice. What I am saying is, don't run into every thing that has your name involved with guns blazing. While it works sometimes it is reckless at best. Keep your head on a swivel, be in the know but don't necessarily be apart of what's going down. One of the most important, don't always hunt for the knockout, plenty battles are won by decision and submission, take your time and isolate and immobilize.
Why Cage Fighting Is Easier Than Corporate America Vol. 10
Why Cage Fighting is Easier than Corporate America Vol. 10
You know, in cage fighting Men (and women) meet in a ring of some sort, and they battle it out. Putting their faith in their training, trainers and any god that they wish to believe in. All of there work is tested under the scrutinizing eye of reality. And it is pass or fail and there will be no retest. That is the beauty of violence; you face your fear to prove your worth. You leave all of it in the cage, blood, sweat, tears, frustration, pain, the suffering of not being able to eat what you want, the anguish of the sauna and the damn sauna suit, the support your team gives you when the crowd thinks you are done for, and that little emotional ball that swells at the base of your neck. All of that is left in the squared circle after you and your opponent go to war for 12 minutes (depending on sanctioning body).
Is that not the most beautiful thing you can imagine, if you are having trouble visualizing it, watch Bonner vs. griffin I, and play enya in the background.
No I am serious, do that.
Even though the sport is violent the participants are not, and they are following a strict set of rules that do not bend for the better position of any of the combatants, that is what makes it so great, everyone has a fair shot once you are in the ring. There is no favoritism, there is no head fakes, there are no special rules that they make known at the last minute. You know what is coming, and you have done everything you can to prepare for it. What more can you ask from anything?
Corporate America on the other hand, not so much.
Welcome to the one place where doublespeak is 1st language used but never truly understood. Check it out," I can assure you that we can probably get that done, unless something else happens then I will have to call someone that can do it after it gets approve from (insert ominous dept) after that who knows.
What did I just say?
Now also, what is rarely spoken about but always dealt with are the fact that sometimes the rule makers become the rule breakers, but not by there own perception. After all they made the rules…why can't they ignore them?
**** if I knew, I wouldn't be writing this blog.
So the truth is, at any given point any individual, group, or group of individuals will be fighting a war on three fronts
1st. The Issue at hand
2nd. The Management on the other side of the table
3rd. Any other obstacles that the manager at the table or the other office decides to make and then throw at you.
How do you prepare for that, at best you are unprepared for 3 if you are prepared for 1 and 3 then you are prolly going to be defeated by number 2?
In short, any issue that you able to bring to management are really a joke, they already have beaten you before you walk into the door. And if you are one of those smarty mc smarty pants, well they have trick for you too.
Ready
Sure
Ok,
"Wow that has some real merit let me get back with you"
You missed it didn't you.
That is the first of many that the office has for upstarts trying to get ahead in the bread line.
So how do you feed the devil with a short handed spoon?
You hope that he is your friend…today.
I take solace in knowing that today the devil is my friend, but who know of tomorrow, How do you deal with that?
p.s. there are no long handled spoons in Corporate America
Why Cage Fighting Is Easier Than Corporate America Vol. 11
Current mood:
aggravated
Category:
Blogging ..
In Cage Fighting, everything has a purpose. From the warm-ups you wear to the energy drink/t-shirt/ball cap/ and list in your managers pocket for you to thank. It all has a purpose. When training for a fight, you have a training regiment, workout schedule, your meals plan, and bed time all planned out. It all has a purpose. A fighter even has a game plan that he is to execute in the fight that he/she(there are women cage fighters too)along with their camps believe to be the solved equation for success. Not only does it have a purpose, but none of the above mention have what I call wasted effort.
I don't mean to say that if a fighter is not doing it 100 percent then they are wasting their efforts, but if the action does not or will not have a direct effect on the outcome in the affirmative of the fight, then it is not worth adding it to the regiment at all.
So during training for a fight, trainers and managers stream line their fighters so that everything that is done is with the purpose of winning.
And there is no wasted effort in this forward pursuit.
Corporate America is so much different. Managers and supervisors are sometimes so bereft with activities that they have nothing to do but sit around and think of ways to make the workplace better, but since what generally makes workers happy(even in reason)usually the higher ups are categorically opposed to it for no other reason except to better exert their dominance from their sound proof offices.
What is the purpose of a dress code?
Now generally I am ok with imposing a dress code for children and also the optional uniform in high school may help the curb the classicism that school children create due their constant attention to new trends, but that is a different blog all together.
How does how a person dresse in a job that has very little public view affect performance. What is the benefit of it?
What is the purpose of ID badge checks?
Notice I am not asking what is wrong with badges, but the act of taking 11 minutes to interrupt every employee for a few seconds to see if they are wearing a piece of plastic that has the very face that you see five days out of the week. I am sure that if a person is there and they are working and you see them all the time, I am willing to wager that they are not landscape architects .
Who gives a **** about how much paper you print?
I am not talking about attempting to cut down on paper usage to save the environment, but to pull people from their jobs to tell them to read a piece of paper that you could use the time allotted in meetings to learn and discuss, instead of passing out a copy of it.
The beauty of this gem of corporate thinking is that if you want it in writing, you have to put it in writing! This is not saving paper, but waste transference. If you want to save paper make better use of the internet.There are more, but I have covered them in other volumes.
The commissions of these acts do nothing to maximize the performance or morale of workers. These do nothing but create an antagonizing fence to surround employees that care nothing more than to work and go home.
That is the beauty of Cage Fighting, everyone involved is in the know about how the sport has changed and how it is changing. The management of fighters is not static at all, so why is it that management with a company fails in efforts to create a dynamic environment?
Why Cagefigting is easier than Corporate America Vol. 12
Category:
Blogging
In cagefighting, you really have to leave your ego at the house. You can't take it to the gym, you can't take it to the ring, you can't take it in the cage. You most defiantly can't keep it with you when you are scouting opponents. Style Matches make great fights. If a fighter that is a big puncher fights a person of similar skill, great night for the casual fans. If you match two guys that are both submission specialist, then the more tech savy fans will have a field day watching two guys fish for subs and transition and sweep for 12 whole minutes.
Bad matchups are the opposite. No one wants to see them and while it is possible to evoke the Puncher's chance, a great MMA management team would work well to put their fighters in fights where there is an equality of skill or at least be on the positive side of the inequality.
Training is what can close the percentage of bad match ups, but a fighter has to be willing to admit to themselves these things:
I am not ready for this level of competition
My skills are not sufficient to fight this person
I have more weaknesses than strengths
None of these things are end all to any fighter. These are just things that the more successful ones can admit, so that they can grow.
It corporate America, the same thing happens.
You get a job that is not a good match for you, but instead of admitting that early on, you wait it out. And before you know it you have been there a year and after a while you feel like some people have a passive interest in keeping you limited for whatever reason. After you have this epiphany, the bitterness sets in. After that the reality of the situation sets in:
I cannot afford to change jobs
And the fear of not having enough money saved up to live while you search for better fitting jobs only hardens your heart. While you sit in your daily 8 hour prison you think of ways to get out. The end result is that you realize that the biggest obstacle in moving from your job is the job itself. Then you realize that you need to do some soul searching and make some statements.
I am more than my job
My happiness at work is more important than the work
I am the most happy when I leave work
My personal favorite:
I like my job, I just hate the people in charge.
Ego plays a role in it too. Most people think that someone actually cares about you being or not being there. Or they think they are hurting someone's feeling by even coming into work everyday or "showing" them by still being there.
Do you know how much energy you expend with the above?
Too much, that is how much.
Now in Cage Fighting, when you have so many weaknesses, and there seems to be no possible way to level the playing field, you retire. You take the lessons you learned and maybe you might be able to trade them for coin against someone that wants to learn the craft, and that's ok, but you know that fighting is not what is in your cards any longer.
I did the same thing with my job. I realized that the machine that was in place was not going to be changed by myself, and rather than be changed by the machine, I just decided to leave. To tell you the truth, I probably stayed there longer than I wanted too, but deep down I am an optimist. I want to see the good in even the most evil of people.
I also had to let go of my own ego. I always said that if I ever got fired, I would Show the **** out. Ask people, I had the whole thing planned out. But now, as I stand at my last working week at Air Tran(yes this is the company that has fueled these blogs), I could really give two ****s floating in piss about my exit. I say that to say that if I just faded out in to nothingness at that place, it would be fine.
I have all the relationships that are worth anything made. Quitting makes me happier than the day Lynn Reaves left the call center. I say this to say, If you think I don't like you, I probably don't(staring at you AGENT COUNCIL ATR(cept for you and you know who)staring at you)
So, I stand here in the same fashion as Ken Shamrock when Tito finally said he was burying the hatchet.
Ken said, " well since he said that, I don't have a reason to train anymore"
Since I got a new job, that is cooler…Way Cooler, I don't have to play the game anymore.
And just like my Hero, I just got up and left.
I hope you all have enjoyed the Cage fighting series.
Cause it is over.
