Motivation and Skill

The book “Fully Human Fully Alive” by Fr John Powell, published in 1976 inspired me to use the title to construct a 9 box grid illustrating Human and Alive as variables in axes x and y. 

I put “fully human fully alive” in the box on the top/right and “not human not alive” in the box bottom/left.  The middle boxes were “partially human partially alive”. I used it to describe management styles and warn against being Not Human and Fully Alive. These guys were energized to do a lot of damage.

I used the same 9 box grid to illustrate “good at it” and “love it” to illustrate the variables controlling motivated abilities. Obviously we should avoid work that we “hate and are bad at” and employers will help by not hiring us. Many of us are good at things we lose interest in. Some of us love to do things we are not the best at yet.

I got to know several people who were extremely focused on doing what they love. My life-long friend Mike Peters drew cartoons when he entered grade school.  Marsha Mason and Mary Fran Luecke were extremely focused on acting and performing at an early age. Bonnie Bramlett never wanted to do anything but sing.

I worked as a singer and musician from age 14 to age 31. It was easy. I was good at it and enjoyed it, but I was more interested in wisdom, judgement, developing an accurate world view and understanding of human nature and manufacturing. With music I was good at it, but could take it or leave it. 

My good friend Cucho Garcia was an IBM Executive, but loved music. He continued to play piano and guitar and became “great at it”. It’s never too late to get really good at what you love to do.

I used music to fund my education and supplement my early married years and wouldn’t have missed it for the world, I was extremely fortunate. I went on to pursue my career.

From age 21 to 49 I became a Personnel Executive to persue my interest in wisdom, judgement and manufacturing. When I was 49, I was kidnapped by 6 electronics manufacturing companies to open a private consulting practice and served a total of 46 companies until I retired at age 74. I applied policies unique to the needs of the company and its employees. I based increases in labor costs on increases in productivity. I thought work should be fun. I viewed myself as an internal consultant and moved to wherever changes I was interested in were needed. I was a “turnaround manager”. It typically took 4 years to accomplish what I joined a company to complete. I generally upgraded systems and eliminated labor unions.

My interest in applying wisdom and judgement to government and politics has always been an interest for me. At age 10, I decided to enter Industrial Relations to remove labor union corruption and abuse and read American Communist Party Goals to identify the enemy. All 25 goals have been accomplished through Democrat initiated laws.

During my 50 year career in Personnel, I was always the one responsible for regulatory compliance, so I saw all the laws being enacted and I determined how my companies would comply. I became a conservative commentator from an early age.

I served as a columnist for Prom Magazine, Kansas Business News, Atlanta Computer Currents and the Georgia Medical Association. I founded the St. Charles County Council of Homeowners Associations in 1968, the Salina Area Personnel Association in 1976, the Metro Atlanta High Tech Personnel Association in 1984 and the Dunwoody GA Tea Party in 2011. I served as an ASPA-SHRM National Officer from 1978 to 1983 and HR Chair for the American Electronics Association from 1987 to 1995.

There was a practical purpose and need for all of these groups and activities.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader