Change Sucks. Get Over It.
Listen: nobody cares who moved your cheese and I'm not going to help you find it. Change sucks. Get over it.
I'm so sick of change.
Nobody cares who moved your cheese and I'm certainly not going to help you find it. That's your responsibility.
Funny thing: I'm always hearing about how organizations embrace change. Companies are a legal entity - they can't "embrace change"; people embrace change. And it's really unambiguous. They either accept something or they don't; they either adapt or they don't; they try and will succeed or will fail. Remember Master Yoda: "Do. Or do not. There is no try."
So it comes down to you. You're either in or out. Don't waste my time mired in some stupid middle-ground.
Change is pretty much a constant in today's working life. Get over it. It's sure as crap stuff is going to change on you. Personally and professionally, if you're confronted with a challenge and you shy away from it, what does this say about you? Are you that weak, undisciplined, unconfident? It says a lot about your confidence; your willingness to grow and expand your understanding of problems; your ability to embrace a different mode of thinking. And none of that speaks well about you as an employee or as a business owner.
And here's the rub: if you're not embracing change, your competitor is. With each incremental adaptation to new risks, new technologies, and new ways of doing business, they're preparing to eat your lunch. All of your lunches. Forever. So change - now - and stop bitching about it so you can keep your seat at the table.
R
Fairwell to Small Business Server 2003
It's the end of an era: I downed the last Microsoft SBS 2003 today in favor of Google Apps. What was once a flagship Microsoft staple has been consumed by the crocodile of time.
Today I spent the day de-comissioning a Microsoft Windows 2003 Small Business Server (SBS). It was the last SBS server any of my clients had still in production and the last SBS server license anywhere on my active client list. I turned it off today and probably for the last time.
Okay, what's the big deal? It's the end of an era for me. Awww sniff sniff
I've been working on SBS licenses for over a decade. It was the entry-level machine that so, so many companies replaced their old Windows Server 2000 or even WindowsNT 4.0 servers with.
SBS provided a small business with affordable security management, file sharing, shared mail/contacts/calendars, a database service, and reasonable backup solutions. It was almost everything any business needed out of the box. It was an awesome revenue source for Microsoft as small businesses everywhere needed that affordable capability. SBS installations were everywhere.
Sadly, the Windows Server 2012 platform doesn't include an SBS licensing model and small businesses are expected to pay a premium for similar functionality with full licenses for domain management, Exchange Server, and SQL Server. That's totally cost-prohibitive to the small business, of course, to own a full-scale Standard server and all of those classic services so there's no real equivalent today. Microsoft would encourage people to purchase a workgroup server called Foundation Server, or, sign up for MsOffice365 and an "Essentials" server ... and what a broken load of crap that is. It's like Microsoft gave a big index finger to small businesses everywhere.
Well, so long, SBS 2003. You've been replaced by faster, less-risk, web-based, centrally-managed cloud products, and not even with a Microsoft logo but a Google Apps logo. Microsoft has abandoned you, and well, we - in the small business support world - have abandoned Microsoft.
Kinda represents the things to come, I think.
Soon, I'll likely replace the office productivity applications and Windows operating systems on the client computers with something other than Microsoft products, too.
Hey, Microsoft: I can see a time without you. Do you hear that? The sound of a tick-tock-tick?
R
Assumptions Are The Enemy
Small businesses suffer from big assumptions when it comes to their IT spending. The best management practice questions assumption and validates capability.
As a technology professional, you'd think that my daily problems concern hackers, viruses, and glitches. Actually, that's not true. My biggest problems concern assumptions.
Owners and managers of small businesses will assume that their systems are secure; their backups are being performed; their policies and procedures for managing IT are working; that what they're doing today is the best strategy for tomorrow.
I like to work with people and organizations that question their assumptions and push in to their own comfort level to see how things really are. Proving or invalidating assumptions is just good management practice, but it's the only way to verify and improve upon your technology investment.
R