Definition of “Bull Pen”:

“A temporary holding area for prisoners, as in a courthouse.”

And oh yes…it was.  The only sounds were the breathing of the other guys, and occasionally the breath of your “boss” over your shoulder as he is looking at what you’re doing and you jump out of your boots going “Jesus!  Announce yourself.  You almost gave me a stroke!”.  That doesn’t go over well by the way.

The only advantage of a job is if you work for 2 quarters and accumulate enough paid time in total to make 1.5 times your highest month’s pay…which I did by 200 dollars…you can collect unemployment when they fire you.  Which they did.  Thank you.  The lesson there was a “full time” job means you won’t have any time to do anything else.  As my dad always said: “When you’re working for someone else, you’re just working for someone else”.  All the promises in the world, or the hopes based on someone else’s whims or the strength of the market mean nothing.  My sister worked for GM for 25 years, they let her go in 15 minutes with a pocket sized kleenex (which they asked for back if she didn’t need them) and that was it.  No pension.  No retirement.  So tell me there is security in anything, even life.  You take life and make life.

Getting a job? No. We have reduced all expenses to bare minimum.  Survival living.  Time is the gold, not money. Living lean means eating healthier, working out, sleeping when needed versus in your cube having to explain its your lunch hour and wanting to say go fuck off instead.  I picked Fuck off.

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So when Jesse said “Mike what do you do again with computers”, and I give him the spiel, and he has to reply “WE NEED A WEB DESIGNER!“, that I pull my head out of my ass and go “OH!!…so whatcha lookin for?”.  Turns out their old designer “passed away” and understanding that any programmer is emotionally on the edge anyway so I’m only slightly surprised when I learned it was due to “Suicide”.  Makes sense.  I carry two virtual guns with me all the time and occasionally, just occasionally, I pull them out, put them to my head and go “Pkeewwwww! Pkewwwww!”.   But I digress.

So how does one handle this opportunity?  I said without batting an eye: “I’ll do it for free”.  So why Free vs. something?  It’s called penny economics.  There is a great article by Chris Anderson at Wired Magazine “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business” that discusses the second you charge 1 cent for an item, you are in a completely different business model.

Free affords one flexibility and freedom, especially when you are unsure of the payoff, which in this case will be exposure for me.  “PR” is worth more than any cash that I could charge for the web development.  So for the MacPodz, I sent Jese off to go get a consensus on the design of their website, and if he returns, I can look at what he has and tell him if I can do it or not.  If not, no skin off my nose and I’ll point them in the right direction.  If I can, I’ll pick a time limit to finish it and that includes a “frustration” factor…for if that puppy is high…I’m out.

But this post is about spotting opportunities.  I believe the answer is in what is called Socratic Questioning. I learned it when I took a course in sales training at the Sandler Sales Institute.  Basically, instead of popping your mouth open and spewing forth what you think they need and how you can help them, you step back and ask “What do you need?”, “What is wrong with your website now?”, and let them tell you.  Common sense I know, but like that rule of “no crossing railroad tracks when the lights are flashing”, people do it all the time.

When you see the eyes of the listener staring blankly at you and their lips aren’t moving, just stop with whatever your saying and say: “Sorry I’m prattling on…did you have something in mind?”  That one question will open a dialog were a great opportunity may be hiding.

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