Why rude people succeed!

"The primary form of courtesy is to be considerate of others’ time. Excessive verbiage isn’t courtesy; it’s just waffling. Get to the bloody point". Matt Gemmell, July 2011 "Courtesy suicide"

Why do rude people succeed and others don't?

Character traits that society often perceive and label as rude may be misdirected. Those of us seeking success may be lacking some simple yet key qualities that can improve our chances.

There are so many definitions of rudeness but I'll stick to those regarding etiquette when interacting with fellow humans, especially our ability to communicate and maintain networks.

A quick definition of a successful person for me would be one who has achieved a goal or task or something desired, planned, or attempted, etc. by legal and (generally) moral means within a defined time-frame.

Time is a very precious commodity and it is often what persons can achieve within a limited period that defines success. 

To explain my point, how many of us would define someone on £40k per year as a millionaire? Well within 25 years someone on that average annual salary band would have earned a million. We don't often hear them being branded as models of success. If however, one created an app which generated revenue of £1m within say a year or two we would be reading about them in Forbes' 'ones to watch'.

So time is precious. Yet, it is often in saving this commodity that successful persons are branded as rude. 

Being expedient by getting to the point quickly or by asking direct questions are tools in their armoury. Specifying how long a meeting should take based on time they can afford is another. Taking recommendations from a proven expert rather than making decisions by committee consensus indeed another. 

Time management may just be the most sincere form of courtesy there is. And, "rude" people are even sharing a vital part of their success.

So what's this got do do with video and film stuff?

View your next gig, whether it's business or fun, in project terms and you'll appreciate the value of time.

I'm also upgrading my MacPro 2009 4.1 Nehalem 2.66ghz Quad core via 5.1 firmware switch to 2010 Westmere 3.36 ghz 6 core specs. with SSD drive and 48GB ram from 16GB and 4gb graphics card with 4k as well as esata and USB3 ports. All this to improve the operation of Davinci Resolve 12 and review Ultra HD footage. This speed boost should save me time on rendering and saving video files.

Matt Gemmell's solution to managing OSX using the SSD led me to his site. I've resolved the technical issue. I'm working on being succinct whilst remaining polite.

Tony

p.s. Success!

I posted the above when I installed 32GB ram, ssd drive and USB ports. Definitely boosted speed across all applications. However, the six core 3.36 chip arrived yesterday (12/12) and was duly fitted. All apps continue to work and surprisingly FCP7, which I still sometimes use in the initial stages of my work-flow, seems to have an extra speed boost. The graphics card should arrive soon.

I'll post a summary of my experience on this technical journey once the final change is made.