The rise of Susan Boyle to celebrity status should be a wake-up call for all of us. What gifts are we holding on to that need to be given away? I have an expression which takes on added significance with each birthday “Are you burning daylight wisely?” It is a way to ensure I am not wasting life’s precious moments hanging on to something, regretting something, and what Susan Boyle illustrated not pursuing something important to me. I chose Burning Daylight as my twitter name because I want to remind myself of the clock ticking on my own mortality. I hope in me being present to life not being a dress rehearsal so will you be present.

Susan Boyle’s performance was not a dress rehearsal. Maybe it took her four decades to debut, but now she is the star of her own movie. It was worth it to see her touch the ever so stereotypical sardonic British Pierce. If this is not proof anything is possible what is? She was instantly dismissed by the cynical panel because of her appearance, but her raw talent proceeded to break open the possibility that anything is possible. I don’t usually share these stories (as my team told me “you are not the balloons and streamers type”), but her voice gave new meaning to how I burn daylight.

This is the first in what will be a weekly post on this topic. I invite you to share your stories of how you are making the most of brief time you have here in this incarnation. Daylight burns no matter what.

What are you doing with your remaining light?

A friend of mine, Dave Cullen had several dreams come true this week including taping the Oprah show.  He is on a media tour as Cullen is the author of the book Columbine, and he is considered a leading authority on the tragic event which occurred ten years ago April 20.

I was fortunate to obtain an early draft of the book last year as Cullen was editing the final copy.  The book is compelling, a real page turner on many levels.  It moves and disturbs you simultaneously.  Cullen brilliantly weaves a series of story lines together to create a holistic view.  Cullen’s writing does not comfort as much as it explains the logic behind otherwise illogical, unfathomable behavior.  The question Cullen raises in his depiction of the killers is illogical to whom?  Random acts of violence are illogical to you and me, but to a psychopath (a clinical diagnosis of Eric Harris) that is another story.

As then President Bill Clinton said, “The tragedy has pierced the hearts of all Americans.”  While Columbine was not the first school shooting in history, it was the most profound.  Partially because it happened in real time.  People around the world watched the events live as the unfolded on television.  These images altered the perception of student and school safety, and changed the way educators lead.

As Cullen talks about during his media blitz, no one is immune to random acts of violence.  We live with risk regardless of our address.  However, Columbine illustrated the need to listen and observe to those directly in our purview.  To say you can prepare for a tragedy like Columbine is inauthentic and insulting.  However, educational leaders have recognized the importance of training teachers and administrators to understand the logic behind student behavior.

There is a hypothesis I took on during my diversity and inclusion work for a large, global bank there is always a logic behind someone’s behavior.  People for the most part don’t intentionally want to drive you crazy although sometimes that is the unintended consequence.  They are simply doing the best they can with the data they have.

This may seem like a huge leap from the events at Columbine, but the importance of seeing and understanding another has taken a focal point in many developmental programs for educators.  I don’t mean to be glib.  This is certainly not the case across the board, but Columbine created greater awareness of the significance of listening particularly to those not being heard.  Peter Senge’s opening chapter of his seminal book on management The Fifth Discpline is “I See You.”  Senge talks about how language brings another into existence in a south African tribe.  The greeting for hello translated literally means I see you, and without that language it is if the person is not there.

The economic uncertainty combined with the stacking of work to those who remain can leave people with an experience of not being heard.  Each of us has a choice when working with others.  We can choose to be curious about the logic behind another’s behavior, or we can choose to not see them.  There is no certainty either way.  Taking time to reflect on tragedies like Columbine is never easy.  The extent to which it allows us to access parts of ourselves and share those parts with others makes something possible not possible without the reflection.  The choice is ours to make.

After I encouraged those of you not currently on a social networking site to promptly do so, I received an e mail from a friend of mine with the subject line reading “scary”.

He was referring to Keith Ferrazi (Never Eat Alone) quoting Dan Schawbel , author of the just-published Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success about the number of hiring managers who play Big Brother during the hiring process. According to Schawbel, “One in five hiring managers uses social networks for background checks”.

Like Obama’s view (as compared to Clinton’s) on inhaling “isn’t that the point”, I take the position being found is what you want.  After all, to Google is now a verb. Living out loud inverts the power pyramid so you have a way to be found by those who you want to find you i.e. potential employers. With this power comes responsibility. Responsibility to not post naked pictures of you and your posse while in Daytona Beach on Facebook no matter how great your tan lines. Even if you have won more medals than any other athlete, hiring managers don’t like their employee to be photographed holding a bong at a fraternity party.

While I am sure the statistic is more or less in line with how many employers actually screen these sites as part of due diligence, you can not live your life looking in the rear-view mirror as you drive.  Don’t misinterpret me.  I am not an idealist.  I am a pragmatist.  Like any power there is a white hat and a black hat of those who hold it, and so it goes with the power of the virtual space.

Fearing a potential employer will discover something about you has become the hackneyed parable of the digital age. It does not mean it isn’t a real issue to manage. You may find it useful to heed some cautionary advice about the need to be careful what you post on Facebook, but to live in constant fear such that your self-expression is denied is not a fun way to live either.  Ask those people who did hard time after Tiananmen Square what life without a first amendment is like. Ferrazi in his newsletter goes on to discuss the appeal of authenticity as a branding tool. Worrying about what you say to whom is anything but authentic.

The current economic climate fuels these superstitions like gasoline to matches as smart, eager twenty somethings leave the comfort of college only to find a hostile job market awaiting them. There is a permanent record in cyberspace true, but most using these sites know that. There are new and insidious ways your cyber-fingerprints can be used against you, but poor judgment is poor judgment.  The internet does not replace thinking.  The discussion rarely goes there, and as a result it adds to the growing cottage industry of ways to protect you from the embarrassment of a bonehead move.

Rather than fear the ramifications of what could be used against you, a better strategy is to use social media for broadcasting your own message.  This is Ferrazi’s advice too, and he is a master networker. On another level, this becomes the digital age’s version of growing up.  It may require a shift in thinking from social to professional, but since the barriers to entry are virtually nonexistent there is no cost to shifting what sites you use or how you use them.

Earlier this year the expression “loose lips sink ships” took on a digital meaning when a Ketchum VP declared Memphis was not his kind of town.

Prior to meeting with executives at Fed Ex (headquartered in Memphis) the VP tweeted his true confession that he “would die if he had to live there”. A Fed Ex employee picked up the tweet, and sent news of this transgression to a wide array of senior leaders at the company defending not only his city, but also the company. For more on this check out Peter Shankman’s blog http://shankman.com/be-careful-what-you-post/.

Talk about your Facebook photo album at your bricks and mortar water cooler, and be prepared for the fire hose of opinion for or against social networking and its tools. Interpretation is in the eye of the beholder, and ironically the Ketchum story is used by both sides as evidence to embolden their position.

For those who remember when the length of one’s hair was a symbol not only of what generation you hailed, but also how progressive your thinking, participation on social networking sites has the same power to instantly divide.  Compliance officers are not known for their comfort with transparency or privacy, and a nightmare come true for them is exemplified by the Ketchum incident.

They should lose sleep at night.  After all it is what they get paid to do. The rest of us should sleep soundly knowing we are helping move our organizations and ourselves to an informed viewpoint about the ways and means of web 2.0 collaboration.

For better or for worse the vows of the digital age are written.  We all agree to uphold these vows knowingly or unknowingly whether we are online or not. Even if you don’t tweet someone who does who is standing next to you as you make an off-hand comment may unleash the full force of connectivity in less than a New York minute.  What do you do?

Opting out entirely is one solution, but there is no guarantee you won’t be found anyway.  Turning back the hands on this clock is harder to do than you think. Unless you are willing to unplug altogether (more on this later as I have friends who have done so) choosing how you engage is a better strategy.  The first step to a powerful choice is educating you on how to be a “good” digital citizen.

As they used to say when I was making my living on a trading floor “the trend is your friend”.  This refers to market motion up, down or sideways, but in motion nevertheless. To wish the market move a different direction than it is moving, is futile.  It has a mind of its own. True, the mind may be nothing more than the sum of all those participating, but the market acts alone.  The same is true of the trend of participation in the digital space.

Facebook users now exceed 200 million, and the bulk of these users are over 35.  For better or for worse these numbers will impact how you and I live and work.  Better to be cause in the matter of this impact than at the effect.  How to be cause in a way that works for you and your organization begins with playing with the tools yourself. If you are not currently on at least one social networking site, get yourself on one today. However, be careful what you say. You never know who is listening.