Sure, there was a tragic accident yesterday where a couple of people lost their lives.  That’s sad.  It’s regrettable.  Then realize that the VAST majority of people live on without ever experiencing that of tragedy.  Don’t become paralyzed by something that’s so unlikely to happen.

As a professional coach, I might long to become the next Marshall Goldsmith.  But I also realize that many coaches are quite successful without ever reaching that level of fame.  I can be at peace with the fact that my clients see wonderful changes in their lives, even though I’m relatively unknown.  My efforts rarely make the newspapers.

Fame and notoriety aren’t the same as making a difference in the world.  You get fame by being outrageous and exceptional, and sometimes that even becomes an obstacle.  And those billions of parents who just do their best to raise their children in an environment of support and love?  They’ll never make the news.  They’re too ordinary.

This principle is also important when you’re looking for information about the world and people around you.  If you focus on news sources, you’ll mostly hear about things which are exceptional – some positive, but mostly negative.  If you want a balanced view, you either need to go to the source (like what a company has to report to the government) or seek out analysts which aren’t paid to create news.

Oops, I mean to report news.  Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be much difference.

An important resource

I’ve found my local library to be a wonderful source for industry information.  Let’s say that you’d like to find the largest companies in your particular field.  This can be a frustrating exercise on the web, because there the information is skewed by who’s creating the most buzz.  That’s useful to know, but that may have nothing to do with finding your next job.

There are lots of industry publications which do this kind of analysis, but you have to pay to get access to most of this information.  The great news?  It’s quite likely that your library has a subscription, and that you can get free access.  A skilled librarian will even be able to show you how to navigate through the mountains of data you might encounter.

The web is great, it’s wonderful, it’s fun.  But when you have to get down to serious work, remember that it gives you a biased and inaccurate view of the world.

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