Monthly Archive for June, 2007

DiSC Profile

I’ve been doing a little career introspection these days, thinking about my strengths and weaknesses as I plan where I want to go in life. Ashley suggested I take a DiSC profile (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness), so I grabbed one from The Consulting Team. The online test takes about ten minutes and provides you with an analysis of your personal behavioral work style, and categorized you in one of 15 classical patterns.

My DiSC profile was an interesting read, although not very surprising in its analysis. According to DiSC, I fit the “Result-Oriented Pattern” group. On the positive side, Result-Oriented people:

…actively seek opportunities to test and develop their abilities to accomplish results. Result-Oriented persons like difficult tasks, competitive situations, [and] unique assignments.

While the analysis also nails some of the problems that I find myself struggling with on occasion:

Result-Oriented people are quick-thinkers, and they are impatient and fault-finding with those who are not. They evaluate others on their ability to get results.

Sigh – true, to a certain extent. I’m sort of relieved – this is something I’ve been working on, so at least there aren’t any nasty surprises. As always, knowing is half the battle.

There Goes My World Record

A little-known fun fact for the day: I am in the Guinness Book of World Records. Well, that’s not entirely accurate – I’m one of the 1322 guitarists that participated in Vancouver’s successful 1994 bid for a world record for the most people simultaneously playing the same song. The song was BTO’s “Taking Care of Business” and, to the best of my recollection, it went on for a deafening 77 or so minutes. Neither Robson Square, nor my hearing, nor my appreciation of BTO would ever be the same.

But all good things must come to an end, and yesterday Kansas City bested Vancouver’s record. I learned last night on The Colbert Report (where Stephen rocked out, incidentally) that on June 3rd, 1683 guitarists in Kansas City strummed their way through Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” and into the record books.



And so ends my small part in guitar world record history.