It takes 15 years.....to dominate the world.

Every Friday we have a guest speaker that comes in to talk to our class. Usually it is some captain of industry that has some sort of connection with the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. We've had politicians and entrepreneurs and they usually have an interesting story to tell. It's good to hear from people that have become successful and faced some hardships that they have overcome. All of them have worked hard to get where they are, but it's great to hear them and make a connection.

This is a title quote from our latest guest speaker Benno Nigg, co-director of the Human Performance Lab at the University of Calgary.

Benno was headhunted by the University from Switzerland in 1981 to come and start a Biomechanics department in Calgary. He had no idea even where Calgary was and when he accepted, he started with 5 people in an old locker room in the Physical Education building with 2 computers and a whopping 10Mb of disk space. The department has grown to the Human Performance Lab and it has become the dominant centre in it's field.

They only rely on the University for 31% of their funding (perhaps helping in it's success) but gain most of their funding from Industry and grants.

He was quite inspiring to listen to. He has worked hard to build a centre of excellence which helps a lot of Canadian Olympic athletes. He has helped Adidas test new shoes as well as helped David Beckham improve that kick.

Benno has been at it for 15 years and reckons that it takes that long to dominate the world. These days it seems difficult for anyone's attention span to remain for 15 years - everyone seems to be looking for the quick wins and then move on. Benno is 70 and still seems to be going strong (those Swiss and those mountains I bet) but has an absolute passion for what he does.

Do you have the passion to dominate the world?

Quiet - very busy.....but 1 semester down - 3 to go.

I'm not sure how many people are actually monitoring this blog, but it has been very quiet recently, for which I apologize.

I survived the first semester. Overall, I am happy with the outcomes, however I know that I need to work on my ability to manage my time. One of my favourite adages is "start as you mean to go on". I hope that understanding the workload up front and apportioning my time appropriately will help me feel less "overwhelmed" at the end.

Having said all that - I have decided to change employers. Not only employers, but change careers as well. This will throw my life into a bit of chaos as I will have a steep learning curve at work as well as at University.

I'll muse more on the Winter 2008 semester shortly.