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Book Buying Policy

So, I'm doing some lawn mowing.  I'm always mowing lawn.  It's a big lawn.  I really should just buy a big giant gas or electric lawn mower.  Or hire a mowing service.  Here's my thing... I like mowing the lawn with the eco friendly one.  See, what I do is, I get up at 6am... And I mow for a good half hour or 45 minutes.  It's like my morning work out.

I don't know about you, but getting up at 6am to work out?  It's hard.  I've set my alarm before and told myself I'm gonna go to Planet Fitness.  Lets be real... That snooze button always wins.

But when I KNOW I have to keep the grass trim and proper for the neighbors?  And I know it takes me about 4 mows a week to keep it that way?

You bet your buttons I'm getting up at 6am to mow!

Well, anyway, I'm mowing... and listening to podcasts.

Oh, I was also listening to the latest mix of my new song in addition to this one podcast.  I THINK, my newest tune is done.  I'm basically 99 percent sure it's done.  Actually, on Sunday was working on getting things together to copyright and post to CDBaby.  Pretty exciting stuff!

I also got another digital downloads payment!  pretty exiting too.

SO, yes, podcast...

Well, the guy was discussing about working with organizations.  He's kind of a consultant.  He works with companies to try and help their workflow process and business process and make it more streamlined.

Anyways, so... He's talking about one of the things he thinks is important with a company is the following:

What's the process or policy to buy a book.

That's it.  That's where he stopped.  And the interviewer was like, okay?  Can you elaborate on that?

And he says... So, basically, if an organization has a process or policy to buy a book... A 20 dollar book, or even a 50 dollar book.

If you have to fill out paperwork.  If you have to jump through hoops, for your employees to buy a book on a subject related to their job.  That's no good.  That shows that the company has TOO many stops in place to let good employees really better themselves and work at their stride.

Is he right?

I mean, I'm gonna agree with him.  I'm sure there are different schools of thought.

But if you think about it, it's kind of an interesting thing to consider.  I mean, let's say you approach your boss and just say, I want to buy this 15, or 30 dollar book to read and help me better understand the process happening here or my job, or do my job better.  And the boss says... We have to fill out paperwork, and get it approved.

This guy said, if something as simple as a book, which is meant to help you do your job better... Takes all that time... Think about how much time it will take to get a project from idea, to implementation.

I'm tempted now to find an IT related book that I'd be interested in reading, and ask my boss the process of purchasing it.

I guess one thing about my job is, we have a library.  I imagine he'll just be like, oh, just go check that out at the library.

So, there's that idea I suppose.  But, it is an interesting idea.  I guess what he's trying to point out is... How hard is it to push new and innovative things around in your workplace.

Is there a lot of policies and procedures and paperwork for even the smallest thing, like buying some 20 dollar book?  Or can you just go right out and buy that book, which as he said was a negligible cost to the company compared to the knowledge the employee would gain and the gain that the company as a whole would see from the performance increase of that employee knowing how to do their job better/faster/more efficient... Or make less errors in the work they do.

Just something to think about.  SO, now I'm thinking in my own life... How can I be more willing to invest in something small, such as a self help book, without a lot of hesitation, to realize a bigger return down the road.  The question to ask is, will that small investment now, add greater value later on down the road after some amount of time.  Just something to ponder.