Portable Careers in Cowboy Safety Practice

Years ago I met a man who was single and who liked to travel. He had start out to be a doctor and changed his mind when  he viewed that it would be a confining career. He became a screw machine operator. He saw that it was a high-paying job with demand worldwide. What was even better, it was a language independent job. Drawings and dimensions and quantities were the same everywhere. As an experienced operator he did not have a learning curve. He achieved his goal.

"Portable" careers is the term used for jobs in high-growth, high demand industries with likely openings everywhere.

Employees have more freedom and can make more money with a portable career. Employers also benefit because they can increase or decrease their work force more easily.

David Sneed

Mixed Agendas

An area of concern in safety is mixed agendas. A mixed agenda is when participants in an environment have differing goals or agendas.

In Wyoming we see it in Yellowstone Park. Some drivers are on a two week vacation who did not realize how long it would take to get to Yellowstone nor how long it would take to see it. Other drivers, retirees for example, are in no rush and can spend the whole summer there if they like. Because of mixed agendas it is difficult to control traffic.

The latest example of mixed agendas is in New York City. We all know of the plane that went down in the Hudson River because of a bird strike. Under a proposal from the Department of Agriculture, staffers would be authorized to kill a half dozen species of birds within a five mile radius of the airport. The intent of course is to reduce the number of bird strikes on airplane. Sound good? Not so fast.

There is a multi-million dollar Federal project underway near the airport to restore wetland habitats for migratory birds that includes Canadian Geese. Canadian Geese brought down the flight into the river.

Often safety relates to what the ruling government agency defines as a hazard or a safety priority.

David Sneed

National Safety Council Humor

We are collecting safety humor for a new book of safety ideas. If you have any jokes or cartoons please send them.

I ran across a good one today in the 1981 movie Cannonball Run. This movie had a number of big name actors and actresses. It involved a cross country race on public highways and was quite funny.

Between minute 31 and 32 in the movie, in a scene the night before the race was to begin, a mechanic was repairing a motorcycle in a hotel room. The rider had a clutch problem and was testing the fix. Out of control in the hallway, he knocked down a man with an unnamed government safety organization, crashed into the hotel bar where patrons were relaxing and celebrating, and went out a window. Sammy Davis Jr said to Dean Martin "What was that?" Dean Martin replied "That was the National Safety Council entry."

Humor involves something unexpected. Humor can be used as a way to convey serious thoughts and ideas. In the motorcycle example there are so many ways to explain the humor that it is a valuable joke.

David Sneed

Facebook is the Antithesis of Cowboy Safety

The value of Facebook has its origin in two fairly well-known quotes: 


"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." H.L. Mencken. 


"If you want to get rich, you start a religion." L. Ron Hubbard.


Who would have ever thought that in 2012 it would be possible to get a billion people to devote large amounts of time to writing private details of oneself or to reading private details of others? Who would have thought that a billion people would openly allow themselves to become a product? 


Just today I was explaining to one of my daughters the effective function of "like" in Facebook. Yes it is to give assurance to someone who needs assurance. It is also a way to get data for the purpose of soliciting advertising. 


Facebook may not have set out to become a business, and certainly not one where the raw material has no cost, yet it has certainly become one. Not only is it a business it is now one where the stock is publicly traded. The only thing that could be better would be if it was a religion. And it has done that. 


Facebook has become not just a business but a religion. It is a religion that is the antithesis of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and possibly all others. Salvation comes from the sacrament of daily communion with self and with telling the world about oneself. All written in digital format in the eternal cloud, heaven if you will. No more meditating and seeking a Higher Power other than self. Not only does one not have to die to self, on Facebook there is honor in living to self.

Cowboy Safety is not a business or a religion. Yet Facebook is also the antithesis of Cowboy Safety. Cowboy Safety is a way to protect oneself. Ultimately Facebook is a way to destroy oneself.


Facebook is the newest form of the religion of Narcissism. And with an altar that is a far better one than a mirror. PsychCentral says that "at the core of extreme narcissism is egotistical preoccupation with self, personal preferences, aspirations, needs, success, and how he/she is perceived by others." Facebook exactly. Egotism is egoism with a "t," talking about self. 

Facebook, the religion, is only a threat to the religion of materialism. The other religions have embraced narcissism and many of their churches are on Facebook. As a threat to materialism, Facebook is a timely aid to a society that may have had too much growth. 


Who needs to make money and accumulate money when there is no longer a need to "keep up with the Joneses?" Facebook is a much better alternative. 

Facebook is a democratic religion. No longer does one have to be wealthy in money and make big donations, endow chairs at colleges, or to fund buildings named for oneself. The only wealth needed to build monuments to self in Facebook is time and that asset is more plentiful among those who lack money. In turn that time is converted to money for the stockholders of Facebook the company. 


I am not running down Facebook. Facebook does not create narcissists. Facebook provides the place for worship of self.  It has done a great job of that and will do it even better in the future. Maybe it is good that we know how many narcissists there are.


David Sneed

Cowboy Safety Involves Living During Exponential Change

The following is a must see video that explains exponential change. There is no longer time to let things evolve. A Cowboy Safety practitioner does things right now and moves on to something else. That is made possible by having a model of the business that can quickly show what the effect will be of the change.

David Sneed

Cowboy Safety Idea from Mark Zuckerberg

Startups today are not like in the past. Here is a comment from Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook:

"An idea today can be implemented right away. There is a fundamental protocol for a business that is for the most part standardized."

New development today is in the arena of how to plan for a business to self-finance with only a small amount of seed capital or maybe none. Flow-through taxation is a disadvantage with the new type of businesses.


David Sneed

Graphics in Cowboy Safety

Maurice Sendak died today. My favorite quote from him is:

"There must be more to life than having everything!"

-from "Higglety Pigglety Pop!"

The following is an important interview with him. In essence he says:

"An illustrator in my own mind – and this is not a truth of any kind – is someone who so falls in love with writing that he wishes he had written it, and the closest he can get to is illustrating it. And the next thing you learn, you have to find something unique in this book, which perhaps even the author was not entirely aware of. And that’s what you hold on to, and that’s what you add to the pictures: a whole Other Story that you believe in, that you think is there."

We need illustrators in safety. Too often we take rules that were written by some government worker, possibly a lawyer, and we make that our policy. We forget that risk management is the real goal of safety. We make safety an end unto itself.

Look at the simple issue of fire extinguishers. Though legally compliant, they are often inadequate to extinguish any type of fire, inaccessible in an emergency, invisible to people in the workplace, unneeded, and even a hazard because evacuation may be the best choice no matter what type of fire. Not only do hotels have sprinklers over the swimming pool, there is usually a fire extinguisher on the wall. Yet there are no fire extinguishers in the bedrooms. The bedrooms are where hotel fires usually start and where poisonous gases may spread through the heating and cooling ducts often causing multiple fatalities of sleeping guests in other rooms.

Using Sendak's theory, an illustrator could see through the CFR "story," see the real need and come up with a picture of what to do in the event of a fire or in how to prevent a fire.

David Sneed

The Fellowship of the Silver Star

I received an Easter card from Commissioner Carolyn Knagge and Major Mariam Rudd of the Salvation Army Fellowship of the Silver Star. Cheri and I are members because our son Joshua is a Salvation Army officer.

The card reads:

"Alleluia! He is Risen! Mark 16:6

Jesus conquered death once, for all, so that we might live as God's deeply loved, forgiven children, full of hope and joy. 

Jesus rose, and we, too shall rise from death to be with him forever. "

The original purpose of the Order of the Silver Star was to provide a means whereby The Salvation Army could recognize and honor each mother (by natural birth or legal adoption) whose son or daughter was commissioned as an officer in The Salvation Army.

In 2001, the name was changed to the Fellowship of the Silver Star to reflect significant sociological realities in society and to affirm the importance of the family.  The Fellowship was expanded to include both parents or a designated spiritual parent of the newly commissioned officer.  This inclusiveness emphasizes the linking of families of commissioned officers to The Salvation Army, providing support as well as fresh evangelistic and pastoral opportunities.

Membership will continue to be family based, but where the cadet does not have parents or step-parents, he or she will propose another close relative or spiritual parent to become a member of the Fellowship of the Silver Star.

Communities are important and the Fellowship of the Silver Star is a good example of an intentional community. 

David Sneed

What Happens When Time Passes

I am looking at The Wyoming Eagle, Cheyenne WY, of May 7, 1992...exactly 20 years ago. Seems like yesterday.

There are ads with prices. The Sea Galley at the Frontier Mall has Prime Rib and Crab Legs for $8.99 with Clam chowder or salad, and baked potato, rice pilaf, or golden fries.

The Kings Table Buffet has Friday and Saturday dinner for $4.99.

That is about half the price of the same items today. We do not readily think of the past 20 years as a time of inflation.

What was your revenue in 1992? Has it doubled since then? It would have to be double today what it was in 1992 just to be even with inflation. A doubling in 20 years, per the Rule of 72, is 3.6% per year of increase.

I think of a number of safety organizations both for-profit and non-profit that have revenue today that is LESS than what it was 20 years ago. Many of them have the same management that suffers from the same problem that all of us have. Time passes and we are not conscious of relative values.

If our revenue numbers are down is it because we have improved productivity or is it because we are in decline? Are we doing more units of service or are we doing the same or fewer units of service at ever increasing prices? It is important that we examine ourselves to see what is really going on.

One more comment. On page 18 of that same newspaper there is an article by Jim Farber of the NY Daily News entitled "Springsteen Makes TV Appearances." The article begins with the question "Has populist Bruce Springsteen lost some of his clout with the masses?" The article then goes on to give some stats on numbers of records sold and the fact that Springsteen was increasing appearances on tv and other places ostensibly to counteract his decline due to competition, new ideas, and younger audiences.

David Sneed