Cheetah Project Manager – The Favorite Version of You

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CAC, PMI-ACP, CCPM, RYT

This 2001 song epitomizes the difference between “best version” project management practices and “favorite version” project management practices. Who would you rather be: The favorite version of yourself or the best version of yourself?

A good friend who has helped me in Cheetah since its get go, also had her last child the first year of Cheetah. This child is now 21 years old. There are fewer than ten people I’ve been a part of their life since their start, and this is one such person. We’ve had a few adventures together over the years (I think her parents have finally forgiven me for giving her a chocolate fountain in second grade – they eventually sold that house).

Several weeks back she posted on her Facebook page a meme that its better to be the favorite version of yourself than the best version of yourself. It landed in a big way for me. The favorite version of me listen’s to Cake’s Short Skirt/Long Jacket song while doing water aerobics. Here are the lyrics:

I want a girl with a mind like a diamond
I want a girl who knows what’s best
I want a girl with shoes that cut
And eyes that burn like cigarettes

I want a girl with the right allocations
Who’s fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack
She’s playing with her jewelry
She’s putting up her hair
She’s touring the facilities
And picking up slack
I want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket.

I want a girl who gets up early
I want a girl who stays up late
I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity
Who uses a machete, to cut through red tape

With fingernails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass
She is fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack
She’s touring the facilities and picking up slack
I want a girl with a short skirt and a long, long jacket

I want a girl with a smooth liquidation
I want a girl with good dividends
At City Bank we will meet accidentally
We’ll start to talk when she borrows my pen

She wants a car with a cup holder armrest
She wants a car that will get her there
She’s changing her name
From Kitty to Karen
She’s trading her MG for a white Chrysler LeBaron
I want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket

While I’d like to think the best version of me is blasting through my to do list with the utmost earnestness and efficiency (being more like the song’s Karen, then Kitty),  I’m more likely enjoying being a favorite version of me – more like Kitty than Karen.

Would I rather go zipping through life in an MG (the “Kitty” car preference), or taking the more “grown up” drive in a Chrysler Lebaron (the “Karen” car preference)?  Heck, I see myself as the retro convertible, never the sedan.

This I see as the primary difference between the staid corporate approaches to Project Management that force conformity to an arcane standard no favorite version of anyone would ever aspire to vs the let’s celebrate everyone’s unique freak flag style embraced by being a Cheetah Project Manager.

You can be the favorite version of you and be a Certified Project Manager with Cheetah.  It is possible.

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