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In my humble opinion, "opportunism," like "entrepeneur," has lost much
of its negative connotation over the past quarter-century, at least in common
parlance. When Gore Vidal said that Tom Haden "gave opportunism a bad name" forty years ago, the negative connotation matched the negative denotation found in a dictionary. Today, not so much.
/Donald Hines
> To: milan -dot- lists -at- gmail -dot- com
> Subject: Re: "Opportunistic"
> From: Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com
> Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:49:53 -0500
> CC: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> That's a good question, which others have asked, and I should have
> clarified.
>
> The idea people want to convey is a certain attitude they want employees
> to have, an attitude of seeking out opportunities (for new sales, to use
> new technologies, to innovate), and then following through on those
> opportunities (make the sale, apply the new technology to our product or
> processes, implement the innovation).
>
> In a way, "opportunistic" seems like exactly the right word, except that
> the connotation is so negative.
>
> Thanks for all the responses so far. It's been helpful and very
> enlightening.
>
> Robert Johnson
> Principal Writer
> Percussion Software
> Woburn, MA
>
>
>
> "Milan Davidovic" <milan -dot- lists -at- gmail -dot- com>
> 01/16/2009 02:26 PM
>
> To
> Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com
> cc
> techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject
> Re: "Opportunistic"
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 1:44 PM, <Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com> wrote:
> > Some of my co-workers would like to use this word, but others are
> > concerned about the negative connotation.
>
> What information do you propose to convey with this word?
>
>
>
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