Defining a Small Business
June 7, 2014 Leave a comment
Why in the World Would You Build a Small Business!?
February 24, 2013 1 Comment
Small business owners
The ideacapitalist interviews… the ideacapitalist, family guy, entrepreneur and small business owner.
How did you become a small business owner, and why?
The simplest answer would be, no one would hire me. My first job out of school was working for my dad. Nine months later, my dad fired me. I knew it was coming. My dad ran the business out of the house. That morning my mom had made me my favorite breakfast, blueberry pancakes.
Thereafter, I have had successful stints with large and mid-size companies, but there’s only so much a person will do for money. I had reached my limit.
What do you love the most about running a small business?
Gainfully employing good people. Growing the business. Being more innovative and responsive than our larger competitors and winning.
What does owning a business allow you to do that most folks do not get to enjoy?
This question has the potential to be long on clichés, but the right answer is that I never have to think twice about getting out of bed in the morning.
What is your biggest challenge right now and how are you dealing with it?
Ok, now it’s time for a clichés. My favorite expression is from Alan Kay, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” In the software development (technology) business we are reminded of this expression daily. We have to constantly reinvent ourselves.
What has been your proudest moment as a small business owner?
I’m going to equate pride with reward and say my most rewarding moment was when an employee, I held in high regard, walked into my office, and stuck out his hand. We shook hands and I asked him, “What is this all about?” He said, “You promised me within five years, I would be making “x-amount” of dollars per year and I am. Thanks.”
My proudest moment was March 7, 2013 when we celebrated 25 years in business.
What have you not yet achieved that you would like to?
I’m not a “bucket list” kind of guy. Certainly I have revenue goals and long-term objectives for the business. Call it 20/20, annual twenty (20) percent growth in both revenue and profit. The real challenge is balancing the physical challenges with the mental challenges. Next year, I’m looking forward to both cross-country skiing and cycling around Crater Lake.
What is the best part of your day?
Getting out on my bike for an hour or two in the middle of a work day, and not getting run over.
What do you read?
I’m reading an amazing, gut-wrenching, inspirational story of personal struggle and entrepreneurship titled Born to Rise: A Story of Children and Teachers Reaching Their Highest Potential by Deborah Kenney
What has been your biggest mistake and how did you learn from it?
I’ve made many. I’m going to make many more. My biggest mistake would be not to learn from them.
There Is No Lance
January 19, 2013 1 Comment
I’m no Lance. You’re no Lance. There is no Lance.
Since early childhood I have lived by the creed, before you judge someone else, “put yourself in the other person’s shoes.” I am a cyclist, albeit, a sorry ass one at best. Sadly I will never be compared to the elite cyclists one speaks of, in the same breath, with Lance Armstrong.
I am and will remain a huge supporter of Livestrong. The work Livestrong does for cancer victims is excellent and incontrovertible. The organization and the people behind it, sans Armstrong, are absolutely amazing.
Even before Lance’s true confession, I have tried to put myself in Lance’s shoes. First and foremost, it becomes extremely difficult, unless you have been diagnosed, been treated and lived with a life threatening cancer.
There are many of Lance’s detractors who have never had cancer, let alone been on a bike seat, or experienced the extreme sport of competitive cycling or can even begin to appreciate his inimitable brilliance and determination.
Still there will be many of Lance’s detractors who have been diagnosed with cancer, so thank God, I’m at a distinct disadvantage here. I can fall back on the fact I have one sister who is a breast cancer survivor, another sister who is battling breast cancer as I write this.
I am here to say, I have a serious problem with many of Lance’s detractors who have never experienced his amazing journey from serious life threatening testicular and brain cancer to recovery. Back to trying to put myself in Lance’s shoes, as a cancer survivor, in his case, it was nothing short of being raised from the dead.
The problem is he had already doped. He already knew how to dope. He knew the culture of doping in pro cycling. He knew other elite athletes in his profession were doping. So he doped. Somehow he won. It was off to the races.
His genius and competitive furor brings to mind Steve Jobs and his achievements in cycling why competing with co-conspirators were immeasurable. If you have read the book or studied the life and work of Steve Jobs, the comparison to Steve Jobs, is to say Armstrong is also a complete asshole. It begs the question, is ruthless determination, the price one must pay to celebrate incomparable success?
The saddest of all, for me in this and for other cycling enthusiasts is the effigy of a championship cyclist. We may never know. How tragic. Lance will never know. We will never know if he was truly a great champion. If in fact, if there was someone who rode clean, who could remotely challenge Lance, will we ever know who the greatest cyclist(s) in the history of the sport is, truly?
I will say this, if they were complicit in any way, they aren’t going to receive a pass. If they were innocent and Lance rolled over them, he needs to make it right. I would hope he would. If not, he’s still the biggest loser, because this is one of his only means of redemption. The other, is to protect and nurture his love for his family, especially his children.
I can’t remotely place myself in Lance’s shoes when it comes to his admonitions, accusations and confessions. Lance was larger than life. For a time, Lance’s achievements were larger than his lies. No more.
In the end, none of his perceived success either on the pro circuit or in his work for charity can be applauded. Neither can it be easily and lightly be disparaged and denigrated. Why? Simply, no one can ever possibly imagine, or conceive to “put yourself in Lance Armstrong’s shoes.” Lance Armstrong is an enigma.
I’m no Lance. You’re no Lance. There is no Lance.
What I know for certain is we can Livestrong!
Have You Hugged Your Building Custodian Today?
April 9, 2012 Leave a comment
You cannot lead from behind!
Leadership begins with mutual respect. The leaders I respect the most lead by example. Politicians, pundits and the media can go around trying to divide people into haves and have-nots, but there’s really no divide between most of us.
Small business owners don’t have a problem hugging their building custodian. How about the lawn care person, the handy person, the painter, the delivery person; most of all the bug person, who you may feel at risk… to hug? Hug, hug, hug them, anyway. Many of the aforementioned live enriched, fulfilling lives with or without millions; and need not be classified otherwise. Many of these folks are small business owners, too! Like me.
I’m sure there’s a more PC way to describe some of your favorite “small business owners,” but here’s mine. They probably fall off ladders. They are probably mechanically deficient and they’re probably a danger to themselves and others, with a hammer. OK, that’s just me… but most small business owners have a great deal of respect for those who wield a mop or a nail gun.
You’ll find small business owners in and amongst your family, and amongst your friends. People you know and respect. I’ve also come to learn, most small business owners, including me, are generally opposed to big government. To them, big government prescribes life to be easy, convenient, comfortable and mindless. To me government is the voice saying, “Eat your vegetables, go to school, do your homework, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, retire, play golf, get cancer and die.” I already have parents, thank you. Small business owners know, even if you were to try to live such a mundane existence, government can’t save you. They know there’s no such thing as a mundane existence. There’s always going to be something that requires you to be extraordinary.
Government isn’t extraordinary and it doesn’t make money, you do. Government spends your money. Frankly government spends money you don’t have and you are personally on the hook to pay back that debt. You and your family, as citizens of the United States of America, now stand to own a piece of over $5 trillion dollars in debt in just the past 3-4 years alone. This is the new normal. Are you willing to double down on that much debt?
News flash! For many small business owners like me, life isn’t easy. Like most Americans who are willing, I have to earn every dime. Still no one can speak for those of you who were dealt from a rigged deck, who live a life of marked cards. Your life may include poverty, possibly abuse, neglect or worse. To escape this life you may need or have needed to be extraordinary. To escape you may need or have needed extraordinary luck. To escape you may need or have needed extraordinary help from other people, places including the institution of government and beyond. You may need private investment, support from charities and organizations supported by those who have been more fortunate. In this fashion, there are plenty of small business people, again like me, who support those in need. What small business owners don’t need is more big government, big union and big business getting in the way.
Without free market capitalism, small businesses can’t thrive or even survive. Many people disagree. They think more government is the answer. Where will the jobs come from? Government? Where will the tax revenues come from? Rich people? Hardly! All the institutions that are getting a pass include big government, big union and big business. So where do you turn? Most small business people know how hard it is to make money and to pay off debt. That’s what most small business people do. That’s leadership.
So why are politicians, pundits and the media so hell-bent on dividing this country into haves and have-nots? I say, it’s time to go dish out some hugs! Start with the folks that keep me off ladders and off my roof. Start with people who take away my hedge trimmer and my chain saw, too. That’s just a scary movie to me. You can start with a hug for me. If I am still in one piece, I’ll hug back.
Recently I ran across this open letter to Romney called The First Four Years Are The Hardest… that echoes much of the sentiment conveyed here… a great read…sorry you had to come this far to get to this
Who isn’t afraid of failing?!
February 20, 2012 2 Comments
The Wallenda factor is just a normal fear of falling! Who isn’t afraid of falling?!
“Just in case you haven’t heard, the Wallenda factor refers to the fear of falling or failing. Shortly after Karl Wallenda fell to his death in 1978 (traversing a 75-foot high wire in downtown San Juan, Puerto Rico), his wife, also an aerialist, discussed that fateful San Juan walk, “perhaps his most dangerous.” She recalled: “All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to it was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that, and it seemed to me that he put all his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope.”
Life is like traversing a tight rope. If you think you need a safety net, It won’t be long before you fall. Live your life without a safety net, Or be prepared to live your life Closer to the ground. Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist says, “Pessimism is complacency.” I think generally speaking I would have to say at times I exercised pessimism in certain situations. I can relate it to looking in the mirror each morning and thinking, “I’m not getting any younger or thinner, for that matter.” I’m over that now!
To see the video – just click on the picture
Last year I spoke of challenges. This year, I believe anything’s possible! Last year I spoke of good fortunes, we were fortunate enough to have earned another year in business. I said I was proud of the intellectual property (IP) and talent we had. This year I am confident our talent pool here is second to none. Everyone has bought into The Rational Optimist theme, “Everybody is working for everybody else.” Last year I said opportunities present challenges.
We have faced those challenges. We have conquered many and we are prepared conquer the future. While politicians in Washington scrum over the economy and jobs, free market goes out and creates 100 mpg cars, even driverless cars. We need to tell our politicians…anything’s possible.This year we will focus again on making our products easier to use, easier to install and cloud ready. Inside Integra, we will continue to concentrate on developing and acquiring better tools to do our jobs in a more productive environment. Last year’s message was, “Attitude is everything.”
This year we will continue to encourage a positive attitude in the workplace, with our customers, partners and suppliers. Everybody is working for everybody else (click on the picture to the left for the video) because again…. anything’s possible. Finally, last year I predicted growth would be next our greatest challenge and we grew significantly. We remain well positioned to take advantage of those significant gains in 2012 and beyond.
To see an awesome video – just click on the picture
I’ll leave you with a great video (click on the photo below) and when you feel that wave of pessimism coming on, remember, anything’s possible.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle
Leave it at the Door
December 19, 2011 2 Comments
- Leave it at the Door
They should change the expression from the Holiday Blues to the Holiday Reds.
Tis the season we all go a little crazy spending money. Debt can pile up. It can pile up for your Company, too. The expression, “those that help, help themselves.” is never more of a challenge than it is right now.
As a business owner, I’m here to say, “We’re all in this together.” There’s no one, no one, who will be more disappointed than myself, if I cannot compensate you fairly, provide great benefits and a bonus for this year.
So it’s worth sharing just a few observations from a guy that’s been doing this a while…
· The longer it takes to deliver our products and services, the less likely we are to get paid. Customers go out of business, get sold, or change suppliers. We need to deliver.
· We carry a large sum in Accounts Receivable each month – that’s money our customers owe us. Imagine the possibilities for all of you if we could cut our delivery time by one-third or in half?
· These are competitive times. We are good, we are very good, but we still have a great deal of competition. That means we need “great references.” Great references come from great products and great service. Great products and great service have to come from you.
· The longer we stay in business, now 20 plus years (imagine… some of you were still in diapers) providing our customers with great products and service, the more opportunities will present themselves.
Imagine… some of you were still in diapers.
So what it all comes down to, everyone depends (not for diapers) on you. So when it is all said and done and with the all the best of intentions, “Look to yourself , look to your fellow professionals and then ask yourself, “What can I do to produce opportunities?” Then go do it.
No one needs you to be looking at your watch. You don’t need someone to tell you just to show up and get less done. And everyone is entitled to take time to commiserate, socialize and share their personal lives here at work. It’s a healthy work environment. Still you want your time to be well spent. BTW no one wants you to bring your personal problems to work. In a work environment that delivers great products and great service, no one needs to hear you’re less fortunate than the next person. So take care of your personal lives and your personal problems first. If you do, you will receive more support from your co-workers and from me. There’s more willingness to help those trying to help themselves.
You can’t get better at what you do if you’re too stressed, too tired or too sick to help yourself and your company professionally. Help yourself personally first and second professionally. For all of us here the best medicine is a healthy, happy and productive you.
We all have the tendency to have good days and bad, lick our wounds, get down in the mouth and to think no one cares. If you know me, you know I care. I truly care! I do, but I don’t employ a priest, a doctor or a shrink. If you need professional help, go get it. If you’re a part of the company, you’re a part of my family.
Family pulls together and as my Dad would always say after I have had a bad day, “Just leave it at the door.”
Express “yourself.” Leave your comments, share or spread the word click on the Stumble Upon button below. Subscribe or come back often to visit.
If You’re Going to Lay Pipe, Why Not Do It Right?
September 16, 2011 1 Comment
How Do I Mix Oil and Water?
- These oil spills can be prevented, not to be confused with the term “Oil Sands,”but do I have your attention?
You don’t. Not unlike capitalists and environmentalists.
But if you’re going to lay pipe, why not do it right (twice)? The Calgary-based TransCanada’s $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline is the dubious answer. The proposed pipeline is a major infrastructure project that would create 20,000 unionized construction jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax and other revenues in the six states through which it would pass. How about we appease both sides of this controversy; the environmentalist hate it and the capitalists love it; by adding to the mix? Add a water pipeline. An irrigation pipeline. Bury it right next to the oil pipeline. Collect and dispense water from the pipeline as needed.
Send it down and dispense it through parched draught stricken lands and collect it from flood swollen, land dispensing and collecting water as needed, creating the most progressive irrigation system the world has ever known. Where in the world are we experiencing droughts? Think Texas. Not to mention Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Check out Wall Street Journal Business article called “Facing Up to End of ‘Easy Oil’” by Ben Casselmann, dated May 24, 2011.
The sweetest part of all… the oil companies and the Canadian government and Canadian corporations can subsidize it. Just ask Exxon. They’re spending millions to advertise it. Ask Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer. He can hardly refuse a slam dunk. Don’t forget our environmentalists. Ask Margot Kidder arrested for protesting the pipeline. Is she going to deny the drought and flood victims the relief from water? Water, life giveth, life taketh away.
Oil Sands!
- Oil Sands
Now it’s up to our State Department. They need to decide before year-end (2011). Move over Bill! Maybe it’s time for Hillary to lay some pipe. How do you mix oil and water?! Wired Magazine has some ideas. Maybe we lay less pipe?
In any case, nothing is ever easy. Unless you’re Bill.
Free Wheeling for Honduras Orphanage by Carl Gallo
September 6, 2011 1 Comment
- Michelle and Sarahé with Carl
- Michelle, Paola,
- Dania and Julani
- with Rachel
- from our group.
- Click on image
- for full size.
Free Wheeling for Honduras Orphanage
by Carl Gallo
I was greeted with temperatures around 109 degrees in Telgucegapita, Honduras (weather).
We had no running water, and certainly no air conditioning, but I was also greeted with smiles and hugs from little girls such as Michelle and Sarahé with me in picture.
We ate rice, tortillas and refried beans every day, but we had the privilege of having food and breaking bread with those same children.
We sat on the floor and ran in the yard and went swimming in a river that we in the States would snub our noses at, but sitting, running and swimming was never so much fun as it was with those little, giddy girls.
In the picture to the right (click on thumbnail) notice the barbed wire at the top of the concrete fence that boarders the home in the background – along with a guard dog, that is their protection against intruders. For more information on crime in Honduras.
This was my first trip getting down and dirty to a country such as this, and I hope it is not my last.
- Dania facing the camera, with my wife, Kathi in the background
I have been thinking long and hard about how I can help…what can I do to make a difference every time I re-visit Honduras and the orphanages?
Besides bringing supplies and clothing and offering financial assistance, I want to start a bicycle ministry. Free bikes, with multiple seats, where both the father and mother could pedal. Tike bikes, tires and repair services. Doesn’t that sound great? Todo para la Gloria a Dios!
I don’t know how to go about doing such a thing, but you could bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be making some phone calls to find out. I’ve had a couple of chats with a Christian bike enthusiast who has great experience in manufacturing and has connections with bike part importers. Carlos Byrne – fluent in Spanish and English and he wants to help. On the surface, our game plan is to set up an assembly operation in Honduras and train the older boys at the orphanage to put them together. We’d order the bike parts from China and have them sent to Honduras. Simple, cruiser bikes – just 2 styles…unisex adult and child. No gears, one speed, fat, knobby tires for the rough terrain, fat, cushioned seats, all the same color.
I’ll keep you posted.
Salud,
Carl L. Gallo
For more about the Honduras orphanages they are under one headship:
There are actually two orphanages with whom we are associated – the first is a small group of only 10 to 15 girls. http://eternalfamilyproject.org/. The second is about 90 children, both boys and girls – http://wwh2h.org/
The Gallo family:
Carl and Kathi Gallo have six children of their own, and one granddaughter 6 months old. Their four oldest children are adults, leaving them with two high school students at home. Kathi does a wonderful job hosting and feeding Mission teams of 4 to 14 at a time from around the world at their home, 4 to six times each year. They are constantly looking for opportunities to leave this world a better place.
Find What You Love,” Steve Jobs’ at Stanford University
August 31, 2011 1 Comment
A young Steve Jobs
A “cat” with at least 3 lives! What a great message for our future leaders of this great country! Worth the time to read and let this message sink in! A great commencement address by Steve Jobs!
Steve Jobs, who stepped down as CEO of Apple Wednesday after having been on medical leave, reflected on his life,
career and mortality in a (YouTube video) well-known commencement address at Stanford University in 2005.
Here, read the text of of that address:
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an nuexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
Threadbare – Not just a pretty face – Reg update
August 1, 2011 1 Comment
Reg Update – Resume
Reg’s story Threadbare – Not just a pretty face.
Jobs in the retail profession and clothing business remain scarce in Atlanta. I recently spoke to Reg who was taking an OSHA class for his not so temporary job. He had taken a “temporary” supervisory job in construction to help with the Lepper household cash flow. That was almost three years ago. It requires a hard hat and steel toed boots. Hartmarx evidently, doesn’t sell steel toed boots. He bought the boots from Wal-Mart – $19 bucks.
There are blisters on every toe. He’s up at 5 AM. It takes an hour to get to the job site.
It’s 6:45 PM, so he’s just getting home now.
I hear some of our Congressmen and women are complaining about the hours they’re spending away from home and now they are complaining about how much they make. They’re getting a steady paycheck and Cadillac benefits.
They won’t pull this economy up by it’s boot straps. Reg and people like him will.
Maybe they need a swift kick in the keester from those boots I’m talkin’ about.
Maybe they should just go home and be with their family?
Meantime, Reg has been and is actively looking for work. Sending out his (click on the link to Reg’s “resume“) doing job interviews, volunteering his time for Career Ministry and consulting their members regarding many aspects of their search for new opportunities and careers.
Threadbare – Not Just Another Pretty Face
July 31, 2011 2 Comments
“When you bust through all the layers of brevity and you have shaken all the hands of hope, you can begin to share the depths of depression joblessness can bring.”
This pretty much sums it up if you are over 50 and looking for employment.
Reg – Not Just Another Pretty Face.
When I decided to do this story about my good friend, Reg Lepper I thought maybe it would help him by building on the social networking he had already begun on LinkedIn and Facebook.
As I began learning more from him about his 27 plus year career at Hartmarx, known for its Hart Schaffner & Marx and Hickey Freeman suits, and for making President Obama’s inauguration tuxedo and topcoat, I realized the complex struggle he and his cadre of sales professionals and the plant workers endured.
The company and its United States subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy in January, 2009. Workers threatened to occupy Hartmarx’s plant if the company’s creditor, Wells Fargo Bank, attempted to lay off workers and liquidate the company’s assets.
In August 2009, Emerisque Brands UK and its partner SKNL North America completed their purchase of Hartmarx.While Reg survived the bankruptcy of Hartmarx, the acquisition, ultimately of a foreign owned conglomerate based in India, many of his friends and fellow employees lost their jobs.
Not to be outdone Reg took it upon himself to write an impassioned plea, (click on the link “a letter to the President”) a letter to the President of the United States, Barrack Obama, the beneficiary of the afore-mentioned Hart Schaffner & Marx suits. Fifteen (15) months after the acquisition Reg, too lost his job.
Like many who are unemployed, Reg wants to work. He wants to support his family. Like millions of Americans, there have been forks in the road and to make ends meet, he needs a job. Reg is, as I describe him on LinkedIn.com business social networking site.
Reg’s now been unemployed for 7 months. Not for lack of trying. Reg has employed every means of looking for work. Shunned by “head hunters” most likely due to his age, Reg is 64. I can personally vouch for the fact he doesn’t behave or look a day over 30… OK so he looks a bit older, but he’s a firm believer in exercise, has been a long time distance runner. Now his knees are telling him he needs to go shopping for a good bike – cheap!
That aside, Reg has been and is actively looking for work. Sending out his (click on the link to Reg’s “resume“) resume doing job interviews, volunteering his time for Career Ministry and consulting their members regarding many aspects of their search for new opportunities and careers.
Reg isn’t alone. This is a nationwide plight affecting thousands of households across America. If you are over 50 and unemployed in today’s economy, you could be facing many challenges including a mortgage underwater. In such cases, how can you move to accept a job offer across the country? What if you took a second mortgage out to pay for your kid’s tuition? What if your kid is living at home because he or she can’t find a job or can’t afford to make ends meet on their own?
So is Reg’s story only about being a high income earner and over 50 an age related layoff? I began to see there are many other dynamics in play. Those dynamics include government and politics; how an increase in payroll taxes on corporate America has impacted US manufacturing jobs; and the shift in manufacturing jobs overseas.
Add TARP and “too big to fail”. i.e., Wells Fargo into the picture. Let’s not forget the unions. Hoping to save their jobs and start a national movement, Hartmarx workers were pressuring Wells Fargo, the company’s main creditor, to approve the sale of Hartmarx to a buyer that would keep it alive instead of liquidating it and most likely putting its celebrated labels on suits made overseas, The New York Times’s Steve Greenhouse reported.tty face.
While I’m not going to rehash all the events which took place and detail the timeline I think it is interesting to point out there were a number of high profile players involved in the decline of the 124 year old company.
While researching this debacle 9 out of every 10 – news articles or posts reference corporate greed or the big bad bank, in this case Wells Fargo, as the culprit.
“That begs the question, “who buys Hartmarx suits?”
The answer is, “Wall Street bankers.” OK, so who is demonizing Wall Street? Obama and his posse, including Dick Durbin, Chuck Shumer and Barney Frank those who were championing the case for Hartmarx and union labor against Wells Fargo.
As reported by Progress Illinois: The news of a potential liquidation (of Hartmarx) caused workers, union leaders, and members of Congress to spring into action to aid the company, which employs 3,000 people nationwide, including 1,000 in Illinois. Rep. Phil Hare, who spent 13 years as a Hartmarx employee, described himself as “livid” at the bank, which accepted $25 billion in federal bailout funds. He went on to enlist the help of Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Rep. Jan Schakowsky, whose great-aunt found a job with Hartmarx after emigrating from Russia, called Wells Fargo CEO John Strumpf and urged him to keep the company running. Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, meanwhile, sent a letter to Strumpf threatening to sever the state’s business with the bank if Hartmarx was ultimately liquidated.
Days after suit maker Hartmarx was sold to Emerisque and its Indian partner S Kumars Nationwide Ltd, SKNL a textile giant three US plants of the clothier have been shut down resulting in the loss of over 500 jobs. Not a peep out of President Obama, then or now and the Hartmarx factory making his suits in Des Plaines… still open.
Obama, proudly flashing the Hartmarx label
While they may have saved some jobs, politicians and union bosses who should know better and who have voted consistently for more government and more spending weren’t helping the cause. They may have acted like they are helping Hartmarx employees but their votes for higher taxes and more spending were helping to drive manufacturing jobs overseas.
Reg, on the other hand took it upon himself to champion the cause for Hartmarx workers. He wrote a letter to the President and stirred the political “hornet’s nest” to get politicians pontificating and deserves a lot of credit for saving US worker’s jobs.
Let it be stated, from all accounts, Emerisque, a British private equity firm working with SKNL, has been doing all it can do to promote and keep the US plants open. In fact, Bud” McCullar, a partner at Emerisque called Reg and commented on how much he cared about the company and fellow employees. Here’s a quote from Mr. McCullar on Reg’s LinkedIn profile.
“Reg is the consummate seller for an ever evolving apparel and consumer products segments. From presenting to closing, ever the professional.”
There’s a great book called Built to Last written by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras. A very dear friend of mine recommended the book to me. She has been fighting breast cancer for the past 10 years or more. Apparently she, too, is “built to last.” Thank God.
The authors define their choice of successful companies’ continued success to be built on “core values” and continued innovation by trying many things through change and recognizing and staying with what works.
If you are the management (CEO) of a company large or small it is your job to see to it you take care of the bottom line and all that goes with it. That would be principally “cash flow” management. Too often, cash flow management is lost on CEOs who are paid for short term gains which inevitably cause long term pain.
That’s why small business is the backbone (more than 70 percent) of the US economy. For small business cash flow is king. Our only short term goal is to stay in business, cash flow and grow.
Maybe if more corporate giants and Wall Street bankers had stuck to their core values we wouldn’t be in as big a mess as we are now in today? Case in point, the merger and acquisition (M&A) frenzy in the 90’s. Corporate giants, including banks, joined in the M&A rush, to the extent some industry experts were predicting there would only be 3-4 large bank holding companies left in America.
Hartmarx too, jumped into the fray with an acquisition in late 1996. They added two more in 1998. In late summer 1999,they added another. Maybe these acquisitions were good for the company. I’m not here to judge. What’s intriguing about the acquisitions is the correlation with offshoring.
In the 1990’s Hartmarx began the offshoring of production facilities to control costs. During that period, they closed ten domestic factories and shifted production to the Far East, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
Someone should have written a book titled Built to “Be” Last – The Decline in Manufacuring Jobs in America – as American manufacturing companies began moving production overseas.
Now here’s the strongest argument yet to keep as to why there are fewer and fewer manufacturing jobs here in America. If it were not for payroll taxes many more manufacturing jobs in America would have been saved.
While everybody was pointing fingers, blaming everyone but themselves for plant closings and lost jobs, you need not look further than, “it’s payroll taxes… (I’ll let you finish the sentence).” Granted corporate greed is a factor here. The problem is many large corporations are multi-national and feel the pressure from foreign competitors not burdened with the higher payroll taxes on workers.
Our government raised payroll taxes in April 1983. The illustration here shows the investment US corporations began to make overseas according to PoliticalCalculations.com as “unintended consequences” of the payroll tax increase.
If you are a “for profit” company and it is your job to increase shareholder value, you are going to look for ways to lower your costs. Increasing the payroll taxes on American workers was a major impetus to shift American manufacturing overseas.
We vote to place politicians in office to spend our tax dollars wisely. They don’t. On the other hand, we vote with our investment dollars to allow corporate “greed” to profit on the backs of American workers. They do.
It’s time politicians wake up and reverse the course of lost manufacturing jobs by eliminating payroll taxes and adopting the FairTax – see www.Fairtax.org.
Ultimately it is up to us as individuals to make the right choices. This debt crisis is our wake-up call. Let’s get back to our core values. If you ask Reg it’s about God, family the desire to contribute his tremendous talent and work ethic to a company and a country “built to last.”
Made in the USA doesn’t have to be about politics or unions. My good buddy Reg and many of those that have suffered the “unintended consequences” of increases in payroll taxes and lost manufacturing jobs, will find no comfort here.
For more on Reg click here resume.
How fortunate am I?
July 20, 2011 Leave a comment
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around, does it make a sound?
I have been bowed over in anguish over a job lost; I have placed my hands over my face and head, elbows to my knees gasping for breath; I have barricaded myself behind closed doors.
So, I have often wondered, does a job lost make a sound?
If you have asked our government, technically the answer to both questions is , “No.”
I would have to agree. Neither seen nor heard, you’re on your own.
I have experienced both, the latter being much more traumatic, although both are deeply disturbing, I would have to say the tree was less personal and the lesser of two evils.
Symbolic in a fashion, like our government, the tree had been leaning. It’s weight no longer sustainable, it roots no longer able to bear its growth.
I was deeply affected by the sight of the fallen tree in its magnitude. It’s beauty and majesty held me in awe. I often crossed it’s path, never imagining it’s demise.
Falling across a sidewalk, in a city park, the tree was swept away in a day; a series of sawing, grinding and chipping away. At times the noise was deafening. And then it was gone.
I, too, had moved on. Picked myself back up. Started a new venture. Today I am rooted strongly, my business supported by faith, family and my business. Supported by partners, fellow employees, suppliers and customers.
How fortunate for me, I am not a tree.
Like Fine Wine…
July 6, 2011 1 Comment
Silver Oaks Vineyard
The unemployment jobless rate has jumped for those over 55 from 3.2% to 6.8% since the 2007 recession began.
This is an opportunity for small businesses looking to reduce the risks normally associated with hiring.
As an employer, you might consider “like fine wine, the over 55 candidates should be getting better with age.”
Rule Number One: “Ready to drink.” Most wines available today are ready to drink (0ver 90%). If the price is right drink it now.
Heard recently from someone over 55, unemployed, highly qualified and experienced in their line of work. Someone whom I hold in high regard,
“I feel like I’m letting my wife, my kids and my grandkids down.”
This alarming revelation from someone heretofore has exuded confidence, success in; and dedication to; his family and his career like none other.
Over 55 and unemployed, most workers are eager to reenter the workforce.
Rule Number Two: “Taste it.” There are many experts out there that will tell you what wine to drink and when. My local wine shop agrees to a point but is adamant about one thing, “it comes down to you and your own personal tastes and preferences.” The expression, “look good on paper (label)” is a common misnomer.
If you are hiring and you are a “seasoned professional” yourself, you don’t have to look over your shoulder twice to find someone with whom you can relate in the over 55 crowd. Put these new hires through a probationary period. They will understand they need to “earn their stripes.”
Rule Number Three: “Preservation of a good wine requires proper resources and planning.” If you can’t afford to wait and don’t have the proper means to store your wine, drink it now.
In business, when hiring I like to use the expression “hit the deck running.” If you can’t afford to mentor, shadow, train or hire an apprentice or wait for a new hire to become productive, generate revenues, replace intellectual property, hire experience.
Rule Number Four: Price doesn’t dictate taste or value: There are winemakers out there ranging from Cameron Hughes (CH) to garage winemakers who produce excellent wine at excellent values. Famous high end growers in Napa, Sonoma and other areas sell their surplus to winemakers like CH who produce great wines at great values.
Look for experience first. College degrees, certifications, etc… is no substitute for the real deal. Many of the over 55 crowd have been “through the war.” “The proof of the wine is in the tasting.”
Some great reference sites:
http://www.staythirstymedia.com/201107-059/html/201107-sipprelle-washington.html
http://www.staythirstymedia.com/201107-059/html/201107-cavaliere-starting-over.html
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2010/08/teens-vs-geezers-in-us-job-market.html
Rejection wasn’t my strong suit!
May 26, 2011 Leave a comment
The difference between Fred and myself?
Fred knew when he was lying.
My first job out of college was to work for ACME Forms. My Dad owned ACME. Dad was the only full-time employee. Business was good.
I joined my Dad as a sales rep in 1974. We were a force of two. My Mom was the part time administrative support person and the mother of six. I was the future. It was a shaky start. My job was to get new business. I used the phone to solicit appointments. I can remember my voice quaked and my message was ill-prepared. After exhausting all legitimate leads I was proffered, by phone, I hit the road.
My first cold call, “cold “ being the vernacular used for an unsolicited visit on an unsuspecting business to make a sales pitch. I was a major contributors as to why there are so many “No Solicitors” sign on doors.
Like the polyester plaid I was wearing, rejection isn’t my strong suit. I have to admit there were days I could not face the day ahead without becoming physically ill, cramps and vomiting, anticipating the rejection that inevitably lay ahead.
For better or worse, most of the businesses I “solicited” on the south side of Chicago, were unaccustomed to a 21 year old young man in polyester and a “pleather” briefcase showing up at their door. My first “sales call” and I use the term loosely, required considerable surveillance. I drove around the block several times. In the end, it was a relief to just to be dismissed. To hear a simple “no thanks” was a victory, of sort. I had broken the sound barrier. I had made contact with the other side. Soon, I was making 20 cold calls in a day.
Thankfully gas was 30 cents a gallon! My father would get a call from someone I had visited and he would say, “Yes, that’s my son, he’s like manure, he’s spread all over the place.” The message was loud and clear, I needed to take the next step, get to the next level.
Speaking of manure, here’s a great joke from Ronald Reagan, only takes a minute, during one of his speeches. Precious really. Good clean fun!
I needed to convince my prospects I wasn’t just another pretty face in plaid polyester. My contacts were bewildered, annoyed, amused, indifferent or thankfully, on rare occasion, sympathetic to my pitch. It’s simply amazing. I became accustomed to the word“no”. I managed to solicit a cadre of variations theme to the extent I began to expect and anticipate the response. I learned to take a “no” and solicit another. As my skin thickened and the manure piled higher, I was able to garner a “maybe” here and there and occasionally a yes! It was the “ying and the yang” thing, “Yes means No” to the extent a Tibetan monk would have been proud.
Later, as a regional director at a large corp. at the sage age of 28 years, where I managed more than 70 neophyte sales reps in 10 states, I became well known for the expression, “lose more orders”. My mantra was the more orders you lose, the more opportunities you have to win. Spread that manure! Well not exactly…
Anyway, my dad fired me. he put me out of my misery! His too. He said I needed more experience. He was right. I was keeping him too busy spinning his wheels. At the time, I was devastated. I finished the blueberry pancakes my Mom had made me. I left town to seek employment. I stayed with the in-laws while looking for work.
I painted their house for $70 bucks, but I painted their windows shut, so we were even. I found a job right before I was evicted. But there’s more to the story…
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Livestrong Anyway!
October 9, 2010 1 Comment
Make no mistake about it, Lance Armstrong is no Mother Teresa! If Lance is guilty of doping, what should we do? Take away his bike? 
My message is less about Lance, the man and more about Lance, the messenger.
I am sure you have heard the expression, “Don’t shoot the messenger!” Regardless of how you feel or think about the man, the message is clear, “Livestrong Anyway”.
Recently my sister Kay was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thank God, she will survive, albeit after suffering surgery, chemo and radiation therapy. For Kay, amongst many untold stories, there is a long hard road ahead. Our family, myself included, has always been an advocate for the fight to cure cancer. We have friends and family members fighting Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer and MS. We are no strangers to the challenges life imposes upon all of us.
I maintain a good fiction writer could tell a story as good as the story Landis has told about allegations Armstrong was doping (In 2006 Floyd Landis was stripped of his title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone). Landis knew all the ins and outs of doping and he wasn’t the only malcontent that had hung out with Armstrong, so the courts will need plenty of corroboration from cyclists who either were complicit or witnessed the doping. As soon as Landis came out with his story Armstrong should have sued him instead of dismissing him as a loser. There’s too much at stake.
For my part, there are lots of questions. How many of us could have endured Armstrong’s road to a cure from a tumor that had metastasized to his brain and lungs? How many of us could have endured the challenges of winning seven 7 consecutive Tour de France races, typically 21 days of racing and covers 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) championships? Is he less of a champ if he was cheating or only if he is caught? Could it be said he won fair and square since most likely everyone was cheating?
In 1998 the race stopped in protest at what the riders saw as heavy-handed investigation of drug-taking allegations.
In 1998 the Festina team was disqualified after revelations of organized doping within the team.
In 2006 Floyd Landis was stripped of his title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.
In 2007 team Astana abandoned after Alexander Vinokourov was caught doping
In 2007 Michael Rasmussen was removed by his team while wearing the yellow jersey for lying about his whereabouts during a team training session in Mexico.
In 2008 Riccardo Ricco was kicked out of the race after testing positive for CERA
In 2008 Moises Duenas Nevado was kicked out of the race after testing positive for Erythropoietin
In 2008 Manuel Beltrán was kicked out of the race after testing positive for EPO
In 2010, Alberto Contador, the three-time Tour de France champion was provisionally suspended by the international cycling federation after a small amount of the banned drug clenbuterol was discovered in one of his samples by a laboratory in Cologne, Germany.
My message is Livestrong Anyway! LIVESTRONG http://www.livestrong.org/ has a life of its own.
Many good-hearted folks worry about the consequences of the weighty accusations and bad press about Armstrong which Livestrong and Armstrong must endure. 
A friend of mine, pictured here below has raised thousands of dollars for Livestrong and for a cure. She recently wrote, “It makes me nervous for Livestrong and the 28 million people living with cancer.” So what happens to an organization built on the courage and determination of one man? The organization is built upon people who are dedicated to the fight against cancer; who have family members with cancer or who are cancer survivors themselves, such as Doug Ulman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Livestrong. Whatever the outcome, what the many volunteers and the organization Livestrong has done for cancer victims cannot be undone, which has all been great. Excellence survives!
In any case, I’m a much bigger fan of Mother Teresa.
Anyway
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway!
If you do good, people will accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway!
If you are successful, you will win
false friends and enemies.
Succeed anyway!
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway!
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway!
What you spend years building may be
destroyed overnight.
Build anyway!
People really need help
but may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway!
Give the world the best you have
and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway!
| Written by: Mother Teresa |
Idea Capitalists 