What's Wrong With Our Republic

 I love our Republic. I love letting people start companies and hire other people and make money commensurate with the value they create for society. I believe people should be able to keep that money and do with it as they please.

I also think we should help people in need. All the time. In the best way possible - even if that means letting them fail and watching them fail, and waiting to help them until they want help.

But our 200+ year old political system is broken. Serving the country's interest should be a BURDEN not an aspiration for those who crave power. I hate Democrats. I hate Republicans. I hate anyone who drinks the poisonous Kool-Aid of either party. They're both extreme positions and the best thing they can do is make the other look worse than them. No virtue is found in those who spend 24 months in Congress blaming everyone else for the failures of the Republic.

Read Atlas Shrugged. Or at least watch the movie. I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I'm a Capitalist. Of each, according to their ability. I'm not a Socialist. Which is To each, according to their need. And I can be a Capitalist with a heart - I love to give away my money to those who deserve help and support. What I don't like is giving my money to people who abuse the ability to tax me, then give my money to people who don't deserve it but expect it.

I miss my kids, and that's okay

For the past week my wife and I have been traveling in Australia.  We try to take a vacation together every spring.  For now, these vacations are without our two sons, who are 3 and 2 years old.  Today marks the longest either of us have been apart from our sons.

A big part of me feels guilty for leaving our boys for trips like this.  But these trips are exceedingly important to keep our marriage healthy, and to be good parents to our boys.  Nicole and I have reconnected again and are having a great time exploring a new country together.  We've climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, toured through Sydney, held lizards and pet kangaroo at the Taronga Zoo, enjoyed a dinner in a restaurant right beside the Sydney Opera House, saw the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road, and did some serious shopping in the Victoria Marketplace.  Most importantly, Nicole has been able to reconnect with her sister Chris who lives in Melbourne.

Getting our boys here would have been difficult.  It's a 4-1/2 hour flight to Los Angeles from Atlanta - which would have been hard enough on the boys.  Then comes the 15-hour flight from LAX to Sydney.  I wouldn't want to put my boys - or the other passengers - through that unless it was absolutely necessary.

The alternative would have been to not go.  We could have done a family vacation.  But truth be told, family vacations with toddlers aren't really vacations for anyone.

When two people fall in love and have children, it's natural for the couple to turn all of their attention towards the kids for years at a time.  Eventually they forget why they were in love in the first place.  Last year Nicole and I took a cruise around the Caribbean for 5 days.  We reconnected then, and made a promise to each other to take a trip once a year - alone - in order to stay connected.

So while it may seem selfish to leave the kiddies with Grandma (who's doing a wonderful job watching over them) and bolt to the other side of the planet, it's actually in their best interests.  Parents who love each other and stay connected make for the best parents of all.

The Price of Freedom

So I've officially been the General Manager of Coolfire Solutions for about one week.  It's been one of the most exciting times of my life.  Between me and the other four people that make up the newly created company, we get to choose everything.


We get to decide what the culture will be in the company.


We get to choose what software we'll use for collaboration and communication.


We even get to pick out our logo and branding image.


That's the fun part of starting a company.  Unfortunately, the price of that freedom from the corporate bondage we all seek to escape at some point in our life is a bit heftier than one might assume.


I'll be working a lot over the next few years.  A lot.  I'll be traveling a lot, and when I'm not traveling, I'll be thinking about all the things that general managers think about.  I'll make mistakes and stress over them.  I'll have to deal with issues I won't want to deal with.  And I'll always wonder if we're leaving money on the table or doing what's best for the owners.


The price of freedom, as someone once said, is eternal vigilance.  So with my freedom from the TPS reports and senseless restrictions imposed by my former multi-billion-dollar employers comes the 'always just a bit hungry' feeling that many entrepreneurs crave.


But I've got to tell you...at least at this point, the price has definitely been worth it.

Never, Ever Lie.

A few weeks ago in my leadership class at Georgia State, we conducted another class exercise.  So far on these class exercises I’m 0-3.  But as I said before, we do some of our best growing when we fail.

In this particular exercise, the professor sent half the class into the lobby, and then told those of us left in the classroom that we had 10 minutes to come up with a plan to get those people back into the classroom.

She then left the classroom – presumably to give instructions to the people in the lobby.

We strategized on how to best get those folks back into the classroom.  The prevailing strategy was to convince them that it would be in their best interests to come back in because of something we couldn’t tell them.  We would each target a specific individual with whom we had built a strong relationship, and basically wear them down until we could dupe them into coming back into the classroom.

It was my job to bring my friend Rosalie – the only other student from my Alpharetta cohort (this particular class is taught at another Georgia State campus in Buckhead) – back into the classroom.  

I brought her a drink and sat down next to her.  I spent about 5 minutes convincing her that there was a really good reason that I couldn’t tell her about to come back into the classroom.

All I could focus on was getting her in to that room.  I was focused on winning.

Once the entire class was back together, the teacher asked us to explain the instructions we were given – which was to get the other folks back into the classroom.  

She then asked the other group to explain what their instructions were.  Rosalie informed all of us that their instructions were to only come back to the classroom if they believed we were being honest.

Zing.  This, my friends, is what we call a lifetime learning moment.

I had intentionally lied to Rosalie.  Not explicitly, per se, but I wasn’t truthful with her.  And I had convinced her that I was telling the truth.  

I was devastated.  I hadn’t felt that ashamed about myself in a long time.  I was absolutely focused on winning, and sold out my integrity to win.

When we’re presented with a business situation where we’re asked to lie, usually we respond by taking the high road, or finding a way out of the situation.  But because this was only a class exercise, I didn’t focus on any of that.  I focused on winning.  And I probably damaged a great friendship in doing so.

I hope that Rosalie will in time forgive me.  More importantly, I hope that I can regain her trust, because I value her as a friend and cohort mate.  

Of all the lessons I’ve learned in this MBA program, that one was the most painful, and the most costly.  And the most important.  

Never, ever lie.

Note:  These entries and the rest of my blog can be found at http://mentelligence.blogspot.com  

Safety in Numbers

For years I’ve found myself sensing trends before they happen. I’ve come up with ideas that aren’t adopted by the mainstream for several years. On more than one occasion I’ve suggested something, only to have it shot down as nonsensical by someone, and then hear that same person evangelizing the idea as if it were his own six months later.

This time I came up with an idea with some of my friends and decided to see it through. For the first six months, other than my friends and colleagues who saw the same potential I did, I was generally told it was a bad idea that would never work.

If it weren’t for those close friends and colleagues (you know who you are) I probably would have walked away from this idea as well.

I found safety in numbers.

I saw a video on YouTube of a guy dancing all by himself on the side of a hill at what I guess to be Oktoberfest in Germany, or something like that. The voiceover explains how when the leader is all by himself, he’s not a leader – he’s an individual. But the second person that joins him makes him a leader by assuming the ‘first follower’ role. Pretty soon a hundred or more people are joining in and an instant rave is created.

If you are constantly finding yourself out of alignment with your coworkers and management team, chances are you are in the wrong culture. This cuts both ways – you could be the risk-averse person who believes a return to core fundamentals is more appropriate than the high-risk ventures you’re finding yourself surrounded by. In my case, I’ve grown up in a risk-averse industry with a history of being reactionary and protocol-driven. I wasn’t a visionary – I was a loud-mouth kid with off-the-wall ideas about how to erode margins more quickly.

The key to cultivating your strengths is to share your ideas with people who think like you. As I said in an earlier blog, you have to protect your ideas from those who would seek to destroy anything outside the norms defined by the current and the past.

I am very fortunate for having met so many visionaries who believe in a common goal with me. I encourage all of you to seek like-minded folks who believe just as much as you do in a brighter future.

And if you can’t find anyone, send me an email with your idea. I’ll be your first follower.

Note: These entries and the rest of my blog can be found at http://mentelligence.blogspot.com

Time Out

Have you ever wanted to just get away from everything for 3 days and go sequester yourself in a cabin in the mountains to really think about where you are in life? Well, I did that this week.

It wasn’t a very popular idea. My wife has been luke-warm about it. Most likely because she needs a 3-day vacation from the kids more than I need personal reflection time. My mother-in-law won’t even look at me. I guess in her eyes what I’m doing this week is selfish and indicative of me not wanting to have anything to do with my family.

But I did it anyway. And it has changed my life for the better.

The pessimist in me considers this my ‘half-time’ break in life. At 34, based on my family medical history, I’m pretty much halfway done with life. The optimist in me hopes this is more of a break between the first and second periods (as in a 3-period hockey game). Either way, this retreat was all about resetting my priorities and getting the next six months of my life organized.

I spent the first day taking a look at my priorities. I realized that my priorities are exactly reverse of what they should be. I’ve reorganized my priorities to better reflect what kind of person I want to be. My priorities now, and hopefully for the next 34 years, are:

1. Spend time with God
2. Put my family first
3. Follow the golden rule
4. Take care of myself
5. Choose to have a good attitude
6. Have a passion to learn and lead
7. Give back more than I take

The second day I spent nearly 18 hours building my business plan and analyzing what I plan to do for our new company to get us going as quickly, efficiently, and productively as possible. It’s one thing to jetset around the country talking about what an awesome idea we have. It’s another to build a targeted call plan, plan trips to save time and money, and tie those customer interactions into a greater strategic plan aligned with our goals for the company itself.

The third day is all about building the bridge between where I am today and where I want to be in my life. As I said, I realize now that my priorities were really out of whack with what I wrote above. So I’m making some personal goals for myself to help keep me focused on these seven priorities (or rules of life). For example, now that I’ll be working from home, I plan to give my wife some free time every day between 1-4PM. Imagine 3 hours of personal free time as a stay-at-home-mom. I know she needs it, and as long as I’m home I can give it to her – if I agree that my family always comes first (before work, school, and me).

I don’t expect to get an opportunity like this again for a very, very long time, so I’m making the most of it. I know that I’ll have paid a premium to have this time alone (especially in the eyes of my mother-in-law) but the positive effect it will have on my family, friends, and soon-to-be coworkers is incalculable, and definitely worth the premium.

Note: These entries and the rest of my blog can be found at http://mentelligence.blogspot.com

The First Billion is the Hardest

I’m reading a great book called $1,000 and an Idea by Sam Wyly. Sam is a self-made billionaire. His parents lost most everything they had when Sam was a child in the Great Depression. He grew up in a wooden cabin with no electricity on a soy farm in rural Louisiana. He worked very hard at doing the right things and doing things right, and never gave up on an idea he had involving computers back in the late 50’s and early 60’s.

He was a multi-millionaire by the age of 30, and worth more than $1.1B as of 2006. He is #356 on the Forbes Fortune 400 – the list of the 400 most wealthy Americans.

So what separates a billionaire from the rest of us? How did he get to become so incredibly wealthy? In my humble opinion, Sam is no different than the millions of other entrepreneurial men and women who are out there looking for opportunities. I honestly believe a lot of his success has more to do with luck and timing than skill.

The great thing about Capitalism (and why free market economics work when social and progressive programs don’t) is that it rewards hard work and perseverance. Sam had an idea to create a computer network back in the 1950s. He was thinking of how to build and market the Internet nearly 40 years before it was first referred to as the World Wide Web. Sam created a company with no more than $1,000 in collateral, and grew it into a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate. He started other companies and even helped break up the AT&T and Bell monopolies.

All of us have entrepreneurial ideas. Anyone who takes classes on weekends and evenings, or reads business books, or follows blogs on the Web, or has ever thought “this could be easier if…” has come up with at least one idea that could make money in either a big company, a startup, or just as a part-time hobby.

The biggest difference between us and Sam, at the end of the day, is that Sam went ahead and took a chance.

T. Boone Pickens, a multi-billionaire who made most of his money in Texas oil, wrote a book called The First Billion is the Hardest. If I gave you $100, you could probably turn it into $200 pretty easily by working hard and using the $100 to live on for a week, while making $200 doing odd jobs. If I gave you $1,000,000, you could potentially turn it into $2,000,000 by investing it wisely in good businesses. If I gave you $1,000,000,000, you’d probably just freak out. But what is the difference between $100 and $1B? Not much really, if you follow the template you created over and over. That’s what Boone did.

Now that I’m just a few weeks from starting up our new company at CoolFire, I’ve realized that there really isn’t much difference between us and the self-made billionaires. I think 3 or 4 decisions in their lives separate them from being worth $1M and $1B. Sam made his money by being a great innovator and a good guesser of what’s next. I identify with that and hope my skills, and a lot of luck, will put me in a similar position someday.

So what is the takeaway from this blog? In America (at least before it is further socialized anyway), anyone with $1,000 and an idea can become a self-made billionaire. It turns out the difference between us and them isn’t as great as one might think.

If you have an idea, you can find $1,000 somewhere. And then you, too, can be a billionaire.

Note: These entries and the rest of my blog can be found at http://mentelligence.blogspot.com