Quote of the Day!

“It's not what's happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it's your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you're going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.”

- Anthony Robbins

Quote of the Day!

"It takes more energy to be mad and less energy to be happy, so use your energy wisely."

- unknown

Quote of the Day!

"Visions are worth fighting for."

- Orson Welles to Ed Wood in Ed Wood

I guess I am a Zombie!

Why I am a zombie!

I can't remember the last time I actually slept 8 hours. It's not that I don't want to... I just can't. I am a night owl. A true night owl.

Quote of the Day!

"I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could."

- George Bernard Shaw

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day!

Being a Leader

A leader is not about being right or wrong. It is not about telling others what to do. It is not about being the best. It is not about being perfect. It is not about taking credit. In fact, it is much more than that...

A leader should be right and wrong. They should be human and make the decisions that become right or wrong. They are the people who listen and listen well. They hear and feel what others say. They absorb it, learn from it and make the decisions that must be made. It's not always the easy decision or the right one. It's just a decision.

A leader shouldn't tell others what to do or what to accomplish. You should empower them to accomplish, to explore, to make decisions, to take ownership and to learn. You are the nurturer, the "helper" and the guide. You should listen to your team, learn from your team and encourage forward movement. A leader who closes his ears, has no one following him.

A leader should never be the best person on a team. A leader should be the magnet for the best people to revolve around. To interact. To think and to execute. You are there to listen and learn from the best, to encourage them to work together for the common goal. To remind them why they are the best.

A leader is never perfect and should make mistakes. The process of learning is just a series of mistakes made on a long journey. A journey filled with circumstances, situations and outside influence. One with many forks and outcomes. Some promising and some empty. In order to learn, you have to listen, observe and react. A life stopped learning is a life not fulfilled. Mistakes are meant to be made just as decisions are. The crime isn't in making a mistake, it is not learning from that mistake.

And once all the decisions have been made, the mistakes corrected, your team empowered and the goal has been fulfilled, you do what all great leaders should do. You acknowledge others. You commend the team. You say and truly believe one thing, "We did it!"

Quote of the Day!

“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I'. And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I'. They don't think 'I'. They think 'we'; they think 'team'. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done."

- Peter F. Drucker

Quote of the Day!

"My worst quality is impatience."

- Emma Thompson

It's Only Hair!

This week I decided to cut my hair shorter than it has been in years and then get it colored! Why?

It could be my age or my stress level which both seem to correlate lately. The older I get, the more stress takes it's toll on my mental, emotional and physical health. The little things add up to bigger things at a much faster rate and the need for more patience in my life is at a much higher level. It is all a new phenomenon to me.

What does that have to do with my hair? Not sure really....

Impatience is a Virtue!

We live in a "right now" world. Coffee. Food. Muisc. Everything thing is satisfaction guaranteed and, of course, immediate. It is a world we created. One we nurtured. One we hastened and one we explored.

And now we must endure...

Quote of the Day!

"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."

- Matsuo Basho

Quote of the Day!

"In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope."

- Charles Revson

The Real Uncle Sam?

I am sitting (yes, sitting) at Sam's Club, the epicenter of commercialization and corporate success, waiting for tires to be installed on my car. It's quite possibly America's truest symbol of personal excess but not in the Beverly Hills sort of excess. The whole concept is based on numbers, weight and size. It's the excess of sheer volume. Everything in large quantities and cheap. Well, almost everything. As soon as they offer large quantities of cheap consulting, I'll start to worry.

I stand corrected. I just got handed a pamphlet and I guess they do. Apparently they also read minds for free.

It's not that I have a problem with commercialization, it pays my bills and saves me money. Which is why I am at Sam's.

I am in the business of commercializing ideas, products and thoughts. Sort of. Most call it marketing. Marketing creates action and motivation. It creates the "want" in all of us. You want to buy what we're selling you. It's sounds dirty but it really is a necessity. Without it, we would be much less aware. Let me explain.

We would be content but not satisfied. Things would be ok but not great. We wouldn't have words like luxury, gourmet or exquisite in our vocabulary. It enables old ideas to get a makeover and new ideas to get created. Commercialization plays a huge role in research and development. It is the engine that builds, creates, engineers or improves ideas. It really can be a beautiful thing.

And besides, what's the point in creating something if you can't sell it. I am pretty sure Sam Walton believed that. Oh, and make sure it's cheap too. That helps.

Quote of the Day!

"Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for."

- Lawrence Block

Groundhog Day

I am still dealing with the aftermath of a hacker and it is extremely frustrating. I struggle with this primarily because I am very much a forward thinker.

Getting hacked forces time to stop and you have to deal with the sins of previous days. Unintentional, well intended, but sins none the less. What you did yesterday affects what you do today and nothing drives that home more than getting hacked.

I am looking forward to looking forward, again. Ironic.

Quote of the Day!

“To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping”

- Chinese Proverb

Quote of the Day!

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination."

- Don Williams, Jr.

An Introspective Perspective on a Retrospective Life

This is my first foray into blogging. The interesting part? I have been a principle in a web development company for 13 years. You think I would have done this years ago. I should have. Now I am CEO. The process to become CEO wasn't much different than any of the reality shows you have seen on television: The Apprentice, Survivor, etc. Except that is how it happened... sort of.

What I hope you find here is a daily journal of my life (hopefully). One that takes many side roads and back alleys. Always with good intentions and with consideration of others. I am reasonable, considerate, caring to a fault, non-confrontational, creative, inspiring and passionate.

I could write about everything that has happened up until this point but it would take too much of your time. I tend to look back as much as I look forward and sometimes get stuck in the now and hopefully all of this will make for an interesting read.