Musings at Altitude

“If change is happening on the outside faster than on the inside the end is in sight” – Jack Welch

I come back to my hotel room at night while on the road and I reluctantly check the stock market.  I stand amazed at the swings the market is making today, and I’ve come to believe that the value of my savings goes down equivalent to the market but comes back up at a much slower pace than the market.  Does that happen to you too?  Just curious…doesn’t seem quite right!

As I watch the news, as I talk to people, as I listen in on others as they talk, and as I read the blogs that motivate me the most, I’ve come to the conclusion that this wild ride we are now on shows no prospect of stabilizing anytime soon.  Jack Welch said it well in the quote above.  Everything is erratically changing right now, and companies need to be changing too.  In fact, companies need to be changing faster than the world around them; if not, they are already in steep decline. 

I think my granddaughter has it right in this picture from her stroller – buckle up but don’t get comfortable…being too comfortable can lead to complacency and complacency to business collapse!

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I’ve heard so many times, “better lucky than good”, and I sincerely believe that many people live by that philosophy.  I certainly can rememember times where I was either incredibly lucky or undeservedly blessed (I believe the latter), but I can remember even more the many times where the luck did not come and the end result could not in any way be confused as success.

I do believe that confidence plays a big role in any eventual outcome.  Confidence (as opposed to arrogance) can lead folks to move forward aggressively knowing that their abilities can overcome any barriers that may come up along their way.  A lack of confidence can do quite the opposite and keep people mired in misery and incapable of taking that first step toward whatever potential destination they seek.  Those with the most confidence fully realize that they aren’t on any journey alone, and they also understand that the burden of success is carried by multiple people who are along for more than just the ride. 

I remember vividly sitting in a conference room a few years ago where everything in the world seemed to be falling down around us…and then our boss walked in.  Millions of dollars were on the line if we failed to recover, and yet his confidence was a stark contrast to the incredible unrest of the rest of the team.  He calmly walked in and immediately focused us on problem resolution, and within a few short hours we had corrective actions underway.  And then a few hours after that, the problem was resolved and all systems were go for mission activity.  His confidence in such a crisis proved to be the perfect comforter for a severely distressed crowd, and that confidence was rewarded with aggressive and yet appropriate action that led to full system recovery.  As is typical in most situations, this leader had no ability to personally fix the problem…he was totally dependent on us…but he was fully capable of setting the tone and creating the focus to get the job done…and he did that better than anyone.

Sir Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  Optimism starts with confidence.  In fact, it’s impossible to be optimistic without confidence. 

Rudyard Kipling took the concept of confidence one step further in his beautiful poem, “If”:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master,

If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make a heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

Adn lose, and start again at your beginning

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

In times of great chaos, great uncertainty, great strain, and great unrest, confidence or the lack thereof can make or break (respectively) an organization or an individual dealing with any or all of these.  It’s apparent to all of us that we’re deeply enmeshed in a very uncertain time – with the economy, with the markets, with our jobs, and even with our families and the challenges that we face.  In this tough time, I yield to and take guidance from Rudyard Kipling – “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too; your’s is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”  There is great wisdom and I find great comfort in these words.

PS.  Speaking of confidence, my granddaughter spent the last 3 days in the hospital with an infection – tough way to spend the 8th week of your life.  But this young lady exudes confidence even at this young age – don’t you agree?

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After finding peace this morning and getting my reservoirs filled once again, I’m now spending a few minutes catching up on news and some emails as I continue to seek inspiration from family and friends and get reinvigorated through my faith.  Church today was awesome…it always is…and I always walk away from the Sunday morning worship knowing that my God is an awesome God and all the blessings that I have are so undeserved.  Fortunately, He’s been patient with me, and the more I worship, the more I realize how patient He must be!

As I browse the newswires, I’m tempted to just stop paying attention anymore.  It’s so depressing right now as every news organization seems to want to sensationalize what’s happening with the economy and ultimately with our nation.  You have to search pretty dad gum hard to find something positive or anything that will make you smile.  I’m so thankful for cable.  At least with SportsCenter I can soak in the news without hearing constantly, “this is the worst it’s ever been”. 

I fully realize that a major downturn has occurred in the last few weeks – I just need to look at my account balances to realize that what I thought I had is now only a fraction of what I really have.  But what I have today is still more than what I had not to long ago.  And what I’ll have tomorrow, even if further setbacks occur, will still be more than what I started with a decade ago.

At times like these, I tend to focus on what I do have rather than what I’ve lost.  One of my favorite songs is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”.  Do you remember this line?   “If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life, and I had to start again with just my children and my wife; I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today, because that flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.”  I remember so vividly back in the Spring of 2002 when my wife and I were sitting on our back deck seriously considering selling our house.  We hadn’t been paid for over 6 months as I worked for a Silicon Valley company and we waited so desperately for an investment to keep the company going.  Our credit card bills were staggering, and we had no more line of credit to draw on.  As I talked about how badly we were doing, she mentioned how little she had when she was growing up and how little we had when we first got married.  She reassured me that starting over again with nothing was ok, and she stressed how confident she was in me and in what I was doing.  A few weeks later, we got that investment in the door and we were able to pay back much of our debt.  But the fact that she reminded me of how blessed I was and how much she loved and trusted me still gives me smiles even today.

Today, in this latest economic downturn and during the great stress from change in our business environment, my family still gives me those hugs and kisses and smacks upside the head every now and then.  For some strange reason, they love me unconditionally, and I probably leverage that love every single day of my life.  And I also have great friends that give me a much needed ear for listening and some much needed wisdom in counsel and advice in return.  I’m fortunate to have faithful friends that pull me out of that business quicksand that I sink into every now and then.  I bet we all experience that quicksand where one thing goes wrong…then another…and another…and the more you struggle, the faster you sink.  The only way to get out of that quicksand is for someone to reach down and grab you or give you something to pull yourself out with.  My friends do just that, and through their encouragement, their support, their faithful listening, and their tremendous counsel, those funks I sink into are typically short and that optimism and confidence returns quickly.

In the midst of this incredible economic crisis and the dramatic changes going on in my business life, I’m seeing so many reasons to smile.  My optimism is returning right now, and I’m sensing some beautiful things happening in the days ahead.  I have no doubt that there will be lots of challenges…those are unavoidable…but amidst those challenges will be some special events that will broaden the smiles and bring back some laughs.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”  I’m in a season of change, and I hope I do my family, faith and friends proud in my actions throughout these challenging times ahead.

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I’m sitting in my home office this morning with my pumpkin spice candles burning, the blinds wide open, and the sun peaking in and out of the early morning clouds that will soon burn off.  The outside temperature is a very brisk 39 degrees.  We changed the filters and turned the heater on for the first time late yesterday as the inside temperature approached 60.  We shut down the sprinkler system and drained the pipes just in case an unexpected freeze occurred last night, and we bought some pipe insulation to winterize the outside sprinkler pipes to hopefully avoid the “pipe burst” that has occurred the last two years when I’ve obviously drained the system wrong!

I’m looking at the trees around my house and I see the reds, the yellows, and the greens, and the beautiful mix of all three that will soon turn to brown leaves and then empty branches as winter approaches.  Here’s the view from my driveway:

As I look at the changes that are occurring so quickly outside, I’m reminded of a passage from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven;

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

As I look outside and feel the briskness in this autumn air, it’s now time to break out the sweaters (I like the Mr. Rogers look) and prepare for that first autumn storm.  Eleven years ago, it snowed over 40 inches in a two day period in mid October.  We enjoyed that then (snow forts, family wars across the streets, schools and businesses closed, beautiful white landscape) and wouldn’t mind it now.  It’s also time for that special treat of a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks which will then be replaced by the gingerbread latte as Christmas approaches.  The decreasing temperatures and changing colors also brings the changing aisles in all  the major stores as the Halloween goods appear prominently by the entry ways, and the Christmas decorations appear down the side aisles (yep – already going up).  For those of us in snow country, we are already thinking about tires on our cars and either getting new tires to replace the balding old ones or replacing our “summer tires” with “winter tires”.  We’re just looking at having good tires with good tread, and we do need to replace some tires before this winter sets in.

As I sit here thinking about the changes taking place and enjoying the gentle scent of the pumpkin spice candles, I can’t help but think of how peaceful it is this morning.  We’ll soon be going to church and while there fill our spiritual reservoirs.  As I scan the landscape around my house and enjoy the changes occurring outside, I’m filling my emotional reservoir.  Later today, I hope to take a long walk and enjoy the autumn air and fill my physical reservoir.  I can’t help but think that God gave us this day of rest to do just this – to step back from the chaos and sometimes insanity of our typical daily activities and notice the changes and fill our reservoirs. 

For that, I thank God for meeting my needs.

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After reading about my writer’s block, one of my good friends and business partners sent me a list of things to talk about.  So instead of making up my own (still in a thinking funk), I’ll just use the list of things he sent me to pontificate randomly:

(1) Nothing is more important than family and friends.  So true, and yet most business leaders will admit that no matter how much we talk about that, the priorities get skewed when the intensity of business activities increase. 

(2) You should never lick envelopes after eating Oreos.  I’d modify that one to instead say “you should never lick envelopes…period”!  Some of the worst paper cuts I’ve had came from licking envelopes.

(3) Mediocrity stops here.  With the current economic crisis and the soon to be changing federal spending patterns, many businesses are looking deep into their operations and deciding how to become more efficient.  At no time is mediocrity acceptable.  But in times of great success and great growth, many companies will overlook mediocrity because the growth has all the focus looking forward rather than within.  Great companies don’t tolerate mediocrity ever.

(4) Put a person in charge if you want to discover their true character.  It’s amazing to me how many people change when they move into leadership positions.  It’s also amazing to me how much they change when they move into leadership positions. 

(5) The New York Giants started 0-2 last year and still won the Super Bowl.  This thought came up when I was explaining how my daughter was distraught because the Colorado Avalanche lost the first game of the hockey season.  She told me that every time the Avs lose that first game, they have a bad season.  I don’t know if that is true or not, but since football is a 16 game season and hockey has 82 games, then to be equivalent to that 0-2 start for the giants, the Avs would have to lose the first 10 games.  I’m thinking that probably won’t happen, and since they have 81 games to go this season, I’m also thinking that this isn’t quite a crisis just yet.

(6)  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  This says it all!

I greatly appreciate the topics and the suggestion that such wise recommendations and such spirited talk earlier in any day should never end up in a mind numbing session when I sit down to blog.  That may be so, but I can certainly state that even spirited talk earlier in a day may not fire the musing cells in any form of coherent way!

The good news is that today is a new day, and with the mighty USC Trojans winning, something special will be sparked soon!

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I sat down this evening to write, and I’ve stared at my computer screen for more than a half hour now.  I’ve read through all the blogs I really like trying to spark some intellectual epiphany:  one gave great stock tips that would have worked 3 weeks ago when my 401(k) was 43% higher than it is now; another talked about a great scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest drives his shrimp boat out into the teeth of a huge storm and survives where all the others stayed at the shore and perished; another talked about her dog and how that dog tears everything up in the house; and then another talked about the $700B bailout and how that wasn’t the silver bullet that all of us hoped it would be.  Although I enjoyed each of them, nothing of significance emerged in the way of meaningful musable thoughts. 

I then read some email, watched a bit of TV, ate some cake and drank a glass of wine…and still nothing. 

As I think back on this week, the challenges that have been faced and the issues that have been worked may have completely numbed me to any intellectual meanderings.  After times of intense emotion or incredibly focused thought, my mind just shuts down…it has to recover…and it takes time to refire all the synapses and get any meaningful and focused thought flowing again. 

I’m going to just shut down for now and stare at some stars and then in the morning stare at the purple mountains’ majesty.  After reminding myself of the magnificence of God’s creation, I’ll spend some time in prayer and then lots of thinking.  Then I’ll revisit all the issues and interactions of this week and look for things I could have done differently.  And after the week in review, I’ll completely veg out over football.

Hopefully after that process, I can sit down once again and let things flow. 

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I was deep in banter at a tradeshow today when I got a call from my 14 year old daughter.  I couldn’t take the call at the time so I finished my discussion and walked outside where I could hear to call her back.  I asked her how school was and she said good.  I asked how she did on her tests today, and she said she got an “A” on one and didn’t know about the other.  [Father’s note – not knowing about the other typically means something other than an “A”.]  As we finished the daily update on school, she said, “Dad! 1 day, 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 12 seconds.”  And me being the foolish Dad that I am asked her “what is that?”  She quickly responded, “that’s how long till they drop the puck!”

If you’ve read my blog before, you fully realize the insanity of my 14 year old’s fanaticism with the Colorado Avalanche.  It’s got to be unparalleled in the hockey universe.  In fact, it’s a total obsession.  She even counted her 2,000 or so hockey cards, divided them by teams, counted them by teams, sorted them by players…oh my gosh!

For opening night, we got her 2nd row seats, right in the corner near her favorite player, Avs goalie Peter Budaj.  She’s already taken the virtual tour from the Pepsi Center web site so she can see the exact look angles from her seat to her favorite players.  She’s already planning our trip to the game because it’s an 8:00 pm start and she’ll need at least a few hours of sleep before waking up at 5:45 am for school the next morning.  She’s already got the tickets in a folder to take with us, and she’s already scrutinizing the opening day roster and complaining about some of the roster moves that affected her favorite players.  OH MY GOSH!!!!

As a father of such a fanatic, it’s pretty easy to be a hero – buy that fan tickets 2 rows off the glass right where her favorite player stands.  As a father of such a fanatic, it’s pretty easy to talk…I mean listen…to your 14 year old fan as long as you want to talk about or listen to anything at all about hockey. 

I’m glad we have something to be mutually excited about.  But the show for me is watching her, and the joy of being at the game is the cheers and the smiles and the memories that will last a life time.

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I can’t believe how much negative news is filling my day right now.  We hear it regarding the economy – home values are falling, homes aren’t selling, and prices continue to rise.  We hear it about the markets – I can’t look at my 401(k) anymore.  I just hope I really do have 20 more years of effective work to rebuild what I’ve been losing so rapidly in the last few months.  We hear it in our businesses as our customers and partners check up rather than move forward and our team members stress under the increasing anxiety of job uncertainty.  And we hear it in our families where all these other things we’re hearing bring added stress to an already very complicated world.

I must admit though, even with all of this malaise from the news and all the burdensome challenges in life, I sense a turn coming.  I don’t know why, and I certainly don’t have any concrete evidence of anything positive fixing to  happen, but something good is going to happen soon that will bring back the smiles and invigorate the latent optimism that is so important to my attitude in life.  I’m on the prowl for that spark because I know it’s there…just need to find out where.

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There have only been a few times in my life where the complexities of business, the happenings of life, and the ponderings of faith have all been intense for an extended period of time.  I’m in that exact scenario now as I plan forward for dramatic change in business, as I struggle with events happening with my family and seek counsel from advisors and wise friends, and as I watch the world events and put those in context of my ever deepening faith.

As I seek certainty, stability, and serenity, I must admit that I haven’t found much of any lately.  The harder I seek, it seems, the less I find.  The more intense the focus, the less focused the path.  I’m fortunate though to find those reminders of God’s special gifts to this world and in those special gifts come those ever fleeting moments of certainty, stability, and serenity.  Here’s one of those reminders:

I’ve been able to hold my granddaughter this weekend and together watch some football.  I find peace in the games, and she finds peace in her sleep!  Together, we both ponder our lives, Audrey mostly wondering about when the next feeding and when the next diaper change is going to occur, and me wondering if the decisions being made in business are the right ones and whether or not the choices being made in life will be remembered fondly later. 

We’re both similar in one very important way – we’re both very dependent on others right now for our feelings of love and support.  I am so thankful for those who keep me grounded and in their own special way give me that same serenity and show me that same love that Audrey has when she’s wrapped so warmly in the arms of her family.  I’m reminded of the following passage found in 1 Corinthians 13:13 – “But now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 

I’m not sure yet how any of the change, the concerns, or the ponderings will turn out, but I’m very sure that love will have a very important role in all of it.

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For the last two years, we’ve had a couple of pigeons that have nested in the nooks of our roof.  Early in our relationship, they were kind of cute as they built their nest, laid their eggs, and then welcomed their young ones to this world.  In the last couple of months though, the cuteness of the pigeons has been replaced by a desperate desire to get rid of them.  In fact, when I called my wife while in route home last week, she said, “I want them dead!”

When I got home, the evidence of the population explosion was everywhere.  Our window sills were covered in pigeon crap – literally:

As you looked just a bit further from the house at the hose in the rocks of our garden, even more evidence was visible:

I smiled just a little bit because my wife is one doesn’t tolerate that kind of crap.  In fact, in those rare times where she gets this mad, something serious always happens. 

As I scanned the house and looked further up, the evidence of the increased population of these unwanted birds was everywhere; but, there were no pigeons.  With that much crap all over the house, I would have expected to see pigeons everywhere. 

I shifted my gaze away from the roof and the roost and looked down towards the door.  I quickly realized why there were no pigeons:

Alas, my guess is that the pigeons that so enjoyed their roost on our roof have decided the attack from the super soaker placed them and their friends at risk.  Since there are 500 other roofs in our neighborhood, it won’t take them long to find friendlier confines. 

I do sort of miss the cooing in the morning and the beaks poking out from the crannies in the roof.  But that sense of loss will quickly be replaced by a sense of glee when my wife gets me to clean up all the crap!

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