Author Archives: Tom

Thoughts of the week

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THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK

#1 – Managing means you run on action-man juice.

Making sure that people are optimally assigned roles, that vendors relations are 100% ideal, and that the planning is being done correctly, is and always will be more work than anyone can ever do. It’s very easy to see yourself work 12-15 hours days, week over week, and get lost in the churn. It takes mondo amounts of energy and creativity.

#2 – Most people have a scheme that they’re going hatch whether you like it or not

And by scheme, I mean things like “I’m taking a vacation tomorrow” or “I’m going to ask for/demand a raise ASAP, muh ha ha ha….” And I’m never ready for any of those conversations. The majority of my job is planning, and I’m never prepared for anything I haven’t accounted for in my spreadsheets and charts. I need to work on this.

#3 – See more conceptual art in the world

If you’re not thinking how to do this day better than yesterday, you’re not growing. If you’re not growing, you’re not becoming anything you potentially could become.

Here’s two artists that will blow your mind…..

jennyholzer.com

http://www.christojeanneclaude.net

 

 

 

When a team becomes a team

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I really love it when a team finally becomes “alive”. Anyone who has played on a sport or ever worked on a major project (theater, music events, etc) knows what I’m talking about.  There’s that tipping point where a group of people who work together realize that they’re relying on each others’ strengths/weaknesses, and start talking frankly about how to optimize.  There’s a rhythm that’s established, there’s excitement that happens whenever everyone’s clicking, there’s really awesome sense of ownership and purpose whenever it happens.

I love it. It’s the best thing to happen in an organization.

Of course, people on the outside may say “hey, why didn’t that start from the beginning?” And the reason is that we had to 1.) get a good leader in place 2.) come up with a gameplan 3. ) get everyone on the same page to make this happen.

The hardest part was getting a good leader who was able to lead. Then it took a bit of time for all the members used to that person.

But now…it’s go-mode! The team is alive, ALIVE!

 

Humans are “beings”; not Human “beens”, or Human “will be’s”

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Lives are verbs. Humans are being, like rivers are being, like anything that moves and grows and suffers the spectrum of life are beings

We live too often thinking that a milestone, or a collection of milestones, will build us into a monolith of adulthood. As if all wisdom, knowledge, and experience can be encompassed in a life. I once conceited that the best approach to experiencing life was to suffer, celebrate, be destructive and cruel as well as kind and creative. Why not know how it all works?

I think when people approach their jobs, they view it as an end-all-be-all to their growth. They hope to find fulfillment through something that requires you to commute 2 hours/day; work 8 hours/day; and think about more than appropriate on something that ultimately is perhaps a distraction from their true interests and vision. But it’s not so. We’re beings. We need to recognize what is our work and what is our distraction, and being our work means that we’re making the concerted effort to live.

Buckminster Fuller says it best.

We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.

This may be a bit scattered, but I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Perhaps, like all other things in life, it’s a work in progress. And perhaps that’s apropos for this entry.

 

This is what all jobs look like, for people who have 50,000 ft optics

What I do on my time off

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Julie and I flew out to chicago to meet vendors and plan out more parts of our wedding. We saw bakers, photographers,  caters, a florist and met with our musician. It was pretty jammed-pack day because I was still fielding calls from work, responding to emails, and in general pseudo-working. This is the worst thing about being a small business-owner – your life is work. And the important milestones in your life (like a wedding….) gets impacted. Lucky for me, Julie is patient and I have learned to not jump on the phone at every text/call/beep.

While we were in Chicago, Julie really wanted to enjoy the city. So what did we do? We called up Mike Else, aka Professor Kliq, who is also D&T’s Social Media guru, and spent the day with him. We went to brunch, checked out shops ( he took us to several awesome shops where I got an AWESOME hat + vintage shirt), walked by the lake, tried out a few beers in the neighborhood, ate ice cream….we enjoyed Chicago in the summertime.

The day before that, we hung out with Paul Petrowsky – D&T’s Creative Director.  I’ve been friends with Paul since grade school. Julie and I went over to his house to see him and his wife, and later that night we went out to a craft brew bar and drank amazing KC beer + local brews. Good time had by all.

The day before THAT, Julie went over to Tim Daly’s parents place to celebrate the 4th of July. Tim is D&T’s Director of Operations, and also a great friend for life. We shot nerf guns, ate great food, and played card games. My parents came as well.

So…what I guess I do with my time off is still interact with all the people at work. Which I couldn’t ask for a better lifestyle. I’m glad and grateful I get to impose on all these people and hopefully it’s not obnoxious.

 

Yay! Mike Else is a friend!

Mistakes were made

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Mistakes are made daily in a company. Everyone knows mistakes are going to be made. We tell each other this, we tell ourselves the same, and so you’d think we’d all be ready as all get-out when a mistake is made.

 

But it never happens that way, right?

 

Mistakes get made, and we do the following:

1.) CYA – Cover your a$$. We argue why it wasn’t our fault, how we did everything in our power to prevent it, how we warned against x thing. This is a scary reaction: it indicates that the company harbors a culture of fear. A company that is afraid of making mistake  is afraid of taking risks. 

2.) Argue why it, what IT is, is not a problem. “It’s just the course of business…you’re being to hard on this….etc” We deny that there was a problem, that a ball was dropped, and so we pretend that we can’t improve systems or work better in the future. This is a dead-end to any company that hopes to grow.  

3.) Dredge up OTHER mistakes to gloss over the current issue. Again, another form of denial. This is another version of CYA only it brings a tit-for-tat dynamic that is ultimately destructive.

 

We as a company need to be proactive and treat mistakes as opportunities. We need to acknowledge mistakes and provide viable solutions, even if the solutions are wacky and incomplete. There is no defense against human nature – we WILL make mistakes – so let’s get to a place to grow up and deal with them when they happen, not if they happen.

 

This has been a PSA from the guy who made a truck-load of mistakes in the last 24 hours alone....

 

 

No need to fear…..

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It’s really hard. Working in a start-up, fear is your ally. it’s your go-to drug after coffee. It’s the benchmark for all adrenaline surges.  But after a while, crises and problems melt into the background noise of the day-to-day. And you look up one day and realize that the problems are nothing to be afraid of – all failures will be weathered or all victories will be glorified. And you stand in the center, already knowing the dread or  exultation that either outcome will provide.

So we have to go back to Marcus Aurelius philosophy of stoicism, which has tenets in to that state we need to accept the outcomes, whatever they may be, and that fear does nothing except crystalize our anxieties for better or worse. Once you get “tired” of being afraid, life becomes a lot like a saunter than a sprint. Well, at least for me. Also, it’s a lot easier to be blunt, honest, and humane. Getting past fear helps me be a better person, not just to the people in my company but also to my friends, family, and of course Julie.

Because what is fear? It’s the unknown. But we already, in our hearts, know what will happen with all of our lives. We will struggle, love, and pass on. Sure, there’s a few more details to be filled out, but that’s the broadstrokes.

In the meantime, let’s focus on what gives us bliss and purpose.

Einstein thought all time was an illusion. Marky Marc didn't/doesn't/will never care...

Tech Giants on a Political pedestial

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I’m obsessed with Podcasts, especially news podcasts. Here’s what I listen to

  • The Economist
  • Planet Money (NPR)
  • WallStreet Journal
  • This American Life (arguably news….)
  • Bloomberg Radio
  • Eco-environmentalists
  • Ted-Talks

One thing I’ve noticed….people tend to hate Giant Traditional Corporations like WalMart and Exxon but give a lot of Tech Giants a pass. Whenever you hear about Google, it’s about how their automated cars are performing or their landmark acquisitions (or court cases against x other Tech Giant). It’s never about how they’re doing some horrible things to governments/environments/etc. Same with Dell, HP, and Apple (although thankfully Apple is getting noticed on their complicity with Foxconn on horrible treatment of Chinese Factory workers…)

The Tech Giants are just as powerful as JP Morgan Chase, just as global as BP, and have just as deep of footprint into the overall corruption as Rio Tinto.

The political process is no exception. We beat SOPA only to have it side-loaded into the follow-up bill, thanks to Tech Giants.  Non hears about it because they just have a lot better PR, evidently. Microsoft, traditionally left-ish in its political givings, is now counter-weighted with Google’s GOP-friendly sponsorship. Neither corporation is really Liberal nor Conservative – they just have agendas to fight each other so they picked opposing teams at Capitol Hill. And then co-sponsor the election debates. That’s how legislation works.

If you’re reading this blog, then you know D&T goes by the motto Do Good, Be Good. Let’s do something about this variety of wrong-ness. I recommend joining the cause RootStrikers to help combat some of the Tech Giants, which do just as much good/harm/neither as any other company their size. Or go do some other random act that puts some dent in the machine. I hate just whining and not having a solution of one sort

 

 

Back from the Beach!

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Just got back from an AMAZING Company retreat at Long Beach Island. We flew out the entire Chicago office, and the NYC + Chicago family met altogether for the first time in a LONG time. The company probably hasn’t all been in the same place in over….a year? Probably since the launch of the Chicago office back in 2010.

Here’s a pic of the place we stayed….

Location unknown, in case assassins try again next year...

 

 

I met new people in the company I never met before, I got to know a lot more about others, and the best part was just spending the days with this hardy crew at the beach or at the haus.  The company is changing. The company is growing. This weekend was a snapshot of bitter-sweet moment when I realized we’re passing through the start-up phase and into a more corporate environment. So long as we stay true to Do Good, Be Good I’ll be happy in whatever fashion we grow.

Old Friends

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Dom and I just got back from an incredible wedding with friends we’ve known for 2/3rds of our lives. Bill, Tony, Dan, Johns, etc – these people are the core of what I aspire as genuine friendship. We’ve all gone through our struggles, and years go by without seeing each other, but every time we get together it’s like we left off 5 minutes ago.

What impresses me is that they’re doing (roughly) the same things that Dom and I are doing: making games, working on their own software, and generally being entrepreneurs.

It’s funny to think that people who have lived most of their lives in different parts of the country, independent of one another, are still “the same” people they were years ago. I once read a study that 10 of your closest friends will have 83% of the same values as you do and be within 10% of the same income bracket. Of course, there’s a lot of statistical questions to that. But it seems to be true for me.

What was that old saying? “If you had five real good friends before you died, you’ve lived a good life.” I think I have about that so far.

 

I'm the good-looking one...

 

I failed.

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I hate failing. There seems to be a worship of failing in the Tech community that boggles my mind. I don’t “get it.” Fail fast, fail often, failing helps you learn, etc.

No, failure = losing in my book. Anyone competitive hates to lose. It just isn’t in me to revel in losing.

But back to me failing. I failed on a personal level. I started the year at 198 lbs, and 6 months later I’m 190. It’s been no progress in the past 3 months. Basically,  my bad habits have made me fail at shedding 25 lbs by the summertime.

Sure, I can still lose weight (and will).   I’ll eventually get to where I need to go. I just don’t like the idea that this failure is something I should be happy about.

So while I hate takeaways in failure, it’s pretty much the only thing “positive” in failure. As Jim Morrison says, “Hold on to your depression; that’s where you learn”

So here’s what I learned in failing.

  • I didn’t start with a plan
  • Once I got a plan, and saw the results ( hey, I lost 8 pounds after all….)
  • I didn’t stick to the plan
  • I got overwhelmed in life, which left me exposed to bad habits.
  • Consistency is key.
  • There is no magic bullet. Except with magical guns.

That's where I need to be.