Getting fired 1

So what do you do the day after you get fired? Pretty easy I think, whatever you feel like doing. I can't think of another day were it is more important to do what ever you feel like doing. Why not? Clearly there were few or no plans on the schedule for the day that are not work related. So the termination has just created an uncomfortable level of free time.

Here is what I have done in the first 4.5 hours. Emailed and talked to my former employer trying to locate a small brief case I left behind. It looks like one of the vultures picking over my old office may have absconded with it. Sent and email to the VP of HR requesting clarification on a verbal commitment that was made in my termination meeting that is not supported in the document. Maybe another instance of the CEO writing checks that can't be cashed. I wiped out my business to-do list of 122 items on my web based task list. That felt pretty good. I removed my work email account from my I phone. That was a near orgasmic experience. Note that I said near orgasmic because I have been trying to limit those experiences only to when my lover is in the room with me. I made myself some eggs for breakfast. Dressed to go swimming (haven't left yet to do that but I'm ready) at the health club. Took a call from my unemployed attorney cousin and commiserated about the plight of the 50ish unemployed and how we don't want to work for corporate assholes anymore. Did a blog post of an email I sent to my daughters last night.

Last but not least I was able to deduce a simple reason why I was terminated. I think it is important to distill this down to an elevator speech. Meaning a few lines that could be told to a person during a short elevator ride and they would understand the situation. The is a sales concept. Here is mine.

My primary motivation in business is to treat all people with dignity and respect. This unleashes the creative power and energy in every individual who chooses to use this power. This in turn multiplies the power of the organization many fold. This is the key ingredient in building a successful long-term business. The people I worked for shared none of these values and principles and neither one of us wanted to compromise. Enough said.

That's done and probably a very large accomplishment. Perhaps I deserve to take the rest of the day off after that one.

Last but not least did this blog post.

Thanks for reading.

Lester

Do we have a higher calling and if so what is it?

Do we have a higher calling and if so, what is it? It seems to me that many of us wonder about this a lot. There are those that accept fulfilling each step of life's passing as their calling. Being a good kid, a good student, good husband, great father, do the right thing and saved for retirement. Some of us do these things with a sense of purpose and delight and some of us do them from a sense of duty and responsibility. The latter group feels a higher calling. We feel a need to make a bigger contribution. Some do and some don't.

The troubling part is the latter group makes the same contribution, though distracted, to family, career and society they just don't value it in the same way. We view it as expected, as what everyone does in a normal life, our duty. There are no medals given for meeting expectations, we think. We fail to see the heroism in meeting expectations and maybe never inventing anything or having buildings or schools named after us or not finding the cure for cancer.

We do get an A for effort living with the reality and the vivid pictures of what we hope to achieve in our minds. We spend too much time dreaming but some of those dreams do come true. No one will write about us in the papers but the people around us had a unique exposure to a person who lived with big ideas and hopes. Ideas that perhaps didn't match capabilities, temperament or simple discipline. Dreams that didn't happen maybe just because of bad timing, just not meant to be.

The loving woman in my life told me one day that I am a tormented soul and always will be. Perhaps, all dreamers are tormented souls trying to find a balance. I don't think that helps me feel any better except to say this is how you are get over it. I do know the dreaming the the drive to be different, creative and to bring something special to the world never stops. I am thankful for the drive and focus this brings to my life.

Perhaps my intensified dreams are an idealized and amplified sense of hope. Hope is a key factor in enduring the tough stuff so we can stay the course achieve our goals. I guess there are three rules in life. 1. Never give up. 2. Never give up. 3. Never give up. Wow those are easy to remember.

Thanks for reading,

Lester

Here we go again

I've been absent for a while with not much to say. A lot of the energy for my cause took a little time off. The angry well employed white guy took a little hiatus. I've been trying to balance things out and go with the flow. It just doesn't work for me all the tension is sitting just below the surface ready to erupt at the slightest provocation. I just can't get comfortable sitting back and doing the wrong thing and pretending it is just part of the game. I really don't see it as a game. I see it as life and we have a contribution to make based on our unique talents and skills. Getting comfortable with doing the wrong thing means I am squandering my talent and diluting the contribution I am here to make in this short life.

The edginess that accompanies this mindset is still there and it's not going away maybe ever. I once had someone tell me that if you wanted to find a sales guy who is happy with his results go find one that is retired. That's probably me. But I am sure I will replace my professional crusade with a personal one that is just as critical and worthy of total dedication.

My dad taught me above all things to have integrity and do the right thing. I wish more people would do the same thing. The world would be a better place.

Thanks for reading.

Lester

Michael Phelphs

Michael Phelphs, 8 Gold Medals.

After a couple of years Michael's coach went to his mother and told her that they needed to start preparing him for the Olympics. His mother was dumbfounded and resistant as we all would be at such shocking and unlikely news. Coach Bowman at some point in the conversation asked "How are we going to stop it?" He knew they couldn't and it would appear they didn't try. Thank God.

This is one example were no one got in the way of a divinely inspired or installed, OK, God given, gift of talent beyond imagination. The person who usually interferes the most in developing a gift like this is the person with the gift. I think the vast majority of the gifted people out there self destruct unable to cope with being so glaringly talented and obtusely unique. They stand out from the crowd like a white guy at an NAACP convention. It's not comfortable for most of us.

It's hard to deal with. Add, how differently they must see and respond to the world through the filter or attraction of their gift. Think of how many things mean nothing to them that are so important to us. Could you train 8 hours a day and spend the rest of your time eating and playing video games and do this for years and years. Could you do this in pursuit of your favorite thing in the world and ignore everything else?

These folks are odd balls, brilliant, gifted and iconic miss-fits. This makes it all the more incredible that a Michael Phelphs ever arrives at his deserved place of honor and celebration. The weird kid who does nothing but swim and eat gets his due. The world celebrates his gift and his sacrifice of living in his own very different world and finding peace and joy there. I'm sure it's not easy and then there's the swimming and a demanding couch he has to deal with too.

We all have our gifts. How many of us truly honor and exploit them to the point of being truly different and blissful in our unique nature? People like Michael Phelphs remind us that we do have our unique gifts and there are rewards in taking the risk and showing them to the world. We need these reminders, thank-you and congratulations Michael Phelphs.

Thanks for reading.

The economy II

What's the answer to our economic problems? We are seeing one encouraging development in the price of crude oil and gasoline. The bubble in commodity pricing appears to be bleeding off some of its pressure. This will help us all cover our obligations and hold tight to our undervalued homes for a while longer. We can hope that a bit more money flowing into the till at Kmart rather than into the gas tank will support more economic activity that will provide a broader benefit to the wage earners in the US and around the world.

But we are still left with the pesky problem of a owning a severely depreciated housing asset. An asset that we have pinned a lot of hope to. Regardless of our personal status, own it free and clear or mortgaged to the rafters we're frozen in place. We're shocked at the decline and unwilling to acknowledge the loss by immortalizing numbers in a closing document which becomes a public record. "Can you believe what Lester sold his house for? If he'd just hung on we could get more for ours." We can hang on a little longer until things get better. Who wants to upset the neighbors and lose a lot of money at the same time?

Here is my prediction, things will get better when:

1. The foreclosure inventory stops growing.
   
2. Big money investors start buying single family homes at deeply depressed prices in really nice neighborhoods and renting them for a song.
   
3. People with mobility and reliable incomes, maybe they have been foreclosed on, or did not own a home, or sold at a loss to escape a bad mortgage but they start renting these homes.
   
4. Other investors will see this activity and begin to buy single family homes at not so deeply depressed prices and renting them out too.
   
5. Home prices will begin to rise responding to this demand.
   
6. Individual buyers and small investors not wanting to miss out on the housing bargains will enter the market.
   
7. Home prices will begin to rise more rapidly.
   
8. At this point people like you and me will wonder when to sell? Do I sell at a small loss, hold out for a small profit or sit tight and wait for the big score?

The answer to question 8 will depend on personal income growth and the financial resources available to your prospective buyers at the time. The answer will be different in different segments of the the housing market and in different parts of the country. I am thinking if you have a $5 million house you don't have much to worry about. If you have a $500,000 house your potential buyers may be somewhat scarce. There will always be a market for the "starter" home that part of the American dream isn't going to die any time soon.

As we see this recovery in the housing market we will see a broader based improvement in the over-all economic environment. Housing drives pretty much everything in this country.

So, my guess is 5 to 10 years for all this to shake out. We have 5 to 10 years to think about whether to sell at a small loss or hold out for a profit. My advise for you is don't even think about the payments you'll be making between now and then. You have to live somewhere and hopefully you like the place you chose. I know I do.

You can be comforted knowing this post comes with the Lester Sez guarantee firmly established when my kids were little. If I don't know anything about the question at hand I will gleefully make something up. You be the judge on this post.

Thanks for reading.

The economy

I haven't written anything about the economy to date but I think it's time. I am motivated by the knowledge that our esteemed leader told our board of directors last week that his business is well positioned to benefit from the current economic difficulties. Now being the CCBW (Chief Cook and Bottle Washer) of Sales & Marketing I should take this as high praise. Or since you folks don't know what we sell you might assume one of two things. We sell crack cocaine or our CEO is on crack cocaine.

I will tell you that we are weathering the storm better than most and I do have my bosses wild optimism and willingness to throw money at nearly any idea as helpful ingredients in this out come. These factors, some intelligent choices, dedicated managers, a decent product and committed sales people and we do have a good chance of coming through this in reasonably good shape if it doesn't go on too long. Yep there's the rub. How long will it last???

I think we are in this for the long haul in terms of today's email driven nano time culture. The window for me is less than 10 years but more than 5 years. The next question what is the measure? It's housing. It's not getting the balance sheets of every financial entity in the world healthy. It's not bailing out the worst case home owners, that's a drop in the bucket. There is not enough money in the world to reinstate the lost equity and net worth for the millions of people who have been severely hurt world wide. We love our quick fixes but there isn't one here. They can bail out the investment bankers that caused this and the Banks, GM and Ford, toss in private equity owned Chrysler, that would be interesting, but there is no bailout for us. This will not end until millions of John Q. Public home owners are made whole. Which means values must begin to approach pre-crash levels. If that's possible in view of other pressures.

Two and a half years ago I felt lucky sell a home and leave one of the most depressed area in the US. I also felt lucky to purchase a home in one of the most sizzling hot real estate markets in the country. I had a choice to lease or buy. The market was softening a bit and I saw this as an opportunity to buy (best not to take investment advice from Lester). The home was part of my retirement plan. It was a lucky break for me to find a great job in a good real estate market, save my money for my fast approaching elder years and hopefully pocket some profits from my home.

The house part is a full blown disaster. To date I've lost my 20% down payment and if I could attract an offer for my home here my sense is I would need to bring another 10% to 20% of the original value to closing to satisfy my mortgage holder. That's a 30% to 40% loss on a beautiful home in a highly desirable resort community in 2.5 years. If I am able to sell this home within the next 5 years for what I paid for it I will consider myself a very lucky man.

People have lost money on their homes in the past. The great depression comes to mind but the level of home ownership by the masses was less then. There are also the examples of urban blight driven by the abandonment of the cities in favor of the suburbs. We also have localized housing declines driven by natural disasters like Katrina or isolated environmental disasters like Love Canal years ago. We've never seen anything like what we have across the US now.

My sense is many people are thinking the housing problem is limited to just the housing market. I think the growth and vitality of the economy is closely tied to our mobility. Our economy is driven by people wanting bigger, better and more. The inability to trade up severely limits the fuel that feeds our economic engine. People can't sell a house to buy a bigger one in the same city or sell a house to take a better job and buy a bigger house in a new city. This hurts our economy. The business in the new city is deprived of needed talent and skill the local builder loses the opportunity to build a new housing unit creating down stream job losses literally around the world. The movement of people fuels every segment of the US and world economy in some way. It's less than it was now, a lot less.

Part of the answer to this is for the speculators to return to the housing sector. But they are waiting for the bottom which will be indicated by a reduction in the foreclosure rates. Unfortunately, high energy costs are putting greater pressure on mobility and consuming discretionary income further suppressing economic activity. Less economic activity leads to higher unemployment and lower personal incomes feeding less economic activity which will feed more foreclosures. This is not a good cycle and I don't believe there is anything that any one can "DO" about it. It must run its course and this is going to take a long time.

Enough for today, more later.

Thanks for reading.

Don died today

No joke he really did. Don worked for us as a sales rep for 10 years or so. He was in his mid 50's and basically, I am told, went home from work and pretty much dropped dead an hour later. Don was a crafty expert sales person who did the job with half the work, in half the time and made twice the money most of our sales people do. Knowing Don he would probably be quite pleased with that tribute.

The sales director found me at Kentucky Fried Chicken stopping for a fast dinner before an evening meeting. He asked me to wait there for him and drove over to give me the news face to face. I called my boss in New York and broke the news to him, he committed to fly down for the service, thanked me for the call and asked me to keep him posted. We all expressed our shock, surprise and regret at Don's passing. There was a flurry of phone calls in a burst of urgent energy as we sat there in the car, in the KFC parking lot. Then it was quiet. We are all about the same age, Don and us.

This happens, its happened before, it will happen again and we know the drill up until we get to the quiet part. Once we've done our duty, offered our help and condolences what do we do next when the news is so fresh?

We went to dinner at the mall, to a place with a bar, this day truly qualified as a tough one. We shared stories about Don, his talent, his peculiarities, wondered about his family then slowly drifted off to more general and comfortable topics. We finished dinner and went our separate ways. I bought two pair of shoes 25% off at Dillards as if to say, how convenient that Don died on shoe sale day and I needed some.

I was fourteen when my mother died. It was Saturday, I was home alone. I knew something was wrong because the hospital had called looking for my dad after he left for his regular visit. I heard the creaky garage door open and my dad burst in the back door coming from the hospital and he shouted out "your mother's gone, she's dead" this had happened to him before. I was in the bathroom and he was crying, I had to be strong. I hadn't seen her in weeks, but I made the calls to the family for my father that day. I can only imagine now what they thought and felt with me, a child, making those calls. They were nice.

After that I went to George Frishe's house with another guy to fool around with George's drum set. My dad said it was OK, Mrs. Huth the neighbor lady and some other people were at the house by then. I told my friends my mom had just died. It got quiet for a time then we went on. It was weird, but it was something to do when I didn't know what to do.

What do we do when someone we are close to dies? I think something pretty mindless and easy with people to quell the fear and the pain. Like play the drums, buy shoes or write a blog post and pretty soon it passes and we know what to do again.

Thanks for reading.

Padraig Harrington won the British Open today for the second time in a row. He played one incredible round of golf today given the conditions. With all of this taking place in the motherland of golf it reminded me of one of my favorite Robin Williams bits which I have linked here.

It would have been fun to see Greg Norman win. Last night he was the man to beat and today Harrington stepped up and beat him. Sounds familiar. It was a great achievement for Greg and tons of fun to watch.

Enjoy the video.

Thanks for reading.

My best teachers

Just a quick note. The people in your life who bring your greatest challenges are your best teachers. They are in your life for a reason and you are truly blessed to have them. Trust me I know I've learned from some of the best.

Thanks for reading.

I didnt think it was going to turn out this way

I didn't think it was going to turn out this way. How much time do you spend mulling this thought around in your head? Remember this can include serious self examination of life events or being irritated about not getting the pickles you explicitly requested on your tuna sandwich.

I thought things would be different this weekend. Well, what things in life do turn out like we think they will? Virtually none. But we have a mechanism for dealing with this. Dan Gilbert wrote a wonderful book on this subject titled Stumbling on Happiness. In this book Dan details his research into happiness and how we fool ourselves into thinking we are getting what we want and this is making us happy.

This is because we can think and dream and we're the only animals that can do this. This means we can anticipate outcomes and create elaborate movies in our heads detailing how wonderful things will be. We envision the house, the cars, the promotions, the perfect wedding, the perfect tee shot, bowling a 300 game the idyllic retirement. We can conjure up anything in our heads and make it a perfect creation.

How can real life ever match the perfect creation of our mind. And what would life be like if we couldn't dream in really big and wonderful ways. How would we know what to strive for?

Trouble comes when real life does not match what we have imagined. Some people manage this better than others. We all drop the ball here from time to time.

I think the happiest people I know are big dreamers who also fully appreciate the realities of life. They are unfazed when things don't workout just has they planned. Many are delighted by the surprises. I recently went through a period when I felt privileged and joyful to go to work in the morning and simply have the opportunity to use my talents to solve challenging and interesting problems. It was the same frustrating and aggravating job but I was able to see the purpose and the richness in the experience. I was able to adjust and adapt when things didn't turn out as I had envisioned them.

I think the simple concept of going with the flow is grossly underrated. Along with take things as they come, roll with the punches, things will work-out, ride the wave, etc. There is value in these statements. In the end how much do we really control? Scary thought isn't it? According to Dan Gilbert things will workout just as we imagined, because we revise is dreams and plans after the fact, others would call it living in the moment, still others would refer to just getting by. Call it what you want but I can tell you it feels peaceful when I can get there.

Thanks for reading.

Here's a change of direction

This blogging thing is very new to me but its has been enormously satisfying. I've learned one big secret to blogging is it must be satisfying to the writer to have a prayer of being read or noticed by others. So if I stopped blogging right now I can say it has been a personally satisfying experience.

There are a number of things I like about blogging. First, I can go back and change any post I write anytime. How many times did you turn in a term paper keep a copy, re-read it and then find a thousand things you would like to change? I can change my blog anytime not that anyone would notice. It is a little embarrassing that even with this flexibility I still miss typo's and spelling errors. But, I'm more into thoughts and ideas than mechanics, my brain just doesn't work that way, I'm not detail oriented, blah, blah, blah. Here's the reason. My grade school teachers were not nun's, nuf said. I do love the ability to reconsider my thoughts and amend.

One of my favorite quotes is by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all." I LOVE that. I love that quote and I love the person who turned me on to it.

But, there is one dynamic I can't get over. People actually read this crap. I vent my spleen disguised as learned business wisdom and people read it. Well......they also see through it and offer their own observations and wisdom in very insightful and instructive ways by commenting.

Thank you C. You got me. I think this will not end soon however. It will only change with lessons learned and the passage of time. As you well know already, I have a lot to say and it will only get better as it mellows. Oh yes, and I am trolling for teachers, caught one. Very glad you're there.

Thanks for reading.

Indy 500, Danica Patrick..... So much for no sports

Gosh I wish I could be as fiery as Danica Patrick. My favorite image from the 500 yesterday was her marching down the pit wall on her way to confront Australian driver Ryan Briscoe after he ran into her on pit row taking her out of the race. The sight of this little tinny woman with this huge helmet on ready to kick some ass and take some names was priceless. I applaud and admire her. She is undoubtedly one of those people in the world who will be revered for her skill and accomplishment and characterized as "difficult" my many. Good for her.

I love the purity and honesty in it. Yesterday she was asked if she felt different starting the 500 after her first Indy car win. She said yes, she was probably more nervous than ever. Once again honesty personified. She's here to do a job, she is going to do it to the best of her ability and yes by the way, she has all the normal humans emotions we all have and she's not afraid to let you see them.

I hope she shows up this week on the Late Show with David Letterman. I am sure Dave will do something brilliantly funny like greet her with a football helmet on explaining that he had heard she might have been upset with him. It will be good.

Bravo Danica. She is one of those people that brings brilliant color to life.

Thanks for reading.

INDY 500 !!!!! Yea baby, it's on

Indy is on and I'm planted in my chair ready to enjoy this year's race for the first time in HI-Def. It's better than being there. Maybe I'll be able to find my daughter in the crowd this year, there's only 300,000 people to choose from. I have some history with this race. It's probably the only sporting event that I look forward to watching on TV each year. Here's why.

I am sitting here watching the pre-race show with a ticket stub in my hand from the 54th running of the Indy 500 on Saturday, May 30, 1970. The ticket has a picture of the 1969 winner Mario Andretti on it. You would be amazed at the resemblance to his grand son Marco Andretti who is running in this years race. I love the tradition, the pageantry and the family dynasties that have surrounded this race for years. It creates a familiarity that make me feel all warm a fuzzy. I also love the intrigue of the ever present up-start challengers who have only been around for 15 or 20 years. Let's not even talk about those arrogant Europeans and farm boy NASCAR drivers.

In 1970 I went to the race with my dad, I was 17 years old and I don't know for sure but I suspect this was the last race we attended together in the years after my mother died. I suspect I got busy with college and my stuff after this. These trips were the highlight of my year because it was one of the few times during the year that I had his undivided attention. Yes, this day is flooded with emotions and really good memories for me. It really wasn't so much his attention I enjoyed it was a connection that was hanked together, and reinforced by the shear joy of being part of Indy. It's not possible to simply attend an Indy 500 without becoming a part of it. If you haven't been there it's hard to understand but 99% of the experience has little to do with the cars circling the track. The race is the catalyst. It still works the same way for me today, right now, just as powerful, sitting in my living room watching it on TV.


Thanks Pop for giving me some wonderful memories. I love you. I know you're out there watching the race with me today, touching my soul and sharing your spirit with me and others. But, I really wish you could see this in Hi-Def with surround sound and better yet we wouldn't have to lug the cooler 110 rows up into the stands.

Thanks for reading.

PS: Well there's the icing on the cake. Jim Neighbors was unable to attend the race last year and sing the traditional Back Home Again in Indiana. He's back this year. There it is again that flood of emotion. But Jim Neighborss??? that's just scary.

Wild success... is my head swelling?

I want to let all my loyal readers know, yes both of you, that there is a blog groupie among you. OK one of the two of you is a blog groupie. Yes, I am happy to report, and you can read the comment yourself on the Happy Times post, there is someone out there who would die if they could not read this blog. OK, perhaps I over state a bit, but I am in sales. There is a person out there that has been reading this blog since the beginning. And this person thinks I should teach or publish this stuff. I thank you and enthusiastically I agree.

I am so pleased to have this wonderful bit of uplifting feedback. It made my night last night and my day all day today (doesn't take much does it?) and launched me into practicing my acceptance speech for my big award. It went something like this "You like me , you really really like me".... wait I think that's been done. I think it was Sally Fields. Oh well so much for originality.

This reminds me of how easy it is to really uplift someone with a kind word a smile or a small deed. It takes so little and can be so meaningful. My brother is a master at this. How about tomorrow we all go out and say something nice to someone for no reason at all. That's it!! Tomorrow is officially UP LIFT DAY.

I better trademark that fast before the bra companies get a hold of it.

Thanks for reading.

UFO aduction and safe return

After lunch yesterday I was unable to speak, walk in a straight line or drive my car for 10 full minutes. I was crippled as my brain struggled to make sense of the disjointed conversation peppered with vehement opinions, backed-up with fervent miss conceptions, pressed forward confidently with hubris and authority empowered by a title and tight relationships with rich and powerful people. If they only knew. Maybe they do...let's not go there. No I did not have lunch with Al Gore.

My brain had turned into an overloaded PC with a virus sucking up all the system resources. There was no system capacity left to carryout anything but the most basic functions. Thank God bladder control was one of them my car is fairly new and I didn't pop for the leather seats.

I felt like I had spent time in an alien space ship hovering over our office building. The aliens had told me how the earth really works from their perspective on their planet a million light years away. Which of course is completely different than we earthlings see our world as we walk upon it. Then suddenly I was dropped back into reality and had to rationalize my trip into the twilight zone. It took some time to recover and try to make sense of it all. In the end the only way to make sense of it was to understand it didn't make sense and it never will.

Did I mention who I had lunch with? No. But we all have people like this in our lives. It's best to just stick to your game and roll with the dynamic ambiguity.

Thanks for reading.

Video Camera

Have any of you noticed how cheap some of the new HD camcorders are today. You can buy a very small HD video recorder at Target for $130.00. They look like really nice little machines. I think the reason they are so cheap is that you have to buy SD cards to store the data. It looks like 1Gig of SD will store 30 minutes of video. A 2Gig SD card is about $20.00 at Radio Shack. I just learned I have an SD slot on my computer so I can plug a card right in and watch my video on my computer. Seems pretty cool to me.

I read the reviews on this one and most of them were so good they make me think if George Bush had one of these his approval rating would be much higher now. Others weren't so good. These were from people who didn't really understand the technology. Their expectations weren't exactly in line with the design of the product. Something tells me you shouldn't take this thing snorkeling or duct tape it to your son's football helmet for the "big" game or assume it will record images in a pitch black basement right before the lights come on and everyone yells SUPRISE!!?? I can't say I blame the retailer for not giving a refund in these cases.

I'll probably hold off a little while longer on buying one of these things. Do I really need video pictures of my dog laying on the couch night after night? I've also been informed the only recording devices that are welcome in our bedroom are attached directly to the cable outlet and lead directly to the TV. Like using a camcorder in the bedroom was ever, ever, ever on my list of intended uses .... at least with me in the picture it wasn't.

Thanks for reading.

Men don't read directions

If you ever drive your car you may want to skip this post. One of the wonderful benefits of my career and desire to be a big cheese leader has been a pretty nasty migraine head pain problem. I have always been able to manage it with only brief periods of incapacitation. My latest hot remedy is Imitrex this is nothing less than a miracle drug for me.

I decided to try the nasal spray version of this to see if it would work faster. So today I got my first batch of the new stuff. I never had a chance to read the directions other than the large print at the top of the patient information sheet. The ever present .... do not operate ....... until you know how this medication effects you. Yea, yea, yea. I was late for a meeting this morning and felt a headache coming on. Now with migraines you don't mess around with this. You treat it and you treat it now.

So while IN the car DRIVING to my meeting I take my first dose of the nasal Imitrex. Not to worry it was a non-event. No one was hurt and my car is still in excellent condition. Oops, now that I think of it, it was a rental car. Oh yes and the Imitrex worked really well. I have a new best friend.

I suspect there are a lot of people out there like me. So we all need to watch out and I need to do better in the future. Rental car or not.

Thanks for reading.

How do you like your new boss?

So Lester, my friend asks, how do you like your new boss? He's an ass hole. Wow, he says and asks how did you like your last boss? Asshole! And the one before? Asshole!!! And before? Assholes, Assholes, Assholes, Assholes ALL!!!!!! This could have gone on all day but we decided to stop this and start complaining about the weather.

This has gotten me to thinking. When it comes to supervisors I am either an asshole attractor or an asshole projector. What do you think I am? Yep it's pretty obvious if I can take just a step or two back. If I can just assume the role of observer rather than angry, worried, scared, pissed off, frustrated, victim. Shit.

This reminds me of a story I read somewhere. Too old to remember where I read it but young enough to remember most of the story with a reasonable level of accuracy. A man came to the gate of a village and asked the guard, "What kind of people live in this village?" The guard replied "what kind of people lived in the village you came from?" The man said "oh they were awful people, mean, selfish, impolite and nasty." The guard replied, "You will find the same kind of people here, you should move on to the next village." A second man came to the gate of the village later. He asked the guard, "what kind of people live in this village?" The guard asked, "what kind of people lived in the village you came from?" The man replied, "wonderful people, loving, kind and generous." The guard replied, "You will find the same people here please come in you will be very happy here."

The fact is none of these people were really assholes. My judgment certainly does not make them so. They were just like everybody else who is doing their very best with the tools and experience they have. My level of appreciation for their contribution has little to do with their talent or intent. There is no question I have left some people behind feeling the very same way about me. It is all in our perceptions and our willingness to be fully accountable for our choices and our outcomes. In the end we are the sum total of the choices we make.

Thanks for reading.