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| Tuesday, August 31, 2010 | | A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Don Miller |
Author Don Miller hit the big-time in 2003 with his best-selling memoir, Blue Like Jazz. Not sure why I never read it. BLJ remains wildly popular, especially within contemporary Christian circles, primarily because it challenges virtually every notion of what it means to be a true Christian. Intrigued by the author as much as the story, some movie guys came on the scene in hopes of producing a film about Miller’s life. The experience of co- writing the screenplay profoundly impacted him. So much so, that in 2009 he wrote A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. I’m glad he did, because Don Miller’s latest book has profoundly impacted me.
Imagine what it would be like to rewind your life (like a video) and edit all the parts to match the life of your dreams. A “do-over”, so to speak. That’s what writing his own screenplay was like for Don Miller. His cinematographer said it best –“You know. Just to dream it all up again. Everybody wants to go back, man. Everybody wants to make it right. We get to edit your story so it has punch and meaning. That has to be an incredible feeling.” While it turned out to be an incredible experience, Miller’s initial feelings were anything but. Unlike a good movie that is always going somewhere, Miller had to face the sad truth that his life wasn’t really going anywhere. In a word…boring.
The epiphany came when the real Don realized that “in creating the fictional Don, I was creating the person I wanted to be, the person worth telling stories about”. And, in so doing, he could actually re-create his own real life story. No, he couldn’t go back, but he could dramatically change his future story line…and he did.
Like any memorable story, Miller’s recreation of his future story wasn’t easy. After all, good stories are about characters facing their greatest fears with courage. That involves lots of conflict and often life-threatening situations. Great stories often have surprise endings, so their characters must deal with uncertainty and insecurity throughout. Don Miller learned that there’s nothing easy about living a storied life, but neither is anything more rewarding.
Miller does a masterful job of weaving the elements of a good story (pain, positive turns, memorable scenes, tragedy, etc.) into the process of re-writing his own. He handles the pain of meeting the father who abandoned him thirty years ago. He takes a positive turn by taming the demons that declared him fat and non-athletic since early childhood. He enjoys many memorable scenes with his first true love, then tragically loses her. Along the way, Miller found that “the idea that a character is what he does remains the hardest to actually live”.
A Million Miles In A Thousand Years is an inspiring true life story about how to live with purpose and intentionality. It’s about waking up one day and simply refusing to accept what the magnet on the refrigerator says…”Same s--t, different day”. The fridge is only half right. For anyone who’s ever dreamed of a do-over, I urge you to stop dreaming and start reading Miller’s latest book. It just might inspire you to start living the life you’ve thus far only dreamed about. Now that would be a great story!
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| | Tuesday, January 19, 2010 | | Happy Fearless New Year! |
Towards the end of what proved to be the most challenging year of my life, I came upon a book that proved to be a true Godsend. Fearless by Max Lucado sets forth a compelling case for why the book’s subtitle, “Imagine Your Life Without Fear”, is not only possible, but completely rational given the overwhelming evidence to support such imaginings. However, to get there from here, the reader must bring an open heart, mind and Bible to the journey. According to Lucado, truly fearless living is only possible by believing in and acting upon time-tested scriptures that have proven to be the ultimate fear antidote. I personally appreciate the fact that he’s not just making this stuff up.
Starting with a solid Biblical foundation, Lucado supports his fearless living premise with poignant personal stories of fear conquered in and around his own life. From his brother’s final act of courageous love to his own near death experience to his humble admission of personal God doubting moments, Lucado takes the reader on a spine tingling (how did he know?) fear conquering adventure. Fearless could have been alternatively entitled, “The Little Christian That Could”, for I found myself going from “I know I can’t” to “I think I can” to “I know I can”, as the author skillfully guided me away from fearful thoughts and towards imagining my life without fear.
In Fearless, Lucado takes on the most fear-inducing issues of our day. Who among us hasn’t been plagued by the fear of not mattering? Recent economic woes have spared few Americans the fear of running out. Any parents out there not haunted by the fear of not protecting my kids? The chapter on the fear of overwhelming challenges was surely written just for me. It opens with a rock solid scriptural mandate that I’d love to tattoo upon my fear prone heart:
“Take courage. I am here!” (Matthew 14:27)
These words were spoken by Jesus to his disciples who thought they were seeing a ghost, as He came towards their boat in the midst of a powerful storm…walking on the water, of course. Lucado says, “we never expect to see him (God) in a storm. But it is in storms that he does his finest work, for it is in storms that he has our keenest attention”. This begs a few obvious questions to every Fearless reader – what storms are you in the midst of? What is God up to in the midst of your storms? Does He have your attention?
If you’ve read this article, perhaps God has your attention. For compelling insights into riding out life’s storms, I would encourage you to go one step further. Get out of the boat (Matthew 14:25-33) by reading Fearless by Max Lucado. And remember…
“Courage is fear that has said its prayers” | | | | |
| | Thursday, August 20, 2009 | | The 2009 Leadership Summit: The Pain Of Leadership |
Once again, the Ambassador Leadership Team attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit via satellite on August 6 and 7. Once again, I left convinced that The Summit is the greatest leadership development value on the planet. "No pain, no gain" was a reoccurring theme this year. One faculty member particularly stood out as having experienced unimaginable pain in preparation for exponential gains in the organization he's led since 1993.
Wess Stafford is CEO of Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy ministry that currently helps over one million children in twenty-five countries. As an internationally recognized advocate for children in poverty, Wess's passion for the children he serves oozes from every pore of his body. When speaking on his favorite subject, Wess often has tears in his eyes and a lump in his throat. How appropriate that this man of such boundless compassion leads an organization called by his single greatest character trait. And, how typical of great leaders that such tremendous gains were only made possible by horrendous pain sufferred over many years.
Wess Stafford's story is so poignant and powerful that I do not feel free to tell it here. There's something literally sacred about it. He brought The Summit house down with it and left founder, Bill Hybels, at a rare loss for words in the aftermath. His painful past is chronicled in the "Silent No More" chapter starting on page 143 in his book, Too Small To Ignore.
I'm still processing the painful prescription that I received from this year's Summit. I was reminded of a line from the movie The Way We Were wherein the male lead, Hubbell Gardner, played by Robert Redford, wrote of a character who was "like the country he lived in, everything came too easy for him". This line comes from the ficticious book authored by Gardner entitled, " A Country Made Of Ice Cream". It begs the question --does America suffer a dearth of leaders who have paid the prerequisite painful price of true leadership? Or, has everthing come so easily for us in recent decades (excepting the past year) that we've passed the leadership mantle of "the greatest generation" into the ill-equipped hands of baby boomers whose ice cream cones are now melting along with the American dream?
On the positive side, the "no pain, no gain" theme has me looking afresh at my own painful past in hopes of discovering how those painful experiences can be channeled into a brighter future. I've long thought that we learn much more from our failures than our successes. I now think that past pain can not only be overcome, but it can be the very platform upon which an otherwise unattainable glory can be achieved. My new hero, Wess Stafford, is living proof of this. That's why I consider his book, Too Small To Ignore, a must read for anyone serious about taking their leadership to the next level. | | | | |
| | Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | | Kona Goes To Head Of Class |
During our 33 years of marriage, Elaine and I have had countless dogs that have helped us ride herd over five children and three granddaughters. Only one canine, however, became THE family dog. His name was Kona. Our two youngest children, Caleb and Bradley, grew up with Kona as their constant companion. His recent sudden passing rocked our world in a way that we truly couldn’t imagine.
I wrote the following piece primarily as a way of coping with my own personal grief. Then it occurred to me that others might somehow benefit from my therapeutic musings. After all, I’m probably not alone in my tendency to put my head in dark places while being too pre-occupied to stop and smell the dog food. It helped me to write it. I hope it helps some who read it.
Our beloved chocolate lab, Kona, was put to sleep on Wednesday evening, July 8 around 5:10 PM. His penchant for raiding the kitchen trash gave him a “garbage gut” that led to an acute case of pancreatitis from which he could not recover. Despite the child protective locks, crafty Kona found his way into the trash whenever we’d forget to take it out before going to bed. When I awoke last Thursday morning to yet another mess on the kitchen floor, I thought nothing of it. The following morning, our normally ravenously hungry hound refused to eat and I knew something was wrong. As it turned out, something was fatally wrong with our family’s best friend.
Kona was more than just a furry friend. He was a gifted teacher. He taught me lessons that I’ll never forget, though I was often too self-absorbed to learn them while school was in session. I guess that’s why he so often repeated the lesson about keeping my head out of my butt. “From that vantage point”, he would bark, “the only person you can see is…you, and it’s not pretty”. He made this point many a morning while standing patiently by my chair, nudging my hand with his nose and quietly grunting. I’m just now realizing what he was saying --“if you’d just scratch me behind the ears, whatever it is you’re currently grinding on won’t seem nearly so overwhelming. Ahhh yes, that’s it…now how ‘bout the other ear? Whad I tell ya’?”
Loyalty? Kona wrote the book. Every morning he would hear me get up and go to the bathroom. By the time I was out, he had left the comfort of his leather sofa (a.k.a. Kona’s bed) and plopped down in front of our bedroom door to await his early rising master. Then the feeding ritual would begin. He’d do his duty whilst I fetched the morning paper. By the time I returned to the garage, he would be jumping up and down, barking loudly and frothing at the mouth. Breakfast is served. I was usually just finishing my first cup of coffee when he’d appear at the back door scratching to be let back in. The timing was important to me, because I could let Kona in and fetch my second cup of coffee while only getting up once. I was efficient. Kona was loyal. Loyalty trumps efficiency every time.
Simple pleasures. For Kona, life was a steady stream of simple pleasures. He was even named after one of our favorite simple pleasures --a hot cup of Hawaiian Kona coffee. Cup in one hand and dog ear in the other…now that’s truly the best part of waking up. During our ten wonderful years with Kona, he shared our home with many other little furry friends. He loved playing with his barking buddies. They would show their appreciation by helping him maintain a fastidious personal grooming program. They say a clean dog is a happy dog and Kona was always a very happy dog. I suppose that’s why he was so kind to his many attendants. They had some canine quid pro quo thing going on…I’ll scratch your back (or whatever) if you’ll scratch mine…”a little lower…no higher…no left…now right…that’s it…that’s it…Ahhhhhh…thanks. Arf!”
Love. Oh God, how we loved that dog. Though love means never having to say you’re sorry, I can’t help myself. Kona, I’m sorry for the walks we could have taken, but didn’t. I’m sorry for the swims we could have swum, but didn’t. I’m sorry for the sticks you could have fetched, but couldn’t, because I was too busy to throw them. I’m sorry for all the times when my self-absorbed efficiency blinded me to your undying loyalty. I’m sorry for the many simple pleasures I missed while worrying about things that invariably missed me and mine. I’m sorry that I took your love for granted; while you lived to unconditionally love everyone in your path.
Kona, I’m sorry that you had to die to get me to pay attention in school. But, now that you have my undivided attention, I hope you can teach me in death what I stubbornly refused to learn in life. So, whenever you look down from that big leather couch in the sky and see me with my head up my butt, please bark loud and long until I take my eyes off myself and focus upon the things that really matter. Things like loyalty, simple pleasures and love…and paying attention in school. You will be forever missed, our faithful and furry friend. We love you, Kona!
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| | Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | | Hope Springs Eternal In Tampa |
I've just returned from a 24 hour "missions trip" to the Hope Children's Home in Tampa, Florida. This trip was courtesy of my best friend, Tim, who has been so impressed by what God is doing down there that he insisted upon giving me a first-hand look. I'm so glad he did. Though God is no doubt at work in our "Carmel-By-The-Retention-Pond" backyard, His abundant grace is too often overshadowed by our sheer abundance. Not so at Hope Children's Home.
Over the past forty years, Hope has helped nearly five thousand discarded, abused, unwanted, or orphaned children. But “helped” doesn’t begin to describe what they’ve been doing. Hope children are given everything they need to lead healthy, happy lives, including a first rate education via the school on their beautiful 55 acre campus. This campus is home to 70 children plus all of the staff necessary to support them. Every staff member lives on campus and receives a small paycheck in addition to their room and board. Executive Director, Mike Higgins, says, “Our staff members don’t merely come to work. They are called to ministry.” One house parent couple recently celebrated their 30th anniversary with Hope. That’s commitment…the kind that only comes from a true calling.
Virtually everything on the Hope campus has been donated or produced with volunteer labor. Amazingly, they have never spent a dime to feed any of their children or staff. The Hope philosophy is to trust God to supply all of their needs…and they do mean ALL. “Pastor Mike”, as he’s affectionately called by the children, loves to tell the miraculous stories of how God has met the needs of the children over the years. Like the time during evening devotions when little Lisa asked everyone to pray for Frosted Mini-Wheats. She later clarified that she only wanted Kellogg’s brand, not the generic variety. It was eight-thirty in the evening. While they were praying, a man knocked on the dormitory door asking if he could drop off a case of (surprise!) Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats.
Lisa’s cereal miracle highlights the greatest opportunity afforded every Hope child. From two-year-old toddlers to twenty-year-old young adults, every one learns what it means to live by faith in a faithful God. When Hope kids bow their heads to give thanks for the evening meal, it’s anything but a tired and empty ritual. Pastor Mike’s successor once led the kids in at mealtime prayer at the dinner table, despite having no food to eat. After they said “amen”, the phone rang. It was a local restaurant calling to see if they could use the sirloin tips leftover from a large banquet. And God said, “let them eat steak!”
The Prayer Needs board in the Hope girl’s dorm reminded me of a powerful Bible verse:
“And my God will meet all your needs…” (Phil. 4:19)
Hope kids pray for everything from food to toiletries to cleaning supplies...even feminine hygiene products. Imagine being an orphaned adolescent girl asking her heavenly father for “pads w/wings”. After just a few hours at Hope, I could easily imagine an angel with wings flying to Tampa to meet that need. No imagination is required, however, to see the profoundly positive impact that such daily faith adventures have upon these precious children. Their sweet smiles, sparkling eyes and tender hugs poignantly tell the story.
Disadvantaged children? I left Tampa wondering if the truly disadvantaged ones lived in “Carmel-By-The-Retention Pond”. I would encourage you to visit Hope Children’s Home and decide for yourself.
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| | Friday, April 24, 2009 | | It's A BIG Deal Birthday For The "A Team" |
I started anticipating our 20th anniversary (April 1, 2009) early in 2008. Whenever I’d mention it to anyone, they would invariably say something like, “Wow, twenty years in business. That’s quite an accomplishment.” To which I replied, “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. Many people have built much larger companies in much less time.” I stopped saying this about halfway through the fourth quarter of 2008. As the recession crashed our anniversary party, my perspective on twenty years of entrepreneurial terror did an about face. Twenty years in business? It’s now a BIG deal!
Of course, what’s a BIG deal to the guy who started out as “an empty suit pulling an empty wagon behind me”, is no big deal at all to the rest of the world. Just how do I avoid turning my anniversary musings into a lullaby? For starters, let’s keep the obligatory trip down memory lane short and sweet.
Heartfelt thanks go out to Elaine, my lovely bride, for believing in her knight in shining armor even when he didn’t…our five children (Joshua, Emily, Ashley, Caleb, Bradley) for putting up with a perpetually distracted father…Jean Louis and Pierre for forcing the world of entrepreneurial terror upon me…Don for being Butch whenever Sundance needed clarity as to just who “those guys” were…Bud, Max, Mike and Bob for taking in a broke and broken new partner…Julie, our first client, for filling my empty suit…Jim, our first consultant, for filling our empty wagon…Holly for awarding us our first true project…Carolyn for being the banker who cared enough to cry…Max, again, for being crazy enough to partner with us second time around.
Notably missing from above is the many wonderful current and past employees of Ambassador Solutions. Time and space do not permit listing them by name, but each and every one is of immeasurable worth to our firm and to me. As one of our “Values In Action” suggests, “we are people serving people”. The ultimate measure of our success then lies in how well we have served. Thanks to employees and alumni alike who served so well over these past two decades. You truly made a positive difference in every life that you touched along the way…especially mine.
Were I to interview a guy who had just celebrated his 20th year in business, I might ask him questions about --Disappointments? Accomplishments? Surprises? Do differently? Mistakes? Funny? Sad? Turning points? Moving moments? Went right? Went wrong? Inspirations? The answers to most of these questions, though momentarily interesting, would be quickly forgotten. And, were I to wander too far down this path, I fear what readers remain would miss the true point of the journey. For you see, it’s not about measurable milestones or emotional highs and lows. It’s about being true to who you are and, even more importantly, who you are becoming for having traveled your chosen path.
Twenty years ago, I cast my lot with four men who embraced a bold concept of what being in business was primarily about. Rather than selfishly pursuing wealth at the expense of people, these men chose to pursue people at whatever expense. Given their Biblical view of the world, it was a logical choice, but far from an easy one. They truly felt called to be “ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us” (2Corinthians 5:20). In other words, they embraced the notion that God has chosen to do most of His work and communicate most of His message through His people…His ambassadors. Such a high calling is not limited to Sunday morning services and Wednesday night prayer meetings. So, these faithful men took their sometimes feeble faith where it was least expected to be found…to the marketplace. And by God’s grace, I became the fifth wheel of the divinely engineered faith vehicle that became known as “The Ambassador Group”.
Shortly after we passed our 10th anniversary milestone, I was captivated by another life-changing nugget of truth found in the Bible –“…without faith, it is impossible to please God…” (Hebrews 11:6). Hmmm. This strongly suggests that no matter what one does, for better or worse, if it is done outside the context of faith in God, it cannot be pleasing to Him. Reciprocally, whatever is done by faith in God, for better or worse (even if it’s wrong), is always pleasing to Him. I began to see every day less as the sum total of the good and bad things that happened (after all, who’s to say what’s good and bad?) and more in light of those things I did by faith versus any other motive (fear, greed, vanity, etc.). When I combine this concept with Earl Nightingale’s definition of success –“the progressive realization of a worthy goal”, I realize that true success comes in pursuing worthy goals by faith in God. By this measure, I believe we’ve known significant success over the past two decades.
As opposed to answering more questions, I am compelled to close by asking our readers a few:
• Who or what do you represent when you come to work every day?
• What is your measure of success?
• How are you doing against that measure?
• How’s that workin’ for ya’? (thank you, Dr. Phil)
• Where are you on your faith journey?
Wherever you are in your personal faith journey, I want to personally thank you for joining us in ours. Though we may never meet, I know the most important things about you. You are created in God’s image…you are of immeasurable worth… and you will last forever. You, my fellow sojourner, are eternally important to God and, therefore, tremendously important to me. Thanks to Him for twenty wildly adventurous, fun, faith-filled years. I hope to share many more with you and wish you God’s best along the way.
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| | Monday, March 02, 2009 | | How To Control What You Can: Thoughts, Attitude, Effort |
During tough times, one of the toughest things to do is to stay focused upon the few things that you can control, while refusing to be distracted by the many things you can’t. In my experience, I’ve found only three things that I can consistently control –my thoughts, my attitude and my effort. Let me hasten to add that I also consistently fail at my efforts to control these things. Nonetheless, it remains within my power to do so. So, I thought it might be helpful to examine what practical steps we can take towards controlling the few controllable elements of our lives.
1. Controlling Your Thoughts
Earl Nightingale, father of modern motivational thought, said, “you become what you think about”. Within our industry, George Fuechsel, an IBM 305 RAMAC technician/instructor in New York, is credited with coining the well-known phrase, “garbage in, garbage out”. Zig Ziglar made a career out of warning us against the hazards of “stinkin’ thinkin’”. The point is clear –whatever we allow into our minds and choose to dwell upon will profoundly impact our behavior, for better or worse.
So, if we feed our minds a steady diet of doom and gloom, we inevitably become gloomy ourselves. In fact, experts agree that the current recession is more due to consumer psychology than to economic reality. Americans are understandably afraid to spend their hard-earned dollars and are consequently exacerbating our economic problems. We would all benefit from these words of ancient wisdom:
Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own “. (Matthew 6:34).
Many studies have proven that the vast majority of things that we worry about never come to pass. So, if you want to play with winning odds every time out, then simply choose to focus upon the present versus borrowing trouble from the future. Easier said than done, but perhaps these tips will help:
· Start your day with some quiet time devoted to positive readings, meditations, prayer and journaling. I have jump-started such times with the daily devotional Our Daily Bread for over thirty years and it has helped me immeasurably.
· Limit the amount of negative input that you take in from newspapers, news shows, talk radio, RSS feeds, etc. It only takes a few minutes to get the highlights of local and national news to stay informed.
· View every element of your life from a “glass half full” perspective. Instead of complaining about the winter cold, be grateful for central heat.
2. Controlling Your Attitude
I’ve never forgotten the theme of a seminar I attended as a young college life insurance agent –your attitude is your altitude. In other words, the altitude you attain will be determined by the attitude you maintain. Truer words were never spoken. And, it all starts with an attitude of gratitude.
Ungratefulness is not only unbecoming, but it is undermining to all forms of positive progress. The spirit of ungratefulness stealth fully slithers into our lives, robbing us of joy and sapping the very strength we need to press on. Slowly but surely, we begin to dwell upon what we don’t have instead of the countless blessings we do.
As you can see, our attitudes and thoughts are inextricably linked. When you think about it (pun intended), attitude is simply the outward expression of your inner thoughts. So, if you’re guilty of stinkin’ thinkin’, your attitude will follow suit –it will stink too. Here are some practical tips for maintaining positive control of your attitude:
· Eliminate negative words/phrases from your vocabulary. If you need some help in this area, strike a deal with your colleagues by agreeing to pay a small fine every time you use one of the prohibited words or phrases.
· Look for opportunities to encourage others who might be having a bad day or have slipped into stinkin’ thinkin’ mode. A positive attitude is prerequisite to being an encourager.
· Adopt and meditate upon positive mantras (I use Bible verses), then verbalize them when faced with circumstances that could lead to a negative attitude.
3. Controlling Your Effort
We’re all familiar with the saying, “don’t confuse effort with results”. What is less familiar is what I believe to be the more accurate interpretation of this saying. The author’s intent was to suggest that effort really doesn’t matter --only results count. However, I believe it is far more helpful to focus upon making the best possible effort (something we can control) versus obsessing upon results (something usually out of our control). Yes, I know this would be heresy within many businesses, but it’s true nonetheless.
It is particularly important to focus upon effort during tough times. In fact, tough times could be defined as those times during which it takes more effort to yield a desired result. So, there’s no avoiding the fact that the first step towards getting through tough times is to simply work harder –more hours, more effort. The proverbial “all you can do is all you can do” wisdom only holds true if you are truly doing all you can do.
A fool is said to be someone who continues doing the same things while expecting different results. It’s not enough to simply work harder during tough times. You must also work smarter. Look for low yielding activities and STOP doing them. One of the worst things you can do is re-double your efforts on non-productive activities. Be ruthless in culling out such tasks on your To Do list. If you don’t, your work-life balance will suffer unduly.
So what about work-life balance during tough times? Just because you need to work longer and harder during tough times doesn’t mean that work-life balance is impossible to maintain. There will be bursts during which you will be out of balance, such as when in pursuit of a rare lucrative contract or when coming up on a critical delivery deadline. Be grateful for such opportunities and do all that you can to fully capitalize upon them. Between these bursts, you’ll be able to restore work-life balance, albeit with a harder/smarter approach to every work day.
Here are some practical tips for controlling your effort during tough times:
· Work at least an extra hour every day, but avoid becoming a clock watcher
· Set achievable daily goals and stay on task until completed
· Identify and stop doing at least three non-productive activities
· Embrace the opportunity bursts as the blessings they truly are
· Do your best and leave the results to God
These are indeed tough times. On that, we all agree. I hope you’ll also agree that the above tips could do much to help us through them. Why not give ‘em a try and let me know how it goes? And then, as Zig says, “I’ll see you at the top”. | | | | |
| | Wednesday, February 25, 2009 | | Praying Through The Pain | It was painfully to the point – “financs, rejection, loneliness, migraines”. That was it. Her entire prayer request was four simple, pain-filled words. “Mary” had found the link to the Ambassador Prayer Team on our web site. How fitting that “finances” was misspelled, as it seems that our entire nation has forgotten how to spell anything having to do with finance or money matters. Was Mary’s list in priority order from most to least painful or was it simply all she could get out given the extreme pain she’s obviously in?
Rejection. Based upon many other prayer requests over the years, it’s a good bet that the rejection Mary is feeling relates to the loss of a job. This, plus the reoccurring rejection experienced after every dead-end interview or unreturned phone call can quickly turn a happy, confident employee into a sad and wounded job seeker. As the unemployed days mount, so do the feelings of rejection.
Loneliness. Until she lost it, Mary didn’t realize how much her work family meant to her. Some of her closest friends were her co-workers, but now it’s awkward to be around them. It’s tough making new friends when you don’t have the time or money to go places where you could meet them…like at work.
Migraines. Feeling broke, rejected and lonely, is it any wonder that Mary suffers from frequent and excruciating migraine headaches? She probably can’t remember the last day she didn’t have a headache. Slowly but surely, she has come to accept her migraines as a constant companion. In fact, she’s secretly thankful for the excuse they give her to just “check out” from the painful existence her life has become.
But then, just as her last ray of hope was fading and the black hole that had become her soul threatened to swallow her, Mary stumbled onto a strange web site with a unique offer. Prayer requests? “Yeah right. Like the God of the universe has time to join my little pity party”, thinks Mary. Besides, she’s not even sure there is a God. And if there is, then she’s mad as hell at Him for allowing her life to become such a mess. Yet, she is mysteriously drawn to the offer. As Mary turns her heart toward heaven and her hands toward the keyboard, she struggles mightily to put her pain into words –“financs, rejection, loneliness, migraines”. Surely God can fill in the blanks. She prayed that He would.
If you can relate to Mary’s feelings of desperation, then please read this. It was written just for you and Mary and millions of kindred spirits whose American dreams have become a reoccurring nightmare. I truly hope it helps. Either way, I would love to hear from you. | | | | |
| | Friday, December 12, 2008 | | Creatively Destroying and Re-Building The American Auto Industry |
So who am I to think I have a better plan for saving the American auto industry? Why not? After all, the plan on the table calls for $15 billion dollars (oops, now its down to $14 billion) in taxpayer money to be sent straight down the bail-out rat hole. But it certainly won’t stop there. Recall the original request was for $36 billion. Does any thinking American really believe that that $14 or even $36 billion will do anything other than delay the inevitable bankruptcy of the Big 3? Bankruptcy is the first step towards the creative destruction and re-building of the American auto industry. The sooner this painful, yet unavoidable, step is taken, the sooner the industry returns to viability –albeit at a much reduced size.
So what role should the federal government play in this destruction/re-building process? For starters, Uncle Sam should put his checkbook back in the “last resort” cubbyhole from whence it came. Then, Congress needs to respond to the Big 3’s groveling with a plan of their own –one that might actually work, while putting far fewer taxpayer dollars at risk. It starts with the planned bankruptcy of all three American automakers leading to their subsequent reorganization into one newly capitalized entity. That’s right…from three to one.
 Perhaps the “American Motors” (AMC) name could be resurrected for this momentous occasion? How cool it would be to see the name of the maker of my first car back in the limelight. Yep, I still get misty-eyed thinking about my 1960 Rambler American –a gift from my grandfather. With fully-reclining bench seats, my black and white beauty was a veritable love machine. I can still hear Mac Davis singing “baby baby don’t get hooked
on me”, as my now father-in- law peered through the thoroughly fogged over windows in search of his daughter –my lovely bride of 32 plus years. I’ve been hooked on her ever since.
 OK, thanks for allowing me that little cruise down Nostalgia Lane. Now let’s get back to saving the auto industry. Obviously, we’re going to need some real leaders to pull it off. And, it should be equally obvious that the current leaders of the Big 3 need not apply. Better yet, no current or past (a.k.a. Lee Iacocca) automotive executive should be considered for the top job. Just as when Lou Gerstner took over the reins of IBM (1993) when nobody but an unaffected outsider could have saved Big Blue from singing the bankruptcy blues, so too the American auto industry needs a mega dose of outsider perspective. Chrysler got it half right when they brought in industry outsider, Bob Nardelli. But, apparently the search committee didn’t notice the $200 million golden parachute that landed Gnarly Bob safely in Detroit after taking Home Depot shares down 20% during his five year flight to nowhere. Maybe GE will oust Jeff Immelt and give Nardelli the top job he thought he deserved before leaving in protest?
Surely Cisco CEO, John Chambers, is tired of wandering in the wilderness far below the peak of Mt. Dot Com? Since reaching the summit in March of 2000, Cisco’s stock has lost 80% of its pre dot com bubble bursting value. Few blame any of this precipitous fall on Chambers. In fact, many believe (me among them) John Chambers to be the most capable CEO in the world today. What could possibly lure him to take the wheel of a born again American Motors? How about a challenge of epic proportions? A payout that could make him a billionaire many times over? Perhaps most importantly, a prominent place in history for having performed miraculous surgery on the backbone of our economy. Moving the executive suites from Detroit to San Jose wouldn’t hurt either. And if that’s not enough, tell John I’m available to carry his bags anywhere his mission of saving the American auto industry takes him.
So, now that we have one reorganized U.S. automaker led by the best CEO in the world, we still have a few challenges. First, we need to capitalize AMC to maximize their odds of long term success and fairly reward those who take the risks to achieve it. As a free market capitalist, I can’t advocate the government taking equity stakes in private enterprises. Under special circumstances, I can support the federal government providing loan/bond guarantees provided there is sufficient equity in the firm to make the risk of such guarantees manageable. That said, why couldn’t AMC go to the equity markets with a debt offering on deck, backed by the feds, but contingent upon raising a specific amount of free market capital? The “Buy American” marketing
 possibilities are endless and should make this the most oversubscribed stock offering since the dot com crazy days. Next, we need a plan for re-training several hundred thousand unemployed former auto workers. Did I mention that the UAW no longer exists at this point in the story?
That’s right, if Uncle Sam wants to make a meaningful long term difference, then he should invest in the re-training of the American auto worker. It wasn’t that long ago that our rich uncle thought buying up $700 billion in bad mortgages was a great idea. Why not make the mortgage payments of displaced auto workers for a few years while they get back on their feet? There are currently less than five hundred thousand UAW members. If half of those are displaced while having a mortgage payment of $1,500, then Uncle Sam could cover every former UAW member’s mortgage for two years at a cost of $9 billion. And, for another $6 billion, American taxpayers could pay to retrain every displaced worker, assuming it takes $1,000 per month for two years to get the job done. Well, what do you know? That totals up to $15 billion…the minimum the Big 3 say they need to survive. Hmmm…
These simple ideas are not meant as “end all, be all” solutions. My hope is to offer some perspective on what positive progress could be made toward a brighter future for the American auto industry, provided we first admit that what we currently have is broken beyond repair. The amount of the bailout is really beside the point, as any amount is certain to be too little too late to save the Big 3. There is no pain-free way out of this mess. We either pay now or we pay much more later. And, if it’s too much later and too much more, we won’t just be talking about a bankrupt industry…we’ll be talking about a bankrupt country.
Hello John, have I got an opportunity for you…
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| | Thursday, December 11, 2008 | | Stressed But Blessed? | I'm trying to break myself of a bad habit I picked up as the current economic malaise came calling upon our company. In response to the proverbial, "how are you?" greeting, I've taken to answering, "stressed but blessed". Sort of like positive self talk with a spiritual twist, I suppose. Sounds better than, "it's tough, but I'm gonna make it", don't you think? Well, I thought so too until I read this from a book recently given to me by a thoughtful friend:
"God sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in you so you could rely on Him. He loves to impress this stressed-out world by moving one of His children into and a through stress-filled environment with perfect peace. That's His way." (The Wonderful Spirit-Filled Life by Charles Stanley, p. 149)
Perfect peace? Stressed but blessed? As I read the above passage, it became clear that it had to be one or the other. It couldn't be both. I realized that at its core, stress is nothing more or less than lack of faith. Ouch! Thank you, Lord, I needed that.
Contrast this to the Zimbabwean pastor I met on my mission trip to Africa last summer. When asked how he was doing, Tatenda would always respond, "strong and blessed". The difference is quite convicting. As I sit here comfortably ensconced in "Carmel by the Retention Pond", Tatenda is fighting for the life of his family and the hundreds of AIDS orphans that he and his wife care for. He's strong...I'm stressed...thank God we're both blessed.
Feeling more stressed than blessed this holiday season? More than any other, the following Bible passage has helped me get through stressful times. I hope it is a blessing to you as well:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6,7)
Have a blessed Christmas and a strong New Year! | | | | |
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