A little over a year ago, I left Wells Fargo. It was a no-brainer decision - despite a lot of initiatives and ideas that I proposed, Wells wouldn't move forward on any of it. So I could have remained as an expert thumb-twiddler, or I could have moved on. I chose the latter.
Since that time, my life has gone in strange new directions. I became a spokesperson for LG and was flown out to LA to film a 3-minute spot promoting their cell phones. I've started a new company. I'm creating a very complex web site for a local firm. I became an outspoken advocate for freedom and helped organize the local tea parties. And I find that I'm being used more and more as a strategy consultant, which is the position I'd held at Wells.
I'm not being paid for my work as a strategy consultant. At least not yet. What I'm learning is that there are people out there, bold and daring and eager to figure out their place in life and business, who benefit from my view of their position and ambitions. I met for a long time with one of those people today. Had lunch together. He asked me, "What do you want from all of this?" I told him that if my advice and directive held merit and worked toward profit, I trusted that he would be fair with me. We'd figure that out later - let's focus now on executing the plan.
It was a couple of weeks ago that I was driving through rural Georgia. Tamara was resting quietly in the passenger seat next to me, and I had spent the previous 100 or so miles considering this man's business and his goals. He'd been looking for a better model for profitability, and he and his partner welcomed my help. We never discussed rate or money. I did it because I like these guys and because it was an interesting puzzle. These two men were trying something no one had ever really done before.
Somewhere near Griffin, Georgia, I figured it out. Over the next day, I wrestled with the various logistics of my solution, and then I called the man's partner and pitched it to him. I wrote a 4-page white paper, further clarifying the model, and got his buy-in. Today, I laid it out for the man himself. He loved it. The model is crazy and unobvious and brash, but promising - just like what they're trying to do.
Recently, I met another guy, and he too does something no one else really does. I had dinner with him a few days ago and pitched a different twist on what he does. He took it home to his wife and they are now excitedly working with me to hone the idea. If this works, it might change the direction of his life.
Neither idea I offered costs any money to implement.
I don't think innovation requires big risk and money, usually. Time? Yes, of course. But the best ideas are those that come from new ways of doing what's already being done. It's a re-flavoring, a re-mixing, a re-turning.
This Saturday, Tamara and I will go to dinner with a man and his wife and discuss their store that they own here in Des Moines. He approached me after reading my strategy / innovation web site and told me right there that just from reading that, he wanted to write me a check. I asked him to wait until we discuss it all from the perspective of his family's business, but he's brimming with enthusiasm for innovation and greater profitability.
I have no clue how this will all turn out, but it's fascinating. And it reminds me of something I learned long ago...
It's about helping others, believing in them to achieve their dreams. At the end of the day, being a part of that journey is worth every step. Being paid for my time and ideas right now is not important. Joining people in their life's adventure is. If my work with them helps them succeed in a greater way, then a reward for me will work itself out and I'll be compensated for the value I helped to bring.
In the meantime, what a privilege to be able to stand with these brave people while they pour their souls into a dream they have...
When I was seventeen, I drove to my drummer's house. I don't know why I went there or what I had wanted to do with him, but he complained that he had to rake the yard. The yard was big and messy with autumn leaves.
So I offered to help him.
"My parents aren't going to pay you. You know that, right?" "Dude, it doesn't matter. Let's just get it done. We can hang out that way."
Bewildered, he accepted my help and we spent the next five hours raking his yard - and laughing our asses off.
It's important to roll up our sleeves and jump in with others. Life is a hell of a lot more interesting and fun that way.
0 Comments BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/19/2009 12:50:44 AM Permalink
Liberty
This artwork was hanging in a friend's office, so I took a picture of it. No clue who the artist is... but it's right on.
0 Comments BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/18/2009 8:57:17 AM Permalink
Today's Beauty
0 Comments BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/16/2009 5:38:08 PM Permalink
Multi-Syllabic Southerners
While visiting many stores and gas stations on our excursion to the south, I was reminded of something I noticed while I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. Inconsistently - depending on the person - a southern accent can render a single-syllable word multi-syllabic.
My name, for example, can go from a one-syllable word (Brett) to two syllables (Buh-rett) to even three syllables (Buh-ray-ett).
I'm not sure what the trigger for that is, but it's fascinating to observe. My wife, Tamara, is from Augusta, Georgia, and is a one-syllable southerner. Food Networks' Paula Deen, who is from Savannah, Georgia, is a multi-syllabic southerner.
Tamara: Whisk a dash of ginger in there. Paula: Whee-yusk a day-ush of gin-juh in they-er.
If you've never noticed this before, you are now forever cursed to hear this inflection in some southerners.
9 Comments BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/15/2009 1:27:16 PM Permalink
Travels
I own a 2000 Dodge Caravan. I've had vans my whole life. My first vehicle was a 1970 VW Minibus.
The picture above is one of our dog, Mojo, resting on his big pillow in the void of the backseat. I removed two of the seats before our trip and having that room for the dogs and our stuff - including my bike - makes for a far more comfortable trip.
We've taken the van across the country maybe 15 times, with various configurations of kids, seats, stuff, and dogs.
I'm somewhere near the end of the road for this van, and I was thinking about getting a truck, but this trip brings me back to a van for all of its versatility, convenience, and comfort.
0 Comments BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/14/2009 9:11:44 AM Permalink
The Hardest Thing
Over 15 years ago, I realized that the hardest thing in life is to see things as they really are. How we see ourselves, our work, our family, our life... seeing those truly - as they really are - is incredibly difficult to do without bias and wishful thinking.
One of these days, I'll write a big post on starting a business. In fact, I'll likely write a book. I'll start it right after the day that I lay catatonic on the grass in a forest beneath a deep blue sky with my head resting on Tamara's leg - which will be the day after things are going so swimmingly that the business is just fine without me for a day.
In a couple of days, I'll get my copy of an agreement we just signed with a professional sales company out of Atlanta, which is eager to sell 247Toolset. One of the questions I answered today, asked by Sanjay, was this: "What's the maximum number of portals you can create in a week?"
My favorite quote about business: "Risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down."
Amen.
1 Comment BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/13/2009 6:26:35 PM Permalink
Cognition
One of my strategy/innovation heroes, Tom Wujec, gives a talk on how we get meaning from the world we sense around us.
"We make meaning by seeing... by an act of visual interrogation."
And then he gives three lessons for us to extrapolate from this.
What he says is deep, and it's one of the reasons why I'm such a big fan of Scott McCloud's books.
0 Comments BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/12/2009 7:23:01 AM Permalink
What He Said
Casey does an excellent job at his blog, and his post on The Case Against Universal Health Care rocks. So I'm just gonna point to what he said and introduce you to his site, if you haven't been there before.
ETC: And to help his point along, the Boston Globe gives some facts regarding the stimulus "saved or created" jobs numbers cited by the Obama administration:
"There were no jobs created. It was just shuffling around of the funds."
Government-run enterprises fail. That's just the truth. Anybody else who wants to believe otherwise doesn't have the facts at their disposal or they refuse to look at the facts. Either way, they don't look smart.
Love your kids? Care about their future? Don't vote for socialist politicians.
2 Comments BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/12/2009 6:38:19 AM Permalink
You're Not in Iowa When...
1 Comment BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/11/2009 7:37:59 PM Permalink
Killing Faith
This is, like, the third time I've started this post. Tough subject, and something with which I'm really wrestling...
My whole family is abuzz about the soldiers killed at Ft. Hood, the murderer and the press' reaction to him, and the lack of government awareness of how close this guy was to out-and-out loony with his "faith."
And then there's the Islamic issue. Or is Islam the only issue?
My son called me tonight and said that he wants to know what the Qur'an really says. I think I'll get him this book.
I've done a lot of thinking about faith and killing - what it's really all about.
In any society, there are those who make the decisions, those who protect the decision-makers, and those who just live in the society.
If I'm angry at the decisions made, wouldn't it make sense to target the decision-makers? Or those who protect the decision-makers?
Instead, we get people like Nidal Hasan (the Ft. Hood terrorist), John Allen Muhammad (one of the DC snipers), and the 9/11 hijackers who target random people who just happen to live in the society. They weren't going after the decision-makers, or those immediately around the decision-makers. They chose the innocent. They targeted their victims indiscriminately.
All of the people I listed above did so because they believed their faith, Islam, urged them to do so.
Abortion clinic bombers and abortion doctor killers also do it because they believe their faith prompts them to do so, but they target those involved in the deed - not just random people. The people at the World Trade Center were targets of opportunity, not decision-makers.
Christians don't kill those who believe differently than they do. Abortion clinic killers kill those who are actively killing, and justify their action as a preservative and protective measure. They're killing the killers. They're not out to convert anyone to Christianity through murder. They don't kill you because you're not a Christian.
Islamic killers target non-Muslims in a non-Muslim land. You're guilty and worthy of death because you don't think like they do. Hasan believed that Muslims in our nation's military should be able to file for conscientious objector status when the enemy is Islamic. He was a Muslim first and foremost, and being an American was a distant second. While some Christians are a Christian first, and an American second, I don't see any Christians in the military who refuse to kill other Christians, or who target non-Christians just because they're not Christian.
America was founded on the premise of maximizing and preserving individual freedom. If you don't believe in freedom, you're in opposition to the very premise of America.
Freedom of religion - my right to determine my own faith - is central to the reason this nation began. Christians who assert that America is a Christian nation and work to force it to be a Christian nation stand in opposition to any freedom of religion. The way they interpret that is not a freedom of choice of personal religion, but a freedom to practice Christianity. I recently asked a very devout Christian, who believes that this is a Christian nation, where I, the non-Christian, belong in America, if America is a Christian nation. She shrugged.
This planet needs a haven where freedom is maximized and preserved. A haven where laws are based on the preservation of individual liberty. A haven where I can be a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew or an atheist, and people respect my right to choose my own faith and the laws of the nation don't have a religious basis. A haven where I choose my own vocation, keep what I earn through my work, and the government is limited. A haven where I can determine the direction of my own life, so long as I don't step on the liberties of others.
Is that America?
I believe that America was founded to be that haven, but it's not that haven today, and never will be according to some Christians and some Muslims.
Faith is waning in America. I reckon that the urgency of religionists to enforce their faith by pushing it on others is part of the reason for that decline. People innately crave freedom of religion. There's a reason it's part of the First Amendment.
Any person who doesn't respect freedom of religion sends others the clear signal that they're not welcome in this country. That's mighty offensive.
You can kill me for not believing like you do, or you can push your religious agenda into our nation's laws. Neither respects my freedom of religion. Neither wins converts.
I'm coming to believe that respecting the individual freedom of others is the highest moral there is. If I can disagree with someone and not work to strip their liberties through force or through legislation, that's the greatest respect and honor I can show them.
1 Comment BeatCanvas.com, an Iowa Art Blog, by artist Brett Rogers, 11/11/2009 10:05:10 AM Permalink
Casey does an excellent job at his blog, and his post on 
