July flies

As I am sitting out on my balcony enjoying a fine Dominican Republic cigar at the end of a 96 degree July day, seeing the mountain ranges to the West, and thinking about what a great month this has been, I remembered the July flies from my youth in rural Georgia. They are better known perhaps as annual cicadas which emerge in late July or early August.

I came around to thinking about those boyhood sounds and insects because I will be heading back to Georgia in a week and will be hearing them again. But that prompted me to reflect on how this month has flown by - July flies indeed. This is significant at the moment, in this cycle of life, as I have had one of the most productive months of the last 15 months, - because of deaths, weddings and the challenges of those life events.

Writing blogs is a great way for me to measure how productive I have been, because it requires time and space and the right mindset in order to write. And I have written more blogs this month, than at any point in the last three years. While they may not have been the best blogs I have written, they have certainly flew off the digital page so to speak. With my return to the States and living in the situation with my dad, this will come to a close.

That is not bad, it just is one of the realities of sharing my dad’s twilight years with him. No full attention to my thoughts and no deep work is possible, and again I state, that is not bad, because I know that I can still produce my best stuff given the right setting and opportunities. Something I was no longer positive was true after all the holes were torn into the fabric of our family these past 15 months. (I in fact wrote quite a few more than I published).

Writing blogs requires two things: the margin in which to order one’s thoughts, and the important work and experiences each day to make putting those events down in writing significant. Both are more complicated than that, yet that simple at the same time.

So yes . . . July flies . . . and has flown.

Missile avoidance??

I have to confess that although I have lived in some hairy places around the world, this was an approach like no other I have ever experienced. We were flying along, descending from cruising altitude like normal, when suddenly the plane drops to about 300 meters off the ground and begins a series of S maneuvers like I have never experienced. Either the pilot was drunk, or, the pilot was a proud Ukrainian and he wanted to give us incredible multi-G-force views of Ukrainian agricultural practices, or, the pilot was hugging the ground avoiding the Russian radar just down the road and taking no chances on meeting an incoming missile since they have already shot down one plane. My bet is on the last option, it is the only one that makes sense given the military action in the region. 

Then there was the end, which far more resembled a crash than a landing. I thought the pregnant woman in my row was gonna give birth immediately. I am not sure I have ever gone through a more painful and sudden landing in my long years of flying (over 40 years). 

Of course no information was given to us, and this is pure speculation, but it was definitely a landing approach I will never forget! 

The problem of no boundaries

Most Americans who grew up in the church will immediately think of moral boundaries or ethical behavior when reading this title, and we absolutely need those. That goes without saying. But I am more addressing the infinite possibilities that the world affords us today. I find this to be one of the most pressing personal challenges of almost every leader I work with in Europe, Asia and North America.

We have almost boundless choices and endless options. The possibilities that this creates for us in our work and life are astonishing. We love having choices. We can live amazing realities with all these choices. But all these exhausting options and flexibility is also The Problem. Because you have to CHOOSE. And if you choose poorly (to quote an Indiana Jones movie) you lose. You lose all the other possibilities and options that the other choices would have afforded you.

This, my friends, is the horrible conundrum of the modern world. So so so many choices . . . this we generally perceive as a great thing . . . but we have to choose, and this we generally perceive to be a bad thing.

There are in fact so many options, that I find ordering food at a restaurant in the States to be an extremely exhausting experience. And those aren’t even important choices! The choices I make about life and love and work and meaning and eternity are the critical ones, they convey all the significance of a life well lived, or all the regrets of one poorly lived.

As Eric Barker says, “You have to make a decision. The world will not draw the line. You must. You need to ask What do I want? Otherwise you’re only going to get what they want.”

OW?

This is my organizational handle. Everyone calls me this! In my previous parent organization, my name could split a room, divide a group, foster a new schism, create anger and chaos faster than Satan himself. In my new (well nine years now is no longer new, but since I spent 23 years with the previous org. this one still feels new) organization, I am the ambassador of peace, the bringer of wisdom, the force of stability and dependability for the entire network.

What changed? Well the pool changed, and my fish looks very different in this pool than in my previous pool. I did change some, but not much. I am still the same old salty dog crusty and unfriendly as ever. But how did I ever obtain the designation of OW - Obi Wan Kenobi? The famed Jedi master from the first Star Wars film? Only Yoda has more swagger than Obi Wan Kenobi! 

It is incredibly important to be in the right pool. As Eric Barker states in his book “Barking up the wrong tree, ” . . . but sometimes an ugly duckling can be a swan if it finds the right pond. The thing that sets you apart, the habits you may have tried to banish, the things you were taunted for in school, may ultimately grant you an unbeatable advantage.” 

Changing ponds/pools did not make me a better missionary or pastor or person. But it did completely and totally change my role within the organization. Maybe after you have tried everything for decades to make it work well, you have to change the pool to be a different fish.  May the Force be with you.

Something fixed something broken

Well it is Saturday and I am working hard at not working. Does that make sense?  Honestly relaxing is hard work, or effort, finding the way to just BE is so . . . seems to take so much energy! Clearly I need more practice and more success. Mostly I just need to chill I guess.

So lets write about it, that has to be good therapy, and good practice. So as I laid out my day to relax and chill, I had planned to take off to the lake for the second half of the day, spend the night, do some serious bike riding and then return tomorrow. But after I finished my sports massage I came out and the car would not crank. Not a happy experience under any circumstances, but especially after the car had been in the shop for 10 days!!

Thank God there was a battery store not too far away and so I had a new one installed and off I go. Thought I should give the old car a good test run before packing up and heading out and low and behold, I had a brake caliper or something start to freeze up and make the most awful moaning sounds and then I could smell the brakes getting hot. Got it to release by pumping the brakes some and headed back to the apartment. Since it is a stick shift, I was able to do most of the braking on the way home by downshifting. And since it was Saturday afternoon, pretty much everything is closed until Monday. So no chance of repair until then. And going out of town is now not an option.

So I made the best of a day with all the plans down the toilet and it has been good. Not perfect, but good. Another great cigar and another great view. Thus I got a new battery, but I need new brakes. And I am blogging! Another day in the hairy armpit.



Undervaluing customers is underperforming

It is the end of a long week and a long day. The Renault Dealership has had my car for the last 10 days and basically did nothing to check the problems that the car has been having. I am a low priority customer, because I have an old old car, and I am a foreigner, and I use the car very little relative to other customers . . . but I am STILL a customer. A customer with cash and a future of business to deliver to you, if you treat me well. More importantly I drive other customers their direction, or not.

Plus I am a relaxed customer not bugging you endlessly to put me at the front of the line. A patient paying customer. At least call me and tell me what is going on with the service challenges that you are facing, or the parts problem that you have, or the lack of mechanics, or whatever the problem is . . . but don’t make me call and call and have you never answer the phone, or worse yet come over there repeatedly to see what and where we are with this process. 

Renault service has always underperformed somewhat, but this one was the straw that broke the future we could have had together. Someone else will get that business from now on.

So I am letting them go. Instead of worrying about it any longer, I am putting this all down on digital paper and out of my mind and enjoying a nice cigar on my balcony.



The threat of rain

It can change every plan. But should it? However it almost always does. I wish it hadn't. Wishing I had press through with my plans, suffered the chance of getting wet and cold, even the highly likely chance, would have been better than the change of plans, by the threat of rain. Life will always have such threats, just need to move ahead and bring the raincoat.

When your policies and procedures hurt you and your bottom line

I recently had an astounding discussion with my travel agent about changing my business class ticket for an upcoming trip. Due to the fluid nature of one of the companies I work with, I need to CANCEL the last two legs of this upcoming flight. In other words, I would have been happy to just get off the trip at the end of the first leg and not fly the last two flights all the way back to Skopje.

The company that I work with, would have then just booked me a separate flight to the board meeting in Malta and then on to Skopje afterwards. I was not asking for a refund or credit (though I gladly would have taken it, had it been offered). This potential change in plans would have saved the airline thousands of dollars by freeing up several business class seats on two different flights.

Instead, Lufthansa insisted that I pay 2500 euros in order to save them money, seats, labor and effort, by ending my return flight with them in Frankfurt!! So of course we are not going to take that option. Thus we set about just changing the flight to a single economy seat flight to Malta from Frankfurt, once again, saving them two business class seats/flights that they then could have sold to another customer. They only wanted 900 euros to effect this particular change!

Needless to say, we took none of these options. Lufthansa lost thousands of dollars by not working with me on this. I am sure this makes sense to someone somewhere, but for the life of me (and my client) we can’t figure it out at all. This makes no business sense in any way for a regular business in the for-profit sector. I understand that they have their policies and procedures, but Lufthansa costs me several grand last year with similar situations, when I was shuffling flights because of my brother’s death and my mom’s death. Made no matter to Lufthansa. This is not my idea of business agility or customer service.

The lesson I need to take away here is that I can choose policies and procedures and have all the SOP I want, but they should never be more important than the person who pays my bills and keeps me in business.

Only here? Probably not.

It is a most unfortunate experience, but one I have repeated over and over these past 23 years of living abroad, that the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing, and here I am speaking of governments. I got caught today in another one of those political hamster wheels.

Each year we have to renew our visa’s. So each year we receive a new plastic social security card, with our pic on it. Each year they take that card away from us when we apply for a new one. And in-between these plastic card cycles, we get a white piece of paper that tells one and all, that we are completely legit legally here, etc etc. One of the parts of this annual lunacy is that we are required to purchase the national health care, and that is withdrawn from our local bank accounts each month.

This national health care process is super sporadic and unpredictable, with the bills coming sometimes months late, or sometimes months early, but you generally have about 3 days to pay them (i.e. rush to the bank and make sure there is enough money in there, and sign all the forms with a special teller for such matters at the bank). Then you are good. 

So as I mentioned I am in-between plastic cards, but I have the white slip of paper from the police, and this time the cycle is gonna be LONG between plastic social security cards, because the machine that makes them is broken. So what shows up? Right, the national health care forms for the months of Aug-Nov. I have three days in which to pay before the forms “expire”. So I go to the bank to pay them this morning, and guess what? Right again. The bank will not allow me to put money in the account, nor will they allow me to process the forms for the required health insurance without the plastic social security card. And of course I can’t get the plastic social security card without paying these national health care fees. The circle of government not at work.

A great quitter?

A great quitter?

I need to hone my quitting skills. But I need to do it in such a way that it brings more, not less. Let me explain.

In the book "Barking up the wrong tree" author Eric Barker states, "That’s one of the reasons we all feel so rushed, so tired, and like we’re not getting enough done or making enough progress. We all have only twenty-four hours in a day. Every day. If we use an hour for this, we’re not using it for that. But we act like there are no limits. When we choose an extra hour at work, we are, in effect, choosing one less hour with our kids. We can’t do it all and do it well. And there will not be more time later. Time does not equal money, because we can get more money."

So I need to quit sooner, to the things that give or produce less in order to give more to those actions which produce the best stuff. I need to hone my quitting skills. Part of this is realizing that I am a lazy butt canoe at the core, and that most of the things I need to quit quicker are the lazy ass things I fill my life with. 

Barker continues, "We always think we need more: more help, more motivation, more energy. But in our current world the answer is often the exact opposite: we need less. Fewer distractions, fewer goals, fewer responsibilities. Is that so we can watch more TV? No. We need less of those things so we can go all in on our priorities. The question is what are you going to do less of? What are you going to quit or say no to in order to make time for what matters most?"

Enough said.

The super people eater

The super people eater

These last four days have been people packed. For a mild introvert, it has been exhausting. But this is the only way to get the important stuff done in life and work, since I am also in the people business not just in the idea business. Insult to injury is that I have had no internet connection for the last three days and so all my idea work has been set aside completely and I have ONLY had people packed hours with no mitigating idea work along the way. The super people eater.

However this morning, I am sitting here on a beautiful patio in Munich with a fine cup of coffee, and a Bluetooth keyboard and iPhone (and yes the screen is a little small, but this is a travel lite trip) and the three kids haven't yet descended on me, and thus I can make some idea work time, and even have a decent ambience for it, and the minimum tools. I will connect with the World Wide Web all too soon.

So here I sit gnawing on how to help these folks move forward. They have a solid calling, a solid faith, more than decent hard skills, have raised the money and are now in Munich. But who to work with and in what ways? We have no history or network in Munich so we have to build it all from the ground up. They are going to succeed just fine, but I want to go big, and so need to think out how to help them do that well. Suck it up David and make it happen!

New beginnings, really Apple?

This is the first time I have traveled with the Apple keyboard and iPad Pro along with Apple Pencil, rather than my Logitech Keyboard and iPad Pro. The difference is that I had two Apple Bluetooth keyboard’s, but one hasn’t worked (pairing unsuccessful every time) for 3-4 years, and this one I kept as part of my laptop into desktop set up along with a monitor and trackpad, etc, etc. But I love the feel and form of these Bluetooth keyboards, and so on a whim, I decided to take the one that would not pair, to the iStyle store near me and see what it would cost to repair it.

Only with Apple does this kind of experience regularly occur with me and various repairs over the years . . . they are just gonna replace the old Bluetooth keyboard completely, even though it is long long out of warranty and I haven’t used it for at least three years, (since the keyboard I am typing on also has Thai characters on it, that tells me the latest time frame I could have purchased it)!!!!!!!

So the new beginnings are: trying out this new working setup, with this keyboard and pencil with this new iPad Pro, and I also am trying out a new “ebag” on this trip too, and I already have had one very positive experience with that new bag, in that I did not have to take out my iPad Pro during security! That was excellent! The only thing that I miss of the old setup at the moment is the ability to use the same keyboard with three different  devices, with just the press of one button. 

Now I am gonna try to switch to typing on my iPhone with this keyboard. Pretty certain that I have to pair it to the iPhone separately and that will mean it is no longer paired to this iPad Pro. . . . it was worse than that . . . I had to “forget this device” before it would show up on the second device as a possible Bluetooth device, and then once it did, pair it. Then again the whole process to go back to the iPad Pro with the keyboard. 

Other than that, so far this is a really smooth work setup. Will know better after 6 days on the road. Off to Berlin and Munich we go.

Too much of a good thing?

There is a consistent stream of thought in the leadership world, that those who work the smartest are those who take excellent care of themselves so that they can perform at optimum levels for the maximum long haul. That doesn't necessarily mean working more, but it definitely means working better.

These last three days in Malta have been the best days ever. Except for sleep, I gorged on everything - friendships, conversations, working out, meetings, prayer, food and drink, cigars and thinking. The old me would have felt totally guilty for indulging in all these things, the new me understands that this is actually and practically, top of the line, world class PTA - Protecting The Asset - and I am the Asset.

Is there too much of a good thing? I don't know, and honestly am not sure if that is the right question. Perhaps the question is "is there enough of the good things in order to do a proper smash-up job of self-care in a caustic and demanding world?" So yeah, I crammed a bunch of them in over the last 48 hours or so, but seeing how I am feeling energetic, powerful, creative, in the zone, grateful, empowered, hopeful, thankful, and spiritually strong, I would say that there is no such thing as too much of a good thing.