Randy Pausch - Make the most of "now" while we have it

I got to know Randy when he came to EA for a semester on his sabbatical. I tried as hard as I could to recruit him come and take over EA's Education Program. I was also the guy who had to tell him that while he was there, that EA had made a donation to USC for $8MM. I ended up going to Carnegie-Mellon to meet with their President and Randy so that Randy didn't lose face there. Wow, am I glad that Randy didn't take the EA job. Last night I watched the Diane Sawyer special and have been following all of the articles, etc about his Last Lecture. The number of people he has touched really makes me think that Randy was put on the earth for this moment. Lives are being changed by him making one 90 minute lecture. Randy doesn't talk about whether or not God has His hand in this for him but it is easy to see that the good that comes from what Randy is going through is being used. A few weeks ago we received an email from one of our neighbors in Rhode Island who told us that her husband had been diagnosed with brain cancer. We went on the internet to try and determine how bad it was. It's bad. Last week we got an email directly from him and it was full of funny things that happened at the hospital, a positive attitude and a resolve that he, like Randy, was going to play the best hand that he was dealt and play it well. I am encouraged and amazed by the strength that we see in these people. They have made my life better by knowing them when they were healthy and maybe even more so in their difficult times. What a lesson for all of us in the times when we think we are down and out on our luck. And, when the times are good, it becomes even more important that we make the most of "now" while we have it.

100 Business Days Out: Day 5 - Explanations

Day 5 was spent at Purdue for the inauguration of France A. Cordova as the 11th President of Purdue. Tangentially, I find that very cool that the school has been around since 1869 and this is only their 11th President. I also take a little pride in being someone who has met over half of them. President Hovde, President Hanson, President Beering, President Jischke and President Cordova. I also met President Hicks (who presided twice as interim President) giving me my over half mark. Now, back to Day 5 and why it was a day of explanations. The day was filled with meetings, a panel I moderated, the inauguration itself, the inaugural ball, etc. Throughout the day, I was asked maybe 50 times how I was and what was going on with SNOCAP. So, I got my first real day of trying on the message of "I am not working". All in all, it was not a bad feeling and because of the continued, "oh, how I wish I could take a sabbatical" (which is a term no one other than a university or Silicon Valley uses), I felt okay with it all. I don't really warm to the term sabbatical for what I am doing. A sabbatical to me has a defined time line and usually is accompanied with a set of objectives to meet during that time. I can't say that I have either. And for sure, I don't have my elevator pitch of what I am doing with the time other than "trying to get quiet and listen to see what God might have to say about what I should do next". BTW, once I throw out that "see what God might have to say line", it's an easy litmus test for those who want to know more and those who find it time to bow out of the conversation. I can't say I blame them, we all do it. I mean really, how many times do you want to really stop and listen when someone answers, "I'm having a bad day, thank you". Enough explaining for one day. :)

100 Business Days Out: Day 4 - Drive Time

Day 4 was spent driving through Indiana. This was not that different for me from the past when I might have been somewhere and rather than take a flight that seemed unproductive I would hop in a car for a few hours versus fly. This day gave me three hours driving from Jeffersonville, IN (my hometown and Mother's home) to West Lafayette, IN (Purdue hometown). What was different about this drive time from the past was that in the past I would use this time to return phone calls and do phone business that I normally would not have other time to handle. This 3 hour drive was not that. for the most part (other than one call I got from a friend who needed job advice) this was time in the car, by myself, listening to the radio and thinking. When I am in the car by myself I play a game that my dad and I used to do. I tune through the AM dial trying to find the furthest distance AM radio station I can from the location I am currently driving. This time it was a station in San Antonio, TX. Clear as a bell. So, my 4th day out was all about drive time, or in this case, "non-drive" time. No driving need to do anything other than enjoy the ride.

100 Business Days Out: Day 3 - Ringing

One thing I did upon my change, which was a mistake I will have to live with, was to direct all my calls to my cell phone. When I updated my contacts, which is about 3800 people, I gave them all my cell phone number as my point of contact going forward. I think I have made a mistake. On Wednesday my cell phone rang somewhere around 40 times. And like clockwork most of those calls came in while I was on the phone with someone else. I also got three in the night while I was on east coast time. Not unusual for that to happen other than I now get on my cell phone the calls that people would normally leave on your office phone voicemail at night when they really don't want to talk to you. I also can’t tell for people who I don’t have their numbers in my contact list, who is who, so I end up taking all the calls. That is a bad thing. I’ve picked up calls from a reporter at the NY Times (which might have been better to not pick up), headhunters who I don’t really need to talk to right now and could better be managed over email, etc. It’s not that I don’t like talking to people, in fact, it is just the opposite when you have no outward calls to make, but when you set it up like I have, the phone returns to being very arrogant, interrupting at the worst of times. Where’s the two-line cell phone? One line for personal, one line for business…with different rings for each? Someone get working on that. In the meantime, I gotta get back to my voice mail and see who all those calls were from last night. :)

100 Business Days Out: Day 2 - Little Lost and a Little Rushed

Tuesday I traveled to the Midwest to see my family and get ready for a speaking engagement on Friday at Purdue. It was an uneventful day other than again it is the little things that I have gotten used to that now are not there that throw me off. For 20 years I have always traveled with a printed itinerary that, as I used to tell me assistants when they were preparing them for me, would treat me like I am stupid. If I needed to take 10 steps to the right before turning left, I wanted it written down for me so I could mindlessly follow the directions. I thought it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t have one as I had planned and made my own trip arrangements, but I gotta tell you, the number of times that I put my bag down to pull out the folder to find out what time the flight left, what rental car company, confirmation numbers, etc., was a pain. I couldn’t have created one if I wanted to since I don’t have my new printer hooked up at home yet (it is expected any day now…I have learned how to track packages on FedEx), but let me tell you, this little change had me feeling lost throughout the day. And, when I feel lost, I feel rushed. And I hate being rushed. Again, a little change that "got me" for the day.

100 Business Days Out: Day 1 - Discombobulated

Monday was not that different than a usual Monday in that I got up and got ready for a day of phone calls, meetings, etc. What did throw me off for the day was that as I am transitioning between Outlook inboxes, calendars, contacts, home office, etc. that I almost missed a meeting in Palo Alto at 2pm. I didn’t see that I had it until noon and I scrambled from there on. It was just enough of a scramble to give me the feeling that I am discombobulated…which for me is not a feeling that I am used to. And not one that I like. It will be the little things for awhile that I have to get used to.

100 Business Days Out: Preamble

Come Monday April 7th, 2008 I become, in a self-imposed way , unemployed. After the last 2.5 years as the CEO of SNOCAP, the acquisition of SNOCAP is complete and it is time for me to take some time away to figure out what I "should" do next. I have decided that I need to have some real quiet and focused time to listen and see if I can hear what should be next. Since this is self-imposed time off most people say, "how lucky and how easy this will be". I agree wholeheartedly that this is an extremely fortunate position to be in and I can only thank the Good Lord for giving me the resources to be able to be in this enviable position. I especially feel this way when I see the number of unemployed skyrocketing and thinking what it must be like to be out of work and concerned about the care of family and self. So, I enter this phase of life in the most humble of manners. All of this said, this will be a big change for me. I know I am not the first to go through it and won't be the last, but seldom do I read or hear from others what it feels like day to day to go from 100mph in the work world to a cold-turkey dead stop. For me, who has worked nearly continuously (always having a job or knowing where the next one was coming from and starting) since I was 15 years old (that would be 30 years ago) I am imagining that I can explore and search through the division of my work and self-worth and to test the adage that you are who you are when no one is looking. So, for the next 100 business days, I am going to try and capture my feelings and emotions as I go into what will surely feel like some sort of withdrawal and detox. I only hope that I can be honest with myself so that at the end of the period I will have learned more about myself and what it was that has driven me for so long and more importantly what it is that should be the drivers going forward. If you have comments along the way, please do let me know. Thanks for taking the journey with me. Rusty

Maker of the Universe

On this Easter weekend, Phil Keaggy's song, "Maker of the Universe" says it best:

"The Maker of the universe, As Man for man was made a curse.
The claims of Law which He had made, Unto the uttermost He paid.
His holy fingers made the bough, Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.
The nails that pierced His hands were mined In secret places He designed.
He made the forest whence there sprung The tree on which His body hung.
He died upon a cross of wood, Yet made the hill on which it stood.
The sky that darkened o'er His head, By Him above the earth was spread.
The sun that hid from Him it's face By His decree was poised in space.
The spear which spilled His precious blood Was tempered in the fires of God.
The grave in which His form was laid Was hewn in rocks His hands had made.
The throne on which He now appears Was His for everlasting years.
But a new glory crowns His brow And every knee to Him shall bow."

This is a time to stop and reflect.

Uncle Sam Wants Your ATM!

I read a little tiny story in the USA Today last week encouraging “real geeks” to go and find the new Bank of America ATMs and try them out. The story said that they have now perfected their ATM technology now that you can deposit a check without putting it in an envelope with a deposit slip. Now you just put the check in the machine and it scans it and comes back and has you verify the amount, etc. and then presto you make the deposit with that check right there in the machine in real time. While my eyebrows did raise a smidgen with the advancement, I have already been impressed with ATMs going all the way back to the summer of 1980 when I deposited my first check from Jeff Boat, Inc into the Citizen’s Bank ATM on 10th Street in Jeffersonville, IN. Everyone thought I was crazy. “You can’t trust one of those things”, I was told. “You gotta go in and let them stamp your savings book to be sure”. I have to tell you, in all the number of times I have used ATMs around the world, I have never, never, had a mistake. I mean never. And, I watch them carefully. So, that tells me, along with the newest technology that BofA ATMS now have, that we have the wrong people working on voting machines. Well, maybe it’s not the wrong people, since the same people who make ATMs also make voting machines (the guys that UTC are trying to buy), but it’s that we aren’t thinking about it right. Why are we trying to spend more time building voting machines when we already have everything we need in an ATM. It’s secure, it’s available all over the place, it’s got cameras, you need a password, you need a card, it tallies and posts back to a central location in real-time. What am I missing here? Try it this way. When I register to vote, my voter registration card is not a piece of paper, it’s a plastic ATM card with a magnetic strip on the back that carries all the information needed about me and my party affiliation, etc. It’s up to date at all times. I am given my voter access code/password with my Voter Registration Card (or I choose one). And now, it is election day (or election month, week, or whatever) and I go to any ATM anywhere in the country and I can put in my Voter Access Card. It knows where I am from, what precinct, etc. and it provides me a ballot to vote. I vote using the touch screen. The camera has taken a picture of me. The vote is registered. I can print out my receipt to keep. The vote gets counted. I didn’t have to drive to a polling station, stand in line, sign a piece of paper with my address on it, stand in line again to go into the booth, go into the booth, vote and then watch on TV that night about the irregularities of the voting machines and the problems with hanging chads, etc. Nor do we have to wait hours and days to count the votes. They are already counted the moment the voting time is expired. Tell me again, what am I missing? Let’s do this…get one of the banks to volunteer to test it! That’s right, let’s have one of our fine and upstanding financial institutions step up and offer their ATMs as a test. Imagine all the people who would vote!!! How great would this be?! Wait, is that why we don’t do this, is that what I am missing?

The Price of Change?

I have a friend, Jeff Brown, who says that it is going to take an $8.00 USD gallon of gas to get people (drivers, car manufacturers, the government, etc.) to make the changes necessary to really change their ways as it relates to energy conservation. Well, I felt this week that he was half right. There I stood on Sunday morning filling my Mini Cooper up with (the required) Super Premium gasoline at $3.99/gallon. Okay, it’s not really $4.00 yet, but that fraction of Abraham Lincoln can’t fool me…it’s $4.00 a gallon of gas! My tank took $49.76 of Chevron to fill it up. I would have normally topped it off, but I just couldn’t stand to see the numbers roll over to $50.00 to fill up a Mini Cooper! I have no recollection of the cost of gas when I first started driving but I do remember filling up my 1969 MG Midget for under $5.00 back in 1979. It’s 29 years later and I still drive a car that is about the same size but I pay 10X the amount of money to fill the tank! Eeegads! To put that in perspective that means that the house I grew up in that cost $12,000 would sell today at $120,000. Hmmm…I think my Mother can get more for the house than that. Okay, that means that the comic book I paid, $0.12 for would today go for $1.20! Hmmm…I think they are more expensive than that. Okay, one last try…The Gap jeans, I mean the real Gap jeans that that were $14.99 would be $149.99! Ha, see they didn’t go up that much. But, the D&G jeans I bought not long ago?….well….hmmmph. Okay, so Jeff is right, it’s going to take another doubling of the price of gas to get us on the bus, walking to work, car pooling again, riding our bicycles, putting locks back on our gas caps! I’ll be ready when it happens. Of course the question then will be, what do I do about those $300 jeans I have in my closet?