1 – Wear the most comfortable pair of walking shoes you own.  Do NOT go buy a new pair of shoes now – it is too late to break them in and make sure they are comfortable.  Find that ugly old pair of sneakers in the back of your closet if you must.  Comfort is critical.  You will walk miles and be on your feet 18+ hours a day (if you are doing it right!).

2 – Don’t shake hands.  Fist bump if you must, but so many people coming from all over the world bring in flu strains your body won’t be expecting.  Better safe than sorry (and I’ve been sorry more times than safe, I am afraid).  I also don’t recommend using hand sanitizer right after you shake hands with the CEO of that great company you just met – might send the wrong message

3 – Chapstick rocks.

4 – Don’t carry anything that you can’t fit in your pockets.  You will either regret you did and/or lose it. After 18 hours you will hate that “comfortable” backpack.

5 – Be wary of the weather and pack accordingly.  You will be outside a lot.  And sometimes the weather even comes inside (like it did at our party last year when the roof leaked!). If it is hot, a big floppy hat is a lifesaver. Doubles as an umbrella.

6 – The only thing I carry besides my wallet and iPhone (and the charger) is a bottle of water.

7 – Use FourSquare – that’s how you can find the stuff that isn’t in the official program.

8 – Take advantage of the hallway track.  Some of the best friendships and business deals are made informally in the halls of the convention center.

9 – Party well.  By that I mean have fun, but pace yourself.  There are a lot of parties and a lot of people.  And everyone has a camera phone.  If you end up in a viral video on YouTube, make sure it is for the right reasons!

10 – If you are with others always set a few times and places to meet back up each day in case you get separated.  AT&T did much better with cell coverage/reliability last year than the year before, but relying only on your phone may leave you alone.

Bonus!  See my session!

Got some more helpful tips?  Add them in the comments!

But I never tried to force them into following a programming career.  But knowing they know computers is still important.

My son handed me a rock when he was 12.  He asked me to take it to my then boss.  My then boss was a genius.  He invented raster-graphics, has a ton of patents in WiFi and networking, but he was a trained Geologist.

My then boss talked to me for an hour about that rock.  And I came home and told my son, “this is an awesome rock”.  I did not remember the technical, but non-computer related details that my ex-boss shared. They were extensive, and impressive.  Just not memorable (to me).

Now, many years later, my son declared his Major – in Geology.  The guy has always loved rocks. And found fossils, and perhaps even a couple meteorites.

I know he will be a better Geologist because he also knows computers.  But his passion is in rocks, so I applaud him.

Follow the passion.  If you are doing what you love to do, you will probably be happy.

I can’t write any of that any better than anyone else has already done (and possibly not even any worse).  At best I could come up with a smarter title and better marketing – so perhaps my book would sell better than someone else’s book. But it would not add any more real value to the conversation.

I would love to add a chapter to each of these books though.  I would call it something like, “When to (politely) tell your MGT to go to hell and do what you need to do to make things right”.

Of course, I have never, and never anticipate telling my MGT to go to hell – I’m not suicidal.  I have had lengthy conversations about which of us are correct though   But does my MGT know how far I will go, how much hell I will raise, and how many people I will wake to serve a customer?  They do.  You don’t get a title like “Chief Disruption Officer” by swimming in calm waters.

My chapter would focus on making sure that your organization had that guy or gal that cares more for customers than anything.  That isn’t afraid to get fired for fighting for them.  Because they are expected to do just that.  They are paid to raise a bit of hell, wake up a couple VPs if needed.  Call the Chairman of the Board on a Sunday, if that is what it takes.

This is a customer advocate at best. One that is unafraid, because they are expected to err on the side of the customer.

Many have discussed the notion of the employee who is “untouchable” – meaning they can’t get fired without a huge payout (hell, we do this in sports all the time, why not do the same with customer advocacy!?!).  That gets them the freedom to never sacrifice customer experience. And it is mostly a good idea.  But like everything, it is not a perfect idea.  It could be abused and used for purposes other than serving customers.

I actually like almost the opposite of “untouchable” – I like the notion of “damn near fired” more

I like it when I push us.  I like it when I make us uncomfortable with finding a solution to a customer issue.  I like that I am sitting on the edge of the wall – and that I could easily be pushed off if I don’t stick to what is right, what is true, and what is fair. And do it in such a way that everyone wins – at least a little.  YOu can never succeed if your goal is to create a loser.

You become as close to “untouchable” as you can get by trying to find a way for everyone to win.  And it isn;t a balance, because it is hardly “even”.  Even is generally where you are at when you get invited into the conversation – everyone thinks they have already given too much.

Winning is getting one of them to move, just a bit.  And having them feel good about it.

That was before I came to work for Rackspace.  Recently Hugh was in San Antonio, and he toured our corporate headquarters in a once abondoned 1.2+ million square foot shopping mall.  He saw the worlds largest (certified by Guinness!) Word Search puzzle.  He saw the only known functioning escalators in a hosting company’s offices.  We had a good time, and later went out for some BBQ with a few Rackers, and guests from the community.  It was a great day.

While he was here, Hugh and I started discussing him doing something involving Rackspace.  Working with a number of other Rackers (Rackspace employees), we decided that we wanted Hugh to focus on what we are most proud of – what makes our company unique, and why the number of employees has doubled since I joined 26 months or so ago, and why our customer count has risen just as quickly – even in a down economy.

So here is his first cartoon – and I really enjoy it.  I thank Hugh for making this one special as my very own personal “cube grenade”

Our motto is “Fanatical Support” – which is based on our unique culture.

This is the first in a series of cartoons, blog posts, etc that explore why culture is important to us, and why a culture of service – to each other, to customers, and to our community is so important to our success.

I am hoping this series starts a conversation about culture, and service.  So feel free to comment!

Hugh’s original post is here.

Rob

I’ve never done a good job explaining WHAT I do on a day to day basis. I am sure some coworkers will be just as interested as anyone. In a company of over 3K employees, it is hard to know what people do. Especially people like me. Why?

I work at home most of the time. I manage a nomadic team, so they don’t need me in their faces every day. I trust them to do their jobs, and they trust me to let them. And when I work at home, I work with customers. A lot of them.

I am also part of a larger team that understands that I add a different value – one I can’t add in an office. Usually, at least . I trust them to appreciate me, and to ask me for help when they need to. And I often ask them for the same. They are amazing people to work with, and they have a ton of my respect.

I spend my days, and nights (on good days and nights) talking to customers. Or potential customers. I love what I do, and who I do it for, so I spend a lot of time and energy doing it. I honestly don’t mind talking to a customer at 2am. 6am is harder for me though .

I run Social Media for our company. And that is a pretty big job – we get a lot of mentions on Social Media. Our entire Social Media plan consists of two words though – “Be Helpful”. Not a lot of fluff there. No 37 slide PowerPoint Deck. We are singularly focused on helping our customers win. No fluff there.

I love customers – even one’s that aren’t happy with us – I spend a lot of time with them. I try to “fix” whatever we broke. A promise or a process has probably failed us. We are a big company – that happens. I want to fix it. It is not my job – it is my passion. My team has adopted it as their passion.

I’m empowered to cause change – and I empower my employees. And I have interesting employees. I have AMAZING employees, in fact:

Two Linux Senior Systems engineers that know more about hosting than I will ever know. Robert (Robot) Taylor and Robert Collazo have spent most of their technical careers helping customers.

Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica, who bring life to building43.com, and introduce us to amazing people that just need a bit of help by someone that just gives more than a shit. That’s why we do building43.com – it is helpful.

Yes – I have a team of five, and four of us are named Robert. And we have one Rocky. It DOES get confusing!

But we all have the same focus – to care for customers, share their successes, and help them build the value they deliver to their customers – that is our goal – we all win together. And it is our commitment. It is so simple.

And it is so fun! If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong.

We have a different thought about “Social Media” than many public companies. We think we need to have a staff that knows the company and the products so well that they can actually FIX issues we see on Social Media. And we do. I am the former Director of Software Development for our Cloud. Robot and Rob Collazo are engineers that have built and supported our company for years. No fluff there either.

We also support and appear at as many events as we can possibly support. As recruiters, engineers, evangelists, speakers – it is all the same thing. We want to be where customers want to talk to us. And if that is on Twitter at 2am, you have a good chance of seeing me tweet my home phone number. Or one of my team reaching out to make sure we help, at almost any hour.

So yes – I love my role. I can touch a lot of parts of the business. But mostly, I can interact with a huge number of our customers – and help us find new ones. Mostly because I have a lot of people supporting me – from my employees, to my managers, to my coworkers.

And our Senior Leadership Team that is just willing to “think different” – and allow me to try some crazy ideas, (responsibly) and see where they take us.

And where they take me – which is to places I would not have imagined just 2 years ago when I went from a customer to an evangelist.

Find a company you love. Then find a job there. Then find a way to help them win. It is an amazing feeling.

You really can’t hire people that have the dedication my team has. You can inspire them, and empower them – trust them, and have fun with them. The right people weren’t looking for a job when they found you though.

They were looking for a mission.

Create one.

When you have more servers than almost anyone in the world, you can host a lot of sites.  Hosting them is one thing – servicing them is another issue completely.

We are a hosting company with a service problem.  See – we just love serving customers.  Sure, we serve billions (or more) web pages a year – but we do that by focusing on serving customers. People serving people.  Sounds simple.

There are a lot of companies in our line of work.  There are very few of them that are entirely focused on our line of work though (some also sell books, or operating systems, or girls with hardly no clothing hawking domain names,  or search results, etc).  And fewer still that have been committed to a quality customer experience for as long as we have.  Or at all.

Our chairman likes to play a little “trick” when he does public speaking events.  He asks for a volunteer from the audience that has a cell phone.  Then he gives them the general dial in number to our offices.  And he asks, “What do you hear”?  It is always a human – and almost always within three rings. I put “trick” in quotes because it really isn’t a trick – we answer the phone.  With humans.  Humans in one of our offices – customer experience and trust is something we care far too much about to entrust to a third party call center – or the endless loop of auto-attendant hell, “Your business is important to us.  Please stand by.  Your business is important to us,  Please stand by”.

Human interaction is what we do.  It is our core business.

So how do you grow a “service company” in these times?  It’s manpower intensive!  Everyone seems to be cutting back, yet we keep investing in people.  Sure, we’re buying a heck of a lot of servers as well – but our investment is in people – as it always has. People grow our business.  People are the foundation of our business.  People are the future of our business.

The economy is tough, yet we have continued to grow.  Why?  Because we are cheaper?  We aren’t.  In fact – you do pay a premium when you entrust us with your website, your business application, or your remote file storage.  Why?  Because you aren’t just buying a service or a server – you are buying good old fashioned service.  The kind gas stations used to give, and bed and breakfasts still offer.  The human touch.

So we cost more – how are we growing?   It’s really simple.  People are willing to pay to not have to worry about things.  Daycare, dog-walking, pick-up and drop off dry cleaning – they all work off this same premise.  It isn’t rocket science – but it is rather tricky to pull off.  It certainly doesn’t just happen.  It takes a commitment at every level of the company – from the newest hire to the most senior Exec.

And scaling it is even more interesting.  Growing from 1000 to 3000 employees in a matter of a couple years isn’t easy – ask anyone that’s done it.  Unless it is an assembly line (and even then I argue it is difficult) it tends to dilute your culture – and your level of service.

How do you avoid that? (it sounds really ugly!).

Well it is ugly – and it can poison a company if it’s not managed.  By people (again, that people thing?).

Culture isn’t something you can just claim.  It isn’t something you can just train.  It isn’t something you can just “invest in”.  It is something you live – by the experienced teaching the inexperienced.  By customers reminding us when we stray.  By looking back at those 6 year old videos and realizing that what we want to be tomorrow is what we were yesterday – a service company full of great people building a great company that is fun, and entertaining, and educational.  For employees AND customers.

And always, always truly helping customers.

I love customers. Hate cameras. I’ve always focused on making sure the focus is on someone else.

So how in the heck did I get nominated for several panels at SXSW Interactive? Blame it on the PR machine I do.  And they spelled my name wrong – it is “La Gesse”

But whatever – it is what it is – and I love these panels. I could talk about most of this in my sleep so I think my stage fright will be overcome quickly (besides, when Scoble works for you, you damn well better not be afraid of cameras!)

So what are the panels?

Glad you asked – here they are:

OMG My Customer Has a Megaphone

Companies used to get away with treating customers like livestock with no repercussions, but now customers have a megaphone: the social web, and they’re not afraid to use it. Hear from Rackspace and other customer-centric companies as they share real case studies and tips about how to embrace Customer Service 2.0

Building and Creating New Business Models in the Cloud

New models for product development and marketing using social media tools and techniques which truly engage users, partners and developers are emerging. Join Lew Moorman and Robert Scoble from Rackspace who will discuss Building43, a new online community breaking down barriers to new ideas for business, and changing the world.

Managing a Crisis in a Hyper-Communicative World

Today, crisis can spread like a disease, mutating and growing as it goes, and wreaking havoc on your reputation, customer base and sales pipeline. How can you take back control, not only for the benefit of your organization, but to best guide your customers and investors through the situation?

I am most interested in the second one, but most excited to talk about the third one.  And I love the first one

I am a customer guy – so I love all of these.  I would relish doing ANY of them.  I would probably be overwhelmed if I had to do all of them!

Voting supposedly closed today, but rumor has it that you have until Monday.  Doesn’t matter.  I planned this post for AFTER voting was closed because I’m just not that “whore myself out” kinda guy (except on Twitter, where I have damned near begged for votes!). OK, perhaps I am.  Whatever

If you are interested in SXSW – or me, or Rackspace, or customers – go see if you can still vote!  Click a link above.

Rob

I know what I want.  I want to amaze customers.  I know I need support, and when internal systems fail me, I bitch.  LOUDLY.

I know customers depend on me, and the promises I make.  I get pissed if we miss a promise. And I bitch.  LOUDLY.

I am trouble.  I do NOT apologize for it.

I know some of my leadership wonders just WTF they were thinking by hiring me.  But I take care of customers.  So I generally make them happy.  Making people happy is what I love more than anything.

I am trouble.  I don’t accept ANYTHING because that is “the way we do it” and the “norm” generally annoys me.  I don’t care “how we have always done it”.  I don’t want to hear about “rules” if they slow me down.  I want a superhighway – I want nothing in my way.  I want no stoplights.  I just want to help people do what they are best at doing.  Building a website, managing a server, etc.  Doesn’t matter, as long as we make it easy.

I am trouble.  I know this.  I warned my employer before they hired me.  I’m not trying to hide the fact.  I am actually proud of it.

I won’t settle.  I demand a lot.  From my employer, my coworkers; my customers, even.

I also bust my ass

So before you become Trouble, make sure your are worth the trouble.  Am I?  Every day is telling.  Every challenge is telling. Some days I am more trouble than I am worth, I am sure.  But most days – most days I kick ass and help customers.  Most days, I am worth the trouble.

So far, my employer is standing up pretty damned well, and standing behind me.

So if you are going to be Trouble. make sure you know what value you add.  And make sure you and your employer have some level of agreement.

But if you ever get the chance to be trouble, and get away with it – you can do some amazing things!

If you work really, really hard.

Really hard.

Otherwise trouble will get you fired.

It’s not easy – and it shouldn’t be easy – you have let a customer down.  A process, or a promise, has broken.

So how do you “deal with” a really angry customer?

First off – you better really care about them, because if you don’t, you are screwed.  They will know it, and they won’t trust you.  Customers know when you are blowing smoke – even if you are REALLY good at blowing smoke.  Set your corporate and personal values high – and live up to them.

Second, it helps if you can put yourself in their shoes – particularly if you have actually been in their shoes.  I manage customer relations for a hosting company (although I am not technically IN support) – so it helps that I have been hosting web sites for well over a decade.  It helps even more that I was a customer of my employer for years before I became an employee.

Third – and most important.  Don’t lie.  Don’t EVER lie.  Customers can forgive a lot – but they will not forgive a liar.  When I can’t tell a customer something specific I just tell them that I can’t answer that.  Simple. And when I honestly don’t know something, I tell them that. No harm in not knowing every answer.  Extra credit if you know where and how to get the answers, and get back to the customer quickly.

Fourth – don’t try to funnel customers into a “system” for support.  Support customers where and when you find them.  They may not like your systems.  They may prefer Skype, or Twitter, or comments on a blog post.  Don’t expect customers with issues to find you – you need to be looking for them – and talking to them wherever (and whenever) you find them wanting help.

Fifth – have a personality.  Be human.  Customers relate to real people.  Be open, and honest, share your contact info – make it VERY clear that you exist to talk to customers.  When you leave a blog comment, leave your entire title and phone number.  I “Tweet” my home phone number at least a dozen times a month.  I *want* customers to find me – taking care of them is my job.  Actually – it is more than a job – it is what I love doing.  And that leads us to #6.

Sixth – if customers annoy you, and you are in the service business – do us all a favor.  Get. Out. Now. I often have my waitstaff at restaurants replaced if they just don’t seem to like their jobs.  Sorry – I am paying for more than food – I am buying an experience – and if that includes listening to someone bitch about how much they hate serving me, I just get a manager to replace them.  I don’t feel bad about it.  If they get fired, they deserved it.  They aren’t suited for this line of work, and better they find out now.  I deserve the experience I am paying for. And that brings me to number 7.

Seventh – don’t put up with bad service.  When you allow a company – ANY company to give you bad service, and you don’t complain to correct, you are setting the new standard.  You are in actuality lowering that standard.  Demand more.  From everyone.  Don’t tolerate mediocrity.  Demand more, don’t settle.  Ever.

Finally – I know customer support can seem like an “expense”.  But when you look at the cost of customer acquisition – a good support representative – one that really “get’s it”, and loves it – they can be a gold mine for your company.

Avoid the burn of churn and support customers where, when and how they want support.  They will love you for it, and you will profit from it.

We depend on a network, and so do all of our customers – so we employ multiple redundancies in that network.

But mostly, we are a people company.  That is why it didn’t surprise me a few weeks ago when I went to console a fellow Racker who lost a parent – and recognized several vehicles from coworkers that arrived before I did.  Another network.  A human one.  Again – with a lot of redundancies.

That is why our (now pretty damned frequent) birth announcements are always met with congratulations and words of wisdom, humor, and just plain support.

We are a young company – look out though – we are breeding like crazy!

I’ve worked for companies that pretended to feel this way about employees.  Said the right things.  Sometimes did the right things..  Usually didn’t.

Now I work for one that gets it.  Really.  It isn’t BS for investors, or a ploy for recruiters.  The care, concern and affection that exists here is real.  Nothing about it is fake.  These people look out for each other, and have each others backs.  And know each other.

And it is all about building a great community that makes a great place to work, and eventually a great business.  Many companies haven’t figured that out (yet).  They are trying to build great companies at the expense of employees and often even customers.  They have no legs.

That’s back-asswards.

Take care of your employees and let them build something great.  And they will take care of you, and your customers. And your business will grow, and it will grow stronger over time.

I’ve ridden every color of this pony there is, and I like the horse I am hitched to now.

Build by hiring caring people that are passionate about customers.  And let them show it.

And you will win – and you will have employees blogging about you – using their real names, because they are proud of where they work, and what they do.

Enlist them instead of enslaving them.

Rob

I’ve even got a post on the new site.  But it isn’t my site.  It belongs to the community that builds it.  You can join that community.  Learn how here.

It’s been a blast working on the site.  This is something completely fresh – from the graphics to the design.  The content and the idea behind the site – all new.

My employer, Rackspace, is backing the site.  It is an interesting challenge.  It has been from the day we decided to hire Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica.  Interesting because the idea is so unique that it is hard to describe.  A site that has no revenue model.  No marketing message.  It exists to help people use the new Internet to improve their own websites.  Particularly businesses.  If we help a business increase sales 10-15%, perhaps they will hire another employee.  Perhaps the increase in their sales means on of their vendors needs to hire more help.

Perhaps we can help the struggling economy one helpful post at a time.  Who knows?  Since it’s not been done in this way before – nobody knows.  But we have sure busted ass trying to find out!

I encourage you to go look at building43.  I am very proud of what the team has built.  I am proud to have my name associated with it.  And I am very, very happy that Robert and Rocky are with us on this project.  On paper, they work for me – but in actuality, we all work for the same purpose.  We all have a burning desire to build something truly meaningful – something truly helpful.

Let me know what you think!

Rob

We screwed this posting up in a couple of ways (at least).  We wrote it like we were hiring someone impersonal and or detached.  And we didn’t consult the people already doing this work.

We’ve made great strides in Social Media/ Customer relations over the last months – but this shows we have a bit to learn.  We don’t have an overall corporate strategy on social media (yet).  We haven’t driven the message internally on who “owns” this (yet).

These are the things I get to help with.  This is why I think I have one of the most awesome jobs ever.

This is why 100 hours a week doesn’t feel like work.

I work for a company that is letting me influence these things – and they are listening, and giving me not only a voice, but a mandate.

In fact, they think I am moving too slowly

How cool is that?

I like a lot of diversity.  Some say I thrive on chaos.  Fine – I agree with them.  But it isn’t exactly chaos I enjoy so much. Chaos is chaotic!  I do like things to be in some control, but I also like to change things up often.  I have a short attention span, but I can have very sharp focus when I need to… just not over a lot of time.

I love the fact that in my current role I may be planning an event, or talking to a large new customer.  I may be helping a current customer, or discussing Cloud Computing on a podcast.  I may be acting as an evangelist, or courting a new one.

The fundemental thing that never changes though is that I love learning and teaching.  That’s why I find Building43.com to be such an intersting project.

Our goal is to teach real companies, real businesses, and real people how to use the Internet “for the win”.

You run a small business?  Have a web site?  Does it suck?  I bet the answer is yes.  Most do.

But what if you could bring your site to life?  What if you could populate it with real people.  With your customers?  What if you could make it truly “alive”?

Is that hard, or expensive?  Turns out it isn’t.  It isn’t even complicated.  It IS a bit confusing.

Building43 aims to clear that confusion – to show you how simple it can be to turn your static website into a dynamic community for your customers.  We want to help you make more money.  We want to help every business grow.  Lofty goals, I realize – but if you fail to shoot high, you will fail to deliver much.

This won’t be easy.  At first, some won’t trust us – fine, we will earn that trust.  Some won’t believe us (and some never will).  Won’t waste time on them.

But if you want to join us – in a community of teachers and learners – stay tuned.  We’re close to launching!

Rob

It has been an amazing four years for me – I have been able to spend time with my kids as required – but mostly I have been able to spend an inordinate amount of time learning.  Ten years ago I learned by reading books – today I learn more by surfing the Internet – it is still reading, but it is so much faster, and so much more available (and “find-able!”.

One of the things my time in consulting has taught me is that I miss people.  I miss the challenge of building teams – not just hiring people, but building functional groups that work well together to build more than any single persons could have done.

So, taking stock of my life, as I am often wanton to do, I asked myself, “What is next”?  In a year I will have two kids in college, and perhaps neither of them left at home.

It was time for me to answer the question, “What does Rob want?”.

So I looked back in my life experiences and tried to zero in on what made me the most happy – what did I love to do so much that I could do it for the rest of my life?  Raising children certainly tops my list – but I can’t raise them forever – in fact, I am already being outsourced in that position – by my children themselves.

Raising children is like building good teams – the end goal is that eventually they won’t need depend on you anymore.

I decided I needed to go back to work with people – preferably young, energetic people, and certainly people smarter than I am.  I have always been lucky in surrounding myself with people smarter than I am (and please – PAUL! – no comments that this should be easy – it isn’t).

This realization came over a several month period – I didn’t wake up one day having come to this “epiphany”.

I missed building teams.  I need to work with smart people.  I MUST work for a company that understands that I am a unique person – I am opinionated, passionate, determined, outspoken, opinionated, and outspoken.  And I am sorry if I repeated myself.  And I am sorry if I repeated myself.

I need a company that doesn’t exist outside of startups – I needed security, because I will have two kids in college.  It must be nimble.  It must be willing to listen, and learn – even as it teaches.  But I also needed the excitement that keeps me engaged.  I need to constantly invent.  I need to work with smart people that will make me smarter.  I needed to be someplace that allows me to make a difference every day.  I needed to build something that affects a lot of people, because after helping build WiFi – it takes a big project to be a “big deal”.

And most of all – I need to be able to help.  My work must have value – to me, and to the people I work with.  And to the customers – who I never shy away from or refuse a conversation with.

In the next day or two I hope to share with you the company that is all of that, and more.  How much more is something I expect to find out soon – and something I hope to grow over time.

But don’t worry – I won’t change my blogging style/habits.  I wouldn’t work for a company that thought they could control my freedom of expression outside the office.

The list of companies I wouldn’t work for is rather large.  So I’ll save you that and instead share with you in the next couple days who I would work for – and I will tell you exactly why I made that choice.

He was referring to the fact that I blog a LOT of personal opinions – even some stuff that is embarrassing. I mean, for crying out loud – I show humanity here!

He asked the question in the context of my current quest for meaningful and fulfilling employment – he was concerned that I am making it difficult to market myself. Especially he was concerned about my CoA and CoB post of two days ago.  And in a sense, he was right – I now know that both CoA and CoB read the post.  I got reactions back from both of them.  Guess which one gave me positive feedback, and which expressed concern?

But what he doesn’t realize, at least not fully – I am not just interviewing for a position.  I am interviewing companies as well.  And the company that understands and accepts the fact that I am human – and that I have opinions that I cannot keep contained within the aspects of my job – that to me, I am both defined by my job, and help define my employer through my work – that is the company I want to work for.  And if I am somehow “vetting” them through my blog, then so be it.  If they find this uncomfortable then they probably would not be happy with me anyway.  And I probably would not be happy with them.

On this blog people can learn who I am – what makes me tick, what I think is important, what enrages me, energizes me, and what I am willing to do to make a customer happy.

My friend disagrees.

He works for a fortune 500 company, and in his world, I probably would agree with him.  In his world my honesty in my blog is probably a negative. My free sharing of feelings about everything from overbearing corporate entities, power-infused doltish police officers, employees that fail to measure up  – all of these things would be negatives when it came to working in his world.

But I do not have any interest in working in his world.  I have tasted that world – and while it treated me well for some time it eventually changed me.  Into something I was less than pleased with.  I started fitting the mold – instead of questioning the questionable rules I started to enforce them – almost blindly. I was assimilated.

It is no wonder I lost the luster for what I was doing.

And honestly – my loss of focus on what was really important probably cost more people their jobs than just me. I lost the drive to “build beyond all else”.  I fell into the trap that most mid-level managers fall into – I thought I was important.  AND – I needed my paycheck.  I had grown accustomed to the power, and the salary.  I forgot that the most important thing was building products, and teams, and bridges within the organization – instead I played a defensive role for almost a year – one that cost a lot in the totality of its failure.

But unlike a lot of mid-level managers  – I learned from it.  It took me a while.  I stepped back for several years and reconsidered what I liked doing, and how that fit into what I am good at doing, and how I can get paid for doing things that I enjoy.

After an initial ambitious play at building something huge I settled down to build a few small successes.  I needed to “get my groove on”.  I needed to find my happy place and decide what I really wanted to do/be when I grew up.

I am lucky – I had the opportunity – both with my family, financially, and most importantly emotionally and intellectually to just step back.  To re-connect with the guy that made me successful in the first place.  To remember what it felt like to build something significant.

I am not a perfect human being.  Chances are I never will be.

What I am today is something better than what I was when I was winning awards – I am complete – intellectually and emotionally.  Today I know what makes me happy.  5 years ago I always thought there was something more than what I was doing.  But what I was doing was pretty cool – and I didn’t take the time to appreciate it because I was always more concerned about “what is next”.

Today I know what is next.  Build one great team.  Then build the next.  Nothing in my professional life has given me more sense of fulfillment, and nothing else ever will.  I build teams, and I can live with that – rejoice in it, even.

And I don’t regret [most] of my blog posts. I am who I am – and part of me is someone that needs to share life experiences.  For me.

My daughters’ High School ranked  446th.  Not too shabby.  San Antonio has twelve of the top 1300 spots.  Not bad – but we can do a lot better!

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way

America’s Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

I am so looking forward to this!  Marc Silber is an extremely talented photographer (and a really nice guy).

I have exchanged a few messages with Marc over the last year or so and he is always interesting, engaging, and kind.  The PhotoWalk he did with Scoble last year is still one of my favorite Scoble videos.  I have embedded it below. 

I’ll let you all know via my blog when Marc gets his first PhotoCycle episode is out.

A new Camera that you can ride? Nope. Its our show that will be launched soon on FastCompany.TV, so named because it covers the whole cycle of photography beginning with inspiration and visualization, tricks and tips, through to the final print and even how to sell your work. Well be introducing you to the masters of photography and take you along on our PhotoWalks.

Photo Gallery – Marc Silber

The Civil Rights Tour is one wonderful example of that goal – my son went on the tour two years ago and it changed him.  I expect it to have the same affect on my daughter.

I wish more of our public education system tried this hard to really educate kids.

Itinerary : Monday Feb. 11 (arrive around 10 p.m.) and Tuesday Feb. 12 (check out Wednesday a.m.) Birmingham, AL

Tuesday sites: 16th Street Baptist Church, Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, Kelly Ingram Park, Civil Rights Institute.

Wednesday sites: NASA Space and Rocket Center (Huntsville, AL); drive to Montgomery, speakers at Alabama State University in evening. Wednesday Feb. 13 (check in Wed. evening, check out Thurs. morning) Montgomery, AL

Thursday sites: Voting Rights Interpretive Center, Edmund Pettus Bridge (Selma, AL), Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Alabama State Capitol, Civil Rights Memorial Center

Junior Team Alabama Trip Contact Information