This blog started as a diary, shared with a couple family members.  It was poorly named and never meant to be branded.  It was just an outlet.  For me.  I never expected or cared if anyone read it, or paid attention.

But now it is becoming a Customer Service blog of some sort, which is cool with me.  I love talking to customers.  They are amazingly brilliant (usually).  They make me seem kinda smart, because I work hard for them, and win more than I lose.  When I help them win, it makes me look like a winner.  More important, they make me feel like I am winning.  I feel losses just as much though – so I never get cocky. (Well not too cocky, I hope).

I get paid to help customers win, and the most cashable paycheck I get is when I help customers win.  It also puts a huge smile on my face.

I’ve been thinking of what I’ve been able to do in the last year.  Helped dozens of events happen because Rackspace lets me sponsor really amazing stuff – sometimes even stuff that seems odd.  I have met the most amazing people – and built closer relations with many that I had already known for years.

I have been to a lot of great events.  SXSW, of course.  Big Omaha, which is a newfound favorite.  TechStars.  Too many to name, and I apologize for leaving people out.  Between me and my employees we have done well over 80 events this year.  That is pretty amazing.  And I am not even counting Tweet-ups,  or Rackspace centric events, Rackspace Recruiting Events, etc.

I helped build HostingforHaiti.com which for the very first time brought companies in our industry together to do good.  We did VERY good, but we aren’t done (feel free to go donate, the link is still valid and Haiti still needs a ton of assistance!).

I added a couple more amazing Rackers to my small team – which currently consists of five (4 Rob’s and a Rocky) but will grow to nine by the next year.

I’ve had the pleasure of hiring a cartoonist.  Sponsoring a beer festival.  Giving a child a chance to live. Or at the very least, live the rest of her life better.

I am a very lucky man, and it means a great deal to me that I have all of these opportunities.

I love that I can do all these things.  I love my company doesn’t just LET me do them.  They encourage me, and reward me  for doing good.  Not for just “making money”.

But I am also extremely happy with how many customers I get to talk to every day.  And pleased I can help many.  And very pleased that my team is growing, so I can help even more customers.

So yes, this blog has turned into a customer service blog, of sorts.  It is still about me, but much less about my stories than about my experiences dealing with customers.

It is more about customer stories now, even if I don’t name them.  It is about what they have taught me, and what I hope I can teach through my experiences.

I have no clue.  Let’s start there.

I know they have a real value – and a better value then a proposed customer. A bird in the bush, and all of that.  I get it.  Customers are valuable.

But what are they really worth?  What relationship do you have with them?  What they spend is often a big factor, but do they know you?  Do you know them?

Who really cares?

A customer is a customer, right?  Don’t they all have the same value?

It would be great if I could say yes. Would give me more credibility in how I talk about customers.

But at the end of the day, no employees or customers are the same.  They have unique value and ROI.

Finding it, and making the best of it – is magic.

If you can talk to a $10/month customer the same way you talk to a $50K a month customer  - well, you might know a bit about social media.  Which is basically, “I get people”.

There is little magic here.

It is really mostly just giving a shit.  Which is hard for many to manage. Or even realize is really important..

It is real though.  Customers love to listen to people that have been there, and walked in their shoes.

People follow leaders.  No matter the discipline.

Lead, you tech freaks – I know you want to!

And I trust you to.

I was a Mac customer during the 90′s – a Newton developer, I helped add wireless to the first Mac laptops (can anyone remember Digital Ocean?) and just loved the Mac.

Then we became a big company with Outlook, and managed desktops – and all that other evil crap. I was moved to Windows.

I took a new job with Rackspace and they asked me, “Windows or Mac?” – I was honestly surprised – I didn’t know many large companies that gave you a choice. I chose Mac.

But that is the story of how I got BACK to Macs – not why. The why is pretty simple.

As a PC user I bought new hardware several times a year – and every time something significant changed (CPU, graphics, motherboard, RAM etc) MS ASSUMED I was trying to steal from them – and made me jump through hoops to prove that I was not. I’m sorry – that shit wore on me. I got really tired of “starting over” every time MS decided I had done something stupid – like buying new hardware, or, for goodness sakes – installing one of their betas!

I do run into some of these issues with MS products on my Mac right now. I can’t upgrade the office 2008 copy I bought because MS thinks someone else owns it (or something – hard to tell).

With my Apple OS’s I buy them. I install them. They work. I might even sometimes bend the rules and install the new OS on an extra machine – one I don’t have a specific license for, but want to test it on different hardware. And it works. These are normally older machines that I don’t use often/at all except for testing – so it isn’t like Apple is losing anything. But under the same circumstances MS would label me a thief – and even disable the functionality of my computer – they cripple their own product!

Microsoft treats me like a thief – which causes me a huge loss of productivity even when I absolutely have the right (per their terms!) to reinstall my SW – *MY* SW – I bought it – remember (and yes, screw the BS about “renting it – that is lame)

Anyway – upgrades work on my Mac. Betas work and upgrade easily. Windows makes it hard and accuses me of being a thief with no justification whatsoever.

So in the last 18 months I have added 7 new Macs to my household, including iPhones and an iPad. I’ve added a couple of Windows virtual machines. Because as long as I only have virtual trust with you, I’ll only run virtual instances of you.

And the way Microsoft has treated a 20+ year customer is virtually criminal.

I’m a fairly high-maintenance employee. I tend to surround myself with people like me – people that are always pushing me, and my company. And I am always pushing. I’m not interested in drones. I want people that cause us to think, and re-think everything we do. Luckily I am surrounded by people like me in a company that accepts people like me.

But people like me are a real pain in the ass.

We tend to want things to happen now, and get bitchy when they won’t happen until tomorrow.

We tend to demand more than even we can deliver – so we question ourselves a lot – even as we publicly state we don’t need a lot of internal “support”. The truth is that we do – we need to know that we are pushing the right directions, and that roadblocks will be removed from our paths quickly, and efficiently.  It takes a team, and a corporate commitment to make people like me effective.

I’m not sure how to even describe what high-maintenance people like me do – we just push, and keep pushing. And when we feel pain, we tend to push harder.  It is painful for everyone.

We aren’t trying to cause trouble – we are trying to do something new, we want to help – we just … well, we are demanding, and that means we are trouble

So if you run a company that has an employee like me, what do you do?

Most companies get rid of “troublemakers”.

Is that wise?

Why people cause “trouble” is the first question to ask.  Is it because they are disgruntled?  OK, get rid of them.  Is it because they are passionate and know you can do better, and should be doing better?  Hang on to them – encourage and empower them.

Why?  They love your business and are your best spokespeople.  Why would you marginalize them?

Businesses that will succeed over the next decade are those that realize everything is changing.  Everything.  Hell, it has already changed.

Embrace it, or run from it.  Do the latter your own peril.

I’m interested in people that push me, make me think differently, and challenge everything I thought I knew.

I’m interested in tomorrow, not yesterday.

Companies that get this will win.  Others will fade away, perhaps because they fire people like me.

Have you ever had the “What I suck at” conversation with your boss/employer/significant other?

I’m damn near 50, so I know what I suck at.  I suck at math, and metrics. I suck at writing documents and I hate presentations.  I have a large list of what I suck at or just hate doing (which means I will suck at it) – and in the last 5-10 years or so, I haven’t been afraid or ashamed of sharing that with my bosses.  My future employers, employees, significant others, etc.

Setting expectations is important.  Before I joined my current company I told them exactly why they shouldn’t hire me – the stuff I sucked at.  They still hired me.  They liked that I knew what I sucked at, and they liked what I thought I was good at.

I hate rules that make no sense anymore, but are still enforced.  I don’t do meetings well. I work better when I want to work then when people normally work.  I work VERY well at home.

I’ve had a number of bosses since I joined my current employer – and the first conversation I have had with most of them is about what I suck at.

Once we get past that, we can focus on what I do well.  And that lets us focus on how to help me do that even better.  And if my company knows how to help me get better at what I love, and what I am naturally good at – well, that helps us all take best advantage of my unique contributions.

If you are in finance, I don’t recommend you tell your boss you suck at math.  Don’t be suicidal, unless you want a drastic change in your employment future. But do be honest with yourself, and if what you do falls into the “I suck at this” category, find something else to do.  Usually you know this better than your bosses do.  You’ve probably known it for some time.

But I am a people person – my employer wins (so do I because it is what I love) when I talk to people.  So we found a way to make that happen.  Sure – there is accountability – but not overbearing rules that slow me down, or make me start to feel that my employer is asking me to do what I don’t like doing. Or what I suck at doing.

We worked together to find a way that we are both rewarded for doing what makes sense – putting me in a role that is targeted at my natural strengths, and minimizes the “I suck at this” parts.

Don’t be afraid to tell the world what you suck at – but know what you are naturally good at.  And make sure the good is good enough.  Actually – make the good great.

Then magic happens.