A Bit of Who I Am

Who We Admire

2012-02-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

While I love an underdog story, i.e. Tebow, Lin, Warner, I dislike with equal fervor, the over-hype and the need to somehow make these people more than they are...athletes with a tremendous work ethic who finally got the opportunity to showcase their dedication. Why put these guys on some kind of moral and religious pedestal? Are we in such need of heroes that we look to people who play for a living as our role models? From Bruce Almighty, "...a single mom who's working two jobs, and still finds time to take her son to soccer practice, that's a miracle..." Well I say, a single mom who's working two jobs, and still finds time to take her son to soccer practice, that's someone who I respect more than Lin or Tebow. Look around you today and you will see that your role models are all around you...your wife, husband, kids, parents, co-workers, etc. Every day we interact with people who sacrifice tremendous amounts to reverse the forces of nature that are pulling this world into chaos and decay and instead make this world a better place not only for ourselves but our children and our children's children. If we spent as much time talking about them and their amazing feats as we do tweeting, chirping, discussing the 3 pointer than Lin hit last night, then we too will join in the fight to make this a better world.

Kudos to Lin, Warner and Tebow, they deserve the rewards they receive, but they will not get an ounce of my hero worship. All my respect goes to other "Lins", Lynn Walters, who taught me even though her hands and feet were crippled by arthritis and she lived in constant, throbbing pain. To my own mother, Vanessa Lin, who lost her parents to a firing squad at the tender age of 11, moved to a completely new country (USA) in her teens, moved to a completely new country (Colombia) at the age of 18 and then birthed and raised eight children...and that's just the beginning of the hardships she's endured. To my wife (married to a Lin...ok, it's a stretch) who somehow finds the time to be an amazing mother while working full-time to make our Industry more socially responsible ensuring that toxins aren't being dumped in rivers, helping eradicate child labor from factories in China and working tirelessly to make sure that the world we leave our children is not a grey, lifeless, barren, polluted wasteland.

Heroes are all around us. Look away from You Tube and look around...

Supply Chain, A Competitive Advantage

2011-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

This week Business Week published an article about Apple's competitive advantage (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/apples-supplychain-secret-hoard-lasers-11032011.html). Frankly, this is not the first article, nor most insightful article, about this topic but it inspired me to this more broadly about supply chain...

(Petty comment first: I frankly dislike how everything Apple does now is treated like a new revelation...fire from the gods, if you will. Enough said.)

About seven years ago we started laying out a plan for how supply chain could become one of our competitive advantages as we tried to turn around Sony Ericsson. A few elements (there were many more) of our plan were:

establishing a transparent demand-creation process with the regions
providing our factories and suppliers with clear visibility to changes in demand in exchange for record-short lead-times
co-location of component manufacturing for custom components so we could do JIT customization of our products
direct shipment of product from factory to customers

Our work paid off and we were able to create a competitive advantage that helped bring back Sony Ericsson from the brink of bankruptcy. However, this supply chain was built for speed and agility; what Apple has done is build a supply chain for speed and technology.

Seven years ago, Nokia was the king of the supply chain. Their presence was ubiquitous; every supplier either did business with Nokia or wanted to do business with Nokia. Nokia was a benevolent king using their power judiciously to better the lives of their subjects (the suppliers). Later, when Sony Ericsson became also influential in the supply chain, they too were a benevolent Baron (king is too generous). Some of the underlying philosophies behind how Nokia and Sony Ericsson managed their suppliers were:

A supplier controlled their own destiny. If they provided quality, continuity of supply and competitive pricing then they would always have access to new business.
Partners, not just suppliers. Nokia actively worked with their suppliers to develop technologies, improve their factories, establish better processes. Suppliers were developed into partners.
Always "do the right thing." "Doing the right thing" was a philosophy that helped guide decisions whether it was about making sure the suppliers were environmentally responsible or making sure that suppliers brought in business from competitors so they wouldn't be too dependent on business from Sony Ericsson, etc.

There is a new philosophy that is taking over supply chain and it's not based on benevolence. If Nokia was Henry IV, then we are now under the rule of Henry VIII. I see a mindset of hoarding, short-sightedness and callousness starting to heavily influence.

There are some who believe that everything they touch is theirs. Reminds me of Stingy from Lazytown (http://youtu.be/AX5sIRop-M0). I could change the words to be "that flash memory is mine, that CNC machine is mine, that QX display is mine"...you get the point. The truth is that every company has a right to hoard those technologies that they develop but many times that thinking extends to technology that the suppliers developed and it keeps those suppliers from giving other companies access to technology. It's bad business for everyone except the company at the top of the haystack.

There is also a general lack of accountability for the supply chain impact on the environment. Let's be honest, would anyone buy a smartphone if they knew that somewhere in China the production of that device was giving a little child cancer? I hope not. China is going through a similar transformation as the US did back in the first 75 years of the 20th Century where rivers and lakes are being polluted, toxic material is being dumped (here we call them super fund sites) and people are suffering as a result of that carelessness. The difference between what we did and what's happening to China is that we learned our lesson and should be carrying those lessons with us as we manage our suppliers but that is not always the case; many turn a blind eye.

When I was a kid everyone called me an "old soul", now they just call me "old" (ok, 38 is not very old) but the reason was because when I looked at situations, I did so with a perspective that spanned multiple generations; I understand that there was a yesterday and there will be thousands of "tomorrows" and the decisions we often make today or made yesterday can make life very difficult for those who we've entrusted with "tomorrow."

My main concern is that there will be a new generation of supply chain practitioners who will grow up idolizing companies who are short-sighted in their approach. Hell, who knows if Nokia, through this transition, turns their back on their own philosophies.

A perfect world would be one that combines hunger for technology demonstrated by Apple and the benevolence of Nokia past. This is what I plan to do in my next role...

On The Precipice of Cynicism

2011-09-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

The two years since I left Microsoft has been defined by uncertainty, excitement, amazement (both good and bad) frustration and seemingly insurmountable challenges and so, it's no surprise that it's also been a high growth period both personally and professionally. Never in my professional life have I been so exhilarated, disappointed, amazed, puzzled, excited and yet so utterly devastated. The highs have been high and the lows have been low.

These past two weeks have been the lowest "low" I've encountered.

No Limits

I can be a cold, calculating, analytical, emotionless individual (truth be told, I'm not this way very often). Hell, I've made interview candidates cry on multiple occasions, cut off acquaintances on a whim, had a driver fired for being late with a delivery...you get the point. However, there are three areas where I turn off that side of my personality and open myself with no limits.

1. My love for Sofia. The first time I started realizing that I was falling in love with Sofia, I decided that I would set no limits to my love for her. There are so many people that love conditionally whether they realize it or not. Love is tied to "what have you done for me lately" and becomes a laborious process of listing all the good things and bad things that each partner does to and for each other. For me, I would rather be alone than halfway in love. Could this have backfired? Of course, and I knew it could the minute I decided to love Sofia unconditionally but it was clear to me that I would rather love unconditionally and have it backfire than love conditionally for the rest of my life. Fortunately I bet on the right person because loving Sofia has been the best decision I ever made.

2. My love for my kids. The moment Sofia called me in Kuala Lumpur to tell me we were expecting, I opened my heart completely to Siena and she has filled it to the point of bursting. When Oliver came along, I opened my heart completely to him and the most amazing thing has happened, I love him as fervently and passionately as I do Siena...the more I love them, the more I am capable of love.

3. My work and my people. Here is a quote from Steve Job's commencement address at Stanford.

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

So many people will take this advice to mean "don't take a job until you find the perfect job" and that's a stupid way to act on this great advice. What I've discovered in my life is that often times the search isn't for the perfect job but for the perfect attitude in that job. A person can be in the "perfect" job and be "settling" and someone can be in a shit job and love it. How can that be? I believe that it starts with mindset and desire; the mindset that says "I will find a way to make a difference in this role" and the desire to actually execute that difference in your surroundings. Mothers don't tell their kids to go into Operations but in every role I've had in Operations I've been able to find those areas where, if I applied my intellect, passion and drive, I could make a difference. Although Operations was never my life's ambition, it has not dampened my ambition to be great.

So with my work I am "no limits." I don't believe in spending half of my day...valuable time I would be spending my the true "loves" of my life...in a job where I am just passing time leaving no noticeable legacy.

When I was asked to run Operations and IT for this WebOS GBU, I instantly saw two huge opportunities:
1. With the scale and power of HP we could finally breakthrough with WebOS and make it a viable alternative to iOS and Android. The opportunity to be on the ground floor of something so potentially huge and to be able to build a world class Operations practice along with the growth was too much to pass up.
2. I would finally be able to shape an organization with the values that I always wanted to see in a workplace; trust, transparent accountability and respect. Finally, I would have the chance to create a place where people could come to work to do their work not to play "please the boss;" a place where people get rewarded for their achievements while being held accountable to deliver on their commitments; a place where people sacrifice out of desire, not out of fear.

One year into this journey, we were starting to see the beginnings of something great. My leadership team was collectively the best team of leaders I had ever seen running an organization. We had a group of unselfish, passionate, driven, highly intelligent employees who put their egos and agendas aside and were focused singularly on our goals. The organization had just accomplished the seemingly impossible having cranked up a dormant supply chain and ramped it in record time to deliver hundreds of thousands of Touchpads in a matter of weeks. Materials, Planning, Manufacturing, Repair and Customer Service teams all worked night and day to prepare for our first generation of products. The dedication was awesome to watch. I was (and am still) so proud of what was accomplished. Then BOOM!

Here is one of the articles where I found out that dynamite was being used to blow up this dream. http://www.forbes.com/sites/briancaulfield/2011/08/18/wait-what-hp-kills-webos/. Ironically, I was at a team building event where I was thanking my dedicated, passionate, amazing employees for the work they had done in ramping up and ramping down the Touchpad supply chain when people started walking up to me with their WebOS smartphones showing me the news. And just like that, it was over.

So I stand on the precipice of cynicism looking back at the last year wondering if I should have been so "sold out" in my dedication to this dream; wondering if I needed to push my team as hard as I did; wondering, frankly if it was worth the sacrifice. Should I have approached this opportunity differently knowing that at any time, one person (or a few people) could reach down from their gilded thrones and snuff us like a malodorous candle?

No, cynicism is the enemy of passion and without passion, the drive down Central becomes a dreary march towards irrelevance; life is short enough without settling for irrelevance while we are still breathing.

Heaven and Hell

2010-05-19T22:19:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I had a very vivid dream that I just can't forget. In my dream I died and went to heaven...no, that is not a clever way of saying that I was dreaming of being on a Riva (http://www.riva-yacht.com/) yacht! I really did die and go to heaven.

When I entered heaven, I was truly puzzled. I looked around and all I saw was Earth but it was not the same Earth that I had just left, it was a pristine, unpolluted, breathtaking, awe-inspiring Earth! There were beautiful mountains, white sandy beaches, amazing foliage and most surprisingly, really beautiful houses and buildings. Surrounding me were many of the people I knew from my life and, of course, all the people I dearly loved like close friends and family...and oddly enough there was a disproportionate amount of children! Unlike the teachings of the Church, these people were not sitting on clouds playing violins, they were actually doing normal, "human" work like tending the gardens, building structures, taking care of animals, etc. The only way I can describe it was that it was Earth in its un-ravished, unpolluted state being cared for and maintained by people who were happy, content and completely at peace. The only way I can start describing how we all felt in this "heaven" was by telling you to close your eyes and imagine the times in your life where you were the most at awe....whether it was watching a sunset, or listening to beautiful music or looking into your babies eyes...that is just a glimpse of the fullness, wonder and love that filled me when I stepped into this "heaven."

I turned to God, who was just "one of us" in appearance (reminds me of the song "what if God was one of us") and started asking a million questions but he (or she, can't remember) just sat me down and explained.

"You see, what you see in front of you is Reality. Before you 'died' you were actually in pre-reality state and when you 'died' that is actually when you left that temporary state and started living. Everything you knew before, that you thought was reality, was actually just temporary place where your true character was being discovered. As you lived in that place you made lots of choices and while you thought you were making choices for that moment, what you were actually doing was deciding which reality you wanted once you left your temporary life. All of what you knew as 'life' was actually just a testing ground to see if you really wanted to come here or go to the other world." (By the way, I didn't see the other world, but I assume it was just Earth devoid of all the goodness.)

It suddenly became crystal clear to me. Everything I thought I knew before about life and the "hereafter" was exactly opposite. I didn't live and then die, I pre-lived and then lived! My "death" was just a transition from pre-reality to reality. It dawned on me that the Catholic Church had it wrong when they said that when you die, you go to Purgatory, i.e. a holding place where your fate is decided, what I knew as "life" was actually a Purgatory of sorts where I made choices that determined where I truly would live.

Now, to be clear, this was just a dream but honestly, it was the first time in my life that heaven made any sense to me. I completely understood how the choices we make now affect where we go when we transition over to our new lives. It also gave me such a different view of death as being not the end of anything but the beginning of everything!

Finally, in my dream I understood that when a child dies for whatever reason, it's actually going to a beautiful, safe, caring place where it will never experience pain, hunger, sorrow... it's just doing it sooner than those of us who live longer. And since children are born pure of heart, when they "died" they automatically went to this beautiful "heaven" to continue their lives. That is why there were more children than adults.

When I awoke from my dream, I felt a weird mixture of awe and sadness. Awe at the dream and sadness at the fact that it was just a dream. I'm not even the slightest bit arrogant enough to think that I truly did get a glimpse into the "hereafter" but with all my heart I wish my dream was true. When you boil down many of the religions of the world, at their core they encourage caring, love, understanding, respect, truth, benevolence and tell us to stay away from pride, anger, killing, cheating, etc. In the context of my dream, religions are simply saying "choose wisely now and you will choose your life." I wish religion was this simple...

I wish...

Some random thoughts about our place in this world

2009-08-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

All this talk about race...
white people arresting the black
black people resenting the whites
white, black, black, white, green, yellow, pink
aren't we all children of one DNA strand?
Is your X blacker than mine?
Is my Y somehow less colorful than yours?

All this talk about religion...
does your god love less
or hate more?

All this talk about politics...
since when is an elephant more noble than an ass?
When did we start letting donkeys and elephants think for us?
Oh what an ass we have become!

We fight phantasmal enemies wildly thrashing about in a stupefied panic beating away ghosts of religion and apparitions of nationalism until we are left mere shadows of humanity who have forgotten how to breath the fresh air of Life.

Have we not evolved past these insignificant separations that we choose to honor as truth? Color, race, religion, politics...all so finite in the light of the real truth which is that we are all mere specs of light in the infinite history of Being. We can choose to shine a brilliantly as we can for the smidgen that we exist or allow our lights to be squelched by pride and greed.

History will no more remember our petty quabbles for which we so willingly died and so expeditiously hated anymore than it remembers the senseless reasons why cavemen beat each other with blunt instruments...all that will be left will be the stains of our ignorance.

Let's remember the hundreds, thousands, millions...billions who have walked these hallowed moments before us...who have filled these scared halls of time with laughter, tears, joy and leave behind a legacy of light.

Live
Love
Think clearly
Honor each other

Our Handicaps

2009-01-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I went to the grocery store and at the checkout a mentally and physically handicapped (challenged) young man who asked me if I needed help getting my groceries to the car. I wasn't really paying attention, didn't understand him and asked him to repeat himself. Halfway through him repeating the request it dawned on me that he was handicapped and the oddest thing happened...I got really nervous. I sputtered out something like "no thanks" grabbed my stuff and headed out to the car. Since then I can't stop thinking about why I got nervous? I've presented or talked to large audiences, to very senior levels of management, to presidents of companies, even to a hot Swedish girl at my work (okay, I was really nervous the first time I approached Sofia so that doesn't count). Why in the hell would I get nervous talking to a mentally and physically handicapped teenager? I never have before.

This question has hounded me for a couple weeks and here are a couple theorems:

1. Perhaps I was just caught off guard. I am, after all, fairly absent-minded and just wasn't prepared for that exchange. Of course, that's too simple an explanation.

2. Maybe it's like my issue with racism. When I moved to the US from Columbia, I honest-to-goodness did not know that people judged each other based on skin color. Call in naive but that's what happens when you grow up in the middle of the jungle. I didn't know about racism, didn't have the term "racism" in my vocabulary and certainly didn't practice racism. Oddly enough over the next few years, I learned racism from both whites and blacks (the "in" term during those years). The more I learned, the more I was puzzled because my young mind could not comprehend how someones skin color could in any way have anything to do with anything. I kept saying to myself "skin color is only a thin covering on your body, so what's that got to do with what is inside the person?" Unfortunately, the more I learned the more difficult it became for me to feel free around "black" people. I found myself censoring everything that I said to a black person to make sure it didn't have racial overtones and the more I did that the more awkward I became and which led people to believe that I was racist. (Even in this paragraph, I felt bad saying "black" because that is not the right PC terminology.) So sad because in my heart, I love or hate all people equally regardless of race, education, sex, height, etc. People are people...black people are people, white people are people, yellow people are people. "People" is the common denominator. However, I am prejudiced against mean, hateful, arrogant, hurtful, demeaning, dishonest and pompous people...all internal, not external traits.

So, how this relates to the handicapped (challenged) boy is that I might have been rattled because society has put so much emphasis on not seeing handicapped (challenged) people as being different that I over correct my reaction to make sure I was not violating social norms.

The truth is that while this might be part of the reason I got nervous, I still didn't feel like it was the whole reason.

A couple night ago, something happened that made me fully understand my reaction.

Every night I go by Oliver and Siena's beds and I check on them to make sure they have covers or are tucked in or are breathing (yes, I am paranoid) and while by their bedsides, I say a little prayer of thanks for the amazing gifts that we have been given. Well, the other night, I was laying in bed after my little ritual thinking about how fortunate I am with the amazing people in my life...Sofia, Siena and Oliver...when the thought crossed my mind "would you still love them as much if they were disfigured, or mentally challenged or not as smart as they are?" I thought about it for a long time and came to the conclusion that yes, I would love them as much. The reason is because when I think of Sofia or Siena or Oliver, I actually don't think about what they look like on the outside or of all the individual little things that make them amazing but somehow I'm able to look inside and what I see is pure goodness and beauty and that makes me fall in love with them over and over again.

So I'm laying there basking in these good feelings and the thought crossed my mind "do you see yourself the same way?" After much deliberation, I realized that I just cannot look past all my defects, character flaws, physical flaws, painful memories, mistakes made, etc. to see the goodness and beauty that resides inside. In my heart, I know there is lots of goodness inside but my mind puts up such a stink about my handicaps that it completely overrides my heart. I realized that every time I've tried to convince someone that I was a good at my job or in my abilities or in my character, it's only been myself trying to convince myself that in spite of all my handicaps, I am a good person inside. (Of course, this is completely linked to the hundreds of hours of preaching that I was exposed to growing up where I was told that we are all sinful, hideous creatures that can only be redeemed by grace, but that is for another blog entry altogether.)

Finally, I realized that I got nervous around the young man at the checkout is because I saw in the flesh a representation of the way I view myself inside. He reminded me of all the ways that I am handicapped inside and it rattled me. I'll bet that inside that person in front of me was a pure, beautiful, amazing being but what I actually saw, in that split second, was a personification of the way that I often view myself.

So, what's my point? I am learning to get comfortable with the beauty and goodness that resides inside knowing that it's greater than all my handicaps, mistakes, painful memories, etc. And I think if we all take the time to do the same, we will find ourselves so much more at peace with ourselves that we just might start taking the time to see each other for who we are on the inside, not for all the things we are or are not on the outside. We focus on the expression "love your neighbor as yourself" as a reminder to love each other but the hidden gem in that expression is that if we don't love ourselves, then it sure doesn't bode well for the neighbor!

A beautiful day

2008-11-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day in the US. After all the fighting, bickering, finger pointing, lying, exaggeration, etc. we have come together to make history. I am completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of what happened today. Five things stand out for me:

1. Never before in history (what I know of history) has the son of an enslaved people risen to the top position in the country without bloodshed, civil war, anarchy, etc. Amazing.

2. I can't think of another country who's had the opportunity to reach back to the darkest period of its history and redeem itself. Sure, voting in Barack Obama in no way erases the ugliness of slavery, segregation and prejudice but it is a huge step forward towards redemption.

3. The crowd cheering Obama was not a black crowd, or a minority crowd, it was a crowd of elated, overjoyed, hopeful Americans. I saw tears flowing from the eyes of white people, black people, young people, old people, minorities, majorities...basically Americans.

4. Three years ago Sofia and I were living in Sweden and travelling in Europe and everywhere we went the US was spit on, mocked, reviled, cursed. What a difference one man has made. Just go to any newspaper in any country in Europe and see the admiration, excitement, joy. One Swedish paper said it the best "today, the good America has reappeared."

5. There in no doubt in my mind that Obama is a man of destiny. Remember that Bill Clinton almost lost the election over having smoked pot and yet we have just elected a man who admitted smoking crack. We have just seen a man with no real political background, no blue blood running in his veins, no family connections to the White House, no ethnic entitlement become the next president of the US.

Not since Ronald Reagan has someone stirred in me the fires of patriotism like Obama did tonight. I am so proud that my little children will grow up with an African American in the Whitehouse because it will completely change the race conversation for them.

Now, I hope that Obama approaches the office of the presidency with the same class, zeal and determination as he did his election. I hope for the sake of this moment in our history that he turns out to be not only a great orator but also one of the greatest presidents in our history.

Finally, I pray that he is kept safe. If someone harms him or his family, we as a country will never be able to lift our head again in pride at the progress that we have made. In that way I hope he is completely unlike JFK.

Emma

2008-11-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

Update: Emma has concluded her treatment and her leukemia is in full remission. We are very thankful for her health.

My little niece is fighting for her life having just been diagnosed with acute leukemia. If you want to follow her progress, you can do so by going to this website.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/emmaeinhorn

Nathan

WMDs or WMFDs

2008-09-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

Is there anyone else besides myself that finds it sadly humorous that this Administration embarked on a 600 Billion dollar journey (originally was supposed to cost no more than $80B) to look for WMDs in Iraq and all along the Weapons of Mass Destruction were located a few buildings away from the Trade Center in the offices of Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Freddie Mae, Freddie Mac, Goldman, etc. These "dirty bombs" of gluttony, greed, irresponsibility and yes, even fraud are the WMFDs (Weapons of Mass Financial Destruction) that are threatening to bring this proud country to its knees in a way that no Al-Qaeda dirty bomb could. Now, us, the American tax payers have to step in and bail out these houses of financial worship. LET THEM BURN! Where was Washington when thousands of companies went bankrupt when the Dot-com bubble burst? Nobody submitted a bailout plan for WorldCom, Enron, AOL, Global Crossings, etc. because they knew that their demise was primarily their own fault and that our economy would be better off without them. I understand that our economy will probably go through a major correction or even depression if the government does not intervene but isn't that survival of the fittest?

I remember just about a year ago when these financial houses were making record earnings and doling out unprecedented bonus packages. There was such an infusion of wealth in NYC that the city ran out of yachts, exotic cars, high priced condos, etc. Now, not 18 months later we the struggling tax payers are asked to step in and bail their greedy asses out? No damn way! LET THEM BURN! At least in the Great Depression there were bankers jumping out of buildings which meant that they were feeling the pain. Now if a banker jumps off a building, it's because he/she is doing some base jumping. How times have changed.

What pisses me off the most is that I find myself unable to believe a word that the current administration is telling us about this crisis. Hell, the reasoning for invading Iraq was pretty damn airtight, wasn't it? Anyone remember Colin Powell in front of the UN with the satellite photos? Seven years after that pack of lies and after having sucked $600 Billion from our economy (imagine if we had that money now to spend salvaging our economy) we are being fed these irrefutable facts that if we don't mortgage our future then the economy will collapse. What if they are wrong just like they were about Iraq? What if we go with this bailout and they underestimate it the way they did the war ($80B to $600B)? Will we be left with a 2 or 3 Trillion dollar problem? And, what if they're wrong and our economy is capable of handling such a dramatic correction? I fear that we will be mortgaging the future of this great country to bail out a handful of greedy bastards. Hey Paulson and Bernake, why don't you donate a proportional amount to this bailout? If in the end it costs me $30,000 to bail out these banks (10% of my net worth) then each of you should pony up at least $100M each. Feel our pain!

Unfortunately, in the end, this bailout will pass. These banks will stabilize and in 5 years be recording record profits. The USD will continue to drop in value and my dreams of realizing the American Dream will haunt me until I'm 75 and working as a porter at a swank hotel somewhere opening the doors to some smug, filthy rich, calloused banker who just might or might not throw me a Yaun as a tip.

Who I'm Voting For...

2008-09-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

I really hate the way this election has devolved, once again, into an chicken pecking contest. We are no longer discussing substantive issues like the economy, national security, education, our needy, health care but rather discussing whether Biden told a cripple to stand or Palin had a clear opinion on the Bush Doctrine (does he have a doctrine?)

The Market meltdown last week was scary as hell but reinforced one of my core beliefs which is that it's not as important who we elect to be our next President but rather who that President appoints to his/her Cabinet. Notice how completely absent both Mc Cain and Obama are right now in the face of this financial crisis. All either of them can do right now is jump up and say "yeah, me too!" The truth is that neither of them have the ability to get us out of this mess without a team of very intelligent, experienced people. Simply put, Obama does not have the experience to be our next President and Mc Cain does not have the intelligence. So, who they pick to be part of their team is going to make my decision for me.

I am not ready to jump on the Hollywood-driven bandwagon of Bush haters. Being an amateurish student of history, I can't help but think that there are a couple good things to come from these past 8 years (Africa, Peak Oil, etc). However, one thing I think History will remember clearly is that Bush consistently made bad Staffing decisions. Let me list some obvious examples:

Greenspan. I understand that at the time, he was globally recognized as the greatest Fed Chairman that ever lived but just take a look around.
Head of EPA. He basically drove Whitman out at a time when the EPA needed to play a key role in transforming our country from a selfish, resource-hoarding nation to a nation who cares deeply about the precious resources we have been given.
FEMA. Katrina, need I say more?
SEC. The Bush administration has overseen two major Market meltdowns and underlying both has been wild speculation, lack of any kind of oversight and just plain greed. I think it's fair to say the SEC has seriously let us down.
Ethics oversight. The whole Republican party has morphed from a party that used to represent values and morals to the party seemingly on the take.
Iraq. From the original guy who bungled the transitional government to the lack of oversight on the $ Billions sent over to Iraq to the way that contracts were awarded without any kind of fair bidding process, the whole Iraq war has been a neon sign of poor staffing decisions.
FDA. How many cases of poisoned food and poisoned toys have surfaced in the past 8 years?

I could go on and on but you get my point. The only government agency that has done anything in the past 8 years has been the FCC and they mainly have been Nazi-like in their abolition of nudity on TV. Frankly, that's the one agency I wouldn't mind failing. I would rather have nudity on TV than a financial meltdown...but that's just my opinion.

In conclusion, I am waiting anxiously to see who Mc Cain and Obama nominate for their Cabinet. When I see intelligent, seasoned, cross-party candidates being nominated, I will vote for that presidential candidate. That is how you will get this Independent's vote.

Thoughts...

2008-04-13T12:26:00.001-07:00

Drums from an ethereal land beat in my soul.
The rhythm is clear but the destination is unknown.
So I march one day at a time hoping and believing
that when my time on Earth is done I would not have marched in vain.

Be faithful to the beat one day at a time, I’m told
soon enough the fog will lift and the you will see the reason for being.
And so I patiently wait, driving myself to uncover the beauty of every moment, the fullness of every day
and I wait…

But I don’t wait alone…not anymore.
Just when the drum beat was starting to fade
I found a lover, companion and friend.
She is the fuel that keeps me marching, the reason for my being.

And now our house if filled with the laughter of two little angels
and our lives are filled to overflowing with the joy of these gifts.
Who would have thought that the journey would be this much fun?

So, will I ever reach the land of the beating drums?
Will the incessant call to greatness ever lead me to great things?
Who knows but one thing I do know
I love marching arm and arm between two angels and a friend.

Abe Lincoln--Not a Candidate in 2008

2007-03-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Mr. Obama would like us to think that Honest Abe is making a comeback in 2008. Now, I like Obama and might even vote for him despite his obvious lack of political experience but he is no Abe Lincoln. Then again, nobody is like Abe Lincoln...a man who rose out of nothing, overcame insurmountable odds, had nothing really going for him and yet was somehow able to strike a balance between the eradication of evil and preservation of a Union...the exactly right person for that moment when our country teetered on the edge of collapse. To measure yourself against Abe Lincoln even by geographical association is by default falling short of his greatness because history seems to indicate that Lincoln did not spend lots of time measuring himself against anyone, he marched to his own beat.

Yesterday some of us were discussing the new book "Team of Rivals" and the conversation came around to whether or not Abe would have been elected if he ran today. The obvious conclusion around the table was that he wouldn´t have a shot in hell. He did not posses the looks, charisma, political connections, star power, etc. that a modern day presidential candidate needs to make a legitimate run for the presidency.

Obviously, it´s silly to lament the fact that Abe would not be elected in today´s political environment since there is no way to gauge whether he would actually be the right guy for the problems that our nation is facing today but it does leave me also wondering if "the right guy" would be elected in today´s world. What mean by "the right guy" is the person who is the most qualified to lead America through the unique set of challenges and opportunities that it´s facing today. Here are my thoughts on some of those challenges.

1. Terror
I remember as a child in Colombia hearing every day about some new bomb or kidnapping or atrocity. It was not foreign for us to hear about the babies being killed and filled with cocaine in order to smuggle cocaine into the US or the local policeman having his daughter kidnapped only to find her in an alley a few weeks later missing her eyes or to have the bulk of the Chief Justices gunned down. When my family moved back to the US, I was amazed and in awe that we could walk through K-Mart with no fear of a bomb or through the Mall with no fear of being kidnapped.

The sad fact is that the world that I found in 1983 does not really exist anymore. I guess it´s inevitable that in the next decade, some crazed extremist will detonate something in a public place, the question is where and when. The problem is that our tactics for fighting terror are as outdated as the American Indian´s tactics for fighting for their land using bows and arrows. Our next president needs to worry more about learning how to fight terror at its roots of poverty and ignorance and being a symbol of courage during those times when an extremist attacks one of our malls rather than whether he/she pisses off the right or left wing.

2. Global Perception
I love the US. I love it´s history, I love it´s freedom. I love what the US has done for the rest of the world in the short time that it´s existed. In summary, I am a huge fan.

Unfortunately, as I travel around the world, the glimpses of America that I see is not the America I love. The fat, obnoxious, loud, ignorant man/woman in the sweat pants with a fanny pack around his/her fat waist is so common that it´s become a cliche. I cringe when I enter a US international airport and the line separates into citizens vs. non-citizens because what is left in the "citizens" line is not something I am proud of joining. Why do I bring this up? Well, when you couple that with the view that the mainstream media is portraying of the US, it becomes food for the hateful and ignorant.

The US is in a desperate need of a PR job and not just so we can feel better about people loving us. Hell, who cares if people like us or not! What is important is that we need to stop feeding the hatred. We in the US have really no idea how easy it is for people who dislike the US, have a limited education, are poor and hungry and have no reason for living to have the dislike turn into gut wrenching hatred. And you know what? We are so angry at Mr. Bush for ruining our image abroad that we attack him with hatred and that in turn validates the hatred that people feel towards our country.

We have such a HUGE opportunity to make a major, major difference in the lives of people all over the world with our resources. Our next president needs to help divert the focus of our beloved country from escalating greed to contagious compassion. He/she needs to galvanize this nation around helping the unfortunate, not spend his/her time wining and dining the lobbyist.

3. Political Divide
Simply put, we need a president who has the courage to do what is right for our country, not what is right for the Republican or Democratic party. I think the country (I know I am) is so sick of the bickering, hatred, tearing apart that exists in Washington and wants someone to focus on moving our country forward regardless of political affiliation.

4. Our Poor
You don´t have to go to Sudan or Darfur to find poverty, just drive over to the "wrong side of the tracks" once in a while. I know our country was founded on the philosophy that anyone can succeed with enough blood, sweat and tears. Hell, I´ve never taken a handout from the government, had nothing as a kid and yet somehow find myself better off than 75% of the rest of America. But, this is no excuse for ignoring those who don´t have the will to bleed, sweat and cry. Oh, I hate giving up hard earned money to help out those "lazy bastards" who refuse to hold down a job but honestly, I don´t feel any better hearing the kaching! of the cash register at Best Buy as I purchase yet another electronic that I will use maybe 2 times this year. From that perspective, is money used to help out those who can´t help themselves less honorably spent that money spent feeding the Greed Machine in the US?

We need a president who genuinely cares about our poor and our underprivileged. Let me ask, with the amount of wealth that we have in the US, is there any reason why any child should ever starve? that any person should be refused treatment at a hospital? I think not.

5. Environment and Natural Resources
I left this topic until last because it´s such a hot topic in the Media today. It´s "sexy" to be environmentally friendly. However, the truth is that America is recklessly consuming what little resources we have. We can turn a judgemental eye at the Chinese and Indians (from India) because of their population and lack of conservation but we will never be able to stand in judgement while still consuming more resources than those two countries combined. The sad fact is that we have the brains, innovation, technology and money to radically make a difference on this front if we can just get a president who will lead in this area and not worry about those fat, arrogant, despicable kings of the oil industry! This will take, perhaps, the greatest courage of all.

We need another Abe...not Abe the man, but Abe the perfect leader for a crucial time in our country. Unfortunately, I don´t know if the political machine will allow him/her to be elected.

Ted Haggard, etc.

2007-02-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was reading an article that trumpeted that Ted Haggard was 100% Heterosexual. Are you kidding me? Is that what matters here, whether Ted Haggard is fully hetero or still partially homosexual? Here are my views on this whole "scandal."

First of all, I am sorry for his wife and kids. I came from a religious background where preachers were worshipped and put on a pedestal almost on equal level with God. I can´t imagine being his kids and now having to question everything that has been told to them from the beginning. When I walked away from that religious group, I had to question every element of my beliefs because every fact, opinion, prejudice, interpretation of the Bible, etc had been sold to me as "word of God." When I discovered that wearing shorts was not a sin, then I was left to wonder "what else is not a sin?" Now, I imagine his children will have to deal with the ridicule and shame as well as the wondering.

Secondly, where I think Pastor Ted and all other pastors like him went wrong was not in having sex with a male prostitute. Yes, that is wrong but that is also human nature. People make mistakes...little mistakes, big mistakes, non-hetero mistakes, etc. I think that where he went wrong was in someone believing that he was something more than just a messenger boy. What I mean is that preachers, pastors, evangelists, etc. are all supposed to "deliver the word of God." They are not god, they are not The Word of God, they are the ones one who deliver The Word.

Imagine with me 500 years ago during the Middle Ages. A king sends out a messenger throughout the land to tell everyone that the king is creating a new holiday. Well, that messenger is pretty smart and says to himself "you know, everywhere I go, people listen to what say." "People pay so much attention to me that it´s almost like I am the king." The messenger then proceeds to ride into the next town pretending to be the king and by doing so gets worshipped, gifts, women, wine, etc. What would happen when the king hears that the lowly messenger forgot his role? I suspect a quick hanging. Well, the point of my little fake story is to illustrate that this is where these messengers of God go wrong. They start believing that they are more than just a messengers just because people listen to them, respect them, come to church and give gifts . They are not The Message nor are they the ones that author The Message, they are just the messengers.

If I was a pastor, the first thing I would tell the congregation was that they should expect mistakes from me, sometimes big, sometimes small (but not non-hetero). I would further remind them that they were not there because of me but because they were there to get a "message from the king."

Pastors are no more inhuman than the humans they talk to. As a matter of fact (having known so many pastors), pastors are probably more prone to err because they are expected to be above-human 100% of the day. You and I can go to work and then come home and leave work behind. Pastors are pastors all the time for as long as they are pastors. In many ways, they are the toilets that flush out all the shit out of the congregations so it should not be a surprise when the toilet get stained a bit.

Jimmy Swaggart, James Baker, Ted Haggart...the list goes on. As long as these guys continue buying into the myth that they are more than a lowly messenger boys, they will fall. Watch out Benny Hinn.

Parenting--How Scary

2007-02-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

See that cute little cow? She is our pride and joy. She is also the reason I spend hours at night freaking out. I know that all parents worry about their children and my mom had 8 kids, five of them in the jungle and we are all OK (knock on wood) but it seems like every day when I open CNN or other news websites there is yet another story of someone bringing harm to another child. Maybe it´s the fact that news is so pervasive, so ubiquitous that we hear about things happening in obscure parts of the world more often than our parents and their parents before them. But, it´s not just obscure parts of the world. How about right in the US or in Europe...places that claim to be civilized. There are numerous stories of people leaving their kids in garbage cans or fathers murdering their whole families or kids in Florida getting abducted and killed. Has it always been this way? I cannot bring myself to raise a finger against my daughter no matter how tired or frustrated I am yet there are people out there bringing harm to helpless children every day.

Anyone who raises a hand against a helpless, defenseless child is absolutely cowardly, weak, heartless and despicable in my eyes. Just this morning I was holding Siena in my arms and marvelling at how defenseless she is and how much she trusts 100% that her mom and dad will protect her from harm. Every time she stubs her toe or pinches her fingers in the drawers she runs to her mom for comfort. I cannot imagine how a parent can go from a defender of a child to someone who brings violence against children.

Let me tell you a story that has burned in my mind for years. I was at Wal-Mart and there was this family in front of me. This little girl, about 3 or 4 years old, was chatting away to her mom and dad like little kids tend to do. The dad told her to be quiet. She kept chatting away. So, he drew back and backhanded the little girl across her face. (I am shaking in rage just remembering the incident) . Now, I don´t mean a little slap but a full roundhouse backhand which snapped the little girl´s face around. The mom did nothing because it was a family of ethnic origin where the father was considered to be The Authority. I was SO ANGRY! Everything in me wanted to jump that miserable asshole and beat him to a pulp. However, I didn´t. To this day I wish I had done something but I just feel that violence (even if in defense of a child) only breeds more violence.

I implore all the adults out there to stop violence against children. If you must, beat up another adult...someone your own size but there is absolutely no excuse for harming a child. To the Christians who have read in the Bible so many times "spare the rod and spoil the child" I believe that when you raise a hand against a child in anger, you are no more excused than a stranger who walks up to your child and beats them up because they are angry at the world.

These are the thoughts that keep me up at night...

Who we benchmark...

2007-02-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

This week, I have been thinking a lot about benchmarking, innovation, leaders and followers in the corporate world today.

Innovative Ideas

Recently a friend of mine from my former place of employment, SonyEricsson, received a President´s Award for an idea that ended up contributing $Millions of Revenue (and profit) to the company due to it´s ability to prepare the supply chain for unforecasted increases in demand. Now, I was in my friend´s office when he started thinking about this idea and we bounced back and forth how it could be put to practice. My first reaction was to insist that he needed much more "science" behind his idea but in the end he implemented it in a very basic, simple way and booyah! the results were overwhelming. This got me thinking...I have all these amazing (or so I think) ideas running around in my head all the time! These ideas are all over the place from ways to reduce water in the bathroom (I happen to believe that water will be more of a problem some day than oil) to how Dell can fight back against HP! However, what is very discouraging sometimes is that I see time and time again that for whatever reason (I think mainly due to the "quarter mentality" that seems to permeate corporations today) what companies are looking for are ideas that are quick, simple, easily executed and provide immediate results. Corporations don´t really want innovative ideas that truly "fix" problems in the company if those ideas don´t show immediate returns. The truth is that my friend´s idea would have been an unmitigated disaster in a different situation where the market was requiring less products than they were planning.

Benchmarking

Think just a few years ago. What are some of the companies that were prime candidates for benchmarking? Meaning, which companies were companies that everybody wanted to benchmark? Here are a few. Dell, Samsung, Motorola, Sony, Lucent. See a trend? All of these companies are right now experiencing some kind major slump, or are coming under lots of criticism or in some cases are companies in crisis. I find amazing that when a company comes out with great results people are so ready to follow anything that they do. Ever read about how some of the creative hunters used to hunt for buffalo? They would scare the hell out of a herd of buffalo and get them to stampede right off the end of a cliff! Well, our corporations today have the same tendency.

A year ago, Motorola could do absolutely no wrong. They had the slimmest phone on the market which was flying off the shelves. Everybody wanted a RAZR! The margins were incredible, sales were high and many articles came out lauding Motorola´s creativity for allowing this skunk project to become a viable product. My first thought was..."wow, it´s too bad that it was a skunk project". Why? Am I against skunk projects? No, but the truth is that companies that are successful for a long period of time don´t stumble on success but rather find a way to ingrain it in their culture. When you stripped away the gloss, the praise, the adulation, it was clear that Moto had stumbled on two wow products in 20 years...the StarTAC and the skinny StarTAC (RAZR). Now, a year later, everybody is slamming Moto for not having a creative portfolio. How things change in just a year.

How about Dell. I have seen their operations and I can tell you there is nothing out there like it. They are the Devin Hester of supply chain (fast, agile, freaks of nature). However, why is everyone slamming Dell? They missed on their results a few times and have lost market share to HP. Look at the Dell vs. HP stock. How in the world did HP re-invent themselves as a sexy stock to own? How did they convince the world that they were cool and Dell were boring? Well, look at the Dell product lineup. BORING! I think Dell fell so in love with their supply chain genius, their absolute operational leadership that they forgot that humans are very tactile and visual and nobody can visualize a cool supply chain but they can look at the dell lineup online and yawn. The truth is that HPs computers are not any cooler looking but hey, you can physically see them at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. If you have two really, really boring products then the one that is only visible on the web will lose out to the ones that people are physically touching and seeing. What is the answer for Dell? Stop looking into the water at your supply chain reflection and look around once again to your customers.

On to Sony. Wow, what a mess. I can´t say anymore because if I do, I might get in trouble with some of my old colleagues.

Leaders and Followers

There is a dangerous trend to copy verbatim the blueprint of companies who deliver great financial results. I am appalled at the seeming lack of original thinking in companies. Why does beating the forecasts of analysts around the world suddenly become the measure of a company´s character, genius and leadership? I read some of the in-depth analysis from some of the most credible analyst in Wall Street today about companies that I personally know well and they are no more credible than me sitting here and writing an article about the inner workings of Tony Dungy´s genius mind. I see the results of Tony Dungy´s genius (I fully credit the Bucs championship to Tony also) and it´s very obvious that he is a master at what he does but there is no way I could sit here and write a 10 Step Program for creating a Tony Dungy team. Ever think that it might be possible that an analyst wakes up from his 3 hour power sleep and groggily, in a bad mood realizes that Ericsson just missed their profit results by a few $Million and that is going to cost his company $Millions in "value" on the stock and so he goes into the office and gives a resounding "sell" which drives the company´s stock down which results in his company cashing in on all the margin calls and short positions out there? What happened to the stone-cold, hard facts that Ericsson´s two main competitors, Nokia/Siemens and Alcatel/Lucent are mired in messy joint ventures and will remain that way for the next year or so which will most likely mean that Ericsson stands to derive lots of benefit from those messy situations? I am not pushing Ericsson stock here but just trying to point out that our stock markets have made us all fickle followers of undeserved leaders.

I challenge anyone to find anything about the success of Apple, SonyEricsson, Nokia, Dell, HP, etc. that could not be replicated with some hard work, dedication, open-minded creativity, passion and avoidance of the seven deadly sins through these simple life lessons that I propose:
1. Lust--don´t lust after your competitors. Respect them, emulate their strengths but when you lust after them you will just buy anything they do and thus the stampede...
2. Gluttony--it´s hard to be successful when your executives are so focused on their next Bentley that they forget about the next innovation.
3. Greed--don´t let the piles of money today guide your decision making for tomorrow. Don´t aim for just financial gain but keep true to what defines the character of your company.
4. Laziness--it´s so much easier to eschew the long-term strategy for the quick fix especially when the quick fix will make you a temporary hero and thus set the stage for your promotion.
5. Anger--anger has no place in the workplace. Many leaders mistaken strength of character for anger. Just because you are yelling at your employees out of anger does not mean they respect you.
6. Envy--being jealous of another company only makes you blind to the gold that exists within your own company. I don´t know if it´s an urban legend but I heard a story about one of the De Beers brothers who sold his portion of the farm in order to go prospecting for gold in California. He died broke and he left behind, well, De Beers diamond mines!
7. Pride--the deadliest of these because once pride has permeated any level of an organization, especially at the top, it spreads like a cancer and makes people blind to changing trends, new ideas, each other, the competitors, etc. I am so impressed when I hear Micheal Clarke Duncan speak because he has the physical attributes of a Titan but the humility (or so it seems) of Moses.

Oh, one last little rule to live by...pretty things sell.

That´s it for now. I doubt anyone is reading this but I enjoyed talking to myself!