State of the Blogosphere

Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008 report is now available on their website (www.technorati.com) and provides some very interesting insights in the world of blogging. For instance, as of August, 2008 there were 77.7 million unique visitors to blogs in the U.S., 41.0 million to Facebook, 75.1 million to mySpace and a total internet audience of 189.9 million. There have been 1.33 million blog records indexed by Technorati since 2002, 7.4 million blogs posted in the last 120 days, 1.5 million blogs posted in the last 7 days and 900,000 posted in the last 24 hours, or at least those were the stats when the report was published. Bloggers turn out to be both educated and generally affluent with three out of four bloggers have graduated from college and 42% having attended graduate school. "They skew male, and more than half have a household income of over $75,000", according to the report. There are five sections to the report and worth the 20 to 30 minutes you may spend reviewing it.

On the 22nd of December, Forbes.com published the "400 Best Big Companies" report. It covers both American and foreign corporations that have a significant presence in the U.S. Each have at least $1B in revenue in the most recent fiscal year and a stock price of at least $5 per share and positive equity. Forbes selected these 400 from a list of 1,000 candidates that fell into the parameters described and used a fairly straight forward set of criteria, which you can deep-dive on the Forbes.com website. There is also a very neat pivot table that allows you to dice them just about anyway you'd like just in case you were preparing some prospect lists for 2009. Might as well chase the successful firms with a bit of cash because right now I'm not certain a lot of the companies being served are going to make through 2009. It's a tough economy and companies are scrambling to figure out what works and how to keep the customers loyal, which is exactly why I joined Market Force Information in early October.

Market Force is the leading Customer Experience Information & Insights Partner for multi-location businesses, and that really means three things for Market Force and our clients.........first, it means that we evaluate the on-site experience from both the viewpoint of the customer's perception and the operational realities that created those perceptions. Second, we solve two business problems for our clients; i.e.: the tie between the operational performance, customer satisfaction and financial performance; and the need to drive operational improvement to the store level. Finally, we provide business improvement and decision support tools to help our customers manager their investments in customer experience. As I said earlier, customer loyalty is going to be critical for a lot of companies in 2009 and if they cannot articulate the operational realities at the store level then they are going to be among the losers. Management has to know what is happening at the "moment of truth" when a consumer engages a shopping experience........what happens when you walk into any store? You evaluate everything (rather consciously or unconsciously) from the moment you enter the store. Did someone greet you? Were you able to get assistance in a reasonable time frame? Were the associates on the floor friendly and courteous? Were the dressing rooms neat? Were the bathrooms clean? Think about it. Every aspect of that in-store experience registers with you and determines the likelihood of you returning and spending money again. And what about referrals? When is the last time you blasted some store or experience for the reasons I just mentioned? Understanding the operational realities and how they tie to customer perceptions and ultimately financial performance is the key to being successful in 2009, and that is what we do at Market Force Information. It's a very cool company and I'm really enjoying my time there. You can investigate the firm at www.marketforceinformation.com

Lakers knocked off the Celtics last evening and as I told a friend this morning, if it couldn't be the Hawks then my next most favorite team would suffice. I know it is only a December game and there is a lot of season left, but it did my heart good to see those Boston fans crushed. Now, if only Dallas can get out of Philadelphia with a win tomorrow!

Christmas Shopping

So I head out yesterday in the early afternoon with instructions from Kate to relax and unwind. The only problem is I'm headed for the shopping malls and I'm supposed to "relax and unwind". Sure. That's relatively easy when you have all these completely insane people driving around in 2 ton vehicles thinking they own the road and carparks are the equivalent of NASCAR racetracks. Case in point: I wander over to the Joseph Banks store on Peachtree........you know, the one right across from Dick's Sporting Goods. I reckoned that that there are a number of stores that I can visit simply by parking by J. Banks. It was fairly easy to get into the lot as I approached it from the Peachtree entrance and there was no traffic. Unfortunately, that's because all the traffic was in the carpark and everyone was scrambling to find a space. So I eventually eased my way to the very back of the lot and sure enough I drove right into one of the three remaining slots. I got out of the car and started to walk back to J. Banks and was nearly run over by this mad woman who was talking into a phone with one hand, to her passenger with the other hand and therefore must have been driving with her knees (assuming she did not have three hands). How close did she really come to hitting me? Well, let's put it this way. I've had near death experiences in Vietnam and this wasn't of that scale, but it sure as hell was close.

I walked into J. Banks and immediately regretted being there. It was a zoo. They had this crazy sale that gave you two free items for each item that you purchased at full price. Really nice dress slacks for $140 or $46.66 per pair......sports coats for $500 or $166 each. It all seemed reasonable, but of course the numbers are a bit tangled, especially when you think of the other sales they have during the year and realize that you purchased two of the same sport coats last fall for roughly $150 each on sale and the same brand of dress slacks for $30 per pair, again on sale. Anyway, given it was a madhouse and since there was no way I could get any service in less than an hour, I made the decision to pass on the famous Joseph Banks sale.

Okay, off to Boarders. Same story, different store. Lots of items that we don't need on sale and very long queues at the check-out register. Off I went thinking Dick's Sporting Goods would be the way to go...........wrong again!

Anyway, I was back home in about 25 minutes and had spent not a dime in any of the stores I visited. Sorry guys. I know the retailers are having trouble, but you got to give a person a fighting chance to spend a buck before that actually happens.

So, on-line to the Apple Store for some gift certificates that could be delivered via email, to Amazon for some gifts that would be delivered to the house no later than the 23rd and a few more gift certificates that I could print on my home printer. Sixty minutes of shopping on my home computer and everything was done and I was pretty relaxed at the end. I had a Jack Daniels and Coke sitting beside me during my shopping experience and while my bank account took a fairly hefty hit, at least I wasn't a complete zombie, which is exactly what I would have been had I stayed in those stores. I don't know..........do we really need stores anymore? Could we completely do away with storefronts and sell everything on-line? Who knows? Perhaps that is where we will ultimately end up if this economy keeps tanking.

Anyway, hope your Christmas shopping experience was not horrible and you were able to find everything your little heart desires.........only 2.5 days left before Christmas. Better get out there, or on-line, whichever works best for you!

So in closing, I'm adding a special picture that I treasure. It's from the little town that we lived in while I was posted to The Netherlands. The town is called Leiden and it is quite special. Thought you would all enjoy seeing it once again.

Back in Atlanta

I landed at Hartsfield-Jackson last Friday evening at 8:15 pm after a mostly uneventful flight. In fact, the only remarkable thing about the flight was the number of "large" passengers trying to squeeze into those tiny spaces that Delta calls seats. Okay, so I'm a tad biased here. I think really over-weight passengers should be required to purchase the equivalent of 1.5 seats instead of making the rest of us suffer the overhanging flesh. I must admit that I was mostly fortunate in that I had an aisle seat and the guy in the middle seat was a reasonably sized chap. He had a thing about the seat rests though. You know the type, They sit down and immediately stake out both seat rests. I think it's a response to having been relegated to a middle seat, almost as if they need to make a statement that even though they are sitting in the middle seat, they aren't second class citizens. Of course we all know that anyone stuck in the middle seat is either an infrequent flyer with no influence, a frequent flyer who forgot to check their seat assignment, or someone who just got a bad draw on the day. It has happened to me on a number of occasions and all I can say is that while it isn't fun, it isn't the end of the world either........that is, unless you get stuck in a middle seat on the direct flight between Atlanta and Tel Aviv. Now that was a bummer!

Anyway, getting back to the weight issue. Have you noticed how many seriously overweight airline passengers there are these days? I even spied one in an exit row not long ago on a flight between Atlanta and Denver, which made me really nervous given the possibility of that person being able to respond quickly in an emergency. The airlines seem to be completely oblivious to the situation as they do absolutely nothing to help out. There was this totally overweigh lass on the flight between Denver and Atlanta on Friday evening who could not possibly fit into a normal size seat (not many of us "comfortably" fit) and despite a number of passengers suggesting that something be done the flight attendants carried on and acted as if it were unimportant/of no interest to them. The lady stuck in the middle seat finally resolved the issue by finding an empty middle seat several rows back and was able to avoid being crushed for the 2 plus hour flight to Atlanta.

Of course this rant could lead to another litnany of grievances with the airline industry, but I'll spare you for the moment. Suffice it to say that flying in this country just continues to become more and more complex/unpleasant/difficult, plus down right aggravating!

Update: December '08

I had a brief conversation with my sister Mary over the Thanksgiving holiday and she reminded me that I had not posted anything on my blog since Joe was in the hospital. Sorry folks! As always, my intentions are honorable, but my travel/work schedule has absorbed much of my time over the past two months.

First, an update on Joe. The very good news is that the new medication has kicked in and things have really improved for both Joe and our family. He seems to be a much happier child these days and more balanced in his attitude towards school and life in general, although for a 12 year old school is pretty much all there is in life since that is the primary source for friends given our neighborhood. He is still heavily committed to Karate and recently acquired his first stripe on his Purple Belt, which means he only has about 130 to 150 more classes before he tests for his Blue Belt. If he stays committed to the process then he is on schedule to have a Black Belt just before his 18th birthday. He is also playing basketball again this season with the St. James team and thankfully Greg Maxey is still coaching these kids. Joe has been with him since he was eight years old and just loves to participate, which Coach Maxey makes certain that he and all the kids on the team get to do every game and practice. Joe may not be the most talented offensive player on the team, but he does play tenacious defense and opposing teams hate his swarming style; i.e.: I think because of the Karate he has quick hands and is able to get his hands on the ball often, which creates problems for players who handle the ball carelessly. And finally, there is Scouts, which is also a source of enjoyment for him. He actually went on his first camping trip this past fall without Dad and seemed to have a great time on his own. That was a big deal for him as he has experience anxiety in the past when he ventured out on his own. So the net/net is while we continue to struggle with lots of different things related to Joe (schoolwork and homework being the two most pressing at the moment), he seems to have gotten past the weekend in the hospital and we feel that we are making forward progress. The picture shows Joe at the most recent Shotgun Merit Badge weekend. He only fired about 10 rounds this season, but he hit two clay pigeons and was pretty proud of himself. I'm confident that next year he will be even more eager to test for the badge.

As for me, I'm enjoying a week in Boulder. We had about 4 to 6 inches of snow yesterday and as I looked out of my hotel window this morning I could not help by think how beautiful everything looked. Although it was still dark, the mountains seem to shine with the whiteness of the freshly fallen snow and everything seemed so peaceful. It was truly a breathtaking view!

I love the new company (Market Force Information) and being back in mainstream sales. I just recently agreed to assume responsibility for all new business sales in 2009 including upselling the existing base. This means that I have ownership for retention, program expansion and new business growth across the entire firm next year (actually, that responsibility officially fell on my shoulders yesterday). I haven't deserted Patrick D. Gaul, Inc. as yet, but if all goes well in April I'll have to make the decision to go full time with Market Force and put my firm on hold or complete my current engagement and move on to other opportunities. A difficult, but nice dilemma to have on my plate in the current economic environment.

So there it is.........Joe is progressing on most fronts. I'm pretty darn happy with just about everything related to my new role and Kate and Ellie seem to be getting along a tad better after having a Mother/Daughter weekend in Orlando with Applause for Kids. More on that later.............

Challenging Times

It started well. A new job with lots of exciting opportunities and my first trip to the Colorado Rockies to spend some time with the executive management team. All seemed sort of right with the world as I sat in the conference room at the Happy Valley Ranch just outside of Boulder. I really enjoyed the profession approach to team building that was being taken and I was learning much about myself and the men and women that I will be working with over the coming months and hopefully years. We were nestled well up the mountains at nearly 9,000 feet elevation and while the air was thin, it was clean and crisp and Thursday morning was absolutely delightful with that briskness that one can only experience in the mountains. Then, on Thursday evening as I sat in a restaurant with the rest of the management team enjoying a glass of wine and a lovely meal, my mobile phone rang. It was Kate and she was really upset.....crying and it was all I could do to understand her with the noise in the restaurant. Something about Joe and the hospital. I rushed outside so I could hear her and after managing to get her to calm down I learned that Joe had been admitted to a Behavioral Health Clinic that evening as part of a strategy that his psychologist, psychiatrist and doctors all agreed would be best to address the most recent challenges we have collectively encountered with Tourette's. I'm calm now, but at that point in time all I wanted was to be home with Kate and Ellie and to get to the hospital to see Joe. After finishing my conversation with Kate I walked back into the restaurant and shared what was going on with the CEO. He asked me if I wanted to go home that evening and I said that I did and he was on the phone to his Executive Assistant and with an hour a flight had been arranged from Denver to Atlanta on the red-eye, which would put me back into Atlanta at 5:30 a.m. on Friday morning. I finished my meal and some colleagues drove me to the Denver airport and I arrived back at the house around 7:00 a.m. on Friday morning.

Seeing Joe for the first time in that environment was incredibly difficult and I immediately understood why his Mom was so upset the night before. It is called a Behavioral Health Clinic and it's designed to work with a wide range of behavioral health issues, both with kids and adults. The rules are hard and patients are treated with a certain level of objectivity as opposed to compassion. The nurses are a bit hard-core and conversations are candid and very direct; e.g.: your son cannot do this, or that, or go there, or have this in their possession. Joe was beside himself last evening when we visited and he desperately wanted Mom and Dad to take him out of that horrible place. How do you tell your son that having him secure in a place like that is the best way to get him to a happier place in his life? How do you tell him that everything is going to be okay when every instinct tells you to pick him up and carry him out as quickly as possible?

The facts were relatively straight forward. Joe needed to switch from one course of meds to another and during the transition he would experience significant anxiety and distress and having him go through this process in the care of professionals was the best option for him and for our family. The Doctors told us that it would take between 3 and 7 days to complete the process and if everything went to plan Joe would emerge a happier child and the most recent episode of Tourette's would subside significantly. All good stuff, but all horribly frightening for a 12 year old lad.

We were with him again on the Saturday for an hour and while he wasn't as distressed as the previous evening, he was still clearly unhappy at the thought of staying another night. He kept telling me to make certain the Doctor released him on Sunday evening, which I knew wasn't going happen since the Doctor wasn't scheduled to see him again until Monday morning. And even then it could take several more days before he would be ready to come home.

Scary stuff, especially when you know there isn't a bloody thing you can do to change the course that the process needed to follow. But hopefully this new approach will work as advertised and our Joe will grow into a healthier state, both emotionally and physically. This most recent escalation of the Tourette's has worn him out and he needs some time to relax and be a 12 year old kid instead of hanging out in a Behavioral Clinic. We won't know for for awhile, but I know Joe has lots of prayers coming his way from friends and family and I know God is listening and watching over him. Still, it would be nice if he could catch a break. It seems so much has been placed on his shoulders so early and I can't imagine what it must be like at school where he is ridiculed and taunted by his peers.

I could write for a week about the school situation.........the teacher who told Joe to "stop it" because she had not taken the time to read his IEP and the stupidity that most of his peers display when they take an extra moment to tease him and make him feel like he is somehow inadequate because he has Tourette's. I can't quite figure it out, but it's obvious that this is a cruel world and Joe is going to have to get tougher if he is to survive. We can't depend on the school because the teachers are either incapable of grasping the full extent of Joe's challenges or they simply don't care.

Time will tell if things are going to change for the better. Meanwhile, we are motoring forward in hopes of a better tomorrow. With God's help we will get there soon.

Last Day

For those of you who follow my adventures, this is my last day with the firm that I joined just over 15 months ago. It has been a really interesting experience and I've met so many wonderful folks. Part of me doesn't want to accept that I won't be in touch with them everyday, but as I said in my previous post, transitions are unavoidable most of the time and I'm really looking forward to my my next great challenge.

That challenge is going to be working with a firm in Boulder, Co. and I'm on a plane next Tuesday morning to get things started. What a great little town Boulder is......beautiful mountains everywhere and just the nicest people. In fact, they are so nice, you would think they are from the south!

I went to the HiTech Prayer Breakfast this morning. In case you don't know this event, it is the largest networking event in Atlanta. There were nearly 1,500 folks there this morning and the line-up included Rollin Ford, the CIO of Walmart, an impressive guy who told a wonderful story about Trust, Relationships and Accountability, which he described as the "pillars" of his life, both personally and professionally. I suppose the most impressive aspect of this event is the sheer number of technology professionals who are there to openly acknowledge their relationships with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. I'm not talking neo-con's here. I'm talking about men and women from every aspect of technology, from software to telecommunications, from interactive marketing to voice recognition, from "C" level to hourly associates, all gathered to acknowledge the impact that God has on each and everyone of us.

I sat next to this delightful chap who is a senior executive with a local software firm and throughout the program I watched him scribble notes on 3x5 cards as he listened intently to the speakers. Indeed, as I scribbled right next to him I also observed many folks at the various tables doing the same thing. The event began at 5:59 a.m. and lots of these folks had gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to attend, but you could not find a sleepy eye in the house. Everyone was so engaged and attentive.....now, if only I could get that much attention at the Georgia Technology Summit next spring!

Polly Harper has been trying to get me to the HiTech Prayer Breakfast for the past five years, but for one reason or the other I have not been able to attend. I am so pleased that I made it this morning and I know in my heart that next year I'm going to find a way to be involved with this program. Thanks Polly!

I think the most powerful personal experience I took away was the importance of placing your trust in God. Our family has been struggling the past two week with Joe, our 12 year old son. Joe was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome a couple of years ago and very recently we began to see a significant increase in the visible symptoms of the disorder. He has developed a facial tick that causes his face to screw-up and his head to jerk from side to side. It is the most visible manifestation of the disorder to date and of course it is creating all sorts of problems at school. 7th graders are without mercy when it comes to kids who are "different" and Joe feels that pain everyday as they talk behind his back, point at him and laugh and otherwise behave as 7th graders. Of course this doesn't make it anymore comfortable for Joe, but you know, I believe God has a plan for Joe and while this may not turn out to be his favorite part of that plan, I know that God's plan for Joe is going to wonderful at the end of the day. As I bowed my head this morning and prayed, I asked God to continue to watch over my son and to give him the strength to work through the next few years because Tourette's only advances in severity during puberty. I know that Joe is going to need a lot of strength and encouragement from his family and friends, but he is also going to need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to help him hold his head high while others gawk. I sincerely hope that I can help him find that relationship over the coming weeks and months and I know that I won't be alone in that effort because if needed, I met nearly 1,500 folks this morning who would come rushing to my aid if asked. That is the power of Jesus Christ. I remember Paul's letter to the Philippians wherein he explains that his imprisonment has served to advance the word of the Lord and that folks should not feel sorry for him. Hopefully Joe will someday look at this time in his life as the time he found the inner strength and put his faith in the Lord ahead of the personal anxiety he is currently experiencing.

Life is a Transition

I look back over the past two years and I'm amazed by how dramatically my life has changed since I left my position at the Web Hosting firm that I originally came to Atlanta to manage. Now, 21 months after starting Patrick D. Gaul, Inc., I find myself headed for another adventure and I must admit that I'm more than just a tad excited about the opportunities that having my own company have provided for me. Do I miss the stability of working for a firm with all the benefits? Yes, sometimes, especially when I write that check every month to Blue Cross/Blue Shielf to cover my company's health care plan. And I definitely often wish someone else was buying the ink cartridges and paper for my printers, not to mention the other stationary and office supplies that one needs everyday to run a business. You don't think about those things when they are provided out of a stationary cabinet, but when you buy them yourself day in and day out they suddenly become a fairly large item on the annual expense budget.

Anyway, I was thinking this morning about transition and how we experience transitions our entire lives. We transition from children to adolescents, from adolescents to teenagers, to young adults, to adults and then on to middle age and beyond. Live is a constant series of transitions and intermixed with these chronological transitions are all sorts of life experiences including college, the miltary, marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, marriage (I may a tad unique in this area), children, grandchildren, etc. Life is just a melting pot of experiences and transitions and through it all we are suppose to maintain some sort of balance and perspective. I don't about you, but the whole process seems a bit buggered to me. I'm still grappling with the concept of maturity! Someone recently asked me "when did you become an adult?" How do you know if you've actually made that transition? Is it based on marriage, children, financial security? Heck, I'm headed hard towards 60 and I still find the concept of maturity difficult because so much of me is still drive by a youthful attitude and spirit! I like life and I love to have fun and to be a free spirit. I think if I did not have so many responsibilities with my family and my life I would be living somewhere quite remote, very distant from the urban sprawl that I now inhabit. Buckhead is so not the real world! I don't know how we ended up there, but I think it had something to do with the schools, especially Sarah Smith, which is quite close to where we live........great public elementary school! And Sutton, the middle-school isn't really that bad; unless of course you are one of the middle-schoolers attending classes each day, in which case it is probably horrible. I remember middle-school and they aren't happy memories. So many things happen between the ages of 11 and 13 and most of them are not fun..........it's an awkward time in a young person's life.

Okay, so I'm rambling a bit. I guess I don't really have a major point to make here. I'm trying to stay away from the politics for the moment and don't even ask me what I think about this bailout. $700B! Amazing and the more our government leaders warn about doom and gloom the more the markets respond. Doesn't anyone remember how to pitch a positive spin on things these days? Why couldn't there be reassurances instead of all of these guys (who should have been watching the shop all along) spinning the darkest scenarios possible? Like I said, I need to stay away from it for the moment. My blood pressure might just spiral out of control if I deep dive the details of this latest plan.

Dallas Cowboys lost yesterday. Now that's a disappointment! Not only will I have my brother giving me grief (you know, the one who roots for the Redskins), but I'll have Daniel on the line in gleeful spirits, which is more than I can stand on a Monday afternoon.

Is Anyone Else Bothered By The Noise?

Have you noticed that the more the Obama/Biden - McCain/Palin teams say, the less we know about what they hope to achieve if they're elected? Obama/Biden have clearly decided that the high road isn't going to get them to the White House and so it seems that they too are settling comfortably into a "war of slurs and innuendo" rather than a substantive debate around the issues facing our country and the global community.

Let me ask you this.........if you were a political leader in another country watching and listening to the noise around this election, would you be impressed? Would you think America is once again ready to take the helm and assume leadership around such critical issues as Global Warming, Terrorism, Finance, Nuclear Disarmament, etc.?

And no, I'm not going to pick on Governor Palin. The Lord knows that there are far better equipped political pundits capable of slinging mud her way. I will say that I think she is seriously unprepared for the road ahead and if I were John McCain, she would be doing quite a bit of studying over the next few weeks and very few interviews. I said that she would be the "difference that makes a difference" to a colleague right after the announcement and by that I meant that she would cost John McCain the election. After listening to her speech at the convention I offered that perhaps I spoke too soon, but after listening to the interview she did with Charlie Gibson I'm fairly certain my initial observation was correct. Can you really gear-up for a Presidential election in less than two months and be credible? Even if she is as smart as some folks have made her out to be (and I think there is a difference between being smart and being politically savvy), she was no more prepared to accept McCain's offer than John was to make it in the first place. He should have had Charlie Gibson vet her and he wouldn't be in this predicament. Oh well, if only he had hired me to advise him.

Sorry folks, but are we really going to go through all of this crap again; i.e.: the mudslinging, attack ads, negative publicity, dirt digging kind of politics that have defined the past two Presidential elections? How do we actually take some measure of control in this election? Aren't we "the people" that these men and women are supposed to be representing? How do you take a guy who was raised by a single Mom and had to use food stamps to feed her kids and turn him into some elite "uppity" character? How do you take community service and turn it into a negative. Dr. King has be rolling over in his coffin right now.

What can we do to start a grass roots movement to take back the political process around the Presidential election? I have a thought..........let's call it "Americans Decide.Org". Let's make it more about the process and less about the pundits. Force a debate around the issues and force platform presentations that clearly define what one would do should on be elected to the post. Heck, you wouldn't hire a top-notch consultant and not ask for a proposal of some sort. Would you? Why should we treat the Executive Office any different? Anyone can run as long as they have a serious plan to take the country forward. Let us decide who we think is serious and who is the fool. Makes sense to me, but then of course I'm just another one of those lost conservatives struggling to find some meaning in all of it. I still well in Obama's camp, but my goodness he needs to get back on track.

Meanwhile, a photo from Uncle Joe's over Labor Day. Joe just got his first "Air Soft" in honor of Governor Palin!

Back to School

Tomorrow morning Joe and Ellie start back to school. Where has the summer gone? It seems like just yesterday they were boarding a plane for the UK, but that seemed to fly by, especially since I had the opportunity to join them for a few days (let's call it a working holiday). I was on my way to Tel Aviv via London for a business meeting and managed to divert myself to the West Midlands for five days. I arrived on a Saturday morning from Atlanta via Paris to Birmingham and then had a delightful evening with my Kate's brother Julian, his wife Sarah and their three children; Grace, Abby and George. (Pictures are being posted) A bit too much wine and some very early scotch made Sunday a bit of a blur, but I managed to hang on and we visited some friends and drank a couple more glasses of wine before I called it a day. Monday through Wednesday were filled with short visits here and there to say hello to old friends while I occupied Michael's office (that's Kate's Dad) and spent multiple hours each day preparing for the latter part of the week. Still, all in all it was fun and London was a whirlwind for two days before flying off to Israel on the Saturday. Another five days there and I arrived back in Atlanta the morning after Kate and the kids returned, which explains why they were standing at the top of the escalator at 6:15 a.m. waiting patiently for Dad to arrive. Seems they had all been up since about 4:00 a.m. anyway, so why not meet Dad at the Airport. We headed off for the Landmark Diner and breakfast and then home, a quick shower and I headed off for the office where I spent most of the day. I am getting rather good at getting off planes after long trips and working. It's not my favorite activity, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!

We were then joined my son Patrick and his two kids (Ashley and Patrick the 3rd, affectionately known as PJ) and they spent two weeks with us before heading back to Northern Virgina. He took our Joe and Ellie with him and then Kate drove to pick them up, spend some time with Jim and Becky (my brother and his wife) and then off to Ohio for a visit to Grandma and my sister Mary and her family. Kate definitely got some windscreen time on that trip!

They all arrived safely on Monday afternoon and this past week was another 50+ hour ordeal although I can't say it wasn't productive. As summer winds down we are beginning to see activity start to increase and hopefully that will spell a good September/October from a sales perspective.

Anyway, that is the really quick update. School starts tomorrow and life will get back to some semblance of normality, or at least that is our hope. Meanwhile the world is crashing down around our shoulders and with this latest hot spot in Eastern Europe I'm very concerned about things. But I'll hold those concerns for the moment and just share some photo's from our 2008 Summer.

"Leadership is a Journey"

I borrowed the title for this post from Ralph de la Vega, the President & CEO of AT&T Mobility, who was the guest speaker this morning for WIT's "Leader in Focus" Speaker Series held at Maggiano's in Buckhead. An impressive group of business leaders convened to hear Mr. de la Vega speak about his incredible journey from being a happy child growing up in pre-Castro Cuba to a displaced 10 year old boy in Miami living with family friends while his parents struggled to find a way out of Cuba after the Castro revolution. For over four years he was in the care of another family that he had never met before arriving in Miami, mostly out of contact with his parents, siblings and relatives and finding it very hard to adapt to being a kid in America in the early 60's. He told an amusing story about his first meal being a peanut butter sandwich with a glass of cold milk, the first glass of cold milk he had ever experienced. He noted that while he had learned to love cold milk, the peanut butter and jelly experience was not one of his fonder memories. I can relate since my British wife constantly shakes her head every time I make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I suppose it's an acquired taste, but you got to love the cold milk!

Mr. de la Vega then talked about his journey through the American educational system and how he nearly found himself agreeing to strive for less than he knew he could accomplish by accepting a high school guidance counselor's advice to focus on becoming a mechanic instead of an engineer, which was his true desire. But thanks to his Grandmother, a former teacher in Cuba who arrives in the nick of time, he is set on the right path and realizes his dream of becoming that engineer and ultimately he becomes the engineer running one of the largest multinational enterprises in the country.

It was an incredible story to hear, but what really impressed me about his chat this morning was his focus on the kids in Georgia and the issues we face with an increasing and alarming rate of high school drop outs. Across the state the high school graduation rate is not much above 60% and when you deep dive the numbers in the inner city that rate falls somewhere between 40% to 45%. Couple these statistics with the reduction in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) studies and an almost ingrained expectation of failure among the inner city kids and you have a recipe for a national disaster as we try to compete in the 21st century. How many engineers will China graduate this year? India? How about the USA? It is a staggering differential and one that needs to be raised to the highest levels of our government and addressed now. Outsourcing is a reality that is not going away and the key for this country is to possess the intellectual capital to move to the next stage of our evolution, which is to become the country of innovation and imagination. You cannot achieve that goal without Mathematicians, Engineers, Technologists and Scientists. It's impossible, and the real danger lies in the fact that many of kids today are not being given the incentives to even look at these fields.

I remember reading a book years ago entitled "More Like Us", written by James Fallows, a former speechwriter for Jimmy Carter. Published in 1989, it was a thesis on how to compete with the then emerging threats from Asia. Although considered somewhat weak by many critics, the one thing I took away from this work was his analysis on how other cultures arriving on our shores seemed to be able to maximize the opportunities that accompany the "American Dream", especially the Haitians who he pointed out had an impressive rate of college graduations among the second generation and an equally impressive rate of new business starts among the first generation. So why is it that a refugee arriving on a boat from Haiti can find the resources to build a life in this country, start a business, send their children to college, and become productive members of our society while the kids being born in our inner cities cannot find the the same opportunities? Fallows argues that it is a matter of an "ingrained expectation of failure" among the inner city kids that does not exist with the kid stepping off the boat from Haiti, or the plane from Cuba, in the case of Mr. Ralph de la Vega. They find opportunity in adversity and they never allow anyone to dictate what they can or can't become, which was a strong theme running through Mr. de la Vega's comments this morning. His "Four Pillars of Success": Have a Winning Game Plan; Take Risks; Overcome Obstacles and Recognize Opportunities resonated with the audience as did the principles he suggested were fundamental to leadership (Integrity & Credibility; Attitude & Teamwork; Excellence and Vision. Mr. de la Vega is an extraordinary example of what can be achieved when someone "Dreams Big & Believes in Him/Herself".

In closing, Mr. de la Vega talked about AT&T Aspire, a $100M program aimed at getting kids excited about education. He also mentioned the Junior Achievement Job Shadowing Program and how we can all help to connect our classrooms with the real world. I came away inspired by a man who has clearly taken the obstacles in his life and turned them into opportunities, but hasn't forgotten his roots or the struggles he went through to be where he is today.