This summer I have come to appreciate the power of being unplugged. Just a few days here and there have made a big difference in my mental outlook. Being fortunate to visit some amazing places does not hurt either…

My son recently provided this gem while playing with Lego:

“I followed the instructions of my imagination.”

It reminded me that I need to follow those instructions a little more often myself.

Consultants are trained to ask questions. Some good, most are bad and total waste of time and energy. This has the effect of making clients feel like you are wasting their time. I like to keep it direct and too the point. Inital client engagements are a success if I can answer these 5 questions in no particular order:

1) What do your expectations of a service provider?
2) How do you see out team helping you address challenges and opportunities?
3) Why are you changing providers?
4) How do we learn about the business since we are responsbile for action and implementation to ROI?
5) What are the good, the bad and the “do not repeat”?

I do not necessary ask these directly. It entirely depends on the client and situation. Think about what you need to know and why that knowledge will make you and you client better. Then ask those questions. Seems obvious, but it is not.

What is your go to question?

Very excited to be working with the Brian Otis, Ken Myer, Henry Berg and Mike Clarke on the Bumblebee wireless sensor this summer. Apparently, you have to have 10 letters or less in your name to work on this project. Kidding aside, this is a very slick processor with some amazing capabilities.

Check out the video for the high level:

A big thank you to the Institute of Translational Health Sciences for the fellowship that made this possible. Another big thank you to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Michael G. Foster School of Business for the opportunity.

I have been in the pool most of my life. Competitive swimming started at 8 and I still occasionally do an open water race or Masters meet. Taking a page from Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way: Ensuring the Best Experience for Your Kids in Any Sport by Cal Ripken Jr., I would like my son to learn how to swim, if he competes it is up to him.

He is at the age where actual lessons begin. Goggles certainly help the enjoyment. I recalled many frustrations with goggles as a youth. Foam seals coming loose. Water in the goggles. Fogging up. Most of the pairs today have fixed the foam seal problem but not much else. I was intrigued by the Aqua Sphere goggles that seal against a young forehead rather than eye socket. My son loves them and more importantly they work. If your little swimmer needs some goggles that work. Check out Aqua Sphere.

Aqua Sphere Seal Kid

Received an interesting email yesterday. One of my “mentees” from the UW SEBA mentor program asked me a question. He is a super sharp doctoral candidate and taking in internship with the World Bank this summer. He is anxious about how he will fit in a large office of a large organization with tons of outside interaction. Pretty natural stuff. He wanted to know if I had any advice for him. Here is my reply:

1) Be yourself. Your hard work and friendly personality got you the job. Don’t forget that.
2) People like to work with people they like. I have found this to be true working on 4 continents.
3) It is easy to be liked when you are being yourself.

Also think about what you want to accomplish from the internship. What will make it a success for you? Then work towards those things as best you can and it will be easy to be yourself — anywhere.

Then this morning in my Inbox was this very timely newsletter from Steve Yastrow. Yastrow goes in detail about the great Tom Peters article, “The Brand Called You.” My mental hamster-wheel turned over to generate a spark. There really is no difference between “Brand You” and being yourself. Simple stuff, but true. Even a snake like Polonius figured it out, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” So very true.

Having a hard drive fail is never a great situation.

I have been pretty fortunate only 4 drives have failed in 20 years.  Probably about 100 drives in total which is a 4% failure rate which is about double the norm. It is infrequent, but traumatic. I can remember every one.  The most recent was the newest hard drive I purchased a Kingston SSDnow 64 GB solid state drive. this drive lasted 4 months. Before the failure, I was very happy with the drive. Quiet and fast. I could cold boot in less than 20 seconds. Then nothing. Drive not found said the BIOS. Tried the drive on another PC. Drive not found said that BIOS. Wonderful.

The best thing about this drive failure was really understanding that my data was not impacted. Dropbox, external drives and a FTP server had everything that was mission critical. I was able to swap the original drive into my Dell Vostro V13 and was back to work. Kingston was very responsive once I navigated their site. Drive replaced upon receipt of the original drive. Total turnaround was 5 days. A half-day to reinstall the drive with OS and programs and I am back. Not thrilled that I lost the original drive, but it could have been much worse. Kingston was great. They should make it a lot easier to find how to get help. The current site is difficult to navigate when your blood pressure is up.

The lesson: PCs are now merely the tool to access data, not the repository of data. Email, files, etc. all live off-device. More and more capability is pushed off the PC until we have a true “network computer.” The biggest issue I now face will be replacing the iTunes Library. Moreover, this will make me think about how we interact with computers and how that will change in the future.

Brad Feld wrote a post yesterday that really hit home: Feld Thoughts: A Message to Graduating MBAs. My career has been conventional and unconventional with the goal of already remaining relevant. For a long time this was implementing CRM systems. First Siebel then Motive. I worked my tail off with the result being some impressive implementations at some very notable clients. That even led to be branching out solo twice. The second time around sailing solo, the boat capsized. Unlike other downturns, I did not navigate this one well. I spent a lot of time and energy pursing opportunities that were not a good fit. My dad who was a software entrepreneur consistently said during my childhood that you cannot know good times unless you know bad. Bad found me big time in 2008. On many levels, I thought I had failed as a provider, husband and father.

About a decade earlier, I made the decision to not pursue an MBA. The opportunity cost was too high. Salary and position were comparable to graduating MBAs. Though it had been a goal since the age of 17, it did not make economic sense. I have been fortunate to have an amazing partner and friend in my beautiful wife Andrea. She suggested that may I think about going back to get that MBA. Being settled in making Seattle our home, the Foster School of Business at UW made the most sense. I am glad that I went back. First, it rejuvenated the intellectual passion that had faded over the last few years. Second, it fills any resume gaps that remained. Third, the environment has been incredible for networking locally. But best of all, it provided a space for me to get back to being me.

One of the cool things I have been able to do was to recruit Brad Feld to come speak at UW. You can read about his talk here. This lead me to start the Rock Star Venture Capitalist Speaker Series.

Brad speaking at UW.

Brad’s post is not Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement speech, but his point is clear. Go making meaning. Do what you are meant to do. If it was written 20 years ago it would have been titled Carpe Diem. I will be finished in December and working to being my best again. Just a warning: Watch out.

A TED talk worth the 10 minutes by Hans Rosling. At its core, the benefits of innovation that come from capitalism and democracy are revealed through a device that most in the developed world do not even think about, the washing machine.

I really cannot recall how I came across Headsprout, but I am glad I did. It is an incredible online reading program for K-5. My pre-K son, Shane, took to it right away, and as a parent, I am very impressed with the results. Shane went from being interested in books to actively reading after completing the 80th lesson of Early Reading.

The program does a great job of providing active feedback while teaching the student. Shane’s mouse skills and computer confidence have soared. The add-on flash cards and download-able books help reinforce the lessons and the characters and worlds are great. His reading is constantly improving as is his interest in books. As a parent, I could not be more impressed.

Being based in Seattle, Shane had an opportunity to help Headsprout with usability testing on a future product. He got to meet the people who made Scout, Fling, Trish and has favorite characters as well as the muscians who made the music that makes the lessons fun.

If you have an young reader, check out Headsprout.

Disclaimer: No compensation, just a happy customer.