Yes Man – Taking Stock of 2008

Saw Yes Man on New Year’s Eve. Great concept. Okay implementation. Some details downright offending. Overall, laugh-out-loud funny. But I won’t say I recommend the movie. Still, the idea of saying, “Yes!”, to everything life has to offer is generally the way I approach life. And I found myself agreeing with many of the twists and turns in the storyline as my wife leaned over to me saying, “I’ll bet you wish I were like that.”

Andrea and I pulled out of the Springdale parking lot with 23 minutes to go. We pulled into the garage 5 minutes to midnight – just in time to celebrate with my oldest daughter and two of her friends who were spending the night. The ball falls and we ring in the new year together. As an aside, did you see Dick Clark? Woah. The poor guy. All of this had me taking stock of all the things I had a chance to experience in 2008 because of my willingness to say, “Yes,” and a philosophy of servant leadership. Whether riding my bicycle 100 miles or spending 4 hours at the mall because my daughters want to go, if my reason for NOT doing something is that I’m selfish, tired, or lazy, then I do my best to say Yes instead.

I started blogging at the end of 2007 thanks to David Bowman. He pointed me in the right direction and offered great mentoring and advice along the way. And I found a reason to use my English degree. But what to blog about? I’m still trying to figure that out.

My initial focus aimed right at the information technology community. Around Cincinnati there are a number of disparate technology communities that don’t spend a lot of energy communicating with each other. There are hundreds of great people that participate in these communities and give their very best to further their efforts in the region. So I began writing about them. From Kishore and Cincinnati SPIN to Mike Wood and CINNUG, to the PMI, OWASP, and CinART, to the Information Technology program at UC and the companies like Kroger that hire its graduates, I wanted to make sure they all received their 15 minutes. By the end of the year I would be a director of CINNUG and OWASP and would also have won a subscription to MSDN valued at $11,000.

Blogging inspired my creativity, and in early 2008 I covered the regional Central Ohio Day of .NET up at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington. My day there generated this well received video bringing the spotlight to many members of the .NET community. This work also inspired some other directions into video and podcasting.

I had served as a judge for the University of Cincinnati’s College of Applied Science Tech Expo in 2007 and received an offer to serve on the IT program’s accreditation advisory board. Since then I’ve been working closely with the faculty for the program, including department head Dr. Hazem Said, to develop ideas that will continue to grow the program’s influence and effectiveness. In this work I’ve had the opportunity to work with the great kids that have been a part of this program, especially around their senior design work. Here’s the 2008 Best of Tech Expo winner that came from the IT program.

Seeing a gap that exists between these kids’ senior design projects and getting some of these projects to market, I’ve been working to build an infrastructure that allows these ideas to germinate, grow, and find the support they need to keep both the talent and the creative ideas right here in Cincinnati. Dr. Said and I are working on a Center for Innovation that will put all the tools and processes in place to help some of these students start and grow their own businesses and products. Bill Cunningham, Chuck Matthews, and others have been integral in providing feedback for this.

Speaking of UC, I also figured since I was getting involved with CAS I should go see what was happening in my alma mater, the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. It took a random email in my inbox to get me started. Alumni weekend was coming up, and the email contained the list of events. So I signed up for everything. The highlight of the weekend was Lunch With The Dean on Friday. Hosted at the Kingsgate Marriott, Dean Valerie Hardcastle took the seat right next to mine. We had a lively conversation that prompted me to get even more involved.

Near the end of the ‘07-’08 school year, McMicken College hosted an ice cream social where alumni, faculty, and staff handed out Graeters to all of the A&S students. What a blast. I got a nice t-shirt and a zipper portfolio out of the afternoon, along with some great pictures with the students and other folks.

Following that experience, Matt Cunningham, a journalism graduate student with the college, contacted me to do an alumni profile for the McMicken college’s online magazine. Talking with Matt reminded me of many of the reasons why I view the community as so important and try to get involved as much as possible.

Then in September I received a signed letter from the dean asking me to serve on the McMicken College Alumni Advisory Board. I was both humbled and honored. Mike Volan, the A&S development director, met me for coffee and we discussed the responsibilities of the board. I accepted, and I’m looking forward to getting involved more with the A&S programs and students as well as the networking opportunities with the A&S alumni. The first board meeting I attended included lunch at the Kenwood Country Club hosted by Children’s Hosptial Director of Auxiliary Relations and A&S grad, Rich Dineen. Not too shabby.

Homecoming weekend provided a couple of interesting opportunities. That Saturday for lunch I would be attending a talk by former Cisco CTO, Judy Estrin, and LinkedIn Chairman and founder, Reid Hoffman. Still, I thought I could make the homecoming parade beforehand, leave a bit early, and still get downtown in time. Looking around for someone who looked out of place in order to strike up a good conversation, I happened to sit down next to a woman from Florida (I think). She was sitting in a chair sort of alone. We started talking, and as fate would have it, she was Myron Hughes‘ girlfriend. Now Myron played basketball for UC in ‘86. I enrolled in ‘87 and did not know Myron, but she told me that Myron had been hired as the Executive Director of the Alumni Association. So I gave her my card and asked her to have Myron call me.

A few weeks later I got a personal call from Myron asking me to serve on the Programming and Services committed of the Alumni Association. I accepted, and now am working with some very energetic folks in trying to create compelling programming to raise the visibility of the schools’ influence on the alumni community.

Switching subjects, for those who have followed my blogging or my participation in the technology communities, you know that my daughters dance quite a bit. Rehearsals happen on most community meeting nights, so I’m consistently leaving other events early to pick them up. My oldest daughter participates in a Christian dance company, Guidance, that focuses on using dance to worship God. Over the Christmas holidays, Guidance performed for a number of constituencies, including a couple of nursing homes and a home for pregnant women who have nowhere to go. I got to see her perform which nearly always brings tears to my eyes. And then to see these girls’ impact on the adults with their dance is downright humbling. Thank you, God.

All three of my daughters perform with the Mason Dance Center. Each December, to benefit the Mason High School after prom, the dance center performs a version of the Nutcracker “All Jazzed Up.” My wife and I have also performed in this for a number of years, making the performances a family affair. This year, some of the folks I invited, other than my parents and in-laws, actually came to see us. Thanks for coming! What a treat. As a father of girls, I want to make sure I’m involved as much as possible in their lives and activities. I want them to have a great experience with me and set the bar high in terms of my love for them. Soon they’ll be bombarded with all the expectations of immature boys who aren’t ready to take responsibility for their actions. I’m hoping that my love for my girls will keep them from searching for love in all the wrong places.

In June of this year my car flipped 200,000 miles. I’m up to about 221,000 as 2008 flipped. When I bought the car in 1998 for $10,000, I told myself I would make this car last 300,000 miles. And this statement haunts me to this day. Over the last 10 years I have done almost nothing to the car, and it has long since been paid off. It still gets 30MPG. I just can’t bear to part with it. On the other hand, it simply won’t die. I think it’s God’s way of paying me back for my statement.

Over the years I’ve toyed with the idea of replacing it, but have never pulled the trigger. And that’s okay because at the end of 2008 I found myself in a position of having been laid off. Halloween no less. During the holidays in the middle of the worst financial crisis in a long, long time is not the most opportune time to be laid off. And while I’ve made some pretty boneheaded financial decisions from time to time in my life, overall the choices my wife and I have made have been pretty level-headed. No car payments, no credit card bills. Just a small mortgage payment. If I could feel good about being laid off, I guess this would be it.

Having always done my best to add value to the organizations I’ve been a part of, parting LUCRUM was bitter sweet. I spent 4 1/2 years there and helped develop the company culture. Leaving was tearful for both sides. But the economy and the short-term conditions simply couldn’t bear the weight. I think it was time.

LUCRUM treated me very well as we parted. I had been planning a Florida vacation with my family for the first two weeks of November. It had already been paid for, so we decided to go. Sanibel Island was first on the list with a few days in Orlando after that. I’ll tell you what, there’s nothing like being in the warm breezes of Sanibel on the beach during a sunrise or sunset. Simply beautiful. I think I’m going to like retirement when it comes.

During the year I also focused on my fitness. My max bench press reached 245 pounds, and my deadlift 305. I still have a ways to go, but it felt good to reach some personal bests. My resting heart rate was generally in the high 50s with a low 50 on a good day. The last six weeks have been erratic at best in terms of working out, and my resting heart rate has moved into the lower 60s. I need to get back on this.

Each year in September, some friends of mine and I take a 100 mile bike ride to support the Hope, IN foodbank. This year’s ride became a turning point in my life. As the ride ended, we packed up our bikes and equipment and headed back to Cincinnati. Along the way, the five of us witnessed a deadly accident and we were able to pull two men from a burning truck and save their lives. Despite what this looks like from the outside, the experience was not necessarily positive. At least not a first. It took some time to digest and understand what had happened.

As my family finished up our Florida vacation in November and headed back to Cincinnati, I received an out-of-the-blue phone call from a relative of one of the men who were in that truck. We talked about the men, their condition, how much they meant to their families, the helicopter flight that relocated the men to facilities better able to handle their condition, and on and on. She asked me for the addresses of the folks who helped that day. Then in early December, each one of us received heartfelt notes from about 15 relatives of these men thanking us for what we did that day. From our perspective, we were just there doing what anyone would do to help. How incredibly humbling. Man, we’re all in this world together just trying to make it through.

Still loving UC, a friend of mine invited me to the Syracuse game where the football team locked up the conference championship. What a blast. I also received a couple of tickets to a basketball game and took my youngest daughter to be a part of the experience.

In July we got a dog. Tyler. He’s actually the nicest, kindest, gentlest dog. For not being a dog guy, I think I could learn to like this one.

Also in July, I let Paolo Dominguez talk me into participating in InOneWeekend, an event that brings 100 entrepreneurs together to formulate an idea on Friday evening and start a full-fledged business by Monday. What a blast. On Friday, Google’s Roy Gilbert addressed the crowd. We spent the weekend sequestered in Tangeman University Center on the campus of the University of Cincinnati, working each night until midnight, launching Lifespoke on Monday. It is there that I met Elizabeth Edwards, the 20-something running the non-profit InOneWeekend organization.

Elizabeth’s story is amazing. I don’t know if I’ve found anyone more eager to see the region find success in keeping its talented creative class here and giving them a reason to stay. Except for maybe the folks at Soapbox. Elizabeth introduced me to Dacia Snider and Jeff Syroney, the publisher and managing editor at Soapbox. These folks give the creative class a voice and let the rest of the country see all the great things going on in Cincinnati. In 2009 I’ll begin contributing to this work.

On a more personal front, my wife and I have run our congregation’s children’s ministry for the last 10 years. We had also spent about 17 years working with our preteen, teen, and children’s ministry in one way or another. As of 2009, we have handed this leadership off to another able couple. We’ve had a good run. During the last few years I’ve also participated on our congregation’s leadership team. 2008 was the year that we were able to develop a functioning eldership, and the need for a leadership team was disbanded.

In November, Jennifer Marsman, a Microsoft Developer Evangelist out of Detroit, visited Cincinnati on a road trip. I introduced myself. She said she knew me and asked if I could produce a video like the one for the Central Ohio Day of .NET for the MSDN Developers Conference. We ironed out a few details, then in mid December I found myself in Atlanta covering MSDNDevCon.

I’m sure I’m missing so much more. Off the top of my head, this is the sort of stuff that happens when I say Yes to the things life puts in my path. Look around and find a way to say Yes this year, then get out there and make a difference.

- Andy

 

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