To live in whoville; how do we get back...

I begun this writting several years ago the first christmas season after my seperation from my wife. I found it and thought that it is still very appropriate and needed to be completed. I hope you enjoy it. I have made a few observations that I have added to the text.


To live in Whoville…

Most remember Whoville and the Grinch that stole Christmas. But beyond the idea that this small town with its strong community spirit changed the hardened Grinch's heart who lives in Whoville?

You know I live actually grew up in a small town called Everson Washington. Everson even now 35 years later has a population that was 2,035 at the 2000 census. It was under a thousand when I was growing up like 700 or so. My dad was a local farmer and had coffee with the other farmers each morning to discuss the seasons and the town politics. I am sure that my Dad probably knew half of everyone that lived in Everson and he really was an isolationist. The town I went to school Lynden Washington had about 2000, and now has 9,020. Both of these towns qualify for Whoville.

So I am quite aware of small town living as it represents even to this day 50% or more of my total life. I spent my life working on a farm, and going to church. I went to a private school for most of my life and never was exposed to big city living till I moved to Dallas at 34. Most do not believe after they get to know me that I was born and raised on a small farm. I don't look like a farm boy anymore. I guess I have donned the fast talking city slicker role and have the trappings that are fitting of a Houstonian. Even though I live in the town of Kemah which still only has 2,330 people. In reality I still live in Whoville.

I hope though that even though I have a lifestyle that corresponds to a metropolis of 8+ million people that my concern and true beliefs about people show my upbringing. I try to live my life so that people can see that I value everyone and treat them with respect. I try to add value to a conversation, I try to teach and instruct in areas that I have experience. I give of myself hoping to bring a benefit to those that I touch. I have gone through many phases in my life from Learner to Conquerer to now a new phase in my life that I will call Teacher.

Now only a couple of years later people look at my aging apearance and think that I am a hardened corporate pirate, when in fact I am the same sensitive individual that has to look away at rough comments that hurt my feelings. People see me at work and think, "I would never want to be on the other side of the table from him." When really I sit around watching my phone for a text from someone special and plan what the next weekends surprise is for my girl. Now I live in Kemah Texas a town of 2,330 right next to the 4th largest city in the country Houston Texas. Kemah is a bay town, typical of any small maritime town. Everything seems to revolve around tradition and the water and the economy and lore that it provides.

Small towns typically have a strong sense of community as people are more able to keep up with what is going on. The politics and community is much simpler than the complex workings of a large city. When the cities get larger it takes more time to keep up with their inner workings and therefore start to take away from friends and family. At some point we become completely displaced and no longer can maintain knowledge of what is going on and why. Here in Kemah everyone still remembers the ground breaking of the bank etc.

I still live on my boat some 4 years later and still keep to myself so even in a town of 2,330 people noone knows me. I do like to buy locally or from a nearby town as you get the feeling that someone actually cares. You get the sense that you are helping someone retire, or send their kids away to college to have a good shot at life. In Houston buyers act like people are just trying to take advantage of them and in many cases if they had the chance they would do just the same.

I work in Houston a lot and it always surprises me how few people buy from honest value bringing companies. They would rather save a penny then do business with an honorable company. Or another way to say it is when you are talking with them and trying to build value in your solution other than the hard and tangible items they just do not care. In fact you really get the sense that they are all anarchists as they do not support or show any concern for the community at all. I guess I miss the small town hey Bob you were $10 more but I'll buy from you because I know that Jimmy is playing football at TU this year and you are going to need the extra money. People were not adverse to allowing someone to make an honest profit on them. Instead they all want to cut someone out of a commission and to figure out how to get it the cheapest they can? Is that really what is important?

Whatever happened to those days of community? If someone lost a job that family would not go hungry, if a child had needs they would not go unanswered. At what point did we turn so far inward that we have forgotten our heritage? I would guess that most people do live outside of the large metropolises. It is my guess also that most do remember giving a damn about other people, so what drove us away from caring?

What made us so greedy that all we care about is making a fast buck or 2 more than we really deserve? What makes us think that we deserve whatever we can choke out of people? What is our entitlement? What commission do we carry that makes us privateers over just plain ruthless pirates?

You have seen me write about it before but at times of the year like this I get more disgusted with what I see than other times of the year. From late winter to early fall I race every other weekend and live on a 34 foot race boat with 10 other people that our lives and success depend on each other. Even though we have moments where we would like to kill each other and even yell at one another we would fight to the death if something were to happen to one of us. During the winter months I do not have this influence and typically focus more on work. With the holidays this makes these months short and the work load is much greater as many people are not interested in purchasing large items at work they are more interested in the things they need to buy for their family.

So by the time Thanksgiving comes around I am pretty full of Houston and work. I have had 4 or 5 people stab me in the back and maybe a few in the chest while looking at me. At the Thanksgiving table sit and reflect on my life and my family. Most of them having past away it is really more of a memorial day than a day of festivities. Memorial Day of course is one of the most important race weekends during the year so you can be assured that I do not slow down to visit those that have gone before us on that weekend. Thanksgiving on the other hand is the day that I typically reflect. I remember all of the things that have brought me to here; the blessings, the miracles everything that has transpired over the last year that I should give thanks for.

Growing up Thanksgiving was a time when we didn't involve friends. It was strictly immediate family. Now with a sister in Tulsa and a Dad in Bend I really don't have any parts of that anymore. During my marriage I was part of another family and did engage with them over Thanksgiving. I had earned the right to be family and worked hard to provide. I always was involved in each of their lives as we had opportunity to do so and enjoyed the time with them. They had a very large immediate family and holidays were filled with nieces and nephews, lots of food and laughter. Oh how I long to have that sense of true family again.

Anymore I try to stick to myself during such times and remember what I am trying to accomplish with the years that I have left. I reflect on the ideas of my youth and the wisdom that I have painfully purchased over the years. I think back on my mother and how she would have supported me in my endeavors and my brother how he would have been such a great success had he lived past 16. I look at the few survivors of our family and do not see the accomplishments that I would have liked to. I see more battle scars and survival.

I HAVE enjoyed Houston because of the economy and the size of the metropolis gives it tolerance for new ideas. I have paid the ultimate price in this new transition; even with a good job and strong economy I am at risk of losing someone that I love and had hoped to spend my life with.

In large cities people do not get involved with your life and therefore are more tolerant of ideas that are not their own. Other the other hand they are so far removed that they would rather kick you into the street in front of a moving bus than look at you. I guess there is no happy medium. If the city is small enough to get to know you then they feel obligated to judge you.

So where does that leave the Pirate of Galveston Bay in the holiday season? Living hard and fast has got moved me forward in my career but left me alone. My choices have pushed out those whom I love and left me alone. Where will I be Christmas? Sitting on my boat with a glass of rum looking across the Bay in search of wind.

So when did we turn our backs on our community; when did we get so busy that we don't time for those around us?

I do believe in diversity! I do believe in tolerance for others ideas, even when they do not suit me. I wish we could bring Whooville to Houston and Dallas. Have you ever wished that on a place? How can we get more involved with our community? Is it just community service? Is it talking to and getting to know your immediate neighbors? What about school, church, the grocery store? What about the guy driving the BMW next to you on your way to work? Oh no not that prick, he cut me off. To hell with him! Is that what we are left with? Seeing if we can get home from work without killing someone because they upset us? Is that how we were raised?

I think that most of us had parents that would be astounded and ashamed if they were to see our actions once we leave the house. I don't think they would condone us taking advantage of others just because we can, or they can afford it. And I hope that our parents didn't do that to others that we just didn't see. I hope that they really did care for their community and participate in the solution and not be a part of the problem. Every once in a while I am surprised at how someone genuinely goes out of their way to help someone just because it was the right thing to do.

As it is I live in Whoville and work in Houston. I try to keep one foot in hell and one in heaven. Walking the thin line between the two worlds is a dangerous place to be. I still have dreams of people doing right while all day watching people try to destroy each other. I now have developed dreams of having my own family since I can not have mine old one back. Even now in my 40's I feel unequiped for the painfull experiences that I endure. I must have missed the classes that tought how to survive? I don't remember "Screw them 101", or "Get them first 203" in my schools curriculum. Is it our teacher's faults as after parents they spend the next most amount of time with our children. Parents, Teachers, Pastors, Family, Friends who gave up?

I think I would give up the anonymity that I get from the large city to bring back a sense that we are working for a purpose. The connection that we had as children because everything did seem connected and that we were all interrelated somehow. I liked walking into the store and seeing someone that I know. I like it when they show concern for a sick relative or are excited about a new job my Dad got. It is amazing sometimes how close we really are when you look at it. I still run into old school friends in Dallas even though we are thousands of miles apart and 3 decades later. It truly is a small world so is it just in our minds? Did we turn off our consciences just so we could tolerate the things we do to people? Is in inherent in us not the size of town that we live in.

You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. So where does that leave the new Pirate of Galveston Bay? Much older and close to losing his dream of ever connecting the dots of family, love community. What is it about those that we love that pushes them away or makes them give up? I have lived hard and fast, so now how do I get anyone to believe that I really can live idle and slow?

How do I get back to Whovillle?



Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

There is nothing like good cooking during the Christmas season! I think of all of the food my family would put together in preperation for Christmas. One of my favorite things was my mom's cookies so in the spirit of the season here is a common receipe that will consistently produce great eats!

Ingredients:


2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups oatmeal

and don't forget the Waxed paper!

Directions
In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

This is great for pirate living!

Seven Deadly Sins… The qualifications of a copier salesman…

Over the years of being an equipment consultant I have uncovered or become aware of some odd understandings relative to the industry that I work in. I originally wrote this a while ago but as the industry compresses and economic times become increasingly tough this writing comes to mind frequently. With that in mind I have decided to repost it.

The idea of 7 deadly sins is not spoken of in the bible directly but was used in early Christian teachings to illuminate the idea that man was prone to sin. Catholic teaching broke sin into 2 classifications, venial and mortal sin. The 7 deadly sins are capital or mortal sins.

Listed in the same order used by both Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century, and later by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy, the seven deadly sins are as follows: luxuria (extravagance, later lust), gula (gluttony), avaritia (greed), acedia (sloth), ira (wrath), invidia (envy), and superbia (pride).1

Every day I walk a simple path.

I talk to people and listen to their problems. After considering the causes and effects of their situation I ask them questions to probe into what they have done to fix their problems and how that effected their situation.

I pay close attention to the things that bother them the most and try to get them to prioritize their problems and find out what they are willing to do to fix or remove the problems. I identify the people involved in the problem and the people that are affected by it. I try to assess how much the problem costs them in both hard and soft costs.

Once I get a picture of who is involved and the process that they go through to solve their problems, I get an idea if this is something that they want to fix now or in the future.

At the end of the day I have to sit with myself and put together a plan of action and present it to the people that are responsible to fix the problem. If they buy into what I have put down they agree and act, if not they disagree we discuss it further. If we cannot come to an agreement we both go our separate ways and they continue with the situation that they have as it was before I came along.

This is the life of a document management equipment and services professional.

We are sometimes referred to as the "copier guy." I am sure that in this day and age we should be called the "copier person," as the gender reference is quite unnecessary. In this game either sex has the same opportunity to participate in the 7 deadly sins that are so profound in this industry.

When I talk about being a corporate pirate most laugh and think I am joking or exaggerating the situation but if you could be a fly on the wall in our building and the many buildings just like ours you would not sleep at night.

Ok, that is probably an exaggeration, but it would shock you and in many cases disgust you. After almost 5 years in this industry many things make me feel ashamed of the people I work with and for.

I have said that your success with a company like mine as a customer is dependent on your connection to it. If your rep is not good, neither will be your experience with the company they work for. Manufacturers and dealers of office equipment and document management services work on a very basal level. And in many cases the parent company or distribution organization is quite evil by nature. Your only hope is to have a buffer "rep" to keep you whole in the experience, or at least minimize the beating (both financial and emotional) you will take from it.

I most of the time try to overlook how others act and the underlying tones that are so prevalent in my business. I try very hard to balance myself and offer solutions to problems and charge people a equitable price somewhere between the extremes that are going to be presented by my counterparts. I also try to the an expert in the areas of topic so that I bring value and am not making money without earning it and putting in the work needed to earn the business for the long term.

I was privy to a conversation which displayed the ugliness that is so frequently seen that makes even the most native business person wary of people in our industry. When dragged into the conversation I was a presented a scenario and asked a question. I answered, "oh that is greedy you can't do that well I mean you can but you will be exposed and the customer will hate you for life."

Everyone looked at me like I was a Martian speaking Swahili.

I for a brief moment remembered why I consider leaving this business almost daily. The sad thing is it is the culture that has been fostered for many generations of salespeople and managers and is not needed at all.

You could almost say the 7 deadly sins are the 7 needed qualities of a "copier salesperson."

Companies interview perspective employees and make sure that they have ample quantities of each of the 7 deadly sins and forgo any real qualifications.

My first boss said, "Michael even a monkey can do this job." He further illustrated, "I could tape a lease to the back of a blind dog, kick him out of the building and eventually he would come back with it signed." He would later prove himself correct and become wildly successful as a salesman, sales manager and then a branch manager for a fortune 1000 company.

So let's for fun look into the world of a copier salesperson just briefly and examine the qualifications first hand shall we.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 1

Latin: luxuria (extravagance, later lust)

In copier sales an effective sales manager will show a young salesperson how to drive their desires for things which of themselves are not evil but to excess are lustful. Whether it is sex, money, power, control if you are still breathing surely you don't have enough of any of them.

A good copier salesperson will never be satisfied, and will always be disappointed with how much they sell, how much they make (see greed), how quickly they get promoted, how long their vacation is. A great copier salesperson will stop at nothing to further their lust of all things corporate.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 2

Latin: gula (gluttony)

In copier sales the best sales representatives will be easily identified by how well they gorge themselves on all things corporate. Copier salespeople are not temperate or aware that they should have any natural limits to anything the desire (see above).

A good manager will gather his or her sales people together on a regular basis and teach basic gluttony. This is really quite a simple thing to learn, you just take your newbie's out and feed them a $200 dinner, drink 2 or 3 bottles of very expensive liquor/wine, and have grand discussions on how they too can have more than they can legitimately use for themselves. A good sales manager will take the new people out shopping and show them how to buy things they don't need or will ever use.

The virtue of overkill will be a daily practice until they even employ it in their own lives.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 3

Latin: avaritia (greed)

Money is just the beginning of greed. A good sales manager will make sure to teach the principle if the customer is spending $10 and is unhappy they will gladly spend $20 to be happy, even when the solution costs $2 and can be sold at a profit for $4. Why would you save the customer $6 when you can increase their budget based on the pain they have and make an extra $16, $8 of which you will get to keep.

Managers are quick to instruct their salespeople to get what is theirs and a bit more. It is so bad that over time it becomes so common that the goal is to see how much you can charge someone without them going bankrupt before they make their first payment and lock themselves into the deal or before they realize how bad they got screwed.

Greed goes way beyond the customer but reaches into the team that they are on and the associates that they work with. Greed says that you must sell everything in your neighbors' pond before reaching into your own. A good manager will promote greed as it facilitates the need to sell more and makes everyone more competitive as they must to survive.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 4

Latin: acedia (sloth)

This is a principle that is taught by the manager that has to be managed all the time. It is the manager's job to manage focus of their salespeople and ensure that their needs are met first. Sloth is taught as a privilege. If you over achieve and sell more than anyone needs, and ensure the managers needs are cared for you can do absolutely nothing.

They are taught to sleep in, stare at their computers, take time off. It is the reward for proper lusting, greediness, gluttony as well as the other 3. When you have overloaded on the other 6 deadly sins you must Sloth. Slothing becomes a way of life. You wake up driven by the lust of being over full (gluttony) and greed and the reward for over achieving is Slothfullness.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 5

Latin: invidia (envy)

A good and experienced manager will stack rank their salespeople and grade them against all of the other salespeople across the organization regardless of how much of an apple vs orange comparison it really is.

A good copier salesperson cannot stand to see another have success and becomes driven by the lust of success to overachieve and be as greedy as possible so that they can overcome and surpass all of their comrades.

A quickly rising manager will ensure that every one of their sales reps cannot stand to even hear of someone else's success or participate in an activity with someone they think could possibly out do them.

Envy resents anything that is good that happens or is good about anyone that they see. Envy is very closely related to Pride, and it drives the lust of self worth which is the fuel that makes pride gluttonous.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 6

Latin: superbia (pride)

A sales manager cannot graduate until they are good at making each sales person believe that they are the best and deserve everything and more. Days of sloth are awarded to those that can be the fullest of themselves.

Copier sales people gorge themselves with the lusts of the flesh and material goods until they cannot move or afford to move then are pushed out the door with belief that they are the only person alive and that they deserve more. They are rewarded for becoming a prima donna. A good manager will know how to control their prima donna's and let them all think they are 1. A practical organization will parade their top performers around and show them that they are invaluable and that they can have anything they desire fueling their lusts.

Then the manager just begins over and finds new untapped desires and drives them to gluttony with greed, and keeps them competing with envy in the fearlessness of their pride. When they fall over from exhaustion they give them days to recuperate by awarding them time to Sloth. If they are having a bad month they will use their pride to control them with the envy and wrath of their fellow associates.

Qualification of a good copier salesperson 7

Latin: ira (wrath)

Wrath is a byproduct of the final two deadly sins Envy and Pride. It is quite ugly and not as common but is a product of greed and envy.

When someone else has success a good copier sales person becomes instantly envious and because they are excessively greedy they fuel this emotion with wrath, which satisfies their pride in that they should be the only one that can be so successful or rich or whatever the deadly sin promotion is for the month. It is most obvious when the greed of one sales person takes an account from another to fuel their lust of one of their desires. Since they cannot satisfy this gluttony with their own accounts they must do it with someone else's. It is much more pleasurable to satisfy themselves with someone else's accounts.

This lust and greed creates the wrath of the sales person that is feeling envious of the success of the greedy and gluttonous sales rep. A good manager deals with wrath in the most obvious way, with a good dose of pride. "You are not going to let so and so do that to you are you?" "You know you are twice the sales person they are!" Then an experienced sales manager will look for a lust that can fuel the envy and promote the rep that has wrath to go out and be greedy enough to show up the original rep. Wrath is a great way to push someone to compete with the others when the other 5 are having little effect. Sloth is reserved for those that have been over gluttonous for some time and had a lot of success being lustful and greedy.

The seven deadly sins require a lot of effort to perfect so typically a good manager will only focus and practice one at a time till they manage a group of major account executives or specialists. In which case the sales people are quite advanced and can practice multiple sins at a time.

This requires a very greedy and prideful manager that can truly harness the energy of their people and use it to fuel their own desires (lust) and gluttony. And of course a good manager works their sales people to death chasing after the dream while they practice the greatest of all sins; Sloth…

In the end a good copier salesman or saleswomen (which there are many) are taught that they deserve whatever they can take from someone else and that it is ok at any cost. They are taught to pull out the stops and go for broke. They are taught how to gamble as professionals and to know when to risk it all for the payoff of the ultimate permanent full time sloth which is held as a carrot to a donkey.

I hope you have enjoyed this enlightenment…

PS – There are organizations that promote the 7 virtues and moderate their sales people keeping them "connected" and customer centric. But they are far and few between, and almost nonexistent in the copier business.

This is why I live a simple life on a 34 foot boat, forsaking the trappings of Dallas and all that is offers. Not that I haven't had my moments being caught up in the limelight. I was after all a 2 time president's club winner and a 1 time circle of excellence winner for that unnamed fortune 1000 company that I talked about above.

Life is fast, life is hard, life never lasts long enough to learn how simple it really is. We complicate it so that we can feel superior to everything else that God has created, when really we were created from the very dust that everything else walks on - Pirate Mike

I am sure that this is considered blasphemous to those that are in my industry as we all want to believe that we are saints. (It is part of our pride) – Pirate Mike

Where do you live; and why does it matter?

You know it is interesting how we all share a common thread or two. And most of us at least generationally had a very similar upbringing. Yet as we get older we make choices that lead us down very different paths. Ultimately we end up quite unique. I grew up in a small farm town 15 miles south of the Canadian border. Roughly 30 minutes from Mount Baker and 30 minutes from Bellingham Bay, in a area that rarely ever got over 80 degrees in the summer and interestingly enough rarely had snow in the winter.

I grew up with my Dad building houses; he even found the time to build ours too. I spent a stint in Seattle and a stint living in the San Juan Islands all in "land homes." I even bought my own house at about 20 and again at 28 and then again at 34. The last time though was a bit different. I bought in a neighborhood that was far enough north of Dallas that I was able to get much more house than I could ever use. With all of the bedrooms that never ended up with furniture and an outside that always needed landscaping work. The house was about 10 years old and was a track home so everything was painted white. It seemed that the doors always needed to be re hung and my wife at the time wanted a new color scheme.

I fought hard to maintain a corporate sales job and come home and try to do the upkeep on the house myself. I like many Dallas-ites was a bit over my head. I bought my house when the scandal hit that everyone was getting mortgages when they really wouldn't qualify for what they had. I too had bought my house with a stated loan and because of my credit score and job didn't have to prove anything. Things were getting tough in my industry as the great consolidation began amongst competitors and things were getting harder and harder to make ends meet. My at the time wife was impervious to what was going on and stayed at home with our 2 puppies.

As life began to crush into me I started to question why I had such a large house when we never entertained or had children. I don't think she ever really questioned it we all were brought up with "you should own a home" mentality. I had dreams of sailing the oceans looking for adventure, exploring my world and writing about what I saw. She in the back of her mind really wanted to fill the house with children and be a soccer mom. Both were valid dreams they just wouldn't mesh.

When my X told me she wanted a divorce I was sad but understood. We had grown apart and couldn't believe in the others dream anymore. She didn't want to sail and I didn't want to settle down. I was too busy with my career, my racing and preparing myself for the day when I could push off land and never return. During that time I worked very hard but probably looked a bit scattered. It was so painful living in the house looking over at my soul mate that was leaving me that I moved myself onto my boat. I felt like at least I could be a bit more objective and the pain wouldn't be so intense. I think this really pushed her away as she couldn't understand that the only thing that kept me from climbing the mast and jumping off was the thought that soon I would wake up from my nightmare.

Well my nightmare never ended, we completed our divorce and low and behold I was still living on the boat. It was time to sell the house and move on. Even in the soft economy I was able to sell the house as I had bought it right with 10% down and 20% undervalued. So when it came time to sell I was able to get out clean. I had just started a new job and had negotiated the best salary and compensation package I had ever received. During the next 2 years I was able to get my finances back under control and get my self esteem back. Little did I know that while finding my way to the top of the performance ladder that I had pissed off a lot of people along the way?

All I was able to do at that point was to find the unemployment line. Meanwhile I have been maintaining my home on the water. People have a lot of strange ideas when they come out for the first time. It is always interesting to get their first reaction when they step down into my home. The boat fulfills all of the same things that a traditional "land home" offers; a place to sleep, change, entertain, cook, clean, rest, study. But mine also offers a place to challenge, and explore.

Now it has been about 4 years since the original day that I grabbed my clothes and migrated to the boat for shelter. Now it is just my home.

 

Pirate Mike