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

Scary Times – Ricoh the one world leader succumbs to bad economy and is vulnerable like everyone else…

Now this is just hearsay, but I was just told that Ricoh is making employees take a week furlough without pay and has started lying off employees. This is a very similar situation that I am seeing across the boat I mean board with companies in our industry. From Konica Minolta's huge layoffs right after Xerox and Kodak cut roughly 20% of their global workforce. I'm sure it is not a shock to see HP step back and act cautious in new hires and expansion. Now with Canon in complete desperation to see them partner up with HP is almost funny. These types of partnerships are not uncommon in our industry, good bedfellows they make as they both struggle to assert their once top tier status. With Oce bleeding profusely to now even Ricoh showing their humanity we see salary's decreasing, employee benefits being cut or disappearing all together to sheer headcount reductions in almost every company.

IKON has even make changes and cutbacks in our company 401K matching program. The one thing I will say is that we are still expanding headcount and retooling our demo facilities and go to market strategy. We have not given up that we can be successful in such trying economic times. "Be Bullish In Production" our RVP says religiously. IKON is very bullish in times when even the greats are cowering. In fact we seem to have put on the war paint and run into the streets to meet our enemy head on. We continue the fight regardless of the naysayers.

I am getting nervous to see our "big brother" have such 'noise' coming from their employees. I knew many that went from Konica Minolta and others to over to RBS when they were the best looking for longevity; now what were long term stable employees they too are making the great pilgrimage to look for "gainful employment."

With everyone having such a knee jerk reaction it makes me wonder what is coming next. From everything I am seeing it appears that IKON is coming out on top and in a strong position to negotiate with the Ricoh first born. It would not surprise me to find that IKON becomes the "chosen one" and the pony picked to win this next horse race. I look forward to hearing the stories from my readers as I'm sure that many will find even uttering such a thing blasphemous.

If you have a Ricoh layoff story or more "inside information" I would love to hear. As for Pirate Mike I think we will see the true colors of Ricoh's intentions by April 1^st 2010! Maybe I'm wrong but hide and watch as Ricoh retools their organization to come out fighting strong in the next fiscal.

Also be looking for the new Ricoh Pro C901 ( or whatever they will call it ) This new machine of destruction will be a great advancement of the C900 of today with no fuser oil, basing its strengths on a newly formulated polymerized toner? that will bring digital quality to new heights. If I had to guess with the speed at which they are developing products I would guess mid spring or early summer. With all of the great advancements of the Aegis product you can be sure that Ricoh is looking to show the world that "Ricoh knows production." Or at least the new horse they ride IKON>

What Ricoh knows is how to buy the best technology and engineers and then follow that up with a great distribution model which they did too buy. The IKON acquisition will show that their multibillion dollar purchase was not in vain but truly put them on the map in a way that they never could have done before the acquisition.

Ricoh is slowly learning the power of the weapon that she bought. But being able to wield this new weapon of destruction is yet another story. IKON is not an easy horse to ride, and this ride is surely to get very edgy in the short term as things build and the economy continues to falter. This is an "E" Ticket for sure!

As we get into 2010 I'm sure there are more cuts, layoffs, and changes to come. All we can ask is in the end that we are paid to the champions of the day. I for one cannot complain too bad as I have had record months and a record year! I am sitting somewhere around 120% of my budget with almost 400% of my yearly units. The Ricoh Pro 550EX, 700EX and the infamous C900 have taken me to the Promised Land!

Even in bad times the pirate of Lewisville Lake is showing that it can be done with no food or water and just on new business acquisition alone!

Happy Hunting,