I thought I was being clever.
A year later my manager informed me that I hadn’t been nearly as clever as I thought, but it didn’t really matter.
Yesterday I talked about how Novell, shortly after buying WordPerfect tried to rebrand the email product “Symmetry. . .Sounds Like Cemetery. . .You Know, The Dead product.” In hindsight, the name probably would have worked. I discovered years later that I was really bad at naming products. My friend Danita was a beta tester for WordPerfect/Novell’s email program.
One day a set of 3.5″ floppies showed up and they were labeled “Novell Symmetry.” Two weeks later, the next update showed up and the name was gone.
The issue wasn’t that Novell changed their minds. Instead they changed the name for the most fundamental of reasons: Someone else already had the name. In fact, they still do. Symmetry Software was founded in 1984 and started using the name “Symmetry” in 1989. This was 6 years before Novell bought WordPerfect and decided on the same name.
It might sound crazy to people today to think that a major software company would pick a product name without checking to see if it was already in use. What you have to remember is that this was 1994, ancient history, probably 2 or 3 B.W. (Before Web.) Symmetry is located in Scottsdale, AZ. WordPerfect and Novell are located in Utah. And to those of you living in the Eastern United States, while Utah and Arizona might LOOK close on the map, it’s a long ways from Scottsdale to Provo. (Actually, it’s a long way from ANYWHERE to Provo, but that’s a story for another day.)
So, here’s where my brief stint as a corporate spy comes in. Before the Internet, most IT people got their news from weekly magazines. The two that I followed the most were PCWeek and Network Computing. PCWeek had a column written by Spencer Katt. It was a computer gossip column. Yes, it sounds geeky. It was geeky. But, geeks like to gossip too. Spencer Katt was famous for breaking stories before they appeared in the mainstream publications.
When I found out that the name Symmetry was being dumped and replaced with GroupWise, I typed up an email and sent it off to PCWeek’s tip line. It may have been a CompuServe or an MCI account. I honestly don’t remember. I was still a couple of weeks away from starting at Microsoft. I wrote the text myself. As near as I can remember it said something like:
Novell Symmetry was short lived. The company realized too late that the name was already in use. The owners of Symmetry failed to be swayed by Ad Rieveld’s charm and Novell made a quick switch to a backup name that looked like it had been pieced together by the words left over after writing a ransom note: Novell GroupWise.
Ad Rieveld was the president of Novell at the time. Just before Eric Schmidt who would later go on to fame and wealth at Google.
Well, I was thrilled when PCWeek came out and my tip was included word-for-word. I cut it out and pinned it up in my cubicle at Microsoft. I never told anyone that I was the one who supplied the tip. At least I never meant to tell anyone and don’t remember telling anyone.
I’m sure the editors at PCWeek were thrilled to get my submission. I worked for Microsoft and I was willing to share secrets! I became very popular for about 2 months. I would get calls, weekly at first and then less frequently as time went on from a reporter asking about Microsoft products in development. I wasn’t going to tell them anything anyway, but it turns out I didn’t have to. I was working as a support engineer. I basically answered the phone and talked to people about Microsoft Mail, an ancient product that Microsoft was going to kill as soon as Microsoft Exchange was ready. I was new to Microsoft and had no insights into any of the development areas.
So, I’d get a phone call and questions about Windows or Office, or some other product that I had no connection with. Sometimes I didn’t even know the name of the product I they were researching. I answered each question honestly and told them I had no idea. Eventually they quit calling.
Of course, I didn’t tell anyone about the phone calls either. I didn’t want to start my career off on the wrong foot. But, I did keep the Spencer Katt column on my wall. After a year, my manager was moving to a different position. I felt like I could finally let him in on my secret.
I was the one that gave that tip to Spencer Katt last year.
Yeah, I know. Kind of cool to see your words in the press.
And that was it. Talk about a letdown. I thought I was being so clever. I kind of wish I’d kept the clipping. I’ve had my name in print many times since then, but after that I decided to hang up my corporate spy glasses. It clearly was not my area of strength. . .thankfully!
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife and thirteen children.
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But, what does it mean?
Nothing!
But that makes no sense!
Sure, it does. We get to decide what it means.
I was having a discussion with a WordPerfect Marketing rep who was trying to explain to me the brilliance of WordPerfect’s new name for its email product. This was before I learned the lesson of Making Up Words And Owning Them. I had recently left WordPerfect and I was waiting out a six month non-compete period before I would be allowed to go to work for Microsoft. (How I Became A Pawn In the War With Microsoft.)
My background was with WordPerfect Office. I had supported the product since the original version 2.0. (Back Where It All Began.) I know what you’re thinking. Why start with version 2? What happened to version 1? It was not uncommon back when software companies were still working out naming and versioning to skip some numbers if it provided your product with a certain continuity. WordPerfect had released Library 1.0 in 1996. It was a DOS based shell program with some cool utilities thrown in. Office 2.0 which was released on August 8th, 1988 (8/8/88, yeah, they did that on purpose). It included everything Library included as well as an email product. So, they named it version 2.0.
WordPerfect Office 4.x (Photo: 1928trolleybus via ebay.co.uk)
You are no doubt familiar with a product called Office, and it’s not from WordPerfect. And while it includes an email client, it bears very little in common with WordPerfect Office. Back in 1988, WordPerfect was the most popular word processor on the planet. Microsoft’s word processor, with the unoriginal name of “Word” was a pretty sorry competitor. Shortly after WordPerfect introduced Office in 1988, Microsoft responded with a competing product with the same name and very different features. They bundled Word, Excel and PowerPoint into a single product and offered it for the same price as WordPerfect’s word processor alone. That set off a huge price war that eventually killed WordPerfect.
Anyway, Microsoft was accused of spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.) Their competitors claimed that Microsoft’s marketing strategy intentionally tried to confuse customers. In the case of Office that’s probably true. I’ll say this for WordPerfect, they didn’t go down without a fight. They continued to aggressively market WordPerfect Office which eventually dropped the utilities and DOS shell and became strictly an email product. Microsoft also had an email product at the time. It was again, very unoriginally named “Microsoft Mail.” The thing was, people knew what that meant. And after Microsoft poured millions into marketing Office, people also knew what Microsoft Office was. The FUD came in when those same people then tried to figure out what WordPerfect Office was. Microsoft had managed to “own” the word Office.
WordPerfect actually never gave up. But, in 1994 Novell bought WordPerfect. The move was designed to help Novell directly compete with Microsoft. Novell made network software. Microsoft made network software and applications. Novell bought WordPerfect to compete. One of the first decisions they made was to decide that it was useless to try to reclaim the Office name for their newly acquired email system. Instead, they would rebrand it.
It was during this time that I had the conversation above with my friend the WordPerfect sales guy. You see, the name they had chosen was “Symmetry.” You might know that symmetry means a balance between two sides of a object or a picture. But, what’s that have to do with email?
Nothing.
And that was the point.
By calling it Symmetry we can make it mean whatever we want it to mean! What comes to mind when I say symmetry?
Nothing. . .and certainly not email.
No, no, work with me here. What image comes to mind?
Honestly? It reminds me of the word cemetery. . .You know, “The dead product.”
Eventually the name was changed to GroupWise. But not because no one liked the name Symmetry. In fact just the opposite. I’ll tell that story tomorrow.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife and thirteen children.
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A parable about business. . .eventually.
As part of preparing to become a man, a young brave was told he must go to see the oldest man in the village. A man considered very wise.
He will tell you what you need to do to finally become a man and a full member of our tribe. When you complete his task he will give you an eagle feather as a symbol of learning.
As the sun was kissing the day goodby, the young man went to see the Elder. The inside of his lodge was dark, lit only by the faint glow of coals in the fire pit. The young man strained to make out the interior, but saw no one. Thinking he should seek the Elder elsewhere in the village, he turned to leave.
What do you seek?
The voice was barely a whisper. It came from the farthest corner of the lodge and the youth could now barely make out the image of the old man seated on a thick bear skin.
I’ve completed all the other preparations. I have only to perform the task you assign me and I will have earned my final eagle feather.
You are ready, then?
In the boldness of youth he answered,
Yes. I am ready.
Bring me a rock.
Not sure the he had heard correctly, the young man started to ask again when he noticed the old man’s head had fallen to his chest and he was asleep.
A rock? That seemed a simple enough task. The young man left the lodge excited that on the morrow, he would present the Elder with a rock and finally receive the coveted final eagle feather. He barely slept that night so great was his excitement. When the first hint of light touched the eastern hills, he was up and out of his parents’ lodge.
He hurried toward the lodge of the village elder. Almost too late he remembered his task. Stopping at a fire ring he quickly scooped up one of the rocks that made up the ring. It was about the size of his fist, smooth all around with some blackening on the side that had faced the flames. Entering the lodge he looked to the corner. The elder’s position hadn’t changed. The young man could see his eyes twinkle in the ever present coals of the fire.
Have you completed your task?
I have. Here is your rock.
The young man placed the fire rock just on the edge of the bearskin.
That is not the rock I want.
Wha. . .
But, the Elder seemed to have fallen back asleep. The youth hefted the rock he had so casually gathered. It really was quite an ordinary rock. Obviously, the task was to find a rock worthy of becoming a man. The young man felt slightly embarrassed that he had so lightly esteemed the task. He wouldn’t fail again. He placed the rock with other similar rocks surrounding the glowing coals and quickly left the lodge.
Where to find a suitable rock? A rock worthy of a man? As he pondered these questions, he eyes were drawn to a high mountain, its snow covered peak lit brilliantly by the rising sun.
It was the highest mountain for miles around. Its sides were steep and covered with . . .rocks! Instantly he knew what rock he needed. Stopping at his parents’ lodge to gather hunting tools and a little dried meat, he set out.
The mountain loomed ever larger as his pace rapidly ate up the miles to its base. The first night he ate half of his dried meat and slept at the base of the mountain. He was up with the dawn and attacked it’s jagged slopes and steep cliffs. He scrambled over rocks by the thousands. But, he remembered the lesson of the fire rock. He wouldn’t settle for anything except the very best. It was late in the afternoon when he finally ascended the highest point on the mountain. The cold made his fingers numb. His hands were raw and bleeding from the climb. His legs were scratched and aching from the ascent. Looking around he quickly found exactly the rock he needed, sitting on the snow as if placed there specifically for him to find. It was perfect. About the same size as the fire rock, but where the fire rock was smooth, the mountain rock was sharp and jagged. It represented the mountain itself. It truly was a rock befitting his passage into manhood.
He camped that night near his previous camp and ate the last of his dried meat. Again he was up with the dawn and on the trail to his village. He had nothing to properly carry the rock in. He alternated it, first in his left hand and then in his right. His fingers cramped and the jagged edges dug into his palms despite the callouses on his hands. Arriving at the village at supper time, proudly he walked through the village to the lodge of the Elder. While he said nothing, he made sure that everyone could see the rock he carried in his right hand. Entering the dim lodge of the Elder he triumphantly laid the rock on the edge of the bearskin. He spoke no words since none were necessary.
That is not the rock I want.
How could this be? Wasn’t this rock worthy? Wasn’t it from the highest point of the highest mountain? The young man hung his head and exited the lodge. What did he expect? How could he have rejected this rock? The entire mountain was made from the exact same stuff. And then the young man understood. While not as common as the fire rock, the mountain rock was still common. There was nothing noteworthy about it other than the location he had gone to get it from. He must find the unique rock. The rock that was unlike any other rock just as he was unlike any other man in the village.
He returned to his parents’ lodge to sleep. Up with the first hint of the sun again, he gathered his bow, and put together a pack with food enough for a week. He now understood that the lesson of the rock was one of discovery. He would range far beyond the tribe’s normal hunting grounds until he found a truly worthy and unique rock. The young man left the village without a backward glance.
Days went by. A week and then a second week. At the end of three weeks the young man returned to the village. Unlike his previous entry, this time he didn’t attempt to display his prize. As he reached the lodge of the Elder and went inside, he opened his game bag and took out a small bundle wrapped in deerskin. Carefully he peeled back the pieces of leather to finally reveal the result of his quest. Even the dim glow from the coals caught in the translucent green gem. Slightly smaller than the tip of his little finger, the green gem caught and cast back the red gleam from the fire pit. Almost reverently the young man laid the precious stone at the feet of the Elder. The fur from the bearskin seemed to grip it and hold it. The young man waited for the Elder to speak. The seconds drug on to minutes. Perhaps he had fallen asleep. Just as the young man was about to wake him, the old man spoke.
That is not the rock I want.
He was crushed. What more could he do? His fire rock had been rejected for the ease of aquisition. His mountain rock had been rejected for its commonness. And now this precious rock was also rejected. In despair the young man dropped to a seating position on the floor in front of the Elder. He was beaten. How could he ever hope to become a man if he couldn’t fulfill a task as simple as getting a rock? In desperation he hung his head and whispered,
Tell me what rock you want and I will go and fetch it for you.
And with that the old man laid an eagle feather in the young man’s lap.
I first heard this story while working at a large non-profit. The CIO made all new employees read a version of the story similar to the one I’ve retold here. I went looking for that story online and realized that while “Bring Me A Rock” is a fairly common parable, the version I had read wasn’t online.
We often think we know what our customers, or our boss or our spouse, or out children want. They want a rock. The most important part of fulfilling the request to “Bring Me A Rock” is not getting the rock. It’s understanding that “Bring Me A Rock” is an incomplete request. And while we might think we know what rock the boss wants, chances are we don’t. And often the boss doesn’t. It’s the job of the Program Manager, or engineer, or Marketing Director to find out what kind of rock the boss wants. And if he doesn’t know, don’t leave his lodge until he does, or don’t agree to fetch rocks.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife and thirteen children.
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BEEEEEEP!
Uh oh. I blew the circuit breaker!
Fortunately, my home lab is right next to the circuit panel. The UPS batteries were keeping my screen and my servers up and running. But, if I didn’t get that circuit breaker reset quickly enough, they were going to crash in a bad way.
Flashlight. . . ?
Office! My home office is about 10 feet from the lab and I keep a flashlight in my office. Weird, that the office light doesn’t work. I didn’t think it was on the same circuit as the lab.
BEEEEEEP!
The UPS is challenging me to race it to the death. Let’s see. . . Here we go, got it!
Let’s see which circuit? More weirdness. None of them are flipped.
Hey, is the power out up there?
Yes.
Oh. So, back to the lab. Now it really is a race. Can I get all my machines shut down gracefully before the UPS gives up the ghost?
Machine 1 is n Windows XP workstation. XP was one of the greatest and most stable operating systems ever written, and still my preferred general use Operating System.
Shut down!
Flip the KVM to the next one, a Windows 2012 test server. Where did they put the shutdown command on 2012? It’s that new Windows 8 style layout.
Control Panel?
No
BEEEEEEEP!
I’M WORKING ON IT!
CTRL-ALT-DEL! Yeah, they included it in the screen where you launch task manager.
Shut down!
That’s two!
Flip the KVM over to my Windows 2012 production server. But, first I need to shut down my Firewall box which can only be administered from a web browser on another machine. I already had the admin program up in my browser. Let’s see. . .it was under Management tools? Yeah, there it is.
Shut down!
Now to put this last server down gently.
CTRL-ALT. . . .BEEEEEeee. . . .
Well, three out of four isn’t bad. It was only at this point that I considered my actions. Of the four machines that were running, the XP box was newly installed and had nothing important on it. It just so happened that it was the box I was using when the power died. I certainly didn’t need to shut it down, and not first. The second box was a test machine. It literally had nothing that couldn’t be deleted and recreated as needed.
No, the only really valuable and important computers were my file server and my firewall computer. Both would require significant effort to reinstall and reconfigure. And I left them untill last. Now, Windows 2012 is a very stable operating system and I was confident that it would come back up. And the firewall box was running a proprietary OS that was also unlikely to become corrupt due to a power outage. But, why did I do them in that crazy order?
I also remembered why I always kept a flashlight at my desk when I worked in an office building. It gets really dark in the middle of a cube farm when the power goes out. And it gets really dark in my basement lab when the power goes out!
On the positive side, the UPS batteries did exactly what they were supposed to do. They kept my servers alive long enough for me to shut them down gracefully and had I not wasted time finding a flashlight and checking the breakers and then calling upstairs and then doing them in the wrong order, I would have had plenty of time.
Our power outage happened just a few days ago when the kids were home for Christmas break. I headed upstairs to check on my family and discovered a positive benefit to our family getting board games for Christmas. None of the games was in the least impacted by the power outage.
Settlers of Catan and King of Tokyo worked just fine.
A few hours later the lights came back on. Well, they came on and immediately went out again as is often the case. Another reason that my lab sits behind big beefy UPS/surge protectors. I’ve lost more equipment in brown outs, when you have a little or a lot of power all at once, than I ever have in a black out. When the power eventually came back on for good, everything rebooted successfully.
It’s not a profound message, but it’s probably a good idea to have a flashlight at your desk, even if your desk is at home. And if you are going to run a multinode home network, it’s probably a good idea to rehearse what order you are going to shut down servers in the event of a power outage. At least if you are like me, it’s not something you want to be deciding as your UPS beeps incessantly at you.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife and thirteen children.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com
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I thought I’d use this “last of 2013/first of 2014” post to talk about what I’ve learned from writing this blog over the past year and what I hope to accomplish next year.
Looking Back
First a few stats
– I wrote 217 blog entries in 2013
– Starting on March 28th I updated daily M-F
– On my most popular day I garnered 813 views
– For the year, I garnered 19,008 views. (And I REALLY want to thank those last nine people who put me over the 19K mark.)
– My most popular blog entry was “Sometimes You Just Get Lucky” with 664 views
– I wrote every blog entry except two on my iPad
And some Lessons Learned
– People read my blog during work days. Weekends and holidays they are busy doing other things.
– Book Reviews, which I publish on holidays are amazingly popular
– The more personal I make an entry, the more it resonates with readers
– Signal boosting is often a random event that strikes from nowhere. And it’s very cool
– Consistency is sometimes more important than brilliance. Simply showing up is MORE than half the battle
– Keeping a topic list is critical to being able to be consistently interesting
– Pictures are valuable. . .sourcing them is a necessary pain
– The same story can be told multiple times if each time reveals a new lesson or provides a new perspective
– I often am surprised when the end of a blog entry is different than what I intended before writing
– Not every blog entry appeals to every reader, and it shouldn’t. Readers will stick with you if you consistently write well and occasionally address their favorite topic
– A good headline is critical
– Each post needs a hook, even if it’s a small one
– I really miss having an editor
Looking Forward
– I need a buffer. I was incredibly lucky to not get sick or otherwise be unable to update one day last year
GOAL: a two week buffer
– I want to improve my reach
GOAL: Update the interface and make sharing easier
– I want to connect more with other writers
GOAL: Involve guest bloggers
– I want to write even more
GOALS: publish at least two books. Continue to update this blog. Launch “One Million Words in 2014” blog
Future Lessons Learned
I started this blog with a few goals. I wanted to see if I could consistently write and be consistently interesting. I wanted to improve my Google search ranking. I felt I needed to raise my visibility in my field. Interestingly, one of the goals was to use this blog to help get a job back in corporate IT. Instead, it turned into a chance to be a writer and an independent consultant. I continue to look at corporate positions, but that goal morphed.
To you, the readers who have made the journey possible, I say thank you and wish each and every one of you a happy and prosperous 2014.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife and thirteen children. His middle initial is M, but not like Mary.
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Here are all the topics I published in 2013.
– Reblog #1: And sometimes you just get lucky! 12/31
– Reblog #2: Racist Programs and assaulting servers 12/30
– Reblog #3: Starting Over at 40 12/27
– Reblog #4: I don’t care what you know, what can you do? 12/26
– Reblog Book Review: The 4 hour work week 12/25
– Reblog #5: The Day we couldn’t make payroll 12/24
– Reblog #6: Data Center CSI, the day the servers died 12/23
– Knowing your audience 12/20
– Fortune Favors the Bold 12/19
– M like Mary. . .but that’s not it 12/18
– They switched to a cash prize and totally blew it 12/17
– Price it below cost but make it up in volume 12/16
– The tragedy that struck my team didn’t spare me 12/13
– It wasn’t supposed to be like this 12/12
– It was never funny, but now it was serious 12/11
– And the horses just laughed at him 12/10
– He could have died (Putting up christmas lights) 12/9
– An Out of Character Post for an Out of Character man 12/6
– The pleasure of pain 12/5
– Candidate for worst manager of the year: ME! 12/4
– I’m on a deadline so why am I on a roof laying shingles? 12/3
– Is it vandalizing if you wrote it? 12/2
– Talk to the most boring guy in the world 11/29
– Book Review: Phenomenal Product Manager 11/28
– How Far Can you Drive with your eyes closed? 11/27
– What would you do? Stuck on a long lonely highway with a dead car and night falling?
– Happy Birthday to me. . .Sort of 11/26
– I didn’t get the job and that has made all the difference 11/25
– Why I don’t Watch TV (But it’s totally cool if you do) 11/22
– I worked from home because the light turned red 11/21
– It’s not a limit. It’s a challenge 11/20
– Making up words and owning them 11/19
– What is your friendship worth? 11/18
– How you get promoted 11/15
– Was it my fault the vendor was three weeks late? (Yes) 11/14
– Why I never get embarrassed at work. . .ever 11/13
– His Millions Did Make Sonics Owner a good manager. 11/12
– Tell them it’s all about you. Make it all about them 11/11
– It’s legal, but is it right? 11/8
– We are Never unemployed 11/7
– Are You Caught In the Wasp Trap? Am I? 11/6
– How Many of you think Microsoft is an evil company? 11/5
– But, What If His Car Is New? (Taxies in foreign countries) 11/4
– The Cow In the Cemetery (How I Got My First Job) 11/1
– The Whip Didn’t Work, But the sword was a hit 10/31
– Every Job is Harder than it looks 10/30
– i Wrote all the lines, the black ones were harder 10/29
– What Having 13 Kids Taught Me About Project Management 10/28
– You Can’t Fire Me, I’ll Quit (When I’m good and ready) 10/25
– A Management Sandwhich, Why your investor shouldn’t be a customer 10/24
– We Had Lost Before We Ever Started 10/23
– I Want The Jacks, Not The Balls 10/22
– My Brother Wouldn’t Lie For Me 10/21
– Running Away From The Writer 10/18
– I Survived Bedlam3 10/17
– More Planting For The Future, Or My Apology To Elm Trees 10/16
– Planting For The Future 10/15
– Never Push The Big Red Button (Even Though You Know You REALLY Want To) 10/14
– The Ultimate “Save Your Job Feature” and Why It Took Microsoft So Long To Implement It 10/11
– I’m The Father Of Murphy Brown’s Baby 10/10
– What Do You Mean You’re Using it? It’s Only A Demo 10/9
– Companies Who Say They Have An Open Door Policy. . . Don’t 10/8
– I Like Sheep 10/7
– Do Something Even If You Can’t Do Everything 10/4
– Instructions For Accessing Your Mailbox Have Been eMailed To You 10/3
– Forget You Ever Knew How To Do That 10/2
– The Day Batman Almost Got Me Fired! 10/1
– The Broken Jar 9/30
– A Disaster Or Our Finest Hour (Sometimes It’s All In The Wording) 9/27
– The Best Car Advice I Ever Received 9/26
– Why I Like Prima Donnas (But, You Can’t Have Two Or They’ll Fight) 9/25
– The Message Of A Sixteen Year Old Note 9/24
– GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out 9/23
– The Holy War (And Why You Should Start One) 9/20
– If Your Name Is Not On This Slide, You No Longer Work For This Company 9/19
– Are You a $10,000 Friend? 9/18
– Raising Gardens and Families (Reprint from Timpanogos Times.) 9/17
– How important is $1000 to you? 9/16
– How to talk to A Programmer, And get results 9/13
– How To Hide Your WiFi in plain sight 9/12
– You’re Not Part Of This Conversation 9/11
– Why I Ride The Train (And Why I Don’t) 9/10
– Convention Report: Salt Lake Comic Con 9/9
– Who’s On Your Team? 9/6
– Why I Love Conventions 9/5
– Do You Believe In Luck? 9/4
– Could You Be A Reference For Your Best Employee To Go To A. Competitor? 9/3
– Book Review: Big Data 9/2
– Are You Crazy? We’re You Trying To Kill Me? 8/30
– And Sometimes You Just Get Lucky 8/29
– His Dream, My Reality 8/28
– Bill Gates Wasn’t the Smartest Guy In The Room 8/27
– The Pedophile, The Comedian And The Englishman 8/26
– Starting Over at 40 8/23*
– The Worst It Can Get? 8/22
– You’ve Put This Company into a Tailspin 8/21
– PUT HIM ON HOLD RIGHT NOW! 8/20
– Following Your Bliss. . .Right Off A. Cliff 8/19
– There Is A Hell 8/16
– The Busboy And The Gardner Are Doing Just Fine 8/15
– Always Listen To A Man Holding A Shotgun (no foto) 8/14
– To Catch A Thief email investigations 8/13
– How To Argue With An Engineer. – Brad’s “We’ll do it Rodney’s way.” 8/12
– The Greatest Picture I Never Took 8/9
– How My Wife Fixed the Sink with Baking Soda and Vinegar 8/8
– But, I’m not Defending Against a Professional Thief 8/7
– Appreciate the Opportunity to Fail (Too many undos) 8/6
– I Let Him Walk All Over Me. . .And Then I Called the FBI 8/5
– The Day We Couldn’t Make Payroll 8/2*
– Pull It, NOW! 8/1
– Sometimes You Have To Be a Jerk. (No, you’re just a jerk) 7/31
– Rocky Mountains of Perspective 7/30
– I’m Not The Sharpest Tool In The Drawer (Losing my iPad) 7/29
– The Danger Of Inviting In the Tiger 7/26
– But He Held Great Meetings (Derrick getting reassigned) 7/25
– You’re Fired. Fireworks in 3…2…1 (Firing Dan) 7/24
– Failed the Interview, Got The Job 7/23
– I Don’t Care What You Know. What Can you Do? 7/22*
– Why Microsoft Hired Garbage Police and Forbid Camping 7/19
– Your Bill is HOW MUCH?!? (Overplaying a Recommendation) 7/18
– 42 is Gone But Not Forgotten . . .Jackie Robinson and Mariano Rivera 7/17
– So, What Makes You Such An Expert? (On being a world expert) 7/16
– Purple Crayon Consulting How to pick a name 7/15
– Fire, Flood and Famine 7/12
– If you bill $500/hour people will listen. .and make others listen (MeritCare) 7/11
– Billing more than 24 hours in a day. . .and then fixing it with the client 7/10
– Setting rates. $80/hour. . .oh good, we’ll be billing you out at $120 7/9
– Feasting on Brownies. . .Every Three weeks 7/8
– Saying It’s all Greek to me, to the Greeks. 7/5
– Book Review: 4-Hour Workweek 7/4
– Worst Travel Advice: Only Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables 7/3
– Do you Speak English? 7/2
– 5 Ways Business is Just Like High School. Not! 7/1
– It’s Not That I Think We’ll Crash. I Just Don’t Care 6/28
– Shoulda Thought of That Before I left. More on Worst Trip Ever 6/27
– Worst Trip Ever. Dang, Everything Leaves Through Atlanta 6/26
– The Day I Found Out I Was a Jerk 6/25
– The Best Blog No One Has Ever Heard Of! 6/24
– Make them Be Nice to Me 6/21
– Rodney, Are You Working, or Are You Screwing Around? 6/20
– You dont get to pick anymore 6/19
– I Had It First! ( just send it to [email protected] 6/18 )
– What do you think Rodent? 6/17
– Did Someone Order Subway? when the subway guy got called by the con call program 6/14
– What Would It Take To Make You Love The Thing You Hate? 6/13
– Giving Your Product Away For Free Is a Business Plan? 6/12
– Help! I’m going to disappoint 100% of My Customers! 6/11
– Staying Out Of The Clouds 6/10
– – I don’t want to know how much that just cost me 6/7
– – How I was a pawn in the War With Microsoft (and my brother got to be a knight!) 6/6
– – How NOT to quit a job. 6/5
– – What happened to the pop in the break room? 6/4
– – Saying No to Microsoft 6/3
– Let them pick their own chairs! 5/31
– I don’t know what you do here, but I need you here doing it 5/30
– How I saved the EPA (Don’t Tell Pete!) 5/29
– Five signs your corporate culture is sick, and what to do about them Tuesday 5/28
– Book review: Become a Key Person of Influence Monday 5/27
– Data Center CSI: the day the servers died Friday 5/24
– How to turn honest employees into dishonest ones Thursday 5/23
– You Want a What? We Don’t Even Make Those Anymore 5/22
– My Manager From Hell 5/21
– Cage Match, Managers vs Leaders 5/20
– The Greatest Leadership Lesson I ever saw 5/17
– We didn’t Come here to win the boot 5/16
– Staring Into the Abyss 5/15
– Where There’s Smoke 5/14
– Business lessons from the ROTC 5/13
– Email is dead, long live email 5/10
– Don’t Eat the Marshmallow (Why I never read the buffer) 5/9
– Please, can I have a root canal? 5/8
– Sometimes You Just Need To Punt 5/7
– Christmas dinner in July 5/6
– If you cook it, they will come 5/3
– Why I still write letters 5/2
– Three Questions about those online pictures 5/1
– Why I’ve abandoned Physical Media 4/30
– Why I still Use Physical Media 4/29
– Picking the Best Liar 4/26
– Refusing to Take Yes for an Answer 4/25
– No Really, I have a Dentist Appointment 4/24
– Green Lights are sometimes the worst that can happen 4/23
– Too Much of a Good Thing 4/22
– Racist Programs and Assaulting Servers 4/19
– Dare to do big things 4/18
– From Dream To Reality 4/17
– But I Planned Better Than This 4/16
– A Rose by any other name. . .is probably going to be confusing 4/15
– Now Would Be a Good Time to Shut Up 4/12
– The Mouse in the Conference Room 4/11
– You First! Lead by example (Eat your own dogfood) 4/10
– Help Someone In Need. Book Bomb for Ben Wolverton 4/9
– Network Like a Boy Scout 4/8
– Why’d you make the switch and what took so long? 4/5
– The Two Rules of Training 4/4
– Yeah, but you guys are screw ups 4/3
– Why You Should Volunteer for the Tasks No One Else Wants 4/2
– The Two Most Exciting Words in Sports 4/1
– Avoiding the Echo Chamber 3/29
– Mom Always Said, Take a Coat 3/28
– Smack it with a hammer 3/26
– A gift I couldn’t give 3/22
– Fire, Comics and Change 3/20
– Finally putting down the Rock 3/18
– Biggest Team I Never Led 3/11
– Biggest Raise I ever got 3/4
– He didn’t use a toy car to reach me 2/25
– My Car’s Transmission Goes out every month 2/18
– What Happened to the Other 5 2/11
– The Four Most Exciting Words in Sports 2/4
– If you are prepared. . .it still sucks to get fired 1/28
– He Also Deserved to be fired (Stan) 1/21
– He Deserved to be Fired (John) 1/14
– Coin of the Realm (Reputation) 1/7
– Any Noun Can be Verbed 12/17
– Spock Vs The Preacher (Logic and emotion) 12/10
– Exceeding the speed limit. . .and expectations 12/3
– Back Where It All Began 11/26
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The best of 2013. This blog entry was the most popular piece I wrote last year. It spawned an interesting discussion with a good friend who writes (www.heartmindcode.com). Dave objected to the idea that it was luck. Maybe not, but in the moment, I sure remember feeling lucky!
Thanks for a wonderful year, and I hope you still around through 2014 as I continue bringing you daily doses of thoughts on building effective teams and individuals.
Happy New Year to you all.
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Best of 2013. This is the 2nd most popular blog entry from last year. I explain why it’s not a good idea to have programmers name things that customers will see.
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Best of 2013. This is the 3rd most popular blog entry from 2013. It’s the 5th installment in a story of faith, betrayal, heartache and finally redemption. Next week, I’ll share the second and then finally, the most popular blog entries from the past year.
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Best of 2013. The story of Kerry and Ed, one with all the learning, one with all of the action, was the 4th most popular blog entry for 2013.