Today I took a flight from Allentown Pennsylvania to St. Petersburg Florida and had the honor of sitting next to Holly. I took the first risk to say hello and ask her if she was coming… or going… home? She said, ” I was just about to ask you the same question.” As we learned more about each other we found some interesting connections. #1 we had lived in the same town. #2 she was familiar with the WINGS program I founded at Warren Hills High School. #3 her father owned a business that was insured by our company. #4 and most importantly, we found we are in the same business, the trust business. See, Holly is a hair stylist but to her, it’s all about trust… [...]
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(Day 165) High Hopes
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(Day 164) Mothers Day
Today is Mothers Day and I was thinking about trust and moms. The trust that exists between a mother and son (or daughter) is a special bond. I don’t know where I would be if I did not start out my life with the love and trust I have with my mom; it’s a sense of security that you can’t find anywhere else. We have a great relationship. She has always been there for me, and now we are there for each other. We talk openly about everything. Mom loves breakfast and I was honored to have time with her this morning. She always looks good, getting dressed up with everything matching. Our house was the same way, looking like something right out of Home and Garden magazine. When I visit her today it feels the same way, so comfortable I can easily fall asleep on the couch (to her chagrin). Here is a picture of mom after our Mothers Day breakfast. As we both are getting older, each one becomes more valuable. -
(Day 163) Ticker Trust
Have we lost trust in the stock ticker itself? What happened the day before yesterday? Holy Cow… what if we can no longer trust the stock market? Here is a new term for you….”trading glitch”… really… a trading glitch? The stock market falls an unprecedented amount in 5 minutes and the explanation is a trading glitch? The definition of a glitch is a “minor problem that causes a temporary setback.” It comes from the yiddish meaning “slippery place”. [...] -
(Day 159) Broken Promises
I am on my way to Saint Louis MO to attend The Gathering of Games Conference. I caught a connecting flight at Dulles airport and now sit in a very small seat on a regional jet next to a very nice young women (she got the short straw 
If I am going to sit this close to someone I have to make some conversation. Before take off, I began by asking her a few questions. She told me she is a graphic artist and works with the government. She had been meeting with her team over the past two days trying to resolve a problem. On day one she thought they made good progress. They identified the problem and came up with a good solution. On day two she felt frustrated because they handed the problem over to another department. She wondered how they could be sure the work was going to be done correctly? “Why couldn’t we just complete the work ourselves?” she asked. My thoughts jumped to my own style of leadership, I like to help create the solution but the details of implementation, although critical, I would prefer to give away once a strategy is created. I can do the little picture, but I play best in the big picture arena. She however, thought differently, and I respect her sense of responsibility. It was not until later in the conversation that I started to understood why she felt so strongly about accountability. [...] -
(Day 158) Trust, But Verify
Do you remember this famous Russian proverb? President Reagan used it while negotiating reductions in nuclear arms with the Soviets. The concept is, trust but verify. The question is, “If you have to verify, is it trust at all?” Or is that simply blind trust?
It seems to me, you build the best long-term relationships when you start out trusting with something small then, verify that it happened. Then you risk a little more and again verify. Trust is a building block process and as trust but verify is met with consistent successful results you no longer need the intensity of verification. That’s when collaboration (Trust) is the norm. That is the goal of the Trust Tour.
So that’s what it meant to me when Pres. Reagan said trust but verify.
What do you think?
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(Day 157) Covered In Plastic
The the other day I was at the airport and decided to have breakfast between flights. I ordered an egg sandwich, juice, coffee and some fruit. I got my breakfast in a bag and sat down at the table and began to unwrap everything. That’s when I realized I had four pieces of plastic and Styrofoam along with my breakfast. I am starting to notice how much garbage I create with my take-out meals. It’s enormous. At home, we can fill a garbage can with only 4 take-out meals from a local Italian restaurant. I am one of 6 billion people on the planet and if everyone had three take-out meals a day consisting of 2 or three items that would be 72 billion pieces of plastic every day. What do we do with all this stuff? I know not everybody eats out every day, nor are all 6 billion people privileged to have their food delivered to them. But still there are billions of pieces of plastic and Styrofoam waste created every day? Some of it is in use for only minutes and will stay with us for centuries. We’ve got to take responsibility for this stuff, we can’t just keep thinking it’s going to some place and magically disappearing. It returns in our water and our food. I don’t want all my food wrapped in plastic, there’s got to be a better way. I trust that there is somebody out there with some answers that we should be working on right now. If you’re one of those people, leave some comments below because this has to start now – there isn’t much time left. -
(Day 149) Mother In Law
Recently I read a blog from Dr. Ichak Adizes (I wrote about Dr Adizes on on Day 128) about the subject of love. Love is an even deeper subject than trust. When you come from a place of love you are automatically in a place of integrity and trust.In this article he speaks of being near his mothers bedside at the time of her death. This reminded me of when I was at the bedside of my mother-in-law when she died in May of 1992. I remember it as if it was yesterday. A lot of people make fun of their mother-in-law, not me…my mother-in-law was different. She treated me with respect, we liked being together and we laughed often. I thought she was someone special. She always had a smile even though she did not have a a very glamorous or easy life. I don’t remember her ever taking an extended vacation or receiving flowers on a regular basis or having fancy meals out. She loved simple things like bowling, gardening and sports. She kept only a couple of good friends. What you would notice is that when you were together she would pay attention to you… she would make you feel important with that soft friendly voice and that upbeat personality.
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