Thursday, October 22, 2009

How success is measured... in the lives that you touch

My mother in law passed away last Saturday night. I knew her, but not as well as I should have. Over the last week we have been planning a service and I have been coordinating getting the message out. I have learned that Karen touched the lives of many people through teaching.

I have read letter after letter of testimonials to how Karen changed the lives of many people of all ages. My wife and I are getting to see a side of her that we never knew about. We are so very proud to have known her.

After spending the last month with her circle of friends, it is clear that they just loved having her around them. She helped soften the rough edges of everyone's personality and changed the people that were around her.

She will be sorely missed.

http://www.star-telegram.com/obituaries/story/1703355.html

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

My best friend...


I want to show everyone my best friend... she left me yesterday.


Sunday, September 20, 2009

Sacred Hoops

If you don't know Phil Jackson, you should get to know him. He was the coach of many NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. Now, the coach of the LA Lakers, and continuing to win championships.

If you want to know what it takes to manage great egos, to build great teams, and how to work with people, in general, I recommend you read this book.

The book mixes philosophy with history and takes you through many of the events in the history of the Bulls. It also helps you to understand Phil's philosophy, a mix of Zen and Christianity.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and wish it hadn't sat on my shelf for so many years before I picked it up. You don't need to be a sports fan to appreciate this book, but you will enjoy it even more if you are.

This book is all about how to make 1+1=3 (or more).

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity

Just a quick post... this is a great, short book that talks about how prices play into our everyday lives. It's an easy read... just a few hours, but it puts in perspective our entire economic system.

Whatever your politics are, you will get something out of this book.


My employer is a pricing systems vendor, so this has particular relevance to me. I hope you enjoy it.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

What I am reading...

I am reading the following at this time:

(1) The Uplift Saga (3 books) by David Brin. This is pure sci fi fantasy, but really enjoyable.

(2) Several SharePoint books.

(3) about to start on a book about BizTalk 2009...

What's going on....

It has been a while since I posted... This is just a quick "what's going on" update...

(1) Pricing Leadership Blog.

I am doing some light blogging over at http://www.pricingleadership.com. This is meant to be a blog about topics related to Pricing and I will be writing about technology topics.

(2) Keeping busy at work.

My team is working on several technology areas, from SharePoint MOSS 2007 to Blackberry to Salesforce.com, to name a few. I am drinking from the fire hose lately.

(3) Resting a bit.

My wife and I bought a house out at Lake Conroe, and we have been spending some weekends out there.


There is some really interesting stuff going on and I will write some posts soon. I have been getting a lot of experience with off-shoring, or really near-shoring, as some of our new development areas are being built working with a partner. There are some good lessons in this area I can share, especially around Agile and remote teams.

If you are interested in any of these topics, post a comment and let me know and I will target some future posts.

I hope things are going well for you in this economy. It is tough right now.

John

Monday, February 2, 2009