You Have a Choice in How You Tell Your Career Story


What is your story going to be?

“You don’t put a team together with a computer.
They call it Moneyball I think he bought a ticket on the Titanic”.

Billy Beane, Oakland A’s general manager had one of the lowest player recruitment budgets in all of baseball.

Instead of trying to compete on recruitment dollars, he changed the rules.

He employed an Ivy League mathematician to leverage a statistical computer-generated model (sabermetrics) for recruiting new players.

He was laughed at, ridiculed and dismissed. Especially early on when the results were not positive. His peers, his family, his team all doubted the substance and reality of his experiment’s likelihood of success.

And they were all wrong

It took a desperate heretic(s) to help change a 100 year old game. Today, the business of baseball is forever changed. Now teams predominately utilize similar methods in architecting winning teams.

For the past seven years I have lived the life of Billy Bean in the Retail Gasoline Industry.

Although baseball holds the crown for more glamorous, the business of selling gasoline is as fierce and complex a business.

Gasoline, alcohol, coffee and tobacco have always been the four industries that I have viewed as highly tolerant to economic downturns. My conscience precludes me from the tobacco industry. The crowd of the alcohol business keeps me away.

Howard Schultz has dominated the business of coffee. But the business of selling Gasoline has remained largely unchanged since the first Model-T rolled off the line.

From Big Oil companies to small independents both have gone about the daily gasoline pricing process the same way:

  • check the competition
  • check my product cost
  • Check my gut (what should I price today?)
  • send a smoke signal or carrier pigeon to every location I own to communicate a price change

This is how I found the industry

We started asking, “If we could automate all of those steps through software, would you buy it”? Some said it could never be done. Our competitors said it was “Pricing Nirvana”, but a few said “Yeah I think so”.

Like Billy Beane, I started creating a software solution to a business problem that had never been done before. We were wrong more than we were right. But we were right enough of the time to keep advancing.

We found a few willing customer’s who had very little too loose other than closing down their roof-top pigeon coops.

(Image Creative Commons by @MSG’s)

Years later and with the on-sight of gray hairs we control over five (5%) percent of the total gasoline sold in the United States, the naysayers are no longer jeering us.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of product are sold and reported on like a stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

We created a technology that enables our customers to manage their entire network of locations through their iPhone.  We connected every device from headquarters to the store:

  • Point of Sale
  • Pumps
  • Electronic Price Signs

It Costs a lot to be first

When you start paddling out into the Blue Ocean it is extremely lonely. You hear all kinds of “it can’t be done” or “good luck trying” type statements. Some of us are made to ignore the people who say the world is or should remain a certain way. It does not mean we do not doubt ourselves or consider aborting our mission.

We do however possess an inordinate amount of passion and belief that carries us beyond where most are ever willing to go. And, “the first guy to the wall is always bloodiest”.  It costs a lot to be first.

When I stumbled on the movie MoneyBall, I discovered the translation of story that I needed. Baseball and Gasoline are very dissimilar, but the power of passion and leading a revolution in a 100 year old industry is the same.

So I have a choice. I can tell one of two stories.

  • “I lead a software team who serves the gasoline industry”.
  • Or “Have you seen MoneyBall?………”

As you might assume the second story is both more true as well as exciting to listen to.

What versions of your story do you have?

Why You Should Create a Personal Board of Advisors?

Board of Advisors

Our own lives are often the most difficult to interpret. 

Good companies, companies that last, have a Board of Directors and sometimes a Board of Advisors.

Directors give you mandated direction.

Advisors aid you in charting a course.

Last year, I formed a Personal Board of Advisors to aid me in the key decisions and directions of my life: personally, professionally and spiritually.

Hand picked

This Board of Advisors was constructed by personal invitation.  These men are exceptional in their respective trades.  They work in various different industries: Law, Publishing, High Tech, Ministry, Real Estate and Finance.

Mercenary and Missionary

Most of them have a unique perspective on the intersection of life and business.  I like to term this convergence being a Mercenary with a Missionary heart.

I trust them personally.

They are selected because we have invested in each other’s lives personally and professionally.  In order to yield to their insights, I want to know I can trust their motive for me.

I receive raw unfiltered scrutiny.

As a result we are able to skip past many layers of niceties or suspicion and get straight to the core issues.  I trust their intentions and therefore their advice.

Group conference call

On a practical note, we have a group conference call one to two times a year.  In addition, I reach out to them individually as things come up.  The purpose of the group call is to huddle up on a particular topic or pending decision.

I prepare for this call just like I would a board or executive meeting.  I provide a summary, some back-story and then the options or paths that I am considering.

Honestly it makes me nervous at times. 

These guys have played in the big leagues for a long time.  At times I feel like I’ve been playing for the farm team.  I have to push past that nervous nudge and move forward trusting that the gain is greater than the pain.

Here is some of what I have to get past:

  • You’re wasting their time.
  • They have better things to be doing.
  • They’re tired of me asking for help.

Sometimes I even tell them this is what I am struggling with.

As you’d expect they graciously say “that is non-sense”.

I thought I was the only beneficiary. 

It turns out that they are grateful to be helping me.  I accidentally modeled something for them that they wished they had in their own lives.  As a result we all win.  As they connect with other men who were strangers to them but all centered around the common goal of “help Aaron”, something good happens.

Humility is a pre-requisite.

You have to assume that you do not have all of the answers.  If that is your posture, then go for it.  If you are looking for a circle of people to just praise you without challenging you, don’t waste your time and theirs.

NY Times article.

I came across this article in the NY Times.  It offers another perspective on this idea.  See NY Times article about the purpose and approach behind a Board of Advisors-For Your Life.

Notice the distinction this draws between Advisers and Directors.  This was an important definition for me as well.

Feel free to ask me more questions about this.

Good luck.

Do You Feel Like You Are Playing for the Farm Team?

Your career can feel like Farm Team baseball.

Farm team baseball feeds the Major League teams with the rising cream of the crop.  Once recruited, young talent starts proving and validating what the scout witnessed during try outs:  fielding grounders, throwing heat, and smashing home runs.

It’s the turf where some of the young recruits morph into MLB players.

Playing for the farm team advances each players probability to get the call to “The Show”.  Every farm team player wants to play in the major leagues and the farm team is a necessary season in the career of most ball players.  Some guys only spend a few weeks or months playing the circuit of small market towns like Omaha, NE.

Some players are unable to break through the talent pool requirements and end up stuck on the farm team for their career.  For every season a player spends on the farm team, his dream of playing in the big leagues becomes less likely.

Why do you care?  You don’t even like baseball?

Many of us feel like we are playing on the farm team today.

Your current career, company, position, accomplishments, compensation, and level of influence feel drastically different from your original dreams.

Recall for a minute where you thought you’d be?

What you thought you’d be doing?

Who you thought you’d be doing it for or with?

As a result you feel stuck playing minor league ball when you
know you were made for the Major Leagues.

You are right.  But that isn’t the whole story.

Interview CEO’s and ask

Did you know that if you started interviewing CEO’s, writers, directors, founders, owners, presidents, artists, (insert your example) that you look up to as Major League players you would encounter that they also feel some of these same sentiments?

Try it. You’ll be surprised at what you hear.

The difference between baseball and your life is that you have a choice to change it.

You are not as stuck as you think.

First, stop waiting for the call from the major leagues.

The cyclical cycle of anticipation and disappointment is not working.

Instead start your own team.

Stop playing ball by someone else’s rules.  You don’t believe me?  Buckle up……

Meet Jack @thegoodrun

NYC Digital Media guru by day and legendary musician by night and weekend @jackopierce.  Ask him if it’s exactly as he envisioned?

Meet Barry @Calxeda

Intel for twelve years thought cell phone chips should run rack servers instead.

Ask him how long he played for the farm team before he quit and started his own team?

Meet Jon @jondale

Ad-hoc consulting for years.  Quit and went and got an MBA from Seth Godin and launched Moolala.  Ask him how many farm team practices he feels like he’s attended?

Meet Matt 

Creating AutoCAD drawings of libraries in strip malls.
Quit and now decorates the downtown Denver downtown skyline with modern architecture.
Ask him how tall or unique a building he will need to design to feel he’s made it to “the show”?

The difference between playing on the farm team and major leagues is all in your head.

Welcome to the Show. You made it. Watch the Rookie Trailer.

What can you change in your thinking today?  

Finding a Medium Switch: Learning to Live in Balance

I once was told by a friend that he “does not have a Medium switch”.

For some people, you cannot find their “on” switch.  They seem unmotivated, static and placid.

For some people you cannot find their “off” switch.  They are exhausting, incessant and unaware.

My friend wasn’t saying he is in between these two examples of “On” and “Off”.

He was saying that he pours himself so deeply into something that he lacks the ability to pace himself.  When the switch throws “On”, he feels a surge of power, clarity and passion that injects into his project.

If the switch is in the “off” position, his project lacks all creativity, motivation and desire.

Finding the medium switch can be very difficult for creative people.  

Far too frequently the switch is either in the unequivocal “On” position only to wear down to arrive at the dust settling position of an exhausted “off”.

I too am working to find “Medium”.  I wonder where you’ll find yourself if you’re willing to take an honest inventory.

No Substitute for Real Relationships (not social media)

There is no substitute or alternative to relationships, real human connection and understanding.

Social media can be confused as a substitute or mechanism to create real sustainable relationships.  The “Like” button is not the same as liking a person whom you’d spend an afternoon with.  Yet, I believe our younger brothers and sisters of society are missing this distinction.

The Social media revolution has driven the Age of Acquaintances connecting real people throughout the globe.  But being acquainted is not the same as being known.

I have met many amazing people through social media.  And yet I do not “know” them.  We exchange an email or tweet or even Skype (more human connection).  Being in the presence of another person, in the same room, using your voice (not text) to speak to each other…..now that is entirely different.

Turn off your computer, your phone, your iPad and walk over and have a conversation with a co-worker, a friend, your spouse, your neighbor, the cashier at the car wash.

Be curious.  People have a story to tell a lot of which will never be printed.  Dare to be more human today.

If Your Mom Is Your Only Fan?

I can’t watch auditions for American Idol

Photo by LifeSuperCharger (Creative Commons)

Have you ever sat and watched the auditions for American Idol?

There are thousands of people that step up to the plate and take a swing at a solo singing performance for thirty seconds in front of live judges.  Out of each city’s tour from the mass of men, ten or fifteen surface to be worthy of being selected.

Most don’t have what it takes

Most do not have the skill set, gifting, beauty and grace of voice to continue.  But they arouse enough courage and fortitude to risk rejection to say “at least I tried”.

And there are a few that simply cannot see that even on their best day there is such a wide gap, there is no way they will ever make it.

Their friends and family keep telling them that they should be famous.

The combination is a person with no talent, but unwavering conviction and hope.  I can’t watch it.  It is painful to see it unfold.

Especially long after the rejection and tears they are still unable to entertain the possibility that their hope is greater than reality.

What does this have to do with us?

At first, none of us know which group we will be in.

When you start the equivalent of singing in the shower it is too early to tell if it will amount to anything of substance or livelihood.

Hugh MacLeod started doodling at the bar on the back of business cards, now he is smashing it, writing books, selling original art to his tribe.  Hugh’s Book, Evil Plans is a great read.

Leaving the comfort of a career

And then a few friends and family start saying, “@MannyLadis you should leave the comfort of your 15+ year career selling Enterprise Data Center services and start a Cloud desktop computing company.”

@MannyLadis is part of a revolution of new Cloud providers off-loading the nonsense of IT desktop management to instead deliver the same applications without all of the headaches.

When you start shipping it, dreaming about it, going for it, you don’t know which group you’ll be in.

  1. Selected to play
  2. Tried, but does not have what it takes
  3. Shouldn’t have even tried

You won’t know at first.

You should try and gather up the self-confidence and courage to go for it.

You should listen to solicited feedback.

You should ignore a lot of what you hear.

And if your mom’s your only fan, that might be an indication that you should rethink your plan.

1% talk back

In Talk Radio less than 1% of listeners talk back.  Translated, only 1% of your listeners will actually pick up the phone and engage in the dialogue with the show host.  99% just sit back and enjoy the content but do not contribute or spar with the talk show host.

That same reality is present for a writer, a musician, or your art, your new idea, your special sauce.

With any art, it is important to consider your motives first.  Like a talk show host, if you are providing something meaningful and relevant the 1% is still a small sampling of the impact or result.

So you better deeply believe in what you are doing more than you need to hear from your audience.

Audience participation and feedback are not always an accurate reflection of the value of your contribution or impact.

Even if you hear crickets chirping, don’t give up.

And, make sure you don’t disregard the ratings either.

What other people say

What other people say is more important that what you say.

Third party endorsements are more powerful than anything you can say about yourself, your product or your service.

This is nothing new.

People talk, tweet, text, and blog peer-to-peer.

The phone book (who uses that anyway?) is a wall of flat text.

A Google search about your business is sorted based on –most popular.

The world today does not tolerate directories.

True honesty happens when you are not in the room.

Yelp works because the restaurant owner is not in charge of what is being said.

What is being said about your craft, service, art, impact, influence, ideas, timeliness, ethics, quality…..when you are not around?

Eject Button

Photo by Chris Phillips (Creative Commons)

Know when to push the eject button.

I’m pushing the button today.

Sometimes it is the better path of wisdom.

It beats dying in the rubble of trying to keep flying the current failing mission.

Who are you? Do you know?

It is such an imperative question to ask.  And your first answer will not be entirely accurate.

It is so difficult to see your own skills, talents, and uniqueness clearly.  We are aware of those collections of amazing elements that make us “You”.  But we lack the intricacy of insight required to fully comprehend our bigness, our own recipe that makes up our “special sauce”.

We need trusted advisers to assist us in crafting the laser precision summary of “Who am I?”

Don’t misunderstand me.  I know who I am at a macro level.  But when I start tracking down to a micro level, I need some help.

This was my quest beginning in 2011.  I needed to be able to communicate “Who am I?  What do I make, invent, and pioneer? Why is it important?  Am I any good at it?

Those questions drove me to ask questions of the few people I respected the most in the space of Work.  And the prerequisite was I had to trust their belief and heart for me.  That cocktail combination of respect for them and trust in their intentions for me was powerful.

I asked those trusted advisers to get out their red ink pen and start lighting up my first cut answers to these questions.  There was more red than black.  And it was beautiful.

They helped me extract from the marrow of my life “Who I am.”  Notice it was no longer a question.  A period was inserted and it became a statement.

I am under renovation and always improving, inventing, editing and dreaming.

I am becoming dangerously clear on who I am, what I do and why it matters.

Start asking the question.  It will disrupt the trajectory of your life.