Marc’s Musings

I finally read the Jim Collins interview from Inc. magazine called “How to Thrive in 2009.”

I’m a fan of his books Built to Last and Good to Great so the fact that I loved this article is no big surprise.

Here are some tidbits:

How do you define entrepreneurship?

I take a broad view of it. The traditional definition — founding an entity designed to make money — is too narrow for me. I see entrepreneurship as more of a life concept. We all make choices about how we live our lives. You can take a paint-by-numbers approach, or you can start with a blank canvas. When you paint by numbers, the end result is guaranteed. You know what it’s going to be, and it might be good, but it will never be a masterpiece. Starting with a blank canvas is the only way to get a masterpiece, but you could also blow up. So, are you going to pick the paint-by-numbers kit or the blank canvas? That’s a life question, not a business question.

I like paint-by-numbers. It’s a great feeling as a first born to “get it right.” But, personally, I’d really prefer to create a masterpiece.

Here’s another one:

It has to do with your ability to handle risk, no?

Not risk. Ambiguity. People confuse the two. My students used to come to me at Stanford and say, “I’d really like to do something on my own, but I’m just not ready to take that much risk. So I took the job with IBM.” And I would say, “You’re not ready for risk? What’s the first thing you learn about investing? Never put all your eggs in one basket. You’ve just put all your eggs in one basket that is held by somebody else.” As an entrepreneur, you know what the risks are. You see them. You understand them. You manage them. If you join someone else’s company, you may not know those risks, and not because they don’t exist. You just can’t see them, and so you can’t manage them. That’s a much more exposed position than the entrepreneur faces. But there’s lower ambiguity on the paint-by-numbers path: very clear but more risky. The entrepreneurial path: very ambiguous but less risk. Of course, the truth is that it’s all ambiguous, anyway. If you think you can predict the future, you’re crazy.

Isn’t the difference between ambiguity and risk a helpful distinction?! Those of us who’ve grown up seeing companies layoff employees know that cradle-to-grave security left the social contract decades ago. Having all your eggs in the “job” basket is indeed risky.

Check out the rest of the interview on Inc’s site. Hopefully it’ll spur your thinking as it has mine!

Today I get to do the invocation for our Rotary Club. Since I did an extemporaneous one two weeks ago, it was time for a more formal one. So I did what any good Gen Xer would do, I googled for other people’s invocations.

Happily, I stumbled across some Irish blessings and toasts. Irish blessings often brighten my day and with all the rain we’ve been getting, those of us in Maine need brighter days!

Here’s one that made me laugh out loud at my desk:

May those that love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping.

You can find many more at: http://islandireland.com/Pages/folk/sets/toasts.html.

And, if I see you limping, I’ll know why.

During the sermon in church today, David Glusker mentioned a story about Winston Churchill. It’s probably apocryphal, but it went something like this:

An inebriated Winston Churchill to a lady at a party: “Would you spend the night with me for one million pounds?”

The lady, hesitantly: “Well…for a million pounds? I suppose so.”

Churchill: “Then would you do it for 50?”

The lady: “50?! What kind of woman do you take me for?!”

Churchill: “We’ve already established that. Now we’re simply dickering.”

This story really hit me.

What would my decisions have established about me?

Would I ever be in the place of having someone say to me “We’ve already established that…?”

Would you?

We’ve just had quite an adventure with YouTube!!

My wife found this Thriller video done with Legos. It’s a hoot!

[If you want to see how well they did, you can see the original Thriller video here.]

For some reason, she then found the A-Team, Legos style!

The A-Team is a hit with our family so we had to show the A-Team one to the kids. When we did, we found a Lego version of Bohemian Rhapsody!!

As you can see, there’s rarely a dull moment in the Pitman family!

Jack, Jack, bo-back,
Banana-fana fo-fack
Fee-fi-mo-mack
Jack!

I started a new batch of beer tonight. This time it’s an Irish Red Ale. And it’s once again time to ask your help in naming my brew.

If I were to use the Name Game song, would it be:

Ale, ale, bo-bale
Banana-fana fo-fale
Fee-fi-mo-male
Ale!

My last ale was a fail, so I’m thinking I’ll name this one “Atonement Ale” to atone for my past.

What do you creative folks think? What other names would go with this theme?

14 years ago, at about this time, I was getting ready to walk down the aisle with the woman who was to be my wife. (Yes, we both walked down the aisle.)

14 years by the numbers:

• 5110 days
• 7,358,400 minutes
• 441,504,000 seconds
• 1 trip to India (the other was in the few brief months before we were married!)
• 12 moves
• 3 babies
• 3 states
• 3 employers (and 1 pyscho I worked for when I was self-employed)
• 1 church plant
• 5,000 individuals in the Waterville area shown God’s love in practical ways

What is harder to quantify is the ups and the downs, the curves God’s thrown on our path, the growth that comes from hardship and the joys that come from growth.

But any way you count it, I’m grateful for these 14 years and am looking forward to the next 114!

I just received the May update from the En-Gedi Resource Center:

In just a few days, both Christians and Jews will be remembering the ancient festival of Shavuot (Pentecost). At sunset on May 28, Jews will begin their celebration of Shavuot, remembering the giving of the Torah to seal God’s covenant on Mt. Sinai. On Sunday, May 31, Christians will celebrate the giving of the Spirit at the Temple to seal the new covenant of Christ’s atonement for sin. Jews will have all-night parties to study the Torah together to rejoice that God has given them his Word. As Christians, why not celebrate in a similar way? How can Pentecost be a special time to study the words of Christ?

I love learning about the Jewish tradition about the giving of the Torah on Sinai happening on Pentecost. Dwight Pryor has some incredibly accessible teaching on this. I find it very exciting that the God who wanted to write the Torah on our hearts choose this very festival to pour out His Spirit!

The Torah on tablets to the Torah on our hearts reminds me of a Joyce Meyer teaching I heard years ago, for believers the 10 commandments become 10 promises. Instead of a threatening “thou shalt not” command, they become grace filled assurances. “Relax, you won’t have any God besides me.” “Rest assured, you won’t covet any more.”

So studying this weekend seems particularly appropriate. After all, as my college advisor Dr. Marvin Wilson taught us: study is the highest form of worship.

Here are some suggestions for your studies:

• Consider reading Exodus 19, God’s giving the Torah on Sinai.
• Or reading the traditional Pentecost story from the Christian scriptures, Acts 2. Consider how Acts 2:2 could well parallel Exodus 19:16 -19.
• Perhaps reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 is more your speed.
• Finally, you could read the Book of Ruth. As it says on the Wikipedia article on Shavout:
  

  “The Book of Ruth corresponds to the holiday of Shavuot both in its descriptions of the barley and wheat harvest seasons and Ruth’s desire to become a member of the Jewish people, who are defined by their acceptance of the Torah. Moreover, the lineage described at the end of the Book lists King David as Ruth’s great-grandson. According to tradition, David was born and died on Shavuot (Sha’arei Teshuvah to Orach Hayyim, 494).”

As I learned from Dwight Pryor, in the faith of Jesus, redemption isn’t enough. Freedom from slavery is necessary and wonderful, but becoming a people is the goal. Having a new identity, belonging to the One who created us, becoming a member of God’s people, that is the story of Pentecost.

Happy Pentecost!

 
It’s been a couple weeks since I bottled my new beer, a porter stout with coffee that I call “Mo Joe Porter.”

The coffee is so pronounced in this brew that I’m not sure if I should describe it as an ale with coffee, or a coffee with ale.

I realize now where I goofed. I boiled the coffee before adding it to the second fermentation.

Adding anything to the wort is risky, especially if it’s not sanitized. Not wanting to spoil 5 gallons of good beer, I chose to play it safe. But when you boil crushed coffee beans, you get…coffee!

So in effect, I added a small pot of coffee to the second fermentation. And boy does it make its presence known when you taste it!

I like it. Probably because I’m choosing to think of it as a spiked ice coffee.

I think I’ll focus on good old fashioned ales with my next few brews. Well, a red ale and then a stout. But no added spices or coffee!

The latest beer, a coffee stout porter, is now in bottles. In two weeks, it’ll be ready to drink.

But that didn’t stop me from trying it tonight. Take a look at it in the mug:

Nice and dark. The way I like my beers: opaque.

The addition of ground coffee to the second fermentation may have been a bit much. The coffee flavor is very pronounced. Not a nice “hint” or “suggestion,” this coffee is in your face.

It reminds me of a bit of the failed Starbucks/Pepsi attempt at cold carbonated coffee drink called Mazagran. (Remember that short-lived experiment?)

Of course my cold coffee beverage has around 5.5% alcohol by volume.

If you quaff if, you can pick up the nice molasses notes. I hope the coffee decreases and the porter profile increases in the bottle conditioning.

Thanks to everyone the played my name the porter game. Larry Hehn wins again but there were so many great suggestions, I’m going to have to brew many more coffee porters!

Overall, not the best beer I’ve brewed. But definitely drinkable!

My wife’s grandmother turns 90 next month.

But what do you get a woman who’s turning 90? Nana is spry and full of life so somehow an “Official Nonogenerian” t-shirt doesn’t seem quite right.

Twitter and Facebook friends came to the rescue again!

Here are their replies:

and

Aren’t these great?! What would you add?