December 27, 2002
When you speed in a mini-van you are generally completely safe from the police.
It turns out that mini-vans are as close to 'Star Trek' style 'cloaking devices' as modern man can possibly get.
The speed trap operators literally don't even see our gold colored mini-van. I'm almost certain we are invisible to them.
After all, what self respecting soccer parent would be irresponsible? It's a better use of time to clock the red sports cars.
It turns out that mini-vans are as close to 'Star Trek' style 'cloaking devices' as modern man can possibly get.
The speed trap operators literally don't even see our gold colored mini-van. I'm almost certain we are invisible to them.
After all, what self respecting soccer parent would be irresponsible? It's a better use of time to clock the red sports cars.
December 25, 2002
Broken Cruise Control
My uncle had two of the wildest daughters. I never knew them well though, as they were 10 years older than myself. My brother relayed this story to me.
My father had a brand new Oldsmobile. This was back in the 60's so cars were a bit different then.
Instead of cruise controls, there was a slider in the speedometer that you would slide to your desired 'too fast speed'. If you went too fast the then the speedometer would buzz loudly.
My father was the poor little brother of the family so a new car was a big deal. A strange twist of human behaviour is that when you are extremely proud of something you loan it out so that you can get others to acknowledge your 'thingy' of which you are proud.
NOt long after he purchased his new car, my nieces asked if they could borrow the car and my father, gladly obliged them, of course, because he was very proud of the car and wanted everyone involved to experience his car. They borrowed it from Friday to Sunday evening and then brought it back to them.
My dad, wanting to experience the full effect of his magnamimous charity, asked them what they thought of the car when they returned it. They said that the car was magnificent, but they recommended that he take it to the dealer to be inspected.
It turns out that there was an awful buzzing sound coming from the dashboard and it kept it up all weekend. They said it didn't seem to affect the car, but it did make it annoying to drive. My dad thanked them and said he would check into it immediately.
What my dad didn't tell them was that he slid the cruise control lever all the way to the right of the speedometer so that he wouldn't be disturbed with it buzzing.
In those days, all the way to the right was 120 miles per hour.
That my nieces grew up to be parents with teenage children seems humorous to me.
My uncle had two of the wildest daughters. I never knew them well though, as they were 10 years older than myself. My brother relayed this story to me.
My father had a brand new Oldsmobile. This was back in the 60's so cars were a bit different then.
Instead of cruise controls, there was a slider in the speedometer that you would slide to your desired 'too fast speed'. If you went too fast the then the speedometer would buzz loudly.
My father was the poor little brother of the family so a new car was a big deal. A strange twist of human behaviour is that when you are extremely proud of something you loan it out so that you can get others to acknowledge your 'thingy' of which you are proud.
NOt long after he purchased his new car, my nieces asked if they could borrow the car and my father, gladly obliged them, of course, because he was very proud of the car and wanted everyone involved to experience his car. They borrowed it from Friday to Sunday evening and then brought it back to them.
My dad, wanting to experience the full effect of his magnamimous charity, asked them what they thought of the car when they returned it. They said that the car was magnificent, but they recommended that he take it to the dealer to be inspected.
It turns out that there was an awful buzzing sound coming from the dashboard and it kept it up all weekend. They said it didn't seem to affect the car, but it did make it annoying to drive. My dad thanked them and said he would check into it immediately.
What my dad didn't tell them was that he slid the cruise control lever all the way to the right of the speedometer so that he wouldn't be disturbed with it buzzing.
In those days, all the way to the right was 120 miles per hour.
That my nieces grew up to be parents with teenage children seems humorous to me.
December 24, 2002
The Heart Attack
In the olden days, farmers would stack hay using a team of horses pulling a wagon of sorts. On the wagon was a large cylindrical steel frame that extended upwards approximately 10-12 feet. The hay, which layed on the ground in a row, slid up a long wooden plank from the ground to the top of the cylinder and then it would simply drop inside the steel frame. The hay was pushed up the ramp plank by the team of horses pulling the entire contraption. The complement of workers was one to run the team of horses and one inside the steel frame distributing the hay as it built up.
The reason you collect hay and stack it is so that the animals on the farm had something to eat during the winter. The more hay you stacked and collected during the summer, the better off you were during the winter. The amount of hay you collected might mean the difference between success or failure for a farmer.
My great aunt and uncle were haying one summer. My aunt was inside the steel frame with a pitchfork and my uncle was running the team of horses.
My uncle thought it would be funny if he pulled the team of horses a little bit faster all the time. The faster he pulled the horses, the harder the person in the steel cage had to work and if you had a choice between the two jobs, any person would pick running the team as it was less work.
He just kept going faster and faster and my aunt was pitching hay (using a pitchfork) as fast as she possibly could. Of course it's hot in the summer so she was getting tired... and a bit mad.
She let this go on for a long period of time. Finally she had enough. Rather than simply cuss my uncle out, she decided the best plan was to grab her chest and feign extreme pain. Oh she acted the act of her life. Spinning wildly, throwing the pitchfork down, clutching her chest in pure agony and then after a whirlwind of torment the match of which my uncle had never seen, she spun to the ground lifeless.
Seeing what had happened, and in his heart truly loving his wife, he started screaming, "Oh my God. My dear God. What have I done? I have killed her. Oh no." This he kept saying as he scrambled to get inside the steel cage by climbing up the sides... no small effort. He had done the unthinkable.
Now as he got right up to her and was grabbing her body to see what he could do, she miraculously came back to life and said "Next slow the darned thing down."
Funny how quickly things change. Of course the pitchfork was the closest thing and he grabbed it. But before he could find her she was up and over the side of the steel cage and running home. That day of haying was a short day.
My uncle eventually thought that was a pretty funny thing. Eventually.
In the olden days, farmers would stack hay using a team of horses pulling a wagon of sorts. On the wagon was a large cylindrical steel frame that extended upwards approximately 10-12 feet. The hay, which layed on the ground in a row, slid up a long wooden plank from the ground to the top of the cylinder and then it would simply drop inside the steel frame. The hay was pushed up the ramp plank by the team of horses pulling the entire contraption. The complement of workers was one to run the team of horses and one inside the steel frame distributing the hay as it built up.
The reason you collect hay and stack it is so that the animals on the farm had something to eat during the winter. The more hay you stacked and collected during the summer, the better off you were during the winter. The amount of hay you collected might mean the difference between success or failure for a farmer.
My great aunt and uncle were haying one summer. My aunt was inside the steel frame with a pitchfork and my uncle was running the team of horses.
My uncle thought it would be funny if he pulled the team of horses a little bit faster all the time. The faster he pulled the horses, the harder the person in the steel cage had to work and if you had a choice between the two jobs, any person would pick running the team as it was less work.
He just kept going faster and faster and my aunt was pitching hay (using a pitchfork) as fast as she possibly could. Of course it's hot in the summer so she was getting tired... and a bit mad.
She let this go on for a long period of time. Finally she had enough. Rather than simply cuss my uncle out, she decided the best plan was to grab her chest and feign extreme pain. Oh she acted the act of her life. Spinning wildly, throwing the pitchfork down, clutching her chest in pure agony and then after a whirlwind of torment the match of which my uncle had never seen, she spun to the ground lifeless.
Seeing what had happened, and in his heart truly loving his wife, he started screaming, "Oh my God. My dear God. What have I done? I have killed her. Oh no." This he kept saying as he scrambled to get inside the steel cage by climbing up the sides... no small effort. He had done the unthinkable.
Now as he got right up to her and was grabbing her body to see what he could do, she miraculously came back to life and said "Next slow the darned thing down."
Funny how quickly things change. Of course the pitchfork was the closest thing and he grabbed it. But before he could find her she was up and over the side of the steel cage and running home. That day of haying was a short day.
My uncle eventually thought that was a pretty funny thing. Eventually.
December 23, 2002
Anonymity
Our great country is suffering. So many big problems: people without health care, the inner city crisis (ala L.A.), recessions, education, terrorists, etc. etc.
If you think about it too much you just don't even want to get out of bed.
Trent Lott was and is wrong. But de-segregation DID do something mirror something in our society that had nothing to do with race. When we desegregated, we didn't desegregate into desegregated schools that were the same type of schools as the segregated ones, we desegregated into 'super schools'. It actually wasn't desegregation that did this, but it was about the same time and to bring all of the students together in a central place, it just made sense to create a bigger school and sort of do a big 'roll-up' of the schools. After all, capitalism pushes efficiency and scale, does it not. Bigger schools should mean a lower cost per student.
But something else was underfoot that only a super school could create. It wasn't just a 'school thing' but it was a by-product of one of the most tolerant societies in the world. This tolerance allowed this something to 'happen'. Part of being tolerant is 'looking the other way'. In my way of thinking, it's anonymity.
It didn't 'bite us' right away. It took many years for our ethics to be undermined. After all, you had to have new generations raised from birth that had the realization that via anonymity, you can shirk accountability.
Our enemies only discovered it over the last 20 years. In the USA, you can be anonymous. People will tolerate you and they won't ask questions. Businesses see so many people in a day, they won't even remember you. The terrorists can live without fear in our country because we don't even know our neighbors. Students can cause trouble in school because they won't get found out. No my friends, terrorists couldn't have struck us this way 30 years ago, because back then we knew our neighbors. Students got better grades because people knew them and cared. It was embarassing. Now no one knows, or cares, so they can skate through school. All the tests in the world won't fix this.
What caused anonymity? So many things have done it. Super-schools. Shopping malls. The telephone. Television. Air conditioning. Computers. Computer games. A 'look the other way' concept of tolerance, which really isn't tolerance.
How do you fix it? I don't know. Things like this would help: Go visit your neighbor. Give someone a helping hand. Go sit outside in your driveway even if it's a little hot on many days. Take your children to the park. Ask people about themselves. Don't cut people off in traffic. Listen, don't talk.
Love each other. Search for the good in every person.
Merry Christmas [ Happy Holidays ]. I'd like to know more about you. Won't you tell me a funny anecdote?
I'll catch you on the 2003 side.
Our great country is suffering. So many big problems: people without health care, the inner city crisis (ala L.A.), recessions, education, terrorists, etc. etc.
If you think about it too much you just don't even want to get out of bed.
Trent Lott was and is wrong. But de-segregation DID do something mirror something in our society that had nothing to do with race. When we desegregated, we didn't desegregate into desegregated schools that were the same type of schools as the segregated ones, we desegregated into 'super schools'. It actually wasn't desegregation that did this, but it was about the same time and to bring all of the students together in a central place, it just made sense to create a bigger school and sort of do a big 'roll-up' of the schools. After all, capitalism pushes efficiency and scale, does it not. Bigger schools should mean a lower cost per student.
But something else was underfoot that only a super school could create. It wasn't just a 'school thing' but it was a by-product of one of the most tolerant societies in the world. This tolerance allowed this something to 'happen'. Part of being tolerant is 'looking the other way'. In my way of thinking, it's anonymity.
It didn't 'bite us' right away. It took many years for our ethics to be undermined. After all, you had to have new generations raised from birth that had the realization that via anonymity, you can shirk accountability.
Our enemies only discovered it over the last 20 years. In the USA, you can be anonymous. People will tolerate you and they won't ask questions. Businesses see so many people in a day, they won't even remember you. The terrorists can live without fear in our country because we don't even know our neighbors. Students can cause trouble in school because they won't get found out. No my friends, terrorists couldn't have struck us this way 30 years ago, because back then we knew our neighbors. Students got better grades because people knew them and cared. It was embarassing. Now no one knows, or cares, so they can skate through school. All the tests in the world won't fix this.
What caused anonymity? So many things have done it. Super-schools. Shopping malls. The telephone. Television. Air conditioning. Computers. Computer games. A 'look the other way' concept of tolerance, which really isn't tolerance.
How do you fix it? I don't know. Things like this would help: Go visit your neighbor. Give someone a helping hand. Go sit outside in your driveway even if it's a little hot on many days. Take your children to the park. Ask people about themselves. Don't cut people off in traffic. Listen, don't talk.
Love each other. Search for the good in every person.
Merry Christmas [ Happy Holidays ]. I'd like to know more about you. Won't you tell me a funny anecdote?
I'll catch you on the 2003 side.
December 19, 2002
The Power of Sharing
There was a period of time many years ago, perhaps up to 50 pounds ago, maybe even a cupful of hair ago, when I considered myself a cross country athlete. I ran for a small NAIA school in a rural part of the United States. Due to the remoteness of where I went to school and lived, getting in your obligatory 10 mile run often took folks on runs in the country. Yes, I said 10 miles. It should be no surprise that a collegiate level cross country runner probably logs no less than 50 miles per week, mostly practiced at a 7 minute/mile pace or faster... and that's for practice.
In this little vignette, it turns out that there was a period of time where I could only get about 5 miles before I, ahem, well, uh, had to run off into the weeds to 'commune with nature' so to speak. Now I'm not trying to be grotesque, but we are all members of the human race and this is 'human race business', ok, so just gird yourself. I didn't like it either as most of my athlete friends did not suffer from this affliction. This affliction affected my ability to get good times in long runs. It affected where I would run as route planning became very importantly. And to a 19 year old, most importantly, it made me the butt of many of my good friends jokes.
My mother had bought a case of concentrated apple juice. This apple juice came in small jugs, approximately a pint. You would mix it with 3 parts water and it made exceptional apple juice. I would anticipate drinking the apple juice and savor every moment of it. This was good stuff. We stored it in a backroom of our house since it was a case and quite a large box.
So good that I shared it with my friends. My cross country friends.
I gave each one of my friends a pint or two of concentrate on a Friday afternoon. The next Monday I saw one of my friends and asked him what he thought of the apple juice. He told me the juice was excellent. He also said he had given some thoughts on how to alleviate my 'affliction' that I mentioned earlier. He stated his cure very simply: GET RID OF THAT APPLE JUICE.
I went home that night and read the label: Keep Frozen
Ten miles never came so easy.
There was a period of time many years ago, perhaps up to 50 pounds ago, maybe even a cupful of hair ago, when I considered myself a cross country athlete. I ran for a small NAIA school in a rural part of the United States. Due to the remoteness of where I went to school and lived, getting in your obligatory 10 mile run often took folks on runs in the country. Yes, I said 10 miles. It should be no surprise that a collegiate level cross country runner probably logs no less than 50 miles per week, mostly practiced at a 7 minute/mile pace or faster... and that's for practice.
In this little vignette, it turns out that there was a period of time where I could only get about 5 miles before I, ahem, well, uh, had to run off into the weeds to 'commune with nature' so to speak. Now I'm not trying to be grotesque, but we are all members of the human race and this is 'human race business', ok, so just gird yourself. I didn't like it either as most of my athlete friends did not suffer from this affliction. This affliction affected my ability to get good times in long runs. It affected where I would run as route planning became very importantly. And to a 19 year old, most importantly, it made me the butt of many of my good friends jokes.
My mother had bought a case of concentrated apple juice. This apple juice came in small jugs, approximately a pint. You would mix it with 3 parts water and it made exceptional apple juice. I would anticipate drinking the apple juice and savor every moment of it. This was good stuff. We stored it in a backroom of our house since it was a case and quite a large box.
So good that I shared it with my friends. My cross country friends.
I gave each one of my friends a pint or two of concentrate on a Friday afternoon. The next Monday I saw one of my friends and asked him what he thought of the apple juice. He told me the juice was excellent. He also said he had given some thoughts on how to alleviate my 'affliction' that I mentioned earlier. He stated his cure very simply: GET RID OF THAT APPLE JUICE.
I went home that night and read the label: Keep Frozen
Ten miles never came so easy.
December 18, 2002
George Will quoted in an article something that was said by the Met's baseball team's manager...
"I don't believe in superstitions. They are bad luck."
"I don't believe in superstitions. They are bad luck."
December 17, 2002
How do you know who your friends are?
A sure fire way to know who your friends are is in knowing the answer to the following question:
Who among all the people I know, will show up at my funeral?
The answer is almost always not what you expect and certainly is almost always very sad.
A sure fire way to know who your friends are is in knowing the answer to the following question:
Who among all the people I know, will show up at my funeral?
The answer is almost always not what you expect and certainly is almost always very sad.
December 16, 2002
The hearts of champions
When the almighty Creator set up the universe the Creator did so with the most amazing sense of irony.
...for when it comes to what humans get versus what they want, the two are almost never the same.
There is a book called "Accidental Empires", which is about the new robber barons of the high tech age. It's a wonderful book full of fabulous anecdotes but the one thing I drew from that book is that most if not all of the new robber barons got rich in spite of money, not because of it. Almost every one of them to a 't', loved what they did and that love transcended and the money came after. Most never expected to be rich, they were just doing what they love.
It's no different in sports. If a coach's main baileywick is simply a desire to win, then he will surely be dissapointed. You see, winning is a by-product of doing what you love. If you simply desire to win, then you have no formula for accomplishing the goal, you simply have a goal. For example, I believe that Bob Stoops is probably a defensive genius. He loves defense and he continually strives to create better defenses that simply achieve higher and higher. He doesn't ask the defense to win games. He asks the defense to do their job. He provides the training and mentoring necessary for each player to accomplish their job. He weaves the individuals together into a machine that executes defense. They are good enough that even when the offense isn't doing well, the defense does well. Winning is a by-product. I'm sure that winning is important to Mr. Stoops, but I can't help but feel that it is only one item on a list of many. If winning was at the top, he would surely be denied.
You can name many, many legends and I think if you looked at a common thread, most people would say that they are great individuals. Winning was important, no doubt, but it wasn't the thing. And in that strange irony of ironies, as long as it isn't the thing, you would be allowed to achieve it.
What things separate winners from almost-winners? Ethics, discipline, empathy, spirituality, purity, and love.To win, or to be excellent, requires a love of what you do. Only when you love, will you transcend above the crowd. When winning isn't your goal, then you can obtain it.
What gives me the right to discourse on this topic? Well. The fact is I'm very mediocre. I've been blessed with intellect, but what that has done is simply made most of my life low hanging fruit. I've never experienced hardship and as a result, I've never had a 'fire in my belly'. I've always 'had enough' so that risk of loss overrode my desire to reach. My result, I fear, will be that I'll simply finish my life out among the uncounted masses. So, I write from the perspective that I know what holds people back and I've observed what propels people forward. It's as valid of a perspective as any other. My thought for the day: The only thing I can get really, really excited about is apathy.
When the almighty Creator set up the universe the Creator did so with the most amazing sense of irony.
...for when it comes to what humans get versus what they want, the two are almost never the same.
There is a book called "Accidental Empires", which is about the new robber barons of the high tech age. It's a wonderful book full of fabulous anecdotes but the one thing I drew from that book is that most if not all of the new robber barons got rich in spite of money, not because of it. Almost every one of them to a 't', loved what they did and that love transcended and the money came after. Most never expected to be rich, they were just doing what they love.
It's no different in sports. If a coach's main baileywick is simply a desire to win, then he will surely be dissapointed. You see, winning is a by-product of doing what you love. If you simply desire to win, then you have no formula for accomplishing the goal, you simply have a goal. For example, I believe that Bob Stoops is probably a defensive genius. He loves defense and he continually strives to create better defenses that simply achieve higher and higher. He doesn't ask the defense to win games. He asks the defense to do their job. He provides the training and mentoring necessary for each player to accomplish their job. He weaves the individuals together into a machine that executes defense. They are good enough that even when the offense isn't doing well, the defense does well. Winning is a by-product. I'm sure that winning is important to Mr. Stoops, but I can't help but feel that it is only one item on a list of many. If winning was at the top, he would surely be denied.
You can name many, many legends and I think if you looked at a common thread, most people would say that they are great individuals. Winning was important, no doubt, but it wasn't the thing. And in that strange irony of ironies, as long as it isn't the thing, you would be allowed to achieve it.
What things separate winners from almost-winners? Ethics, discipline, empathy, spirituality, purity, and love.To win, or to be excellent, requires a love of what you do. Only when you love, will you transcend above the crowd. When winning isn't your goal, then you can obtain it.
What gives me the right to discourse on this topic? Well. The fact is I'm very mediocre. I've been blessed with intellect, but what that has done is simply made most of my life low hanging fruit. I've never experienced hardship and as a result, I've never had a 'fire in my belly'. I've always 'had enough' so that risk of loss overrode my desire to reach. My result, I fear, will be that I'll simply finish my life out among the uncounted masses. So, I write from the perspective that I know what holds people back and I've observed what propels people forward. It's as valid of a perspective as any other. My thought for the day: The only thing I can get really, really excited about is apathy.
December 09, 2002
It's one thing to have a little child, but the smarter they get, the trickier they get.
We've had the tremendous blessing to have a 5 year old daughter who is reading at a level 2 or 3 grades above her kindergarten level... and accellerating.
My wife is very involved with our children's lives and as a result she is active in the church's Child Development Center, which provides for daytime pre-school programs. It's a wonderful thing and open to all mothers, many of whom just need a little break.
However, being part of a church, and a non-profit has it's downsides or difficulties so the little CDC has to deal with always making it's budget and paying it's way. One of the ways it makes its budget is by having fundraisers during the year.
Most recently they held a silent auction. For all of you non-childed people in the world, the silent auction is a favorite of charities. You basically get to put your name down on a piece of paper that goes with some prize which was donated to the cause and you keep writing your name and putting a bid beside your name until you are the last name on the list when they call time at the event.
What happens is that people basically put their names on many things and then just walk around the silent auction tables with the items very similar to a game of musical chairs.
Well anyway as my wife was surveying who was bidding and what people were bidding on as a way of guaging how the fundraising was going she came to a wonderful little Barbie gift basket. It was full of Barbie dolls and accessories. Since we had a daughter my wife was very curious as to what the basket was fetching. While it was a good deal by Barbie standards, it was fetching a handsome amount. When she followed the name over from the posted bid...
...you can imagine how surprised she was to see that our precocious 5 year old was determined to get the winning bid on the Barbie. She had put her name and her bid clearly and prominently on the silent auction bidding sheet. What a very good speller and writer!
We've had the tremendous blessing to have a 5 year old daughter who is reading at a level 2 or 3 grades above her kindergarten level... and accellerating.
My wife is very involved with our children's lives and as a result she is active in the church's Child Development Center, which provides for daytime pre-school programs. It's a wonderful thing and open to all mothers, many of whom just need a little break.
However, being part of a church, and a non-profit has it's downsides or difficulties so the little CDC has to deal with always making it's budget and paying it's way. One of the ways it makes its budget is by having fundraisers during the year.
Most recently they held a silent auction. For all of you non-childed people in the world, the silent auction is a favorite of charities. You basically get to put your name down on a piece of paper that goes with some prize which was donated to the cause and you keep writing your name and putting a bid beside your name until you are the last name on the list when they call time at the event.
What happens is that people basically put their names on many things and then just walk around the silent auction tables with the items very similar to a game of musical chairs.
Well anyway as my wife was surveying who was bidding and what people were bidding on as a way of guaging how the fundraising was going she came to a wonderful little Barbie gift basket. It was full of Barbie dolls and accessories. Since we had a daughter my wife was very curious as to what the basket was fetching. While it was a good deal by Barbie standards, it was fetching a handsome amount. When she followed the name over from the posted bid...
...you can imagine how surprised she was to see that our precocious 5 year old was determined to get the winning bid on the Barbie. She had put her name and her bid clearly and prominently on the silent auction bidding sheet. What a very good speller and writer!
December 07, 2002
I noticed that Nabisco has a new candy bar called OREO Snack Bars. I like to try the new unhealthy products so I thought I would give it a whirl. I don't know what I expected, but they weren't very good. They were just a blast of sugar that tasted very processed. I just thought it would have tasted better. I doubt I'll try that product ever again. I wished I would have purchased an additional $0.99 'Roller Dog'.
There has been much talk about the venture capital world in the last few years, so much so that I would worry that people are conditioned to thinking that the only sources of money are friends and family, venture capitalists, and the public markets. Truth be known, there are many, many more sources of capital for an entrepreneur, one of which is corporate investment, which is what I’d like to discuss.
This type of investment can be very, very compelling. First and foremost, a corporate investor invests based mostly on a strategic reason. This is in contrast to a financial investor whose sole reason is financial. Some typical strategic reasons for a strategic investor to invest are that they consider the startup:
· a possible product line extension
· a possible market extension
· a promising new technology that would enhance current offerings
· a defensive move if the startup would be deemed a threat if in the hands of a competitor
· an important control point in the product value network
For large corporations that are producing plenty of cash, an investment can be justified quite easily. The two common reasons for investing that I’ve heard recently are that the startup is a disruptive technology (a reference to “The Innovators Dilemma”) or that the startup will produce incremental revenue in the large corporations product lines. Any investment can be justified with just a small amount of incremental revenue. It’s very hard to argue, hard to prove/disprove, and hard to measure. In the end, it is emotion and belief that will carry the investment.
To reiterate, strategic investors don’t evaluate investing in your company on a pure financial basis. This means that if you can understand the strategic investors needs and desires you can get your investment with only a minimal scrutiny of your financials. Winning the hearts and minds of a disciplined financial investor is a much more difficult task.
Once a strategic investor invests in your company, they can have a profound impact on the outcome of the investment. This is because they can be your largest customer, your channel to market, your best supplier, your best source of technical information, and a wonderful source of public relations. This is a short list, there are more reasons, but the advantages are plentiful. A financial investor simply cannot offer the same vast resources.
Finally, a strategic investor is the exit strategy. Should the investment become a prizewinner, the strategic will simply buy you out and capture the margin. This is immensely simpler than an IPO.
There are two main types of corporate money, money that is set aside, maybe even in a separate legal entitiy, for investment purposes, and money that is used out of the cash flow of the business.
The first type may even be located in a fund, which means that it may be hard for the corporate parent to actually retrieve it. This money is the easiest for the entrepreneur to tap into because it is earmarked for investment, it has a longer time line before requiring a return, and it has a very concise procedure for approving the investment. However, this money is also organizationally located further from the businesses in the corporate parent and that means that the full power of the strategic relationship will be much harder to realize. Once a corporate investor is on the investor list (cap table), then it certainly makes other corporations reticent to invest as well. Another drawback is that unlike venture capitalists, the corporate investment fund employees are less likely to immerse themselves in your business. That immersion has a very real value to the entrepreneur.
The second type of money from a corporation is the money that comes out of cash flow. This money is probably the most typical an entrepreneur might get from a corporation as most companies don’t actually set up venture groups and funds. While it’s more prevalent to get this type of money, the level of work required is probably more. The investment decision process would be longer because it’s likely that the decision could go all the way from the profit and loss manager (p&l) to the ceo and/or board. The p&l manager will get hit with the outflow of money and also a portion of the accounting losses that the startup will report. Many of the drawbacks that were part of the corporate investment fund also remain with this type of money as well, with the exception that the p&l manager can and will have the most profound impact on the success of the startup of any individual within the corporation.
I have observed that the number one determinant of the success of a startup that exists within a corporate investment portfolio is the relationship between the startup and the corporate investor. No amount of relationship can make up for a poor concept or poor execution, but the lack of a relationship can almost guarantee failure. As an entrepreneur, before you sign that document, you need to have a concrete and crystal clear grasp of how the engagement will work after the investment is made. Areas I would recommend as potential areas of collusion would be brand-labeling your product, coincident commercial agreements with minimum purchases, assignment of the investors personnel to your advisory boards, regularly scheduled meetings at the parent, joint sales calls, meeting with corporate parent employees in areas such as finance to assist in your infrastructure build-out, careful monitoring of your startup’s progress, and finally some contingency plans for different outcomes (like needing more money). Corporate investors sometimes call this the integration plan, but I think ‘involvement’ plan might be a more useful and descriptive term.
How does one locate these corporate investors? One of the best ways is to examine your best, or best potential customers. If your product is good enough and if it is important to your customer, if it can represent a competitive advantage, and if the customer will purchase quantities of your product in volume sufficient to either make or break your company, then simply explaining to the customer honestly where you are in the corporate birth cycle, why you need money and then asking for investment consideration is appropriate. Most of the time, the customer personnel you will be talking to will not have any experience with investments in suppliers so it’s important to be cognizant of this. Be prepared to step them through the perceived process. This is the single best conduit to success, because by the time you reach the decision makers for the investment, you have internal support and a moderately well though out case for inveestment.
Another way to locate a corporate investor is to start dialing and smiling. A very good first start is to call the investor relations office and ask for corporate investments, business development or as a last resort, strategic marketing. In very large organizations they may have several of these professionals located in the operating groups of the company. It is important to be specific and ask to be connected to the business group that most likely can benefit from an investment in your startup. Otherwise, someone in an unrelated area could screen you out early, or someone not familiar with the specific issues a group or division might have.
At all times, you must be prepared for a concise, well-thought-out explanation of why an investment in your company makes sense for the specific corporation from which you are asking for an investment. Sometimes you might get help from the corporation, but more often than not, you’ll simply be told that it doesn’t seem to make sense. I can’t tell you how many times entrepreneurs say that the investment is a good idea, but can’t really tell me why. If the entrepreneur would simply help ‘connect the dots’ that would make a quantum leap in the entrepreneurs success rate. It’s frustrating to see startups get screened for such a simple thing to correct.
Things that get a corporate investor excited in an investment would be in the areas of new markets, particularly if it builds on corporate strengths such as related products, manufacturing processes, distribution channels, geographic focus, or sometimes simply creating some excitement or difficulty for a competitor. Most corporate investors like to see some revenue already on the books, a well-established sales pipeline, and a need for cash that will ‘open the floodgates’ on future revenue. Again, I would stress that any plan be very concise and have a well-formulated concept for why the specific corporate investor should invest. Most plans I’ve seen that were invested in, were justified based on incremental market share in the corporate investors current product lines. That’s why it’s so important that you truly formulate the value that will be derived from the investment in its complete impact on the corporate investor. Related to this is the fact that corporate investors generally have a strategic impetus to their investment, not just a stand-alone financial objective.
Many companies ask for non-disclosure agreements (NDA) before presenting a plan. Unless you already have an advocate from within the company, it’s likely that this will simply get your plan screened out. If you need an NDA, then I would ask if your patents truly protect your company or I would wonder if your company truly has a true competitive advantage. If you insist on the NDA for your main business plan, then I would recommend at least a 1-2 page document that does not require an NDA that again clearly states why an investment makes sense. This is sometimes called the ‘backgrounder’ or ‘two-sheeter’. If this is strong enough, then it will be routed to the p&l managers most able to make use of it (this is why you need to have a clear idea of who will benefit from the investment) to see if there is interest. If interest is indeed generated, then an NDA will get signed. While this activity is occurring, you should be making calls into the company to both sell your product as well as sell the concept of the investment. Sometimes you can use the investment people to help you reach the real buyers of your product. If you can, try to grow your business without investment. Revenue dollars are much more valuable than investment dollars.
Often when I see business plans or short descriptions of the businesses that are asking for investments, I see a tremendous amount of flowery speech. In fact, most plans are going to end world hunger if only we would buy or invest. That may be the vision, but it’s probably not really what we’re buying. If you don’t provide a concise view of what you do now such that a common person can read and understand it, it will be provided for you, and it will likely be wrong. So, visions are nice, but help us understand what you are about right now.
Many entrepreneurs would like to get very, very rich. Since the corporate investors are typically later investors in the corporate lifecycle (we don’t typically invest seed money), they are very sensitive to the fact that they may be considered the fat dumb money. In essence, if you don’t go public, they are your exit strategy. Unlike venture capitalists, many of them still require a regular paycheck to survive. Understand that within the corporate investors mindset there is a concept of rich enough. While I’m not encouraging you to settle, I’m simply pointing out that the sky truly does have some limit and offend the corporate investor’s sensibilities and the deal won’t happen. Your valuations should have some basis in reality, using multiples of cash flow (hard to do in a startup), comparable investments, discounted cash flows, or at least one of the established concepts in valuation. You are allowed to start high, but high relative to something. In several instances, investors just pick a number out of the air. That is not a good practice as a poorly thought out valuation and criteria may cause the corporate investor to look to alternative investments. One more thing; if the investment isn’t an exit, but is a typical venture round, make sure you can show the need for the money… a good example would be a simple cash flow statement that indicates a shortfall.
So, I hope after reading this, you’ll understand a bit more about the power of the corporate strategic investor and what you can do to increase your chances of finding and investment with them. They are fabulous sources of capital that can finance you, power you to profitability and finally provide your financial exit. In addition to that they can provide a powerful validation to your venture that is worth more than almost any other marketing expenditure you could make. They aren’t without risk, however, and understanding that it can be a trying relationship with you competing for their resources and time. Also to align with one corporate investor may alienate investments from others.
This type of investment can be very, very compelling. First and foremost, a corporate investor invests based mostly on a strategic reason. This is in contrast to a financial investor whose sole reason is financial. Some typical strategic reasons for a strategic investor to invest are that they consider the startup:
· a possible product line extension
· a possible market extension
· a promising new technology that would enhance current offerings
· a defensive move if the startup would be deemed a threat if in the hands of a competitor
· an important control point in the product value network
For large corporations that are producing plenty of cash, an investment can be justified quite easily. The two common reasons for investing that I’ve heard recently are that the startup is a disruptive technology (a reference to “The Innovators Dilemma”) or that the startup will produce incremental revenue in the large corporations product lines. Any investment can be justified with just a small amount of incremental revenue. It’s very hard to argue, hard to prove/disprove, and hard to measure. In the end, it is emotion and belief that will carry the investment.
To reiterate, strategic investors don’t evaluate investing in your company on a pure financial basis. This means that if you can understand the strategic investors needs and desires you can get your investment with only a minimal scrutiny of your financials. Winning the hearts and minds of a disciplined financial investor is a much more difficult task.
Once a strategic investor invests in your company, they can have a profound impact on the outcome of the investment. This is because they can be your largest customer, your channel to market, your best supplier, your best source of technical information, and a wonderful source of public relations. This is a short list, there are more reasons, but the advantages are plentiful. A financial investor simply cannot offer the same vast resources.
Finally, a strategic investor is the exit strategy. Should the investment become a prizewinner, the strategic will simply buy you out and capture the margin. This is immensely simpler than an IPO.
There are two main types of corporate money, money that is set aside, maybe even in a separate legal entitiy, for investment purposes, and money that is used out of the cash flow of the business.
The first type may even be located in a fund, which means that it may be hard for the corporate parent to actually retrieve it. This money is the easiest for the entrepreneur to tap into because it is earmarked for investment, it has a longer time line before requiring a return, and it has a very concise procedure for approving the investment. However, this money is also organizationally located further from the businesses in the corporate parent and that means that the full power of the strategic relationship will be much harder to realize. Once a corporate investor is on the investor list (cap table), then it certainly makes other corporations reticent to invest as well. Another drawback is that unlike venture capitalists, the corporate investment fund employees are less likely to immerse themselves in your business. That immersion has a very real value to the entrepreneur.
The second type of money from a corporation is the money that comes out of cash flow. This money is probably the most typical an entrepreneur might get from a corporation as most companies don’t actually set up venture groups and funds. While it’s more prevalent to get this type of money, the level of work required is probably more. The investment decision process would be longer because it’s likely that the decision could go all the way from the profit and loss manager (p&l) to the ceo and/or board. The p&l manager will get hit with the outflow of money and also a portion of the accounting losses that the startup will report. Many of the drawbacks that were part of the corporate investment fund also remain with this type of money as well, with the exception that the p&l manager can and will have the most profound impact on the success of the startup of any individual within the corporation.
I have observed that the number one determinant of the success of a startup that exists within a corporate investment portfolio is the relationship between the startup and the corporate investor. No amount of relationship can make up for a poor concept or poor execution, but the lack of a relationship can almost guarantee failure. As an entrepreneur, before you sign that document, you need to have a concrete and crystal clear grasp of how the engagement will work after the investment is made. Areas I would recommend as potential areas of collusion would be brand-labeling your product, coincident commercial agreements with minimum purchases, assignment of the investors personnel to your advisory boards, regularly scheduled meetings at the parent, joint sales calls, meeting with corporate parent employees in areas such as finance to assist in your infrastructure build-out, careful monitoring of your startup’s progress, and finally some contingency plans for different outcomes (like needing more money). Corporate investors sometimes call this the integration plan, but I think ‘involvement’ plan might be a more useful and descriptive term.
How does one locate these corporate investors? One of the best ways is to examine your best, or best potential customers. If your product is good enough and if it is important to your customer, if it can represent a competitive advantage, and if the customer will purchase quantities of your product in volume sufficient to either make or break your company, then simply explaining to the customer honestly where you are in the corporate birth cycle, why you need money and then asking for investment consideration is appropriate. Most of the time, the customer personnel you will be talking to will not have any experience with investments in suppliers so it’s important to be cognizant of this. Be prepared to step them through the perceived process. This is the single best conduit to success, because by the time you reach the decision makers for the investment, you have internal support and a moderately well though out case for inveestment.
Another way to locate a corporate investor is to start dialing and smiling. A very good first start is to call the investor relations office and ask for corporate investments, business development or as a last resort, strategic marketing. In very large organizations they may have several of these professionals located in the operating groups of the company. It is important to be specific and ask to be connected to the business group that most likely can benefit from an investment in your startup. Otherwise, someone in an unrelated area could screen you out early, or someone not familiar with the specific issues a group or division might have.
At all times, you must be prepared for a concise, well-thought-out explanation of why an investment in your company makes sense for the specific corporation from which you are asking for an investment. Sometimes you might get help from the corporation, but more often than not, you’ll simply be told that it doesn’t seem to make sense. I can’t tell you how many times entrepreneurs say that the investment is a good idea, but can’t really tell me why. If the entrepreneur would simply help ‘connect the dots’ that would make a quantum leap in the entrepreneurs success rate. It’s frustrating to see startups get screened for such a simple thing to correct.
Things that get a corporate investor excited in an investment would be in the areas of new markets, particularly if it builds on corporate strengths such as related products, manufacturing processes, distribution channels, geographic focus, or sometimes simply creating some excitement or difficulty for a competitor. Most corporate investors like to see some revenue already on the books, a well-established sales pipeline, and a need for cash that will ‘open the floodgates’ on future revenue. Again, I would stress that any plan be very concise and have a well-formulated concept for why the specific corporate investor should invest. Most plans I’ve seen that were invested in, were justified based on incremental market share in the corporate investors current product lines. That’s why it’s so important that you truly formulate the value that will be derived from the investment in its complete impact on the corporate investor. Related to this is the fact that corporate investors generally have a strategic impetus to their investment, not just a stand-alone financial objective.
Many companies ask for non-disclosure agreements (NDA) before presenting a plan. Unless you already have an advocate from within the company, it’s likely that this will simply get your plan screened out. If you need an NDA, then I would ask if your patents truly protect your company or I would wonder if your company truly has a true competitive advantage. If you insist on the NDA for your main business plan, then I would recommend at least a 1-2 page document that does not require an NDA that again clearly states why an investment makes sense. This is sometimes called the ‘backgrounder’ or ‘two-sheeter’. If this is strong enough, then it will be routed to the p&l managers most able to make use of it (this is why you need to have a clear idea of who will benefit from the investment) to see if there is interest. If interest is indeed generated, then an NDA will get signed. While this activity is occurring, you should be making calls into the company to both sell your product as well as sell the concept of the investment. Sometimes you can use the investment people to help you reach the real buyers of your product. If you can, try to grow your business without investment. Revenue dollars are much more valuable than investment dollars.
Often when I see business plans or short descriptions of the businesses that are asking for investments, I see a tremendous amount of flowery speech. In fact, most plans are going to end world hunger if only we would buy or invest. That may be the vision, but it’s probably not really what we’re buying. If you don’t provide a concise view of what you do now such that a common person can read and understand it, it will be provided for you, and it will likely be wrong. So, visions are nice, but help us understand what you are about right now.
Many entrepreneurs would like to get very, very rich. Since the corporate investors are typically later investors in the corporate lifecycle (we don’t typically invest seed money), they are very sensitive to the fact that they may be considered the fat dumb money. In essence, if you don’t go public, they are your exit strategy. Unlike venture capitalists, many of them still require a regular paycheck to survive. Understand that within the corporate investors mindset there is a concept of rich enough. While I’m not encouraging you to settle, I’m simply pointing out that the sky truly does have some limit and offend the corporate investor’s sensibilities and the deal won’t happen. Your valuations should have some basis in reality, using multiples of cash flow (hard to do in a startup), comparable investments, discounted cash flows, or at least one of the established concepts in valuation. You are allowed to start high, but high relative to something. In several instances, investors just pick a number out of the air. That is not a good practice as a poorly thought out valuation and criteria may cause the corporate investor to look to alternative investments. One more thing; if the investment isn’t an exit, but is a typical venture round, make sure you can show the need for the money… a good example would be a simple cash flow statement that indicates a shortfall.
So, I hope after reading this, you’ll understand a bit more about the power of the corporate strategic investor and what you can do to increase your chances of finding and investment with them. They are fabulous sources of capital that can finance you, power you to profitability and finally provide your financial exit. In addition to that they can provide a powerful validation to your venture that is worth more than almost any other marketing expenditure you could make. They aren’t without risk, however, and understanding that it can be a trying relationship with you competing for their resources and time. Also to align with one corporate investor may alienate investments from others.
December 03, 2002
My wife and I have always had a militant attitude towards our children's sleep habits. Children tickle me to death, but if you give 'em an inch, they will take a whole evening. Our daughter has a 'stay up later' bag of tricks that would shame a shaman. She's only five, but if you are foolish enough to be in her room even one minute after the appointed lights-out time, she can actually have quite long and drawn out existentialistic conversations. I find it absolutely amazing. In fact, she would rather stand in the bathroom, staring in the mirror, doing nothing and saying nothing, than brush her teeth knowing that she will have to hit the bed when her nighttime jobs are complete.
We had got to discussing our philosophy on children's bedtimes with some friends recently and I came up with a very interesting analogy. Putting children to bed is an awful lot like a drive by shooting. You pick your time and moment, well actually it is an assigned time every night, and you execute on the plan in a most unceremonious fashion. You tell 'em it's bedtime, just like every night. You get 'em ready and then you kiss 'em, tuck 'em in, close the door, run like mad, and talk in whispers like you're being hunted for the next 30 minutes.
Conversations are for breakfast time.
Good night. I love you. Yes, I suppose a pack of Deinonychus's could beat a Tyrannosaurus in a battle. Good night. Yes, it's true, souls never die. I love you.
click off light
We had got to discussing our philosophy on children's bedtimes with some friends recently and I came up with a very interesting analogy. Putting children to bed is an awful lot like a drive by shooting. You pick your time and moment, well actually it is an assigned time every night, and you execute on the plan in a most unceremonious fashion. You tell 'em it's bedtime, just like every night. You get 'em ready and then you kiss 'em, tuck 'em in, close the door, run like mad, and talk in whispers like you're being hunted for the next 30 minutes.
Conversations are for breakfast time.
Good night. I love you. Yes, I suppose a pack of Deinonychus's could beat a Tyrannosaurus in a battle. Good night. Yes, it's true, souls never die. I love you.
click off light
I love those rascals.
December 01, 2002
I received this letter just before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Son,
I was frustrated when I called because I hadn't heard from anyone. And when that happens I probably say plenty. Then I get picked at and gossipped about. A vicious circle that I don't need.
I did buy for everyone Christmas gifts. Next year I'm not. The years bill was probably $400. You guys have had a hard year so we don't want anything. I'm not even going to decorate this year.
Before I had you I was a happy 30 year old getting my teachers certificate. And if I have to go on without you I can still be happy. When you hit 70 years you don't want to waste your time crying over a poor almost absent relationship. This all sounds so silly and childish, but yet it is a real live situation which I know is bothering me for various reasons.
You owe me nothing and I owe you nothing.
Love,
Mother.
Quite frankly, this letter perplexes me. My wife and I discussed it and we thought we were making great headway with a visit this summer (2002) and a handful of very congenial phone calls, but the holidays have a way of tripping people up I guess.
There is a coping mechanism, that strange as it sounds, causes people to sabotage relationships and other things for fear of success. I'll never understand that, but this sounds very similar. It saddens me a great deal. My father died in 1987 and in his will told me I was a poor son. I will have lived my life never knowing unconditional love from either of my parents.
I'll try to reach back over the years and see where I've gone wrong. How do I respond to this? I refuse to throw fuel on the fire, so I'll have to be thoughtful. Prayer takes away the venom and allows me to approach this with a sane attitude.
