What a crazy week.
It started with an appointment to speak with a global board in New York City. I flew in, jumped into a limo and was driven downtown, met with the board for 90 minutes, rode the limo back to the airport, and flew back to Pittsburgh. The meeting was a miss; they wanted to talk strategy and tactics, whereas I talked structure. Note to self: structure first, then strategy and tactics. My big mistake was that I failed to frame the conversation and did not realize it until I was doing a mental review on the flight back to Pittsburgh. The poor person seated next to me must have thought I was strange when I burst out laughing at myself then offered a weak apology that he needed to be there to understand the humor.
My week ended with a visit from a friend whom I have not seen since the spring of 1986. Rick Makoujy, a former wrestler of mine while coaching high school wrestling at Mercersburg Academy, was visiting State College with his youngest son, Sloan, who was in a wrestling tournament. It was great to see Rick and hear about his entrepreneurial successes. If you are looking for a clear business understanding of a balance sheet and income statement, or if you just want to raise the bar on financial literacy, buy Rick’s book entitled How to Read a Balance Sheet. It is quite well written and will improve your financial literacy immediately without getting lost in seemingly meaningless data.
Also, what a business week! We finished the month of February with one of the highest revenue months in the past 12 years, and we booked $100K of business on the last day of the month. Whew! This “unleashing” people I mentioned before might really work! We still are facing many challenges, but it sure is fun with the right team that is beginning to fall into place.
With all the above excitement with business, we also had some personal challenges. Alexandra remains on bed rest in the hospital, though all remains well with her and her baby. Every week helps decrease the odds of complications at birth. She will be at 31 weeks this Wednesday. A full term of 40 weeks seems out of the question and adds some additional challenges around travel. My dad was also in the ER this week with blood pressure that skyrocketed. He is well and I brought him home Saturday morning.
“Onward” has a new meaning with last week’s events, and we are looking at a new and exciting week in front of us. Living in the present is a gift and it should still be our goal evert day.
Human relation principle of the week:
“Make other people feel important, but do it sincerely.”
Dale Carnegie
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