5/23 and 5/24

5/23
This morning we participated in a lecture on the topic of Entrepreneurship.  This lecture had me more engaged than the other two, but not my mind as much as my emotions.  I sincerely enjoyed hearing about Brad's story, especially the transparency he showed by letting us hear not only about his success but his failure.  It showed me that it takes passion, talent, and a bit of luck for a new endeavor to succeed.  However, the part of the lecture that I disagree with is the idea that anyone can be an entrepreneur.  It's funny really.  They spent the entire lecture telling us how hard it is, how motivated you have to be, how much selling you have to do, the long hours etc., but then they turn around and say anyone can do it?  Hardly.  Most people cannot be entrepreneurs.  Most people don't want to work 14 hours a day, take on risk, and give up a secure paycheck and predictable schedule.  Most people don't have the charisma it takes to sell your butt off all day and still be able to lead a team.  Telling people who aren't capable to start their own company is huge disservice to them and an insult to those entrepreneurs that actually have what it takes.  The reason I am so opinionated on the matter is that I lived it and observed first hand just how hard being an entrepreneur is.  I know, from experience, that most people aren't cut out for it.  That's ok, I'm not putting entrepreneurs on some weird pedestal  it just requires a specific kind of skill set, personality and luck to pull it off.
The rest of the day on the 23rd we traveled by train to Paris, which was great.

5/24

Today we visited UNESCO's location in Paris.  I really enjoyed this visit.  The individuals we interacted with were intelligent, professional and intelligent.  They also gave off this feeling of warmth and passion.  It was clear how much they cared about the work they were doing.  During our visit we were shown a clip of the Daily Show.   The clip explained that the USA had cut funding of UNESCO programs.  It was funny but informative.  Clearly the clip was only telling one side of the story and intentionally painting a specific picture. I need to do some reading to better understand the other side of this story.  

This afternoon I worked on one our street projects.  It was nice to have some unstructured time to just mingle with the locals and strike up conversation.  Our topic was to explore how French people might be utilizing cell phone technology differently than we are.  It was a bit difficult to just launch into the conversation, but most of the people we talked to use technology the same exact ways we do.  Some differences do exist on how cell phone companies work due to the frequency and ease at which cell phone users travel within other European countries.  One gentleman I spoke with did mention the frustation of dealing with his cell provider regarding travel policies.  Overall, the project was fun, but we didn't really have the time to think the best approach to engage in the conversations we were having.  

5/22

This morning we had the privilege of hearing a lecture by Georges De Nemeskeri-Kiss discussing the financial crisis in the EU.  Honestly, he was amazing, but a lot of what he discussed was over my head.  I found it remarkable that he began the lecture by giving us a choice of topics.  We picked one and he launched into this brilliant explanation and analysis of the crisis.  What's it like to walk around with that much information in your mind and be able to communicate it in clear and organized fashion? Remarkable.  Every time I hear an intelligent discussion on the financial crisis I walk away feeling a bit depressed.  The greed of a few severely impacted the well being of many and it doesn't appear that the lessons have been learned.

This afternoon we visited Galderma.  It was very insightful to get a glimpse of the mindset that employees of such a large company have.  While it certainly did not have the family type environment of Dani-Alu, there was a sense of pride in their company.  It is also fascinating to me to consider the sheer size, numerically and geographically, of Galderma and marvel at the efforts that are taken to get that many people moving in the same direction.  Consider all of the factory regulations, HR considerations, and specific job tasks that are happening at all at once.  I used to run a company with 80 employees across 4 cities and that seemed impossible to keep up with, forget thousands.

Below, friends enjoying a quiet pub after a day of site visits.   

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5/21

Today was our first day EmLyon where we had the privilege to listen to a lecture by Professor Seidel.  I really enjoyed the lecture and especially appreciated they respectful manner in which discussed the differences between European and American perspectives on labor laws and business.  The point that stood out the most to me was the idea that Europeans tend to view business and society on a more collective level.  They maintain the perspective that systems should be built with every level of income and social status in mind.  While this perspective does by nature place limitations on how much one individual can achieve (as well as others), however, it was refreshing in a way to hear a more selfless perspective.

That afternoon I visited Dani-Alu.  A 100% family owned company that uses aluminum to produce railings, covers and other products for construction companies to use.  The visit was confirmation for my personal feelings of what kind of company I want to work for.  For example, they pride themselves in the quality of their product and the effectiveness of their service.  They know that they cannot compete on price, but they make up for it.  The company had sense of family meaning it seemed like they all felt that they were in this together and truly wanted to build a good company together.

5/20

Lyon.  What an amazing city.  Our journey to the hotel primarily took us through the newer part of the city, which gave me a pretty low first impression of Lyon.  However, last night we were able to walk through old Lyon and see all of the shops, restaurants, cathedrals and beautiful old buildings that provide so much character and personality to the city.  It was a good reminder not to make up a decision  before really exploring the depth and details of that decision.  Being able to reserve judgment until all of the facts have been collected is a valuable skill.

The walking tour that we took today only confirmed my feelings from last night.  Lyon is a cool city with a rich history, cool secret passages, beautiful landscape and friendly people.  They used those passages to hide jews during WWII and during the religious wars many of the statues on the cathedrals had their heads cut off, just to give some examples.  At the top of the hill over looking old Lyon lies ruins of on old Roman theatre, potentially 2,000 years old, incredible.

This evening we were treated to an awesome dinner experience at this old winery in the Beaujolais.  Wine, cheeses, bread, chicken, pastries and much more.  The hosts were hilarious and had us doing all of these activities that I really didn't understand but it was still fun.  Our main host, Jean Pierre, busted out some wine from 2003, which was the last year he had run the winery himself.  It was such an honor to share that with him and with my classmates.

Life's Nature

At work, over the last few months, I have interviewed around 200 people for various positions within the company, it’s been quite the grind. Clearly, in a 30 minute job interview, it’s impossible to get deep into someone’s story. And in interviews most people are putting their best foot forward and trying to convince me they would be perfect for the position, so I am getting a very narrow scope into each person’s life. They want to be perceived in a certain light and everything they are do is to support that light. However, while discussing management style and hearing them explain how they handle conflict in the work place, it became overwhelming to me that certain things in our lives hang by a thread kind of like getting a job or not.

So many people I talked to were good workers. They were out of work, not because of something they did wrong, but b.c that’s the way things are right now. Several expressed that had been laid off from a job they absolutely loved, but the company went under. I spoke with several candidates who had just been through a divorce and were trying to pick up the pieces. Some candidates had been out of work for a long time. Not everyone, but those I mentioned above had sense of desperation in the eyes, they seemed desperate and just exhausted, and rightly so. They seemed keenly aware of the fact that life had not gone as planned, while at the same time they are sitting in front of me, trying to make themselves seem so awesome that my only choice would be to hire them. Things are Fragile.

Last week my little girl Harper Michelle was born. She’s so wonderful. Healthy. Beautiful. It took 49 hours for that little girl to make her debut. During her delivery, it seemed to be taking longer to push her out than our midwife thought it would. When her head finally came out we could see why. The cord had wrapped around her neck. My wife was in the tub, so our midwife and the nurses pulled her out legs out of the water, holding Harper’s head out above water. The midwife is trying to untangle the cord and guide Harper out. It was intense, probably the most scared I have ever been. Turns out the cord was wrapped around her shoulders/armpits and one leg (no wonders she couldn’t get out). During that 30 second I am holding my wife’s upper body out of the water and thinking “what I am about to witness?” In reality things weren’t as dire as I thought, but still, it was intense. Again, I am reminded about how fragile life can be.

Everything can change in one instance. Employed one day and jobless the next. Married one day and divorced the next. Alive one day, and dead the next. It can be one car accident, one mistake at work, one fight with your spouse, one dreadful act of stupidity and everything is different.

Now, my response to this growing reality of the life’s fragile nature is this. Love your family. Love your friends. Be there for them when their threads break. Do your best to make good decisions Think about how your actions can affect others. And when your threads break, when things crash into pieces, deal with it. Get smarter, get healed, get stronger. Keep moving. Have Faith.

Astounding

One day, while I was driving to class I was reminded of how funny we humans are. Here is the story from that day:

I was on my to Accounting class, in order to the master the way of the numbers, and I stopped at the light at Spring Creek and Greenville, which I am used to because it seems that the city of Plano has intentionally made it impossible to get from the the high way to Jupiter without stopping at that intersection due to a red light. While waiting for the light to change I noticed on the left side of the street, on the sidewalk, a young male, probably around the age of 17 on his bicycle. He was a white kid, that doesn't really have any bearing on the story just fyi, and he had long, curly, frizzy, dark hair. He was stopped at the intersection as well, waiting to cross. He was wearing head phones. He was head banging to the music in said head phones, head banging on beat (or so I imagine). I thought to myself " I really hope he continues to head bang while he rides his bicycle across the street". I thought this because I thought it be funny to see him riding along, head banging to the beat, with his hair flying all around. But in all honesty, I didn't believe he would keep head banging. I thought for sure he would just ride normally across the street. And then the light changed for him, and he crossed in front of me and all the other drivers waiting our turn. He never ceased the head banging- and I mean this was intense head banging while riding his bike across the busy intersection. I was astounded, I had to keep watching him, and I looked around to other drivers, we were all watching him. We kept watching him as he rode down the side walk away from us, still head banging with ferocity, with his wild, curly, frizzy hair bouncing around like crazy.

It makes wonder when I see that kind of stuff. Makes me wonder what is going on the head of the head-banging kid? What's going on in the head of the guy at the gym who decides he needs EVERYONE else in the gym to hear how hard his work out it is, by screaming as loud as he can every exercise? What's going on the black guy's head who walks around with head phones, but is audibly rapping while walking around the mall? And the crazy people we see on COPS or Jerry Springer, what is happening in their brains!?! Astounding I tell you. I read a book about the violence and rioting of the English soccer fans, and how once the individual became part of the mob or crowd, all reasoning, logic and humanity left the individual, bending and changing their will to that of the crowd. People are killed, cities completely vandalized, unheard of violence all happening at the same time, what is going on in their minds. Astounding I say!

Then there the other people: the one's doing good:

The person at work who is always encouraging for some reason, what is going on their head that makes them decide to do that? Mother Theresea, probably seemed out of her mind to the people around when she started her ministry, astounding! The people at Charity Water, World Vision, Tom's Shoes, and the list goes on, who give up on trying to collect as much for themselves and pick up the burden of giving to those who don't have water, food, shoes. Astounding I say!

As humans we are capable of extreme violence, but also capable of extreme mercy. We are capable of building an empire, becoming millionaires, losing it all, starting over, and getting it all back, but we are also capable of extravagant generosity giving almost all of our earnings away. We are capable of acts of love or acts of hate.

I want to be known as the astounding human doing good. Because we are all funny, we all do strange things. Like the screaming guy at the gym, I bet he thinks we are nutts for not needing to yell out during our work outs. I bet the kid on his bike wonders "why are those drivers not head banging to some awesome music right now?"But it's about taking that weirdness and making the world better.

Mountais

Are so big. It's unbelievable. I have spent the last three days learning to snowboard. This morning I was sitting down "strapping up", I looked up from where I sat and saw this incredible view overlooking several mountain peaks. Just incredible. I like going to the mountains because it reminds me how small I am, how big God is, and how unique it is that He chooses to interact with us.

I like being reminded that I am small and that the story I am playing out is small too (though my own story at the moment keeps getting larger and more unbelievable by the day, in my mind at least.) It's easy for me to get so caught in my world that I am convinced of its importance, and God's obligation to make sure it goes well.

But I find comfort in the fact the mountains are so big, and that God must be bigger. And the things that I spend time thinking about, working on and trying to build are only a tiny sub plot in the giant story that God is directing.

Also, being in the mountains is just cool, and so is snowboarding.

On that note, that mountain really kicked my butt on this trip. I fell early and often. I got better as the trip went, but it seemed the more confident I got the harder the mountain would kick me when I fell. I know the mountain was kicking me because of my last run of the trip. Micah and I had made our way pretty far from the bottom, so we were cruising our way back. I got literally 10 yards from being done and 'whoop' fell right on my butt. It was like the mountain gave me one last kick in the ass to remember it by. Well it worked, i will not forget.