TheMarq

Santiago Peak Calling…Our Readers!

2012-02-09T08:04:00.001-08:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

You may recall from the First Long Hike Complete post that a friend and I hiked up to the highest point in Orange County, Santiago Peak, in November of 2011 . The post created quite a number of comments via email, a few on the post’s Comments section, and a number on Facebook.

One particular reader was inspired to hike up to the peak and asked some clarifying questions. I figured there may be others who may be considering the hike and have similar questions. So, here they are with the answers:

Q: How much water did you need (not counting water for the dog)? Just a 3L bladder?

A: I took two 3L bladders. A common recommendation I've seen is .7L per hour. We figured we would be gone for 7.5 hours, equating to about 5.5L. That's why I took what I did. However, the weather was very cool that day (at warmest, it was 57°F). So, I ended up using only 2L of water! I initially drank more, but as the first hour ended, I realized I didn't need it.
Q: What was the temperature drop from the trail head to the top? Somebody said to expect about 10-15 degrees. Is this correct?

A: We had a very cool day when we went, with cloud cover. In fact, the clouds started at about 3,500 ft. So, we were in the clouds (insert your joke here), literally, for more than half of the trail. The temperature ranged from 57°F at the base to 38°F at the top. We also encountered rain part of the way down. So, you'll want to check the weather before going up to insure you have the right equipment. I started out with a T-Shirt, but half way up switched to a light wind-proof jacket, and later added a thermal layer below the jacket when we reached the top. Of course, I also wore a hat to insure against sun and rain.
Q: I’m considering using my iPhone as GPS (MotionX GPS). which GPS did you use? Can you recommend it? Do you think the phone will do it?

A: I didn't use my GPS. My friend had the GPS Tracker app on his iPhone. I now use AllSport GPS on my Android phone that works very well also. Neither of the apps on the phone require wireless signal, only that you have GPS capabilities on the phone and turn on the receiver. Of course, your signal strength will determine the quality of recordings and GPS response you get.
Q: Did you find a good map to help find the trail head and then the trail itself?

A: Absolutely. I used three maps. I'm big on having a paper map, in case the GPS fails. I bought the "Franko's Map of the Santa Ana Mountains and Chino Hills State Park" from REI. This has trail maps from various locations. I also used Google Maps to find our trailhead and map the walk to the peak. Google Maps has a 3D play mode that lets you visually see how your trail will wind up and down. When at the trail head, I also took a picture of the trail map (here for your reference) available on a post there.
Speaking of the trail, make sure you take a truck or a crossover car with high clearance. The road to the Holy Jim Trail is very rocky and bumpy. It also crosses the same stream multiple times. I didn't know this and I have a sedan. We braved the road anyway. For the last 2.5 miles of the drive though, my car bottomed out numerous times, and that was with me driving in first gear at about 5 miles per hour. We couldn't drive the last mile and walked it instead, since the road was too rough for our sedans.
Q: Did you need any kind of permit or parking pass for your cars?

A: Yes. You’ll need an adventure pass that you can purchase from REI for $15. Don’t forget to get this and, most importantly, don’t forget to place this on your dashboard before leaving for the trail. We DID forget to place it and had to walk back the first quarter mile to put it on and avoid a fine.

Happy trails!

What Do You Think?

Feel free to ask any other questions and post your comments below.

Photo Credits

Yours truly.

Enjoy Bootstrapping

2012-01-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

Business Startup

You’ve started a new business, job search, project, and you put all of your effort to insure its success.

For various reasons, you close the business doors, stop searching for a job, close out the project without completing it. Then you wonder: what’s next? Is this the end, the sunset of the grand plan? Will you give in to the pressures of those enthusiastic to label you as a “failure,” a “has been,” a “loser?”

I suggest you welcome all of these comments and accept the label as a proud badge of honor. All of them are signs of someone who tried where others hesitated, who believed when others didn’t, who took on an adventure while others watched.

An Entrepreneurship axiom comes to mind from my readings of late:

Failing gracefully is much more important than succeeding!

In other words, how you close out failed attempts, what you learn from them and, most importantly, how you determine to return with more vigor is much more important than not fully achieving all that you set out to gain.

Last year, in early January of 2011 I closed shop on iEngineer.net, the software and project management consultancy with the slogan, “Making the World a Better Place, One Company at a Time.” We were ready to close shop by September of 2010, but we knew the best approach was to properly close out all of our projects, deliver what we’d promised to the remaining customers, and refer them to other service providers who would be able to continue to help them.

That wasn’t an end though. What I learned through my misadventures under iEngineer laid the groundwork for future projects. I learned how I got energized daily from working with non-profits, of the importance of having a cause, of focusing on sales and revenue as a means of solving people’s problems, not just making the numbers, and of the complexity of knowing how to communicate to customers how much I care about solving their problems and making their lives better.

So what?

So, the lessons learned lead to another startup, but this time more focused than before. I, along with my two partners, started a non-profit with the goal of “Sniffing Out the Good Stuff” for pets with maladies and their owners who were overwhelmed with the plethora of online information about them. We started CanvasPet.com. The company focuses purely on providing free information and sell products that help people improve their family pet’s lives, and thereby their own. Most importantly, we donate all of our annual profits to other national and local non-profit pet rescue shelters.

The point is you should never give up, especially in the face of failed attempts. Failed companies, job searches, projects are only the fertile grounds for your next success and adventure. Your goal after such events shouldn’t be to stop trying, but to keep trying and refining your approach, using the scientific method, to help you get ever closer to that nirvana, that perfect state where you know exactly what you were meant to do in life and you do it.

So go on. Get out there. Stop reading and start doing, learning and redoing. Enjoy bootstrapping your next business, ideal job, excellent project and spread the word for all else to join you in the ranks.

What Do You Think?

You know what to do. Share your comments below. Don’t be shy. I love hearing and learning from you.

First Long Hike Complete

2011-12-03T12:07:00.001-08:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

That’s right! Christopher T. and I hiked to the top of Santiago Peak, the highest mountain in Orange County at 5,687 ft. on November 19, 2011.

This was the first of three big hikes before Mount Whitney in the Summer of 2012. What follows is a retelling of our day, some of our challenges, and some very intriguing discoveries and folks we met on the trail.

Packing
Knowing that we’d have an early start in the morning, I packed the car with all of the equipment and necessities the night before. That wasn’t a small task.

I had the usual material based on the Equipment Check we’d already created. I excluded a few items though. I knew I didn’t have to worry about carrying a Wag Bag (toilet bag), given I already had the similar bags for Jiggy, my American Bull Dog hiker accompanying me on all of the hikes. I was very thankful later in the day that I had all that I did. More on that later.

Aside from the day pack I had to carry, I also had to get Jiggy’s pack ready. He carries part of his own water, about 1 Liter, and all of his food, 2 cups of no-filler, high-protein kibble. I also had to get the rest of his equipment. Don’t worry, he has no boots or hat, but I needed his leash and the car seat-belt (yeah, you read that right) and seat cover. Jiggy has a sensitive stomach. Even after a year of living and driving with us, he still gets nervous and motion sickness in the car. I didn’t want a big mess in the car in case that happened.

With both Jiggy’s and my pack and equipment in the car, we were set. We just needed to check on the following day’s conditions and revise the meeting time, if need be.

The weather report was a bit surprising. Unlike what we’d originally expected, it was going to be a cool day, with temperatures ranging from upper 50’s to the lower 60’s. So, We revised our start time. Our original plan was to start early, at 6 AM, to beat the heat. But given the revised temperatures, and the expected cloud cover, we delayed our start by an hour. That meant an extra hour of sleep. I was thankful for that extra rest, knowing what we had ahead of us.

Wake Early
The morning started early enough, even with the extra hour of sleep. I knew I had to meet up Christopher at about 6:30 AM and I had a half hour drive to our meeting point at Cook’s Corner. Given my want to load up on protein in the mornings and get my usual two cups of coffee, I woke at 5 AM. I made my five egg-white omelet with avocadoes and salsa. Even if you’re not a breakfast person, you don’t want to skip out on breakfast on a long walk day.

After breakfast, I loaded up Jiggy and headed out to Cook’s Corner. We got there a bit early. I took the chance to step out of the car and get a feel for the weather. No doubt. It was going to be a crisp day. The temperature was at 57 degrees. The air was misty. one might even say, it was sprinkling. Given the time of day, there was hardly anyone on the road. There was another group in a car getting ready for a hike or something. They were waiting at Cook’s as well.

It didn’t take long before Christopher showed up though, just at 6:30 AM. Perfect. We only had another half hour of drive…or so we thought.

Trabuco Creek Road, up until the Holy Jim Canyon Road turn off ,was paved, but from there on it was a dirt road. I thought, “No problem. This should be a short 5 mile drive to the trailhead.” Huh!!! It turned out, you really needed a high-clearance car or truck to get to this place. A four-wheel drive would have been ideal, but at least a truck. The road was not just dirt, but rocky, with potholes large and small. What’s more, a stream crossed the path a number of times. By “crossed” I mean we literally drove through the water. There was no bridge. I could see how you could get stuck out here if it rained heavily. Knowing this, I looked up from time to time, considering the clouds and likelihood of any rain. I was beginning to have doubts whether our cars would make it back if we had heavy rainfall. Here’s to hoping!

My car’s front bottomed out a number of times over the ups and downs of the road. Christopher was in no better shape, with both of us driving at about 2 to 5 miles per hour, carefully negotiating the rocky road. Eventually, at about 1/2 a mile to the Holy Jim trailhead, we decided our cars had enough punishment. We found a wide section on the road with a turnout and parked.

Trailhead
With about half a mile to go, we figured we weren’t extending our walk by much. The trail was supposed to be 16 miles roundtrip. What’s another half a mile each way, one mile roundtrip, added on?

Aside from the flying rocks and bottoming out the cars, the rough road had another interesting effect: it triggered Jiggy’s motion sickness. The poor guy vomited part of his dinner. I was definitely thankful for the seat cover, but, more importantly, concerned for my buddy. No doubt he wasn’t feeling too hot now, right before starting out on a long walk. That’s the funny thing about dogs and, especially, Jiggy: They live in the moment. It took just a whiff of the outdoors for him to cheer up. He jumped out of the car, wagging his tail, ready to take on the trail, without a care for what had just happened. No doubt, he was just enjoying the moment, the feeling of the crisp air, and the notion of exploring something new. There’s a lesson there to be learned, but that’s for another post.

After checking all our equipment and locking doors, we headed off at 7:16 AM. Just a quarter mile out, we realized we didn’t place our Adventure Pass (parking permits) on the cars. Yeah! They were still sitting, nice and cozy, in my backpack. Oof! So, we turned around and realized we were adding another half a mile roundtrip to our day. More exercise, right?

After placing the passes and running a final check, we headed out again. Eventually we arrived at the trailhead. There were others taking on the hike as well. Knowing we weren’t alone in this, was reassuring, though I was a bit concerned about having too many people on the trail. We didn’t know how true that would be given the events that would follow.

Hike Up
Oh yeah. We were on the trail now. We initially saw a number of old cabins on the trail. They were all in various degrees of disrepair, with one that looked just abandoned. Its windows broken, door ajar, and some debris by the steps. I wondered what had happened to the owners. Why did they abandon the cabin? The cabins weren’t that great, but I loved the location. This was our last bit of civilization before heading into the woods.

Initially our path crossed a stream, the same one from the dirt road. This was Jiggy’s first experience with a stream. He looked at it quizzically each time we tried to pass it. On the first attempt, he slowly moved from rock to rock, trying not to get wet, while smelling all around him, getting a feel for what was going on. By the third time, he was outright scared of it. He didn’t want to cross.

Thankfully, his backpack is designed just for such a scenario. The pack has a handle so that he can be carried. So, for the remainder of our crossings, I carried him like a briefcase across each stream. This was actually a bit funny since he still tried to walk in mid-air. It looked like he was doggy paddling, swimming through the air. Christopher and I got a few chuckles watching him figure out what was going on.

Though the trail started out wide enough for two or three people to walk side-by-side, it eventually narrowed to a single track, just wide enough for one person. At some sections it was even narrower than that, with each of us brushing against the native plants. So, we were forced to walk single-file, with Christopher leading the group, Jiggy trying to catch up with him, and me bringing up the rear.

Occasionally, we’d negotiate the path with other hikers coming down. At one point, Christopher heard noise from up above. Given the tall bushes around us, we didn’t know what was making the sound. This was at a part of the trail when we were going through switchbacks. So, what he heard made him think of falling rocks, coming down toward us. We stopped to make sure we weren’t in any danger. When the sound seemed to move away, we started up again. Suddenly, we saw a group of bikers ahead of us, speeding toward us. All of us jumped out of the way to avoid a collision, but these guys seemed to know what they were doing. They slowed down and passed us without incident.

We picked up again and continued our trek. Along the way, we had some amazing views and changing scenery, from tunnels made of overhanging trees, to views of the gorge in between the mountain peaks. This was all the more interesting and mysterious given we climbed from 1,700 ft to 5,600 ft, seeing the overcast clouds to eventually walking among them. At some parts, our view was completely obstructed, but the winds were blowing well enough to open windows in the rolling fog and expose scenes of amazing natural beauty, while cooling us on our laborious trek.

Half way up the mountain, I could no longer bear walking with just my t-shirt, even as warmed up as I was. In fact, I was sweating up a storm, but the temperature was dropping quickly. The winds didn’t help either. I eventually put on my jacket to prevent the wind from cutting right through me.

The Holy Jim Trail ended at 4 Miles into the walk. The rest of the path to the peak was on a fire road, the Main Divide Road. This was a rocky road, with many turns and, as it turned out, may travelers. Later I learned the path starts much further down and is another way to get to the peak. The first person we saw, gave us pause though. He was partially jogging and walking up the trail. What was curious about the scene was that he was wearing a number.

We let it go, but just a few minutes later, we saw another walker/jogger, also with numbers on his clothes. We asked if there was a race gong on.

“Yeah,” said the second jogger. “100k or 100 miles run.”

WHAT?!?!?

One hundred kilometers is about 67 miles. So, 67 mile or 100 mile race? Sure enough, there were two groups in the race. Some were running the 100km and others the 100 miles. Talk about extreme! We had nothing on these super-marathoners. I was certainly impressed, though also concerned for them. As we thought about the pace we were keeping, an average marathon pace, as well as the 10 to 15% grade we were on, we realized these folks must have started at about 4 AM and would continue running until 10 or 11 PM. That’s nuts!

At the Peak
We reached the peak at 11:45 AM. It took us four and a half hour to complete those first 8.5 miles, but it was worth it. By the time we reached the peak, the mountain was completely covered in the clouds. The wind was blowing hard and the temperature had dropped to 37 degrees. We had very little visibility at the top. We certainly couldn’t see any of Orange County, let alone the surrounding mountains. All we saw were the communication towers at the peak, where we were standing. There were others there too, basking in the glory of reaching the peak. Many of them were bikers, but some were hikers like us that had taken the Holy Jim Trail.

We were all thankful for the small building there. All of us took refuge behind it, away from the winds, as we spent our half hour resting, eating and quenching our thirst. I tended to Jiggy first, knowing he would be starving by now. He vacuumed up his two cups of kibble, then downed a quarter liter of his water. On the way up, at our various stops, I’d offered him water he’d refused. Knowing the cool air helped him reduce his need for water, and in an attempt to lighten his load, I emptied half a liter of his water. He now only had a quarter liter of water in his pack. I still carried another half a liter for him, as well as an additional two and a half liters backup, aside from my three liter main water bladder. So, I had no concerns we would have enough.

I’d originally thought we’d spend an hour at the top, but the cold air and the wind prevented us from staying there long. In fact, I had to put on a fleece vest and my gloves, as well as the jacket and hat just to stay there for as long as did.

At about 12:15 PM, just a half hour after arriving at the peak, we started our way back down.

Hike Down
By the time we started our hike down, I was cold to the bones and glad we’d started. I knew the walk would warm me up. I was also interested to see how much time it would take to walk back down. With four and a half hour hike up, we figured we’d need three and a half hours to get back.

Interestingly enough, just as we came down the first 30 ft, we saw a break in the clouds to our left and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be Palm Springs or Lake Elsinore area. It didn’t take long for the winds to blow in the clouds and obscure our view again.

As an added bonus, light rain started. Even with the cold, this was somewhat welcome as it dampened the road and assured we’d have less dust picking up. Jiggy was very good with it too. He just kept walking…at least at first. He eventually stopped and looked up at me. We waited a few seconds before encouraging him to start walking again.

“Let’s go, boy. Let’s go Jiggy boy,” I said. He picked up, but was wobbling a bit. I realized the loose rocks and added pack weight, even with most of his water drained, may be tiring his paws. So, I unpacked his backpack and strapped it on mine. Sure enough, after just a few minutes, he was as happy as can be, even with the rain. He pulled ahead and started scouting the road, with his floppy ears bouncing left to right.

Surprisingly, the walk back down wasn’t as long nor as tiring. We certainly didn’t stop as often to rest, which is partially why it took only three hours to get down. Once we got close to the end of the Holy Jim Trail though, I had to put Jiggy’s backpack on. I wanted to make sure I could carry him across the stream at the various crossings. This proved unnecessary since by then Jiggy was a pro. He was eagerly lunging his muscle-bound physique forward, hopping from rock to rock.

End of Day
The end of day came at about 3:10 PM, almost eight hours after our early morning start. Christopher and I were exhausted, though Jiggy looked like he could walk another half a day, given how he gleefully kept trudging forward. We’d walked a total of 17.5 miles, up from the original planned and expected 16 miles.

I certainly learned that no matter what goals you set and achieve, you’ll always be challenged to do more by those around you. The super marathoners certainly demonstrated that. I also heard and shared many good stories with my friend Christopher T. Once again realizing the importance of the right companionships in trying journeys.

I was certainly glad that my buddy, Jiggy, was with us. I was very happy he’s graduated to a long-distance hiker, rock hopper, and all around outdoor dog, as his lineage dictates, no doubt. It was a pleasure seeing his athletic physique in action.

What’s Next
With so much learned and achieved from this hike, I realized I was perfectly capable of completing and looking forward to our future hikes. I knew I’d have to rest a couple of weeks before starting training for the next hike though.

This brings us to the present week. This Monday was the start of training for our next big hike: either Mt. San Gorgonio at 11,499 ft., 5,419 ft. elevation gain and 15.6 miles roundtrip, or Mt. San Jacinto at 10,834 ft., 2,300 ft. elevation gain and 11 miles roundtrip. Assuming all goes well with the next 14 weeks of training, this next big hike will be on March 10, 2012.

Anybody else want to join us?

What Do You Think?

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.

Photo Credits

Yours truly

Weeks 10-14: One Hundred and Ten Miles Later

2011-10-11T08:46:00.001-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

It’s been five weeks since my last post about training for the hike to Mount Whitney, what I lovingly refer to as the Big Mother Hike (BMH). I’ve learned quite a lot in these past five weeks, and certainly had a ball getting closer to completing the BMH.

During this time I’ve walked or hiked 110.5 miles around my neighborhood (see above picture), in parks and over some larger hills. I’ve learned the importance of continuous hydration as well as taking snacks of high protein value that are about 100 to 150 calories each and can be consumed at about once per hour; how resting for just 7 to 10 minutes every hour can extend your day and walk, as well as other important tidbits.

What I’m writing about today is the importance of being a total geek about your pursuits and feeding off comments from the naysayers. Here’s the breakdown of what I mean:

Geek Out and Become the Humble Pro
If you’re serious about something, be it hiking, your relationship, work, whatever the case, you have to completely immerse yourself in it. Love and own it by reading about it at every opportunity, speaking with people in the know as well as your friend, family and acquaintances that don’t know, then think through how you wish to apply what you learn to your life and finally apply the lessons.

This actually requires a certain amount of humility. You must accept that you don’t know everything about the subject and seek it out. As with anything, when you learn more, you also realize how much more there’s to learn. You’ll find that lessons from other practices are applicable to your current focus. As I’ve started reading a biography about Gandhi, I realize how his many life lessons can be applied to the hikes.

You’ll invest money in more books and tools to help you succeed, and time to acquire the knowledge and use them. That’s a good thing. You’re investing in yourself and insuring your success.

As your journey becomes longer, you’ll not only apply these lessons, but also find people that want to ask you questions about what you’re doing. Don’t shun them. Share what you’ve learned freely, openly and often. You’ll be surprised to find good advice through these many conversations, as well as learn how your actions inspire others to strive for something greater.

The point is you should geek out, learn as much as you can about your new goals and apply what you learn daily. Be humble about what you’re doing and share everything you learn at every opportunity, even as you’re stepping through and getting closer to your goals. Be proud of what you accomplish at every step of the way and humble, knowing where you came from.
Slow Down to Speed Up Your Progress
I mentioned above that I’ve learned to take breaks. I used to walk straight through to six or seven miles, even when it took more than an hour. That was fine for those distances. However, as I graduated to longer walks, I began to realize the importance of taking breaks.

I tried walking past 7 miles with no breaks. It was exhausting and I slowed down. Then I remembered advice from a book I’d read: take 7 to 10 minute breaks every hour. I tried this with the 7 mile walks and all distances thereafter. I found I had a burst of energy after the breaks and I could quicken my pace to make up some of the time spent for them. I couldn’t fully make it up. However, my overall pace speed, including the breaks, became better. What’s more, I could travel longer distances without totally exhausting my body.

The lesson was clear. I had to slow down and take breaks in order to speed up my overall progress to walk longer distances as well as my pace during each walk.
Keep a Singular Focus and Feed Off the Noise
As you begin to interact with people on and off trails, what you’ll realize is that many who don’t understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it will begin to question it. They may even ridicule the idea or your approach to it. Love this when you see or hear it.

Why?

Because it’s a sign you’re going against the norm and everyone’s comfort zone. It means you’re doing something you should…heck, you MUST do, to make your mark in the world. In short, it means you’re doing the right thing.

Use this validation to feed the fire that’s your desire to accomplish your goals. Let it confirm that what you’re accomplishing is more than just a hike, or a project, but the definition of your character and who you are.

What Do You Think?

Feel free to share your comments below.

Photo Credits

Yours truly

Business Lessons from Hiking

2011-09-27T08:50:00.001-07:00

Business Strategies

As you may know from the posts about Climbing Mount Whitney, I’m preparing for a single day, 21 mile round trip hike to summit Mount Whitney next year. I’m now 10 weeks into a 16 week training cycle. The training has already reminded me of lessons that universally apply to our personal and professional lives.

Here are three recurring themes and their associated lessons:

Think One Thought at a Time
No kidding, right? This should be obvious for everything we do, but demanding schedules, the want to complete six things at once, and peer pressure guide the best of us into filling every moment with noise and perceptual input.

Hiking has reminded me how easy it can be to find calmness, to clear your thoughts and find direction. Walking any distance, even if it’s just for an hours, forces you to clear your mind. Of course, I assume you avoid taking your phone or mp3 player and just let the nature sink in. Almost at the beginning of every walk, I find myself thinking about all the things I have to do AFTER I finish the walk. I used to tell myself to stop thinking about those things, but that only made me think of them more. So, instead I let the list roll through to the end. I may even linger on a few items to think through how to get them done.

My thoughts eventually come back to the walk. This usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes. I begin to think about what I want to accomplish that day, the goal of hiking Mount Whitney, what challenges I may have, whether our team should consider doing it in two days instead of just one, how much food will I need, how can we save on total carried weight of equipment by sharing the list of navigational tools and some of the burden, and what new challenges would we take on after hiking Mount Whitney.

The point is that giving yourself freedom to think and focus on one item at a time has two important benefits. First, you don’t have to work as hard in AVOIDING other thoughts. Second, you gain in-depth insight about the idea at hand. In essence, you’re giving yourself the freedom to deeply think through your task at hand, whether it’s how to successfully break into the pet food market, or to hike Mount Whitney.
Avoid Never-Ending Marathons
When I first started planning the Mount Whitney hike, I chose to train for 52 months without any breaks. In other words, I looked at it as a year-long marathon that ended with…a marathon, namely the Mt. Whitney hike. A friend reminded me that even marathon training is completed in cycles. The cycles can be intense and with intermittent goals. Otherwise, the body’s too exhausted to actually complete the marathon. In fact, when training for a marathon, you’re even supposed to take time off before the race so that you’re fully rested.

The same holds true for hiking and work. Intense preparations or projects certainly bring focus and clarity. However, a project that never ends will demoralize you and your team, as well as deliver mediocre results at best. This is especially true when the team gets closer to the end of the project when you may need a big push or effort from the team members. They may need to put in longer hours or avoid all other distractions. This can’t be possible when the team has continuously pushed hard for one to two years. So, give yourself and the team a break between each big endeavor or project to enjoy the rewards of your accomplishments and prepare for the next big adventure.

You may want to consider short project cycles that deliver intermittent results. These can be four to six week cycles with an extra day or two off in between, giving team members time to recuperate before coming in to tackle a new part of the project and pushing harder for the challenges ahead.

In our case of hiking preparation, I created three cycles of 16-week training with two week breaks in between. What’s more, each cycle becomes gradually more challenging, with a finale for each cycle that consists of a 12-16 mile hike in the local mountains ranging from 5,600 ft. to 12,000 ft. in altitude. After the finale for each cycle there’s a two week rest period with very little to no physical activity. This means that before the Mount Whitney hike, there’ll also be a two-week rest.
Consider Your Team Mix as Dynamic
We started out preparing for Mount Whitney with two people, increased to six, then dropping back down to two, and not the same two we started out with. The current team consists of two people with a third that may join us. Nevertheless, we keep moving forward.

Often times people join a company, team, or adventure with the shared group goal, such as to introduce a new product to the market, provide better home elderly care, or assess needs and recommend products and services to people with special needs. Team members may join in, then realize life circumstances prevent them from continuing with the rigor necessary to accomplish those goals. You have to not only account for it, but accept this outcome as part of the process.

The team will go on so long as they remain focused on the mission and vision. There should be no blame, nor hurt feelings for those that can’t accompany you. Often times, life circumstances that prevent someone from continuing now only mean they’ll join you again later with more focus and vigor. So, you not only want to avoid alienating the individuals, but understanding their specific wants and needs, then supporting them at least through words and, if possible, through deeds.

What Do You Think?

I never ask you to agree with me, but just to share your ideas and opinion. Feel free to comment on this or any other post.

Weeks 8 and 9: Equipment Check

2011-09-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

You recall I’d originally written in the first of these posts that I would write about Mount Whitney daily. Clearly that hasn’t happened. I’m back to the original method of postings on this blog: as new ideas come up, I’ll write about them. Christopher T had warned me about that with some skepticism. You were right bub!

First, I’d like to update who will be in our group. We’re now a group of three people: Christopher T, Ron T, and me. The dates of the intermediate climbs, as well as the rigor of the preparation have meant some folks can’t make one or more of the climbs before the big mother hike (BMH), or the BMH itself.

Second, as to the preparation, I’ve been busy with the program from the last post, Getting With the (New) Program. Having finished Weeks 7 and 8, I’ve now completed a 6-mile hike locally. Week 9, this week, I’ll be walking 8 miles at Chapparosa Park in Laguna Niguel on Sunday. The hike is 7 miles round trip. I’ll add a mile by walking the street leading to the park as well. This should be a fun walk since it takes me from Laguna Niguel and end on the beach by the Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel which is really in the city of Dana Point. You get the chance to walk in the meadows between homes, as well as past a couple of great golf courses. If you’re interested, let me know and we’ll coordinate.

I’ve taken to tagging along one or both of our pit bulls on the thrice weekly walks. Jiggy, our male dog, loves the walks. He doesn’t seem to tire much from them. Given his muscular build, I’m not really surprised. I think he may just make it to the longer trips as well. who knows, may be he’ll be our new fourth team member. I’ll just have to look into whether dogs are allows up to Mount Whitney. If not, he can at least keep me company on the local hikes. The latter hikes on the circuits get up to 12 to 14 miles round-trip. That’ll be good exercise for him. I certainly love the company and his happy nature to keep trotting along. He’s definitely my happy lug nut that keeps me motivated to keep walking!

Last, I’ve researched what equipment we need for the hike. It’s lead to a purchase of a new pair of hiking shows and the creation of an equipment list. First, I have a few words about the new shoes. I’m especially fond of them, the Tiva Riva eVent. These shoes are comfortable and light. What I love about them is that they’re stylish enough to wear as semi-casual dress shoes. This way I can stick with taking a single pair of shoes when I fly out of town for work and still get my hiking training in without a worry about ruining my dress shoes. They’re also very light and easy to stow away in a carry-on luggage, if I need to take them as an extra pair on my business trips.

I’ll likely wear my Columbia Dillon Ridge boots and the new Tiva Rivas interchangeably. They’re both water-proof and have fantastic gripping soles. I like the Columbia boots since they provide ankle support. This’ll likely be important on the walks in the hills, around rocks and loose ground. Time will tell as I continue to use both.

Now, back to the list. You’ll find it below. It includes the (in)famous 10 Essentials:

Shoes	Lip Balm (SPF 15+)
Gaiters	Sport Tape
Socks	Advil
Thermal Top	Moleskin
Thermal Bottom	Band-Aid
Pants (Hiking pants - convertibles)	Bandage
Jacket (Wind Resistant)	Sterile Gauze
Hiking Hat	Tweezers
Wool Hat	Antibiotic Ointment
Fleece Top	Antiseptic Wipes
Gloves	Antihistamine
Sunglasses	Safety Pin
Sunscreen (SPF 30+)	Latex Gloves
Headlamp (LED)	First-Aid Book
Extra AAA Batteries	Space Blanket
Two-Way Radio	Map
Extra AA Batteries	Compass
Whistle	Altimeter
Bell	GPS
Day Pack	Extra Batteries for GPS
Wag Bag	Food: 400 Calories / 2 hours + 500 Calories / meal
Toilet Paper	Water: 0.75 Quart / Hour for 13-17 hours
Trekking Poles	Electrolyte powder
Camera	Water-Filter System
Inspect Repellent	Small Cup for Water + Electrolyte

If you want the full list in a spreadsheet with my notes, email me. I’ll be happy to share it via Google Docs or email you a copy. You can use this as both a packing and day-of-hike final check list.

P.S. All of this preparation and research has only provided further lessons to use at work. Stay tuned. The business-lessons post is coming.

What Do You Think?

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below about the equipment or your experience with similar preparation.

Photo Credit

Flickr Commons, Teva, Sports Authority

A Bully Breed Outrage

2011-09-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

Random Thoughts

Recently I read a blog post on the Bad Rap site about a pit bull, Dusty, caught in the clutches of our legal system and slated for destruction.

Given our family lives with a tabby cat and two fantastic bully breeds, I was interested to read more. Even if you don’t own a bully breed, you should read the blog post, Dangerous Testimony in Monroe County Michigan, and judge for yourself how objective are the guidelines for destruction. For that matter, ask yourself if the dog is any different than practically every puppy you’ve owned or ever met.

Below is the comment I posted on their site, with revisions only seen here:

This is CRAZY AND OUTRAGEOUS.

Dusty is much better behaved than the majority of dogs I see EVERY DAY in my neighborhood. By these "standards", if you can call them that, there should be no dog left alive, regardless of breed.

Dusty just looks like a happy puppy that wants to play.

I'm upset, angry, and in tears.

Dr. Houpt is a disgrace to her profession. She should have her license revoked. Her actions are similar to a medical doctor attending to her patients in a hospital, poking and prodding them, searching for ways to give them a lethal injection, instead of focusing for a [means and signs that prompt her action] to save lives.

The fact that the court is not allowing another group to train Dusty is upsetting and unsettling. We give more opportunities to rapists, serial killers, and daily criminals than this poor dog. Shouldn't we use AT LEAST the same standards for rescued dogs that we do for criminals, giving them second chances at rehabilitation?

I write AT LEAST since with dogs there's substantially better odds of being successful, given the right focus on training and socialization. This is especially true for dogs since they tend to move on much easier than humans. Perfect examples of this scenario are the Michael Vick’s dogs as told in the book, The Lost Dogs.

In Dusty's case, he just needs a loving home and human companions that'll give him standard, proper training. He needs nothing extreme and certainly should NOT be euthanized!

What Do You Think?

I hope you get a chance to read the original post Dangerous Testimony in Monroe County Michigan and comment there. In fact, I encourage you to do so, instead of making any comments here.

Photo Credit

Yours truly (with a picture of our older Pit Bull mix, Lola)

Week 7: Getting with the (New) Program

2011-08-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

So, we’re at the top of Week 7, but there’s already a need to change the program. I’m not terribly surprised. The beauty of sharing ideas is that friends, fellow bloggers and readers often suggest better ideas or, at a minimum, means to improve.

Chris T., one of our climbing crew members, made an excellent comment in the previous post. He compared our preparation to that of a marathon and suggested breaking up the regimen into smaller blocks, including rest periods in-between. He also added a note about working with weights.

With that, the change plan was to create a new schedule that follow these general guidelines:

Create a regular cycle that gets us to three practice hikes over the next year
The fourth hike, the Coup De Grâs, will be Mount Whitney
Add short periods of rest right before each Big Mother Hike (BMH - my made-up TLA) so that we’re not overworked when the BMH for each cycle begins
Add longer periods of rest right after each BMH to prepare for the next cycle
Add periods of altitude acclimation when climbing over 8,000 ft. to reduce the chance of altitude sickness
Choose local mountains within an hour or two driving distance from Orange county and Los Angeles for the BMHs

The schedule is a work-in-progress, as are all things in life. The above resulted in 14-week cycles followed by two weeks of rest. During the last week of each training session, we’ll cut out most activities except weight-training / calisthenics which make up two days of the week. This should give our muscles enough rest before the BMH of the cycle on the 7th day.

For reference, here’s the current cycle’s schedule (excluding the two-week rest period after the BMH):

Week	Date	Day	Activity	Distance (miles)	Description
7	8/29/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	3
		W	Walk	4
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	5	Local

8	9/5/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	4
		W	Walk	5
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	6	Peters Canyon Trail

9	9/12/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	4
		W	Walk	6
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	8	Chapparosa Park in Laguna Niguel

10	9/19/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	4
		W	Walk	6
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	8	Chapparosa Park in Laguna Niguel

11	9/26/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	5
		W	Walk	7
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	9	Aliso Canyon Park

12	10/3/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	6
		W	Walk	8
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	10	Aliso Canyon Park

13	10/10/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	6
		W	Walk	8
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	10	Aliso Canyon Park

14	10/17/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	7
		W	Walk	9
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	11	Aliso Canyon Park

15	10/24/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	7
		W	Walk	9
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	11	Aliso Canyon Park

16	10/31/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	8
		W	Walk	10
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	12	Aliso Canyon Park

17	11/7/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Walk	8
		W	Walk	10
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Racquetball	N/A
		S	Climb	12	Aliso Canyon Park

18	11/14/2011	M	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		T	Off
		W	Off
		Th	Gym	N/A	Calisthenics & Weights
		F	Off
		S	Off
		S	Climb	16	Santiago Peak (Saddleback Mountain) - Elevation at Peak: 5,687 ft. - Roundtrip Distance: 16 miles - Trail: Holy Jim - Elevation Gain: 3,947 ft. - Info site: http://www.summitpost.org/holy-jim-trail/160764

What Do You Think?

How does this new schedule look? What do you think can be done better? Feel free to comment below.

PHOTO CREDITS

Alan Vernon

Week 5: Official Kickoff After Time Off

2011-08-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

Having spent the last couple of weeks on the road, I didn't walk much. However, I had plenty of opportunity to think, espcially while vacationing on a cruise to Alaska. Though the family and I were active walking at the Mendenhall Glacier area, kayaking in Hines, I spent much time reading the book The Lost Dogs and One Best Hike, Mt. Whitney. I'll write about both of these in later posts, though The Lost Dogs has nothing to do with the hike. It's the story of how Michael Vick's dogs were found and saved.

In the process of reading the Mt. Whitney book, I learned of additional hiking locations in the local mountains to prepare for the Mount Whitney climb. I'll spend the next three weeks researching and scheduling each hike. By the beginning of September, I'll post the full training regimen here.

Though I've not yet finished the Mt. Whitney book, I've already covered the chapters on the planning, dangers and conditioning for the hike. Some of the notes on the dangers of the climb were alarming, especially the sections about evacuation in case of severe high altitude sickness. Nevertheless, I'm more excited than ever to start the process.

Also, since the last post we now have five members in our team of climbers: Yours truly, Chris T., Scot T., Ard R., and Ferchie C. Ferchie is our lone woman representative. One other item I learned reading the Mt. Whitney book is that our party will need five leads (in case one of us can't make it), but it can have 15 total members.

So, I'm casting the net for any additional people interested in the climb. Given we only have one woman in the group, and since I've been accused of sexism for the eschewed ratio, I want to insure we give equal opportunity for the women interested in the climb. First and foremost then, we're looking for three more women to join. Keep in mind, we need people that can at least commit to the training (more on that later). Befor the permit application deadline, we'll ask everyone willing to take the hike to commit to completing it in our agreed-upon length. This'll be one to two days, depending on the group's assessment during our training and before the February 1 deadline. Any takers?

Last, though I spent a few weeks walking and testing the backpack with varying weight in the past four weeks, our training starts this week. This means our team will need to each complete two hikes each week for the next three weeks, with each hike no shorter than 4 miles and, preferably, in terrain with some hills. Each subsequent three-week period means an increase of one-mile and difficulty level in the hikes. Once we reach 10 miles, we'll start hiking the nearby mountains for our second day on the weekends to better acclimate to elevation and rocky terrain. Here's a grid summary of the regimen:

Weeks	Miles / Day	Location	Terrain	Elevation / Gain
5-7	4	Local	Hilly streets	N/A
8-10	5	Local	Hilly streets	N/A
11-13	6	Local	Hilly streets	N/A
14-16	7	Local	Hilly streets	N/A
17-19	8	Local	Hilly streets	N/A
20-22	9	Local	Hilly streets	N/A
23-24	10	TBD	Local Mountains	2-4k ft / 1k ft
25-27	11	TBD	Local Mountains	3-5k ft / 1k ft
28-30	12	TBD	Local Mountains	4-6k ft / 1k ft
31-33	13	TBD	Local Mountains	5-7k ft / 1k ft
34-36	14	TBD	Local Mountains	6-8k ft / 1-2k ft
37-39	15	TBD	Local Mountains	7-9k ft / 1-2k ft
40-42	16	TBD	Local Mountains	8-10k ft / 1-2k ft
43-45	17	TBD	Local Mountains	9-11k ft / 1-2k ft
46-48	18	TBD	Local Mountains	9-12k ft / 2-3k ft
49-51	19	TBD	Local Mountains	9-12k ft / 2-3k ft
52	20	TBD	Local Mountains	9-12k ft / 3-5k ft
53-54	Rest

Ready? Set? Go!

What Do You Think?

Do you have any suggestions on how to improve this routine? Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Day 17: Where Does the Time Go

2011-08-03T21:42:00.001-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

Whoa! Where does the time go?

It's been over two weeks since I decided to hike Mount Whitney in 2012 and climb it in 2013. I've already started a routine to walk two to three times per week, each time trekking 4.5 to 5.5 miles. I've also increased the difficulty from no day-pack to one that weighs 13 lbs. to my last week high of 23 lbs. It's been challenging, but also exciting.

I've also convinced a friend, Scot T., to at least workout with me for the next five months before the February deadline for submitting permit applications. I think he'll do fine and join me for the 2012 hike. He's not sure he can make it, but I believe with just walking twice a week and working out on weights and cardio on other days, he'll not only make it, he may even beat me to the summit and back.

Christopher T. has also agreed to hike and climb with us. He's already a super athlete. He'll challenge us on the walk. That's exactly what we need. What's more he's a total gear-hear. I love having him join us. Way to go to take the first plunge.

My father-in-law said he'd give it a try once we start climbing the local hills and mountains. He already swims an hour a day. I have no doubt he'll not only keep up with us, he may even teach us a few tricks. After all, he used to climb mountains to ski down them!!!

That means we have four in our party. We're only missing one...and the routine hasn't even started yet!

Any takers for the last position in the 2012 My Rash, Your Rash...no...Our-Rash Mount Whitney Hike Challenge?

What Do You Think?

Do you want to join us? Or do you have some lessons about climbing that you want to share. Feel free to comment below.

Day 17: Where Does the Time Go

2011-08-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

Whoa! Where does the time go?

That means we have four in our party. We're only missing one...and the routine hasn't even started yet!

Any takers for the last position in the 2012 My Rash, Your Rash...no...Our-Rash Mount Whitney Hike Challenge?

What Do You Think?

Do you want to join us? Or do you have some lessons about climbing that you want to share. Feel free to comment below.

Day 8: Rocky Starts are Good

2011-07-24T22:57:00.001-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

Today was a fantastic day! My food intake was right on target, eating every 2 to 3 hours and taking in just the right stuff, with no simple carbs. Loved it.

Day 8 also means Day 1 on the P90X Lean routine: Core Synergistics. It was all about the band of muscles between the pecks and upper thighs. There was ab work, push ups, lunges, and some minor shoulder work. I was very happy with the results. The first time I tried this routine, on the current cycle, I could only do 35 minutes of the 57 minute routine. Today, I completed 53 minutes. Woohoo!

All of this made me realize how the initial steps for climbing Mount Whitney are no different than starting a new job search or business:

Set Goals
Every journey has an impetus and a start. It may be the want to challenge yourself (my case for climbing Mount Whitney), a bad boos or layoff leading to the need to look for new work, or realizing that to best way to serve society is for you to just run your own business. No matter how you come to the realization, you need to set a goal of what you want to accomplish, even if you end up changing the goal later. More on that later.
Do Your Research
Once you set a goal, you’ll need to figure out how to get there. Start out by first thinking that you’ve already reached your goal. You’ve found that perfect new company to work for, or established your business and are overflowing with customers clamoring to buy your products or services. What does that picture look like? How does the end result affect every aspect of your life? What characteristics does the successful you have? Write these down.

Now, think about what it took to get there. What does a successful business owner do, or what attributes does he have that you need? He needs to understand the market well, know how to negotiate contract terms with customers and vendors, have a clear understanding of accounting and cash flow, be intimate with his industry, be really good at creating and maintaining relationships for himself and amongst others, among many other characteristics. Do you have all of these traits? If not, gaining them are some of the steps in your plan to reaching your goal.

If you don’t know what success looks like, think of and talk to your mentors. Use their example to determine which of their traits you’d like to have. Don’t have a mentor? Think of people you admire, may be people you’re read about. This may be your brother, sister, mom, dad, coworker, or neighbor. Imagine you’re having a conversation with them. What would they tell you?
Adjust Goals
Likely you’ll find that you have to adjust your goal at this stage. I did when I was thinking of climbing Mount Whitney. I originally thought I could do two things right away. First, I thought I could just show up and climb. Wrong! Research told me I need to apply for a permit and then only between February 1 and 15 of the year when I want to climb. Second, I originally wanted to climb, not hike, Mount Whitney. As I learned what type of physical stamina the climb requires, and that it’s recommended to do the hike first, I adjusted the goal so that I would graduate to the climb. You’ll find similar obstacles while researching the steps to achieve your plan.

The key is not to give up if you hit obstacles. The most interesting and rewarding achievements in life require you to forego your initial plans and come up with a more creative solution. That means starting out knowing full well that your goals and plans WILL need to be changed or adjusted.

But again, that’s most of the fun: the exploration and the problem solving you do while you work towards you goals.
Develop a Plan
So, you’ve adjusted your goal and have quite a lot of research. It’s time to plan. The plan is your roadmap. Just like a street map, filled with roads, highways and biways, you can have many options. In fact, you want to have many options to achieve your goal. Likely, you’ll hit a snag like I did last week. When on the road, I didn’t stick with my workout routine. Instead, I filled in with other hikes around Seattle or calisthenics to help me stay active.

The point is that you should definitely write down what you need to do to get to your goal and know that you’ll need alternate paths and steps to get to your destination. Each of the skills you need to learn are milestones along the way. The plan’s intent is to help you detail out what it takes to reach each milestone. I recommend breaking it down to monthly and weekly mini-goals. Then at the end of each week assess your progress and adjust your plan for the following week. More on that later.
Execute Plan
This is an enormously important step. It’s what separates the day-dreamers from the doers. You’ve developed a plan, even if your plan has only five steps, it’s still a plan that needs to be executed to get you to the finish line. It has no value by itself.

You may take the first step and realize you missed a whole lot of steps that come before or after it. That’s GREAT. This means you actually worked the plan and found what else you need to do to take you over the finish line. That takes us to the next point.
Review Results and Adjust Plan
It’s time to rethink the plan after your initial execution. You’ll want to do this frequently. On your daily tasks, do this at the end of each day. For your full plan, review your plan and results for the week. Are you on-target? If not, why not? What additional steps do you need to take that you hadn’t thought about? How else do you need to adjust your goal? This is all good. Any changes you make to the plan means you’re making progress. Good job. You’re on your way.

Adjust your plan based on the findings. These lessons help you better plan the following weeks and months ahead, and better achieve your milestones leading to your final goal.

As you can imagine, items five and six just get repeated until you reach the goal. As a friend once told me, “just rinse and reuse.”

On that note, I’m going to hit the sack and get some rest since a part of the adjustment to my plan is to get 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night so that I don’t run out of energy each day.

What Do You Think?

It’s your turn. Feel free to share your comments below.

Photo Credits

Alan Vernon

Days 5-7: Back Home and Walking

2011-07-23T23:19:00.001-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

I made it back home on Thursday. On the plane, I finished reading the appendices to the Tribal Leadership book I reviewed earlier this week. I didn’t get a chance to read my next book, One Best Hike: Mt. Whitney. I’d picked this up earlier in the week and, based on the table of contents, it certainly seem like it’ll give me a better idea of what to expect. There are segments dedicated to Precautions and Considerations, to Preparations and Planning, to the actual day of hike and how to set team expectations for all hikers in your group. Look for a review of this book in the near future.

I’d mentioned that my Friend, Christopher T., volunteered to come with me for the hike in 2012 and the climb in 2013. He’s an experienced climber, though new Southern California. After reading about the goals to hike and climb Mount Whitney, he researched the mountain and sent me this link to SummitPost.org that describes the trails and hikes to the Summit. This site puts the mountain in perspective for climbers and details the difficulty level of each of the trails. To be clear, Whitney Trail is a Class I hike. So, not very technical or difficult. However, given that we plan to do the 21 mile round–trip hike in one day, it’ll be strenuous on our lungs and legs. Suffice it to say, we have to have some stamina, especially more so than I have now.

I took Thursday partially off from the gym and walks. I didn’t have any energy after the trip and multiple meetings throughout the day. I got in some calisthenics work: pushups, pull-ups, jump-rope, jumping jacks, and run-in-place; all done in a half hour.

On Friday we took a 3.3-mile walk locally on some hills around the house. I took my day-pack filled to about 15 lbs. Ferchie joined me and the dogs for the walk. The dogs were panting 5 minutes into the walk, but they kept up with the our faster pace. We finished the walk in 50 minutes. For those interested, that’s a pace of 3.96 miles per hour.

Finally today, Scot T. and Ron T., the Mr. T’s, and I finished the week with the usual hour of racquetball. We got only two games in. I lost both games and smashed my right elbow against the wall, but we had a good time and played hard. I’m looking forward to next week’s game.

I spoke with the Mr. T’s today about joining me for the climb. There was a lot of hand wringing, then huffing and puffing, but we’ll likely have them in the team. After all, who can pass up on camping at high altitude and a long hike with training that only makes you healthier and stronger? Both of these guys are fantastic outdoorsmen. Scot taught me how to camp. I can’t imagine he would pass up on an opportunity to be one with nature.

I learned a good lesson this week. In general, If I wait to workout past 7 PM, I’ll just skip it. So, starting next week, as a rule of thumb, I will workout no later than 5:30 PM. Also, I’m looking forward to getting back into the P90X routine described earlier in the week.

Week 1 done! 51 weeks to the Summit!

What Do You Think?

Do you have any advice on how to better approach my training? Do you have any other thoughts to share? Feel free to comment below.

Photo Credits

SummitPost.org site

Day 4: Seattle Downtown

2011-07-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

At various times today I thought about how to fit my P90X routine given the crappy room, sucking out the motivation from my very being. I finally decided to forego it today and tomorrow, and, instead, just walk downtown Seattle. After all, I'm in a town notorious for its cooler weather and hilly downtown. What better walking conditions could you ask for?

So, I took to the streets and headed east. This seemed especially a good idea since I was supposed to meet up for dinner at about 7 PM, which is like 5 or 6 PM anywhere in Southern California. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the sun sets at about 9 PM in the Pacific Northwest. In other words, twilight ends at about 9:30 or 9:45 PM. That's at least an hour more daylight than Southern California. The nights don't even seem as dark as Southern California!

In any case, I ended up walking past the local hospital and university. I saw some beautiful buildings. Sitting here writing this (with some remaining daylight at 9:31 PM) I realize my posts could use pictures of locations I visit. So, from now on, you'll get those too. They may be pictures from my phone, but at least you'll have a more intimidate feel for what I see.

Overall, I had a short walk of about 3 miles in one hour. It was slower than usual, but I was also walking hills, not just flat streets. So, I was happy with the progress and I'm looking forward to a longer and more rigorous walk tomorrow night.

My dinner friend didn't show up, but...hot dog...I ended up at the Purple Cafe. This place is a wine-lover's haven, not that I'd know. Nevertheless, I met a couple of great guys here and enjoyed relaxing after my walk. The food was very enjoyable and our bartender, a Maine native who had lived in Los Angeles for 13 years before settling in Seattle, was plenty knowledgeable about drinks and food.

The whole experience made me realize why I love traveling, walking the earth, and sharing a meal: it's fun meeting new people that share the same zest for life and bring a new perspective to it. The whole experience made me realize that I was exactly where I needed and wanted to be at that moment. I only wish Ferchie and Veda were here to share it with me!

As a very important side note, I got an Instant Message from a good friend today. Apparently he read the posts here and wants to join me for the hike in 2012 and, possibly, the climb in 2013. Hurrah!!!

We have room for 15 people in our outfit. Any other takers?

What Do You Think?

As always, feel free to share your comments below.

Photo Credit

Calsidyrose

Day 3: Uneventful

2011-07-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

Today was uneventful. I traveled to Seattle for work after waking up at 4:30 AM. I was too tired to do anything cardiovascular or otherwise after work. I'd originally planned a core / stomach exercise. Instead, I had dinner with a coworker. I was especially demotivated after seeing what kind of dump I was in (my hotel). I didn't even feel like taking my socks off in the room, much less workout on any agility or strength training.

What About Other Conditioning?

However, that brings me to a point. Aside from walking twice a week, I'm also working on agility, strength and endurance. I'm following a mostly calisthenics, weight-training, aerobics, and yoga routine from the P90X fame, if you've heard of it. Specifically, I'm doing the Lean routine which encompasses the following:

Day 1: Core Synergistics
This is mostly stomach, glutinous, and lower-back routine with some calisthenics (push-ups and sit-ups) to strengthen the core of your body. This is especially helpful for carrying the heavier day-pack or nigh-packs.
Day 2: Cardio X
The workout starts with some yoga, then jumps into Kenpo-style aerobics and finishes with plyometrics or high-impact aerobics. This is all good stuff for aerobics conditioning.
Day 3: Shoulders and Arms
Most of the routines here are with weights. They're meant as strength training. I enjoy this routine since it focuses on two of my favorite muscle groups: the glamour muscles. I admit though, I can't imagine the benefit of these muscles for the hike. On the other hand, who wants to look out of proportion with huge legs and no upper body strength?
Day 4: Yogo X
This is a grueling 1.5 hours of yoga of various styles. I write "grueling", but once I'm done with it, I truly feel at ease. The calmness of mind will come in handy on those long days hiking, helping me turn inward, stop thinking and relax.
Day 5: Legs and Back
Another of my favorite set of muscles. You do a lot of squats with little to no weight and pull-ups. Who needs weights with pull-ups, right? The legs routine will certainly strengthen all the right muscles for the hikes.
Day 6: Kenpo X
Another day of aerobics-style of workouts just insures the lungs are working well. I substitute racquetball or a walk day for this.

Day 7 is off for P90X, but I will either walk that day or play racquetball. The whole routine is designed to get the musculature and cardiovascular strength for making it to the top of Mount Whitney.

Bring it!!!

What Do You Think?

Feel free to share your comments below.

PHOTO CREDIT

Thomas Hartmann

Day 2: Mount Whitney Resources & References

2011-07-17T23:07:00.001-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

It’s been a good second day. I started out with another 3.5 mile walk with the dogs and my daypack. I’d loaded the pack up to 11 lbs. yesterday with my camelback filled, a two-way radio and extra batteries along with my cell phone and some snacks. Mind you, I didn’t need the snacks, but I wanted to simulate what I’d carry.

Today I added the dogs’ water. That added another 2.5 lbs., bringing the total bag weight to 13.5 lbs. I still need to figure out the full equipment I need to take, including my walking gear. Certainly my old work / hiking shoes are no good. Ever since I lost weight last year, my feet seem to have shrunk as well. They swim in the old shoes.

In any case, I did some more research and thought I’d share some of the resources here.

How to Train
Most of what I’ve found is on training for the big hike or climb. Here’s the list so far:

How to Train for Hiking Mt. Whitney
This is an eHow page where I got most of my ideas on how to train for the hike. There are some good pointers about hiking equipment as well here.
Mount Whitney Training Hikes, by REI
This is way cool. REI provides group hikes at the local mountains to help prepare with elevation acclimation as well as agility training. The climbs are over various local mountain ranges in Southern California including Cucamonga Peak, Mt. Baldy, San Bernardino Peak, Mt. San Jacinto, and San Gorgonio Mountain. The hikes are similar to Mount Whitney, except shorter and at lower altitudes. They range from 8.5 to 16 miles round trip and cost $110 for REI members and $130 for non-members.

This’ll be on my list of climbs once I can do some of the local hills and climbs and traverse 10-15 miles round-trip.
Mount Whitney
This is an excellent site about all things Mount Whitney. I read the clearest description about getting the hike permits on this page. I love the photos and video here as well. They gave me a better idea of the views I’ll get to see when I get there.

What Do You Think?

Do you have any Mount Whitney resources you can share? What do you think of today’s post? Feel free to share your comments below.

Day 1: The Goal and Reason to Climb

Photo Credit

Mount Whitney Website’s Photo Page, REI Mount Whitney Training Hikes Page

Tribal Leadership Book Review

2011-07-17T16:02:00.001-07:00

Book Recommendations

How effective is your company in achieving its mission? What role do you play in your teams? How effective are you as a leader? How can you improve your leadership beyond steering or controlling groups?

No doubt we’ve asked these questions of ourselves. We may have even come up with somewhat satisfactory answers. However, there’s nothing like research-based studies and books to shed light on what we may already intuit, or in helping us understand how to better lead our professional and personal lives.

This last thought is exactly what may occur to you when reading the paper-back edition release of Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan, John King, & Halee Fischer-Wright. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in better understanding how to lead teams, groups, or companies into a new level of productivity AND camaraderie. Read on to learn why.

Overall
The book is well-written and easy to follow. In fact, you may start the book and become addicted to the ideas, unable to put it down. The conclusions are based on a study of 24,000 people in different companies at different levels of efficacy.

The description of each stage of leadership, from complete chaos (Stage 1, “Life sucks”) to a well-oiled machine (Stage 5, “Life is great”), is lucid enough to seem familiar from your day-to-day life. You’ll likely come away from this book with a new mindset to navigate your personal and professional life to better serve, not just yourself, but your community at-large.

In short, after reading this book and applying its lessons, you’ll become a better member of society and the world community, increasing your happiness as well as everyone else’s.

Pros
The authors’ approach to leadership is based on a study of 24,000 people in different organizations. The focus is not purely on Drucker-style of leadership lessons, but historical evidence of effective leaders and the common theme that runs through each leader’s story.

This may sound like a typical theme for leadership books, except the authors approach and interpretation is different. The authors focus on relationships and the languages that represent the different styles of leadership, not just ideas. Given the book is based on studies of individuals and their results, the concepts aren’t theoretical in nature. In fact, the authors admit they had to revise their pre-conceived notions based on lessons learned in the course of preparing to write and update this book.

The various levels of an organization and leadership are described as Stages, each signified by a general state of mind, consisting of a Mood and a Theme (table below is recreated from page 25 in the book):

Stage	Mood	Theme
5	Innocent Wonderment	“Life is great”
4	Tribal Pride	“We’re great (and they’re not)”
3	Lone Warrior	“I’m great (and you’re not)”
2	Apathetic Victim	“My life sucks”
1	Despairing Hostility	“Life sucks”

The Themes are summaries of the language a person in each stage uses to express their state of mind. Each of us have been at these Stages at one point or another in our lives, though, as the authors explain, the majority of population gets stuck at Stages 2 and 3. Stage 3 is the most prevalent, as is apparent in our day-to-day interactions with overpowering managers, bosses, or business owners who portray the “I’m great, and you’re not” mentality, with especial emphasis on “you’re not.”

The goal of the book is to provide each person and, in turn, the groups that they lead, the tools to elevate to Stages 4 and 5 as quickly as possible. However, there are apparently no shortcuts. You need to own and graduate from each Stage. The graduation comes when we have mastered a stage and realize there has to be a better way of operating than the current Stage. Trying to bypass a Stage by purely using the language of a higher one comes across as disingenuous. We’ve all worked in companies where the leaders talk about how “we can be great if we do X,” but their actions demonstrate they mean “I can be better off if YOU do X.” This approach doesn’t just come across as lacking, but also leads to distrust of leadership and eventual downfall of an organization into the ineffective Stage 2 mentality.

The stages are described as Viral. To demonstrate this concept and how quickly Stage 2 groups can form, during a presentation to large groups, one of the authors often states aloud that, “My life sucks because I have to be here with all of you” (page 64). After the audience gets over being stunned, one person may pipe up that their life sucks since they have to listen to the speaker. Soon, everyone’s chiming in why their life sucks as people become comfortable airing their daily life frustrations. This viral nature isn’t limited to Stage 2, but can be replicated in all other stages as well, pointing to how language can be used to lead a group into a higher Stage of operation. The caveat is that the members must be ready to graduate to a higher stage.

The authors warn that the Stages shouldn’t be used to categorize people, but to understand a person’s or organization’s language and relationships. They argue that categorization leads to pigeon-holing which prevents a person’s or organization’s graduation to a higher Stage.

The concepts in the book are sticky given the book’s clear structure and presentation. Each chapter starts out by introducing the main points in the initial pages, then delivers the ideas in detail, and, finally, summarizes the chapter with Leverage Points and Success Indicators. The summaries are essentially a bulleted list of key points that could be actionable.

Aside from the main content, the book contains three key Appendices. You may be tempted to skip them, until you realize they provide the ideas in brief for each Stage of Tribal Leadership, the summary of the research that lead to the book, and details of how the authors can be reached. The authors do truly practice what they preach: setting up relationships that benefit a group or the society at large.

Cons
Some of the ideas in the book may seem academic, though nothing like theoretical models you’d see in textbooks. In fact, the authors have skipped the “academics” by providing some of the theories and research details in Appendix B, thus allowing the reader to focus on the lessons learned in the main body of the book. In general, the ideas are approachable and will be comprehendible by most readers, from individual contributors to leaders.

Also the tips on how to progress from one Stage to another could be more detailed. For this, you’re directed to the the book’s website where you can further read about local events, training, and even blog posts on the subject.

What Do You think?

Please feel free to comment on this review or share your thoughts about the book by writing a comment below.

Photo Credits

Tribal Leadership website.

Day 1: The Goal and Reason to Climb

2011-07-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

Climbing Mount Whitney

It’s official: I've decided to hike to the summit of Mt. Whitney at 14,505 ft. in the Summer of 2012.

Some of you may have already known this since I’ve spoken offline about it for close to a year. I just didn’t know when I’d do it or how to train for it. All of that has changed. In fact hiking it isn’t the end-goal. I will hike the West face in the Summer of 2012 as a single or overnight trip. That’s 21 miles round-trip. I will then climb the East face, the climbing face of Mt. Whitney, in the Summer of the following year.

Why Do It?
So, why the heck would I want to do this?

Many years ago my wife pointed out something I hadn’t realized about myself: I have dulled senses. You see, I love spicy food and individual sports, and I like trying the boundaries when playing. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m the best at them, but I like to push my physical and mental comfort boundaries.

But how does this get translated into dulled senses? My wife found an article that described people that seek extreme sports, foods, and lifestyles have dulled senses. They seek the extremes to push their senses into “feeling” something or experiencing the reality of life. In other words, since their senses are dulled, they’re always in search of a way to sense the world around them more. For these numbed individuals, seeking the extreme is no different than a person with sharply tuned and sensitive senses leading their life experiencing everyday phenomena.

For example, I’ve now mountain-biked, played racquetball, snowboarded and sustained injuries from each. The injuries only made me want to go back. As much as I didn’t enjoy the pains, in each case they reminded my how alive I was. Heck, I’m the guy who gets a thrill from turbulence when some folks are scrambling for the vomit bag!!!

When I was considering what new thing to do next, I thought of parachuting, bungee jumping, snowboarding big mountains (not resorts) among other adventures. Then I heard Chapman University President Jim Doti talk about his mountain climbing experiences. He has climbed or hiked mountains on various continents, including Antarctica. He mentioned that Mount Whitney, right here in California, is the highest mountain in the lower 48 United States. He talked about his experience climbing it, as well as how the lessons on the mountain applied to his daily life and leadership at the University.

…And the light bulb went off. My next adventure was going to be hiking and climbing high elevations. The first mountain on the list, and a test of whether I’m up to the challenge, will be Mount Whitney.

Some Facts About the Mountain
When I began my research , I realized there was a lot I didn’t know about our local Mount Whitney. Here are some very interesting fact:

Peak	14,505 ft. or 14,497 ft. Depends on measurement tools
Coordinates	36 34'42.9 N, 118 17'31.2 W
Type	Granite
Age of Rock	Cretaceous Approximately 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago – holy cow!
Range	Sierra Nevada
First Ascent	1873 by Charles Begole, A. H. Johnson, and John Lucas
Name	Named after state geologist of California, Josiah Whitney
Trail Difficulty	Strenuous
Peak Season	May to November

I originally thought I could just show up and hike this mountain. Apparently not. You need a permit from the Eastern Sierra Eastern Agency. What’s more, you can only apply for a permit between February 1 and March 1 of each year. Once you apply, your application is thrown into a pile and stirred. During the selection, a lottery, you’re assigned advance reservations (15 per group maximum). There are only 100 day use and 60 overnight use permits issued daily. With the mountain being a popular hiking and climbing location worldwide, you can imagine how difficult it may be to get a permit.

All of this only makes the adventure just that…an adventure and one that certainly has my full attention and respect.

Mount Whitney, here I come!!!

What’s Next?
Given the timeline and that I’ve never seriously hiked any more than 10 miles in high elevation (Lake George in Mammoth area at about 10,000 ft.), I need to train for my hike next year. I’ve also NEVER climbed a mountain, with a few exceptions of small hills in Death Valley in my late ‘teens and some other unknown hills in Iran when I was a kid.

So, the next step is training. My first focus is the hike in 2012. I will complete increasingly difficult hikes each week, at least twice per week. I started today with a 3.5 mile hike in my local neighborhood. I’ve done this enough times walking our dogs, but I’m adding a backpack with water and some equipment to make it more challenging.

I’ll continue to add weight to my day-pack until I get to the weight I’ll be carrying on my day-trip hike at Mount Whitney. I’ll also increase the total daily mileage every three weeks by a mile. This’ll put me at a 20 mile hike in 50 weeks. Once I hit 10 miles, I’ll also change terrain. I’ll begin climbing the local hills, then mountains so that the last two months of climbs will be at the local mountains with peaks above 10,000 ft. This is to insure I have the proper musculature, aerobic and elevation conditioning for the final climb.

I’ll chronicle my adventures here. I hope to be able to not only share my stories, but also get your thoughts on how I can insure my success. I’ll post my progress after each training day under this newly created category, Climbing Mount Whitney. Each post will have the number of days since start of the training, with the aim of chronicling the ascent in both 2012 and 2013.

The only thing I’m missing are partners. I’m looking for folks with similar goals that are up to the challenge and interested to share the experience.

Any takers?

What Do You Think?

Have you climbed Mount Whitney? Do you have any tips on how I should approach my adventure? Feel free to share you comments below.

Day 2: Mount Whitney Resources & References

Photo Credit

Thomas Hartmann, Mount Whitney Website

The Benevolent Dictator Book Review

2011-06-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Book Recommendations

How do you manage and make decision in a fast growing startup? Do you make decision by committee, or solely?

I had an opportunity to read the soon to be released The Benevolent Dictator by Michael Feuer (external link to The Benevolent Dictator website). I found quite a lot of good advice worth bestowing on the student-entrepreneurs.

The book focuses on Michael’s career after he left Jo-Ann Stores to startup OfficeMax and, later, Max-Wellness. It has an interesting rhythm: it reads almost like a biography rather than a business management book.

It is broken down to four parts, aptly named Phases, to represent the various phases a startup goes through:

Start Up
Build Out and Put the Idea to the Test
Constant Reinvention
The Payday

Each part then contains lessons learned and applied. Overall, Michael lists a total of 40 lessons that can readily be applied to your startup.

Overall
If you’re a budding entrepreneur, I definitely recommend reading the first two parts of this book as they focus on the initial phases of a startup. You’ll gain much needed anecdotal knowledge to avoid some of the early potholes on the road to bootstrapping your company. Who knows, may be we’ll read about you in a few years and how Michael’s book affected your successful startup!

Pros
What I enjoyed most about this book was how no detail was too small for Michael to explore and explain. This is, of course, part of his management credo, what he sometimes refers to as micromanagement, though his definition doesn’t carry as much negative connotation as what you’d expect. For example, part of his daily routine at OfficeMax included calling each store nightly to get the day’s sales numbers. Given he ran a retail business, this is not terribly surprising and, arguably, it was a necessary step to have an immediate understanding of OfficeMax’s daily cash flow. If you’ve ever ran a business of any size, you know that cash flow is, in fact, king!

He also has an interesting sense of humor, which makes the book an easier read. When describing how his attention to detail involved taking meticulous notes, he spells out how he used FU as an acronym for “follow up” on tasks others had to complete, though it was sometimes misunderstood by his subordinate as something more acrimonious!

Though not formally labeled as one of the 40 lessons in the book, I found his statement “if you don’t ask, you’ll never get” very apropos for an entrepreneur. The truth behind this phrase is made apparent throughout the book when Michael describes his creative financing for both OfficeMax and Max-Wellness where the only way to know whether his crazy wants would be fulfilled was to simply ask the people that could fulfill them.

Cons
Given the book reads more like a biography then a business management book, it may disappoint academics. Likely, that’s not who you are. If you’re looking for on-the-ground tactical and strategic lessons, this is the right book for you, along with Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh (external link to the Delivering Happiness website), reviewed earlier.

Also, though I found many of the lessons useful, 40 lessons seems a bit much. The large number of lessons doesn’t amount to a lot of pages (264). It’s just that some of the lessons are repetitive and unnecessary. In fact, I would recommend reading the first two parts of this book and coming back the latter half as you get past your startup stage and need reminder of the earlier lessons. Most of what you need to startup your company will be in those first 106 pages.

What Do You Think?

As always, please feel free to share your comments below.

Photo Credit

The Benevolent Dictator Website

Closing Shop

2011-05-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Life Strategy

A couple of weeks ago, while having drinks with a new friend, he made me realize I’ve alluded to changes in my professional life without coming out and saying what they are on this blog. He’d gleaned this off of my latest posts that’ve briefly referred to articles and books I’ve read.

So, I’m clearing any ambiguity: I closed shop on iEngineer, LLC. at the end of last year after 15 months of operations. Though we landed and delivered on a number of projects with a handful of clients, we weren’t as successful as I would’ve liked. Given my previous attempt at a startup that lead to my life savings loss, I’d learned when to pull out. In the case of iEngineer, it was time.

I’d been lucky to have landed a full-time employment position at DocuSign before closing shop at iEngineer. If you’ve followed my tweets or LinkedIn posts, then you would’ve guessed that too.

What lesson came out of this endeavor? Let me tell you:

Fail Early and Often
If you’ve read any of my posts on the subject of failure, you know how important I think failure is to insure eventual success. Though this was my third attempt at a startup, none of which have grown to require OPM, with every attempt I’ve come closer to the final goal. So, given we were generating revenue, the company came further along than any others I’ve started. The next will go further yet. I have no doubt.
Ask for Help
Do you know everything about business? Of course not. However, when you’re starting your own business, you may think you can DO everything. This is as ridiculous as claiming to be omniscient. Though you’ll likely have to act as the salesman, marketer, delivery person, and accountant at the onset, there’s nothing that prevents you from asking for help from the experts. By asking for help, I mean not ONLY seeking advice, but also hiring coaches, then later experts to fill in the void in your company.
Forget Pride
That’s right, forget pride! Pride would’ve prevented me from admitting it was time to close shop and I would’ve driven myself and my family to the ground, but it’s also pride that prevented me from initially writing this article. Six months before closing shop, I was about to take out a costly business loan to stay afloat. After thinking about what that meant given an ever-drying sales pipeline, I realized my pride was pushing to get the loan, rather than business rationale. It was time to forgo pride and do the right thing.
Plan Your ENTRY Strategy
You’ve heard about planning your exit business strategy. A counter to that exists for every entrepreneur: with every exit, no matter the circumstances nor the outcome, you plan your entry back into another venture. So it is in this case. My wife, friend and I have developed a set of pet product packages we’re launching in June. So, never stop planning your success. Always remain focused on what you deem important. After each change in your career or business, plan your next one so that you’ll eventually arrive at your inevitable success!

I’m breaking the rule of blogging by giving you an unexpected number of recommendations: four as opposed to five or ten.

But not really, since that’s the final lesson: Break with tradition, how others tell you to run your career or business, and make your own way!

What Do You think?

I’d love to get your thoughts on this post. Have you suspected something like my friend did? What gave it away?

Have you had similar lessons and more you’d like to share? Feel free to post them below.

Photo Credits

toolmantim

Favorite Reads of Late

2011-03-14T18:43:00.001-07:00

book Recommendations

Just like the previous post outlined, I’ve been mulling around a number of business and personal ideas. During the process, I’ve read a number of good articles and books. I’m sorry if the header is misleading: this list is a smattering of both to whet your appetite:

The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss: I enjoyed The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss enough that I thought I’d give this a try. The 4-H Workweek certainly helped me learn to better prioritize my life and lead to my approach to setup a self-sustaining business. More on that in later posts. For now, check out one or both of these books. You’ll like what you learn to do with your body, lover, and business. By the way, don’t be intimidated by the size of the 4-H Body. It’s an easy read.
How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career by Herminia Ibarra: This is an older Harvard Business Review article, but as pertinent today as it was almost a decade ago. If you feel like you’re stuck in your career, you must read this. The author describes why some of the more common approaches to career and business advancement do the exact opposite. So, read on and learn to avoid making these common mistakes, disguised as “best practices” for growth by some.
How Successful Leaders Think by Roger Martin: Another older Harvard Business Review article. This is more pertinent if you’re curious how to get past the management barrier and become a leader. If you think or someone you know thinks of only two solutions to most problems where you have to state them as, “we can EITHER do x OR y to solve this issue” then you need to read this article.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: I love this book. It made me realize how vanity hinders us so much in life. More importantly, the book made me remember the old axiom that the journey of life is more important than the end prize.
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: I’ve heard so many criticisms of Socialism and Communism recently when referring to the Democratic agenda that I figured I might as well get to know what one of the fathers of Communism wrote about it. I highly recommend this book. It’s a small book and more like a Thesis paper. I had to read it three times to get what Karl Marx meant by certain terms and ideas. Now I can have a more genuine discussions about the subject.

What Do You Think?

Feel free to share your favorite posts, books, or other reads below. Of course, you’re always welcome to comment on this list too.

Mental Break, But Not Dead

2011-02-23T17:23:00.001-08:00

Random Thoughts

No doubt you’ve noticed, I’ve taken a break from posting to this blog. My posts have become sparse enough that I’m not sure if anyone aside from my wife and friends are reading them!

My company, and my thoughts, have gone through, what Andy Grove called, an “inflection point” and I’m in the process of rethinking priorities. This means research, business plan revision, idea-rethink, throwing out what didn’t work, and starting anew. There should be good stories that come out of this.

For now, here’s a list of ideas I’ve been mulling over:

What’s more gratifying: going through the steps of starting something new, or getting to the results?

This reminds me of an Oscar Wilde quote, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul?”
Karl Marx WAS wrong: you can’t force communism. On the other hand, society may end up naturally transitioning to it anyway.
How absurd that life’s worth is measured by electrons, with little to no weight, that financially outperform treasures kings used to horde.
How come the most spiritually rewarding experiences in life require giving away everything we worked so hard to gain?
My dad was right: nobody’s impossible to reach, at least when it comes to having a genuine conversation with them. President of a company? Piece of cake. President of the United States? Tougher, but now only two degrees away – almost there.
What we can learn about how to live life and be resilient from two American Pit Bull Terriers that keep me company at work daily.
Why do some 8 hour days feel like 18 and some 80 hour weeks feel like 8?
How 12 years of snowboarding has taught me a tough day doing what I love is far superior to a great day doing mediocre anything.

Your Thoughts

Feel free to pose your own thoughts and ideas below.

Photo Credit

Powerhouse Museum Collection

Plan a Little, Do a Lot

2011-01-30T17:45:00.001-08:00

Business Strategies

While on a flight recently, I read a very interesting article about being stuck in a career (How to Stay Struck in Your Career, by Herminia Ibarra – HBR.org link). The premise of the article was that if you wish to be stuck in your career, then continue to make plans on how to get out of it, but if you actually want to succeed in changing careers or starting your own business, plan a little, and do a lot. Herminia especially emphasizes experimenting to learn whether a chosen path is the right one.

When I thought more about this, and given that I’m planning a snowboarding trip, I thought of all the wild storms we’re having in the U.S. in the mid-west and east. I imagined what would happen if I made a stop, while driving through one of those regions, to figure out how to get past the storms. If I spent hours at my stop, planning the various routes and possibilities of what each route would encompass, where it would take me, what type of grade each road had and whether my car would be able to scale it in the snow, whether the road was mountainous or straight, whether it was paved or dirt, among other factors, I may end up with my car buried in snow. Hence, all of my planning would have been for naught. Because of the extensive planning, I would be stuck in the very storm I was trying to avoid!

This is truly no different than the premise of the article and it applies just as well on your career working for someone else or yourself. If there’s one important lesson that the past 18 months have taught me is that doing after preliminary planning is almost always better than extensive planning.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a need to plan and you should always spend some time planning your projects, career, business, but you don’t need to spend weeks and months doing it. If you do spend many months planning, you’ll end up either loosing the opportunity or becoming too fearful to act. After all, extensive research into every consequence and outcome will likely scare you out of doing something that would otherwise forever change your life for the better.

Below are two personal examples to demonstrate the point.

Stuck in Snow
I recall a venture I started with a couple of engineers more than a decade ago. It was my first attempt to start a business and a complete failure. We spent three months talking about an online community called MySkool.com that would be used to share class notes, as well as academic announcements and events. If you’re familiar with the Blackboard online services used in many of today’s universities, then you know what I’m talking about.

During those three months, we stressed that we had to understand the full design of the solution to the most minute detail. We talked about our plans, wrote some specifications, and, plainly put, over-engineered a solution.

By the end of three months, I saw so many things that could go wrong that I became too fearful to take the first step and actually build a software solution. What’s more, our idea for the solution was so grand that we didn’t think we could handle it. It just had too many features

The talks eventually fizzled out as everyone felt the same way, and we abandoned the project. Talk about regrets!!!

Got on the Highway
Four years ago, in my last year in an MBA program, I took an Entrepreneurship course in between semesters. The class was held during the five week recess over and past the Christmas holidays when the regular semester session students were out and about.

The class was only four weeks long. This meant that instead of meeting once a week, we met four times a week plus a couple of Saturdays to get the same amount of class time as we would during a regular semester session.

Our group project for the course was to write a business plan for a fictional or soon-to-be business. One of our team members had a fantastic idea she’d spent many years thinking about. It was to make a unique coffee beverage for a niche target market. After everyone else in the team revealed their ideas, we thought the coffee beverage concept was spectacular, especially since she planned to launch it in the coming year.

Here was the challenge: we had four weeks to complete all research and planning, then present a viable business plan to the class as if we were pitching to investors. Not enough time to complete everything, right?

Then our instructor read our business idea and asked whether we’d be interested in entering a business plan competition at the University. This meant we wouldn’t pretend to present to potential investors, but that we would present to actual local Angel investors. We spent just the night to talk about and make a decision on this: we were going for it.

Within the remaining three weeks, we not only completed the coursework, while working full-time management positions in our respective companies, we also completed the business plan with full market research, marketing plan, budget planning and related investor presentation.

We ended up winning the University business plan competition and related monetary award, then made it as semi-finalists to two international business plan competitions at the University of San Francisco and Jungle Media in New York.

Our idea and planning was sufficient to gather interest from multiple investors at each location. In other words, a substantial number of investors thought our business idea, with a little more than three weeks of planning, was worth pursuing, which is what our team-mate did subsequently.

Conclusion
What does this all mean for you? Whether you’re stuck in the same role and wish for something better, you’ve been recently laid off and are searching work, or you’re looking for a way to start a new business, spend a few days days, may be even a couple of weeks figuring out who you want to be, what type of business you want to run and the steps you think you’ll have to take to get there. Then take action

It doesn’t matter if the steps are the right ones that take you there on the first try. What matters is that as soon as you have a preliminary plan, you take the first step, then the second, and third.

If you learn the path you’re on is not the right one, GREAT! You’ve just discovered something you didn’t know before that could’ve taken you weeks if not months to figure out while planning. You’re now wiser and, most importantly, CLOSER to your dreams and goals.

So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading and start doing.

Act NOW!!!

What Do You Think?

Now it’s your turn. What do you think?

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La Femme DC

Attaining Your Dreams...At Any Cost?

2010-11-14T16:03:00.000-08:00

Life strategy

I've had many conversations over the past few months about goals and dreams with friends, colleagues, and those I meet in the course of my business. Many of these conversations seem to focus on what mindset we need to have to achieve our goals in life.

A tangential discussion revolves around paths to our dreams, in other words the choices we make to reach them. This is what I refer to as the multiverse of journeys for each goal. The use of the term is because as much as we'd like to believe there's only one right way of achieving a dream, there isn't. As well, each choice creates a whole new universe of who we are and how we arrived at our destination.

Let's clarify through an example. Let's say I set the goal of becoming a successful businessman, as measured by creating a business from ground-up and gaining 30% market share in my industry with a 35% profit margin and doubling of company revenue for the second to fifth years of operation.

I could achieve this by starting a drug-trafficking business, or a legitimate, legal one. If I choose the latter, I could sell my house and invest it all in the business; or keep the house, but invest all of my savings, then borrow the rest from Angel investors. If I borrow from Angels, then I could approach my family, friends, professional investors, questionable lenders, or all of the above.

Each of these steps has its own set of trade-offs (risks and rewards). Not a single one is THE right one. The key is to determine what's your risk tolerance, whether you're concerned about exposing anyone else or yourself to excessive risk, and how committed you are to your cause.

Each one creates a new universe or path to my final destination of becoming a successful businessman. Some of them will have negative consequence for me, my friends or family, or the society at large. In other words, I have many options to reach my goal, and some of them will mean I'll get there "at any cost."

The question then becomes, do I want to reach my goal at any cost? I don't think so. Reaching a goal at any cost means I'll consider nobody but myself in reaching my goals. It'll mean I'll have to step on and pummel many other people's dreams. It'll mean I consider the end justifies the means, even if the means will destroy relationships with friends, family, and coworkers, or the very fabric of my being, transforming me into a person I never intended to become.

So, choose the path carefully and insure your choices lead you down a path, through a journey, out of which the new you is the person you truly intend to be. And forget about reaching a goal at any price. Your sanity and relationships aren't worth that "price."

What Do You Think?

Feel free to share your thoughts below.

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bala

TheMarq

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