48 hours after the 59-0 loss to New England, which the team's owner called "the low point in franchise history," Jeff Fisher apparently feels good enough to crack jokes at the team's expense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C6HiSOlquc
Very bad timing.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
My former employer, Actus Lend Lease, turned ten years old this month.
I was there during almost the exact period of time where the business transitioned from a fast-moving entrepreneurial creature to a slower, more methodical, much more process-oriented mature organization. In many organizations that undergo this change, a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit still remains in pockets of the organization. In Actus' case, it got purged completely from the system...a hidden but significant problem.
So now, the company faces an uncertain future. Should it march into Canada and try to win public-private partnership business there, as is referenced in the video? Nah. Merging with another company or two in the space, getting big, and attacking local and regional public-private partnership business within the United States (outside of the military) is the way to go. A radical organizational change is needed to pursue the business they're going after, in my meaningless-then and even-more-meaningless-now opinion.
Another interesting option is what I always thought of as the 'adjacent-development' strategy. Around these massive MHPI communities Actus builds are large quantities of under-utilized land that could be acquired for dimes on the dollar...purchasing this land and using it to provide relevant services for the military families in the community, as well as nearby, would open up all kinds of opportunities.
This is a company that's not going away, primarily because it owns cash-generating 50-year contracts with the majority of the term remaining. But it could be so much more.
I enjoyed the majority of my time there, and as Marc Sierra suggests in his part of the video, there was always something new to learn - a very positive attribute of the organization.
My own company is progressing like it is in many respects because of lessons learned from my time at Actus, some good and some bad. I think the fact that I even check the Lend Lease website at all, from time to time, or still remain distantly interested in the operations and strategy of the company even now is an indicator the company did something right, though.
While they haven't won any new business in quite a while (the PAL deal was done long before I even left the company, despite the representation of the linked piece), there's no reason why they can't get it going again. It's just going to take a little bit of getting outside the company's comfort zone.
I was there during almost the exact period of time where the business transitioned from a fast-moving entrepreneurial creature to a slower, more methodical, much more process-oriented mature organization. In many organizations that undergo this change, a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit still remains in pockets of the organization. In Actus' case, it got purged completely from the system...a hidden but significant problem.
So now, the company faces an uncertain future. Should it march into Canada and try to win public-private partnership business there, as is referenced in the video? Nah. Merging with another company or two in the space, getting big, and attacking local and regional public-private partnership business within the United States (outside of the military) is the way to go. A radical organizational change is needed to pursue the business they're going after, in my meaningless-then and even-more-meaningless-now opinion.
Another interesting option is what I always thought of as the 'adjacent-development' strategy. Around these massive MHPI communities Actus builds are large quantities of under-utilized land that could be acquired for dimes on the dollar...purchasing this land and using it to provide relevant services for the military families in the community, as well as nearby, would open up all kinds of opportunities.
This is a company that's not going away, primarily because it owns cash-generating 50-year contracts with the majority of the term remaining. But it could be so much more.
I enjoyed the majority of my time there, and as Marc Sierra suggests in his part of the video, there was always something new to learn - a very positive attribute of the organization.
My own company is progressing like it is in many respects because of lessons learned from my time at Actus, some good and some bad. I think the fact that I even check the Lend Lease website at all, from time to time, or still remain distantly interested in the operations and strategy of the company even now is an indicator the company did something right, though.
While they haven't won any new business in quite a while (the PAL deal was done long before I even left the company, despite the representation of the linked piece), there's no reason why they can't get it going again. It's just going to take a little bit of getting outside the company's comfort zone.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Got some great news last week...no cancer in the tissue from my arm the surgeons removed, nor any in the lymph nodes removed during surgery. Free and clear.
Took the weekend to rest up, watched some football, played Batman: Arkham Asylum (great game), and didn't do a whole lot. Was supposed to travel to Chicago, but the doctors said they thought it was a bit too much to do this quickly after surgery. I haven't needed pain medication, which is the main risk in traveling due to the various side effects from using it, but nevertheless I called it off.
Definitely a sense of relief to find out the melanoma hasn't traveled anywhere else in my body. I can get on a regular pattern of checkups and preventative measures, and try to stay ahead of the curve. Finally, some ability to get back to normal.
We are ramping up The Score to prepare for the busy holiday retail season. Already, sales are accelerating, and things are heating up. Gamers like shopping at The Score because the environment we have created is such a unique combination of new and old games - you've got The Arena, in all its glory, sitting in the middle of the retail space, but you've also got old Atari and Nintendo games to be had, at very low prices, as well. A little bit of something for everybody, within the gaming realm.
All in the pursuit of our mission: to be the best place to buy or play a video game.
Feels a lot better to be back pursuing that mission instead of the "have surgery for melanoma" mission! :)
Thanks to everybody for the supportive messages, calls, texts, etc. Means a lot. Do yourself a favor and get checked out at a dermatologist, cause melanoma's the fastest-growing cancer in existence and can creep up in a hurry.
Back soon with another update...
Took the weekend to rest up, watched some football, played Batman: Arkham Asylum (great game), and didn't do a whole lot. Was supposed to travel to Chicago, but the doctors said they thought it was a bit too much to do this quickly after surgery. I haven't needed pain medication, which is the main risk in traveling due to the various side effects from using it, but nevertheless I called it off.
Definitely a sense of relief to find out the melanoma hasn't traveled anywhere else in my body. I can get on a regular pattern of checkups and preventative measures, and try to stay ahead of the curve. Finally, some ability to get back to normal.
We are ramping up The Score to prepare for the busy holiday retail season. Already, sales are accelerating, and things are heating up. Gamers like shopping at The Score because the environment we have created is such a unique combination of new and old games - you've got The Arena, in all its glory, sitting in the middle of the retail space, but you've also got old Atari and Nintendo games to be had, at very low prices, as well. A little bit of something for everybody, within the gaming realm.
All in the pursuit of our mission: to be the best place to buy or play a video game.
Feels a lot better to be back pursuing that mission instead of the "have surgery for melanoma" mission! :)
Thanks to everybody for the supportive messages, calls, texts, etc. Means a lot. Do yourself a favor and get checked out at a dermatologist, cause melanoma's the fastest-growing cancer in existence and can creep up in a hurry.
Back soon with another update...
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Haven't updated the blog in a while...got a few things to post...
The Score is going well. Revenues have steadily risen, costs have been screwed down and continue to be reduced, and we've taken the time to "find" the business. When we started, The Score was much more of a service-oriented model, and primarily from feedback from our customers, we've greatly expanded our retail side. Basically, we're just pursuing our overall mission of "being the best place to buy or play a game" - everything we do has that in mind, or it's not done.
For six months into operations, it's clear we've got something going here. And we're lucky to have a number of great people who have lent a hand, in one way or another, to make the business as good as it can be.
I do have a personal update, however. Yesterday I was diagnosed with Stage 1 melanoma (skin cancer), the result of finding a dark spot on my skin that didn't quite look right, and my wife insisting that I go and get it checked out, even to the point of setting my appointment.
Naturally, I didn't think it was anything - why would it be? And at a Breslow depth (look it up) of 1.55 mm, it had quickly moved to something that, at 2 mm in depth, would likely have spread to other parts of the body and become much harder to treat.
So basically, I may have dodged a bullet.
The dermatologist removed the mole with a general excision immediately upon seeing it - without revealing much to me about what she thought, which was probably a feat in itself - and likely caught it all then. It's quite possible all the cancerous cells have been removed.
However, we won't be taking any chances. Thursday afternoon I will consult with a general surgeon in preparation for surgery that will cut a wider radius out of my arm (fortunately with no skin graft required) as well as what's called a sentinel node biopsy, which is a procedure to identify and remove the associated lymph node and test it for signs of cancer. If positive, we keep working, and if negative, breathe a sigh of relief. The doctors don't think it has gone anywhere, but better to check and find out.
For the last two or three weeks, my wife and I have known that either I had a pre-cancerous mole or an early-stage melanoma, but I can certainly say from my standpoint that I thought (again) it would be as minimal as possible. Waiting on results is an entirely different type of difficult thing to deal with, especially given everything else both of us have going on and the need to continue to be productive in our jobs and everywhere else.
Now, after this surgery is complete and regardless of its findings, my life has changed. I will have dermatologist and oncologist visits every 4 months for the next 2 years, and will be seeing these people frequently the rest of my life.
It's hard to get your bearings when something like this comes and changes things on you. I know I'm very fortunate this was caught when it was, and to have a lot of great people in my life - some of which happened to find out about this before this post, and some who will just be finding out as they read it. I still have difficulty even speaking about it, because to do so is to acknowledge just how lucky I am in so many ways, and it's a rush of emotion for me.
My family asks for your prayers, but I personally feel strongly that this is a wake-up call of sorts for me in a number of ways. Physically, I need to get more exercise and eat healthier than I have been, even when the business days are long. It's also obviously a good time to re-evaluate what's really important, and to go do it, although that's one thing I've generally been good about is not waiting around to pursue things I've always wanted to try.
The 5-year survival rate of my type of melanoma is 95%, with a 10-year survival rate of 89%. Another 6 months, and those percentages could've been cut in half.
Use this as an opportunity to read something about melanoma, what it is, and how important it is to get tested. Melanoma occurrence rates are way up over the past 10-20 years, due largely to an increase in UV radiation reaching the planet due to decreased ozone (no, not an environmentalist at all, just talking documented facts here) so while melanoma is tied to genetics and family history, a lot more people are getting it for the first time in a family now than ever before. Getting tested is easy and is a complete no-brainer, as lots of people die from this every year from all age groups.
So all in all, I'd have to say life is pretty good. God tests us in many ways, and if we're meant to understand part of it, it will be revealed. We can never understand everything - the machinery of life, all those things going on behind the scenes, can't be understood even if they were right in front of our face. I've always been good at looking at people and understanding what their motivations are, which always comforts me because I feel like I can predict what they will do. It's challenging for someone like me to come to terms with things like this, things that can so clearly serve a purpose, but to what extent, I'll never know.
I'll be "off the grid" for the next couple of weeks as I go through surgery and hopefully find out no cancer has spread anywhere, like the doctors think. Please pray for me and my family in the meantime. Feel free to drop me an email or get back in touch if we haven't spoken in a while.
There have been days in the growth and development of The Score, as a business, where I wondered how I could possibly keep going in the face of clear adversity. With this melanoma, I have never felt that way - I know this is just one of those trials that you go through.
Thanks for reading this far, if you made it, and see ya'll soon.
The Score is going well. Revenues have steadily risen, costs have been screwed down and continue to be reduced, and we've taken the time to "find" the business. When we started, The Score was much more of a service-oriented model, and primarily from feedback from our customers, we've greatly expanded our retail side. Basically, we're just pursuing our overall mission of "being the best place to buy or play a game" - everything we do has that in mind, or it's not done.
For six months into operations, it's clear we've got something going here. And we're lucky to have a number of great people who have lent a hand, in one way or another, to make the business as good as it can be.
I do have a personal update, however. Yesterday I was diagnosed with Stage 1 melanoma (skin cancer), the result of finding a dark spot on my skin that didn't quite look right, and my wife insisting that I go and get it checked out, even to the point of setting my appointment.
Naturally, I didn't think it was anything - why would it be? And at a Breslow depth (look it up) of 1.55 mm, it had quickly moved to something that, at 2 mm in depth, would likely have spread to other parts of the body and become much harder to treat.
So basically, I may have dodged a bullet.
The dermatologist removed the mole with a general excision immediately upon seeing it - without revealing much to me about what she thought, which was probably a feat in itself - and likely caught it all then. It's quite possible all the cancerous cells have been removed.
However, we won't be taking any chances. Thursday afternoon I will consult with a general surgeon in preparation for surgery that will cut a wider radius out of my arm (fortunately with no skin graft required) as well as what's called a sentinel node biopsy, which is a procedure to identify and remove the associated lymph node and test it for signs of cancer. If positive, we keep working, and if negative, breathe a sigh of relief. The doctors don't think it has gone anywhere, but better to check and find out.
For the last two or three weeks, my wife and I have known that either I had a pre-cancerous mole or an early-stage melanoma, but I can certainly say from my standpoint that I thought (again) it would be as minimal as possible. Waiting on results is an entirely different type of difficult thing to deal with, especially given everything else both of us have going on and the need to continue to be productive in our jobs and everywhere else.
Now, after this surgery is complete and regardless of its findings, my life has changed. I will have dermatologist and oncologist visits every 4 months for the next 2 years, and will be seeing these people frequently the rest of my life.
It's hard to get your bearings when something like this comes and changes things on you. I know I'm very fortunate this was caught when it was, and to have a lot of great people in my life - some of which happened to find out about this before this post, and some who will just be finding out as they read it. I still have difficulty even speaking about it, because to do so is to acknowledge just how lucky I am in so many ways, and it's a rush of emotion for me.
My family asks for your prayers, but I personally feel strongly that this is a wake-up call of sorts for me in a number of ways. Physically, I need to get more exercise and eat healthier than I have been, even when the business days are long. It's also obviously a good time to re-evaluate what's really important, and to go do it, although that's one thing I've generally been good about is not waiting around to pursue things I've always wanted to try.
The 5-year survival rate of my type of melanoma is 95%, with a 10-year survival rate of 89%. Another 6 months, and those percentages could've been cut in half.
Use this as an opportunity to read something about melanoma, what it is, and how important it is to get tested. Melanoma occurrence rates are way up over the past 10-20 years, due largely to an increase in UV radiation reaching the planet due to decreased ozone (no, not an environmentalist at all, just talking documented facts here) so while melanoma is tied to genetics and family history, a lot more people are getting it for the first time in a family now than ever before. Getting tested is easy and is a complete no-brainer, as lots of people die from this every year from all age groups.
So all in all, I'd have to say life is pretty good. God tests us in many ways, and if we're meant to understand part of it, it will be revealed. We can never understand everything - the machinery of life, all those things going on behind the scenes, can't be understood even if they were right in front of our face. I've always been good at looking at people and understanding what their motivations are, which always comforts me because I feel like I can predict what they will do. It's challenging for someone like me to come to terms with things like this, things that can so clearly serve a purpose, but to what extent, I'll never know.
I'll be "off the grid" for the next couple of weeks as I go through surgery and hopefully find out no cancer has spread anywhere, like the doctors think. Please pray for me and my family in the meantime. Feel free to drop me an email or get back in touch if we haven't spoken in a while.
There have been days in the growth and development of The Score, as a business, where I wondered how I could possibly keep going in the face of clear adversity. With this melanoma, I have never felt that way - I know this is just one of those trials that you go through.
Thanks for reading this far, if you made it, and see ya'll soon.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tomorrow, we hit the one-month anniversary of the opening of The Score of Cool Springs.
It's clear we have a winner on our hands, which only increases the pressure. There's something now that can be fumbled away or screwed up through mismanagement.
We've brought the business online in pieces so far. First was the tournaments and leagues for our core gaming constituency. Next was our school groups during the day, thanks to a key business relationship we have. Over the next couple weeks, we'll get birthday parties and corporate teambuilding online as well.
Something new is learned every day.
Time is precious...I have to carve out a block tomorrow morning so I can go see Lori's Harpeth Hall girls participate in their mock trial competition before heading in to open The Score later in the morning. I'm already running behind in all sorts of things that need to get done for the business.
The good news is we're not sitting around wondering how in the world we're going to make it all work out. We're instead figuring out how to maximize this great opportunity we've been given.
Now to get back at it...
It's clear we have a winner on our hands, which only increases the pressure. There's something now that can be fumbled away or screwed up through mismanagement.
We've brought the business online in pieces so far. First was the tournaments and leagues for our core gaming constituency. Next was our school groups during the day, thanks to a key business relationship we have. Over the next couple weeks, we'll get birthday parties and corporate teambuilding online as well.
Something new is learned every day.
Time is precious...I have to carve out a block tomorrow morning so I can go see Lori's Harpeth Hall girls participate in their mock trial competition before heading in to open The Score later in the morning. I'm already running behind in all sorts of things that need to get done for the business.
The good news is we're not sitting around wondering how in the world we're going to make it all work out. We're instead figuring out how to maximize this great opportunity we've been given.
Now to get back at it...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Out here in sunny, fairly warm California with Hetesh getting ready to visit some game publishers. We've been fortunate that these developers and big publishers understand the uniqueness and the wide-open potential of our business with The Score.
Titans lost a heartbreaker against the Ravens, and now all those promises of a Super Bowl for Nashville seem like distant memories. Titans did have a great year though. Now comes a very difficult personnel decision: Kerry Collins, or back to VY, in 2009?
Headed back home on Tuesday - the same day The Score is to be written up in the Tennessean. Hope it's a good article for us. Certainly nice of them to feature us this early into the project.
Titans lost a heartbreaker against the Ravens, and now all those promises of a Super Bowl for Nashville seem like distant memories. Titans did have a great year though. Now comes a very difficult personnel decision: Kerry Collins, or back to VY, in 2009?
Headed back home on Tuesday - the same day The Score is to be written up in the Tennessean. Hope it's a good article for us. Certainly nice of them to feature us this early into the project.
