Today continues the unseasonably moderate weather of this winter. Curious how the calm of this temperate moment both betrays and complements the collective confidence of the time. Shouldn’t it be worse? Is the worst over? Can we really return to reliable and recent more pleasant times? Of course, I’m describing how we feel about ‘the economy’, whatever this is and the feeling for which, like the weather, actually depends upon where you’re standing.

In Dr. King’s speech from 23 August 1963, which I listen to annually and only once per year, I noted three phrases: “Deeply Rooted in the American Dream”;”Let Us Not Wallow in the Valley of Despair”; and “Content of Their Character”. On the whole, have we made progress or enough progress or simply fooled and confused ourselves when we survey what we have done for and to ourselves over these past 49 years?! We don’t have segregated schools any longer; we merely, at least in my sons’s schools, separate the achieving and usually white students from their underperforming and usually African-American classmates by an organization of courses where effective segregation is classified as AP classes (Advanced Placement).

Our fears for the prevailing and tenuous economic climate are compounded by the unsettling political forecast in the year of another Presidential election, although it’s felt like this season never ends. As usual, we’re left to dress ourselves making the most of what we have and that which we have to do. Surveying this broad matter, I feel that although our various levels of government are certainly not the ‘enemy’ as often portrayed in these campaign cycles and usually by people who make their careers of working for these same entities of government, there is not much more that these entities should try to do as we have traveled far, far down the path of damage done through good intentions.

I served in the Durham jury pool this past week. This was my second time being called by Durham County and the fifth time for jury service including bank robbery and murder trials. Twice have I felt that serving on a jury ranked among the more memorable experiences of my adult life. In Maine, where one serves for two weeks in every five years, I was the foreman of a civil case where Sears was sued for failure to re-insure a young engineer and former military pilot from the consequences of his fault in a traffic accident where a medical doctor lost use of a leg. Clearly, the young man neglected to renew his insurance policy from All State, then a division of Sears. His fault was obvious but only to me and a sound engineer from the local television station who joined the other ten jurors in our deliberations. Our jury’s determination of guilty, meaning Sears should pay for the consequences of the engineer’s misfortune, was decided less upon the evidence and circumstances of the courtroom proceedings and more on the individual juror’s sense of how he or she would wish to be judged should the roles be reversed with the plaintiff. As one senior citizen and one single parent described their conclusions, “Sears can afford it” and “you just can’t trust computers, anyway.” When released from this civic duty, I evaluated and increased every single insurance policy that I possessed.

The bank robbery trial was a stupendous case of circumstantial evidence. Having ushered three cruelly frightend women into the vault of a soon to be closed and, therefore, empty branch bank, the disguised criminal sped from the parking lot in full view of the breakfast audience at the fast food restaurant across the street. Except for the exploded and smoking dye packet in the bag of stolen cash, they could have readily identified him. Instead, many could attest only to the model of the car, the certainty of a sole occupant and the color of the smoke which shielded certain determination of the driver. We had to rely on the evidence offered by the counter clerk at a convenience store and a manager at a grocery store where the wife and the girlfriend of the robber each attempted to convert red-stained one hundred dollar bills into other forms of cash. One would make small purchases, gum, and the other would buy ten thousand dollar money orders. The initial attempts at local laundering did not get them caught. It was the third trip to buy a bag of chips with a $100 bill and the second visit to the food store to cash the $10,000 money order purchased yesterday that caused management to note the behavior and to contact the police. The law got its man after all and it’s a generous process for reliably doing so.

I arrived at 8:30 am at the Durham Country Court House, in-line for the security scanner with sixty-four other selected voters and tax-payers curious about the jury process. I accepted and even hoped that I might be called to serve; I joined the others in superficially wishing that I would not. Our pool comprised mostly African-Americans, mainly women, several with Duke University affiliations and nearly all it turned-out with an opinion about domestic abuse. Before selecting a jury of twelve plus an alternate acceptable to both the prosecuting and defense attorneys, we learned a lot about each other and our admitted biases, experiences and resultant firm opinions. The case centered on an accusation of domestic abuse with two atypical circumstances: the first was that the accused was a woman and the second was that the accuser was a man with a prison record.

I realized that in a case of murder or a civil suit with a multi-million dollar claim that the average citizen has nearly no related experience, so selecting an impartial jury for such trial is an uncomplicated process. Assault is, however, an incident where many of us have either first or second-hand experience so are suspect in the opinions of attorneys hoping to benefit their clients. Thirty of our sixty-five were dismissed from contention. Profiles of the dismissed ranged from unemployed (young African American); admitted prejudice (against convicts by older white male); two young, employed African-American women without exposure to assault (who might not side with the accused?); a couple of men who just did not want to be on a jury and stated that they could not be fair; and others whom one attorney or the other did not wish to seat as is their procedural prerogative. Passing their discernment were women and men who had been personally assaulted; women and men whose siblings had been recently assaulted; a woman whose organization cares for victims of homicidal assault; and a woman whose daughter and child are currently under court supervision as the victims of assault.

In the end, this jury of thirteen comprised ten whites and three African Americans. Several of us considered if this was actually a jury of one’s peers given that the case was between two African-Americans. After nearly twelve hours together over two days, the judge released us and we quickly queued for the elevator to resume our usual lives. Justice was served, I’m sure, and I have no idea nor interest in the outcome of the case.

Even though we did not speak with one another in the course of waiting and wondering and sharing glances as yet another potential juror was dismissed which increased our own odds for being called, we accomplished something together. We demonstrated that amidst the imperfect process of justice in our broadly stratified community, both intellectually and economically, that a random selection of loosely qualified citizens could defer to common purpose in an unrehearsed effort to make a difference or at least a contribution to the strengthening of the ties that bind us.

I wanted to take the pool of these peers to lunch or coffee so as not to let the moment pass unacknowledged. I was emboldened by the stoic acceptance of their duty. Call it the commitment to the American dream. Without comment, we respected the selection process which resulted in a jury predominated by better educated whites sitting in judgment of lesser educated African-Americans. Call it not wallowing in preconceived prejudice. We perpetuated a remarkable and unpretentious outcome – a new jury is called nearly every day of the working week – without fanfare or hardly even a goodbye exchanged with one another. Call it content of collective character.

In the line for the 5th floor elevator, I felt as though I was the only one to see the shooting star in the sky. “Did you see that?!”, I wanted to ask those around me. “Isn’t amazing what just happened?!”, I wanted to tell somebody. But they had things to do and lives to lead and just wanted to get outside to enjoy the nice weather.

2011 was the best or one of the better years of my life. Maybe because it had to be for what choice do we have?! It passed quickly as I feel as though I had just taken last year’s Christmas tree to back of the yard when we brought home the tree for this season. I well remember the minutes that passed for days, especially on the mid-watch at sea, so I have to be fair in admitting that the fleeting passage of time indicates times that are.. fun? interesting? fulfilling?

I notice more of the heroes of my youth and the fixtures of those days pass on. The vanishing of Steve Jobs affected me most as he represented the rest of us who now have the power to make a difference by Thinking Different thanks to him. Uplifting was the new borns welcomed by my Navy friends, Chris, Noah, Josh and Garth.

The satisfying surprise of the year was my son’s acceptance into Naval Flight School. There are rumors of Defense Department budget cuts with reductions in officer rolls. For now, he’s slated for training in Pensacola after May graduation. I remind myself by telling others that uncertain times create opportunities; of course, I was surprised when this happened to him / us. My other son’s interest in lacrosse (interested in the way that birds are interested in flying) and a chance discussion at one of his games, propelled me to qualify as a high school lacrosse referee. After 40 plus assignments, I can confidently describe myself as having advanced from an Awful ref to a Bad ref. This game grows nearly recklessly with support from ESPN and Nike. I hope and plan to ref over the next 10 years to see how far and fast it goes.

The year began with the best meal of the year, lunch at Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley which even impressed the Belgium clients. In spring, I returned to Apple in Cupertino and in the fall, I visited Stockholm for the first time. Silicon Valley is, indeed, an inspiring wonder of creative density; Stockholm, despite the brevity of its beautiful weather, is a wonder of civility; physical and crafted beauty. Funny to me is that it reminds me of San Francisco because of its definition by water, love of food, unpredictable weather and appreciation of all things off-beat (at least to others). Thankfully, everyone recommended the Vasa Museum.

In my job as an Internet Strategist, I gravitate towards larger financial firms, mostly banks, who, although believing that there is something to the social media habits and hobbies of younger folks, they’re just not quite sure how to get involved in a programmatic or profitable way. Despite the opportunity-wasting bickering amongst our political druids and the furor of ‘Let’s solve the Greek problem so we can worry about the Spanish problem so we can get to the Italian problem,’ not all banks operate equally and many, especially middle-sized ones, were interesting and challenging to meet this year. Banking executives readily acknowledge that their own customer relationships have to become characterized by sharing and learning more than blind transactions, yet are stymied by the weight of their recent past. I advocate that the underpinning of what all of our organizations are suffering is that knowledge is no longer power because everybody knows. How does one readily change a culture, be it political, religious, financial or even the athletic department when the entity fortified itself with the belief that they either know something or can withhold something from somebody else. Brings to mind those extravagant suits of armor that required a hoist to seat the lord on his horse only to have him taken-down in battle by a longbow from afar.

In parallel with my clients in the Fortune 100 are the clients of Blue Pane Studio who encourage their unsure department heads to explore the potential of smart phones and apps. It’s a shame that neither the HP nor the RIM tablets made favorable impressions in the market. I had high hopes for Amazon’s Android-based Fire tablet and this, too, seems rushed to market. Despite its success, I feel that the iPad and the application potential of tablets in general would benefit from a credible Android alternative to the iOS. Meanwhile, with a portfolio of 40+ apps for iPhone and Android smartphones, Blue Pane has a handful of iPad clients lined-up for 2011. We’re grateful to the National Cancer Institute, Dartmouth College, The National Institute of Health, the WIC program at USDA and The Research Triangle Park as bringing an app to life with a partner from afar requires an honest and faithful relationship. Curious is that the four web sites that we bid for never came to pass. I don’t mean that we didn’t get the work; I mean that they never got built or overhauled. The process of web site overhaul is too expensive and requires to much organizational time and resources. Apps deliver what clients, the fabled users, truly care about. I’m eager for tablets to help change how training and education, both scholastic and organizational, is created and delivered. And I guess that the video capabilities of these devices will be vital to the new processes of sharing learning.

In mid year, I retired or turned-over the helm as President of the RTP Chapter of the US Naval Academy Alumni Association. Now this is the way that we should go out: not with a box of personal effects or a strained conversation about a ‘new direction for the team’, but on schedule having helped one’s successor into the seat. Plus, I received a framed gift of thanks. Leading the Board of Directors introduced me to a broad range of military personnel: veterans, female officers, retirees, ROTC midshipmen, business school students, sea cadets, Marines, Rangers and parents of midshipmen. The privilege of helping them in small ways, the benefit of laughing with those whom I could trust implicitly even though we may have just met, the honor of sharing experiences with those who contributed so much more than I have, all enriched my life and caused me to realize how shallow can be the context of everyday jobs where sincerity and self-sacrifice are often little valued despite the sloganeering and mission statements.

The representative event of 2011 was the Fuji bicycle that I bought from Owen the Australian who lives across the street. In a generous act of friendship, he offered one of his bikes – he is an expert rider – when I asked how to upgrade my 15 year old Raleigh that I bought after the handy-man broke into our garage and stole my bike and Alexander’s. We didn’t know that he would be that handy! As with fine tailoring, properly aged wines and nearly everything else that costs alot and is worth it, once you ride a well balanced, correctly tuned and lightweight bicycle (mine is a cross-over model), it’s stunning how clunky and inefficient becomes previously well-revered ride. It seems that every bit of energy that I delivered to the new bike via its rubber-studded peddles, shot me down the road as I had never experienced. Former hills and distances seem to change even though I recognized that I was different and the difference. So began 2011.

The silver and bronze medal moments of instruction arrived, as does nearly all enlightenment, away from the throne of productivity, i.e. my desk with MacBook. At an late August luncheon with Swedish executives in Palisades, New York, we sat around an outdoor table ‘catching some rays.’ This is what Swedish people do when favored with late summer sun. Our day together centered on how to use the popular technologies of all things with an ‘i’ plus their sister and brothers of social media to help their bank to catch-up, keep-up and to get a bit ahead of the interests of their clients. What is the formula for changing that which works well?! The vacillating fortune of RIM, makers of Blackberry, is vivid proof for executives that being both good and popular is not a guarantee of survival in the marketplace. Our social media conversation led, inevitably, to comments on the expectations of succeeding generations. Parental concerns of employment, marital satisfaction and social adjustment aside -which we all shared- someone remarked, as they always do, that the members of Gen X or Y or Gen Something have little or no sense of organizational loyalty, quoting how may careers, 9 is a common number, that they’ll experience in a working lifetime. I injected my observation that the young developers working at Blue Pane Studio nearly despise the phrase ‘manager’ as they feel technically superior to most of their organizational elders. “They do not want to be managed, but they do seek guidance and instruction.” The Swede to my right nodded in reply, “I’ve been a manager for 25 years; I’ve been a leader for 3.” Silver to Bjorn.

We live in a cultivated forest shared with Duke University. Although not far from state and interstate roads, we enjoy the array of outdoor neighbors including a fox that walks with dogs (in the dark, in the morning), hawks, turkey buzzards, possums, squirrels and birds of many varieties. Their sights and sounds enrich my ‘staring at the screen’ work posture. The deer are on the other side of the highway, thankfully. We never see the raccoons except after a traffic accident and we hope never to meet one of the copperhead snakes that an owl or cat catches at night and deposits near the mailbox about once a year. From time to time, a wren will build a nest in the garage or in the mailbox on the porch. For the first time in ten years, a mourning dove built and occupied a nest on the wood pile next to the front door. When we exited the house, she or he would exit the nest revealing two tiny eggs. Some geo-location info is in order. Our porch is about fifteen feet away from the yard and 6 feet off of the ground. We would leave through the garage door to avoid disturbing the brooding dove and we’d peek from the living room curtains to check on her progress. One day shortly after arrival, the nest was empty, completely empty. No shell bits of any size. I wondered if baby doves eat the shells for their first pre-flight meal. I returned to the nest a couple of times that day for signs of birth and flight. On about my third trip to the front porch, I inspected the wood pile for evidence of the hatching. As I bent over the second level of the stacked wood, I peered into the black eyes of a black snake. Tessa and I used a broom handle to push the interloper into the garden where we re-located it to the edge of the yard. How did the snake know of the location of the nest intrigued me. An easy question for The Google. Snakes are on the lookout for repeated flight patterns of birds and will follow them to their nests. Up the side of a brick house onto a wood pile is but a short intercept for a six foot black snake. Fate takes many forms and one never knows who is watching. Bronze to Elaphe obsoleta.

Imagine being an Irish Catholic graduate of Penn State working for a large bank?! I am certain that we’ll endure these institutional failures of leadership; I only wish that the leaders of these institutions would be failed.

Tomorrow, my Naval Academy competes for its tenth consecutive win over the Army’s cadets of West Point. There will be a large gathering in Chapel Hill amongst the local alumni of both, er, institutions (that they are!). We’ll number about 250 representing graduating classes as far back as the 1940s. The chow is decent; the rivalry is good-hearted; we’ll collect a couple of thousand dollars for the local VA; we’ll be reminded that several who have shared such occasions with us are no longer with us. In the end, it’s a brotherhood, regardless of sex, of those who consciously or not, agreed to join something much larger than themselves. The players on the field embody what we hope are our better selves and best ambitions. We’ll be equally gratified by our implicit associations with those in the viewing stands, those afar watching from a tent or a mess-deck, those who have gone before and those who will follow.

My tennis partner’s son is in his first year at Annapolis. She and her Australian husband will attend the game in Washington, DC. She commented on the inconvenience of travel, the need to prepare for the holidays and the predicted cold weather at game-time. I offered that the game on the field is nearly secondary to pageantry and symbolism of the game in total. “Who knows?! The President might attend,” I murmured.

I believe that the best part of the game are those whom you see at the concession lines, roaming the stadium and in the stands. SEALs, Rangers, sailors, soldiers and Marines. Pilots, submariners, tank drivers, artillery officers, much decorated enlisted personnel. And we’re all – whether retiree, Academy grad or parent of a plebe – warmly affiliated with them all. It makes you feel good about them, yourself and all of us. They offer what is, indeed, the essence of leadership: inspiration to carry-on and to succeed amidst whatever genuine troubles and minor inconveniences lie ahead. Go Navy.

Ahhhh…the year is almost up and the holidays are approaching fast…and so are the bad guys! I’m sure that most of you have noticed the increased postings on the listserv when it comes to break-ins to vehicles. Some of you are unfortunate enough to have become victims. Every year about this time, break-ins and robberies increase…you shop for the holidays…they shop for the holidays. Cars get broken into in the neighborhoods and in parking lots. It’s time to put out a bit of information that might help you get through all of this mess unscathed. Sit back and grab a drink…this might take a minute.

I constantly get the question “What do you think Sgt. Gunter…should I wear white after Labor Day? Not even at my funeral…Fashion Citation issued!
Now, when it comes to vehicle break-ins, a lot of people ask “Should I lock my car up and risk damage and theft or… leave it unlocked and just risk theft?
Pretty good question. The Police Department recommends that you always lock your vehicle. These doodle doos are looking for the big easy…a crime of opportunity mostly. They walk by and look inside, check door handles…if it’s locked; they generally just go to the next one until they find one that’s unlocked. It takes very little time to wiggle a door and it’s attracts hardly any attention at all. A locked vehicle on the other hand requires more effort. Smashing the window, ripping the lock…whatever way they enter, makes noise and takes time. It increases the chances of getting caught. When they find a neighborhood that most folks consistently leaves their doors unlocked, they spread the word rather quickly.
They have one thing in common….they are lazy…and they don’t want confrontation. Well, that’s two things, but I put it in one sentence so it counts. Now, I know that some of you are saying “I’d rather leave it unlocked and deal with missing change than a $200 repair!” Well I can’t fault you there! I understand the line of thinking, nobody have “extra money” to shell out. When it comes down to the wire…whatever that means…it’s your decision to make. I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong or right. It’s your car…it’s your decision.
Any who…lets take a look at what you can do to reduce the likelihood of getting ripped off. It’s pretty easy to thwart the thieves…take away the prize. “Thwart the thieves”… say that 10 times fast. These guys are window shopping in your neighborhood and we tend to make it easy for them….really easy…just like I just made you say “thwart the thieves” 10 times fast? You know you did…admit it.
Repeat after me…”I will NOT leave my stuff in the car where everybody can see it.”
I constantly see cars parked in neighborhoods and parking lots with purses on the seat, money in the console, iPODS, you name it. If I notice it…don’t you think the criminals will too?
I saw an unlocked car the other night with an iPOD in the console. I downloaded “Hee Haws Greatest Christmas Songs” on it…10,000 times…and then put it back. Can’t wait till they turn it on. “What the…?”
What’s the best self defense? Plain COMMON SENSE! It doesn’t matter if it’s just some pocket change, consider it temptation. Take a few extra seconds and take out your belongings. If you can’t take it with you, toss it in the trunk. Please take note…this does not apply to husbands who do not want to go inside the store with you. It’s dark in the trunk…they’ll be scared.

Ok…we just covered the biggie, now let’s go down the list and hit the other stuff.

Always lock you doors and roll up the windows all the way. “I was only going to be inside for a minute” doesn’t cut it. Leave it down and unlocked and your asking for trouble.

“Purse, cell phones, CDs, etc. should be kept out of sight. If you can look at it and say “It would kill me if this was stolen…then don’t leave it in the car at all.”

High dollar accessories (radios, speakers, laptops, etc.) should be engraved with your first, middle initial and last name and drivers license number (NCOL#12345) . The number never changes.

CD’s. “Sarge…my CD’s got stolen. I had 2 thousand dollars worth of Britney Spears CD’s!! I can’t engrave those!” Hold on money bags…use a Permanent Sharpie and mark the CD’s with youNCOL# right across the label. Then take that same sharpie and mark “I listen to crappy music” right across your forehead.”
Please let the Officer know if it’s Frank Sinatra CD’s. We’ll call out the helicopters, set up roadblocks and notify the FBI immediately. I’m pretty sure this is a law.

Don’t park beside big ol trucks. Those monsters offer great concealment for the bad guy to do his thing.

Stereos with that handy removable faceplate. “Removable” means REMOVE them! Don’t leave them on the radio. Don’t hide them in the car under the floor mat. REMOVE them from the car to the inside of your house. It’s not like its big and heavy….unless you listen to heavy metal. If that’s the case, just toss it in the trash, probably no good anyhow.

Alarm systems. If you have one, use it! Systems with the little blinking light visible to the outside of the car work great. That little flashing light is a great deterrent. They’ll generally pass your up for a car that doesn’t blink at em. It’s called “The blinky light theory.” Bet Santa’s sleigh never got broke into….ask Rudolph…he nose. Get it? Nose? Knows? I just kill myself sometimes!

Garages….ohhh… I love garages! It’s like the ultimate in “Man Cave Luxury.” If you have one, try parking your car in it…and lock the garage! Out of sight, out of mind. Sound familiar? “Sarge…that husband of mine has ours so full of stuff that we can’t hardly walk thru it, much less park a car in it!”
Well now, sounds like you need to snap the whip and get him off his duff. Start him to cleaning! Think how nice it would be to park in a nice warm garage…safe…cozy.
Note: Things do not work this way in my humble abode. I crack the whip, wear the pants and direct all things that should be directed. Is that okay for me to say sweetie pie?”

Big Winter Biggie…warming up the car. Everybody hates getting into a cold car. When the temperatures drop, vehicle thefts rise. Several of you warm the car up while you’re inside getting ready. Yahoo’s walk up and say “Hey….would you look at that…free car!” Make sure, if you must do this, have a spare key and at least lock the car up while it’s running. We do not really suggest that you let it run unattended anyhow….not to mention that it’s bad for the environment, waste gas and against the law.

Fingerprints… got to love those fingerprints! Why don’t we print every car that’s been broken into? Several reasons actually. We don’t get as many fingerprints from cars as we’d like these days. The plastic textured surfaces won’t hold a print well at all. Everybody uses Armor All and the like on the inside like it’s going out of style. Everything is so slick…even the slick slides off. Makes a great print…but we cant lift it. The owner goes in and checks for all the stuff missing before we get there. Contaminates the scene. Windows are broken out, condensation forms on the inside of the car. Another printscrewer upper. This aint CSI and I aint Horatio Caine. He’s not as nearly as handsome as I am.

Keys…that reminds me…house keys…everybody has a hidden key somewhere around the house. We commonly get calls to check on elderly folks who aren’t answering the door. Do we kick the door in? Nah…we just find the “hidden key”. It usually takes a whole 30 seconds as it’s always close by. Quit hiding it, you might as well hang it on a nail beside the door. If I can find your house key within seconds, the criminals can too.
“Oh but I have this fancy schmancy fake rock I put mine in!”
“You sure do, I found it…the only fake looking rock in the flower bed. I stole it too…”
Best bet is it to get a combination key vault, available at ye olde local hardware store. About 30 bucks. Install that turkey. It’s small, convenient and very difficult to break into.

When it comes down to it, most of this is common sense stuff. You can leave your doors unlocked with all your gadgets inside if you’d rather, but unless you have an ninja pygmy with a poison dart and a blow gun ready to jump out of the glove box…chances are you going be the next victim of the Grinch.

Last but not least…when someone does break in, MAKE A REPORT! Even if it’s just some pocket change, the reports let us know that your area is experiencing a rise in crime and we can respond to it. The technical Police term is “Callimus Copamus.” Too many times I see a slew of B&E’s reported on the List Serv, but only one or two actually have reported it. If it aint reported…it never happened.

Ho Ho Ho!!

Sgt. D. Gunter
Durham Police Department
District 2 HEAT
(919) 560-4582 ext. 29252
d.gunter@durhamnc.gov

“Be Alert…The World Needs More Lerts!”

Especially when a senior executive is sentenced to a prison term or a former Board member passes away or when a icon of the industry passes away.

I read this biography while flying back and forth to meet with senior executives of a Canadian Bank. On the late night flight to Raleigh, I sat next to a young, napping woman who awoke as the plane touched-down, checking her iPhone immediately. Wanting to share my thrill of the biography, I offered “if you like the phone, you’ll probably enjoy this biography.” She stared for a split second and replied, “Apple has changed my work completely. The products allow me to do my work.” “What do you do?”, I asked. “Designer. Used to work for Nokia but they never believed that design mattered first. Engineering came first. Now I work in Berlin and visit Raleigh to help with a local agency. Some of the founders of FROG (Apple’s own design firm) founded this agency.” (BTW, how Helmut Esslinger of FROG remembers Steve Jobs). “Oh,” mumbled the stunned Christopher, trying to imagine if in 45 seconds such an honest, spontaneous exchange of personal, public and historical information could ever take place between clients of other consumer electronics products.

Initial conclusions upon finishing the biography: 1) why doesn’t Apple’s iBooks let one gift an eBook as I’d give 10 away today?! 2) Steve Jobs was weird and weirdly unique and there will never be another like him — and this is not all bad. How’s that!? from a fanboy. As my Apple friend informed me, “yes, there has definitely been a shift at the company over the past three weeks and maybe we can use the change to better operationalize some of the success and processes as we are bursting at the seams with systems catching up to creative and physical output.” 3) it’s up to us to carry-on in some manner, in some small way what Steve Jobs accomplished in so many significant ways. Of course, behaving different is hard. Maybe I should try it.

Over the past 18 months of speaking with banking executives of many sizes and risk profiles, nearly all react positively to the Simon Sinek description of why Apple is so successful…because they know Why they do things; they know what they believe. Below is an excerpt from the biography where Tim Cook offers his description of what Apple believes in.

“We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products, and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovation. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think, regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.”
Tim Cook Apple CEO pg 488 Steve Jobs by WalterJacobson.

Mourning is over. Time to get busy.

19 October 2011 Remembrance Celebration at Cuppertino Campus

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Stanford Commencement 1995 (he did not graduate university).

Steve Jobs voice-over in 1997. Released commercially with VO by Richard Dreyfuss.

Mr. Jobs made no secret of his focus on design; in a Jan. 24, 2000, interview, Fortune magazine asked if it was an “obsession” and whether it was “an inborn instinct or what?”

“We don’t have good language to talk about this kind of thing,” Mr. Jobs replied. “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” From 10/8/2011 NYT article.

Final statement of personal mourning: The Onion had it right, nearly perfectly so. It’s funny, I don’t care who you are (thx 2 LTCG).

“Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Computers and the only American in the country who had any clue what the fuck he was doing, died Wednesday at the age of 56. “We haven’t just lost a great innovator, leader, and businessman, we’ve literally lost the only person in this country who actually had his shit together and knew what the hell was going on,” a statement from President Barack Obama read in part, adding that Jobs will be remembered both for the life-changing products he created and for the fact that he was able to sit down, think clearly, and execute his ideas–attributes he shared with no other U.S. citizen.”

Time to get busy in honor of this important man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sOlqqriBvUM
Jobs speaking about NEXT.

New York is overwhelming which is why everyone from everywhere is eager to see it. Over the 8 days in my Hilton pied-a-terre, I visited the Statue of Liberty, shared the same corners of Mid-Town as the President of Iran, toured the USS Intrepid Museum as well as the opening of IBM’s Think and MOMA’s Talk to Me exhibits in addition to a birthday party at BowlMor, several delicious dinners and sights of fashion and individuality that I could not see in a lifetime in Durham. Yet, I was completely amazed by the falafel truck owner who sold 1,000s of meals per day to nearly every market segment imaginable: tourists, school groups, financial execs, visitors, hometowners, even other food-truck vendors. The lines were so long, like 150 people, that I asked a chowing-down limo driver “what is he serving?!” He replied, “the lines are usually longer…all of the way down the block.” OK! The Unstoppable Power of a Good & Well-Executed Idea. Over a couple of days, I observed this food-truck’s supply chain of mini-vans and cars bringing to him vats and cartons of chick-peas and tomatoes and utensils. Meanwhile, Kodak is down to its last couple of hundred million because it never figured-out how to compete with the digital camera marketplace that it invented (you could look it up).

Of course, what is impressive about New York is all of the things that you can do and still be disappointed by what you didn’t do or even know that there was to do. The more that I visit, the more that I realize how segmented is its geography and neighborhoods. Mid-Town is far from East Village, although only a $15 cab ride; 6th Ave and 53rd is a long way from Pier 82, although only a 25 minute walk. Seeing one’s world through the eyes of a visitor is recalibrating. We, me with my Swedish and Lithuanian guests, hustled on Sunday morning for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. First, underground on the #1 train to the base of the Island, aka Battery Park. Out of the subway tunnel into the open space of the Park; into the Homeland Security tent then on board a jam-packed ferry to the Statue of Liberty. That one has to nearly undress for security purposes in order to visit the Statue could be thought provoking. Happily, the symbol of America’s premise elegantly inspires as we discussed the chaotic and had-to-be dangerous journeys that awaited the immigrants for whom Ellis Island and the Statue meant so much in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My Swedish friend mused ‘why did we select Minnesota as our rallying point?! Couldn’t they have chosen Florida?!” Last week, Hewlett-Packard fired and hired its 4th and 5th CEOs in 6 years now favoring the former CEO of eBay. Perhaps there is an auction in the works.

We were all impressed by the size and capabilities of the USS Intrepid, a World War II vintage aircraft carrier. More impressive to my corporate guests was that this enormous and enormously complicated ship was built in about two years. Such a feat combines examples of motivated teamwork, fearful necessity and bottomless budget. During our own planning discussions, we laughed a couple of times about ‘getting it (our tasks) done’ in less time than the construction of the Intrepid.

Our Innovation Workshop concluded with a visit to IBM’s Think Exhibit at Lincoln Center. This venue intends to celebrate IBM’s Centennial, promote its interconnection with the global economy and to relate itself to the simply brilliant and brilliantly simple discoveries in astronomy, medicine and communications over recorded history. I’m stuck recalling a video clip of President John Kennedy announcing The Moon Program at Rice University.

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Could you imagine, don’t you wish that we would exhibit such political conviction and collective fortitude in the face of the challenges and opportunities of our time by asking not what our country can do for us….

COMING APART After 9/11 transfixed America, the country’s problems were left to rot. by George Packer Download NYer PDF

I grew-up in New Orleans and my wife grew-up in Mount Airy, North Carolina. We sometimes amuse ourselves during cocktail hour by reciting the differences in our social and cultural circumstances, always marveling that we found enough in common to want to marry. We could never imagine that a New Yorker article would connect our hometowns.

We both moved away from our hometowns for a reason and we remain attached to each of these spots on the map: one on a river and the other at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The troubles of our hometowns were a long time in coming and will take a while to fix. Certainly, such is the nature of civilization: people try, succeed and fail in one location then move to start-over in the next. Right now, we’re all caught-up in something that seems much larger than us – is the population too large? do we use too much gasoline? is the government to blame? – where we’re not sure what to do or even if we’ve hit the bottom yet.

I wonder if our nation’s decline is represented by these two uniquely charming locations or are their declines better represented by America’s?! Certainly New Orleans is not the city that it used to be – and probably never was any way. Its mythical gentility and creativity was perpetrated while those in authority neglected nearly every fundamental civic responsibility. Katrina washed away this veneer.

The folks in Mount Airy have made do since they settled the area prior to the American Revolution. They display a strong sense of self-reliance coupled with a short horizon to the world at large. As I think about it, this is pretty much the opposite of how New Orleanians have seen themselves and their world.

Now both communities share the understanding that as any semblance of reliable, centralized leadership is in dangerous short supply, self-reliance in the day to day is how they will have to survive and to re-construct a future for their friends and families.

As a 14 year old water boy, my wife’s great-grandfather walked from Virginia to Gettysburg in 1863 for the battle. Wounded on the third day in the North Carolina attack adjacent to Pickett’s charge, he was paroled and returned home. He wore his uniform in the annual town parade into the early 1930s. New Orleans surrendered early in the war with barely a fight, never considering itself actually a part of the American South. My money’s on Mt. Airy. Meanwhile, here’s a cut from a recent David Letterman show where the Preservation Hall Jazz Band joins with the country-gospel Del McCoury Band performing I’ll Fly Away. Hope springs eternal!

Complete listing and related article here.

What impels some people to defend others?