Success in Rural America

Forbes.com covered a piece on RightNow Technologies.  I work for RightNow.  We are a software company headquartered in the least likely of places – Bozeman, Montana.  We have 700+ employees worldwide.

Greg Gianforte, my CEO, does an excellent job of communicating why rural America is a great place to start a company.  RightNow proves it is possible to be a global software leader and promote the family values and lifestyle so many people seek in their work-life balance.

Click on the image below to see the video on Forbes.com.  The intro commercial is about 20 seconds.

http://www.forbes.com/video/?video=fvn/cio/km_rightnow072508

Thanks RightNow!

Wildthings and Humanity

I was reminded not once but twice in the last 24 hours just how wild Montana remains.  My two oldest kids were rambling on last night about a mountain lion sighting in our neighborhood.  This has happened several times in the last five years and we obviously take the sightings seriously.  We have a series of trails that run through our neighborhood and many of them run though densely wooded areas – prime hiding spots for creatures like mountain lions.

Luckily, the kids didn’t seem to have nightmares about it.

This morning on my bike commute into work, I ran across two horses trotting down the highway.  No owners in sight.  It appeared they escaped their pasture and were off on an adventure of their own.  They gave me nothing short of an inquisitive look as I rode on by.

In the last several months, I have seen the following animals around Bozeman (8 miles from my house).

Ducks
Geese
Deer
Badger
Skunk
Prairie Dogs
Cattle
Snakes
Herons
Hawks
Rabbits
Eagles (Golden and Bald)
White Owl

Except for the extremely harsh winters, Montana really is a great place for kids (and adults!) to grow up.

Solitude

Do you ever feel like you strain to find a bit of time to yourself?

As dads, I think we experience this problem but in a much different way than stay at home moms.  We fall victim to the rush of moving from one very different activity to another.  AM with the kids -> Off to work -> Work projects and meetings -> Back home -> Evening routine -> Gas tank empty -> Wake up and start again.

It is so easy to snub out the 10, 15, 20 minutes of solitude we need each day to better prioritize our activities and get the most out of each day.

I ran across Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People card in my wallet today.  I am not a religious practitioner of the 7 Habits but I make a point to follow his advice as best as possible.

I found a simple way to ensure I get the 20 minutes of solitude I need to get ready for each day – My bicycle commute to and from work.  I didn’t think the process of riding to work would be anything more than a short workout and indirect way to save money on gas.

Boy was I wrong.  The AM and PM commute to and from work continues to provide me a range of added benefits.  The solitude to think for a few minutes before the insanity of the day begins may very well be the best part.

Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors

Pink bubblegum ice cream.  That’s my oldest son’s favorite.  Like thousands of kids before him, he can’t possibly understand why there would be any OTHER choice for ice cream.

Today’s outing to the ice cream store got me wondering about Baskin-Robbin’s original 31 flavors from 1945.  Have they changed?  Yes.  And quite a few on this list surprised me.  List courtesy of Wikipedia.

Banana Nut Fudge Black Walnut Burgundy Cherry Butterscotch Ribbon Cherry Macaroon Chocolate Chocolate Almond Chocolate Chip Chocolate Fudge Chocolate Mint

Chocolate Ribbon Coffee Coffee Candy Date Nut Egg Nog French Vanilla Green Mint Stick Lemon Crisp Lemon Custard Lemon Sherbet

Maple Nut Orange Sherbet Peach Peppermint Fudge Ribbon Peppermint Stick Pineapple Sherbet Raspberry Sherbet Rocky Road Strawberry Vanilla Vanilla Burnt Almon

Coffee ice cream was popular in 1945?

Craftsmanship and Your Career

Business is tough and competitive.  Even small niche products compete for a limited number of interested customers.  If anything, carving out a successful product in a niche category can be even more difficult.

What if you had a 5 year backlog for your product?  Sounds like nirvana right?  Vanilla Cycles does.  Sacha White of Vanilla Cycles makes handmade steel bicycles.  No high tech carbon fiber on these machines.  Each one built for one customer.

He has certainly built a reputation for beautiful handcrafted steel bikes.  In the handcrafted realm, I think reputation is 90% of the current and future sale.  Customers are willing to wait.  This is a phenomenon not seen in many other aspects of business.

I don’t think our professional lives are much different.  What are you doing to build a reputation that demands a 5 year wait for your services?

Vanilla Cycles

You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned

Kirk Weisler compiled a handful of thoughtful quotes around the concept.

“The problem isn’t getting the new ideas in, it’s getting the old ones out.” – Tom Peters

Good advice for fathers…and mothers.

Life Is What Happens After You Plan

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Life is what happens after you plan.”

I propose a much needed update.  “Life is what happens after you have kids.”  Amen.

Your Car = Your Life Phase

There is much truth to this statement.  When I think back on my previous cars, they really did define who I was at the time.

I can remember the car I had when I was in college and got married.  I can remember the car my wife and I had when we relocated across the country for graduate school, and I most definitely remember the car we had when our first child came along.

The cars continue to change and it is surprising just how tight my memories are tied to each car.  How about you?

The Magic of the Cardboard Box

My wife’s recent post on kids and cardboard boxes has to be a child truism, about as rock solid as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion.

A Betty Crocker Block Party

Block Party and Betty Crocker.  What a fabulous combination of Midwest American goodness.

My wife and I were discussing block parties the other night.  I remember block parties growing up in Billings, Montana.  I remember running all over the place with the neighborhood kids.  Wow, what a good time.

Block parties have to be on the decline in America.  My neighborhood had the traditional grid layout with streets like Elm and Ash.  They were ripe for this sort of activity.  I don’t think many of the suburban neighborhoods built in the last twenty years are as block party friendly as those built in the 40’s and 50’s.  Or,  we just aren’t making time for this sort of activity.  I bet we aren’t making time.

So is anyone still seeing great block parties in their neighborhoods?  If anything, it gives us an excuse to buy Schiltz.  We all get to save money and support 1950’s nostalgia.

So what are your summer block party plans?