The Bend in the Road

Chapter 1

The last thing he wanted to do at 5am was leave his warm, comfy bed knowing the coldest thing next to an ice cream brain-freeze was waiting for him as his bare feet slapped the ice cold, hard-wood bedroom floor. But crawl out of bed he does, creaking joints n’all, shivering as he races to close the window Margaret insists stay open through even the coldest winter night … you know, because In Style Magazine told her how healthy it is.
The hot shower barely woke him as he promised himself to start that exercise program 1st thing tomorrow. For now though, he had to get to work. The rest of his house and from the look of things, his neighborhood is still sleeping as he pulls down the driveway after that delicious bowl of Cheerios Margaret insist he eat (again with the healthy stuff…”I swear I’ll end up a healthy corpse…she’ll have the funeral parlor window open if it’s winter just to make sure the corpse stays cold.”
The small company parking lot was empty as he pulled in, wishing he had made a pit stop at Starbucks. He looked up at the loading dock as he trudged toward the warehouse. God, he hated the loading dock. How did he end up here? Here, was him, a 48 year old, prime of his working life, honest guy starting all over again. Laid off his last 3 positions (last one in, first one out on the last 2, right after he got let go, along with 45 others from the first job he got out of college, when the bosses kid took over and drove their company and his life into bankruptcy hell. What a punk. So, after a couple of false starts as a Customer Service Manager, he sat unemployed for 9 months with his wife and 3 kids holding their breath, hoping daddy got a job today. After 9 months and a pyramid of mailed resumes, hours on Career Builder, Monster…even Hot Jobs…and zero interviews…he'd had enough. This networking group of angry adults sat around telling each other how ridiculous companies were for not hiring them. At least they made him feel like he wasn’t alone. Not alone in failure. Not alone in broke.
Chris, the group leader mentioned "Temping". Maybe he’d give it a try. At least, maybe somebody’ll talk to him…give him an idea. But if he has to hear one more smug kid give him advice…he’s gonna lose it...By now he had no pride left, he'd already swallowed it all. But after 9 mos. without a paycheck he needed to try something to get his rhythm back. At least I can tell Margaret I had something new to try, he thought. Just then his phone rings. It's John Markle from the networking group...he thinks to let it go to voice mail but Markle’s one of those guys who doesn't give up. "Hi John, what's up?" Markle was all amped up…"They knifed Chris man, Chris, you know... our group leader. They got him in the heart man...he's dead....deader’n Michael Jackson." and Margaret's husband Bill turned his car around and headed back to the group. Another day without a job...

My Friend, Tim Loncharich

A good man was calmed today. Humble, narrow by nature with a good heart,strong of spirit and a hearty laugh. There was much we respected and appreciated about Tim and his leadership …especially his regard for the emotional and financial investment we made in our franchise business and the personable way he wove his integrity and core values into the fabric of our business family. He straddled the chasm of responsibilities that come with the territory of Chairman & CEO of franchisor and franchisee… responsibilities so many before and after struggled to solve.

Tim had an amiable manner and a sharp analytical approach to business and life. But his energy always amped higher and his eyes shined brightest when talking about his family and his fishing.
Yes, men die. But today a good man left too soon, a life well lived.
Good night Tim.

12:05 am would make it the Tomorrow Show, right?

So, there are a couple of things concerning me right now. First, the airline safety thing, I mean, you know...after the underwear bomber and all. Back after 911 and terrorists were caught with knives and guns-the airlines immediately prohibited knives, guns and sharp objects from being brought on the planes. Then, the shoe bomber got caught and the airlines made us take off our shoes and check them before getting on the plane. I’m just waiting to see how they handle this whole underwear bomber problem; it’s getting me a little nervous, you know? "Ok, line up…boxers in the left lane, briefs on the right"-tell me the truth, that's a little uncomfortable, right?
Then there’s the NBC Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien-Jay Leno fiasco. It seems like Letterman and Kimmel are having the most fun with it. But it’s interesting to see how much both of them dislike Leno. There’s some really nasty stuff going on here. These guys are all sparking at each other. I mean, the only person they’re hammering harder than Leno is that brilliant executive Jeff Zucker, President of NBC, who caused this mess in the first place. What a dope. He had a good thing going with Leno's Tonight Show but decided to fix it anyway. But how much do we want to hear about how these spoiled stiffs, each reportedly earning more than $20M a year, crying and moaning over how unfair everything is? To steal from that great American philosopher Artie Lange; "Whaaah, they're messing with my TV show ma." There’s no question that O’Brien didn’t get a fair shake. After moving his entire staff from the New York area to California the rug gets pulled out from under him after 7 months. But they're paying him off with a check in the $30-45M range. Of course, he didn’t kill with ratings but his lead-in is Leno who’s a bust at 10 o’clock. And it’s clear Leno’s a snake and not trustworthy but hey, he’s got a contract too and if you’re working 2nd shift and your boss tells you he wants you on 1st…you honor your contract and change shifts. The thing about Leno though is not his lack of loyalty. I mean, why should he be loyal to his competitors like O’Brien or Letterman or anyone else his show competes with? And he is showing loyalty to his network…for whatever that’s worth. But the thing that kills me about all of these guys is the complete absence of grace from all of them. Their behavior is unseemly and childish.Letterman is reveling in Leno's misfortune because he hates Leno. Kimmel, showing his unabashed hatred for Leno to his face. Look, we’re fighting wars, unemployment is surging, people’s homes are being foreclosed, Haiti is dealing with devastation and these guys are worried about their glossy image or the legacy of a television show? Get over yourselves people. And please, why are we paying attention to this junk?
Oh, and one other thing has my attention these days. Since when did business become so evil? I’m more than a little tired of Obama, other politicians and the entertainment community making business people out to be the bad guys! After making the insurance companies out to be Hannibal Lecter and chewing up Wall Street, (with fava beans and a nice chianti) they’re going after the banks and financial institutions. Obama wants to tax profitable banks to recoup $90 to $117B over the next 10-12 years and bad mouthing them in the process. These firms are the most profitable in their sector. The ones that took TARP money have repaid the money with interest. They want these guys to pay the freight for the companies unable to repay the money the politicians fronted them. That’s like loaning 2 people each $1000 to repay with interest. The first goes off to Atlantic City and gambles his thousand dollars away and can’t repay the loan. The second invests in his business repaying the $1000 plus the interest. Now the government wants the guy who repaid his loan to pay off the loan of the guy who blew his money in AC. It’s not capitalism. It’s not individual responsibility….and it certainly isn’t honorable. It’s supposed to be free enterprise. We had no business bailing out any of these bums in the first place. There's no such thing as too big to fail. Trust free enterprise and our market. Let the market take care of itself and stop micro-managing it.Obama and Jeff Zucker-ever see them in the same room together? But,who cares about individual responsibility and honor anymore? After the way these politicians have worn us out the new value system seems to work best for cynics and lazy people. It's up to us to demonstrate what hard work, belief in ourselves and the products and services we represent and the way we will service our clients to earn their trust and their business is the true formula for success. Let's work together and support each other to make 2010 our year.

Back on track

I know…I know…I've got a little catching up to do. I took a little time off. I’m sorry already. I happened to be reading our Employee Handbook the other day and came across this statement about vacations where we tell people it’s important to take some time off to re-charge batteries and get away from business for awhile. Well, that’s what I did. Know what? It doesn’t work. I’m consumed with thinking about business, the economy, jobs, people…all of it. But the one thing that has really captured my attention is…. Should NBC move Leno back to 11:30 and send Conan on his way? Ok, I’m sorry… but doesn’t it make you crazy how much attention this kind of stuff gets? Every television show, including the Fox Business Channel with Neil Cavuto is speculating. As if this is a key ingredient fueling our economic turnaround. But what’s truly kept me thinking is what the business landscape is going to look like once this economy really begins to rebound. How will business be different? How will our clients’ purchasing decisions change? Will we ever get people to look at value instead of price alone? And with this in mind, how should my business look? How do we prepare for what’s next?
After surviving the plague of recession, this is an exciting time to be in business. The timing is perfect with this chance to now reinvent our businesses to respond to the new world order of things.
The jobs report came out today. Seems like even though the market trends up being plus more than 200 points for the week, we lost another 85,000 jobs last month. New Jersey has 83,000 fewer jobs than we had in May of 2007. Hello…is anybody over there in Washington listening? Could we stop spending money we don’t have now? When small business (which accounts for 84% of the jobs created in our country) believes that in the end the government will come back to them to finance this mess through increased taxes it locks up hiring and stifles growth and bank lending. Now with interest rates poised to begin to rise…it could make for a challenging time. But yet, I’m optimistic. We’re all revitalized and we’re creatively changing our business to reflect the new business needs. So, I believe we can all be successful this year in spite of all this help we’re getting from our government.
A couple of other things since I’ve been gone…..NBA players with guns in the locker room? C’mon, that’s nuts. When we played, the only person allowed to bring violent weapons into the locker room was the coach. Maybe the answer is to give each Coach in the NBA a gun…just shoot people if they’re gonna be that stupid. Oh wait, there goes the league. We’d have nothing but 50 year old guys playing. Wait, I could watch Bird, Magic, Earl Monroe and Frazier playing when they’re 80…so, maybe that is the answer. Oh, and the other big news that riled me up? Katherine McPhee is a blonde. Yup, you heard it here. The American Idol contestant went blonde about 9 mos. Ago and is now upset that nobody’s talking about her new look. Katherine, I don’t want to hurt your feelings and your new look is pretty hot….but when you factor in your personality and your music….nobody is ever gonna care.
Book alert: Artist on Fire, James Baldwin…compelling, artful and interesting.