Hair Grows Back

Well, for some of my bald friends, they would disagree, and for that, I am truly sorry.

Hair Cut or Head Enlarged?

I am, on occasion, an odd bird, as it is sometimes called.  My wife had made comments to me about both her unhappiness of the use of "product" in my hair (women like to comb their fingers through my hair, unhindered, you know...) and the fact that within days of getting it cut, it would inevitably form the classic Christmas Tree (as named by my children) faux hawk shape, which was also not agreeable with the missus.  So, I walked over to Dork Clips after work last week and got a buzz cut.  A number 1 guard, for those of you in the know.

I got home in time to pick up the wife and kids for the presentation of the winners at my son's science fair at school.  My 9-year old son's reaction was, "Dad, you should really wear a hat!" with a look of embarrassment on his face.  My 5-year old daughter chimed in, "gross!" and they both asked when it would grow back.  Clearly, I had not pleased the masses with my decision.

It's been a week, and its grown back a bit, and I get better comments now.  Probably, the sympathy has started to kick in.  Either way, in 3 weeks, I will have the equivalent of a new small, hairy animal on my head.  I likely was uglier (tough to believe that this extra state was achievable) than normal, and the decision was probably not my best.

But, in life, like in business, the stakes were not critical, and hair grows back.  Build a bridge, get over it.

¡Habanero Margarita!

It's been a fun first month on the job TangoTab, and I started a new blog series on TangoTabloid called "Let's Tango with..." where I get to post my 5 extra-special questions to chefs and restauranteurs and hope that they don't retaliate with kitchen knives.

I had the immense pleasure to start this series by interviewing Chef Anastacia Quiñones of Komali and Owner and Chef Abraham Salum of both Komali and his namesake restaurant, Salum.

The cool and comfy confines of Komali

It was super interesting and funny.  So, Let's Tango with Chef Anastacia Quiñones of Komali with Special Guest Abraham Salum!

To Meet or Not to Meet

There's an excellent article from a few days ago in the Wall Street Journal about a growing trend for companies to adopt elements from Agile software development, including not sitting during meetings.  The idea is to force efficiency.  Just because Outlook defaults to 1-hour meeting increments doesn't mean that much time is needed, or that I actually want to spend that much time with you.

Who called this meeting?

Here are my 4 rules of meeting invites:
1. Have a goal:  If I don't see a goal in the meeting invite, then I am calling and asking for one.
2. Have an agenda:  Lord knows that we might mention the Super Bowl, or the latest Damn You Auto-Correct or People of Walmart post, but a framework helps march the team towards the goal and keeps the animals in the zoo, contained.
3. Invite the Necessary, Spare the Innocent:  'Nuff said!
4. In-and-out, no one gets hurt:  If it only takes 5 minutes, you're my hero!  I try to book meetings in 15 or 30 minute increments to force the issue, but if it really doesn't even take a meeting, just walk over or pick up the phone and save everyone the time and effort.

Forcing people to stand and taking away tables so they won't be playing Cut the Rope during the meeting is fine, but hopefully, you work with adults and not the chimps from the CareerBuilder Super Bowl commercial.

The old adage that time is money is too simple to explain the impact, though.  First, you are not only wasting your time (T = $), you are multiplying the time waste by how many people you've invited (T x N = $$).  Also, all time spent meeting is time not spent on opportunity (T x N - O = $$$).  Finally, when you really need to discuss and communicate in a structured format, you are likely trying to make important decisions that affect business, so doing it well is critical.

Save a dollar, kill a bad meeting.

Taking the Plunge, Again

Only now, as I look back, do I realize how fortunate I was to work for a startup so early in my career.  It was part-MBA, part mom-and-pop shop, part family, and a whole lot of fun.  It engrained so many values into me and I learned so much.  A lot of long hours, hard work, lifelong friendships, and some occasional stress as pressure mounted, especially that last Christmas holiday before we were purchased trying to get the product ready.  I didn't know, when I returned from vacation, if we would still be in business, so I took a programming book with me to study in case I needed to find new employment.  Who can resist such adventure?

Because...when you eat, they eat, too!

So, when I started to look around for new challenges, I knew I wanted to get back to the startup vibe.  My friend and the CEO of my first startup experience (Pixel), Jim Fontaine, introduced me to Andre Angel, the founder and CEO of TangoTab (and founder of CODEKKO, NTRglobal, and Work Meter).  Andre founded this venture that not only promised the excitement and challenge of building a new business, but an innovative service that uses a portion of its proceeds to fight hunger.  Wow!  And, it revolves around restaurants and dining out, a couple of my core passions.

TangoTab is a marketing tool for restaurants that allows them to make a controlled amount of offers to their customers, many times the same offers they are making anyway, and only when a customer redeems an offer, they pay TangoTab.  No risk.  The fun part starts from there, as TangoTab then donates a portion of the proceeds to the local food banks and hunger charities in the cities where we are deployed.

So much fun.  So useful.  So gratifying.  And, that is why I have taken the plunge, again.

Go check out TangoTab yourself and learn about the fight against hunger.  We're still working out some kinks, so register and access us via the website, as we need to post a fix for the iPhone app.  If you are in an area that we currently serve, try the service, and I'd love your feedback and your wish list of restaurants.  If you are in an area where we do not currently serve, let me know, along with your favorite restaurants, and I will let you know when we launch in your area.  You can reach out to me via twitter.

Because...when you eat, they eat, too!

Take Me to Your Leader

One of the shining moments in 2011 was Game 6 of the NBA Finals, when the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat to win the NBA Championship.  It does not get old watching that video clip.

In 1992, when my wife and I moved to Dallas, the Mavs were flirting with the futility mark set by the '72 Philadelphia 76ers, who went 9-73.  In the words of Charles Barkley, it was turrible.  We were actually in the stands when they won the 10th game, avoiding infamy.  We were jumping, screaming and hugging people in the stands that we didn't know.  We might as well have been shouting, "We're not the worst!  We're not the worst!"  The years from 1992 until Mark Cuban came along were tough, but victory tasted sweeter last year, because the team had come from so far down.

Stuart Scott says to Mark Cuban, "We're very short, you, me and JJ..."

What was the difference from the 2010-2011 Mavs and the 2005-2006 Mavs who lost to the Heat in the finals?  Did they need to live through losing in the Finals before they could win?  Was Rick Carlisle a better coach than Avery Johnson?  Did Cubes show more calm and that helped the Mavs focus more on the games?  Did Dirk elevate his game substantially?  Were his teammates substantially better?  Was it all-of-the-above?  I would contend it was some combination and more, and with successful teams it does not matter.  Separating the individual elements of a team's success is meaningless.  That does not prevent every individual from assessing their performances and setting goals to improve, but accomplishing the team goal is all that matters.

Sometimes the team is much more than the sum of its parts.

Leading in business is quite the same.  Its takes all kinds to make up a great team, and the important part is a single-minded focus on the big goal and to know how to communicate, motivate and grow through both good and bad situations.  When the team wins, some will benefit more than others.  That is natural with meritocracy, but everyone needs equal recognition and fair consideration.  As leaders, though, the most important lesson is that a leader is only as good as their team.  The leader is inseparable from the team.

As leaders, the dangers of putting ourselves above the team are substantial in terms of loyalty, motivation, and loss of leadership equity which is the core catalyst at dynamic companies.  Yesterday, I received a message via LinkedIn from an old friend who worked with me at my first startup.  He sent me a fascinating research paper on the extreme affects when leaders lose this perspective, and how it can affect their decision making based on the wrong criteria.

Sometimes, as leaders, with success, the way to get the most credit is to take none.

Liberty and Sopapillas to All

One of the key principles that America was built on was to "secure the blessings of liberty to all".  The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

I totally support the government in its efforts to try to curb pirated content and punishment of those that promote or distribute pirated content, but much like the Patriot Act, there are lines that should not be crossed, when those lines are the fundamental principles that our country is founded on.  First, there are too many cases throughout history of what happens when governments or individuals in power abuse those situations at the expense and welfare of the innocent.  Second, the government has unfortunately demonstrated that it does not understand the technology or ecosystem well enough to be able to legislate effectively in this case.

Take your time, read up on the SOPA and PIPA proposed bills being discussed.  Make up your own mind.  I really like the simple video below that describes the bills and their issues in simple terms:

What can you do?  Take action.  If you agree with me, sign Google's petition here.  If not, I am sure there are equal ways to show your support, as well.  As they say in Spanish, rebúscate (translation: find it, yo' damn self!)

In the meantime, I am working to get our legislators to focus on sopapillas instead of SOPA or PIPA, as I am sure they were confused when this whole thing started, and who doesn't like a hot, sweet sopapilla!

Foursquare, We Have a Problem

I've been using Foursquare for a few months, mostly as a function of my job, to see its potential impact on my client's businesses.  For a while, I was only annoying my less socially-connected friends by my constant posts on Facebook about every time I went running in the morning on the local bike path, for which, I am the mayor, thank you very much.

Embarrassingly too much Tex-Mex

Then, in November, my mom and I went to dinner at ma peche in New York City, and while sitting at the bar, I received a buy-one-get-one-free deal for drinks.  Score!  Then, the week of Thanksgiving, American Express started with their small business deals, getting me money back when I spent at local businesses, here and there.  Very sweet!  Life was good.

The deals have waned, which makes me wonder if this is really enough to get me to check-in.  Even for me, it's a chore to whip out my smartphone every time, when one time out of 8000 gets me a deal, and my wife's stare is burning holes through the back of my head.  I'm not saying that the City of Dallas needs to celebrate my presence on the running trail every morning, but maybe once in a while, a small marching band would be appropriate.

Today, though, as we brought my wife's niece to the local, up-scale mall, I encountered a more serious Foursquare's challenge: connectivity.  There never is any at this mall.  That's why so many teenagers must hang out here, so their parents can't get a hold of them, and they have a valid excuse.  I was able to sneak a check-in for American Eagle Outfitters, but when I clicked on their deal, the Interwebs failed me.  Most other places, I could never check-in, even though I really wanted to and tried very hard, against my nature.  Most humans would never try the second time.

Clearly, malls are not on the rise, but this is not the only place that I have had Foursquare connectivity issues, sometimes not seemingly caused by connectivity issues.  The problem is not that this will not improve.  In fact, Foursquare might consider subsidizing fempto cells in some shopping areas and malls or encouraging some of the innovative schemes that exist to improve data network and spectral efficiency.

Anything to improve the experience, because most people's bozo bit is more sensitive than mine for new technology and services like this one.  Once it gets flipped, it's hard to reset.