My Entrepreneurship Principles: Leadership

In my first piece on Mindful Entrepreneurship, I laid out several principles to optimize the entrepreneurial process.  In my second piece, I argued that culture is extremely important to startups. In this final (?) piece I will now examine how leadership can create an optimal startup culture and execute the entrepreneurial process.

Entrepreneurial Leadership

• Culture starts at the top; in a startup, all eyes are on the founders and the management team. Mission statements, declarations of values, and pronouncements of "our culture" have little effect on a venture's actual culture, which is determined much more by the actions of its leaders. If a company claims to have a culture of psychological safety but everyone sees a software engineer getting reamed out by the CTO for not doing things his way, then that culture is not actually safe. It is crucial that that startup leaders walk their own talk; however they act, that will be the culture.
• Bring the right people onto the team. Startup hiring can definitely be a challenge; finding people who are not only good but will also succeed in a less stable context isn't easy and many of the hiring best practices used by larger organizations fail at a startup. The best advice I can offer here is to seek out candidates who exhibit both humility and curiosity. These attributes are a perfect storm for contributors who thrive in the highly uncertain, rapid learning environment of a startup.
• Hire for diversity. Recall the effectuation principles from my first post: I was brought into a rapidly scaling startup to talk about how to apply those principles to leadership. One key take away is to prioritize the additional means that new hires bring to the team. Hiring for a very specific skillset is folly at a startup, where everyone wears multiple hats and what you think you need changes on a daily basis. Rather than evaluating candidates purely based on some pre-fab job description, give weight to all the additional skills, experiences, and perspectives they bring to the table.
• Encourage divergent thinking. Instead of asking your employees, "What is the right answer," ask, "What is possible?" Follow up with, "What else is possible?"
• Ask questions. Rather than barking orders, ask employees how they think problems should be solved. This serves the dual purpose of empowering employees with agency while also reinforcing a culture of skepticism. "Why?" "Why not?" "Is that a fact or a hypothesis?"
• Foster collaboration. It can be tempting in a startup to divide and conquer as much work as possible. Remembering that groups make better decisions in the face of uncertainty than do individuals, though, it is beneficial to reduce employees working in isolation as much as is practical. Use techniques like pair programming, team huddles, and strike forces to increase collisions among team members.
• Push employees out of the building. It is also important to increase collisions between team members and the outside world. Bring internal staff along on client visits. Provide incentives for employees to give talks (tech or otherwise) in the appropriate domains of the community. The more your team interacts with the outside world, the higher your venture's chances of benefiting from serendipity.
• Maintain a constant feedback loop. It is hard for startup employees to take big swings if they aren't standing on solid ground. Use 360 feedback to ensure that employees always know where they stand, how they are perceived, and how they can improve.
• Put the fish on the table. Feedback need not be limited to anonymous tools and it is important that it be provided - sensitively - in person. We use the term "fish on the table" to motivate team members to share open, honest feedback with each other. If there is a rotting fish kept under the table, it will start to stink. If it is brought up above the table, however, it can be dealt with. When a team member asks to put a fish on the table, others listen and try to accept the feedback openly because they know it is for the good of the team.
• Be a secure base. As babies learning to walk, we know that, if we fall, Mommy or Daddy or another care giver will be there to pick us up. We develop the confidence to take risks through reliance on these secure bases. This circuitry persists through adulthood such that, if you want your employees to take risks, you need to be a secure base for them. Let them know frequently that you will still love and value them even if they fail - show them rather than just telling them. A major role of being a startup CEO is also being the CPO - Chief Psychology Officer! Joining a startup is scary; being a secure base to your employees emboldens them to be fearless.
• Create meaning for your team. Working at a startup can be daunting. The work can be hard, the hours can be long, the pay and benefits can be below market . . . remind your employees of the purpose of their work. Mission and meaning are like secret weapons for startups; they make up for many other shortcomings so you can't let anyone forget about them. At my startups, we have very visible indicators of our progress toward meaningful metrics and periodically bring in speakers who have been impacted by our mission.
• Keep your integrity. Startups are hard and there is temptation to cheat in some ways even just to keep your venture afloat. At the end of the day, though, the only think you will take with you from one startup to the next is your integrity. If you fail, people will forgive you as long as you were honest. (I know an entrepreneur who lost all of an investor's money but did so honestly and transparently; that same investor then backed the entrepreneur's next venture as well.) If you are dishonest, however, your reputation will be trashed forever. 
• Never stop learning. Leadership is like other skills: it can be practiced. It can be improved. It can be developed. Just as a startup organization should never stop learning, neither should its leaders.

My Entrepreneurship Principles: Culture

While I was hunkered down surviving Hurricane Florence, I had further opportunity to reflect on my principles as an entrepreneur. In the first part of this brief series on Mindful Entrepreneurship, I laid out my keys to the entrepreneurial process. In this second part, I will focus on culture.

Entrepreneurship Culture

• Culture matters a lot. In my experience, ventures don't succeed or fail because of business models or technologies but rather because of people. Creating a culture of exploration and freedom to experiment is key to any learning organization, but especially to a startup.
• A startup's culture must free its employees to take big swings and to risk failure. A startup can't "play scared" but rather must be open to failure. The key is to fail quickly, fail cheaply, and - most importantly - fail mindfully, learning and adapting through the process.
• A startup is a learning organization and learning is its primary function. It is essentially a neural network programming itself and reprogramming itself through interactions with the  market. Learning isn't a black magic buzz word, though; it is a process that can be measured. I find one of the best ways to tune a culture's learning orientation is to use performance metrics to track the rate - hypotheses tested per unit time and cycle time per hypothesis test - and efficacy - hypotheses validated over time - of its learning processes. Fancy people call this "innovation accounting." To me it's just measuring the processes that are vital to the success of the venture.
• An absolutely crucial cultural element of any learning organization is psychological safety. In a psychologically safe environment, team members regardless of level feel free to challenge assumptions, to critique initiatives, and to risk failure. Psychological safety can be measured and I am a proponent of assessing it frequently. 
• Learning organizations need a healthy dose of skepticism, without which it is easy to get caught up in zeitgeist or invest in scaling unvalidated business models. A simple tool I use to foster a culture of skepticism is frequently asking, "Why?" This challenges team members to focus on their evidence - not their conclusions - and demonstrates that it is OK to ask to see that evidence and debate whether it really does lead to that conclusion. Especially with new team members, I will often ask, "Why," about my own ideas to accelerate their onboarding into a skeptical culture. 
• Skepticism goes a long way toward combating groupthink but I also believe in the value of diverse teams. Research shows time and again that diverse teams make better decisions than homogeneous teams and, more importantly for a startup, diversity brings inherent differences in perspective that are crucial for a startup searching for a path through the infinite, unknowable future.
• Contrary to much of the current startup mythos, I believe in a startup culture of work-life harmony rather than hyperwork. Balanced, well rested team members work more productively, stick around longer, and generate better insights than those who are overstretched. I try to foster intentional breaks during the work day, have walking meetings when possible, and adopt very open policies regarding hours, leave, etc. (I've always been inspired by the Netflix culture policy.)
• Finally, I think it's important to have fun in a startup. This can mean different things to different people but the point is that fundamentally working on an exciting venture should be a joy. I try to bring my own fun to the office (high tea in the afternoons if I'm dragging, Formal Friday so our normally casual interns get to dress up occasionally, ad hoc games of Calvinball throughout the office space) but, moreover, I encourage others to bring their own fun, which is often contagious.

Culture doesn't create itself, though, so my next post will be on the leadership necessary to instill such a culture and execute the entrepreneurial process.

My Entrepreneurship Principles: Process

I have recently been reflecting on the principles that I believe make entrepreneurial ventures successful. Today, the 56th anniversary of JFK's famous moon speech, a speech that inspired a nation to accomplish an impossible goal, seems like a good day to try to distill those principles down into a succinct post. I won't claim to have all the answers (On the contrary, one of the aspects of entrepreneurship that attracts me most is that I am learning all day every day.) but I have a track record of one big win ($40M revenue in three years with a nine-figure exit), a few medium wins (eight-figure exits), and a few smaller ventures that never quite achieved our lofty goals but did solve real customer problems and grow to $1M+ revenue with healthy profits.

If I had to describe my set of principles, I might call it "Evidence-based Entrepreneurship" or "Mindful Entrepreneurship." Or, if I were feeling particularly plucky, I might be so bold as to label it "Heroic Entrepreneurship" since I believe so deeply that entrepreneurship is a journey. "Heroic Entrepreneurship" has a connotation that sounds a bit arrogant - but let's not forget that there are many tragic heroes in addition to the triumphant ones!

Entrepreneurial Process

• Startup entrepreneurship is a search. To quote Steve Blank, "A startup is a temporary organization searching for a scalable, repeatable business model." Large, established organizations excute known business models while a startup searches for an unknown business model. This is an incredibly important distinction because searching for the unknown is a very different process - requiring very different skills, culture, and metrics - than executing the known.
• Use the scientific method. In their search for that scalable, repeatable business model, startup entrepreneurs must be honest with themselves about how much they do not know. They have hypotheses about a business opportunity and the startup process comprises rapid iterations of testing those hypotheses, learning from the results of those tests, and generating new hypotheses to test.
• Test efficiently. Hypothesis validation isn't as binary as it sounds. For example, you can "validate" market demand very weakly, a 1 on a scale of 10 ("A couple of my friends said they would buy this."), or very strongly, a 10 on a scale of 10 ("Thousands of online users preordered our product for our desired price."). A 1 isn't always helpful and a 10 isn't always practical. My startups try to push validation as far along the spectrum as we can cheaply and quickly. Cheap and quick tests help us generate more targeted follow-on tests or, if our hypothesis is refuted, test a new direction ASAP.
• Effectuation: start with your means. Steve Blank is great but he is pop science. I put greater stock in real, academically rigorous science about entrepreneurship. Within that category, I have been very impressed with a body of work called effectuation. Effectuation research has demonstrated that the best entrepreneurs don't pre-define a goal and then acquire the means to achieve that end. They actually do the opposite; they start with their means (who they are, what they know, whom they know) and they envision new ends that are only possible through their unique combination of means. This is an important distinction because it requires that entrepreneurs use divergent rather than convergent thinking.
• Effectuation: leverage surprise. The best entrepreneurs expand their means through partnerships but they also have another secret weapon: serendipity. In the startup world, it is a question of when, not if, an entrepreneur will be surprised. To quote Mike Tyson, "Everyone's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth." The best entrepreneurs not only don't fear surprise; they actually take proactive means to embrace it. Serendipity has a strong (and underappreciated by those with large egos) effect on successful ventures and, while you can't control it, you can increase your collision rate with it by meeting other people, continuing your education and encouraging employees to get out from behind their desks. I also increase my serendipity collision rate by being open and transparent about my startups rather than secretive.
• Effectuation: Set affordable loss and increase returns. There is a perception that entrepreneurs are big risk takers but studies show that we are actually more risk-averse than the population as a whole; we simply view risk differently and take more calculated risks. Corporate managers are trained to set a desired return and then take every action to minimize the risk that they won't hit that target. The best entrepreneurs invert this mindset; they set their maximum affordable loss and then, as long as they are within that constraint, they swing for the fences to maximize returns. This mindset allows entrepreneurs to pursue opportunities aggressively rather than playing scared.
• Effectuation: Create the future. The best entrepreneurs don't try to predict the future; the future success of a startup is not only unknown, it is unknowable! Rather, the best entrepreneurs are comfortable with that uncertainty and instead strive to create the future. This attitude that, to quote the Terminator franchise, "The future is not set; there is no fate but what we make for ourselves," is a key reason that I believe entrepreneurship is empowerment.'
• Play by different rules. David would never beat Goliath by going toe-to-toe with him and trading punches. The US would not have won its revolutionary war by standing out in the open according to the typical "rules" of warfare of the time. Similarly, when I am trying to lead a startup to disrupt industry giants, I always seek ways to capitalize on their constraints (and our lack thereof).
• Work smarter not harder. It is easy in a startup to become so focused on what you are doing that you don't pause to consider how you are doing it - or whether you should be doing it at all. This is confounded by startup cultural mythos that encourages bragging about working long, hard hours. When we are missing deadlines, I believe in pulling our heads up to consider how we are working rather than exhorting the team simply to work longer and harder. Working longer and harder is the path to the Dark Side of burnout and is fundamentally unsustainable. I also believe in setting time and scope constraints that motivate the team to work quickly, work smartly, and maintain life balance.
• Disagree and commit. I really like Jeff Bezos's methodology of fostering real conflict and skepticism but then committing 100% to the results of the discussion. A startup will have a hard time building consensus; big, disruptive opportunities are, by their very nature, controversial and contrarian and, again, so much of what people believe about a startup is wholly unproven. A good startup team has diverse perspectives and passionate personalities so it is important to let those perspectives clash. These passionate discussions should be based on evidence but, at the end of the day someone(s) may still disagree. That's OK, but when we make a decision, we need everyone to commit to it, even if they disagree. History will prove us wrong sometimes and that's OK too; it's part of our journey. By committing to our startup's direction, even when some disagree, we keep moving forward rather than bogging ourselves down agonizing over each decision. In so doing we move quickly and agilely. 

This post on process is long enough already so I will end it here and follow up soon with my principles on entrepreneurial culture and leadership. In the meantime, what do you think of what I have laid out so far?

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Last week I was invited to give a talk on a topic of my choice to the team of a high-growth startup in Durham. Because leadership challenges often cause friction during times of high growth, I chose to address the topic of entrepreneurial leadership. Check out my video below and let me know what you think!

Leadership Journey

12 years ago today - 1/3 of my life ago - I accepted my first chief executive role. While I had been elected to and selected for leadership roles during my scholastic and athletic careers, this was the first time a Board of Directors actually hired me for it.

That first chief exec role was tumultuous, challenging, exciting, and rewarding. During my tenure I developed lifelong friendships and grew substantially as a leader. I made many mistakes - but I learned a great deal as well.

Ultimately I learned that leadership could be a great power for good and I shipped off to IMD to expand my horizons and capabilities. Every day since then has been a deliberate step in an ongoing leadership journey.

The journey continues but today I pause to reflect on the big milestone of 12 years ago and how significantly it has impacted my path.

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

― Bilbo Baggins, J.R.R. Tolkien's, The Lord of the Rings

The First Follower Principle in Action

Anyone who has seen the famous TED talk on "first followers" knows the speaker's argument that movements aren't just started by leaders; the first follower is just as - and possibly even more - crucial to the spread of a movement than is the originator of the idea. The first follower shows everyone else A. that it's OK to follow the movement and B. how to join in. Effective leaders embrace their first followers as equals and empower them to help take the movement to the next level.

I recently witnessed this principle in action. When the Rice football team won its last regular season game and earned the right to play in the Conference USA championship game against Marshall, it set the stage for an historic event. To show my support for the team, I changed my facebook profile picture to a scanned image of my old Rice football portrait from 1997. It attracted a few comments but certainly didn't incite any movements.

Later that day, however, one of my teammates noticed and decided to do the same thing. He had been a leader on the team so, when he changed his profile picture to one of his action shots from the glory days, many other former Rice football players took notice. He even went so far as to tag other Rice football alumni on facebook, encouraging them to do the same. With him "on board," I had enough confidence to encourage all of my Rice football alum buddies to join in too, which I did by liking his post and tagging all the rest of them.

One by one, almost every Rice football alum I knew changed his profile picture to an old Rice football picture. Soon, other players from other generations were following suit as well. That day my entire facebook wall was filled with pictures of Rice football alumni showing off the pride in and support for our team. Many of the pictures were action shots which incited story telling and reminiscing about battles out on the field in ages past. It was awesome.

Our society tends to idolize the trailblazing leaders who start big movements. Being a first follower is a form of leadership as well, though, and I witnessed it first hand last week!

IMD HPL

I've just returned from a transformational week back at IMD for their top-ranked High Performance Leadership program! This time five years ago I was organizing my move to Lausanne, completing pre-work assignments, and preparing for a life changing experience. As I flew across the Atlantic last week, completing preparatory work for this IMD program, I couldn't help but feel a little déjà vu!

After four years of putting into practice the many things I learned during the IMD MBA, I thought it was time for a refresher. The very last session of our MBA was on grief and separation, taught by  George Kohlrieser, a business school professor with a very unique background. As a clinical psychologist and former police hostage negotiator, he has a very different perspective on leadership and communication. After that day I read his books (Check out Hostage at the Table and Care to Dare) but I had always hoped to work directly with him. He leads IMD's week-long High Performance Leadership program so I bit the bullet and signed up!

While I was excited to return to IMD, I was also somewhat anxious. Would I learn anything new? Would this short program meet the high expectations that had been set by my [perhaps somewhat idealized] memory of the MBA? Or would it be a waste of money and, worse, time? And if it were quite beneficial, would it be as painful as those first few weeks of our program? Our leadership stream was full of deep personal reflection and tough feedback from teammates - was I up for that again?

Indeed this program did feel a lot like the first weeks of the MBA. 54 execs from around the world started the course wearing our personas and engaging in superficial conversation. Several of the attendees reminded me a lot of my MBA classmates. Even some of the faces on IMD's side were the same, including two of our leadership coaches. There were fruit baskets outside our auditorium every day and, of course, theIMD restaurant was amazing as always!

There were many differences from the MBA program, though, as well. We were in the Nestle executive education building and there was something quite symbolic about spending the week on the other side of the street. Instead of raiding leftover food from the executive programs, we were the ones leaving those leftovers. And naturally mid-career executives whose companies have paid for one week training don't have the same deep commitment to learning as MBAs who have moved around the world and dedicated an entire year of their lives. Also there were no cases to prepare or homework at night. None of us were sleeping much but that had more to do with late nights at the bar than with group projects or writing papers. So perhaps this was a taste of what it would have been like to attend the Insead MBA!

The week was packed with putting fish on the table, giving and receiving candid feedback, learning in the auditorium and putting that learning into practice in our seven-person coaching groups. I was actually really impressed with how quickly the walls came down for everyone such that we could get down to open, honest work on our leadership skills.

It was a very emotionally charged week as well. George does a lot of work with grief (both personal and professional), which can severely impact leadership performance when bottled up or left unaddressed. Additionally we spent a lot of time analyzing past events and relationships (both good and bad) that shaped who we are as leaders today. I think it was a bit of a shock to most participants, who suddenly found themselves crying and sharing and hugging rather than learning "formulas" for efficient management.

For me it was an incredibly impactful week! I found myself naturally slipping into roles that I had assumed during the MBA: the "professor" trying to help others in my group through keen insights and rational models. My teammates managed to call me out on it such that I refocused those efforts back at myself and discovered some quite significant areas for development. I would call those discoveries more than "significant," actually; "profound" would be a better word. And, if I can follow through on them, hopefully "transformational" for my leadership.

I see now why High Performance Leadership consistently receives the highest ratings of IMD's open programs. It takes what IMD does best (deep, personal development of leadership) and focuses on it in a very personalized way for an entire, intense week. Unlike the MBA program, which balances the leadership stream with finance, accounting, marketing, etc. this was 100% leadership focused. If any of you are also looking for an opportunity for continued learning, I would strongly recommend it. In fact, the next session is in April in the US (San Francisco Bay area), so it would be more convenient travel-wise for my North American friends. Shout out if you'd like to learn more about my particular experience.

After this sabbatical, I feel more motivated and focused than ever to be the world changer that I hope and strive to be. In all areas of my life I aim for constant improvement, working smarter not harder, and this was a tremendous step in that direction. Working with IMD's professors, my team, and our leadership coach, I put together a concrete action plan to take my efforts to the next level. That plan is already in effect and my teammates are holding me accountable. So . . . game on!

The IMD Global Leadership Challenge is Over!

I'm so grateful for all the support I received in my participation in IMD's Global Leadership Challenge! I finished #27 out of 5,380 contestants from 124 countries on five continents and I couldn't have done it without all of the help I received.

The contest was broken down into three sections, each of which embodied a different aspect of global leadership: Open, Pioneering, and Collaborative.

The Open section was essentially a test of global political, commercial, and historical knowledge. It reminded me a lot of my IMD MBA "International Political Economy" course. As with the initial quizzes in that class, I fared poorly in this event, garnering only 115 out of the maximum 400 points. Still, it seems that others found the questions challenging as well; my score was still #543, top 10% in the event.

Pioneering was a matching game, matching pictures of pioneers (individuals or organizations) who have profoundly affected the world with pictures of the results of their innovations. I did better in this game, earning 358 out of 400 points, which was good for place #45, top 1%.

My best event by far was Collaboration. In this section each contestant wrote a short quote in response to, "Imagine you could be someone else for one week. Who would you be and why?" Then three months of online voting revealed the most popular responses. My quote was:

"I would be...myself. I can't think of anything more worthwhile than working feverishly to address the global energy challenge with innovative business ideas. Entrepreneurs can change the world. Many of us may fail, but those who ultimately succeed ensure that none of our attempts has been in vain."

This turned out not to be very original as many other quotes also bore the "I would be myself" theme. However, thanks to the efforts of my friends, family, colleagues, and others, who not only voted for my quote but also called others to do the same, I finished with 532 votes, #18 in the entire contest, earning me 392 out of 400 points.

The Collaborative section is clearly the one that boosted my total score up to #27, top 1%, and that is incredibly fitting. In real life as well my major achievements are attributable to the contributions of others, whether those on my immediate team or those who provide me with the support I need to achieve on my own.

Tremendous thanks go out to those who kept voting for me day after day and, especially, to those who engaged others to join them. As always, I stand on the shoulders of giants and I only hope that I can give back even a fraction of what you have done for me.

The Right Path

Last Friday I had the privilege to attend the dedication event of the new Rice Center for Engineering Leadership. What an exciting new center, dedicated to helping engineering students identify and solve the world's most pressing problems. How I wish something like this had existed back when I was a Rice engineering student! The event was an excellent opportunity to reconnect with the engineering school, former professors, and other alumni.

Perhaps most exciting was the address by legendary venture capitalist John Doerr. After beginning his talk by asking the audience what we wanted him to address (a tactic I love), he used that feedback to focus 45 minutes on his thoughts regarding Rice, engineering, careers, the environment, and technology.

At several points during his talk, I couldn't help but feel like Doerr's words were meant specifically for me. To start with, the talk took place in the McMurtry Auditorium of Duncan Hall, the very room in which Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley's "Be a Scientist; Save the World" talk inspired me to quest for ways to use IT entrepreneurship to work toward a better energy future. Also, Doerr was an Electrical Engineering major from Lovett College, just as I was. After a brief stint as an engineer, Doerr branched into sales, finance, and other aspects of business, just as I did. These similarities combined to create a feeling of connection for me.

Doerr addressed emphatic evidence of man-made climate change and warned of the massive gap between the developed and population-booming developing world. He talked of healthcare, water, and democracy but he contended that ultimately energy is the keystone that must be addressed. I agree.

He challenged the audience--especially the students--to come up with innovative ways to produce, transmit, and use energy. Again, I agree--I have devoted my professional career to it. He espoused the Silicon Valley mantra of "shots on goal," an admission that many such ventures will probably fail to induce massive change but we have to take those shots to ensure that eventually some of them score.

This mentality is part of what motivates me every morning: even if Smart Office Energy Solutions were to fail spectacularly, we would have helped advance the state of the art such that the next shot has an even greater chance of reaching its mark. Of course I believe that Smart OES will succeed, rather than fail, spectacularly but it is encouraging to hear words of encouragement from someone older, cleverer, and much more successful than I. More pointedly it is encouraging when such words come from a really "big deal" investor while we are in the midst of our new capital raise!

Of course Doerr's words weren't meant for me per se, but everything in them seemed to say to me, "Keep at it; you're on the right track!" Being an entrepreneur can sometimes be a lonely, frustrating exercise--especially when you are as extroverted and impatient as I am! "Success," however you define it, always seems to be just an inch further than you can reach or just a step further on the path than is illuminated. As such, Doerr's words fell on receptive, re-encouraged ears.

MLK Day

Last week was an exceedingly productive one! Smart Office Energy Solutions hit a major milestone as we received our first checks/wire transfers from investors. Sure it is nice to have some money in the account but even more rewarding is what this signifies. At this incredibly early stage, investors really aren't investing in a business plan or a product; they're betting on me. All of our investors are people whom I respect and admire so their confidence in me feels great!

I tracked pretty well on my goals for last week, except that I did not make as much progress on our global business plan as I needed to and, once again, way way too many of my calories came from fat. On the brighter side, though, I hooked up with several friends, mentors, and former colleagues last week, which was wonderful.

The week ended on an outstanding note. My mother flew into town for some meetings with NASA. We then headed to Austin to spend the weekend with some friends of hers from grad school. I thought it would be fun and relaxing but my expectations were far, far exceeded.

For one thing, the house on Lake Travis was phenomenal--which was a good thing since the weather was pretty glum all weekend. Second, we ate very well all weekend, from Z Tejas Friday night to Oasis Sunday afternoon to great home cooking all the meals in between! Third, they had a Wii and a huge TV--enough said. Fourth, both Peyton Manning and Brett Favre won their playoff games decisively on that huge TV. Fifth, we had lots of fun playing cards, playing Scrabble, and just bumming around all weekend. Sixth, we went to visit Flat Creek Estate winery, which had a stellar muscat dessert wine, the Mistella.

Seventh, these friends are both psychology PhDs and they run a leadership development/executive coaching practice called The LDG. Naturally they were fascinated with my leadership development at IMD much as I was fascinated by their work with CEOs and boards of major corporations. We shared a great deal of common interest and the weekend was fraught with discussions and anecdotes about the only thing that really makes businesses succeed or fail: people. These two really know their stuff so it was no surprise that their phone was ringing off the hook all weekend with executives hoping to retain their services--very, very impressive.

Mom and I drove back to Houston last night very relaxed after having spent a great weekend with some wonderful people. Then Mom had an early flight this morning and it was back to focusing on my startup. The weekend left me with nearly boundless energy, though, and today already has been incredibly productive.

As today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I did take some time to read up on MLK and reflect on what his story means to me. There are many things to take from his story, but a few particularly resounded with me, in no particular order.

1. The power of oration: the man was simply phenomenal at not only writing/improvising his speeches, but at delivering them. It is amazing how powerful oration can be--for good or ill--and I wonder how the changing landscape of media and technology will affect it. Certainly an individual voice can reach many more ears much more swiftly than in the past. However, that voice will also have to compete with a much greater cacophony of competing voices. It will be interesting to see. One thing is for certain, though, the early 60's were a grand time for oration, producing both MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and JFK's "To the Moon" speech--both of which still give me chills.

2. The power of non-violent resistance: whatever happened to non-violent resistance anyway? It seems that now everyone resists with terrorism or overt military action, neither of which seem to be all that effective in achieving desired end results. I'm not sure why non-violent resistance seems to be so effective--perhaps it's because it forces everyone (not only those in opposition but also all the onlookers) to humanize the resisters, creating empathy. Violence does the opposite; according to George Kohlrieser, violence is only possible when human bonding has broken down. Therefore violent acts inherently objectify, rather than humanize, people and humans tend to reach agreements with other humans more than they reach agreements with objects.

3. You don't have to be perfect to make a huge difference: MLK was far from perfect and he was totally upfront about that. He was a notorious adulterer (Again a striking resemblance to JFK!), which is particularly imperfect in light of his being a Baptist minister! The FBI tried to discredit him by spreading reports of his transgressions but, at the end of the day, people forgave him and got behind his mission. We live in a time in which it is increasingly impossible to hide any aspect of yourself--perfect or imperfect--and it takes far less than the FBI to dig up your dirty laundry. No human is perfect, though, and I think the realization that celebrities and role models are not perfect has the potential to humanize them. If they put up a perfect persona and then are inevitably found out, the public turns against them, "AHA! You made be feel inadequate because you were so perfect but you totally are NOT!" Evidence: Tiger Woods. If instead they are upfront about it, the public may not approve per se, but they at least can empathize with the imperfection.

I put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect. I also unfairly project that on others too. I'll never forget my PDI coach (IMD's personal development program included a year-long interaction with a Jungian analyst, called PDI.) telling me how she felt that I put tremendous performance pressure on her. I'm sure I do it to employees and even friends and family too. I try to be cognizant of that and ease off a bit. MLK is a good example to remind me that, imperfect as I am, I still have the power to make a positive impact. We all do.

A New Way

There's a feeling I get

When I look to the West

And my spirit is crying for leaving

-"Stairway to Heaven," Led Zeppelin

After months of very hard, conflicted consideration I submitted my resignation to Poken on July 13th. In this blog entry I will lay out the reasons behind my decision and present what comes next.

First, let me be clear: I love Poken. I believe in its success. I especially love the team, including the awesome, incredibly dedicated people we have on staff AND the amazing extended team of resellers, evangelists, and users around the world. I've never been part of something before that has elicited so much passion so quickly from so many. So why leave? There are many reasons, but they fall broadly into three categories:

1. As many of you know, my real desire post-IMD was to make a positive impact on the global energy challenge. I tried to tell myself that Poken would be a learning opportunity (and it has been!) that would better prepare me for a green career later on (and it has done!) but, at the end of the day, I'm just not buying my own rhetoric. Every movie I watch, every book I read, and most of the news articles I read remind me that energy presents THE challenge of this generation and I simply don't feel fulfilled professionally if I'm not contributing to the solution. Looking back through my IMD application essays and even my very first blog entry reminds me that developing the skills and tools to help address this challenge was my major motivation to come to IMD in the first place. 250 blog posts later, sitting in the Poken office, I began feeling that I had lost my way--time to get back on track.

2. I need to be closer to Katie. I love her, I need her, my life is more complete when I'm around her, and she deserves better than a partner who is halfway around the world. After 18 months of trying to make a commuter relationship work, I have a lot of airline frequent flier miles (Woohoo!) but that is little compensation for the heartache during the times apart. It was hard at IMD but we always had the light at the end of the tunnel of graduation. Now there is no light other than one that we make for ourselves. My prospects in the US are much more favorable than are hers in Europe, so I will return to the US.

3. There is another reason to return to the US as well: my country needs me. Oh wow, that looks even more arrogant on my screen than it sounded in my head. Let me explain. We spent a lot of time last year--especially in Jean-Pierre Lehmann's International Political Economy class--revealing the faults of the US and the mistakes my country has made. I learned a lot from the 44 nations represented in our auditorium about collective psychology and about attitudes toward the US--both positive and negative. Perhaps nowhere did I learn more, though, than in study room 007. I will never forget a heated debate with my Chinese groupmate, Gong Ping, regarding with whom lay the responsibility for changing the world's course on energy. Over time it sunk in that the world may never correct its path unless we gluttons who steered it wrongly in the first place lead by example. And so I believe that a better energy future has to begin with the US. Thank you, Chairman, for helping me see the way.

Over the past several years I spent a lot of time apologizing for the US--it was hard not to, given the administration. I moved to Europe. I even applied for dual citizenship in Italy. I'm ashamed to say it but I may have lost my national identity somewhat. But discussions in class that made my blood boil, the rhetoric of a new administration, and a lot of self reflection have jolted me back to my senses.

For all her faults, I love my country. I still get chills when I hear the Star-Spangled Banner. I still cry when I think of those who have given their lives in her service. I'm still a patriot. I've never taken the opportunity to serve my country as valiantly as have some of my noble friends and family in the forces, but now perhaps I can do my part. She needs devoted leaders to support a sea change in energy and I will answer the call.

Leaving something that is very successful and gaining momentum is hard to do so I spent a lot of time toiling with the rational pros and cons of my decision. At the end of the day, though, I made the decision for exactly one very irrational, very compelling reason: this new direction just feels right. Trusting my feelings is something I still have a hard time doing but I had a much harder time with it before IMD. Many thanks to all of my professors, classmates, and especially loved ones for helping me develop both the awareness of and trust in those feelings last year.

So what now? I will stay with Poken until the end of August to ensure a smooth transition of my responsibilities and not leave Poken hanging. I will remain in Lausanne until the end of September to tie up loose ends and begin work on identifying whatever comes next. I have an offer to be the CEO of a US green technology startup. It's a really good fit for my background (IT-based, B2B, based in Houston) so I may take it, but I am still vetting the opportunity and identifying others. I feel actually somewhat as I did at this point last year: with a universe of possibilities out there and not really knowing where to start. With the benefit of 8 months of work behind me, though, I am now much more focused on exactly what I want to be doing and where/how I can contribute the most.

Whatever I wind up doing, I will miss my classmates and Poken colleagues on this side of the Pond very dearly. I emailed this blog post out to my classmates yesterday and the tremendous outpouring of support I have received from them has been nothing short of moving. In the language of George Kohlrieser, my family, friends, and classmates are secure bases that give me the strength for tough decisions and I am truly blessed to have them in my life. This move will be a step toward living up to all the blessings I have been given. There is no certainty in this path and I don't know where it will lead. However, in a blog entry just over a year ago, upon my return from Kenya, I committed to give responsible leadership all I've got. Well, here it is. Here I am. Bring it on.

We Choose To Go To The Moon!

Last night my extended family and I attended the annual John Glenn lecture at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air & Space Museum. This year was a special occasion as the lecture was jointly given by the original Apollo 11 crew and was a real treat. Each of the astronauts is almost 80 now but they all are as sharp as ever. Their talks were entertaining, informative, and inspiring.

July 20, 1969 we (Americans, humans, living organisms) first set foot on an extraterrestrial body. Wow. Perhaps I am jaded by my life around the perimeter of the space industry, but 40 years later I still find our quest for the Moon to be incredibly inspiring.

If you haven't watched US President John F. Kennedy's "to the Moon" speech, I encourage you to take 9 minutes to do so. Again, perhaps I am jaded because it was delivered in Rice Stadium, a place where I shed a lot of blood, sweat, and tears during my time as a Rice football player, but it still gives me chills every time I watch it. Some of my favorite quotes from this short speech:

"But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them."

"All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties."

"Man and his quest for knowledge and progress is determined and cannot be deterred."

"But 'Why,' some say, 'the Moon? Why choose this as our goal?' And they may well ask, 'Why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the Moon! 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 we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win--and the others too."

I find this to be the essence of leadership. Kennedy mobilized an entire nation in pursuit of a common, peaceful goal. He empowered our best scientists and engineers to over perform and he supported them with the resources necessary to realize a seemingly impossible dream. Less than eight years after this speech was given, hundreds of thousands of Americans (and some key Germans!) had come together to develop the myriad diverse systems to launch humans into space from Earth, escape Earth's gravitational pull, arrive precisely at the Moon, maintain orbit around the Moon, jettison a vehicle to land on the Moon, sustain human life both inside and outside the vehicle, launch humans into space from the Moon, rendezvous with an orbiting space craft, escape the Moon's gravitational pull, re-enter Earth's atmosphere, and land safely in the ocean. Wow. It is a true testament to what humans are capable of when they are motivated and unified around a common goal. Wow.

As many of you know, I believe that humans--not just Americans, but all humans--must unify around a new common goal: addressing the global energy challenge. The myriad diverse systems necessary for us to revolutionize energy production, transmission, storage, and consumption will require an even more Herculean effort than did the quest for the Moon. However, looking back at what we did 40 years ago, I am filled with confidence that we can do it--and the resolve that we must!

The End of an Era

This weekend marked the end of an era. Oh sure, Michael Jackson died and that's really too bad. Although I was aware of Michael Jackson throughout my childhood, I didn't really get into him until my senior year in high school. That's when JEB brought in the MJ HIStory album to play while we were announcing for women's lacrosse games. I recall thinking, "OMG, this music is amazing--what a fool I've been not to have enjoyed it for the previous 18 years of my life!"

Yes, the King of Pop has died. And the King of Rock n' Roll has been dead for 30 years. How many more "King of"s will there be before we have to search for new regal titles. The Emperor of Rap? The Arch Duke of Hip Hop? The Sultans of Swing--wait, that's already taken. I also wonder if references to body parts of musical genres are related to those genres' regality. For example, when Huey Lewis sings that "the heart of rock n' roll is still beatin'," is he arguing that Elvis is still alive?

No matter, this is not the end of the era to which this blog post refers. In fact, I am referring to the fact that finally, after almost six months of daily reading, I have finished the IMD MBA Class of 2008 Yearbook! What a labor of love! It is amazing that such a small group of my classmates were able to put together such a high-quality product with such little time and so many distractions (ICP, job search, etc.). It's an outstanding example of crowd-sourcing and of leadership. I've always held that the test of true leadership is when your followers don't have to do what you say. You can't fire them or penalize their salaries. In this case the Yearbook Committee was able to assemble hundreds of articles and pictures through sheer determination and creating a coherent vision that the rest of us bought into. Bravo!

And speaking of the Yearbook Committee, I visited one of its members (everyone's favorite German Engineer) this weekend in Cham, just outside of Zug. He and his wife and 8-month-old son have really set up a good life for themselves out there. We went for a walk along Lake Zug and dined al fresco with fresh pasta and homemade sauce. La dolce vita!

The real treat of course was getting to know their son, who was in utero during my first group with the German Engineer and who arrived during my ICP with him. Their son was very well behaved and showed his father's curiosity combined with his mother's kind expressions. I spend so much of my life focusing on what's wrong (with Poken's business processes, with the world's energy consumption, etc.) that it's just really heart warming to see that, in some parts of the world, good people are starting families and living good lives. Note that I don't mean to imply that they live glutonous lives--quite the contrary given that they focus on recycling and buying local produce--simply good lives. Many thanks to this burgeoning family for being great hosts and I hope all continues to go well for them in an era that does not end!

Back in Lausanne

My few days in NoVA were absolutely wonderful. The leaves were vibrant hues of red, orange, and yellow and the weather was a sunny 60+ degrees F. In addition to interviewing with a great company, I took some time to eat the types of food we don't really have in Switzerland (BBQ and lots of things with jalapenos!). Best of all, though, I spent some time with friends and loved ones, which was an excellent shot in the arm before this last home stretch.

Pictures of my time in the DC area are in my facebook album.

Today marked the start of electives. My lineup was Global Strategy in the morning and Managing Change in the afternoon. It was interesting to be back in class again, in groups of 20-40 instead of 4-5. It felt familiar--almost nostalgic--as we moved from reporting to executives to participating in case discussion.

Today I also received the worst grade I have received on any assignment all year on a paper I wrote for our Leadership stream a few weeks ago. In fact, it may be enough to knock me out of contention for a Distinction in Leadership at graduation. Although my first reaction to it was defensive, I have now poured carefully over the feedback and I recognize that my grader has made some excellent suggestions. Here, nearly at the end of a very intense year, I have learned a great deal but I still have so much more to learn. I will always have more to learn. Recognizing that, doing my best, and still seeking to learn and improve future performance will always be part of my professional life and my experience here at IMD has helped me practice it.

Rice Football

The weather here has taken a decidedly cooler turn. I'm not sure if that's just temporary or if we're entering autumn. Such thoughts in August would be unheard of in Houston--and even in northern Virginia--but I suppose it is possible. Either way, the onset of cooler weather always means one thing to me: it's football season!

Although professional games don't begin until next weekend, this weekend marks the start of the season for the NCAA. My fighting Rice Owls won their season opener last night against conference rival SMU in very decisive fashion. I'm sorry I couldn't have been there as the home opener each year is always quite a spectacle.

I can't believe it's been over 10 years now since I last played football. Real football, I mean--none of this sissy flag variety. The grueling two-a-days in August heat causing players to drop like flies and require intraveinous water/electrolytes, the smell of freshly cut grass, the competition on the field for starting positions, the resultant camaraderie off the field, the crack of helmet on helmet and pads on pads, the roar of the crowd, etc, etc. The football field was a great place to learn about teamwork, leadership, strategy, discipline, performance in clutch situations, and how to accomplish goals despite daunting obstacles (UT!).

I will miss the football season here in Lausanne but at least I can follow my teams thanks to the Web. Go Rice! Hail to the Redskins! And, of course, Go TJHSST Colonials!

Queen and Careers

Yesterday morning we had a Leadership class focused on careers and the characteristics that drive/motivate us. Based on a survey, we were divided into five groups, those who were looking for freedom, balance, security, interesting challenge, and advancement/accomplishment. Of course most of us were motivated by several of these, but we broke into groups based upon our highest scores. We then put together presentations about what we need from our supervisors, companies, and families, as well as which socio-economic factors might affect the value of our careers for each type.



It surprised me that my highest score was in freedom, not in accomplishment. Accomplishment was a very close second, followed by balance as a close third. Interesting challenge was a distant fourth and security was hardly represented at all. As our freedom group sat down to work, we felt "free" to turn on some music: Queen's "I Want To Break Free." At the same time the accomplishment group was listening to "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie. During Q&A after the accomplishment group's presentation, someone asked if they related to the Queen song "I Want It All (and I Want It Now)." The answer was yes, and lord knows I can relate.



While I am disappointed that the other groups didn't independently come up with Queen anthems, I am glad to have had three Queen songs stuck in my head all day. Slightly less insipiring is "Looking For Freedom" by David Hasselhoff, which we played at the beginning of our presentation to get the class clapping. The music video featured scenes from Knight Rider--how can you beat that?

Third-of-the-Way-There Update

When I left the US for Switzerland, many people asked to be updated by email every once in a while about how I am doing over here. I finally sent out my first update, one third of the way through the program. The content was as follows:

To those who expressed interest in receiving periodic updates from me, here is my first. As I near the end of my fourth month in Lausanne, I feel incredibly positive about my decision to come here. This program is exactly as advertised: intense, international, very personal, and 100% focused on leadership. On paper it was exactly what I was looking for; in reality is has turned out to be that and more.

Highlights so far have included (roughly chronologically):
· Outdoor leadership/group dynamics exercises in the snowy mountains
· Very personal, very deep analysis of myself, my subconscious, how I behave, how I react, what motivates me, etc. by psychologists, psychoanalysts, transactional analysts, Jungian analysts, professors, leadership coaches, career coaches, and amateur students—and amateur me!
· Very personal, sometimes painful, but incredibly useful feedback from peers, professors, and coaches regarding my leadership style and effectiveness
· Lunch every day at a campus restaurant that would give even the finest private restaurants a run for their money
· Learning so much from my classmates—89 successful business leaders from 44 different countries and a wealth of professional/educational backgrounds
· Contributing my own experience/perspective to their learning
· Running along the gorgeous lake with snow-capped mountains as a backdrop
· Excellent courses, cases, and projects from world-class faculty
· Developing personal relationships with said faculty
· Weekend-long, sleepless group exercise to test our performance under extreme stress (another one is scheduled for next weekend!)
· Visits from friends and loved ones—especially my birthday weekend in Lugano
· Helping the CEO of a fledgling startup software company analyze its market, choose an appropriate strategy, raise money, and implement the recommended strategy
· Helping the CEO of a huge, global chemicals company save hundreds of millions of euros by optimizing its supply chain and procurement organization

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however. Aside from the toll taken by the constant barrage of work, there are some additional downsides to being here:
· I miss my friends and loved ones. The people here are wonderful and I’m sure that many of the relationships I’m forging will last a lifetime. However, they are no substitute for the wonderful people already in my life.
· I miss my alma mater. Although I still serve on several Rice alumni organization boards remotely (via email and conference calls), it’s not the same as being involved in person. This year will be the first that I have missed Beer Bike, Commencement, and—probably—Homecoming. Missing baseball season is tough enough (The Owls are currently ranked #4, go Rice!) but football season will be even harder.
· There is not time to do everything I want to do while I’m here. I spend most of my time working at school or on school-related activities. As a consequence, my French isn’t improving much, I haven’t met too many locals, and I really haven’t traveled at all. For that matter, there are some courses on which I am not focusing as much as I would like, again due to time constraints. A great deal of this program seems to be about forced prioritization: you can’t do it all so you’d better figure out what really matters to you and do that really well.
· My wine consumption is down—WAY down. Certain informants keep me apprised of the menus of the wine dinners at the Petroleum Club of Houston so I can at least live vicariously through them. However, Lausanne is so beautiful that it’s a crime not to be spending each sunset on the lake with a picnic dinner and some great wine. Once I have a chance to come up for air I may have to make up for lost time!

One question I receive from a number of people back home is “What will you be doing after IMD?” December, after all, isn’t that far away. We spend a significant amount of time here working with coaches to think strategically about our careers. What careers, roles, industries, and geographies are the best fit for our personalities, ambitions, motivators, lifestyles, skills, and values?

My goal is to leverage my success in leadership and entrepreneurship to make a big, positive impact on the world. This could be by staying in technology but leading larger and more global organizations. Or I am also open to working in areas that match with my interests and experience: energy (especially alternative), nanotechnology, the arts, wine, football, and space exploration. A great fit, even in an established company, would be a role that entails some form of entrepreneurship and innovation--perhaps an American company with a new initiative to go international or vice versa to build on my international background.

Another path that interests me is venture capital. I could use my entrepreneurial experience and the constant influx of new projects would appeal to my desire for a dynamic work environment. It probably wouldn’t offer many leadership opportunities but there may some firms that take a more “hands-on” approach with their investments by providing a management team. I’m still investigating this option.

I believe that the US (Houston, Austin, San Diego, and Silicon Valley are most likely.) will be my ultimate destination but I am open to taking the “scenic” route and working in Europe (UK, Italy, France, or maybe even Switzerland) for a while first. This is all very much in flux so I offer no guarantees that it won’t have completely changed by my next update!

I'm Hungry Like the Wolf

A major objective of our Leadership stream is to understand better the role our subconscious minds play in everything we do. One tool we use is dream analysis since the content of dreams is subconscious. I have been keeping a dream log for the past two months, waking up in the middle of the night, fumbling around for the pen and then scribbling in the dark whatever I can remember from the dream I was just having.

I can't remember last night's dream but apparently I tried to document it as my bedside notepad was not empty when I woke up this morning. What articulate words did I jot down to provide enlightening analysis of the deep, sophisticated inner workings of my mind?

"There are hunters and gatherers.
I am a hunter."

Thanks, sleepy Bryan, that's very helpful.

All I can do is leave you with a related quote from one of my favorite movies about hunters, Predator. During a pivotal scene in which Arnold Schwarzenegger's character decides to go on the offensive, he taunts his predator-turned-prey as follows:

dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun. DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

There, just as intelligible as my dreams.

The Rite of Spring

As I mentioned last weekend, spring is in the air here in Lausanne. Or at least it was. Today, the first full day of spring, is cold and foggy with wet snow and high winds. That's no problem for me, though, as I'm planning to spend most of the day indoors anyway.

We have today and Saturday off from classes so I am working right now on my group's LPO paper on "Authenticity in Leadership." It is very in vogue to talk about authenticity as a given "must have" in Western leadership right now. However, some of my international colleagues have mixed feelings about it. In China, for example, where leaders have a more stoic style, authenticity could be seen as a weakness. This makes for a very interesting topic that we are analyzing from from three different perspectives: research in the popular press, our own LPO coursework, and our multicultural group members' experiences. There may be no hard and fast leadership rules (e.g., "A leader is this." or "A leader does that."), which is exactly why I came to IMD. My leadership experience has been in leading small (< 500 people), mostly homogenous organizations and I want to be aware of what issues are at play in larger, more diverse ones.

Another One Bites the Dust

Not only was it the #65 song of 1981, but Queen's Another One Bites the Dust is appropriate for today as well. No, not because of its driving bass line or its well timed injections of Brian May "Red Special" guitar riffs; rather because today we sadly bade adieu to our Leading People in Organizations course. Technically we still have a group paper to write and a final exam to take, so it isn't "over" per se, but gone are the case studies of extreme management methodologies, engaging lectures, and musical tie-ins to course themes.

When I decided to come to IMD, LPO was essentially what I had in mind, academically speaking. My leadership development prior to 2008 had been exclusively learning by doing, and I certainly learned a lot leading football (American) teams, university organizations, volunteer groups, and software companies. However, I was just doing what seemed to work and who was to say that that was optimal? Could it scale to larger organizations? Could it transfer to other industries? Would it work with multinational teams?

I thought it was probably naive to think that there were universal "best practices" in management but I at least wanted to study what others had done--in a variety of contexts--to augment my arsenal of leadership "tools" for the future. That is exactly what I found in LPO: systematic analysis of people-centric managment challenges in contexts as varied as European orchestras, New York investment banks, and Chinese manufacturers.

Maury, our professor--or perhaps "maestro" is a more appropriate term--brought much more to our lectures than just case studies and discussion leading; he also brought culture and class. This was driven home as he concluded our final session by reading us a poem, The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes. This left us in a pensive, reflective mood, which we combatted by surprising him with a gag parting gift: a toy keyboard! Although it is probably useless to him, hopefully he will at least take the meaning that we all thoroughly enjoyed his performance and many of us are hoping for an encore during electives.