Suggestions, Recommendations and Rules

As with most other military forces the Roman Military adopted an extensive list of decorations and financial rewards for military gallantry - and likewise a range of punishments for military transgressions.

When the Roman Soldier chose to become enrolled in service to the state, he swore a military oath known as the sacramentum: originally to the Senate and to the Roman People, and then later to the general and the emperor. The sacramentum stated that he would fulfill his conditions of service "on pain of punishment" up to and inclusive of death. Discipline in the Roman Army was extremely rigorous by modern standards, and the general had the power to summarily execute any soldier under his command.  


Kinda brings new meaning to the phrase “my boss is a jerk”.

The imposition of cruel and unusual penalties to maintain discipline among the chaotic conditions of the north European provinces in the mid-third century was deemed to be a necessity for the maintenance of effective command in the Roman Military.

Landing a job in the Roman Military was considered to be a fantastic career in the day; paying well and providing a life full of adventure, and admiration from your friends and family.  But, if you did not follow the instructions (the rules) from your boss (and follow them to the letter) you could be put to death by the fixing of your hands and feet to a cross.

Getting a High School degree in today’s world has become a suggestion, not a rule.  Going to college and graduating has now become a suggestion (a very good one) but not a rule. Working hard, showing up on time, and following the policies and procedures of the company that you work for and listening to the boss that pays your salary has somehow become “optional” but no longer a rule.

Today’s business world is full of suggestions, recommendations and rules, but the consequences or “punishments” for not following these clearly established rules and instructions rarely seem to “fit the crime”.

At its height, Rome was the foremost global power.  It accomplished this without the Internet, without radios and without emails, tweets, texts, fax machines, or FedEx®. But the Roman Empire did have one thing – it had rules.  


A Commander’s written orders could leave Rome and be hand-delivered to a Roman Soldier via courier anywhere in the world – and the instructions would simply be followed, period.  No need for follow up meetings or conference calls.  Everyone simply knew how things worked, and the “staff” were all very “highly motivated” to produce the required results.

I think that the death penalty is a little harsh for leaving the coffee pot on when you leave the office for the weekend (even though we are now on our fifth coffee pot). Or when someone simply refuses to follow the written policies, procedures or instructions of the corporation.  And when people simply refuse to follow the rules designed to make the company that they work for (...or make the country they live in...) fiscally sound, well that's just nuts!

It really is amazing how the global success of the Roman Empire was accomplished without the magical business tools that we all seem to take for granted. No Facebook®, no LinkedIn®, and no Twitter®. And yet, things simply got done “on time and on budget”. What they lacked in technology, the Romans made up for by creating clearly defined and enforceable laws - they had rules.

Yes, the world that we live in is indeed full of Suggestions, Recommendations and Rules.

Hail Caesar

Yogi Bear Quotes

Baseball Hall of Fame Yogi Berra's second claim to fame is for being one of the most quoted figures in the sports world. He is credited with coining the deceptively simplistic observation, "It ain't over till it's over." But he's also known for his flubs. "This is like deja vu all over again."  "When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of MIS and IT students at a major University this month.  And, I was able to “observe a lot by watching”.

By default, those who attended this student organized event are predisposed to success. Simply by attending the lecture, these young men and women demonstrated a proactive, energetic “make your own luck” attitude that (in my humble opinion) will guarantee their success in the world of business. They could have spent their lunch hour anywhere on campus, hanging out with their friends.  But they put my presentation on their calendar; they made the time to listen to someone from the world of business, to gleam any nuggets of wisdom, to pick up any possible advice, and to add that knowledge to their already diverse (and very expensive) education.

We certainly live in amazing times. Students have access to more knowledge, and can tap into more real-time information online, than ever before.  Just how much information are we trying to absorb? At the 2010 Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, California, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt stated that every two days people create as much information as they did from the dawn of civilization to 2003, about five exabytes of data.


We are living in the age of Google, YouTube, Distance Learning, and the iPad.  In 2010 The University of Phoenix invested over $1B (that's billion) in perfecting online education.  This year, it shall be $2B.  Students can view lectures and riveting talks by remarkable people for free on www.TED.com in High Definition from anywhere in the world. 

There are some things in this world that you cannot teach.  Passion is one. Creativity is another. I am blessed to have found a career path that allows me to live my passion for technology every single day. And I learn something new every day. I see more opportunity in the world of business today, than when I was in college. 


Oh, how I wish I could trade places with these students, and have access to the tools and distance learning technologies that they have at their fingertips.

Yogi said "Baseball is 90% mental -- the other half is physical." I think we can say the same thing about education.  Those who want to learn will learn.  Those who hope to get an education and pursue a career in their dedicated fields of study – they will find a way.  The future is brighter than ever, but only for those who are serious and honest with themselves. Passion cannot be found online or in the campus library – a successful career will always be found from within.

By the way, for those of you who caught the “Yogi Bear” error in the title of this blog: “I made a wrong mistake” but "I didn't really say everything I said."

A Bridge Too Far

How does one go about building a bridge? I mean, think about the most famous bridges in the world: The Golden Gate Bridge in California, The George Washington Bridge in New York, The London Bridge in – well - in London. The London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. A “London Bridge” has existed at or near the present site since the Roman occupation nearly 2000 years ago. The first bridge across the Thames in the London area was probably a military pontoon bridge, built of wood by the Romans on the present site around AD 50.

Now ponder this; how does this all of this “bridge building” actually happen anyway? Does someone wake up one day and say “Man, it sure would be cool if we could get way over there, from way over here, really, really fast”!

Bridges don’t get built if only one person has the idea; the idea has to spread, and it has to spread big. There has to be a “tipping point” where enough people in a society say “you know what we need? We need a bridge!” to get things to actually happen. Money has to be raised (or in the case of the Romans, slaves had to be captured) local governments, (or kings, rulers or dictators had to give the command). The “pain” of not having a bridge must become so great, the discomfort so unbearable, the concept of life “without a bridge” must become so unpleasant that not building the damn bridge is just no longer an option. The idea of not having a way to get from “over here - to over there – really fast” is no longer acceptable by society. We must do whatever it takes, bear any burden, endure any pain, but a bridge we shall build!

When the Golden Gate Bridge was built, eleven men lost their lives. Until February 17, 1937, there had been only one fatality, setting a new all-time record in a field where one man killed for every million dollars spent had been the norm. Ten more men lost their lives when a section of scaffold carrying twelve men fell through the safety net. With the George Washington Bridge, twelve men died. Building The Brooklyn Bridge cost fifty four men their lives.

This blog could be about building tunnels, or dams or even skyscrapers, but let’s stay with the bridge theme, since they have been building bridges for thousands of years. Bridges are hard to build, expensive, incredibly dangerous to construct (and maintain) and they take years to complete. If you were around in 1937, working on the Golden Gate Bridge was a glamorous job; it was like being a NASA Engineer in the 1960’s.

In my lifetime, I must have crossed the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York at least a thousand times. New York City (an island) would have never become the largest city in the world, if it were not for the impressive bridge and tunnel system. It would have just been too much of a pain to take a ferry, every time you wanted to cross the Hudson. To become the largest city in the world, New York needed bridges – and lots of them. I still get a little excited when crossing the Hudson River; you can’t help but think back to what it must have been like to be a worker on this thing, so many years ago. Makes asking “How was your day?” a little more interesting conversation at the dinner table.

Some of the largest accomplishments by modern man were born first in the minds of just a few, and then the ideas were brought to fruition during the worst of times. The idea of landing a man on the moon was made real, during the years of the Vietnam War. Bridges, tunnels and hydroelectric power plants (Hoover Dam) were dreamed up during the depression, and yet these projects became very real indeed. By the way, there were a total of 114 deaths associated with the building of the Hoover Dam.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, (commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, Interstate Freeway System or the Interstate), is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America. The system, which is named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower who championed its formation, serves nearly all major U.S. cities. Construction was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, construction took 35 years. The network has since been extended and as of 2006 it had a total length of 46,876 miles. About one-third of all miles driven in the country use the Interstate system, and of course it has many, many bridges. The cost of construction has been estimated at $425 billion (back in 2006).

Do you think solving the problems of the world’s economy is tough? Or fighting the war on terror? Try building a massive bridge fifty, one hundred, or even two thousand years ago. Every big, hairy audacious thing that mankind ever accomplished, started out as an idea by just a few, and then that good idea spread. Each individual concept of “not having a bridge” right here where we need one slowly grew and grew, until the reality of not having a “bridge” was just too painful to live with.

How do any bridges (real or virtual) ever get built? Just look at the past two thousand years for your answer. A tipping point occurs, when enough people say, “can you imagine what life would be like, if we could go from over here, to way over there, really, really fast?” Life without that bridge is just not acceptable! We just have to build the damn thing; we just have to do it!

OK, Tommy, now bring it all home. Tie it all together for ‘em with a nice bow:

“You know what? Would it not be really cool if we had a balanced budget? Would it not be really cool if we made “balancing our budget” the next big hairy audacious thing, like we did when landing a man on the moon, or building the Hoover Dam, or Golden Gate Bridge?”

Let’s start with the US economy, and then when we have it all under control, we can go after world hunger, fresh water for all, global warming and anything else that comes up in conversation.

Building bridges of any size or type is very hard, there is no question. I wonder how many bridges there are in the entire world? And yet, every single bridge that ever existed on the planet - the big ones and the small ones - all started with a good idea from a small group of passionate people, and that good idea reached a tipping point.

Feel free to share this blog.

I need some advice: who should I marry?

A Facebook post this week really got me going. A friend that I respect and admire (smart, successful businesswoman) asked her Facebook world: “What should I buy – an iPhone® or a BlackBerry®? In less than five minutes, there were hundreds of posts of why she simply MUST get an iPhone – and - just as many posts saying that she would be crazy not to get the new BlackBerry.

In the Real Estate profession, a cell phone is probably the one tool that you simply cannot live without. Ah, but which one?

But the real question is not about phones – the real question is how does one even ASK SUCH A QUESTION to the outside world?

I have a Lab. The gentle, intelligent and family-friendly Labrador Retriever from Canada continues to be the most popular breed in the United States. I love my dog, Bella. But this same Facebook friend has a picture of an English Bulldog “Rocco” on her FB page. If I asked this person “what kind of dog should I get?” what do you think she would say? How would she know?

If I asked a Real Estate professional “what kind of home should I buy?” how could they possibly answer with my best interest at heart? What if I asked “should I buy a Tudor style, or a Ranch or maybe even a condo in the city (what floor – how high up)?” Are these questions the Facebook world should (or could) possibly be answering for me? Are these not questions that should only be answered by me (and only me) - the person who knows me the best?

“I’m a PC!” “I’m a MAC!” We have all seen these commercials. Apple is trying to say that if you are a nerd, and if you wear a suit, you should buy a PC. But if you are “cool” and if you wear jeans and T-shirts, then a MAC is the right choice for you!

Then came the Madison Avenue counterpunching "I'm a PC" commercials showing everyone from cab drivers to Nobel Prize winners using a PC and NOT using a MAC. Their point: the entire world uses a PC - and only a small percentage of the world uses MAC, so there! I say that these ads are a sad Microsoft acknowledgment about how smaller rival Apple simply out-marketed the software giant. I say that the "I'm a PC" concept will just embolden Apple to make even more aggressive swipes at Microsoft via their creative ads. Does Apple make a better phone, or a better computer, or a better tablet PC? Or – does Apple simply have a better advertising agency?

The world is competing for our business in every area of our lives, every single day. Where should I go to college? What kind of car should I buy? Where should I go on vacation? Who should I vote for? The list of questions, waiting for expert advice - is endless. Do we really want to be told what to do, and be told what to think and why?

I have been selling cellular phones since 1983, when the NYNEX Mobile® system first went live in New York. I have deep opinions about iPhones®, iPads®, BlackBerry® and everything else wireless. I was going to tell my friend EXACTLY what she needed to buy - to best service her specific mobility needs as a Real Estate Professional. But my advice was going to get lost in a sea of conflicting expert advice from everyone in North America (she has a big Facebook following).

The most important and best decision of my entire life was to marry my wife, Dianne. I did not ask anyone for their opinion, advice, nor did I ask anyone what qualities would make up a perfect wife. And, with the divorce rate at around 50% how would my advisors possibly know anything of any value anyway?

The limbic system is a complex set of structures that lies on both sides of the thalamus, just under the cerebrum. It includes the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and several other nearby areas. It appears to be primarily responsible for our emotional life, and has a lot to do with the formation of memories.

Need advice? Go with your gut. Trust your limbic system.

You know what they say about opinions and a$$holes and how everyone has one. Are you really looking for advice? Or - are you just looking for someone to tell you that you made the right decision?

My wife reminds me (daily) that I made the right decision. I wonder if she feels the same way? (…I am afraid to ask…).

Now, who’s up for a lively discussion on religion and politics? I am sure that we can all agree on that, right?

Lemonade Stand MBA

The great philosopher and business mentor Yogi Berra once said “You can observe a lot by just watching”.

This summer we had more kid owned and operated “Lemonade Stands” in our neighborhood than I can remember. I always make it a point to stop and make a purchase from such aspiring young entrepreneurs. I am waiting for the day (and I am sure this day is coming) when I pay $0.50 for the cup of ice cold lemonade – soon followed by an “offer I can’t refuse” - to purchase the “lemonade antidote” from a proud member of New Jersey Lemonade Stand Union Local 1245.

All kidding aside, here are some of my keen observations from the 2011 Lemonade Stand Season:

Some lemonade stands look like they were built from a kit purchased at IKEA®. Others are made out of “ready for the dumpster” card tables. Some lemonade stands are constructed out of discarded cardboard boxes from a neighbor’s major home appliance delivery.

Some lemonade stands have a linen tablecloths and real glassware; others have paper cups, while some young entrepreneurs have completely forgotten about supplying the cups – or management has assumed that you would simply “bring your own” paper cups.

Some lemonade stands have beautifully detailed hand-painted signs on poster board stock that could win a high school art contest. Other stands have scribbled hard to read letters on brown paper bags. Oh, but the lemonade is really, really good! Ah, right.

Some lemonade stands are manned by teams of “high energy” kids, all shouting and yelling and successfully getting drivers to stop and make a purchase. Some lemonade stands are operated by very low-key "sole proprietor" entrepreneurs with no yelling, no shouting, no signs – and no lemonade sales.

Some stands sell just lemonade; other lemonade stands have expanded well beyond just lemonade - selling cookies, brownies and assorted home-made goodies. My favorite lemonade stand this summer sold $0.25 bottles of Sam’s bottled water (from Wal-Mart) for $2 per bottle - but they were “really, really, really super cold!” (personally guaranteed by the eight year old sales manager).

Some lemonade stands have a metal cash box, with the money all counted and organized with the bills facing the same way. Other lemonade stands have no cash box whatsoever, so the ill prepared staff have no ability to give change or to break a $20.

Some lemonade stands have igloo® coolers chock full of supplies and plenty of ice; others have run out of ice or never had any ice in the first place. By the way, how did the ice cubes get into my cup? I see no ice tongs, but I do see lots of chubby little hands attached to adorable little kids with runny noses (and no food handler gloves) going in and out of the cooler. Is there any wonder why some lemonade stands have repeat customers, while others do not? I like the ones that give you the lemonade in a paper cup with a paper napkin. And they have a trash can, too. It’s such a nice touch – some kids think of everything!

Dr. Freud theorized that the core of personality of an individual is formed before age 6. Others believe that the core of each person's style of life is formed by age 5. Psychologists say that most people do not change, and if they do change, they don’t change very much.

Over my many years of being in business, I have had the pleasure of working with many successful entrepreneurs, as well as key executives of Fortune 1000 companies. Some of these folks earned MBA degrees from prestigious business schools. Others received their degrees from the “School of Hard Knocks”. As I think about the most successful and passionate of the business leaders that I have known, I think about the “lemonade stands” they must have owned and operated when they were kids.

Do the successful businessmen and women of the world ever allow their lemonade stands to run out of ice? Or not have the ability to break a $20, or be able to make change (or accept credit cards?)

Do the successful businessmen and women of the world sit by the side of the road, hoping that someone stops and make a purchase? Or do they make the signs, do the marketing, and “seek out” new clients (Twitter, Facebook, Social Medial, etc.) thereby making their own luck?

Do the successful “lemonade stand” owners of the world do the necessary research (more lemonade sells on hot sunny days vs. chilly rainy days)? Or do they just “wing it” and hope for the best?

So my freinds, what did your lemonade stand look like when you were growing up? Never had one you say? Well, as my business mentor Yogi Berra says, “It ain't over till it's over.”

Get your very own lemonade stand right here: http://lemonadestandgame.com

Congratulations! You lose.

My youngest son Bobby took up fencing at age 14. I remember driving him to his first fencing class, taking lessons from an ex-Olympic coach. For the first hour, the class had nothing to do with fencing. It was all push-ups, sit-ups, and conditioning. At the breaks, I heard the first of many “Dad, I don’t like this, can we go home now please?" from my son. *I love my son to death (and I know that he will be reading this blog) but he was very lazy. Working hard for anything was not in Bobby’s view of the world. Each time I said no to his requests to quit and to go home - we will finish up the day.

And then, with 30 minutes left to go in his two hour long first fencing class – out came the weapons. With epee in hand, I saw my son transform right before my eyes into a motivated, energized and eager student. All of the huffing and puffing of the past hour was forgotten. You could see it in his stance; you could see it in his posture. It was like someone exchanged his old dead battery for a fresh brand new one. In the car on the way home, he called his mother: “This is so cool! I found my sport!”

Bobby was very good. In fact, he was a natural. Within the first few weeks of Saturday morning classes, he was beating other students that were taking fencing classes for years. In his second month of classes, he signed up for a big tournament in New York City. We expected him to get beat soundly early on, but it would be fun to see what a big-time nationally recognized tournament would be like, and it would be a cool day in the city with my son.

Bobby was tall for his age, and had great reach (long arms). Great for fencing. Shockingly, he won the first round at the NYC tournament. And then, he won the second round. And the third and the fourth and the fifth. With less than three months of total fencing experience, Bobby was in the finals of the 14 and under group, in a fencing tournament that pulled experienced students from all over. Bobby was beating fencing students who have been taking fencing lessons for more than half their lives.

I never prayed so hard in my life - for him to lose. Bobby was not supposed to win this tournament. He did not pay his dues. Bobby was very good; he was a natural. But I knew that if he won this tournament – if he won his first tournament of his fencing career (and we are not talking about some little tiny local event at the YMCA) he would be ruined. If he won this tournament, there would be no living with him. He did not invest enough time. And if he did win this tournament, he would think this was normal. He would think that with minimal effort and with minimal training, you are entitled to the grand prize. Ah, no.

You learn more from losing than from winning. You don’t know the value of money, until you lose money. You don’t know the value of good health, until you have your first serious “health scare”. You don’t realize how precious the basics of life are to all of us, until they become scarce; until you lose them. There are over a billion people in the world who do not have clean drinking water. You don’t know the value of clean drinking water unless you have none to drink.

Yesterday, we lost power at the office (for only two hours). I had to go to the local coffee shop with my laptop, to try to connect to the world. Oh, how we take things for granted, until we lose them. What if there was no coffee shop with Wi-Fi? What if the power was out for days? What if we had no power for weeks, due to a hurricane or other disaster?

Bobby lost that day in the final round, to a 14 year old kid that looked like a Ninja. This kid had more “patches” on his uniform (from previous tournaments) than an Eagle Scout. Bobby had no patches. And here is the kicker: the final match was close! He lost, but he almost won the whole damn thing! It would have ruined him. If Bobby would have won that tournament against kids who invested years in training and studying the sport, it just simply would have been wrong. This was over six years ago, but we all still talk about this today. When things come too easy, they are not appreciated.

The best lessons in life come from losing, not from winning. You will appreciate your customers more, when you lose a valued customer. You will love your pets more, when you lose a pet.

And when you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

Touché is the French word for "touched" and is used to acknowledge a hit, called out by the fencer who is hit. Conversely, if a fencer concedes a hit when no hit was actually made, the fencer's adversary would say, “pas de touché” (no touch) to indicate that the hit should not be counted.

Bobby lost the fencing tournament that day, coming in a remarkable second place. Had he come in first place that day, he would have lost the lesson. Had he won it all that day, in truth, that win would not have counted.

Touché Bobby, Touché.

Selling Power Tools to the Amish

While driving through Pennsylvania Dutch country, I watched an “old fashioned” barn raising. A barn raising is an event during which a community comes together to assemble a barn for one or more of its households, particularly in 18th- and 19th-century rural North America. In the past, a barn was often the first, largest, and most costly structure built by a family who settled in a new area. Barns were essential structures for storage of hay and keeping of horses and cattle, which in those days were an inseparable part of farming.

The Amish, the Pennsylvania Dutch sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and – the reluctance to adopt many conveniences of modern technology.

Watching several dozen men successfully raise a massive structure in a single day, and all without the use of power tools (100% by hand and “real” horsepower) is a sight to behold.

I have spent my life using technology, selling technology and loving technology. Who would not want a phone in their car? Who would not want a personal computer, a tablet PC, an HDTV in their living room or a GPS in their car? From voice mail to touch-tone vs. rotary phones, who does not want to trade-in and upgrade their widgets or gadgets to live better through technology?

Answer: The Amish.

Travel back in time with me: what self-respecting businessman would not want to trade-in their old manual typewriter for an IBM® Selectric?

The IBM Selectric was a highly successful model line of electric typewriters introduced on July 31, 1961. Instead of the "basket" of individual typebars that swung up to strike the ribbon and page in a traditional typewriter, the Selectric had a type element (frequently called a "typeball") that rotated and pivoted to the correct position before striking. The type element could be easily changed so as to print different fonts in the same document, resurrecting a capacity that had been pioneered years before. The IBM Selectric also replaced the traditional typewriter's moving carriage with a paper roller ("platen") that stayed in position while the typeball and ribbon mechanism moved from side to side.

If you had an IBM Selectric typewriter in your office, you were deemed to be working in a “modern office”. You were viewed as cutting-edge, you were cool, and you were to be respected and admired. And, it was proven that an IBM Selectric will double or triple your work production, so the ROI of upgrading to this super cool office tool made it an easy sale. IBM made a fortune, and the modern office had a new must-have gadget.

As I write this blog in air conditioning (on a very hot weekend) I reflect back on my sales and marketing efforts of the week. I think of how I started my Monday with all the energy in the world, convinced that everyone that I meet, everyone that I will come in contact will want to save money, and they will want to make more money – they will want to be more profitable through technology. “Wait until they see what I have to show them! They will buy my (fill in the blank with new widget or gadget) like hotcakes, just like they bought the IBM Selectric years ago! How can they say no? It’s a no-brainer!”

The (not so obvious) lesson is that just because YOU love it, just because YOU see the vision, just because YOU have the solution and the answer to the puzzle – this does not mean anything to anyone who does not believe what you believe.
You cannot force anyone to do anything, or get them to buy anything from you, if they do not believe what you believe.

So, to all power tool salesmen out there – you can save yourself a lot of time and energy, and just skip Pennsylvania Dutch country. They do not believe what you believe. They will not be buying what you are selling.

Unless of course, the power tools that you are selling are of the “one horsepower” variety.