Do we Really have to Sell our Souls?

I have recently and unexpectedly retired from American industry. In the past year, I have had the chance to do a whole lot of thinking about my life and my career(s). In particular, I thought quite a bit about how much industry changed and why it did.

I was really invigorated by a book which recently came out called "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It". It did not read the entire book, but read enough to get the gist of it. The bottom line is the title - why does work have to suck?

First a bit of history. When I was growing up, my father worked at a manufacturing plant in St. Paul. He worked in Procurement for 40 years and retired as the Director of Purchasing. What I can remember growing up was my Dad went to work at the same time and came home at the same time. Once in a while he brought work home with him, but for the most part our evenings were spent as a family. We ate dinner together every night at 5:30 and watched some television together before bedtime. Very simple - kind of like Ozzie and Harriet.

When I started work in the mid seventies, the climate was not that different. Full time was considered 40 hours a week and once in a great while a situation came up where more time than that was required. However, I left work pretty much at the same time and had the appropriate amount of time for my family and myself.

In the mid 80's when I was at the Control Data Company, the worm began to turn. One of the premiere companies in Minnesota which took on IBM and won, began to RIF (reduction in force) employees. This went on from 1985 until I left in 1989. For four years many lived in fear of being shown the door. Fear stalked us from the time we got into work until the time we left. If you were asked to leave, that is one issue - if you survived yet another reduction, the work was redistributed and the survivors had to pick up the slack. All of a sudden, the 40 hour work week became 45 and up.

After Control Data came FMC/United Defense and then IBM. All were the same - they were "rightsizing" the work force and those that remained were expected to do more with less. Towards the end of my career, my last company put out an edict that the expectations for billable hours were at a minimum 55 hours per week.

What does all this really mean to us? Are we afraid of a little work? The consequential effects of this monumental change in the work place has resulted in the following:

• The two way loyalty between employee and employer is gone. People come and go constantly and tenure becomes shorter and shorter. RIFs, rightsizing, realigning and so on are a constant in today's business world.
• The effects on families are chilling. Kids need both the mother and father to be engaged. If both are working for employers where many hours are required, the effect on kids can be devastating.
• Divorce is rampant in the business world. Having a marriage fail is like a product launch which went bad. Second and third marriages with people from the workplace are not uncommon.
• Commutes have gotten worse as most companies still adhere to everyone leaving at the same time, Monday through Friday. Employers do not care if the employees sit in traffic for an hour plus on the way home just as long as they have bled for the company.
• Health - with time becoming more and more squeezed, people take care of themselves last. Less sleep, poor eating habits and less exercise. Diabetes, hypertension, heart issues and obesity are all on the rise.

My first boss right out of college (who I also car pooled with) was a very wise man. He was a WWII and Korea vet and knew more about life than I could ever imagine. He would often tell me the following: "Every day we have 24 hour hours. You owe 8 hours to the company, 8 hours to your family, and 8 hours to yourself by getting a good sleep" If you put more than 8 hours in on any one of these, the others will suffer by getting less time". Wise words from a wise man who raised six children. Of if only we could follow that wise counsel today.....

Not that Smart

You would almost have to be living in a cave these days to not know the dire condition the auto industry is in. For some of us, it seems as if this happened over night, but in reality this has been developing for decades. I could enumerate the causes such as we have seen of different news shows for the past few months - I choose not to. As the expression goes, "success has many fathers and failure is aways an orphen" - however in this case failure has had many benefactors.

To paraphrase my wife's family who states "it is what it is", I will say "we are were we are". I am not going to access blame on the unions, the management staff, the consumers, the enviornmentalists, the congress and so on. All are guily to some degree. My purpose with this posting is to try and figure out where we go from here, because here is nowhere for all. Two out of three of the "big three" are now under new ownership (one foreign and the other government). Because of knee jerk reactions and billions of dollars which were spent foolishly, we might already be around the bend, but lets hope not.

The question which begs to be asked, yet has not been addressed is "what kind of car does the American consumer want?" Not a hard question - basic marketing 101. However, not only has that question not been asked, we are being told what kind of car we should drive. According to some on capitol hill, we should all be driving cars that range in size from Mini Coopers to Smart Cars. Wow! I don't know about anyone else, but if a car the size of a Mini Cooper would fit my family's lifestyle, I would have bought one years ago.

Since I have not yet been asked, I will give my answer anyway. The kind of car I want has the following features:

• Built in America by Americans.


• Owned by profit motivated private industry.


• Gets over 50 mpg by some kind of hybrid technology.


• Greatly reduced carbon footprint.


• Has towing capacity of 7,000 lbs.


• Has enough room for 5 adults to ride comfortably.


• Will not rust from road salt or sea air.


• With proper maintenance, will last 20 years.


• High degree of survivability for passengers in most highway crashes.

Thats it - end of story. Build a quality car with those features and I, along with many others in this country will buy it. There are some city dwellers which still might want a Smart Car - I am fine with their choice to do so. My choice is to have something different. I own one of the more than 850,000 pleasure boats in the state of Minnesota. In addition, there are tens of thousands of pull behind tailers, fifth wheels, utility trailers and so on. Try pulling any of those with a Smart Car.

Spare Tire

Max here - this is an article I wrote for our church paper a few years ago. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Years ago we had a church in our area that had an interesting message on the kiosk in the front yard. It said, “Don’t treat your faith like a spare tire in the trunk, only to be used in time of emergency”. The first few times I drove by the church, I did not think much of it. However, one snowy day when traffic was slow, I passed the church again. All of a sudden, I got it. That was exactly the way that I had been treating my faith. It was in the trunk, out of the way, to be used in time of emergency.

I had not thought about that kiosk for years until last summer when I was at an Alpha conference in the Twin Cities. During one of the talks, the pastor told of Christians who were “CEC Christians” – Christmas, Easter and Crisis. That was me for years. My faith was something that I practiced for an hour or so on some Sundays, Christmas, Easter and when I was in trouble.

I made a commitment to myself and to God that I was going to take my faith out of my truck and put it under the hood of my life. Rather than use it only in emergencies and special occasions, it was going to drive everything I did in my life. It was out in front of me. It was now the heart of everything I did in my life. Could I still use it in emergencies? Absolutely - but also for so much more.

Having your faith under the hood does not mean that it will not run out of gas – it will. However, we are given the opportunity to keep our tank filled up by daily reading of the word, frequent prayer time, fellowship with other Christians, and yes, worship time on Sunday morning.

I think it is good for all of us to determine what location our faith is in. Is it hidden behind us to be used as a last resort? Or is in front of our lives, driving us in everything that we do.

Thank you to whomever in that church put that kiosk up years ago that planted this seed in my heart.

Hate - Battery Acid of the Heart

The process of freeing one's heart from hate is without a doubt the biggest struggle we face as humans. As love is natural for God, hate has become natural for mankind. The act if hating has become easier for us than the act of loving. As love is a deliberate act, hate is something we can slide into easily. Yes hate is a part of us until we decide to do something about it.

This is not meant to be a sermon as those who know me will attest to the fact that I have been a hater. It was easy to do and I was very good at it. Even as I learned in church that I should love my neighbor and not hate my fellow men, I could not do it. It all sounded good, but hate was easy - besides, it was justified.

One day when I was deep in rumination of bad thoughts about someone, I noticed something. I was not feeling well. It was like a tightening in my chest and a bad taste in my mouth. The more bad thoughts I had about someone and fantasies of some evil I would do, the worse I felt. Like a a sudden bolt from Heaven, the answer came to me - hate, it seems, is a reverse emotion. I can hate a person with all my heart and it will not affect that person in the least - however, it will affect me. The caustic nature of hate makes it battery acid in your heart. It will hurt you, sicken you, and maybe even kill you. Until you decide to do something about the constant drip, drip drip of this battery acid, the sickness will continue and worsen.

It was then I decided to listen to God and His Word and free my heart from hate. I will not hate any person ever again, I will not hate myself for mistakes made. In short, I learned how forgiveness and love will defeat hate and bitterness each time, every time.

20 Minutes before 60 Minutes

Years ago when I was working in the Aerospace industry, I was as busy as I have ever been in my life. The product that I was involved with was being presented to many customers all over the country and it seemed like I was spending half my time in airplanes and hotels. One day when I was at wit’s end, I complained to my boss that I absolutely could not take on any more work. His response was, “Well, there is always 20 minutes before "60 Minutes" on Sunday night”.

When he first told me that answer, I bristled. Did he not know that I had a life outside of work? After all, I had a new house, a young family, and my Navy career on the side. After calming down, I decided to confront him on his answer.

His response gave me pause to think. He told me that he did not want me to work longer; he wanted me to work smarter. Quality organizations work smart. Finding 20 minutes to do something else does not mean taking 20 minutes away from family – it is gaining 20 minutes at work by doing things smarter. Failure to do so will result in trying to fit in 20 minutes before "60 Minutes" on Sunday night.

The same is true for church. Besides being a body of believers that worship God, we are also an organization. To be a quality organization, we all need to work smart and work together. In other words, do we have 20% of the organization doing 80% of the work, or could we have 80% of the organization doing 120% of the work?

Finding an extra $10/week to give to mission or an extra 20 minutes a week to give to ministry will take any church to a new level of commitment and excellence.

Letter to Dereck

A few years back I was asked to be a part of an Eagle Scout initiation for one of my former confirmation students. The following is a letter which I wrote to him for this occasion:

Dear Dereck -

I would not be honest if I did not tell you how proud I am of you. Eagle Scout is a milestone that is recognized by most people in this country, even if they have never been associated with the Scouts. I have always been a believer in the axiom that “success breeds success”. In other words Dereck, becoming an Eagle Scout is only the beginning for you.

I have long been a student on leadership and how some people develop into leaders. Some people are born leaders and others develop into leaders. Regardless of the path taken, at the end of the day, they are all leaders. It is easy to manage people, but to lead people, you must truly inspire. As an Eagle Scout, many younger people (and some older) will look to you for inspiration and example. If ever in doubt about the correct path to take in leadership, ask God for guidance – he is consulted on a daily basis!

Dereck, I am going to share some tips for success in life that I share with young people. As you go through life, you will come up with your own list for obtaining success. This is the one that I to you:

For every initiative, develop a strategy, and then a plan.
Develop Plan “A”, Plan “B” and so on. Never leave yourself without options.
“Plan the work and work the plan”. A plan is useless unless executed.
Learn as much as you can as fast as you can. Never stop learning – your competition won’t.
Embrace liberal education (not the politics – the concept).
Develop a budget and follow it. It is easy to lose track without a financial road map.
Look at “lazy” as an invective. It is truly a “four letter” word.
Use the “greatest generation” as an example for nobility and virtue.
Never give up; never quit; never surrender.
Seize the Day! Opportunity is fleeting and most opportunities only knock once.

Good luck to you Dereck, and God’s speed. Enjoy this day – it is your day. You have worked hard for this moment and it is okay to “bask in the light”. You have made us all proud.

Lotsa Rain for Lotsa Days

We are in the midst of a serious drought in central Minnesota. We are well into July and only due to some well timed rain, the crops are in fairly good shape. However, that only masks the true problem - and that can be seen by visiting one of the hundreds of lakes that dot the landscape in East Central Minnesota and West Central Wisconsin.

One of my favorite weather guessers that was on one of the twin cities TV stations (he is long gone now) said during the drought of 1988 that "getting out of drought is like getting out of debt - both take a while". As it stands right now, we need lots of rain for lots of days (or in Minnesota speak, "lotsa"). We are down 6 inches of moisture this year (and were down last year as well) and need inches to fall for many days in this traditionally dry month of July. I am reminded that in 1987 when we were having a somewhat dry year, we had the "super storm" in July which dropped over 7 inches of rain on the twin cities. All of a sudden, 1987 went from dry to moist. However, to really fix the problem, we need much rain to fall slowly to soak well into the ground.

When I was fishing in Western Wisconsin two weeks ago, my friend and I went to Silver Lake (which we have fished on for many years). We like Silver Lake as it not only has a beautiful shore line, but we have also done well there in fishing for Bass. When we got to the lake it was jaw dropping. It looked like a picture of the reservoirs out west. The level of the lake was down over 4 feet! When talking to one of the locals at the boat landing, he told us that the lake was at historically low levels right now - even lower than the dust bowl days of the 30's.

We can debate why the water level is so low this year. It could be man made climate change or this could be a natural cycle. In any event, it is here and the only way out is to have rain - lotsa rain for lotsa days.