I just returned home from spending the day with our youngest son attending the NASA broadcast of the launch of the 2010 F.I.R.S.T. robotics competition and the subsequent “initial strategy” meeting his high school team held to get started with this 6 week challenge.

I walked away more impressed than ever with the future of our world.

Without getting too deep into the logistics of what the FIRST initiative stands for [For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology], I can tell you that it has far more impact in changing lives than ANY other activity I’ve witnessed to date.

Although centered around building robots for competition, it is more about building people for challenges.

Watching the transformation of young peoples lives is more than fascinating, it is contagious and I would encourage EVERY person I know to go see for themselves what is taking place in these high schools around the world.

Nothing is more relevant to the challenges we face.  One guiding tenet of the FIRST experience is centered around something they term “Gracious Professionalism”.

I wish every executive or business colleague could re-enlist in high school for such valuable education.

Just for kicks, watch the animation that explains what these kids (grades 9-12) have the next 42 days to build.  This is in their “spare time”.  While it includes a competitive drive, a thirst for knowledge and the thrill of contributing to something cool, the real benefits come from living through the intense and demanding schedule rarely experienced at a high school level.

As a professional (not in a science or engineering role) I have found nothing more worthy of recommending other adults volunteer their time in mentoring young people.  Take time to attend one of the local competitions.  Check out the details at www.usfirst.org

Next Deadline:  1/16/10

Our normal year end financial review brought about a disappointing revelation.

Homeowners Insurance

It seems that our home owners insurance premium went up a couple of percent and it struck me as odd since the housing values in Michigan have plummeted 50% this year.  It forced me to take a deep dive into something I considered a fixed cost and yet saved myself a small fortune in the process.

To make this long story short, just know that I have owned 8 different homes in different States (all through relocations with my job) since 1983 and we have been with State Farm Insurance for our homeowners coverage with every one.  We have NEVER had a claim, even when we have had small mishaps that might have been covered.

It has been our misguided belief that our loyalty to our insurance provider (or phone provider or bank lender or whatever) resulted in a favorable rate and treatment and there was never any cause to shop around as long as it wasn’t “broken”.

Boy was I wrong!

I decided to call GEICO (since I’ve grown to be a fan of Warren Buffet) to compare coverage and rates.  Much to my surprise, they cut my bill in half!

Believe me, I was a skeptic until the lady on the other line of the phone walked me through all the details.  They did a line item by line item comparison of every particular of my home (foundation, construction, fireplaces, moldings, basement types, roof types, patios, etc) since the home was built in 1936 and has had multiple enhancements along the way.

Loyalty

It turns out that they RAISED the amount of coverage by about 10% since the replacement costs exceeded the present selling value and kept my deductible the same…and still cut the bill in half!

My skepticism became elation….then my disappointment (almost anger) of being over charged for 20+ years for blind loyalty set in.

It’s a mistake I won’t make again.

It seems vendors/suppliers/companies that have long term relationships with you are easily tempted to take you for granted.  It seem nuts to me that a cable tv supplier or cellphone provider can give a new customer the same service as an existing customer (one that may have been with them for 20 years or more) at half the price….but it happens every day.

Value doesn’t always come looking for you.  You must go find it and then continuously benchmark it as time evolves.  Nothing stays the same.

How about you?  Have you found a better deal than the one you had been using for years? In a time of financial duress, we might all benefit from each others stories.

Next Deadline:  1/9/10

One of the first questions I’ve asked myself when setting this blog into motion was “who in the world would ever take the time to read what I wrote?”

I’ve never been drawn to anything quite so narcissistic as a public diary (my original understanding of a blog) and my life is a tad bit boring (as my teenage kids will readily attest).  Yet, the more research I read on the art of penning one’s own blog, the more I feel compelled to try.

Clearly, my initial “pre-postings” were, at least, interesting for those that are close friends and family as they dealt with a number of personal issues.  The diversion from a normally secretive persona made the entries dealing with my physical recovery after an accident something to talk about.  Even if we’ve never met, most people can relate to injuries that require time to heal.  I was glad to get it all out of my system (so to speak) and it serves as good background for those that might find it interesting to watch how this blog has progressed.

I have been told by some colleagues that they are looking forward to some “dirt” on the Company we work for.  Unfortunately, this will never occur.  Aside from the water-cooler talk,  I have no interest in memorializing how close my corporate life is to the Dilbert comic strip.  Besides, there are plenty of other sites that rant on with automotive or employer bashing…we don’t need another.

Instead, I simply chose to document and follow a few of my own passions in a public forum.  Perhaps over time, this will reveal part of a transition I’m unaware of at the moment.  Nevertheless, I am compelled to find my own rhythm of starting the conversation.  I hope  that the more people I make aware of this site, the greater the chance we can actually have dialogue.  I continue to experiment with the “comments section”, but I clearly have hopes that I am successful in engaging readers along the way (or at least provoking a reaction).

So what can you expect to read and why should you tune in?

I hope to entertain you (at the very least).

My commitment to transparency quickly exposes the fact that I am simply a happily married, middle-aged, corporate grunt, father of 3 wonderful kids in college or high school.  I deny that I am going through any mid-life crisis (my kids joke that I must be) and I have no experience as an author of anything outside of grad school or work related activities. But after you get over my self-effacing boorish chatter, it will surprise you to learn my interests are…..well, interesting.

I promise to keep my postings short (600-800 words max) so it forces me to get to the point quickly.  As my confidence grows (no guarantees), I may post more than once a week.  I also leave room that I may decide to use video or audio clips, but for now I’ll stick with simple written submissions.

I’m also finding I have tons of friends that, like me, were really stuck in the past (the designer of my website called me “so web 1.0″).  I hope to also introduce them to the world of blogging as I teach myself a few new tricks.

So Stay tuned.  Bookmark this site…subscribe to the feed…or simply check in every weekend and participate (voting on the posts are also anonymous and a good way for me to judge if I’m on the mark or off base).

Next deadline: 1/2/10

Work in Progress.  Please excuse the mess!

I am adding feedburner so that I can track the progress of my efforts in encouraging more readers during 2010-2011. I’ll try it out for a few months to see how it works.

I hope to have the next few tweaks completed this week.  I hope all are enjoying the holiday and New Years celebration!

Happy New Year!

I admit, I started my 2010 New Years Resolution last September when I initiated this blog.  I spent several months pre-populating the blog with various tidbits of a personal nature to practice using WordPress (the platform you’re reading) and to experiment with a number of topics.  While I have learned a great deal, I have far to go.

The point of this posting is to state that a New Years Resolution should be communicated. It should be a statement worth sharing.  It can be personal, which means you would only share it with close family members or a privileged few…but it is nevertheless a statement and requires the courage to communicate.  For it to “count” you must do more than just think about it.  You must have the courage to place it in view of someone.

I obviously told a couple of close friends & colleagues about this site while it was under development, even though I wasn’t yet sure I knew where it would lead.  It was necessary to gauge the level of expectations of my intended readers and to make adjustments when necessary. The best example was the revelation that anonymous postings were absolutely required if I wanted to entice people to participate.  At Ford Motor Company (and I’m sure many other fortune 1-100’s), it is a kiss of death to be viewed outside of mainstream.  So, the addition of the ability to join this conversation with an alias was born.  Anyone may log in and add value to this site without the fear of someone misinterpreting their devotion to their employer.

My resolution is simple:  I will stick with this blog and focus on  Transformations. I will post, at least, 52 weekly entries intended to spur conversation as well as personal & career reflection.

Of course, it’s not the only thing we will see on this site.  I fully intend to maintain my focus on mentoring others, pontificating my own “point of view”, sharing my own fascination with the study of the future and any/all tidbits associated with true value.  To make things interesting, however, something as personal as transitioning is worthy of my primary focus.

Feel free to jump in.  Learn from my mistakes (hopefully this blog isn’t one of them), learn from the experience of others commenting (tbd) and read my thought process and decisions during the next year or so and decide for yourself how you can do the same.

What is your New Years Resolution?