The Billionaire’s Right Hand

Let’s consider a real-world example of what a humanities-trained professional brings to the table.

Understanding the relationship between people is key to being a good mediator
Image courtesy of Pexels.

Recently, I was part of a meeting to help resolve a catastrophic business and technical problem that had been created over years of neglect. The meeting had quickly become acrimonious, with managers blaming each other for everything from blatant incompetence to outright fraud. Meanwhile the owner of the business, who was clearly not able to follow the deeper technical issues being argued about, seemed just as paralyzed by the anger and frustration at the table. Meanwhile the business was at a standstill.

I had been asked to present a technical solution to this complex problem, but it was clear that feelings and emotions were the priority. I had brought my son along to just listen in and learn a few things. He has been shadowing me this summer while he is home from college. I had not intended for him to take part in the meeting, but at the point when it looked like pens were going to be thrown across the table, he motioned at the owner, as if to ask for permission (without really receiving it), and then he stood up and asked if he could speak.

Now up to this point everyone was still seated, so his decision to stand was a surprise to everyone. Likewise, he was unknown to everyone, much younger than every gray haired expert in the room, tall and skinny but with an athletic built, and wearing a dark blue polo shirt with a bright Cal logo – it was the only “nice” shirt he had brought home. …And for that brief critical moment, the entire room fell silent – I was as stunned as everyone else and ready to usher him out of the room at the first sign of trouble, but that would not be necessary.

After a pause that seemed far too long, he spoke softly and said: “So, what we are all in agreement on is that the previous management team made a grave mistake that resulted in one team receiving more funding and consequent growth than the other team, and this imbalance grew over the past several years…” he then paused again to ensure he had everyone’s agreement; one person even nodded. He then continued: “…then what David here is simply trying to propose is to use this excess to repair the imbalance, and this will require everyone to agree to work together to make that happen.”

At that point, I was more stunned at the fact that he used a first name, than the fact that he had just synthesized at least a month’s worth of bitter communication on this issue, culminating in this contentious meeting, into a single sentence. Now there was quite a bit more discussion after that and my son spent the next hour slowly bringing both sides together, but in the end, everyone walked out of the meeting like they now had a path forward to solving the problem. I even overheard one of the engineers walking out asking: “Who was that guy?”

Who Was That Guy?

My son was a typical teen in high school. He played soccer, worked hard for good grades, and his academic interests were primarily in English, foreign language, history and social sciences. After highschool he attended the local community college, took the requisite STEM classes to get by, but continued focusing on his main interests. He did however, join a competitive debate team and eventually received his associates degree with top honors. This allowed him to enter Berkeley where he is now completing his bachelor’s degrees in history and Dutch language. He is also on the archery team and president of the Dutch club on campus.

To say that we regularly have to answer the obligatory “So what does he plan to do after college?” question at every social event would be an understatement. Here’s what everyone fails to see. As a humanities major he is studying how people get along, in his case, how people have been getting along for centuries. That is something you don’t need to be born with, it is something you can learn. Some do it by studying psychology, some with a foreign language, and some with art. These are all social sciences and they teach skills that are critical in business, government, medicine, and yes also technology.

At those dreaded social events, I could tell them that my son’s true focus is the historical, cultural, and economic history between the United States and Europe and that he is looking to parlay that into becoming the preeminent expert in this field. This could flick on the switch on that lightbulb, but that’s too long of an explanation at a bustling party with alcohol, music, and appetizers too good not to be a distraction. So, we just leave it at: “He’s studying history and Dutch language” and, unless they are truly interested, we move on to the latest soccer scores.

Now, my son knows enough tech and business to stand up in this meeting, synthesize the major arguments down to their core components, and recommend a path forward. He does not, however, have the skills to do those things himself. That is for the engineers and accountants in the room to figure out, but that is not why he was in this meeting in the first place. Actually, he wasn’t really supposed to be there, but even I was too wrapped up in the technical details to see what was needed at that precise point and time. What was needed was someone to break the tension in the room, calm everyone down, speak with authority to move the meeting forward, and then bring everyone in agreement to work together to resolve the problem.

This is not an Indictment of STEM

My late father was a brilliant engineer who worked for two of the top medical systems corporations in the world. He eventually moved into management. In that role, he would be the deciding role in hiring newly graduated engineers hoping for a job at these prestigious companies. He would ask the applicants a simple question: “Can you describe to me how a transistor works?” or the one question he would always ask me: “Can you describe the law of ohm?” Ironically, very few of these engineers with impressive resumes, skilled in the latest bio tech and computer advances, could actually answer this question.

Studying STEM at the university level is not just about numbers and physics. Likewise, studying business and economics isn’t either. Those skills are the basis, but a true education is about how that basis fits into the world. That is something that is learned both inside the classroom and outside of it – it is the ability to bring those two worlds together and do something useful with it. Those are the people that succeed out of college and into successful careers.

The same is true for the humanities. Anyone can go to a university and immerse themselves in Plato’s Phaedo, the origins of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, or Malevich’s Suprematism in Kandinsky's art. The bigger skill, however, is to be able to take that knowledge and use it in the latest Peloton Marketing proposal, the strategy for JPMorgan Chase’s foray into tokenized blockchain funds, or the campaign to elect James Talarico as the first democratic senator in Texas since 1988. Those humanities graduates who can do that, just like the engineers who can explain a transistor in plain English, those are the ones who will succeed in any field they choose to work in.

What Owners, CEOs and Billionaires Need

The owner of this company didn’t have someone on their management staff with those skills. As with most small tech companies, built up with an amazing idea by a single brilliant engineer who eventually became the owner, the management team was made up of engineers and accountants, all smart and well educated in their own fields. That is what  the owner understood and knew, so he hired people of like mind.

When he started the business, literally out of his own garage, he hired his buddy from college to be his second-in-command. He wasn’t happy with his other corporate gig, so he was more than eager to move over. He worked in this business for another 15 years and then retired to a lodge in Tahoe. Over time, as the business grew and they moved into an office building, the business hired more brilliant people that had the same skills.

For the first few years, the business continued to grow. Everyone who worked there was satisfied and things were good. It grew into a bustling “small” business, the kind that dot all of Orange County, CA where I offer my services. Because everything was looking up, they did not notice the imbalance that grew in the business. After all, everything was going well. Even as the problem slowly became more apparent, everyone just assumed that someone “at the top” was handling it.

That was the way the business ran… until the day it came to a screeching halt. They would like to say it was a surprise, but it really wasn’t. Now they were stuck and they needed something, or someone, to get them unstuck. They needed someone who could see the simplicity of the actual problem, present it in an orderly way, and convince the entire team to work together to solve it. What this business owner needed was a capable right-hand-man (or woman).

Now we just dropped our son back off at college. He won’t be working for this business owner. He might not even work for any business owner. Maybe he’ll pursue a career in an entirely different field. We don’t yet know. What we do know, however, is that he is learning valuable skills, skills that thousands of other students are learning in the top colleges and universities in this country. Even many STEM students could be learning these skills, but these are skills that are primarily taught in the humanities. They are the ability to understand how people get along and to use that ability to get them to continue to get along.

Well, that was my attempt to synthesize this article into a single sentence. Hmmm, maybe I should ask my son for some pointers on how to express that a little better…

An Important Lesson about a Fishing Rod

Sometimes we cherish things so much that we miss the time to enjoy them.

Image by tookapic on Pixabay

I used to love going fishing with my late grandfather, my Opa, in the Netherlands. He would wake me up at the crack of dawn and tell me to get dressed. We would walk to the shed where we would make the bait from wet bread dough that he then stored inside an old metal cigar box. He had a special small fishing rod for kids that I could use, while he used the big heavy one he had always used. We would then grab the rods, a couple of stools, and a small bucket, and then walk, hand-in-hand, for what seemed like miles, to the local pond.

It was a special spot between the reeds where he had come the night before to toss some breadcrumbs into the water to attract the fish in the morning. We would then sit for what also seemed like hours, very quietly, just fishing by the side of the water. It was a time of quite contemplation, but also great excitement as the bobbers bobbed up and down.

We didn’t always catch much, but when we did, it was the pinnacle of the morning. There was commotion and movement as my Opa helped me pull a fish out of the water. Consequently, it was also a moment when I was allowed to say a few words, a happy respite from the long wait. Then when it was all done and my Opa had put the fish in our bucket, it was back to the quiet watching and sitting…

Those were some of the best memories I can remember of my childhood. Fishing with Opa was a special time that every one of my older cousins had enjoyed as well. Even my uncles did it, and my oldest uncle, Uncle Jan, loved it as much as any one of us. By the time he was married and had his own children, he was a fishing enthusiast. He even lived right off a lake, owned a boat, and had many fancy fishing rods. He was a pro, you might say.

Now my Opa’s fishing rod was from before the war. It was old. It had been repaired many times; it was even broken in half once …and repaired. It wasn’t nice or flashy, either, just a dull brown with slightly rusted parts here and there. It was also heavy and the spool was just barely functional (also having been repaired many times).

The Upgrade!

On my Opa’s 76th birthday, and with much fanfare, my uncle Jan gifted his father a brand-new fishing rod. It was shiny, strong but light, and beautiful to behold. Everything worked, including the large spool with gold-tone wire in it. We were all in awe, and a bit envious, too. What a kingly gift. My Opa was also in awe. It was so beautiful and perfect he dared not use it at all.

And that is exactly what happened. That awesome beautiful rod went into the shed, stood right next to the old brown rod ready for use, but it never left the shed. My Opa, the most humble, kind, thoughtful, and deeply protestant man I knew, never used his new fishing rod. After all, the old rod still worked. Why not use that one for now, at least until it breaks again? It was just the practical thing to do.

So, for the next few years my Opa and I continued fishing every summer, me with my little rod and he with his old, trusty, heavy, brown rod. The beautiful new rod remained standing there in the shed all those years, never dipping a line in the water. As my Opa grew older, as I grew older, and all the other cousins also outgrew their fishing right-of-passage with Opa, he too stopped going to the pond to fish. He had grown too old and tired to fish and eventually too old and tired to walk anymore. Eventually he passed on as well.

Other than the time I’ve spent with my late father was he was growing old too, there is little I miss more than those special early morning fishing with my Opa. I never found out what happened to that beautiful fishing rod in the shed. I believe it passed onto my Uncle Jan who now has also passed. I’m guessing his eldest son has it sitting in his shed, but I really hope that he has used it. It was such a beautiful fishing rod and it would be a shame if it was never used by anyone in our family.

It’s Not Just About a Fishing Rod!

So why am I sharing the story of a fishing rod on a blog about small business ownership? Well because we all have our own fishing rod sitting around and not being used. Admit it, we all have something we received or that we bought for ourselves that is just sitting there that is better than what we are currently using.

I know I have a Mobile Fidelity Ultradeck record player that I never pulled out of the shipping box because I still have a perfectly good one on my stereo rack – maybe I’m more like my Opa that I’d like to admit. Maybe you have that special bottle of 15-yr Macallan Double Cask sitting in the cupboard? Or perhaps you received a Massage Envy gift card that is still adding girth to your wallet needlessly (and contributing to your bad posture). Perhaps you have a red 1970 Chevy Camaro that you spent years restoring that is now being forgotten under a cover in the garage.

So maybe this weekend is the time to invite some good friends over take them for a drive down the strip in that beautiful Camaro, then come back to listen to some old school records and crack open that bottle of scotch. Then, the next morning you can go enjoy that full-body massage your aching back has been begging for. YOLO.

This sentiment doesn’t just apply to your personal life either. It can also apply to your business. Perhaps it’s time to toss those old manilla folders with the worn tabs and rip the plastic off the new box of brightly colored ones with the reinforced tabs. Or maybe it’s time to replace that dingy keyboard with the missing J key and the wobbly space bar. While you’re at it, replace that sticky mouse with the coffee stain, too.

Likewise, are you still running an old version of Quickbooks on your computers? If so, take a few minutes to upgrade it. You’ve probably paid for the software already, so there’s no reason not to. Personally, I know I need to set up my shiny new firewall. It is still sitting patiently in a sealed little box, right on top of the energy-hog firewall server computer it will replace.

It’s About Time!

Why we never get to these important upgrades in our lives is perhaps a topic for a future blog. For now, take some time to look around and see it there are things in your life and in your business that you should probably replace, upgrade, or renew. As a bonus, that thing you renew, if it is still in decent condition, can perhaps be re-used by someone else. I know that old firewall server can become a perfectly fine computer for someone who needs it – heck, it has 96Gb of RAM!

The reason you need to do this is because the real tragedy is if you never get around to it. I know that my grandfather would have enjoyed that new fishing rod. I also know that my uncle Jan would really have loved to go fishing with his father using that rod too. Those are moments they will never have.

So, don’t wait for the proverbial rod to break, because that time may never come. Time is something we can never get back. This is of course true for the things around us, but it is especially important to the family and good friends that we can enjoy those things with.

This is just as true for your business. Your employees (or your family, if they work for you), would really appreciate new keyboards and mice. It’s such an inexpensive upgrade, but those cheap ones that come bundled with computers these days just aren’t made for business use. Oh, and having the latest version of Quicken on their computers won’t just put a smile on their faces, it will also improve productivity and probably address a few irritating bugs too.

Image by Jamie Johannsen on Pixabay