Exciting and busy times for my business and me!

I've moved into and opened an office, signed my second client, am in the process of incorporating and launching my consulting firm, and planning a January launch party! In between, I'm exploring some investment opportunities with an old colleague, trying to find time to blog, buying office supplies, running a 5K on Saturday in SF with my oldest daughter Gigi, trying to keep the gym visits + rides at 6+ per week and getting ready for the holidays and the rush of birthdays in our house. Wow, no wonder I'm tired!!! But good tired!!!

2010 promises to be an exciting one indeed!

If you want to learn more about my new business, drop me a line!

Holiday Cheers to You and Your Loved Ones...
Ken

Dog days and dog nights...but worth it...early thanksgiving

It's been a LONG time since I last blogged, but between completing our program launch at Nimsoft, and our sick family dog, not much time for deep thought...it's been the dog days, and the dog nights...

I am very proud of the work we've completed at Nimsoft. Nimsoft is truly an amazing story, and we just needed to get out and tell it. Working with the Nimsoft team and a great set of outside help, including my trusted friends Susan and the team at Trainer Communications and Sara at Juicy Design, we really set out to change Nimsoft's core positioning from one of challenger to one of leader.

It's rare to find clients with great products, great customers and great market traction, who also have the courage and leadership to not rest on their success but to think big and take chances. Many CEOs would be content to bask in the glow of an amazing sales performance and great new analyst coverage, etc, but Gary R. and the management team were willing to be bolder. Nimsoft is now positioned for incredible things in the future. Most of the credit goes to the team for building a great product and a great revenue base, but I am thrilled to have the chance to work with the Nimsoft team and help them to put a platform in place that will accelerate their success even more.

At the same time our little dog has pulled back from the brink on Halloween eve, when his heart was down to 50/bpm, about 40% of normal, and is now recovering at home from Trigeminal Neurosis. I don't know much about it beyond what I've read, but the human version, Trigeminal Neurologia is described online as extremely painful, and has even been called "Suicide Disease". Poor little guy, no wonder he was not moving for a week!!!

I also have a new respect for the compassion and caring of people in veterinary medicine, I am sure they make a good living, but they sure do seem to care a lot too. Thanks to Barb Kollin, Linda Jorgenson, Dr Phelan, Dr Adamo and the crews at both Sequoia and South Peninsula Emergency pet hospitals. Sure we spent way too much money, but it's good to have been on that team too...Though he may have lost his eyesight in one eye, we are hopeful that Macabee will recover and live a happy dog life again, doing what dogs do best, sleep, eat, play, relieve, repeat...

So as we roll toward the T-giving holiday, I'm grateful for family (and dog!), great colleagues, challenging work and life in general. I may have a few more wrinkles after the dog days of Oct/Early November, but that's a small price to pay....

Cheers
K

Blue Shield Still Sucks

Trust me. First see this post:

http://sijobfront.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-you-want-healthcare-coverage.html

Now after 6 months of runaround, they want my wife to get a full physical (at our cost), reams of documentation, etc, etc, and then they MIGHT do us the favor of taking our business...

Six months ago I wasn't for big reform, but now I hope these insurance bastards are all run out of business...

UGGGHHHH

Luck to all NU 84s, and thanks for a great weekend

So, wifi from 35K never ceases to amaze.

Twenty five years seems like a long time, and hey, I guess it is about 1/3 of your life, hopefully a bit less. Walking the Northwestern campus was like a strange time warp, seem like nothing had changed but everything had too. 1980-1984 seems like a distant dream. Then walking into the reunion party and seeing the faces from that dream was both exciting and a bit unsettling. Some great people, and most seemed to have changed yet stayed the same.

I think of my journey since then, a long and winding road, filled with dreams fulfilled and for the greatest most part joy and a luckily relatively small amount of sorrow. I think of all the transitions, from engineer to sales rep to business person, from Chicago to NY to Chicago to Ca, from single to married to father, and it is hard to imagine to have asked for a more fufilling journey.

Many years ago, my old high school wrestling coach had a saying, "luck is when preparation meets opportunity." Northwestern truly did prepare me for life. The education, both in and outside the classroom, the people, everything, must of made me a very lucky man. I've had a thrilling career, and am blessed with an amazing wife and 4 incredible little ones. Who woulda predicted that? And I was really amazed by the success and maturity that I saw in all those 47 year olds who seem like they were just 22 a few years ago! Well done friends.

Maybe it is a bit ironic that I now find myself at a crossroads of my career, and at a crossroads in the family. I have decided to go out alone as an idependent consultant, and our first child is approaching tween-ness and already showing signs of independence, and hormones :). As I embark on the next 25 years, I've already marked the data for the 50th in 2034, and I think I am prepared well to venture into my new consulting business and to continue to create a loving home for our children to grow in and to eventually leave from. I only hope that my preparation paves the way for more opportunity and luck...and to all those others, fortunate enough to have had the preparation I did, I wish you all the luck

Over and out
"Rut"