During a breakfast with a customer this week, we got on the topic of expectations, business and beyond. We both had experiences where we did not expect a return, or anything for that matter, and we were just offering to assist someone else. It’s funny the way things works. Often, those were the times when …
For nearly 30 years, I have spent the third weekend of October in Buffalo Gap, South Dakota. It’s an upland bird hunting trip, which is really more about so many other things, with the hunting license being the passport. I returned Tuesday evening from my annual trip. I’ve had a chance to view hundreds of sunsets …
Last Saturday evening, when I attended KultureCity‘s KultureBALL, I was reminded once again what can happen when a grassroots idea gets the right leadership. Julian Maha and his wife Michele Kong, both medical doctors, founded KultureCity in 2013 after their oldest child was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Ever since, their goal has been education, inclusion and to provide the alteration of public spaces, making …
Not too long ago, I was traveling home on a Friday evening and passing through the Chicago airport. I was walking up to an escalator–one of those long, steep ones that takes you down to travel under the tarmac to the next concourse–and noticed no one was traveling down. As I approached, I realized the situation. There was an elderly …
I recently had the opportunity to listen to Raphael Bostic of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta speak at the Civil Rights Institute. My takeaways from that afternoon were primarily focused on workforce development in current times. As a business community, there is a need to ensure students have an eye toward the workplace, understanding which opportunities are …
We are members of an FMI group with 6 other contractors spread coast to coast. We meet semi-annually to discuss strategy, and most recently, culture. On a that visit, I was exposed to a quote from Peter Drucker, maybe said by others as well: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s true in many ways. Culture is an aloof concepts, “that special something,” …
I sometimes think I used up all of my share of blind luck about 15 years ago, when I played in a charity golf tournament that Coach Bowden of FSU sponsored down in Destin. It was one of those tournaments where they drew five names that evening and each of the five pulled a key …
You win some. You lose some. But when you get really close to winning and still have to walk away empty handed? That’s especially difficult. A few weeks ago, as I watched the final holes of the British Open, I could not help but feel for Matt Kuchar as he walked up the 18th fairway. He played great, and by all rights …
This week, a couple of us were reviewing an article about a building contractor that let things get out of control on a large high school project. The Board of Education had just announced the school would not open in the fall as planned, delaying until December. (Every surety’s nightmare.) We then started discussing large …
When I was younger, things seemed more black and white. Like many at that age, my answer was either “yes,” or “no,” and not much in between. Over the years, I have learned that there is also the right place to say “maybe, but not yet.” To me, learning to be direct and definitive is …
Fifteen years ago, I was officially broke and near bankruptcy. The good news was that only our CFO and I knew it. It was a perfect storm. My marriage was breaking up, my business partner wanted out, and the company had a negative net worth. The bank called me and told me they did not …
In our industry, it’s common for project superintendents to start as carpenters, earning their positions as managers through years of hard work. Many of our guys advanced this way, but we do have a handful of folks who took a different path into construction. For example, one of our superintendents was a music major in college, …