The holiday is Labor Day, which was established to celebrate the work and efforts of all who toil to earn a living.

Like most holidays, it has accrued additional meanings and symbolism over the years.

For some, it is a fashion milestone, signaling the time to store away the white shoes, belts and dresses until next summer.

For others, it’s the traditional end of summer frolic and time to return to school.

And for others, it’s the beginning of long anticipated American football amateur and professional sports seasons.

But, the root and purpose of the holiday is to feature and appreciate the efforts and labors of every working man and woman in the country.

Along those lines, I came across this video today in a post by a VC.

The video relates what happened when a lawyer ridiculed a teacher at a dinner party regarding the teacher’s relative abilities, income and contribution to society.

I find it particularly appropriate for this Labor Day weekend holiday.

As those of us here celebrate this holiday and our friends around the world pause for their weekend, it’s good for all of us to ask ourselves, “What do you make?”

Link to video: What do you make?

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903639404576513981361991242.html?mod=ITP_marketplace_4

I thought about the conversation or email that must have solicited this image back from the media library people: “Need 4 column photo for Deere & Company” Somebody down there dutifully ran a keyword search for “Deere & Company,” perhaps even including “tractor,” and this is what they picked from the results.

The media library sent the photo up to editorial and it got inserted and then at least one editor reviewed the layout, clicked on “approved,” and out it went to the world.

The Wall Street Journal’s perception of Deere & Company, agriculture and the Midwest, all nicely summed up in a photo.

How very quaint.

As the story states, Deere & Company is the world’s largest manufacturer of farm machinery by sales.

Deere & Company is currently projecting a full-year net income of $2.7 billion. That’s billion with a B and that’s net income, meaning revenue minus costs, also known as profit. They had revenues of $8.37 billion last quarter alone and reported revenues of $26 billion in 2010. That same year, 2010, Deere & Company ranked 107th on the Fortune 500 list.

In 1837 John Deere was a one-man show operating out of a blacksmith shop. Today, it is a very big company, employing over 55,000 people and selling more than $26 billion dollars in products and services worldwide.

Their current top of the line wheeled farm tractor is a 9630.

This particular example, a used 2009 model with 2,014 hours of operation, will set you back $234,900.

You can build a quote for a new one here: http://www.deere.com/servlet/ProdCatProduct?tM=FR&pNbr=9630_RW

So, we’ve got a $26 billion dollar company that sells quarter million dollar tractors, and what photo does the WSJ pick to illustrate its products and market?

This one:

I’ll pause here for snickers and guffaws from those who grew up around farms.

To those of you who are not from agricultural states, the hilarity of this image may escape you.

The reasons the photo is so inappropriate include, but are not limited to:

1. The tractor is an antique. I’m not a John Deere aficionado, so I can’t be sure of the exact model, but it looks like a 4020 era tractor to me. The 4020 was introduced in 1963.
2. There are farmhands in the photo. In the late 1800s, around 80% of the U.S. workforce was employed in agriculture. Currently, agriculture employment is less than 2% of the economy. Almost nobody works down on the farm anymore, especially baling hay.
3. They are using a small square baler. And, it’s not even a John Deere baler. Since nobody works down on the farm anymore, most farmers use large round or large square balers and handle the resulting bales with tractors. Small balers are rare, and if you find them, they include a mechanism to throw the bales up into an enclosed hay rack or they drop the bales onto the field for later mechanized collection. As to the brand, John Deere sells a full range of balers, including small square balers.
4. They are using a flatbed hay rack. As illustrated in the photo, this requires two guys on the hay rack to stack the bales. Meanwhile, back at the barn, there are three or four guys offloading a hay rack onto an elevator and up into the hay loft, where the bales are manually stacked to the ceiling. Yes, it’s a very hot job up in the hay loft on a muggy August afternoon. In total, that’s a crew of five to six, not including the farmer on the tractor. See point #2.

So, as a photo of a bygone era that almost perfectly captures my memories of baling hay as a kid, yes, this photo is almost optimum (I baled a lot more hay than straw).

However, as a photo to represent a $26 billion dollar global behemoth, not so much.

I think the folks at the Wall Street Journal would profit from a group field trip out to learn where meat comes from and what modern agriculture looks like.

I think the post is a good read and draws useful parallels for a few aspects of motorcycling and startups.

I’ve been riding motorcycles for over 40 years both on and off road and on six continents through most of 43 countries.

I’ve personally started about a half dozen businesses (depending on how you count them) and been part of starting dozens more.

You could say this topic resonates with me.

I’d add the following to the author’s list:

1. In loose conditions, loosen your grip, let the bars wander a little and increase your speed to plane over the surface, otherwise you a) get exhausted / arm pump and b) sucked into the surface and will die duck walking at crawling speed. Biz version: You must maintain a rate of progress and advancement that keeps you above the minutia of your market and your business, otherwise you will exhaust your available resources long before you reach your goal.
2. Don’t commit to a blind line until you can see the exit. When you can see the exit and are off the apex, roll on the power. (street riding survival) Biz version: Don’t blindly commit to a strategy or tactic until you think through and/or can see where it will lead. When you can see the goal is achievable via the strategy or tactic, apply available resources.
3. It doesn’t take much talent to go fast in a straight line. Biz version: A rapidly expanding bubble or fast growing market makes everyone look like a business genius. Be realistic about how much of your success is due to external factors. Be ready for the inevitable downturn of the business cycle.
4. Wait for the rider ahead to clear the obstacle before you make your run or they will often become part of what you must overcome. Biz version: If a competitor is creating a train wreck in the market, then you’ll need to expend resources to climb over their wreckage (this is particularly applicable to massive flame outs or failures in your market segment when you need capital to expand; you will be fighting PR comparisons to your competitors’ failures for years).
5. MSF instructors crash a lot. Biz version: Overconfidence leads to failure. Stay humble.
6. Watch out for the four wheelers. Biz version: Your advantage as a startup is speed and nimbleness. You win by leveraging your advantages, you lose by being a fixed, immobile target for a massive competitor.
7. Commit to a line, but be ready to change it. Biz version: You’ll never get anywhere if you don’t commit to a strategy and get moving. You’ll almost never get there in the way you thought you would, so be ready to adjust along the way.
8. It’s not about the bike. It’s about the experiences. Biz version: Building and polishing the perfect business plan, business model, team or collection of technical tools and equipment is all meaningless. It’s what you do with those resources that counts.
9. It’s not the crash, it’s the sudden stop at the end. Biz version: Having a business fail or exiting a business before you’re ready isn’t the painful part, it’s what happens next that hurts.
10. Just put me back on my bike. Biz version: You will make mistakes. You will fail. It’s not the mistakes or failures that matter, it’s picking up the bike, getting back on and going again that matters.

Ask the questions before you become emotionally invested in the opportunity. Once you get past that line, your emotional investment will color or skew your perceptions to the point you will not be able to be objective about the answers.

Use as many objective, fact-based data points as possible, and keep a log or spreadsheet that rates and weights the answers.

Questions #1 – #3 are absolute show stoppers.

It can be possible to overcome #4 if you can see a clear path to obtaining the necessary skills, etc. Most entrepreneurs get to where they end up by answering “Yes, I can do that,” to every challenge and figuring it out as they go along. That approach does not disqualify you for opportunities, but you need to be honest about how that changes your risk profile.

The answers will never come back all positive, but the goal is to have the majority of the answers to questions 5-11 come back positive. Some negative responses, such as those around customers, products and services, etc., may provide leverage points for negotiations.

Questions for you to ask:

1. What are your life goals? What are the most important, top-three things on your list of life priorities? Would this role advance you towards those goals? If so, proceed.
2. Will this opportunity be a positive or negative impact on your marriage/primary relationship(s)? If positive, proceed.
3. Other than money, what intrinsic and extrinsic rewards does this role provide you? Are those rewards sustainable over the mid- to long-term? Do those rewards provide for most of what you need? If so, proceed.
4. Are you qualified for this position? That means, do you have the applicable skills, experience, motivation, network, health, outlook and capabilities to be successful in this role? Be honest. If yes, proceed.
5. What will your life be like on a Tuesday morning four years from now if you take this opportunity? What will an average day be like? Does that sound like a day you want to be living then? If so, proceed.
6. What is this market segment? What is its current size in number of customers and total sales? What size is your territory or accessible market (the market you can reach with your available resources)? Is it growing or shrinking in sales and customers? How many viable customers exist in your territory or accessible market? Are there more and more or less and less? Is this a growing, vital market, a “walking dead” market or a shrinking, dying market? Do the answers to these questions add up to a positive opportunity? If so, proceed.
7. What is the competitive position of the company? Is it a market leader? Is it growing in sales? Is it financially successful? How many employees does it have? What do former and current employees say about the company? What do current, former and prospective customers say about the company? Do the answers to these questions add up to a positive opportunity? If so, proceed.
8. What is it like working for your prospective new manager? What do former and current employees have to say about him/her? How secure is he/her in his position? Is he/she working under “golden handcuffs” after an acquisition or other employment agreement? If so, how much longer is he/she contractually obligated to work for the company? What happens if he/she leaves? What are his/her sales targets? Are those targets part of the acquisition or employment contract? Are those goals achievable? Do the answers to these questions add up to a positive opportunity? If so, proceed.
9. What are the products or services? How many products or services will you sell? Will you be a “one trick pony” or have a range of products or services that can meet the needs of a variety of customers and markets? Does the product or services line put you at risk for a particular segment of the economy? What is the reputation of the products or services in the marketplace with customers? What do past, current and prospective customers have to say about the products or services? For customers who no longer buy the products or services, why did they stop? For customers who don’t buy the products or services, why don’t they buy them? Is it possible to overcome those objections? Is there enough margin and commission in the product or services line to add up to a decent life and make up for the downsides of the role? Do the answers to these questions add up to a positive opportunity? If so, proceed.
10. What do past, current and prospective customers have to say about this opportunity? Talk to ten to 20 past, current and prospective customers of the products or services. Ask them straight up about the company, products or services and if they would take a job with the company. Do the answers to these questions add up to a positive opportunity? If so, proceed.
11. The last thing to worry about is the money. If the answers to #1, #2 and #3 are good, then the money is not a very big consideration. Money is the worst reason to take a job, since the motivation of money fades very quickly. You’ll be a lot happier if you concentrate on the other things the job brings other than money. If you like the people you work with and your customers, then your life will be happy. No matter how much they pay you, it will never make up for bad people. Will the money cover what you need it to cover and provide a little extra for some things you’d like to do? If so, proceed.

The views were impressive looking out of the mansion, across the expansive lawns and down to Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean spanning the western horizon.

I don’t think I ever knew how many rooms were in the place. More rooms than Steph has shoes, of that I’d wager confidently. But, of all of those sitting rooms, drawing rooms, ballrooms, etc., we’d gathered around the kitchen table, which was somehow fitting.

Clusters of kids flitted in and out of the kitchen, snatching handfuls of nourishment and then disappearing into the various wings, swallowed by the long hallways and flights of stairs. Some of the children were blood related to our hosts, Neil and Susie. Others were familiar neighborhood kids, part of the ambiance of the home. Others were less known, and were very possibly living surreptitiously in forgotten rooms or levels, but were, as all, clutched into the warm bosom of hearth, health and home that so defines Neil and Susie.

Soon after the opening pleasantries of our visit and in between sweeps of locust-like teenage consumption, Neil turned to me, pinned me down with his piercing gaze and demanded, “So, what are you two really up to?”

At the time, we were on our way to the docks, in the last stage prior to shipping our overland expedition vehicle to South America, the start of a planned two- to four-year, multi-continent extension of our world explorations. We’d just spent nine months building the vehicle and a few additional months testing it across the western U.S. It had been more than four years since I’d shared a keynote podium with Neil, a friend from my years in business intelligence, and walked away from that career.

Neil’s certainty that, no matter what else we did, there was something that we were really doing, was and remains a common belief among our friends and family. Some younger members of the family (and, truth be told, some older members too) are convinced we are secret agents. Some friends and former colleagues harbor a conviction we’ve been stealthily incubating a business startup for the past seven years that will burst forth and sweep all before it. Many, if not most, have never been able to quite figure out what it is we did or are doing, no matter how many books and essays I write, articles magazines publish or blog posts we share.

Last Spring Steph and I both decided that since we a) were going to be back in the U.S. for a while, b) don’t play golf and c) don’t watch television, we needed to get something going or both our heads were going to explode. Subsequently, the speculation has only grown even more intense. The more we poked around, attended conferences and explored business models, the more fevered the theories amongst our friends and family has become. Just about everyone is now, more than ever, convinced that there is something that we’re really doing.

A few years ago, sitting at Neil and Susie’s kitchen table, I hesitated to answer his, “So, what are you two really up to?” question. It wasn’t as if we were really hiding anything. After all, we were just doing what we were doing. Finally, I blurted out, “Nothing, nothing, we’re not really doing anything. We’re just heading overseas.” Neil and Susie’s doubtful looks were identical as the room resonated with uncertainty, if not outright suspicion. They didn’t buy it.

So, after all these years, to finally answer Neil’s question and to end, once and for all, all the speculation as to what we’ve really been up to, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0aAX2biCio

I compiled my thoughts on the primary challenges the United States faces in the coming decade, and ways to overcome them, here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/facingthefuture.pdf

The primary focus in this collection is on domestic challenges, although some geopolitical issues are addressed.

.

It’s often quoted folk-wisdom that climbing stairs adds years to your life. That’s interesting, since the goal of human civilization, once past the creation of the civilization itself and aside from war, has largely been the elimination of all possible effort associated with life.

From elevators to Google search, anything that eliminates effort is rewarded; from rotary dial phones to manual crank car windows, anything that adds effort is penalized. Day by day, year by year, more and more effort is removed from life, leaving more and more effortless life, more and more elevator rides through existence.

Is there a price to pay for that?

Does having a few staircases to climb every day add the level of striving and exertion required for humans to be healthy, both mentally and physically?

What about on a societal scale?

When societies have no major challenges to overcome, no credible common goal they are collectively striving to achieve, no literal or figurative staircase to climb, they inevitably disintegrate.

How many staircases can we eliminate before we as individuals, and collectively as a society, lose what we need to be healthy and stay alive?

Have we already collectively moved out of our 4th floor walkup? And, if so, how much longer before the effects overwhelm us?

Asked another way, if we’re no longer climbing the stairs of individual and collective challenge, are we instead fat, happy and riding the elevator, merely waiting to get off at a higher floor, unprepared for what awaits us? Or, are we instead hurtling down the elevator shaft to the depths below, blissfully unaware we’ve traded what we need to survive and thrive as individuals and as a society for the ease of an effort- free, ignorance-is-bliss, abbreviated existence?

The entrepreneur who told me of his father is 83. He’s looking for another startup. He wants to be climbing stairs. He wants a 4th floor walkup.

Which are you looking for: the stairs or the elevator?

Which is your country looking for?

First, in a story in MSN Money: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/big-discounts-on-little-pleasures.aspx

Second, in a story on FoxNews: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/04/16/rv-travel-beginners/

The Fox story included a link to our Travel web site, www.HackneysTravel.com, which was nice of them to include. I haven’t checked the traffic levels on the site yet to see if they spiked or not.

More than 70 percent of corporate change efforts fail.

Humans hate change.

It’s a simple fact of life. There isn’t any easy way around it. In general, humans hate change.

That rule extends beyond individuals into groups of humans: families, tribes, organizations, companies, communities and nations. Humans hate change.

As individuals and groups, we tend to get locked into a way of doing things, a set of perceptions and a set of expectations. Anything that forces us to change anything about what we consider normal is usually resisted.

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence for the need for change, we will resist change. For example, the majority of people who suffer heart attacks do not make long term changes in their lifestyles to eliminate or limit factors that contribute to heart disease. In other words, even when it’s a matter of life and death, humans hate change so much they won’t change even to save their own lives.

There are university degree programs in change management; multiple national and global professional associations of practicing change management consultants; countless thousands of trained, certified and degreed change management practitioners and a cornucopia of books, videos, workshops and tutorials on implementing change. In spite of all this learning and all these resources, there has been relatively little improvement in change rates in humans or groups of humans.

Why is this so?

The reason humans and groups of humans are so poor at making changes is that there is actually a very small window of opportunity for change in humans and groups of humans.

Most people and organizations consider themselves open to change. You could not begin to count the number of leaders who promote a culture of openness to change and constant improvement. Although this makes for good public relations, in reality, humans and groups of humans are typically open to and accepting of change only during a very small portion of time relative to their overall existence.

(click for larger image)

The lifecycle of humans and groups of humans, such as companies and countries, consists of cycles, cyclic periods of relative growth and shrinkage. During these cycles, humans and groups of humans such as companies and countries spend most of their time blocked off from being open to and accepting of change.

During growth periods, humans, companies and countries are in the cocoon of the Curse of Success. Everything is going great, so there is no need to be open to any external inputs, regardless of source. It is useless to attempt to provide advice, guidance or predictions of future challenges to humans, companies or countries during this period. From their perspective, they are succeeding, so they have no need of improvement; they are obviously the single and sole source of their success, so others have nothing to offer that could possibly be of value to them.

When growth slows, complacency sets in. Humans, companies and countries consider this a brief lull before inevitable growth returns. They use this period to relax and recover from the exertions of the high growth period. Again, it is useless to attempt to provide any suggestions for improvements or warnings of coming challenges during this period. From their point of view, they just had a huge run of success. If anyone should be offering advice, it is they who should be instructing others; their success had nothing to do with external factors or the overall environment; success was due to their unique combination of talents and abilities.

When things turn downward, humans, companies and countries engage in a long period of denial. During this period they attempt to apply solutions to past problems to the new challenges they face. They will continue to cycle through previous solutions to past problems until they pass through the baseline. Only then will they consider the possibility that they are facing new challenges that their old solutions won’t overcome.

Once they are well and truly lower than the baseline where they started, they will panic and desperately apply any possible solution in an effort to return to the sweet days of growth and the lazy afternoons of complacency. This period is when individuals, companies and countries attempt “silver bullet” solutions, magic cures and radical reorganizations, often leading to outright failure. This period is a fertile market for purveyors of quackery, flim-flam artists, con men and get-rich-quick schemes on the individual and small group level and seemingly simple solutions to complex problems at the large group to country scale.

If they survive the panic phase, they will finally, albeit briefly, be open to and accepting of real change.

Real change requires real work. It requires real changes in processes, perceptions, activities, structures and organization. As such, humans and groups of humans attempt to limit the amount of real change as much as possible. During this period, they are enthusiastic about the concepts of change, but very resistant to fully adopting and implementing the nuts-and-bolts reality of complete change. If they succeed in not fully changing, they guarantee that they will revisit the downward slope and panic phase shortly.

As soon as humans and groups of humans sense a shift in direction from plunging ever downward to leveling out, change stops. Lip service, platitudes and posters regarding change may still linger, but real change, complete change, ceases immediately.

The next step in the cycle is incorrect attribution of causality. For individuals or groups that survive the terrifying dive to near oblivion only to pull up just as they were staring directly at disaster, the only possible cause of their success is themselves. They immediately begin the process of self-congratulation and self-reinforcement of all the things they did right to save themselves. As they begin to experience growth, this loop becomes self-enabling, self-certifying and self-accelerating. The more they experience success, the more entrenched the legends of how they survived and triumphed over adversity become. The long drop off the cliff, the panic, the terror all fade into dim memories as they pass upward through the baseline and wall themselves off in the cocoon of the Curse of Success.

And the cycle begins anew.

As you can see, the window of opportunity, the period of time, when people are open to and accepting of change is actually extremely limited. That is the reason why humans and groups of humans are so miserable at effecting change in their lives, their tribes, their communities, their companies and their countries.

Where are you in this cycle?

Where is your tribe, your community and your company in this cycle?

And, of critical importance right now, where is your country in this cycle?

*******

Sources:

• Texas A&M University
• Harvard Business Review
• Canadian Medical Association
• Enterprise Group, Ltd. www.egltd.com

The equity split was Wozniak 45%, Jobs 45% and Wayne 10%.

Wozniak recalls, “Steve had 45 percent of this partnership, I had 45 percent, and Ron had 10 percent, because both of us agreed that we could trust him to resolve any dispute, and we would trust his judgment.”

So what ever happened to Ron Wayne, a guy who had 10% founding equity in Apple?

Wozniak relates, “I had no money and Steve had no money. We didn’t own cars, we didn’t have savings accounts, we didn’t have houses. So Ron Wayne figured they’d come after him for his golden nuggets that he kept under his mattress. (He actually tells me it was in a safe-but he was afraid they’d come and get his gold.) So he sold out. It was too risky for him, so he sold out his 10 percent of Apple to [us] for a few hundred bucks. Maybe $600, maybe $800, maybe $300-but   a few hundred bucks. And this was even when we had an Apple II designed and were heading toward future business. He was just scared that something was going to catch him.”

Apple’s market capitalization this morning is $181.7 billion, with a B. If Ron Wayne had stayed around (and assuming no dilution), his 10 percent of Apple would be worth $18 billion. With a B.

Fear, thy name is Ron Wayne.

Sources:

• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston
• Yahoo! Finance