More about me

Welcome to Thoughts Over Coffee

Why did I create this site?

The purpose of this site is to share lessons from my life in the hope that others will learn from my experiences and hopefully share their experiences to help me continue to improve.  After all the years I served in the Army I think I have learned a thing or two about leadership and I feel I picked up a few points running a $400 million marketing campaign too.

Slide68Throughout this website you will see two color coded sections.  Lessons Learned will share the good, the bad and the ugly.  These lessons might apply specifically to the area being discussed or it might be a broader lesson.  What we didn’t try are things that in hindsight I wish we had tried.

Over the years I have learned more over a cup of coffee having a one-on-one discussion than I ever did from all the conference room meetings.  I hope this website and blog can help others too.  Sit back, pour yourself a cup o’ joe, and read on!  I will try and give credit where credit is due, but at the end of the day all failures were mine and mine alone.

I’ve been blessed throughout my life, having the honor of leading some amazing teams who achieved things none of us would have predicted.  My contribution was building a team that focused on training and mentoring others and then empowering them to do their job.  I spent over 24 years in uniform because I loved the people I worked with.  However, I hated the formality.  I’m not one for titles and I detest being called sir.  I believe that people earn respect.  I’ve met too many people with fancy titles who I don’t respect.  Conference rooms are more effective when there are no titles present.  Let me be clear though, I am NOT suggesting that we all call each other comrade either!  🙂

Just call me Dave!

On my business card it reads “Perpetual Marketing Student.”  I have found that self-proclaimed “experts” and “gurus” tend to think that others have little to offer them.  As I tell everyone on the first day of every job:

I am not the smartest person in the room, everyone in here knows something that I don’t.

Of all the awards I have received over the years the only thing that I keep on my desk is an email written to me by a Soldier after he was diagnosed with cancer.  The note was written over two years after we had served together and he told me what a difference I had made in his life.  No ribbon, plaque or trophy will ever mean more to me than the frame that holds that message.  It is a reminder that at the end of the day, it is the difference you make in others lives that is the true measure of success.

Measurement of Success

I hear people talk all the time about measuring success and how hard it is.  Let me offer the simpliest of measurements that you can take every morning before you head off to work and every evening as you go to bed.  Look in the mirror.  Do you respect the actions of the person staring back at you?

Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to share ideas so we can all get better!

Dave

 

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