Safe Harbor October 7, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in Safety.Tags: Coming Home, Safe Harbor
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We all want to come home in one form or another-to find enough peace to exist as we are and to accept ourselves for whom we are.
It’s hard to come home when you’ve sailed so far into troubled oceans, inflicting pain on the way and living more for yourself than for others.
When I was younger, the pain that I caused others had long, resilient teeth that snapped out before they snapped back at me- years before karma would strike back. Those teeth are sharper now and strike back much more quickly.
So, the question is what to do? And the answer is step-by-step, do good, listen to others, and live a good life, pay my debts-spiritual, personal, and actual.
I’d like to come home to safe harbors and know I can’t until I loosen my grip on old habits and try new ways-in short, until I do more good than ill.
It’s cold and wet out of port and i’ve seen enough of the deep ocean.
Looking at myself September 21, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in Self Analysis.Tags: Personal SWOT analysis
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I am working to shape up my character: Taking on mentors and listening.
For too long pride, degrees of success, and having been raised to believe by my father that no building was unscalabe, that, somehow I was special, have, I think, at age 35 brought me to a cross-roads: Take the lumps (in this case not taking the advice I give my clients through my advisory-ABS/ABM: Always be Selling, Always be Marketing).
I fed my considerable lifestyle off of WOM-the recession killed that to a degree.
That’s good: The tough tide either brings out the champ in one or the defeatist. Mettle is tested.
RFK: “All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity…”
My life, these times, every day has moments of difficulty and periods that are perplexing: It’s in being challenged that one forges from the anvil of stress, opportunity.
I have scrapped the powerful resume, the accolades, the speeches, the high retainers, the usual respect accorded to me, and I have come to these three conclusions about myself:
1. I have lived in myself even as I am outgoing and in so doing, have not been selfless enough.
2. I drank money like an alcoholic-and now my family is paying a price for having lived a lifestyle that did not accomodate savings to protect my family.
3. Everyday, in every way, I see how little I know.
My favorite Greek orator, Aeschylus said this-read it three times-its searing:
Spelling-punctation-grammatical errors September 21, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in From Martin Cavanaugh Porter, OH WELL.Tags: GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
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I make many-no excuses-write the blogs late often and in the grand scheme of things, I hope that the reader will see beyond the errors to the message-many don’t-the critiques come and go.
I will try harder to review, use spell check etc.
I will also sleep.
A sense of Urgency-Mentors-Powows September 15, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in FRANTIC VS PURPOSEFULL, From Martin Cavanaugh Porter.add a comment
We live in an age where most decision makers don’t read a book cover to cover-highlights, tidbits, and summaries.
A SENSE OF URGENCY
The recession has produced a coarse, sweat drenched atmosphere of continual work for the sake of work-” I must prove my value to my employer by working longer hours, by filling out more bureaucratic crap, and by being ever more obsequious.”
When fear strides above the man, the man shrinks into his lowest self and becomes unable to judge the difference between purposeful action and frenetic activity. Ever see a cockroach?
We feel we are accomplishing something-adding to the matrix of this hyper-add world by filling our planners from morning to night with meetings-then-exhausted-we sleep-only to repeat.
The economic times we live in are far more profound in their aftereffects than we know-displaced Americans-white collar Americans, homeless, and an incendiary world.
It is the job of business to:
Produce products services
Market products-services
Engage in R+D to enhance those product + services
Actually it is the role of business to be profitable and in so doing create longevity-so long as the profits go back into branding, product development, marketing, intelligence gathering, transformative technological advances.
Recent studies by imminent management research firms find that less than 15% of an executive’s day is spent selling or thinking (strategizing).Most of it is spent attending meetings-conferences-tradeshows-luncheons-or, often, refilling already filed paperwork AND THIS IS NOW-DURING THE RECESSION.
If there is no absolute, direct correlation between the busy-bee with the morning till night dance-card punched and increased revenue or improved effeciencies then there is a real disconnect.
And its your fault-you-the leader: Untested leaders are now being tested and they are encouraging bulging appointments.
The exponential difference between Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Ronald Reagan et al is: They never stayed for the lunch, they often left after their speech was over, they disliked meetings over 15 min, and they disdained small talk (this doesnot mean one is not charming, affable, or pleasent-it does mean one is by degrees, distant enough to judge ones’ actions before they undo you.
Change comes from brilliant new ideas. Brilliant new ideas which are effectively exectuted-near flawlessly.
You and I cant come up with these sparks of renewal if there is no white space in our calendars to think of that idea.
A sense of urgency-needs to become systemic or we will face a very long, prolonged stagnant economy.
MENTORS
I’m 35 : I thought I was a mentor- for years an outsized succesful Biz Dev Practice relational to staffing and expenses: The height of scalability for a 1 man consultany-me. 2005- $789,000 gross, $510,000 take home. 2006- 812,000 gross, $640,000 take home. After years of living under the greatness and kindness of my father, I was now gaining a foothold, rising into the ranks of possible wealth through frugality and expeditious problem solving.
2008: 70% equity positions wiped out- out of 12 clients, 5 left. overpriced, mincing, overstuffed, oversimplified HPark home foreclosed.
2009: Gold diversification has eased the liquidation of my final assets. Two of my final clients-large, international, powerful, left my firm and took operations in house-2 weeks ago, one after the other.
And so the subject of mentors: One was taught at a very young age by ones’ father to be vigorous and, in the direst moments to take stock and find solution.
I have two very close mentors: DM and BH. Anchors. Right now there isnt much I can do for them-1 year ago-so much more and yet without shame, I am asking for advice-and I am tasking the advice. I am aking for help, and I am accepting help.
Why? I’d do the same.
Powows
These are not meetings-it’s three guys getting together MCP/JP/DM (ex) who share values, ambitions, and hopes, and delineating once a week to ‘blue-sky’ (saatchi-saatchi). for an hour in an almost formal setting where the conversations is transcribed.
Why? Our ships sail in precisely the same direction and as we get to know each other, we see opportunity in this current crisis and must find ways to harness the ravaging winds of economic chaos into the vehicle for our mutual growth.
Happy Warrior: Digging ditches or building bridges September 14, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in CHOICES, FROM MARTIN PORTER, HAPPY WARRIOR.Tags: BRIDGE BUILDING, HAPPY WARRIOR
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When the foundations of what one builds are rocked and the stresses that result from that become difficult to bear too often we burrow ourselves into holes: We dig ditches from which it becomes very difficult indeed to crawl out of.
It is in the most difficult of circumstances, when self-inflicted wounds, assumptions, human error, and personal mistakes bring one to a point of making decisions based on fear that one must put down the shovel and pick up the anvil.
Admit error, grow: For me that means self-analysis= what am I good at? What am I afraid of? Why? What am I not good at.
Time is the enemy.
Kevin Roberts: Fail fast, learn fast, fix fast.
To come out swinging, one must engage in bridge building-throw into the rubbish bin old conceptions of self, let go the grip of fear, and, happy warrior, upbeat champ, make the phone calls, send out the emails, write the thank you notes, turn enemies into friends by admitting mistakes, keep talking-but talk in simple, plain, truth-telling language. Candor.
There is no more time to be angry, or to be indignant. Those are luxuries that belong to a different time.
Happy warrior-stare the tough stuff down by acting now.
Happy warrior- take advice.
Happy warrior-give as much as you are offered.
Bridge building-its up, it connects the island of self to the mainland of community and care, creating new allies, growth, joy, and turning the tide on the ongoing bifurcation of our society.
POINT A September 6, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in BACK TO THE BEGINNING.Tags: Beginnings, Fresh Perspectives, Getting Better, Point A
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When the dust settles and I really take stock of my life and my little family, and the precariousness of it all, I can see that we are back to point A-the beginning-building block stage-Ground Zero.
So many assumptions and so many presumptions have not come to pass and this is tough but, in the final analysis-my responsibility. I could have been so much more prescient, so much more engaged,so much more candid, and so much more realistic.
But Point A is not so bad: It’s a beginning and inherent in beginnings are opportunities to be better, live better, and do better.
Point A: It’s better than being stuck in the middle, having taken the wrong road, and obliviously falling into the same old traps.
Point A: Not doomed to repeat past mistakes. I’ll take it.
My daughter, my wife, and life as it is August 31, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in Feet on the Ground.2 comments
The hopes I have for my son in Paris, my wife and premature daughter in Los Angeles, and for myself are all possibly manifested in who I choose to be and how I choose to live my life.
These days are pregnant with outsized opportunities and momentary punches in the gut-self inflicted wounds too often: It’s the momentary that weighs on you-not the knowledge, sure as the sun rises and sets that opportunity seized will walk by my side as a calming shadow.
I have an incredible wife and a daughter I can barely speak of I love so much: Emilie Cavanaugh Porter- I have a son I miss terribly in Paris-for whom my hearts aches with a pain of separation, and I have to take each day and make of it all that I can so that these gifts-these three people: My wife, daughter, and son can reap the benefits of a brighter, better future.
Keep one’s feet on the ground.
BLESSINGS AND REFLECTIONS: SOMBER AND CONTRITE August 12, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in BLESSINGS.Tags: BLESSINGS. GOOD SAMS' HOSPITAL WILSHIRE BLVD, EMELIE CAVANAUGH PORTER, EVE PORTER, SEEGER BENEFITS
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My wife and I delivered Emilie Cavanaugh Porter prematurely, Aug 8, 2009: The day before my birthday. She is in the N I C U ward: Stable but serious.
My wife underwent blood tranfusions, and, at best, is fragile.
I am blessed that my little family is safe-but precarious: A daughter struggling, a wife torn to work and compelled to rest.
I am somber: My duties are clear-to live better and to do better.
I am contrite: I look back at my life and see the debris of a man who lived so near to the edge for so long, working tireleslly, and, in my youth, living with some degree of heedlessness.
I am not young and I wish I could live better NOW-that life’s lessons were not so dearly paid for in pain and grief.
And yet from a blood soaked, spattered room at Good Sams where two of my girls fought for their lives, I saw, with clarity that, at 35, it’s better to have friends then enemies-to make peace-to seek reconciliation-and to take advice.
My wife-exhausted, and my my daughter, fragile as brittle stalk, must live in this world and not feel the reprecussions of my life: My role is to provide and to love and to find peace.
If peace means relieving myself of my pride and seeking reconciliation for the sake of my children and wife-then I will go a great distance to do so.
I wish, sometimes I was a paragon of virtue. I am not-I am a paragon of vigor. It’s time to turn down the vigor-or to channel it, and to step up the virtue.
All words: Action is what counts: There is a son in Paris, and a wife and daughter in L.A and effervescent legacy called The Forbes Group, which, like like a baby cub, needs the full protection of it’s owner and all the support it can get: These four are my redemption.
Its time to accelerate, execute, and accept oneself to succeed August 5, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in From Martin Cavanaugh Porter, INNOVATION, Learning.Tags: SELF-ACCEPTANCE
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Big ideas in business play big only if you can execute big: follow through and processed management of execution to realize the Big Idea.
Clear Goals, pacing, follow-up, and follow-through.
I am a brander and developer by training, instinct, and proclivity. I can execute broadly but under strain and a diminished quality of the work that I produce.
For years I would not accept that the right hand needs the left-One must accept one’s own personal weaknesses before one can develop the willingness to accept that one lack certain skill sets.
I’m there.
So, I have asked an imminent fellow to bring to the table the stability and gravitas required to fulfill my promise to my father-that our family business, Forbes, so battered and bruised, would rise again, flying flags and developing excellence.
Now it’s time to accelerate, execute, and succeed.
Lesson: Know thyself.
Redemption: It will take my life-time July 28, 2009
Posted by mcpconnects in From Martin Cavanaugh Porter, REDEMPTION.add a comment
I have a lived a very full and often sucessful life: Liked and loved, respected, and cared for, and at a very young age, for a time, and a time again, acheiving substantial financial wealth-most lost in this recession or spent on a whispered vision that was an alive, beating organization: Forbes.
And, for a time in my life, I lived it too fully and crossed too many lines, until, by force of powers greater than myself, I was stopped.
I did not care anymore for myself in the discovery that I was not all strength, all will, all force-of-action: I was a glimmer of my father’s arching shadow.
In the memory of a childhood marred by two predators, in the instinct to greed, and in the love of excess, I made so many mistakes: So many mistakes that are antithetical to what I believe in, how I was raised, and what was expected of me.
Every one gave up on me but my father: He never faltered in his belief that I would, like the prodigal son, return. I have-I have returned.
I am haunted by the madness of a part of my past and spurred to grow great now because of it: One sword strikes at my heart and one sword strikes out, forging the vision of Forbes.
Today a man whom I don’t know well-not for years-but for months-and yet whom I respect almost like a father, asked me a straight-forward question about my past and I had two choices: Denial or Truth: I chose truth.
In that moment, an angel gave pause over my destiny and contemplated it with greater satisfaction: It was one piece in my life’s puzzle seeking redemption.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”-Lao Tzu
The love of my father and wife and son is the strength that causes me to rise relatively fearless-the courage to dream a dream called Forbes.
