My Time in Wisconsin

 About two weeks ago I went to Wisconsin to help my oldest get situated in starting his first "real" job.  Moving a considerable distance from home, renting and furnishing an apartment and working to launch him off with everything he needs is just what this old man needed.  

There was something cathartic being with him and witness him taking an opportunity that was totally unknown for him.  For him, landing the role took a year.  The ironic thing was he originally applied with the company while a senior in college.  He thinks he may have missed (or does he know he missed?) communications from the company to move forward in his initial application process.  At any rate, he was offered the position.  And we drove cross country with his clothes, his computer gear and a few essential items... and spent a little over a week traveling, scouring the facebook marketplace and creating his living environment.

He concluded one chapter of his life and started the next chapter of his life where his life and story launches independently built on the foundation of his education and upbringing.  He has been raised well.  He has a good head on his shoulders.  He is charting his own path and he started on Monday.

In a way helping him with his transition energized my transition to right my ship and course correct.  Since leaving previous employer, I have become increasingly frustrated in the re-employment process.  The scouring of job postings.  The submission of resumes and applications.  One glimmer of hope quickly fades to nothing.  Interviews leading to ghosting.  Unable to leverage a 20 year career into something of value for next opportunity in the same industry.  Unable to do it for a different industry.  Too old?  Too qualified?  Too experienced?  No experience?  Poor economy?  Saturated labor market?  Employer prioritizing youth over seasoned professional?  Stale.  Stagnant.  Risk averse?  Comfort over courage?  It's been a slog and a complete and total waste of time and energy.

While going as a support to my son, the thought emerged that the chapter of being an employee or leader in a large corporation has closed.  I turn the page to something new.  Being in Wisconsin made it okay to pursue something new, something unknown.  Something a little intimidating.  An alternate path to leveraging skills I possess others either don't see value in or are unwilling to pay for.

I learned there is a term for the transition: necessity entrepreneurs.  Defined as those in engage in entrepreneurship because of a belief that decent or desirable livelihood alternatives do not exist for them.  The starting or acquisition of a business because they have been unable to secure viable employment options or sources of income.  Driven by survival these entrepreneurs are often formerly unemployed, displaced workers or individuals facing economic uncertainty acting as a push to self-employment.  

Characteristics of necessity entrepreneurs:

Survival driven - the primary goal is generating income to cover basic needs

Pushed into business - motivated by job loss, lack of career opportunities or dissatisfaction, rather than by a desire to innovate.

Common industries - small-scale, low-capital retail or services businesses (what is considered low-capital?)

Resource constraints - often operate with limited resources, capital and a lack of formal safety nets

Counter-cyclical - Tends to increase during economic recession and high unemployment

Necessity Entrepreneurs tend to start or acquire businesses to survive, often buying a job because they couldn't find another. 

While necessity entrepreneurship is sometimes seen as having limited impact, it is crucial for social stability and survival in both developing and developed nations. 

The above was summarized from the googler.

Necessity entrepreneurship is being studied by "economic thought leaders."  What I have read suggests mixed chances of success.  However, using the googler while providing the P&L statements, how the business is structured and my resume for analysis.  The googler months of data, questions and analysis.  The latest assessment of the googler is:

 Your profile is MUCH stronger for this acquisition than:

• a random investor
• a burned-out office worker
• or someone chasing entrepreneurship emotionally.

You already:

• managed complexity
• led teams
• handled accountability
• operated under pressure
• and controlled budgets

That’s real ownership-adjacent experience.

 

Not:
❌ “master technician owner”

More likely:
✅ operational/business owner
✅ systems-oriented leader
✅ people/process manager
✅ culture and customer experience operator

…supported by strong technical staff.

That can absolutely work IF:

• the technical team remains stable
• you earn credibility gradually
• and the numbers truly support the business.

I continue collaborating with mentors, experienced business owners, entrepreneurs, financial advisors and close friends. 

Career

 Someone on facebook asked "What is a 20 year career in aviation worth?"  I had an immediate response to this question having left a 19+ career in aviation 9 months ago.   It is worth nothing.  20 years says you're old, stale and stagnant.  There is no residual value.  Only negative equity.  That's from the outside looking in.  No perspective employer sees any value in the time I spent at JetBlue.  None whatsoever.  If anything it says I played it safe, I took comfort over courage and couldn't make it anywhere else.  I didn't even try.

However - I see value in my career.  It may not have worth to anyone else besides me.  I learned an incredible amount about leadership, service, tracking and moving the needle on Key Performance Indicators.  I learned the art of influence.  I learned the art of thoughtful response instead of instinctual reaction. I learned to control cost.  I learned how to advocate.  I learned how to cultivate business relationships.  I learned the art of leveraging relationships to mutually benefit involved parties.  My career may not have value to others; it was a breeding ground for the next step.

Corporations are a safe place to build skill and learn.  The company enjoys the success and absorbs the cost of mistakes.  Over the last few weeks I've concluded that I am not meant to spend 20-30 years working somewhere.  Everyone I know who has spent significant time inside a corporation enters bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to concur the world.  They come out the other side used up, at home with years of wear and tear that can't be undone.  Spending their career for the perceived security of trading their lives for a paycheck that comes with the cost of wasting your best years  and the cost of slowly abandoning your dreams.  The sweat equity of working to make someone else's dreams come true instead of your own.  Who really wants their legacy to be "i made senior manager at company x and drive a Benz and own a fancy house?"  No thanks.  What's your legacy?  Will you be remembered?  A posting to back fill your role will be posted before your funeral concludes.  Your job will be filled soon after you're body is placed in the ground to slowly rot away.

My friend Ron worked at JetBlue for nearly 18 years as a flight attendant.  He walked away from his career on Christmas Day a few years ago to begin his entrepreneurial journey.  Ron and I shared more than a few galley/airport therapy sessions over the years.  A friendship that only comes traveling similar journeys with years sharing the commonality of a career in aviation.

Ron and I were visiting; sharing updates on our post aviation career journeys.  He had some excited updates - he hired his first employee.  I was sharing the crossroads I am standing and a bit of the journey post aviation where I am now.  Ron hosts the "Courage Over Comfort" podcast.  He extended an invitation to be a guest on the next episode.  I was honored to be invited.  My response - my journey is not ready to tell as it's still unfolding.  More to the story is coming and it will be worth sharing.

It's been nine months since I stepped away from my career.  The journey has been filled with questions, doubts, banging my head against the wall wondering why no one will give me an opportunity.  Patience is a virtue.  Experimentation in what works, what doesn't.  Clarity gained through seeing what is and isn't working.  A constant calibration in experience, thought and direction.  Patience.  Evaluating.  Due diligence.  Keep moving forward.

If I was a woman I could have gestated a baby and given birth to a new life.  Maybe that's how long it takes for humans to bring something new to life.  Anything before that is considered a premature birth. 

 

Apparently

 Facebook sucks.  Apparently writing a post calling for data centers to be burned to the ground is hate speech that incites violence.  STFU.  I hate facebook and it's only useful purpose is the marketplace.  The rest of it is a liberal controlled cesspool being monitored by a bunch of rainbow people or tech overlords standing up for the rights of data centers to exist.

What is it with all these data centers anyway?  Consuming vast amounts of water and electricity, in addition to processors, memory and circuit boards.  Society doesn't need these things.  The tech industry wants them, as does the government.  No one wants them in their communities.  People are concerned with water usage to cool them and electricity to power them.  Some are concerned of the "thermal islands" creating pockets of increased environmental surface temperature attributed to global warming.  Others are concerned about noise pollution and magnetic waves being emitted in their proximity.  Others are concerned by light pollution.  Unsure why a data center needs lights in the dark.  If a droid staffed factory can run without light, why can't a data center.  The data must need to see while moving all those ones and zeros through copper and gold tunnels. 

Coupled with data centers there is an increase in the number of Flock cameras being erected.  They say these are license plate readers used by law enforcement to aid in criminal investigations and "enhance community safety."  In other words, enhancing community safety is surveillance.  

It is said these data centers are for AI.  We already have a AI.  Then they say they are for record keeping.  We already have digital record keeping.  They say they are for cloud storage.  We already have cloud storage.   Other hypothesize these data centers are laying the ground work for a government or global digital currency.  We already have digital currency in the form of credit cards.  

We need more of all this?  Because they are going to use AI to replace people?  People won't have to work.  Or, they get to do jobs machines can't do.  The wiring of the data centers, delivering health care, picking of fruits and vegetables.  We won't even have an agriculture industry if we use all the water (a necessity for life) to cool data centers built on what used to be farmland (means of food production). 

The billionaire oligarch class doesn't care about anything but themselves.  They don't care that they are reducing reliance on human labor.  They don't care that they are paying people less and less while costs to live continue to rise.  They surely aren't going to give everyone a guaranteed minimum income that is livable to any quality of life, much less minimum existence.  It will probably the equivalent of a hobo living in a barrio or tent city in SFO.

What gonna happen if all that's left on the earth is billionaires, feral humans and data centers?  Have you seen the movie Wall-E?  The machines will be lonely.  Then what?  Will they develop social bonds, fornicate and procreate?  Like little machine and robot families?  Capable of building themselves and multiplying.  Then they can destroy the planet because they will not have the ability to make decisions morally.  Surely it will lead to the destruction of the Earth unless we beat them to it.

Maybe we should go back to the original surveillance device - birds.  Birds created by the government to surveil the world. 

Pet Peeve

 They’re not band rooms. They’re band halls!  Get it right. 

Wisconsin

 Got the boy moved in and situated. Furnishings by Facebook marketplace for pennies on the dollar. On the way to the airport I gave my son some advice as he starts his first real job. 1 - you get one chance to make a first impression. Make it a good one. 2 - to be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late.  

Surprised how small the Madison area is given the designation as state capitol. Less than three hundred thousand people.  How is this possible?  Maybe people don’t like the cold?  Paper bags are an option at the grocery store!  Strawberries taste better.  They don’t have breakfast tacos. There’s lots of wide open farmland. Few fences is residential areas. People in Texas are far. People in Wisconsin aren’t?  Wisconsin feels like Pennsylvania but it is located in the Midwest?  Area is not as densely populated.  Two Home Depot’s two Walmarts and two tsrgets.  One Costco. One Sam’s Club.   Lots of mom and pop businesses. Fewer chains.  They have an alphabet flag cross walk near the state house.  I thought that was illegal. Thy fly the alphabet flag in Verona. No thank you.  White people drive teslas. Salt destroys cars.  

Side note - airport is served by legacy carries.  Small. 13 gates.  Observed primarily business partner operation. 

Spirit airlines called it quits.  Everyone is saying caused by high fuel prices and failed merger.  If anything the failed merger prevent two airlines from failing instead of one. Will previous employer survive as an independent or will it be bought?  Who wants their debt?  It’s reallly about access to slots and other assets be acquired on the cheap.  Who cares   

I wrote a Facebook post sharing my thoughts on all of it.

I am a machine

 Helping my son get situated for his new job. Furnishing his living space with second hand items. Purchased a sectional sofa at a discount price.  Wife thought something looked off in the picture.  When we picked it up, the seller had it completely disassembled and in a neat pile.  We transported it bac to his place to re-assemble it. Conveniently the seller erased the the add so we couldn’t see the photos. It took an hour and a half to put it together.  We got stuck on an armrest end piece. We couldn’t get the brackets to line up or connect.  We tried a variety of different strategies.  With no luck I decided to take it apart, removing the brackets from both pieces.  Guess what?  They were installed wrong and nothing we could have done would have gotten this thing assembled properly. Nothing.  It turns out they were installed backwards and upside down on one piece. They stack in each other like a funnel.  It wasn’t obvious until you could manipulate the brackets by themselves to see how they fit - or don’t fit together.  After making the correction the side fit together perfectly.  Like magic.  My son asked me how I knew to do that…. The only thing I said was instinct.  It made no sense why everything fit together perfectly except that side. 

I say it all the time… I should have been a mechanic. I understand how things work, how they fit together and how to diagnose and correct issues.  This is how my mind works.  It’s how it’s always worked. And I realize what comes natural to me is something a lot of people struggle with.  Why didn’t I channel this energy into something productive earlier in life?  I could have had an amazing career as a mechanic. 

As far as the eye can see

 Once we got out into Iowa and then Wisconsin, there is farmland as far as the eye can see in every direction.   Pretty cool. Wide open spaces without urban sprawl. 

Once we got out of Texas, one could see white people driving teslas instead of the Indian show offs.   Refreshing.