Navigator: Speed of Innovation...

When the Netscape Navigator was finally launched here on our planet Earth, much of humanity was just on the verge of an era of massive organizational change.

Working in the IT industry and living through the transition of our communications era of data transfer across and through the digital Internet in the early days was full scale innovation. In more ways than one.

As the desktop devices were rapidly designed for digital storage and computing power and the software industry was now at the dawn of incorporating modems of mbps data exchange, data integrity, data security and data resilience; our global intelligence strategies were still naive.

Deficient in worldly wisdom and informed judgment, it would not be too long until DISA, DARPA and others expanded the processes for the protection and the exploitation of the Internet. Network Solutions, Inc. ICANN and so many others.

Ft. Meade, MD to McLean, VA to Arlington to Quantico to Mt. Weather, VA. This was only the beginning of the late night SCIF meetings in the late 90’s.

The next data wake up call was February 18, 2001 in Foxstone Park near Vienna, VA when Robert Hanssen was finally arrested. His Palm 3 PDA was logged into evidence.

So what!

The light speed of fiber-optic submarine cables communicating our “Zeros and Ones,” Quantum, Hypersonic missiles at Mach 5, is just an example.

Back in July of 2000, a few stories above 1555 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, a three year old startup company was already crawling the Internet 24/7, downloading Terabytes of open source information (OSINT). It was named Cyveillance then.

Many of these early Cyveillance founders can still remember what was discovered then, and what the value of international online monitoring services would soon become. The exponential growth of just the “Dark Web” was astonishing.

It was just causing a feeling of great wonder among leadership early mornings and late evenings across the National Capital Region (NCR).

The speed of defense and intelligence innovation and the pace of critical response in those days was truly epic.

On May 11, 2017 the President issued an Executive Order (EO) on strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure?

The question now is, why did it take us so long? In the mean time, 20+ years had passed.

In April of 2018, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 1.1 was updated. Now 5+ years later, the journey to CSF 2.0 is in draft.

One of our U.S. greatest vulnerabilities still remains in so many places. The speed of change and our future technology innovation.

Our next few decades are so ready for acceleration, in so many places.

With so many more new young minds, working alongside our people with real leadership experience. 

With so many new inventions of mankind ready for launch…

Onward!

Office Automation: Time to Wonder...

It was located near the corner of Red Hill Avenue and Bell Avenue in Tustin, California and our ground floor offices were complete. We were the first tenant in this new modern business park.

You could never miss it driving down Red Hill, as our view across the road was the massive Tustin Blimp Hangar #1 in the near distance, today a historical landmark.

As a newly promoted Orange County District Manager, now after several years with a territory of high rise office buildings off Wilshire Blvd. in West Los Angeles, it was a great arena of new career opportunity in a growing business segment of the “Office Automation” industry.

Just inside the front door of the office we had our greeting desk and waiting area, our demo room was just to the left, and then straight ahead was a hallway door that led to the sales “Bull Pen” and to the rear of the building.

This is where our company service technicians area and our other tech support offices were located near a rear entrance.

It also included space for our growing high technology innovation business, to add dozens of new sales and support employees to serve the growing business areas in Orange County of Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Within the year, we would soon come to hear the merger news of our national company Lanier being acquired. Harris Corporation of Melbourne, FL was our new owner and we were now on a rapid strategy to compete with Wang and new competitors in the growing “Office Automation” industry. By the start of the 1990's, Lanier accounted for about 1/3 of Harris Corporation's revenues.

What is that? Office Automation?

You know, the beginning of the IBM PC LAN networking of Word Perfect Word Processing, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE.

The lawyers, insurance companies, defense industrial base juggernauts such as Northrop, McDonnell Douglas and the financial services business community had also discovered other tech innovation to eliminate the historical secretarial typing pools and even the fax machine.

It was named Novell NetWare.

"At its high point, NetWare had a 63 percent share of the market for network operating systems and by the early 1990s there were over half a million NetWare-based networks installed worldwide"…

Imagine what is was like for our Sales, Support and Tech personnel in those days. So busy and so incredible. Even our “Happy Hours” off PCH at the “Rusty Pelican” were epic!

So what!

Well, those were the days of true business innovation.

Our Monday Morning Sales Meetings were at 8:00AM sharp, and then at 8:30AM our 1-1, 15 min sessions followed behind closed doors with each Sales Rep, to discuss their next weeks priorities and last weeks activity. See you next Monday!

Our Sales Reps were working on a straight commission and for their first 60 days their compensation was a draw against any monthly commissions earned. If you were in the “Hole” after 30 days, you were put on a Performance-Improvement-Plan (PIP). If you were still not meeting your sales quota in 60 days, you were fired.

When you have experienced any dialogue with an employee to notify them that this Monday will be their last day, it is never comfortable and always emotional.

Even after 20 or 30 notice meetings over the forthcoming years as a District and Regional Manager, helping another tear filled sales rep carry their “Bankers Box” to the parking lot next to that active Marine Corps Air Station El Toro (ICAO), it was never routine. Helicopters and the roar of jets were always in the background.

So many of these same dedicated people, went forward in their work careers to other competitors and excelled in their jobs. Maybe it was just meant to be.

When one career door closes and then another one opens before you, take a minute to smile. And Wonder.

Within a few more years and some other career moves in the OC, our own family was packing up our San Clemente house. Mom had a wonderful opportunity back East and with our 6 year old Daughter and 5 year old Son, we told them we were leaving their friends in their Capistrano Unified School District and headed to the Langley School District along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia. We witnessed even more small tears that day.

Soon thereafter, walking through the thick woods and along the dirt horse trails near our home one sunny September Saturday, with the sound of the “Great Falls” in our ears, little did we all know what was soon to launch on the global technology horizon.

Netscape.

"Marc Andreessen, the leader of the team that developed Mosaic, left NCSA and, with James H. Clark, one of the founders of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), and four other former students and staff of the University of Illinois, started Mosaic Communications Corporation. Mosaic Communications eventually became Netscape Communications Corporation, producing Netscape Navigator."

Now it was time to truly Wonder…

Aspiration: Life Achievements...

Your future will depend on how well you master innovation and certain disciplines in life.

How you alone decide to continuously learn and apply these effective rituals will make all the difference.

How many times have you repeated some of these same tasks, same rules, or same endeavors in order to achieve the goals that have been set for you or that you alone have set for yourself?

Many famous books have been written about finding your purpose, “Your Why”, yet what is it that drives your aspirations because you excel at some God given talent.

Having a talent that is discovered by your parents, a teacher or some other mentor or coach is only just the beginning.

Growing up in small town America or a little suburb outside a large U.S. metro city is the place you first learn about any potential talents you were born with.

It is not until you leave it and venture beyond your own locality to see the rest of the world outside your own neighborhood, that you will discover your ambitions, and what real talents you would like to pursue.

Who will you trust to be your instructors, coaches, your mentors, your colleagues and your institution, company, organization, agency or service for building and accelerating your disciplines as you grow older?

Will you choose a venture introduced by a parent, a coach or someone you want to be like some day? Will your choice to learn a particular skill or area of knowledge change your life trajectory forever?

Yes it will.

The focused skills and the area of knowledge you choose to pursue will become your path to the future.

One truth is, you must find yourself “Doing” far more time than just time “Thinking”. 

Getting out of your own local domain, doing more into the unknown with others, will gradually build new valuable skills and your growing knowledge.

Perhaps more important, it will build more real experiences. Experience is what you choose to do and you combine this with your life aspiration. The strong desire to achieve something great.

You will continuously make choices to create opportunities or challenges. How you learn from these truly creates your portfolio of life and career experiences.

Where have you traveled? Who have you trusted? What have you learned? Why did you decide to gain experience in _ _ _ _ _?

Always remember. How will your aspiration and experience achieve a positive good and greatness with others you care about?

Remember the day you look in the rear view mirror and see your Mother and/or Father shedding a tear while waving at you, as your life is accelerating into the future.

Will you make a positive difference…Godspeed!

Mechanisms: For Continuous Risk Monitoring...

Years ago working in concert with fellow risk professionals within the ranks of an international organization off Route 123 in Tysons Corner, our “Team Leader” was briefing us in a small conference room on the 5th floor at 8:00am.

One of the systemic problems at large institutions including organizations like this one is keeping your finger on the pulse of all "Risk Indicators". Unfortunately for SVP's and other executives in the corporate hierarchy, the organizations middle managers are creating a potential layer that impedes the best "Early Warning System" you have at your disposal. 

She continued her dialogue with substantial hand gestures as she circled our long table in the middle of the room:

“When problems surface here on the front line or in the "Cube City" down in Information Systems, sales or operations, the normal agenda is for the employee to go to their direct supervisor to raise the "Red Flag" or disclose the incident. And the first behavioral response by the Middle Manager is to keep it quiet. Fix it before anyone else finds out. Keep it under wraps until damage control can be implemented.”

When you are the head of Enterprise Risk Management, you need truth mechanisms to bypass and eradicate the barriers filtering data, your intelligence, incidents and overall hunches.

There is no magic system or process that will solve it all. The only way to attempt at breaking through this layer of social and organizational dysfunction is to circumvent it.

Design a continuous risk monitoring system that shall be implemented and operating anonymously 24/7. Do this if you require the correct people in the upper echelons of executive management responders to “Feel, See and HEAR the Pulse" of any risk hotspots in the enterprise.

These hotspots translate into "Risk Indicators" from the sources themselves, people who know what's going wrong and know the truth.

A Continuous Risk Monitoring System (CRMS) is an automated human feedback and problem identification mechanism for detecting organizational risks.

It allows leaders of large enterprises to quickly identify problems and incidents of all kinds within their company. 

Call it a sophisticated whistle-blower system or suggestion box if you will, but that is exactly what it is, on steroids.

The ideal system would emulate communication patterns in small groups which is often a major ingredient in successful teams.

It would also run on the existing iPhones, computers and networks of the organization such as applications like Slack, Teams or Wickr.

Think about how long it takes today for data and information to percolate and bubble up from the places in your organization that are considered "Current Risk Hot Spots”.

The point our Team Leader was emphasizing is that for far too long we have been playing the old telephone game. You know, the one that you played as a kid sitting around the kitchen table or on the floor in a circle.

"One person starts and whispers into the ear of the person to their right. Just a sentence or two. By the time the message gets around to the 3rd or 4th person, now the data is dramatically different than the original. It's been interpreted, edited and even sanitized."

As the current CEO, walk down and visit the person who is in charge of your anonymous electronic suggestion box or the mandated legal “Whistle-Blower” program at your own organization.

Is it the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) or Chief Security Officer (CSO) in your own HQ or perhaps an HR Manager in another state or country?

Ask them to print out the “Activity Log” for the past 30 days. Ask yourself how you might work with your front line leaders to develop an encrypted innovative solution that can't be filtered, changed or deleted.

Now you might be on your way to detecting the real story, in real-time…

July 4th: Protecting and Sharing Information...

Information and the transparency of information will continue to be at the center of investigations on Wall Street, the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) or any other highly regulated Critical Infrastructure industry.

"Who knew what when" is the mantra being repeated in various command posts and within task forces who are responsible now for insuring the safety and security of future employees of these firms but also the national security of the U.S..

"Insider Risk" of leaked information is at an all time high, whether you are in the "C" suite in Manhattan or the "Situation Room" on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Information is the lifeblood of any highly functioning organization whether in the private sector or government agencies. Protecting that information of leaks to third parties who do not have a need to know, is the crux of the "Insider Trading" cases on Wall Street or even the comments made within the confines of the situation room during Bin Laden's operation.

So why do people want to tell another person something that they know is forbidden? Why do they risk sharing information with the media or others who may not have a legitimate reason to know the information?

And what about the opposite? Withholding information from the public or others who have a need to know the information, especially if it will save lives or keep the country out of harms way.

The decisions to tell or withhold information has serious consequences in either case and requires a mechanism for making sure that humans know when it is right and wrong.

Unfortunately, we live today in a world of information warfare and information operations that spans the globe from Hollywood to Kabul or London to Hong Kong.

So what?

The "Human Factors" motivation for withholding or sharing information has been studied for decades if not hundreds of years. The gratification one receives from telling another a secret only known to one person or a few provides the stimulus.

Whether that human gratification is the result of seeing someone else in pain or suffering, surprise or elation doesn't really matter. Recognizing that humans thirst for information is relentless when it comes to being first, or to gain power can provide you with the understanding to better prepare your organization for "Information Operations" (IO).

Effective Operational Risk Management (ORM) begins with understanding information and ends with protecting or sharing information.

It's your challenge to determine what is real truth and what is just another narrative to influence your perception as a human being.

As we approach our 247 years of “The United States of America”, read our Declaration of Independence…

Happy 4th of July!

Operational Risk: A Continuous Journey...

Back then, it was a quick and easy way for you to become your own publisher on the WWW, of what ever you wanted to write, show or discuss with others that maybe you had never known before.

It was the beginning of Fall of 2003 and a new Internet product set was gaining traction on the World Wide Web.

In those days, Google named it “Blogger” and to this day, you also may still create your own Blog.

It was a moment when you realize that maybe others might enjoy reading what you had to say about specific topics. Maybe not.

So this journey began with a focus on all things in the arena of “Operational Risk” and trying to manage those risks in your life that were not directly under the financial category. A vast jigsaw puzzle of continuous testing and verification.

The “Big Four” accounting firms and the largest Management Consulting firms such as McKinsey & Company were the leaders here on a global stage.

If you too have been one of those people that has a bunch of composition books in a box in your closet and are your journals of the day, you might have a sense of what the “Blogger” trend was all about in the early 2000s.

So this transition from just journaling to blogging at operationalrisk.blogspot.com was born 20+ years ago this September to capture the thoughts, ideas and comments on:

“Operational Risk is defined as the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed processes, people, and systems or from external events. The definition includes legal risk, which is the risk of loss resulting from failure to comply with laws as well as prudent ethical standards and contractual obligations. It also includes exposure to litigation from all aspects of an institutions activities.”

The composition books for writing the periodic thoughts, ideas, news and other global events from this writers perspective, was now headed online and there for all of us to read.

There was no longer a need for all those composition journaling books taking up space in a closet or the garage attic, in that little brick house near Reston in Northern Virginia.

So what?

Once you exceed the 1000+ entries over a span of a 20 year period, it gives you insightful context on your chosen subject area: Operational Risk Management.

Operational Risk in your business environment, in your own life is always going to be present. The question is, will you acknowledge it and do your best to try and manage it?

So whether you ever become a digital online “Blogger,” or you just continue to keep putting all of those hand written journals in a box under your desk does not really matter.

Who cares?

Until your particular learning, your continuous discovery, innovation, expression and your mindful thought could actually be a purpose you alone enjoy.

Whether you are writing about your latest recipes in the kitchen, or your side-gig business as a women’s clothing "Fashion Stylist" or documenting family adventures on vacation or even on the subjects of other human interests on space exploration, our Earth ecosystem and even future trips to Mars some day.

Your words and your story of passion on the topic or knowledge is the key. A persistent pursuit of being more knowledgeable and reliable. The person or subject matter expert that you want to continuously become into the future.

Perhaps most importantly, your words and facts may have helped someone else along their path. Someone learned something new. Someone you will never know, reduced their own "Operational Risks" or their company or their employees or even their own families.

So in closing this blog article today, just remember a few key items:

1. Update your digital device in your hand to that latest iOS X.X version. Ha Ha.
2. And while you are at it, train some more people at your school, office or work on “Insider Threat”, “Run, Hide, Fight”, “Business Continuity Management”, “Disaster Recovery”, or the emerging pandemic of digital “Ransomware”.

Learn how to use those life saving tools like the AED and the Tourniquet in that White box hanging on the wall in the hallway…and Never Forget!

Onward!

Asymmetric: Deer in the Headlights...

It was June of 2021 when the iPhone buzzed and the CxO requested a briefing on this growing threat on the horizon. Ransomware had already been gaining traction for years.

Human behavior has been repeating itself since the beginning and once again, this "Corporate Executive" was no different.

“We need a briefing on what we need to do at “Our Company” to avoid being attacked by this ransomware hacker!”

The response was immediate. “The Executive Report is ready for you now and the Executive Team whenever you all are together in the Board Room, yet when will you have just 30 minutes for our local Information Security Team to brief you today?”

Have you ever encountered a boss who had that “Deer In The Headlights” look on their face when they were asking for your assistance?

Did you see the “CBS Evening News” last evening they yell!

“CLOp, the ransomware gang responsible for exploiting a critical security vulnerability in a popular corporate file transfer tool, has begun listing victims of the mass-hacks, including a number of U.S. banks and universities.”

For those of us who have been operating in this business for a few decades, the behavior of uninformed corporate citizens to the continuous threat vectors in our world is never going to cease.

As Digital First Responders we then communicate with a few key messages to executive management in the “C” Suite, yet not all at once!

As you will learn, you have to communicate a measured yet continuously deliberate set of message facts over the course of a week or two, for people to slowly comprehend the vast landscape of the business problem they are now in:

• Critical infrastructures are those systems and assets- whether Physical or Virtual – that are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters. 
• As Ransomware Attacks continue to grow, organizations need to improve their security posture to protect against an attack. Better security requires implementing appropriate security controls and ensuring that effective crisis management and employee education are in place. 
• The landscape of how we work has changed. We must assess vulnerabilities in a new way and with increased due diligence. 
• The cost of a cyber attack is often significant for organizations large and small, and we must strengthen responsiveness and reduce behaviors that may open vulnerabilities in the future. 
• Public Private Partnerships of Critical Infrastructure organizations
with CISA.gov and FBI.gov are vital to enhance our U.S. National Security.

Once you have effectively provided these top 5 bullets to your executives, then the real work shall begin:

THE RANSOMWARE CRISIS

The current ransomware crisis can be attributed to the following factors: 

1. History of Inaction
2. New Tactics
3. Rapid Technology Deployment / Innovation without Security & Resilience
4. Safe Harbors for Criminals

Since you are a “Digital First Responder”, try to remember your audience is still learning the vast and pervasive implications, of what many of us have been fighting since the dawn of the Internet and our growing “Asymmetric Warfare”…

OPS Risk: Global Digital Spring...

Over a decade later since the Arab Spring of 2011, our planet has witnessed the growth of personal mobile communications and the explosion of the Quantum "Internet of Things".

The utilization of wireless mobile communications and its intersection with social media apps in our emerging nations civilian environments is here to stay. 

How these latest digital consumer-based applications have been now leveraged for situational awareness (GPS) and information operations is exploding across the emerging nations, where the mobile Internet is now gaining even more ubiquitous use.

What this also means for our risk managers in the C-Suites of major technology companies is a heightened sensitivity and awareness to the ways your tools and capabilities could be utilized in the hands of the wrong end user.

No different than the early days of unleashing certain web tools like Metasploit, to help understand our digital vulnerabilities within the confines of the corporate enterprise.

These same new open-source “App tools” could be utilized by nefarious cyber forces to quickly exploit the unknown weaknesses in our own U.S. government and corporate network systems.

Yet like many inventions by our mission-driven mankind, they can be used for good and simultaneously for evil in the hands of a certain person.

Operational Risk Management in the high technology sector (Ai?) will be just as much of an imperative for continuous compliance as the manufacturing and international shipment of products from Barrett or the manufacturers of Detcord.

The "Export Control" compliance mechanism is here to stay and companies who operate in the new age of emerging social media via mobile technologies, will need more effective OFAC internal controls.

Operational Risks may exist within the business processes that you use with your international sales and business development organization.

When was the last time you had a compliance-based OFAC discussion within the ranks of the C-Suite at your new emerging technology company?

Are you fully funded by the VCs and ready to sell your new encrypted FinTech or social media app for Android to the world?

Innovative organizations need to make sure that part of the roll out strategy, encompasses the effective conversations with the correct government departments.

This is also to determine the right process and the online tools available to better understand where and who you can sell your products to outside of the United States.

The worlds last “Arab Spring” and the next organized movement utilizing social media and satellite mobile Internet technologies that include encrypted messaging, GPS and live video, shall be even more closely scrutinized by internal compliance officers and the regulatory watchdogs domestically and abroad.

Yet the most effective internal management tools going forward, may just lie in the same ones used by your own Mother and Father growing up.

The ethical and the growing moral arguments in many cases can have a dramatic impact on young people at an early stage in their lives, as you hand them their first mobile phone as a parent.

Perhaps it is still not too late to remind and reinforce and to emphasize the fact that our exponential High-performance computing (HPC) cyber environments, are powering nothing more than the digital mirror image of the physical world we already know about. Both Good and Bad.

Our future of effective enterprise Operational Risk Management (ORM) online and the effective compliance with potential legal sanctions, may well begin with a heart-to-heart conversation at your next company executive retreat or “All-Hands” fire side chat meeting...

Memorial Day USA: Risk Serving Those Who Serve...

On this Memorial Day weekend in the United States; we need a revived and committed public to "Serving Those Who Serve."

Thousands of veterans are continuously finding out what it means to serve in a time of war and then face many of the challenges of returning home. To family, friends and a new career.

There are dozens of new ways you can "Serve Those Who Serve" and we are not just talking about the number of new charitable organizations. These new ways to assist veterans are increasing on a daily basis. The consumer and the corporation need to address the Operational Risks associated with volunteering time, resources and funds as you choose your respective facet of serving.

For those who have a focus on turning those vital military skill-sets towards those victims of our global disasters and growing nation state discourse, there are organizations such as Team Rubicon.

Team Rubicon unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with medical professionals to rapidly deploy emergency response teams into crisis situations. 

Team Rubicon Saves Lives.

Since its creation in January 2010, TR has impacted thousands of lives – in Haiti, Chile, Burma, Pakistan, Sudan, Ukraine, and here at home, in Vermont, Maryland, Missouri, California, Alabama and so many others. TR reaches victims outside the scope of where traditional aid organizations venture; victims on the fringe. 

Team Rubicon Engages Veterans.

Hundreds of US military veterans, many returning home after fighting years of war, find a renewed sense of purpose for their skills and experiences through TR.

I’m not a veteran or a medical professional…how can I volunteer for Team Rubicon? 

"While Team Rubicon responds to natural disasters in the US and around the world, disasters are not all that they do. Throughout the year Team Rubicon conducts community service projects, fundraisers, and outreach to potential supporters and donors. These are a few examples where TR can utilize the expertise of the following skills: event organizers, fundraisers, training specialists, graphic designers, photographers, video editing specialists, and administrative specialists."

Team Rubicon's slogan "Bridging the Gap" is a theme that all of us can use as a basis for this 2023 Memorial Day celebration and beyond. How can you serve those who serve with the skills and assets you possess, to make a difference? 

Maybe it is the Wounded Warrior Project, Got Your 6, Tunnel to Towers Foundation or even Dogs on Deployment.

Remembering those who have died for their country to preserve our way of life is what much of what Memorial Day is all about.

Using Charity Navigator as a tool to find out more about who you are working with or donating your money to, will be a good first step. Yet this is only one way to determine what the right place for your particular interests, skills and resources may be. This will give you more information on how a charity is utilizing your donated dollar and how much goes to overhead or executives administration.

So how will you make a difference? What will you do, to "Serve Those Who Serve"? Why are you doing it? Once you answer these questions, you will be well on your way to a more fulfilling life. What ever it may be or where ever you may find yourself, never forget. Never forget why we serve:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Mothers Day 2023: Always With Us...

“God is in this story, God is in the details

Even in the broken parts, He holds my heart, He never fails

When I'm at my weakest, I will trust in Jesus

Always in the highs and lows, the One who goes before mе

God is in this story. “

This music and chorus from Katy Nichole’s song brings tears to the eyes each time it plays and/or we sing the lyrics.

On this glorious day before a Sunday and another “Mothers Day” in the United States, we think of all of our Mothers in our lives.

When you are a Mother, you have your own story to share as a Daughter. As a Son of a women who raised you, who taught you and loved you, the story might be a bit similar.

Yet when you as a son then become a Father, your insights and context is enhanced, on what being a “Mother” is really all about.

When you witness your own baby being born, you truly understand why “God is in this story”.

Tomorrow we recognize and celebrate our “Mothers” in our USA nation, who have cared for us, raised us and given us all the real opportunities in our future lives.

With the perspective of a Son who had a Mother that married a young U.S. Marine and was so wonderful during my 58 years with her, she was just so talented, so caring and so proud of her “First born son”, she has never left my thoughts. She is still dearly missed.

With the perspective of a Father with 37 years with my only Wife and a Mother of our Daughter and our Son who are 19 months apart, this story still continues.

The journey of life and witnessing Mothers in labor, Mothers in the Nursery, Mothers in Schools, Mothers in the Home and even a wife working and taking care of her own 94 year-old mom provides tremendous context to this day.

As the first son of a life long Artist and a graduate of Northwestern and also Cranbrook, her pieces have always adorned our home. As a youngster, the memories of being with my sister in the basement studio of a small one-story house on a short dirt road or with Mom at her Art Exhibits at the Art Center in our small Mid-Western town, still are with me forever.

Yet today, glancing again at this painting of hers on our wall, still makes me wonder what she was thinking or praying about, as her brush dipped into her paint that morning. What her hopes and prayers were for all of her own children, a Son, a Daughter, a Son & a Son.

On this memorable Mothers Day 2023 you are always with us Mom, we shall cherish and celebrate all of you excellent ladies…thank you for all your love and prayers.  ”God is in this story, God is in the details”…

Superhuman: Mission Possible...

Each new day is a real opportunity to make yourself better. It can be another day of new discovery, curiosity and learning.

Are you Superman?

Living day by day, going to work and/or finding the truth, as you talk with other people to hear what they have to say and then perform the tasks to improve your own world or the enterprise.

What about conquering evil the moment you see it or feel it, by using your God given talents in order to protect others and defend people from harm and to provide for their daily needs.

Are you a Father or Mother?

Then you too may be a “Superhuman” (Superman or SuperWoman) and now you truly understand what it really means to be a good responsible parent.

It is difficult to know the feeling and experience the emotions of being a Parent, until you actually are one.

You won’t be able to ever comprehend being a parent by just becoming a singular representative, manager, analyst, chef, teacher, banker, author, artist, supervisor or landlord.

You can learn about what to do or not to do, by watching your sibling or your own parent, a friend or by reading a parenting book or even just watching CoComelon on YouTube.

Yet it is not until you are actually performing and experiencing the moments in your own motherhood or fatherhood, that you will truly understand.

Yes, you will need to be “Superhuman” to achieve a level of true excellence that others will say you are a good and responsible Mom or Dad.

So what?

You alone as a “Superhuman” parent have a duty and mission.

The mission will change your life forever and so you too, have only one person to rely on.

On your next Childs birthday, take the time to reflect. Take the time to think about the journey so far.

Say another prayer.

You know that each birthday of your child is another opportunity for you to show your own super powers as a parent. No matter how old they are on this day.

"Love. Patience. Friendship. Encouragement. Forgiveness. Faith. Love."

Onward!

True Professional: Who Will You Become...

What will you do that is extraordinary and contributes a positive addition in your life that demonstrates your consistent effort and shows your own actual discipline?

It shall demonstrate your devotion and focus on becoming better even though you shall never achieve a level of true perfection.

Continuous skill and knowledge improvement is just that.

The discipline you choose will be so difficult to perfect that even after 2 decades and over 1000 documented examples almost weekly, you are far from the perceived finish line.

1000+ examples / 52 weeks = 19+ years

In September 2003 it all began. Writing words on a regular basis about real topics of interest was a discipline that started a career to become an even better “Operational Risk Specialist”.

Your discipline might be flying aircraft or doing heart surgery and you want to continuously grow your expertise. How do you measure your own consistent effort and show discipline?

Do you measure the number of hours or miles you have on duty in the air or space or classroom or on camera or operating room or court room or missions in theatre using your skills?

Why?

You too may become, a “True Professional”.

Do you measure the quality of your particular skill and/or innovative deliverable on every attempt?

So what?

You see, what ever your discipline may be and to what degree you are practicing consistently to become even better, if you are not measuring it in some way, then is it a real discipline?

What tool do you utilize to capture and measure your accomplishments? A log book, a photo journal, a score card, a web blog, a three ring binder, a digital file folder measured in GBs or TBs?

What are you actually measuring? The Number of attempts. The Quality of completions. The game score?

Maybe it is just a written exam and Two, Three or four letters (_ _ _ _) after your name?

Whether you have become a Doctor, Lawyer, Professor, Pilot, Operator, Specialist, Stylist, Salesperson, Manager, VP, Owner, Driver, Player, Author or Analyst in your life does not really matter to so many.

Maybe it does to you and your specific clients, customers, parishioners and patients and a few of your fellow family, comrades, co-pilots, clergy, operators and other True Professionals.

Yet, when you decide personally that your own professional tenure in this discipline has come to an end and you will stop being measured, then what?

Start a new one and have extraordinary consistent discipline…Godspeed!