What made this boy become a?man?

The movie “Blinded by the Light” uses the words of “The Boss” to inspire the Pakistani protagonists to escape from the crushing racism and economic wasteland of Luton in Thatcher’s Britain of the 1980s.

The words of The Promised Land drive the boy to become a man who believes there will be a “promised land”, but, that will demand an almost impossible struggle to succeed.

In Ireland, June 1 1980 when Bruce Springsteen performed at Slane was, “the only good day of the 1980s” — I was there with my wife and colleagues from Wescan and I tend to agree. It was before the Irish economy boomed and although I had it better than most, the path to success was far from certain.

In hindsight, the 1980s was when I learned my trade of helping USA multinationals scale in the vastly more complex markets of EMEA and APAC. The confidence and ignorance ensured this manager took risks and reaped rewards that would not happen now.

Some of my old teams read this blog and have commented that they approved of my management style in that they grew with me in their careers. Leadership is giving not taking and the sole reason for this feedback from some of the 500 members of my teams is that together we achieved impossible things.

The running joke was that American Corporate Parents killed off their “children” every 3 years — thus providing an opportunity to rinse and repeat by avoiding prior mistakes.

The transitory nature of employment made my advice of “It's only a job — not your life” all the more salient when crazy times ensued and bullying immature management attempted to prevent a dying business from failing.

Another mantra is “Family comes first” which was easy to promote in companies with short half-lives. Many of my colleagues failed to put family first and they suffered accordingly. Happily married for 43 years, I have 3 grown-up children, two with families, and 4 grandchildren as evidence of the wisdom of this advice.

Some friends of my parents recommended I should become a doctor — daunting for a 10-year-old — apparently, I was unflappable in a crisis. This trait has served me well in the ensuing 50+ years, as the boy became a man.

Panic simply results in the pointless activity of running around in circles rather than the required instant analysis, plan, action, and outcome.?

Looking at my passport photo I find it amazing that I was not profiled as being a terrorist at the time — thankfully despite being dispatched to places like Russia, China, and Iran on business because staff from the North America offices refused to go. My Irish passport provided insurance and the opportunity to travel to all the places I don't what to go on holidays.

Politics is not people and the political image of many countries was very negative — the people who I met and worked with were always delightful and many became close friends. This was before the internet — sites like thepaperboy.com that could provide access to local media only appeared in the mid-1990s, the local Canadian or American embassies were the prime source of guidance and security.

I distinctly remember my Canadian boss when we were driving across Moscow in a Volga car with blue curtains on the back windows being convinced we were being kidnapped — he was wrong it was a feast of fish and vodka, essential to the “In vino veritas” style of Russian negotiators.?

I was asked to present to a group of university students in Bolivia a few years ago on “how to become a manager”. The scheduled 30-minute session was interrupted at 90 minutes by other lecturers wondering where their class was. This is something that is not taught in college and should be — there are multiple paths to any career and the one that is most successful is the one you love most. The advice I gave the Bolivian students was “Add value, become indispensable, and make your boss look good” — I never got fired for adhering to that but know many whose fate was sealed when they did not.

Having many separate careers helped me avoid the bereavement of job loss and enabled me to shift focus to what I love doing. This is fortunate as I am useless at golf, a good friend commented that he had never played with anyone who achieved a higher score — truly “golf” is my handicap.

My current passion is giving back through consulting on Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Effective execution of the same has been the root cause of my career successes as well as saving my companies hundreds of millions of dollars.?

What amazes me is companies repeat the same mistake of believing that people can be replaced by technology — they see AI as a threat rather than an opportunity. This is crazy as people using technologies effectively is what makes business work.

I don't believe I have any silver bullets for living a happy life — but I do know what it takes to reach my promised land by making business work.