My Life at AV-BASE: Part III

It has been more than seven years since I first joined AV-BASE Systems and now it's time for me to go. I have submitted my resignation and I will be leaving near the end of November to help found a new company. I wanted to give all of you a letter explaining how much I have loved being with this company all these years, and explaining why I am leaving. You can feel free to talk to me about all of this as well.

My Life at AV-BASE: Time To Go

I am helping to found a new company that will help disabled people, a company named the Justice Financial Group (JFG). In brief, we provide all kinds of help and support, both financial and personal, to people that seriously injured in accidents. We want to step in if these people or their families are unjustly denied their rightful insurance benefits after they experience a disabilitating accident or death.

It's amazing how often this situation happens to people and we want to be there to do what we can. You can feel free to ask me for more details personally but suffice it to say we hope to have a major impact in people's lives.

I am helping found JFG with a few other people that I know from church. One of these people is actually in this type of situation right now and through his experiences this new company was born. I will be joining as Director of Application Development, which is a lot like my current role at AV-BASE. I will be responsible for creating the software infrastructure to support all of this. Our eventual goal is to help hundreds of people across North America get what they are rightfully owed and let them and their families lead fulfilling lives in spite of the disabilities.

As a note, my exact date of departure is still unclear. Due to the vagaries of starting a new company, I will probably be leaving sometime between November 20th and December 1st. AV-Base management has been kind enough to permit me some flexibility regarding my final date.

Thanks for reading my retrospective of my life and my years at AV-BASE. I will always look back fondly on my time at AV-BASE and I wish the company and everyone the best. I hope that AV-BASE continues to grow in every way and that WinAir continues to be effective all around the world.

So long and thanks for all the fish!*

My Life at AV-BASE: Part I
My Life at AV-BASE: Part II

*Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Lessons From The Office: Part II

Lesson #2

We're all different. Use that to our advantage.

Did you ever hear this old children's song?

Hello, my name is Joe and I work in a button factory.

I have a house, and a dog, and a family.

One day, my boss said to me, "Hey Joe, are you busy?"

I said, "No."

He said "Turn the button with your left hand."

(Repeat and add a new action each time.)

Sometimes, it's very easy to treat all employees as if they are identical. We're all just named Joe and we're all doing the same job in the button factory. Oh sure, Joe #1 uses his left hand and Joe #2 uses his right foot but we can train them on how to do each other's job. After all, neither job is too difficult and the most important thing is that we treat everyone equally, right?

That standard and those asumptions do not hold true for parents raising their kids. It's doesn't hold true for teachers with a classroom of students. And it should not hold true for employers with their employees.

Each employee has their own unique abilities and personality. Each employee has something that they bring to the table that no one else has. Our job is not to fit the person to the job, it's to fit the job to the person. Don't devote too much time to trying to fix the weaknesses, put the effort into accentuating the strengths.

There are some people that are good at implementation, there are others that are good with the big ideas. Great. Put those people together, work out the plan and let each person do what they do best. That's the whole point of the HOTS personality tests that we do at work. Each personality has its own advantages and none of the personalities can do the complete job on their own. It's when we combine our efforts and those advantages that the best results are achieved.

The common joke is that managers are always promoted one level above the level they're actually good at. We take a computer programmer and try to make them into a software designer. We take a software designer and try to make them into a manager. Sometimes these changes are necessary. Often times the person makes the best out of it and learns the necessary skills to get by. The difference is that the talented designer will never be as great a talented manager, yet too often we put them in that straight jacket anyway and then we're displeased when they don't measure up to expectations.

We need to learn about our own strengths, our own personality and our own preferences. That will allow us to excel in the things that we're best qualified. Apply that analysis to others and communicate it properly and we can empower all of the best parts of our team. The whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.

It's like our button factory. Hey, some people are good at the repetitive button pushing. Some people are good at multi-tasking and changing buttons all the time. Some people are good at being the boss. And some people are good at chanting the song with the kids.

Previous: Intro & Part I

More Blinks

So let's see, what is in the news today?

For six years now, Forbes magazine has been calculating the top money-earners amongst dead celebrities. In each of the first five years, Elvis ruled the chart with yearly earnings around $45 million. This past year, Kurt Cobain toppled The King as his estate made a total of $50 million. Much of that is attributed to Courtney Love selling off a quarter of Nirvana's library. Bing Crosby must be rolling in his grave.

iTunes and iPod music have copy-protection codes to combat piracy. This protection scheme is actually quite good - or it was until now. This article explains that an infamous hacker named Jon Lech Johansen or "DVD Jon" has cracked the code. Previously, this guy made a name (or a nickname) for himself at the age of fifteen by cracking the copyright codes for DVD movies and giving it away for free. This time, at the age of 22, he's trying to sell the hack and make some money off of it. It actually might be legal because reverse engineering, a la Paycheck, isn't technically stealing, it's just being extra smart.

Speaking of iPods, did you hear the one about Apple shipping a virus with them last month? Their Video iPods included the RavMonE virus. In Apple's official press release on their website, they said, "As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it." That's right, the blamed Microsoft for being allowing viruses. Silly monkeys. That's like blaming your parents for allowing you to break a window.

And finally, here's an odd story about a woman who decided to run for mayor for Oakville because the city allowed her house to become completely inaccessible from the roads. Over the years, new houses were built around her house until they finally closed her in completely. She has been fighting a battle of principle for a few decades now. The Old Lady and The Sea, as it were.

Blinks & Links

Joe Gibbs is the head coach of the Washington Redskins in the NFL. He has won three Superbowls and is in the Hall of Fame. Here's his bio and his Wikipedia log. After retiring in 1992, he came back as head coach of the Redskins in 2004 and unfortunately for him, they're an awful team this year (2 wins, 5 losses).

I was reading this article on a sports blog that I visit. The author was initially writing about Joe Gibbs personal website and wanted to make a few jabs at him. However, Gibbs has an ongoing series of videos (vlogs?) in which he explains his "spiritual game plan." He talks about various principles and messages from the Bible and he tends to relate them directly to his current experiences with the Redskins.

That blog article gives a nice summary of each week so far. If you're into sports or the NFL, it may be worth a gander.

Power of the Holy Spirit

What does the power of God's Holy Spirit look like today in my life?

This is the question that was posed for Open Discussion during the services at my church this past weekend. The sermon notes, and hopefully an MP3 link, are available here. The point is, how is God's power demonstrated in our lives? More than that, how is the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated in our lives? It's a question of apathy and it's a question of accepting less than what God has for us.

In Acts 1:8, it says that "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

So what's my answer to the first question? I would say that I do have boldness in terms of proclaiming my faith in God that does not seem to be very common among other Christians at work or elsewhere, and that's despite the fact that I'm an introvert. That would match the above verse, I think. More concretely, I do pray in tongues fairly often. While that's the most clear demonstration of the Holy Spirit, it's also private since I rarely pray in tongues while praying for other people.

Beyond that, which gifts of the Spirit are in my life, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1? I can't say that I see any of those miraculous gifts regularly in my life, though I have had some of them once in a while.

So I don't see much of the Holy Spirit's power demonstrated in my life directly and obviously. That's not an eye opener for me since I am passionate about my faith and I do want more of God's power, so I am aware and I am dissatisfied. Apathy is not such a big factor for me even though that was the main challenge of the sermon this past weekend.

The part that hit me is this: If the power of God is not demonstrated in my life, why would anyone else believe me when I say that we all need it? In the past, I have tried to speak, study and pray with friends about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and about spiritual gifts. I've usually been met with a great degree of skepticism, doubts and criticism. That, or a polite refusal and a preference to live and let live, so to speak. (This point is addressed in the "Struggles" section of those sermon notes: Historically, people will idolize, analyze, criticize or ostracize the power of the Spirit.)

And why wouldn't people respond that way? If I'm the one encouraging people to pursue baptism of the Holy Spirit but I don't seem much different from my other Christian friends, what's the point? What does it matter? It can't be very powerful if it's not evident, right?

Ouch, the question broke me down a bit. I guess it's like telling people about Jesus' love and sacrifice for us and the forgiveness of our sins. Why would non-Christians be attracted to God if our lives seem about the same as theirs? If we're not truly happier, if we're not free from hurts of the past, if we're not filled with passion and purpose?

I need to see more of God's power in my life. I need more of the Holy Spirit to be shown through me. Not for my sake, but for the sake of my friends. For the sake of both my Christian friends and my other friends. It's God that breaks through into people's live, not my nice words and not a merely adequate but well-meaning life.

I need more of you, God. I need more of you, Holy Spirit. More of you in my life.