Today, I turn 40 years old and as I write this I am airborne somewhere over Montana en route to Seattle. This is where I will begin a 4-day adventure that, God willing, will find me at 14,410 feet in the air atop Mt. Rainier at about 8AM PST on Tuesday morning.

Now many of you know this already and know that I’ve been training for months doing stadium steps with a 40lb backpack and working hard to prepare for this adventure. I feel very well prepared but a bit anxious and excited to begin something I know very little about. The temperature this morning on the summit was 16 degrees and a 60 mph wind, resulting in about a -30 degree wind chill. Looks like some snow showers for Tuesday morning too… should be a great story.

I was asked recently whether this is a “bucket list” item for me and I replied “nope, just a stupid list”. It all came about from a Men’s Fitness magazine article where they talked about the possibility of summiting Rainier if you’ve had no experience. Upon further reading about 10,000 climb up Rainier every year and about 5,000 make it to the top… further research reveals that about 3 per year perish. I like “perish” rather than “die”… it seems so much more peaceful.

So, with that, I ask you all … what’s on your “stupid list” … what’s a stupid idea or something you accomplished that led you down some unnecessary risk? Sky diving perhaps? Add your story here…

I’ll start by saying: faith without doubt isn’t really overrated it is non-existent but that doesn’t fit with the theme, so thus it becomes overrated.  By definition alone, if you had 100% certainty about something, would it really be faith?  No, it would be a fact… invariably every bit of our faith is coupled in some degree with doubt.  Part of the problem is that we associate doubt with weakness and indecision. Doubt shouldn’t be associated with those words; it is most closely related to skepticism.  And my guess is that the vast majority of people don’t understand the proper definition of that word either.  Go ahead, look it up!

When most people associate doubt with a person, most immediately look to the Biblical character and disciple, Thomas (Didymus) aka “Doubting Thomas”.  I heard a talk recently about this and it really made me scratch my head.  Was Thomas miscast?  Is his legacy as a doubter uncalled for?  Think of these two pieces of information:

1. Jesus appeared to the disciples shortly after his resurrection and the disciples were barricaded inside an area… probably scared to death… literally afraid that any public appearance could result in similar fate to what Jesus had encountered.  They were hunkered down… that is, all of them except for Thomas.  Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus appeared to the disciples.  Where was he?  Who knows… but he wasn’t with them, perhaps showing some courage to be “out and about”.  Anyway, all the disciples got to see Jesus in person and see the wounds and believe first hand but for some reason we think of Thomas lacking faith because he had to see for himself… but no more so than the other disciples did.  Wouldn’t you want to see in person, if you could?
2. Not much is told in the Biblical accounts of Thomas however there is one previous account where Thomas, in true Braveheart fashion, says about returning to an area that they had barely fled with their lives <if Jesus is to die> “Let’s go with him and go to our death”

These two things lead me to believe we have misinterpreted Thomas’s doubt… and probably doubt in general. Doubt isn’t wrong… it is inherent with faith and co-exists with the things that we believe.  Each time that we sense doubt, it becomes an opportunity to grow and learn.  Don’t get me wrong, doubt can overcome some.  In business doubt can cause analysis paralysis.  It can cause indecision and generate fear.   In personal lives, doubt can cause worry and fear that results in lives that don’t become what they could.   Are you afraid of doubt?  If you push it away and don’t deal with it, you won’t be able to grow and, ironically, grow stronger in faith.

2010 Orlando NADA Convention Recapitulation

 I think this was one of the best NADA conventions I’ve ever attended.  Dealer attendance was up from last year, but still significantly down from years past, it’s not all about quantity.  The quality of engagement, conversation, networking and learning was outstanding!  Here are a few random thoughts and notes that a few days after the convention are still resonating with me:

• Driving Sales is going to be huge.  That’s not a news flash or an outlandish prediction but Jared Hamilton’s a huge rising star and with some recent tweaks, the site will become more and more useful as an industry resource and community.  #justsayin…
• A few shots have been fired at GOSO recently and I was surprised myself that their booth wasn’t more well attended or a bigger splash.  I had predicted they’d be one of the biggest buzz makers at NADA and that didn’t really happen.  Don’t get me wrong, I think their Facebook application for inventory is slick but it’s not exactly difficult to replicate.  They’ve got a nice presentation; it just didn’t show well at NADA.
• The one booth I didn’t get a chance to see that did generate some positive buzz was Dealer Mouth.  I need to check them out… seems like they were one of the surprise winners.
• The NADA workshops were seemingly well attended.  This was my first time as a workshop speaker and I definitely had it easy with a great panel, but our sessions were standing-room-only and many others were as well.    I think this just goes to show how engaged the dealers were at this show.  If you haven’t heard Suzuki of Wichita’s story and how they operate, I suggest you do!  Changing the way things are done!  Special thanks to Eric Miltsch of AuctionDirect, Tom White Jr of Suzuki of Wichita and Paul Potratz of Potratz Advertising.
• I’m a little biased but this was the first time Dominion Dealer Solutions really came together under their brand and the booth was busy the entire show.  It presented well, looked great and sparked dealer interest.  The ultimate goal of packaging together integrations between their powerful brands is in progress but even now some offerings have realized these synergies and special pricing packages have been put together.  Pretty cool to see this emerging.
• Perhaps I had low expectations but the Dealer Track Open-Track event was really well attended.  It looks like they increased the number of marketers, evangelists and promoters of their product that night.  And, of course, the DT party was great afterwards.  Cuba Libre is an awesome place. 
• I think one of the best things Dealer.com has going for them is how actively engaged their personnel are in the industry.  They are everywhere, engaged everywhere, learning and sharing everywhere… speaks well of their entire organization.  They have a very good product but the people in their organization make them who they are!
• And I think Rafi Hamid has cloned himself…  I see him too frequently in too many places for Rafi to be one person.  In fact, I think I saw him with and without a beard within minutes of each other.  Keep an eye out for that…

I’ve been attending NADA for quite a number of years now and in that period of time I’ve changed my outlook on the conference considerably. Fair warning: I’ve never attended as a dealer, always as an Allied Industry or Exhibitor and this year as a Speaker (plug: http://bit.ly/bhL6ru). Despite not being a dealer, I would guess that many of you have changed your outlook as well… especially in the last few years.

Pre-registration attendance is up this year but still well behind two years ago. My perception is that in the preceding years, dealers and managers would attend for some “get-away” time mixed with a couple of soft agenda items such as, “I’m looking for a new CRM company” or “I want to investigate website opportunities”. Dealers would highlight some vendors in the NADA book and off they would go. They might sit in on some workshops and their OEM meetings… then spend some time having fun.

How does that differ from today? Oh, I still think dealers know how to have fun and will make time for that. It’s understandable, rational and well-deserved after putting 2009 in the books. Surviving 2009 alone is a feat and the “industry correction” has caused dealers to re-examine things they haven’t in a long time… to become more engaged… to be more hands-on. The result? Operations that are more efficiently ran, leaner and better. In many ways this is easily compared to pruning a tree. I’m always nervous about doing this as I worry that it won’t grow back better and stronger as anticipated…and it always does!

So, with dealers more operationally and strategically focused, what does this mean for the NADA conference? I think we’ll see that translate into more engaged dealers with more specific agendas. There won’t just be highlights in the pre-show book, but questions and plans to see more, learn more, attend more workshops, engage vendors in thought provoking conversations and more idea generation.

What can you do to help make the most out of NADA? Here are some tips:

1.If you engage on Twitter or Social Media, follow the sites. Follow @2010NADA and #2010NADA. If that doesn’t mean anything to you (or even if it does) you should attend one or multiple of the social media workshops being held at NADA! Here is a link to all of the workshops offered: http://bit.ly/drjH9x
2.Visit your current and prospective vendors. Here’s a list of the exhibiting companies http://bit.ly/bwLWKF. Why your current vendors? What better, non-pressured place to engage, learn and ask questions?
3.Network. At lunch, on the shuttle bus, at social events, anywhere… ask others, “What did you see that was interesting?” or “What was the best thing you’ve seen?” or “What workshops did you attend?”
More than anything else, make a plan and enter the 2010 NADA convention with the “end in mind”. What do you want to walk away accomplishing and then make a plan to reach that goal. But don’t forget to have some fun too… you’ve earned it! Here’s a good place to start: http://bit.ly/agvuao

If you could let your Twitter followers know what vehicles you have in stock, would you?

It is an exciting time at Dealer Specialties for many reasons and the most tangible reason is the release of our new Inventory Management Software, IVM 3.0. With an incredible amount of new tools enhanced by a new customizable user-interface, IVM makes inventory management easy and robust at the same time. The press release with more information can be found on our website. The most recent feature is the ability to post vehicles to Twitter which will be available next week in IVM 3.0.

There is a cautionary tale to be told about this, however. This is similar to giving my son a $300 baseball bat. Used under the right circumstances, he’ll have great results. However, my son is seven and left to his own devices, I’m quite certain there wouldn’t be a piece of furniture, door knob or light fixture without significant damage. There needs to be some rules or at least some guidelines in place before he takes possession.

So, let’s say you don’t want to damage your furniture with your new bat… how do you utilize Twitter without messing stuff up? Here are some things to do:

1) If you don’t have an account, get one. Easy to do. Go to www.twitter.com … you’ll figure it out on how to sign up. If you struggle with this… seriously… give up. Spend a couple minutes uploading a photo and putting your information in your profile.

2) Figuring out what to do on Twitter seems difficult at first… that’s why a lot of people quit quickly. Try to find some folks you know to follow. Follow @getauto @dealrspecialts @ggarvin for sure (duh). Follow people and they’ll start following you back… some will anyway… people are cool like that.

3) As much as you want to play with your new toy… you really can’t make much use of it yet… sorry. You need to start listening, following conversations and watching news items. Explore. Search. Try http://search.twitter.com/ and type in some topics of interest. After you listen, then engage…

4) Once you understand the landscape, you can start to post some stuff where you might be able to make some money… but don’t think about the goal of selling a car. Think about engagement and how you can help people. For instance, winterizing tips or other points of value…this will engage more people.

5) So, you want to sell a car on Twitter? Think of a win-win scenario… are you the type who walks into a cocktail hour or happy hour and announces that you have cars for sale with a megaphone? I hope not. Same thing here…do you have a nice car for sale? Maybe one that stands out, one that is unique, one that is specially priced or in high demand? Well, then… now you’ve got something. Post it out there… just don’t do it too much or people will stop following you. Who wants to be solicited all the time? Maybe one a day or 3-4 specials per week? It is easy to do in IVM, just set your Twitter account up under settings, then click on the vehicle to post to Twitter. It’ll give you the default information for the vehicle like the year, make and model and a shortened URL… be sure to add some description to why it is a special vehicle or special price.

Just realize that even a $300 bat sometimes misses the ball… so just keep swinging – just not too often

Things That Are Overrated: Installment #3

Pretty but irrelevant

Libraries

This rant can be a little controversial.  I think we should get rid of all libraries.  Yep, just get rid of them!  I know there are great memories for some of you and even recent memories for some of the moms out there who took their kids to story time at the local library, but in today’s day and age libraries have become irrelevant and unneeded.  Ask yourself:  If they didn’t exist already, would we create them?  Of course not!

The census would show us that there are 38,000 libraries in the US (this doesn’t include school libraries).  If each of those libraries had a property value of $100,000 (a conservative estimate), we would raise $4 billion dollars. Just think how many flybys of NYC and photo ops could be done with the Statue of Liberty and Air Force One!  If you also took the annualized salaries of all librarians and office workers, plus associated costs it would save more money.  And it always seems like libraries are about 10 degrees cooler than need to be which brings up the point of the electric and overall HVAC costs.  In today’s economy can we afford this “luxury”? 

So why do we have libraries?   Certainly, there is a strong argument that libraries are a dated concept that had merit from eight generations ago, but just like we don’t fund Blockbuster or other rental agencies, we should no longer fund libraries.  If they can be successful, they should stand on their own.  What would we lose? 

• Anonymous internet usage that is untraceable? Gee… there is something that terrorists and child predators would really miss.
• The Dewey Decimal System – gosh how will we fill those hours of missed third-grade classroom learning
• Library cards and fines
• Evil glares, stares and guilt from librarians who won’t be able to shush people

While people may dispute these items, there is no doubt that libraries are seriously contributing to global warming.  When you take into account the carbon footprint of the heating and air conditioning burden these cause to our world and add in all the trees that cut down in the name of books, we are wasting our rain forests for books that are never even found by our beloved Dewey Decimal system.  Now, think about this:  the billion pounds of books have to be pulling us closer to the center of the Earth… really!  That strain on the Earth’s crust brings us closer to the magma at the center of the Earth and that creates a small increase in the heat of the surface. 

As an example of how self-important libraries consider themselves despite their obvious irrelevancy, here is a town in NJ that is seeking federal stimulus package money to fund their frivolous endeavor.  I feel for you, taxpayer of West Milford… Maybe the government should just give out a free Kindle to everyone and call it a day?  http://www.suburbantrends.com/NC/0/2700.html

 

And it begins…

The SuperBowl is great… opening day is awesome… but nothing is like the NCAA Tournament and especially the first four days and two rounds.  Despite CBS’s overt efforts to destroy the tournament with Billy Packer, Greg Gumbel and terrible switches between games, this remains the best days in sports overall.   Luckily Directv has saved us with their package but CBS continues to mess things up with their cutaway from the local game and blacking out the local on directv and CBS elimination of the midnight game for those who can’t get enough was a bad idea for hoops junkies. That’s my CBS rant for now … until they cutaway from Syracuse tomorrow, hopefully because they are up by 30 at halftime. 

I would list my bracket picks here but I’ve done too many and done them differently to look at all the variations.  I can assure you, with the obvious exception of Syracuse, I will take a little less chalk then our newly-embattled president, Barry.  Instead, I’ll focus on a couple of more interesting selections/pools.   As many of you know (and the reason you are on the site to begin with) you can check out this year’s version of the 23rd annual Countdown tournament on NCAA tab in the header.  For those past participants, I will eventually list all historical years on there at some point.  This pool is a draft of 20 players by 12 teams and score points based on the number of points the players score in the games in the tournament. 

The other pool and my first time as a participant is the “Survivor Pool”.  How does it work?  Pick one team each round that will definitely advance.  Sounds easy, except you can use the team again… so don’t get stuck with teams in the Final Four that you’ve used already or you are eliminated.  Pretty cool.  Like I need more opportunities to be interested in games.

Mmmm... dry scones

Things That Are Overrated: Installment #2

Scones

 

Dry.  Brittle. Crumbly.  Four bucks at Starbucks.   People try to put fruit in them but the fruit just ends up tasting like those red and green things that people put in fruit cake.  Which would be another thing that is overrated, if anyone rated it highly to begin with.  

Scones remind me of bland, tasteless, lifeless diet food but scones are worse.  They taste bad, make you incredibly thirsty and they are fattening.  Sound like a game plan?  I’ll meet you at Fourbucks for a cup of coffee and an orange/cranberry scone OR I can drop an anvil on your big toe and take $8.45 out of your wallet.  What do you choose?  Hey, if you take the anvil route, you’ll be $8.45 ahead of the game, thinner and even with a swollen big toe you’ll be able to cover enough ground at short-stop to be compared to Cal Ripken. 

Cal weeps

 

Things That Are Overrated: Installment #1

 

 

 Cal Ripken, Jr.

 

The famous rant that has cost me much derision, scorn & contempt…  I’m not sure what exactly being “much maligned” means but I think that I am that as well because of my stance on Cal Ripken.  So, now I will write words that will surely come back to haunt me. 

Cal Ripken is overrated.  Not by me exactly… because I don’t rate Cal highly to start with, so the public perception of Cal Ripken, Jr. is much overrated.  Here’s the case:

• 1) First, he is a Jr… Junior is ridiculous. Stand on your own. Don’t live off your father’s legacy. Be your own man.
• 2) He is a lifetime .276 hitter. Wow. Does that jump out at you as a Hall-of-Fame credential? Perhaps… if the person jacked 600 HRs.
• 3) He averaged about 20 home runs a season. Yawn.
• 4) He grounded into more double plays than any other player in major league history, so he does own that record. That’s something.
• 5) People will argue about his incredible fielding. This is the biggest joke going. He covered as much real estate at short-stop as I would with an ingrown toenail. His range was miniscule and therefore he didn’t boot the ball often. How impressive! The gold glove is another arbitrary award handed out on reputation.
• 6) The thing he did so well? He showed up for work every day for 16 seasons. Impressed? Don’t be. An average (not batting average… just average) guy showing up for work…Work that consists of 3 hours, 161 times a year. Approximately 480 hours a year. That’s like a 12 week year for most of the working populous. I’ll give him this … he was good at not getting hurt.

Don’t get me wrong.  Cal was a good baseball player.  Easily liked.  Good role-model.  Arguably, because of that durability and longevity thing, he is even probably a hall-of-famer.  But clearly and obviously overrated.