Learning

Over the last couple months I have been introduced to Social Media Club of Seattle (http://www.smcseattle.com/). At a national level, Social Media Club helps create regional chapters focused on education, sharing, standards and general "literacy" around social media. For someone new to the space, I was immediately interested in how this local chapter could help me learn more and get a better understanding of what works, what doesn't, etc. As I have got into it more, and learned about the people behind the Seattle chapter, I quickly learned about how the drive of one person, Kevin Urie, to "learn" helped 'Make It Happen.'

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because the folks from @anotherpassion did a great job of that in a recent interview that went live on February 15th. You can click on it below for the entire story.
http://www.anotherpassion.com/2010/interview/kevin-urie-taking-social-media-offline/

What inspired me about the story was that Kevin took on this challenge as a learning oppportunity. Social Media was something that interested him, and this was a way for him to dive in..OK, maybe "cannonball" in. There are a lot of times where we evaluate what we will do, and where we spend our time based on the "return" it provides, typically financially. However, when I read this, and through my first few visits to SMCSeattle events, I can see how this is about learning and growing. It is about not only learning more for ourselves, but about sharing with others to help them be more successful.

So, I thank Kevin for having the drive to get the Seattle Chapter of SMC off the ground. Based on just my few interactions with Kevin I know he will give a lot of credit to the entire SMCSeattle crew, and rightfully so, but it was his initiative to "Make It Happen" that got it all going.

Here are a handful of links to connect with Kevin, AnotherPassion and SMCSeattle:
Kevin on twitter at http://twitter.com/kevinurie
Another Passion on twitter at http://twitter.com/anotherpassion
SMCSeattle on twitter at http://twitter.com/smcseattle Read More!

Giving of Time

There are a lot of ways to give, the most common request is around giving of money.  Many non-profits and charities aks for it in order to keep doing the things they do.  However, in this post I am going to focus on giving of Time.  I read or heard one time, that Time is far more valuable of a gift to give then money.  Sure, money is important, but time is something you cant get back (at least until they invent some kind of time machine) where as you can always earn more money.

So, fresh off our recent trip to Portland to cheer on the kids school (www.hopeseattle.org) at the LEST tournament at Concordia University, I thought it was only fitting to recognize a great friend that coaches the 7/8th grade Hope Basketball team.  This is significant for a number of reasons.  First, this isn't his day job...this is 100% volunteer.  Second, he has been doing this for 10 years.  Lastly, this marks his last year of coaching.  I had the pleasure of working with him as an assistant for the previous 4 years, and with a number of new coaches stepping up to help, I decided to step away this year.  Given my assistant role for those 4 years I know first hand how much Time it takes to take on this responsibility.  From practices, to games, to tournaments, to traveling, to not being at work or with the family.  It takes a TON of time.  But 10 years of coaching and sacrifice as a volunteer is a long time.  The great thing is that in all those years I know that he feels it is 100% worth it.  Through giving his time, he was able to engage, influence and inspire 100's of kids...at an age where they can really use it.

This year was his last, and it although they didn't win any championships, I know he would say it was all worth it.  We should all thank and acknowledge people like him that give of their Time to help "Make it Happen!" Read More!

Stick With It

I consider myself a pretty humble person, and the intent for this blog is to really look for the people around me and see how they are making it happen.  However, on the anniversary of 10 years with my company, I thought I would tell a little of my story.  In this day and age, some might frown on the fact that I have been with the same company for 10 years.  Maybe so...but I hope that for many it is a sign that if you believe in something, and stick with it, you can make it happen.

It was the winter of 1999 and my old employer had just signed a big deal with a major outsourcer and plans were in the works that within a few months all us IT people were going to be merged in with this company.  At the same time, I had a brother-in-law who had just joined a cool new startup in Seattle.  One late December day I got talked into coming up to Seattle for a "usability study"..which back in the dotcom days meant a meet and greet.  Although I did actually do a usability study for them, I also had a chance to meet the CEO and others on the team.  After chatting for bit, the topic of possibly moving to a new opportunity came up and given my current situation, I figured what the heck.  A few weeks later, I got the official offer and oddly without much hesitation I jumped on the chance to make the move to something new.  At this point I could easily say, "and the rest is history!"  and it really is.  I cant/wont go into every detail of the last ten years...that will make for a good book someday.  As it relates to "sticking with it" all I can really say is that it wasnt easy.  There were a lot of good times, some not so good times, and some difficult challenges.  But heck, isn't that work?  Who said it was going to be easy...if it's easy, it probably isnt work.  Through those ups and downs, I have always had a can do attitude..I believed in myself, our team and our customers.  I knew what we had, and that it was awesome.

Along the way, I have been fortunate to be surrounded by great people.  People that also cared a lot about what we did, and how we could be successful.  I also was given opportunities... opportunities to learn and opportunities to lead.  Experiences that have truly shaped me into who I am today.  So, my advice to anyone that thinks they might have it tough, things aren't going well and might want to give up (believe me, it came to mind a few times) - stick with it.  Sure, there can come the time where enough is enough, and you need to make that call to move on. In my situation, I felt an obligation to see things through, to stick it out, and try to do whatever I could to make things happen.  The great thing is that when you have this attitude, you can always find new ways to be better, to learn more, and to do more.  I am thrilled to be part of such an awesome team that is doing great things!


Stick with it and Make it happen!

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Stepping Up

My last post for Make It Happen was about my wife getting it done for our kids school and driving fundraising effort.  Yesterday, I heard a story about a dear friend of ours that made it happen by stepping up.  Here's the story:

On her way to take the kids to school, driving down a busy street, she is shocked to see a man beating up a girl.  Shocked not only at what is taking place, but shocked at the fact that no one on this busy street was stepping up to try and do anything about this.  So, with 3 kids in her car, she took it upon herself to pull over, call the cops, and try and get this guy to stop.  Since yelling at the guy from the car wasn't helping, she got out of the car and then he finally stopped.  Now, some people might say "what was she thinking? he could have started on her."  True, but what touched me is that she didn't care about that...her heart felt more for this defenseless girl, then for herself, and she decided to do something about it.  

For some reason, the guy didn't run away, and the cops got there and hauled him away.  Hard to say what will come out of this for him, but I know for sure that she had a huge impact on a few people here.  First, all the other people who didn't stop.  Hopefully they saw a mother of 3, step up, get out of her car and make it happen.  Second, her kids.  Hopefully they saw how their mom stepped up, put the needs of a stranger above her own and made it happen.  Lastly, the girl she helped.  Hopefully, she know that not everyone is like the guy that was beating her up, that people do care..and maybe she'll make it happen for someone else someday.  

Thanks LE for stepping it up and Making it Happen!

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