Life Lessons
The Why Factor: What Makes You Different in Business and Life
Although I am happily retired, the one thing I do miss is the thrill of the hunt. There was nothing like having your heart racing while barely beating a deadline in submitting your final proposal. Mine was generally several pages deeper than most, as I always had a story to tell. I considered it the…
Read MoreIs Artificial Intelligence Really Awful Intelligence? You Decide…
It’s amazing to believe that Artificial Intelligence was invented at an academic workshop organized by John McCarthy of IBM back in 1956, a year before I was born. Like all great inventions, this wasn’t the initial plan. They were just trying to create “thinking machines.” Fast forward 69 years, and AI is a brand name…
Read MoreThe People I Misjudged and The Valuable Life Lessons They Taught Me
Perhaps I had a healthy dose of arrogance when I founded BCD back in 1999. After all, my sales career literally started in a warehouse and grew from there. I certainly wasn’t “book-smart” in life, and perhaps I saw that as an advantage. I opened the company as a “selling CEO.” Having CEO on your…
Read MoreThe Art of Selling: Why Trust and Confidence Win in Business Every Time
The most important product a salesperson offers any potential customer is their word. This is where trust begins, and for that matter, where trust could end just as well. Confidence sells. Confidence is contagious. Confidence creates momentum. But where does that confidence come from? It comes from you! Sure, “winging it” works to a point,…
Read MoreNobody Knows the Video I’ve Seen: Inside High-Stakes Security, Surveillance, and Trust
Apparently, in some ways, the book must have failed me, as its purpose was to cleanse forty-five years within the computer industry out of my system. Yet, some two and a half years after retiring, I still have vivid memories, primarily of those BCDVideo years through my retirement in July 2023. When Reputation Beats Price…
Read MoreHow My Dad’s Simple Rules Built a Lifetime of Character and Respect
The Character Who Taught Me Character It’s very hard to believe that my dad died twenty-four years ago, or will have on May 12 of this year, anyway. Two dozen years, and yet I still think of him every day. Some instance or situation pops in my head, and there he is, along with it.…
Read MoreWhy Trusting Your Team Is the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make as a Leader
How Trusting Your Team Builds Stronger Teams and Better Leaders While it may seem like a reach to go from never-going-to-class college dropout to founding my own technology company, I certainly wasn’t the first. If anything, the least likely. I was pretty much a fuck-up my whole childhood. Some would say, and fairly, that my…
Read MoreCreating Value: Success Happens When You Build a Team That Loves Their Work
Action breeds inspiration more than inspiration breeds action. ~ Willem Dafoe Why Trust Is the Heart of Team Building Among the joys I had throughout my forty-five years within (and withstanding) the computer industry was team building. As I began to land large accounts, it was instrumental to have a knowledgeable team as the inside…
Read MoreHow Technology Innovation Changed Everything: From Walkmans to AI
Without doubt, technology has really changed the world since the 1980s. I am not so sure whether it has made us lazier or better. Perhaps a little of both. The so-called “hot technology” when I landed feet-first in the computer industry a lifetime ago, in 1979, was the Sony Walkman. Visualize yourself walking down the street…
Read MoreWhy Becoming Grandpa Is Like Getting a Complete Life Reboot
Our family was blessed with our first grandchild just over nine months ago. John Jeffrey – named after both my son-in-law’s late father and me – is his official name. His street name is Johnny. Grandpa Love: Finding Joy in Every New Moment Joanne and I have always had grand dogs throughout our forty-plus years…
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