The walking sticks

Years ago...when my grandmother died, I was given two Irish walking sticks, shalaleighs as an heirloom....and I thought nothing of it, for I presumed that an Irish gentleman would like to take a walk of sorts with a cane from the old country, and have something to fend off the cats and dogs...but in the recent years, I realized, that with the "lamplighters" coming each night to light the lights, if one ventured out to take a walk...the cats and dogs were the least of the problems..so...I keep the sticks as a symbol....of a little protection...make a note of it....

"Don't Jump": Memories of 1987

Back in 1987, I was a stockbroker with E.F. Hutton...yup...that was the firm that bragged that when E.F. Hutton spoke,...people listened...anyway...as the market opened on the day of the big crash...as the selling progressed, a senior broker came on the "squack box" and told us that we should not panic in this day of panic...that there was a lot to our lives besides money...and to consider what these assets were...ok...there was not a two way conversation...so the quants on wall street could not try to calculate what those intangible assets were...but still...in retrospect..it was a nice touch...

"Real Sugar"

Yesterday a major soft drink maker announced that they would be changing their product so that they have "real" sugar in the product...nice...and that is the beginning of a revolution of sorts...

Imagine

A whole world emphasizing "real" not fake in their food...and now that we have "real" cheerios and real Pop, we can move on to refashion all the other "fake" items of our lives...like the "fake" politics, the fake open government, the fake educational institutions, the fake religions...ok I leave the rest up to you ...as an addition to Jerry Lee Lewis, "We've got a whole lot of fake going on":----

It's time to get real

The Courage to Be...the book...and the reality

Back in 1965...as a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, I took a humanities course, and in one brief semester was reading all at the same time, "The Courage to Be" by Ivan Illich, "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse, and "The Art of Zen" by Alan Watts....all I can say in recap, is that it was quite a semester....

Later, I got a little life lesson on how to merge all three books in real time..in real life...as my college friends went on their special chosen paths, and our lives separated...and I made choices that I needed to make....to define my self...

I always have treasured that semester at the University of Minnesota...and went on a little expedition in Zen and in Herman Hesse to see what I could find.

"Thank God for your Problems": Memories of Don Sheehan; 1982

1982 was one of the worst of all years...it hearkened back to 1929...and interest rates were sky high....and I had decided to start a business...how astute was that? anyway...one Saturday morning I enrolled to attend a seminar by Don Sheehan, a famous Dale Carnegie salesman...and the seminar was held in St. Paul at the Village Buffet near Snelling and University...I was really looking for some sage advice that would be helpful.

After a short intro, we had a coffee break and I met the other business owners, maybe 20 or so...and they were all over 30, and all facing some business life or death decisions...all were looking for guidance...

Then we started the first session...Don Sheehan called it "Thank God for your problems."
Don began by noting that all those attending were facing problems...and then asked whether we knew of a place where there were no problems...nobody answered...then he said" At 30th and Lyndale in Minneapolis is a spot with no problems.".....silence in the room as the seminar attendees looked at each other in amazement and wonder....then one guy said...."Isn't that Calvary Cemetary?".....

"YES", Don Sheehan replied...and everybody in that cemetery has NO problems..."

I was just a little stunned..and at first thought, I pondered that maybe I had spent the seminar fee in vain....

"Because you are alive and kicking..you face problems...and every day you should be kneeling down and thanking God for your problems, cause...if you look around you for just a few minutes, you will see a whole world of folks that have larger problems than yourself...so


"Thank God for your problems"...

and be confident that the Lord will give you the strength to face them.

I was just a little shocked...and imagine when I went home and told my wife that we should be thankful for our problems...ya .....she was shocked too...but after 30 years or so, I can still remember how stunning that seminar segment was, and how much it helped me....

Thanks Don..

Admitting Loss...and the energy it brings.:

Recently I have been reviewing some old investments that have gone bad, and over the years I have just persisted in the belief that to hold "long term" was the hard core integrity thing to do....but just last week, I felt that enough was enough..and sold...and presto...in the admission of the loss, or in the recognition of simply a bad financial idea, I was freed to begin again....and that albatross was lifted...and I felt an energy to "get back" ...ya like when was young, and one had broken up, and was trying to begin again...and thus I saw that in recognizing loss,,,,there can be an upside...nice...

Memories of "Sharp Investment" Club: a true story

Years ago, maybe about 1973, I worked a brief time at a CPA firm in Minneapolis...and one of the nice things that happened during that time was that the employees of the firm, a CPA and some "juniors" all formed a stock investment club, called "Sharp Investment". I eagerly joined and began meeting with them monthly, where we would each bring an idea, some graphs, and then after a presentation, and debate, we would vote on how to use the money that we had each contributed monthly to make a purchase...Yes...some of you might remember those days...when Medtronic was selling for $10 a share maybe, or Cardiac Pacemakers was just going public, or maybe St. Jude Medical...going public for $5.00 per share...yes I remember St. Jude very well since I could have bought 100 shares for $5, but alas did not have the spare change...

The leader of the club was Rollie Anderson...he was a CPA, and well respected, and soon there were tons of folks that wanted to join our club...but to this day, Rollie still asks me when me meet: "How is your "Suave Shoe" stock doing?" Yes, that was one of my first stock picks...

During the weekdays, I would pour over my latest book I had mailordered which was the "Magic of Stock Charts" or how candlestick charting could be the path to millions...and yes I even began ordering stockcharts in paper form sent weekly by special delivery on Saturday...

Our broker during those years was Jim Goebel with Craig Hallum downtown Minneapolis...You could drop in his office, and sitting in his chair, you could see the electronic tape going across listing all the trades...there was something called "tapereading" that I for the life of me could not figure out the significance of...but all the old guys in old tweed sportcoats that hung out at the brokerage offices seemed to know how to do it, and I wanted to learn how, since some day, maybe in Florida, I dreamed of being one of those guys, making a few trades and then slipping out to the boat for a spin...ah the dreams of youth.

One special memory I have is my purchase of 100 shares of Medtronic...I think I paid $15 per share....Immediately the stock went up three dollars...I was thrilled...so..I called Jim and asked him to sell..It was Friday afternoon...and he was hesitant about selling so soon, since he had thought of me holding for years and growing my investment...anyway, he said he could sell it...and I asked whether I could get the check for $300 at 4PM that day...he said yes, but it would cost a $25 fee, which I said was fine...When I picked up the check, I went across the street to the First National Bank, where I cashed it, and asked for all $1 bills....and then took my future wife out to dinner at the Pagoda restaurant in Mahtomedi off Hwy 244. I think that restaurant still exists....I still remember how alarmed my future bride was when I took out my wallet with all those bills in it, and how small the check at the restaurant was...and from that day, I knew the thrill of short term trading...for just a little bit, and to keep the other 99% far away....

So much for managing "winners"....I always like to take the winners, and then "manage losers".....it seems to make more sense..

A Dividend A Day keeps the doctor Away: a True Story

Thirty Four Years ago my wife and I were beginning our family in a newly bought home on Grand Ave in Mpls....and our new neighbors were Bill and Minnie....in their eighties...it was a neighborhood of stucco homes...built after the war...all one by one looking a lot like each other...with the expansion on top...two bedrooms down....and just after the birth of our first child...Bill had a habit of coming over and checking on her...he thought she was the most beautiful child he had ever seen...and yess..we agreed...but I digress..every day bill went on a walk around the block and walked to the local post office....I wondered why he seemed so upbeat each day...my other neighbor, Mort, mentioned that Bill and Minnie had been married for 60 years, and had both worked for the same company, and had invested a lot in company stock, and other stock too, and he had arranged to have a stock dividend every day of the week....and as Mort saw it, Bill could live "forever."...Immediately...I liked the concept...anyway...

Years later, when I worked for an investment firm, E.F. Hutton, there was a program that identified stocks for each day of the month, so that if a person wanted a dividend each day, one could know the stocks to buy...and the idea of each day, getting a little income in that would add sparkle to ones day, outside of just one employer...wow...what a wonderful concept...

Best for Your Child

You Want
What's Best for
Your Child
Love
Faith
Hope
More Things
Paid for Things
Because
All that is
Priceless
is
Free

A bit about "Superman"

I always loved the Superman movies...and yes the comic books too....and it seems that all the time...Superman would get himself in trouble when he was doing good, or courting his girl...and the evil forces would find the kryptonite that was his weakness and put Superman in a weak spot....but then Superman would fly off to his home planet...meet with his family so to speak...regroup and then go back and save the world, and yes Lois Lane too...I like this theme...when I was a young man living with my grandmother in St. Paul...after venturing off to live in an apartment....I just called and said, "Nana I need to come home for a bit...." she just said..." I will leave the light on for you." So---going home...going to a warm place far from the frozen tundra...regrouping one's strength and then proceeding on .....that is the plan...and read those old Superman comics...what a role model they were.

The Bourne Identity and You

One of my favorite movies is "The Bourne Identity."....yes it has non stop action that can keep me awake....but besides...there is a favorite scene, where Jason Bourne says to his girlfriend, "I don't know who I am"....she replies.."Just figure it out....we will just figure it out...."....and then she stands with him in his quest to find out what has happened to him, and what his life means for a future....As an older guy, I find that theme attractive...that we do not know exactly what the end will be, but need to search each day for what the mission might be today...now...

Courge is taking just ONE step at a time: Memories of Phil Laut, author of "Money is My Friend"

Years ago, back in 1981 or so, Phil Laut came to Minneapolis and held an informal seminar with publishers and friends to discuss his book, Money is My Friend, and review his rough draft for a new book he was considering...One of the topics he went over that night was the concept of "Courage." Many folks envision "courage" as taking large bold moves. This he explained was the delusion of the young and inexperienced...and when teachers tell their students to be "extremely bold and be very big risk takers"---kids take that advice and proceed to do some really dumb things... The reality as he saw it, was that "courage" happens ONE step at a time....one step moving QUIETLY toward a destination is far more powerful than loud big steps...that one small step is done with the "fire within"... a quiet fire that allows one to proceed, one step at a time, which gathers steam over time... I always remember that seminar. Ya...courage is kind of like sipping a brandy slowly as opposed to yelling loudly for another cheap beer....and yes, out of a fine glass helps..

Nostalgia: What Top Gun Really Looks Like: A bit on Courage

Uncommon Grief: Uncommon Courage"---a true story Uncommon grief, Uncommon Courage; Or, What the real Top Gun School looks like; OR where I was last weekend. I have been stopped everywhere lately by bloggers wondering whether I was "slacking" on the job Friday, Saturday and Sunday, because there were no posts. Normally, I don't go reverse chain of command, but I will respond to my blogger commanders. I was on the job observing the Twin City Marathon in St. Paul. First a little background. My best friend in college was Mike Wraneshay. We had met in high school physics class where he handled the experiments and I wrote the reports. It was a pattern to follow always. In his senior year of high school, his dad, a superstar salesman, died suddenly of a heart attack. Mike then moved into the Midway area of St. Paul to live with his grandparents, and close to my family home, on Dayton Ave, almost identical to my current home on East Main, except there were historic lights on both sides of the street. When he graduated from college he became a Navy officer. His love was photography. I learned later that he was in Navy intelligence. On completion of his Navy stint, he went into the Navy Reserve. One of the requirements of the Navy reserve was that everyone had to complete the 5 mile run and pass the eye test. Each year, both became more difficult. One August, when he was 40, I got the call. He had died suddenly after completing the 5 mile run. He left a wife and two small children. His friends and family were devasted. Navy pilots from all across the country, almost 100 of them, came to the funeral at Ft. Snelling. A month ago, Mike's mom announced that Matthew, his son, was running the Twin City Marathon. Laverne was now 82 and she and a friend were going to the 22 mile mark to cheer him on. I explained that this was the "wall" and it might not be pretty. I felt I needed to go to be there with them. I knew that Mike had died of an unusual clotting disorder. I hoped that Matt had gotten new medication that they had developed over the last 35 years. I dared not ask. As I watched the runners at the 22 mile mark my mind went back to the last time I spent a week with Mike. It was the time I flew to Pensacola to drive with him home and tour the facility. It was a special weekend. The pilots were competing to see who would go to Top Gun school. It was a scene right out of the movie Top Gun. Except there were no female flight instructors. There were a lot of guys that looked like Tom Cruise. Then Matt appeared at the 22 mile mark. We had a sign that said, "Hey, Hey, Wraneshay" . I gave him the ice and facecloth. Told him he was good to go and looked great. He did. I wondered all the way home, how in the face of adversity and grief, Matt could gather the courage to run the marathon, or rather whether he had to run in order to conquer the fear. In any event, the words of the flight instructor in Top Gun came to me, "Up here, we have to push it. " Somehow he, and many others who have faced huge grief have found the courage to thrive beyond the grief. I salute Matt and all the others like him. For me, that is what Top Gun is all about. When he had left, his grandmother, Luverne just smiled. "Well," she said, " You did good with the sign, Dick." "Let's just save it for next year and change the bib number." Posted by Richard Woulfe at 2:07 PM

2008: Nostalgia: Development: Reflection

OpEd: Getting the Order of Things Right Economic Development Summit: The goal is to refine the objectives. 1)Workforce Development. 2)Downtown Revitalization. 3)Government Relations. 4)Marketing. 5)Entrepreneurial Environment." This listing of the goals from the recent economic summit has a flaw. It is in the reverse order of priority. The keynote speaker of the conference was Terry Whipple and his speech was titled "Catch the Culture." The rich environment for economic development is marked by openess to the new, by a tolerance of young, and yes flawed ideas that are being shaped and perfected. The rich environment is not marked by closed, rigid process that blocks through restraint of trade or quid pro quo arrangements where there are certain entities that require that they receive all the profit from the arrangement or the idea will be denied development. In summary; Where there is restraint of trade and impediments to free flow of ideas, there will never be a vital economic process. There may be the show or "facade", but never the real thing.

A bit about "Nurture" and "Launch"

In the early days when my wife and I visited other couples with kids, it was common to hear couples recite the exploits of their kids...and I would assert that every parent from the moment of his childs birth, believes that his or her child is the finest thing that the world has ever produced...that kind of devotion and dedication and well..bonding...goes with the territory... I guess we could call the first 18 years or so, "the nurture years", when in order to be the best parent one would like to produce the best child, and yes...do it in better style than ones parents did...yes...a little generational rivalry...all in good spirit of improvement... Then the graduation...and I well remember the whooplala that I made of the first two daughters...I thought it necessary for members of the family that had a band to show up and produce a complete extravaganza...and of course it was necessary for my wife and I to redecorate the house completely...just for the graduation mind you...If I had been more savvy I would have known that launching takes a decade or so..and to save some energy....the kids are your kids and need you till the end....and being a parent never ends... Then comes the "Launch" or the launch to college, and then the launch to the work world....The nurture period takes "love" but the "Launch" takes Love and Faith...Of the two...I would assert that "Launch" is harder...cause it means having faith that you did a good job, and can let go...faith that you have instilled the independence and wisdom to your child that they do not need micromanaging any more...but know how to be themselves...yes...it is harder...and painful... I know: the Sermon on the Mount did not cover "Launch": Trust me...HE would have said it best..."Of all these, "Launch is the hardest".

"Facetime" not "Facebook" is the key

It is amazing that folks have bit hook line and sinker into the "Facebook" obsession---designed by a guy that was not good socially in order to help his friends, and "the whole world" get connected so he could then spy on them and sell the data for revenue...now nice is that? As a result, we have millions of homes that are so obsessed with facebook that they cannot focus on each other, as in "Shut up, I am working on facebook." Take a little time off world from the keyboard to get back to a glass of wine and a friend and some real conversation, in person, without earphones please....

"I've Been Working on the Railroad"

When I was a young boy, living in Mahtomedi, Mn, the song, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" was a big favorite---maybe because my dad did work on the railroad, as a railway mail clerk, and indeed his father before him had worked his whole life on the railroad also, and at the very end, at the age of 63, he was appointed the "Supr of Mails"...I know because I saw the article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press from 1926 or 1927 that said "Irishman makes good"...and detailed his career....After this, Michael worked for the railroad, the Hill family, and I believe it was Lewis Hill. Growing up in a railroad family, when my dad came home from a trip, his "grip" or satchel, was in the hall...and he usually came home late at night, but in the morning on the way to school, I would check the "grip" because where he stayed in Williston there was a bakery next door, and he always brought home a bag of cookies, and some glazed ones were favorites of my sister Suzie and me....A cookie in the morning on the way to school meant all was right with the world.. Those were the days before zip codes...when the test to become a railway mail clerk was one of memory...and one that to "throw the case" or demonstrate that one knew above 90% or so, the proper mail order of the destinations...because the mail was thrown off the train on hooks that were next to the stations...so memory was the key to the job....another thing...was the payroll..it went by mail...and the head of the crew always carried a pistol to protect the money...I probably always imagined that Wyatt Erpe would have rode up to the train and then my dad would have to fight him off with the pistol....but it was real low key...and I never did hear of any incident.

A bit about "Perfection"

As a youngster growing up in Mahtomedi, Minnesota, I spent a lot of time playing basketball on the outside court at St. Jude's school, and working on my outside set shot from the point...I thought that because I was pretty short,( I know that is hard to believe), I probably would not be a center kind of guy, and that the key was that outside shot...once the dream of perfection as a point guard faded, I turned to ice hockey---or more precisley broom hockey...but here again, after several years of hacking, I looked for other areas of perfection.... Every day after school, my mom had me empty my bookbag and place any papers, or holy cards( those were the old days) and put the paper on the refrigerator....There was nothing better than getting a 100% in red on a math assignment and having it on the fridge for a week following...and I really grew to love perfection...and learned that 100% shuts up a lot of people...and vowed that THIS was the secret to life...perfection...and I was firmly determined to attain it.

"Social Media" means you are good with "Clickers" and "Mouses"

It is really breathtaking to behold the development of society from the olden days when folks gathered over coffee in the early morn to talk of issues...and for the locals, farmers gathered to talk of crops, weather, etc, and the ladies talked of other matters... Nowdays, with all the development of "social skills" kids can stop by a Starbucks...and well just stop in one and see what is happening...all the students with their headphones on, sipping a coffee, and checking their phone every couple of seconds to make sure that they will not be criticized for not responding fast enough to every little digital need... Nowdays, a "friend" is someone that you have clicked on, and "Liked"...How wonderful is that...pretty special and satisfying I would guess if one was a modern, and satisfied by clicking... So how about you?...time to take off the headphones and respond to the wonder....I just wonder how social you have become, and whether in your old age, with a weathered mouse and mousepad, you will be wonderfully happy alone.

The Legend of Theodore Robinson---reflection

Many years ago, Chris Eager, the then president of UBT bank, and activist in the move to create the Evansville Senior Center, came to a meeting of the Evansville School Board, to introduce the concept of the Evansville Community Center, and why it was expanded to a broader concept to get public support...during the question and answer period, he was asked why the middle school was called the "Theodore Robinson Middle School"--to which he replied, " Theodore Robinson was a student here who left and became a great painter in Europe, studying under some of the great masters...and our goal for our city and school should not be to be able to say that we have created graduates that have lived their whole lives in Evansville, but that we have launched students to form successful lives and families and careers." I who had favored the name "Grove School" was stunned, and recognized instantly that Chris was right....I hope to launch our children to the larger world, and even ouselves, and to be able to say to strangers, "I am from Evansville, Wisconsin."