Bad Executive

Disclaimer

What the hell am I doing here?

Mostly I think I’m trying to figure it all out just like everyone else.  As a young new media executive, I realized quickly that no one really teaches you how to be a good executive.  Most people fight and push incredibly hard to get there only to realize they have no idea what they are doing once they are there.  Some are completely lost on what to do next while others get drunk on the power and the “role”.  Regardless, they all want to make their mark and prove themselves in the job and there is no manual for what’s next.

I wasn’t bred into being an exec.  I didn’t go to business school and I didn’t come from an affluent family.  Instead I went to the school of hard knocks and learned early on you have to work for everything, and it doesn’t hurt to be smart.  What I know I learned by watching, reading, asking, studying, doing and redoing. 6 years into it I admit I have done a fairly poor job of recording those findings so I can access them later.  I remember the most important ones and have the notes and books on all the rest, but this is 2008 and I want to be able to search them, sort them, and socially share them.  I hear you can do those things on computers these days. 

My success is the only reason I am qualified to share any of my thoughts or advice on getting ahead and being a good exec.  I dropped out of Ph.D. program in Neuroscience to follow my entrepreneurial dreams on the web.  I never looked back, I took a lot of calculated risks and I was very successful…especially at surviving the late 90’s bubble.  I ended up as the youngest Senior Vice President at a fortune 500 company (top 100 actually).  I’m successful, I’m happy, I’m building wealth and I’m pushing my company to innovate and excel.   Along the way I’m also mentoring several young executives coming up in the ranks behind me.

In all of it, you have to have a little fun.  Hence the “bad” advice.  I’m sure i’m at least a little crazy.  I have been called a genius, though it’s usually prefaced with words like “twisted.”  I’m a little dark, and my humor is a little dark.  I find most of human behavior absurd and hilarious on some level.  I hope my humor comes through in what I write here.  I took me a while to not take everything so gravely serious, so now I practice taking a lighter view. 

Also, I try not to define myself by what I do in my career.  One dimensional executives almost never succeed.  It’s a huge chunk of my life for sure, but it’s not everything.  I have a great girlfriend and partner whom I share my life with.  She motivates me far more than anything else in my life.  I’m also a DJ, I love to race cars and watch them being raced, I love to play games, exercise & travel.  I am a gadget freak and the guy most of my friends go to for tech support. I swear a lot, I collect pop art and I have an avid fascination for cosmology and the origins of the universe.  

Also, I have a freakish obsession with sneakers.  I have somewhere near 200 pairs total, though the total number is under heavy dispute.  Every day I hope to take a picture of one pair, and post it here.  I try to wear every pair at least once.  If they aren’t my sneakers, and going on my feet that day I’ll make a note of where and when I saw them.  Mostly they are mine, I just wanted to chronicle my collection online.  Also, I wear them to work in my job as an executive every day.  They add a little of that fun that I thrive on at work.  They make people look and smile, and they make me stand out from the rest of the up-tight, tucked in mob that make up my peer group.

That’s my disclaimer.  If you don’t like anything i’ve written here or disagree with my opinions or don’t find my humor to your liking then feel free to leave me a comment and tell me so. Or just go away. You decide.