Tomorrow begins a much needed push into rural Iowa for me.  I'm extremely honored to have been selected to the Leadership Iowa class of 2007-08 sponsored by the Association of Business & Industry Foundation.  Our first stop is Creston, IA and after reviewing the itinerary, I'm sure it will be great trip.  I don't really know what to expect but I've heard nothing but great things from the past years classes.

Check out the list of Iowans taking part in this years class. 

And if you're really bored... You Should Get To Know... Tom Steen

Push for intrapreneurship rather than entrepreneurship in our State.  Don't become a business owner before you have the knowledge, capital, human capital and most importantly... market demand for your product. 

So... here's the deal... the Adam's truck that many have gotten used to seeing tooling around the State of Iowa... is no more.  That's right.  Someone, "the stupid one", (who'll remain nameless) decided that it would be wise to speed down my side street and hit my truck while it was minding it's own business parked by the curb.

I can't help but sit back and shake my head.  If only I had gotten my bar finished 2 years ago... the carpenter wouldn't have had his truck in my driveway... and I would've been parked safely off the dangerous streets.

Is there a business spin to this anywhere?  Maybe procrastination causes it?  Or maybe I'm just supposed to be stuck at home on a Monday with no wheels, no coffee and the faint memory of my favorite truck I've ever owned.  Check out the pics but I'm warning you... they're not pretty.

I had the privilege of listening to a presentation by Barry Pace of PaceSetter LLC last night.  For those of you who haven't met Barry, you should.  In my opinion, he is an operator that makes things simple to produce results.  Barry is also one of those execs that has left the State of Iowa, come back and is now offering his expertise to companies in need of growth.

Be careful about asking him questions before he presents though.  You may just end up involved in the presentation somehow.

For quite some time now, I've been talking about the difference between a lifestyle vs an enterprise business model.  My knowledge and theories on the matter have obviously come largely in part from my father, but over the last 3 years I've developed my own views too.  Just recently, I stumbled across this post by Sid Mohasseb.  Basic points but they ring true nonetheless.  We need more people talking about this sort of thing.

I "stumbled" across this post today from Mark True of REL Productions.  If you read it, you'll understand why I couldn't resist commenting on it.

I think Iowa has so many great people living in the State; there is no reason not to create more superstars.  I meet with roughly 10 new people a week... each one of them have great skill sets and awesome stories.  Don't get me wrong though, I don't want to take anything away from the gentlemen in Mark's post.  They've done amazing things and should be commended, however, there are business people doing amazing things to that don't get as much recognition as is deserved.  No big deal though... it will come.

I guess my point (if there is one) is that Iowa is doing great things and will continue to do so.  I'll keep preaching that until someone proves me wrong... Or I get sick of a place that's loaded with opportunity and has great things ahead of it... whichever one comes first.

After a long labor day weekend and my first trip into the actual city of Chicago, I've decided to write a few observations on my trip after watching the Hawks play at Soldier Field.

1. Traffic was pretty brutal, especially when your friends won't stop complaining about how you run the air conditioner.
2. When you travel around the parts of Chicago that look like The Cosby Show, it's always good to have a Bill Cosby impression on hand.
3. Everyone in the city seemed to know who Oprah is...  And it's never good to blame her for the high price of Scotch Eggs.
4. If you can't find a cab, you're not trying hard enough.  I thought the cab service was great and very inexpensive.  I'd love it if Des Moines allowed more cabs into the downtown areas.
5. Living in Des Moines makes it easy to take weekend trips to cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Kansas City without major planning.
6. In my opinion, Chicago is a great place to visit but Des Moines is a better place to live.  Granted I was only there for 3 days, but still...

Thanks for your hospitality, Chicago!  I'm definitely coming back.

I had a great conversation about "competition" last night.  I won't tell who it was with or what it was for because I don't want to ruin the surprise... but...

In many parts, the conversation revolved around uncovering opportunity and creating a competitive situation.  In many cases, you have to have enough confidence in your abilities within your practice that you fear no "competitor".  Granted, you may lose a bid, but if you didn't create the opportunity... did anyone have a chance to be successful?

There's much more to the convo, but I'll wait until it's finished to give you the full version.

For someone that doesn't really understand a ton of blog language... I'm getting more familiar with the term 'meme'.  After all, I've been included on one in the past and sort of included on Timothy Johnson's blog recently.  (Thanks for the uber-networker comment too.  I'm assuming uber means good!)

Since, technically I wasn't tagged, I may be overstepping my bounds, but I'm going to answer Timothy's question anyway.  I would want to shadow Curt Schilling.  He's got the attitude of a winner and he's also not afraid to speak up about what he believes in.  I think we could share some interesting stories too. 

I had another fun day at the family pond this weekend.  Art Dinkin and I had been planning on going fishing for quite awhile and finally our schedules allowed it to happen.  The heat index in southern Iowa on Saturday was supposed to be around 104, but the weather turned out to be almost perfect.  However, if you've seen me since Saturday, you'll notice I'm burnt to a crisp again.

All in all, we had a chance to kick back, catch some fish and even talk some business.  We got on the subject of trying to force fit certain business products into different situations.  Art pointed out that he'd written a post on the subject. Check it out here.  It's a spot on match and a great point/post.

Thanks for fishing with me, Art.  I had a blast! 

Who should we bring out next?