This was a very difficult Musing to write because after September 11^th, I was in no mood to write a pithy Musing about an industry whose importance was just placed in harsh-light perspective.  So I decided to interrupt the sequence of Musings devoted to developing company and product strategies in order to devote some words to my personal reaction to the recent events. I realize that you’ve likely been bombarded with such e-mails and may choose to skip over this. But I’m writing it for my own benefit – I need to get some stuff off my chest so I can move on – as much as yours.

On September 11^th, my initial reaction, once I got over disbelief and the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, was “our luck has finally given out.”  By “our,” at one level I meant the specific victims and their families, and America as a whole more generally.  But more egocentrically, I meant the people of my generation and type – i.e. the gently suburbia raised generation of my age (44) plus or minus a few years.  As a group of people, we have prospered tremendously, and I think we have mostly all convinced ourselves that this is due to our brains and industrious natures.  But deep down, I think we all knew we were tremendously lucky to have been born at the right place at the right time.

Our success seemed almost pre-ordained; no matter how hard we worked.  My generation never fought a war.   Vietnam ended when I was a sophomore in high school.  My generation didn’t have to work very hard to get into college. Previous generations were more populous and colleges were built out to handle many more students.  My older sisters did tons of homework every night.  I didn’t do any.  I got the next period’s homework done in the previous class on a “just-in-time” basis. Yet I remember simply filling out a few short college applications and getting 100% acceptances as a result.  I had lots of time to shoot baskets, watch Hogan’s Heroes, and play simulated baseball games.  My generation didn’t have to compete hard, because there were lots of jobs – the economy was expanding – and few of us.  I remember going on nine job interviews and getting twenty offers.   As we moved into the workplace, we found that there were lots of people from previous generations filling the middle-and-upper management positions ahead of us.  But again, with perfect timing, new technology that we were trained on disadvantaged previous generations and helped us quickly move up the ladder.   Real estate was relatively plentiful and cheap as we moved into the house buying age, but then it became less plentiful and more expensive for succeeding generations – resulting in a lot of equity for us.  Meanwhile, the stock market experienced an unprecedented sustained growth period, putting more paper money into our pockets.  We attributed this to the “New Economy” which we really thought of as “our” New Economy, mentally taking credit for it so that we could justify our wealth to ourselves.  The Soviet Union and other historical enemies flamed out economically, which allowed us to (a) feel an additional and upgraded sense of peace and calm, and (b) reinforce our view that democracy and capitalism will always win out.  At the same time, new products and services were coming out designed to attract our spending dollars, to provide us even more creature comforts and ways to spend our spare time:  Micro brewed beer.  Coffee houses. Cigar clubs.  On-line shopping…

Luxury cars…investment clubs…eco-tours…theme parks…angel funding…20-minute six-pack abs machines…abs drugs for those without 20 minutes to spare.

Designer water…wine tasting bars…disposable diapers…universal remotes…grocery delivery service…Mexican fast food…home entertainment centers…SUVs…daily disposable contact lenses…cell phones…laser eye surgery…La-Z-Boys with built-in refrigerator…allergy medicine…Viagra.

The list goes on and on.   And since the world was such a less dangerous place, we had to invent our own carefully managed dangers such as bungee jumping, X-games, snow boarding, laser tag, on-line dating, investing on margin, and founding .com companies.

We’ve all enjoyed some or all of the luxuries available to us.  And it’s been great.  But it has also made us soft.  And it has uniquely made our generation soft because all of these items were designed specifically for us, as we developed the wealth and time to use them.  The generations behind us aren’t necessarily benefiting from the same advancements. In many ways, their life seems more difficult to me than mine has been.  I know that my niece and nephews, although as smart or smarter than me, had to work very hard in high school to get the grades and the extra-curricular achievements needed to have even a chance of getting accepted at a top-flight college. Jobs – especially entry-level, are not a no-brainer for new graduates today, no matter what fields they are in and how highly educated they are.  Housing is expensive.  Gas is expensive. Insurance is expensive.  Lay-offs are impacting recently hired employees with little experience.  And there are lots of questions about whether critical resources – such as fresh water, clean air and oil – will run out during their lifetime, largely due to the accelerated pace at which my generation has expended those resources.

Life is a lot tougher now. But as an affluent white bread American, one could ignore that reality. The new realities across the world and even in the U.S. didn’t really impact us.  That ended on September 11^th however, as I said, when my first thought was “our luck has run out.”

So now we’re headed to war.  And again, my generation lucks out.  We can’t get involved directly in the war.  We’re too old and complacent.  And unskilled.  It’s hard for me to envision how my bird watching, beer-drinking, and PowerPoint presentation skills can significantly contribute to the war effort.  I’m pretty sure I could out-debate any terrorist out there.  But how do I leverage that as a weapon?  Unless the war requires running less than ¼ mile with equipment that weighs less than a Palm Pilot, I’m out.  As we head towards war – as different of a war it will probably turn out to be from past wars – it will be largely up to the generation(s) behind ours to take on the front-line duties – whether that be military, intelligence, diplomacy, or domestic security based.  But you know something? They can handle it, especially if led by people in the generation older than mine who have relevant experience (Colin – I mean you).

Last month I went on a wilderness trip with my four nephews, who range in age from 17 to 24.  They all grew up in the most supportive and easy environment imaginable for the time, yet they are far more situation-ready than my generation.  They are strong, as evidenced by their ability to tote the extra gear I secretly stashed into their packs. They are respectful and discreet – as evidenced by the fact I later learned they were aware I was sneaking my gear into their packs.  And they are courageous and clear thinking, as evidenced by their immediate jump to my rescue when I rammed my kayak into a tree bough in a fast moving stream and got stuck between the kayak and the bough.  I hope like hell that none of them individually will have to be thrust into harms way – at least any more than the rest of us living in America who have to have a heightened sense of our own back yard security.  But if they do, or if their friends and colleagues do, and if my nephews represent the skills, leadership, toughness, and “can-do” attitude of their generation – then I am very comfortable leaving the defense of our nation up to them.  We’re in pretty good shape because their generation hasn’t had it as easy as ours.

But still, our generation should contribute to the best of our ability. I’ve been racking my brain asking myself how to best contribute. Due to my lack of skill and roll of stomach fat, my options are limited.  I finally decided the best way I can contribute is to just keep on keeping on.  It means be the best husband and father I can be, and on the economic side, re-focus my efforts and resolve in my chosen profession.  Specifically for me, it means to help entrepreneurs with good ideas build great, sustaining businesses out of those ideas.  The continual spawning of successful companies helps keep people employed, helps create wealth, and helps keep America’s technical innovation a step or two ahead of the rest of the world. Ultimately, America’s sustaining power is not military-related, but economic.  Our ability to defend ourselves, educate our children, take care of our elderly, improve our infrastructure, preserve our natural resources, and to defend human rights and improve the quality of life across the world depends almost exclusively on our ability to stay strong economically.  Not at the expense of other nations, but in concert with them.  So my small contribution to the war effort, and the follow-on peace effort is to re-focus and re-double my efforts in the area that I already have relevant skills.  It may mean fewer vacations and more late nights, but this seems like no sacrifice at all compared to the people who will be really fighting the war.

I have no doubt more tragedies and sacrifices are in our future.  It IS war.  But ultimately, we’ll come out of this thing stronger than before.  I also hope we come out of it more conservation minded and worldlier in the sense of being more sensitive to other cultures and their situations.  Most of all, I hope at the end of this we will have handed the baton for leadership of our country to a new generation of people who will carry our ideals into the future.  I have great faith in that generation based on what I’ve seen from my own nephews and niece.

(volume 4, number 9)

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