18 Questions to make you think...

I came across a list of questions on a friend’s post the other day on Facebook.  I rarely click on this type of link, but I was intrigued.  Turns out that they really are some pretty good, deep and reflective questions and, when you take a moment to think about each one, can be a brutally honest look at the path you are on.  I am still contemplating honest answers for several of them, but here are the 18 questions, along with the best answers I could muster.  Enjoy!

1.  What would you do differently, if you knew nobody would judge you?

I would be an artist.  Not simply with a brush or a camera, but with life.  Anything that is worth doing can be done beautifully if given the freedom to express yourself fully in the endeavor.  I would still do many of the things I do every day now, I would just do them with more panache and less structure…and I would bet that the results would be much more interesting!

2.   If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend?

Depends.  Sometimes what I crave is a friend who can take an honest look at me and tell me I am wrong.  We all need to hit the guardrails now and then to get back on the road.

3.      How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

Wow, this one hurts, just like my neck, back and knees.  I would guess 50.  Ouch.

 

      4.      If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be?

Wake up, read over these questions, start to change your life.

Love more people, more often.

Take a risk on something wonderful and never look back.

Join a credit union immediately!

5. Is it possible to lie without saying a word?

Of course.  Eyes, body language and physical presence can be more deceitful than even the boldest lie, and more hurtful to the poor soul on the receiving end when the lie is found out.

6. If not now, then when?

            I hate this one.  It is a bit haunting to me.  More on this one later…I’m still thinking of excuses.

7. Are you holding onto something that you need to let go of?

            Yes, yes, and yes.  Gets heavier every day...

8. Have you done anything lately worth remembering?

            Fortunately yes!  I have recently met some wonderful people from all over the world who share one of my passions.  Even more so, I have a beautiful wife and three wonderful sons and I hope to remember every second we spend together!

9. Would you break the law to save a loved one?

            Yes. In a heartbeat.

10. When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards and just do what you know is right?

            Ughhh.  Another one I am struggling with.  More to follow…

11. Who do you love? And what are you doing about it?

            I truly love the people I surround myself with.  Of course my wife and boys, my family and close friends.  But also my coworkers, colleagues  people I serve with in the community, at church…I have a pretty large capacity for love, it is the second part of the question that gets me.  I am not doing all I can and should to show them that love or to give of myself unconditionally as an expression of that love.

12. Do you ask enough questions? Or do you settle for what you know?

             I am a fairly curious person.  A little more so as I get older and am less trusting of the status quo…I truly believe that one should NEVER stop learning no matter how old or wise.

13. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you have done?

            Excellent question.  I think right now I am saying a lot, and doing a lot.  It is a result of my career choice – I have to talk out a strategy before implementation.  When it is just my direct constituents though, I often do first and explain later, much to their dismay…

14. When was the last time you tried something new?

            Yesterday…but today is young.

15. Which activities make you lose track of time?

            Writing.  Painting.  Praying.  Playing with my boys.

16. If you could do it all over again, would you change anything?

            Just the amount of worry about things that didn’t really matter and the things I wanted to do but didn’t because of perceived risk.  I am learning that I regret the things I didn’t do in life much more often than the things I actually did.

17. What is the difference between living and existing?

            Reward, intention, passion and play.

18. If you had to teach something, what would you teach?

            Self expression.  To find who you are and then chip off everything that hides that beautiful sculpture that is the real you.  To be you in every situation, every group of people and every stage of life and to realize that you, as the artist painting your life, have the freedom to change whenever you want.

If that didn’t work out…History, I would teach History.

Get off the ropes and start swinging

I am blessed with the task of manning the helm of a small credit union.  My education, experience and career path has led perfectly to this station, and I am grateful for the chance to make a difference in the lives of our members.  I am also totally overwhelmed, overworked and burnt out.  This seems to be a common symptom of credit union leadership in the present day.  We are tired of fighting.

The economy and investment market have had us in a corner for years now, diminishing our income to the point that we have to resort to fees we otherwise would have been poking fun at banks for.  The NCUA has at the same time decided that while we are in the corner and on the ropes anyway, it would be a great time to relentlessly punch us in the kidneys.  The assessments over the same challenging timeframe have siphoned off any remaining net income we have fought tooth and nail for.

The saving grace through all of this has been the one-two combination of an increased need for our members to borrow (and conversely the tightening up of credit from banks) and the fact that the large banks have painted themselves as the villain with little help from us whatsoever.  Thanks B of A!

What I have seen as our small window of opportunity to strike fast and get off the ropes is the need for people to feel comfortable in this time of financial crisis.  People are scared.  Banks are scared.  Credit Unions are tired, and a little punch drunk maybe, but we are ready to stand up and fight for our share of the market and make people feel better about the future, at least so far as their finances are concerned.  We are like Rocky Balboa, smaller than our competition, driven by our hearts and old fashioned in our techniques, but unwavering in our spirit and unwilling to succumb to the fear.  We are truly poised to make a heroic 11^th round comeback.  Problem is, some of us don’t realize the bell is about to ring.

I have been watching the Olympics, like most of us, and I have noticed a lot of the runners in the middle distances and sprints come on strong in the final tenth of the race.  Sometimes it works, often it doesn’t.  I have heard several different announcers as they make the post-finish comments stating “if only there were 3 more yards she would have been able to take the gold” or “he just ran out of track to catch the leader.”  Having energy left to kick in ten yards after the finish line really does no one a bit of good.  I am terrified that is the eminent story for credit unions in the current market.  We are so late to start our kick that the banks have figured out how to turn it back on and are already three strides ahead to start with.  It is time to run forward.  Time to make some noise.  Time to get realistic about our past attempts to sell ourselves to the public and realize that we need to make a valid effort at it now or never.  The American people are ready for a REAL feel good story about the future and about their finances.

 We are that story, at least we can be if we take time to tell it.

It isn’t that we don’t have the collective talent, or capital, or opportunity.  In most cases that I have seen, we are just too damn busy adjusting the starting blocks and fiddling with our shoes to focus on the race.  We are constantly burdened with new and changing regulation that after hours of reading and interpreting doesn’t really change a thing about how we serve our members.  We are busy sorting through hundreds of emails, sales calls and ambush visits from vendors to ever look ahead to see where we are going.  We are told to do this for Gen Y and that for members who still want paper statements and this for our internal staff to help them feel better about telling the members that they should not want paper statements…all the while the track is getting shorter and the banks are getting back into their stride. 

What we need is a big adrenaline boost.  What we need is a tanker truck full of 5 hour energy.  What we need is a reminder that for just a moment it is OK to take the focus off of the NCUA, CUNA’s newest training product or the vendor wanting to sell you new lobby TV programming and to put the focus on ourselves.  We need to look at the bigger picture, just for a moment, and realize that we need to race ahead and push through the finish.  The CU third party vendors and all of the latest and greatest new products and initiatives that take up our time and fog our focus will still be here in a year, and will be much more attractive after a period of growth.  It is ok to say NO.  It is permissible to put them to voicemail.  It is advisable, hell it is downright vital, to kick in your final lap energy now and work on your internal signage or whatever you are spinning your wheels on later. (so long as you are in compliance)

I am tired of being tired.  I have had it with getting my wind knocked out every time I get back on my feet.  I have had enough of hanging on the ropes, and looking around only to see my fellow CU leaders there with me, tired and ready to drop.  I am ready to start my kick, if I’m going out its going to be swinging.

  Where are those red shoes…

Numbers...ohhh look at all the sprinkles!

There really is no black and white.  I mean yes there is black and there is white, I'm not arguing that the colors don’t exist, just that there are no "absolutes."

I'm referring simply to the fact that in my experience, it can be both dangerous as well as little arrogant to deal in absolutes.  There is a lot more grey area in the world than black, or white.

I prefer to live in the camp where there are infinite variables and limitless possibilities.  The “never say never” paradigm.  Even in a numbers laden, right or wrong filtered industry like finance, it has been my experience that although 5 is always 5; the interpretation of that five is dependent upon the perception of the receiver.  Five is 5 yes, but whether that 5 is good, bad or indifferent is an altogether different conversation.  One that I like to engage in, frequently.

With this being an election year, occurring after a period of economic uncertainty and market turmoil, on top of a teetering world financial crisis and unstable political climate in the Arab world with the kicker of rapidly rising fuel prices…five is never ever just 5.

I have read countless articles, by teams of economists and financial "gurus" over the past several years trying to keep ahead of the curve and keep my CU on the right course through all of this mess,  and all of them want to explain why they have a corner on the “real picture” market.  They each have their own spin on the facts and the figures and each wants me to believe without a shadow of a doubt that they have the “fiveiest” 5 out there and that the rest of the pack is just trying to paint their 3s to look like a five.  They are all experts.  They are all speculators.  They are all wrong most of the time.  And you know what, that is just fine by me.  Numbers are not absolutes.  When the “facts” are given, even by the world’s foremost economists and big brains on the global this or ratio of that, they are merely spouting off their spin on the data.  Data that most likely they have been given by a mathematician somewhere in a fluorescent lit cubicle in the back of an office complex who is dealing solely with the numbers, formulas, forecasts and fives that they are given by even more mysterious sources.   They don’t really know or care what the numbers represent, or why the expert needs them.  They can interpret ratios and percentages to lean toward whatever side the person paying for the research would like.  Five may indeed be half of ten, but it is only a third of 15…better get 5 more responses…

So, why bother to write this rant on the process of producing preposterous percentages for political purposes and perpetuating them to the populous?

1.      First off, I just spent 45 minutes of my life reading a journal article from an industry expert only to look for the research at the end to back it up and found that it didn’t exist…literally, there was NO research to back this "scholar's" article.  At all.   I needed to vent.

2.      Second, I am tired of hearing the talking heads of network news inaccurately regurgitate “facts” today that I read a month ago. 

They don’t understand what the numbers mean.  They don’t know where they came from.  Most importantly…they don’t know what they should do about them,  any more than you or I do BUT they know that the more you hear them over and over again, the more they become reality.  Take for instance the rumor of $5.00 gas. 

What was proposed, speculated and anticipated by some economists last fall is now $1.001 from becoming a reality.  It may very well be reality soon, my bet is just before my family and I pack up our 12 mile/gallon SUV to drive 1000 miles south for vacation this summer.  Oil prices are by nature speculative and thus mysterious in origin.  Ripe for the talking heads to spin.  The price is as much dependent on people’s perception and political pressure as it is on supply or demand.  When the experts tell us over and over that prices will go to $5/gallon by June, by golly who are the oil barons to prove them wrong.  They have already planted the seed in our heads, they have already greased the wheels and we have already had 6 months to moan and groan.  All of this so that when they DO decide to raise the price, we are already well enough conditioned to it that we won’t raise a fuss.  Not too much of one at least.  And hey, if this fuel price spike happens to play into a certain political agenda to boot.  Well again, who are the oil barons to keep the wheels from spinning?

It seems like the more information that is pushed out there to the public and the more readily available that information becomes, the less we care about its accuracy or significance.  I can check CNN Money every 30 seconds on my iPhone and follow tweets from top economists, but they don’t give me more than a sprinkle on a much much larger cupcake. 

We have become all too satisfied with the sprinkles.  In fact we demand the sprinkles.  Leave the cake to the experts we say.  But what if the "experts" have decided they like the sprinkles better too?   

This is some very scary desert we are almost eating.

It’s like me talking about sports.  I was an athlete in high school and an active participant in all sorts of competitive recreation in college, but I have never really enjoyed the spectator side of collegiate or professional sports.  I like watching an Ohio State football game when I get the opportunity to, and I enjoy the actual playing of sports, especially with my kids or family, but all of the people who can rattle off every statistic from every random team and expect you to chime in like its just common knowledge, they just annoy me. 

Now…that being said, during football season especially, I make sure that I catch just enough of Sportscenter or a little sports talk radio now and then to know the basics of what is happening out there in the wide world of sports so that when approached by one of these amateur statisticians, I can hold my own and fake my way through a 5 minute conversation.  Why?  I think it has something to do with me feeling that I have to know something about sports to be considered a real man in their eyes.  I brush up so I can “man up.”   Now, what scares me about the “expert” economists is that many of them do the exact same thing. 

When CNN or Fox contacts someone whose name appears on an “expert list” and asks them, “Would you like to be on National television, touted as an expert in your field?  We just need to know if you are an expert in the area of tea prices in China…”  Guess what, even though they have never been to China and don’t even drink tea they suddenly realize that the decades of research that they have done in the area of funding issues and overpopulation of prison systems in economically depressed counties in the Southern US relates PERFECTLY to the price of tea in China.  “YES, of course I can speak about that, it is near and dear to my heart…” ( just give me time to Google it ) 

Numbers are numbers, but they are almost never black and white, even if 5 is five.  Numbers can be spun, twisted, baked and whipped up to be whatever flavor you like, but if you want the truth, the real flavor of the cupcake...well you are just never going to know until you look deeper than the sprinkles.