Left Coast Menno

The zeal of Steve Jobs

As was widely reported a month ago, Steve Jobs has stepped down from Apple. Most of the news articles asserted that the Apple faithful could still expect more well designed and well marketed consumer electronics from the technology giant. After all, they argued, Apple certainly is more than Steve Jobs and he had enormous talent helping him both design and produce the gadget that so many of us crave. And, as my favorite blogger on all things work likes to say, leaders actually matter less than you think.

However, despite that assertion, I still feel that Apple is at its high point right now. Oh, I'm sure that we'll see at least a couple years of new innovations but frankly, I think that we won't see the design leadership that came in the last 14 years after Jobs returned to the Apple helm for a 2nd time. The reason? Steve Jobs was singularly focused on producing revolutionary products and software. He was indeed a bit unhinged. Consider this story from a Google product manager who was working with Steve on a software application for the first iPhone.

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.
...

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

That zealousness defined Steve Jobs. I'm sure those who worked with him had a hundred more stories like it. I've read one where he told the people in charge of the horrible MobileMe initial release that they should hate each other for having let the company down with such a crappy product.

Ken Rockwell, my favorite photography blogger, writes:

Only this sort of craziness results in game-changing, world-changing things that we all (except for me) take for granted. No big company ever creates anything really new; only crazy men working alone do. Jobs is extraordinary in his ability to retain and realize his crazy visions with a large company around him.

So what interests me about a man who is so singularly focused? It's because I am simultaneously attracted to what this zeal can accomplish and still not entirely comfortable with moving out of a well-adjusted state. And yes, I'm quite convinced that the two states are (mostly) incompatible. Right now I live in a fairly well-adjusted state. Decent job, nice neighbourhood, good friends, great church. Yet something calls out to be a bit more unhinged. I see some similarities is the early followers of Jesus. They were definitely a bit loopy. Out there. Ca-razy. But still, there is something really appealing about living that life of sole purpose. The rewards are indeed large. Just have to convince myself (and the family) to take the risk...

You've got to have empathy to let love rule.

A couple years back, I read through a great book that had a lot of application for my job as a change management advisor. Crucial Conversations is a book about how to better deal with high stakes conversations where opinions differ and emotions run high. I was also able to take a training course and still use the information in my job, as well as more generally in important conversations.

The authors of the book put out a regular newsletter/blog, and I thought the last one was particularly good. In summary:

She then taught me something I have never forgotten. “Before I spoke with him I asked myself, ‘In what way am I just like him?’ It didn’t take long before I thought of a couple of ways that I had behaved inappropriately when I thought I could get away with it. As soon as I accepted that I was kind of like him, I felt more forgiving of his weakness. I wasn’t going to put up with it, but at least I could see that he was a human not a villain—a human kind of like me.”

I was blown away by this idea. And I have found that, when I embrace it, I find an increased capacity to love the imperfect people in my life.

 

This book will self-destruct...

I chuckle whenever I see an organization try to create artificial scarcity, particularly when their business model is threatened by the digital age.

As of March 7, HarperCollins e-book titles licensed to Canadian schools and public libraries come with a new restriction: after 26 checkouts, they self-destruct.

Dan Misener has a whole article on the topic in his CBC column. Apparently, they figured that most books in the library only last through 26 checkouts. Seems a little self-serving to me.

Anyways, instead of trying to work with the new digital model to distribute their information more widely than ever, they're making a last ditch grasp at trying to squeeze some more money out of outdated business model. Not to mention squeezing it out of publicly funded libraries. Stupid move, in my book. Someone needs to sick Seth Godin on these guys. He'll set them straight.

 

Spiritual growth comes only in suffering

Closely related to the post that I put up last night, here is a quote from an article by John Ortberg in the latest issue of Leadership Journal:

I once was part of a survey on spiritual formation. Thousands of people were asked when they grew most spiritually, and what contributed to their growth. The response was humbling—at least for someone who works at a church.

The number one contributor to spiritual growth was not transformational teaching. It was not being in a small group. It was not reading deep books. It was not energetic worship experiences. It was not finding meaningful ways to serve.

It was suffering.

Is that true for you too? I know that the author of Hebrews says that Jesus learned obedience through his suffering; however, do you think there are other ways to grow spiritually or is suffering the main conduit of growth?

Epic FAIL Pastor's Conference

No, this is not a joke. In fact, it actually sounds pretty neat:

-What if we offered a space that is gutsy, hopeful, courageously vulnerable for pastors to let go of the burden to be a Super Pastor?

-What if we could hold an event that was free from the thrills and frills of other pastors conferences?

-What if we came together as epic failures and sought not successful models or how-do’s but instead celebrated faithfulness in ministry because of the reality of Jesus?

-What if we were reminded that we’re not responsible for being ‘successful’ in ministry, but we are responsible for being faithful to the calling that God has laid out for us – regardless of the outcome?

-What if we had a conference that was not led not by famous pastors who are household names, but by scandalously ordinary ministers and leaders who are faithfully attempting to join with God – even in the midst of glaring obscurity and anonymity?

Check out more on the conference by reading their site.

I like the idea of this conference because it's touching on something that is not often discussed--weakness is a key element of being a Christian. That is, God's power is most often (or even only?) found in human weakness. Paul goes so far as to tell the Corinthian church that human power needs to get out of the way if you want to see God at work.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for [human] power is brought to its end in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 - translation courtesy Marva Dawn

Unintended hiatus

I hadn't intended on taking off most of December from blogging, but here it is, January 1. I have been pecking away at a few different postings, so I'll start publishing them over the next few days. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and I wish all of you a blessed New Year.

America's financial woes

I confess that I’m more than a bit of a news and information junkie. Addiction could be close to it. CBC News is my homepage. And my favourite journalist over there has to be Neil Macdonald. Neil is the Washington correspondent and has a knack for explaining well what is happening with our neighbour to the south. His latest column explains what type of financial trouble America is in, and the creative way that they’re dealing with it.

The Problem:

The U.S. government borrows about 40 cents of every dollar it spends and it is on track this year to borrow about $1.3 trillion. That is the equivalent of borrowing Canada's entire economic output for 2009.

 

And that deficit will be piled onto the debt, which now stands at about $13.8 trillion and rising. Actually, if you add all the liabilities that Washington simply doesn't have the money to pay for (social security and Medicare are the biggies), the real debt is something like $40 trillion, which is a figure that defies comprehension.

Certainly, it defies repayment.

The Solution:

Basically, the Fed creates the money out of thin air, then lends it to the government by buying long-term U.S. Treasury bills. That means expanding the money supply, which of course makes every dollar already out there worth a little less. Which, in turn, impoverishes anyone who holds American debt.

Technically, it's a form of default. Expect more of it. It neatly solves the problem without any unpopular spending cuts or tax increases.

It also forces the rest of the world to share America's pain and the world is probably just going to have to put up with it because, like those Wall Street banks, the U.S. government is literally too big to fail.

Background stuff

Well now that Michael Krahn has drawn attention to my blog, I had better fill in a few gaps for people who may not know me.

As is evidenced from my blog title, my family and I are parked out on the left coast of Canada, nestled between the Coastal mountains and the Pacific Ocean, in beautiful North Vancouver, BC. And yes, I am indeed Mennonite, by religious tradition and by my German-Dutch ethnicity. In this part of the world (North Vancouver), the idea of being Mennonite draws blank stares or visions of horse and buggy style Amish, even though we’re less than 100 kms from one of the three Canadian Mennonite meccas (Fraser Valley, southern Manitoba, and portions of Southern Ontario). I laugh when people ask me if I’m related to the Friesen that they know from high school, work, wife of a friend, etc. My answer is “No, but in actuality, I am probably related.” A professor at grad school said that if you’re Mennonite and your family came through Prussia, you’re at most 6th cousins with any other Mennonite whose family came through Prussia. He told his kids that this explained why they weren’t normal--he and his wife were sixth cousins. He thought it was funny but I’ll keep his name private in case his wife didn’t think so.

For all you non-Mennonites, there is a good write-up on the Canadian Encyclopedia. Of course, Wikipedia has lots of good info too. The quick summary that my wife gives our friends is that the Mennonite identity is kind of like being Jewish--partly ethnic and partly religious. The analogy does break down in one significant way--Mennonites have been very mission oriented, particularly in the last 150 years, believing that the good news of Jesus was meant for everyone to hear. You can certainly see the results of this in the denomination that I grew up within (Mennonite Brethren). Currently, the largest number of Mennonite Brethren are in India and Congo; each of those countries eclipse the numbers of MBs in the US and Canada combined (courtesy Wikipedia).

I think that’s good for now. I’ll keep adding bits to my background as this progresses along.

Seminary students are cheaters too

Given that I spent 3.5 years of my life on becoming more divine (I'm being facetious, although I did manage to achieve an M.Div. for my efforts), I'm always curious to see what others think of seminary students. In this case, seminary students don't appear to be too different than others when it comes to "collaborating" with the pseudonymous Ed Dante, the self described "academic mercenary."

“I do a lot of work for seminary students. I like seminary students. They seem so blissfully unaware of the inherent contradiction in paying somebody to help them cheat in courses that are largely about walking in the light of God and providing an ethical model for others to follow. I have been commissioned to write many a passionate condemnation of America's moral decay as exemplified by abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution. All in all, we may presume that clerical authorities see these as a greater threat than the plagiarism committed by the future frocked.”

The full article is funny and worth the read.

Don't worry too much fellow seminary students--nurses account for more volume than we do.

I actually recall one of my seminary professors mention that he saw considerably more examples of plagiarism at seminary than when he taught at the University of Saskatchewan. Go figure.

 

Late to the blogging party

Yes, it's nearly 2011 and I'm just starting my first blog now. Not so impressive for a guy who had his first email address in 1995. All I have to say for myself is that life has been full, especially over the past 9 years. I was busy taking a lot in, but I think that I've taken in enough to start writing some of it down. There is still a lot more to take in, and I'm hoping that you can be a part of that.

If you're like my wife, then stuff like theology, church life, communications, management, work life, politics, and the philosophical underpinnings of society bore you to tears. For the rest of you, I hope that my drivel stimulates your thinking enough to help you procrastinate a little longer. That's not really a bad thing though. The other stuff can probably wait. At least 2 more minutes. 

So join in the conversation, challenge me, agree with me, oppose me, but at least leave your comments if I captured your imagination a bit. Looking forward to it!