The Adventure Begins

Today is the day that I have had little time to really mentally prepare for as my trip to the European Commission. I still find it amazing that I have this opportunity to speak as part of the government process to complete this multi-billion dollar deal. Somehow I am now in the middle of it and today is the day that I finally fly to Brussels.

The entire trip to Brussels is a first for me, I have been many places and seen many great things. I find that breathing in a great city from its architecture so important when I go to places with great history and Brussels seems to have held onto its ancient roots. As for my presentation. Another first, I have spoken in front of many audiences in my day but for most of those talks it has generally alright to open with a joke. I expect that after the team gets through reviewing my content they may decide to pull the joke and go with the more serious stuff.

I am actually very exciting to present some preliminary information about the types of databases that people are running. The IOUG along with Unisphere Research we have been conducting a survey on virtualization and we have some results already that are interesting. Turns out that of the people who took the survey close to 90% run Oracle as their enterprise database and of that almost 90% of those companies also run MS SQL Server and then 44% use MySQL. The results are interesting and deeper than this but some of it will form the basis of some of are existing arguments. I together with Ronin Miles, the Chairman of the UKOUG, will present the position of the user communities and it all begins in just a couple of days.

On the lighter side I was thinking about some of the great adventures and places that I have been part of my life already. And in no particular order:

• Discovering Israel (wow….that’s history)
• Exploring Rome
• Living in London for 6 months
• Exploring the ruins of Pompeii
• St Petersburg
• Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Attending the 1976 Olympic in Montreal
• Meeting Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
• Being at the 1994 NY Rangers Game 7 win in the conference finals
• Nos Expos (enough said)
• Attending 3 Stanley Cup parades
• Being there as my home province of Quebec was considering separation; I heard one of the greatest speeches in Quebec history as Rene Levesque called on Quebecers to rally after the loss for the separatists
• Seeing the kids grow up….that’s the greatest adventure
• And now on to: Speaking at the EC

I am sure there are many others……it’s amazing to look back and see where we have been and how much we have already done. Of course there is still so much to go.

Another Day Closer to Brussels

Friday and another day closer to me going to Brussels to speak at the EU. In a way it seems a little surreal at this point in time.I continue to work on my presentation to get ready for next week and still have to do my day job to do and boy are things getting busy these days at Thoughtcorp as we build momentum in the Enterprise Data Group during this time of a BI explosion. Always good to be busy.

My logistics are done and I am looking forward to seeing Brussels if only for a short time. I’ve been to Belgium before. I plan to see what I can in the evenings, this is a country with long history and we are going to be in the core of Brussels close to the old city. There are a number of UN Heritage Sites in the city which I look forward to seeing during the holiday period. I always loved the way London comes alive during the holidays. I seem to always time my European trips during the Fall and Winter, not sure how it works out, but one day. A few years back I had the chance to attend the UKOUG conference in Birmingham and if I am not mistaken it rained 8 out 9 days. A perfect week in the UK in December, so hopefully it will be better next week in Brussels.

One thing that has been interesting to see the reaction of people when you let them know that you are going away next week. This must be important as I have to miss hockey next week and I don’t like to miss hockey. Being the goalie you need to be there. So I told the team last night, and this is a team where I am on the older side of the Bell curve and most of the guys are in their 20’s. When I tell the story of how I was going to speak at the EU, the reactions ranged from disbelief to amazement. I play hockey with these guys but they don’t really understand what I do in my job let alone the IOUG. I am still trying to figure out how I am going to be part of this process but one thing is that I am going to soak up the experience.

Right now my wife is planning her days while I will be sequestered at the EU. Belgium and Brussels of course is known for its chocolate. I think she plans a tour and tasting of each in the city. And Belgium has a connection to Canada via the poem that in Canada symbolizes the sacrifice of our soldiers have made for us and I can remember hearing it every Remembrance Day growing up. We even have a part of the poem on our $5 bill. Finally they tell me that I need to eat waffles, French fries and beer……so I look forward to a fun gastronomic experience.

So the wheels are in motion and the experience of a lifetime is getting closer. At least I have two hockey games between now and when I leave to keep my mind clear. The weekend pack and plan before I know it I will be looking in the souvenir shops looking to add to my travel snow globe collection.

The Best You Can Be; Can Be the Best You Are With

I always look to Friday as a day that should be something more than work. It is a day I usually reflect and look back at how the week was good and how I could have made it better. This week I realized something about team and being a teammate. I know I have gone on in the past about team work and my hockey team, but today I realized something about work that sparked today’s blog entry.

I work for Thoughtcorp, we are a reasonably sized solutions company based in Toronto. These guys have been around a long time and at one point were a competitor of mine, so this type of business is nothing new to me. What I realized this week is that this is a team with great talent (which I already knew) but what I didn’t get this week was the energy this team had and the focus it puts into doing business. I realized that some of the old companies I worked for had lost it and I too missed the signs that it had happened. The concept of a team in those organization was lost. We lost the ability to motivate each other, we got into a rut. Those companies may not even realize they have lost the internal challenge to be great, but I see it now. It is critical for an organization to survive it needs to be its best. the motivation I found this week made me realize that work again is like hockey and golf

How do we get better at any sport? We learn from and play against people who are more skilled than us. Taking up the challenge and not shirking away from it is how we can harness the motivation to be better or at least better than our competitors. In a team environment it becomes a way of making the entire team better….if you don’t constantly challenge yourself to be as good as those around you you will never be great.

The user community is the same way in an Oracle sort of way. I look at how my career has been impacted by the user community. Would I have authored a book? Become President of the IOUG? Helped to create two companies? Created solutions that matter? Maybe but I feel that my taking the chance to take an active role in the IOUG has made it all happen in some way. It was the motivation of meeting the people in the community and learning what was possible. The people in this community are leaders and by using them as examples and mentors the value to an individual and organization it limitless. We need to use this motivation to make us better individuals. It seems so clear and easy but you need to see it and realize the value to all those around you. Then you become the motivator for others. Make it a great weekend!

We all need Balance

As this painful week comes to a close I am happy to put it behind me and look to feeling better and bringing balance back to my life. Balance is something that we all want but seem to fail at achieving. The balance of work and personal lives, the balance of a team and your own balance are just some of the areas that need balance. I think of things just being right.

So let me look at how balance can affect so many others. This past I feel that the sad state of my back has impacted my hockey teams and in a way has thrown them out of balance. My Monday night team just had a different feeling before the game and as you read we fell to defeat. Last night, my team the Steelblades took to the ice in the last game of the round-robin qualifier for the semi-finals. We had already qualified for the next round with a solid win last week, but a win this week would be a good result, but not needed. My back continues to trouble me and again I could not play and here is where the balance goes off. One of the team’s top scorers Shane Blakemore, is also our backup goalie. He played a solid game and was not the cause of last night’s outcome. The loss of his scoring on the team is critical and this factor was lost, we lost balance. On defence, our top defenseman Albert Jin, couldn’t play, something about work which we will get to later, but he was not there to set the foundation for the defence. As we all know defence wins games and last night the lack of team balance hurt our chances to succeed. The team worked hard, but the balance was not there. We play next week in the semi-finals. I expect my back to come back into balance and everyone to take their place on the team and put us through on our journey to the Championship.

Of course, the real balance is the work and life balance. I have seen it work and see the value that it gives and I also see the balance fail. As I like to say it depends and it truly does on the individual. It is what you want to get from life while still being productive and gaining satisfaction from both aspects of your life. I feel that we must achieve balance or you lose perspective. How often do we see the workaholic lose track of anything away from life, they lose touch with people and often with the world. Of course these people are driven in different ways and gain satisfaction from the job and of course profits. I feel that you really should have some balance. The fact that you work hard and achieve great things should help drive you and encourage you to continue, but you also need the time away from the “job” a place to clear your mind to come up with new ideas. A recharge of your creativity will improve your results on your return...this is balance. Just like leaving a field fallow to improve the long-term viability of the farm, you also need to find the balance of life and work, each will benefit from this balance being in place.

Finally, I wanted to let people know about something I heard this morning on the radio on the way into work. Apparently, with the holiday of Passover starting next week someone out there is selling a Kosher for Passover Tequila. This is just what the world needed. Now the Passover dinners can add a little drinking game to the story of the Exodus.

So I hope you all can find your balance in your lives, it’s worth it.