Looking back at 2014!

And my 2014 was.......

December 24th, 2014

I am just a regular guy. No tricks up my sleeve. I may have my quirks, but

really for the most part, just a regular guy.

Which is why I am not so unique in doing a traditional end of the year run

down. You start to see it this time of year on the news. “The best plays of

the year” for any given sport, “The greatest moments” from any reality show, the

“Top 10” news stories for the year and even pandering to our lowest form of

entertainment, the “Top 10 celebrity meltdowns”. Aye Yi Yi....

So I will do a list, in no particular order, of real memorable moments for

myself in 2014:

Standing in Mexico City and realizing that “I did it” at the end of the

show Looking at a group of Brazilian kids jumping in joy with their

award in their hands, then looking at the clock and realizing they were over

their allotted time. The ceremonies were now backing up. Then realizing again

that it didn’t really matter, and went back to appreciating their moment on a

beautiful sunny day in Toronto Pushing my dead scooter through a 5:30AM

street in St. Louis on the way to the event site and realizing that I didn’t

just have a dead scooter..... I had a pretty damn cool job ahead of me for the day

and feeling lucky! Looking at Brian Hendrickx during his retirement

luncheon and realizing that he had made it through a challenging career and was

happy as he looked back. And that I wanted to feel the same someday...

Feeling the admiration of the SRE team as they stood in line to collect a Brian

Hendrickx signature on their apron to have a memory of him in the future.

Making eye contact with Shawnna across a large room at the U.S. State Department

and realizing that one of our talent had “Left the Ranch” and that this show,

mid event, could very well end up in a bad way.... Making eye contact with

Shawnna 4 minutes later and realizing that this same talent had now added humor,

and relativity to our topic and that our show had just taken a seriously

positive twist! Looking at Blair Hundertmark in preparation for the

final awards ceremonies at the FIRST Championship in total focus and realizing

what I had to tell him wasn’t too important, but how important he is to FIRST.

Standing tired on a concourse in San Diego trying to put aside my personal

problems and focus on professional ones and realizing how lucky I was to have a

great staff of people who had my back Watching Jerry, Eddie, Kerrell

perform along with FIRST staff members at the first annual talent show at the

holiday breakfast and feeling like I didn’t have a team- I had a family.

Listening to Shawnna on a conference call turn lemons into lemonade and

realizing that I will never get tired of this. Sitting in a Chinese

Restaurant in London with a great group of new clients from Plasa that I had

just met, and someone said “How did you get here?” and I almost had to admit

that I didn’t quite know the answer to that..... Stirring corn chowder

while the rest of the team all had their sleeves rolled up in our group cooking

class, with Beatles music in the background, the sun shining in through the

kitchen, and realizing that it’s okay to drink wine before Noon. Okay 10AM!

How hard it is to say goodbye to staff.....because they are really family.

Watching Kari lead a discussion in NYC and realizing how far she has come.

Having the best seafood in the smallest non sexy place in San Diego and

realizing that Mindy must have a better/deeper version of Yelp than mine. Or

it’s her amazing intuition to find the best small restaurants anywhere!

Watching my son nervously walk his new college campus and realize that this is

very much one of the goals that I have been working so hard to see- Him in the

face of his own future. Realizing how much character does matter.

Personally or professionally..... Re-realizing how cool it is to come home

to a dog after a long trip. They like you no matter what. Remembering

to breathe deeply at times and that “It’s going to be okay”. Advice straight

from my mom. Realizing that you can learn BIG lessons from your children

beyond fun banter, and that you’ve made some good choices in parenting years ago

that are coming to fruition. How cool it is to stand in a brand new

venue and visualize what you will bring to life. Even if it’s in the middle of

a field.

I actually stop now and take note of these thoughts in a more deeply meaningful

way. I have so many of these moments that it makes my life rich. Yes crazy,

yes not normal and yes stressful, but the seasonings in my life are rich.

I hope that you all find yourselves remembering the little moments in your 2014

as I do and take the time to make them a big one.

Happy New Year!

Steve