Born and raised in Colorado (yes, I’m going back that far, just stay with me…), I was a normal outdoor kid – like we all were before electronics – with a propensity to build and fix stuff. I had forts in the tops and bottoms of closets, cardboard forts decorated with junk I found in shopping center dumpsters, a fort in a tool shed (the HQ of my spy club, “The Black Cats” which had secret tapping codes for extra secrecy when communicating “in the field”). I also fixed things – alarm clocks that broke, my ten-speed bike I inherited from my brother that I took apart, painted white, and put back together. I patched every flat inner tube, pedal break, and gear malfunction. I collected iron filings from the dirt with magnets and built elaborate dams and channels in the gutter. After being elected sixth grade president, I orchestrated a sit-in on the playground. The Administration’s big brother approach to foursquare rules was oppressive and the topic in our monthly administration meetings failed to get any attention.
And, High School (sorry, it goes on…but I’m making a point), in my moccasins and muslin shirts, I joined the Environmental Living club. We learned survival training, ultimately tested with three days in the Rocky Mountains with only the clothes on our backs, a flint, some water and a space blanket. First night, the shelter I built revealed major flaws. It was a really long night and resulted in major tweaks – moving the position of the fire in relation to the rock shelter, moving the position of the space blanket to channel in the heat – not the smoke, arghh. Dynamic innovation is built on failure, right? It was in my Environmental Living class that I told my best friend I was going to study accounting in college. My, oh-so-progressive, fellow moccasin wearing, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young aficionado friend almost fell off her chair. “But why?”, her response. ”Because I don’t know anything about it”, my response. I liked math – a lot – and it made sense to do something “mathy” and learn something entirely different – could help me navigate life. Huh…
Fast forward, I finished a degree in Accounting from CU and almost completed a minor in Philosophy. Business wasn’t enough to help me answer all of the mysteries of life. I still use basic philosophical frameworks in business (and life) to navigate. Started an accounting job right out of college, working for a General Contractor. They didn’t have a way of judging the credit worthiness of their subcontractors, so I set up a grading system based on ratio analysis applied to Subcontractor financials. They are still using this system– although in a super hopped up, electronic fashion. It was so fun to build and administer…for a while.
FINALLY, my point: I like to build things, fix things, whether it’s elaborate meals or fixing an electrical/plumbing issue, I like to figure stuff out, draw connections between dispirit information, paint multi-dimensional pictures and create a comprehensive understanding of “stuff”. In terms of how I feed myself, the “stuff” now lives in the financial inner workings of companies – in the business world. I’m not running my own company, as I envisioned out of college, but I am an integral part in connecting the dots for those that do. Valued executive adviser? I’d like to think so. Building, fixing, developing internal codes to communicate and make it all work – that’s when it’s really, really fun. Nothing’s changed much since I was a kid…
“Experience breeds wisdom, and wisdom breeds vision – Dalai Lama XIV”
