MINI-SABBATICAL SUMMER 2014

to friends, colleagues, and professional associates;

I just wanted to send you a quick update on my current status and travel plans, in the form of a hopefully short blognote.  

While always working hard in my career, I am very fortunate and blessed to be currently "funemployed".  It is a privilege and a blessing that I have this time, and I try not to forget that in this world of ours.

I've had great conversations and discussions on various opportunities, but purposely no conclusions as I thought it was important to take some time and reflect between my last seat and my next.  

So, naturally, I am going to go where I've had reasonable success reflecting, back to the Camino de Santiago in Spain.    I first did the Camino on my TommyTFreedomTour in the Fall of 2007.  This time around I will start on Tuesday, July 15th, in Lourdes, France, about 100 miles east of Spain.

Such a different time-

Such a different perspective/viewpoint----

In '07.  I knew nothing.  Not what I was going to do next, not that the stock market was about to crash, nor any clue what the CAMINO entailed.  

Then my eldest was in college-- now she married and my youngest is halfway through college.

My mother, mother-in-law and sister-in-law, brother-in-law were all here sharing life with me.  Now they have passed on and are rich in my heart and in my petitions at Lourdes.

Then the financial professional was at its/his/her peak; now some of the best companies and people I know have been through a six year ringer of vilification,  denigration, demonization and thankfully some healing and recovery ( and continuous mega - billions of fines and constant retribution).    We re-regulated the industry and put guardrails around it (the government did that, which gives me no comfort).    

This time I'm aware of the destination and what I will potentially encounter---weather, scenery, people of all ilks. and walks of life!!!! But I'm also fully aware, now that I have a benchmark, that this time will be so different--'so meaningful in its own singular right--- That anything old will be new and uniquely interpreted.    When I see a butterfly??? , or a dragon fly, or a person who "looks" familiar??

My IPOD is different , too.  Foster the People, Katy Perry, Walk the Moon, Phoenix, Passion Pit, Beach House, Magic Man, the Colourist!!! , Crystal Fighters, Youngblood Hawke---- these bands might have existed, but .....and of course I have my memories and my recordings of BRUCE!! and Cape Town, South Africa from January, the real start to this mini -sabbatical! !! 

That is how my job search feels too.  I know most of the people,  I'm finding incredibly interesting conversation and situations, and they are all now seen through a POST SABBATICAL #1---POST CAMINO #1 viewpoint. And that lens is so different than the one I had at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley.  It's a Jefferies, Visiting Nurse Health, Bonds.com lens---

It's not a " go get a job" thought, not one bit.  

I want something that can absorb my passion and energy, be incredibly challenging and intellectually stimulating and vibrant, and can create lasting value for......everyone involved.

The people I join, the people/clients I touch, for the industry I participate in.   

So I'm going to walk, and then I'm committed to finding the right next seat where with honest, dedicated effort and a great team of people I can see, over the horizon, the opportunity to create that lasting value.

Although we made progress and raised the industry dialogue,  I didn't achieve that goal at Bonds.com.  We created some excitement, some true discussion;  but we didn't have the "Glengarry tools/leads/structure", metaphorically speaking.   Mind you, this was our/my fault, because our clients both buy-side and sell-side were screaming for us, or SOMEONE/ANYONE, to take the electronic corporate bond marketplace to a new level.  So I have to thank all those who gave us time and effort, and I'm as disappointed as anyone we couldn't get it done during my tenure.

  

So, onto Lourdes and beyond , with prayers, petitions (send me yours if you'd like me to carry them with me) , to renew and cleanse my mind, body and spirit, and lose about 30 lbs walking in the summer heat.

Just finished, for the 2nd time, a very old and very reflective and interesting book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig.  A few quotes caught my eye and my mind, and they are;

"The time for the real unification of art and technology is really long overdue".  The book was written in 1974, so it sounds like Steve Jobs read/heard of the book.

(http://www.forbes.com/sites/mahendraramsinghani/2012/12/16/why-every-entrepreneur-should-read-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/ )

and this quote--- "work is a material reflection of a spiritual reality".     That is what I'm after in Lourdes and on this walk.  And when I get back.

I wish you all an enjoyable summer (or winter my Cape Town friends).   In the meantime I'll tweet whatever I find needs tweeting at --(TWEETS ARE ONLY 140 CHARACTERS-- I know this makes you happy!)

twitter: CAMINOPATHAHEAD

One last quote from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"----

"The place to improve the world is start in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there---Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind.  

I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle.  I think what I have to say has more lasting value".   

I think Robert Pirsig, the author, upon my 2nd reading, had incredible foresight and depth that was certainly under-appreciated by the 121 publishers that turned him down.  Fortunately #122 thought what he had to say had more lasting value,  Decades and millions of book sales later, the talk about destiny continues, but the place to improve the world is to start in ones own heart.  A very good theme to leave you with this summer and to carry with me to Lourdes and my Camino ahead!  CaminoPathAhead!.

Peace,

tt