I have recently been spending time riding bicycles with my two kids (I have both a five year old daughter and a seven year old son). We live on a golf course where the majority of the clubs’ member golfers shut things down around 8 o’clock or so. This gives us at least one good hour of cart path riding. This being Pittsburgh, you know that we spend about half our time going up the rolling hills; splitting almost equally the amounts of time available for both downhill and level riding. Needless to say, the kids enjoy both of these latter tasks. It doesn’t seem like they’ll ever get used to riding/walking their bikes up the various hillsides, though they are getting better and better at the old “weave” technique. And of course, it beats the hell out of watching TV and/or video games. By now, our kids know that my wife, Karen, and I would prefer just about anything to Pokemon. (Though I will admit that Pokemon seems to give the old cerebrum at least some type of workout.) Well, just a few nights ago, as we neared the end of that particular day’s trip, we came upon a man walking his greyhound. This was cool for a couple of reasons: first, the kids had never before seen this type of breed, and, second, this particular animal had LOTS of battle scars covering her body. It was clear to me that she was almost certainly a dog that had been raced a great deal. I’d say that she had well in excess of a hundred stitches … and they weren’t very pretty. I didn’t think too much about it until the next day, when I had Erik Oja as a guest on my radio talk show (The American Entrepreneur). Mr. Oja was an expert on banking, and our discussions related to the ‘decline and fall’ of certain American banking institutions. At one point, I asked Mr. Oja how it was possible for these banks to make so many mistakes and how they could possibly sign off on what were obviously bad loan strategies and portfolios. He cited a number of reasons for the demise of the banks, but perhaps the most significant one was his belief that the young people in charge of making overall loan policy had either forgotten the lessons of the past or had never been around to learn them in the first place. “Remember”, my guest said, “It takes but a generation for a problem to re-appear. In this case, decisions were being made by bankers who had never before experienced the pain of shortsighted thinking.” Suddenly, my mind turned to the current crop of presidential candidates. “How many of these guys”, I wondered aloud, “Have in their past actually dealt with the sets of problems we are now facing?”

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A month or so ago during the US Open, the network ran a Nike commercial message over and over.

The ad was narrated by Tiger Woods’ father, Earl. Aided by appropriate visuals (including actual clips of Tiger as a teen and pre-teenager), Earl related to the viewer how he would do everything short of firing a starter pistol as his young son attempted to concentrate on his golf shot(s). If you watched the Open, you’ll no doubt remember the ad, as it was extremely well produced and it certainly hit its target(s). If not, then you can hit the play button below to see what you missed.

All one can think of is that old German aphorism (many credit the Irish, but it truly IS German in its origin), “That which does not kill me only makes me stronger.”

Of course, this particular collection of antics is at the same time funny, sad, mean-spirited, and effective as hell.

I have a strong-willed, smart, handsome, and reasonably athletic son who, on August 8th (08-08-08) will be EIGHT. He lives in a house that I couldn’t even possibly imagine when I was his age, and he brings home grades that I never could have even sniffed at age 7, 10, 13, 15, 20, or EVER!

And, he probably right now is thinking that, “this is how it will forever be”. In fact, I KNOW it!

Sure, I tell him about living in apartments (21 in all before I even started sixth grade). These were apartments that could easily fit into what we now call our “Great Room” on the first level.  And, I tell him about me selling eggs door-to-door --- 144 dozen each and every Saturday morning --- to make 3 cents a carton for my school clothes.

You already know how this is received. Sure, he’s polite … but is he even LISTENING?

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I’ve started a whole bunch of businesses in my 37+ years as an entrepreneur. Some of them were well-researched, and some of them were off-shoots from other, less-profitable start-ups.

And, some of them were even quite successful … and it is these that I would like to talk about today.

First off, I’m not a particularly religious guy, and I’d like to get this straight right up-front. Now, this doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in some sort of “Higher Power” …  au contraire, I most certainly do! But it does mean that I am not one of those guys who buys off on the protocol of organized religion, especially the ceremony and the ritual. This, along with the overall Big Business aspect of religion, I can most certainly do without.

I believe that most of what the more religious folks tend to call “intervention” is really something that takes place deep within our own heads. In other words, I believe that most of the things that happen in this world do so because we make them happen. And, almost always, we make things happen because we desperately want them to.

I believe this, because too often, I have started a company and just as I am germinating some idea that then must be turned into a product or service, the perfect person to execute that step turns up at my front door!

I’ll give you a hard example of this.  I was once starting a new business that would clearly need some tech guru to both define and oversee the creation of a very specialized set of software programs. I needed someone who had the rare combination of tech acumen, combined with an ability to speak to and negotiate with the end-users of the to-be-built software. This is a very tough parlay to hit, I assure you.

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Well, it's that time again … graduation.

Graduation is the time when students shed their protective layer of irresponsibility in favor of a true mantle of adulthood as they find out for the first time that cutting a class truly does have consequences.

I love this time of the year. It allows me to legitimately write that which I have been preaching all semester (all year, actually) … “there will come a time when students will have to produce real results.”

According to my friend and fellow Duquesne professor Chris Allison, “Don’t show up for ¾’s of your classes and you will probably see your final letter grade reduced by a tenth of a grade point; but continually fail to show up for a real-world job, and see how long it takes before some other guy has your title, your position, and your office!”

You see, the key difference between going to college and joining the workforce is really simple. In college, you are paying them for a service (in this case, an education). While in the real world, they are paying you for your output; for some measurable value, whether that value is tangible or conceptual.

In other words, while in college, you are the customer (and right now, due to overbuilt institutions and a paucity of bodies to fill those institutions, you are a much catered-to customer). While in the workforce, you are the supplier and your employer is the customer.

For many students, this is a difficult mind-transition. Some only get it too late.

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I always knew that someday I’d write this column.

All it took was a comment from Jamie Campalongo, CEO of Pittsburgh Transportation Company (a.k.a., the cab company) to get things started.

A guest on my show (and a terrific one, at that … I really liked this guy), Jamie talked about how difficult it was to find “Anyone … drivers, cabbies, dispatchers” who could pass a drug test prior to beginning employment with any of his companies.

(By the way, if you think you’re not renting from “Yellow Cab” when you call, say, “Colonial Cab” or “People’s cab”, think again … if it’s a cab company and if it’s in Allegheny County, then Pittsburgh Transportation almost certainly owns it.)

Anyway, this (comment about drug use) took me to Lee Taddonio’s comment in a recent news article wherein he was quoted as saying, “four out of ten manufacturing job applicants are turned down” … because of drugs in their urine.

So, I dug up Sir Edward Gibbons’ famous “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (which was published in 1776) … to see just what parallels might exist between our present U.S. society and that of the Roman Empire in her last days.

(You see, I had read this tome in high school … it was on a recommended reading list provided to me by a gentleman by the name of R. Burt Gookin. Mr. Gookin was at that time - 1963 - President of H.J. Heinz Company. Mr. Gookin often chose me to caddy for him at Longue Vue Country Club where, in response to my incessant questions about how one might become successful in life and business, he advised me to “read the Greek Tragedies.”)

Essentially, Gibbons said that the Roman Empire succumbed to Barbarian invasions because of a “loss of civic virtue” among its citizens.

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