As it should be…

We’re pulling some pre-blog articles to share. Here’s one from 2008…

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Just another site visit. Or so I thought.

The day began with a 7:00 am pickup at the hotel. I went to load my gear into the back of the SUV, where I saw a cooler, a bag of gloves, hats, and extra clothes, some jumper cables, and a spare ATV wheel. I should have known that I was in for something.

This all started a few weeks back, when I was invited to join our planning team for a 3-day workshop in Mooresville, North Carolina, the home base for many NASCAR racing teams. The workshop was held at Jeff Hammond’s Pit Crew University, where aspiring wheelmen and jack handlers go to learn their trade. The objective was to come up with a master plan and branding strategy for a 1400-acre adventure-based resort in the rolling hills of southwestern Virginia. We came out of the sessions with a working plan, a list of resident amenities, and an approach to marketing the lifestyle that we were designing. [...]

There are two types of iteration. One that says that you’re building something, making something better than it was before (hopefully), making progress. The other tells the world that you don’t know where the hell you are going.

Upside:

• The days are long. 8a to 6p? No problem. 7a to 10p? You bet.
• Limited interruptions
• No meetings, except via Skype
• Limited human interaction
• Pants optional, except when checking the mailbox
• Shoes optional, even when checking the mailbox
• I can work anywhere
• I can be easily distracted. I loves me some Twitter, RSS, and Pandora.
• Lunch on the deck
• The dog is always there
• The wife is almost never there ;)
• The kids are almost always there, at least during the summer
• The upside can be the downside

Downside:

• The days are long. 8a to 6p? No problem. 7a to 10p? You bet.
• Limited interruptions
• No meetings, except via Skype
• Limited human interaction
• Pants optional, except when checking the mailbox
• Shoes optional, even when checking the mailbox
• I can work anywhere
• I can be easily distracted. I loves me some Twitter, RSS, and Pandora.
• Lunch on the deck
• The dog is always there
• The wife is almost never there
• The kids are almost always there, at least during the summer
• The downside can be the upside