Morning all:

“Do not allow the perfect to get in the way of the good” — Tom Peters

Morning and hello from Minneapolis, Minnesota—ja, u-betcha!

These past couple of days have been better than excellent. Imagine spending well over two hours with the legendary leadership “Uber-guru”, Tom Peters – author of In Search of Excellence. Sometimes a high doesn’t quite describe it.

Since I couldn’t get to sleep till 1:30 due to some foolishness such as drinking espressos after dinner, I had best pour a mug of in-room Italian LavAzza coffee to kick start my day.

But first, the true account of the strange saga of a quickly shrinking skinny cat – our Morgan. Always she’s been a runty thing. However, starting this summer we noticed that she was well on the way to becoming the disappearing Cheshire cat of Alice’s tale. Eventually, at three pounds, enough was enough.

Well, you know how I love the internet. Firmly planted on the Google search engine, in 15 minutes Dr. Dirk had a diagnosis: Feline Hyperthyroidism. Marcia giggled and proceeded to call the Veterinarian who chuckled halfheartedly and invited the little critter over for a visit. $233 later and the professional’s verdict was in – Feline Hyperthyroidism.

Google stock is currently around $600 per share. It took me 15 minutes to find the cause. $600 divided by four is $150. I could have saved $83 if I had bought ¼ of a share of Google stock instead. Not a bad return don’t you think?

I just know that the Vet Googles.

Back to Minneapolis, somehow I became part of a focus group with Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota. It was amazingly refreshing to talk with someone who, though a politician, spoke common sense without the expected politico ‘stump’ or ‘waffle’ speak.

Without creating a book, we dabbled into topics such as business environments, education, and health care. Pawlenty concurred that in order for the US to stay competitive we’d have to address education. What was refreshing was that in place of common platitudes, he got very specific in his viewpoint – grade school sort of OK, Middle school, barely, but hanging in, however, High school is where we’re absolutely losing out to the rest of the industrialized and quickly developing nations. Addressing the reasons for drop-out rate of over 30% nationally should be a good starting point.

I said that “better than excellent” describe these few days. How about having Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace as a luncheon speaker? Realizing to what degree illogical extremism has taken over environmental movements he resigned from the organization he helped found.

Today Moore’s focus is on promoting sustainability in a comprehensive, commonsense, and rational manner. He claims that, flat-out, the most sustainable of all products are in fact trees and forests. To clear-cut an area creates the greatest concentration of biodiversity. Wood products for everything from building, heating, paper, and furniture for an ecologically friendlier world is Moore’s advise.

Make it a great week. May the forest be with you.

Cheers,

Dirk