Posts Tagged ‘relationships’



Vision into Movement

Monday, March 1st, 2010

The best labors are a real workout. We start early…like uncomfortably early when your body is still cold no matter what you do and your brain is fuzzy while sipping the first tall six shot latte with heavy whip. You fill a room with brilliant, God-fearing leadership that are covered in vision, goals, and an unquenchable energy.

Our methodology is to lead out in mental sprint sessions, followed by walking-it-out strategy, lots of whiteboard sessions, and more. Of course, lunch is in…and we are working. Afternoon brings more sprints, burn down chart building, walking it out followed by more sprint sessions.

This stuff is addictive. And we love what we get to do, and who we get to do this stuff with…but we never kiss and tell.

BigBadCollab: Ten Factoids

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

1. We started in a garage. No, really. It was Ben’s garage converted over a weekend and a thousand bucks. See the pic at the bottom of the home page called, “Contact Us”. That was where the garage door was. #goodtimes

2. The co-founders met, literally, on Twitter. The first conversation, beyond DM’s was … instant messaging. The first “real” conversation was … at a tweet up.

3. Three possible company names and six minutes of discussion. First corporate decision: No meetings, ever (thank you 37signals). Second corporate decision: “BigBadCollab”.

4. The name of the company has our favorite core value in it, “Collab”…short for “Collaboration”. The full company name is “Big” as in “Our vision, our pursuit, our calling”; “Bad” as in “The Michael Jackson definition…before he died”; and, “Collab” as in “collaboration”.

5. Between the two co-founders, there are thirty plus years of marriage, four kids (18 to 2), three dogs, and nearly twenty-five years of experience across nearly one-thousand web projects.

6. Ben has his degree in Anthropology. Mark has his degree in Economics and Finance.

7. Over 90% of BigBadCollab’s business is run completely, on the Internet. Code repository, accounting, project management, communications….its all out there.

8. The official sport of BigBadCollab is disc golf (below).

9. Culture is very important to BigBadCollab. Its a fabric and reflection of what we believe, how we behave, why we do what we do.

10. If it were not for God’s grace, we would all be completely lost.

No Comment

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Dave Winer has been blogging longer than the Internet has been around. Let that soak in for a minute……..

His expression on why he does not allow comments on his blog is an interesting perspective:

“…to the extent that comments interfere with the natural expression of the unedited voice of an individual, comments may act to make something not a blog…. The cool thing about blogs is that while they may be quiet, and it may be hard to find what you’re looking for, at least you can say what you think without being shouted down. This makes it possible for unpopular ideas to be expressed. And if you know history, the most important ideas often are the unpopular ones…. That’s what’s important about blogs, not that people can comment on your ideas. As long as they can start their own blog, there will be no shortage of places to comment.”

Awkward Bridges

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

I think we all have people in our lives who we have disappointed or who have let us down. People we’ve been in hard and awkward situations with that effect our preference towards them. Terrible first impressions that shape our thoughts and actions, or just overall apathy towards another person’s passions or choices. What I like to call “the funk”. Well, recently I have been super convicted about resetting my system preferences file on relationships and friendships. Truly give a second, third and fourth chance. To not be afraid to step into relationships where I have failed and say that I am sorry, or just let the past be exactly that.

We have all heard of burning bridges, but I think at times we get so black and white that we forget to examine the gray, and this to me is where the whole funk thing comes in. We don’t burn the bridge, we simply don’t use it. This, to me, can be even worse. Not knowing where you stand can be a soul crushing type of thing. No one knows what happened, it just stopped. Sucks!

Not preaching, just sharing a personal conviction that just hit me in the form of an email. Not even a direct call out, just an email from a friend who has not been getting the benefit of the doubt for a while.

A common thread for me in my personal study is to get to a place where I say “Wow, I never could have done that”. I mean, name the scenario…

  • Stepping into a fiery furnace
  • Building an arc
  • Walking on water
  • Trusting in God completely when thrown into prison, a whale, a lion’s den, you name it
  • Face a giant with a rock and a sling

The one thing that obviously would have been the hardest would be giving my life on a cross for a world full of people like me. In the gospels I am constantly floored by the grace and forgiveness that Jesus extends to EVERYONE. Maybe I could start with extending it to my friends, colleagues, business partners first and then God will give me the courage and strength to extend it to the lost. To truly be a disciple.

Just a thought from a daily sinner. Thank God for his grace, cause I need it. Alot of it.