God Talks to Rusin
January 29, 2009
In lieu of recent events, we must interrupt the current series of posts on Infrastructure to run the following important message. The current series will resume next week.
While attending a telecommunications conference recently, God spoke with me.
Yes–the Big Guy. The One and Only. God.
Now, God speaks with me frequently–it’s just a matter of me paying attention. Often, I miss the message. But, this time, I’m glad I was listening closely, because He told me I am on a path of great success.
As anyone would be, I was relieved to hear this. God seems happy with me so far, and I hope I live long enough to see my work to fruition.
This was a timely message from God, because I recently returned from the 8th Annual Metro Connectivity and Local Access Conference in Miami.
First, let me share my detailed thoughts on the conference: The folks from Capacity Magazine, along with a few other, organize the show every year. You can check out their website for future shows at www.capacitymedia.com.
The MetroConnect Show is unlike any other Telecom conference you will ever attend. The folks at Capacity Magazine make this event rich in networking, learning, knowledge sharing, and relationship building. They don’t invite panelists to speak unless the speaker agrees to participate, to share knowledge and ideas, and to provide audience members with golden nuggets of information.
MetroConnect is not about boring, big brand CEO’s standing up and airing a commercial for their company (should something like that happen, that panelist would not be invited back). They bring in executives from various segments of Telecom, with annual sales between $10mm to $250mm, who open themselves up to the audience and share nuances of success not found at any other exhibition. They share street-smarts, insight, and tactical innovations; you’ll hear what works, what doesn’t, what’s being sold, and the truth about demand.
For the most part, Executives attending Metro Connect are fairly well grounded, with no traces of condescension to others. We share the common bond of competition and desire to beat the ILECs, instead of competing with each other. This is the MetroConnect culture.
There is a strong mutual respect for each others business which is awesome. No pretenses, no arrogance … just a value experience.
In short, it’s a great conference, and here are some of my personal highlights:
1. Most of the companies presenting and attending are doing well. We are doing well, at AFS. We are not unique in this regard based upon the attendees and results reported.
2. My take away is that successful companies in our industry are experiencing a bar bell affect. On one end of the barbell are tightly disciplined companies that are doing well–with common 2008 growth rates ranging from 40% to 100%. On the other end of the bar bell are the dumb bells (pardon the pun)–the ILEC’s and cable companies, who are also doing relatively well. Lesson learned: being out in the middle of the bell bar right know is not a good place to be!
3. It was nice seeing Danny Bottoms back in action as President of Cavalier. That consumer business is going to drive Danny nuts – you heard it hear first.
4. There was an excellent data center panel with plenty of good insights, statistics, and disclosure. I came away understanding that Data Center owners are working strategically with Metro Networks in order to succeed and they clearly understand the necessity of win-win relationships in serving customers. Hunter Newby moderated this panel in a probing style akin only to him. Hunter’s stealth company, Allied Fiber, is already operational with employees … definitely on the success track.
5. I participated on a panel that addressed the Business Case for investment in infrastructure. Infrastructure meaning fiber–real networks for real players. I was also pleased that our panel had two women holding Executive positions participate – Carmen Perez of FPL, and Colleen Gallagher of First Telecom Services. You go girls!!! I thought one of the funniest moments of the day came from panelists Ron Johnson of Knology – in speaking about building out fiber – as he said, “Build it and they will come … and take your office furniture.” My friend, and newly ordained (by myself) Choir Boy, Andy Lipman of Bingham McCutchen, moderated the panel.
6. I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on Wireless Backhaul Business Models. It was a very open panel discussing everything from what works, what doesn’t, costs and models. It was the last session on the last day … so we all worked hard to make it interesting.
I have watched the quality and participation of MetroConnect increase year after year. There is nothing like it anywhere. It’s a knowledge-sharing experience. You are in a closed setting with real hands-on CEO’s and executives making businesses grow, work and succeed. The financial discipline and focus is self-evident — something other industries could learn from. You get direct networking access to one another by breaks that are designed to promote this interaction alongside special events. Face time at these events is quality face time.
If you read this blog regularly and are a CIO, CTO, or a significant player in a large IT Enterprise setting, you should attend MetroConnect. The insights and information will be invaluable to you in understanding the Telecom guy sitting across the table from you. You will also gain an appreciation for tricks of the trade, what separates the real players from the pretenders, and how things really work! I highly recommend it.
To the large Private Equity firms that read this blog: I suggest you attend MetroConnect to listen – we already know your are really smart guys and have money!! What you will hear and see are highly disciplined businesses that operate so efficiently, it may just change your mind about hiring Celebrity CEO’s, who could spend your money and go bankrupt. You know the Chapter 22 CEO’s that can’t help but spend money? It’s their primary skill, and they’re really good at it. If you are looking for historical CEO retreads that piss through cash, you will not find them at MetroConnect. There is a lot of talent running these companies that attend MetroConnect–really good, proven talent that grows business organically, and even prospers in the worse of economic conditions. Given the small funding sizes of MetroConnect companies, you will be amazed at what can be done with so little. Funding these CEO’s will get you more for your money. Take a chance! We don’t care about fancy offices, private jets and toga parties …. just results.
So what does all this have to do with God speaking to Dave Rusin?
Yes–back to that. God did talk to me.
He called on the phone last evening and spoke in the voice of my my thirteen year old daughter, Leah, an eight-grader at Our Lady of Mercy High School.
Once a month, the school faculty and administration that run this all-girl parochial school meet and choose one student, out of 1300+, who exemplifies a particular character trait. This month’s character trait was Trust.
Leah’s wasn’t expecting it, but there she was, sitting in her seat at the assembly, when her name was called. My daughter was recognized as the “Most Trustworthy Student” in her entire school.
I wanted to jump through the phone to hug her! (Maybe a killer video app!!)
My wife, Lori, and I couldn’t be more proud.
And I do believe this is God’s way of telling us we are on the road to pre-mortality life success. I happen to believe that success in life is defined by quality and character of your children as they grow and become adults. And when we leave this earth, the character of Leah’s and our grandchildren as human beings, is how we will be judged.
Success defined by materialism, control, ownership and wealth (at what cost), are nice measures in worldly economic terms, but they are not the ultimate measure at your day of judgment. Earthly ownership means nothing, as God really owns everything on earth and we are only stewards of all that God owns on earth. if you have been a bad steward, that’s just something else to account for.
“Most Trustworthy Student” — age thirteen — God is telling me I am on a successful path with my life so far…
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