Great People: Max Hammond, Artist Extraordinaire

I have written about Max Hammond before (check out last fall's "Backflip off the Front"), but there is always more to say about my entrepreneurial colleague, personal abstract artist, and friend.

Gesture, 2011

Being a full-time artist is no picnic, the starving artist metaphor is popular for a reason. Max has been creating fine art for more than two decades and his majestic, abstract paintings bear out his technical ability and artistic vision. Max, as an entrepreneur, has been my sounding board and a member of my advisory team since the beginning. Where I am a pragmatist, Max is a dreamer.  Our business vices and virtues compliment each other.

Max once painted a mural that took up half of a large public space--we're talking 360 degrees here in about 1000 square feet. Think of the vision it takes to imagine a plain space, with nooks and crannies and pillars included, into art that moves the audience. Now imagine you had to split the space with an artist whose style was polar opposite of your own. How would you make that work? What would you do? What colors would use? What feeling would you create? Max's work was fanciful, colorful, inspiring and fun. He created transitions to the the other artwork that were reminiscent of yin and yang. Not a bad mix for an environment that was supposed to foster creativity and cooperation.

I believe every business owner should have a business relationship with an artist of some kind: musician, sculptor, painter, or rock star to stretch our thinking. My breakfasts with Max always leave me thinking about something new or something old in a different way. The best part about it is that Max doesn't try to stretch my thinking or make me a different person, he is just himself. That's what friends do, I suppose.

Thanks Max.

Great People: Amy

On the first day of first grade, a new girl got on the bus. She was brown-eyed and brown-haired just like me and dressed in a red and white dress. I knew right then that she was my friend. I was right--for more than 35 years now.

I keep reading about twins research that indicates that parenting has little effect on adult personality or outcomes for their children. The research says that about 50% of what makes up your personality, you were born with. The other roughly 50% of influence is chance and your childhood peers. I owe my childhood peers alot.

My childhood peer group changed a little over time like most do, but Amy was there from first grade on. We rode the school bus together and had spats like little kids do. Then we would race to the playground and play victim so other friends would agree with us. I learned to be fast. We played "king of the mountain" after school behind the old community building at 4-H meetings and we camped by the creek on the farm. Older, we talked about boys, teachers, friends, and everything else. Sometimes, we spent more time with other people, but Amy was a mooring for me.

Amy is as good of a person as you can imagine: helpful, giving, and kind. She is amazingly strong, yet she has a wicked sense of humor and is not afraid to clown around with little kids, old folks, and peers alike. She found her calling as a nurse and her patients are better off for it.

As we got older I moved away. Careers, babies, husbands, life happened. I try to see Amy each summer I go home. This summer her oldest daughter married and I was unprepared for the emotion of the wedding. Amy was a champ: giggling and joyful, yet calm and collected.

I am grateful for the 50% of influence Amy and my childhood peers had on my upbringing. Were it not for that foundation, entrepreneurship would not have been nearly so manageable or nearly so funny.

Thanks Amy.

Great People: Missy

Though 100+ degrees does not really feel like fall, the school buses prowling my neighborhood indicate that fall is indeed here. As a parent, I have many hopes for my children as they navigate their classrooms and school, not the least of which is that they find good friends to help them through these 13 years of transition. Good friends are esteem-builders, supporters, sounding boards and brakes for bad decisions. Even helicopter parents can't compete with the influence of good friends.

In my grade school years, I had some great friends that I keep today. Outside of my family, they are the ones still in my circle that have seen me in polyester, majorette uniforms, legwarmers and 80s hair. I saw them, too.

Missy and I played trumpet together in band starting in the 5th grade. By the time we got to middle school, we were always sitting next to each other because we were both "Ws." These coincidences would not have been enough to make a good friend, but her personality certainly was. Bubbly, always smiling, laughing, and looking for innocent mischief, Missy has always been fun to be around.

I remember times in high school when I could not wait to talk to her on the phone after school, even though we had spent the day together. When our parents passed the 10-minute phone call rule, we just took turns calling each other back until we got "No more!" She went to a different college so our frequency of conversation lagged, but the quality never did. We both pursued advanced degrees, professional careers, and both married later; our children were born the same year. Our paths were similar, but our experiences different, and it is nice to talk through it all with someone who knows your history.

So as I think about what I have to offer the world today as a coach and consultant, I surely got early practice solving the problems of the world with my friend Missy, an excellent communicator and friend extraordinaire.