How can you not love the amazing commitment to customer satisfaction by Nick at the Cabin John Starbucks?I wasn't originally planning on going to Israel with the kids this year. The NFO was taking them for our nephew's Bar Mitzvah, but a few factors-most notably that I didn't want to miss being there with them—led me to make a last minute decision to attend.
I'm glad I did.
This was my 10th or 11th visit to Israel and every time I go, I learn something new about the country.
While taking the kids to places like the Western Wall, Yad v'Shem (the Holocaust Memorial Museum), Mt. Herzl (the military cemetery), the Mahane Yehuda market, or just walking down Ben Yehuda (the main drag in Jerusalem) is always exciting and meaningful, the point of these trips is to instill a sense of connectiveness-to build the connective tissue, if you will, between my kids and the Land of Israel.
Our goal is to have them understand that this place is not just another place. It's a special place for them and a part of their identity. As parents, you always wonder if you are making the impact you hope to make.
We do our best and I suppose time will tell.
But what strikes me in Israel in 2015 is much of what strikes me every time. The "bizarro world" that is sometimes the country and the Middle East.
This week is an election which could have huge ramifications for the future of the country and the region.
It's not a perfect country. Never will be, but it's a country based on an ideal and a belief…that the Jews have a right to their own country and that, when all is said and done, Jews need a country where the primary raison d'etre is the defense of people's right to live as Jews.
I hope my kids walked away with that.
And I just wish all of the haters could take a step back and walk through the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv or wherever and see how the country functions. How people are just trying to live their lives and do better for their families.
They would be blown away to see that…and they'd be really blown away to see Arabs walking amongst the Jews in these same places with no fear at all, no reason to be afraid, accepted for who they are.
Then they might ask themselves, "would a Jew be able to walk around as a Jew in many Arab countries with no fear whatsoever?" They can't do it in Sweden or Paris, after all…which proves the very point.
Israel, despite being nearly 68 years old is not guaranteed. It's a daily struggle and every moment is infused with a sense of urgency, a sense of life-or-death consequences that few others places or people in the world have. There's an unspoken tension that just exists. There are shelters, there were (and will be, unfortunately) air raid sirens. There are soldiers carrying guns, security checkpoints at malls, metal detectors, and profiling.
Those aren't disappearing anytime soon, I'm sad to say. Maybe never.
There's the irony that being outnumbered nearly 150 to 1 is the root cause of the country's competitive advantage.
But it's all this, the living in a pressure cooker that creates not just innovation, but also a heighted joie de vivre that can't be understood by an outsider. Nor can it be understood fully by someone who is unfamiliar with Jewish history.
Hopefully these trips will help our kids see this and understand their place in it.
In reality, it's not something about which to be super proud. Proving your road warrior toughness is, well, maybe a sign of misplaced priorities.
Yet, with not so many accomplishments to tout, I submit for your consideration the current itinerary in which I am currently engaged.
Sunday evening, March 8th
Monday evening, March 9th
Tuesday morning, March 10th
Wednesday, March 11th
Sat. night, March 14th
Sunday morning, March 15th
Monday, March 15
Tuesday, March 16
Wednesday, March 17
Thursday, March 18
So, when all is said and done, we are looking at:
And let's not talk about next week!
. One of my great fear motivators is becoming irrelevant in a professional sense. When you can no longer add value, you are replaced. Whether by a machine or a lower cost option, it doesn't matter, you're done. And it's hard to bounce back from that.
To combat that, I spent a lot of time thinking about macro trends and playing around with new technologies.
It's why I bought BitCoin a while ago. It's why my daughters and I play with TinkerCad and print 3D items. It's why I watch documentaries on Netflix (ok, I binge on a lot of other stuff as well). It's why I explored the Dark Web, got solar panels, was one of Vonage's first 20,000 customers, bought a Nest, ordered an Amazon Echo and more.
It's also why I love traveling and why I have a hard and fast business travel philosophy of "always doing something unique to the city" when I visit. Otherwise, it's airport-office-hotel-airport. This way, your eyes are opened in some way.
You get the idea. Sure, some of it is "fun," but a lot of it is…this is how I get my head around what is coming so I can be better prepared.
In fact, in a knowledge/information economy, being able to see things before others do and then prepare for them is a non-negotiable skill and will be the source of competitive advantage.
What I didn't have, however, was a defined PROCESS for doing this.
And that's exactly what my friend, Rohit Bhargava, has done for all of us in his new book (disclosure: I got a free copy) called "Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas, and Predict the Future".
It's only 99 cents on Amazon now, so you can thank me later.
I read the whole book in one sitting while on a plane and like his previous books (all of which I enjoyed), the writing is very consumable, but more importantly, he combines theory with practicality.
You walk away with concrete steps to take so you can be a better, more sophisticated, curated trendspotter.
And that's what you need.
Plus, he made me feel better about my fatherhood strategy (which, I admit, I got from my own dad). One of the key objectives of parenthood is to instill a sense of curiosity in your children. Help them learn how to ask questions and look at the world from a wide perspective.
Rohit confirms this approach and emphasizes that it's important for adults (I would argue that in a world of radical transformation and disruption at lightning speed, that it's more important than ever.
Two thumbs up on this one.
My friend, Kenichi Hartman, posted an article on Facebook the other day about the most common job in each of America's 50 states. I'm on a plane right now so you'll just have to google it.
It highlighted something I'd been thinking about a lot, since the most common job in most states is: truck driver.
I've told my kids that I think it's possible that they won't need driver's licenses.
Now, my timing may be off, but is there any doubt in your mind that autonomous vehicles will happen?
Then, combine that with ridesharing apps and optimization algorithms from Uber and collaborative technologies like RelayRides and you have a huge opportunity for transport and logistics companies to save a ton of money…which they will pass on to you, the consumer.
Of course, there's a catch.
We're not going to need all of those truck drivers (or cab drivers for that matter).
That's a TON of people who will have to do something else. An absolute ton.
I don't have the answer right now. I'm just seeing what's going to happen.
which is an incredible and inspiring story that defies imagination. Even though I had lived in Japan, I wasn't aware of the extent of Japanese atrocities against allied POWs. Shame on me (well, bigger shame on them). 
In our winter sojourn to the South, we decided to make Day 2 about the importance of transportation and the innovators who see the future.
We left Norfolk and drove about 80 minutes to Kitty Hawk, NC where the Wright Brothers changed the course of world history (no hyperbole) by inventing mechanized flight. It was a cold, blustery day, not the best nearly for experiencing the outdoor component, but it was made up for by a great Visitors' Center and an equally exciting presentation by the Ranger there.
And keeping with the theme of transportation, we stopped in Virginia Beach to visit Fun Tours, a bus travel company owned by a friend of ours, Felix Kushnir. Much like the Wright Brothers, Felix had a dream. 
Afterwards, we walked across the street to the actual museum itself. We were excited to see an exhibition celebrating 70 years of Smokey the Bear. The artist's various works (and the evolution of the tag line) were really interesting to watch and we learned that, in 1964, the US Postal Service assigned Smokey his own zip code. Today, you can tweet him...which I did.
For our last stop, we visited the Nauticus museum which is adjacent to the retired battleship, USS Wisconsin. It is packed with all kinds of information about why Norfolk is so important from a nautical perspective (it has the deepest water of any eastern US port) and historical (the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet is based here) and it was from here that Teddy Roosevelt launched the "Great White Fleet".
When I was 14 years old, my dad took me on a 2 week trip to eastern Europe. Easily one of the most transformative experiences of my life for many reasons.Two books I just finished that I wanted to recommend.
Particularly relevant for anyone who has to lead a group or an organization.
The first is written by the CEO/Founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman. It’s called The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age and highlights how managing people has changed since the era of lifetime employment has come to an end.
They reframe a job as a “tour of duty” in which the company makes clear to the employee what s/he will get out of the next assignment while at the same time, the employee promises s/he will stick with the job until the end of the tour. They stay because reputational risk is too great to leave it.
It’s a quick read and a solid framework for thinking about developing talent in today’s networked age.
Meanwhile, you can always look to the military for inspiring stories of courage, bravery, and leadership. In Pegasus Bridge, the acclaimed historian Stephen E. Ambrose details the first invasion effort of D-Day and the strategic imperative of a group of British airborne troops of taking a canal bridge deep behind enemy lines.
This is a book about planning, preparation, team building, leadership, strategy, execution, and more.
You’ll appreciate the “Greatest Generation” more and hopefully you’ll never be in a life/death situation like this with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance.
However you will be in a position where you need to lead a group of people on a mission. Learn from the best.
We didn’t have a huge window for a long summer vacation this year, so we decided we would do a 3 day jaunt up/back to Niagara Falls.
Our objectives were simple and two-fold.
It’s what you learn along the way that makes the family trips so much fun.
And it’s the little moments (both good and bad) that you create the memories that stick with all of us for the rest of our lives.
What’s going on in Canada?
As part of our ‘get in the Canada frame of mind” effort, we pulled up the Canadian anthem on YouTube and played it over the car speakers.
It was around that time that we learned that Paco thought the lyrics were:
“we stand on God for thee” instead of “we stand on guard for thee.”
Needless to say, we had some fun with this. Canadians being so dedicated to their country that they will trample God for it.
Also, he thought that it was “Bob keep our land, glorious and free” instead of “God keep our land.”
This led to a lot of speculation as to who exactly Bob is. Perhaps Canada’s gardener?
The Unexpected Twists
Nadia has had a bit of a string of bad luck recently. She had strep, then a viral infection of her chest. We had taken her to a few places 
Still, she was obviously sick and wheezing a bit.
We had a nebulizer and were using it.
However, the first night in the hotel was just brutal. Nadia was coughing violently, having a hard time breathing, and it was keeping the NFO and me up.
I was up from 2-5.30, but that’s nothing compared to the NFO who decided at 5am to take Nadia to the Williamsville hospital ER.
All’s well that ends well, but it was one of those nights where you think “great, I’m on vacation with the family, I’ll get to bed at a reasonable time, and be somewhat well rested” and instead turns into an all-nighter.
Ah, parenthood.
The kids ended up having a great attitude, making lemonade out of lemons (and that’s a life skill, isn’t it?) and we went to the pool in the morning.
We didn’t get to Niagara Falls until about 12.30pm, but it all worked.
Simple Expectations and Bonusville
My philosophy of travel with the family is very simple. Have ONE objective per day. Everything after that is bonus.
Monday was “Maid of the Mist” and then whatever.
Once we did that (and we all had a blast, getting soaked), we were in bonus land.
I had brought passports, so we walked across the Rainbow Bridge (kids enjoyed straddling the border) to Canada.
It gave us a chance to talk about different currencies, why Queen Elizabeth is on the money, kilometers vs. miles and immigration policy.
The approach is a major stress reliever for me. You don’t need to rush. You just do your thing and then can allow the rest of the day to unfold. I find it helps with keeping other people from whining too much as well.
And The Icing on the Cake
When we’re at home, we’re all not staying in the same room or same car for the same length of time. The intensity comes from the proximity and you see how we all work together to solve disagreements or partner.
You see how the kids take care of each other as they get to explore the hotel or go downstairs for the breakfast buffet.
You get to see that, for some reason, they think the show “Full House” is one of the funniest things they’ve ever seen. They laugh at the show and the NFO and I just laugh at their reactions.
You get to inhale the innocence of childhood through them, knowing that you don’t have it forever, but that it’s glorious while it’s here.
And you get to talk about “that time we went to Niagara Falls and Canada.”
Even if we had 14 hours of driving and a trip to the ER while we were there.
It’s all worth it.
For those of you following my periodic rant. Here’s another one. The education disruption is coming.
Heard a few things from various people that I wanted to document, if only for my own posterity.
Why Now?
One speculation is that Iran egged on Hamas to intensify things.
Why? To pull attention away from them and the fact that they blew by another deadline on the nuclear thing.
More Balanced Reporting?
While I would certainly not say that the media is full on pro-Israel, there have been some more reports that are critical of Hamas. One hypothesis goes to the mentality of the reporters who are stationed in Israel.
For years, they could be in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, claim they were “war reporters” by going to West Bank or Gaza for the day and then return to their 5 star hotels and 1st world lives without trouble. Not like being in Syria or Iraq or wherever. Now, however, they, too have to go into bunkers and hear sirens, so maybe they are thinking “hmmm..the Israelis may have a point here.”
Europe and the Jews
It’s just really, really bad.
I had a thought today about the fact that we’re seeing the rise of another type of totalitarianism. Then, I read Shmuel Herzfeld’s article. He said it, so I don’t have to.
And people are targeting Jews for violence in France, chanting “death to the Jews” in the city of the International Court of Justice, the Hague, and opening up charter schools in Norway that advocate beheading for people who don’t fast during Ramadan.
I have to admit that there is a streak of naivete within me.
Every time that Hamas attacks Israel, true to its charter of destruction of the Jewish state, I think to myself “ah, maybe this time the world will see that there is no moral relativism.”
We all know that Israel isn’t perfect. No secret there, but we all don’t seem to get the core issue…denial of Israel’s right to exist.
I think it’s just so difficult for the Western mind to comprehend that one side doesn’t want the other side to even exist.
So, it’s difficult to believe that there isn’t some “path to peace” since it’s just a huge misunderstanding.
But, like every time before, I am reminded about the reality that moral relativism does exist.
And it makes me anxious about the world in which my children will grow up.
I took Paco to NYC for a short trip and a “bring your child to work day.” We rod the subway during rush hour. It was crowded and hot.
He crouched down to the floor. Not on it, just soft of squatting.
When I asked him why, he said, “there’s more room down here.”
And I guess he’s right. Feet/legs take up less space than torsos and waists
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