Mark Kolier’s Blog

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Until this year we’ve never been closed on MLK day. There are a number of reasons none of which are all that compelling. From years past we have traditionally offered ten official ‘company’ holidays. At the beginning of each year we determine which ones will be observed. New Year’s Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday, and Christmas Day are somewhat fixed. That’s eight. Often we like to give Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. A number of years ago we offered Columbus Day (and he was not even an American) but have not in many years.

When I have worked on MLK day in recent years I have noticed an increasing amount of companies that are closed. Of course MLK day is a Federal Holiday, no banks, post offices and even the financial markets are closed. New York area commuter trains runs on a Saturday schedule.

So what took me so long? I really don’t have a good answer. I have great respect for the work done by Dr. King and his importance and significance in American history is in my view underappreciated. But from this point forward, as long as I am running a company MLK day will be an official company holiday.

Of course I write this from my desk at work on the morning of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But that’s my choice to get a things accomplished on an unusually quiet Monday morning. I think it’s no problem to work on a holiday like MLK day – as long as the choice is yours. Please pardon that it took me an inordinately long time to figure that out.

Is your company open today and if not are you working anyway?

Thanksgiving is seen as the true start of the annual ‘Holiday season’. Certainly retailers both online and brick and mortar have been pushing the ‘buy now’ button since Halloween. As the Occupy Wall Street movement carries on into month number three, it would be easy to think that the 1% have so much to be thankful for, while the rest of us slog on in our mutual and collective despair. Well I am one of the 99%, and 2011 has been a very difficult year for me professionally, but despite that I still have much for which I can be thankful.

1) I am in good health. It is the single most important thing there can be as well as is the
overall health of the people closest to me. Remember that it could be worse folks – it could
always be worse. Being healthy (or mostly healthy) is the single most important thing isn’t
it?

2) I have people in my life that I care about and that care about me. Professional success is
uplifting but without having people around to share it with would feel hollow – agree or
disagree?

3) While the U.S. has its problems, our national spirit of innovation and can-do still make the
U.S. and its citizens a place and a people to look up to. We’re not done yet. Not by a long
shot.

4) Americans continue to use their right to complain and protest – peacefully for the most part,
that exemplifies what free speech and freedom in general are all about. This is not to be
undervalued.

5) Most Americans have flat screen TV, and iPod or digital music player and soon will also have a
smartphone. Before you laugh, keep in mind that citizens of many countries in the world cannot
say the same, but they wish they could. And in fact it’s the U.S. way of life that many people
around the world aspire to achieve.

Americans are disgruntled. Whether it is with the Wall Street folk, our political leaders, or an overall lack of good job opportunities, it seems to me that we’ve developed a culture of complaint – not complacency. As families come together this week of Thanksgiving, why don’t we think about the things for which we can be thankful instead of all the things we don’t have or wish we did?

If you can sit back after Thanksgiving dinner with a full belly and watch some meaningless football game, things could be a whole lot worse – couldn’t they?

Any American over the age of 14 years old yesterday (September 11th 2011) will be unlikely to forget the events of 9/11/01. In fact I am a bit put off by the constant reminder to ‘Never forget’ – as if that would be even remotely possible.

The tragic events of 9/11 will be etched in the memories of Americans as long as we live. I was not quite four years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated November 22, 1963. While I was far too young to truly understand the significance of day I do have memories of my family’s sadness and consider that day to be the first important world event that ever impacted me.

I suspect that as in the case of 9/11, Americans that were around and old enough to understand the events of JFK’s assassination in 1963 can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first learned of the tragic event.

Can two events like 9/11 and the assassination of JFK be compared? Not in the context of more than 3,000 people losing their lives, the impact on their families and the psyche of an entire nation. But I do compare those two events in the context of watershed days in my life that can never be forgotten. As is the case with 9/11, JFK’s assassination in fact did impact the psyche of an entire nation. It could be argued that both events represented a loss of American innocence – in decidedly different ways but no less impactful.

It has to be acknowledged that perhaps the most significant difference in the scope of the two events is the aspect of heroes. First responders to the World Trade Center, people in the Towers, Pentagon, and on flight 93 displayed courage and fortitude that was in fact – heroic. The sheer amount of stories and displays of that courage exhibited during the events of 9/11 far exceed those of the events of 11/22.

It took several years for the classroom history books to ‘cover’ the assassination of JFK as a historical event. In contrast, the coverage (in a historical sense) of 9/11 began almost immediately. Ten years after 9/11 we have some perspective regarding the events that led up to and followed that fateful day. However I wonder how different our perspective will be in another 38 years. As we approach the 48th anniversary (or remembrance) of the events of November 22nd, 1963, how different is the perspective than it was only ten years (1973) after?

Of course we will never forget and it bothers me that anyone could ever suggest that would be possible.

I am off this week which is to say that I won’t be doing the normal office thing. It’s not quite like Bill Gates leaving Microsoft for a couple of weeks as he does annually where he reads and ruminates. But for me a refresh is important (you might want to consider this as well). So I guess it’s a kind of staycation.

I will take some time to check out the new Google+ platform which has generated quite a bit of Buzz (pun totally intended) since it launched last week.

Chris Brogan writes a consistently good blog and has already thrown out some interesting thoughts regarding the new platform. I hope to offer my own take next week. You can read Chris’ thoughts here – http://bit.ly/lxtYO0

Have a great week.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association was officially constituted in 1906 and took its present name in 1910. It was the flying wedge, football’s major offense in 1905 that spurred the formation of the NCAA. In its early years the NCAA was primarily a discussion group and rules oriented group, but in 1921 (source –NCAA.org – http://bit.ly/a63r9M ) the first NCAA championship was held.

In the years since its founding college sports have become a huge money making business. And big money is earned for the universities, for television and radio networks, and for the officials that make up the governing body of the NCAA itself. Current NCAA President Mark A. Emmert (named April 27, 2010), has a base salary of well over $ 500,000 annually. So it follows that the NCAA governing body brass is a well-paid bunch. They do not want to give up power. Sound familiar?

Two weeks ago Auburn quarterback and Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton was ruled eligible to continue playing despite the fact that reportedly his father had been involved in a ‘pay-for-play’ scheme. This was apparently unbeknownst to his son.

USC athletic director Pat Haden told The Los Angeles Times that he was surprised by the NCAA’s ruling on Newton. USC was hit with sanctions this past summer in the wake of the Reggie Bush investigation. (Full disclosure – I am a USC alumni) “In the Reggie Bush case, when the parent [did] something inappropriate the kid and the school suffered,” Haden told The Times.

Bush returned the Heisman Trophy and the school was hit with a postseason ban, scholarship reductions and probation after the NCAA found that Bush and his parents accepted extra benefits from agents and sports marketers when Bush was at USC.

For the record I am not unhappy that Mr. Newton remained eligible to compete. I do feel that the two situations are not at all dissimilar but the response from the NCAA is inequitable.
How is the NCAA like the Chinese Government? For one thing both have a bunch of old-timers who are trying their hardest to hold onto their power when the world around them is changing rapidly. The Chinese government response to Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo’s situation reminded me of how the NCAA handles things. The both handle things heavy-handedly and without equanimity.

And yet I believe that even the Chinese government is changing slowly, (but for the better) at a greater rate than is the NCAA. At least it seems as if the Chinese government is conscious of the world outrage at them disallowing one of their own citizens to go and collect one of the highest honors awarded on the planet.

The NCAA’s refusal to consider ‘pay-for-play’ athletes is evidence that they simply are not in touch with what is going on. Seventeen and eighteen year old athletes like Reggie Bush and Cam Newton help contribute millions of dollars to their universities, their cities, and the NCAA itself. They take a huge risk in doing so from the standpoint that an injury could end their careers and thus their earning potential as an athlete. Offering them a four year education and room and board is not a fair trade.

I say give them a four year education that they can use at any time and ask them to be enrolled in one class at the university for the time that they are participating in an NCAA sport. Pay them a salary – a decent salary. This way when a wealthy alumni comes along and offers to take care of the athlete’s parents by buying them a house they will have reason to resist an irresistible temptation. Think about it. Could you really pass on taking care of your parents if you had the means and opportunity?

To me it’s a sad commentary when the socialist government of China and an organization like the NCAA cannot be seen as being ideologically that far apart. True the NCAA has not gone out and ‘eliminated’ dissenters as the Chinese government has done but somehow I have a belief that things will change in China before they do in the NCAA.

What do you think?