Success.

So, today started off with a trek to the Palo Alto campus. We had a flare up between management about the 3 guys who drive down from Palo Alto daily to pick up a drill bit or an end mill. They have a mini tool crib that is no longer manned. And they scavenge what they can from it. So, my manager from Denver is here and he, I and my direct supervisor made the trek at 6:30am. I knew the guys who worked in there because like I said, I see them on a daily basis. We spent 5 minutes looking at stuff. That was all I needed. They had marked the drawers with the tools numbers and the numbers I saw were the most basic essentials and easily recognizable. I didn't even have to write anything down. I just said we can support them. So, we made our way back to the Sunnyvale campus.

I had a Joe G. staff meeting at 10am in my mom's building. Joe G is the director of Operations. He is one of the few men I idolize. I was contributing to a SOLAR presentation. I got there a little early and spoke with Frank Rocha. Frank is quite infamous. He is just one of those guys you would just have to meet to understand. I also consider him my mentor. When he saw me, he immediately asked if I was doing the presentation and not Anthony. Anthony was nominated as our charman in an instant when he joined our SOAR program. The only reason I refused to be nominated was because technically I did not belong to their department. Even though he has been in and out on medical leave and I have filled in as temporary leader, I do not think it is ethical to have a chairman of a committee who is not in the department that the committee represents. Anyway, Anthony is very infamous as well. This guy probably weighs over 500 pounds easily and is well over 6 foot. You do not want to get on his bad side. And Anthony has no speaking skills what so ever. I don't mean to sound extremely negative, but he puts himself to sleep when he is speaking. I told Frank that Anthony had come to me the previous day and had asked me to do the presentation because he was losing his voice. Of course I obliged. This made Frank verrry happy. Just then Mr. Rob Sackett walked up and shook my hand. He is the Senior Manager who works right under Joe G. We had some small talk regarding SOLAR and then Anthony came walking up. Anthony wanted to tell me that his voice was better and that we should split the presentation up. Sounded good to me, teamwork always is better. So we file into the big conference room and get settled. I sit along the wall up front. Joe G walked in and began to organize his papers by me. He looked up and and said, Good morning Nick.' This is significant. Not because he is a director and he remembers my name. But because he is not my director and he remembered my name. I do not believe my own director knows my name. That fired me up. I was already in an extreme state of mind. This just pushed it up a notch. When I deliver a speech or a presentation like this, I psych myself out. I hit the ground running and I hit it hard. Very hard. It grabs people's attention and garners respect almost instantly. And when you can dominate the floor as aggressively as I do, people don't want to mess with you. Before we presented, my very own mother was presenting her new web tool. Basically, when people need to move from one office to another, they have to make a bunch of phone calls and send lots of emails to coordinate the moving of their computer, phone and furniture. My mom's new tool rolls everything into a website with a form. So, it simplifies it. She received a huge applause from everybody. I was soooo damn proud, you'll never know. Then it was my turn. Game time. As I stood up and strolled to the center, I gave the room a very loud GOOD MORNING. This wakes people up and if you say it right they say it back and now you know you have their attention. They said it right back. The first thing I asked was how many people have actually done the safety program. Most of the hands in the room went up. This got me excited. So, I did my thing, turned it over to Anthony to digest our data charts and then picked it back up for the conclusion. Which was, our participation is up and our accidents are down. It's working people, keep it up. I received a few good questions from managers seeking the web tool that I showed, which showed me they were serious about using it as a tool. This pleased me very much. I received not one, but two standing ovations. One just for the presentation and one for the results that our safety program yielded. Afterwards I had just about everybody approach me it seems and ask me where I learned to present like that, what school I was attending, what my position was, etc. And honestly, I didn't even break a sweat. I could do that all day. It's when I am sparring with thickheaded VP's and executives that I am challenged. This presentation was a cakewalk. Like herding sheep. Doing things like that make me high. When I feel that level of success, it puts me in euphoria. Hearing people telling me that I am going places and that was a knock out job just reminds me what I am capable of doing. And all I did was go up there and look at a slide and spill my guts out. It's too easy. It's fun. I just hope that I am given more opportunities in the future and more often to be able to do stuff like this. It gives me a feeling of a tiger escaping its cage and going on a rampage...that's how it feels. And the bottom line is simple, no one is getting hurt. And that's what matters.