Moments — two times two wheels...

It was a wonderful morning to ride — the sun was out, the wind was down, and the country air filled the lungs; it was one of those moments when someone says, "It's a great day to be alive". 

But no one did.

What someone did say was they'd just got the tags for their motorcycle and were ready to ride. Akin to the shame that must come when you know you have a red headed stepchild locked in the attic, I finally said I would order my tags right away.

You see, I have another two wheels just sitting quietly, more than a little neglected, and patiently waiting — my Yamaha FZ-09 is covered from the elements and if truth be told, symbolically covers my guilt. She was built for the open road and hasn't seen it for two years. If this isn't shameful, than at the very least it's rude.

With my ride behind me, it didn't take long before I found myself standing quietly with a motorcycle battery in one hand and a key in the other — with some trepidation I removed the cover to behold the same beauty I remember. With the battery installed, and with little hesitation, she started up right away; the "seductive purr" of my bike recognized instantaneously like the whispers of a lost lover. My neglectful ways were forgiven and the only stipulation for complete absolution was the open road. She will be tagged in a week.

I don't have the heart to tell either of them that my Gary Fisher in the basement is going to see the trails this year. And sadly, "three times two wheels" is just a little too many so one of them is going to drawn the short straw.

I like to spread the neglect around — after all, it's the fair thing to do.

iamgpe

Originally it was not my plan to post this...

This will be my fifth time riding in the Ride To Conquer Cancer and this year my plan was to self-fund the required donations — then enjoy the two day ride for a good cause without really bothering anyone. That was until I happened to read a sign and remembered something very important about having a voice.

As a result, I sent out my traditional "please donate to my cause" email (and I suppose decided to write this post).

Below is the email I sent —

"This year will be my fifth year riding in the Ride to Conquer Cancer for the Princess Margaret Hospital and I was going to self-fund my efforts this year... that was until I saw something recently and felt it was important to share.

It was a sign that simply said,

                "Cancer picks a fight with someone every three minutes”

Cancer is a funny thing — it does not care about gender, nationality, race, religion, occupation, social status, age, wealth, or anything else that we believe makes us special; for cancer, it’ll pick a fight with anyone. I thought it was important to share this and remind everyone that we are all in this fight together.

Like my last four rides, I will ride my heart out for those who can’t and raise money to defeat cancer in our lifetime. Please consider donating by “clicking” on this link

Please forward this email and remind everyone we are all in this together.

I promise to ride my heart out,"

It really was the statistic that cancer strikes every three minutes that was a shocking reminder this is not something to keep to myself — it needed to be shared. This also was a simple reminder that nothing ever changes when you keep it to yourself, and that it's important to add your voice to the conversation. I know you are bombarded with messages and requests constantly, and if you are able to donate to my ride it's greatly appreciated, and if not, that's ok too.

What is important to remember is a voice is always needed to make things happen, and it is important to be part of the conversation — if only to really listen and say, "Not today".

Without that voice, and that conversation, nothing will ever change... and as you know, cancer picks a fight with someone every three minutes.

iamgpe

Our pathways are complicated...

This is not something that is very unique as we all have histories we can look back on with fond memories — although, I will be bold to say mine are somewhat specialized. I suspect there are only a few people who have a Biochemica mug in their kitchen cabinet.

A very long time ago I worked for a company called Boehringer Mannheim and it was with this company that I began my career in earnest — it's now a division of Roche, but at the time it was a privately held company that sold big blood analyzers, small diagnostic units for analyzing blood sugar, and had this small group that sold biochemicals into the fledgling Biotechnology marketplace. 

You needed restriction enzymes to cut deoxyribonuclease (DNA) we had them; needed to put the DNA back together with T4 DNA ligase, we had that too; needed Tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane, we had it by the kilogram; and yes, we also had gentle proteases to separate your cells. We had it all, high quality products for those researchers who needed them and who were willing to pay our "high quality, high value" prices. Research Biochemicals were not something that came up in regular conversation and we liked it that way because we were a little unique for it. There were four of us, and with the help of our marketing manager, we ran around Canadian universities and fledgling biotech companies selling what we offered — never discounting because our pricing reflected the quality of our products like I said.

We were a premium player after all!

In hindsight, we really had little real idea what we were doing but did it with great flair, enthusiasm, and delivered profits that engaged the support of leadership — we jumped on any and all ideas to sell and we didn't seem to be afraid of anything (which is a big tool in the tool kit when you are young). No one really knew what to do with the five of us but it did seem they were all right with it.

A component of our value proposition was information, and in one instance this information manifested itself in the form of a 4' x 3' Biochemical Pathway Chart — biology is very complicated after all, and we had to get it all down on paper to prove it. The mug in my kitchen cabinet was just another manifestation of our value proposition... get a mug, then get a super sized chart, and then pay list price for high quality biochemicals to help your research along.

Like all things, when success comes your way things change, more people get involved, and new opportunities present themselves — this golden age of my career gave me some solid foundations to build on over the years:

• High quality does matter and people will pay for it — it's not the easiest sell but value pricing will take you further in the long run.
• You can do amazing things when you don't know any better.
• Sales is a satisfying and challenging profession with transferable skills that can't be learned anywhere else — and if you are in sales, always remember to "ssffs".
• If you are going to get into something, try to get into something that's in the early stages because there is lots of runway for growth.
• Layers get in the way of speedy communication and decision-making.
• Being very profitable gets you a lot of consideration.
• It's only in hindsight that you realize how lucky you were.

I hope whoever recognizes this mug is doing well (and everyone else for that matter).

iamgpe