Friday, August 22, 1997 was the day that I became an agent of change in my own life.  I was a successful retailer, running my family’s chain of liquor and convenience stores since my father retired. Back then, my title was the Booze Guy of Borger, Texas. I was CEO of 3 corporations and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary and Country Club.

The first thing that happened on that day was that I was notified that I lost the bid to purchase two mini-truck stops. These stores were critical to my plan to establish a regional rather than local footprint. This was yet another body blow to my initiative to change our business model from “Keeping you in the best of spirits since 1936” to “Powering you into the 21^st Century”.

That evening, I attended Borger High School’s 20^th class reunion. The bartender and I were buddies, so my Weller and waters were very strong.[i] I reconnected with a friend from the past that moved had away. His girlfriend started asking me very pointed questions while the alcohol was acting as a truth serum. She guided me to the realization that I wasn’t happy with my life. I was living my father’s dream, not my own. The solution was to change everything.

First, I put the stores up for sale – a process that took four years. Second, I chose to go back into Information Technology. My knowledge was hopelessly out of date, so I enrolled in classes at the local Junior College. Third, I looked for a change of venue.

After selling the stores, I took an entry level position with Dell Computers in Round Rock, Texas. It was 2001 and the Internet bubble had just burst, so the road was tough. I was competing with 20 year olds that barely remembered life before the Internet and veterans that had to come out of retirement after their portfolios evaporated. It took 10 years to work myself to a position where I consider myself a success at my second career.

Last Christmas, I started pondering the big question of, “Now what?” This blog, the speaches I present and the book I am writing are the beginning steps toward answering that question. We are in a period of tumultuous change and I need to share my experiences to help others survive and grow.

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[i] In a typical small town twist, the bartender’s late son was a member of that High School class.

Almost every aspect of life as we knew it ended in the last decade. A tidal wave of change swept the planet and resistance is futile (even deadly!) You can't swim against this tide.

What is happening now is unprecedented - both in terms of the rate of change and the substance of the changes. Learning to cope with all this change requires a perspective that is not chained to things taught in a university graduate program or learned in a stint of government service. I think most of conventional science and analysis is fixated on increasingly obsolete (or flawed) models of reality.  Most experts will never be able to change their minds fast enough to effectively anticipate and offer reasonable suggestions of how to deal with what I believe is a rapid evolutionary jump in our species.

The convergence and coincidence of driving forces suggest that the conventional change that is growing all around us is at least in part derived from unconventional dynamics. The unusual things that are being reported point to the conclusion that has planet entered into a period of absolutely unprecedented change. We must embrace both the physical and the metaphysical if we wish to survive.

I gather and report information along 2 paths:

1.       Really bad news about how the present system is rapidly coming apart. We could spend time assigning blame (oh, there is a lot of blame to go around) or we can

2.       Explore the rather unconventional proposals for dealing with the situation because the “bad stuff” is outside our control.

The new game is not being played on the old field.

The Change Agent is here to teach you to about ADAPTATION! That means acquiring adaptation skills:

- Setting up early warning signals that detect coming change   Oops, too late for that!

- Understanding what particular changes mean for YOU.

- Prepare for them by altering your behavior and putting new processes in place while there is still time.

- This adds to your flexibility which makes you adaptable.  Adaptability is the new wealth!

I will teach you how to TRANSFORM in the right way! I align myself with VISIONARIES that spend most of their time thinking about the future and the trials that will get us there. Don’t get swept away by the tsunami!