What a Week

Last week was quite the week on all fronts of life.

Gaining Knowledge
I returned back from San Francisco having attended my third conference out of four as part of my 2 year business professional program. I am in the Business Professional's Course offered by the Aji Network (http://www.theajinetwork.com/) and to say it has changed my life would be an understatement. The course offers uncommon knowledge that helps one observe, learn, coordinate action, build networks and make offers that are much more powerful in the marketplace. As I speculated would occur, the third conference offered many "aha" moments as it highlighted how our biology is the driving force behind everything we do so taking time to learn how biology works is worth the effort. Check out the book, Tree of Knowledge by Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela to learn more.

Energy/SmartGrid News
I spent the early part of the week reading blogs from the GridWeek conference that was held in Washington DC, Sept 22-24. I found Erich Gunther's daily blogs at http://www.smartgridnews.com/ entertaining as he gave his personal insights on both the convention speakers and outside the convention wall activities (a guy who likes a good cocktail, my kind of guy). Check out the GridWeek website for presentations, quite a bit of valuable information made available for free! http://gridweek.com/2008/default.asp#home

Career Update
Diligence and follow-up is beginning to pay-off. I continue discussions with various companies and last week met with a CEO from Ireland. Even though there is a great amount of fear in the marketplace, that very fear creates opportunities for companies and professionals who read the world and are prepared. I enjoy listening to executives discuss how their company is riding the roller coaster and what strategies they are considering to address the marketplace drift of today and tomorrow. I continue to refine my offers and narratives based on these conversations and excited about the opportunity I have to help drive profitability, support growth, and make a positive impact in the marketplace.

Business Development
The LightThread crew met last week and we are getting closer to finalizing our strategy. The possibilites that exist are exciting to say the least, we are already having clients engage us and we haven't even launched our website yet! We are taking our time with the strategy and testing ourselves time and time again to make sure we have a clear differentiator that will not only give us a strong launching point but will sustain us over the long term.

Family Front
Another incredibly busy week of fall sports....Zachary won his first high school soccer team (Go Jags!) and Samantha played in her first 12U comp fastpitch tourney this weekend and won third place (Go Elite!). Jackie continues his undefeated season as the head coach of the freshman team (Go Wildcats!). As excited as I am about my professional opportunities, the family is the reason I am on this journey in the first place. My ambition first and foremost is to provide a good life for my family. Our life may be a chaotic one but it is full of love, passion and energy and I wouldn't trade my family for anything in the world.

Whew! I guess my blog title hit it on the head...what a week it was. Until next time....enjoy the fall weather, root for your favorite football team (Go MU Tigers), watch the presidential debate, and pick a world series team to cheer on through the playoffs (Go Cubs...Oh wait, they tanked...i guess I'll pick the RedSox for my friends Victor and the Wise's).

Be who you are and learn to be better,
Lisa