Dreams

So last week, our company did a management retreat for our management team. It was a great way to get together to discuss strategy, generate a discussion of where we can improve, and discuss our 10-year, 5-year, and 1-year plan for the business.

First, we distributed a couple of really good books, which I'd recommend to anybody who leads (in their career or in any organization). The first is "Creating Magic", by Lee Cockrell - it's about his management experience at Disney and the key to providing a magical experience, for customers and employees, and produce great results. The second book is "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter Senge, which is a much more in-depth book about management. Great books.

We were able to go up to Midway (away from the gross inversion here in the valley) to go through some training, have some brainstorming sessions, do some presentations, and even take in a little skiing. But it was a healthy exercise becaue it's so easy to 'stay busy' and get caught up in the daily grind. Sometimes you have to force yourself to step away and make sure you're going where you wanted to go. And this isn't just good to do for work, but in our personal lives.

One exercise that I loved was for us to write down some of our personal 'dreams' that we have - things we want to do some time in our life. The main dream of the president of our company is to try and help as many employees fulfill their dreams. Last year, he sent one of our artists to a painting school in Tuscany, Italy. He also helped one employee go back to Brazil to visit his wife's family. And he bought a Fender guitar for one of the employees. But the purpose wasn't to put down a dream so that we could do it right away, but to learn a little bit more about each of us and also to think big, especially amidst this tough economy (2009 will likely be a very tough year, but that can be an excuse, or a reason to take advantage of a very unique economic environment).

So, during this exercise, somebody brought up this cool blog called "Where the Hell is Matt" about this guy who travels all over the world and videotapes himself doing a funny dance everywhere he goes. It's hilarious - but in a funny way, it's also pretty inspiring. You see this guy visiting some of the most diverse places in the world and getting everybody around him to join in on the fun:


So, one of my dreams is to dance like Matt. Well, not really. But it is to travel to as many countries as I can. I travel quite a bit for work, already (I'm likely going to Spain next week), but I want to travel and enjoy it. See the sights, eat the food, take it in with Jamie.
One country that I'm dying to visit is Israel.
I'd also love to write (and have published) a book somebody.

These are just some dreams you probably didn't know I had. Feel free to share some of your unique dreams in a comment.