I spent the evening with an old friend last night, someone who has been like a second father to me. Rick and Jan took me in as a teenager and were instrumental in shaping who I am today. Rick is a remarkable man, he has four undergraduate degrees, two masters and two PHDs, not all of them are in related fields. Among other things, he is a mechanical engineer; we spent years building things together and talking about life. He just recently retired from full-time work and is now making surfboards in his shop. We spent most of last night discussing how we could make his latest invention for body surfing more effective. It’s a buoy that you wear that provides a small plane or fin to stabilize the ride on a big wave. I’ve attached a picture of bodysurfing at Boomers in La Jolla so you get a sense of the size of the waves; it’s my favorite place to bodysurf, and I’ve spent many summers trying to master this break.
Rick is one of those guys who is always searching for ways to do it better. Even if the current model or design is great, he wants to make it better. Rick instilled this idea in me and it has become a part of how I live my life. Even though things are working just fine, I feel compelled to see if we can make it just a little better. I wanted to share this story with you because I know that sometimes it might feel like I am meddling or never satisfied, which isn’t the case, it’s just that I want to make things better.
Tahzoo’s business model is changing and it’s for the better. We’ve been preaching the need for a better customer experience and the market is finally catching up with us. Our customers are asking for help in creating and delivering experiences. We spent the first few years working on our technical competencies and now we need to ensure we have the same level of expertise on the experience design side. As with all new systems, we will design it and continue to tweak it until it’s perfect. Most important to me is that we don’t have two sides of Tahzoo, but we are one company that helps our clients deliver fantastic customer experiences. We are being engaged for ideas, our strategy, our creativity, and our technology.
I just finished reading the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Biography “The Notorious RBG”. She is an amazing woman, who over time has had a huge impact on all of us. She has been the champion for the right of individuals and the rights of women in our society. As I read her book, there was a clear theme about making consistent, incremental progress towards lasting change. We are going to be making changes and steadily improving the company to take advantage of the market opportunity. There was a quote from RBG, “figure out what you want, then go do the work”. That phase has been sitting with me for the last week and has stirred my thinking considerably. We are going to be recognized as the world leader in Experience Design and Delivery. Now that we know what we want, we just need to go do the work.
Wishing you all a relaxing and joyous holiday season. Looking forward to doing the work to make Tahzoo the best it can be.
Let’s go be great!
Brad