Lean For Everyone

Lean Biotech - Using Lean Methods in the Biobanking Industry

The use of Lean in Biobanking and Prospective Procurement

I was recently interviewed by Andrea Charles at Pharma IQ about the current trends in biobanking and the future of biorepositories.

For those unfamiliar with my background I've had over 10 years as a supplier in the biobanking industry with an additional 6 years as a customer/user of biomaterials.

 

If you're interested in lean and the future of the biobanking industry then please give a listen.  We talk about:

• Current trends by biotech and pharmaceutical companies
• Why it's critical to use lean in biobanking
• What are the typical bottlenecks of implementation
• What's a minimum clinical data set
• 10 yr - 20 yr vision on biobanking

 

FoundationBio is a new supplier that listens to its customers

There is a new startup company called FoundationBio whose CEO (Leif Honda) is currently adopting Lean principles to propel his company to becoming the preferred supplier of biomaterials for biotech and phama companies.

His vision is a move towards prospective procurement which allows the VOC (Voice of the Customer) to pull the order thus allowing value to flow and eliminating the wasteful practice of banking excessive inventory.

 

My favorite quote:  "A biobanks only value is given to it by its customers"

 

Keeping Things Simple Will Increase Conversion Rates - OfficeMax Knows.

The path of least resistance is paved with customers

When I opened my new color ink cartridge I was pleasantly surprised.

Inside the box was a self sealing, prepaid envelope for me to send my old cartridge in for recycling.

Within 3 minutes of installing my new cartridge the old one was in the mailbox to be picked up.

 

 

A prepaid pre-addressed envelope will:

• Eliminate mistakes in shipping addresses
• Eliminate the knowledge needed as to "How to package for return?"
• Eliminate my need for having to store supplies needed to return the cartridge
• Eliminate me having to guess or calculate exact postage
• Make me recycle something I would normally toss in the trash

 

How do I know all this.

When I replaced the other ink cartridge (black) , the only thing in the box was a small card saying if I wanted to recycle at my expense to send it to the address on the card. 

I threw the old cartridge in the trash because I didn't want to expend the effort involved in sending it back.

NOTE: I do recycle on a weekly basis...but not this time.  The cost didn't seem to warrant it.  

 

Hassle free is what customers want.

• Map your process and minimize the workload you ask your customers to do
• Use KISS principles (keep it short and simple) to streamline the flow
• Watch your customer base grow

 

On a final note -  I did recycle the box and the little instruction card for both cartridges.  I'm not a complete ogre.

 

VOC - It's not Congress's fault.....it's Congress's fault

Remember to keep your focus on your customer

 

I’m not a big fan of politics in my blog but I do want to put my 2 cents in about the government budget.

 

Whose at fault?

It’s not the Democrats fault or the Republicans fault…it’s Congress’s fault.

 

My Reasoning-

I went to Chase bank the other day with an issue and the person helping me was very polite however she also made sure to let me know that her branch didn’t make a mistake…it was corporate that made the error.

What she failed to realize is that from a customer perspective (mine) they are both part of the same company. So what I heard her say was…."It’s not Chase’s fault…it’s Chase’s fault."

When the political parties argue about who’s to blame for the budget…all I hear is “It’s not Congress’s fault…it’s Congress’s fault.”

 

For me…I just want them to do their job…after all…I’m the customer.

LFE Podcast #5 Matt Aguilar - Continuous Improvement in Telecoms and Utilities

An Overview of Continuous Improvement at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in Southern California.

This podcast was done in conjunction with the PEX (Process Excellence Network), a division of IQPC and the Business Process Excellence for Telecoms & Utilities which will be taking place June 27- 29, 2011.

 
I'm talking today with Matt Aguilar, a process and efficiency expert who works in the telecoms and utilities sector here in the US.

Matt is the Senior Business Process Improvement Manager at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station AKA (SONGS) here in Southern California where he works to help them achieve Regulatory, Industry and Financial Excellence.

 

Matt's CV and experience is very impressive!

With 18 years in the business, his experience ranges from Telecommunications and Nuclear Power all the way to Biotech and  Health Care.(Genentech, Motorola, Petco just to name a few)

Matt is also a member of the Project Management Institute, the American Society for Quality and the Association of Manufacturing Excellence, in addition he’s a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and holds a BA in Organizational Leadership.

 

We talk about:

• How continuous improvement (CI) fits into the SONGS facility.
• The common lean six sigma tools that they use.
• How they go about problem solving in such a procedure driven environment.
• The vision for the future of CI at SONGS.

Prior to this podcast Matt and I had a very nice conversation about biotech, health care and several non-OPEX topics.  He's very pleasant, easy to speak with and extremely knowledgeable.

 

If you want to contact Matt I highly recommend going to his Linkedin profile and connecting with him immediately before you leave this page.

You can hear more from Matt Aguilar and other experts at the Business Process Excellence for Telecoms & Utilities which will be taking place June 27- 29, 2011 at the InterContinental in Miami, Florida. For additional details about the event please visit www.bpetelcoandutilities.com or call the IQPC enquiries team at 1-800-882-8684 you can also email them directly at info@iqpc.com. 

Continuous Improvement needs fuel so go out and find a group and share

When you want to be better at something the fastest way is to learn from others.

Join a group and share your experiences -

I share my lean experiences with other CI experts at the Michigan Lean Consortium but am also a member of the Michigan Twisters Group. 

 

I just got back from the Michigan Twisters Group meeting where I go to meet others that share my love of balloon twisting.

While I was there I met Scott Bevis who was new to the group...he's been twisting balloons in Clarkston, MI for a couple of years but didn't know anyone else in the business.

He practices, learns from the internet, reads about balloon animals and has some impressive skills but didn't have anyone to share with.

He had a question about busking at restaurants.  Sitting at my table was Steve Ferguson (he did the small flowers in the pic)  who has done a lot of restaurant work and gave Scott all the information he was looking for.

We also shared best practices on how we set up our bags of balloons, work a line of kids and what does and doesn't work at parties.  We even chatted about pricing and contracts.

 

I also learned something new about twisting.

I was talking with fellow twister Carolynn Hayman at POP! Designs and Creations who showed me something called X-weave which she used to create the big flower above.  This new weave technique is going to take my ballooning in a whole new direction.

 

We come from different backgrounds which is what makes our experiences more valuable to each other.   Together we make a Smart Swarm with a fantastic Cognitive Surplus to share.

 

 

Conducting a Lean Assessment with Debra Levantrosser Setman and the Michigan Lean Consortium

The MLC is a great resource for learning with a fun mix of attendees and information sharing.

We had old members and first timers from a variety of industries.

It was about 30% consultants this time (which is understandable considering the topic) and the rest were a mix of Banking, Manufacturing, Healthcare, IT, Financial planning and even an ex NUMMI person.

I personally was delighted to see Bonnie R. Fahoome from The More Program who came out to see how the MLC can help Michigan's entrepreneurs.

 

Debra gave an nice overview of how to conduct an assessment and shared documents on how to perform them.

The documents were very helpful to anyone who has never done a lean assessment.  It broke down the grading system to 4 levels.  I've listed them below however the documents are comprehensive and proprietary so I can't post them :(

• 0  -I think you can guess what Zero means-
• 1  Stability
• 2  Flow
• 3  Pull
• 4  Integration

Probably one of the best reasons to join the MLC is to get access to this type info.

Most interesting to me is that during a lean assessment the use of tools rarely even comes up.  This makes perfect sense since lean culture or the desire for change is the real indicator for long term success.

Several of the consultants also shared documents and examples that they have used in the past.  Murray Sittsamer from The Luminous Group brought some nice examples from his workshops and assessments that allowed us to compare and contrast to Debra's.

We had some lively discussion (no yelling just lively) but the best part was that there were people from so many different backgrounds everyone had something to bring to the table.  We didn't all agree on some items...but you still had some great takeaways.

 

Jon Wetzel (That's me) presented how to use lean outside of the work to improve the rest of your life as well.

• Using lean all day devotes more time to learning its concepts.
• An hour gained in your home life….is yours to keep!
• Lean can be implemented faster at home because you have 100% leadership “buy in”.
• As people feel these successes at home they will become lean champions for the work place.

What better way to learn lean than by teaching people how to use its tools and methods to save time doing the laundry, simplify cutting the lawn or even losing excess weight.

This gets people excited about lean and gives them the opportunity to practice it all day long.  That's 8 hours at work and 8 hours at home ( and hopefully 8 hours sleep).

 

At the end of every MLC training event we do a "What worked?  What didn't?  and What do you want?

Everyone participates, there's immediate feedback and notes taken for changes to make.  The MLC  learns how to have a better event for next time...they practice what they preach!

 

Lean Book Review - "Eat People" and Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs by Andy Kessler

This book is for innovators and entrepreneurs...if you're looking for "how to improve my process using lean tools...." this is NOT your book.

 

 

 

 

 According to the author this is not your generic: do what you love, share ideas, prioritize, be proactive business help book.

Andy's right on the mark when he describes his book.  Within these pages is a very straightforward listing of how to identify future opportunities that produce true wealth.

It's not a sugar coated business book where everyone is going "strive to do our best"...it's bare bones and in your face.  Maybe that's what I love most about it.

 

It's not a "get rich quick" book.

The book outlines 12 rules with a bonus rule for identifying areas that are waiting for new technologies to make things easier.

Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Intel fit within these rules and all of them are job killers.  Andy also explains why this is a good thing and I agree with him.

 

Andy Kesslers 12 rules + a bonus rule

1. If it doesn't scale, it will get stale
2. Waste what's abundant to make up for what's scarce
3. When in doubt get horizontal
4. Intelligence moves out to the edge of the network
5. Wealth comes from productivity; Everything else is gravy
6. Adapt to humans; Don't make them adapt to you
7. Be Soylent - Eat People
8. Markets make better decisions than managers
9. Embrace exceptionalism
10. Be a market entrepreneur and attack political entrepreneurs
11. Use zero marginal cost to create a flood
12. Create your own scarcity with a virtual pipe
13. BONUS Rule: Money sloshes to the highest returns

I'm not going to explain every rule...that's why you are going to need to read the book.

 

In rule #7 "Be Soylent - Eat People", Andy creatively classifies the entire human population into several groups and subgroups.

Creators, Servers, Sloppers, Sponges, Slackers, Thieves, Slimers and a few others.

While the first time I read this chapter I was surprised as to the offending titles he used to lump individuals together I must say he made some very good insights. 

"..the road to wealth passes through the graveyard of today's jobs"

• Microsoft Word replaced secretaries
• Oracle replaced in house accountants
• Google replaced the librarian
• BlackBerry replaced mail carriers
• Digital cameras killed Kodak film developers
• "It's only been in the last 10 yrs we've gotten rid of operators, tellers, travel agents and stockbrokers and replaced them with a flat-panel screen and a mouse connected to the internet."

"...the real task is to figure out which jobs going forward need to be eaten.  That's where you find the opportunity for upside and wealth."

POINT - get rid of humans and you have probably found a rich vein of productivity.

"If that means over a generation replacing low- skill jobs with higher-skilled careers developing more productive tools, then you are creating wealth for the entire economy."

 

While Andy can sound a little arrogant at times he's giving us some very valuable information.  I'm glad I picked up this book and will happily recommend it others.

 

 

Notes I want to remember:

Real success comes from hiding the technology from users.  Can you say iPhone!

How do you find something that scales:  Find something where the price goes down and the demand goes up.  Simple question.  If this were cheaper next year...would I buy more

a product is no sooner created than it, from that instant, affords a market for other products to the full extent of its own value...the shoemaker when he exchanges his shoes for bread has an effective demand for bread.  Knowing bread exists means the shoemaker busts his hump to make shoes to be able to afford the bread.

Money is just a placeholder of value

The only real wealth is wealth that is created through productivity.

Effectiveness is how outputs compare with what was planned or desired - doing the right things, while efficiency is the ratio of the amount of actual outputs to actual inputs - doing things right.

Productivity is really just doing the right things while doing them right.

Wealth gravitates to those that find it first or, better yet, make it happen.

Efficiency  is about getting the cost to drop again, by 10% or 15%,...not the 90% or 99% that costs have already dropped to induce scale and generations of wealth.  When efficiency takes over you are at the very end of this cycle.

The trick is to identify those who stand in the way of increased output.

Politics is the art of achieving power and prestige without merit.

If organic food uses fewer chemicals it should cost less but it actually costs more.

Sponges will try to limit the supply of workers to decrease competition and most likely increase prices and pay above and beyond their true economic value.  Ex. bogus licensing requirements...want to cut hair...better pass the beautician exam and get a beautician license.  Stockbrokers need to pass a Series 7..oddly real people like you and me don't need the same license to make trades on E-trade.

Markets are all about price discovery.  Shares are traded back and forth, bumping up and down until they settle at the right price, whatever the right price really means.  More subjective than objective.

Corporations have no legal way of testing just how smart you are, so they rely on colleges and universities to do their screening for them.

If it can be had for free, it will be had for free or close to free. ...if someone can copy your stuff, they will, so you might as well be the one to do the copying.  If it can be digitized, it can be given away.  Like it or not, piracy rules.  Courts have huge marginal costs and can't compete with zero marginal cost pirates....Like it or not the Web is and will remain the Wild West.

Media is about control of a pipe  Ex World of Warcraft, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Profits are just the difference between the value of a good or maybe service from the people who produced it, and the value to their customers.  So it reflects the degree a business understands the real needs of their customers.

Lean Book Review - Toyota Under Fire by Jeffrey K. Liker and Timothy N. Ogden

I was so captivated by the book I almost forgot to take notes for the review :)

Overview:

I know it sounds silly but I found myself having read 50 pages and never jotting down a single item.  I literally lost myself in this book.

The first 60 pages discuss how Toyota's culture and operations allowed it ride out out the recession and become stronger for it.

The remainder covers the issue of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) and the Toyota recalls that followed.

 

It reads like an episode of Law & Order.  I loved it.

Read this book if you want to know the true facts about the recall and why the culture of problem solving at Toyota unintentionally caused so much angst in Americans

It also covers how Toyota is changing they way they listen to customers by also understanding their worries and concerns.

The last few pages covers "Lessons" from the crisis.  The book is worth reading just for these few pages of wisdom.

 

The book is a fascinating compilation of data and facts that obliterates all the fallacy and myth about the recall.

After reading the book I Googled (Saylor sudden acceleration) and it's amazing the number of articles that contain so much false or misleading information about what was really happening at the time.

Just as Liker and Ogden say, some of the news pieces written appear to be based on innuendo, opinion and in some cases pure fiction.  There was very little fact finding or discovery going on by the media.  They just seemed to report everything that someone else said.

 

"Who dunnit?"  It was an improperly secured floor mat but public opinion didn't want to believe it and some still don't.

I wrote the next 2 segments in the hopes that people browsing the web for the real cause of the accident will find this and give themselves some closure.  The book covers the below excerpt in about 6 pages but I wanted everyone to pay special attention to it so I gave it a louder voice in this review.

A few days before the Saylor family climbed into a dealer loaner and crashed,  another person named Frank Bernard using the exact same vehicle had an almost identical experience.

Frank Bernard was using the same car a few days before the Saylors and had the accelerator pedal stick causing him to speed to between 80 - 85 mph.  He used the brake to get down to about 25-30 mph and shift into neutral on the side of the road.  He turned off the car, got out and removed the floor mat and went about his day.

Upon returning to the dealership he informed the receptionist what happened.  Bernard assumed that the receptionist would pass the info along....the receptionist thought that Bernard would tell the service technician.  Three days later Mark Saylor and his family would get the car as a loaner and die in a crash.

The above is a truncated version from the book however I did my own fact checking by reading the San Diego County Sheriff's Report of the Saylor's accident (the link was provided by Liker and Ogden in the footnotes)

 

The report is 29 pages so I've summarized the main points with the page numbers so you can read for yourself.

• The floor mat is indicated as being a possible cause ( p 14 - 15)
• How floor mats are stored and installed at Bob Baker Dealership (p 16 - 18)
• Recreation of pedal sticking (p 19 - 20)
• Frank Bernards story and the story from the receptionist (p 21 -23)

 

By the time I was done reading all of "Toyota Under Fire" I was asking myself 2 questions.

1. Why does American culture desire conspiracy fueled by speculation as opposed to searching for facts?
2. How can I get a job at Toyota?

 

My favorite piece is a personal one.

"Akio Toyoda often cites Jim Collins's book "How the Mighty Fall" to remind listeners that Toyota is not immune from mistakes and problems....That fourth stage is where Toyota's actions diverge from Collins's model.  Those are the actions of a company that does not have, or does not have faith in, a strong culture.  Toyota did not do any of these things.  What Toyota has done is follow the recipe that Collins advocates: old-fashioned management virtues such as determination, discipline, calmness under pressure, and strategic decision making based on careful sifting of the evidence."  Toyota followed the Toyota Way!

I mentioned something similar in a post last summer when reviewing "How The Mighty Fall" in relation to lean companies.  It's nice to know that Akio and I have similar thoughts on the matter. :)

 

In summary: Feb 8, 2011 Feds find no electronic cause for sudden acceleration".  If you read Toyota Under Fire your not surprised.

For other reviews and information about the book  goto www.toyotaunderfire.com or visit the Toyota Under Fire facbook page.

Items I don't want to forget:

"no one thinks of great actors like Sean Penn or Meryl Streep as drones or cogs.  But they can't bring their creativity and insight to a role until they've memorized the script.  Standardized work is like an actors script."

"People are not the biggest bucket of variable cost at the company, they are the largest bucket of appreciating assets"

Ding Kings!

""We modified our tool and payment schedule, so that our payments for tooling were earlier and better aligned with their actual expenditures for their tool shops".  In other words, Toyota started paying suppliers sooner.  The normal response of companies that are trying to restore profitability is to delay payments to suppliers."

"Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve"

"... Toyota weathers the Great Recession by simply doing more of what it had been doing before the recession - living the Toyota Way."

LFE Podcast #4 Ankit Patel - Implementing Lean Healthcare at the Cleveland Clinic

Checklists, Standard Work and "Aha" moments in Lean Healthcare

I'm talking today with Ankit Patel, an expert in Lean and Six Sigma implementation and the founder of "The Lean Way Consulting"

Ankit Patel is a leader with a very unique skill set.

Ankit's background is in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and has worked as an industrial engineer at Delta Airlines and Dell Inc.  While at Dell he worked in the Lean Six Sigma group becoming the internal Lean consultant for a multi-billion dollar manufacturing/re-manufacturing center leading the strategy and the implementation of the strategy.

Ankit is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and has a bit of an entrepreneurial streak having had multiple businesses from a tax preparation service to an online computer education company and most recently his Lean/Six sigma consulting company (www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com). 

He has worked with a multitude of industries and clients with The Lean Way Consulting including manufacturing, IT recruiting firm, medical clinics, and hospital systems and at all levels from CEO's to front line employees.  His approach is results oriented and team based to get long lasting results.

 In this podcast we talk about:

• The similarities and differences between implementing Lean in Healthcare and Manufacturing
• Using video replay as a learning tool with hospital staff.
• Some of the success stories at the Cleveland Clinic and some of their "Aha" moments.
• Most importantly he gives us advice on anyone getting ready to implement Lean in Healthcare.

 

Two of the books he recommends are:

• Shingo Prize Winning "Lean Hospitals " by fellow blogger and author Mark Graban at Lean Blog
• "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande

 

Listen to the audio to learn more about Lean Healthcare at the Cleveland Clinic with Ankit Patel!

Blog Post #100 - 25 + Things you probably didn't know about Me

Blog Post #100 of LFE.  Now you get to learn about the author.  Everything I typed below is true and I meant every word of it.

1.       I was a self-proclaimed bachelor until my nephew Benjamin was born…he was so cute that it melted my heart and changed my mind. (Everyone else always knew I was going to get married and be a dad, I didn’t get the memo)

2.       I’m not a fan of swimming in the ocean.  I believe that I should be the dominant predator in my habitat which is why I love Michigan - lakes that look like oceans.

3.       I’m a huge fan of old black and white movies.  In the college dorms some people thought I actually owned a B&W television since it was always tuned to AMC.  At he age of 21 I was the oldest student on the floor and they called me "Grandpa".  I felt like I was in Logan's Run.

4.       I used to twist balloon animals at bars for free drinks.  Now I twist them because I love to create and challenge myself.  It’s also the only artistic talent I’ve got so I’m going to show it off as much as possible.

5.       I believe in servant leadership and that I’m coaching and training everyone for their next job.

6.       The day my Grandma passed away was one of the saddest experiences in my life.  As I type I’m tearing up just thinking about it.

7.       The happiest moment in my life is a tie between realizing that I found the love of my life K. or the birth of my daughter D.

8.       While I was taught to be skeptical about things in life I try to continually be the optimist.  I would rather lead a happy life with some disappointments than wonder when things are going to go wrong.  When I was six Santa brought me an air hockey game for Christmas.  It was months before I could truly enjoy it because I thought he made a mistake and was going to repo it.  There was no way I was that good that year.

9.    I don't call my friends often enough and tell them how much they mean to me.  I just hope they know.  I do lurk around their FB profiles and sometimes I convince myself that I've spoken with them recently.  I would consider myself a stalker except that I've been to all their weddings...and yes I was invited.

 
10.   I really have great parents, everyone says it, I say it, it’s true.  I hope that I can make them proud by taking the best that is them and adding it to myself.  NOTE:  I married an almagamation of my mom and my grandmother which gets us back to Fact 7

11.   In my 2^nd year of college I decided that I was going to enlist in the marines and change my name to Trenton Hardcore Fury.  My mom cried so I didn’t do it.

12.   My moms tears are my kryptonite.  I will change my mind 180 degrees if she sheds a tear.  It’s true..my wife knows it and now so do you.

13.   I love my dog Otis.  I mean I really really love him.  Growing up I couldn’t have a dog because my sister was “supposedly allergic”.  When she went to college I asked if we could get one…mom said that my sister would come home sometimes so no.  I asked “Does she have to come back?”  Otis was worth the wait.  NOTE:  My sister got married, moved to Arizona and got a dog…allergic my ass!

14.    I made a Halloween costume for a company party that consisted of a brown furry felt pull over (I looked like a caveman) with a matching mask and yellow puff balls glued haphazardly on it (see pic on left).  If someone asked what I was I would tell them that the yellow was actually corn….think about it…I’m brown with corn…..  They created a new costume category on the spot called most disgusting and I won $50.00.  My sister-in-law sold the costume for $1.00 at a garage sale 5 years later.

15.   I like to fly but I have to pee 6 times before boarding the plane.  I like to think my subconcious wants to reduce the planes weight as much as possible to ensure a safe takeoff.

16.    Pretzels and orange juice are still my comfort food.  When I was little we would have family gatherings and my mom didn’t want everyone giving me junk food so she pinned a note to me that said people could feed me “Pretzels and OJ”.  I've been hooked ever since.              

                                                                                                         
17.   I've been to Disney between Christams and New Years (twice) and would rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon than go back during that time.  If you're a polite male with no kids, you give your seat to every woman and child around.  You stand on the bus, you stand while you eat, you stand in line...you might get to sit when you go to the bathroom but that's it.  I was popping painkillers every night and stretching the arches of my feet every morning.

 
18.   I’m a B movie fan.  I love terrible movies…especially horror and sci-fi (not syfy).  Back when I was single I would rent 7 movies and watch them back to back and then try and remember the plot lines.  I would eventually create my own movie in my head not remembering most of the real plots.

19.   My friend Joe held me by my legs while I leaned into a liquid nitrogen vapor phase freezer and scooped out rat brain tissue wrapped in aluminum foil with the strainer from an old “FryDaddy”.  I remembered not to breath the -150 vapor but forgot that my eyes were composed mostly of liquid.  I blew the capillaries in my eyes and they were bloodshot for several days.  This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.  Hopefully I will never top this

.
20.   I got a lock picking kit for my birthday from my nephews one year.  I’m very good however this makes some people nervous.  These same people ask for my help when they are locked out of their office or homes.  NOTE:  Never mention this during the job interview….BTW: I still got the job.

21.   The greatest honor ever bestowed upon me was by the staff at Asterand.  I had been working many hours on a huge project and in appreciation for this, one of the workers suggested collecting money to send my wife K. and I out to a nice dinner.  They collected so much money it turned into 2 round trip tickets + hotel  to Chicago for the weekend with tickets to see the Blue Man Group.  My wife helped schedule everything behind my back.  She’s sneakier than I thought…See Fact 7 and Fact 10 for why I love her.

22.   I’m a hugger…get used to it or stay out of my circle *smile*

23.   I patented the use of a scented pen for advertising purposes with my brother and we created a company called Scented Pens to sell it.  In reality I just wanted a pen that smells like coffee so I could smell coffee all day at work.  Who knew we would turn around and license it to other suppliers.

24.   In one of my job performance reviews the manager realized that he had to say at least one thing that I needed to improve so he picked “terrible handwriting”.  This made me realize how important performance reviews are in helping people better themselves.  See fact 5.  It also made me work on my penmanship.

25.   I know I’m good at what I do and when asked directly about myself I tell the truth.  My friend Catherine says I’m the nicest arrogant person she knows.  I like this comment…especially because she‘s a Republican.

26.   I go to the mall sometimes to watch people.  It’s a great reminder that we all have different beliefs, tastes and styles.  There’s no way I would wear my pants down to my knees and show off my underwear as a fashion statement…but it’s nice to know that we can agree to disagree.

27.   When I’m at a place where they play the national anthem I get a little choked up.  I love this country…I don’t agree with everything we individually do or say…but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.