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Trey Reeme

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Ten Lessons from Fatherhood

Reading children’s books aloud is therapeutic for one who reads corporate email all day.

Giving gifts is so much better than getting gifts ever was.

Watch every word you say. And how you say it.

Today’s toddler will treat touch interfaces like we treat keyboard and mouse.

Exposing a child to exotic foods young makes her less picky as she grows older.

Never change a diaper on a bed.

You can never spend too much time with your children.

Limit TV, but make sure to record Word World on PBS. Best show ever for kiddos.

Parenting manuals are like business books: one book will directly conflict the next.

I’d rather stare at a finger painting from my two-year-old than any museum piece. (And I took enough Art History in college to know van Eyck from van Gogh.)

4% Less

I swore I wouldn’t do it again.  Too many bloggers clamoring for his link love.  Too many times I’ve quoted him before.  (Not to mention that interview almost three years ago now on Open Source CU that BTW never got any friggin comments).

But I can’t help it.  I have to — yet again — swoon over something said by Seth Godin.  His post: “The Sad Lie of Mediocrity”:

Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less.

Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less.

That’s because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie of mediocrity is the mistaken belief that partial effort yields partial results. In fact, the results are usually totally out of proportion to the incremental effort.

Hear, hear.

Make tomorrow memorable

I’m guilty of having too few memorable days.

You know, those sort of “hey, remember that day I _____?” days that will resurface in my brain next month, next year, or during a round playing golf for life for free at The Villages, Florida’s friendliest hometown.

Tomorrow is a to-do list of things I didn’t have time for today.  That’s not memorable.  And I’m the only one who can fix it.  I have 24 hours.

And… go.

Free sells

Four years ago my friend Jeremy and his wife came for a visit to Dallas. We both grew up around Shreveport, Louisiana – you know, the town where the actors in that Oliver Stone movie had a fistfight last weekend.

Shreveport had no Starbucks at the time of Jeremy’s visit. Thus Jeremy had never gone to a Starbucks (unbelievable, no?!). Plus he avoided caffeine at the time. Health nut.

During his visit, we ended up near a Starbucks inside a mall.

I was distracted on the phone with Jenn trying to gauge how much longer we’d be waiting for them to finish shopping when the barista called out, “Strawberry Frappuccino… [long pause]… Strawberry Frappuccino.”

Jeremy walked forward, claimed his, ahem, free drink and enthusiastically said, “Thanks!”

We walked down the mall and I only noticed his unintentional theft after he’d gulped it down halfway. “I thought they were giving away free samples,” he pleaded.

Jeremy and I spoke today on my way to the office. He was in a Nashville drive-thru ordering his daily fix, a venti no-whip triple somethingorother.

Which got me thinking, do we charge for coin counters in our lobbies for non-members? If we do, we shouldn’t.

Honor

When I picked up the game of golf as a teenager, I cheated. I’d move a ball out of a bad lie. I’d drop without a penalty after plunking one in the drink (losing a ball was penalty enough, right?). I’d call a gimme putt if it were within the length of a club.

After a golf course in college and spending enough time on the course, I stopped cheating at golf. It’s a game that deserves your manners.

In the NFL you never see an O-lineman approach an official and call holding on himself. In golf it’s different.

I’ve heard you can see into someone’s character on the course. I believe it.

Why Thwart Mediocrity?

Last week, Morriss posted an interview with me. Toward the end of our chat, I spoke about this blog’s theme.

I turned in a half-assed homework assignment in the sixth grade. My teacher (more accurately, my mentor) asked me if it was my best effort. It wasn’t even close. She asked me never to show work that was mediocre.

I fear mediocrity because it characterizes the first, second, and third drafts of everything I touch.

Seven musts for the smart credit union exec in 2008

  1. Spend more time improving your website than preparing your newsletter.
  2. Stop charging fees for coin counters in your branches.
  3. Send an important team member to a BarCampBank.
  4. Sign up for a Wesabe account and see the future of personal finance management.
  5. Get a Zopa CD and see the future of banking.
  6. Buy an iPhone.
  7. Contribute to networks like EverythingCU and Banktastic (I have invites to the latter).

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