Economic Inequality in America

Recently I’ve been seeing many facebook posts about a video describing the very lopsided distribution of wealth and income in the United States. The video is actually a year old but it has been given a new lease on life by upworthy and, at the time of this post, has more than 10,000,000 views.

The basic arguments of the video are:

  • The US has very unequal distribution of wealth and income.
  • Over time, wealth and income distribution are becoming more unequal.
  • Most Americans aren’t aware of how unequal and increasingly unequal wealth and income are in the US, and they would prefer them to be more equitably distributed.

This has made for some good and spirited discussion among my friends. Many of my socialist-leaning European friends believe that it’s a great travesty and that Americans are either ignorant about it happening or wrong in willfully letting it happen. Many of my libertarian-leaning American friends believe that it’s a right and natural outcome of a meritocratic free market.

Regardless of the video and the data sources and the definitions it uses, I’m glad it has stimulated this discussion because it’s not something I’ve really thought much about before. It leaves me with several questions:

  • Is US wealth and income distribution as inequitable as the video makes it seem
  • How does the US compare with other countries? (The US looks OK in this World Bank data.)
  • What should the US wealth and income distribution look like – and why?
  • Is this even the right question? I’ve seen it argued that wealth and income mobility (the ability for someone in one group to move up to another group) is more important than a snaptshot or trend of distribution. This resonates with me as it seems to align with the American dream: that anyone, no matter where he comes from or what he has today, can make it big tomorrow.
  • If mobility is the right metric to focus on, how does the US stack up there? (Not too well, it would seem from this Wikipedia article.)
  • Or are there other metrics we should look at for an ideal future state and work backward from there?
  • If indeed the US is out of whack with regard to the metrics we claim to hold dear, why is that so? And what can or should be done about it? What other approaches exist and what would be their tradeoffs?

What do you think about these issues? I don’t have any conclusions of my own yet as I’m just starting to consider them.

Gravity

Last week Katie and I saw the movie everyone has been raving about: Gravity. Although it wasn’t the best sci-fi movie ever (as we had heard from some people) – and, in fact, I wouldn’t classify it as a sci-fi movie at all – it was quite enjoyable.

We saw the movie in IMAX 3D and I’m glad we did. It is visually quite stunning with amazing panoramic shots of the earth during both night and day. The 3D is really well done and actually heightens the flinch-worthiness of the tenser scenes. I would expect nothing less from Alfonso Cuarón, who directed my favorite of the Harry Potter films.

Although people tend to focus on the visual aspects when singing this movie’s praises, the audio was quite good as well. The constant tension between the sweeping score and the silence of the vacuum of space, combined with the cinematography, really succeeded in presenting both the beauty and hostility of space.

The film was incredibly immersive and the zero-g effects were extremely believable. This is a testament not only to the production techniques (using robotic attachments to move actors around as if they were in null gravity) but also to the skill of the actors. Decades ago actors acted on real sets and interacted with real objects/people. In this movie, though, actors were in front of green screens and I’m not sure any of them were actually in the studio at the same time. This must take an extra level of skill to act believably in a completely “produced” environment.

All in all, the movie was very good and definitely worth seeing – especially in IMAX 3D. Its themes of rebirth are a bit heavy-handed, but it is a beautiful, compelling story about the triumph of the persisent human spirit. For those of you have seen it already, what did you think?

IMD MBA 2008 Reunion in Lausanne, Switzerland

Six years ago I first set foot in Switzerland for what would ultimately become a life-changing trip. Shortly after my exhausting, exhilarating day of interviews at IMD, I received my acceptance and decided to attend the intense, transformative one-year MBA program. And shortly after that I made my very first post on this blog! This weekend 56 members of our 90-person class (plus families) reconvened in Lausanne for our 5-year reunion.

My flight over was uneventful but was the first time I’ve ever flown to Geneva airport from a departure point other than Houston. On the train from the airport to Lausanne, I met a delightful Australian couple who had just arrived for their first tour of Switzerland. It was fun sharing their compartment and, upon our arrival, they told me I was an excellent representative of American culture – quite a compliment for this extrovert!

Once settled in my home away from home in Lutry, I became more and more excited for our reunion kickoff dinner at Watergate along the lake. Several other classmates were also keen to get started, so I trained into Lausanne early. Despite my jet lag and lack of sleep, the thought of seeing everyone infused me with so much energy that I chose to run from the train station down to the lake instead of taking the metro.

The first classmate I was able to meet was none other than Sergei, my Belorussian teammate from my very first IMD team. What a joy to reconnect with someone with whom I shared so many significant – and often painful – leadership development experiences! We were both nearly six years older and he had with him his wife and 13-month-old son – and yet it was as if we had only been toiling away in the IMD study rooms yesterday.

Once we arrived at the restaurant, it became evident that many other classmates were in a similar situation as well, joining us with partners and recently born children – apparently the IMD MBA is pretty good for fertility! Incidentally, one of the interesting side effects of attending such an international program is witnessing parents speaking baby talk to their children in 20+ different languages! We closed down the restaurant but, exhausted as I was from travel, I opted for bed in lieu of a wild night out.

Friday we spent all day on campus at IMD. It featured presentations from some of our favorite professors as well as IMD management about the status and direction of the institution. The class’s four entrepreneurs were also asked to make a brief presentation about our startups, so I was pleased to have a chance to catch everyone up on what I’ve been up to. I was somewhat surprised by how much interest my presentation generated as the rest of the day classmates kept engaging me with their ideas, feedback, offers to make useful introductions, and even a few offers of investment!

The highlights of the day were lunch and dinner, both served at IMD’s famous restaurant. The food is just as amazing as I remember it – as is the post-food ping pong with classmates! After dinner several of us went out to a bar in Le Flon and, once we closed it down, then proceeded to a nearby club (L’Atelier Volant, the very first Lausanne club I ever frequented!). It has been a long, long time since I stayed out until 4 AM but, as much fun as I was having catching up with classmates, I could have stayed out indefinitely.

After the late night, morning came much too soon. Once again, though, the collective energy of the class was infectious as we boarded a morning bus for the Parc Aventure in Aigle. The adventure park is a large wooded park with ropes courses of varying difficulties between and among all the trees. We arrived, suited up in our harnesses, and spent the day challenging ourselves to make it through one obstacle course after another many meters above the forest floor (and the most difficult courses even had parts that extended out over a river!).

Much like the IMD MBA itself, it was a LOT of fun in hindsight. While I was out there grappling, tight rope walking, and zip lining, though, it was actually quite stressful – anyone who knows my [lack of] command of balance will understand why!

Saturday night we had dinner at a new restaurant started by an IMD alum from the class of 2007: Eat Me. Although we started early, we still closed the restaurant down after more than seven hours of eating, drinking, and making merry with dear friends we hadn’t seen in awhile – some not since graduation.

Sunday there was a soccer match between our class and the current MBAs (which we won, of course) followed by a closing lunch at our favorite class hangout, Le Pinocchio. The weather, which had been gorgeous all weekend, continued to impress, so I took a slow jog along the lake to the park where soccer was being played and then another jog back to Lutry after lunch. Sometimes I wonder if my memory of living in Switzerland – perfect weather, beautiful views of lakes and mountains – is somewhat idealized, but days like Sunday remind me that it really is a fantastic place.

And there you have it: after a three-day sprint, our reunion is over. The reunion itself actually seemed like a microcosm of the IMD experience: late nights, intense days, and much joy in being together. Even as much time as we spent together, though, there are some people with whom I regret not catching up more.

Much has changed since we underwent the MBA journey together five years ago. Jobs have changed, families have grown, and both accomplishments and disappointments have been realized. That which has remained constant throughout the five years, however, is the bond that we all formed first by choosing to undergo (and being selected for) such a unique program and then by traveling that unique journey together.

In fact, that bond is so strong that, even though the reunion is over, those of us still in Lausanne are meeting up every chance that we get. Five years out is a good time to reflect on the IMD experience. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to attend IMD but, as this reunion really drove home, the most tremendous blessing that IMD provided is the addition of all these great people in my life.

Life in Chapel Hill

Having moved into our Chapel Hill home nearly a month ago, I now have some reasonably concrete thoughts about life here. The biggest impression made on me so far is the area’s dichotomy between being a large metropolitan area of two million people but having a really small town feel.

Durham may feel a little more like a bustling city and Raleigh surely does, but Chapel Hill feels like a sleepy college town out in the country. There is low enough light pollution that the stars are dazzling at night even when we just step out on our deck. The area is densely forested – so much so that our home feels like a tree house – and everywhere you look is green, green, green. When we take Max for a walk, it isn’t uncommon for us to encounter deer roaming around the neighborhood. Max really, really wants to volunteer to help keep the deer population in check.

The green feel translates to the people as well. There are farmers markets available every day of the week, and they are full of fresh, local, natural foods. Recycling is a big deal here, too, and it is actually illegal to throw away some recyclable materials. People here are very active, so I have joined several hiking meetup groups to meet others and explore the natural beauty all around.

Despite this small town, country feel, we are a 20-minute drive away from a major international airport (Raleigh-Durham), 15 minutes away from the largest research park in the country (Research Triangle Park), and very near multiple hubs of startup activity. I’ve found the people here to be very friendly and welcoming, not just on a personal level but also in providing access to the business community.

The area reminds me of Houston in many ways. Many of the locals seem to be non-natives, having moved here for school or work. This endows the region with a strong diversity of culture, opinion, and industry interest. Like Houston, the area also has incredibly low cost of living, which extends from the low real estate prices to the multitude of inexpensive, healthy, delicious food options.

In some ways, however, Chapel Hill is completely unlike Houston. At least twice since we moved in, the temperature has reached down into the 60s F at night – don’t they know it’s August?? And, although people here complain about traffic, they apparently have no idea what real traffic is. I’ve been out on the major through-ways during what passes for rush hour here and you almost wouldn’t know that you were driving during a peak time.

On the subject of transportation, there is very good public transportation here. The municipal buses run all over the place (with UNC Chapel Hill as the main hub) all day and are completely free. Katie and I are now a single car family (I have left my car in Houston because I am still spending so much time there.) and, even so, her car doesn’t get much use. She is able to walk and/or take the bus to school and I can bus around to most places as well.

There are many aspects of the area that we still haven’t explored. For example, there is a thriving craft beer scene here that I would love to get to know. A few hours to our west is great mountain hiking and a few hours to our east are some good beaches – hopefully we will have a chance to check those out soon.

In the meantime I’m still spending a great deal of time in Houston, which reduces my bandwidth for North Carolina exploration. I’m teaching two entrepreneurship courses at Rice University this semester and steering my Houston-based startup through a critical ramp up to product launch. Still, the little bit I’ve experienced of the Triangle so far has me quite impressed.

Rocket City, USA

En route to Chapel Hill, Katie, Max, and I stopped in Huntsville, Alabama, where I spent the first 10 years of my life. It wasn’t too far out of the way, and it warmed my soul to see some of my old stomping grounds for the first time in many, many years.

Huntsville made a name for itself when it led the rocketry efforts to put a man on the moon. I arrived there almost exactly a decade after the moon landing, but there was still a sense of trying to achieve great things which has stuck with me throughout my life.

Over the course of two days, I took Katie on a tour of the Huntsville of my past. We visited houses where I had lived – which, of course, looked quite different 20 years later – schools I attended – which had expanded and modernized – and places I used to frequent – many of which were no longer there.

The saying is that you can never go back home, that the home you remember will no longer exist. If you judge by buildings and neighborhoods and landscapes, then that is true. However, I found that it absolutely still existed due to the people we saw while we were there. We stayed with good family friends who used to keep me when my parents were out of town. We had lunch with several other family friends and even caught up with the parents of some of my elementary school friends and classmates.

My mom has a plaque that says:

“A house is made
of brick and stone.
A home is made
of love alone.”

I think that applies to towns in addition to houses; it’s the people who make it a hometown more than anything physical. While Huntsville is now missing many of the people – one above all – whom I associate with fond childhood memories – there are still plenty of great people there: smart, fun, good-natured, accomplished people. After all, it takes great people to accomplish the great feats for which Huntsville is known.

This brief stroll down memory lane reminded me not only of that put-a-man-on-the-moon spirit but also of how blessed Katie and I are to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Gone To Carolina In My Mind

Katie and I are moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina! Those closest to us already know, but it’s time to make this announcement public. Next month Katie will begin a PhD program in nutritional anthropology at the University of North Carolina. This process actually began more than four years ago as Katie became very concerned about the obesity and diabetes epidemics. Having worked her entire career in healthcare, she has seen how our current medical intervention approach doesn’t seem very effective, so she will be working to advance the state of the art of preventive cultural approaches.
 
I am incredibly proud of Katie. Once she set her sights on a PhD, she worked hard to maximize her GRE scores, define a compelling value proposition, and perfect her personal statement. She applied to the top programs in her field and was accepted into all but one of them. We then had the enviable problem of having to choose between several great options, each with its own pros and cons. One late night around the kitchen island, it became evident that UNC was rising to the top, not only because of the program, which is top notch and still maintains a strong focus on the development of its students, but also because of the location.
 
We have some family in the Research Triangle area, and we will be close to Northern Virginia, where I grew up. It is a lush, green, wooded area, with lots of hiking trails – for us and for Max! There are lots of farmers markets and we believe we will be able to live the sustainable lifestyle we have cultivated. We are looking forward to being back in a place with four seasons as well – can’t wait for the leaves to change color this autumn!
 
Of course this move creates both challenges and opportunities for me professionally. My startup, Smart Office Energy Solutions, is headquartered in Houston and I teach entrepreneurship at Rice University, so I will be commuting back to Houston for much of the next six months. At the same time, however, the Research Triangle has a great deal of cleantech / smart grid research going on, a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem, and major corporate support for innovation. Accordingly, I will be opening a new Smart OES office in the Triangle to cultivate opportunities there. The East Coast represents a major client market for us, so it will be advantageous for us to begin developing a foothold in the mid-Atlantic.
 
Katie and I will both miss Houston a lot; we have called it home for more than 1/3 of our lives. It has been a great place to start our professional careers: a burgeoning land of economic growth, excellent arts, and low cost of living. It is the people, though, whom we will miss most. Houston’s great people – smart, fun, and friendly – kept us in Houston after we graduated from Rice, attracted me back after my Swiss experience, and may well attract us back again. The week leading up to our departure was filled with warm send-offs and validation that we truly are blessed to have such people in our lives.
 
Now we are embarking a new adventure. There will be new people and new challenges in our lives – and new opportunities! We have no idea what the future will hold but, as we vowed to each other two years ago, we will face it together. And so the next chapter begins . . . huzzah!

A Family Wedding

Last weekend I had the honor of officiating my sister-in-law’s wedding in Tahoe. While the details of the wedding itself are private to the family, I’m glad to retell the story of the weekend, which was a grand affair.

We flew into Reno Wednesday and made our way to Fjeldheim, a Norwegian family lodge up in the mountains of the southeastern shore that had been rented out for the entire weekend. After stockup trips to Costco and Trader Joe’s, we arrived at Fjeldheim and were thrilled with what we found. It’s a huge multistory, multiacre estate with enough room to sleep 30+ people. Gorgeous lake views, an outdoor hot tub, a massive kitchen, the closest family of the bride and groom – we were ready for an epic weekend!

Thursday morning we woke up early and went hiking up to the summit of Maggies Peak. The high altitude immediately made itself apparent to me, as did the steep inclines of the hike! Huffing and puffing as I was, though, we were all rewarded with gorgeous views of Emerald Bay. After taking some time (and food!) to recover, we then spent the afternoon wine tasting on the California side of the lake.

Friday morning I took the opportunity to do something I can’t do very well in Houston: hill sprints! The bride, who is a yogi, then helped me warm down with some light yoga. Friday afternoon we all headed to the beach for the groom’s dinner. Under cloudless skies we grilled out, played on the sand, and engaged in [freezing] water sports. The best part, though, came when the bride and sister of the groom busted out a guitar and began to serenade the groom. The guitar stayed out all night and it turned into hours and hours of sing-a-long – what fun!

The day of the wedding couldn’t have been more perfect. We were blessed with our third straight day of awesome weather. The bride started the day by leading us in the full Ashtanga Yoga primary series. I then joined the groom for a trail run along the Lake Tahoe Rim Trail. All this led up to the main event: the wedding itself.

The ceremony was short and sweet, and I was privileged to have a front row seat. After the bride and groom were pronounced husband and wife, we spent a glorious afternoon sipping on champagne, playing yard games, and dining outside. This, of course, was followed by hours and hours of dancing until the wee hours of the morning – I couldn’t have imagined anything better for the happy couple.

Sunday we lazily breakfasted and said sad, fond goodbyes. It had been a wonderful, joyous celebration in an amazing location, but eventually it was time to return to reality. For Katie and me, however, reality was delayed by another day. Our flight back to Houston wasn’t until Monday so we had to spend the night at a hotel/casino in Reno. Let me tell you, that was one classy place! After an evening of smoky gaming tables, poolside dancers, and comped all-you-can-eat buffets, we finally returned to Houston.

What a weekend! We are so, so happy for Kelly and Mike, and we were thrilled to be party of their new union! We were especially thrilled that the way they wanted to celebrate happened to be a LOT of fun!

Rice Named Top University Incubator

Rice University has been selected as having the top university business incubator in the world according to a just-released study by UBI. I have been working for more than a year now to support/enhance/catalyze entrepreneurship at Rice by teaching, mentoring, and helping to launch the OwlSpark Accelerator, which received special mention in the announcement. It feels great when hard work is recognized and my hearty congratulations go out to all the others who are helping to propel Rice into the future of being an entrepreneurial university.

http://news.rice.edu/2013/06/10/rice-alliance-named-top-global-university-business-incubator-2/

Some Memorial Day Thoughts

Memorial Day is always a good day for reflection and gratitude – for grieving the ones we’ve lost and for celebrating what they did for us in their time on this earth. As I’ve posted before, it is a particularly poignant time for my family as it was 23 Memorial Days ago that we lost my dad after a 10+ year fight with cancer.

This 23rd Memorial Day is especially significant for remembering Dad – and not only because 23 is my favorite number! Dad was born January 23, 1945. When I was born March 23, 1979, Dad was 34 years and two months old. Guess what age I turned a few days ago: 34 years and two months . . .

It’s a bit mind blowing to think of myself as the same age as my father when he and my mom brought me into this world. The image of him fixed in my mind is always one of an older/wiser/sterner parent – which is hard to reconcile with the notion of him as a hypothetical peer. I’m spending the day listening to his old records and playing his old pinball machines.

And while I do focus a great deal on him each Memorial Day, I also take plenty of time to reflect on my gratitude to those who have died while putting themselves in harm’s way for our country. It is humbling to think of how little I’ve risked or sacrificed relative to them. It always leaves me with a sense of duty and purpose that I must do everything I can to ensure they didn’t die in vain. I must be the best I can be – as a person, as a professional, and as a citizen.

So thank you, fallen patriots; I’m trying to live up to your example.

A Spark of Entrepreneurship at Rice

Although I haven’t posted much about it on this blog, many of you know that I have spent the last year and a half helping to foster more/better entrepreneurship at my alma mater, Rice University. Six months ago I officially accepted the role of Entrepreneur in Residence at the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership, an organization funded by legendary venture capitalist (and Rice alum) John Doerr.

Since almost the moment I started in 2012, it became evident that Rice was underserved in entrepreneurship. The MBAs had some coursework available to them and a big business plan competition, but the undergrads had nothing, academic grad students even less, and faculty were frustrated with the process of IP commercialization.

Around that time I connected with four students who wanted to do something about it. Over the last 18 months we spent a lot of time figuring out the highest-impact initiative we could take, selling it within the university administration, gathering resources for it, and making it happen.

Last Thursday this vision became a reality with the official launch of OwlSpark, the Rice University startup accelerator. Eight teams of Rice undergrads, grad students, MBAs, and alumni are spending the summer working side by side in the Rice BRC to launch their startups. The program provides funding, mentorship, learning, and networking opportunities for the 37 members of these eight teams.

Thursday night’s launch event attracted more than 100 attendees and was a really fantastic way to kick off the program. This is such an exciting initiative for Rice, but what really makes me proud is that OwlSpark was created entrepreneurially by students, not by a top-down decree.

OwlSpark is itself a startup, so it will have to be agile and reactive to feedback from its participants, mentors, investors, etc. It’s way too early to tell what we will have accomplished by Demo Day in August, but it’s a worthwhile shot and I’m very excited about the possibilities!