Why Start A Blog Now?

Why now? Why start writing a blog? There is a point in time when your experiences are worth sharing, at least you think they are, and for me that time is now. Whether to educate or just share, there are some great life lessons I’ve learned and over the course of my career and this blog series will start to share them. I’m guessing most won’t start off deep into philosophy like this, but my hope is that this sets the stage.

If you don’t know much about me, I’m Mike Caudill. But you knew that because you’re reading my first blog. I get asked all the time “what do you do for a living?” It’s always a pause and chuckle because I “don’t work for a living.” I run a couple businesses, frontline as a TV host, LOVE being a dad and cherish life. It’s not work in the traditional sense.

My first blog is going to be a bit all over the map. Why? Because when you run a handful of businesses it keeps you diverse and that diversity increases and builds your portfolio of skills…in essence, they give you perspective. For me it provides clearer direction. The purpose of this new blog series will be to share a variety of experience, journeys, anecdotes, education and more. Frankly, it’s my jumping off point to put my thoughts to paper. So, my first blog jumps in to how my mind thinks. It’s how I evaluate situations, people, outcomes and more.

Back Story: A year ago, I was visiting my parents in Reno, Nevada. It was the week leading up to Thanksgiving and I was on a business trip in Los Angeles and used the West Coast trip to pop up to see my parents. As always it was an awesome trip. For those close to me, they know my Dad is one of the people on this planet I respect most. He’s one of the smartest people I know and highly educated. LOL, I could write an entire book just on my Dad and his stories, this blog will be a short share. My Dad is a Veteran and retired Police Officer. When he retired, he went out and got his masters and began teaching at a local college…Criminal Justice of course. My reason in sharing some of his background is that my Dad and I often sit around talking politics, life, sports and frankly everything else under the sun. Usually, a bourbon on ice accompanies the discussion.

On this particular trip though, my Dad and I got in to a discussion on politics that led down a rabbit hole on philosophy. He shared how he views life and the litmus test he puts against decisions he makes. He said, “I’m a Pragmatist,” and he then went on to describe it. It was a pivotal moment for me at 46 because in that moment I realized that my way of viewing life, decisions, outcomes were identical to his. I studied up after leaving their house on the term’s meaning and fast forward to today, I used the word frequently in how I evaluate things happening around me. It frankly, just makes sense.

Enter Blog #1 – Pragmatism

In its most simplistic definition being pragmatic is the application of both common sense and facts. That’s it! Sounds pretty simple right, but not so fast. There are factors that contribute to the decisions we all make that can alter how we move forward with next steps. But for a pragmatist it’s cut and dry with variables, but very few of them.

I apply these basic principles to our businesses. I view everything from the standpoint of common sense + facts. But I then I add in responsibility. So for me the math equation looks a bit like this: Common Sense + Facts + Responsibility = Action. Here’s a great example. In our small world at DRIVEN 360 we are all tasked with assignments. They are daily assignments and we are all accountable for these assignments. If we do an update meeting and the question comes up, “Are you done with the media program overview,” and the response is, “I’m done with the press release.” That leads me to believe there is still work to be done. Fact = Press Release being done. Common Sense says that if you noted only the press release then there are other things to work on. A cut and dry answer would be: “No, I am not done, but am in the process of working through a few individual tasks with the project.” Neither answer is right or wrong, it’s just how I process it. So, facts would equal the project not being done. The press release is now irrelevant.

Common Sense for me is the big one though. For some reason today, people just don’t have a ton of common sense and they don’t base their things on facts, they base them on popular opinion. Purpose of this first Blog isn’t to get political or align, it’s simply to suggest that we could all use a strong dose of common sense.

So, for me, with this blog I’m going to work to be as pragmatic as possible simply pointing out facts and common sense thinking. I want it to also be fun, but at least this first one gives you a bit of insight into how I think things through. LOL, so if you come at me with feelings and concepts not based on facts with little to no common sense, well then we’ll agree to disagree. Just kidding, we’ll talk it through J. MC