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A photo trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. |
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My Purpose In Life
"I live my life as a series of mental, spiritual, and emotional adventures, and I share my insights and experiences with others."
I began my career in the late 60's after graduation from the University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology and psychology. I married after my freshman year, had a child soon after (now a grown woman with her own family), and had to pay my own way. I was terrified. I graduated on time and was so scared that I got almost straight A's. I was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
I became a special agent in the United States Secret Service in 1968. I spent a year in Minneapolis where I protected former Vice President Hubert Humphrey-a kind and optimistic man.
I transferred to Chicago where I was a member of the elite counterfeit squad for two years. I also worked at the White House and protected former President Richard Nixon-a shy and dark man.
Seeking a quick-fix for the unhappiness I felt, I resigned from the Secret Service in 1972 and fell into the abyss of alcoholism. I never saw it coming. After two years in the depths of hell my father, bless his soul, told me the truth and I spent a month in a tough alcohol treatment center.
I experienced the power of community, human connection, and true compassion at this treatment center. I realized that change begins with seeing reality as it is, and that we can only be responsible for change in our own lives. I learned that values matter, and I left determined to live an authentic life.
I then had nine management positions in 18 years at the Star Tribune Newspaper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In each position I led organizations through renewal and transformation. I stayed true to my values, and did my best to change an afflicted organization to be a more decent, honest, and productive place to work.
From 1990-94 I led a change effort in a 4,500 employee business unit that began in crisis and became an industry-leading and nationally recognized success story fifteen months later. This leadership experience opened my eyes and heart to the vast untapped human potential in our organizations, and I began to learn a new world view-one that sees organizations as living systems.
I left the corporate world in early 1994 to seek deeper authenticity in all areas of my life full time.
I traveled to Africa for wildlife photography, began to consult, began to write, and began a Ph.D. program in leadership and organizational change, which I completed in 1997 at age 52.
The year 2001 was a time of renewal after a divorce after 35 years of marriage and the deaths of my mother and best friend. I spent 14 months living on the side of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado where I sat in the natural hot springs for hundreds of hours and 4-wheeled and photographed the mountain beauty as I contemplated life, leadership, and change.
In 2002 I moved to the northwestern Minnesota, and in 2003 I married my spiritual partner. We lived in a natural setting on the banks of the Red River in Moorhead, Minnesota until the record flood of 2009 drove us from our home.
Melanie got a great new job and we moved to Minneapolis where our adventures continue.
Besides my work, I am kept busy with three grown children, five grandchildren, three step-children, and two dogs.
I believe that our collective survival in a world in crisis depends on all of us choosing the aliveness of deep authenticity over lives of quiet desperation.
I truly believe that in the chaos of today's world, we must focus first on being authentic travelers on life's journey--and then on being good leaders, followers, and team members. Otherwise we end up with inauthentic and neurotic leaders who no one will follow into uncertainty.
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