Live Lean | 5S your life

"sort", "straighten", "shine", "standardize", and "sustain".

5S was developed in Japan as part of the “Just in Time” manufacturing process. Its roots trace back to Henry Ford and the system is widely used today in manufacturing plants around the world. The plant I work in is no different with almost ritualistic practitioners preaching its virtue.

This mindset starts to bleed over into your personal life when you embrace the philosophy with lunchroom banter surrounding how far you can expand the reach of the mighty 5S into your personal life?

It was one such conversation with our plant manager and a lead concerning small houses, wasteful spending, excess and at what point the wife gets pissed off? For the record we don’t suggest reusing Ziploc bags.

 

Stop a moment and look around the room your in.

How much of the stuff in the room do you need? Do you really need the pile of magazines you have already read, the nick knacks, the hat you wore once, the 3 jackets, the 6 maps of Baja, Mexico or the 4 pair of shoes under the coffee table?

For the record I am a hypocrite when it comes to this stuff. My weakness is motorized vehicles. I have too many, but I can’t bring myself to selling them. I can only drive one of them at a time, and usually drive the same one. But it’s hard to replace a diesel eating 4WD F-350 with a camper. I need my F-250 for trips to the hardware store, the Harley I ride 12 times a year is a collectors item, the 2 dirt bikes, the UTV the ect ect ect. You see my point?

So its baby steps for me, I am starting with the 10 year old collection of race inspired T-Shirts and will slowly expand from there. After all I wear the same three pairs of jeans all week. Moving into a new house early next year gives me the opportunity to see how far I can push 5S Lean Living into my personal life.  

Buying A Home | Is Smaller, Smarter?

We almost did it, something I think we would have regretted, buying a big house.

My whole life I have lived in a small house, but for many years I built massive custom homes in neighborhoods like Fairbanks Ranch and Rancho Santé Fe California. I always wondered what was the perfect size home, and after many years I thought I had a handle on what I needed. 3000 square feet seemed the perfect size for a house. 10,000 square feet was ridiculous.

We raised our two kids in a 1500 square foot house, one bathroom, and two bedrooms. For years my wife and I slept in the living room so our daughter could have privacy. There is nowhere to hide when your house is small. Your kids can’t retreat to the far corner of the house, or hide in an upstairs room. You are together almost all of the time. Vacations with your spouse are a treat, even if its an over night stay at a convention.

Now as we approach the next chapter of our life as empty nesters we looked at houses in the 2500-3000 square foot range. We even went into escrow on an amazing 2300 square foot house that had an additional 1000-foot finished basement. Thankfully we fell out.  In the end we decided that location was the most important thing for us. For most of my adult life I have commuted at least an hour (sometimes three) each way to work, the California way. In addition we wanted an efficient home. I always wondered how much it cost to maintain a 10,000 square foot home?

A box on a postage stamp lot.

For years it seems the market has dictated a house design that works on square footage. Under utilized dining rooms, family rooms and extra bedrooms promoted consumerism at it’s finest. Every house looked the same in most neighborhoods we looked at. In addition the houses contribute to urban sprawl, and don’t encourage community.

After an exhaustive search we found a modest ranch style house built in 1962. The community is small and situated on one-acre lots with meandering streets that restrict access to the homes without a gate. Built in the 60’s the homes are just outside the city limits, but offer access to the entire city in minutes. The best part is that Angie works only one mile and I work only five miles from the doorstep. While it may sound extreme I have always wanted to work close to where I live so I can walk or bike to work. After spending most of my life sitting on the 91 freeway in Orange County, California I am happy to walk.

Oddly the house is on par with our last three homes coming in at 1500 square feet. I guess 1500 is the magic number for us?  Green building seems all the rage for new homes, but I have often wondered if a re-imagined older home is a more conservative approach? With that in mind the old Ranch home will receive a complete make over the next year. My Son said that the house was spectacularly boring, but he was confident I would be able to put lipstick on a pig.I invite you along as we re-imagine our Reno 60's Ranch home.

Empty Nest Adventure Club.

Empty Nest Syndrome, It affects us all differently. Some call it a midlife crisis, and they might be right? I could go out and buy a Porsche, get a girlfriend and start being a dumb ass. Throwing away 25 years with a wonderful woman who has shared with me the better part of my life, I could grow a pony tail, buy a sports car and do my best to bang girls with parental issues. The problem is that I look across the room and I am still madly in love with the girl I lusted over in 1986. While I may have a bipolar love affair with my musical choices, I can tell you I am smart enough to know that I can’t relate to young women who might think the 80’s have historical value.  

In my eyes my wife is the same girl who sat behind me in class and teased me running her fingers thru my hair. I know every line on her face was likely caused by one of my dumb ideas and the grey that peaks thru her hair was my doing as well. I know the imperfections are also my doing. This woman gave birth to both of my children, bathed them, taught them, cared for them, and dealt with those awful teenage years that made her worry, and fret. By the way I am pretty sure she worried and fret about me, not the kids

So where am I going with this as I listen to the greatest 80’s hits on Pandora?  (Just so you know video killed the radio star.) I have been struggling to find my place the last 9 months. My Daughter graduated college, and got herself hitched.  My Son graduated high school and will leave the nest for Cleveland of all places.  The worst part is I still see my friends from High school on facebook and compared to my kids this makes me question my own path.  Don’t get me wrong I am pretty happy I did not pursue that Duran Duran cover band opportunity although I might have been OK with the Ska band.  

So here it is, for the last three days I have been wondering what the hell I was thinking gathering all this shit? I was a punk rocker who hated Reagan and Tipper Gore. I became exactly what they wanted… a consumer. This evening I calculated all the biggest items I could sell today and at a price in which they would actually sell. Not including the last of my California Property I need to sell. I came up with a quick storyboard that spells out over $60,000 in assets that could be converted to cash. QUICK!

So here it is.. I am going to start selling shit. Do I need this stuff to be happy? Am I a slave to my belongings? I sit here looking over at my wife and I can’t help but wonder, if looking at her freckles and her eyes does not bring me the same joy as they did twenty five years ago without the garage full of crap? Could I give the money to my kids and change the course of my family tree? Should I just pay for a trip to Italy so my wife can see the things that excited her in a history book in the 10^th grade? 

I invite you to get on board this journey. I have no idea where it will lead, or the outcome. I do know I can’t continue down this path. At the very least you can watch me spiral out of control. Riding a rollercoaster is far more exciting than the merry go round any day. For those that know me this includes dumping all my business holdings, and investments. If it does not bare fruit it’s gone. I am still not sure how far I am going to go, but frankly my guts tell me to cut this to the bone. 

 We all have wings, but some of us don't know why?

Listen To Your Market

I Have a Lot to Say

As a student of Henry Ford, I know well that Ford’s first business, the Detroit Auto Company, went out of business in 1901 amid customers' complaints and low satisfaction. 

His quote, “Failure is the opportunity to more intelligently begin again,” is ingrained in my life. I also believe that I must find the answers to questions sometimes in unconventional ways. 

While many will focus on the cancellation of the HellsGate GrandPrix as a potential failure, I choose instead to look at the success of the rest of our Silver State Jamboree, share my thanks with those that made it happen and gave me the support and took a chance.

What many do not know is that on Monday, July 14^th, 2014, thirty-two people from across the country met in a closed-door meeting to work on a collaborative effort to change the way we maintain public access to open space for motorized recreation. This meeting was over 4 years in the making, and was something very important to Fred Wiley and myself. For the first time, we had three of the best environmental attorneys in a room together with leadership from most national OHV associations all working toward a common goal, exploring the creation of a National OHV office in Washington DC. While this is only the first step in the process, I have never attended a more productive OHV advocacy meeting. If all else had fallen apart, this meeting would have marked a high point in my career in off-roading.

On Tuesday, July 15^th, 2014, both the Blue Ribbon Coalition and Off Road Business Association met for lengthy BOD Meetings. I can’t speak to the details of the BRC meeting, but my understanding is that it was an exceptional meeting. Our ORBA BOD meeting was extremely productive. In addition, there were a number of smaller OHV advocacy meetings held on Tuesday, including a meeting concerning the rights of snowmobiles. This further outlines my continued commitment to OHV advocacy, as Carrera Performance Group LLC provided the meeting space for these meetings free of charge.

On Wednesday, July 16^th, 2014, we exceeded my expectations with the first running of RallyVenture. I will detail RallyVenture in a separate posting, but I can tell you our proof of concept will possibly change the face of 4WD competition and the way we promote our community. Our goals were many, and promoting the companies that participated, as well as our lifestyle, rank among the highest priority.

I had hoped, based on best practices, to garner 250,000 impressions with our test. What I found was that we could shatter this goal, with over 1.4 million impressions on Facebook and Instagram in less that twelve hours. The impressions continue to grow even now on Sunday night, four days after completion of the event.  I have been told that #RallyVenture was the top influencer in the world on Instagram on Wednesday, with Casey Currie in the #1 position, Nicole Johnson in #2, and Poison Spyder in #3. I look forward to exploring our total reach in greater details in the coming weeks. I think we might be on to something here.

Even with all the social media success of RallyVenture I am most proud of the concept that you can be challenged without the total destruction of your vehicle. The smiles on the entire Pellegrino family’s face were worth all the work. Hearing the stories of people getting lost, experiencing an adventure and seeing new places are what RallyVenture is all about. Our winners proved you don’t need a brand new high dollar vehicle to be competitive. In first place was Mike Lasher driving a 1992 Wrangler, second Bart Dixon in a 1999 Grand Cherokee, and third Harry Wagner driving what I believe was a 1978 Ford F150.  We only had two reported breakdowns, which included an alternator failure and a broken motor mount.

Work has already started on what the future of RallyVenture looks like, and for those that have requested information on participating, I am confident we will use an application process similar to the early KOH events, with the exception of applicants needing to have an Instagram account and a fully functioning Facebook fan page. Your followers will greatly increase your chances of getting into RallyVenture.

Our trail rides and consumer facing events went off without a hitch. The Genright Floatilla River Float proved to be a nice break from the week's activities, the Poison Spyder Trail Ride and Taco Bar was a great way to explore Virginia City, the PRP Pool party offered a great pre-game to what turned out to be a wild party called the Raceline Rodeo. Personally I have not had that much fun in a long time, and I am really glad I signed up to ride the bull. We expect to dial in these activities for next year and do a better job of getting the information out.

I am disappointed in Hellsgate. I am not sure what I could have done differently or what kind of incentive it would have taken to attract drivers. Scheduling would no doubt always be an issue as the event schedule is just busy. It’s a shame that the current format takes such a toll on vehicles that we could not field more than 6 teams to participate. I thought the opportunity to race in front of grandstands full of people might have been enough, but we added the potential $20,000 purse, and payout to 10^th place to be safe. In the end, it did not prove enough to offer a show worthy the price of admission and I was faced with no choice but to cancel. The facility is top notch, and Norm Dianda is an amazing person who hopes to attract motorsports events to Northern Nevada.  I am most disappointed in failing his vision.

I am really not sure if I will be in a position to host another race of the caliber of Hellsgate due to the financial loss that resulted in cancelling the event. We have had plenty of grassroots rock racing, my hope was to offer a truly professional motorsports experience. Onsite beer sales, food, security, and a view of 85% of the race course from the safety of grandstands only five minutes from the Nugget Casino. Perhaps the participants of this type of motorsports are just not interested in this?  This being said, I plan on listening to my market and focusing on RallyVenture for the foreseeable future. At the very least, I now know the answer to a question I have had for over three years.

While I had very little interest in the promotion of a series before this week, I now feel the door is open to work toward providing service to the marketplace by whatever means necessary. It is very possible that the Next Generation of 4WD Adventure is exactly what the off-road community is looking for. RallyVenture is coming.

In closing, I want to thank a lot of people, for without this never would have been remotely possible.  First, my wife Angie for riding the Knollercoaster and not finding satisfaction with the merry go round.  Barbara and David Rainey for support, knowledge, and kind words in times of need. My Dad and stepmom Noey for willingness to work long hours for their son's dumb ideas, and Bill Kunz for giving me the opportunity to lead his company’s marketing department and learning that customer service and sales blows away cool any day.

In addition and in no particular order:

Chris Dowd

Elan LoMonaco

Scott Gertz

Gary Lambert

Al and Shirley Lockett

Eric and Scott Pender

Danny Grimes

Scotty G

Parker the RC King

Amanda, Lisa, Lauren, Sonja, and Bree from the Nugget

Trey Valentine

Greg Mulkey

Chris Rae

Cody Knoll

Chris Garrison Billet Rifle Systems

Jake Hallenbeck and his team for helping promote

DSI Dave Schneider
Don Gillman

Ty Erquiaga

Kevin Singleton

Norm Dianda

Abbi Whittaker and the Abbi Agency

Steve Gardner

Chad Antos and the Antos Agency

Advantage Print Solutions

Neal Hollingsworth and Yukon Gear

PRP Seats and Team

Axial Racing

Daystar Products

4 Wheel Parts

Summit Racing

Crawl Magazine

Beebe

Kevin Carey

Larry Nickell

Larry Mcrae

Brent Goegebuer

Mark Turner

John Herrick

Jeff Johns

Scott Becker

Artie Nuttall

Harry Wagner

Rick Mooneyham

Nicole Johnson

Bryan Crofts

Mel Wade

Corey Osborne

Garrett Kittredge

Tony Pellegrino

Jake Hallenbeck

Ryan Taylor

Casey Currie

Bart Dixon

Del Albright

Mike Lasher

Kha Ly

If I forgot anyone I sincerely apologize as it’s been a heck of a week. I need a couple weeks to get our debt in order and than I will start working on the requested changes based on feedback from our teams.

My State of the Union Address.

My resolve has been tested many times, but I still believe we live in the best country in the world. Our Country offers many opportunities, for those who are willing to work hard.  History teaches us that this adversity we see in our government, is no different, than any other time in our history. In 300 years western civilization has come so far, at a large costs, but think about the excitement we have seen in just this Country we call home. I am reminded of what we can accomplish when I look at our past.

In a little over the last 100 years, we have seen the vast majority of our citizens climb from the pit of poverty, we have developed an integrated transportation, and communication network, and we have created a middle class that is able to raise their children limited by only imagination, and a desire to work hard. I think of families living in the late 1800’s and I wonder; could I have been an innovator, an entrepreneur, or even a homeowner? Could I have raised my daughter to attend a State University, put my wife through college, or experienced vacations and found myself in the position to pay for the well being of loved ones?

Technology offers us unlimited learning opportunities. Twenty one year's ago my wife and I made the decision to stop paying the cable bill and turn off the TV. Today we still subscribe to the simple philosophy that we should continue educating ourselves, and research for the truth. Work hard and do things to the best of our ability.  When I see a show on TV I see things most don’t. I see the subliminal message, I see the degradation of the father figure, and I see that lack of respect.  I see the violence, and how our youth becomes numb to it.

My Grandfather Harold Roach, just celebrated his 94th Birthday last week.

It is said that our Grandparents are the greatest generation, and I believe this to be true, therefore should we not aspire to live in the same manner? Refuse to buy into the partisan and dividing policies of the two party systems. One need only study history to see how backward and hypocritical it has become.  This is nothing new, its situation normal for the United States, and we still have the power if we are willing to exercise it. Be the change. Not tomorrow, or next week, but today. Don't wait for government. Lead your government in the manner you see fit.