What is Bob doing?

My background is in technology (www.bobbickel.com). Several years ago, the company I was with, Bluestone, had been acquired by HP. HP eventually decided to shut the division down, and it was a pretty difficult time - one of those times where you take time to step back and say "What is really important in life?" At that time, I hatched a plan that I am now fulfilling.

There were a couple of basic themes to the plan. First, I wanted to figure out a way to give back to people like people had given to me. Second, I wanted to be directly involved with these things. Third, I wanted to "be local" - meaning doing something that I could see directly in my own community.

I came up with two themes - running and education. I had run competitively in high school and college. My experience at Bucknell University was particularly life-influencing. It taught me the value of working hard, and working together as a team. So I decided to become a high school cross country and track coach. I've actually done this for the past several years at Moorestown High School. To go along with that, I wanted to make running something that was more pervasive in our community - so that more people could benefit from running and teamwork, just like I did. I also wanted to test out a change of career to move into teaching math at the high school level.

I set this little plan in motion back in 2002. I started doing part-time, volunteer coaching. I enrolled in a Master's degree program in Education at The College of New Jersey. I also continued to work hard in the technology business - eventually joining JBoss full time for a couple of years. When Red Hat acquired JBoss in 2006, I shifted my attention back to the plan.

Right now, I am deep in the plan. Here is the status (and I will write more about all of this as time goes by):

- I am still a volunteer assistant coach at Moorestown High School - helping Lorenzo Eagles with the distance program there. We have an amazing team of guys that work very hard and keep getting better and better.

- I am student teaching at Northern Burlington High School - working with Lauri DiDonato and Steve Malcolm, two great math teachers who are showing me how to teach the right way. This is a full-time gig from January - early May. And it is a blast.

- I have decided that I want to teach in my hometown - Moorestown. But I am going to wait until my younger daughter graduates in a couple of years. So this provides me with a bit of time before I become a full time teacher. So...

- I am opening a running store. Dave Welsh, who owns the Haddonfield Running Company and South Jersey Running and Triathlon Company and I have formed a partnership to open a new store - the Moorestown Running Company. We are targetting mid-May for an opening.

- And I continue to work with a couple of tech companies on a part time basis to fulfill past commitments.

Anyway, those are the highlights. I will fill in more as time permits on the details...

Comments

Ravi Shah said…
Greetings Bob - I'm a '93 Moorestown Grad and stumbled on your new blog. Looking forward to checking in from time to time - Good Luck with the change to education!
February 15, 2007 at 7:24 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ringside Winding Down

A year ago, a group of us met in a pizza parlor to discuss how we could bring the social web to every website and business. In January, we launched Ringside Networks with seed funding from Matrix Partners, one of the best VC firms in the country. By the end of March we released into open source an initial beta of our Social Application Server – a very ambitious project. We got some very positive reviews on our approach, our implementation and the need in the marketplace for every website to become social. We were ready for our Series A round of funding, and in late May we received a number of term sheet offers from the very best VC firms. As we were about to finalize our funding, one of the biggest non-evil Internet companies asked if we would have interest in being acquired instead. After a lot of thought and debate, we decided that the larger company would enable us to get our technology to market sooner and with more impact. The story sounds almost too good to be true. And it w
Read more

Capitalism vs. the Three Legged Stool

Image
Wikipedia defines: " Capitalism  is an  economic system  in which trade, industry and the  means of production  are controlled by private owners with the goal of making  profits  in a  market economy ." This definition has always bothered me. I prefer a different model where there is equal recognition of the three primary drivers behind the success of a company: Owners Employees Customers I like to think of it as a three legged stool, where each leg is as important as the other.  One gets too large or small and the stool tips over. The free market is supposed to take care of Employees and Customers.  Employees because the Owners will create so many jobs that due to supply and demand, employees will receive competitive pay.  Customers because if the owners are not building the right thing, then they can go elsewhere. As someone who has helped to build about 10 startup companies now, I have seen the power in making these three stakeholders equal partners.
Read more

Marrakech

Image
I just returned from a great trip to see Allison since she is doing a semester in Toulouse, France her Junior year. It is really cool to see your daughter grow up so well. We did a long weekend adventure to Marrakech. Allison has done a lot of studies about the French colonization of Northern Africa and some of the modern implications of that with immigrants to France. She was also supposed to be taking a course in Arabic, but alas the French are on strike so that class has met rarely. We stayed in a Marrakech Riad - Riad Dar Najat. This is a picture of Allison relaxing on their open lounge area on the top floor. Getting a good Riad is pretty important. Riad's are the equivalent of American Bed & Breakfasts. The streets in Marrakech are lined with walls typically without many windows. It is kind of hot and dirty. You open the door to the Riad and it is like an oasis! Open courtyard to the sky and typically three floors with a couple of bedrooms on each floor and an
Read more