People ask me all the time what is the most important thing I’ve learned in 15 years of self-employment. That’s an easy one: be agile. Trust your gut. Keep meetings short. Act on good ideas, don’t try the bad ideas. Make good decisions even if they upset people occasionally.
While this might work in business, this is exactly why I’d be a terrible politician, general manager, TV executive or middle manager at a big company. I just don’t do bureaucracy.
I realize these are pipe dreams and they’ll never happen. Still, I’ve been thinking about some weighty questions lately, and they seem like they actually have easy answers. For example:
Want to solve most drinking and driving problems? Mandate that all bars install breathalyzers, like Redbar in St. Francis did. If bartenders must be licensed to pour drinks and use their judgement on who to serve, then it should be the bar’s responsibility to install and calibrate breathalyzers. Subsidize cabs, too. You can add $10 to my annual property tax if it means that fewer drunk drivers are on the street. Speaking of which ...
Want to get elderly drivers off the street? Give them a behind-the-wheel driving test when they begin collecting Social Security, then every five years until they’re 75. Every year after that. If we can force 16-year-olds to drive carefully, then why not 86-year-olds?
Want to make sure Aaron Rodgers is healthy next year? If the Packers lose one more game, then bench him for the rest of the season. We all want the Packers to make the playoffs, but none of us want to see a broken bone stabbing through his shoulder pad, knocking him out for a long, long time.
Want to see our small-market teams sign better players? End black-out restrictions for viewing games on mobile devices. Price the access high and give that revenue to the teams with the contingency that it must be spent on players. Obviously, networks and cable companies will freak out, but any rational executive realizes that watching a game in your car or at the grocery store will not replace the TV experience; it will only build more loyalty to the viewing experience.
Want winter to suck less in Milwaukee? Have the City plow our alleys. Raise the taxes of people who live adjacent to alleys by $20 a year, which will more than cover it. Allocate the extra revenue to fixing potholes.
Want better cell phone coverage in Milwaukee? Loosen restrictions along the lake. None of us likes the eyesores of cell towers, but cellular technology works best when it’s triangulated. (I used to work in this industry, siting towers), and there are no towers in the lake. A few strategically-placed towers will make everyone’s calls work better.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
