Benton Crane

Before my wife and I made our four hour drive to Utah for Thanksgiving, we stopped at the library to find an audio book that would entertain us on the drive. The Johnstown Flood caught my eye because I was already familiar with David McCullough ( I heard him speak at BYU a couple years ago).

The book is a historical account of Johnstown Pennsylvania being flooded because the South Fork Dam broke in 1889. McCullough writes in such a way that you don’t feel like you are reading a history text book laden with boring facts. It’s not as fast paced as a novel, but McCullough keeps the story moving and for the most part kept my attention.

The story was especially fascinating to me because I’ve spent the past few months in Rexburg, ID; a town that was flooded when the Teton Dam broke. I’ve been dying to go through the Teton Dam Museum, but its hours are like a Bank’s–only open when I’m at work.

Back to Johnstown . . . I’m not going to summarize the story, but I do recommend the book, especially to anyone who loves history.

Share This

Things I’m extremely grateful for (I would fight and die for them):

• Liberty–I’m blessed to live in one of the world’s most free countries.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ–I’m grateful for its guiding principles as well as its ability to heal pain and change people.
• Brittany–I’m grateful for a wife who loves me and loves the Lord.
• Family–I’m grateful for parents, siblings, and even in-laws who all somehow put up with me.
• Friends–I’m grateful for the fun and the support they provide.

Things I’m grateful for (I would pay good money for them):

• Recreation–skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding, biking, hiking, camping, climbing, etc.
• Nice Cars–fast, refined, quiet, luxurious sport-sedans are my favorite.
• Motorcycles–nothing quite like a cruise with my wife up the canyon on a summer’s afternoon.
• Sports–the NBA playoffs are probably my favorite.
• Technology–electronic devices are cool, but the Internet is freak’n awesome.
• Books–careful, they are addicting.
• Movies–two hours where I forget all my stresses.

Things I’m grateful for but shouldn’t be:

• Maple Bars–I have a love-hate relationship with whoever invented that dang delectable.
• Tan Skin–It’s nice to look at and gives us confidence, but I guess it will kill us some day.

Share This

Earlier this week Ford Motor Co. flew me to their headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan to be interviewed for a position as a financial analyst. In total they brought in 150 potential recruits and called it the Ford Talent Management Conference. We were put through an array of different interviews: group, case, technical, and behavioral. Between the interviews we were given two awesome experiences:

1. First, we toured Ford’s proving grounds where we saw an array of future vehicles still clad in their camouflage coverings. We were then allowed a quick test drive in a Ford Fusion around one of the many test tracks. Finally, the proving ground experience reached its pinnacle as I was sitting next to a professional driver in a Shelby Mustang GT500 sliding sideways through turns–what MotorTrend reader hasn’t dreamed of day like this?

2. The other rewarding experience was a tour of the Rouge Factory. This is the factory where the F150 is built today, but its heritage goes all the way back to the Model T. The scale of this factory was enough to boggle my mind. It is huge!

Henry built the first Model T in 1901. In 1903 he started Ford Motor Company (he had already failed with two other companies). By 1913 he was producing the Model T on an assembly line that brought production time down to 98 minutes per car and lowered costs to the point where he could sell the cars at a price most Americans could afford. In 1916 the price of a new Model T was $360 (down from $850 in 1908). These accomplishments alone made him legend–he was the head of a wildly successful company that employed thousands and changed the way the world looked at manufacturing.

Henry wasn’t done. Frustrated by the company’s reliance on outside suppliers for things like steel, rubber, and glass; he envisioned a factory where nothing but raw materials came in, and finished cars went out. In 1918 he started construction on the Rouge plant. When it was finished in 1928, it had it’s own shipyard, steel mill, glass plant, and electric plant. It employed over 100,000 people! The Rouge had become the world’s largest factory.

At the conference’s end I was not offered a job, but I didn’t leave feeling empty handed. My mind was and is full of new inspiration–I was reminded that changing the world is possible.

Share This

BYUi has a tackle football program with eight different teams that all play each other nine on nine. Because I’m married to a BYUi student, they are allowing me to play. It has been fun to fulfill the childhood dream of suiting up in full pads and getting out in the middle of the action. At the same time it has also been quite humbling. I am by far the smallest guy on my team and one of the smallest in the league. None of my gear fits. My shoulder pads hang three inches off of each shoulder and don’t allow me to lift my hands above my face. My jersey is an extra large (better suited for a lineman). My pants are a size too big and sag off my butt like a child’s soiled diaper. My cleats are hand-me-downs from my younger, and much larger brother (they are a full size too large).

Because of my quickness (most of which is negated by my gear) my team put me at corner-back. I have the simple job of guarding the other team’s best athletes one on one in the open field. To this point, I have played in three games. During which, I’ve had two touchdowns scored on me, been beat on a host of different deep plays, missed a couple of key tackles in the open field, and been benched twice.

It hasn’t been all negative of course. I have made a couple of nice tackles and broken up a few passes. I’ve had a couple of shots at getting an interception, but both situations required me to catch the ball above my head. When I couldn’t get both hands up because of my shoulder pads, I had to reach up with just one hand and bat the ball down (still a nice defensive play).

So what’s the lesson I’m learning? This is the first time that I can ever remember being a part of an organization where I’m looked at as a liability instead of an asset. I hate it! I want to make sure that I’m an asset to every team I involve myself with.

There are three games left in the season. I’m trying to find some shoulder pads and cleats that fit. I’m going to play my heart out and do everything I can to be an asset.

Share This

As I mentioned before, my wife Brittany recently started her own blog at wordpress.com. I love the service and had only two worries with it:

1. I think that someday it could prove important to own the content of your own blog instead of leaving it to wordpress.com or whichever blogging service you use (I have nothing but a hunch to back that up).
2. I’ve heard that search engine optimization on your own name is much more effective if you have your own domain (once again I don’t know how true this is).

I just figured out that you can register a domain name through wordpress.com and apply it to your blog (you have to pay for the registration of course). You can also use any domain name that you own through another registrar.

I had already bought http://brittanycrane.com so I directed it to her blog then through wordpress I set it as her blog address. I guess wordpress.com will still be the true owner of her blog, but at least problem number two is solved.

Share This

Right after we got engaged.

Originally uploaded by crane.brittany

I have photos on multiple different computers. I have them on DVDs. I have a bunch on facebook as well as pyxlin (my private online journal). It’s time to consolidate. I know there are lots of different photo sites, but I’m choosing flickr because I can post photos directly to my blog, my journal, and facebook (these seem to be the places I need photos most).

This test post is for me to figure out how to blog using a flickr photo (this particular photo is of my wife and me right after I proposed).

Share This

Wordpress.com didn’t exist when I started this blog. My few friends who had blogs told me it is important to host your own so that the content therein is really “yours”. With Jeff Harmon’s help I set up hosting with BlueHost and started my blog using software from wordpress.org. The learning curve was horrible! I spent hours figuring out how to use themes and plugins. I’m not a programmer and I’m far from a computer guru, but compared to most of my peers I am a pretty advanced computer user. Now over a year later, it is time to update my Wordpress software, and even though I want the new features, I keep putting it off because I’m sure it will take me hours (after updating the Wordpress software there is a good chance I will have problems with my plugins and have to update those too).

My wife recently started her own blog, brittanycrane.wordpress.com, and because I had such a negative experience hosting my own blog, I directed her to wordpress.com. I couldn’t believe how easy and seamless it was. Updates are automatic. Themes and plugins are literally “point and click”. Normal computer users can figure it out!

I don’t know what the consequences of not truly owning the contents of her blog will be, but I’m confident that hosting her own blog would have deterred her completely from blogging. So in this case a blog hosted by Wordpress is better than no blog at all.

Share This

I met Jason Alba through blogging–we have yet to meet in person, but have stayed in light touch for over a year. He is the founder of jibberjobber.com, a tool for managing personal contacts in a career management context. So for example, I’m graduating next April and using jibberjobber as a way to keep track of the companies where I apply and the people within the companies who I interact with. The more involved I get in this job search, the more I’m glad I have Jason as a resource (imagine all the other relationships I could build if I were consistent in my blogging).

Jason’s book, I’m On LinkedIn–Now What??, is a quick easy read that packs some great ideas for an experienced LinkedIn user. Its greater value, however, would be for someone new to LinkedIn or someone who has tried Linkedin but didn’t see the value of it.

For me, the most valuable part of Alba’s book is the chapter on how to use LinkedIn as a tool for personal branding. I haven’t been consistent in my blogging, and need some other ways to build my personal brand on the internet.

The book is overpriced for a 100 page paperback ($19.95, but S&H brought it close to $26). I felt like I should be getting a nice hardbound book at that price. Once you get past buying a paperback book at a hardbound price, however, it’s easy to see that the content of I’m On LinkedIn–Now What?? has a value far greater than $26.

Share This

Keith Ferrazzi is a super networker who has the ability to keep in touch with thousands of people. Even when he was young, and before he made a name for himself, Keith had a knack for meeting and befriending individuals who most people would consider “untouchable.”

In the book Never Eat Alone, Keith shares many of the principles and tactics he uses to make and keep these contacts. One I really liked, is inviting people to your home for a dinner party. My wife and I frequently invite other couples over for dinner, and it has proved to be great way to build friendships. Keith helped me realize, however, that we should be inviting a more diverse group to our home (most of the couples we have over are students just like us).

Although I enjoyed Never Eat Alone and I gained a handful of insights, the overall principle that I took from the book is exactly what I got from Love is the Killer App: Relationships are based on giving. Except with Love is the Killer App, I gained some other principles to supplement that relationship building. So if you are pressed for time and have to choose between the two, go with Love is the Killer App (It’s a bit shorter too).

Share This

I’m currently reading Good to Great by Jim Collins. I found out about it through a recommendation from Neal Harmon. It is one of his favorites.

Collins and his team do an empirical study of a group of companies that made the transition from average to exceptional. They compare data from other companies in the same time periods and markets. They look for and report on the factors that appear to have made the difference.

I’m half way through the book, so I will wait until I’m finished to review it. But I will say, however, that Collins’s empirical approach is very refreshing. The book isn’t filled with theories and philosophies–only interpretation of data. The numbers tell the story.

Share This