Excellence is Not An Outcome

September 8, 2025

Good morning! Coming to you this morning from Without A Vision Consultancy’s summer headquarters in Starboard Cove, Maine. We marvel at the gentle progressions of the colours in the sunrise just as California is getting tucked into bed the night before. The recipient of communication is, de facto, the best evaluator of its quality.

• Great leaders know excellence is not an outcome, but a standard.
  • Excellence isn’t perfection; it’s progress.
  • It’s choosing to do the small things with intention, again and again, up to a certain standard.
  • A standard is what good looks like.
  • Great leaders define what grrrreat looks like — and then continually strive toward it.  (Informed by Eades)
  • And, it bears repeating:  What gets measured gets done… be sure you’re measuring the right things while using accurate data.
  • Know WHERE your data come from, and don’t fudge your data.  It can be so tempting to fudge your data.  Don’t.
  • As Sylvan Bromenschenkel was known to say, “The truth is ascertainable.” 
• We are just one month away from the extinction of the human race if the farmers of the world decide to throw in their towels.
  • Many humans are woefully ignorant of this reality and the rest of us fail to pause and reflect often enough.
  • We have a sacred covenant with those who produce our food.
  • If the 6% of farm workers worldwide don’t get out of bed and go to work, the rest of us won’t eat.  Simple as that.
  • And, in the United States, it’s only one percent of us who farm…  99% of us trust the 1% to produce our food — and we rarely thank them or think about them.
• Do you pray before meals — or start your meals with some sort of reflection based upon gratitude?
• Do you eat to live — or are you like me and you live to eat?
  • The latter is not always a good thing, but it is very satisfying and fulfilling.
• I’ve been accused of including butter as a food group.  My love of that food item started at a very young age.
  • Butter on the corn, butter on the toast, butter on the fresh bread, butter on the garden vegetables, lobster dipped in butter (and lemon), butter with the soft-boiled eggs, butter on the pancakes, butter (mixed with honey) to treat a cough, Homemade Hollandaise, Bearnaise…
    • (Lamentation:  It’s not Bearnaise if you don’t have an ample amount of tarragon in it — and rarely does it when you order it at a restaurant.)
• Which reminds me to thank all Sweet Corn growers, especially the Janson and Scholl farms near Buckman, MN.
• I learned lots about food, harvesting it, and preparing it on the farm.
• Though we were poor we never went hungry.
  • My parents must have prioritized food because we always had meat, bread, butter, cheese, milk, and plenty of fruits and vegetables.
  • I learned about flavour and spices at a very young age, notwithstanding my parents’ pension for the basics:  Meat, Potato, Gravy, Smooshed Green Beans.
    • A perfectly-made and generously ladeled gravy, including the burnt flour & lard variety, will greatly enhance any farm meal.
  • I introduced my family to the joys of more flavourful chili — with green bell peppers added to my Mom’s recipe.
  • I think I introduced my family to Italian Spaghetti (as it was called by midwesterners) at about age eight and fixed it often to be enjoyed with fresh homemade bread slathered with butter.
• I learned how to cook for huge crowds at Boy Scout camp; Kay Featherstone prepared three meals a day for hundreds of kids all summer long — and was never late.
  • She was up at 5:00 AM preparing the pancake batter from scratch, and then for the next two hours she managed two flat tops with about 24 perfectly-round pancakes frying on each one… all the while prepping ingredients for noontime lunch and that night’s supper.
  • When the bell rang at 8:00 AM and the boys rushed into the dining hall, all were met with stacks of steaming-hot pancakes, soft butter, and hot syrup… and never-ending seconds.
    • Butter in those days was given away by the government and so it was abundant!
  • I watched, took thousands of mental notes — and later in life applied what she unknowingly taught me.
  • Most of what she taught and demonstrated were attitude, optimism, leadership, passion, planning, preparation, flexibility and resolve.  And, a little bit of courage.
    • (Anne Midas, our school cook, taught me more about all of this — and, how to enjoy limitless crab legs — and a delicacy known as Toasty Dogs.)
  • On Thursday nights at our camp we would plan and prepare an outdoor chicken bar-b-que for hundreds of guests — regardless of the weather, which was sometimes nasty.
• John Thompson taught me the most important thing about food:  Procure the best ingredients and then don’t screw them up.  (So true.)
• My second Mom, Lois Oelslager, taught me the joys of the midnight schnack on a budget.
  • She would pull a dozen or more simple but tasty ingredients out of the refrigerator late at night and each person around the table would build a sandwich.
• Bob Oelslager, my second father, taught me how to drink martinis – just one at a time.
  • Doc Oelslager also taught me about foraging long before Euell Gibbons wrote his book.
    • Chris Schellinger is probably the Upper Midwest’s best forager in this modern era.  Plant AND animal.
• On a hot summer evening at camp in 1974 my best friend, Bob Ward, taught me about enchiladas.
• Later that same year Bill Sallee taught me about Chili Verde.
  • Both of those foods have been at the center of my life ever since.
• Authentic Jambalaya is very difficult to source and so you have to make your own — and I do, but my family stopped liking it, so I don’t make it very often any more.
• Larene Hark taught me to make cracker ball soup.  (And she just died; may she rest in peace.)
• ‘en in a Pot on the griddle is a crowd pleaser; I learned about it at a restaurant in Chicago — and now I think mine might be better than theirs.
  • Among the secret ingredients?  Piment d’Espelette from a micro region of France
• I was introduced to fine dining by Mimi and Dick Bitzan – and to the deliciousness of prosciutto, balsamic vinegar, oysters, roasted tomatoes, and salted nuts.
• My Mom and James Beard taught me how to make bread — James through his book, not in-person, though I wish.
• Mama Leone taught me the style and the substance behind her famous quip, “Give them good food and plenty of it!”
• To the credit of my friend, coach, and mentor, Jim Sexton, I’ve developed amazing skills on the Weber Charcoal Grill (don’t ever buy another brand!).
  • Among the secrets:  Texas Red River Pecan — and, less charcoal is almost always better than more, unless you’re grilling a steak.
• From among our children, our daughter, Rebekah, probably prepares meals for her family the closest to how she grew up.
• Our son, James, and his talented India-born partner, Liyah, are experts at preparing and serving Indian foods; we have been beneficiaries a few times.
• My wife is a much, much better baker than I because she is precise and follows recipes.
  • The only recipe I follow is my Mom’s peanut butter cookie recipe, still in her handwriting.
    • I’m told it produces the best cookies ever.
• I started an organic sourdough starter in the Minnesota north woods on July 20, 1976 and it is still working; I’ve shared it with a few people.
• I wish I were better at growing tomatoes and other vegetables; nothing compares to the flavour, texture, and taste of those foods from back on the farm.
  • Our daughter, Ana, is demonstrating talent in this area — especially heirloom tomatoes… worth a 1,000 miles road trip to eat your fill of those fruits.
• Our son, Andrew, is an expert at Michelin dining and at replicating it at his own house.
• Our Leah and her Andy are experts at Pho and at surviving exorbitantly high grocery prices in rural Alaska.
• Ice Cream will almost always help to ameliorate any ailment or malady.
• My best meal of all time?  Probably Night #2 of our honeymoon when the two of us shared a multi-course fondue experience paired with fancy wines at The Lowell Inn.
• I’m always in pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee.