In Memory of Hamoodi

It was my first tour as a contractor in Baghdad, Iraq.  I was working on a Department of State (DoS) contract in 2005-2006.  The project was the Iraqi Justice Integration Project (IJIP) and we were developing a information technology system that would integrate the different stakeholders of the new criminal justice system.  We would work with the police, the courts, the Ministry of Justice, the prisons and social welfare agencies responsible for juvenile justice.  The objective of the program was to develop capacity of Iraqis, including developers of a computer system.  We hired local Iraqis on the team and taught them server administration, systems analysis, software requirements and development.  Hamoodi joined our team in December.  He was such a nice guy and happy-go-lucky.  Adam nick-named him Hamoodi and it stuck.

In May, Hamoodi went to prayers and his body guards were killed.  They took Hamoodi and savagely tortured him endlessly before ruthlessly killing him.  The team was very upset on the news of the death of Hamoodi.  It eventually led to the team falling apart and myself and most of the American contingent of the team being sent home from Iraq.  He was a good man.  We cannot forget there is true evil in the world.

Hamoodi is sitting in the middle of the team.

Beware of the feedlot

I first came up with the concept of “beware of the feedlot” during the dot.com bubble.  It is a variation of the “winner’s curse.”  I was living in Atlanta during the bubble and had just graduated from Georgia Tech.  I had worked a few years in IT and was a participant in several user groups and technology associations.  It was while I was hanging around these entrepreneurs and technology start-ups that I got to see the craziness of funding.  There were angel investors, first round venture capitalists and there were private equity funds.

An young entrepreneur would start his business.  He would realize quickly that he would need an infusion of cash.  He would bring on a partner.  Then they would go a bit longer and then realize that have a really big opportunity.  They would meet some nice people who were lawyers who happened to know other people that would be happy to invest in their business.  After a few steak dinners at Morton’s of Chicago and Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse the entrepreneur would celebrate signing a paper giving the company an infusion of cash of about $2 or $3 million.  He is feeling like he has won the lottery.  He has just entered the feedlot.

The feedlot is where cattle goes before the slaughterhouse.  For a cow, this is as good as it gets in life.  They get to eat as much as they want.  We know what happens next.

Well, the entrepreneur finds out he no longer owns the company and when the investors are unhappy, the entrepreneur can lose everything.  Now he has to keep his investors happy, something he never had to worry about before.  He has lost control.

Purpose of My Blog

The purpose of this blog is to share my expertise in Knowledge Management, SharePoint and sometimes other topics that I have a strong desire to comment on.  I have had the great pleasure of working overseas in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) , US Army in Europe (USAREUR) and Djibouti, Africa.  On the SharePoint Blogs, I have attempted to develop samples of documents delivered during a SharePoint engagement.  I have made sure all posts have had client-specific details removed and can provide a starting point for developing your own deliverable for a client.  I hope you enjoy this blog.