Back to the blog

The last time I wrote in this blog was over three years ago and at that point I merely pointed to the Eloqua Blog.  I left Eloqua on Friday the 13th and am now returning to this blog.  I thought I would start with my goodbye letter to my 'Feloquans' and then will probably move on to some musings on the adoption of our daughters which has been the greatest adventure of my life

Feloquans,

“My wife and I have been together for 26 years and she tells me that my clothing comes back in style about every eight years.  My sons tell me I went to school ‘back in the day’.  The TSA laughs at the shoehorn I pack in my carry-on”  If you weren’t here three years ago you probably missed that opening line in one of my favorite blog posts, Am I Old School?

While I did get the double pleats out of my pants, I still wear cuffs and the most played song on my iTunes account is Boston - Don't Look Back, “Don't look back, a new day is breaking, it's been too long since I felt this way.  I don't mind where I get taken the road is calling, today is the day”

My iTunes is screaming Old School at me.

The little band out of Boston reminds me that today I say goodbye to you.  But unlike the ode to the future by the incomparable Tom Scholz, I do want to look back.  A wise person once told me when leaving an organization you should contemplate three questions.  What have you learned?  What do you believe will happen in the future?  What do you hope for the people on the team?

What have I learned in my time at Eloqua?  Culture matters.  Culture really does eat strategy on a cold plate for breakfast.  Culture is the shared values of a group of people and when those values are good and right teams do amazing things.  Eloqua was, is and will always be about our customers and Getting it Done and Doing it Right.  Why Eloqua?  “We really do care about our customers being proud of their work.  It is why we exist and it is Doing it Right” – I wrote that to you after Eloqua Experience one year.  It was true then and it is true tomorrow.  My greatest lesson at Eloqua is that people want to be in an environment that honors honorable values.  When each of us believes deeply that doing the right thing matters we become incredibly motivated, passionate and achieve greatness

What do I believe will happen in the future?  Charles de Gaulle said, “The graveyards of the world are filled with the tombstones of irreplaceable men” Eloqua is bigger than any person.  The world of marketing is changing and Eloqua has the technology the world needs.  Oracle touches every corner of the earth and over 300,000 customers.  Through Oracle, Eloqua can impact marketing more than it ever could by itself.  I know that Oracle will continue to invest money, time, people and technology and greatly expand Eloqua’s impact.  Every legitimate business request we brought to Oracle has been funded enthusiastically.  Oracle is the accelerant to the goal we always had; to change the way the world does marketing.

What do I hope for the Feloquans?  Many people set goals worth attaining…few people live stories worth telling.  To quote Donald Miller in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, “Fear is a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life” I hope you live a story worth telling and you are passionate about what you are doing.  The path to passion is to know what you are doing, know why you are doing it, believe that it matters and be proud of your work.  Don’t ever settle for anything less.  Don’t ever be willing to let someone else write a boring story with your life.  Insist that the story you live has passion and remember that the greatest stories ever told are ultimately about someone who overcomes something to get what they want.  Run toward the obstacles and the challenges; if there is nothing to overcome; the story is dull.

I want to leave you with one final word.  Kinship.  Seven months ago at our kickoff meeting in Toronto we talked about kinship and I defined it as ‘when the things that hold us together are stronger than the things that can tear us apart’.  Ultimately at Eloqua what we have is Kinship. 

Kinship is Old School.

Thank you for letting me be a Feloquan.  This has turned out to be one of the greatest experiences in my life and I am grateful.  I have to bring this to a close or Nick Bell will start charging me for excess words…so I’ll end with some Old School Tom Petty off of Into the Great Wide Open,

“You and I will meet again when we're least expecting it.  One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face.  I won't say goodbye my friend for you and I will meet again”

PS – Many of you have asked me, “Alex – what are your plans?”  I have big plans.  On Monday, I plan on driving two little Ethiopians princesses that call me ‘doddy’ to school.  If you want to stay in contact I welcome the opportunity – I can be found at ashootm@mac.com or on mobile at 512.968.4503.