Yea! Ryan’s back.

At my work we recently had an abrupt leave of absence for an employee that I have great respect for. Our CEO pushed out a statement asking that we respect that employee’s privacy during this time and that we look forward to the person coming back to work.

If I am judging the email correctly it seems our CEO was being genuine in his hope that the employee comes back soon and on better ground.

I do not know the details of the abrupt leave of absence, however, I know the employee well enough to suspect something went on personally that needed to be prioritized.

For some reason, that person’s story made me think of new beginnings.

Essentially, our company is hoping for a new beginning for that employee.

Of course we hope for new beginnings in our own lives as well. We set up goals for the new year, pin up vision boards or welcome new additions.

My wife and I did the latter. We welcomed a baby boy this past month with the hopes and dreams of a future generation.

I have four children now, he is our grand finale baby, and I never tire of my hope and love for them.

I struggled when I first had children on how I would divide my love with more than just my wife.

The good news is there does not seem to be any shortage, it just multiplies with each child.

The hope you feel with a new beginning multiplies as well.

Why do we look at newness with such hope? Is it because it is a fresh page to write a future on? Are we free of mistakes and faults when new? Does the potential of things to come inspire us?

For me. I love the choice that is laid out.

My children have a choice to shape their life as they see fit.

And they may be in a position to one day to grant an abrupt leave of absence to an employee in need.

They will hope for new beginnings as well and I cannot wait to see what happens.

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Where will a vision take you?

Nowhere.

Visions are what Sherlock Holmes had when he was smoking opium; they’re what dance in kids heads before Christmas; they’re what the religious see on slices of bread and potato chips.

Visions come in two flavors — hopeful and executable.

Both may have a plan, but the first is missing a key ingredient.

Call it grit (currently popular term), tenacity or moxie.

Whichever you use, it’s the difference between

• rosy predictions, high hopes and self-deluding prophesies

and

• a founder and team that is well-planned, efficient, business-smart and fearless in the face of obstacles.

Executable means more than writing great code — in spite of tech people’s generally dismissive attitude to skills such as marketing, sales and even fiscal controls.

In the best case, executable means having a team member with cradle to grave product experience and another familiar with the initial market and growth markets — or at least a team that listens to advisors who do.

In short, a truly executable is vision is a complete business, with all the moving parts having equal value.

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The problem with generational labels is that one size never fits all—they are merely convenient designations.

As with any large group, negative attitudes and actions often get more attention and press than positive ones and I’m no exception.

Leadership’s Future is often about Millennials—their sense of entitlement, expectations, impatience, and the parental intervention that fuels it.

My Millennial friends kid me that I’m ignoring a large number of their demographic, although even they don’t claim that it’s anywhere near a majority.

But they do have a point, so I’m offering up a new term to designate those who are chronologically, but not psychologically, Millennials.

aMillennial, because placing an ‘a’ in front of a word nullifies its meaning (see a-6).

I ran into a great example of the positive at AARP’s u@50 contest.

It wasn’t the first place winner that blew me away, but the second.

Her words are an inspiration for us all and a good lesson to remember that people change as life changes.

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And then decide how to spend it.

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