I got very sad new last week, my friend and mentor Robert Hughes passed way. Robert had taken his life, as Ann, his wife, called it, at a "sacred spot along the Appalachian trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire".
To me Robert was one of my greatest mentors, both personally and professionally. Robert came to McGladrey to take over the e-business practice when he kindly took me under his wing and taught me the craft of consulting. Even today Lee and I use little "silly" idiomatic expressions that he used: when a person asks a question during a presentation and we have a slide for the question - "there are good questions and there are great questions. Great questions have a slide."
Robert was there when I did our first Roundtable for the Top 20 Mutual Fund Web sites. He helped structure and guide me through the process. At the day of the session he was very sick, but still came to the sessions. He could not run or participate, but his prep and presence gave me the confidence to successfully run the roundtable.
When I left McGladrey, in 1999 to start kasina Robert was very upset and I couldn't understand why. At the time I was thinking about my future and what lay before me. Now I understand that he was sad to see me go and that he could not mentor me in the same way as he had done for the previous two years.
Robert was an unconventional man. His daughter was struggling in school and he decided to buy a farm in Main and to home school her for one year. After that year she went back to Minneapolis and graduated from her school with honors. He seemed to always do things on his terms as he did with his daughter's schooling, with much success.
He influenced me greatly. The main thing he impressed on me was the thirst for knowledge. He was a furious reader of all kinds of literature. He introduced me to the value of reading as much business writing as possible to always be in touch with the latest thinking. This still sticks with me today.
He never lost his curiosity and drive for challenges. After teaching his daughter in Main, he wanted to move to NYC to be with his new love, Ann and her three girls. He again became my day to day mentor by joining kasina and becoming a principal in my firm. He decided to join a young entrepreneurial firm for much less money then he could have made anywhere else. Why? Because he wanted the intellectual challenge of being surrounded by young minds.
In the short time he was at kasina he had a huge impact on us. He taught us the importance of process and he helped us solidify our consulting process. But the most physically lasting impressions on kasina has been his guidance and management of our physical office space. He wanted to make sure that it served our specific needs and was an expression of our culture. Our clients always seem to express how much the office speaks to who we are. This is probably the best complement that Robert would like to hear for his accomplishment.
I am sad that I haven't thank him for the impact he had on my life. I am so sad about losing my friend and mentor and the world has lost a true "mensch".
