Pangolin execs driving exotic automobiles? Just incase you were wondering...

[Vidal Wolf]

Hey Bill!
Im very glad your son is ok. thats all that matters.
At the end of the day, a cars just a car. I hope you drive a car you feel safe and comfortable in, no matter what it is.
Its no ones business anyway.

-Nate.

[JohnYayas]

I for one think that you owe not a single person any kind of explanation. This is ridiculous that you would begin to have to explain yourself.

That was pretty much my initial thought. But, in reality, people are judged on the cars they drive, their hair style, their business practices, their voice, their wives, etc, and then they gossip about it. That's a dark part of human nature than I don't particularly like but like anything else, it exists. The difference in this case is that the talking-behind-the-back got back to the person it was about. My very first SELEM I happened to be walking at the wrong place at the wrong time and happened to hear a person joking negatively about me and the group of people around him laughing with him. I'm not saying people at SELEM are insensitive; I'm saying this sort of thing is happens all the time. So, my only response is, and I am joking when I say this of course:

[mixedgas]

RANT MODE ON
!
The first thing you hear from WRB or I when we talk about each other is that we often agree to disagree, but usually we see a lot of things the same way, just express them differently.
~~
However when I've visited Orlando on other business, he's usually in the office at 9 or 10 PM working late. I know, I've bought him a late dinner at a modest Boston Market down the road, because its the only thing close to his office that is remotely healthy. I finally had the chance to turn the tables and buy him a dinner for once.
Usually he's funding a table of Pizza for us folks who go to a conference. But I had Corporate Per Diem for that week and was not going to take no for an answer, even though he tried.
~~
I also know I could not reach any of my past Employers at 2:30 in the morning short of a death at the plant or campus. However once upon a time two of us laserists were working on a "crash" project with a new Pangolin Intro system that ran out of cues. (We burned 730 cues in first two minutes of Song) One of Bill's minions picked up the company phone, and soon we were speaking to Bill as well. Five minutes later we were editing cues again. Contrast that to the fact that I'm working on a 170,000$ Confocal Laser microscope today. And if you think I have tech support for it outside of business hours, or during lunch, your dreaming.
~
~
Moral of the story, He EARNS his pay. He also employs about twice the number of Loyal Minions he needs. He could run lean and mean, push his employees to the limits, use contract engineers, and still make a profit. He chooses not to go the more profitable way. Remember, his cost per employee is at least 2.5 times the employee's salary.
~~
In fact I worry that he may work too much, but that is not my call.

I know for a fact that he is always feeding money into growth and R&D. R&D is not cheap, my current employer estimates the net cost of my doing R&D for them at over 100$ an hour. I only see a fraction of that.
~~
One thing I will not disagree with is the choice of a Honda or C class..
~~
Seven years ago a teenager T-Boned the rear of my then early Seventies Mom in her Civic. Mom had no place else to go but in a Ditch, and she rolled it onto its roof, then it tilted back over and she could get out. When I saw the crash site, I feared the worse possible outcome. Mom came out with only a few bruises and a nasty headache. Three weeks later "Black Beauty" was back on the road, and went on to serve us for another five years. Mom had named it that for a reason. It was the first car she had totally bought and paid for herself. The A and B pillars were barely distorted. It was that strong.
~~
Three years ago I got rear ended in the Chevy Cruze. End of wonderful touring job at twice the pay that I work for now, because of the long term injuries.. I'm just now getting so I do not need to see a chiropractor, and I took half the impact that Mom did. My seat tilted five degrees forward, bending my back in a un-natural way. The shock wave from the crumple zones was passed directly to my lower back. Contrast this: Mom's seat didn't move, and she claims she barely felt anything.
~~
So Mom just gifted me a one year old Honda. Anyone got a problem with her passing me a car instead of the money being burned up in taxes upon her death? From her point of view, I'm a heck of a lot safer in the Honda..
~~
If you think owning a nice, long lasting, reliable car or a safe car is just plain wrong, your a hypocrite.
`
I spend one third or more of my business day in that car. I'm often 750 miles from home in it. Should I therefore only be entitled have a 0.9 litre three, cylinder engine and no AC? I'm often out on the Interstate doing 75 for seven hours on business. Should I only have one that crumbles to bits and explodes if a Ford Pinto just bumps it??? (See Top Secret!)
`
Should I only have 99.5% car reliability because I'm the middle guy in the scheme of things? 99.5% reliability in a business year is three or four full days of downtime, when my employer was billing 750 to 1500 a day plus expenses for my time. That's 3100 to 6000$ of net sales lost because of a cheap car. Worse yet, considering the systems cost to our customers, that could have been 800$ to 15,000$ of lost time for them. Those numbers are based on one of my past employers, that would be the real cost, not counting the cost of a rental car or a 1500$ last minute flight, because downtime is MONEY.

~~
As for executive compensation, we all love to hate the CEOs, but keep in mind good ones create jobs. My last CEO yelled at me when I sent him a memo to put me in a cheaper hotel and give me the 60$ difference as part of my pay. He explained that good employees should be pampered, they are happier, more productive, and I could cram my 44$ Motel Six where the Sun didn't Shine. He had a point about better hotels having greater consistency in their service and less problems. He was right.
~~
My point is, we almost all depend totally on Pangolin at some point in our Laserist careers. Why should we allow the Pangolin CEO or his dependents or his programmers to be subjected to excess stress, plus a cheap car that might collapse in a crash? This is why Trump and Clinton's personal health is such a big deal... You loose the leader, you can lose the game long term.
~~
Whoever is complaining is probably very young, has too much time on their hands, and probably should be out networking to gain more laser show work instead of surfing FACE-ACHE. He/She/It also needs to take ECON 101 and ECON 102 and learn about the "TIME-VALUE" of money.
~
~
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the minimum cost of raising a child born today to age 18 is in excess of 250,000$. That doesn't include college. The difference between a low end Honda and a low end Chevy is only about 1300$. 250,000 / 1300 = peanuts compared to the overall cost of the kid... And your Kid is the most priceless thing in the world.....
~
* https://youtu.be/-9GGDOUDLhc?t=7~

!
Steve

[flecom]

As staging for a Facebook photo, my wife took a picture of me handing him the keys. The picture was posted in Will's private photos. Nevertheless, someone at SELEM (and subsequently in a recent Facebook post too) apparently thought it was me giving him the keys to my Mercedes... There's jumping to conclusions for you...
Attachment 50807

I am not sure that's what people thought, I was shown the picture and told it was you giving your son a Mercedes... (this was at SELEM) and it was amusing since you always say nobody drives a Mercedes at Pangolin... (which is a stretch because nobody mentioned if he worked here, and I kind of doubt he does? no idea)

realistically I don't think anyone at SELEM meant this with malice just a "haha" thing that passed immediately... and I don't know if people were aware of WHY (I was not) he was getting a new car...

I am glad to hear he is ok!

as far as Facebook, well, it's the internet



anyway, even if you did drive an expensive car, who cares? I don't think success is something to be ashamed of

haters gonna hate!

[White-Light]

There's obviously a lot of bullsh*t being flown about by some jealous people if the alleged rumours exist / are to be believed. I can confirm everything Bill has said about his son. At the time I was having feedback conversations with Bill about improvements to the software and he told me in confidence about the accident and showed me the pictures. It was within a few days of it happening. I never disclosed it to anyone as it wasn't my place to do so. But I can absolutely confirm this accident to be true and we had a conversation about how his son was progressing in hospital.

As for nice cars, even if the Bill was driving a nice car, (I don't know what he drives, although I do vaguely recall something about an old Toyota being mentioned during some conversation), so what? He's the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. Surely he's entitled to a nice car for either himself or his son?

Finally, if people knew the hours he put in, they'd be less jealous. I've had many a skype / email conversation with him at 3 or 4am US time, when he's been in the office working overnight, having previously worked all day the day before. Try and even speak to any other CEO for help or feedback at any time of day, never mind 3 or 4am! I doubt you'll get past the secretary during office hours, and I can guarantee you won't find the CEO there in the middle of the night!

[flecom]

But I can absolutely confirm this accident to be true

I haven't been privileged to the drama going on (thankfully I seemed to have missed it) are there seriously people denying the accident even happened? if that's true... man... that's just shameful

[White-Light]

I haven't been privileged to the drama going on (thankfully I seemed to have missed it) are there seriously people denying the accident even happened? if that's true... man... that's just shameful

I don't know to be honest. I just read one or two posts above and noticed that Bill was being forced to bring his son's accident into the public domain to apparently defend himself over his alleged profits.

[daction]

you don't have to explain yourself to me .
Thanks for the free update.

[kecked]

you don't have to explain yourself to me .
Thanks for the free update.

Well said. I know of very few people regardless of position more giving in every way then bill. To those who started this don't introduce yourself to me should we ever meet. You'll need dental work.

[masterpj]

I saw the issue going on on facebook. I found it weird that cars even got brought up in the first place (not knowing where it was coming from). What you own and do and have in your private life outside of your company should be nobody's business. That being said: You run a successful and very active company who is hard at work: progressing, developing and offering software and hardware for clients. The success results of this should be more then deserved! We live in an entertainment industry where some make hundreds of thousands and several millions a year. Undeserved? I think not, they create work for me as does your company. Heck thanks to your company I am playing with the big guys myself now gaining interest from the owner of LOBO himself and working together with companies like Future weapons, Arctos, ER productions and ex lead artist at lightspeed design! I'm super greatfull!

Bill is a hard worker, I was one of those lucky people that got to intern there.. Bill works LONG.... really long hours. I heard stories of him just sleeping in the car instead of driving home late... that kind of long.

Anyway I never had a bad vibe about it, your company has been quite transparent related to everything and very social on a personal level which not every industry has the luck of experiencing.
I'm glad your son is ok, you cannot replace him but the car you can.