Train reflections: Intern out!

Hello all!  My time at cascade this summer has been a blast, but for better or worse I have moved to a remote mountain village in Western Tottori Prefecture Japan as a Coordinator for International Relations with the JET Program.  The basic rundown of my new digs is that it's my job to promote awareness and understanding among cultures.  This month I've taught the "Hokey Pokey" dance to several pre-schools, and sang "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys as a part of an English lesson in the local middle school haha!

There's a lot I miss about Portland already, and cascade is a major part of that story, so I'd like to share a few closing remarks to that end.  The post was inspired by this article.

Glamourous Lifestyle
Working at cascade was a lot of fun, but defiantly not glamourous!  But you know what?  I was totally cool with that.  For example, one of my many important intern tasks was to fetch water for use in the camper style pluming system inside the train!  Good thing I spent over $100K on my education.  Had to do some serious calculations for that one!  In all seriousness though, we all pitched in on the grunt work, because in a small business, those jobs NEED to get done.  It's either that, or spend resources in a way that won't really help the company grow.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
These all use gas, cost money, and destroy the environment.  One of my favorite parts about cascade was the genuine encouragement to find a way to get to work that didn't require any fossil fuels.  Ben's habit of kayaking to work was always good fodder for jokes with my friends about how we should be put on an episode of Portlandia lol.  I loved riding my bike to work, and even more so, I loved that everyone at the company is on the same page and tries to do the same.  Not every company uses almost 50% of their office space for bike, kayak, wakeboard, and skateboard storage!

Dream Big
One of my main interests while getting my MBA from Willamette University was entrepreneurship, and Fritz is the real deal!  Working with him was truly inspiring and I'm really excited to follow brandlive's future development.  He's got such a clear idea of the purpose and trajectory for the service that he's landed some really major clients in just the first year of operations!  A significant portion of what I did this summer was to get on board about how this service works and who it benefits and provide a sounding board for Fritz.  I also spent several weeks painting a video studio in the storage rail car.

Business = People

It's no small thing that the CEO of the company responded this way to the following question:

Nick:  "So, why do you think cascade has been doing so well for so long?"
Ben:  "We've been REALLY lucky with the people we've hired.  They have been star performers and nearly all of them stick around for a long time."

A lot of companies fall into the trap of forgetting that they only reason products or services exist is because people make them happen and other people find enough value in them to buy them.  Ben's attitude was really refreshing and really shaped the company culture in a positive way.

Mata ne, cascade!

"Mata ne" is a phrase we use in Japanese to avoid saying "goodbye," but rather "until next time."  I finally have internet in my little mountain town, so feel free to drop me a line at nick@cascadewebdev.net!