A "human and intellectual capital" resumé

A “human and intellectual capital” resumé

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How do you help your family members write personal resumés that will help your family account for all of its “human and intellectual capital”? Here’s one model.

[If you haven't read my preceding post about Family wealth, unique abilities, and personal resumés, I think you'll want to read it. It explains the basic idea of the "human and intellectual capital" resumé that "includes everything the particular family member believes her or his best friend might know."]

After telling my family pretty much everything I wrote in my last post, I sent them the following letter:

I’ve taken the Kolbe test; I’ve used StrengthsFinder. . . . I haven’t done the full process that Nomura and Waller urge. BUT . . . Putting their book together with Hughes’ recommendation reminded me of a resumé I put together for [one of the charities we support] a couple of months ago when they asked if I would consider joining their board.

For some reason, I wrote up something pretty close to what Hughes describes, but probably not quite as well-organized and structured as Nomura and Waller suggest. I thought you might be interested in reading it. Perhaps it could inspire you as you think of writing such a resumé for yourself.

I’m attaching my “resumé” below.

Please feel free to give me feedback, too. (Nomura and Waller urge us to seek feedback from those who know us well: Does our “Unique Ability” statement match their perceptions? Is it complete? How could it be sharpened?)

I think, if and as we put together resumés for every member of our family, we will–as Hughes suggests–begin to recognize exactly how much real wealth is hidden within the people who make up our family!

******

I hope what I’ve shared–and the very personal stuff I write below–might excite and inspire you as much as it has excited and inspired me, first, to think about these things, and then, second, to communicate them with you-all.

I look forward, as Hughes suggests, to completing a Family Wealth “Balance Sheet” that will include the real value accounted for in all of our resumés!

Love,

Dad/John

I then attached the document I had created when responding to the non-profit organization’s request of me that I join their board. I had called the document, simply, “John Holzmann Biographical Information.”

I have to confess, I seriously question whether I should be so transparent here on the Strategic Inheritance Blog. But, in hopes that I might inspire you, here’s what I wrote:

From a functional/professional/historical perspective, you’d probably like to know:

Junior Class President, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School, Burnt Hills, NY, 1971-1972.

National Merit Finalist, 1973.

B.A. Philosophy, Michigan State University, 1977.

M.Div., Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia), 1982.

Minister of Evangelism, Bethel Christian Reformed Church, Paterson, NJ, 1982-1983.

Editor, Mission Frontiers magazine, worked closely with Dr. Ralph Winter, founder, U.S. Center for World Mission, Pasadena, CA, 1984-1989.

Staff member, Caleb Project (mission mobilization group), Pasadena, CA and Littleton, CO, 1989-1991.

Co-founder, editor, curriculum developer, director of communications, marketing and finance, Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd. (homeschool curriculum supplier), Pasadena, CA and Littleton, CO, 1990-present.

Author:

Dating with Integrity, in publication 1990-present (Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1990-1993; Word Publishing, 1993-2003; Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd., 2003-present).

The Church of the East, 1994 (Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.).

William Wilberforce: God’s Politician, 1997 (Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.).

Many other books for Sonlight Curriculum.

Board member, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO, 1998-2004.

Member, TAB–The Alternative Board (a mutual support organization of small-business owners), 1994-2006.

Due to our charitable giving patterns and our background at the U.S. Center for World Mission, Sarita and I are in strategic-level contact and interaction with Frontiers, Mission India, and Far East Broadcasting Company.

Current primary concerns and interests:

Completing my removal from day-to-day involvement in Sonlight Curriculum as an employee and full transition to involvement solely as an executive.

Discovering “what’s next” in the way of potential business building.

Writing a world history, a 20th century world history, a Christian “philosophy of science” for young people, and other books.

Increasing my practical involvement in various mission enterprises.

Completing a legacy plan for our family.

Personal information:

Born second in a family of six children, October 12, 1955, Berkeley, CA.

Lived in

Berkeley, CA–1955-1956

San Jose (Campbell), CA–1956-1960

Syracuse, NY–1960-1964

Stanford, CA–1964-1969

Schenectady (Burnt Hills), NY–1969-1973

East Lansing, MI–1973-1977

Flint, MI–1977-1979

Philadelphia (Glenside), PA–1979-1982

Paterson (Prospect Park), NJ–1982-1983

Pasadena, CA–1984-1991

Denver (Highlands Ranch), CO–1991-present

Married June 11, 1977, to Sarita _______ of Grandville, MI.

Four children (girl-boy-girl-boy) born between January 1979 and December 1986.

The three oldest are all married.

The oldest has three sons born between 2002 and 2006.

Broader family information (that contributes to who I “am” and how I view and interact with the world):

Father:

German immigrant of nominally Jewish parents, escaped from Germany to England just before the war started in 1939. –I haven’t figured out why this is important, but, for some reason, I’ve found each of the details I’ve mentioned impacts me.

Professed faith in Christ before coming to the U.S., but, in years to come, wobbled wildly and, for many years, refused to pray in Jesus’ Name. –Created huge tensions in our home; contributed to my commitment to “be honest.”

Electrical engineer with General Electric–San Jose, CA (1956-1960); Syracuse, NY (1960-1964); Schenectady, NY (1969-1980). –My dad exhibited a lot of the traits I’ve come to associate with electrical engineers, but, most especially, the analytical mind.

Ph.D. student at Stanford University, 1964-1969. –More geographical upheaval! But . . . at Stanford I went to school with professors’ and Ph.D. students’ kids: a rather intellectual bunch. Also, that was the Vietnam War and hippie movement era and Stanford–and, therefore, I–was at the center of anti-war protest and a lot of the hippie influence. Combine my dad’s analytical mind with the radicalizing influence of the Stanford campus, and you’ve put together someone (me) who isn’t afraid to ask questions. . . .

Passive-aggressive who normally views himself as a victim. –Combine these attributes with all the stuff above, and I became highly concerned about establishing and maintaining quality relationships on a foundation of honesty, integrity, and “full disclosure.”

Mother

Daughter of first- and second-generation Finnish immigrants. Grandfather was a church-planter in the Finnish Congregationalist movement. –Provided “other side” of huge tensions in our home growing up; major influence, spiritually, on me and my five siblings.

Siblings

Older brother is a church planter with TEAM in southern Germany.

Next younger brother, a Silicon Valley “geek,” founded and operates the International Christian Technologists Association, dedicated to the appropriate use of technology in evangelical missions.

Other brother and two sisters all seek to follow Jesus where they are.

Spouse (Sarita)

Daughter of hard-working, 8th-grade educated Dutch immigrants.

BS, Administrative Dietetics, Michigan State University, 1976.

Co-founder, curriculum developer, director of operations, Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd., 1990-present.

Highly introverted but in various ways and for various reasons is slowly being drawn out beyond her (old) normal comfort zone.

Partner and complement in virtually all things. We not only enjoy working together, but are very inter-dependent.

Spiritual faith realities:

First professed faith in Jesus when I was five years old.

From 5 till 12: “So I’m a Christian: Why don’t I feel any different? It doesn’t seem that my life is all that different from people around me. Why no miracles emanating from my life? Why all the hatred, anger and bitterness in my own life (in the midst of my [dysfunctional] family)? . . . Am I really a Christian? Is Jesus really inside of me?”

Several significant events occurred when I was 12 or 13 that seemed to ease the questions.

High school: I was reading Francis Schaeffer, C.S. Lewis, etc. I was openly, unashamedly, outspokenly Christian. Started and led a Bible club in our public school. . . .

Freshman year in college: intellectual faith crisis. I always attended church and was involved in Navigators. Bottom point occurred in February; in response to my extreme skepticism, my Navs discipler asked me (at the end of a long conversation, at about 2 in the morning): “So, John: Do you exist?” My answer, after about 45 seconds: “I don’t know!” An Easter sermon on evidences, plus . . . something . . . helped relieve my distress over the next few months.

Junior year in college:

Involved in Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ and Inter-Varsity, I sought to bring the groups together as much as possible and reduce the prideful sense of superiority at least one group seemed to feel over against its siblings.

Shocked and dismayed by the prideful comment of one of my friends in Navs, as we observed a large group of charismatic Christian guys and girls walk across the commons in our dorm area–something about how we (Navs) study and memorize Scripture–I replied, “But look how those guys care for their sisters!” (I was deeply dismayed by the “Navigator Never-Dater” mentality that left the young women, especially, feeling uncared-for by their brothers.)

Follow-through on teaching about forgiveness from Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts freed me in my relationship with my dad. . . .

Numerous faith-shaking experiences over the years:

1982: sociological issues led to my being told to leave the church at which I was minister of evangelism. I was told I had offended many people. In my last sermon, preached almost six months before we actually left the church, based on Matthew 18:15ff and Matthew 5:23ff, I pleaded with my unknown accusers: “Will you please come to me so I may be made right with you?” None of my alleged accusers ever spoke to me. I mentioned my severe disappointment to the senior pastor. “Did you really think anyone would come?” he asked. “Yes,” I said. “You’re crazy!” he replied. “I thought we believed in Scripture!” I said.

1987 (?): our (formerly unaffiliated, but by that point heading toward Evangelical Free) church split; the young adults (from a bit older than us on down) almost all left. We stayed . . . for a couple more years.

1994: While writing Sonlight’s Kingdom History course (”Church History” by another name), I was confronted by strongly alternative ways of interpreting Scripture . . . by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox apologists (including, for example, Elizabeth Elliott’s brother who is now Roman Catholic, and Francis Schaeffer’s son who is now Eastern Orthodox). “Does sola scriptura really work?”

1999-2000: Repeatedly slandered at major homeschool conventions around the United States by a leading spokesperson in the young-earth creationist movement; singled out in an article in his organization’s magazine as a supposed “Biblio-skeptic” because, out of a sense of integrity, I confessed, in the 1999 Sonlight catalog, I was “no longer able to hold to” a young-earth perspective the way I had previously believed (during our first eight or nine years of business).

2001: Two more situations in which self-confessed Christian customers vilified me in ways (mean-spirited back-stabbing) that were beyond my ability to square with Scripture. “Do ‘we’ really believe in Scripture?”

I seek to grow in grace and maintain faithfulness to God and to fellowship regularly with His people. I pursue the disciplines of the Christian life. At the same time, I will confess some real tenderness and tentativeness about my faith as a result of the “hard knocks” I’ve experienced through the years. Many, many years ago–probably when I was at Bethel CRC in the early ’80s–I formulated the idea of “Directional” rather than “Positional” faith: I am more concerned about the direction a person is headed, their trajectory, than their current position. “Do you find yourself desiring to be like Jesus? Do you want to know more about Jesus? Do you want to follow Jesus?” –Positive answers to questions like these, I sense, are usually more important than specific faith statements I (or anyone else) may make about Him.

John’s character:

John is intensely interested in and concerned about integrity–saying what he means and meaning what he says . . . and expecting similar behavior on the part of people with whom and organizations with which he deals.

Functionally, that means he speaks up quickly and forcefully–i.e., he will become highly confrontative–if or when he senses someone (or the group in which he is present) refuses either to address a truth “out there” or to speak the truth about what is happening “here.” Put another way,

He refuses to permit unacknowledged “elephants” to remain in the room.

John seeks to bring opposing people and parties together through mutual understanding.

John tends to avoid “group think” or pitting “our” side against “their” side. If he observes, in a group of which he is a part, a near-universal adoption of a certain mood or emotional feeling; or if he observes what he thinks may be a too-quick rush to affirm one point-of-view, he will often–almost as a knee-jerk response, it seems–place himself, emotionally, in the opposite mood or feeling and/or rouse himself to speak for the (or an) “other” perspective.

John asks probing questions. He is interested in “everything.”

John tends to prefer finding whatever is “good” and potentially useful in an idea or proposal; he does not automatically or quickly seek to identify what is “bad” or unworkable in an idea or proposal. Depending on the circumstance, then, one might characterize him as (positively) “a possibility thinker,” “good at research,” or (negatively). . . rather “indecisive.”

With all that, however, John is relatively merciless when it comes to communication barriers. He is quick to notice–and finds it difficult not to comment on–features or factors that hinder communication: use of jargon, grammatical errors, circumlocutions, and so forth. Indeed,

John is more acutely aware than most people of “environmental” factors and “background noise” that may distract listeners’ attention or cause communication difficulties. Not only is he aware, but he will turn his attention to identify these matters explicitly, and then address them. Thus, by way of examples:

When a room becomes too hot, John is usually the first person to attempt to adjust the thermostat, turn on a fan, etc.

If a sound system is too loud, too soft, provides too much treble or too much bass: John is often the first person to seek adjustments.

If a publication or video seems muddled in presentation, John often identifies non-verbal factors–visual, spatial, sequential, aural, etc.–that contribute to the problem . . . and he normally expresses his concerns. . . .

In these ways, then, John is a problem-solver.

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