Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, May 17, 2004.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic last week. I had received in the mail a package from a company we own stock in. One of those big, thick documents with lots of legalese writing for an upcoming shareholders meeting. I have a place in the attic where I save these things until, you know, I have time to read them over. Of course I never do, and after a few years, they become a fire hazard and I throw them away.

We don't own much of the stock, and it's not worth a whole lot now, anyway. But back in the day (four or five years ago), it was one of those high-flying tech stocks -- a big IPO followed by stock price doubling over and over. It's odd to think of a few years past as a different "era," but it truly was. I remember my accountant asking me about the stock. He asked if the company had a good business plan, if it was profitable, if it had strong executives. I just laughed. I said, "Does it matter?"

It was absurd and somewhat disconcerting for a Midwestern boy raised in a manufacturing environment where stuff is made and it either works or doesn't. In fact, "Midwestern" was used as something of an epithet by the believers of the new economy. "It's not the stable, functional, profitable product you have that matters; it's the idea of the future technological paradigm that will win market share that investors crave. Don't be so Midwestern."

But it was fun and exciting and I ate a lot of salmon in Seattle, so I look back on it fondly. There are some things I miss and some I don't, but I sure appreciated the experience. And if there's ever another era where bankers hand out gobs of cash for impossible tales of technological futures, I plan to be ready with a briefcase full of leveragings and synergies....