Bryant Haines

So many people, when asked to describe themselves these days, seem to respond with "I am a [job title]." Oh wait, the one I here is "Actually, I am a [job title]." Not sure why, but everyone seems to introduce themselves with the word actualy and then to equate their personality and life to whatever job title they have on their office door or name tag. Lame. Oh, another way people describe themselves seems to be more fitting for a dating website than for a personal site. 'Six-four; tall dark and whatever...' Plus, I'm getting a bit gray, so I'm not sure the dark part works. If I have to describe myself, I would say I am a happily married (ok, ectsatically lucky) man and the father of four totally cool boys. As I said on the home page, I am also a serial entrepreneur and (truthfully) a workaholic.

So I guess I'll tell you a bit about my personal interests. I think they come in a few different categories. Anything and everything with my sweet wife. Family activities. Church callings. Hobbies. Wannabe hobbies. Work hobbies. and things I think are really cool but have zero capability to do. Make sense?

Personal interests

I would be remiss if I didn't admit that the things I spend the most time on are some of my greatest interests. I get some of my biggest kicks out of everything outdoors, in the shop and in my home office. I am an avid camper and actually prefer rustic or primitive camping to a cramped camp site with cars parked next to tents. My wife and boys also love camping, so we make it a regular happening - usually with at least one week-long campout a year. I also enjoy working with my wood tools out in the shop (Laura calls it a garage or something like that). Of course, much of the time I spend using my tools is on repairing or remodeling some part of the house, but I enjoy it. Admitedly, I probably spend more time on my Mac than in the shop though. One of my new wannabe hobbies is RC planes. I'm no good at it yet, but it is a lot of fun. I currently have tow electric planes and both of them have a lot of tape and wire on them. Proving my mastery of geek-hood, I am in the process of attaching a digital video camera circuit to the belly of one of my planes. I'll post the video here if I can get the darn thing up high enough and back down without a catastrophic and sudden disassembly.

Community interests

I am fairly engaged in my community. My wife and I built and maintain the website for the Touchstone home owners association. (OK, she is the HOA Secretary and the PTA President and the church Primary leader, and tons more and I can't compete). I also recently served as the chairman of the City Protective Services sub-committee for the Charlotte City Council's Privatization and Competition Advisory Committee (PCAC). That was a lot of fun and very engaging. But I think the community is bigger than the street I live on or even the city I live in. I am a long-time member of the Congressional Business Advisory Council, where I participate in shaping the laws and policies around small business. I hope to some day (once my young boys are a bit older) serve in a more public role. But I'm not waiting until then to start making a difference. Politics is one of my favorite hobbies. (Go Mitt 2012!)

My name is Bryant and I'm a Workaholic

There, I said it. I am a workaholic. I love what I do. I througoughly enjoy taking on huge projects with tremendous challenges and great teams. I enjoy developing new solutions to complex problems. I get a kick out of defining new processes or methodologies that fundamentaly alter (and improve) the way business is done. I thrive on the opportunity to participate - at least as a civilian - with the United States military on the many projects I get t do there. I am always working on my next idea, business concept or partnership. That's me. And Laura and the boys are more patient with all that then I have a right to ask for. They are awesome, and I think they are my greatest personal interest and the most important thing in my life.