And so you've become a business owner that doesn't want to do the business of running the business or don't even realize that you're doing it sometimes.

Absolutely.

And I think it's tied to two things.

One, I mean, you can't be good at everything.

And even though you know about things, because in corporate, you deal with accounting, you deal with finance, you deal with legal.

And so you've got some ideas.

But what you forget is that you had the ability and the luxury to just not worry about that stuff.

How did you leverage your background, your stories as a way to kind of build your brand and build your business? And how do you think others can kind of model their transition similarly?

Yeah.

We need to hire a professional CEO who has experience in the engineering and transportation field, who has managed major projects around the planet, give that CEO the authority to begin deciding where they can build a system given the funds that they've got, and we've got to empower the project managers to make decisions.

What we have too often in the history of Sound Transit is projects being put out to bid before they're c- completely thought through or investigated so that the politicians can demonstrate progress.

So we're putting this line out to bid, then we begin doing surveys subterraneanly, and if subterraneanly is a word, um, but we begin looking at where the utilities are and what kind of geological issues we might have, and as we encounter those, after it's already been bid and awarded, the project managers really don't have the authority to move the line or to make adjustments.

They have to go back to a political body that is entirely gonna make that decision on how it affects their constituents.

Let's hire some professionals, let's empower them, let's hold them accountable, and let's figure out what system we can deliver that will service the most people with the money we've already got.

Insane.

No, I mean, I- d- readers probably don't remember, or listeners, but, um, I was the chair of the Nongovernmental Organization Committee during the 1999 WTO event, and I will tell you overwhelmingly, most of the nongovernmental organization, NGOs, who participated in either public protest or with forums, 90-whatever percent were, were civil and performing in a way that was consistent with a civic obligation.

Bill, you got a, a list of stuff, like a pre-pack list, stuff that you do before you head down?

Um, I used to.

You know, this, 20 years ago, this was just such a different world it seemed like, and going to Mexico was so much of an adventure, you know, or it, it just felt like it at the time.

And now with phones and Google and, you know, maps and modern bikes and all this stuff, it's just a, a kind of a different thing.

I think as you know, Otto, uh, that can make you sort of relax and not bring everything that you need, 'cause you just think everything's under control, and Baja is just like San Diego but a little further south.

And then you get down there and you might have a trip like that and everything's seamless and it's good, or you might get down there and get way more adventure than you, uh, planned on.

So I kinda like to lean back towards those older days and be pretty prepared.

I've made the same dumb mistake a couple times down there.