Mark A. Kendell · Believer, Founder, pilot, family man
Notes on faith, family, innovation and reason — from fifty plus years of building technologies and companies, a lifetime of looking up to the real "Controller" and how the cockpit seat that taught me to "fly the plan."
Preflight
I have spent most of my working life founding, buying, fixing and occasionally selling companies — original quick lubrication franchises, a pharmaceutical company, an aviation business, an Ai company, security technologies and now an entertainment company and a mental health company. The pattern held every time: the companies that flew well were the ones with a clear flight plan and a crew that trusted each other.
I learned very early that the same was true of me. This site is where I share the elements of my flight plan: what I believe, who I love, what I do, and the four cornerstones I try to build on. It's based upon my "personal constitution." Some of it is just ramblings. All of it is the view from where I sit.
The chart
A short biography, a personal constitution in seven articles, and the one-sentence purpose everything else answers to.
Constitution · Purpose → 02God, family and reason — and the four quadrants I use to check that none of them is being starved for the others.
Faith · Family · Reason · 4 Quadrants → 03Kendell & Associates, Previdence, Celeris Media, and the work of teaching what forty-five years of positions taught me.
The log → 04Integrity, stewardship, courage and gratitude. The four things I would rebuild a company — or a life — on tomorrow.
The four → 05Keynotes, workshops, firesides and classrooms on strategy, turnarounds, faith at work, and the four quadrants.
Topics & formats → 06The logbook. Short entries written when something on the ground or in the air seemed worth writing down.
Latest entries →07The areas where we have a passion about our giving and moving the needle.
Latest entries →4 Quadrants
The instrument in the middle of every panel shows whether the wings are level. I keep a version of it for myself — four quadrants, checked every week, none allowed to dip for long.
Prayer, scripture, and quiet. The quadrant that holds the other three level.
Presence over provision. The people who will remember whether I was there.
Reading, study, hard questions asked early. Faith and reason are not rivals.
The companies, the cockpit, and enough sleep to be trusted with either.
From the logbook
Every pilot learns that the inner ear lies in cloud. What it took me forty years to learn is that the same is true in a boardroom.
I have never seen a company recover from a problem its leaders were still describing politely.
Why a man who has run companies for forty years is starting a website on New Year's Eve, and what he intends to put here.
Speaking / Sharing / Teaching
I speak to founders, boards, congregations and classrooms about the things on this site. If one of them would help your people, tell me about the room and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right voice for it.
