My Life Lessons - The BurgeCast

Jeff Burgess opened Microsoft Word to write a blog post and found Copilot waiting there to do it for him. He never asked for it. He never wanted it. And he has thoughts.

In this episode, Jeff takes on the quiet arrogance of technology that assumes you need assistance before you've typed a single word. He's not anti-technology; he ran a hardware company for 25 years and watched the computer industry transform from something you could touch and feel into something that increasingly wants to think for you. His problem isn't with the tool. It's with the assumption.

From grade schoolers who are handed a copilot before they've learned to think independently, to software companies that default to on and dare you to find the seven steps to turn it off, Jeff makes a simple case: never insult your customer by assuming they can't do it themselves. Make the feature available. Don't make it mandatory.

This one came straight from memory, no notes, no AI, no Copilot. Just a cranky old man with a point worth hearing.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Jeff Burgess and Mike McHugh coached Little League together for six years. They had dinner with their families, watched their boys grow up, and became the kind of friends you don't have to explain yourself to. Then one morning at a Steak 'n Shake on the way to a University of Illinois football game, Mike started telling a story about a basketball camp in 1974, and Jeff's jaw hit the table.

In this episode, Jeff tells two stories that turn out to be one. The first is how a Cub Scout Rainwater Regatta in 1997 introduced the Burgess and McHugh families, thanks in large part to Liz McHugh's spectacularly honest first impression. The second is how Jeff and a fellow camper jumped a fence at Bucky Badger Basketball Camp at the University of Wisconsin in 1974 to sneak into a soft core theater, only to return and find Coach Paulus waiting in the lobby with their bags already packed.

Twenty-six years between those two events. Ten years of friendship before either man knew they had lived them both. What are the odds?

This is a warm, funny, and genuinely surprising episode about the connections that find you when you aren't looking, and the friendships that only get better the longer you have them.

Rest in peace, Liz McHugh. You were loved.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Jeff Burgess built a $20 million customer relationship from the ground up, thought about them day and night, inserted branded sterile wipes into their server shipments during COVID, and then handed them a $5 million deal by honestly recommending their software over the competition. Three months later, he found out they had cut him out entirely by accident when their support team sent a return request to BCD out of muscle memory on a server BCD never built.

In this episode, Jeff tells the full story of what happens when passion in a customer relationship becomes a one-way street. From the early days of building customized surveillance servers that outperformed anything else in the market, to a contract, a voluntary concession, and an eventual betrayal that wasn't even delivered with the decency of a heads-up conversation.

This isn't a bitter episode. The passion had already been gone for a year by the time it ended. It's something sharper than that: a clear-eyed warning about what it costs to love a customer more than they'll ever love you back, and why no relationship, no matter how deep the history, is worth more than the integrity of the people on the other side of it.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Somewhere over the Atlantic, somewhere between a too-narrow first-class seat and a four-hour Yes playlist, Jeff Burgess did the math. At 68 years old, if 90 is the target, three-quarters of his life is behind him. His verdict: zero complaints.

In this episode, Jeff steps away from business and gets personal. Four kids who turned into four thriving adults. A wife he met on a blind date who has since kept him alive, managed his meds, and remains, by his own account, the most important decision he ever made. A 15-month-old grandson he hopes to take to Cubs games and out for ice cream with nothing to say about the game. A stroke in 2020 that he survived. A book that was supposed to cleanse his system and instead gave him a second career.

This is a quiet, honest, and unexpectedly moving episode about purpose, memory, and what it means to still have 25% left to fill when you've already lived a life most people would envy. Jeff isn't winding down. He's just getting started on the next part.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Jeff Burgess never had time to micromanage. He had a company to run. And it turned out, stepping back was the best management decision he ever made.

In this episode, Jeff makes the case for the hands-off boss, not the checked-out one, but the leader who trusts people enough to let them work, then gets out of the way. He shares how his sales team eventually stopped asking for guidance and started sending him emails about deals he didn't even know they were working on. He took that as the highest compliment possible.

Jeff also takes on one of the most urgent issues facing managers right now: how to handle the AI conversation with your employees honestly. Spoiler: they're already scared, already looking at job listings, and the last thing they need is a chest-thumping team meeting about how great the transition is going to be. Tell them the truth. Have the severance ready. Treat them the way you'd want to be treated.

This is a straight-talking episode about trust, leadership, and why the companies that gave people room to breathe almost always outlasted the ones that didn't.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Jeff Burgess was the face the customers saw. But behind him were people who made everything work, and this episode is their story.

In this episode, Jeff pays tribute to three women from his earliest days in the computer industry: Isabelle Drake, the purchasing agent and fellow Cubs fan who chased him down hallways yelling "Jeffrey" just to give him order updates; Helen Jendroka, the devoutly Catholic billing clerk who once invoiced a customer for 14 cartons of eight and a half inch floppy dicks instead of disks (and whom nobody had the heart to correct); and Donna Panfil, the inside sales manager who kept pushing for Jeff's promotion even when the company owner said no.

This is a warm, funny, and quietly moving episode about the people who rarely get credit, the ones without whom the customer-facing success story simply doesn't exist. Jeff remembers their monthly lunches at Palm Court, their quirks, their loyalty, and the forty-five years that have done nothing to dim the memory of any of them.

Rest in peace, Isabelle Drake. Rest in peace, Helen Jendroka. Rest in peace, Donna Panfil.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Jeff Burgess landed in the computer industry in 1979. He sometimes wishes it had been 1975. Then again, maybe not.

In this episode, Jeff traces the winding, unplanned path that dropped him into a warehouse at TechAids Industries at exactly the right moment, when technology was just sexy enough to consume him, and when his obsessive desire to learn every packing list and receiving ticket could actually mean something. Two years earlier, he argues, none of it would have stuck.

From Bill Gates founding Microsoft at 19 to IBM's 55-pound portable computer, Jeff walks through what was actually happening in the industry during the years he missed, and makes a compelling case that the timing he got was the timing he needed. The pot, the failed college trimesters, the string of warehouse jobs, and his father's Sunday sermon all turned out to be part of the setup.

This is an honest, funny, and surprisingly sharp episode about the difference between a head start and the right start, and why staying put when you want to walk out is sometimes the best career move you'll ever make.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Anyone can throw a price on a piece of paper. Jeff Burgess never did. He told a story. That story was the why factor, and it opened doors that numbers alone never could.

In this episode, Jeff traces how a reputation built on finding anything for anyone became the engine behind decades of deals, from convincing two competing national distributors to sign him up on the same day, to flying to Houston with his banker to explain a fourteen million dollar sale of Hewlett-Packard goods back to Hewlett-Packard. Yes, you read that right.

The why factor wasn't just a sales pitch. It was the answer to the question every bank, every distribution partner, and every new customer was really asking: why you, why now, and why should we care? Jeff always had an answer ready, and that preparation is what separated him from every other schmuck with a proposal.

This episode ends with a challenge for everyone, not just salespeople. What's your why? What makes you tick? Whatever you hope to build in life, have that answer ready. You may have been preparing for that question your whole life without knowing it.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

AI was born at an academic workshop in 1956, the year before Jeff Burgess was. Seventy years later, it's a household name. The question Jeff is asking isn't whether AI works. It's whether we still know how to think without it.

In this episode, Jeff takes aim at AI dependence, starting with sixth graders who are taught to lean on it before they've learned to think for themselves, and working outward to the staggering environmental cost of the data centers powering it all (millions of gallons of water a day, with consequences nobody will understand for decades). He's not anti-technology. He's against the crutch.

Jeff also makes the case for a new kind of education entirely: a four-year, co-ed AI literacy class starting freshman year of high school, one that could end up mattering more to a graduate's future than the diploma itself.

This is a sharp, unfiltered take on where artificial intelligence is helping, where it's hollowing people out, and why a little old-fashioned human judgment still beats the algorithm. Artificial intelligence versus awful intelligence. You decide.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)

Confidence built BCD. It also blinded Jeff Burgess to some hard truths about the people around him, including himself.

In this episode, Jeff looks back at the early naivety of opening his own company after nineteen years in the computer industry, and how a single client, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, ended up representing fifty percent of his first year's sales. He asks the question that's haunted him since: how much of that success was his, and how much was simply momentum and a favor owed?

But this episode goes deeper than one client. Jeff gets honest about misjudging the CEOs he worked for before founding BCD, about a "quick to hire, slow to fire" philosophy that let a toxic leader stay in place for five years too long, and about the difference between being a selling CEO and being a CEO who happens to sell.

This is a reflective, unflinching episode about blind spots, loyalty, and the lessons that only land once you've had twenty-five years and a quarter million security devices in ninety-one countries to look back on.

To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.

100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!

Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.

Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)