I was the worst. Two seconds after meeting somebody for the first time, I forgot their name. They could have been Mark, or Mike, or Mitch, or even Randall…I couldn’t tell you.
This was a problem. Especially for an entrepreneur/sales guy like I was at the time. I needed to connect with people, but greeting them with “hey you” didn’t exactly create connection. (more…)
I was a college wrestler at Cal Poly, then, I got into MMA. I fought in 99 and 2000 out of SLO Kickboxing with Scott Adams, Chuck Liddell, Gan McGee, and a bunch of other tough dudes.
Back then, we had this saying. “Going into a fight, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” The idea was that no matter how hard we trained and sparred in practice, no matter how well prepared we thought we were, something changed when you stepped into the cage to fight another guy who wanted nothing more than to kick your ass. (more…)
As children, immediate consequences were a regular part of our lives. Step out of line at school and get detention. Step out of line at home, maybe you got grounded, maybe you got a smack. When I got busted, grounding was my typical punishment….although, my mom did introduce my butt to the wooden spoon a time or two when I got really out of hand.
It was the immediate, and sometimes painful feedback of those consequences that taught us what the rules were and made us take them seriously. And for the most part they worked.
But that’s not how it is as adults. (more…)
You don’t “discover” your life’s purpose.
It’s not like it’s buried somewhere and It’s up to you to Indiana Jones your way through the jungle to a trap-filled ruins to dig it up, dust it off and hold it above your head in triumph…BEHOLD! !
Purpose isn’t something outside of yourself that you have to be fortunate to stumble across.
Purpose is a choice.
You pick your purpose. (more…)
Every December, millions of well intended people set New Year’s resolutions and then, every January, they promptly give up. According to Forbes only 8% of people actually accomplish one of their New Year’s resolutions. By the time this article was published, in the second week of January, over half of people have already quit. (more…)
Failure comes in all shapes and sizes.
There are small failures, like the time in college when I had my new girlfriend over for dinner and served her a homemade strawberry milkshake that included chopped up bits of wooden spoon that I accidently blended in. I told her those bits were just strawberry seeds.
And there are big failures, like when I was the President of a mortgage company and lead it into bankruptcy, letting a lot of people down along the way.
But no matter the specifics or scope, all failures are the result of three root causes: lack of strategy, lack of effort, and lack of courage.