How did the Wright Brothers get the world air-borne?
How did Henry Ford get the world behind the wheel?
How did Steve Jobs get the world of music to fit in our pockets?
The answer is twofold:
1) They were artist.
2) They were ruined by a dream.
Relentlessly pursue your dreams and make art while doing so…this is the formula of champions.
Whether you like it or not, you are an artist.
We need you to show us how.
Obsession with service
Utilize the imagination
Rapid Response
Strategy in all things
Truth and trust
Old school work ethic
Relationship focus
You get what you give
This doesn’t look right. Our eyes have paid attention.
This sounds a little out of tune. Our ears have paid attention.
This tastes funny. Our tongue has paid attention.
This smells fishy. Our nose has paid attention.
This feels too hot. Our fingers have paid attention.
In a world that is moving 1,000,000 m.p.h. it is easy to overlook, hit the mute button, eat too fast, ignore smoke alarms, and forget to use a hot pad.
Paying with your attention will compensate your focus.
Most school systems fail us. If you are a teacher, that is not a poke at you – it is a poke at the system.
School (the system) has taught us all that spelling is big deal. It used to be. Multiplication and division is important – why? I can do almost any math problem with my phone now.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 only is important because it is the answer to our 5th grade test. What was truly important was the idea that the world was not flat. The system forgets to teach that. A world that was not flat that was an Internetesque idea in its time – a game changing concept.
What if our kids had the chance to reenact landing in America on Santa Maria? What if they planned what they had to pack for the trip? What if they had to communicate with the locals upon arrival? What if they learned how to sail the ocean? I can assure you that dreams would start if a teacher had the platform to encourage his/her students to go prove their prospective worlds are not flat.
Yet the system demands that clubs or groups be created in order to engage our creative. When you hear things like the debate team, glee club, photography club, and entrepreneurship club your mind autopilots to Dorkville. Which is fine, just don’t teach your kids that mentality. Give it time, and they will find out that names like Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Buffet tend to be the mayors of Dorkville.
So you won the spelling bee? Big deal.
So you never won the spelling bee? Whoopdeedo.
Why do we even have spelling bees now? Bill Gates won the spelling bee for all of us when he created Word.
We all win when you are placed in atmosphere to create and imagine the next Windows or Facebook of the world. Only you win when you remember how to spell baccalaureate.
Nature has a beautiful way of showing us how things really are.
For instance, let’s look at a rose.
Behind the beauty and aroma of every rose is a grueling and systematic process. Before the rose can be in a vase, there is a lot of work to be done.
First, the dirt had to be tilled, then a bush had to be planted, then the bush had to be watered, then the bush had to be sun-baked, then the stems had to be pruned, next the rose buds, and finally the rose blooms.
See the rules? See the process? This is botany meets sheet music. Remove any of these steps and you’re roseless.
Things of beauty are rarely happenstance and are quite difficult for a fast-food society to grasp.
So you want the world to stop and smell your roses?
Go till the soil today. Then plant something today. Then water that something today. Then…
Roses are results of work that happened yesterday and they beg us to do work today that matters.
Our families, churches, and businesses will never bloom until we get some dirt under our fingernails.
2 Lesson Points:
1) Yesterday was your best day to plant, but it is over. Today is now your best bet. Tomorrow is unacceptable.
2) You are going to want some roses in the spring, and yelling at the dirt won’t make that happen when April comes around.
Ashton.Gustafson 