Category Archives: success

Mar 25 2013
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Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, success

Disassembling what you have worked so hard to build

There’s always a grand story connected to every dad that recounts his Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes into next weekend story of putting together the play-set/ swingset for his children in the backyard.

Numerous things go wrong, but it gets accomplished, nevertheless, and dad gets his I did it t-shirt and a bravery banner to waive with his fellow comrades at Home Depot.

But when it comes time to move the play-set a few years down the road the bravery banner and great story don’t mean much. The same goes for our businesses and projects we literally give our blood, sweat, and lives to. Not that they don’t meant something, but that as time changes so does reality and at some point they must be disassembled and moved to that reality.

The market changes, the industry changes, the culture changes, competition arrives and the reflex is to boast in your work and refuse to think that something so great would ever need to be changed, remodeled, or taken apart.

As much as I love that leadership is about building things I’m learning that it is at times equally about disassembly. I confess, this is hard for me – but I’m sensing there’s beauty to unfold here.

So you’ve built something? Now what?

The only way to get the play-set to the next backyard is piece by piece.

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Mar 22 2013
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Business, Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, Let The Music Play, success

Experience > Knowledge.

It’s the difference between knowing the ocean is blue and having swum the waters of Capri.

It appears that both the wholeness and holiness of our lives is found in the gap that is jumped from knowledge to experience.

What if our lives longed to live in that gap? What if our businesses bridged that gap? What if our churches embraced that gap? What if our parenting parented that gap?

They can. They all can in a moments notice.

That moment is here. That moment is today.

Provide the gateway to experience for someone and you will have done two things:

1) Blessed them with a memory. Which may be the only thing we can take with us.

2) Given them a chance to see the world in a new light. Now they can see where change is necessary.

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Mar 21 2013
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Business, Change The World, Focus, Leadership, success

Bells and Whistles

He often gets a bad rap, but don’t forget that vanilla is still king.

If you’re an attorney, your vanilla is legal advice.

If you’re a Realtor, your vanilla is homes and helping people buy and sell them.

If you’re a doctor, your vanilla is the health of people.

Most people come to you for that scoop of vanilla.

If you’re going to offer bells and whistles your best bet is probably to offer them through a variety of toppings and not by changing the flavor of the dish they came for.

Is there anything worse than hearing, “I’m sorry – we’re out of vanilla.”?

 

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Mar 18 2013
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Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, Marketing, success

Below The Surface of the Colors We See

You’ve got them – I’ve got them – we’ve all got them.

Purple problems we’re sifting through, orange organizations we work in, and green goals we’re after.

But they’re not just colors are they? Something got them here to the color they actually are. Circumstance, belief, courage, fear, paranoia, joy, hope, purpose, harsh words, and encouraging words all mixed together to make the colors of your world. Blue and red made your purple. Yellow and red made your orange. Blue and yellow made your green. Oh, and blue and green and a little more blue after the initial mix made your turquoise.

May we be the leaders that gaze into Purple to see her red heart and blue soul.

May we be the leaders that take Orange and love him for his awkward yellow ways and red personality.

May we be the leaders that get under the skin of Green to find its blue ocean and yellow streams.

Don’t be fooled by the outer coat or the surface because it’s just an illusion of what has happened within and below it. There’s a world of mixing, matching, and harmony that occurred to make the color that you see before you.

If you hear anything today hear this…That thing you call Orange just may be waiving his red hands at you. Look deeply. Listen closely.

It is below that surface that the beauty of most things come to life and if you want to be a leader you must fall in love with snorkeling.

 

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Mar 13 2013
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Business, Creativity, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, Let The Music Play, success

What’s Close By?

Its been said that you’re a collected image of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So the question is should those relationships come closer or should there be space made for other/better relationships to thrive?

Its been said that the mouth is the overflow of the heart. So the question is what words are being watered in the garden that beats in your chest?

Its been said that attitude is everything. So the question is are you living within attitudes to produce possibility or are you throwing yourself a pity party for one?

3 things to monitor the nearness of: your friends, your words, and your attitudes.

We are a byproduct of our proximity to such things and your humming typically gives us access to the last song you experienced.

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