It’s okay to have big dreams

Go ask a 6 year old what they want to be when they grow up.  They say things like; a veterinarian, a lawyer, a police man, a mommy, or President.

But go ask a 35 year old; I want health benefits, reliable income, security, great wages, safety, a decent house, stability and a shiny car.

The 6 year old wants to do something because it appeals to them even if they don’t know why.  Even with limited knowledge of the job or career they honor what that person does not what they get for it.

This is another excerpt from my first blog posted a while back, you can read the full post here.  I’d like to ask you; at what point do our dreams die?  At what point do we shift from having wide-eyed hope for the future to being down trodden about our prospects?

Just a minor setback

Your good and bad choices add up.

Most people make good decisions.  The person in the cubicle next to you isn’t a complete idiot.  Neither is the lady down the hall, your neighbor or people in general.  They know not to play with fire, run with scissors or bungee jump without a bungee cord.  And for those that don’t they make the Darwin Awards list.

Your choice. Only one is correct.

 

Hard right over the easy wrong.

You know what is hard?  Success is.  It can be hard for many different reasons.  But each of those reasons are probably glaringly obvious and yet you may overlook the root cause that eludes you.

Come on out.

Where can I find the Rules for my Life?

Life has rules.  You cannot go to a book (I haven’t written it yet) and simply flip to page fifteen and get your answer.  It’s just not that easy when you are dealing with complex situations that involve people, feelings, risk and a myriad of other variables.  A computer program doesn’t even exist that can do it for you.  If you asked Watson where you could go for a great Hamburger in the United States it may send you to Toronto. (Google; Watson and Jeopardy to get that pop culture reference)

Not all the answers you need

Share, congratulate, thank, repeat

I need you to do some homework this weekend.

First, I want you to think about YOU.  I want you to remember what your New Year’s Resolution was for 2011.  Did you write it down?  What milestones have you met along the way?  Are you closer to achieving those goals?  You’ve had two months to work towards it, what do you have to show for it?

You can help too.

How do you view opportunities?

We are buried in snow here in Michigan.  The initial prediction was that we were going to get up to six inches of snow.  I have ten inches in my driveway.  It is heavy and hard to shovel.  If only I had a snow blower, I think I could have made a few quick bucks.  Which got me to thinking about my kids…

Millionaire at work

Who are you competing against? Part 2 of 2

Yesterday I talked about my time as an ROTC Range Challenge coach and the parallels between knowing yourself and your company before you can focus on competition. You can read about it here.  Today I’ll finish my story about the relationship between you and your competitors.

Knowing who is the best helps focus your team.  In this case, Ohio State University Army ROTC was the reigning champion.  They had unbelievable Cadets at that University.  Their Cadet Corps was well over 200 strong.  They would field two nine-person teams year after year.  The “A” team would win the competition and the “B” team would finish in the top ten or better.  They cross trained with the football team and had vast resources and a proven winning culture.  They were unbeatable!  I have a lot of respect for those Cadets and their leadership who trained them. 

Our goal was to beat them. 

It can take years to accomplish your goal

 

Who are you competing against? Part 1 of 2.

Army ROTC has a “Varsity” sport called Ranger Challenge.  This competition pits regional college ROTC programs against each other testing their basic Army skills in eight to ten events.  Each region of the country has their own version of the event that takes place each fall, usually in October.  The schools train for about six to eight weeks and arrive at the 24 hour event ready to test their skills against the other twenty to forty teams.  It’s a great event for the cadets who decide to participate.  I was lucky enough to have the honor to coach one of those teams.

It takes a team to build this bridge.

Rock climbing and growing your company

I’ve been rock climbing one time in my life.  It was a beautiful trip to Joshua Tree National Park in California.  I went with my Uncle who is a mentor and great friend.  He’s been climbing for about seven years.  He started when he was in his early 50s.  He has been asking me for years to join him and this past fall our schedules finally meshed.

Keep going.

 

3 reasons why Borders is broke

Borders filed for bankruptcy yesterday.  They will close 200 of their 642 stores over the next few weeks.  That is roughly a one third reduction of their brick and mortar stores.  Ouch.  I’ve heard that the last card to fall is payment to creditors when a company is ailing.  It would seem that for the last month or so Borders had delayed payments to their creditors.  The writing was on the wall.  It was the death rattle if you will.  They may be able to recover but they are pretty sick and in need of reorganization. 

Those are some old books. Where are the new ones?