The Go-Kart Chronicles

When I was four we lived in Nashville.  One summer Sunday afternoon my brother, Donny, and I decided to make a go-cart.  We began rummaging around our home and in the basement we found some old boards, nails, four wheels from an old wagon, and a rusty saw. 

Donny, age seven, took on the responsibility of “boss”.  He would tell me what to do and I did it to the best of my four-year-old abilities.  After we gathered our stuff together for this manufacturing feat we began laying out our go-cart. 

One of the boards needed to be sawed to a shorter length so Donny grabbed the old rusty saw and went to work.  I watched. 

He fought with the saw and the board, but just did not make any progress.  That old saw just would not cut that hard old cedar board. 

Finally, he assigned me the task of holding the board still while he sawed.  Back to work we went, with teamwork as our motto.  Donny sawed and I applied as much pressure as my thirty-two pound frame could muster.  Unfortunately, that was not enough.  The board still danced all over the saw horses.

Donny stopped sawing, looked at me and said in a stern voice, “Put more weight on the board!”

He then resumed sawing. 

I was holding onto the board with all my might, and then I had a flash of insight.  I reasoned that if I could get a better grip on the board then I could hold it really still. 

Just as I rose up to reapply more pressure on the board Donny made a big pull on the saw.  The saw came loose from the board.  Donny hit himself in the head with his saw hand; and then he got mad.  He got mad at me, at the saw, at the board, and at our go-cart project, but he took it out on me. 

He grabbed me by the head with his left hand and with the saw in his right hand he laid the saw on the top of my head and gave me two or three swipes with the saw blade.  As he sawed my head he muttered, “I told you to hold that board still!”

My head took four or five stitches and this story has given us some great family laughs in retrospect.

I think there are some principles in this story, and here they are. 

Gather your Supplies (Gather the Facts)

Before beginning any undertaking gather as many of the supplies or facts as you can before you begin.

Sharpen Your Saw (Read, study on the subject at hand)

Put a sharp edge on your most critical tools.  After gathering your stuff, sharpen, clean, organize and prepare them so that you know where they are, and that they are in as good a working order as can be. 

Get a Grip

Get a Grip.  Understand the basics to the best that you can.  Hold on to essential facts and keep a steady hand on your thoughts and the direction in which you are headed.  If you need to make an adjustment, let the critical people on your team know.

Hurts Heal

Hurts heal and stitches eventually come out.  If you make mistakes it is not the end of the world.  Patch up what you can, seek professional help when needed, and apply the appropriate remedy to promote recovery as quickly as possible.

Laugh It Off

If you make a mistake, laugh it off, learn from your mistakes, and move on.  Besides, it gives you something to remember in the future. 

Now, let’s go make a go-cart!

Why I Believe in Hope

Let’s take a stroll down the avenue.  “Well, look over there,” someone says.  “That’s nothing but a pile of rocks.”

The heart with hope sees the same pile of rocks and says, “Oh, look.  They are going to build a beautiful cathedral on this corner.”

How is your hope factor?  Are you full of hope, or are you running on fumes of despair?

Can you see the rainbow of promise?

Can you breathe deeply of the optimism around you, or are you hearing the hum of negativity?

I love what Emily Dickenson says.  “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” 

Hope begins in the dark.  When the world says “give up”, hope whispers “Try it one more time.”

Hope is an anchor for my soul.

Hope promises something better to come along.

Hope sustains in the dark hours.

Hope energizes.

Hope sharpens my vision of things yet to be.

As long as I draw breath I shall have hope.

I believe, therefore I have hope.

To hope is to risk pain.  To try is to risk failure, but risk and pain must be endured because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. 

Do you believe in hope?

Setting People Up for Success

In an age when so much of our business focus is on our last great success, I wonder what has happened to the individual in the process.

You see, I am a big believer in people. I’ve given speeches and written articles on It’s All about People. I’ve even named this blog with that handle.

When I have been charged with the management of individuals my first thought has always been “what can I do to help make you a success?”

It still is. That is why I write and speak along these lines.  I want to help people become better at what they do. I desire to provide the right tools, the thorough training, and the proper mental stimulation they need.

The bottom line is that I want to set people up for success, not failure.

I once worked for a manager who held his cards close to his vest. By the time I came to work for him I had worked in three other divisions within the same company. I had learned a few things, most of which was that each manager for whom I worked had their own slant on certain aspects of the job and the paper work.

It seemed that for the first month I did more to irritate my new manager than I did to enhance our working relationship. For instance, in the nightly paper work, I arranged and stapled the documents in the same way I did in my previous assignment. Mark, my new manager, had his own peculiar ways and order in which he wanted the paper work done.

One morning, in a rather stern tone, he pretty much raked me over the coals for not follow “proper procedure” as he put it. All I had been doing was performing in the way I had been allowed in three other departments, yet they did not match up to his particular way of doing things. He did not properly set me up for success.

How can you set your people up for success? Do you have rigid rules and guidelines and do you communicate them in a fair and clear way? Do you have a proper training program for every person and every job that matters in your organization? Do you want your people to succeed?

Set your people up for success. Give them training, guidelines, samples of the correct procedures that you want followed.

And above all, choose your battles. Not everything is a major skirmish. What is important? What is necessary and what is nice to have but not going to break the business if it is not followed to the letter?

Set your people up for success.

Dreams

What are your dreams? To what do you aspire?

I love what Norman Cousins once said. “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.”

I want to be a believer in other people’s dreams. I want to be your greatest cheerleader. John Maxwell has some great advice for those of us who become cheerleaders of others dreams.

“Encouraging others in their pursuits of a dream is to give them a wonderful gift.
1. Ask them to share their dream with you.
2. Affirm the person as well as the dream.
3. Ask about the challenges they must overcome to reach their dream.
4. Offer your assistance.
5. Revisit their dream with them on a consistent basis.
6. Determine daily to be a dream booster, not a dream buster.

People will live up to their dreams when they have a chance to fulfill them.
Never allow yourself to become a dream killer.”

(From 25 Ways to Win with People, John C. Maxwell)

In Man of LaMancha, based on Cervantes’s classic work Don Quixote the protagonist, Don Alonzo pursues a life of chivalry and seeks to become a knight-errant long after that age of history has passed. He sees giants where others see windmills and quests where others see rabbit trails. He rescues a common prostitute named Aldonza, whom he sees as s beautiful lady. He calls her Dulcinea and makes her the object of his knightly exploits.

At first she resents him. She thinks he is mocking her, because she hates herself and her life. But with time, his vision of her replaces her own and gives her hope.

At the end of the story, Don Alonzo lies on his deathbed, and as he takes his last breath, Dulcinea
thanks him for seeing in her what she could not see in herself.

I just watched the movie The Blind Side staring Sandra Bullock. It is the true story of how she and her family took in a street kid named Michael Oher and literally transformed his life. They rescued him from a life of loss and damnation and gave him a leg up on life and a chance.

           That’s all – a chance.

Michael could have chosen to ignore this golden opportunity, but instead he embraced it. He hung in there, and with Leigh-Anne Tuohy’s steady hand and the consistent help of a tutor, he became not only a great football player but an honor student and a successful human being.

Michael dreamed, even as a kid, of escaping from the hell-hole he grew up in on the bad side of Memphis, and with the Tuohy’s help, found his way out.

Michael, like most of us, had aspirations and expectations

“Aspirations are goals/desires that are not weighted by the probability of success.
Expectations: Goals/desires that do factor in the probability of success.”

Stated by Jay MacLeod, at UW, Sociologist

So, what are your dreams?

What do you aspire to do or become?

Dream your dreams.

Paint them vividly and in detail.

To lose a dream is a great loss

Find ways to give your dreams feet and wings.

Hope Is Alive in Tomorrow

Today, I have more troubles than solutions.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I can’t do anything right.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I really screwed up with my wife.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I don’t feel great about my life.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, trouble abounds on every hand.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I have two left feet.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, the golf club felt like a heavy weight in my hands.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, the doctor said those nasty words no one wants to hear.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I felt abandoned, alone, and afraid.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I have more bills than bucks.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I’m having a bad-hair day.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, it appears nobody loves me.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, my kids are out of control.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I can’t give this stuff away, and I’m supposed to be an ace salesperson.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, the keys on my keyboard just sat and stared back at me.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I wish I lived somewhere else.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, God seems as far away as the moon.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, my world went flat.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, my dreams got shot full of holes.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I don’t think I can ever trust anyone again.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I just want to crawl in a hole and never come out again.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I got laid off.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, I was less than stellar in my craft.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, “I don’t love you” rang in my ears.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, they disconnected my utilities.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, the rent is due and …
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today, the stock market sank so low I had to look over the edge to see it.
--Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Today.

What was it that Scarlet said?

Oh, yes. I remember now.

“After all, tomorrow is another day.”

Dawn is coming. Hope is alive in tomorrow.

Life is hard.

Gen. David Petraeus once said,

“Hard is not hopeless”.

Focus

When I started my blogging life my first five articles were about focus. There is a bit more that I would like to say about this topic, especially for those of us in the people/management business. This is for managing our businesses and our personal lives.

One of my favorite books is The Winds of War by Herman Wouk. In this book, Mr. Wouk recounts a scene in which General E. J. Tillet, military author and one of the Commanding Generals for England during WWII, is speaking to the main character named Pug Henry. Tillet, in referring to Herman Goring, said this about Goring.

“He’s wasted a whole bloody month bombing harbors and pottering about after convoys. He’s only got till September the fifteenth. His mission is mastery of the air, not blockade. Define your mission! Define your mission and stick to it!”

I love that line. And it has so many applications for all of us, regardless of our job, our dreams, our families, our ethnicity or our bank account.

Define Your Mission

and Stick to It!”

I am a huge fan of Think and Grow Rich, the Napoleon Hill classic that many successful individuals have made their life-time study book. In it Mr. Hill clearly lays out this very philosophy. He refers to this concept as “your great desire”, “your burning desire” and other such references. Every night as a part of my nightly reading I review my own goals, dreams and desires as Mr. Hill suggests. Here is his formula that we might consider.

1 Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say I want plenty of money. Be definite as to the amount you desire.


2 Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. There is no such reality as “something for nothing”.


3 Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.


4 Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.


5 Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intent to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.


6 Read your written statement aloud twice daily, once just before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU READ, SEE, FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

On the May 2011 Success Magazine CD disc, Daren Hardy interviews Mari Smith, a social media specialist. Mari gave us this tip, which is an acrostic for the word F-O-C-U-S.

F Follow

O One

C Course

U Until

S Successful


What a great summation for our thought for today. It really does all come back down to FOCUS doesn’t it?

Remember,

DEFINE YOUR MISSION AND STICK TO IT!

The Things People Say

When I was in college I played drums for a musical group called “The Encounters.” After a concert one night a man in our audience made this remark about me.

“That drummer is going to hell.”

Can you imagine that? I was going to hell just because I played the drums.

What about other words and phrases that you and I have had directed our way down through the years? Have we given them validity, or have we successfully evaluated them and decided for ourselves that they bear no consideration in living our lives?

Words can hurt and words can also heal.

I want to offer words that heal. My bi-line is “offering hope, encouragement and inspiration one word at a time.”

Have you ever had any of these explosive, poisonous barbs thrown your way?
Sleezeball
  Lazy
    Fatso
      Dummy
        Looser
          Clumsy
          Fag
        Stupid
      Idiot
    “You’re ugly and nobody likes you”
  “You’re not cool. Leave. Go away.”
“You have no friends and you’re not important at all”
(These last six words/phrases were contributed by TJ and Josh, my grandsons – fresh stuff from today’s real world)

I was once given a T-shirt with this saying on it: “I must hurry and catch up to the others, for I am their leader.”

Oh, we laugh at that, but down deep inside, I cringed.

As a child, I was told, “Leave that thing alone, boy. You don’t know nothin’ (Tennessee colloquialism) about machinery.”

All I was doing was watching an old reel-to-reel tape recorder with the tape spinning and the recording meter lights blinking. What a fascinating thing for this twelve-year-old boy.

Sometimes we gather these unfortunate labels like a bad smell. They cling to us.

So what do we do about these labels?

They play, sometimes endlessly, in our minds. Perhaps you heard one or two of these phrases this morning while getting ready for your day.

Space is limited for this subject, but I do want to say this to you. We must find some ways of laying down the heavy burden these words and phrases cast upon us.

It takes work.
It takes reframing a better, truer image of ourselves.
It also takes self-forgiveness.

And on occasion we may need to seek professional counseling. If you find yourself in need of professional help, please seek it.

Remember this: Just because “they” said it doesn’t mean it is so!

Let me say that again.

Just because

“they”

said it

doesn’t mean

it is so!

The good news? I in no way see myself as clumsy, a lousy leader, or incompetent. Who say’s “I don’t know nuthin’ about machinery?”

I’ve had to redo some tapes that I once heard in my head.
I’ve erased some.
I’ve ignored others.

And in most cases I’ve created new and better, more wholesome tapes that I now play. They are good words of esteem, wholesome comments and beliefs about who I am.

You can do the same. You can recreate new and better tapes that you play in your head about yourself.

I heard Ethel Waters once say, “God don’t make junk.”

My friend, you and I are not junk. We are whole, creative, beautiful creatures of a loving God and we have stuff inside of us that is good and right.

Believe in your goodness. Create a new image of YOU!

What matters most is what you say to yourself; the conversations that go on between your two ears.

--Do you like yourself?
--Do you approve of yourself?
--Do you allow God to love you just as you are?

Say “YES” to YOU!

Let the new journey begin!