A good friend recently asked to me speak at his business training event in Atlanta. The audience was business owners and real estate investors. The group was diverse but the common thread was that each business person had a desire to inject some growth into their business. And with growth they most likely wanted more profit. There are times when people get more than they bargained for. 

I always enjoy sharing with a group or audience. While I primarily consider myself a coach, I am also passionate about teaching, training and preaching. 

My process for preparing to speak or train is never the same. There are times where the topic is obvious and notes just begin to flow. There are other times when I can reach into my archives and pull something out to rework or combine with other items.

And then there are the incredibly beautiful situations where new ideas and creative topics are divinely inspired.  They just drop into my mind or spirit and all the points and words just flow.

This was one of those times.

I rarely wake up in the middle of the night. There have been times in my entrepreneurial journey where I have slept like a baby - waking up every two hours crying. But I have matured and can now sleep well most nights.

But shortly after my friend asked me to speak at his event, I awoke at 2 am one night and the entire 5 point talk flooded into my mind. Always a good idea to keep pen and paper by the bed.

As the event approached, I realized that I must share this information in articles and possibly a book. It looks different on paper and I am unable to share some of the stories and examples that emphasized the points, but the basics are still powerful.

Now that you have the background.....

Here are 5 foundational success principles that are absolutely without a doubt required to create AND maintain success. Bold statement I know. But as you read each one think about people you know or situations where you have achieved a high level of success and you will be nodding in agreement as you read the paragraphs below. Or, you may disagree and if so you can prove me wrong in the comments below.

Effort - Nothing happens without some effort being exerted. Some may have titled this work, but our society often confuses work with a job or just being busy. When combined with the other items in this article, focused and inspired effort can lead to productivity beyond anything that we can imagine. But when we are busy and "just putting our nose to the grindstone", we may see limited results that appear to be success that will be short lived or worse have negative consequences. My experience and observations have convinced me that the other 4 items in this article combined with steady and consistent impassioned effort will outproduce hair-on-fire mach-speed busyness every time. 

Expectation - Faith or fear? How do most people live? They live in fear with an expectation that something bad is going to happen. If your thoughts go unchecked and untrained the chances are very high that you will cultivate a negative outlook that attracts negative circumstances. Stop doing that! Start using your faith muscles and expect that great things will happen in every situation in your life. Positive expectation combined with inspired effort beats fear-based, calendar packed activity every single time.

Rest - Just like the word "work" can be confusing at times in our modern society, rest can also be used to describe laziness or sleep. That is not what I am referring to. Even though I do believe that physical rest and naps are not the enemy of success, I am talking about a mental and spiritual peace that everything is going to be OK. No worries, positive expectations and exerting effort knowing that you are focusing on those things that will be rewarded. If you have positive expectations and faith in your decisions, then measured effort will be peaceful and allow you to operate from a position of rest instead of being restless.

Micro Decisions - Life includes many small decisions that may seem insignificant. Things like what you eat for lunch, watching a 30 minute show on TV every week, and what you do with your spare time on a Saturday afternoon. But if micro or mini decisions begin to become habits, or if those decisions are haphazard and lack focus, they can be detrimental. For example,  eating an unhealthy fast food lunch once a month may not have a significant impact on one's health. But eating processed, junky fast food every day will most likely have a negative effect on a person's health and even life expectancy. Watching one TV show may not impact thought process. But watching 20 hours of mindless entertainment every week can deaden braincells and may even have other mental and physical side effects. On the flip side, a mini decision to read a book or attend a seminar or say hello to a stranger may be a small step that has larger implications over time.

Macro Decisions - If you guessed that these should be the big, life altering decisions that we make in life...or at times we are forced to make, then you would be correct. Most people will only have a few of these over the course of their life. For me I can only think of a few. The decision to marry my wife. A life altering spiritual decision. Starting a business a few years after being married and making the decision to start a new company 15 years ago. There are times that we make these big, macro decisions and we understand their significance. But then we may only realize the importance days, months or years later. One of life's great challenges is knowing when and how to quickly make decisions about the little, micro stuff and when to pause and ponder the big, macro stuff.

Now, there are a few additional points that must be made. 

First, the items above are not steps or standalone principals. There is no defined order because they are interconnected and woven together. Plus one or more without all combined could be ineffective.

Second, these principals do not follow a linear and clean timeline.  And there is not a definitive formula. They are more like a bubbling witches brew that requires all the ingredients to be effective. There are times when one ingredient will be required more than the others. And some people may require a heavier brew to be effective. Mix them all together and drink down the potion until you see the results your desire.

Finally, don't stress over the 5 points. Just get started if you feel as if you are off track. Make some positive micro decisions, have faith in yourself and what you are doing, expect great results and be prepared for those big, life altering, macro decisions.

WARNING: This article contains sarcasm and is laced with tongue-in-cheek writing. Read at your own risk. 

When I was much younger and obviously naive, I made the incorrect assumption that everyone in the world had a strong desire to succeed and achieve great things in their limited time on this earth.

After many years of coaching and consulting plus doing massive amount of research about people, human nature and the way our brains work, I am now more convinced than ever that a majority of people really have a stronger desire to fail in life rather than to succeed.

With my hands thrown up in the air and a heavy sigh coming out of my mouth, I write this article for those people that are tired of hearing about success principles and just want a few super quick and easy tips on failure.

This article is for the anti-success crowd.

Unfortunately, you may or may not know if you belong in that group.

Years of experience has convinced me that a person can follow these 5 simple steps and fail miserably at anything and everything they attempt to accomplish.

For those that are whining that 5 steps are too many, you can probably cut corners and just implement a few of the steps that follow and reach the level of semi-failure. Which is still a failure. Maybe just a failure with a slacker attitude.

Without any further delay and because I know that most failure minded people aren’t really into “reading”, here are the quick and easy steps to becoming a pro at accomplishing nothing in life:

1. Be a Jerk - Dale Carnegie wrote a fantastic book called How To Win Friends and Influence People. You should NOT read that book. If it existed, you should read How To Repel People and Piss Off Everyone Around You. Be loud. Be obnoxious. Think only of yourself. Never be interested in what other people want or desire. Combine this with #2 and #3 below and you will reach levels of failure reserved for some of the biggest losers and jerks in history.

2. Be a “Know It All” - claiming that one knows everything and shutting down all ability and desire to learn new things is one of the keys to complete failure. In fact, this may be the shortcut that ambitious failures really crave. This is closely related to #1 except that some “know it alls” keep to themselves and never share with others how they are experts in everything. Jerks have a strong desire to tell the world that they have obtained incredible amounts of knowledge and they will not rest until everyone knows how smart they are. 

3. Stop Listening - also related to #1 and #2, but with a slight twist. You should never pay attention to what anyone else says. Ignore other points of view. Be closed minded. When other people are talking, the best strategy is too ignore what they are saying until it is your turn to talk again. Or…even better, just interrupt anytime someone tries to tell you something or provide you with valuable feedback or information. You can hasten your path to failure by loudly interrupting (see #1) and telling the other person that you know all the answers (see #2).

4. Never Focus - if you have made it this far in the article and you really want to fail like a pro, you should immediately stop reading and go search for cat videos on YouTube. I will make it easy on you, CLICK HERE NOW. And if you ever find your self working diligently toward anything that may be worthwhile and important, CLICK HERE or HERE.

5. Quit  - if you have attempted every other failure strategy but you continue to see success creep into areas of your life, then the best technique to implement is the strategy of doing nothing. Just quit. Give up. Combine quitting with a “what’s the point of exerting any effort anyway” attitude and you will fail at mach speed.

BONUS TIP - after you have quit pursuing any worthwhile endeavor and you have embraced a life of failure, you can really reach the upper echelons of the anti-success lifestyle by continuously blaming other people for your position in life.

"Icing On The Cake" BONUS TIP -  you will also get bonus failure points if every word out of your mouth is laced with self pity and a whiny tone about how unfair life is.

You love marketing.

You hate marketing.

Do you ever feel like a modern day Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde when it comes to marketing you and your business?

I know I do.

And I have had many clients over the years that seem to approach marketing the same way - unfocused, unmeasured and unsuccessful.

Every time I open up my email inbox or review my article feed some expert seems to have the silver bullet, magic pill or secret sauce that will have paying customers and clients beating down the door to pay me or my clients for our product or service. And it seems to always be simple, easy and automated.

Customer Focused Marketing, Online Marketing, Branding, Social Media Marketing, Direct Response Marketing, Offline Marketing, Direct Sales Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Outbound Marketing, SEO Marketing, Networking, Content Marketing, Referral Based Marketing, PR….

Where does it start? And more importantly…where does it end?

It can easily become what I call the Marketing Rabbit Hole. Constantly searching for the perfect sales and marketing strategy while never actually doing any marketing. And therefore never making any sales. And therefore never making any money. And therefore eventually being out of business.

It is so easy to get confused. And it is so easy to analyze every strategy and tactic while not actually doing anything. Or spending valuable time and money on the latest and greatest whizzbang marketing gadget that really isn’t a match for you and your business.

It really isn’t complicated. It really isn't that confusing.

The great coach Vince Lombardi was well known for focusing on the basics of the game of football. He even started his summer camps by addressing seasoned veterans with a ball in his hand and saying, “gentleman, this is a football…"

If you find yourself being overwhelmed and confused and frustrated by all the marketing noise, avoid the spiraling rabbit hole and remind yourself of this foundational business basic...

Every father loves to brag about their children. My wife Glori and I have two great children and many times we wait for them to do something great to pay them a compliment. I will quickly admit that every parent should probably compliment their children for small everyday things more often.  

I recently found an article recapping my then 15 year old daughter's competition in her school’s state track meet. She rocked! She won the 100m and 200m as well as placing in two relays and the triple jump. She also won the high point award as a freshman. I was impressed and you should be to.  

The local newspaper ran a full page story (I have extra copies if you want one) on her successes and they asked to interview my wife and me as a part of the article. The reporter asked me why Dulce is so successful in track, cheerleading, grades, etc...  I thought for a second and responded “strong faith, hard work and discipline.”  

The more I thought about my response, the more I realized that those three areas are important keys to success in all areas of life.  

Dulce has a strong spiritual faith but she also has faith in herself. She doesn’t just hope she wins, she expects to win. She worked very hard in practice. She also ran and worked out at times that the coaches were not even around. She has the discipline to prepare even when she would rather be doing something else. She blocked off time during the summer to prepare for the next track season. She could have just relaxed and had fun at the lake or the pool. Instead she showed discipline by remembering her goals to improve her times during the next track season almost a year after the summer break.  

As business owners, we can use the same principles to succeed.  

Strong Faith – when I worked in the corporate world at BellSouth I did not need much faith to pick up my paycheck every two weeks. I really just had to show up and not upset anyone and I could keep getting my paycheck. You must have faith when you start your own business. You may not get paid as consistently as you did while working for someone else so you must have faith to press on even when times may tough or seem bleak.  

There are definitely spiritual aspects to having faith. Knowing that there is something bigger in this world than you. But, it is also critical to have faith in your business and faith in yourself. Faith in your business is knowing with absolutely no doubt that the business works and that you will succeed. And when seeds of doubt creep in, exert every bit of willpower you have available to push those non-faith thoughts out.

You have seen other people get wealthy in business. You know that it is possible. Your concept may be different and unique, but have the faith and confidence that you will be a success. 

Have faith in yourself and your abilities. You were blessed with talent and skill. You have the ability to hire people that have the skills that you lack. Be bold and confident. Not cocky and arrogant. But have faith in you and your business!  

Hard Work – it never ceases to amaze me when people think that they will be successful without exerting any real effort. Some people do not even know what working hard really is because they have never done it before. Hard work in most businesses may not be hard manual labor such as digging ditches, but it does mean you may not get to watch all your favorite TV shows, may not get 8 hours of sleep every night, may not be able to go on vacations while you are in the business building mode. Many people also think they just deserve to get the rewards of success without paying the price for success. Expect to work, be consistent and don't take shortcuts. 

Discipline – some people may think that hard work and discipline is the same thing. They are related but they are also different in many ways. It is possible to work hard in short bursts without being consistent and never gain any momentum to reach the results you desire. I heard someone once define discipline as “remembering what you want.” Well if you have no idea what you want, it is difficult to be disciplined and therefore difficult to stay focused for any period of time. Then you would be working hard without a purpose.   

Discipline is steady work over a period of time because you want the results that it will yield. Discipline is all about daily habits. If you exercise daily or multiple times per week, then you will maintain a certain level of fitness and be healthy. But it will not yield instant results. It will take time. Developing growth and profit in your business takes some time also. Your business success will be determined by your disciplined daily habits. 

Be a superstar. Make the headlines of your newspaper.

Have faith. Work hard. Be disciplined.

My wife and I have been traveling between Australia and New Zealand for the last 7 months.

Time zones are a challenge when we communicate with family or for business back in our native USA. But being in a different hemisphere also means that we are living in opposite seasons and our bodies are not acclimated to spring in October and winter in June. We are currently in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere spring while friends and family in North America are cooling off during fall.

I have always loved the spring season. It is second only to fall in my top 4 seasons countdown.  

Fall is number one because almost all of our family’s birthdays and anniversaries are in October and November and I also like the weather when we start cooling down from our hot Georgia summers. Spring is number 2 because it represents so much AND to me it is all about rebirth and growth. 

I would never be confused with someone that has a green thumb or someone that has vast knowledge about plants, dirt or things that grow. In fact, I have the ability to stare at some species of ferns and cause them to start wilting within 5 minutes. But, I do understand the concept of seasons and I can relate the process to other things in my life such as my business.

A bunch of weird stuff happened during the 1960’s. Most of you were either not born yet OR you do not remember anything that happened during that fabulous decade of chemical experimentation. A song by The Byrds in 1966 became almost an anthem about change and the seasons. The lyrics went something like this:  

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.”

Ok, I know that some of you are Bible scholars and you know that this is actually from Chapter 3 of the book of Ecclesiastes of the Old Testament. And, for those of you that are not history buffs, the Old Testament was written a few years before the 1960’s. The Byrds just used this as the basis for their lyrics.

Before I typed out the verse I had planned to provide comments and commentary on each of the lines. But as I was typing I realized that each line is powerful all by itself and there is no reason for me to add anything. And, it is just like God to cover all the bases, regardless of what you current circumstances look like. The seasons of the year represent all of these things.

If winter is a time for life to slow down and sometimes die, then spring is the time for new growth and rebirth. This is the time of year for you to grow and possibly awaken from a dormant state. Some of you may even think that your business is dead or dying. Just remember that winter eventually turns into spring therefore you should begin preparing for new life, new growth and new business.  

The bottom line is this...if you and your business have been stuck in winter for some time it is time to move into spring and move beyond your dead or dormant state. To do that you need to get busy and create some momentum. Make changes, reinvent yourself, add marketing funnels, get some outside help.  

Now is the season for you to plant and prepare to grow!

We all get asked the question. It may be at a party, a networking event, on an airplane, at a school function for our children, at church or just standing in line at a fast food joint.

What do you do?

I have seen many strange responses to this question:

 - Some people will look at the ground and kick the dirt.
 - Some people will stare at you like a deer in headlights.
 - Some people will give you a job title or company name.
 - Some people will provide a smart, sarcastic response.
 - Some people will stammer and spout some corporate jargon hoping they will impress you. 
 - A very small percentage of people will give you a short clear description of what they do which causes you to respond, "That sounds cool, tell me more."

I have even changed the question that I ask when I meet someone in public. Instead of "what do you do," I will often ask, "what business are you in?" Which allows someone to provide the simpler answer of giving the company that they work for or the industry that they are in.

But that really is avoiding the issue. Most people have not really given much thought to what they really do. And if you are in business for yourself or in a key position such as sales, giving a vague answer could be costing you money.

If you do not know what you do, then it is almost impossible for someone to help you achieve your goals if you cannot clearly and quickly communicate your purpose in life.

Some people call it an elevator speech. 

To me it is very simple.  Just give a short, succinct answer to the question, "What do you do?"

I help people expand their business, mind and spirit. 

Now it's your turn. In the comments below, tell me what do you do?

One of the things that has taken me years to realize is that everything you do or say in life is a seed. You must always ask yourself, “Am I planting seeds that will yield a bountiful harvest or am I planting seeds that will lead to a dust bowl?” Whatever seed you plant will always come up in the form of a harvest some time in the future.

Some people may call it Karma. Some may say "What goes around comes around."  I believe that a principle was put in place by our creator thousands of years ago called seedtime and harvest (Genesis 8:22). Whatever is planted will come up and be available to harvest in the near future. 

If you have a field and plant corn seeds in that field, then the chances are very good that corn plants will grow in your field. Do not expect beans to grow when you have been planting corn.

The good and bad of this principle is that we control what we plant. Therefore we have control over what we harvest. In our society today it is popular to blame others and take no responsibility for where we are in life. Life does not work that way. 

We are all reaping harvests today from seeds that we planted in the past. Ouch – I know that hurts some of us. If you planted good seeds, then you are probably reaping a bountiful and prosperous harvest. If you have been planting garbage seeds, then you are reaping a stinky, smelly harvest.

This applies to our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

If you start thinking about everything in your life as a seed, then you will have a positive impact on your future. 

Consider every thought you have. Be mindful of your actions. Watch everything that comes out of your mouth. Does it make sense to say, “My business is not growing?" Or, "Life stinks." Or, "My wife nags me too much?" No – that makes no sense. The word seeds you should plant are statements such as "My business is healthy and growing." And, "Life is awesome!" And, "I love my wife."

Not only will you improve the harvest you reap, but it just feels better to speak positive words as opposed to negative words.

So, what should we all do? Plant as many good seeds as we can so that we can be assured of an awesome harvest in the future. Many of us need to plant a bunch just to compensate for the bad seeds we have planted in the past. Think and act like  a farmer and plant some good seeds!

I love watching movies. I know that 2 hours of time can be valuable and I should not waste it on something that is not real. But I can enjoy the escape at times and it really does help my brain shut down and not think for a few minutes. Many of you know what I mean.

I recently watched the movie Chef with my wife Glori. It was a nice entertaining movie that we both enjoyed. And those that are married know how difficult that can be. The movie could have been a nice family friendly movie if they had dropped just a few uses of adult language. I also learned what “food porn” is. My wife the cookbook writer and awesome cook enjoyed those scenes.

A good movie has the ability to not just entertain but impact your thinking for days, weeks and months to come.

A movie from a few years ago that absolutely shocked me at how much I enjoyed the story and I still can’t seem to get parts of it out of my mind was the Adam Sandler movie Click. It may not have the classic movie label like Happy Gilmore or Waterboy, but I could not stop talking about this movie after the first time I saw it.  

I am not a complicated guy. I only have a few basic criteria for a movie to be enjoyable to me. 

First, it has to have a cool leading man. Some people consider Adam Sandler to be cool. At least I do. It also must have an attractive female role. This movie has Kate Beckinsale and she is not too shabby. And finally, I need to not be able to figure out the plot in the first 10 minutes of the film. Keep me guessing a little. Surprise me. Well, Click not only kept me guessing but I laughed, cried and continued to think about certain parts of the movie years later.

At this point you should be asking what an Adam Sandler movie has to do with anything much less business owners like us. Without giving the plot away, the character played by Adam Sandler obtains a special remote control that allows him to fast forward through unpleasant events in his life. It sounds great at first until he realizes that months and years have totally disappeared.

I began to think about all the little things in life and business that are aggravating and annoying. Sometimes we would love to just skip through those times but unfortunately that would cause us to appreciate the good times less. We all know those stinky things that we wish would just go away – hard work, being sick, arguments, cash flow problems, deals gone bad, relationship issues, family problems, health issues, crazy election results, employee issues, etc… All these things and many more make the good stuff that much better.    

I am just getting over a little cold and I am excited more than ever about not having a scratchy throat and a hacking cough. I did not even think about how great it is to feel good until a few days ago when my body ached every time I took a breath. I have also had negative dollars in my bank account many times and that is why I really appreciate having at least $1 with a positive sign in front of it in my checking account. It is even better to have big money in multiple checking accounts!

The main thing that I continue to think about is the value of every minute of every day.  

 - What am I doing today that will impact my future?  
 - What am I doing today that let’s my wife know that I love her more today than I loved her yesterday?  
 - What am I doing today that will help my children grow up to be all that God wants them to be?  
 - What am I doing today that makes the lives of the people around me more enjoyable?  
 - What am I doing right now that will create positive results in my business?  
 - What am I doing today to create wealth for my family and other causes that I choose to support?   
 - What I am going to do right now to live life to the fullest?  

Don’t click through life and miss not only the bad stuff but the good stuff too.

Poker is just like working in the business world -  a series of negotiations. If you are sitting at the poker table holding your chips tight, a good player will take your money faster than you can say “I’m out.”  

Stop being scared.  Attack your business with boldness. You will be amazed at how successful you can be if you stop being afraid of losing what little you have. Loosen up, get in the game and throw a few chips on the table.
 

With it being Halloween month we are forced to come face to face with some scary stuff. 
 
While most of the time I attempt to encourage and uplift all of you diehard business owners, there are times when we all need a good squirm in your seat, scream at the top of your lungs, baseball bat against your head dose of real life, scary reality. No, I am not talking about some bad “B” movie. I am talking about living the everyday life of an entrepreneur. 

There was a local talk show host in the Atlanta area (he was also syndicated in other markets) a few years ago named Neal Boortz. He recently retired but he was known as an in your face, neo-conservative host that speaks very bluntly and he doesn’t hold back any punches. One of his catch phrases was “welcome to the church of the painful truth.”  

If you bristle at putting the words church and painful in the same sentence, then you were never forced to sit on a wooden pew at the First Baptist Church while wearing your triple knit polyester pants. I think that scientists have now proven that there is nothing that creates less friction in the world than a 9 year old boy wearing triple knit pants sitting on a wooden pew. It is physically impossible for the pants to stick to the pew, therefore slipping will occur and the previously mentioned 9 year old boy will end up in a crumpled mass on the floor no less than 8 times during the excruciatingly long 20 minute sermon that seems more like 2 hours. I won’t even mention what can happen to the clip on tie during these sinful slips. Stern looks and a guarantee of a spanking sometime in the future also highlight these joyous spiritual events.   

Yes, pain and church can go together.  

Why do I use the title church of the painful truth in an article for successful business people and entrepreneurs? Because, many times we need to be reminded of the basic truths of business success. We go through our day to day business trying to keep the business operating or make enough money to pay our bills this week and we may forget some of the basic painful truths of business ownership. Even growing and thriving businesses need to be reminded of these basic truths from time to time.

Painful Truth 1 – You are the boss. For some people this may cause a loud hallelujah shout, but it can also be trouble for others. There is no one to tell you what to do on a day to day and minute by minute basis. Nobody to kick you in the bottom or make you get out of bed.  

Painful Truth 2 – Education never ends. Some people think that after they finish their 11th grade year in high school they can just coast through life and never read or study ever again. Wrong! We must be constantly reading and educating ourselves. It keeps our minds sharp and allows creative thoughts to grow. Education also costs money. Don’t be guilty of driving a $50,000 car and only spending $50 on programming your brain.

Painful Truth 3 – Business requires investment of money. Anyone that thinks they are going to create a million dollar business without investing money and capital into marketing, systems, infrastructure and other tools is living in lottery world. I do not totally believe in the saying that it takes money to make money, but do not be fooled into thinking you can create money out of thin air.

Painful Truth 4 – Success requires effort. Not normal effort – extraordinary effort. In the book Master Key to Riches, Napoleon Hill talks about the principle of going the extra mile. The masses try to figure out how they can get by with the least amount of effort possible. Successful business people always look for ways to do more. Ways to be more productive.

Painful Truth 5 – Nobody said it would be easy. Life has ups and downs. Good and bad. Being a business owner is not meant for everyone. You will be challenged. You may lose sleep. You may do things that the average person never dreams of doing. Business success is great. Business failure is a tough punch in the gut.

Is it easy? No. Is it fun?  Most of the time. Is it worth it? You bet. Why would anyone want to subject themselves to the punishment of being a business owner? Wouldn’t it just be EASIER to go get a job and work for someone else for 40 years? ABSOLUTELY NOT!  

Yes, there are some ups and downs in any business but we were created to do great things. I know that people that work in jobs can do great things also, but I know for a fact that I was not designed to keep a seat warm in a cubicle. I do not think you were either. YOU were designed to be different. YOU were designed to succeed. YOU were created to change the world. Don’t settle for anything less from yourself.

Thank you for attending this week’s sermon from the church of the painful truth. Instead of passing the collection plate for donations I will just request a written comment below.  Amen.