The Fire Within

One of the biggest shows on Netflix this year was The Queen's Gambit . It is a fascinating story about a child chess prodigy that has you on the edge of your seat watching the various chess matches. It is said that 62 million people watched the show, which quickly became an overnight sensation.  I love hearing the stories behind getting this show made as it is a great reminder of the realities of the world. As phenomenal of a show as it turned out to be, it took almost 30 years to finally get made. I can only imagine the feelings of the studios and others that passed over it or weren't able to get it made have after seeing the success it has had.  There are countless stories like this out there like this. Look at J.K. Rowling, she was rejected by 12 different publishers before someone took a chance on Harry Potter. There are two lessons here. The first, if you are in a position where you hear different ideas, it is important to be as open minded as possible. Nobody knows what ...

It is very interesting to me as I learn about the college search process with my daughter. She is a junior in high school and we've seen a number of presentations around what she should expect and plan for, even as early as her freshman year. It is crazy the pressure on kids to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their life. They are told that they need to start taking classes as a freshman to put you on a path to not only being ready for college but improving your chances of being accepted. The irony is during the same presentation they are told that college isn't for everyone and there are lots of different learning opportunities to prepare them for a career that best suits them, many of which don't involve a four year degree. They should use high school to take a variety of classes and explore what they may want to do. But, if they wind up figuring out what they want to do requires a four year degree they could be having to catch up if they took to many elec...

If you are a fan of college football, you have to like seeing the story playing out at LSU this year, especially for their head coach, Ed Orgeron. Orgeron got into coaching as soon as his college playing days were over and after 20 years as an assistant got the opportunity to be the head coach of Ole Miss in 2005. Things didn't go well and he was fired after just 3 seasons. Back to being an assistant he worked his way back up as a top assistant and in 2013 was named interim head coach at USC after their head coach was fired during the season. At the end of his interim season he thought he would get a second chance to be a head coach, but it didn't work out that way. After being passed over for the head coaching position he resigned and took a year off. In 2015 he was once again an assistant with LSU. Little did he know that one year later, part way through the 2016 season he was back in a familiar position, his head coach fired and acting as the interim head coach. This time th...

I just finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho . It is a book that comes up in a lot of people's recommendations. I hadn't read a lot about it, just knew that people I admired and trusted highly recommended it. I have to admit that it wasn't what I was expecting. It was a story that presented some deep philosophical ideals that really make you think and reflect on things within your work, family and overall life. To give you a sample, here are some of my favorite concepts that come from some of the best quotes: "It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." - Everyone needs to have a dream. Without a dream we just mindlessly go through life day-by-day. If it is the dream of writing a book, starting a business, traveling the world, or starting a family, hold onto that dream and go after it. "And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." - If you are true to the passions in y...

When we were little we dreamed about what our life would be like. Seemingly audacious goals of being a baseball player, an astronaut, a ninja, a cowboy, or a movie star. We grow up and we still have dreams, we just are afraid to follow them. The dreams may change, but there are still dreams there. There are big dreams. Too often we are afraid to go after them. Not real fear, just the things we tell ourselves that make us afraid. Today our dreams might be to write a book, start a company, travel to Europe, or pursue your ideal job. Your dreams are attainable, they might not be easy, and they might not be quick. But you can have your dreams, don't let anyone tell you that you can't. What is the one thing you need to do today to start pursuing your dream?

A lot has been written about Tiger Woods recently and his latest major win at the Masters. It had been over a decade since his last major victory. With all of his health issues and surgeries most people thought he was done, that his career was basically over. But at the age of 43 he did what so many thought couldn't happen. There were some people that believed in him, but the vast majority didn't. There are a lot of things some people think you can't do. However, what others think doesn't matter. What matters is if you believe that you can.Don't let what others believe about you become what you believe about yourself.

I've heard this saying a number of times recently, in a variety of formats. I like the version that is attributed to Voltaire mostly because I like pretending to be smart by quoting Voltaire. There are too many times we don't like to move forward because we don't have all of the information, haven't covered all of the scenarios, or feel like we don't have all of the experience we need. We don't apply for our dream job because we feel like we don't have the experience needed or are simply afraid of being told we aren't right for the position. We don't want to start writing because we feel like there are lots of other writers that are much better than us. The part we never see is the countless hours of practice and bad writing that happened to become better, to be the writer we see today. Everyone starts out as a novice, a beginner. You can still make music even if you aren't Mozart. You can still write even if you aren't Shakespeare. You...

It has been a tough week or so in our house talking about things that limit us. We've had to have some hard conversations with our kids about things that they just can't ever do. Sometimes in life we have health, time or money constraints that just don't allow us to do certain things that we would really like to. It is easy to have a feeling of life being unfair when you have limitations that others don't. We all have limitations on us in our life. There are things that I'll probably never be able to do in my years on this earth. Yes, some of them I don't care about missing out on, but there are some that deep down I still wish for. We are all capable of more than we think we are. Don't let the limitations on your life hold you back because there are lots of other things that are completely within our grasp. They are yours for the taking if you put the effort into it. There are lots of people that don't believe in you or will tell you what you can'...

Right now, The Greatest Showman  is dominating our house. If you haven't heard about it, it is a musical rendition of the life of P.T. Barnum. I've watched the movie twice, but I've listened to the songs probably 100 times each, I'm not exaggerating. Driving my 5 year old to and from preschool every day it is what she requests to listen to. I thought the movie was entertaining, the music was phenomenal but overall I was disappointed. It was a disjointed story with pieces that were just thrown together quickly in my opinion. I think what made it even more disappointing was how the story took away from how great the songs were. When you really listen to the lyrics of the songs there are some great messages about being who you are, breaking free of the barriers that hold us back and ignoring the criticism of others. Read through the snippets below and what the words indicate then go and listen to the songs. What Benj Pasek and Justin Paul created was amazing. I'll ...

It is funny how some topics keep coming up in multiple situations with different people, obviously God is trying to send us a message. For me lately it has been the idea of taking some time to think, I've been hit with multiple times in the last week. We live such crazy hectic lives and everyone's jobs are constantly trying to squeeze every last ounce of productivity from them. Everyone is always tasked with finding ways to be more efficient. The downside of this is that when you are so pressed for time you tend to always do what you've always done. Is it any wonder that in so many of our workplaces so many individuals are frustrated because nothing ever changes? In highly innovative companies like 3M they build in time for thinking and ideation, but for most that is frowned upon as wasted time. Everyone wants to get to the action items, what are we doing, what are the specific questions that need answers. Are we spending time trying to figure out what questions we didn...

It is no secret that I'm a big fan of Disney, the man, the company, the parks and the movies. Are any of those areas perfect? Not at all. Read about the life of Walt Disney and you will see, for all of the great things he accomplished he alienated a lot of people in his life. While not perfect and throughout the mistakes he made, he never let it stop him. I think that is one of the things I love most about both the man and the company, they aren't perfect but they don't let their setbacks hold them back. I just read a great article ( read it here ) that recalled a story I had heard before about how in 1928 Walt Disney lost the rights to his characters and most of his animators. He remained optimistic, he didn't complain about his circumstances, he focused on what he could control and from that, in 1929 we were introduced to the iconic Mickey Mouse. No matter what happens to us we always have a choice in how we react to the situation we find ourselves. Great thing...

One of my favorite scenes from any movie is from Facing The Giants . If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it as a great story to watch with your whole family. It revolves around a team that didn't win as much as the parents and administration would gave liked. With their backs against the wall the coach and the team had to find out how to be successful in who they are. They couldn't change the fact other teams were bigger or faster or whatever, they could only control what they put into everything they did. In the pivotal scene the coach called out the boy who was the leader of the team that wasn't reaching his full potential. He placed limits on himself, setting goals that seemed good enough but were far less than what he was capable of. This not only limited himself but it limited his team as well. When the coach  removed the distractions from his vision and forced him to push past what he thought was all that he could give, a transformation took place. Suddenl...

Forget regret Or life is yours to miss No other road No other way No day but today   - Another Day - Rent The moments that we have in this life - to live, to learn, to laugh and to love - are fewer than we can ever imagine. If you are going to do something, give it your all. You may try and fail, but if you give your best you will never regret, and never wonder what might have been. Go big or go home. Live life to the fullest. Seize the day. Dance like nobody is watching.