The Fire Within

Hamilton is coming out on Disney+ tomorrow and I am so excited to watch it. I've been singing along with the album for the last 4 years and have never had the chance to see the show. I remember when I first learned about it I started reading more about the history behind the musical. I had heard about the famous dual and knew Hamilton was one of the Founding Fathers, but there was a lot that I didn't know. I've been learning some new things, doing some new research lately as I have have once again realized how little I really know about the history of our country. I've heard the terms before but didn't really know much beyond the surface of the Reconstruction era, Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights movement. I was this many years old before I had heard about Juneteenth, celebrating the actual end of slavery in the United States. I grew up knowing about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, and that was in the middle of the Civil War, but I'm still s...

If you are a sports fan you've probably heard about The Last Dance , the documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls currently airing. Anyone who saw Jordan will tell you he is the greatest basketball player to have played the game. That has come under debate recently with many current NBA fans claiming LeBron James is the greatest ever. I'm not hear to debate who is better, what interests me is how much people, especially young people, only know of recent players. It happens in every generation to a degree but I think as time goes by people get less interested in the history of the thing they love. Because of the documentary many people are listing their top 5 or top 10 players of all time, and they are listing Jordan but they are leaving out greats of the past. To appreciate LeBron you need to understand what Jordan did. To appreciate Jordan you have to understand what Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell did before him....

I was reminded of a book by Seth Godin recently called All Marketers Are Liars . If you are in marketing those might be harsh words to hear but I would encourage you most of all to read it. The reason I've been thinking about it is because of some of the different messages I've been hearing lately. These messages are all stories. Everyone has a story to tell. Every person, every team, every company and every organization has a story. Everyone is in marketing trying to make their story sound as good as they possibly can. The issue is when you start manipulating the story. You are sharing feedback from the handful of customers that applaud a decision and ignoring the hundreds of complaints you've received. When you start altering the story so far from the truth, yet you've repeated the story to yourself so much you honestly believe it is the truth. We need to listen to our audience and we need to be authentic. If you don't like your story, don't make something...

I'm reading through  Legacy   by James Kerr and there was a part talking about stories that reminded me how much I enjoy a good story. The best business books I've ever read all have an element of good story telling to them. Nobody wants to read a text book. We learn and engage better with stories. The best speakers are those that tell great stories. Stories are a foundation in our culture. Most people think that their life is boring, they are a failure, or that nobody would care about their story. It isn't true though, your story just isn't finished. Every story has conflict, every hero has that moment where it seems like they are defeated and it is the end of the line. The key is that isn't the end of the story. It is at that moment that the hero has a choice to make. They can stay defeated, turn around and forget about the path they were on because it looks too hard. Or, they can find the strength to move forward, learn from the defeat and turn the tragedy into...