Archives for August 2019

I got my first pair of glasses in eighth grade. “Oh great,” I remember thinking, “Now I’m going to be one of those people.” I figured the least I could do was select a style that would be cool. For some reason, I thought big, brown frames with lenses the size of dinnerplates fit the bill. Since then, I’ve gone through quite a few frames, including the horrible clear plastic cheapos that were the best I could find in an emergency late-night mall trip. I busted lots of frames early on. At the time, I blamed my aggressive, living- on-the-edge lifestyle, but it probably had more to do with the awkwardness of puberty (good times). In a cruel twist of fate, the nasty clear plastic ones lasted the longest (good riddance, sophomore year). I even went through a contact lens phase before ultimately deciding that glasses were easier and I got comfortable with the idea of being “one of those people.” One thing that hasn’t changed is that I’m still near-sighted. …

[Read more...] about Are You Near-Sighted or Far-Sighted?

It’s a natural human tendency to compare ourselves to others, especially to people who are in the same field we’re in. Comparison isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it leads us to discover areas where we can improve. But when it shifts into envy or jealousy, that’s a problem.  I often attend the annual convention for the National Speakers Association. I always have to brace myself for the “must be nice” game. In the speaker world, it goes like this:  Of course he gets booked all the time, he’s a former NBA player. Must be nice.  She’s got so many connections from working all those years in the corporate world. Must be nice.  I wish I could juggle fire and do backflips like that. Must be nice.  I spend so much time noticing all the things I’m not that I miss the things I am. One theme that drove itself home for me during a convention years ago was my talent as an artist. It’s something I’m good at, and it’s a skill that very few speakers possess. And yet …

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You can spend all day fishing and catch nothing: 2,375 casts; 2,375 failures.  But.  The next cast could be the one that changes everything.  Since I started my company in 1999, I’ve encountered many dead ends. We’ve had a lot of projects we were excited about, initiatives we were certain would deliver the breakthrough beyond our wildest dreams, that failed—hard.  We’ve lost money, time, and pride. Sometimes, it’s taken a long time to recover. After you’ve been hit by a car so many times, you start to wonder if maybe you should stop standing in the middle of the highway. But one thing that kept me going was a quote by Thomas Edison, who said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”  I guess I was more afraid of being a failure than I was of failing. And there’s a difference.  Dead ends happen. But hitting one doesn’t necessarily mean you’re dead or at the …

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