“Jump Around” by Jason Kotecki. 16 x 20. Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!
This painting was inspired by a tradition that Badger fans have at University of Wisconsin football games. Between the third and fourth quarters, the song “Jump Around” is booming through the loudspeakers, and all of the red-clad fans do exactly that.
It reminded me of those old electronic football games in which tiny plastic athletes buzzed around on a green metal field. Readers of a certain age will know exactly what I’m talking about, and this painting will bring back all sorts of memories.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, well, I guess you had to be there.
With football season now upon us, I am reminded of a cool idea the leader of an insurance agency shared with me at one of my speaking programs. During pigskin season, he allows his employees to wear jeans and the jersey of their favorite college or pro team. (He even buys the jersey as a welcome aboard present!) Then, if their team wins over the weekend, they can wear it again on Monday. He reports that those days are always the most light-hearted and energized.
Even if you work in an environment where jerseys wouldn’t be appropriate, perhaps everyone could represent their favorite team with a necktie, lapel pin, socks, or coffee mug.
I think it’s worth figuring something out, because this sounds like a pretty good way to keep a team buzzing to me.
“Rocket Yeah” by Jason Kotecki. 24 x 30. Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!
We’ve been launching ourselves into space for decades now, and there’s still an element of risk every time we do it. Although very smart people do their best to minimize it, there is always the prospect of danger, disaster, and the possibility that it might not work. With all that humankind has gained from these amazing missions, I’m thankful we’ve had so many brave people willing to go for the ride.
It’s good to remember that every worthwhile endeavor comes with an element of risk and requires at least some small measure of bravery. It comes with the territory and is a necessary consideration as we make our plans.
However, I made this painting to also remind us not to focus too much on the danger. I know I can get sucked into spending too much time thinking about the risk, what I might lose, and what people will think of me if I fail (especially if in some spectacular fashion).
Determining that an endeavor carries some risk shouldn’t automatically keep us from moving forward.
The whimsy incorporated into this piece in the form of a bomb pop blasting off into space is a reminder to focus at least as much on the excitement of what’s possible and the potential gains to be made in the process of trying. This recalibration can give us the fuel we need to launch off into an adventure in which the outcome is unknown.
Do you have an opportunity in front of you that’s freaking you out a little bit?
Instead of worrying so much about what might happen if it doesn’t work, get excited by asking yourself the question, “What if it does?!”
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[ Below is a video with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this painting – enjoy! ]
“Pie in the Sky” by Jason Kotecki. 20 x 20. Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!
In December of 2016, I wrote the biggest check of my life. Not in size, but in importance. It was the final check to close out a business debt that totaled $100,000 back in 2008. We paid it off seven months early, and for the first time since we launched in 2000, the business was completely debt-free.
That felt really, really good.
Deep down, I always knew we’d pay it off, but it seemed like it would take forever. In 2008, the year 2017 seemed a million years away. And before that, as we racked up said debt staying afloat while we tested business models, and funded small successes (and a few big defeats), surviving — let alone thriving — seemed pie in the sky.
At least it did when we spent two whole days at a craft show in Milwaukee and only sold $7.94 in greeting cards.
Or when my hometown newspaper, which ran my comic strip free for a whole year, decided to drop it when I asked for $10 a week.
Or when we were down to the last $100 in our bank account more times than I care to remember.
Pie in the sky.
Coined in a song written in 1911 by a Swedish-born American named Joe Hill, we understand “pie in the sky” as something good and pleasant to contemplate, but very unlikely to be realized.
I don’t know what the odds were of us actually building a real business with no experience, no proven business model, and no money. Were they as long as the Cubs rallying from a 3-1 series deficit to win the World Series? Or as unlikely as the Patriots coming back from 25 down with a little over a quarter to play to win the Super Bowl?
The real question is this: How great does the deck have to be stacked against you before you give up, labeling your dream as pie in the sky?
Only you can answer that, and every person has a different one. But we are often too quick to chalk something up as pie in the sky when it really isn’t. It can keep us from even starting. It lets us off the hook, thinking our dream was impossible anyway, because sacrifice and hard work and hope — yes, even hope — hurts sometimes.
I don’t write this to place myself on a pedestal. If I have done anything well, it has been to persist. But my persistence was fueled by a belief that God placed this dream deep in my heart, and that he would see it through. Every day I woke up thinking, this could be the day — the day that we got our big break and everything would turn around. Some of the things that seemed to be big breaks turned out to be pathetic spurts and epic fails. Mostly, we got a lot of small breaks that added up to something pretty great. It certainly tested every bit of my patience and nerve and good sense, and made me question my sanity on more than thirty-seven occasions, but here we are.
Not everything is worth seeing through till the end. As we grow, our dreams and desires, and priorities can change. But don’t be tricked into stopping just because the odds seem long. Everything is impossible until it isn’t.
Yes, the odds may be long. Your stamina may be depleted. Your hope may be dim.
But if the cause is great enough and your soul is on board and your motive is pure, keep going.
You may just be able to grab that pie and eat it, too.
