Professor T

As a proud veteran of the US Armed forces, this is a sad day in American history. The right to peaceful protest is what has always made America special. Today I am embarrassed. The people who have stormed the Capitol building are making our country look weak, ignorant, and extremely immature. We get it! Your candidate loss. You are upset, but this juvenile tantrum will make us a target for foreign attacks, adds more drama to our over stressed lives, and is an overreaction to a verdict you have no longer have any control over.

News flash: We are in a pandemic, small businesses are closing daily, our economy is crippled, and people are DYING. Considering everything that is going on, this is NOT the answer.

Our focus now needs to be national healing. We have to unite as a country. The American voters have spoken. Get behind our newly elected President and Congress. The democracy and principles you are fighting so hard to “protect” ,I use those words loosely, are being destroyed. Every American needs to be praying, healing, and trying to recover from one of the most hellacious years in modern history.

You can't do this alone! You need a group of people that understand, know you, and are trustworthy. Let's call this group your "Fab 5". They are going to be your lifelines. They will be your first call when stuff hits the fan. Notice I didn't use the word "if". It is better if you just know and prepare for the fact that teacher during this pandemic is tough and there will be HARD and HARDER days along with the rest of this beautiful and amazing journey.

Here are my suggestions for your Fab 5:

The Optimist- You need someone who will always see the glass half full no matter what. Call them when you know it is going be alright eventually (meaning a solution to your current crisis is in place) but you are just having a series of tough days.

The Realist- During this time you will run into a cross roads where you have to re-evaluate. Call the realist during this time. They should have a general understanding of you and your teaching styles and how your school works, be a good listener, and solution driven. If you are making changes to your teaching model include them in early stages of that process. They will give a honest opinion and sometimes you need that outside look to balance the data and your bias.

The Listener- You need someone who will allow you to vent about the crap that you can't anticipate or explain in this virtual environment that frustrates the heck out of you. Call the listener when you have a moment where you believe Ashton Kutcher is waiting with the crew of Punked because of an unbelievable issue or obstacle that has come up. Believe it or not most of those things usually work themselves out with very little action on your part, The Listener will let you get all of that out in a venting session, you will feel 10 times better and you can avoid a quick or emotional response.

The Fixer- You need an out of the box teacher/entrepreneur who always has great ideas. The Fixer can help when you run into issues or problems that can be solved with a quick brain storming session, but you are too down in the weeds with the problem. A quick call to the Fixer will help you come up with Plan A, B, and C and most of the time it is your ideas that win out, but you needed help getting back in that innovative and creative thinking space.

You can't do this alone. You need a group of people that understand business, know you, and are trustworthy. Let's call this group your "Fab 5". They are going to be your lifelines. They will be your first call when stuff hits the fan. Notice I didn't use the word "if". It is better if you just know and prepare for the fact that owning a business is tough and there will be HARD and HARDER days along with the rest of this beautiful and amazing journey.

Here are my suggestions for your Fab 5:

The Optimist- You need someone who will always see the glass half full no matter what. Call them when you know it is going be alright eventually (meaning a solution to your current crisis is in place) but you are just having a series of tough days.

The Realist- Most times after the initial jump you will run into a cross roads where you have to re-evaluate. Call the realist during this time. They should have general understanding of your business and how it works, be a good listener, and solution driven. If you are making changes to your business model or target market include them in early stages of that process. They will give a honest opinion and sometimes you need that outside look to balance the data and your bias.

The Listener- You need someone who will allow you to vent about the crap that you can't anticipate or explain in business that frustrates the heck out of you. Call the listener when you have a moment where you believe Ashton Kutcher is waiting with the crew of Punked because of an unbelievable issue or obstacle that has come up. Believe it or not most of those things usually work themselves out with very little action on your part. The Listener will let you get all of that out in a venting session, you will feel 10 times better and you can avoid a quick or emotional response.

The Fixer- You need an out of the box entrepreneur who always has great ideas. The Fixer can help when you run into issues or problems that can be solved with a quick brain storming session, but you are too down in the weeds with the problem. A quick call to the Fixer will help you come up with Plan A, B, and C and most of the time it is your ideas that win out, but you needed help getting back in that innovative and creative thinking space.

The Warrior- If you haven't wanted to give up yet, it is coming. You need someone and in my case because I am Christian this was a Prayer Warrior. I needed someone who could go with me to God and pray when I wasn't strong enough to do that on my own. The Warrior will help you with the consistency of your prayers and take some of the pressure off keeping your faith at pinnacle levels at all time. It is not that you stop believing, but when you are in the thick of a business storm sometimes it can be hard to see the other side and speak beyond what you see. This person can help you get there. If you don't believe in God or Prayer think of the person who you know has been to hell and back and got the t-shirt and still smiling...Call them!

The English teacher in me just got my nieces and daughter to agree to a #summereadingchallenge . We were all bummed about there being no summer camps this year. I threw the idea out that maybe they could use the time to catch up on reading and of course they looked at me like had three heads. Reading is not something they enjoy, but I know they enjoy making me money. I put out there that they could do this challenge and earn $10 a completed book. They perked up. I called my mom and sister and got them to jump in for additional $7 per completed book. The girls are up $17 per completed book. The book must have at least 150 pages. They have to write a two paragraph summary, and complete a 90 second FlipGrid video summary.

Check out my new #LitTea on Michael Eric Dyson