Lessons Learned

It is what it is!

How often do we hear this phrase, expressed in a sense of powerlessness; forced to conclude that we can’t change the facts of our situation.  It states the obvious, true.  But it also cedes our power, admitting defeat to the status quo, to the more powerful, or to the more connected.  Too often we allow the facts of our situation to define us, as if we have been shaped into an unchanging statue of stone.  The reality is that our ‘willingness to adapt’ is our power.  It is NOT the facts of our situation that define us, it is HOW WE RESPOND to the situation that does.  Do we respond with strength and courage, or with weakness and servitude?  Our choice is what it is!

TRUMP BANS REFUGEES

Martin Luther King once said, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

“Only the little people pay taxes.”   - Leona Helmsly

When leaders believe that different rules apply to them than to their followers, they delegitimize their moral authority.  It is a slippery slope to corruption and authoritarianism.

"I am going to do this and I don't give a crap" - Dr. Mae Jemison, NASA

When bold people walk in faith and work hard to make their dreams come true, the faithless crowd perceives arrogance. Sometimes arrogance is just faith. But the crowd doesn't live its dreams, the crowd doesn't build a business that will impact the world and the crowd doesn't live an extraordinary life.

Stay relevant and current in all that you do.  It will enable you to weather the currents of the storms around you.  - Steve Burton

In 1941, FDR argued that a peaceful, prosperous, and secure world is founded upon four essential human freedoms. 

1. Freedom of Speech

2. Freedom of Worship

3. Freedom from Want

4. Freedom from Fear

Similarly, an innovative and prosperous company is founded upon four essential human freedoms.

1. Freedom to Speak

2. Freedom to Think

3. Freedom to Act

4. Freedom to Fail

Many consider their lives as somehow being beyond their immediate control. We glumly complain, “I suppose it’s destiny.” Yet we each have it in our power to influence our outcomes, both positively and negatively. Live life purposely to shape your character through actions and words; but most importantly think good thoughts that seek to make the world a better place.

Think outside of the box, create your own path in life.

“Simply raising questions about the orthodoxies of the moment leads to excommunication, from which there is no coming back. So the only “experts” left standing are those who made all the approved mistakes. It’s kind of a fraternity of failure: men and women united by a shared history of getting everything wrong, and refusing to admit it.”  

        - Paul Krugman, from NY Times, A Fraternity of Failure