Serving Others

Memorial Day honors fallen soldiers. We remember their service to our freedoms and country. Most veterans I know say were not heroes. The heroes were those who did not come home.

While this is a great point, we have the soldiers’ and families’ sacrifices including missing time with loved ones. While they say just doing my job, it is quite a job the soldiers and veterans preformed.

People overlook the benefits of military service. You know your work is important and matters. The camaraderie and respect of your peers is hard to replace. As much as they served our country, they served their fellow soldiers. Wartime vets talk about how they fought for the guys with them. They were part of a bigger team and purpose carrying them through hardships.

Blue Angels

We all aren’t soldiers, but we can all serve other people. Charity and service are the biggest joys of life. It gets us out of our heads.

Activities and sports help children grow into responsible adults. Pastors and counselors help people grow through hard times. Charities improve the lives of the suffering. Take comfort with small triumphs. Together we create a better world.

Help a neighbor or relative. Pack or help them move. Lend a skill you have to a stranger or a child. Never know how good you will feel.

This weekend remember those who are no longer with us. Honor veterans and soldiers around us by serving someone who needs it.

Persevering

Life does not go as planned. We have dreams, goals and hopes for life. We are going to win the championship, get a scholarship, perform on TV, be famous, be rich and meet the spouse of our dreams. Raise perfect kids. Live in a mansion.

Real life is more challenging. We are awkward. Very interested in a boy or girl. They aren’t interested and find someone else. Work hard, fail and learn. Try again. Don’t get the promotion. Starting a business or restaurant and it closes. 90% fail in first 5 years. 90% of us don’t have enough or any retirement savings.

Never anticipated:

Failing Junior year of college. (Graduated on time)

Leaving home for work. (Repeated relocations to stay employed)

Getting laid off, being fired, or seeing coworkers laid off.

Being broke.

Months or years unemployment.

Not finding a spouse in 20s. (Married at 46)

Being sued (won, but cost thousands)

Bankruptcy (side effect of lawsuit & investment failure).

Being injured or ill. (Months of rehab & recovery)

Falsely accused of misbehaving & lying in career & marriage.

Family members with mental illness.

Losing loved ones.

It may get depressing. Don’t be.

Met and worked with so many great, talented people. Tried many things and learned skills accumulated. Learn resilience. Got better jobs and businesses. Learning investing. Found joy in serving others, giving away time & effort. Parents tell me how much they love it. When we need help, we learn how wonderful it is to be cared for. Life is good.

Goals change as we live our life. What were your dreams at 18 or 30 does not sound like a dreams at 50 or 60. We adjust. Persevere through hard and frustrating days. We get humility. Work harder and smarter. We develop new talents. Get resilience. We have fun. Tough times don’t last, tough people do.

Don’t be afraid to fail. There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized.  Conan O’Brien talked how losing the Tonight Show led to reinvention and growth. He created a nationwide tour and landed his own show.

Remember you are a child of God. What we wanted is not as good as what He wants for us. You will get through your trials.

“Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” - Conan O’Brien 

The Powerful United States Economy

The US economy is so Productive, it is hard to understand or visualize it. Despite all the news reports and political positions to the contrary, the US competes well worldwide and is well positioned for future growth.

The US produced 24.3% of world’s GDP in 2017, with ~ 4.3% of the world’s population. 

China is the 2^nd largest economy producing 14.9% of the world’s GDP, but with ~18.2% of the world’s population. 

Mark Perry, University of Michigan economics and finance professor, has created a chart showing “how ridiculously large and powerful the U.S. economy is”. He compares each state to an equivalent country. 

California - United Kingdom

Texas - Canada

New York - South Korea

Florida - Indonesia

Illinois - Netherlands

Pennsylvania - Saudi Arabia

…

#11 Washington State - Iran

(See MarketWatch article for chart.)

  

California, Texas and New York would be among the 11 biggest world economies if they were countries.

Many reasons for the US dominance - Education. Financial Markets. Banking system. Military and Space investments. Airplane system. Trading ports on two coastlines, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River system. 

The main reason for success has been our wiliness to let entrepreneurs and investors create new businesses and products. We encourage people to create new intellectual property like software, products, movies, music, books and art.

Better yet we understand failure is part of the process. It is an event, not a description of ourselves. We applaud people who comeback to succeed. Anyone from any background and anywhere can succeed in America. This is essential in people believing in what they are doing to work hard and struggle through the challenges building some new takes.

What can we do? Support ideas and processes to start new businesses. Buy from someone new. One of the failures in the last decade is more businesses closed than new businesses opened.

Work on simplifying government regulations. The idea is have laws be simple to follow, not take everything to court. Do you think other countries are wasting their businesses?

Create new ideas and work hard to build them, for we need everyone.

 “Economy has frequently nothing whatever to do with the amount of money being spent, but with the wisdom used in spending it.” - Henry Ford

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-big-every-states-economy-is-if-compared-to-a-foreign-countrys-2018-05-09

Develop Your Sense of Thriving

We know life is challenging - work, school, college, health issues, family, activities, news & politics. There are relocations, break ups, divorces, funerals, and difficult people. Hard work and stress are givens in daily life. In spite of it all, life is good.

You need to be your own advocate. Who knows better what you need?

Appreciate the work you do. Make a customer happy. Anticipate what the boss or a coworker needs. Find a mistake and fix it. Mentor someone. Perform a complicated task. There is always something to appreciate in work you participated in and accomplished.

Find what you enjoy. Sit in the sunshine. Walk on the grass. Garden. Cut the lawn. Help a child. Take a run. Draw. Drive somewhere beautiful. Exercise. Take pictures. Pray. Take time for small pleasures. 

You only have to convince yourself. No one else needs to be convinced. We all see how well you are thriving. 

“You have more control than you think. Your attitude, mind-set and willfulness can make all the difference.” - Christine Porath, ‘Mastering Civility’

First Resume in Years

Wrote my first resume in years last weekend for a job within Boeing. Is there a harder way to present yourself for consideration?

First you write accomplishments and keywords to get through the computer prescreening. Then create short bullets. Sum up major projects that you spent months working on and sweating out. Get a problem/action/result story down to a few words.

Can’t take risks because HR is trying to eliminate candidates first. Nonstandard, out you go.

How do you let your personality through? Your persistence, work ethic, humor and willingness to help the team? How will they know you are exceptional?

Worse you spend hours on a resume that is glanced at for 5 – 10 seconds.

A bland boring resume. Hire me!

Now you know why referrals are still the preferred way to hire employees.