What is Feeding You?

Reading bad news? Scary opinion pieces? How the world is going downhill fast? Jobs will go away. Young people are not the same. Politics are horrible.

Not True.

Technology improves our lives. Health care is curing and preventing diseases. Research gets deeper understanding our world. Engineering is more accurate. Safety improves every year.

Why? Hard Work.

We feed the whole world using less land. ~1.1 billion people have moved out of extreme poverty since 1990. Extreme poverty worldwide is down from 35% (1990) to 10.7% (2017). Total giving to charitable organizations was $410.02 billion in 2017.

Problems and challenges never go away, but we improve lives daily. Join us changing the world, one task at a time.

Graduation Speech for Rest of Us

Graduations speeches emphasis how wonderful we are, how far we will go, how we will lead the world, and be the ‘bestiest of the bestiest ever’. But we know we all can’t be no. 1 all at the same time. Who here did not graduate top of their class? 

I have accomplishments. Worked hard, solved problems, created new products, improved safety, and wrote a couple books. Graduated in the top on my class? Nope. Middle of high school class, and bottom third of engineering school. Being a C student never held me back in business. Only HR ever asked my grades, and HR was not the person choosing to hire me or not.

Why can we accomplish much in our lives? Will give you a hint, no one does it alone. Someone like you has an idea. They start researching the idea. They talk with trusted friends and improve it. They raise some seed money to test the idea. Change the idea and try again. Try again and again. 

The reason we succeed is research, collaboration, team work, learning from others mistakes, and learning from our mistakes. Don’t forget a ton of hard work. Success has lots of contributors sweating out details during development, marketing, sales and service.

The reason most people succeed is not that they are perfect. It is they are willing to try. They often fail. But failure is a chance to learn, and successful people will learn from everyone - Family, friends, strangers, people they disagree with, and people they don’t like.

We learn by small trials, testing, and learn to mitigate risks. We don’t take the wildest risk first. By mitigating risks we have ships, trains, trucks, airplanes and rockets. We send satellites throughout the solar system and are observing the universe. Being wrong is how we got here and how the future will be created. “Together, we can find a way” to create abundant energy, abundant food, and better health for all.

Customers are people who make choices, not corporations. People are people - weird, strange, eat odd foods, and make their own choices - which will not be your choices. Take good care of customers, because without sales we will be out of business in a few months. 

Since we will all be wrong at some point, or likely several times a day. Be kind to each other. Ask your parents if they knew what they were doing raising you? Of course they were figuring it out as they went. Raising good adults is one of life’s best accomplishments.

No one knows what the future will hold. Having education, business knowledge, skills, experience, resilience and options are necessary for your career. Try to learn something every day.

Some will scorn what I said. Some will like it. But someday you will go ‘That guy was right, dammit!’ Probably followed by what was his name?

Don’t be afraid to learn, live life, and share what you know. Remember, no matter what, you are loved. From me, your family, your neighbors, people you don’t know, and God with us. No matter how you struggle, how you fail and how you fail again. Love will be with you. 

Greatness Starts with Awkward

It looks easy when someone does it. The painting is perfect. The music sounds great. The picture is perfect. The article is flawless.

Little do you know how awkward or clumsy it was the first time the painter tried that technique. The musician struggled with simple scales to learn finger techniques. The photographer took shots out of focus and cut off the heads of his friends.

I write and know how hard it is to organize your thoughts. My first drafts were hard to read and understand. The sentences were not complete. Thoughts dropped off without explanation. New ideas popped up off topic. Too much was stuffed into the first article and the pages kept growing.

In short it was awful.

But I kept working on it. Edit, put it down, and much later read it again and edit some more. Then the article got circulated to other writers and my editor for feedback. More ideas for changes and edits. Realized my story was too complex and broke it into several stories that stood on their own, and the readers could understand the point. More re-reading and editing the same article over weeks.

The articles that were published looked polished and still read well today. Got high praise and people thanking me for writing down my ideas.

Guess what. My writing skills came from giving myself permission to write ugly. It is how we all learn. “Trial and error and error and error.” Pick ourselves up and try to do it better next time.

Go out today and see what you can learn. After some hard work you will be the artist.

The Athletes are Alright

Coming up to the Olympics, we heard about was Zika, water pollution, untreated waste, problems building the venues, incomplete housing, Brazil’s economy and other potential disasters.

What I see are dedicated people competing at the highest levels. Even the lowest finishers in early heat are accomplished athletes. Years of coaching, hard work and talent are on display.

Performances are out of this world. Gymnasts doing amazing flips. Divers with body control and precision. Swimmers setting best times and records. 37 year old mothers of 3 dominating their sport.

They are and should be proud participants. Honor their efforts, not just the results. 

Be inspired to work hard with your talents. You are every bit as important.

Olympic Glory

We are going to admire wonder athletes doing amazing feats in Rio. When they need it they go deeper and get the last burst of skill, creativity and energy. How do they do it?

“Skill is only developed by hours and hours of work.” - Usain Bolt, Olympic Sprinter Jamaica

"Any idiot can train himself into the ground; the trick is doing the training that makes you gradually stronger." - Keith Brantly, U.S. Olympic marathoner

"Pick one thing each year that you need to improve, and work on that. It might be improving your diet, getting more sleep, or increasing your mileage. You can't work on everything at once." - Bob Kennedy, two-time U.S. Olympian, American records 3000 meters, 2 miles and the 5000 meters

"When you try a new type of training, think like a beginner. Just because you can run 20 miles every Sunday doesn't mean you can survive 10 x 400 meters on the track at a fast pace."  - Jack Daniels, Ph.D., exercise physiologist, coach, and former world-class pentathlete

"I don't wear a watch during my long runs. That way I'm not tempted to compare my time from week to week." - Lynn Jennings, three-time World Cross-Country champion

"In training, don't be afraid to be an oddball, eccentric, or extremist. Only by daring to go against tradition can new ways of training be learned. The trick is recognizing quickly when a new approach is counterproductive." - Benji Durden, Olympic marathoner

"Day to day consistency is more important than big mileage. Then you're never shot the next day." - John Campbell, masters running star New Zealand

"Back off at the first sign of injury. Three to 5 days off is better than missing a month or two. Take regular rest days." - PattiSue Plumer, two-time U.S. Olympian

"I make sure I have some really enjoyable training runs, remembering to 'smell the roses' along the way. That way I don't become caught up in the training-is-everything syndrome." - Sue Stricklin, top masters runner

What is in common with all the messages from the stars? It is not about winning, but doing the work necessary to prepare to win. It is finding out you are better than you thought. It is listening to your body. And having fun along the way.

Enjoy and keep working. You are Building Greatness.