OK - I admit it.. I suck at blogging.. partly because I have the attention span of a 5 year old and…. entirely because I have the attention span of a 5 year old.. I realize that one of the cardinal rules of blogging is making sure you have regularly updated content.  And it doesn’t even have to be intelligent information - entertaining dribble works from what I understand.. which ties in with my 5 year old theme.  At any rate, I am going to revive my blog even if its purely for my own entertainment and amusement.. which most of everything I do is for that reason anyway.. Why slack off on my self-centeredness now?? so stay tuned.. more to follow… soon, I promise!!

Plagerism is the sincerest form of flattery – or so says my senior advisor (he also refers to himself as my ‘OWG’ or ‘old white guy’). This morning’s sermon was about the concept that a eulogy is wasted on the dead and wouldn’t we all rather hear the good things people have to say about us when we are alive.. Some of you may remember the movie ‘Waking Ned Divine’ from 1998 and and the scene ‘Eulogy for a Friend’ where Jackie eulogizes his friend Michael who is sitting in the congregation. “The words that are spoken at a funeral are spoken too late for the man that is dead. What a wonderful thing it would be to visit your own funeral.. to sit at the front and hear what was said.”
So what does this have to do with business and being an accidental entrepreneur? Our employees are our greatest asset and I believe that positive comments, inspirational words and motivating support produce more than harsh words meant to prod. Don’t miss the opportunity to eulogize someone now before it makes no difference to them. You have the chance to lead the legacy of others. We underestimate the power of the spoken word – it is your choice to use that power to tear someone down or to bring them up and lead them to greatness. Parent, teacher, minister or friend – we all have the power to eulogize those around us and pay it backward and forward.

One of the drawbacks of hiring family and friends is the misconception by others that these individuals were chosen solely because of genetics or familiarity and with no consideration for their skills. I want to tell you that in my case, this is farthest from the truth. When your home, belongings, future and family are at stake, your standards for employee and support selection are much higher than those standards held by others with less to lose. In my world, there is no favoritism toward employees or family, only favoritism towards those who work hard, respect others, treat everyone with compassion, speak to others without condescension and with a supportive tone, and have the same passion for supporting the mission (no matter what the mission may be) as I do. And to be honest, I’m blessed to have a company that has resulted in favoritism toward everyone.

One of my favorite books, The Noticer, is all about perspective. It’s a great read but sometimes we need to just take a look around us and find perspective from things that we see or deal with each day. Yesterday I found perspective from my 10 year old son who deals daily with the challenges of a rare genetic disorder. We had dinner with grandparents and Danny continually complimented the ‘chefs’ on their talents. Toward the end of the meal, he finally declared “This is the best day of my life”. Of course the cynical remainder of his family asked him if he was SURE that this was truly the best day of his life. He has made that statement thousands of times in the past. But all of sudden, I realized ‘why not?’ Why can’t this be the best day of his life? So I simply declared (and a bit defensively) “It’s too bad that all of us can’t have Danny’s perspective and truly feel that every day is the best day of our life”. As you can imagine, no one said another word about Danny’s declaration and from now on, we’ll all agree with my perfect little man each time he makes that statement and wish that we too could say that each day was the ‘best day of our life’.