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Why your life is lame – The Flinch by Julien Smith

January 26, 2012 in Blogging, do the work, parenting, Seth Godin 3

You’re a wuss

I’m a wuss and so are you. We hesitate. We do NOT want to stick out. We want to be different but we fail because we use normal things to do it. The closest we get to wanting to be different is having a 2012 model instead of a 2011. That’s not different, that’s newer.

Julien Smith wrote a short book (length doesn ‘t matter by the way, it’s still awesome) about our human reaction to being different. The book is called Flinch and it chronicles our human desire to fit in and our deep rooted hesitation to do anything difficult.

He’s right. Continue Reading…

Anything that motivates you to get up at 5am is healthy

January 9, 2012 in How I work, parenting, Productivity 12

Fill in the blank. “Don’t be motivated by _____________.”

I disagree with whatever you wrote. If it gets me up at 5am I don’t care what it is.

I got up at 5am today because…

I was afraid that I wasn’t going to complete a project.
I want to be home by 5pm because my wife NEEDS me home.
I can be very unproductive so it’s better to get my unproductive time out of the way by 8am so I’m out of excuses.
I get a better parking spot at 6am.
I’m not a jerk to my wife and kids when they wake up (I am usually very impatient and want to get to work around the time they wake up).
There are virtually no distractions this early in the morning other than the ones I create.
All successful people I respect get up early.

Back to work…
7:13am

Never assume something is simple for your customers

September 9, 2011 in andy traub, Customer Service, family, parenting 2

My son called me after his first day of preschool to tell me about his hurt knee and he got my voicemail. As you’ll hear, he’s not very familiar with voicemail.

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Lesson for the day is… Continue Reading…

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Why my best friends are all rich

October 5, 2010 in advice, Attitude, employment, Generosity, parenting, Social Media, Solopreneur 5

Most of my very best friends are what you would consider wealthy. Why is that? Here are a few reasons why.

1. Successful people have better attitudes. They don’t blame the world for their success or their failures. They thank God for their success and take responsibility for their failures. It makes them easy to be around.

2. Successful people are generous. My friends like to share what they have. They aren’t identified by the things they own so they can hold them more loosely.

3. Successful people love what they do. One of my best friends owns a chain of Culvers, another sells life insurance and investments, another paints houses and one sells industrial cooling systems. All of my best friends like what they do for a living. Again, less complaining.
Continue Reading…