The Last Time I Saw Him

I was reminded of an incident yesterday that took place with two of my cousins. At the time they lived in High Point, NC. The older brother was David and the younger brother was Forrest (yes, different last name). They couldn’t have been any older than 9 or12 at the time of this story.

One Summer day the two of them were enjoying their bicycles outside riding, jumping, leaving the longest tire marks possible, when they decided to take off up the road they lived on. Their mother knew they were outside and wasn’t to concerned. They were very good at entertaining themselves and keeping safe.

After awhile, Forrest comes back inside, fixes a bowl of cereal and sits down in the living room to watch television. After about 10 or 15 minutes, my aunt walks into the living room with a look of curiosity, and asks Forrest, “Where is David?”

Forrest replied, “I don’t know, the last time I saw him they were putting him into the back of the ambulance.” A bit annoyed that his cereal eating was interrupted, he went back to eating his cheerios.

Of course my aunt took off running out the front door and down the street. It turns out Forrest really had no reason to be concerned. His brother was alive. He had only received a broken arm from the car that hit him on his bike.

It's News Day

Today is Day 4 of Spirit Week at Dave Ramsey’s office,celebrating the new show on the Fox Business Channel and today is “News Day”. We were to come dressed up as our favorite news anchor or someone/something in the headlines (since we’re doing a news show).

I won’t bore you with picture of me today. I simply came as a Mattel^TM action figure that was made in China. However, there was another performance by one of our team members Chris. He came as a weatherman.

Celebrity Day at Work

Today is celebrity day here at Dave Ramsey’s Office. We are celebrating Dave’s new show on the Fox Business Channel. Our team decided to dress up as characters from NBC’s The Office. I am not sure how I got voted to be Rainn Wilson’s character Dwight Schrute since I am nearly bald, but I did the best I could. Here I am.

Also, here is a performance of Steve Carrell’s character Michael Scott, performed by our own Chris Russell.

It's Hillbilly day

Today at the office it is hillbilly day. The reason for hillbilly day, is the fact that we are celebrating spirit week all week in honor of Dave’s new show on the Fox Business Channel. So we’ve heard…that people in New York think we are just a bunch of HillBillys from Tennessee.

So, to get my day started off on the right foot, my son dressed up in is overauls for school. On our way there, with the rain coming down, we turned up Alison Krauss and Union Station and danced to No Place to Hide. Here’s my boy cutting the rug from his car seat. Sorry it is so dark.

Work Like You're Showing Off

Last night I finished Joe Calloway’s Work Like You’re Showing Off. It was a great little motivational read. There were plenty of new inspiring thoughts, along with several I’ve read before. This was the the first I had heard of Joe Calloway. He is a member of the National Speaker Hall of Fame and he is a native of Tennessee.

There was one particular part of the book that I appreciated most. I hear so many people talk about setting sail and finding what they are passionate about. Well, I doubt at this point that I’m going to be an NFL kicker starting at age 30 and other than that I am not sure about my passions. That’s why what Calloway says, hit home with me and I couldn’t have said it better. So, I’ll just let him say it.

“One thing that has always irritated me is this idea that if you “follow your passion,” the window of heaven will open up and shower you with success and peace of mind and life will be a bowl of self-actualized cherries…..My problem is that I’m not completely sure what my passion is when it comes to work….what I’m truly passionate about is my family and friends. Maybe I’m a slacker at heart. My passion lies in hanging out with people I like.

Rather than quit work and go on a sabbatical to discover some burning career passion, which, by the way might be just the ticket for some people, I’ve decided to go all in with my work because, well, it’s my work. Seriously. I decided that whatever work I do can be a source of fulfillment and even joy, depending on the extend to which I go all in with it.” (p72)

Doing my job well, regardless of what it is, very much gives me my since of fulfillment.

Fox Business Channel Goes Live with Dave Ramsey

Tonight is the big night! Dave Ramsey hits national television on the largest cable network launch in history. Fox has launched their new Fox Business Channel today and Dave Ramsey is their Primetime personality. You can go to Dave Ramsey’s website to see if your cable provider is carrying the new channel.

Thanks, Which Wich

Today was a historic day for Which Which and Chris Thomas. Chris became the first person to eat his way into the 51 club, eating all 51 available sandwiches they offer.

Nearly 50 of us joined Chris at the local Which Wich sandwich shop to celebrate his accomplishment. We watched as he consumed number 51, the “Wicked”. Even Which Wich’s founder Jeff Sinelli flew in from Dallas to mark this occasion.

I have to say, I am very impressed with Jeff and his Which Wich shops. Meeting him was a pleasure. Mainly because he bought lunch for all of us today, but mostly because his shop is different from the others like Subway, Quiznos, Jersey Mike’s, etc… It’s unique. I like unique. I also like free. In addition to a free meal, I also got a free shirt a few weeks back. They have certainly made a fan out of me.

Way to go Chris!

Thanks for the food and shirt Jeff!

A Pulley Story

So, I was thinking about my brother and his run-in with a bottle of turpentine and I thought about another story. My dad was a mechanic by trade and although I am not certain if that had an influence on the amount of junk we had in our shed, I like to think it contributed. There was quite a bit of things in “storage” that didn’t work, but they made great toys for boys growing up in the country. Our imaginations could make use of just about anything we could find.

My brother had a gift of taking his imagination and turning it into a dream and then making it a realistic goal. Although he didn’t just set goals, he set huge goals, unattainable goals, goals that would normally require some type of capital venture.

One day we found an old pulley in the shed. He decided he could string up a rope between two huge Oaks in the pasture behind our house and make a zip line. He was a dreamer, not a physicist. The distance between the two trees was about 50 yards and there was a small valley between them both. The height of the rope over the valley was about 15-20 feet from the ground.

After he had worked for a few hours to get the ropes tied up in the trees, I had given up on this actually working and went inside to watch TV. Then after awhile, my brother comes running inside flapping his hands, pitching the biggest fit you had ever seen. As he took off on his first run he nearly lost hold of the pulley. He reacted by reaching up and grabbing the rope so he would’nt fall to ground. Because the rope was slick and there was so much slack in the line, it caused him severe rope burn as he slid further down the rope with his bare hands.

I thought it was a great idea too. Oh well.

What was your greatest idea as a kid?

Dave Ramsey and Geek Brief

Well, everyone else in our office who has a blog posted the interview that GeekBreif.tv had with Dave Ramsey so why shouldn’t I? Well…I don’t know. However, I would like to add something. In the interview they touched on the new FPU Online (Financial Peace University) and Dave discussed the importance of community. If people are going to get out of debt, they need the accountability of others to keep them focused and motivated on achieving their goals.

What they did not discuss, is how Dave’s subscription site My Total Money Makeover has an online community of thousands of people from around the world. There is significance to this point. Once people complete FPU/FPU Online, people can still benefit from community while building their budget (with the easiest to use budget software on the web) plus they get to listen to his radio show via podcast or commercial-free mp3s. Honestly, it is one of the greatest online communities I have ever seen and I’m not just saying that because I work on Dave’s team. It really is extraordinary.

The Taste of Turpentine

When I was growing up my mother did quite a bit of painting. She was very talented. I can recall her always having her paints and brushes handy and working on some kind of project.

She always enjoyed telling a story about my brother when he was little. You see, mom always used turpentine to clean her paint brushes and one time when she wasn’t paying attention, she turned around and noticed that my brother was holding an open bottle of turpentine.

Immediately she thought, “He’s been drinking it.” Panic set in and she feared for my brother’s life. She had no idea what kind of effect turpentine would have on him.

She screamed out for my dad, and he came running. She quickly told him what the situation was and asked what they should do. He simply responded by taking away the bottle of turpentine from my brother, turned it up and took a sip for himself.

As her eyes grew wider with confusion and concern, dad lowered the bottle and said, “That stuff tastes awful. There’s no way he would have drunk enough to hurt him.”

End of story.

What is Hope?

Maybe before talking about what hope is, I should ask, “what is faith?” The Hebrew writer says this in 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (ESV).“

Now back to hope. I recall back in college, one of my Bible professors pointing out that our use of the word “hope” is completely different from the way people used it long ago.

For example, if you were to go by a lottery ticket and think to yourself, “I really hope I win,” you probably don’t expect to win. When people such as the apostle Paul used the word “hope”, they used it with a sense of expectancy. Having hope in God, was not a matter of “it might happen,” but rather it was a matter of “let’s make plans because we know God is going to live up to his promises.”

Hoping in something should not be equated with having good luck. Hoping in God is more than that and that is what leads to faith.

Please…comment.

How to become the richest person in the world

Today I stumbled upon Boomj Finance and saw where they had a list of the world’s 20 richest people along with a few facts. I thought some things were interesting.

• Only 7 out of 20 completed college.
• 17 out of 20 were married. 1 was single. 1 was widowed. 1 was divorced.
• 18 out of 20 had 2 or more kids. 1 had 0 kids. 1 had 1 child.
• 13 out of 20 fortunes were self-made. 1 was N/A. and 6 were inherited.
• 4 out of the 7 who completed college, inherited their fortune.
• Their average age is 64 years.
• 5 of them live in the US. 2 live in Germany. 2 live in the UK. 2 live in France.

Let me sum this up. If you want to be the richest person in the world you may want to consider dropping out of school, move to the US, get married, have 2 kids, don’t expect an inheritance, and you’ll be one of the wealthiest people in the world by age 64.

Good luck!

The Unwritten Laws of Business

In 1944, W.J. King wrote a book entitled The Unwritten Laws of Engineering. Interestingly enough, CEO William H. Swanson, came out with a self-published pamphlet, Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management that was largely inspired by King’s book. Swanson’s pamphlet was well received by individuals such as Jack Welch and Warren Buffet.

This is all to say that James G. Skakoon did a rewrite of King’s original book and has now published The Unwritten Laws of Business. It’s great how basic principles of management and leadership hold up after 60 years. This little book is short and simple, provides a wealth of knowledge for new managers, and serves as a great reminder for the veterans.

The Traveler's Gift

For my birthday a few weeks ago my wife gave me a copy of The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews. Today, I sat outside during lunch and finished it up while enjoying a GORGEOUS day. The book was an enjoyable read.

It’s about a fellow who feels like his life is falling apart. Well, it is falling apart, but in the midst of one major crisis, he finds himself visiting famous people of both past and present who share with him some wonderful little nuggets of wisdom.