Category: Uncategorized

I had a mentor very early in my career who set the course for my future in Engineering. 

This man was respected Engineer and Architect.  

I was young, and slightly intimidated. 

I had never had a mentor before. 

I had no idea how this relationship was supposed to work. 

I actually only met with him once as a specific “Mentoring meeting” 

I clearly remember sitting in his office.  

I remember the layout of his furniture and the wood grain on his table. 

But I only remember one thing that he said to me.  

He told me that I have a choice to make.  

I could be tall and narrow, or short and wide.  

Both paths would bring me success, but I had to choose early. 

I could become a subject matter expert and know more than anyone else. 

Be the guy that everyone goes to for that one thing. 

Or I could be the jack of all trades. 

Learn everything I can about everything I come in contact with. 

I left the office thinking yeah, that’s a good point. 

There are things that I am very good at. 

I would love to be “The Master” 

I would love to garner the respect that I see the subject matter experts get. 

I knew specific people at IBM who were the best in the World, and everyone knew it. 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that was not me.  

Later that evening, I realized that was not who I am. 

I am the person who needs to know the stack from top to bottom. 

I have to see the big picture. 

At that moment my entire future career unfolded before my eyes. 

I would take all of the disciplines and bring them together. 

That is where invention lives. 

That is where solutions come from. 

At that moment, an Architect was born. 

You are in a hurry. 

I get it. 

You don’t want to waste your life away as a slave to someone else. 

You have Big Ideas. 

You have Big Plans. 

You have Ambition. 

Are you making progress every day towards those plans? 

What did you do today to move the ball forward? 

If you are making progress, keep at it.  

Keep pushing, keep driving. 

If you are stuck. 

If you are hitting roadblocks.  

If you don’t know where to start.  

It may be time to ask yourself a hard questions.  

Do you have the tools to start building your dream? 

Is it still just a dream and not a plan? 

Have you put in the time to learn? 

Impatience is a great thing when it drives you to act. 

Impatience will destroy you if it prevents you from preparing. 

There is always more to learn. 

There will always me more time. 

We have a long time on this planet. 

Sometimes we have to put in the time. 

Learning from other people who have gone before. 

Learning how things are done elsewhere. 

Learning how NOT to do things. 

Don’t be afraid of the shit jobs. 

Don’t be afraid of having a boss. 

Don’t be afraid of getting trapped there. 

If you are here reading this, then you do not have that personality. 

Some people get comfortable in those roles.  

That is not you. 

You can get in, learn, then get out. 

Maybe you will stay longer than you think because you can do more there than you thought. 

Or maybe it will be a great place to identify all the traps that you don’t want to fall into. 

You are a learner. 

You are determined. 

You are preparing. 

Experience and Knowledge are never a waste of time. 

It’s ok to take that shit job. 

It is actually recommended. 

Beat up former athlete… Don’t come here for an ego boost, come learn something you can use the rest of your life. 

We see it a lot. 

The former football/soccer/basketball player.  

Ten years ago they were a star.  

Ten years of beer and hamburgers and watching football games on TV have changed things a bit. 

Their wives are still hot. 

They have noticed they are getting a little soft. 

Ego is a powerful master. 

They finally look deep inside and realize that it is time to make a change.  

This is a huge step. 

An important step. 

An agonizingly difficult step. 

To come in and tell us that they need our help. 

Then something happens.  

It was actually pretty easy.  

Opening our front door and coming in to chat was not like running the gauntlet.  

It was more like coming home. 

Their heart started to race a little at the excitement to feel young and strong and virile again.  

These men are ready for a change. 

Ready to take back their lives. 

Driven. 

Ego is a powerful master. 

We have to have the strength to stand up to that master.  

Or it will destroy you before you even get started. 

The maturity to not listen when the cocky SOB in the back of our head says 

“You got this, Bro!” 

That 10 years took a toll on our bodies, it will take time to get it back. 

Those men that have learned to be patient … 

Listen to their coach and their body 

Know the power of compounding interest – even on their body. 

Those men find a new beast inside. 

They find the power getting stronger than they ever were. 

They find the power of mental discipline that comes from internal sources. 

They find the pleasure of success.  

They find the comfort of confidence again. 

We live in a world which believes that information is power

We drown in information and don’t know what to make of it

So we study more, looking harder and harder for the answer

Then we regurgitate it to each other

Sometimes, it’s not what you know from reading and talking 

It’s what you do consistently that matters 

We can all learn from reading  

But take it from a writer 

Words fail.

Words will never tell you the whole story

That’s why we obsess and keep writing 

We can never quite give you all the details that you need 

Sometimes, you have to DO 

Sometimes, you have to be there

Sometimes, you have to live through the challenge

Sometimes, you have to feel the pain yourself

Sometimes, you have to see the expressions on people’s face

Sometimes, you have to pick up the puppy yourself

Sometimes, you have to fire someone who needed the job

Read.Talk.Think.Simulate. 

Then get out there and just do it

Do the grunt work

Write the code

Pick up the hammer

Talk to the person being a PITA

Make the sale

Then tell me about how you know what you are doing

Chris Sacca: “Your inbox is a Todo list to which anyone in the world can add an action item” 

I have liberated myself from my inbox, and it feels amazing.  

I am not a slave to my email.  

I check my mail several hours after I get up in the morning. 

After I have taken care of what I want to take care of. 

Take back your morning, take back your day.  

Impatience and frustration are huge reasons most people fail to reach their goals. 

Having unreasonable expectations of time leads to this frustration. 

Work Ethic and Will Power always overpower this frustration.  

My Father used to say that he could “out-stubborn” any problem.  

Strive for that level of tenacity.  

It takes the time that it takes.

It takes the effort that it takes.

Resistance to the real world variables will just make it take longer.  

You can add more resources to move things faster.  

But adding drama, complaining, loosing focus, and getting off track will delay you. 

Yes, we have to move fast.  

But only a fool moves fast today, just to move backwards tomorrow.  

You are smarter than that.  

You can see the path to the long game. 

Play the game. 

Win the game.

We will not stroke your ego. 

In fact, we will tell you to leave your ego at the door. 

I get it. We all like to feel better about ourselves.  

But stroking your ego is just a surface feeling.  

It is temporary. 

It fades as soon as you go back out into the real world. 

Don’t be shallow. 

Be awesome instead. 

If you keep just doing that one thing you are good at, you will continue to be a one trick pony. 

It’s time to branch out. 

It’s time for you to show the world that you are more than what they see you as today. 

You have more skills and strengths. 

Find them. 

Build them. 

You have weaknesses and soft spots. 

Find them. 

Improve them. 

We gravitate towards our strengths because we want to be in glory.  

Are you flexible and supple? Grab a barbell and get strong and stable in those positions.  

Are you strong as an ox? Get that ass to grass and mobilize your back. 

Amaze them by being a functional human. 

Then you will find what it feels like to have pride that runs deep. 

Our culture has shifted into a world where more people are considered “Knowledge Workers” than “Laborers” 

Many of us don’t use our bodies for our work anymore. 

We are thinkers and talkers and writers and planners. 

Unfortunately, this has led to an abandonment of balance. 

You are more than your brain. 

I see people that are treating their body as a tool for nothing more than transporting their brain from place to place. 

This makes me sad. 

I am sad because of the lost opportunity for efficacy.  

I am sad because they will not live and contribute as long as they could have. 

We don’t all need to be competitive athletes. 

We just need to understand that our bodies and our brains are linked. 

Our brains differentiate us from other animals. 

But still… 

Our brain needs nutrition to operate. 

Our brain is affected by hormones. 

Our brain thrives when our bodies are active. 

If you are a knowledge worker and value your mind. 

Take care of it! 

Work your body and improve your brain. 

Each needs the other more than we realize. 

There are three kinds of work, each at a different level of contribution. 

Task work 

Decision work 

Initiation work 

Tasks are the very first level. This is about checklists and todo’s. 

This take very little autonomy or planning.  

Many businesses are run on the back of an army of task workers.  

Task workers require management. 

Decision work is the second level. This is about deciding what gets done today and how it gets done. 

This takes planning and a broader view of the values and principles of the organization. 

In most business these are the managers.  

Initiation work is the highest level. This is about ideas and inspiration. 

This takes vision and passion for where the organization wants to go. 

This is an executive mindset. 

Some people fit into their niche of one. 

We need you to identify where you fit, and we will help you thrive there 

There is art in all movement.  

This is easy to see in a dancer. 

But it does not stop there. 

I am just as inspired when I see a beautifully executed snatch 

The perfect combination of  

• Strength – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force. 
• Flexibility – The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint. 
• Power – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time. 
• Speed – The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement. 
• Coordination – The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement. 
• Agility – The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another. 
• Balance – The ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base. 
• Accuracy – The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity. 

This is beauty in the human form. 

Screw traditional beauty. 

The human body is beautiful when it is used. 

Commitment and determination is beautiful. 

When you see that movement, you know the athlete committed time, energy, and thought into it. 

They took action to get better at something. 

They made a choice and they went after it. 

Respect.