Provided by the author You cannot lead others until you first lead yourself. You can lead yourself at your best only if you invest in yourself first. – John Maxwell A few months back I was on my way to do a photoshoot. This particular one was a beach location which I always enjoy. On this day, however, a fog had set in. What made it somewhat unusual was that a dense fog of that magnitude would likely occur in the early morning. However, this was a mid-afternoon shoot which caught me off guard.  Visibility on the beach was significantly diminished but the sunlight that peeked in through ..read more

Credit: Google Images The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers. – Arthur Koestler In his book Houdini, author Harold Kellock shares a story about Houdini on one of his European tours when Houdini found himself locked in his own thinking. After he had been searched and manacled in a Scottish town jail, the turnkey shut him in a cell and walked away.  Houdini quickly freed himself from his shackles and then tackled the cell lock. But despite all his efforts, the lock would not open. Finally, ever more desperate but completely exhaus ..read more

  Life is too short to be little. – Benjamin Disraeli The late Fred Rogers, at his induction into the Television Hall of Fame, gave a speech that I believe typifies what leadership is all about. Rogers said, “Fame is a four-letter word:  like tape or zoom or face or pain or love, what ultimately matters is what we do with it”. And he’s right. Rogers’s perspective on what is important may seem like a throwback in time, but the message is timeless. Rogers added, “Who in your life has been a servant to you? Who has helped you love the good that grows within you? No matter who they ar ..read more

Credit: Google Images The reward for being a good problem solver is to be heaped with more and more difficult problems to solve. – Buckminster Fuller In Reader’s Digest a few years back, Captain Alan Bean wrote about his Apollo 12 mission. Bean stated, “Test pilots have a litmus test for evaluating problems. When something goes wrong, they ask, “Is this thing still flying?” If the answer is yes, then there’s no immediate danger, no need to overreact.” When Apollo 12 took off, the spacecraft was hit by lightning. The entire console began to glow with orange and red trouble lights. There was t ..read more

Credit: Google Images On Monday mornings, I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks. – H. Allen Smith Writing in The 360° Leader, John Maxwell shares a humorous story about a turkey and a bull. “I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree, “ sighed the turkey, “but I haven’t got the energy.”  “Well,” reapplied the bull, “why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings? They are packed with nutrients.” The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, he reached the second br ..read more

Credit: Google Images A race, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up. – Booker T. Washington Chances are you have never heard of Cooper Erickson and Ethan Olds. And you wouldn’t be alone. Cooper and Ethan gained notoriety back in September of 2023 when competing in a track meet.  Cooper, a sophomore at Stevens Point Area High School in Wisconsin was on his way to a third-place finish in the race when he saw the runner in front of him stumble and fall. Instead of running past him to cross the finish line in second place, Cooper ran back and helped the runner, a competit ..read more

Credit: Google Images Where focus goes, energy flows. – Tony Robbins On more than one occasion over the years, I’ve come away disappointed with what would have been a great photograph that I ruined by one major mistake. It was out of focus. Ugh! You would think that after a lifetime of taking pictures and being an avid photographer, I would know better. It’s not like the concept is new to me. After all, I’ve won awards for my photographs and have taught classes for others to better improve their photography skills. But focusing issues is a common mistake in photography whether you’re an amat ..read more

Credit: Google Images Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. – Nido Qubein Some years back, I read an account of the U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between rails) and how it came to be set at 4 ft., 8 and one-half inches.  Why was it set at such an odd number? The reason? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and American railroads were built by British expatriates.  But why did the English adopt that particular gauge? Because the people who built the pre-railroad tramways used that gauge. They in tur ..read more

Credit: Google Images The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. – Henry David Thoreau It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so says the song. Speaking of Christmas songs, which one is your favorite?  Not long ago, I came across an article in Readers Digest that gave the backstories of some of the most popular Christmas songs. As a fan of backstories, it caught my attention. I’d like to share one of them with you. The year was 1944, and songwriter Hugh Martin was fooling around with a little medley, but it wasn’t working. “So he played with it for two or three ..read more

authentic: not false or imitation; true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character; made or done the same way as an original – Merriam-Webster Dictionary  The Merriam-Webster dictionary company has named the word “authentic” as the 2023 word of the year. In explaining its selection of the word “authentic” Merriam-Webster stated it was “the term for something we’re thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more than ever.” Additionally, they said, “A high-volume lookup most years, authentic saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI ..read more