Sarah Burke – Winter X Games 2012 Tribute

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“The brave do not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all”

There is a pure, unadulterated joy we all experience when we do something we love.

An infectious happiness that is impossible to deny.

Sarah Burke learned that at an early age, and would spend all of her energy trying to teach the rest of us.

Her triumphs on skis always brought us to her our feet.

Her willingness to help competitors defied our expectations. Her determination to grow her sport took it to new heights, and brought us along for the ride. And her smile, her smile could brighten even our darkest hour.

In her 29 years, Sarah taught us many things: How to persevere, how to overcome, how to succeed.

But Sarah’s true lesson and her greatest gift was showing us all… how to live.

Seth Godin – Who Cares?

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Unless someone does, things start to fray around the edges.

Often it’s the CEO or the manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally throughout the team.

You’ve probably been to the hotel that serves refrigerated tomatoes in January at their $20 breakfast, that doesn’t answer the phone when you call the front desk, that has a shower curtain that is falling off the rack and a slightly snarky concierge. This is in sharp relief to that hotel down the street, the one that costs just the same, but gets the details right.

It’s obviously not about access to capital (doing it right doesn’t cost more). It’s about caring enough to make an effort.

If we define good enough sufficiently low, we’ll probably meet our standards. Caring involves raising that bar to the point where the team has to stretch.

Of course, the manager of the mediocre hotel that’s reading this, the staff member of the mediocre restaurant that just got forwarded this note–they have a great excuse. Time’s are tough, money is tight, the team wasn’t hired by me, nobody else cares, I’m only going to be doing this gig for a year, our customers are jerks… who cares?

Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money.

Like most things that are worth doing, it’s not easy at first and the one who cares isn’t going to get a standing ovation from those that are merely phoning it in. I think it’s this lack of early positive feedback that makes caring in service businesses so rare.

Which is precisely what makes it valuable.

This is Country Music

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We had an amazing time at the Brad Paisley concert in Denver last night. I don’t know what this country music thing is all about, but after meeting Brad and getting the opportunity to see such a “large performance” show like this with such good company — my cowboy hat continues to come out.

As my country inspiration from Montana – Jesse Alberi states via the Facebook…

“Just keep wearin the hat and boots and the country will find you. I Just watched on youtube what you saw live last night… jealous bro.”

It was an incredibly entertaining show with Scotty McCreery, The Band Perry and even Tim Tebow. Watch this as the Band Perry drops for the most epic Tebowing of all time while Brad Paisley and Tebow sang “I’m Still a Guy.” Saying it got loud… is an understatement.

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Surprisingly, The Band Perry did NOT sing "Walk Me Down the Middle". Katherine was the proud winner of a Brad Paisley guitar pick. I learned about dog-tags of fallen soldiers. Brad's dad Doug is a story teller. It was a sold out show.

Katie + Ryan + Trista... thank you for such a fun night. Here are some highlights.



After getting back to the internets to research some of this country music thing, I found a direct explanation from Brad Paisley’s 3.6 million strong Facebook page. This is Country Music. Pretty cool.

Enjoy.

[HYDLE RAW - Brad Paisley + Tim Tebow]
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Your Duck is Dead

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A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest.

After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, “I’m sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away.”

The distressed woman wailed, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead,” replied the vet..

“How can you be so sure?” she protested. “I mean you haven’t done any
testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something.”

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck’s owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said, “I’m sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck.”

The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman..
The duck’s owner, still in shock, took the bill. “$150!”
she cried, “$150 just to tell me my duck is dead!”

The vet shrugged, “I’m sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it’s now $150.”

Seth Godin – The Problem with Reassurance

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The taxi’s waiting, it’s honking its horn, time to go to the airport.

Yes, the passport is in my pocket. I checked five minutes ago.

Of course, the cost of checking again, just one more time, is tiny. Hardly worth discussing with myself. And compared to the cost of being wrong, of missing the flight… go ahead, check again.

And like giving in to a toddler every time he whines for ice cream, this is the problem.

The lizard brain seeks constant reassurance. It will wheedle and argue and debate with the rest of your head, pushing for one tiny bit of evidence, some sort of proof that everything will be okay.

Don’t do it.

When you indulge the lizard, it gains power. It doesn’t walk away ashamed, humiliated at its anxiety. Instead, it merely sidesteps and looks for the next thing to worry about, because, ready for this? It’s nice to be reassured.

Developing the reassurance habit is easy to do and hard to kick. The problem is this: there are some ventures where no reassurance is possible. There is important work for you to do where no proof is available.

If you’ve trained the lizard brain that reassurance is forthcoming, it will scream even louder when those projects that don’t come with proof are at hand.

PIPA and SOPA?? Watch This

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Innocent until proven guilty... nope.
Guilty until proven innocent... yep.

“Time Warner has called… and they want us all back on the couch. Just consuming. Not producing… not sharing. And we should say no.”

Get educated… watch it again.

Or go crazy over at TED.com

Hugh MacLeod – I Found Joy

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“Sometimes being happy is just a choice. It’s just what you look for every day. In your work, in love, in friendships.

It’s really about how you view your place on earth. You look for joy, and that’s what you’ll find.

We all know people who make the ‘other’ choice. Nothing is good enough. They find fault everywhere. Their default mode is discontent.

For a lucky few, they eventually reach the abyss. The point at which being confronted with the dire-ness which is their life, becomes transformative.

Instead they choose joy.

Everything becomes better.

It takes nothing more than changing an attitude.

Today, take the hand of someone who you think should choose differently.”

Who’s up for a few Golf Jokes?

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A husband and wife are on the 9th green when suddenly she collapses from a heart attack! “Help me dear,” she groans to her husband.

The husband calls 911 on his cell phone, talks for a few minutes, picks up his putter, and lines up his putt. His wife raises her head off the green and stares at him.

“I’m dying here and you’re putting?”
“Don’t worry dear,” says the husband calmly, “they found a doctor on the second hole and he’s coming to help you.

“Well, how long will it take for him to get here?” she asks feebly.
“No time at all,” says her husband. “Everybody’s already agreed to let him play through.”

—————————————————————————————-

A gushy reporter told Phil Mickelson, “You are spectacular, your name is synonymous with the game of golf. You really know your way around the course. What’s your secret?”

Mickelson replied, “The holes are numbered.”

—————————————————————————————-

Police are called to an apartment and find a woman holding a bloody 5-iron standing over a lifeless man.

The detective asks, “Ma’am, is that your husband?”

“Yes” says the woman.

“Did you hit him with that golf club?”

“Yes, yes, I did.” The woman begins to sob, drops the club, and puts her hands on her face.

“How many times did you hit him?”

“I don’t know — five, six, maybe seven times…..just put me down for a five.”

—————————————————————————————-

A golfer teed up his ball on the first tee, took a mighty swing and hit his ball into a clump of trees. He found his ball and saw an opening between two trees he thought he could hit through.

Taking out his 3-wood, he took a mighty swing. The ball hit a tree, bounced back, hit him in the forehead and killed him.

As he approached the gates of Heaven, St. Peter asked, “Are you a good golfer?

The man replied: “Got here in two, didn’t I?

—————————————————————————————-

The bride was escorted down the aisle and when she reached the altar, the groom was standing there with his golf bag and clubs at his side.

She said: “What are your golf clubs doing here?”

He looked her right in the eye and said, “This isn’t going to take all day, is it?”