Useful

Useful

One of the most glorious gifts of the Kingdom is that, as redeemed, even the challenges, screw-ups, mistakes, and missteps of our lives, are to our further qualification.  Instead of disqualifying us from having an impact, they are actually the fuel or the experiential currency necessary to live an impactful life.

When I started to look at the low points of my life as preparation instead of disqualification, I went from victim to victor.  I am not disqualified, but even more qualified than most.  While I felt that I was running through a thick forest…

Pawn

Pawn

In the “Queen of Katwe”, Fiona is little. Economically, socially, and in pretty much every other way you might imagine.  She becomes fascinated with the budding chess club in her shanty town of Katwe, Uganda.  A young girl who seems even more little than her, tells her:


“In chess, the little one can become the big one.”


Fiona’s story is the stuff of inspiration and unearthed glory.  This is one to gather the family for a viewing.  From the first quote in my initial viewing of the trailer, I was hooked.

Harmony

Harmony

One of the most elusive destinations for leaders and organizations is “life-work balance”.  Everyone is trying to solve this problem.  So are we.

We have a bunch of tools and have helped a lot of leaders make progress in managing their time and schedules.  In fact, one of our informal metrics has to do with how many leaders we have worked with that have achieved enough margin through their owner-to-team-lead transitions, that they actually take Friday or some other day off.

Billboard

Billboard

Whether you are aware of it or not, your company has a billboard and it is right beside the highway of every person’s life.  What yours is saying and how to cultivate the feeling people have about it is crucially important to your future success.  Believe me, it is not blank.  It is saying something.

Ironically, studies show that “likes” or starred reviews are impacting decision making in far greater measure than personal referrals do.  They are one of the forms of billboards…

Hidden

Hidden

There is a show that my wife likes. Correction, there is show that my wife along with millions of other Americans like. The premise is this: find the worst looking house on the street in the nicest neighborhood and restore the hidden glory of the home. Take what is hidden beneath a bunch of decay, neglect, or just really poor design choices and restore it into the nicest house on the block.

Linger

Linger

I’ve had a series of conversations as a result of a podcast I heard.  The podcast talked about all the anticipation and expectation tied to the Christmas season and the somewhat ironic hurry everyone seemed to be in to exit that season.

For most of us, we live a life during the Christmas season that is dramatically different than how we live the rest of the year.

Horizon

Horizon

Rare is the week where I don’t talk to at least one person overwhelmed by their situation.  Typically it is in regards to their own life circumstance, but it is a fairly common occurrence to talk to a leader frustrated, confused, or overwhelmed by their organizational challenges as well.  The “reference system” of everything going on around us tends to crowd out any hope or expectation for change and a different future.  When we assess the litany of issues swirling around us, it is nearly impossible to imagine things getting any better.

Barren

Barren

There is a great story told almost 2,000 years ago, it goes something like this…

“A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”

Now, most of the folks I run with are doing many of the right things. They are attending religious services, going to small group studies, doing daily intentional things. In their work…

Uncommon

Uncommon

We’re working with two businesses with the intention of combining them. We’re early in the process, but we are off to an extraordinary start. The deeper we enter into the process, the more we realize how uncommon this is for two owners to move from the autocratic outright of sole proprietorship to the joint and several of partnership.

We’re helping them guard their hearts and urging that they protect the preciousness of this process from swine looking to gobble up their enthusiasm…

Curious

Curious

Every relationship, whether business or personal, needs to matriculate through three key stages:

  1. CURIOSITY

  2. ENLIGHTENMENT

  3. COMMITMENT

First, something has to capture your attention.  Develop some level of curiosity.  And by the way, you are having to compete with 33,000 messages a day assaulting the average person’s attention in order for you to arouse curiosity about you, your company, or your product. 

For this reason, you better have something…

Testament

Testament

I encountered a man about a half-dozen or so years ago.  Soon after, I purchased a journal to accompany him to one of the men’s retreat I help lead with my Band of Brothers.  Like most men who attend those weekends, he had never journaled before or really kept any account of his faith or relationship with God.  I told him that whether or not he had ever “heard” from the Father, he certainly would on this weekend and that it was imperative that he write down every word that was spoken.

Thread

Thread

“And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.”  - Donald Miller

This quote, from Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years was a revolution in my life.  It was the headwaters of the river that took me from…

Celebrate Your Family

Celebrate Your Family

We’re intentional about celebrating birthdays, holidays, accomplishments, and milestones - but how often do we take time to celebrate the people right around us just for being who they are? Encouragement is something that everyone desperately needs, but few of us freely offer without some sort of “reason.”

Well, here is your reason:

Your family needs encouragement.

So do you…

Simplified

Simplified

I was at a non-fiction writing conference a few years ago. We had a writing exercise that required we describe the same scenario through a decreasing word count. As the word count shrunk, I just started using bigger words so that I could pack more information into the tinier space. When I read my most condensed statement with all the big words, the exasperated instructor said…

Abundance

Abundance

The last thing we need to be worried about in this country at this time in history is abundance, right? We’ve got it pretty good:

  • Median household income of $59k when the world average is $9k.

  • A national median home price of just under $200k.

  • An almost 50 year low of 3.7% jobless rate.

  • A national health system making care available for all.


Things are awesome, right?  

It doesn’t exactly feel that way, does it?  

Gold

Gold

One of my favorite scenes from film involves a crackpot, bush-pilot philosopher named Rosie Little. He is flying a scientist named Tyler to the Valley of the Blackstone in northern Alaska. He is trying to figure out what kind of treasure he is really after. When Tyler won’t tell him, Rosie says…

Ikigai

Ikigai

Scripture tells how we are uniquely created and wonderfully made. C.S. Lewis points out that each one of us uniquely offers one particular aspect of the Divine that no one else can. We are told that we are the crown of His creation and were placed here specifically to rule and subdue all that exists. Clearly we are here for a particular reason.

Tide

Tide

We met a couple during our trip to Colorado.  They’ve recently acquired a guest ranch that has been in existence for decades.  The story about how this all happened is too beautiful and extensive for me to try and share in the 500 words of this post, but I might give that a try on another day.

Among all the inspiring things we talked about during the long afternoon we shared, the career path he took to this vocational stint was particularly interesting.  He had been…

Seasons

Seasons

I grew up as a beach rat.  Hanging out at the shore and dunes of a small back bay that was reachable by foot or bike as a young boy and then to a much larger beach and National seashore by car as a teenager.  My time on the shores was largely unfettered and unsupervised.  That led to all kinds of great boyhood stuff early and all kinds of destructive behavior as I aged.

One of the things a coastal community of South Texas didn’t provide for much of was a traditional change of seasons…

Right

Right

The last few organizations I got involved with heard a similar refrain from me…

“I’m not interested in leading or being in charge of anything.”

I am not joining your organization or board. I am not taking an officer position or signing up to chair anything. I mean, I feel like I lead or am in charge in every other arena of my life. Decisions don’t seem to get made and nothing seems to happen unless I am driving it. Can you relate?

That’s a problem right?