Should you "go with the flow"?

As a life strategy – probably not.  Going with the flow means being like everyone else – and that means average.

You can do better.

Make a decision for yourself.

Don’t be “normal”.  

Why inflation is a bad thing

In the last 12 months, inflation has gone up by 10%.  This is the highest number in many decades.  But many things have gone up more than that; houses by 17%, gasoline, etc.

When inflation goes up, the buying power of your money goes down.  People that have money saved, have lost 10% of that money’s value.  People that don’t have a home and want to buy one, find it less affordable.

Here are some comments by Steve Forbes commenting on a book by Nathan Lewis –

“Why is monetary policy so fundamentally important?

A modern economy is ultimately “a vast network of cooperation”…in which hardly anything is created without combining goods, services and labor and capital from all over the world…The network of cooperation is organized through the use of money, with information transmitted via prices, interest rates, and profit and loss.  These seemingly simple bits of information direct all economic activity.

Unstable currencies are like viruses in your computer – they corrupt those bits of information.

Everyone understands the basic need for fixed weights and measures in daily life – number of ounces in a pound, minutes in an hour;  just as we use money to measure the value of products and services.  If the measuring stick itself becomes unstable the smooth functioning of an economy is disrupted just as our lives would be if the  number of minutes in an hour constantly fluctuated.”

Imagine 10% inflation year over year?  In 7.2 years prices would double.  In 14.4 years, prices would quadruple.  

We should all care about inflation and pay attention to who and how it is being caused.

Will you marry me?

I am so excited to announce that SHE SAID YES!

I am now engaged to my love Marie, and we are so happy together!

Life takes twists and turns.  Ups and downs.  Tragedy and triumph.

We’ve both seen a lot of them.  

But today I am grateful for all of it.  

Keep going.  Be a good human being.  Stay open to goodness and love. 

You will be rewarded.

Nobody gives you power, you just take it.

You take it by being responsible and trustworthy and of good character.

You take it by developing your talents and using them in service to others.

You take power by solving problems and helping other people in a significant way.

You take it by stepping up – for you and for others.

Nobody gives you power, you just take it.

You can't call "no fair"

Doing difficult things teaches you something.  In Baja for example, you can’t say “this is too hard” and give up.  You are 80 miles from the nearest town, and if you stay there you will die.

In life, you can’t call “no fair”.  If you do, you are blaming others and making an excuse.

You don’t have to call “no fair” anyway.  Life is not fair – for anyone.  You have to play the hand you were dealt.  After age 18, you are responsible for what happens.  

We are all lucky to live in this age.  It is no fair. 

It’s skewed heavily in your favor.

Who is in charge of your life?

I’ll give you a hint.  Nobody else.

“As one goes through life one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.” – Katherine Hepburn

Develop your strengths

In school, we have to pass each class.  Most people will do well in some and struggle in others.  We may learn a lesson that is not a good one to learn – that we aren’t a good student because we have weaknesses, and that we should spend our time fixing them.

But we should not spend our lives trying to fix our weaknesses, but rather develop our strengths.  We should get jobs where our strength is valued and grow our talents, and let others fill in for our weaknesses.

Often when someone has very strong talents, they can be quite inept at other things.  That’s ok.  

Better to develop your strengths than to try to fix your weaknesses in vain forever.

Of course, if our weaknesses are ones that are holding us back, then we should shore them up enough so they don’t hurt us.

What are your strengths?  Have you been focusing on them?

(This advice is for individuals.  Businesses will rise to the height of their key weaknesses such as sales, marketing, operations, finance, etc. so fixing weaknesses in businesses is important.)

Imagination – part 2

If someone sees you sitting still in your office staring at nothing, you could be dozing or you could be using a tool that will transform your business or life in a profound way; your imagination.

Imagination takes us out of what is and into a realm of what could be.  It is the preview of coming attractions.  It is the first tool to use on a creative journey.  

Using your imagination to try out different scenarios takes a lot less time and is less expensive than actually trying each alternative.  It can leapfrog you results way ahead of where you are now.  It can be fun, and stimulating.  

“To imagine the unimaginable is the highest use of the imagination.” – Cynthia Ozick

Using your imagination makes new things possible for you.  Because if you don’t think a thing first, you cannot do it.  All action is preceded by thought, and thinking things that don’t exist yet or haven’t happened yet is to imagine.

How would you rate your use of your own imagination in your life?

What problems do you need to solve?  What adventures could call? 

What should you imagine now?

Imagination

To bring about something in your life that is not there yet, you need to use your imagination first.  Just this initial act takes courage and belief that you can manifest something that is invisible.  If you don’t believe it’s possible, you won’t spend time thinking about it.

Imagination can be stimulated by stories or seeing what others have done, showing you it’s possible.  This is why I like to live in a world where others are doing better or different than me.

“The world is but a canvas to our imaginations.” Henry David Thoreau

What can you imagine that you can do, be or have?

Life will never be the quite the same.

Victor and Tony arrived at mile 1100.  As Marie and I got in for the last 170 miles, the team checked the car out.  No new problems, but the paper towel/duct tape/zip tie cacoon was fraying and coming apart.  Todd wrapped a washcloth around it and zip-tied it again.  We were off.  It had to last.

First, there were 40 miles of sand whoops – up and down and up and down went our little race car, and I tried not to push it and break the suspension.  

Francisco Arredondo, last year’s winner had broken his hub.  I heard they fixed it after waiting 2 1/2 hours for help but then broke the car again.  We were in fourth place out of 12 in our class, but third was two hours ahead; unless they had a problem, we weren’t catching them.  It made it easy not to worry about them.  We stuck to our plan – don’t race – just finish.  

Other cars in our class were out of the race.  Champion Kristen Matlock, who passed me at mile 20, had broken down, got it fixed and several hours later broke down again.  She was way back but she was moving now.  Tanner told me by text from home that she was catching up and “on the move”.  I babied the car while trying to make miles as fast and smoothly as I could.  I didn’t want to break anything now!

The last section, normally fairly fast, was chewed up far worse than in pre-running.  Marie and I were getting bounced around.  Our necks hurt and our kidneys.  Yes, kidneys, from being strapped tight to a bouncing car for 16 hours.  My sleep deprivation was kicking.  We had started the race 33 hours ago and were awake 6 hours before that.  I actually woke up at midnight before the race and my mind started going and I didn’t sleep much after that.  I had one hour of sleep in the chase truck in the last 48 hours.  

We cut the darkness and forged ahead.  Suddenly we’d see deep ruts with the unmistakable texture of silt.  Silt is the worst condition in Baja.  It’s best described as ultralight dust that acts like water – it yields and “splashes” up into the air..  It can be feet deep.  It swallows even trophy trucks.  If the silt is up to your belly pan it takes the weight off your wheels and you are stuck.  

Going around it is the best option, but often it’s not an option.  I have no time to turn and avoid it, there are no optional routes.  Step on the gas and get as much momentum as you can going in.  The silt leaps into the air blinding us, over the roof, filling every cubic inch of space around and in the car (there is no windshield).  Can’t see a thing – even your own high-powered lights in front.  It’s against your instinct to keep the gas pedal down when you can’t see – but that is exactly what you have to do.  The ruts keep you on course like a slot car.

We made it. Over and over again, as did Todd, Kevin, Tony and Victor at other locations on the course.

There is an epic section called “the Waterfall” on the course.  There is no water involved.  It’s a steep downhill with 4-foot rock ledge drop-offs in it.  When you are on it you know there are about 20 miles to go to the finish.  I kept telling Marie about it and thought it had begun twice when it hadn’t.  it was dark and things look different at night.  But finally, we were on it.  It was unmistakable.

Halfway down, lights bobbed up and down the horizon in front of us.  Was it Kristen Matlock catching up behind us?  I stopped babying the car so much and drove more aggressively to stay ahead.  I have to say, both Marie and I were excited to be “racing” now.  In six more miles, I popped out onto the city road that led into the center of LaPaz.  Flagmen signaled it was safe to come out of the dirt onto the road without looking left and checking for traffic.

It was a 60 mph speed zone but there was local traffic and going 60 was a risk.  I tried.  A few miles to go and there was one big problem – I didn’t know where I was going!  I had not pre-run the last four miles of pavement into the finish. 

Early in the race, at mile 50 I lost my GPS line on the screen.  It turns out the whole course was not loaded into our GPS.  So I drove by memory and the course marker signs for 140 miles. At mile 200 the team took the chip out of the pre-run car and put it into the race car.  But we didn’t have time to go into the menus and change the color of the race line – it defaulted to a black line.  That’s fine when you are in the middle of nowhere – follow the black line.  But in a city, all the streets appeared on the screen and they were black too!  I could not tell by the GPS where the course was!

We sped down the main road looking for a sign, any indication of where to go.  Ahead were cones.  Go left?  Right?  At the last minute as we approached at 55 mph, two policemen looked up and ran to move two cones.  I guessed that race traffic was to go through them.  I darted by looking for the next indication, knowing a race vehicle was on our butt.

Two blocks later I see a flagman – I turn left, then right through a fence.  They had a little dirt track section for drama set up before the finish line for the fans, and I spewed as much dust into the air as I could for effect.  Last turn, checkered flags ahead.  We rolled up onto the podium, lit up in the night. 

Success!

The rest of our team was there waiting and cheering.  We had done it.  Finished the Baja 1000! 1226 miles on four wheels in our first attempt!  Fourth out of 12.  35 hours.  They interviewed us on the podium.  It was a moment we’ll never forget.  

The next day, after a very necessary night’s sleep, we went out for breakfast.  It took 12 hours and included coffee, water, tequila, beer, great seafood, fish tacos, and exciting stories shared.  

Audacious ideas can be crazy.  Not everything I’ve done has worked out.  But if you work smart together, communicate, plan and execute, crazy ideas can be crazy good.

Goal achieved.  Memories made. 

Life will never be quite the same.