Tag Archives: humility

Admitting You Were Wrong Doesn’t Make You Weak – It Makes You Awesome

It takes tremendous fortitude to utter the words “I was wrong, and I am sorry.” I love that word: fortitude. I could list the dictionary definition, but why go to that trouble when there’s Microsoft Word’s handy one-click synonym function, which in fortitude’s case gives us: strength, courage, resilience, grit, determination, endurance, guts, and staying […]

How COVID Has Helped Me

As COVID hits closer to home with more and more friends of ours coming down with it, it’s caused me to more and more realize and appreciate how precious each day we are given truly is…each day of health our family has is a day to be treasured and appreciated to the fullest.  As much […]

A Parents Thoughts To Their Child On Graduation

In yesterday’s blog I shared that my daughter Ashley graduates from BYU tomorrow (Friday April 24th 2020).  I also shared the thoughts she wrote about the things she learned from her college experience. Today I thought it fitting for me to share a parent’s thoughts to a child that’s graduating, so here are my thoughts: […]

Why Me?

I started reading through things I’d written in past years Aprils to try and remind myself of what my Aprils used to be like before this pandemic. Ironically, the first thing I flipped to was an article I’d written back in April of 2013 that was published in Forbes, and when you read what I’d […]

Never Work A Day In Your Life?

Last Thursday was quite the whirlwind of a day!  I started off my day in the morning heading down to Provo Utah to speak at an event put on by RevRoad. RevRoad is a business accelerator for entrepreneurs that offers coworking space, legal services, marketing, accounting, mentoring services, etc in return for equity.  They asked […]

To A Footstool A Chair Is Everything

Every Sunday our family has a tradition that as we sit around the kitchen table for dinner together we always go around the table and each take a turn sharing something that touched us in church that day. Then we discuss the thoughts shared.  This tradition is something we value tremendously because it’s a time […]

Forgiveness Day

June 26th is Forgiveness Day – a day to forgive others who have wronged you and a day for seeking forgiveness from those you have wronged…finally, it’s a day to forgive yourself. Forgiving others is hard to do when you are hurting, but it is also the most therapeutic. When you forgive someone you are […]

Accepting Help Is Its Own Kind Of Strength

Accepting help from others has never been my father-in-law Boyd’s strong suit.  In fact I would say accepting help from anyone is probably one of the hardest things in the world for him.  He’s always been the strong one. He’s been a tough as nails farmer all his life and he works harder physically than […]

Learn From The Wisdom Of Those Who Have Experience

“When you are willing to listen and learn, some of life’s most meaningful teachings come from those who have gone before you. They have walked where you are walking and have experienced many of the things you are experiencing. If you listen and respond to their counsel, they can help guide you toward choices that […]

Brains, Heart, and Courage

Tonight I went to see our friend Lexi Walker ( http://lexiwalker.net/ )  perform as Dorothy in the play The Wizard of Oz at the amazing Hale Center Theater in Utah (www.hct.org ) . Lexi is an incredibly talented young woman who is also an absolute sweetheart. Lexi first came into the spotlight at the age […]

Stop Yourself From Making Bad Decisions: Wear The Comfortable Shoes!

I decided to start something called a flashback Friday where I will once in awhile on a Friday repost a blog from the past. You know, the oldies but goodies. So this blog below was one I wrote back in March of 2013: I have been walking for…well let’s see…yeah, about 40 years now.  And […]

Nuggets Of Knowledge. What 47 Years Have Taught Me.

September 14th…I can’t believe I’m turning 47!  Why is it that 47 just sounds so old when I say it… I can’t pretend I’m not feeling how old I am, because I do. Aches and pains come from nowhere, climbing stairs takes a lot more effort, and the wrinkles…so may wrinkles…but with all that, I […]

The Torch Bearer

Each of us have been born with special talents that God gave us so we might use them to benefit the lives of others. As we do, our own lives will be blessed as well. I love the following poem because its a great reminder to stay humble and recognize that our gifts are just […]

That Star You Wished On Can Only Take You Part Of The Way

“That old star can only take you part of the way. You gotta help it along with some hard work of your own.”  – Princess and The Frog Wishing on a star is often what we do when we want something in life.  People wish for riches, or fame, or success, or love, etc.  Unfortunately […]

How A Great Leader Melts The Iceberg Of Ignorance

“Only 4% of an organization’s front-line problems are known by top management, 9% are known by middle management, 74% by supervisors and 100% by employees…” Sidney Yoshida calls this “The Iceberg of Ignorance” in his study that was presented at the International Quality Symposium. Front-line employees that are working in the trenches are always going […]

After The Game The King And The Pawn Go Into The Same Box

Last week I had a crazy schedule – My week started with a podcast interview, then I judged a business competition,  I flew from Utah out to Burbank California for an investment meeting and then I flew from California out to Chicago for a business conference and then I had to hustle to get back […]

Turning Weakness Into Strength

We were all born with our own unique challenges. Some physical, some mental, some circumstantial. Some all of the above.  But those challenges we were born with were never meant to hold us back, in fact, they were meant to help us become strong in the areas we would most need to be in order […]

We can learn it the easy way or we can learn it the hard way and only we can decide which it will be

“Don’t touch that, it’s hot” my mom said as she pulled out a fresh tray of cookies from the oven – yet immediately I started thinking “I wonder how hot it really is? It’s probably not that hot. I think I’ll just see for myself just how hot it is.” You would think that nursing […]

Lessons On Branding Shared By Advertising Expert Gordon Bowen of McGarryBowen (Forbes Article)

Last night I had the opportunity to go to the home of Gordon Bowen, Founder and Chairman of McGarryBowen, esteemed international Advertising Agency, representing such clients as Disney, American Express, Intel, Marriott, Verizon, Crayola, Chase, and many other iconic brands. As for Gordon, Time Magazine dubbed him the creator of “emotional blockbusters” for his creation […]

If something is not impossible, there must be a way of doing it

“If something is not impossible there must be a way of doing it” was the motto a man named Nicholas Winton worked by. If you don’t know who Nicholas Winton is, you ought to. We all ought to because Nicholas Winton was a real life hero. Nicholas Winton was 29 years old in 1938, working […]

Choose to be better because better equals HAPPY

“Happiness is the ability to move forward, knowing the future will be better than the past. Today I choose to be happy!” I think our ability to feel happy is substantially stronger when one has the ability to evaluate oneself in an honest way so as to recognize one’s own strengths and weaknesses, doing so […]

As I Began To Love Myself…

As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”. As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody As I try to force my desires on this person, […]

Heaven Help Me!

After such an amazing week last week and over the weekend the last thing I have any right to do is complain about anything, but after all the travel I have been doing over the last two months where things have been booked back to back without time to read emails and check phone messages […]

Look to the Light

36 years ago today one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time was released. The movie stars one of my favorite actors of all time – Jimmy Stewart, which alone tells you the movie is amazing. The movie is called Mr. Krueger’s Christmas. For me Christmas isn’t Christmas if I don’t watch this movie […]

True Wealth Lies In The Good You Do – Meet The Wealthiest Man In The World

As an Angel Investor and a Mentor I spend much of my day helping entrepreneurs in their pursuit of wealth by helping them to grow their companies. But today I was reminded of exactly what true wealth looks like. For more than 25 years he has been buying Christmas presents for children he may never […]

Lessons on Surviving, Turning Trials into Trails, and Choosing Happiness (Part 5 of 5)

Today is the part 5 of a 5 part blog series I have been sharing all week this week. Throughout this week I have shared snippets of emails that my daughter Ashley sent home while she was serving her 18 month mission. For those who have followed along all week this week I am hoping […]

Lessons on Study, Selfishness, Repentance, and Never Looking Back (Part 4 of 5)

We have come to month fourteen of the eighteen months of lessons learned along the journey. I hope you are all enjoying reading these email snippets from Ashley’s emails. The life lessons she shares as she learns them was so valuable to me and I hope it proves to be valuable to all of you […]

Lessons on Love and Charity (Part 3 of 5)

Today was one of the happiest days of my life!!  My daughter Ashley is HOME!!!! Yep, after 18 months of doing service as a missionary she is finally back home with us and I am beyond words with happiness. This enitre week I have been sharing snippets of emails I received from my daughter Ashley while she was out serving her […]

Lessons on Character, Change, Hardships and Blessings (Part 2 of 5)

Today is a continuation of yesterday’s blog sharing some favorite snippets of my daughter Ashley’s emails she has sent home over the course of her 18 month mission with the valuable life lesons she was learning along the way – these lessons are such relevant lessons for all of our lives and I hope you […]

Incredible Life Lessons Along an 18 month journey (Part 1 of 5)

This week is one of my happiest weeks EVER as my daughter Ashley is coming home from her mission Tuesday! In last Thurssday’s email I explained just how much I have loved getting Ashley’s weekly emails she’s been sending home over the last 18 months because they share the cool life lessons she has been learning along the […]