Tag Archives: truth

How We Avoid Becoming Pawns In Someone Else’s Game

An Ambassador in another country shared the following sentiment with me: People who wish to do evil for their own selfish purposes (whether it be fame, power, position, or fortune) have figured out they no longer need to wage a war to conquer society – they only need to feign they are two people with […]

Integrity, Ethics, and Grace

Tomorrow evening (March 10th) I am being honored as the 2020 Wheatley Distinguished Ethics Speaker for Brigham Young University where I’ve been invited to give a lecture on the importance of Integrity and Ethics to a group of prominent business leaders, faculty, and students.  In my lecture I am going to be sharing some experiences […]

Stop Defending And Start Listening

In yesterday’s blog I shared points from a Forbes article I’d written years ago on the importance of giving people honest feedback. Today I thought it would be good to share points from a follow-on article I’d written for Forbes on the importance of receiving feedback (The article was titled, If You Want To Improve, […]

Have You Ever Met A Hater Doing Better Than You? Me Neither.

“Haters don’t really hate you. In fact, they hate themselves because you’re a reflection of what they wish to be.” – unknown Today was World Day for Bullying Prevention, so it seems appropriate to share some past thoughts I’ve shared about bullying: Haters, bullies, mean people – they all suffer from one of the following: […]

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I’ve spent my day sick and unable to get anything done, which is a real bummer considering I just got back from being gone ten days and then immediately went up to Logan to speak at the University so today was supposed to be my first day of catch up, but that’s clearly going to […]

Let The Celebration Begin!

As we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday this week may we remember to “pledge ourselves to each other, and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world” as described by President Ronald Reagan in his speech given July 4, 1986: […]

IF WE ONLY UNDERSTOOD

Could we but draw back the curtains That surround each other’s lives, See the naked heart and spirit, Know what spur the action gives, Often we should find it better, Purer than we judged we should, We should love each other better, If we only understood. Could we judge all deeds by motives, See the […]

Pornography Teaches That “No” Doesn’t Really Mean “No”

Today I had the privilege of meeting Terry Crews and hearing him share his story. I’m going to be totally upfront and tell you that when I was invited to come and hear him speak at UVU today I didn’t recognize the name, nor did I know anything about him…when you are working as much […]

No One Is Successful And Brilliant From The Get-Go

I’ve had some amazing successes in my business life – but I certainly didn’t start out successful. And I’ve had my fair share of strokes of brilliance along the way – but I definitely didn’t start out brilliant. The truth is that when I first started out I was anything but successful or brilliant…I was […]

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 […]

But Seriously Though, What’s Your Excuse?

Tonight I was a judge for the Young Entrepreneurs Academy Shark Tank where students from the age of 8 – 18 pitched their business plans in front of a panel of four judges and a room full of their parents and several of their peers. As these young people walked us through their business idea, […]

What will be talked about at your funeral? The importance of eulogy virtues.

David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times wrote an awesome article in 2015 called “The Moral Bucket List” (well worth the time to read!). Here is an excerpt from the article that perfectly explains the answer to a question I was asked the other day as to why I donate so much of my […]

The safest road to Hell is the gradual one

“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” – C. S. Lewis There are so many ways to off-track in life, and so many of them happen through a series of poor smaller choices that end up leading to big mistakes, but […]

The Lessons We Teach Our Children

I often have people tell me how impressed they are with the character of my son and daughter, and that compliment is often followed with the question – how did you do it? How did you raise those kids to be such great people? Well as much as I would love to take credit for […]

You can’t say that you didn’t know

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” – William Wilberforce That quote comes from a famous speech William Wilberforce gave to English parliament prior to the vote on the Abolition Bill in 1789. It was an incredibly powerful speech because he was reminding […]

The Value of a Clear Conscience

“If you have to sneak to do it, lie to cover it up, or delete it to avoid it being seen, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.”  -unknown When we try to live such that we are able to have a clear conscience, life is so much easier! When I look at people who […]

Don’t wait for “someday” to make time for family

Tonight I attended the pre-funeral viewing for my Uncle Buzz who passed away last week (his funeral is tomorrow). Walking in the doors of the room where the viewing was taking place and seeing so many of my aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings and my parents all gathered together inside the room was […]

2017 will be as incredible as the GOALS you set for it!

We are just days away from the start of a brand New Year! And with the New Year comes a new chance to start fresh with a set of goals you want to accomplish in 2017…that’s right…its time to bust out the glue stick and scissors because it’s time to make your 2017 Goal Poster! […]

Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong

Mistakes are going to happen in every organization because people aren’t perfect and making mistakes is often how people learn and grow. Some mistakes are small and insignificant, and others turn out to be far more serious, even bringing unpleasant consequences. What matters most when a mistake occurs is to own the fact that it […]

If you stand in the light you don’t have to worry about other people’s shade

I am a person who appreciates honesty more than anything, and I believe that one can always deliver that honesty in a respectful way.  I also believe that honesty is more than just being willing to speak words that are true, it is also recognizing that hidden truths are unspoken lies. If a person speaks […]

Companies don’t have to be perfect but they do need to fix it when they screw up!

It’s late and I’m tired, but even worse I am frustrated beyond belief because I have just gone through one incredibly bad customer service experience and I am still going through it as I write tonight’s blog. I spent several hours tonight online booking airline tickets with Delta. I have been a faithful Delta Airlines customer […]

Apply The Triple Filter Test

I think most all of us have either been guilty of either saying something we shouldn’t have, or listening to something we ought not to, and likely we’ve made the mistake of doing both. It’s likely we have all made those mistakes more times than we wish we had, and I can’t think of a […]

Bring Your Own Sunshine

Most days when it rains outside we tend to feel bummed out about it and we seem to behave a little less cheery those days. But something happened last weekend that reminded me how easily we can rectify that. It was a bright yellow raincoat just hanging on the rack at the Mall. My 20 […]

We are responsible for what is inside of us

The Analogy of the Orange If you squeeze an orange you will get orange juice. It doesn’t matter who squeezes it, where or when this is done, or what kind of implement is used. If you squeeze an orange, what comes out is orange juice. The same holds true for each of us. When the […]

Integrity Isn’t Situational

I recently have been dealing with a situation where I became aware that someone has been doing things under false pretenses in an attempt to get personal gain. When I brought these activities to light to those in authority to rectify the situation the person in charge seemed resistant to confront it. He agreed that […]

Most of all, Be AMAZING

Do you ever have one of those days when you come across something that totally inspires you and makes you want to just be AMAZING?! Well today that happened to me. I came across this quote/poem written by someone named Robin Sharma and I LOVED IT! Just reading it made me want to go out […]

There are two ways to live your life

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  -Albert Einstein There is so much truth to that. When we look for miracles in life we can find them everywhere. Some miracles manifest as a mere “coincidence” when […]

If you want truth then go to the source

“A lot of problems in the world would disappear if people talk to each other instead of about each other.” All of us have made the mistake of believing gossip to be true at one time or another. I know there was a time many years ago when I myselft got sucked into believing gossip […]

Your Biggest Haters Are Really Your Biggest Fans

Haters, bullies, mean people…they all have one thing in common…they all suffer from one of the following: 1.  They hate themselves, 2.  They want to be you, or 3.  They see you as a threat Think about it – “Have you ever met a hater doing better than you? Me Neither….” There are far too many […]

Some days you gotta just push through it

Yesterday morning when I woke up I could tell I was starting to feel a little sick but I had so much going on yesterday that I tried to ignore it and I was able to get through hosting my son’s big event at our house Sunday night. Then I woke up this morning and […]