Starting the IPOP Foundation was a dream I had for many years. IPOP is an acronym for “In Pursuit of Perfection” which has been a personal mantra of mine for a very long time. Long ago I came to realize that living a successful life isn’t about achieving perfection; rather it was about living life […]
Today I went to Utah State University in Logan, Utah to speak to the students at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. The students were lively and engaged and incredibly sweet. I love spending time with them because their energy and optimism is truly contagious. And I have to give huge props to USU […]
Today was another great day at the Sundance Film Festival. It is really fun to have so many people come together from all around the world to gather in Park City to celebrate storytelling. Another great part of Sundance Film Festival is the business gatherings that take place where business leaders can gather together and […]
Today I met with Lisa Altman. Lisa and her husband are new to Utah and we were introduced by a mutual friend. Lisa and her husband are both former Opera singers who have spent their lives supporting and promoting the arts. They came to Utah for her husband to take a position as the Executive […]
So I will just come out and admit it – I do not enjoy waking up early. I just don’t. I don’t know exactly why…perhaps it’s because I typically end up staying up late into the night most nights so that when morning rolls around I am super tired and want to stay in bed… […]
If you could do anything you wanted with your life, what would you do? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Just for a minute take away all restrictions or limitations that typically exist and the barriers that scare you or deter you. Take away all worries of being able to fulfill your financial obligations […]
Today I was humbled and honored to receive the UVEF Entrepreneur of the Year Award. At the awards lunch they asked me to share a few words about the things that I would like to pass on to other Entrepreneurs from the lessons I have learned from my own journey. I struggled deciding what lessons […]
As we are nearing the start of a brand new year here in less than a month I just wanted to remind everyone that this is the perfect time to start thinking about what you want to put on your 2014 Goal Poster! For those who don’t know what I am referring to here is […]
Today was another great day in San Francisco at the TED Women’s Conference. Here are a few inspirational stories to share from today: Diana Nyad: In 2013, at the age of 64and as her fifth attempt to do so, Diana swam all the way from Cuba to Florida. A total distance of 110 miles in […]
What a day today was! I started my day at 5:00am this morning so I could get downtown for an early morning meeting with President Wheelwright, the President of BYU Hawaii. He and I had a wonderful talk about the Entrepreneurship activities going on at his University in Hawaii. They are doing some really incredible […]
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. […]
The most impactful lesson we learned as a software development company was this: In the world of software systems, less can be a whole heck of a lot more, and more can often lead to a heck of a lot less. This point can best be illustrated by a personal example: While serving as the […]
“Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try.” -Ernest Hemingway I love the message of that quote. It’s such a […]
Security is something we all long for. Security in our job. Security in our financial state. Security in our relationships. We look for security in certainty – in knowing what to expect each day, in knowing what our tomorrow will look like, in knowing what future we are securing for ourselves. But if you really […]
Today I spoke to a large group of students at BYU. I love speaking to the students. They have so much energy and enthusiasm and joy for the future. They are so young and full of promise for their life ahead. In preparing to speak to them I really tried to consider the messages I […]
“Here’s to strong women. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.” Tonight the University of Utah held a Women Alumni event at our REES Capital offices and they asked me to hold a Q&A forum with the women where they could ask me questions about my past experiences and life […]
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.” -Victor Hugo Do you remember back to when you were a kid? When you blew out the birthday candles to make a wish with the belief that it would actually come true? Or when you pinned a towel to your shoulders and played […]
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit- Rest if you must, but don’t you quit. Life is […]
I was down sick again today, but I wanted to share a story with you that I came across a few years ago that touched my life in a major way. I shared the story years ago in a company blog, but I am reposting it again today for all of you to read as […]
I was interviewed on Real Recognition Radio by Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown and the episode aired earlier today. During the interviewed we discussed questions such as: Are there differences in the way men and women lead? What makes a great leader? How important is communication in a company? How to build a culture? How to […]
We all have a finite number of hours in a day – 24 to be exact. What we choose to do with those hours is of the utmost importance. We can waste our time, or we can use our time to improve ourselves and our lives. I have always felt passionate about the importance of […]
When my kids were little time-out at our house consisted of sending the kids to sit in the “happy chair” where they would have to stay until they were able to be happy again. Our “happy chair” was a bright yellow chair with a sunshine and happy kids painted on it – all designed to […]
In life we all have a choice. We can be pretty good, or we can be GREAT! The difference in those two often comes down to paying attention to the details. I used to keep a sticker on my desk that said “If you don`t have time to do it right the first time, how […]
One of the questions I am asked the most is, “How do you do it? How do you balance work life and home life?” The honest answer is, “I don’t.” I don`t do it all. No one can. For years I battled the guilt of not being able to do it all, especially during the […]
Do you ever feel like you have been busy all day, but accomplished very little? Do you ever feel like you have been working hard to complete your day to day tasks, only to wake up tomorrow and feel like you are trapped in the movie “Groundhog Day” where each day seems to just repeat […]
When someone isn’t performing well at their job; or when they aren’t the right fit for a particular position; or when their personality isn’t a match for the company culture, one of the biggest disservices you can do to them is to not tell them the truth. As a CEO, I found that one of […]
Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we could make all our decisions with a little game of “Eeny, meeny,miny, moe”. Seriously! How cool would that be? And how much less stress would we have throughout our day when decisions have to be made?! Yeah, well it’s too bad life doesn’t work that way if […]
When is the last time you allowed fear of failure to stop you from doing something? I love the quote in today’s title: “Instead of worrying about failure imagine what you miss out on by deciding to not even try.” I love it because it is so simple yet so impactful. It’s true, when you […]
Every day we hear of amazing new business ideas that some enterprising entrepreneur stumbled on and we find ourselves saying, “I wish I would have thought of that!” That comment is typically followed by a few moments of deep thought as we look in the deep recesses of our minds to see if that next […]
People ultimately choose to do business with people they like, and everyone likes someone who appreciates them. I once read a quote by the ever so brilliant writer known as Anonymous. It states, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” […]
