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Recognizing Opportunities

Walle finds 100 Grand

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.  – Napolean Hill 

Last week I celebrated my 31st birthday.  My lovely and loving wife bought me the Lego Walle set that I have had my eyes on since I learned of its existence.

I spent several fun hours with this build and am happy with the result.  I really do like the Pixar film Walle and I feel there is much to learn from it.  For example, Walle has awakened to a realization that life on his deserted planet is somewhat drab.  He continues to work hard going through the motions and striving to collect and crush garbage – but he has started to notice intricate and worthwhile finds while digging trash and junk.

He has quite the collection of intricate items that caught his eye and made him think.  He then finds the plant which is very different from all his other finds and because he collects it – his hobby – it soon opens wondrous doors of opportunity.

He takes action.  When Eva shows up Walle is terrified at first, but is curios and excited to see something that moves so gracefully.  He takes charge of fear and almost gets blown to smithereens.  I like the fact that he faces change head on and realizes he does not want to petal backwards to curbing junk anymore.  He moves forward by making a split second decision to grab on to the rocket and hold on for dear life!

At the moment it Walle was not thinking about how stupid it is to ride a rocket.  His goal was to see Eva again, and not be left alone.

Change has a tendency to happen quickly.  So does opportunity.

So how does one learn to recognize opportunity?  This has been a question at the forefront of my mind.  I love this quote by Henry David Thoreau – I think I have shared it recently,  but it’s worth sharing again;

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

The way to recognize opportunity is to start doing things.  I read a great book entitled The Power of Starting Something Stupid, by Richie Norton.  He goes into details about how opportunities start to abound when you start.  The power of starting is real.  If you feel like you are not going where you want to go, if you feel like you aren’t living the life you thought you would have, start something new.

Opportunities certainly do abound right where you are.  Just learn how to start doing and stop talking about doing.  There is power in taking action and making decisions quickly.  When you do decide to act, change can and will happen fast.  That is why opportunity can be so elusive at times – it is always changing. When you decide to act, then opportunities line up in front of you.

Think about the blessings you have, be grateful.  Gratitude is a key to recognizing opportunities.  When you are grateful you have a tendency to look at each situation differently – with an eye of optimism.  Optimism is the secret to recognizing opportunity.  Where others will miss it because of pessimism and disbelief, you can be optimistic and take the action steps required to make it happen.  Being optimistic dispels notions of fear.  You will still feel fear, but instead of being debilitating, this fear will lead you to action.

Action coupled with optimism leads to great opportunity.

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Uncommon Common Sense

300 miles, no water - desert common sense
Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.- Lord Chesterfield

What is common sense?

The official definition is native intelligence; Sound, practical intelligence that is independent of specialized knowledge or training.  Some people call it following your gut.  Some people call it just knowing and doing what is right.

It is uncommon.  Too few people today follow their gut.  They feel they should be doing something else with their life, but instead of changing they continue to go through the motions of habit.  Habit is an interesting part of life.  There are good habits and bad habits.  We really are somewhat like sheep when following a habit because we are used to it.

Let’s talk about some good habits that should be common sense.

1) Sleep.

With the advent of the modern world of technology and electricity it is easy to stay up late and sleep in.  It is easy to limit our needed sleep to only a few hours.  Our bodies need time to recharge and organize the experiences of the previous day.  I have recently changed my schedule.  I used to work on making Wowflutes in the evenings before bed.  I would generally start a batch around 8 or 9 pm.  I would finish after midnight and get up around 5:30am to get ready for my day job.  This took its toll.  I felt like I was putting my passion and what I loved on the backburner.  Leaving it till the last minute everyday made it seem unimportant, and it was easy to not want to do it.

I switched it up.  I now get to bed in the evenings around 9:30-10:30pm and get up at 4 am.  It has made a huge difference.  Now I feel I am working on my goals first thing instead of last.  I have several hours to think to myself with no interruptions.  It is wonderful!  I really did not know what I was missing.  The old adage by Benjamin Franklin goes “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”.  You would think this would be common sense, but it is uncommon.

2) Working on your talents

People love to work on their talents. They love to feel like they are good at something.  Many folks feel they don’t have any talents though…  Just because their talents may not be as visible as others.  It is common sense to work on your talents, but how many people do?  It is easy to say you do not have time to develop them, but your gut tells you differently.  I know folks who work a job they don’t like and go home and worry about their job and their boring life and go to sleep and go on to the job, day after day after day.  Why?  Because it is the sheep mentality of just following a habit.  Instead of worrying – set goals and time aside for working on something you enjoy, your talent.  Something that you would do for free.

I have found that this is a secret to managing employees and helping them enjoy their work.  For example, I was the general manager of a mining company – Alpine Gems, for a short time from 2013-2014.  It was my grandfathers company and he had built it from the ground up.  When he passed on in 2011 the company was split between his sons and daughters.  No one was actively participating in the business on a daily basis and it was faltering.  The company had never had employees and I was bent on changing this.

The first person I hired was a great guy named Kasey.  He was a hard worker and could easily manage working in stone.  I made him my warehouse manager and we spent a lot of time planning and discussing the goals for the business.  I found out that he had been a theater major and was interested in making movies.  He had a talent in production and directing.  So I decided to focus many hours of our days in producing marketing content to spread online.  Kasey was exuberant and went above and beyond what I asked for.  It was because it was his passion – something that he would do even if he didn’t get paid.  He worked extra hours on story boarding and editing in his spare time at home.  We created a lot of content that was helpful in securing new business and growing the company’s non-existent presence online.

Our sales in the first six months were double the previous year.  People knew we were having fun and working hard – especially our customers.  Unfortunately there were too many cooks in the kitchen that thought we were having too much fun and not working.  I resigned when we realized our hard work was in vain.

I still get to work with Kasey as he helps me create more great content for Wowflute!

If you want to change things up develop the habit of working and developing your talents.  An easy measuring stick is to find what you would be willing to do for free.

3) Elevate those around you.

This is a habit that has far reaching potential.  When you choose to elevate others you are also elevating yourself.  Elevating others is making them feel good about themselves.  When you speak to an old friend or a new acquaintance make sure to get them talking about themselves.  Learn about what they love and what makes them tick.  People love to talk about themselves – it is just human nature.  An excellent read that has inspired this habit is the book by Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people.  A common theme throughout the book is simple common sense to treat others how you would want to be treated.

4) Smile.

The easiest way to help folks feel good is to smile more.  Smiling is contagious.  People look better when they smile. They look more healthy and attractive.  When you smile folks want to be around you more; they want to know what makes you happy and why you are smiling.  Make it a habit to smile wherever you go and be interested in others. This habit will make you good connections that will grow your network and improve every aspect of your life.  It is easy.  It is common sense, that unfortunately, is not that common.

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Want more Time and Money? Do this…

Hot Dog Suit Guy lego vacation
Hot Dog Suit Guy enjoys his time chillaxing by the pool!

What is the definition of Time?  This seems silly because everyone knows what time is but when you really come down to define it… What is Time?   Google it and you get this:

  1. the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.
  2. a point of time as measured in hours and minutes past midnight or noon.

Both of these definitions are quite vague.  The meaning that I will use for time is the value of our experiences and efforts and how it relates to progress and potential.  When you look at time this way it becomes more personalized.  It becomes my time and your time – each understood in only our own unique way.  What kind of value can you place on your experiences and effort?  What kind of value can you place on your progress and potential?

Lets define money.  What is it?  Put simply it is:

  1. any circulating medium of exchange

This is very simple.  So let’s think about this.  What value does money hold?

None.

It is the medium of exchange not the item exchanged for.  Sometimes it is the simple things that are difficult to understand.  When you start trading your time for money you are actually trading something of infinite worth – one’s potential – for something that has no value in and of itself.  This does not make sense.  So why do we all have that goal to make tons of money and trade all our time doing it?

Think about it this way.

If it is money you are going after then you will find it.  Once you have tons of money it does not bring happiness.  How many stars and professional athletes have died from drug overdose?  Why would they do that? They have all the money one could ever want…

Money represents our time, but if our time is spent in the pursuit of money, then what does our time represent?  Lost time is a sad story.  Lost time can never be bought or brought back.  Lost time is regret.  Trading time for money may seem like a good idea at the time but when you look back with a clear vision through the lens of time, money is no replacement for a life lived.

Wealth is measured in time not money.  When you start to value your time more than money – that is when you will start to make more of both.  You will stop accepting peanuts and kids wages for your time because you value it more than that.  When you value your time, you use it wisely to gain understanding and wisdom and knowledge wherever it is found.  When you value your time, you use it in ways that make you and others happy.  When you value your time you tend to put a higher value on yourself.

Start today to look at what you would do if money were not needed.  What are you truly passionate about?  What are your dreams?  What would you trade your time for even if it did not bring you money?

Focus your energy on that instead of making money and you will find that you will eventually have true wealth – both time and money separated.  Want more time and money?  Do this.

 

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Why is choice so important?

custom swirl wowflute
Custom Swirl Wowflute

I have been thinking a lot about choices lately.  I always like to define a word to get a clear meaning.  Choice: the right, power, or opportunity to choose.

This definition is pretty straight forward.  But why is it sometimes such a difficult proposition? To choose?  Especially between two good things that we want.  So much goes into a choice.  Our background experiences, nuances, feeling, outward physical sense, desire, disgust.  Everyone is faced with thousands of choices everyday.  Mundane choices – complex choices.

Why is choice so important?

Let us imagine a world without choice.  What would it look like?  Who would be there? Why would they be there? Would you ever choose to be there? Then if you choose to be there, there’s a choice which would not exist… Wow, guess that’s kind of deep.

Let’s come back to the surface.  Choice is about you and choice is personal and choice effects others deeply.  If I make a wrong choice, it can have lasting ripples into many futures.  The same goes for making a right choice.  I’m sure nearly everyone has taken a flat stone and attempted to skip it on a lake.  One time I got hundreds of skips – it was a very flat, smooth stone.  Just like the ripples of those splashes go on sometimes imperceptively, they still move forward into the future with a momentum that we may not even recognize.

Even small choices ripple.  The splash may not be that noticeable but it still effects more than just the stone.  A big splash can generate large waves that come in contact with sides or shores and erodes and builds by depositing the sands.

red sunset swirl wowflutes
Red Sunset Swirl Wowflutes

Choice is the reason we are here on earth – to learn to make the correct choice and to learn from wrong choice. The whole reason of existence is to choose.

So choose carefully your color of wowflute – each color is more or less important to you. Each color for me is based on my photography and my love of color in general. I hope you find the right one to enjoy.

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New Turquoise Tritan Wowflute

I am thoroughly enjoying the new colors that the Tritan Wowflute is now made in. This transparent turquoise is a favorite.

I designed the Tritan Wowflute over the course of two years and it is nice to finally have a product that works well and is very durable.

The Tritan Wowflute is currently made down at a place called R & R Engineering in Leeds, Utah.  The folks there are down to earth and are great to work with.  They strive for quality.  I am grateful I found them in my backyard (quite literally)!

The Tritan Wowflute was designed with the outdoors in mind.  After I sat on and broke a few of my favorite Swirl Wowflutes I wanted something that would last.  This has been a goal for me to focus on quality rather than quantity.  A few years ago I had produced a bunch of my Wowflute mugs out of water based clay and had fired them and glazed them.  I had ten Wowflute mugs ready for market.  As I was hauling them to my vendor booth I tripped and dropped the box.  Even though they were wrapped and packed well, all but one were either chipped or shattered.   This experience led me to look for a stronger material that would still have the quality without being fragile.

When hiking I use a Nalgene water bottle.  These bottles were extremely tough and would take a beating.  I could drop it on sharp lava rocks and it would be fine.  That is what I wanted my products to do.  I did some research and after much deliberation I chose Tritan copolyesther by Eastman as the base material  for the Tritan Wowflute because it is virtually indestructible.  The Tritan Wowflute can even be driven over (not that you drive over musical instruments on a regular basis).

The name Tritan Wowflute sounds tough as well.  It is currently available in Turquoise, Tangerine, and Emerald.  Listen to a sample: