Daily Approval

Are you willing to source your approval from within instead of from the outside?

In my experience, this is the question most of us can’t answer in the affirmative. Unbeknownst to our conscious, we’re constantly jockeying our behavior to elicit the approval of others.

Recently I was coaching an executive. While he was traveling overseas, one of his direct reports sent out a company-wide email saying his operations had a major problem with their inventory.

For two weeks this executive’s wheels spun about how his teammate just threw him under the bus and how bad he must look to the rest of the team.

Here’s the important thing to remember: That’s completely understandable and normal. But what is key is to understand what is really troubling him: is that his peers don’t approve of him or his work.

So I asked him a simple question: How much do you approve of your work? There was silence on the other end of the phone.

Suddenly he had a realization -- he’d been doing this for over 5 years, and when he took over the operation, he had improved the business by leaps and bounds. Over those 5+ years, he’s very proud of the work he’s done. But in the day-to-day minutia, he second guesses his work because his default move is to outsource his approval to others.

The lightbulb went on for him: Why do I approve of myself over the long term, but not in the short term?

That was a key insight he had that day. It was a moment of waking up, and worthy of further exploration. He will likely find it has to do with him disregarding his successes (where there are many) and focusing on his failures (where there are very few). In the long term, it’s easier to see all of the success. In the now, it’s pretty darn easy to see where you could be doing better.

Where do you source your approval? From within, or from others? Is your view the long term and how friendly and accepting are you to yourself in the short term?

My Journey to Now

My wife said, “Why don’t you not think?”

That sounds like some snarky advice, but she meant it. I was actually packing my things to go on one of my few personal retreats I take each year to read, think, plan and strategize my next big steps in life. But I was worn out and my wife sensed it. She knew I needed this weekend, but more so, she knew I needed a different type of weekend: one in which I did nothing at all.

It took me an hour and a half drive to reach my friend’s mountain home, situated in the woods and on a large pond. His dock extended peacefully out into the cove of the pond. I plopped down in an adirondack chair and cracked a book my brother had recommended to me, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Little did I know this book would profoundly shape my life.

I ate the book up and I read for a solid hour. The sun was out, and its rays started warming my skin and I felt myself starting to get sleepy. I put the book down, let my eyes fall shut and drifted off in sleep, comfortably reclining in the adirondack. I woke up a couple hours later, and just sat there. I took in the pond, the birds, fish making ripples on the surface of the pond. The silence was powerful. I thought about nothing. I just sat there and was able to be. The experience is somewhat inexplicable, but my post-nap awakening was one of the most profound moments of my life.

The rest of the weekend I would read a little, but more or less I just soaked in the experience. I wasn’t trying to solve any world problems or create my next big move. I’d read and then sit. I wouldn’t even think much about what I read, instead, what I wanted to do was just to notice. Just sit. Just be. Just take in the sounds, the sites, the smells. Sometimes I’d be sitting in a chair and think to myself, I should probably get up. And then an hour would go by and I hadn’t moved nor did I feel like moving. I’d continue sitting there, noticing, being. Sometimes my mind would drift or latch on to some back-home thought, but I’d nudge it back to where I was: Now.

Ever since that weekend, I’ve been very purposeful about being in the now. I want to be where I am. Yeah, I know, that sounds really “profound.” But if you think about it, it is profound. I realized I spent much of my time in the future or in the past. Rarely in the now (mainly the future). There was always something better coming down the pike, so I liked to stay there, either worrying about something bad that was going to happen or about how to make things better.

Life happens, however, in the now. Right now. If this is a new concept to you, the idea is to just be. To witness your mind and all of its crazy talk. As Tolle said in The Power of Now, the mind is an organ that is made to think. And think it does. But we are not what our mind thinks, and I don’t know about you, but thank God, if I were all of the things my mind thought, then I’d be locked up by now.

So being present, being in the now, simply means just being. And when you start just being, you notice things you’ve never noticed before. You hear sounds you didn’t know where there, you see things that have always been there but haven’t noticed. In order to be, you must develop the ability to witness your thoughts and be okay with those thoughts sliding by. In short, you become free from the activity of your mind. And when you can do that, it frees you up to be present. To be 100%. Not to be thinking about something else when someone is talking, or instead of being present at the dinner table, thinking about the presentation you have to do tomorrow.

The benefits are incredible. By being more in the now, I can give someone my attention for what I would guess is a 100x improvement of what I was able to do previously. I also notice that when my mind starts to drift in a conversation, I can quickly get back into presence. Because I’m awake and notice more, my ability for appreciation is more and I make better decisions.

Overall, my mind’s state is now quiet. It’s calm. Before, if you walked into my mind it was probably like walking into a rowdy tavern with a circus act going on. Now if you walk into my mind, it’s probably the equivalent of walking into a spectacular library--with the circus act blazing through about every 10 minutes! In other words, my mind is still my mind, and I accept that. However, my mind is way more calm, but crazy thoughts (or perfectly good thoughts) still zip through the library of what my mind has become.

What I’m saying is that I’m not perfect. I haven’t arrived. Being in the now, being present, takes practice and it’s much more about the journey than it is the destination. In addition to practice, it takes discipline. For instance, to develop myself to be more in the now is I developed a meditation practice which I talk about in another blog. I meditate daily for 20 minutes a day. This has taught my mind to be still, relaxed and peaceful.

Another thing I work on is to try and minimize distractions. I used to have an Apple Watch for instance. I used to love that thing. But in my quest for presence, I realized the Apple Watch was a distraction machine. Seriously, I’d be talking to someone, totally in presence and connected to that person, and my watch buzzes with a text message from my wife asking me what I want for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, +1 for my wife! But man, I allowed myself to be buzzed out of presence. What a bummer. My Apple watch has since been retired.

As it goes for my mobile phone (iPhone), I minimize all distraction settings. I disable badges on apps, reduce app notifications if at all possible and my phone doesn’t vibrate or ring. My phone is a tool and is there for me to use it, not for it to use me.

“Why don’t you not think?” Was some of the best advice I’ve ever received. My wife’s intuitive advice, combined with a timely book recommendation from my brother launched me into a life of practicing presence. Although the benefits of a calmer mind, more peace, less stress, being able to fully listen to friends, family and coworkers, to be focused and fully be with whomever I’m with, etc. are all awesome benefits, the real gift of being present is presence itself. It’s as if God said, “I gave you this amazing life and this amazing world, and you spend 99% of it in the past or in the future. How about just enjoy what I gave you, now?”

Now. Be. Presence. All the same thing, and when you can consistently find yourself there, that in and of itself is the real reward.

Heroing Purpose

In a previous post, I covered the concept of Heroing, the act of saving something or someone from something. In the context of ourselves, we hero ourself to protect ourself from something, usually discomfort. Heroing is an unconscious move we make when we do not want to face something in our lives, whether it be stress, an uncomfortable situation, a chore that we just don’t want to do, etc.

We hero ourselves with our purpose too. The issue with purpose is that we’re scared to live it. The idea usually goes something like this: I can’t live a life of deep meaning because I couldn’t make a living doing my purpose! And if I couldn’t make a living doing my purpose, then I’d be bankrupt! And if I’m bankrupt I’ll lose my house; and if I lose my house, I’ll lose my spouse and my kids! Therefore, I can’t pursue meaning, and I must subject myself to some other mind-numbing occupation for the rest of my life!

But our soul is screaming at us to live our purpose, to live an abundant life full of meaning. But since we are scared where that may take us, we unconsciously hero ourselves by providing a little bit of short-term relief to satisfy and quiet our soul.

Sound familiar? Hold on, don’t leave just yet; bear with me.

The problem with that scenario is that our very soul won’t let our purpose go that easily. The soul is always knocking on the door, it’s always whispering, creating opportunities for purpose...whatever method your soul uses to get your attention, it’s persistently reminding you that your purpose is waiting for you to let it free.

Now, you may say, but I don’t even know what my purpose is! I disagree and would tell you that you actually do know what your purpose is. Now, it’s highly likely you haven’t articulated it yet or have gotten clarity around it, but you do know--and your soul definitely knows--what your purpose is. But that’s for another post.

For now, let’s get back to how we hero or create relief for ourselves when our soul is providing some purpose-driven pressure. We’ll use a little fiction to explore the topic:

Jack loves to paint. As a teenager, he discovered painting in high school. He loved it. When he would paint, he noticed he would come alive. He was extremely good at it. Some said he was even better than his teacher, but he was definitely better than any other student, hands down. He had a natural talent, and he had never connected with something like this before.

His teachers and counselors encouraged him to pursue his passion. He researched and found some good art schools in the region. One day, he finally mustered up the courage to tell his parents that he wanted to attend SCAD, an internationally recognized art and design school. Without looking up from his phone, his dad muttered, “How are you going to make a living with an art degree? I’m not paying for an art school.”

And right there on the spot, Jack’s dream was squashed. Over the next several months, he began to convince himself of the same, How would I make a living? I couldn’t make a living painting! So he got more practical and responsible. He applied to a public university and enrolled in their graphic design program. Close enough, he thought, and it appeased his parents as well. What he didn’t realize is he was trying to appease his soul at the same time.

He learned to run a printing press, and he got to dabble in design, but never painting, mind you. It sort of scratched the itch, but not really. After college, he got a job with an ad agency, where from time to time, he would get projects that stretched him creatively. That’s what kept him going, but such projects never reached the depth of his soul.

He got married, bought a house, and he jumped at the chance to paint the interior of his new home. He had almost forgotten how much he enjoyed painting, although this was a different type of painting. He sensed a kindling of a small spark, but he didn’t recognize it.

A few years later, his wife was expecting, she asked if he could paint a mural on their soon-to-be-daughter’s wall. He jumped at the chance. His job was getting really mundane, but painting the house and painting the mural satisfied him enough that he could keep going.

A couple of years later, he was really unfulfilled. He couldn’t put his finger on it. It didn’t feel right because he had the “perfect” life: A beautiful wife, two healthy kids, a great house in a great neighborhood. He worked for the most prestigious agency in town, and he was even on some of the best accounts. But his days were more about sale pitches and tracking his time. He was actually pretty miserable.

Then, out of the blue something came up! His church asked if he would paint the new theater set for the kids’ program. You would think that someone had commissioned him for a multi-year, multi-million dollar painting. He jumped at the chance and dove in. When he was done with the project, the jaw of the children's minister hit the floor. Who is this person? Who knew he was this talented? She had never seen such a theatrical set before!

Jack beamed at his work. It took him several weeks, and he knew he put more into it than asked. But Jack couldn’t help himself. He just got lost in the work, and he loved every moment of it. He basked in the glow of his creation for a short time, but reality soon crept back in. He had to go to work on Monday. He certainly couldn’t paint theater sets for a living. He had a family to support!

And on goes the story, of Jack’s soul knocking, whispering and manifesting opportunities for Jack to paint. But Jack paints more as a hobby. He scratches his itch of purpose, but then he goes back to reality. By doing his hobbies and pseudo-associated projects that are somewhere in the realm of his purpose, Jack provides some relief that his soul and purpose are thirsting. But he’s not living his purpose. Sure, it gives him a hit. His hobbies provide him just enough lift to keep him going.

Jack is heroing his purpose. He unconsciously finds outlets to scratch the itch of meaning his soul seeks, but he is not making any conscious commitment to live for that meaning.

And like Jack, we too have a deep-seated fear that keeps us from living or even discovering our purpose. We most likely have the experience of someone influential in our lives telling us we can’t live a life of meaning. The reasons vary from not being able to make a living, or we won’t be good enough or some other well-intentioned comment that we end up using to create a jail cell for our soul. Or it’s a variety of other factors, such as our environment, our baggage, limiting beliefs or inaccurate assumptions that keep us from what our soul is craving: purpose.

How are you heroing your purpose? What activities do you do that makes your soul feel good for a moment, but which you could certainly never do more of? What job do you have to go back to, and why is it you can’t go back to a vocation or a role that fulfills you? Are you settling for your station in life, intermittently getting small hits of fulfilling experiences to keep you going?

What would it look like for you to stop doing all the small heroing and let the pressure build up where you HAD to do your purpose, whatever it took?

For me, it’s getting up in the morning and writing. It’s reading books I know I want to read and making the time to do so. It’s creating plans and setting goals to increase the percentage of my day that I am living in purpose to the portion of time that I am not. What I am doing right now, writing this post, is 100% aligned with my purpose.

It starts as easy as that: consciously choosing to increase the percentage of purpose-driven activities for which your soul thirsts.

Heroing Change

In coaching, we have a phrase that goes something like this: “Did you just hero such-in-such?” Or “Did you just hero yourself or that situation?”

Heroing is the act of saving something or someone from something. Often, heroing is the act of providing relief, saving yourself or someone from discomfort.

We hero ourselves quite often throughout the day. For instance, I notice that I’ll do a hard task for 10-15 minutes and then I reward myself with checking my phone (gotta get that dopamine hit from some random notification)--I create relief to what was perhaps a stressful situation or a situation of intense thought. Not all that bad, but a hero move nonetheless.

Or, after a hard day’s work that has some element of stress to it, I may hero myself with a beer or a glass of wine. You know, just to take the edge off the day. A hero move.

Another hero move may be vegging out in front of the TV for a couple of hours so I don’t have to think about that awful phone call I need to make….I put it off. I give myself some relief.

Hero moves relieve pressure, but pressure is our friend. Pressure helps us deal with what needs to be dealt with. If we relieve the pressure then we don’t need to deal with the issue at hand. We simply delay the issue, sometimes so successfully heroing the situation that we never deal with it!

At the end of the day, the month, the year or *gasp* a decade, I could have set out with the best of intentions, but I could easily look back, see little or no change, and understand how I heroed myself through an entire period.

For example, I have noticed a pattern that it takes me two years to accomplish a goal. In year one, I set the goal with the intention to attain it. This year, I set the goal of living my Perfect Day once a week. Living a Perfect Day on a routine basis is not easy! It can actually create a little discomfort in one’s life. And guess what? I heroed myself out of that goal consistently. I found things to do, reasons why I couldn’t create time and space for myself and appointments that went on the calendar to keep me from living that perfect day. Spppfffffffff! Like a fresh can of tennis balls opening, I can hear the pressure being released now even as I write this! I’m too busy, I’m so important, other people need me that I can’t possibly take that much time for myself on a routine basis! Hero, Hero, Hero! I’m now heading into year two of this goal, and I’m going to leverage pressure to change.

If you want to change, stop relieving the pressure. Ghandi is attributed with the quote: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Likewise, you must be the change you wish to see in yourself. Be aware of how you hero yourself to keep you from changing, and choose to not hero yourself so you can change.

The Stream of Purpose

In my experience, I’ve noticed people tend to live a relatively binary approach to life. Either we are happy, or we are sad. We’re having fun, or we’re bored. We’re right, or we’re wrong.

We view purpose much the same. Either we are living a life full of purpose, or we are not.

In a recent post, I wrote about purpose as a theme. Purpose is not a vocation; rather, your vocation could be the mission of living what is the theme of your purpose. For instance, if the theme of your overarching purpose is to serve women to live extraordinary lives, you will potentially express your theme through various missions in your life. You will go through seasons of your life (like raising a young family) where the theme of your purpose is still alive and well, but your missions are few and far between. In other words, just because your job isn’t satisfying your purpose, doesn’t mean you still can’t live out your purpose.

Living your purpose is not a binary event. I offer you to view your purpose as a stream--your stream of purpose. Some days, you dip your toe in your purpose. Other days you’re fully immersed. Yes, you can treat the stream of purpose as binary: either you get in, or you don’t get in. That’s still your choice, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can decide to walk in the stream of your purpose for an hour a day. For me, that means getting up in the morning, setting aside an hour to write as I am doing now. As I write, I’m in the stream of my purpose.

You can dip your toe in the stream every day by taking in content that is related to your purpose, such as, reading a blog in the morning. You can walk across its rocky river bed to the other side as you go to work while listening to a podcast that relates to your purpose. Or, you can get in and float for an hour every day as you take one of your direct reports to lunch and pour into them.

Living your purpose isn’t binary. You don’t have to quit your day job to live your purpose. You can choose to dip your toe, wade across, or even get in and float for an hour or two every day. For the mom who wants to serve other women, she leads a women’s bible study, she is in a women’s book club, and she meets with women for lunch throughout the week. She may not be in her stream of purpose all day long (though that’s possible too!), but she is in the stream of her purpose often throughout her week and her day.

For the woman above, her purpose theme is serving women. My purpose theme is connecting people to their True North. What is your purpose theme? And what would it look like for you to dip your toe in, wade across or float in your stream of purpose? What would it look like for you to commit to increasing the amount of time you spend in the stream of your purpose?

Purpose as a Theme

Purpose is the reason for which something exists. Many a man and woman have struggled to discover why they exist. But in my experience, if they looked at their lives as a whole, they would discover a theme to their existence.

Often times we confuse purpose with vocation. Or purpose with doing. Purpose is first about being. And when we stop all the doing, and we relax and just be, we can sink into our story and discover the purpose theme for our lives.

A great way to start this journey is to ask yourself, “What is it that I can’t NOT do in my life?” For me, coincidentally, it’s about helping others discover and bravely embrace their purpose. Over 20 years ago, I wrote this purpose statement: To free men from living the status quo by helping them discover and live their God-Given purpose.

Since a teenager, I’ve challenged people to challenge the status quo of reacting to life: Going to work, watching 5 hours of TV, going to bed and doing it all over again in the morning. Instead, I challenged people to live proactively. To set goals, plan their days, weeks and months, have hobbies, learn, experience and live!  I called that idea The Proactive Life and in my early 20’s wrote curriculum around that, led a men’s retreat and mentored men to define what living looked like to them. I lead our marriage by taking my wife and I on quarterly retreats. The intent of those retreats was to identify the purpose for our marriage and to set goals individually and as a couple so we could live proactively instead living reactively.

How purpose has manifested itself in my life has come in many different forms. In my late 20’s I founded a marketing company with this purpose: To challenge people to be their best version. Naturally, I became a certified executive coach. And recently, I was talking with a friend and he summarized my purpose as: “Oh, you help people wake up!” The overarching theme of my life and therefore my purpose is to challenge others to live purposefully. How I do that can be in various forms, many of which I’ve yet to discover or employ!

What is your Purpose Theme? Purpose is one of those easier-said-than-done things to define. It makes sense that it can be an extremely daunting task to put a stake in the ground and say “This is my purpose.” I know for me, I was reluctant to define my God-Given purpose because I felt God was going to send me to be a missionary in Africa. Or, I didn’t want to define or own my purpose because it meant I would commit to something, and if I committed to something, *gasp*, I could fail! Failure would affect my lifestyle, or threaten my identity, or worse, leave me desolate and alone!

The good news is once you define your Purpose Theme, you can ease into it. You don’t have to make a radical, dramatic change all at once. In my next post, we’ll talk about the Stream of Purpose and how you can begin to dip your toe into that stream to lead a life filled with purpose, direction and fulfillment--one day or even one hour at a time.

Live Your Perfect Day

Think of a day that you would call perfect. Picture what you did that day. How did that day make you feel? What if you could create that perfect day each and every day?

For me, that perfect day may look something like this: Get up at 5am, grab my golden retriever and go on a five mile run. I’d come back, make a cup of coffee (or even better yet, coffee would be made for me), and I’d head into my study as I’m cooling down to read some scripture and have a 20 minute meditation. I’d jump in the shower and pray for 15 minutes, and once dressed, join my family for breakfast. This day is looking pretty good so far. I’d drive my kids to school, and return home and work for an hour or two in my study and read my favorite business book. I’d grab my wife and we’d jump on our bikes and ride the path to one of our favorite cafes and have lunch. And we’d leisurely ride back until about 2pm. I’d give her a kiss, put on my golf clothes and head to a golf course. I’d play 9 holes, and for me, breaking 40 would be great but the score wouldn’t be so relevant. I’d meet a good friend for a drink after golf, and I’m back home for dinner with the family. After dinner, I’d hang with my family for about an hour, before heading to bed (early). I’d read and right before falling asleep, I would smile, sigh and thank God for a perfect day.

My perfect day may be nothing like your perfect day. My circumstances or situation may allow me to do somethings you don’t have access to or vice versa (for instance, I don’t live near water and your perfect day may involve fish or a boat!).

Whatever your perfect day may be, what if you could live the perfect day, day in and day out? Who says you can’t?

Ok, maybe it’s not realistic. I get it. You have a job. Family. Responsibilities. You can’t just do whatever you want whenever you want it. Or can you?

What if, on purpose, you could live one perfect day a year? Twice a year? That seems doable. What about one perfect day a month? Now it’s getting interesting. Let’s go for it: One Perfect Day a Week. Could you commit to living at least one perfect day a week?

Creating Your Perfect Day

A perfect day is doing things that energize you. For me, I love to run. Love it. I love golf. I love my family and my wife. I do like to work, and doing 1-2 hours of meaningful work is energizing (not so much the monotonous stuff). I love golf (most of the time). Outdoors, check. Spending quality time with my wife; you bet. Reading. Connecting with God. Ample alone time (I’m an introvert). There’s not too much in my perfect day that doesn’t energize me. Hence, it’s a perfect day.

What energizes you? What are 3-5 things you could do, that if you did monthly would just be awesome. What if you could do that weekly, and if that’s not going to work for you, what about the perfect morning or the perfect afternoon?

My goal is to live the Epic Day once or twice a year. The Ultimate Day once a quarter. And the Perfect Day at least once a month. For me, an Epic Day would be one of those days that blow you away. Maybe it’s spending the day in Paris, or playing a world-class golf course. An Ultimate Day would be skiing out West with my wife and kids. And, well, we went over a perfect day. Doing those things you love to do, but being intentional to make the whole day with those and the things you love.

Now, I know the world doesn’t revolve around me so I can just live my perfect day. But I work with my wife to create her perfect day. And I encourage her. With my teammates at work, I challenge them to live a perfect day and encourage them to use their PTO to do what they love. And now, if you’re reading this, hopefully I’m encouraging you to create and commit to living your perfect day.

2nd Place Ain’t So Bad

2nd Place Ain’t So Bad

Second place ain’t so bad. I mean, it’s close to first, better than third. You’re not the winner, but almost the winner. It feels good. In a track race, you beat 7 other people. Only one person beat you. Second place ain’t so bad.

Recently I had a client that was committed to second place. And at first, I noticed fear in my stomach. Who would settle for second place? But she unpacked it for me and it made sense: You don’t have to work as hard to get second, you really can’t fail if you stay in second. You’re pretty much as good as first and you know it, but you don’t have the pressure of being first. It’s more comfortable to be in second; you have more free time to enjoy life. Second place ain’t so bad.

She didn’t like noticing she was playing for second. She wanted to be first, but realized she was unconsciously committed to Second Place. She wanted more, but she wasn’t willing to quit make the commitment to what it took to get from second to first. Let me say that again: She wanted more, but she wasn’t willing to do what it took to accomplish more. This is where the change formula comes in: Her Vision of first place X her Discomfort was not more than the First Steps it would take to overcome her Resistance to Change (VxD + F.S. > R = C).

So second place it is. However, she is now aware of her racket. She stays in second out of comfort. She has the potential to be first--to blow first away--if she wanted to. But second is safe. Second is comfortable. She has it pretty good. Why jeopardize second for an unknown first, when she doesn’t even know what it would take to get to first?

What are you committed to? What is keeping you from accomplishing what it is that you want? Are you willing to accept the one in you that is protecting you from something? That one in you is probably doing a pretty good job keeping you where you unconsciously want to be. No big deal. A high-five is warranted. A handshake, a hug. A nod of acceptance. Simply allow the one who holds you back to be here. When the discomfort becomes too great, the vision too big, and the resistance not enough to stop you, you will change. No need to force it.

In the meantime, second place ain’t so bad.

Building a Business: Why Doubt is Worth It

One of my most favorite movie quotes, which happens to be from Parenthood:

Grandma: You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster. 

Gil: Oh? 

Grandma: Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride! 

Gil: What a great story. 

Grandma: 
I always wanted to go again. 
You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. 
That just goes around. Nothing. 
I like the roller coaster. 
You get more out of it.

Building a business is hard.

At times, you have a tremendous amount of clarity. At other times, a stupendous amount of doubt.

I can do this…wait...who am I
to pull this off?

Back and forth, back and forth. Real entrepreneurs that say they never doubted...are liars; I’m sure of it.

But building a business, whether you’re the one running it or part of the team building it, is one of the most enjoyable things you can do. You have such an opportunity to impact people. You can make a great difference for your clients, your teammates, your vendors (we prefer to call them partners as we request the same of our clients to refer to us).

The reward for watching people grow, learn, accept challenges and do the impossible is...worth the risk.

So the next time you doubt--the next time you wonder if what you’re doing is worthwhile or not--just remember: you’re impacting people’s lives.

And that’s why building a business is hard. And that’s why it’s worth it. And yes, you, can do it. Keep going. Keep pushing. Make it happen and let it happen. It’s quite the ride!