He's crude, foul mouthed and generally offensive. But in the number of books I have read that he has authored he appears to be the real deal when it comes to leadership.
I have read this book probably 3 times in the last 10 years. I always come away challenged and motivated.
I highly recommend this for anyone who has the stomach and maturity for 'salty language' in an excellent and focused treatment of real world leadership.
It happens more time than I care to remember. My daughter disappears with the portable DVD player for a couple of hours. When I finally track it down in her room it is loaded with her well worn copy of A Walk to Remember.
Personally, I have never watched the movie but I get the idea it is...romantic.
As I approach Valentines Day I feel an awareness of a couple of things.
(1) I don't prioritize or even firmly grasp 'romantic' as pertains to my wife. I know she doesn't think real life romance is like scripted TV romance. But how exactly it is defined is a little murky.
Odds are she told me and I didn't want to remember.
(2) My little girl likes the idea of romance. The idea of being valued and protected by a young man (I'm getting mad just typing this!). This I understand a little more and try to convey to her by showing her how a young man should act and treat her.
In the end I believe Valentines Day were created by some man hating female Nazis to just get men in trouble! :-)
For the first time in about 3 weeks the weather didn't cause us to cancel Wed service.
The odd thing was a windstorm blew through that was so loud we had to end the service early.
In the sermon I was talking about how Paul had Timothy get circumcised as an adult man. "Can you imagine" I was saying "how Paul was just gigging Timothy as the procedure was getting ready to go. I bet he was saying things like..."
RATTLE...RATTLE...It sounded like the wind was blowing the building apart.
"We'll have to stop there because of the weather."
It was the only time I ended a sermon where the crowd said, "You can't stop now!"
They will just have to come back Wed to see how it turns out.
My high school didn't have football, so I never played. But I wish I would have been exposed to some of the great locker room speeches that can be part of the game.
Here's a great one by Coach Flowers. Beneath the clip are the words.
Today gentleman, I am honored to coach you, and I am more honored to take you onto the field of battle. There is another honor to be bestowed upon you. That is the answer that comes with that question. Who Am I?
Answer: I am a champion!
That’s right and I need you to remember that all throughout this game.
I will conquer what has never been conquered. Defeat will not be in my creed. I will believe where all those before me have doubted. I will always endeavor to uphold the prestige, honor and respect of my team. I have trained my mind and now my body will follow!
* WHO AM I? …. * I AM A CHAMPION!!!
I will acknowledge the fact that I am an elite warrior who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by any means at my disposal. I accept the fact that my team expects me to move further, faster and fight harder than our opponents. Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be. One hundred percent and more
* WHO AM I? …. * I AM A CHAMPION!!!
Gallantly will I show the world that I am a specially selected and well trained warrior. My heart and my soul will be the fuel to carry my body when my limbs are to weary. I will never falter, I will never lose focus as long as there is hope in my mind and my heart still beats. I will never give in to the evil that is weakness and I will fight that evil with my dying breath.
* WHO AM I? …. * I AM A CHAMPION!!!
Energetically will I meet my enemies, no one will challenge me, none will stop me from my goal. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Champion’s word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall at the hands of my enemy and under no circumstances will I ever surrender.
* WHO AM I? …. * I AM A CHAMPION!!!
Readily will I display the discipline and strength required to fight on to my objective and I will complete my mission. I will rise when I fallen. I will rip the heart from my enemy and leave it beating on the ground. My enemy need not fear me but he will respect me and if he does not. I will make him respect me with all that I have to give.
* WHO AM I? …. * I AM A CHAMPION!!!
History will remember my name and he will not have to be kind. For I will have denied his criticisms and put in my own praise, No one will define me, no one will tell me what I can achieve, none will say I have not given all I have to give and none will take my glory.
* WHO AM I? …. * I AM A CHAMPION!!!
Our believe, our code, OUR RELIGION is what? …. The 5 Commandments of football.
As I have begun the book the Leadership Challenge on the heels of the Encore Effect something stood out to me...the lack of thorough treatment.
I as much as anyone enjoys conciseness. Say what needs said and don't say a whole lot more. For that reason I think most books are too long.
Nevertheless, books such as the Encore Effect or Our Iceberg is Melting is so focused on concise and cute there really isn't any meat to think through.
It's not that these books are badly written hollow ideas it's just they are like Cliff Notes. For instance the premise of Our Iceberg is Melting is: If you are unwilling to change you'll be caught unprepared and will suffer the consequences.
Do we really need page after page of talking penguins to teach that? Where is the crunchy content that slaps you around and has you coming back for more?
The Leadership Challenge is a thicker book, but I hope the extra time investment will pay off by having more meat to chew on.
Sometime back I read the Fred Factor by Sanborn. It was generally a book on loving what you do enough to do it well.
The Encore Effect didn't seem to brim over w/ originality.
Sanborn covers things like enthusiasm and passion. But to be honest about every business/self help book talks about things like passion.
The Encore Effect wasn't without some redeeming value. For instance: I found his PDA formula memorable: Passion + Discipline + Action = Results Achieved.
If Sanborn or general business books are new to you the Encore Effect is a sufficient, short introduction to the genre.
Out of the gate I think I have the 3 greatest kids there are. If you are a parent I hope you feel that way about your kids.
Each one is unique and I love them uniquely.
This week Zakariah is in Puerto Rico playing for a select baseball team Coast to Coast Stars.
I'll just bullet point my pride.
*It appears he was invited to the Coast to Coast Tryouts by a college scout. *The teams are gathered from across the nation. He has guys from TX, IA, MD etc playing with him. *2/3rd of those invited to tryout gets cut. *He was the starting pitcher of the first game. He pitched 2 innings. I believe he got his bell rang pretty good! But there are at least 6 more game left. *He played short for half a game (to get all the players time each player plays approx 1/2 the game. *He went 1 for 2 plus a walk. He singled, whiffed and walked. He scored twice.
If you want to avoid the chest puffing report of Z's P.R. baseball you might want to avoid this blog for a few days. Otherwise, reports and pics as I get them.
On my kids MySpace they are tagging each other w/ 25 random things. Not much of a MySpacer but here's my 25 random things
1. Can't stand the sound of a leaf rake on concrete. 2. Have bungee jumped (like a woman!!) 2 or 3 times. 3. Read Christmas letters on the radio in 5th grade. 4. Picky eater because of the way certain foods feel not taste. 5. Like to wear earplugs...even when I am alone. 6. Looked like Leif Garrett (his teen years) when I was younger. 7. Played guitar in a high school band Nuthin Fancy for a couple years. 8. Met Pastor Ed Young of the famous Fellowship Church in DC. 9. Moved to NKY to prepare to be a missionary to Denmark. 10 Had epilepsy when I was younger. 11 Probably could have played college baseball. I'll never know. 12 I think the universe is round. 13 Pulled a prank on a national call in radio show. 14 I wore a japanese rising sun bandanna on my thigh my senior year. 15 Locomotive Breath may be the best song ever... 16 For years I thought water only existed on the surface level. 17 Debra on Everybody Loves Raymond' is so HOT! 18 I have hundreds of comic books I collected back in the 80s. 19 Wanted to be a comic book artist. 20 It's odd that we show appreciation by slapping body parts together (clapping). 21 Training for a 1/2 marathon. 22 Don't understand why we have to smile @ people when we first see them. 23 E.T.s may exist. 24 My wife asked me out on our first date (she'll deny it). 25 I have two tattoos. BONUS: I don't understand why people seem obsessed w/ being famous..I.E. American Idol
This was a small volume based on the popular parable approach to business books.
The greatest takeaway I got was mistaking multi-tasking for switch tasking.
In essence you really can't do two mentally demanding things at once. The brain is set up to give attention to one thing at a time. So what appears to be multi-tasking is really stopping and switching between tasks.
Crenshaw also illustrates how that due to concentration and needing to restart your previous task that it really is a time wasting approach.
In reading through my 100 day challenge I find myself reading Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7. In 7:25 Stephen says on Moses slaying the Egyptian, "He supposed his (Hebrews) brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation through (Moses) hand, but they did not understand.
It jumps out at me that Moses was right on so many fronts. God would send Moses to deliver the people, but not just yet. Egyptians would lose their lives in the deliverance, but not just yet.
How many times do we have the right goal, vision, approach but mess it up because it should be done...but not just yet.
Finished the autobiography Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammett today.
Tammett is a savant. What is a savant? It is the uncanny ability to calculate or compose music or a prodigious memory etc. For instance, Rain Man is a fictional movie on a true savant named Kim Peeks.
Tammett's savant abilities is being able to do lightning calculations in his mind.
The exceptionally odd thing about Tammett is that the numbers in his head have colors, textures, personalities and patterns. Each number appearance is unique up to 10,000.
Interesting subject, but like so many autobiographies I've read lately the subjects may be interesting but they do not make good authors.
I'm 99.9% my Dad has it which makes sense since it appear to be passed on genetically from the father.
Here's why it matters....
*It explains a lot. For instance: No matter how hard I try/tried there are a lot of social interactions in which I am completely clueless. The general explanation was things like, "shyness or not a people person." But Aspergers is a brain structure issue that makes it hard to comprehend social cues and mores that most people take for granted.
There are also certain habits or ways of thinking that I knew wasn't common. You cannot imagine my surprise when researching Aspergers for the first time those specific type things were expressly mentioned.
Here's why it doesn't matter...
*It isn't an excuse to retreat away from people because it is uncomfortable.
There are ways to cope and compensate, which I have over the years stumbled onto that should and do get used.
*By referring to it as a brain structure issue it sounds mysterious and special. My opinion is we are learning more concerning the brain and how much uniqueness is possible. What is considered a 'syndrome' really is just one of many options of how brains can develop. Over time 'syndromes' will be easy to spot. The big question is what is normal.
David was right in Ps 139 "We are fearfully and wonderfully made."
*I will never be the extrovert my wife is but I can certainly improve in how to socially interact even if it doesn't translate into feeling natural or easy.
Watched the DVD on Navy Seals Class 234 from back in '02.
It is easy to get caught up in the brutal workouts, freezing cold, getting wet and sandy and the general misery.
The thing that really jumped out was the highlighting of leadership. Leading from out front. Motivating your team. Stepping up.
I am always on the look out for a better understanding of leading. Disc 1 of the Navy Seals gave me a practical framework and food for thought on leadership.
Due to the ice we were down a little. But all in all a solid attendance.
Preached on Heaven.
I only got in my intro and first point in the first service. Now the lay person can't appreciate the discipline of stopping short. To the preacher time moves at a different pace. Plus, they are so engaged with the sermon that they can easily forget that others have tuned out.
Yet after almost 20 years of preaching I have learned I can find a good stopping point and if need be pick the rest of the sermon up next service.
What lay people do understand is when the preacher has missed a good memorable stopping point and plods on just to finish the outline.
So in the evening I preached on....Heaven.
A high point of the AM was my taking the kids on a baptistery tour. Many of our kids are asking good questions about Christ. But, they are afraid of the baptistery. Someone saw a dead wasp in it once and that was all that it took.
The kids enjoyed it and asked good questions. We may be firing up the baptistery w/i the next few weeks.
Nice hanging out with a bunch of families @ Ben's place. Good food. Heart breaking game if you were rooting for Arizona. But that is what makes sports interesting.
First, just because a guy is athletically gifted and successful I by no means expect him to be a paragon of virtue.
Having heard a little bit of what goes on in Olympic village just solidifies guys like Phelps or any of the 1000s of other athletes have ample opportunity to engage in irresponsible behavior.
That doesn't tick me.
The fact that Phelps calls smoking pot "acting in a youthful...way" ticks me.
Once again society has painted a picture of what 'generally youthful behavior' looks like.
Here are my angry bullet points...
*'Teenagers' are an invention of the 50s. Only in the last 50 years have we subdivided our children out to this limbo that winks at irresponsible behavior as a rite of passage.
*It is a wicked myth, generated by Satan no doubt,that the ages from 13-22 are years that can be given to irresponsible selfish behavior.
*If we are OK w/ teenagers spending teen years in the Phelp-ian behavior when do we train them to be adults? When are they expected to do the hard things? Answer: In their early to mid 20s. That is why there is a rise on 'prolonged adolescence' today.
*There is no doubt a learning curve that is inherent in the teen years. But the teen years should be a bridge to adulthood. But far too often they are viewed as an island to escape adulthood.
No Mr. Phelps you didn't act youthful. You were irresponsible. It isn't the same.
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