Letters To My Son

I have been on quite a journey since our sweet dog Henry passed away on Oct. 22nd. and every step I have made on my spiritual path has confirmed what I already knew to be true. There is no higher purpose, no more relevant calling than Love.

Sometimes it's not easy to see the finish line. To peer down that long treacherous road ahead And feel completely confident that things will work out. You know that Success is waiting there for you in one form or another. Obviously there's no road signs letting you know your progress is paying off - there's no blatant indicator that you're on the right track. Essentially, there's nothing.

I loved working everyday. I practiced, rehearsed and drilled always trying to keep sharpening the saw. After 21 years it all came to a crashing halt. Finished. Over. With a single phone call, I was told that my services were no longer needed and HR was sending me a packet in the mail. We are a product of the pain we endure - the sacrifices we make - the struggles we overcome.

In every step along the way is who you are - that’s What defines you - your pursuit. Your future rests on the decision to conquer right now - create the world you need to be the change you so desperately want. There are an infinite number of ways to succeed. Infinite.

There's a lot that you don't know - a lot you're pretty sure you understand, but couldn't possibly wrap your hands around. Because the most important things in life, the things that you'll remember. They're the very things that seem like footnotes in your story, background noise hidden in plain view.

It's where decisions are made, and lives are ultimately defined. And which way you go when staring at this fork in the road can mean everything - Maybe you go left, take the easy path minimal upside minimal downside, proven and tangible - it gives immediate identity but also brings with it, some degree of regret not because you won’t like who you are but because you’ll never know what you could ha...

You have that power within yourself, literally to change the world as we know it. That's not a question - its not even far fetched. But we need to spend less time feeling like we're owed something for that exhausted energy. The world is a tough place. It rewards value - And sometimes it takes way longer than we like to see a return on that investment.

I've met him before many times this gatekeeper guardian of all that is worth possessing, acquiring and conquering. I've witnessed the pain he inflicts - the doubt he manufactures - the obstacles he creates - and what's interesting about the things in life worth having is that they’re never easy to obtain.

And that simple metaphor, created a foundation for everything that's come through my life since then - Right - in anything we do - There's the option to go all in or to walk the line to hedge your bets. People so often leave or quit when something becomes difficult - because there's another door they've left open - right - there's an easier way - an escape route.

What if the starting role is too much for me? What if I was a born follower? What if I never find happiness? What if I don't choose the right path? What if I get lost? What if I can never be as good as the person standing next to me? What if a life of meaning will always be something I'll have to stare up at - wishing - dreaming? Or what if I just change the way I look at the world?

See human beings make things unnecessarily complicated. Instead of drawing a direct line from point A to point B. We create 100 reasons why it's too hard. Too Tough, we construct distractions. There is no hard - there is no easy. There is a goal - the price that must be paid. And the eyes observing from a distance, wondering, just maybe, if they can do the same.

This life is about acquiring skills and really pushing yourself to see how much you can do because you really can do whatever you set your mind to. But first you have to set your mind to be free of what others think of you.

Suddenly, it doesn't hurt so much to have somebody say something as long as it's true - you're willing to use it - as long as it's true and you're willing to take it on board and see how you can improve and get better - but first you must stop being willfully blind to your inadequacies - you must stop being willfully blind to the mistakes you make - you must stop being willfully blind to the areas...

When we feel safe. When we feel that our leaders care more about us than a number, they care more about our lives and our confidence and our joy and our skill set, more than some short term gain - that they care more about our priorities than the priorities of some disinterested external constituency. Then we will respond in kind and we will offer our blood, sweat and tears, and we will make sacri...

Because you have the power to right now take your life back right now. No matter what is going on - No matter What has happened to you - no matter what crazy things have befallen you that seem like fate. Take ownership. Don't beat yourself up. Don't waste time feeling badly about it, just recognize you are far more powerful and capable than you know.

Be mindful of where you put in your hours and what exactly you think is important. Be cautious about the promise of jumping from one opportunity to the next too quickly, without giving yourself time to deeply understanding anything. As Duckworth warns in “Grit”, “some people get 20 years of experience while others get one year of experience 20 times in a row”.

The people that really get somewhere - the people that are able to build extraordinary things - they're the ones that aren't afraid to fail - They're the ones that aren't afraid to fail publicly. They're never worried about what other people think.

We all need a word of encouragement from time to time so let this be that word. You can change no matter what you think of yourself. Humans are designed to change. That’s what we do. But you have to put yourself underneath tremendous amount of stress in order to trigger that adaptation response.

The things that matter to you are the things that matter most. And so, to run in the opposite direction to allow yourself to get into that to allow yourself to see that there are stakes that it matters that it has meaning, and to move in the opposite direction is to literally state you want to stay small is to literally say that you don't want to be successful.

It is extremely hard to make decisions with a just cause in mind. With so many of the pressures on all of us pushing to make the finite short term decisions. If you work for a public company the pressure is overwhelming from the outside to focus on the finite at the expense of the infinite. Sometimes we put pressure on ourselves to focus on the finite we become so obsessed with the arbitrary goals...

The military is not different than business, it's not better or worse than business. The lessons are just much easier to see because the stakes are higher. In other words, everything is exaggerated. So the good is really good and the bad is really bad, and the impact of really good is obvious, and the impact of really bad is obvious. And so, I find that it's a much easier place for me to study lea...

I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Nothing. There is no passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that's less than the one you're capable of living.

Through daily work the better you get the quieter the voice gets. The enemy within cannot criticize the one who has done the work it can’t argue with someone who has no regrets so do the work every day. Every step forward builds belief. Every step forward builds confidence. Every step forward develops habit. Every step forward is a step ahead of that voice.

We are not born feeling inadequate. Life experiences and emotions create that sense within us in a variety of creative ways. When we were little and when we felt afraid or anxious our mind told us something was wrong with us, not with our environment. That’s why children who were abused or neglected grow up to be adults who carry so much shame. A child’s mind not yet rational concludes, there must...

I don’t care how scared you are, what you need to do is make bold decisions. Right now you’ve got to begin training yourself to act you’ve got to begin training yourself to take chances to put yourself at risk - to risk embarrassment to know that you’re going to fail that’s the only way that you’re ever going to get the things that you want out of life. All of us want to do something extraordinary...