Strange how even after so many times God has come through for me that I still worry so. I guess the rug never really stops getting swept out from under your feet. I need to invest in some tumbling mats.
Well ... God has never failed us - even when there seemed to be no solutions. Sometimes friends and family step up. Sometimes it just comes out of nowhere. But it always comes.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Scrubbin Surfboards
I firmly believe that everyone should work. We should all do our part, but we Americans are wrapped up in this work-centered life. Back in April I began a whole new career. It was quite a jump - from karate instructor running a small business to selling office supplies. Upon entering unfamiliar territory I thought it good to study up on sales. I've read several books from Stephan Schiffman's Telesales to Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese .
The sales guru that sticks out the most however is Jeffery Gitomer. He writes those books ... Little Red Book of Sales, Little Black Book ...
Don't get me wrong, it's great info and I've studied and used much of it. But it all serves in the end to put a bad taste in my mouth. The more I read about Gitomer, the more it seemed to me that what he was suggested was to live, eat, breathe, and poop sales. Don't watch T.V - study sales. Limit your activities outside work so you can study sales. The picture in my mind was of, at the time, a fellow karate instructor near Daytona. This guy didn't just have a Napoleon Complex ... he was Napoleon and a work FANATIC. He swore off relationships (even the one with his current wife) and tossed himself headlong into studying sales, internet media, you name it. I already new it was bad how much his life revolved around work, but I had no idea until we heald a leadership conference in Denver, Colorado. Here at one of our many dinner outings, this guy reveals that he manages his time so well that he now has a computer tray in his bathroom so he can continue working on his laptop while he poops. C'MON MAN!
Anyway, I know that's extreme, but our society nowadays praises these workaholic nutcases. Even our norm is retarded - 40-50 hour work weeks - 1 week vacation - 3-6 personal days/year. Then we're preached at that if we really want to be successful - we have to spend even more time on our own reading and studying our trade. Well I submit that my new trade then will be nurturing important relationships in my life. I will study on how to be a better husband, friend, brother, father (eventually), uncle, etc. I submit, especially as Christians, that our trade should be people and relationships.
Therefore my new ambition is to live on a beach with my wife spending my time speaking with friends, reading, publishing the lifetime works of my father, and scrubbing surfboards.
The sales guru that sticks out the most however is Jeffery Gitomer. He writes those books ... Little Red Book of Sales, Little Black Book ...
Don't get me wrong, it's great info and I've studied and used much of it. But it all serves in the end to put a bad taste in my mouth. The more I read about Gitomer, the more it seemed to me that what he was suggested was to live, eat, breathe, and poop sales. Don't watch T.V - study sales. Limit your activities outside work so you can study sales. The picture in my mind was of, at the time, a fellow karate instructor near Daytona. This guy didn't just have a Napoleon Complex ... he was Napoleon and a work FANATIC. He swore off relationships (even the one with his current wife) and tossed himself headlong into studying sales, internet media, you name it. I already new it was bad how much his life revolved around work, but I had no idea until we heald a leadership conference in Denver, Colorado. Here at one of our many dinner outings, this guy reveals that he manages his time so well that he now has a computer tray in his bathroom so he can continue working on his laptop while he poops. C'MON MAN!
Anyway, I know that's extreme, but our society nowadays praises these workaholic nutcases. Even our norm is retarded - 40-50 hour work weeks - 1 week vacation - 3-6 personal days/year. Then we're preached at that if we really want to be successful - we have to spend even more time on our own reading and studying our trade. Well I submit that my new trade then will be nurturing important relationships in my life. I will study on how to be a better husband, friend, brother, father (eventually), uncle, etc. I submit, especially as Christians, that our trade should be people and relationships.
Therefore my new ambition is to live on a beach with my wife spending my time speaking with friends, reading, publishing the lifetime works of my father, and scrubbing surfboards.
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