Would You Believe ...

“If you're perpetually broke, you should be working hard at overcoming stupidity and not getting rich.” ― Taiwo Abraham

I have a really great deal for you.

Select eleven my blog posts for just 1 dollar (plus shipping and handling). I will then send you a "Writer's Selection" blog post once a month (plus shipping and handling) at a low, low cost for another three years. After this time, you can opt out but I'm sure you will want to continue with your membership.

Sounds too good to be true doesn't it?

Sounds all too familiar I am sure.

Columbia House Records made billions of dollars on shipping and handling fees along with the monthly selection you basically had to purchase. I myself was lured into this seemingly innocent deal. On the farm back in the 1970s, it seemed to be a good way to collect music.

Surprise, surprise as it drained my weekend job savings account.

Surprise, surprise as it drained many of your accounts as well.

Well another long coming surprise is that Columbia House just filed for bankruptcy in a Manhattan court. Documents filed by the company say its debt could be as high as $10 million, and it owes its 20 biggest creditors more than $6 million. Appears they couldn't keep up with those shipping and handling costs.

The cynical person in me wants to jump up for joy in the demise of this company and its marketing and other business practices. Many people have been harmed, duped, swindled and just plain bamboozled by this company.

Then I remember I am human and allowed it to happen.

Then I remember we are all human and did it to our self.

How did it all happen? How did we allow ourselves to be duped. How did Columbia House and others like them make money? They did so by using a business practice called "negative option billing" which effectively takes advantage of human nature.

Just decline the next item before the bill arrives. Easy enough but human nature is our tendency to forget, be late and the bills continue to accumulate. You may have gotten some great music, but could you now afford the electric bill to play those records.

We learn from those mistakes of human nature.

We learn to accept those mistakes and move forward.

Life has its lessons to be learned for every generation and every person. Some lessons learned quickly while some are learned hard. Which ever way though, we must move forward knowing how to avoid the pitfalls and grab hold of the good.

Whether you bought twelve records for a penny or simply made a bad decision in life; accept it, learn from it and move on.

There will be plenty of other opportunities to learn from but also greater knowledge in taking on the right ones.

Stay inspired my friends!

A Nickel For Every Mistake

#FlashbackFriday

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." ~ Albert Einstein

If I had a nickel for every mistake I have made in life, my riches would be boundless. And without those mistakes, I would not be nearly the person I am today.

We all make mistakes at one point or another in our life. some of us make a lot of them while others seem to have a perfect track record. The amount of mistakes is not what is important though. It is how you handle those mistakes which is important.

To never learn or grow from a mistake, the mistake controls your life.

But with each misstep or failure, if something new is learned then it only improves your life. It puts you closer to a greater life. Certainly it can feel like one step forward and two steps back. But in reality a mistake is just the opposite.

One step back and two steps forward should become your way of thinking. Learn from those mistakes and try to never repeat them. You will of course repeat mistakes from time to time. Again its all about using those mistakes to move your life forward.

Maybe now is the time to put a nickel in a jar for all the mistakes you make. Allow those mistakes to add up in your favor. A jar full of nickels is not a jar full of mistakes, but a jar full of life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Old Oak Doors

"Keep looking up! I learn from the past, dream about the future and look up. There's nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day." - Rachel Boston

In a book I wrote a few years back was a chapter named "Choice at the Crossroads" which talked about my early years growing up. These early years of our lives tend to form the first you and who you will become. These early years will cement much of who you are.

Each of us have to learn where we came from in order to better understand who we are today. With that knowledge, we can better make choices that will allow us to change. And it was during those formative years I developed a ‘good son’ mentality.

Do what was told of you.

Do it to your best and then do it even better. Being raised on a farm in eastern Nebraska allowed one to work hard as well. It was not always easy, but there are no complaints from me though.

My father had a depression era view of many things. Save as much money as you can, reuse as much as you can and old stuff can be considered new if you are seeing it for the first time. Take old oak doors for instance, old heavy ones you rarely find these days.

There can be many uses for these doors if you put your mind to good use. On our small farm we raised hogs; the kind which end up in the grocery store and on your dinner table. If you read storybooks of pigs, they are cute and seemingly very sweet.

To raise them is a different story and is a lot of work.

There are days which require you to separate the hogs, some for fattening and others for market. The process can be quite challenging and it was the oak doors we used for that purpose. An oak door with door knobs intact makes a great way to separate hogs. You hang onto the door handle in order to maneuver the door into place where you need it.

These doors are also quite heavy for a young boy who did not have the physique of a football player.

We would find these doors at the old trash dump near our farm. This dump was a ravine, back again during times before much stricter regulations. Most times we returned with more then we took. This is the ‘new stuff’ I referred to earlier.

My father had a great eye for things that could potentially be used on our farm. He could spot an old oak door from many yards away. One such day he found an old oak door laying halfway down the ravine. All we had to do was climb down, attach a rope and pull it back up.

I was the available son and was instructed to ensure I tied the rope to it securely.

So down I went....

What are those things stuck in your mind which form who you are today?

At the time, many years ago, climbing down into that ravine to fetch an old oak door, I am sure I wasn't thinking of tomorrow. My best guess is that I wondered if I was going to make it back up the pile. And if I lost the door on the way, would I make it once I did get back to the top of the ravine.

We each take these pieces of our memories, our experiences and stitch them into who we are. We learn from those experiences and grow from them. Open the old oak doors of your past to reveal who you are.

Only then will you be able to understand.

Stay inspired my friends.

Each Day Learn

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them.” - Stanley Lindquist

Each day I learn something new about life around me.

Each was learned through disappointments, occurrences I wished occurred differently and through examining each event.

Each was learned through success, occurrences I had hoped or prepared for and examining what worked in each event.

My belief in how we learn our lessons each day could be different than yours. Religious belief does enter in and my intent here is not to preach. Those that regularly read this blog understand that. Yet from time to time, I am sure my religious views shines through but rest assure I am only trying to shed a light to help guide your path through life.

If you find yourself disappointed or elated with success, find meaning and learn from it.

I do so most every day because life gives so much to us. Allow life to teach and guide you every day.

And stay inspired my friends!

Christmas Learned Experience

“And if my heart be scarred and burned, The safer, I, for all I learned.” ― Dorothy Parker

Many things happen in life that we would just as soon not have to go through or deal with. It could be small minor things such as a flat tire, an expensive electric bill, or possibly a small stomach ache. There are also major ones in life such as job loss, divorce or death of a loved one.

There are many flavors in between all of the daily living we do.

We tend to focus on these bad things which happen to and while that may seem like enough, the television and newspaper stir up our lives with everything else. The good in life never seems to have a chance to surface and breath. The negative will always try to consume us until it feels like complete darkness.

The message remains that it is going to be okay.

When you fail at something, it is going to be okay. When you have issues going on in life, things will change. From failure or pain will be a new thing learned about yourself. There will be something you will learn from the situation, large or small.

That something can propel you to something greater.

If a person gets terribly ill and you have to face their death, remember the cycle of life will never end. Take from the experience what you learn or experience from having known the person. Turn that experience into a memorable and loving one.

Life occurs in cycles of good, bad and sometimes the ugly.

What we can do is not let the negative dictate our life. You are in control of your own attitude towards all the good, bad or ugly. The greatness comes from not allowing negative things in life to keep you down. Greatness comes from living life and knowing everything is going to be okay.

Stay inspired my friends!

Keep Learning

"Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new." - Og Mandino

Our lives are filled with new experiences and new challenges nearly every day. As we grow older, we sometimes forget that each of those experiences is a chance to learn something. We become ingrained with the idea that with age we are automatically instilled with wisdom.

Yet wisdom is a collection of learned experiences and as we grow older, those experiences can teach us new things. Those experiences can also correct or enlighten what we thought we already knew.

So never stop learning, never stop growing; find something new each day.

And stay inspired my friends!

Vivere Amor Accipio

You live you learn
You love you learn
You cry you learn
You lose you learn
You bleed you learn
You scream you learn

You Learn - Alanis Morissette

There is a gentleman I met while in Phoenix not long ago. An older guy in his middle eighties but the abilities of a much younger man. When I first came upon him, he was moving items for donation in the 110 degree heat of Arizona. A small amount of sweat on his forehead, but moving better then most half his age.

He introduced himself as Garth and in anticipation of my next question, "yes, Garth Brokks was named after me....way after me." So right away I knew I would like this man, his humor and goodness. As we worked, we talked and I learned.

Garth lived for many years, working and struggling just like the rest of us. A job here, a new job there with job loss and started a new business that changed everything for him. But in all of that living, he had a wonderful wife that worked side-by-side with him. So much so that Mrs. Garth started a stained glass shop in the front of Mr. Garth's welding shop. She did so only because the welding business wasn't keeping her busy enough in the front office.

Their daughter now runs that shop and the welding business is no longer. It is sad to report that Mrs. Garth passed away some time ago. But there is still a sparkle in Garth's eyes when he speaks of Mrs. Garth. The love in his voice when he talks of her, and their lives together speaks volumes of a wonderful life.

In the various conversations I had with Garth, it was what was learned in life, the adjustment to it and the picking up of oneself that resonated so much. Garth kept living, loving and learning with each step along the way. When something knocked him down, he got up, dusted off the pain, and began moving again.

All along the way he not only helped himself to keep moving, but he helped others along his way. He continues to do so today, he is a great example is that the more you give to others, your life will be rewarded ten times that amount. He taught me life lessons during our conversations. He reminded me that life is a grand thing.

Vivere (live), amor (love), and accipio (learn) through out your grand life.