The Starfish

"If you care enough, you make a difference." -Loretta Swit

There is a story of a small boy who was walking along the beach at low tide. There were countless thousands of small sea creatures, having been washed up; stranded and doomed to perish. A man watched as the boy picked up individual creatures and took them back into the water.

"I can see you're being very kind," said the watching man, "But there must be a million of them; it can't possibly make any difference."

Returning from the water's edge, the boy said, "It will for that one."

What difference have you made in someone's life today? Each and every connection or encounter with another person gives you that chance.

Stay inspired my friends.

Beyond Your Iceberg

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” ~Helen Keller

On April 10, 1912, the largest ship ever at that time, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City. It was a magical and wonderous ship that was last seen by those on shore when it departed its final European stop of Cobh, Ireland. This sleek ship was to achieve a record setting six-day trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

On the night of April 14, 1912 at 11:40pm, the ship struck a massive iceberg. In only three hours the entire ship had sunk. What was thought to be the safest ship, the RMS Titanic became completely submerged about 2:45 AM on the morning of April 15, 1912.

Of the 2,228 people on board; 1,343 were passengers and 885 were crew members. There were only enough lifeboats on board the ship to hold 1,178 people. A number of the lifeboats were lowered at less than full capacity, resulting in a significantly smaller survivor number.

The exact number of survivors tends to vary, however the most common reported number is 705. Which means 1517 people lost their life on the Titanic. And with this tragedy, lives upon lives were changed forever. All because of a single iceberg floating on the currents of a vast ocean.

Each of us go through life, constantly on the lookout for any icebergs that may cross our paths. Watching for an obstacle or event that could impact our lives is a part of being prepared. Yet somehow, every once in a while, the tip of the iceberg slips by our cautious view.

And then it happens to us; job loss, relationship dissolves, an accident or sickness and worse yet death of a loved one. The level of unexpected circumstances vary like the size of an iceberg that lay beneath the water line. All events that may have been unavoidable even if you did see it coming. Your 'unsinkable' life has just been put into crisis.

So you can't avoid some of the unavoidable, but you can prepare yourself. In the case of the Titantic, there were only enough lifeboats to accomodate half of the ships people on board. But your ship is the safest and unsinkable. Being prepared for what life will send your way is the best thing you can do.

Job loss; keeping yourself connected to a network of people and up-to-date in skills will give you a head start on the next job. The competition for that new job will be intense, but you will have the tools to recover as opposed to sinking.

Relationship dissolves; keeping yourself connected to a network of people and maintaining a sense of self worth. The emotional pain will still occur, but you will have the tools to recover as opposed to sinking.

Accident or sickness; keeping yourself connected to a network of people and healthy ahead of time. The recovery will still take place but being healthy to start improves your overall ability to rebound.

Death of a loved one; the hardest one to give advice on because it varies widely on its effect as well as cutting so deep on a personal level. Yet keeping yourself connected to a network of people and having a strong faith will give you greater strength then you might imagine.

Each 'iceberg' we encounter is overcome by having this network of people. The ones who will drop what they are doing and be there for you. Each 'iceberg' event has in some way a corresponding spoke of life that will get us through the moment. With all of these spokes well-balanced, we will sail much easier past the iceberg and onto recovery.

The 'icebergs' are out there floating on the currents of life and when we encounter them we can be prepared to handle them. We can be one of the survivors that are 'unsinkable'. We will sail further in life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Full Service Attitude

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." ~Lewis Carol

"Once upon a time" is how the story would start or you might hear "...back in my day." As we grow older, we tend to allow these phrases to enter our story telling. It allows us to relate some memorable event or life that once was.

So my story starts with, "Once upon a time" filling stations (for automobile fuel) provided full service at the gas pump. I can remember back in the 1960s watching the "gas jockey" pumping the fuel, performing a quick check of the engine oil and washing the windshield.

And very much like the type of service in various other jobs today, the level of service varied. Not every service station attendant did a very good job in getting the windshield clean. Some would wipe the squeegie brush across the glass simply because they were required. Others, the good ones, would get each bug speck and streak cleared completely.

You would find a favorite gas station and know when your favorite attendant would be working. It is very much like people do today with restaurants and retail stores. All of this was pretty common until the 1970s where full service was the norm, and self service was rare.

Things changed after that with rising fuel prices, inflation and the need for business owners to cut costs. You can still, in fact are required to, use full service in New Jersey and Oregon. State law requires gas stations to offer only full service and mini service. These two states banned self service citing safety and jobs as reasons to keep the ban. All good reasons but of course it comes down to money; self service saves the business owner costly labor, full service saves employee jobs.

But I am not here to discuss those two points. What I am discussing is the level of customer service given either with full service or even in self service. Companies such as RaceTrac and QuikTrip in my area, try to place "service" back into the experience. With friendly counter attendants, clean and well stocked stores, quick service and always a "how are you doing" and a "thank you" given.

This compares to those other many gas stations you have exprienced. The thick plexi-glass surrounding the attendant, shelves stacked awkwardly and with expired products, dirty floors, torn and broken squeegie brushes; so dirty you would not want to clean your windshield with it.

I know that I am picking a little bit, but it is true. Gas stations are no different then any other retail business. You give your business to the business that earns it. If you are a business owner, service matters.

If you take "self-service" to the extreme, which means in many cases "no-service", people will take their business elsewhere.

But I believe the new pardigm for "self-service" is to create ways of incorporating "full-service" back into the experience. It does not have to cost a whole lot but it can mean a big difference in more customers, happier customers and growth in your business.

Now, what could that type of attitude have in your own life by adopting a more "full-service" attitude instead of having a "self-service" one?

Stay inspired my friends.

And then you found twenty dollars?

"Giving opens the way for receiving." -Florence Scovel Shinn

There are so many things I could go on about these two folks, Annie and Dave Spell. They are two people who have made a commitment to help others beyond the simple comfort of retirement. They are two people committed to seeing the lives of other people improved. They simply inspire my wife and I to do better things in our lives.

A few months back, they moved to Curitiba, Brazil to make a change in other people's lives. You can read all sorts of things about their adventure on Dave's blog Random Thoughts. I could write all sorts stories about the great things and impact they are having on people in the southern hemisphere.

But then after everything you would probably reply, "...and then you found twenty dollars?" That phrase is something people will sarcastically say after another person has gone "on and on" about some topic.

So I am not going to go "on and on" and get to the point. They could use mine, your and our support by taking that twenty dollars and gifting it to them. Brazil is most certainly not a cheap place to live and these great folks have been been making it by. But again, the rent payment, utility and more importantly, food costs have to be paid. Your twenty dollars along with my twenty dollars and everyone else's twenty dollars can make a huge difference in their efforts.

So my appeal today is to log in and donate a twenty-dollar bill.

DONATE - your tax deductible twenty dollar bill

I know there are many other things you may want to use that twenty dollars for. But giving is good for your heart and it opens doors for more in your life. This is a giving opportunity that is important to both my wife and I. So we ask for your support of Annie and Dave Spell. Make it a gift that gifts so many others.

Thank you and stay inspired my friends.