A man and his dog returned home from a walk through the woods covered in cockleburs. The tiny burs had clung to the man’s pants and the dog’s fur, and it took a long while to disentangle them all. The man, Swiss engineer George de Mestral, was impressed by how easily the burs had latched…

Read More

How do you respond when a great opportunity presents itself? I’m a firm believer in finding and embracing new opportunities. But I don’t chase an opportunity without evaluating it according to some specific criteria. How do I evaluate an opportunity? I run it through a series of tests. Only after it passes them do I…

Read More

Last month we focused on Gifts of Wisdom.  I wanted to blog about one of the wisest things John Maxwell has taught me.  “Invest in yourself more than others.”  Two things I have learned from John’s insight.  First, is one of capacity.  Spend more time, energy and resources developing yourself.  If you want to have…

Read More

One mark of high-achievers is goal-setting. Most of the successful people I know make it a priority to place targets at various points in the coming year and shoot for them. You might already be working on your list of goals now. It could be increasing your income, launching a product, or starting a new…

Read More

Crowns and scepters, thrones and palaces, rulership and riches—these are the words we associate with medieval royalty. Celebrity and ceremony, elegance and style, popularity and paparazzi—these are the words we associate with modern royalty. Tattered cloth and shepherd’s staffs, a stable and manger, humility and servanthood—these are words we associate with the newborn king celebrated…

Read More

With Christmas right around the corner, it’s easy to let the busyness of the season take our focus off of what’s really important. For me, one of my favorite parts of celebrating God’s gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the opportunity to give generously to the people I love. And I make it my…

Read More

We train our brain by the things we do. For example, experienced taxicab drivers have an abnormally large hippocampus, the portion of the brain responsible for navigation. Veteran violinists or keyboardists have an expanded motor cortex, the area of the brain associated with fine motor skills. Our brain is literally shaped by what we repeatedly…

Read More

Happy New Year! I hope your year has begun well. What is your favorite time of year? Is it Christmas? Is it when you celebrate your birthday? Or when flowers bloom in the spring? Or your summer vacation? Or when the children go back to school? Or the beginning of football season? Or when the…

Read More

Last week I got a big surprise at the Christmas lunch given for the John Maxwell Company. John Hull, the CEO of EQUIP, and Mark Cole, the CEO of the John Maxwell Company, asked me to tell the story of what got me started on a lifetime of personal growth. It’s a story I’ve told…

Read More

How would you describe your life? Are you achieving what you desire? Are you accomplishing the things that are important to you? Do you consider yourself a success? How do your prospects look for the future? If I could come to your house and spend just one day with you, I would be able to…

Read More