My good friend Janie Thompson says that as a nation “we’ve let old man Satan just take control of Hollywood”. To a large degree I think she’s right. As one of my accounting professor’s said, “PG-13 means about 13% of those movies are worth watching”. I agree whole heartedly with that, too! For the most part I think movies are painstakingly calculated and engineered to get you to watch them and gradually descend into a mire of filth, darkness, and slime.
Sounds like I’m a big movie watcher! Since my mission I think I’ve set foot in a movie theater 4 times.
However, The Blindside is actually worth watching. I was surprised. It depicts a happily married couple that talks about things and can come to agreements. They decide to let a rough young man stay at their expensive home out of love.
My Grandma lives in Hurricane, UT and we gathered there to spend time and give thanks together.
Here’s a pic of us posing in the desert with our guns. Shooting has always been a part of my life since I was small.
It was so fun to go shooting with my brothers and my dad. Ammon is heading back to Afghanistan Monday so this is especially cool to see him. He’s the super ripped one.
This is a manual clay pigeon thrower. We had a contest to see who could throw the farthest.
We don’t just shoot guns, though. We Parker Boys can stuff a turkey!
We can eat one, too. That’s grandma & gramps to the left. Mom to the right.
And shop the day after. I got a sweet sweater. That’s a free mini pumpkin pie in my paw.
Ask yourself the secret of your success. Listen to your answer, and practice it. Richard Bach
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What if we actually did this? I think we all want personal revelation. I think we all want an experience where we meet some celestial being that knows every detail of our life, loves us, and gives us the solution to our most pressing present problem. However, how many answers are within us already?
A friend I served with as a missionary is an owner of a real estate investing firm and played hoops for BYU in his youth. He said that about every three months he gets up around 4 am, makes sure he is awake, sits at a desk all by himself and closes his eyes and rests his head on the desk, waiting for inspiration. When it comes he quickly writes it down on the blank sheet of paper in front of him and then puts his head down again.
The information that comes is not always pleasing to him, but he knows when pure knowledge has been given and follows it anyway. This is not something many people do. Then again, many people do not love as completely, listen as well, give as much, and accomplish as much as this man. It’s about finding your own sacred grove, though, this is an example specific to one person.
A fellow entrepreneur wrote some good stuff, I’d like to quote it. from here
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You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. -Jim Rohn
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Holy Shnikies! That’s a big deal. That’s a big big deal! Who are those people for you?? Ahhh! Makes me want to spend a lot more time with my mentors and choose my friends even more carefully. Sure, serve the people who need you, but do NOT let them influence your life decisions and attitudes.
This may be crass, but oh so true! >>
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[ignore] “good or bad opinion of others“. When you’re 21 people are going to tell you you should “build your resume”, “get a full year of experience with a big company” or (my personal favorite) “be a doctor or a lawyer” (apologies to all my doctor and lawyer friends…God bless you and the world most definitely needs you!). These people (often your family and closest friends) have good intentions. They want what they think is best for you. But while their advice often comes from a pure place it also is very often misguided.
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I like stuff like that. We really should all hope and pray for the absolute success of others, even if they achieve more, differently than us!
What? Bro? No way. In n out, dude. Dude, in n out. Its soooo good.
Ever heard this conversation? Exactly. Probably not, because you’re not from Utah. If you are, you’ve heard this a thousand times. Why do people love IN-N-OUT so much? Maybe they visited California once and they don’t have it in Utah so its cool. It tastes ok, true. I’m not saying IN-N-OUT is McDonald’s bad, just not .5 mile long drive through-lines good.
Today was the grand opening of our soon-to-be beloved:
We visited Salt Lake City Community College recently and they decided to buy some planners and be a new customer. I was headed up there today to deliver a display but turned around about half way because the buyer had already left. I pulled off the freeway at the point of the mountain and headed back to Lehi on a frontage road. It was nice. The drive was really pretty and it was a way I had never gone before. With some better planning I could have avoided the 40 miles there and back, oh well.
I found myself on the road to my mission president’s home and decided to visit. He wasn’t there but his wife was. What a neat person. She’s so upbeat and hard working. She was cutting grass with their ride-on mower and looked like she was having a great time. I even got a phone number of some kinda cute BYU girl out of it, too. Turns out a wasted trip wasn’t so wasted.
Ammon and I the day he flew in. He had been on airplanes and in airports for about 52 hours. He got to see Dubai and lots of other places on the way back. Good to see him, he’s huge now, too! The guy can bench like 320 and squat something like 450lbs. At least one of us is using that superb genetic material.
I was spending time with my brother and dad last Thurs and we decided to buy a crazy little remote control helicopter. It flies great so we thought we’d try it outside. It got stuck in a tree so here I am getting it out using a ladder in the bed of our truck. mmmhmmm. Worked.
I never thought all that much about who I would marry until about half way through my mission. I figured she’d be a super woman of sorts, but never really cared much about the specifics. For some reason a couple years ago I fathomed up some requirements. Here they were:
-returned missionary
-plays piano
-sings
-sews
-cooks
-speaks a foreign language
-artist
Is there anything wrong with that list? Naw, not really. If that’s what was important, that’s cool. There are super people out there that have all those skills.
Skills? I want someone with certain skills? Hmm, I guess that’s mostly what I was looking for. I was missing out on a lot. It’s very possible for someone to possess all those skills and still be unhappy. Let’s take a look at some of the things that might make it on my new list:
-Integrity
-Loves people
-Confident
-Super smart
-Funny
-Talks about ideas
-Outgoing
-Healthy, stays in shape
Life taught me recently that personal attributes are way more important than just skills. A girl could lack all the skills mentioned above and still be A+ material in my book if she’s up to speed on the weightier matters.
I’m impressed by certain skills, yes, but they’re hollow if the person is self-serving. I’m not tied down right now and its fun to get to know people who’s focus is outside themselves. There are lots here at BYU. It’s a neat place because of those people.
What does that mean to you? To me it’s being humble in the light and true in the dark. “Tell me what a man is thinking when he doesn’t have to been thinking and I’ll tell you what kind of man he is”. When I was a missionary in Oxnard California I had that quote posted on the back of my bedroom door. I could only see it when the door was closed in the mornings and I was alone studying the gospel and Spanish. Again:
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Tell me what a man is thinking when he doesn’t have to been thinking and I’ll tell you what kind of man he is.
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Jon Huntsman said last Tuesday: “be a person of integrity; it is totally up to you and no one else how your life evolves”. He went on to say that many of us look to others as a place to shift responsibility for our future.
Who are you when the lights go out? Can you be trusted? Are you hiding anything important from people close to you or denying a fact about your own self? Do you make decisions promptly and stick to them? I would say that integrity is more important than performance. I would hire someone who always told the truth over someone who always left you guessing. I’d rather surround myself with people from whom I never had to worry about whether I was hearing the whole story.
It is always the right time to tell the truth. It is always the right time to confess our faults, to clearly communicate with others.
I attest this is true. People ask me about my attitude and wonder how on earth I can be so positive. It’s Christmas Day! That’s why! Didn’t you hear? Today can be the best dang day of your life if you let it! Just ask, seek, and knock for the positive and I guarantee it will flood to you! If you look for reasons to form a long and painful story about how life punished you today, then I also guarantee you will succeed in that endeavor.
Man moves in the direction of his current, most dominating thought. Why let the devil tell you it has to be sad or negative?! Take charge and think positively, call me and wish me a Merry Christmas when you do.
Hey ya’ll, I’m making this website for my brother-in-law’s company. It’s pretty rough still, but I’d like some more eyes to look at it. What do you think?
My buddy Thanh and I got up and went to the gym this morning. What a perfect way to start the day.
John Hunstman gave a devotional address to BYU’s student body today. I love his life story, and read parts of it once in a book called “Winners Never Cheat”. He grew up as a farm boy in Idaho and eventually became and international business icon. I love how he got financing for the first business he started.
He says at first the banker just blew him off and wouldn’t give any money. He had many failed attempts at getting a bank loan, but finally Jon just wore him down and was given a meager pittance. He mentioned that the principle to learn from this is that you have to live your own dream and not let other people decide what life you’ll live. I love it. That’s probably what most people don’t get about entrepreneurship.
A lot of people still think that if you’re an entrepreneur you’re made of magic and play all day while getting paid large sums of money. They don’t know the countless sleepless nights, doubts, vision, polite head nodding when people ask you if you’ve ever thought of this or that or give you innumerable pieces of worthless advice that come along with blazing your own trail in the world.
If having self confidence and strong sense of identity and work ethic is magic, and if doing something you love is play, then maybe we are made of magic and get to play all day.
Too many people look to others to decide their fate for them. They take a test to tell them their passions, ask an advisor what they should major in, and take a fearful failure’s word for it when it comes to doing something creative or hard. “Oh, you can’t start a business unless you’re a super genius who is already a millionaire” or “no, that idea won’t work, besides, someone has probably already done it”. Put a cork in it, fearful failures. Don’t try to put a shade over someone’s sunlight. Just because you have long, sinking regrets in life doesn’t mean you have to belittle those that try harder than you did.
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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Since my mission I think I’ve set foot in a movie theater 4 times.
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