Friday, November 23, 2012

Turning the ridiculous into something great


Last week I had the privilege of attending the 2012 Waterloo Region Entrepreneur Hall of Fame gala. It was great networking event plus I was encouraged and inspired from inductees who have built such great and sustainable businesses over the years. Here are some of the comments highlighted from their acceptance speeches.

Jim Estill from Canrock Ventures provides wise words and his mantra... "Fail often, fail fast, fail cheap."

Gerry Remers is President and Chief Operating Officer of Christie ... "Everything is in constant flux and we need to adapt." Gerry also encourages us in his touching acceptance speech to take risk and seize the day. Be bold ! You can read more in this Communitech blog post about his battle with cancer, clarity and future of Christie.

Below is a link to a number of video vignettes from all the Hall of Fame inductees. They discuss how they believed in themselves, did the ridiculous and were able to achieve incredible things. We should all be inspired.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Stay in the Game

Photo courtesy of  Elijah Johnston

It's easy is to have a good attitude and pursue our dreams as long is everything is going are way. But what about the difficult times when things are not going our way. It's easy to lose our passion and our dreams when we are hurt.

Many sit on the sidelines of life because we are nursing our wounds. But you have to shake off the self pity and the discouragement and get back into the game. Sometimes you have to play in pain.

I heard a story this week about a football player that had a broken hand and bruised ribs. He was a defensive linemen. The trainers wanted him to sit out but he wasn't about to sit out. He had a big cast on his arm and wearing a special vest to protect his ribs. He was all bandaged up and looked like a mummy. A reporter asked him how he was feeling. He said, "It's a little painful, but I'd rather be in the game in pain than sitting on the sidelines watching."

You can't let injury, that hurt, that failure, cause you to sit on the sidelines. Do like this player, bandage up what's hurting and didn't work out and get back into the game.

Life is hard and we can get so caught up in ourselves and live in self pity. One of the best things you can do when you are hurting is get your mind off your problems and go help someone else who is in need.

Personally, I have gone through enough personal and professional life issues to just sit on the sidelines nursing  my wounds. But I chose to bandage my wounds, continue to play and stay in the game!

Look forward to hearing from you. Share with us your story and what you are doing to stay in the game.