Life is DIY

Hey Team, all right, so here it is. We’re at the end of the month, and Karen and I and the boys we’re on vacation. We have decided to go to Southern California to try to catch a little bit of sun. So, I thought I’d give you a little picture for you to see. And give you a quote from Napoleon Hill, I don’t know if anybody here has ever read anything by him.

“It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.” Takes half your life before you realize it’s a do it yourself. That’s kind of true. Now, some of you, I’m hoping that maybe you’re young enough that I’m catching you before half your life to realize that you can’t rely on other people to do your life for you.

I spend time as a father working on my boys to build them up to realizing that if they want something in life, they’re going to have to do it themselves. They can’t rely on somebody else, they need to gain knowledge and information. They need to put into action the steps and the things that are going to make them accomplish the goals that they have before them. But I give them chores. I don’t pick up after them. I try to work on their mother to not pick up after them.

And as their age continues to increase and their maturity and their understanding increase, they pick up more and more of their own responsibilities. From making their bed to cleaning the house to folding their own laundry. To soon making their own dinners, packing their own lunches, to all those different things. Doing their own laundry and folding their own laundry will be in their near future. Because I want to have mature, stable life-contributing society-contributing men and women around us.

As an employer and a manager, as a leader, I want the same thing. And we need to educate and lead and grow our team to having a better understanding of everything about what we do and how we do it and why we do it. And that leads to a more mature and understanding. But life is a do-it-yourself. You can’t rely on somebody else to make your lunch for you the rest of your life. And if you happen to have somebody in your life, a good wife or you’re still at home with your mom and she’s still making your lunch, one that might be feeling like a blessing, and I get that.

I make dinners for my family all the time. I love cooking for my family and for my team and for my friends and stuff like that. But there are times that I also like somebody to work for themselves or I don’t feel like doing it and so we go out to eat. No, I’m kidding. I love it when my son JT sits down in the kitchen and he starts making a meal and he’s learning how to make more and more different things and it will continue to grow. And I’m hoping his appetite also grows beyond just the limited number of things that he currently eats. But that’s another story.

So, on this beautiful day, Workshop Wednesday, Napoleon Hill said, “It’s a do-it-yourself project.” So, that’s what life is. Go out there and do it. Do it with excellence, do it with value. Do it with principle. But do it and be successful as you do it. God bless you on this wonderful Wednesday and I’ll see you guys next week when I get back from Southern California. And hopefully I won’t have a sunburn but maybe a little bit of a tan. All right, I’ll see you. Bye.