This week, I have once again been reminded about how giving trumps receiving.  I am in Colorado Springs, CO and camping near Garden of the Gods. The reason I am here enjoying this beautiful place is because of the generousity of new friends MJ and Mike Coon. About a year ago, I was speaking at CUNA CFO conference in Phoenix. As participants were walking in the room, I happened to notice Colorado Springs on the name tag of one of the attendees (MJ). After my keynote speech, MJ and I were talking and I told her I would be speaking for US Paralympians in training about a month later. She suggested that I might want to stay for the weekend after my speech (which I did with my 11 year old son). We had a blast and had a RICH experience with them attending their church and going out for a fish taco after.  Mike and my son told jokes all through dinner. MJ and I watched in astonishment as each joke reminded one of them of another.  A friendship was born.

MJ and I continued our relationship by emailing back and forth.  I spoke at Credit Union Executive Soceity conference in Colorado in March and saw MJ and Mike again. They became more and more convincing that spending time here would be incredible. So here we are, camping in their camper enjoying the wild life, hikes around Pike’s Peak, morning bike rides in Garden of the Gods, visiting the Olympic training center and more. It’s been a blast. They know how to give and even rejected my attempts to buy MJ a day spa gift certificate and Mike a brand new motorcycle fish taco and a joke book. Instead they insisted that IF we wanted to do something, we make a donation to a charity that they suppport…anonomously. I came here for vacation and am leaving with a valuable lesson about hospitality, generosity, and giving.

Guest Post by Doug Van Dyke, President of DVD Consulting Incorporated.

When I think of Living Rich I think of thinking positively. If one reads or listens to mainstream media these days, it would be easy to become convinced that the world is fast coming to an end. I believe otherwise. We live in a fascinating time, in a country that is rich with possibilities. Many people however have misplaced their sense of positivism.

Recently I had a client engage my services to facilitate a strategic planning session for their leadership team. They forwarded a list of their most pressing issues. Also, they voiced their concerns about changes going on in their industry. Their list of issues contained eight nicely arranged items, each followed by a brief supporting comment. As I scanned the list I read six items that my client had no control over. Items such as, the state of the economy and high fuel prices peppered their list. Contrarily, the list contained only two “real” items – things they could control. In addition, what surfaced during the planning session were a host of opportunities that were being overlooked because their team members were so stressed-out about a bunch of things they could not control.

Perhaps we could all use a little review of five items that I believe are particularly important. If this gets a little preachy, I apologize unreservedly. Indulge me, please.

1. Honestly assess the business environment. When Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, was at the peak of his career a journalist asked a GE executive what made Jack so good. The executive stated: “Jack possess the ability to see things the way they are.” In other words, Jack Welch was not swayed by pie in the sky projections, nor was his enthusiasm dampened by negative media comments or uncontrollable events. Seek to emulate Jack and see things the way they are, not the way they are painted by the media or pundits.
2. Stop worrying about things you cannot control. Gas prices are kinda high. Segments of the economy are hurting. Segments of the economy are flourishing. International tension seemingly abounds. Can you control any of these things? If you can, call me. Now.
3. Focus on what we can control. We can control our work ethic, our ethics in general, effective communication with our team, and hopefully our behaviors. This is where we need to focus our energies: squarely on items that will impact productivity, efficiency, and morale.
4. Look for opportunities. In Mandarin, the literal translation of the word crisis is “danger/opportunity.” From a standpoint of thoroughness do we need to examine the danger related to situations and the business environment? Of course we do, it is good strategic planning to ponder as many angles as possible. What I frequent observe though, is many leaders fail to think creatively about what opportunities may be lurking. In addition, by focusing on danger and hazards that are out of our control, business people are losing their sense of optimism.
5. Practice pragmatic optimism. A note to all of my fellow entrepreneurs: it is our great sense of optimism that allows us to flourish. Let’s face it. If you are not a bold faced optimist you would have never started your own business. What I mean by pragmatic optimism (and this is not from Webster’s) is this:

Pragmatic Optimism: Maintaining a positive state of mind and acknowledging that the world offers an amazing amount of opportunities, while embracing the relevant realities of your business situation.

So what happened to the leadership team that engaged in the strategic planning session referenced in the beginning of this narrative? Well, after a little soul-searching, they jettisoned their head trash surrounding events and situations which they could not control. In addition, they created an action plan – a segment of which is shown below:

• Consistently embrace pragmatic optimism.

• Help our team members fully understand that all is not gloom and doom.

• Be coaches and educators in order to provide visionary leadership that showcases individual strengths and team opportunities.

• Acknowledge that hurdles to our success will arise.

• Acknowledge that we will ultimately succeed – we always do.

In closing, I quote Henry Ford, who many years ago said: “One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his greatest surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t.”

Be well, and think positively!

Doug Van Dyke is an executive coach, speaker, training expert, and pragmatic optimist. His forthcoming book is entitled Leadership Simplified. To have Doug facilitate or speak at your next event call 941-776-1121 or visit www.dvdconsulting.com.

I thought I had life pretty good in Mayberry but Fort Collins, CO rocks. This morning at 6:30, I took off on a bike around Horse Tooth lake. It was goregous… cool air, clear skies, and no crowds. If fact this state is one of the healthiest places I have ever been. Yesterday drive from Boulder to Rocky Mountain National Park, I must have seen more than 50 bikers. Then I wake up this morning to read the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper and there’s the great article entitle Bike Library Booms. It seems Fort Collins loans bikes to ANYONE who has a library card. How RICH is that? In Denver, during the Democratic National Convention, bikes kiosks will allow visitors to rent bikes for the week.  I wonder if Barrack will be sporting a mountain bike around town? How about John McCain cruising on a beach cruiser. The only thing more humorous would be seeing McKain and Barrack riding a tandem bike. Now that would REALLY make Colorado Cool.

…well not really. My birthday was June 6th (D-Day if you are a history buff). However, I have several friends who have a birthday today. One friend is president of his own company and makes my wife and me laugh about as much as anyone we know. We were at his house to bring in Y2K admist rations and supplies he is still using. He was a hoot that night interviewing a group of friends ala Jay Leno until 4:00 am (we were waiting for something BIG to happen - we were all disappointed!)

Another friend whose birthday is today now who works for Starbucks. He was a high school buddy at Spruce Creek High School who got me into a lot of trouble. He made me do all kinds of things I NEVER would have done without his influence (like walking our biology cadavers to our Math Analysis class, trying to sneak into Disney World on Valentines weekend and Grad night - we were caught both times and really got into a heep of trouble, and mooning an activities bus returning to school after a field trip. Our girlfriends were on that bus along with my very loud and obnoxious English teacher). He too created a lot of humor but most it wasn’t very funny then and is less funny now.

My best friend’s birthday is today too. He LOVED to laugh and would almost gag he would laugh so hard (particularly He was a great audience but also a funnyWe had way too short of a life as he died ten years ago this year of melanoma. I call his parents and widow every year on this date. I try to tell them a story of something he did that made me laugh. Fortunately there were a lot of those times.

Some people don’t like having birthdays. They think getting older is a bad thing. I say laugh and remember something fun from your childhood or make someone else laugh on your birthday. What do you have to lose?

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund and co-founder of the Jeffrey Roth Cycling Foundation. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.

It’s summer camp time. When I was young, I LOVED going to summer camp. I went to church camp, scout camp, sports camp, day camp, night camp, family camp, Kum Ba Ya Camp, 1001 noises you can make with your body camp, and drop off your kids and speed away like Indy Driver Danica Patrick camp and that’s a short list.  As you may have already assessed, my parents loved for me to be at camp.I loved to go to camp and didn’t really need an excuse to go, if the summer experience had camp in its name, I was ALL over it.  One summer I even went to prison road cleanup camp - you know, orange uniformed chain gang kids on the highway picking up trash. Now that was a camp!

For many kids, camp is a rite of passage that includes a lot of firsts - first time away from mom and dad, first time eating delicious institutionalized food cooked to non-recognition, first case of posion ivy or oak in every  place on your body, first time really having to take orders from an older “sibling” like leader (usually with a name like Spike, Skippy, Wally, Scout, Summer, or Cookie). This highly trained camp counselor was someone who you looked up to like a super hero OR hated like Batman’s nemisis. For me, summer camp was the first (and thankfully only) time I ever had a swirly. If you don’t know what that is, don’t ask. Trust me, you are better off not knowing.  Even getting a swirly didn’t detour me from working with young people and at camps as a young adult. I taught water skiing at a camp in Winter Haven, Florida, after my freshman year at Florida Southern College. Later, I worked at Camp Rockmont in Black Mountain, NC, where I worked running the ski program with an 18-year-old surfer boy from Florida named Biff. It will always be a special place for me as it is at that place I fell in love with my wife (who worked at Camp Merimac across town teaching sychronized swimming). It’s also the place several years later where I, on bended knee, proposed to her on the camp ski boat with James Taylor playing on the boat stereo 8-track on a crisp October day, back-dropped by the autumn colors of fall. Yes, I had BIG hair then and was likely wearing short Quick Silver ski trunks that geeks cool skiers of the day wore. (I ONLY mention all this because TODAY is our wedding anniversary).

Summer camp is the ultimate summer job for the adventurer and the worst punishment for a spoiled rich kid. Most camp counselors are paid like they were making Nikes in Southeast Asia (which looks like a fortune to a CIT who pays to come to camp and cleans latrines all summer - think Meatballs, the movie). I wasn’t there for money, no, camp was much more RICH than that. It was about making memories for young boys and helping teens develop character taught throught analogy of skiing (that’s why I told my parents I was going anyway). Actually, it was all about being out on a beautiful lake all summer, skiing when the kids got tired, and grilling steaks on an open fire as the sun set. Really. Oh yeah, and courting my wife.

Well the camp thing has come full circle. My son is at Camp Buck Toms Boy Scout camp and we just received a letter from him today (the day I am going to pick him up). His letter was sweet and filled with descriptions of the fun things he was doing, how much me missed his little sisters and how he couldn’t wait to get home to mow the yard and wash and wax the car.  What he failed to mention in his letter is that he threw up while at camp. So being the rational parents we are, we immediately assume he either caught some summer camp disease rapidly killing off tweenagers and teens OR he ate entirely too much ”Splendid Table” cuisine at the camp-a-teria (the throw up story was of course reported by a mole in camp in a letter written to his mother and yesterday revealed to me). I now know what my parents meant when they said, “Wherever you go, we’ll be there, always watching.”  While my son omitted the “throw up” story in his letter, my friend Laurie emailed me yesterday and said she had received a letter from her son who reported that my son had thrown up.  So I emailed my friend Laurie back in fun “guessing” what her son had written. This is what I sent her:

Laurie, I can just picture Junior’s letter to you:

Dear Mom:

I am having fun at camp. I have gone swiming everyday. I am working on my three scout badges. Camp is swell. Russell threw up today.

Love,

Junior

Below is the email response from my friend Laurie:

Yes, camp is good for kids. I’m headed there for an overnight and to drive him home. I have been itching to go back all week now. It’s been awhile since I have had poison ivy. Perhaps at the campfire tonight we’ll be entertained by an arm pit orchestra who will play until someone er…throws up.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund and co-founder of the Jeffrey Roth Cycling Foundation. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.

It seems like there is a day to celebrate darn near everything. I must confess, until today, I had never celebrated Recess at Work Day (we are breaking out the toys, baby!). For the rest of my life, I now have the third Thursday in June to highlight on my calendar, thanks to my professional speaker colleague, Rich DiGirolamo. I don’t know Rich well but I usually see him at my National Speakers Association annual meeting wearing a funny hat. I’m gonna guess he celebrates National Recess at Work Day more than most. Like Rich, I like to play. Sometimes too much. I like to think that I play so hard at my career, others can’t tell whether I am working or playing. How about you?

BTW, it also happens to be National Sauntering Day today. I am not sure who comes up with these days but here is a sample of celebrations I found on Zany Holidays, website dedicated to celebrating totally outrageous holidays:

National Splurge Day , Eat Your Vegetables Day , Bloomsday, National Turkey Lovers Month , Superman Week , Mourn for Your Money Day, National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day, National Yo-Yo Day , National Candy Month, National Iced Tea Month, Google Balloon Day - Anniversary of Public Hot-Air Balloons, “Do It Yourself” Marketing Month, Yell “FUDGE” at the Cobras in North America Day (my personal favorite)

I kind of like Recess at Work Day. While I’d don’t suggest daily foursquare with the foreman, kickball with the customers, or red rover, red rover, with the sales reps, I do think your job should bring you about as much fun as recess. Part of living rich is finding work that fuels you. People should question whether you are working or playing if you have RICH job. If you don’t, go to the principals office and get a hall pass.

That’s all for now, as soon I’ll need to be sauntering out to supper to Splurge on Vegetables, Turkey, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, and Candy. all washed down with some cold Iced Tea.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund and co-founder of the Jeffrey Roth Cycling Foundation. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.

I was at a meeting tonight at my church where we discussed starting a new Saturday night service. As we discussed some possibilities, one of the things that came out was designing a service around needs that weren’t be met in other more traditional churches or services. One idea explored was to survery a few people, try some different things, and invite people at some level to give input on creating an experience that would keep them coming back. In that spirit, I’d like to hear from some of you including ”lurkers” who read but NEVER comment on this blog. You know who you are and it’s time to come out of the closet! If you don’t think you are a lurker ask yourself if you have been to the site more than once but you haven’t commented. If that is you, now is your time. What would you like me write about in this blog that fits under the theme of living rich? Would you like personal stories of people living rich in the ways that matter? How about some video clips? or more pictures? A little humor thrown in for good measure? Exerts from my upcoming book? What? Tell me, tell me!

Two more comments: 

 2) I j heard about a new social networking site for charities and charitably inclined individuals. Check it out at IsThereSomethingICanDo.com. It was started by Akon and Peter Buffett, son of Richest Man in America Warren Buffett. Looks like it’s worth a look…even for a lurker!

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund and co-founder of the Jeffrey Roth Cycling Foundation. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.

Knowing that I am was on a mission to exercise EVERY day for one year, my friend Tia emailed me a link to a site titled Get Fit by 40. Yet another example of how someone is living rich by extending their life. Here’s a quote from the author of the site:

I just returned from a concert at the Steve Kaufman Acoustic Kamp. Steve is one of the worlds foremost celebrated flatpick guitarist and lives right here in Mayberry (Maryville, TN). Each year, Steve hosts musicians from all over the world who come to learn how to flatpick. As I heard him play tonight, I was reminded of what I had thought the first time I heard him play, “It would take years and many hours of practice to be half that good.” The interesting thing is years have already pasted and many hours have gone by yet my guitar sits off in a corner in my office. I see it regularly and think, “Oh, if I only had the time…”.  I have a POOR attitude about guitar playing thus I am a poor guitarist.

We can’t save time. The hours are ticking by regardless of how we spend them. The reality is if I only played twice a week, I would be a great guitarist. I started playing guitar 30 years ago and took lessons from a fantastic guitarist at Florida Southern College while working on my undergraduate degree. Whether its guitar, parenting, sports, dancing, or riding the unicycle, its just not going to happen if you don’t invest the time.  People who are RICH in living (like Steve Kaufman), find the time to pursue things they are passionate about. It exudes from every note he plays. I’d like to bottle his talent up and save it and break open the bottle some day.  Oh for a someday…