When you look around at what life has dealt so many people, it’s difficult not to feel RICH. I just finished speaking to participants at the Melanoma Research Foundation volunteer training weekend in Chicago. I’ve met so many people who have been impacted by Melanoma. Some are living with it’s cloud around them daily. Some struggle with low energy due to medication and chemo; others are reminded each day of the waging war with visible scars from an aggressive cancer with no cure.  These people are my hero’s and they are making the lives of others more rich with their giving. In the last twenty-four hours, I have heard about golf tournaments, comedy nights, walks, runs, nights runs, raffles, musical events and other ways people touched by melanoma are raising money and awareness. It’s rekindled a desire I have to use a foundation I serve to make an even bigger difference.

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August is an important month on the calendar for many. It marks back to school for students. It signals the end of summer. The days are starting to get shorter and fall is creeping up on us. It also happens to be the 20th anniversary of starting my business full time and it marks the anniversary of the death of my grandmother Richardson who died five years ago this month. I’ve been thinking a lot about her and the legacy she left and I’ll be posting her story soon. I hope it will inspire you to think about the people in your life who have created a legacy and who made a difference to you.

I knew I would post about today being 08-08-08. A few years ago, my birthday fell on 06-06-06. While I don’t buy into numerology (it was a normal birthday without incident), I think it’s kind of cool, perhaps more than coincidental that today is considered a lucky day for the Chinese. According to a post I read this morning from my professional speaker friend Terry Brock, the Chinese consider the number 8 to be a number associated with prosperity and abundance. Of course today also marks the beginning of the Olympic Games. As you’ll read in Terry’s post, it’s also his fathers 80th birthday. Terry wrote a thoughtful post on his father who has Alzheimer’s. 

Earlier this week at my National Speakers Association convention, I heard author and Fast Company columnist Marshall Goldsmith speak. Interestingly much of his presentation was geared toward quality relationships. He told a touching story of how one of his children called him a promise he had made but didn’t keep. He challenged us all to reach out to those who make the biggest difference in our lives and ask the questions, “What can I do to be a better father, son, brother, friend, etc?”  In honor of my friend Terry, I am going to reach out today and do just that. I’d like to invite you to do the same. If we listen and act on the answer we are given, it could lead to gold medals that matter and more prosperity and abundance than you or I deserve.

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Book recommendation of the week: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshal Goldsmith.

Today is my Independence day. I wrote about it last year on this day. It’s the day I left the IBM Corporation in search of life as an entreprenuer. I LOVE being self employed. It’s made me have a RICH life (and if you have been reading this blog, you know what I mean by RICH). I love to hear from readers who have an independence day. What was your freeing moment? How did you break free? How do you celebrate? Right (and write) on…

I just returned from my NSA convention in New York (not National Security Administration, not National Safety Association but National Speakers Association meeting). Over the next few days, I’ll be posting about some of the speakers I heard while there and some of the other RICH experiences I had. It was fabulous being in New York. I LOVE the energy of that city and the addition of almost 2000 professional speakers with a theme of NSA Rocks made it even more energizing. At our opening, our members were encouraged to dress like rock stars and we had lots of rock music playing throughout the weekend - thus the title of this post adapted from the ACDC song Back in Black.

Our closing speaker today was Cathie Black, CEO of Hearst Publishing and author of the new book Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life). She had a great message but unfortunately for the audience (and for her), it was obvious that someone else wrote the speech which she practiced a few times then read it to us. Now she read very well and occasionally wandered from her script with supportive examples but her speech wasn’t nearly as effective as it could have been had she prepared a bit more and trusted her gut. She is a very powerful speaker who no doubt can move an audience. She has proven herself over and over again with many successes including leadership of USA Today and launching Oprah’s O magazine. I have little doubt she could have stood up in front of our membership and spoken extemporaneously with great success. Right out of the gate she broke one of her own rules from her book:

#1 Take risk that are calculated not crazy. It wouldn’t have been crazy in my view for her to  have taken risk with us. What did she have to lose? She wasn’t paid for her speech, we weren’t a group of executives evaluating her presentation and we weren’t shareholders, board members or a leading client. Taking a risk in presentation style or delivery would have underscored a valuable point and driven it home. She choose the safe route. Most do which is why few rise to the top. There’s certainly more dialogue that could occur here and I invite some discussion. Here are the rest of her points which I thought were excellent.

#2 The worst-case scenario is rarely as bad as you think

#3 Go two steps beyond what you are asked to do

#4 Know when to give up control

#5 Never stop learning

#6 Don’t personalize things that aren’t personal

#7 Make your boss look good

I still can’t fathom what happened at the Universalist Unitarian church in Knoxville on Sunday. About 15 miles from where I live, a hate-filled man changed lives forever. No matter how liberal or conservative someone is, we still should be able to disagree respectfully. What is wrong with our world? Why are we seeing so much of this type of tragedies? How can we prevent things like this from happening? Questions? I wish I had answers. I wish our churches had answers. I wish our politicians had answers.

I don’t want it in my backyard or yours.

What would you do IF you found some money that wasn’t yours? My speaking colleague and friend Barbara Glanz has a solution. See her blog post titled a lesson in giving. Barbara has the unique distinction of being the first professional speaker on record to speak on all seven continents. She also discoved Johnny the Bagger, and amazing story of a young man with Downs Syndrome who has touched the lives of many.

Tomorrow is the 2nd annual Jeff Roth Cycling Foundation Crit race in my little town of Maryville, TN. Tour de France it may not be but it is great fun and local entertainment IF you happen to live in the “ville as I do. It’s a great example too of the kind of people I write about - people who take tragedy and turn into triumph. People like Kathy Roth who lost her husband Jeff in a sensless cycling accident almost two years ago. No doubt, Kathy could have sat around and done nothing, been paralyzed with grief, and cried herself to sleep. She did have her moments but it didn’t take her long to raise above and do something. She is actively working to help prevent the kind of sensless deaths when people are careless on the road and DON’T follow the 3-Foot Rule. She and the foundation she started are helping young people know about cycling safety and educating drivers about sharing the road.

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. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.

The lake was beautiful tonight. We cooked out on the grill, boated on a glassy body of water, caught up with old friends and watched the evening sky come alive with color. On the way home, I gave my son a lecture…a short lecture. But certainly not his last. My “lecture” was on the power of saying “I’m sorry”. It didn’t take long to give and I’m confident I’ll give it again. But I think it took. Time will tell. After walking in the door, i just happened to gaze at a book on the counter - a book by Dr. Randy Pausch entitled The Last Lecture. Ironically, a few minutes later, I learned that the author of that book and former Carnegie Mellon died today. His Last Lecture, for which I wrote about last fall, had a great impact on me.  In fact, I think he wrote about saying, “I’m sorry” in his book. There’s nothing like a death to remind me how important it is to quickly and sincerely say, “I’m sorry”.

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.

Is there such a thing as a chance meeting? I don’t think so. I think people come into our lives when we need them and sometimes we come into the life of someone because they need us. In almost twenty years in the National Speakers association, I have had the pleasure of meeting and being mentored by some great speakers. Most aren’t household names yet they have made me feel like a star because they have helped me when I needed a lift, encouraged me when times were tough or inspired an idea that helped propel my business. The sharing is never done with an expectation of anything in return. It’s one of the many things I love about my professional speaker career and my NSA buddies.

In February, I met a new member of my NSA organization. She is a doctor, a speaker AND a flamenco dancer named Dr. Susan Biali. She is a Canadian who lives in Cabo, Mexico with her husband where she enjoys the RICH life (see her post Would You Like to Be Rich? ) 

When I met Susan, I happily provided her with some counsel that she has followed. Though we have only met once and exchanged emails just a few times, I feel like I have a new friend far away who is  as close as an email. I’ve added her to my blog roll as she is a great writer and the first “official” member of my blog editorial team. She’ll be checking in regularly to make sure my writing makes sense both in context and in grammar, spelling and style. You’ll occasionally be treated to a guest post by Susan and of course you can also check her out by visiting her site to keep you focused on your goals, life balance and health and wellness. Connections are great. They are part of what makes life RICH.  

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.

Sometimes the REAL world can hurt - I mean REALLY hurt. This morning early, I took a neighborhood friend to the airport. He was flying to Philly to officiate at a funeral - a funeral for a wife, a mother, a daughter, a beloved child of God who had leukemia and died at age 41 . She had just flown to visit her ailing mother. Two days later she was dead. 

Two days ago, I spoke to a friend whose brother committed suicide last month. He’s owning his brother’s death, and shoulders part of the blame. It was a tenuous relationship and he admittedly tuned his brother out. Now he’s questioning what role he could have had in saving his brother’s life. In our call, he told me life sucks.

Last weekend, we received an urgent call from another friend requesting prayers for her eight-year old-niece, Claire Atkins. Claire had fallen from a tree and broken her arm. In the hospital, an unrelated brain problem was found. She died early Sunday morning. I don’t know how I could react like her father did in the Asheville Citizen article about her. The family has already turned their tragedy into something good (watch the clip dancer honored on ABC 13). When the family returned home after their childs death, friends, neighbors, and church members had a meal prepared, their beds turned down, notes written and left on each of their beds. They had also filled the tree where Claire had been playing with hundreds of notes and cards. This family and their friends are a reminder of the importance of RICH relationships and of the power of a rich life.

None of these things make sense. I’ll never understand tragedy, senseless death, suicide or loss of young lives. Sometimes words are difficult but you can also reach out and touch - a gentle hand, a loving embrace, a heart felt note and a shared tear may be all that is needed.

Today is the day to treasure each and every day, your children, and the people who are most important to you. That’s Real World. That’s RICH.

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.