Wooden Cribbed Grain Elevator

I just got done reading Calumet “K” by Samuel Merwin and Henry Kitchell Webster(1905) yesterday.  It is available free online form Google Books, or project Gutenberg, and you can download it to a reader  or read it online (and of course, print it out).  I will probably get a copy from my bookstore just because it is that good.

The story is about a man named “Charles Bannon” who, against immense odds, must build a massive wooden grain elevator on a river near Chicago.  The time-frame is about 1900 – and n has been compared to Red Adair – the “wildcatter” who puts out fires that no one else can.

He faces the challenges of management constantly changing their mind about exactly what they want, about how it should be done, the challenges of Labor Unions and those who want to stop the building of the elevator for their own nefarious purposes, and even the challenge of building a conveyor bridge without any ground support!  And it has to be done on an impossible deadline.  Sounds like where I work, and maybe where you work too.   It is a love story – the love of a man and his work.  You don’t get a lot of that today.

But this is the point… Bannon is the man who can.  All problems to him, whether natural ones that arise from reality itself, or those “man-made” problems that are sent to stop him are just problems he must solve so that he can attain that to which he has set his indomitable will: To build his grain elevator.  He is the “efficacious” man.

And in your own circumstance, when you have set a goal for yourself, must do the same thing. You must determine in your mind that all problems whether posed by the nature of the thing you want, or artificially imposed by other people who would rather see you fail, must be approached simply as problems to be solved.  You must love your work that much, if you are to succeed in an extraordinary way.

I would highly recommend that you read the book Calumet K.  It will help inspire you to move when everything is screaming that you should quit.  It will show you what a man or woman can really do if they want to.

This book was written over a hundred years ago, so there are a few racial slurs in it – that is the time period so you will have to deal with that (you are not going to make it if you can’t anyway).

Get a free copy here.

There is no such thing

Let me start off this post with a quote from one of my favorite Authors, Speakers, Radio Personalities, Pastors: Adrian Rogers.

Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving.  The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don’t have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don’t get to enjoy the fruit of their labor. (Adrian Rogers, Ten Secrets for a Successful Family: A Perfect 10 for Homes that Win.  Crossway Books, 1998, p. 138).

He also said:

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

That just says it so clear. Like it or not (And there is something wrong with you if you don;t like it) we deserve the proceeds of the work we do, and the want of the work we fail to do.  Marketing, Selling, Product development, whatever, we are rewarded not only on the hard work we put in, but how smart we put that work in.

The truth is you can work very hard on something that nobody wants, and as long as you know that fact, you are essentially working a hobby.  But if you work hard on something nobody wants and you don’t know it, you are not working smart, and you will not receive rewards for that either.

So hard work, done smartly, with the proper attitude will produce results.  Here is the problem… once you have achieved those results we have governments that want to take them away from you and I.  I would submit that in this case, you need to plan for that – that is part of working smart.

The problem is that the government, and more specifically the power brokers within it, would very much like to give what you have created through the sweat of your brow and the hard thinking and trials you have done, to those who produce nothing (except for more votes to the aforementioned power-brokers).  Allowing them to do so is not smart, so you are left with a few options.  The smart entrepreneur considers this and uses it to his advantage.

Governments are notoriously slow – so being able to switch your business model quickly before they can regulate it or take it over is a plus.  Case in point: Recently in North Carolina, Video Poker gambling was outlawed, so those who owned these systems changed the game to a “Sweepstakes” game and sold “shares of usage time” on the game.  They continued on in business.  Now the government is coming after that, so they will have to change again.

In the same way other entrepreneurs will have to change.  The ridiculous (and wholly unconstitutional) “Health Care Power Grab Bill” seeks to tax Tanning Salons.  What these savvy businessmen and women need to do is to change the model, twist the rules, and fight the system.

The goal is simple – keep the thieving and frankly evil government out of our pockets, and keep our wealth which we earned to ourselves.  Ultimately we will have to fight and overcome the government, and that will take a lot of money, so it is imperative that we keep what we have and what we earn.

By peaceful and legal means if possible, by any means necessary.

David T. McKee

• The Fear of Failure…is Failure.
• Failure is not an option…it is a necessity.
• Failure is…the staircase to Success.

If your gonna do it...you might as well do it epic!

We hear many things that describe what success is, what it should be, how we should handle it when it comes, how to pursue it, etc.  One of the few things we hear about, and seem to always avoids when possible is the topic of Failure…especially when it is our own failure.  So, to start off with three bullet points that proclaim that failure is necessary may seem a bit odd and off-putting at first.

The fact is, failure is a necessity towards the achievement of success.  As the third bullet point states, the staircase to success is made of failure – and that makes sense if you think about it.  Success is the final destination for our plans or goals – (you do have plans and goals don’t you?).   The fact is, to actually get to the success we want, we must face that fact that along the way we will have some failure – that is, things will not go the way we hoped, ideas will not pan out, people will disappoint, or…maybe we will crash our dirt-bike.  The fact is, things are going to go wrong in varying degrees.  This “staircase to Success” does  not have uniform sized steps (don’t tell OSHA!), the failures that make up these steps vary from little almost unnoticeable little bumps, to eight foot wall-sized giants that you have to scale.

The fact is, these steps of failure are only steps as long as you are willing to do two things:

1.) Get back up and dust yourself off.

2.) Learn from the failure and use that knowledge to step up.

Remember, success is little more than getting up one more time then you fall down…and you will fall down.  As Soichiro Honda (founder of Honda Corporation) said – “Success is 99% failure”.

How true that is.

So how do we get into the proper frame of mind to build success on our failures and see those failures as lessons and/or directions that lead us to success?

One word: Humility.

Let me tell you an unflattering story about myself that demonstrates this: The other day a man selling magazines came to the door of my house – a door which my wife had placed a “Happy Easter” sign on.  Well, I am not too keen on door to door salesmen.  After an initial pleasant greeting by the man, I curtly asked if he was “selling something” and that I was not interested.  He kept smiling, said “God Bless!”, waved and went on his way.  I went back into my house smugly thinking that “I told him!”

What was blatantly obvious to everyone but me, however, was that I had been rude and frankly disrespectful to a man who was just trying to make a living in a very difficult job in a very bad economy.  My wife was quick to point this out (I thank God for her!) – I quickly realized just how awful I had failed in a relationship with another human being. I had missed an opportunity to speak life into another persons day.

Some think that avoiding failure is paramount; so much so that it is to be avoided at all costs. This is actually a form of destructive pride.  Humility is understanding that we are not perfect (not even close), that we have things to learn, we need to grow, that we have weaknesses and missing parts, and most importantly we are nearly blind most of the time.  That being the case, our failures are a teacher that helps us to see better, and to see our own areas of need.

What should my next response be after realizing how I had failed (and had failed to even notice it without my wife’s help)? Well, I could sit and stew about it, try to rationalize it, or I could learn from it and remember the next time I have to answer the door for a salesman  not forget to put myself in the place of the other person before I speak or act.

The bigger lesson here is: Humility in our failure allows us to Learn from it, and Grow big enough to take the next step.

Reality is only too willing to leave us at the step we are at – and allow us to keep falling until we are ready to grow a bit more.

Failure.  Embrace it as a teacher and the map to all of your success.

-DTM

Run Forrest, Run!

And with that we see a poignant story about a unique man who seemingly walks into fame and fortune without even noticing. This man, Forrest Gump, from his name to his demeanor seems ridiculous, and retarded. But, as his momma told him…Stupid is, as stupid does.

I could not help but notice deep truths that were buried in this gem of a movie/novel that has been part of some serious political discussions and even controversy. What I want to focus on is how a simple man of simple truths can indeed walk through life and push the problems it brings with it aside almost as if those problems were nothing more than smoke.

The first truth that Forrest utters we have already quoted: “Stupid is as Stupid does…” The fact that Forrest is a bit slow is completely balanced by the fact that he believes in black and white truth. Stupid people are those who do stupid things – and it is ironic that it is Jenny he says this too first, as she epitomizes stupidity throughout the movie with every act she takes, except for the one of being Forrest’s friend, and at the end of the movie, finally his love.

The other thing that Forrest does is that he never accepts failure, in fact he is incapable of even imagining what failure is. He simply does whatever he does. Once he has decided on a course, he simply does it, obstacles are nothing more that a challenge that has to be met, without any consideration of being stopped by them. In other words, do…or do not. Anything else is just you standing in the way.

There are many other things in this story that I could point to, but these two are the real gems that if we put into practice in our own lives, will lead to success in our endeavors:

1.)Don’t do stupid things.
2.)Whatever you have decided to do, do.

Ability varies, education is not wisdom, and unemployed geniuses can be found on every street corner. The truth is that those who succeed have decided that they will succeed long before they even set their hand to their next project.

Success is as Success does.

David T. McKee

Your Basic Blue Alian Life-Form

There have been many times where I have read a good story and wished that I could live in that story.  The Narnia series by C.S. Lewis comes to mind, and Lord of the Rings.  Harry Potter perhaps – and many others.  Nevertheless, while a good story can touch on heart-strings and even the deep spiritual longings of our soul, never have I entertained the idea that it would be better to be dead than not be in some story – as I reflect on it, I realize that even were it possible, those stories had their share of difficulties.  It would not have been an adventure otherwise.

But alas, now I read this…

Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues

According to this article, there are many people who have seen this movie about a race of ten foot blue people called the Na’vi who live in an idyllic world called “Pandora”. They live in perfect harmony with their environment – in other words they have no desire beyond their existence and are in essence no different than animals in a tropical rain forest. They are portrayed as intelligent and gentle, but can be violent when pissed off.

Now I have several beefs with the movie, not the least which is how it portrays humans as greedy “capitalists” intent on extracting valuable resources from this “exo-moon” without any regard to the indigenous life.  This is a tired plot, and frankly is proven untrue by the fact that the movie was made by HUMANS.  But I digress….back to the issue on human self esteem.  Still, the movie is certainly cool and despite the plot issues I mentioned, it has some very cool qualities.  Nevertheless, it is a movie of a utopia that does not exist, and in our current state, cannot.

We have a group of individuals who do not have the self-esteem to realize that their own lives in the real world is more worthy than this pseudo-life they have seen on the screen. They actually want to live as Na’vi and not as themselves – some even to the point of contemplating suicide!

To what can we attribute this kind of thinking? One who desires to become a master achiever in life certainly would not want fall into this kind of trap – so we should try to understand why someone might.

To me, this kind of thinking has two central areas: a dissatisfaction with their own lives, and an unrealistic understanding of reality. The sad truth is – even if their wish were to be granted, people with this sort of mindset would quickly be in the doldrums even on “Pandora” and would be seeking the next “thing to be”.

It is a mental “grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” syndrome.

Now, I am going to say something controversial to some – too bad, this is my blog: The deep longing in the heart for a place of peace. love, and endless adventure comes from the GSV.

GSV stands for: God Shaped Vacuum.

Those people don’t know it, but they are longing for God who in fact can take you to Pandora – and is the only way you can get there (by his Son, Jesus Christ). If you want to know more about this, send me an email at : dave[@]celticcrosseng.com (I reformatted that so that email scrapers cannot get to it).

The other issue is not recognizing reality for what it is. Reality is a hard teacher – it does not give any cares for fools – and wishing you lived in an idyllic floating island Paradise will not make it so. Much better to be successful in life and explore the infinite things our creator has made for us in this world, and always to anticipate the next.

But lets get to the next only after we have squeezed every last drop out of our lives here and now!

David T. McKee