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I just watched The Social Network for the first time yesterday (yes, that may surprise some of you, but I had just never gotten around to it).

I thought it was a very interesting movie and I really liked it.

As most of you know, Grant Hensel, and I started a business (Backbone Local) this year so this movie felt even more relevant than it would have 6 months ago.

At the end of the movie, I came away deep in thought in a pondering mood. It really made me think and reflect.
Here’s a coupe insights I gleaned from this movie:

1. Startups take a TON of work. So many countless hours. And things in other parts of your life will come at the expense of it. It is not for the faint hearted. You must be passionate about it or you will fizzle out.
2. Creating a $7 billion startup is not the pinnacle of life. You have not “reached it” when you do that. Life will not be perfect just because of business success. Life is still empty for Mark at the last scene. He’s got all the money and business success that someone could imagine and at such a young age, but it does not define him and it does not make his life perfect. We’re left at the last scene feeling his longings for more than business success.
3. We need Christians creating billion dollar startups but doing it the right way, with a balanced life, treating people well and serving them, and all for the glory of God. We need an example other than the famous Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckeeberg. Someone who does it the right way and show how you can follow Jesus wholeheartedly and create a wildly successful startup.

Who knows, maybe God will use me to do that. You may say I’m dreaming too big, and I probably am by most standards, but if that’s what He wants me doing, then I am NOT going to underestimate Him. I take him at His word when God says He will do things infinitely beyond what we can dream of or ask for (Ephesians 3:20). I can dream big because I believe in a BIG God. But count me in for whatever success and faithfulness looks like for my life, even if it means a simple day job. I’ll follow Him wherever He leads. Because success is faithfulness.

 

What did you think about the movie? Do you think we need Christian examples in the business world? Comment below!

Whenever you go to refuel your car, think about how you’re doing on refueling in your personal life.

I recently went on a road trip with my mom up to Wheaton College from home. It was over 2,000 miles, and it was a lot of fun! One thing we had to do a lot was stop for gas to refuel.

This got me thinking. That is a lot like how life works.

When you’re driving, you can only go so far before you need to refuel your gas tank. Otherwise, bad things will happen. You’ll run out of gas, get stuck on the side of the road, and have to wait a long time before you can get gas and get going again. There may have been someone you needed to see or some appointment to go to. But you missed it, because you didn’t take the time earlier in your day to refuel before it got to breaking point of running out. But you must face the consequences of running on empty.

Just as in driving, the same thing happens in life. If we let ourselves get too tired or worn out or push ourselves to our limit for too long, then we will run out of gas too. We’ll get mad at people we care about, won’t act like ourselves, and will hurt the people around us. We won’t perform as well or think as clearly or make as good of decisions, because we’re drained and don’t have any energy left.

But there’s a solution to this. Refuel along the way. If we refuel often, then we will be energized and ready to lead and be ourselves. 

You may be thinking: “That’s a great idea, but how can I better refuel?”

Well let me share some of the ways that I try to refuel myself:

• Hanging out with God and reading His Word.
• Having tons of fun and having good conversation with people like my family, my girlfriend, and my friends.
• Getting 8 hours of sleep.
• Working out and exercising.
• Doing work I’m passionate about.

 

Whenever you go to refuel your car, think about how you’re doing on refueling in your personal life.

 

What are some ways you refill in your life? Comment below your ways!

Well, I’ve realized that my last blog post was unrealistic. My idea I put forth about writing daily about what you have done and what you have learned from it in specific categories isn’t doable. I wrote daily going through this document every day for about a week. But I didn’t maintain it after that. I found it’s just so hard to find time to do it every day and it’s not sustainable.

Now I still believe that it’s important to learn from both failure AND success, but I think there needs to be a better way to do it, not my document idea I created. I mean, if the document works for you, then great! But for me, I need to find a better way to learn from my daily failures and successes.

What I Learned:

• Wait to put out an idea until I’ve tested it for longer and can do it myself.
• It’s important to create habits that are sustainable. My intentions were good with this idea, but it isn’t sustainable long term and that is key if you want them to last and actually make a difference.
• I can count this one as a failure, but I can learn from it! (Funny how I’m learning from a post about learning.)

So I’m not perfect, and I may post some things on here that don’t work. But I’m admitting this, because I’d like help! I’m interested in finding a better way to learn from everyday life than my document. Do you have any way to try to capture some of your learning? Comment below with any ideas!

Everyone always talks about how you’ll learn more from your failures than you will from your successes.

I don’t think this has to be the case. I think that we usually learn more from failures, because we’re forced to. Either we learn from it or we fail again. There’s often not as much of a choice. But I think we can learn just as much from success, but we never take the time to do this.

Think about it. Last time you failed or did something wrong, you probably thought about it after and you’re going to try to act differently in the future. But when was the last time you reflected on what went well and asked why it went well? It’s probably been a long time since you’ve done this.

Daily Learnings Document

My solution: Think about and learn from failures AND successes.

But how? Well I’ve just recently started something to try to capture more of this learning. I want to take time every day and think about what I’ve done and how I can learn from it.

I created an attached document that I am filling out every day. And at the end of the week, I’m going to do a summary of it in each of the categories. See the attached document for my sheet.

 

My fill-in-the-blanks:

What I Did Today: All activities or things I’ve done in the day. It helps in filling in the rest.

Observed: What did I observe around me. How others interacted, things I noticed, etc.

Learned Generally: This is for anything I learned that wasn’t a failure or success. Could just be an insight or something.

Learned from Failures: What I learned from messing up and failing

Learned from Successes: What I learned from the things that went well and I succeeded in

Action Steps: Pressing things that now need action. Keep this part small or you’ll create a huge to-do list you’ll never get to.

How God’s Character was Revealed: This line was a suggestion by my dad, and I really like it. It’s so important to see who God is and how He’s revealed in all aspects of life. This helps me reflect on how God was with me and gives me new insights into how He cares for me.

 

Now I should mention that I’m just starting to do this myself, so I may change it in the future. I’ve really enjoyed doing it so far, and I’ve learned a lot. The biggest barrier to me daily doing this is running out of time. My solution: do it throughout the day. Then it’s not too much at once.

 

I’d really encourage you to try this for ONE WEEK. Give it a shot. Print out 8 copies of it (one for every day and one for summarizing the week).

 

Do you have any thoughts on this? Comment below!

I ask this question all the time.

“What’s your favorite ____?”

 

“What’s your favorite salad?” “What’s your favorite book?” “Who’s your favorite professor?” “What’s your favorite class?”

Asking this question to people who know what they’re talking about provides insight that you would otherwise not have. They’re the experts, and you are now seeking advice and counsel from the experts, even if it’s just a normal person. We’re all experts in something. And we need to learn from other experts. That waitress is an expert in the restaraunt’s food, so go ahead and ask her advice.

Seek wisdom in big and little ways by asking this question.

You’ll get deep insight on things from experts, and you will learn about things that you would never otherwise hear about.

So add this to your vocabulary and ask it a lot: What’s your favorite ____(you fill in the blank – on everything)?

 

What is one of your favorite things? Favorite food, class, website, etc.

Tell me! I wanna learn! Comment below and share with me.

I have been thinking about this one question a lot for the last week and a half.

What do you want to be known for?

 

Why do you need to ask this?

This is such an important question to ask yourself. Asking and answering this question can define how you live your life. By figuring out what you want to be known for, it allows you to then start living those characteristics out.

You’re going to be known for something. Why not figure out what you want to be known for and then start being known for that through your actions.

What do you need to do?

Ask. Answer.

• Ask this question of yourself.
  • Ruminate on this question for a while.
  • Let it soak through into you and touch all parts of your mind.
  • Think about what you are already known for. How would your friends describe you? Maybe use these as starters. Or as things to stop being known for.
• Answer this question.
  • After thinking about it, then start writing down what you want to be known for.
  • Just starting listing characterisitics, attributes, words, things. Whatever.
  • Then narrow it down. Narrow it down to 5 or 10 key things.

Now that you know what you want to be known for, go start living it out! Embody those characteristics in all of your actions. In time, others will come to know you by these things as well.

 

Me:

I thought about sharing what I want to be known for, but I don’t want you to just copy the same things.

But I’ll share with you the #1 thing I want to be known for: Being a follower of Jesus, a man after God’s own heart.

I’d encourage you to make that your #1 as well. (For more info on who Jesus is and why you should follow him, click here.)

 

What do you want to be known for? You’re already known for something, now define it yourself and go live it!

Why is one of the most important questions that you can ever ask about anything. Asking this will help you to really understand things at a deeper level.

As you keep asking why, you’ll get closer and closer to the root cause of something. Knowing what causes that one thing which causes that other thing which causes that core thing let’s you then be able to really get at the root of something and not just hack at the branches, the things that won’t produce real change.

Try asking why 7 times today. That may sound silly, but you most likely don’t ask it that many times already. Try it out. You’ll see that things will make more sense and you’ll understand more things. You’ll get real change in time.

Why. 7 times. Today.

Have you ever found yourself typing on your computer and you realize that all your letters are wrong because your hands were in the wrong position?

But then you put your forefingers back on the ridges on F and J on the keyboard and you can type normally again?

Well I think this can happen in life too. Think about it. The ridges on the F and J are like reminders to keep you on the right track for typing. They help center you, and it makes it so you do the right things and don’t mess up.

In life, I think we need these reminders too. We may begin to get sidetracked or start doing something we shouldn’t or we get our priorities wrong, but if we have some reminders in our life that will put us back on track, it will help us immensely. Put some “F and J ridges” in your life so that you can be reminded of the right things to do.

Some of my “F and J ridges”:

• Quotes I put up in my room
• My Wheaton College lanyard to remind me of how blessed I am to go to school there
• Sticky notes at work
• Memorized Bible verses
• A big sheet of paper filled with things I’m thankful for
• My laptop screensaver picture depicting one of my girlfriend’s favorite paintings

What are your “F and J ridges”?

 

I recently finished one of the most impactful leadership books I’ve ever read. It’s called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, written by Patrick Lencioni. It’s a must read.

The main idea is that to make a company successful, you must have healthy teams that function well together. Being a functional or dysfunctional team is what separates top companies from their competitors.

This books lays out the five most important dysfunctions that teams struggle with and actionable steps on how to fix them.

Book Summary:

Background:

It’s written as a fable, which makes it easier to connect with.

Instead of just being theoretical, it makes it practical as you see a story of how to put these principles into practice.

Story:

It goes through the story of Cathryn, a recently hired CEO in charge of turning around a failing Silicon Valley technology company called DecisionTech. By all indicators, DecisionTech should be light years ahead of its competitors, yet they’re behind two of its competitors in both revenue and customer growth.

The reason why: the executive team is so dysfunctional. Once Cathryn steps in and teaches the five dysfunctions of a team to the executives, they are able to understand the dysfunctions and start acting differently. Then the company starts turning around and hitting their targets.

At the end of the fable, Lencioni breaks down the model into more concrete practical steps for how to stop being dysfunctional. He gives tools for team assessments and actionable steps for each dysfunction, so it would be a great thing for your team to work through.

 

The five dysfunctions quickly defined:

Dysfunction 1: Absence of Trust – Team members who aren’t willing to be vulnerable with each other will have no foundation to build trust on.

Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict – By not trusting, there is no ability to engage in unfiltered debates of ideas or thoughts. The team is left to petty discussions where people don’t express how they actually feel.

Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment – By fearing conflict and not airing their opinions, team members won’t buy in and commit to the team’s decisions.

Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability – If the team isn’t committed to the decisions that have been made, then no one will want to call their peers on decisions that seem unaligned with the plan.

Dysfunction 5: Inattention to Results – When there is no accountability, then team members will start to put their individual goals above the collective purpose and results of the team.

Changing those dysfunctions can seem deceptively simple, yet they can be very powerful if actually enacted by teams.

 

Think back to teams you’ve been a part of. Which has plagued your team the most?

Have you thought about this before? One decision can change everything.

Literally. Just one. This was brought to light for me in a real way when my dad fell recently and broke his hip area in five places. (See my last blog post for more detail on this mountain bike crash.)

Just one decision of his did this. He decided to push it a little harder and go a little faster down the last downhill. He was doing great until the bottom… And then bam! That one decision has made it so he won’t be fully active for three months. Three months has been radically changed because of one decision.

Now I’m not saying don’t ever push yourself or live on the edge or have fun – I’m just saying think about your decisions and choose wisely. Because there can be negative consequences that you don’t think about in the moment. I will still do extreme sports and live my life as I do, but I will be more mindful of the potential effects of my decisions.

So choose wisely, because ONE decision can change everything.