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Real First

by Ron Potter December 22, 2022

Recently I blogged about “firsts” in my life and how they shaped me (us). As I looked back through that blog of “firsts” in my life, I believe that for the most part, they were just a first for me. Many people had done those things, were doing those things, and continue to use and do them today.

First for Me

They included:

Typing Class
Survey Class (and the Curta Calculator)
Walking structural steel
Computers and Blackberries
Executive Consulting
Using software to speak into and convert to written text

Of all the things on that list, the Curta Calculator stands out as being completely unique. Mine is the only one I have ever seen. I still have it today and it’s still the only one I’ve ever seen.

History of Curta

I decided to discover the history of the Curta.

Curt Herzstark was born in Vienna in 1902. His family was in the business of building calculators in the early 1900s. The machines were big and beautiful, and expensive. Curt said, “I need a machine that will fit in my pocket and I can use to calculate.”

But then WWII started. German soldiers came to Austria where Curt lived. Curt’s mother was Catholic, but his father was Jewish. The Germans converted the calculator factory to one that made Panzer tanks. Everything was stable for a while but then two of the factory employees were caught listening to an English radio station. Their chief mechanic was beheaded. Everything changed.

The SS threw Curt into the Pankrác Prison camp where the torturing of Jews was routine. However, the managing engineer at the factory heard about Curts’s hand-held calculator (although still in his head and on a few drawings). The chief (German) engineer said to Curt, “We will allow you to make and draw your calculator. If it works we will give one to the Führer as a present after the war.” (Assuming they would win.)

The End of WWII

Herzstark had completed his drawings by April 1945 when the Americans showed up and freed all of the prisoners. Curt walked about 175 miles to the city of Weimar. It was about the only factory still standing. Curt’s drawing was so complete and clear it only took the factory about 3 months to make three prototypes. But then the Russians showed up.

Prince of Liechtenstein

The only person Curt could find who expressed any interest was the prince of Liechtenstein. About 110 miles away.
The first Curtas went on sale in Liechtenstein in 1948 (the year I was born) and continued to be produced until the 1970s when electronic calculators took over the market. 1948–1970. My prime growing up and education years.
What do you have to complain about? Here is a man that was put into a German concentration camp. He walked nearly 300 miles because he believed in what he had made. He went through pain, suffering, and atrocities and yet kept going.

Have you developed a similar character or are you brainwashed by today’s media telling us that we deserve to be happy all the time? Just buy (whatever) and it will make you happy. No, it won’t. Become a person of character and realize that this life will bring you difficulties. It may not make you happy but it will provide a level of contentment that will carry you through life’s difficulties.

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Influential People

by Ron Potter December 15, 2022

A few weeks ago I talked about Ashira Jones and the influence she had on my life. She may not even remember meeting me.

I decided to talk about a few other people who were also an influence in my life.

I would have to list my father as number one on that list.

My Father

My father grew up in a small town in southern Michigan where he also raised me and my siblings. For the most part, he only left Michigan a couple of times in his life.

The most impactful departure was WWII. His first assignment was in Northern Africa. He was part of the force that chased Rommel across and then out of North Africa. That part of his military career was part of the Allied Forces that fought the Germans in Tunisia and drove them from the African continent and back to Europe. (My daughter and her husband now live in Tunis. My son-in-law is the Facility Manager for the US Embassy there.) As my father’s unit chased Rommel back into Europe he ended up in Anzio. There was one of the worst battles for the Allied Forces and he lost a leg from a shrapnel hit and was shipped home.

With one leg (which must have left him in constant pain) he wore an ill-fitting artificial leg (nothing like the high-tech legs of today) and yet started a bottled-gas business that required him to wrestle 100-pound propane cylinders (empty) and crawl under old farmhouses (the rural community was converting from coal and fuel oil to propane).

And yet I never heard him complain about his life. He was a fantastic human being and anytime I feel like I could complain about my life circumstances, I think of him. He was one of the most influential people in my life.

My Physics Instructor

Mr. Steven Ray was my high school physics instructor. It seemed to me that he was always “picking” on me. He would always be saying “Potter, what’s the answer?” “Potter, what were the steps you took to come to your conclusion?” “Potter, come to the board and show the class your work.”

One day I ran into him in a back hallway with no one around. I asked him why he was always picking on me. His answer was “Because you’re worth it.” That stopped me in my tracks. I had nothing I could say. After a few minutes silence, he smiled and patted me on the shoulder.

He was the only high school teacher that I visited after graduation.

Your Real Value

For many years, I worked with a client that ran a global company. After one session where we had employees for Europe, Asia, North American, and South America, we were sitting in his office talking about the day. The name of my company was Team Leadership Culture.

He started by telling me what a great job we had done building teams.

Next, he told me how I had taught him to be a great leader.

Finally, we talked about taking this learning throughout the culture.

There we had it. Team Leadership Culture. I was feeling very good about what we had accomplished. Then he said, “But your real value is…” I was floored. He had just listed every element of my business TLC and I had no idea what he was talking about. We were in his office with our shoes off and just chatting. He said that my real value was when we just sat around and talked about where the company was and how he was doing. He found as much value in that as he did when I was working on TLC.

Influential People Is a Choice

Just like the “firsts” that I wrote about last, the people that have been influential in our lives help shape us into the human beings that we are. But keep in mind that we have a choice about who influences our lives. Look at their character. Are you being influenced by people of high character? Take a look at what they talk about and how they see the world. Is everything focused on them? Do they see the world as being against them? If we have selected people of high character and people who think more of others than they do themselves, they’re worth having as people of influence in our lives. In fact, they’ll see more about who we are than we do ourselves. They’re worth being chosen as People of Influence in our lives.

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Blog Personal

Firsts

by Ron Potter December 1, 2022

We received a card the other day and in the card, and they mentioned that they missed my blogs. It was not my intention to stop blogging, it’s just that my health issues have left me with the inability of producing weekly blogs as I have done for years. It takes more “thinking” than I have the ability to accomplish and it has left me with typing skills that are almost non-existent. That lead me to remember those “first” things I ever did. Much of the world was ahead of me on many of these fronts but they were “firsts” for me.

Typing Class in High School

I attended a very small high school. One of the skills I thought would be useful for me in college and beyond was typing so I joined my high school typing class. I was the only boy in the room and because I was the fastest and most accurate I was at the head of my class. Unfortunately, that upset the girls in the class as they prepared to become secretaries and typists in the business world. They didn’t have a lot of opportunities in the business world when we were graduating.

Survey Class in My First Couple Years of College

One of my early classes in college was a survey class. At the time we would have to go into the field and run a survey circuit. We would make notes during the survey and then return to the classroom and use a hand crank Friden Calculator to check all of our notes and make sure our math “closed.” If your work “closed,” great. If not, back to the field to start over. It was very time-consuming and I felt I needed to find a better way.

I had started to hear about a Curta Calculator on the road race circuit. They used it to calculate the speed needed to hit their next point as accurately as possible. Now I could go into the field, take all my notes, then sit under a tree and use my Curta to check my math. I still own my Curta over 50 years later.

Structural Steel (Walking)

My first job out of engineering school was walking structural steel on a power plant. I worked as high as 160′ in the air. That’s approximately a 16-story building. Back then, there was no safety harness belt or any netting below me. Just me, the breeze, my instruments, and an 8-inch beam to walk on. It was a terrifying experience but I had a wise chief engineer.

When I went to him after that first day of terror and told him I couldn’t do that, he asked me to spend two weeks doing the best I could at my job up on the steel. If I still wanted off the steel, he would find me another job to accomplish. His wisdom came with the fact that after two weeks, I could do the job. There were still terrifying moments but I learned a great deal about facing my fears and what my fears were.

Introducing Computers

I had finished my bachelor’s degree at Michigan on a slide rule. I still own my Pickett from those days. Several years later I was teaching a course in the graduate engineering school at the University of Utah. None of the students had seen or touched a computer yet. I introduced them to computers and had them working on a program for scheduling that I had hired a friend of mine to write. Soon after, microcomputers were introduced and the computer age began.

Blackberry

In the late 90s, a company called Research in Motion (RIM) introduced what they called the Blackberry. I was blown away. RIM introduced the Blackberry publically in late 1999 (December?). I purchased my first one within months of that introduction.

Consulting with Executives

After years in engineering and software, I decided that I wanted to become a consultant. I started with a partner who has been in the business and learned “the ropes.” Eventually, I struck out on my own and named my company TLC standing for Team, Leadership, Culture.

I was working with one of my first CEOs and we had just finished a session with members of his teams from around the world. It was just him and me in his office that evening and he said,

You helped me to build that global team more than I could have imagined.
You’ve taught me more about being a leader than I’ve ever seen in the leaders I’ve worked for.
Today you helped me build more of that into the culture of the company than I could believe.

At that point, I was feeling pretty good about my TLC company. Then he said, “Dut your real value is…”!! I was shaken. I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about. He had just covered every point of TLC. He finished, “Your real value is when we talk like this.” That’s when I learned that corporate leaders needed someone they could talk with, someone they could trust, and someone they could express their fears with. That was my greatest value.

Dictate in Word

Because of the deterioration of my typing skills I needed to find a new way to create blogs other than just typing them out. I discovered that Microsoft Word has a dictate section. I’m now learning how to talk with MS Word and convert it into text for publishing my blogs.

My “Firsts”

I’m sure there are others but the ones that came to mind for this blog included:

Typing Class
Survey Class
Learning about my fears on the structural steel
Computers and Blackberrys
Being a sounding board for executives
Converting my spoken word to the written word

Our “firsts” help determine who we are. They shape us and form us. Think about the “firsts” you’re accomplished or even walked away from. You’ll discover a lot about who you are.

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Blog Personal

Chart Your Path

by Ron Potter August 11, 2022

I met Ashira Jones many years ago and she has always been a very stimulating force in my life. I like the way she thinks and I like the way she acts. She has a blog that you can find by using her name.

Curious

This is from an old blog of hers but it seemed appropriate for my circumstances at the moment. The title is “Stay the course or chart your own path?” I mentioned that my life had become too self-centered with the illness I was dealing with. This list from Ashira is a good list about curiosity that can help you break out of that funk.

She says that if you pause to consider what you REALLY want in life, ask yourself these questions.

1. Are you where you want to be in life? If not, what’s missing?

It’s so easy to live our life by default. We roll with what comes along without thinking about what we want in life or where we should be.

I have another close friend, Fritz Seyferth. Fritz is a Team Culture Coach. His book is The Shift from Me to Team. He is an incredible consultant and has helped many people and teams better themselves. However, years ago we were talking about the percentage that really wants to get better. It was purely a guess but the consultants around the table felt that if we were moving 6% of the people to 7%, we were probably doing well. Are you a part of that 6-7% or are you just floating along? As Ashira questions, are you what you want to be in life?

2. Is lifestyle creep limiting your options?

This is an interesting point that Ashira makes. She says that lifestyle creep happens when increased income leads to discretionary spending.

It’s interesting to me because I retired (to a fixed income) several years ago. Up to the point of retirement, I never thought very much about my spending. While I didn’t get extremely extravagant, I did spend whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to without much thought. Looking back I probably should have saved more and I certainly should have given away more. Was lifestyle creep limiting my options? Yes, I let it.

3. Can you articulate your top values?

I believe my values have always been relatively clear to me. They probably could have been more focused.

Ashira talks about autonomy being at the top of her list. I can see that in her. She makes decisions that support and lives a life that supports that. That might have been one of the reasons I’ve considered her an influential force in my life.

4. What patterns do you notice in your most frequent thoughts?

When I’m sitting and staring into space, my wife will often ask me what I’m thinking. Sometimes it may take me a few minutes to put it into words but I am definitely in deep thought.

Unfortunately, I see too many people who are either afraid of being alone with their thoughts or just never developed the habit of paying attention to them. Our social media with powerful computers in our hands has given people too many distractions. It’s easy to avoid your own thoughts or spending any time contemplating what they mean to you. That’s a very dangerous place to be.

5. What are you afraid of?

Ashira makes a really good point on this subject. Fear can be very real. However, if it’s examined you’ll notice some fears are real and other fears are fake.

When I was a young engineer, one of my first jobs was walking steel (6 to 8 inches wide), sometimes as high as 200 feet in the air. There were no nets or safety belts. It was a fearful situation and the fear was real. Making a wrong turn in a car or wondering if someone else approves of your decisions can also be fearful but it’s a false fear within your own head. Be very careful of your fears. Sort them out, which are real, which are false. Life will be easier when you’re clear.

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Blog Personal

Blogger’s Block

by Ron Potter August 4, 2022

Writer’s Block

Writer’s block is a real thing. I’ve seen my wife and daughter (who are both writers) go through it, so I’ve seen it firsthand. However, I’ve never experienced blogger’s block before. I’ve always had plenty of things to write about and it seemed like they always came easy when I was ready to begin writing. In fact, I had great difficulty narrowing down the subject that I was going to blog about. However, this one has been different. Part of the reason is that I’ve been so focused on my health conditions lately that no other subjects have been present. But now is the time to break out of that funk. I’m sure that my lack of blogging this week has driven Pete nuts. He is the person who finalizes these blogs and publishes them. Sorry about that Pete. I’ll try to get ahead of things a little bit here.

When I told my wife the other day that I was having difficulty coming up with this blog, she said, “Well, write about the difficulty.”

One Dimensional

My life has become too one-dimensional lately. I need to break out of it before it just consumes me. So:

When people ask how I’m doing, I simply say, “Fair,” and try to leave it at that.
I’ve tried to get out in our neighborhood and do more walking. Yesterday I met two new couples who have moved in during the past several months. It was great talking to them without focusing on my own health issues.
We had some friends visit last week from Florida. They’ve been friends for over 50 years. They wanted to know about my health issues, but I kept it to a minimum and it seemed to satisfy them.

Our Own Issues

We can easily be overcome and overly focused on our own issues. My issues are not going to go away. However, they don’t need to take over my life either. I know I’ve mentioned my dad in earlier blogs. He lost a leg in WWII, but I never heard him complain, and like many of that “silent” generation, I never really heard him talk about his experiences except for a few humorous stories. I know that his health continued to deteriorate, and he passed away at the very young age of 53. In talking with my cousins, they speak of my dad in very positive words about his humor and knowledge. He was an awesome human being and could have easily focused on his health issues but never did.

Enjoy Life

Our lives can become very self-centered for many reasons. Don’t let it. God has a plan for us. It may include difficulties but never includes being without Him. Enjoy the life you have and the people who have been placed around you. It’s a whole lot better than being self-centered.

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Blog Personal

Face-Plant

by Ron Potter July 28, 2022

A fire raged through Northern Michigan in 1871. That was 150 years ago. But many of the stumps from that fire remain. I’ve mentioned that we’ve been fortunate to have a piece of property “up north” where sixteen homes in the association own 500 acres of land. While most of the forest has grown up in the last 90 years, many of those burned stumps from the 1870s remain.

Face-Plant

I was walking the other day on the road that goes to most of the cabins and our driveway. Even though I was using two walking sticks, I lost my balance and began to pick up speed down the road and our driveway. My wife was walking toward me as I explained, “I can’t stop!” I veered off our driveway, tangled my feet in the ferns, and went down.

I didn’t just go down, I face-planted in one of the 150 burned-out stumps (that are still charred from the fire). My adult daughter cleaned many of the charred remains from my eye, and then we went to the emergency care facility. The nurse cleaned my eye further and then proceeded to glue the eyelid and nose. I looked pretty bad for a couple of days.

Life is full of falls and face-plants. Some health issues currently cause mine but if I look back over a lifetime, there have been many along the way. Some are more obvious than others.

Daily Life

What happens when we do a “face-plant” in our daily life?

Many of us are too embarrassed to openly admit it and will do anything to cover it up. The more common issue I see and have experienced myself is to blame someone else or something else. But for the most part, it’s really my own stupidity that caused the issue in the first place.

Humor

In the long run, I think the best approach is to just acknowledge that it happened and, for me, blend in the humor that I’m known for. It’s amazing how far a little humor will help you work through some of these face-plant issues and help make things better in the long run and quicker to overcome.

Humor, Humor, Humor

No matter what the severity of your issue is, keep up your humor. It will make a great deal of difference in the long run.

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Blog Personal

Cane

by Ron Potter July 21, 2022

My daughter asked me if it bothered me to use a cane. My answer was “no.” I had grown up with a father who lost a leg at Anzio during WWII. He used a cane all of my life and it never slowed him down. Now I use a cane but it is very natural for me.

Bottled Gas

After WWII, America was moving away from coal and oil to a new way of heating and cooking—bottled propane. My dad delivered bottled propane gas for a living. The cylinders weighed nearly 100 pounds empty. He never complained. Also, many of the rural homes needed copper tubing strung for the heat and cooking. Most of them just had crawl spaces with no basements. He would usually take off his artificial leg so that he could crawl under the old farmhouses to get them gasified. He also built the house that we grew up in as kids with never a complaint.

I remember one time when handicapped parking places were very new. As he and I pulled into the parking lot, I said “Dad, look, you can park near the front door.” He commented that there were a lot of people who needed it more than he did and we parked farther out in the lot and walked in. I didn’t think of it at the time. He was just my dad and that’s the way things were.

Never Complained

But as I look back, dad was one of those people who never complained. There was someone who always needed it more than he did. Today I look back and think that nobody needed it more than him but he was an example that someone always needed more help than him.

Here was a “kid” that never really left our hometown until he was drafted into the Army. Then he was sent to England and from there sailed to North Africa. He and his friends fought against Rommel all across North Africa. Even though he was hurt in North Africa, he requested that he stay with his buddies as they moved on to Italy. It’s been well documented that poor leadership in Italy left them exposed on the shores of Anzio where the Germans surrounded them and picked them off at will. That’s where he lost his leg and ended up being shipped home.

In one of my recent blogs, I talked about being aware that someone was always worse off than you and never lose your humor.

I can’t think of anyone who was in worse shape than dad. He lost a leg.

Don’t Lose Your Sense of Humor

But I’m also aware that he never lost his sense of humor. Growing up we were very close to my mother’s family. We were often there but I do remember that my dad was often the center of humor. Even today, my cousins speak highly of my dad and how much they enjoyed him. He never complained and he always kept his sense of humor.

Regardless of your circumstances, remember that there is always someone who has it worse than you, and never lose your sense of humor.

I had a great role model and will never forget the lessons I learned from my dad in the short time he was around.

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Blog Personal

Bananas

by Ron Potter July 14, 2022

I’m sorry for the missed blogs the last several weeks. In the last several years I’ve never missed a blog until my recent health issues. I was shocked at how many blogs I had missed which speaks to the health issue I’ve been experiencing lately.

We are blessed enough to own a cabin in Northern Michigan. There are only 16 cabins on 500 acres of property. It’s a wonderful place to rest and recuperate. One of our long-time friends owns a place just a few doors from us. Unfortunately, he is suffering from cancer that he was diagnosed with almost as soon as he retired.

When we stopped the other day to see how things were going, his wife said he woke up with a desire for bananas and wanted to know if we had any. We did have bananas and went back to our cabin to retrieve them. When we returned she came to the car to retrieve the bananas. I said, “It was a good thing you came to the car because if I had brought them up to their cabin, they would have all been spoiled by the time I made it to the house.”

She laughed and said that I had not lost my sense of humor.

There are two lessons to learn from that story.

There is always someone in worse shape than you so don’t get hung up on how bad you have it.
Never lose your sense of humor. No matter how bad things are, humor always seems to help.

Sorry for the Delay

Again, I’m sorry for the absence of blogs over the last several weeks. Hopefully, my health is good enough that I’ll be able to keep then going.

Let me recap the lessons from this week’s blog.

Always Someone Worse

No matter how bad you feel, there is always someone worse. There’s a group of us that usually play golf together at least once in the spring. Of the four of us, I have inherited liver disease, one has cancer, one has a neurological issue, and one has heart disease. There is always someone in worse shape.

Never Lose Your Sense of Humor

Laugh at everything. Things are always easier to handle with humor. Never lose your sense of humor.

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An artistic representation of Jesus Christ being crucified.

Blog Personal

Suffering

by Ron Potter June 7, 2022

It never amazes me which of my blogs gain the most comments. Recently, it was my blog on Physical Therapy.

In that blog, I listed a dozen things that were posted on the wall in my physical therapist’s office. They included:

Dozen Rules to Live By

Live God-Centered
Love People and Build Relationships
Create Remarkable Experiences Through Exceptional Service
Promote Growth and Embrace Change
Be Generous
Pursue Excellence
Be Efficient
Act with Honesty and Integrity
Stay Humble
Utilize Strengths and Passions
Encourage Autonomy, Innovation, and Clarity
Be Transparent

Jesus Suffered

Jesus lived the perfect life. He never did anything to deserve the pain and suffering of being crucified—crucified by hanging on the cross, the most painful execution ever devised by man at that point in time. It was painful and humiliating. In the Bible, God requires payment for sin. The most sinless man alive was Christ, and yet he suffered the full humiliation of crucifixion. Neither the Bible nor Christ ever promised that we would not experience pain or suffering. In fact, quite the opposite; they indicate that suffering will always be part of life. It is our job to suffer without blaming those around us.

Suffering is a part of life. It is those who go through life blaming others for their suffering who miss out on a big part of life. My suffering through liver disease is simply part of life’s suffering. While I was suffering through my disease, my General Practitioner lost his wife. He was left with four young children. Which of us suffered more?

Three of my friends and I travel north each year to play golf together. I have liver disease, one of my friends has cancer, one has Parkinson’s, and one suffers from heart disease (though he may be the healthiest of the four of us). Which one of us suffers more? My definition of friendship is worrying about my buddies regardless of what I may be suffering. Each of us feels the same pain, and that is what makes us great friends.

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Blog Leadership

CEO Quotes

by Ron Potter May 26, 2022

I came across an interesting article the other day that talked about the important work of a CEO.

This particular CEO wanted to develop a particular type of platform and started the development in his living room. Today, over 830 million people from around the world are members and use the platform regularly.

In the article, this CEO states that he could not have had success without the help of his friends. He says that “friends will be absolutely central to your sense of happiness, connection and meaning.”

Most people would assume he experiences happiness through his success in business. He says happiness comes from the connection of friends, regardless of financial success. Following are four lessons he learned from his friends.

Appreciate Other Perspectives

Early in his career, one of his colleagues stated that he seem to know nothing about how women thought and acted. He realized there was an entire perspective of the world around him that he knew nothing about. He asked his colleague to help him out. His reaction was, “When there’s something important you don’t know, real friends will tell you about it.”

Realizing Your Purpose

Soon after leaving college, he was grappling with the question of “What do I want to do with my life?” Again, another friend said, “Don’t sit there feeling like you don’t know what to do. Go do something.”

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that many people don’t do anything because they don’t feel qualified. Notice the quote above. It doesn’t say go get qualified to do something, but go do something! I had three major careers in my 40 years of business. I didn’t feel qualified to do any of them, I just started. If I had waited or worked at becoming qualified, it’s likely I wouldn’t have accomplished any of the three.

Saying “No” to Yes Men

Here is what the CEO is quoted saying: “We all seek validation or approval in one way or another. While it’s good to have friends that support what you do, it’s more important to have friends that can tell you the truth, even if it may hurt.” He also says, “Friends will tell you not what you want to hear, but that you need to hear.”

Helping Your Friends Help You

The CEO says that the most important lesson is that “Your friends help you the most by letting you help them.”

That CEO is Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn. I don’t know Reed and I have never worked for Linkedin, but I’m going to trust that Reed not only believes but lives these lessons.

I did consult for a multi-billion dollar firm several years back. The CEO used much of that same language. However, he thought of himself as a teacher. He didn’t need to learn these things, he needed to teach others. I watched as he would meet with people below his direct reports to impart these wisdoms. However, with his direct reports, he acted as if he knew it all and didn’t need that “friend” described above. His direct reports never cared for him and his tenure with that company was short-lived.

These are great quotes from Reid. Just make sure they apply to everyone in your life. You may have worked for three or four decades but that brand new employee is capable of asking the question that helps you. Apply it to friends, family, and others that you encounter along the way. You’ll learn and grow from each encounter.

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Blog Culture Personal

Physical Therapy

by Ron Potter May 19, 2022

I’ve been in Physical Therapy (PT) for the last several weeks. It’s a concept that can strike terror into your heart.

Pain

There is no shortage of pain or suffering while you’re at PT. In fact, I’ve accused them of updating machines from the torture of evil dungeons.

The staff at PT doesn’t let up on the pain and suffering caused by their work. In fact, they won’t let up until I get it right or I get enough repetitions to produce some gain from the effort. They’re relentless in causing pain and suffering in order to gain ground on my ailment.

Encouraging

However, during the effort that is painful and exhausting, I find the staff to be very encouraging and motivating. What causes this seeming dilemma? On the wall, they have posted their dozen rules to live by.

Dozen Rules to Live By

Live God-Centered
Love People and Build Relationships
Create Remarkable Experiences Through Exceptional Service
Promote Growth and Embrace Change
Be Generous
Pursue Excellence
Be Efficient
Act with Honesty and Integrity
Stay Humble
Utilize Strengths and Passions
Encourage Autonomy, Innovation, and Clarity
Be Transparent

Let me expand on a few of these.

Live God-Centered

God doesn’t promise a pain-free life. Be he does promise to love us and will always be with us. That’s what the people at physical therapy do. They are always with us through the entire exercise set and they make us feel cared for and appreciated when they’re administrating pain (in an effort to make us better).

Love People and Build Relationships

As people approach the end of their life, their minds turn to relationships. I hope I have many years left but I do find my mind and memories turning to relationships.

I received a text message from a friend I first knew forty years ago. I was so glad to get that message that I immediately called him back. He had coded the first computer program I ever developed. We spent many hours going through the code and becoming great friends along the journey.

Promote Growth and Embrace Change

Change is the part of life that people seem to resist the most. Although things are constantly changing, there seems to be a desire to ignore or deny that things are changing. Things constantly change. Embrace it.

Act with Honesty and Integrity

Honesty and Integrity are the elements that people remember about us. You can be generous, excellent, and efficient (numbers 5, 6, and 7) above, but honesty and integrity are what people will remember about you.

Be Humble and Transparent

Humility and transparency (numbers 9 and 12) are the two other aspects that will be long remembered. People with these traits seem to be fully trusted and are long remembered. When you’re administering pain (in PT) people must feel your humbleness and transparency or they won’t come back.

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Blog In-Depth Book Reviews

Anyway

by Ron Potter May 12, 2022

Anyway by Kent Keith is a small quick read book. But, in spite of its small size, it is packed full of wisdom.

I’ll list all of the 10 Paradoxical Commandments here so that you can see all of them but then touch on a few that I believe are very powerful.

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love Them Anyway
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do Good Anyway
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed Anyway
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do Good Anyway
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be Honest and Frank Anyway
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest ideas.
Think Big Anyway
People favor underdogs but follow only the top dogs.
Fight for a Few Undergood Anyway
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build Anyway
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help People Anyway
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the World the Best You Have anyway

Love them, do good, succeed, be honest and grand, think big, fight for a few underdogs, build, help, give your best, ANYWAY!

So few of us do it anyway. There always seem to be obstacles in the way. I think some of the worst are personal fear and worrying about what others think. I’ve often heard “what will others think?” People who are driven by what others think never achieve their own satisfaction, desires, and goals. As the book says, people always look for ways of stopping you and criticizing you. Somehow it makes them feel better about themself or superior by stopping your goals and ideas even though they have either non or very small goals themselves.

Let’s take a look at a few of these that I believe have a major impact.

Do Good Anyway

The profound statement in this section is “People who act on their own selfish interior motives commonly accuse others of doing the same thing.”

I can’t say that I’m totally clear of selfish motives. But I accomplish enough things without ulterior motives that I’m always surprised that other people think I’m only doing things for selfish reasons.

My first reaction is one of total confusion and amazement. It seems the other person believes I’m doing something entirely for personal reasons when I feel that I’m doing something for the good of the whole or the benefit of another person. I’m totally confused and taken back. Then as I think about it, I realize that the person who thinks I’m doing something for selfish reasons runs their whole life on accomplishing things for totally selfish reasons. Because of this, they assume that everyone does things for selfish reasons and can’t even comprehend when someone is not driven by selfish reasons.

There is no way for them to understand doing something for the good of others because they would never think that way. Unfortunately, there are too many people in the world who think that way. It’s good for us to understand who they are, realize that they would never understand our motives, and do good anyway.

Think Big Anyway

Only a few people seem to think big. One of the reasons is that people don’t think of themselves as being “qualified.” I’ve gone through three different careers and have never felt qualified. Even though I had an engineering degree, it mostly taught me about the mathematics of engineering. I never felt “qualified” to walk structural steel 160 feet in the air.

My second career was developing a software company at the beginning of the microcomputer industry. I never felt qualified.

My third career was running a consulting business. I called it TLC (Team Leaders Culture). I never felt qualified to dispense wisdom in those three areas until a CEO client of mine told me one evening that I was good at all three (building teams by teaching leadership and transferring it down through the culture). But my real value was simply talking with him during our evening chats. I now felt qualified to simply talk with the client about any topic.

Living the Paradoxical Life

Living the paradoxical life finds great personal meaning in loving and helping others find meaning in their lives.

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