Two of our nieces spent a few days with us this week. They really came to see their cousin, our daughter, and her new baby. A side benefit was that they had to (got to!) stay with us. It’s always good to be with them and catch a little bit of their creative and entrepreneurial spirit. Our niece, Natalie, recommended a new (to me) podcast. It’s an NPR production called How I Built This. The podcast is a fantastic offering exploring how entrepreneurs and innovators built their companies or projects from the ground up. The first one I listened to was an affirmation that hustle often brings success.

It was about the founding of Air BnB. Two recent college graduates lived in San Francisco and were attempting to come up with ideas for a new company. They wanted to be entrepreneurs. A few of their attempts were unsuccessful.

Then they discovered a big designers’ conference was coming to San Francisco. They knew that hotel rooms would be at a premium. So they decided to advertise that they had space for rent. They would blow up air mattresses, provide good hospitality, and show their renters the city. Before they knew it three people took them up on their offer. It was a success.

But it would be a while before this would all become Air BnB. The whole thing went through numerous fits and starts. Finally they decided they needed money just to live, let alone get their business going.

So they came up with the idea of producing rare breakfast cereal boxes. Yes, you read that right. Barack Obama and John McCain were running for president. They made cereal boxes called “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCain’s.” They sold them for $40 (!) a piece. It was a wild success. They had a bit more rent money.

Before long an entrepreneurial incubator got wind of their upstart. They applied and were invited to come for an interview. The interview didn’t go as well as they had hoped. But on the way out they remembered they had brought a box of Obama O’s as a gift. They ran back in and gave it to their interviewers. As a result, they were accepted into the program because they showed the panel that they could hustle and wouldn’t give up.

What a great, but simple, lesson. Sometimes success simply means hustle. You have a good idea. You’ve done the work. A foundation is laid.

You can’t just wait. You have to hustle.

My wife, Tammy, is in the middle of doing just that. As she starts her new business, she is designing, creating products, posting on social media, doing sales calls at retail outlets, and learning how to operate the back end of her web site. It all takes a great deal of hustle.

And it’s beginning to pay off. She has sold a fair number of items online. Her products are now in four retail outlets in the Orlando area. She has put together a number of custom orders. The business is not yet turning a profit, but it’s getting very close to doing so.

Projects, work, or business can succeed without hustle. But it doesn’t happen very often. Hustle is often the secret sauce to wild success.

What can you do today to hustle?

It’s a necessity of life in America. I had jury duty this week. If you’ve ever been through it you know what a microcosm it is of society. People from all walks of life, young and old, sitting in one room, waiting for the call to the courtroom.

We were to be at the courthouse promptly at 8 a.m. It was like going through airport security: put everything through the x-ray machine, take off your belt and shoes, walk through the scanner. Check in. Then find your way into the Jury Holding Room. Sit in uncomfortable chairs that are far too close together.

Everyone was silent. We all stayed to ourselves except one man in the corner who was speaking much too loudly to the lady next to him (there’s always one of those). The rest of us looked at our phones, read our books, or sat in silence. It was starting to get a little warm.

I can’t say that anyone was too excited to be there. That’s when the Clerk of the Court came in, gave us a few instructions, and then showed us a “rah rah” video. The video was designed to change our attitudes about being there. It explained the Constitution, and the process, and interviewed former jurors who had “fabulous” experiences. I must say it did get me a bit excited about the potentiality of being a juror myself.

But then a judge came in. She asked us all the qualifying questions to make sure we weren’t excluded from serving. Then she told us that the vast majority of us would never make it onto a jury (talk about foreshadowing).

The wait then began. It was another hour-and-a-half until the Clerk came in and read twenty names. I wasn’t one of them. Those people left. A little while later that process was repeated. My name still wasn’t called. So we sat another hour and they dismissed us for an hour-and-a-half lunch (life’s tough in this courtroom scene).

After lunch it was back through security again. It was another stay in the prison of the Jury Holding Room. We waited. And waited some more. And waited some more.

Here’s the interesting part. The longer we waited the more comfortable people got with each other. The later in the day it got, the louder the room. People began to talk and laugh. Small groups began to form.

The Clerk came back in at about 3:30 in the afternoon. She made an announcement that we were to hold tight. There were still two judges selecting panels. One man went forward and angrily shouted at the Clerk, saying that this whole process should be better and that we should all be allowed to go home. I felt sorry for the Clerk.

I have to say that at that point I was getting pretty impatient myself. Finally at almost five o’clock the Clerk came into the room and said we were all dismissed and our jury duty was complete. There was a cheer and a stampede for the door.

Lessons:

1. Common experience forges relationships.
2. Impatience brings out the worst in people.
3. Sometimes civic duty is short and interesting, and sometimes it is long and boring.
4. Freedom has its responsibilities.
5. It’s good to be able to walk out of a courthouse and back into the freedom of society.

Have you ever had jury duty? Did you make it onto a jury? What’s your story?

Don’t dismiss the wisdom of age. This week I was visiting one of our elderly members who is confined (I don’t use that word lightly) to a nursing home. He has a great deal of time to think. And think. And think. When I visit him, the words come pouring out of his mouth. We cover a myriad of topics. It is one of the more fulfilling things I am able to do.

This week it was no different. I walked into the room, sat down, and the conversation flowed. We discussed his cell phone, his eyesight (or lack thereof), and his family tree. I guess it was discussing his family tree that led him to dropping a few words of wisdom.

His thoughts turned to a day many years ago when he was the Best Man in his cousin’s wedding. It was his duty, as is tradition, to give a speech. So he came up with what he thinks are the three keys to a fulfilling life: “Something to do; someone to love; and something to look forward to.”

Put those three things together and you will feel fulfilled. What wisdom in those words. They draw our focus to vocation, relationship, and hope:

1. Something to do: Human beings were created for meaningful work. If you look at the book of Genesis you will discover that Adam did fulfilling work even before the fall into sin. It was part of his communion with God and his service to this world. It was only after sin came into the world that work became difficult and laborious. And yet in spite of sin and difficulty, a good day’s work is a thing of beauty. It gives us the opportunity to bring help and meaning into the lives of others, which in turn brings meaning to us.
2. Someone to love: God gave this gift to Adam, as well. God created Eve out of the rib of Adam. Adam called her “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” They were created to love and serve one another. Adam was no longer lonely and alone. He was given the gift of human love. And so was Eve.
3. Something to look forward to: Once sin and death came into the world, Adam and Eve desperately needed something to which they could look forward. God gave them that gift in Genesis 3:15. A Savior was to come.

There is theological wisdom in these three statements. God gave us purpose. He gave us human love and relationship. And He gives us a Savior and salvation.

There is also human wisdom in these words. They apply to our daily lives. What would we do without meaningful work? Or relationships? Or hope? Our lives would be desperately empty.

But when we have those three things — vocation, relationship, and hope — there is a real flow to life. It doesn’t mean life will be perfect. There is still trial, and trouble, and sin. But when we have these three things, life is much better than when we are missing even one of them. Lord, have mercy, if we are missing all three.

How do you see these three keys evident in your own life?

Tonight did not go the way I had planned. As my wife said, I set my goals too high. My plan was to pay the bills, update the family budget, and cook dinner. Then I was going to write a piece for our church’s weekly email, work a bit on my sermon, and do some personal planning and goal setting. Finally, I was going to join our friends from church on a Facebook Live event, write my blog and read some of a fascinating book that I can’t seem to put down. But it all got derailed.

Now that I look at my list, it would have been a major feat to complete even a majority of it. I didn’t even get half way through it. I came home and started updating the check book so that I could write bills. It took longer than I thought. Before I knew it I had to cook dinner. Once dinner was finished I went back to the check book and discovered a discrepancy (don’t you hate that?!). It took me (with the help of my wife) another hour to figure it all out.

Can you say: “Derailed”?

I finally got to paying the bills. That took me another forty-five minutes. By then it was time to join the Facebook Live event. After that I sat down to write this.

All of which is to say I didn’t get to the majority of my goals for the evening. I didn’t update the budget. My evening church work went by the wayside. The goal-setting I had intended to do didn’t get accomplished. And I really wanted to get to that book.

Have you ever had a day or an evening like this? It happens far more often than I’d care to admit.

But I’m learning these derailed days and nights can be redeemed. Here’s how:

• Count the blessings. I looked back on the night and remembered that I had more than enough money to pay my bills. Not everyone can say that. More than that, I was uplifted by my friends from church as we gathered together online.
• Learn to be reasonable. The next free evening I have will be planned with a much less aggressive agenda. I will build in more flex time. It’s more difficult to be derailed if one’s goals can’t be characterized as “biting off more than you can chew.”
• Allow yourself a reward. Be easy on yourself. Even if you don’t accomplish all of your goals, you deserve a bit of leisure at the end of the day. So I think I’ll go read at least a few pages of my book.

Getting derailed is a part of life. It seems almost nothing goes as planned. We do well to expect the unexpected.

What do you do when things get derailed?

I can’t stop thinking about Mary Tyler Moore. As I’m sure you know by now, she died this week at the age of eighty. Though Moore was a brilliant comedienne, her personal life was filled with a great deal of challenge and sorrow. She was raised by alcoholic parents who didn’t care well for her. At the age of 33 she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and would suffer complications as a result. She was married three times. Her son died at the age of 24 of an accidental gun shot wound. And she herself struggled with alcoholism.

And yet I can’t stop thinking about all the joy she brought into my life. I was too young to see the Dick Van Dyke Show when it originally aired. But I loved watching the reruns when I got home from school. And yet it was the Mary Tyler Moore Show that really had an impact on my formative years. It was a TV show that our entire family could watch together on those 70’s Saturday nights. I loved her spirit, her humor, her acting. She had a joie de vivre that was really incomparable.

And there was that theme song. It’s been going through my mind ever since I learned of her death. I can still see her tossing her hat into the air at the end of the show’s intro.

I can’t stop thinking about Mary Tyler Moore. She was an icon. But for me her death took me back to simpler times. We didn’t know the politics of the actors and actresses on the screen. There was no social media sometimes being used as a tool to beat down other views or other people. There were only three or four channels on our TV. The information age had not yet exploded. We simply enjoyed the simplicity of a good, old-fashioned, family-friendly comedy.

Not only has Mary Tyler Moore died. Simpler life has died as well. Life today is much more complicated. It seems much more divisive. Anger and fear seem to bubble much closer to the surface of our lives. The world is so much smaller, and yet in so many ways, so much more separated.

But I can’t rid myself of Mary’s happy-go-lucky attitude. I can’t help but tap into her positive attitude and her clever ways of dealing with Mr. Grant. Her great attitude and optimism might just be some of what we need in this much more complicated world. She’d want us to get along, and care for, and love one another, even difficult people like Ted Baxter.

And I can’t help but think that Mary would remind us: “We’re gonna make it after all.”

What do you remember about simpler times? 

Today I listened to a fascinating discussion. It took place on Krista Tippet’s “On Being” Podcast (listen to it here). She interviewed Anil Dash. He’s a blogger, entrepreneur, and technologist. Anil Dash is on a crusade to make technology more humane and moral. It’s a tall task. But the thing about the interview that stood out to me came way toward the end. When discussing new tech startups Dash’s question is not: “What if you fail?”; but: “What if you succeed?” In other words, what impact will the success of new technology have on the world?

It’s a very interesting question. It turns on its head our usual thoughts. We are so afraid of failing that we often fail to think through what would happen if we succeed. But when we do, we don’t take a step forward because we’re scared. We are actually afraid of success. With success comes responsibility. It means we might just have to carry through on promises. When we succeed it might mean that we have to change. And very few people truly like change.

I was listening to this podcast as I came home from a Church Council meeting. At the meeting we had a great discussion about ways our leaders could engage more of our members through one-one-one interviews and discussions. Doing so would create a fabric that engages people in action that could bring about great “success” in reaching people outside of the church. But that success would bring about change. And very few church-goers like change.

It’s one of the things my wife, Tammy, had to wrestle with as she contemplated quitting her job and starting a new business. What if that business would succeed? It would mean learning new things, working long hours, and figuring out how to take next steps. But it’s an exciting journey and risk she was willing to take.

With success comes responsibility. It means hard work. Learning and education are necessary. Change is inevitable.

But doesn’t life consist of constant change? So why not lean into success?

Before you do, consider all of its implications. You might just discover that it’s completely worth it.

What would success look like for you?

One of my favorite things to do is to encourage people. I’m especially passionate about encouraging people to live out their passions. It makes me incredibly sad when people find themselves stuck in jobs they hate, punching a clock with no joy, or living under undue stress. I’ve had the opportunity to encourage people in this way no less than three times within the past week. But I’m especially proud of my friend, Justin Fricke. He took a risk and it paid off.

I’ve written about him on this blog before. Justin and his brother, Adam, cooked up an idea called “The Bro’d Trip.” They were going to live in a van and visit all fifty states within the course of a year.

Well…they did it.

The year 2016 saw them hiking, biking, surfing, climbing, and driving their way through every state, Puerto Rico, and three Canadian provinces. They drove the Alaska Highway, took photos of Hawaii from a helicopter, and won a lottery to hike in and see Utah’s “Wave” (Check it out here). They saved their money, set a goal, purchased a sprinter van, and made it happen. These two did what other people only dream of doing.

I like to think that I had at least a small hand in this adventurous journey. Justin was part of my mentoring group while he was contemplating all this. He and I rode 100 miles together in bikes. And just before The Bro’d Trop commenced, we sat in a coffee shop to say our good-byes.

It was a surprising discussion. Justin was getting cold feet. He wondered if he had made a big mistake. Thoughts started entering his mind about missing home, his friends, and his parents. But I reminded him that this dream was built on a solid foundation. He had no debt. His savings account was well-stocked. And most importantly, he was gifted with a spirit of adventure.

Needless to say, the brothers went on the trip. It changed their lives. They learned important lessons. The skills they gained and networking they did set them up well for the future.

The point is this: There is always fear when taking a leap. That fear is natural. But many of our most important actions take place outside of our comfort zone. Adam and Justin had fear as they embarked on this adventure. But now they wouldn’t trade their experience for the world.

In fact, Justin is selling the sprinter van and has just bought a traditional panel van. In another month or so he’ll be heading out west on his own to keep the journey going. He’s got some sponsors. He has a few freelance jobs lined up. And he’s looking to make more connections.

Another leap. A continuing adventure. More lessons. Another risk.

But all worth it so that he doesn’t have to sit behind a desk in a corporate job.

What risk are you willing to take?