It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

START-UPS.

Thanks for your comments from last week as I talked about what an "Entrepreneur" is, and I shared the quote that talked about how everyone has ideas, but some people do something with that idea: THEY START. I'll share a couple of your comments later...

Here's my first START-UP story. This entrepreneurial flame began to burn in my life as a kid, and I was always thinking about what I could do to make money.

When I was 13 years-old, I was living in South America. I couldn't "legally" work in the country because of my visa status (and the fact that I was 13!), so I knew if I was going to make any money to support my food and snacks habit, I would need to create something.

I remember visiting a print shop, and seeing a bin full of leftover paper that was being thrown out. I don't know how I got the idea, but in talking with the printer, Javier (who I still know to this day), I asked him about the paper, and what they did with it, and he told me they burned it. I asked him if I could have some of it, and began thinking about selling it. He suggested I glue some together, and offered to make me some note pads with the scraps. I took those pads out to the street, along with my friend Keith, and we began selling them to cars a they drove by. For those of you who know Quito, we were selling at the "Y", long before the steady stream of vendors that are there now.

We sold out of our pads.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

ENTREPRENEUR.

This week while on a walk I was listening to a podcast, and Mark Randolph, the co-founder of Netflix, was being interviewed. They were talking about all kinds of things, then Randolph said something like this:

"Everyone has ideas. The difference between someone who has an idea and someone who does something with it is simply this: THEY START."

I stopped my walk, took a note on that, then just thought about that for a while.

THEY START.

My first job, as a budding entrepreneur, was mowing a couple of lawns in my neighborhood. My dad had a lawnmower, and he paid me $5 to mow our lawn. Why wouldn't my neighbors pay me as well?

I started my first lawn business at the ripe age of about 9 years old. I didn't mow a lot of lawns, but enough to keep me supplied in candy.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

MENTOR.

The quote below meant a lot to me this past week:

"You don't get anywhere of significance on your own. You get somewhere significant beside others." Tom Paterson.

The idea that other people have so much to contribute into my life, into my development, into my purpose is so important.

A definition of a mentor is "an experienced and trusted advisor".

When I look for mentoring or when I've looked in the past for mentoring, this is what I'm looking for... someone that has more experience than I have that I can trust! It's pretty simple, and I've had some incredible people pour into my life over all of my years of growth and development.

This past week, one of these people finished their earthly course, and moved on to eternity.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

ENERGY.

Personal Energy is something I often take for granted.

I expect that every morning, I will wake up with a certain amount of energy that I can manage throughout the day, and hopefully it will last! I've learned over my years how to "replenish" my energy quickly with some tips and tricks, and I've learned about the things that "deplete" my energy more quickly.

Managing my energy is still a challenge everyday.

This past week, I had some unexpected time to think about my energy management, and I read a couple of great articles that got me thinking.

#1) Seth Godin "Conservation of Energy in Conversation" (April 16, 2013)

He writes a short blog (his are always short!) where he talks about how we can add negative energy or positive energy to any situation with the way we engage with people.

Read his full post HERE.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

It feels like we're in the middle of a storm here in the USA. There is tension surrounding our political transition, there is uncertainty as we continue to fight the Covid crisis both here and around the globe. Economically, people are struggling and emotionally, people are mostly tired and fearful at the same time.

2021 has just begun, and I hear the fatigue in the voices of people that I talk to, yet there is also a hint of hope! There's a promise that something will change, that it can't continue like this much longer. There's a reminder that we're not walking through this alone.

We're reminded from the words of Jesus in Matthew 11: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (ESV)

We're also reminded that many, many people have been through suffering over the years, and often much worse than we are experiencing. Life is difficult, and we're called to keep our eyes on HIM and to trust HIM in all that we do and say.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

GO.

Last week, I shared a post that was titled STOP. The challenge was to take some time as the New Year is starting to do some evaluation and some thinking, and that in doing this, you may find that you need to STOP some things in order to create space to START some things. I hope you were able to pause for a moment to do that.

I appreciated Ty's note from Spain following my note:

"While I really appreciate the idea you are sharing, STOP is not my word in 2021. Like you, forces outside of my control forced me to STOP almost everything several months ago, and it impacted my life in an unprecedented way. In fact, the impact was more dramatic than the ensuing pandemic (which has been an added layer to it all)! Consequently, a significant time of reflection and reevaluation of basically everything ensued. Frankly, I didn’t enjoy it…especially at first…but I began to see the value of it all in time. The beauty of being forced to STOP for me was in the sifting. God used the STOP to cull a lot of extraneous activity from my life, and consequently created new opportunities for me GO in more fruitful and productive paths.
So, here’s my plan for 2021: YIELD my plans and decisions to Jesus, and GO hard (within and despite constraints imposed from outside my control)!"

Thank you Ty for sharing this. It's a great reminder and challenge!

In Rory Vadens book, "Procrastinate on Purpose", he begins with making 4 statements that really resonated with me. I'll give a brief description of his statements, but I encourage you to read this book.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

STOP.

My daughter-in-law Abby got me this sign for my office for Christmas...

It's a great sign, and I've been wanting one for a while to hang in my office.

As I've looked at this sign over the past week, the word STOP has begun to "grind" a little in my thinking, so much so that I've decided to make this a word that I want to focus on over the coming year.

I know, you're probably thinking that this should have been the word for this past year because so much had to STOP.

Here's my thinking:

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

JOY.

We got a dog.

Yes, you heard that right. Rumi joined our family.

Rumi is a 2-year old German Shepherd who was rescued and fostered, and she's now ours. (And that's Raylin with her... our youngest daughter)

Here are the three meanings of her name, you can choose the one that works for you:

#1) Rumiñahui was a great general in the Inca Civil War of 1533

#2) Rumiñahui is a beautiful 15,489 foot volcano that I've climbed in Ecuador

#3) Rumiñahui is a Ceviche chain in Ecuador that has the best food in the world!

We'll just call her Rumi and we're good with any of these meanings, but if you know the Cline Family, you know where her name comes from!