Selflessness - Playing for the Team

[Originally written on 09-Feb-2009]

Coach Dan Herr and '08 Truckee JV Boys Basketball

Don’t think about winning, don’t think about the score…play for the moment…play in the now…the rest will follow

Every member of a team has a job, a role…you may not always like your role, but you have to play it. If you are in the game, you have a role, if you are the 6^th man, you have a role, if you are riding the bench you have a role (cheer the team on…help the coaches out). If you play your role, giving up the selfish ego, we will win as a team…and everyone likes winning

Its not about winning…its about being

Personal Reflections when Steve Jobs Passed

We are all going to be dead a really long time and we only have this short while to be so free and interact with the world so willingly.

Why, if this is the case, would we do anything other than make the most of every moment, pursue our dreams and visions that are our own to the fullest, and listen, love and live with intensity, integrity, and ingenuity; experiencing what is, dreaming of what can be; and making what will be with the now.

Fundamental Change

Change... How hackneyed, overdone, overused, rhetoricized, Obama-ized, falsely sold, over-promised and under-delivered.

I won't get into politics as the leaders of our government are in offices with responsibilities far beyond conception of most of us, with unreasonable expectations set by us, and millions if moat billions of voices to answer to. And for full disclosure I believe that the Obama administration is doing the best job that they know how to given the situation and set of circumstances that all by the eldest and wisest of us have not seen. But I digress to the point...

We all signed on for "change" because we believe

You go... go now...

I believe in inspiration through action, creativity and analysis in design, and experience by jumping into the fire. What about you?

Life as a science experiment

One vivid point came to me while meditating this evening on boiling humans and life actions down to their most basic elements; and no I don't mean that table of symbols you were forcing into your head in high school chemistry class. I mean the fundamental basis of actions, motives, colors, directions, plants, animals, worlds, and black wholes, yeses and no, light as well as dark. What is the binary bit that grows into the complexity of the human brain start as? As a yes or no? As a black of white?
We are an experience based decision engine...

Life in real life the world around

Many people will say this country has issues and most I'll treat it as some unquantifiable, incomprehensible force that controls other people, but somehow does not affect them. The fact that this country has issues deep rooted is termed a problem for the scholars of yesteryears and something our forefathers would be ashamed of.

But what really is this problem? It's definitely not something beyond our capabilities if we just care to take a few moments to give them notice. It's one of those tasks like listening to the stories of our grandparents... It's something you've always said you should do, but you keep pushing it off year after year assuming the time will come at some point. Or even that vacation, or even more that epic adventure you always said you'd have... That time to get away from everything and buy a one-way ticket to the other side of the world. Or even just that sports event of your kids'... It's just one game, he'll live. I'll. Make it next time.
Next thing you know those aspirations of your youth are not but dreams suppressed and hidden away as we call them former immature and childish ambitions.

They Lied to You: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too...

Why my generation will succeed. My generation are the first ones to actually care about what our grandparents have to say. My generation is full of doers... We are sick of what has always been talked about and ready for it to happen. Our parents looked to freedom, to break free from the machine, to be individuals and to tell the world "screw you I don't have to listen to you, I can do what i want." we grew up in a world where we were constantly told by our parents and society that we were special. In our own way and at our own unique time we all found out that we weren't. Whether it was failing at school or sports or simply realizing that every movie and tv show we grew up with tried to feed us the same message... That we were different, special, and joe schmo would rise above the pack, be the next hero, live above the matrix... We stepped outside our bubble and realized we had been lied to. Our reaction wasn't one of hatred, but rather of disappointment we were familiar with and should have expected. We came out feeling like a kid who just learned about Santa's relationship with his parents; we didn't want to believe it, and we kept trying not to, but there was no escaping the truth. We could no longer accept the rainbows and butterflies world we were told to believe in. One by one we realized we couldn't escape the reality our parents tried to get away from their entire lives.

What I would give....

If I could give one thing to the world... one thing that would change it and sustain it... it would be the oxymoron of a non-profit organization that's goal and purpose in life is to create, invest in, support, and build sustainable businesses... an organization that reinvests what is earned into the community and the world around it... building businesses not merely with the intention to get rich and the desire become the largest of the Fortune 500's, but the goal of becoming the best business they can possibly be... choosing instead of big, instead of gargantuan, to be great.

Every day you live you die a little more. Only so many days left on the clock.
If every day you're dying tomorrow why not live in the fullest today?
- Daniel Herr 31-May-2010

[Updated 16-Nov-2011]
I just read Steve Jobs' quote a few weeks ago... Kinda neat to compare his to mine:

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap
 of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.
There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Dollars = Devil?

Praise-free action

Something I have firmly learned in my travels is that you feel so much better about life when you do something for someone else expecting nothing in return. Helping someone beyond what they expected and receiving praise for simple actions above and beyond. By taking initiative and doing what is needed and never asked; what is appreciated more than you know but hidden with all but the slightest hints.