Water slide

We are at Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas. We were at the top of a water slide and my daughter was afraid and wanted to back out. Kids and adults had made it to the bottom successfully all day with no injury. So why was she afraid?

Fear of the unknown is the worst fear. It's  misuse of your imagination. Some fear is good for you. You shouldn't stand outside during a tornado or lightning storm. Often the fear we experience will never happen. We stress our mind and body for no reason.

She did go down the slide and was waiting at the bottom with a huge smile on her face! The best part was that she was ready to go right back up. So go ahead and take that leap. You'll be fine. No, you'll be great!

Human Nature

I recently returned from Charleston to panic and frustration in the city of Murfreesboro, TN. I learned that we had an apparent gas shortage. A pipeline has ruptured, disrupting the supply to Tennessee.

The media said it was only temporary and not to rush out to buy gas and certainly don't panic. So why were there lines to the street with many stations only allowing a certain number of gallons to be purchased? Some stations were out completely.

It's human nature. "If everyone else stays in, I'll get there first and get my gas." Guess what? Everyone is thinking that! I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm saying humans are predictable.

Once you can learn how humans behave, you can be successful in business. You can learn how to serve them based on that behavior.

Average

My son brought home his progress report last week. He had made four "A's" and one "C". You might think that he had a great report. It was not acceptable because of the standard we have set in our household. We don't settle for average.

Most people go through life just trying to get by. They are just keeping their head above water to maintain that "C". You often hear, "At least I'm not failing!" They have set the bar too low.

Do you eat at restaurants that have a "C" average for food quality or rush to book that "C" quality hotel? What if your heart surgeon maintained a "C" average in college? Then why do we accept that from our children and ourselves?

How do we fix the "C' mentality? We sat down with our son and reviewed what brought his grade down and made sure he understood how to fix it. He had misunderstood one assignment and made an extremely low grade. He is now working to bring the grade up.

If we had just been fine with "average", we would not have given him a chance to grow.

Why climb the mountain?

Adolph Rupp said "When you see a man on top of a mountain, you can be sure he didn't fall there." 

I recently watched a documentary on an expedition to climb K2 where 11 people died. It made me think, why did they risk there life to climb a mountain? Most of the time they only stay a few short minutes at the summit and have to begin the dangerous descent.

Many of the ones who survived had do have their toes removed due to frost bite. There lives were altered forever. Some of those continued to find ways to climb other mountains.

Life is always easier looking up at the mountain. One thing is for sure, you can't climb a mountain like K2 by yourself. You have to have experienced people around you. People you trust with your life! 

The only way to see true success is to have a team around you. You can't go it alone. You won't ask yourself the hard questions. It's worth it! The view is nice from up here!