The Three Bricklayers

A story that well summarizes the power of Vision, is the story of three bricklayers. The story goes, that three bricklayers were working side by side.

When asked, “What are you doing?”, the first bricklayer replied:

“I’m laying bricks.”

The second bricklayer was asked. He answered,

“Feeding my family.”

The third bricklayer when asked the question,

“What are you doing?”, responded,

“I’m building a cathedral.”

Yesterday’s email talked about enthusiasm. It’s hard to have enthusiasm without a vision of the future that you are excited about.

When someone asks you what you do for a living, how do you respond?

Do you respond with enthusiasm and an answer with some vision of the future?

And this goes further than what you do for a living.

If someone caught you at home on a Saturday and asked you what you are doing, how would you respond?

Do you have a vision for yourself outside of work? Do you have a vision for your family?

These are some challenging questions and they aren’t easily answered for most of us.

Spend a few minutes today thinking about how you would answer the question “What are you doing?”

Jake

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the best things about working with a group of awesome people every day is the enthusiasm.

Everyone gets excited about some part of their job or something awesome they did for a client.

The MavideaAll emails fly around when someone claims The Rock.

It’s part of what makes Mavidea and each of you special.

Let’s all find ways to show more enthusiasm and encourage the enthusiasm we see in others this week.

Jake

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage. – Martin Luther King

Today is Meaghan’s (my wife) birthday.

I found this quote above when looking for something to explain how much of an influence she is/has been on my attempts at building the best Jake I can.

Part of why I can be positive every day is because I have a great marriage.

I know that no matter what I am loved and that the special relationship Meaghan and I have will not be changed in any way regardless of how good or bad of a job I did that day.

There is real freedom in having someone in your life like that.

And it takes a special person to do that, especially when your husband is Jake.

Happy Birthday and Thank You to Meaghan!

I know this song will be on at some point today in our house, so I thought you should get to listen to it once too….

http://youtu.be/ztoSUhbNntQ

Jake

There is one thing that has worried me about sending these every day.

I am a hypocrite.

I am not a perfect embodiment of all the positive things and practices that I espouse in these emails.

Sometimes I lose patience with the kids.

Sometimes I’m not as positive as I should be in my conversations with Meaghan.

Sometimes I set weak sauce goals and don’t meet them.

Sometimes I’m not as smily and happy as I should be.

Sometimes I watch TV instead of reading a book or exercising.

The list could go on and on….

But one day I realized that maybe this is the reason that I should be writing these daily emails. I am just like you. I have my own insecurities and imperfections. I have worries and imperfections just like everyone else.

And that is where I hope that I can add some value to your day by writing these.

My hope is that by articulating my thoughts and my own personal journey towards becoming a better person, you can learn a little bit from me and my mistakes and the lessons I have and will learn in the future.

In the past, I thought of a hypocrite as being the worst kind of person and the kind of person to avoid. Having realized now that I am one, it changes my tune a little (conveniently).

I have come to the conclusion that I am not in charge of worrying about others and whether or not they may or may not be a hypocrite, I am in charge of growing myself into less and less of a hypocrite.

And these emails are about my journey towards becoming that person.

So, have a little patience with us hypocrites…..some of us are working on it.

Jake

It’s all relative.

We hear this all the time. But recently this has taken on a new meaning.

I have been listening to "The Dave Ramsey Show" as one of the podcasts I have subscribed to.

On the show he has people call in and yell out "I’m Debt Free!" and give their story of paying off their personal debt.

Despite the obvious inspiration this provides by making you think that you too can become debt free and start "winning" with money (as Dave calls it), it has an extra element to it that I thought I would share.

Each person has their own story and they vary quite a bit. Some people have paid off $200,000 in debt in one year and make $200,000 a year in income. Others paid off their $2000 credit card balance and make minimum wage.

The lesson I have learned is that "it’s all relative".

The people that have paid a relatively small amount are just as happy to call in as those that have paid off $200,000.

On the show, Dave talks about achieving financial peace and being happy with money.

This is more of an attitude than a dollar amount.

What in your life needs attitude adjustment to achieve peace?

Make it a great day.

Jake

"Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." – Martin Luther King, Jr.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. day, I thought I would share a quote from him that I have been planning to send out at some point.

I love the beginning of this quote. EVERYBODY can be great.

Black or white.

Short or tall.

Rich or poor.

None of that matters, because greatness doesn’t come from any of those things. It comes from our ability to serve others.

And the more we are able to serve others, the greater our life becomes. If you were to look at the great figures of recent history (Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Gandhi) they all have something in common.

First, there isn’t a perfect one in the bunch. All of them made some poor choices and/or had some very difficult times in their life. So we can all stop using the “I’m not good enough” excuse for not serving as many people as we can.

Second, they all found ways to serve others and that is what led to their greatness. That is what they were about.

Make it a great week.

Jake