Better Nature Photos Now

Beco overcomes his fears of water to enjoy a summer evening swim. Beco is four months old and has just started learning to swim. He’s at the stage of swimming many of us are at when it involves taking risks in our life. We know we want a change but we just can’t commit. Last night Beco committed for a second time.
How many of us try things once when they don’t work out the first time we just don’t try again. People who excel understand mastery takes time. It may take two times or it may take twenty but persistence is the only insurance we get in this life. So go ahead dive in the waters fine.

Took a break today from moving the offices around to spend time with our favorite baby elephant Beco. He’s hovering at 678 pounds and continues to get rowdier even in the heat. When he bumps you you know it. He still thinks of himself as a small baby causing Phoebe some challenges when he collides with her legs. She is extremely agile for her 7000 pounds.
At 4 1/2 Months he continues to have a large following of fans at the Columbus Zoo. In the next couple of visits I hope to take some pictures of the children watching the baby elephant. You can’t believe the smiles on their faces and their comments are priceless.
There are several additional babies around the Zoo if you haven’t seen them your missing an incredible experience.
We are going down to Cincinnati Zoo to photograph the racing Cheetahs and Baby Tigers later this week.
I look forward to sharing the images when we get back.

Burn Your Boats

I’ve owned three businesses in my life. I’ve been very successful partnering with many clients to grow their businesses to the next level. We worked hard to make sure our clients succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. I did it with a group of professionals with whom I built strong partnerships. Business this year has been very good. Clients want me to help them grow. So I asked them to help me understand who I needed on staff to help them do that. Most, if not all talked about taking advantage of speed when seizing opportunities I help them create. The results were always good but opportunities in this environment come at you faster and faster.

I realized that I needed a writer. This person would need to understand many of the business philosophies we use to help clients grow to the next level and understand how to integrate this into my clients’ overall communication strategy, as well as work independently with key clients. I met with many candidates to determine if they were ready to take on such a large challenge. I found that many were capable of doing a good job. But my clients chose to work with my businesses because we did a great job for them. Good enough was not good enough.

Through my career, I’ve had one secret weapon I used when I knew we had to win the deal. She’s worked with me when I partnered with Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Mid Ohio Cardiology and Vascular Consultants, and many other clients. When I was a business development executive with many leading edge technology organizations, she was there to make sure my writing was clear, concise, and organized. She’s my wife, Tricia.

Not only has she been my secret weapon in getting the writing done, but in our 15 years of marriage, she been the financial security. The security of knowing that no matter what happens; we have at least one good paycheck to count on to pay the bills. She is an incredible consultant and had always loved her job. With both of us working, we’ve had the good fortune of financial freedom, having no debt and significant reserves for a rainy day. However, it’s not enough to be debt free anymore.

In today’s uncertain economic climate, opportunities abound. Every dollar we invest will have a tenfold –hundred fold ROI. This is a time when many multi-millionaires will be created. Some of my former mentors, such as Warren Buffet and John Templeton are just starting to pick up the bargains that are available to shrewd investors. Watch for them to start adding significant value to their portfolios.

All of this led us to decide that Tricia should resign and come work for my company. It’s a huge risk, giving up the stable financial security her job has given us. She could stay in her current job until she retires in several years. But she doesn’t want to play it safe anymore. She wants to travel and do the things she loves. Sometimes you have to burn the boats of safety and security to find the courage to move forward. It’s now time to burn the boats and get ready to change the world. Come join us on our journey to the edge.