Over the past few weeks as I watched the Kavanough hearing unfold, I couldn’t help but reflect on how divided and critical everyone seems to be today. Maybe it is because I am getting older, or maybe it has always been like this, but it is shocking for me to see how quickly and easily one person can become the scapegoat of some group’s agenda. The moment someone sticks their head out, their entire life becomes fair game. This hearing is incredibly emotional for a lot of people, so let me just say that I am not here align myself with either Kavanaugh or Ford. I am here to preach a stance of moderation.

Everybody on earth, without exception, yearns for an easy path through life.   Most people won’t admit it, but when faced with a challenge everyone pines for a simple solution.  The truth of the matter is that the easiest path will never get you to your destination.  This is what separates people with motivation from people with drive. Motivation will get you out of the door, but drive will keep you going when the path takes a more difficult turn.  Please don’t mistake this; the path WILL get very difficult. Anyone who has attained a high level of achievement in any kind of profession has struggled and has relied on their internal drive to get them through it.  

When I was growing up, whenever I faced a problem my father would turn to me and simply say, “Boy, find a solution.” It may not sound like much, but decades later I still hear that ringing in my ears whenever I am faced with a challenge. By simply telling me to “find a solution,” he was assuring me that there was always a way to beat what I was facing. If the way was not immediately obvious, it was my responsibility to figure it out – to find a solution. To this day, when I am facing down something that seems insurmountable, I take a breath and think to myself “just find a solution.”

Have you ever been given a lesson that has just stuck with you? Maybe you can still hum that song from third grade that alphabetizes the fifty states, or maybe a boss, coach, or parent once imparted a piece of wisdom that you can still repeat verbatim. I learned a lesson like that on one of my first jobs when I was barely a teenager, and I still find myself thinking about it monthly and repeating it to new employees decades later.

Have you ever seen the ABC reality show “Shark Tank”? Their weekly viewership of over 6 million suggests you have, but just in case, let’s have a quick review. Shark Tank features scrappy entrepreneurs and inventors pitching their ideas to high profile investors. They accept cash in exchange for shares in their success. When a deal is struck the music swells and the entrepreneur walks confidently off the soundstage, believing that the millions they have just accepted equals sure-fire success.

Everyone has a list of personal strengths that come naturally.  Everyone also has a list of things that do not come as easy as they do to others.  I find that people’s strengths and weaknesses generally fall into one (or more) of three categories:

• IQ

• EQ

• Athletic/Physical

My definition of each is generally defined as follows:

What would your life look like if you could do exactly what you wanted, all day, everyday? I think that most of us would collapse into unproductive, hedonistic shadows of our former selves. The more righteous among us will buck against that prediction, claiming that the outcome of hard work is satisfying enough to justify the journey. While that may be true, there is no denying that many elements of the journey are less than ideal. The path to success is rife with un-fun activities.  Toil is the rule, not the exception. Even Michelangelo is bitterly quoted in saying that "If people knew how hard I worked to achieve my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all."

I would say that nine days out of ten, I am a very happy person, but that tenth day is no picnic. Every time I begin to feel my life sliding in the wrong direction, I stop to take inventory of what is happening in my world. Am I feeling good about life? About myself? And if not, then why not?

Over the years I have paid close attention to when I wasn’t feeling my best, and I have also paid close attention to the people around me who seem happy and content. In trying to emulate the satisfied people around me, and I have found that genuine happiness is dependent on three things:

Have you ever had employee that you just couldn’t make happy? I have. I have had employees complain about everything from pay rate to the brand of coffee we serve in the kitchen. I have tried bonuses, accolades, and free lunches, but at the end of the day some people find the negative in everything.

Over the past few months a lot of news stories about horrific behavior have broken. Sexism and sexual harassment dominate the narrative. Prior to that we focused on LGBT rights, and before that, racism. As these terrible stories rotate through our news outlets, I cannot help but notice how absurd the discriminatory practices seem, and how swiftly society condemns behaviors that used to go unreported or ignored.