4. La
“My heart was broken. I fell in love with the people and realized that I was in the right
place for the right reason and that I would have never been there had I not just believed
I could provide value in the most humble service. I was the student on that trip even
though I came to be a teacher - 9, 10, and 11 year olds living in a trash dump taught me
as much about love, joy, and fun as anyone ever has.”
5. “While in Nicaragua for the first time, I met my now Co-Founder of Another Best
Day. We flew back together from that life changing experience and thought ‘I don’t
know what changed, but something did.’ We did not want to lose the feelings and
emotions [from that trip]. We wanted everyday to be Another Best Day like we
created in Nicaragua. It was not a business plan but a motto.”
6. Be
Real
“[My core values are] Faith, Love,
Adventure, Service, Knowledge, and
Inspiration. I have them written in
every journal I have owned. They may
not be terribly unique but together
they build a great framework for my
decisions on jobs, opportunities,
relationships, and down to what books
I read or talks I listen too. Having core
values is essential to storytelling.
Otherwise you won’t ever find the
story that you HAVE to tell, you will
just tell and/or live the story you think
people want to hear and/or see. “
“I’d love to be remembered for the work I did, the service I provided, and
ultimately the fun and adventure that I helped to create for those around me.”
7. Be Whole
“Work, Family, Community and Friends cannot be totally separate in my mind. The
organizations that I've created and work for are rooted in Family, Community, and
Service, so everyone involved in those companies are stakeholders in one
another. We do not leave our work at an office. I know everyone’s husband, wife,
and family and they come on trips to our programs, we talk outside of work and
support each other in all areas of life. Only that culture can create a place I am
willing to put all of my resources and time into. Work should be a community of
great people doing well for one another and the care should go beyond a bottom
line of a spread sheet. Instead, it should spill into wanting to do your best for your
co-worker’s entire family. Idealistic? Sure. Important? Absolutely!”
8. “The life I am painting will always be innovative in ways to create meaningful
products, experiences, and interactions that fill my mind, heart, and time with
purposeful pursuits. To do that requires a vision and mission that is rock solid,
but it also requires being innovative and bold in every part of life. I am a creative
being (we all are) so I try to view everything as a chance to be an artist. Artists are
innovators so I plan on having that be a driving factor in my life. You have to bring
the entire box of crayons to class, not just the ones that others are coloring with.
Use them all, be a light, create Another Best Day for yourself and those around
you and I promise you will be the artist that the Kindergarten versions of
ourselves would assume we were going to be.”
Be Innovative
9. “Every time in my life that I have created something completeley for someone
else, I have found the most joy. I thought, ‘Why not focus on things that I love and
find the people who want those things?’ [For me, those things are] lacrosse,
mentorship, and love and so I created offerings around those. [But ultimately] I
could not and would not be as focused if I surrounded myself with people who did
not lift me up in down times and did not believe in the things I chose to do.”
10. My Takeaways
• You do not have to dedicate your life to one thing. In fact, the more things you are into,
the more opportunity you might have to leverage those things to help one another.
• Focus your energy on giving to others and always remember to be grateful.
• Do not ignore the “little voice” when something comes along that has a huge impact on
you. Explore!
• Surround yourself with people who believe in you and fully support what you are doing.
• Keep your core values top-of-mind and allow them to drive your choices in life – you will
not be let down.
• Be an artist – your life is your canvas. Do not be afraid to make your painting unique. The
buckets you decide to put your time and resources into may not make sense to others,
but that is okay.
• Have passion and purpose in what you do.
• “You cannot have passion for something that is not purposeful. You can have
energy, but that’s not passion. Raw passion comes from a sense of belonging and
feeling purposeful so that not just your mind, wallet, or body is fed, but rather your
soul first and foremost is filled.
• “If you bring a level of art, love, joy and purpose to what you are doing, everyone
around you will gravitate toward that.”
• “Don’t want more from life, give more of yourself to life. By giving more of ourselves to life,
we in turn live more completely.”
11. “Would you be willing to give your life to save the world if no one ever knew
your name? If anonymity was the price you would have to pay for
significance, would it be too great a price? To live a life of courage is not a
guarantee of prestige or adulation. It only matters if you live and die fulfilling
the mission you were born for.”
– Erwin Raphael McManus
