THE BUCK STOPS HERE!

Leadership is one of those hot buttons that some love to push and others loathe while others just seem to lord it over everyone else.

Being a great leader has less to do with a title and more to do with having the ability to see reality and then be able to assess the next steps required for growth: corporately and personally. The best leaders have mastered the art of self leadership. In any case, leadership is a very difficult task as best.

I once had a boss that lowered the boom on me. It was one of those moments in life where you sit there and your mind is racing, trying to figure out why is this person all fired up about something that you were not aware of. It's one thing to hold people accountable to that which you have communicated to them, and quite another to 'give 'em the berries' for something they are clueless about. Things like expectations, how you want something done, a direction, a goal, those are good things to communicate. But to get uptight about things that weren't done when the expectations were never communicated....not cool. That is poor leadership. When the phrase 'The buck stops here!' was issued, I saw it for what it was. A leader wanting to express their control and influence without earning the right to do so. In other words, "I don't want to hear your side of the story, just deal with it because I'm in charge!"

I've learned that talent and ability in a few areas does not a leader make.
Becoming a great leader requires patience, the desire to learn, vulnerability, courage, compassion, and a commitment to doing and being better as a person and boss. Watching and studying great leaders helps, too.

I made a vow with myself that day that I would never 'reem' somebody for something they didn't know about or I had not communicated my expectations. I've had plenty of difficult discussions with workers and volunteers about expectations unmet, but in almost every case, those people ended up hitting the mark because they had an understanding of what was expected of them at the outset.



MTC!
Mark

THE POWER OF A WELL-LIVED LIFE

There aren't too many things in life that are sure fire guarantees. There a a few, but life is all about choices and what direction you are intentionally heading.

This was slammed home in my brain again yesterday.

We had the funeral service for my grandmother, she was 91 years old. She was a great lady. I never saw her riled or irritated. On the contrary, she loved life. She lived in the moment not for the moment.

What struck me in a profound way yesterday, was the realization, that her prayers for her kids and grandchildren and great grandchildren has had a powerful impact on how they now live life. Not only have her grandchildren excelled and are making positive impact for the common good of people, but her great-grandchildren are poised to do so as well. They are living a life that, in time, will be well-lived and ordered as their great-grandmother did.

I know the nostalgic look back might be a bit 'thick' for some, but it is indeed something to consider: that we have the ability to live a life well and that we do have the opportunity to affect positive change in those we love the most. This comes by modeling life as it should be lived and through continual prayer that they might live a life that is well ordered and strong.

MTC!
Mark

WISE WORDS

Today I had two meetings with two very good friends. Both of them have 10 to 20 years more of living than I have. Both have pressed on past and through difficult times in their lives and businesses. Both of them have excelled in building their own companies.

Over the course of a lunch meeting and a phone conversation these two friends had some very wise words to say. Hopefully they will encourage you to keep learning and keep getting better as a human being.

1. People are looking for leaders.

2. Humility and Obedience is the difference between success and non-success.

I admire these two men greatly. They live in different parts of the country. They continue to have great impact in my life.

MTC!
Mark

As the sun set yesterday, the Olympic Mountains were a black outline against a pink sky...truly spectacular!! We had gone up to Everett to take my mother-in-law out for an early birthday dinner. The Everett bay and Mt. Baker were stunning on such a clear and bright day!

By the time we arrived back home, the sun had long since set and the moon was out in its fullness and it was extremely bright. The stars were as vivid as I have ever seen them. The moon was so bright that as we drove up our hill we could see Mt. Rainier very clearly. It was almost surreal.

This is not a slam. This is not a 'bashing moment'. I'm not into that, but I have to ask a very simple question: when we, who live in this part of the world, and our surrounded by such natural beauty, how is there even a hint that this all came to be without the creator, God, putting it all together?

MTC!
Mark

YOU GOTTA LOVE IT!

You don't have to be a Green Bay Packer fan to love the effort and drive of one Brett Favre. I'm not a Packer fan, however, watching the nearly 40 year old battle the cold and NY's excellent defense, was amazing given that GB had no running game. What an entertaining and exciting game to watch.

Enough about the game.

Here's why I love how Brett goes about his football business:

1. The guy is an athletic freak (endearing connotation) with emotion! He loves what he does.....PASSION!

2. The guy has stuck it out in Green Bay with some pretty lousy teams as of late....PERSPECTIVE!

3. The guy has earned the respect of his fans and peers anywhere....PRESENCE!


If we all could live in such a way that we had passion for life and our job and our family and our neighbors, what a great person to be around!

If we all had the perspective that today we will make the most of it and tomorrow will build on today, we wouldn't worry so much and we would live a more contented life.

If we all lived life in such a way to earn the respect of our peers and family, our social structures would be far more solid and stable.


MTC!
Mark

SUPER KIDS!

Yesterday we had our team pictures taken for our girls 5th/6th grade girls rec league. I have the best girls on my team!! Hands down!

They looked so cute and well prepared for their pics. As I talked with them it struck me: these are the best kids anywhere! They are kind, sweet, polite, encouraging, obedient, lovable, pure, and the list could go on and on!

We have a huge opportunity and responsibility.

Opportunity: to pour into these beautiful lives all that is good and encouraging; those things that will help them grow up to be strong young women with solid convictions about life and others.

Responsibility: to guard them and protect them from stuff that would negate them from turning into the young women they can become.

Their potential for good is off the charts.

Their potential to succeed well in life is huge and we must not miss our chance to help them do just that!!

We may not win many games, but we sure will have fun together as we care for each other and encourage one another.

MTC!
Mark

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF?

Someone gave you a million dollars tax free?

Your house paid off by someone?

You were given a house when you had never had the $ to buy one?

You could have one wish answered, what would that wish be?

You could invent one thing, what would that one thing be?

You had the chance to help one family and resources were limitless, what would you do?


Fun to dream!
MTC!!
Mark

WHAT WALL IS YOUR LADDER LEANING ON?

I was cogitating on life and the aspect of 'climbing the ladder of success'. A ladder just doesn't hang in mid air waiting for us to climb it. A ladder either supports itself, and if it does, it doesn't go very high, but the one's that go the highest lean against something.

My ladder issues happened over a year ago. I thought I had leaned it against something solid. Nope! As my German grandpa used to say, "Down went my meathouse!" My success in hanging the Christmas lights needed a stable 'something' to lean my ladder against. I thought I had it figured out. I was wrong. My back finally got back to normal after a good 2 1/2 months!

Is success a thought? Accouterments? Title? Number of homes or properties or cars or trips or how much you have in the bank? And can you actually measure success by only focusing upon one or two areas of your life? If I'm successful at my job and picking good stocks, but really stink like garbage with my marriage and my kids am I successful? You can switch those around in the preceding sentence if you'd like and ask the ? again.

Leaning our ladder which we choose to climb to the top of life had better be leaning upon something that is substantial and secure. And it might not be a bad idea to work out, like a lot, because if you can't help others closest to you, up that ladder while you climb, when you get to the top, it's going to be pretty lonely.

I vote for a really tall ladder. A really strong and stable wall. And enough muscles and courage and strength to push my family up that ladder as I climb!

Grab you ladder and let's go for it!!!

MTC!
Mark

INATE INFLUENCE

Beating within the chest of every human, is a heart that desires to make an impact, a difference. I believe it is placed within, by God, and time with experiences either increase or decrease that desire.

It matters not the avocation or game or situation. We want to do our best, be our best, come through, make it happen, be an influencer, be a hero.


The mature understand how to do this when things have not turned out as they would have hoped. They know another day is coming and realize that it is built upon the now, today.

Making strides to be that person of influence and impact can begin now even if neglect has crept in and taken away that drive. Being a person of influence and impact is like building a brick building: each brick represents a day. The bricks are placed on top of each other and it starts upon the foundation, one brick at a time.

MTC!
Mark

RUNNIN' WITH THE BIG DOGS!

Dogs! Not dawgs!! And no, I do not have $100's of thousands of dollars to give to the UW prez if he makes certain changes with the fball coaching staff!

Big dogs! Dog's that have been making it happen before I was born. Mega dollar dogs.

When I was a kid, one of the top game co's was Hasbro. Last week the fella who invented the game Cranium sold it to Hasbro. What a great story! Little dog takes big dog's food dish and then makes big dog pay little dog to have it back.

The idea for Cranium was not stolen or taken from anything Hasbro had, I'm not inferring that, but rather an employee of Microsoft get's this idea for a new game while playing a game at some friend's home, and the rest is history! A very rich history!

All that to say: some things are just begging to happen!

To some, the inventor and co-inventor of Cranium would be heroes because of what they did and how it has performed.

There is a hero inside of you, waiting to bust out. It might be in the form of an idea or an act of love or kindness.

Run with the big dogs, because you were designed 2 b a hero!

MTC!
Mark

BEE A HEERO

We kick off a new series this Sunday on the topic of HEROES. It's going to be great. We will be using the TV series, by the same name, as our springboard.

Have you ever been a hero? Have you seen someone else be a hero? Tell me about it. I'd like to hear the stories.

Being a hero is simpler than you think. You can make a huge difference...today!!!

Be A Hero!!

MTC!
Mark

NEW SCHOOL/OLD SCHOOL

I'm going back to school!

This time to teach.

It's been a few years since my graduation from graduate school, like 18 years!!! Since then the learning hasn't stopped and the tests have had to be passed and average grades were unacceptable and the finals were a bit more intense, but that is how life is....it's still old school.

In thinking about going back to a university campus an teaching a course, it is amazing to consider how the world is so much different now. We didn't have the Internet. We typed our term papers and dissertations on a typewriter. Starbucks didn't own the universe and cell phones were the size of a large brick!

Even with all the changes in our world, school is still school and we have to learn. We have to pass. We should excel. Life is like old school. Things change so fast, but we still need to grow and learn and pass and we intuitively want to excel.

Just as in any learning environment we need to surround ourselves with the correct influences and tools to help us achieve our optimum. Get the right people around you. Listen to the positive and don't dwell on the negative. See your preferred future, study and work hard and go for it!

Life is like school: it all keeps changing, but the basic elements are still the same and we still get grades!

I need to go because I need to see if my wife has any lunch money for me!

MTC!
Mark

TWO ADVIL AND A NIGHT'S REST

Karen and I took our dog for a walk late yesterday afternoon. Down the street, down the hill and back home again. It is one mile each way.

On the way back, I decided power walk up the hill (whatever that means!!! I just walked faster and tried to maintain it) I did until my shins felt like they were ready to explode!

Later in the evening I couldn't walk correctly. My shins were killing me. When I would walk, my feet would flop as if I had flippers on. I felt ridiculous and the ridicule I was enduring from my wife didn't help.

Two Advil and off to bed.

It made me think, however.

There are millions of people, in America alone, who suffer with physical ailments that would love to have gone out for a walk yesterday. Stuff in and attached to their body doesn't work correctly. They can't go out for a walk. Never will be able to.

I was reminded again how much I take my health and ability to enjoy life, and do most anything I want to with a healthy body, for granted.

So, when you walk today or play with your kids or hit the gym, don't forget to thank God for your health and the body he gave you that works exceptionally well. You are a very wealthy person to have so much!

BTW, my shins are better. Thanks for asking!!

MTC!
Mark

HERE'S A BLOG FOR YOU!

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!

MTC!
MARK

PAINTING A PICTURE

I'm not good with paint. I'm not even good penmanship that one can decipher. My hands do OK on the piano, but ask me to paint a picture....look out! Someones gonna get hurt!

We don't have to be great artists, yet we can still paint a picture. we can paint a picture in our minds of what certain things should be and look like and do; our preferred future.

For example, we can paint a picture of what our family should look like and accomplish and how we should function with each other. We can paint a picture of what our home will be like, what kind of a neighbor we will be, what kind of church we will become.

Once we see the picture, becoming 'all that', is a matter of steady forward motion. There was a writer in the bible who basically said the same thing, but he talked about moving forward toward the 'prize'.

What pictures do you have already? What pictures still need to be painted? Get out the brushes and the paint...paint a masterpiece!!!

MTC!
Mark

GREAT GIFTS!

Well, the Christmas decor is almost all put away. A few things left to take down and store, but other than that, it's a done deal!

Christmas was as usual, stupendous!! Great food! Great fun! Great times! Great gifts!

Gifts.

We all got them.

At birth.

God doled them out.

You have them.

I've got a few.

Gifts.

What you are good at and with effort, have become great at.

My wife painted my office wall this past week. She has no training save for painting other peoples walls. She is great at it. My walls look like leather. She did this funky deal in a house in Enumclaw where she took crepe paper and treated it and stuck it on the walls and then painted it. It looks like some tricked out stone work. Amazing!!!!!

The point is this: she has worked very hard to perfect a gift that God gave her at birth. She is way good at it. But, she has been diligent to hone it and make it keen. But that is not her greatest gift. She is the most pleasant person I have ever been around. Her smile and ability to make the stranger feel accepted is by far her greatest gift. She is a great example to me!

So, you have some things you are good at, but are they your greatest gifts? What are they? Are you diligently perfecting them? Are you using them to help others? If you got it, flaunt it! Great gifts make great impacts!! Go for it!!

MTC!
Mark

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008!

When I was a little kid, my graduation year from high school seemed like a long way off. Well, we blew through that and have rolled into the 21st Century! I just have one ?: Has Y2K hit yet????? That went pretty well!

Have you made a list of what you will do/accomplish that you did not get done last year?

I've never been a big 'resolutions' person, but I do believe in the list idea. Not a lengthy, unattainable list of lofty goals, but rather a short list of things I really need to nail down.

Maybe you could have one item for the following: physical, mental, spiritual.

Don't let the list drive you, you drive the list!

Hey, have a great day today and watch tons of football!!! (that's on my list!)

MTC!
Mark