It's been 10 years since we lost a great one.   Someone who has impact the lives of almost everyone of us -- and this is true whether you are an apple fan or not. 

What if you lived life like you were training for the Olympics? What would you do different? 

That’s the question I asked myself that stopped me in my tracks.

I realized I wasn’t playing full out. Yes, there are days I’m giving everything I have – and I’m leaving it out on the field wherever I am present, but there are many days that I just don’t’ have it. There are days I just don’t give it my best and I fail to FOCUS.

Why?

It’s not because of a lack of intent. I want to play full out. My aspirations are there. The reason why I don’t FINISH is because I can get out of balance.

The balance revelation drew my attention to something called the Eight Dimensions of Wellness. Maybe you have heard of them.  Here's a hokie graphic that illustrates them.  (thanks Adobe Stock)

Here are the 8 in no particular order. Each of them have an equal weight of importance and value.

1. Occupational
2. Social
3. Emotional
4. ...

“If you were going to do it again, rebuild from scratch, what would you do different?”

That question was asked of me a few years ago -- and then resurfaced again in the midst of COVID-19. The original questions was centered on the business that I had a part in launching over a decade earlier. The follow on question asked recently was centered on how to recover after dumpster fire year.  Often, when someone asks a business building question, my mind races back to the beginning.  But COVID adds a whole knew wrinkle. 

The first few years we passionately set up shop with great expectations, only to be frequently disappointed. The big contracts that we were fishing for, just weren’t biting. Still, we ventured out, explored, tried to turn over each stone of opportunity we could, but – on the big ones – we failed again and again. For three years it seemed we were perpetually rebuilding ourselves.

Rather than giving up, which...

It wasn't that long ago when outhouses where the norm. For thousands of years, some variant of the outhouse was the status quo. No one in their right mind dared to build their living space with indoor plumbing, even though the toilet was invented hundreds of years earlier in 1596. To use the latrine indoors would be crazy. Imagine the stink.

No, if you had to “go,” then you were required to exit the building, go down the path, watch out for snakes, spiders or alligators, and use the plank wooden shack in the backyard. This was the way it was for hundreds of years.

Finally, smart people like Thomas Jefferson -- yes, one of our founding fathers -- got tired of going outside and broke the mold by choosing to not settle for average. They didn’t care what other people thought about their disruptive indoor plumbing idea. They just figured out a way to make it work. Because of that, eventually indoor plumbing became the norm, despite the initial resistance and...

I love the NASA story.  The aspiration we had as a nation in the 60's and early 70's to put man on the moon is an incredible example of perseverance!  What seemed impossible at first, was made possible.  But it wasn't without some challenges.

One of the most infamous statements in the midst of a challenge, which was used as motivation to help bring the crew of Apollo 13 safely back to earth, was a directive from Gene Kranz. In a moment of crisis, he coined the phrase "Failure is not an option."

Kranz, who's back is depicted in the picture above, was the flight controller for that mission, and many others.  Almost fifty-six hours into the Apollo 13 mission, an explosion occurs on board. One of the oxygen tanks blows up, threatening their survival. This not only keeps them from landing on the moon, but jeopardizes the lives of the astronauts.  The fear is that they might not come home.

A mix of contractors and NASA personnel representing various...