Today I’m hanging out with Drew and we’re celebrating our four-year wedding anniversary. You can see what we did on our two-week Italian honeymoon here. Sigh. I want to take a trip!
I’m leaving you with this post that was originally published on genuineMIX. It’s a good one, so I wanted to make sure that it lived on since that blog is gone. See you tomorrow!
Originally published on genuineMIX on November 12, 2012
Last week I went to Camp Mighty, a conference/retreat for people who want to make stuff happen.
Today on my personal blog I wrote about the most moving and inspiring moment of that experience, a presentation by former Ugandan refugee, CNN Hero, and co-founder of The Global Soap Project, Derreck Kayongo. You can read more about Derreck and his amazing story there, but here I would like to share what he taught me about life and business.
Derreck talked a lot about paying attention. He described life as being full of “punctuations” – events, life changers, or moments that speak to you. He said that it’s important to “pay attention to the dots.” You connect the dots.
1. Understand the power of failure in your life.
“Good idiots fail towards success.”
What are your failures teaching you?
2. Understand the power of ingenuity.
A new way of looking at things or a different way to approach an old problem can be invaluable.
3. Allow critique.
How do you react to constructive criticism? I’m not talking about the crazy haters. I mean the people who really have something valuable to offer.
4. Never let your situations define you.
If you keep living inside the same old story, you’re not going to move forward.
5. Do you know what you’re doing?
What is your plan? What do you want? How can you make things happen?
This isn’t an official number on his list, but I loved this statement.
“It has to do with confidence and panache!”
How you present yourself when you’re going after what you want can impact the outcome.
Thank you, Derreck.