The Ultimate Investment

It’s said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I’ve been working with a talented professional who just can’t seem to get his act together. He’s been out of work almost two years. He is losing his wife, he’s losing his family and he’s losing his home. With an advanced degree and professional certifications, he could easily get a job or work for himself. He’s been down both roads. It goes for a while then he quits, shuts down, and goes into hiding. The stresses   >> [Read the rest of the post]

I remember hearing that there were over 100 dormant volcanoes (small ones to be sure) throughout Washington County, Utah where I live. I thought that was a high number until I counted the cinder cones and volcanic mounds driving from St. George to Central (two small towns in southern Utah). I counted over 20 just along that 30 mile patch of road. Back in the distant past the tremendous pressure under the surface of the earth had erupted in volcanic explosions spewing lava and leaving scars over significant portions of the whole county, including vast lava flows throughout the   >> [Read the rest of the post]

At many spots along the coast you can stand on a high point and gaze out over the ocean in all its vastness. Then glancing down you notice as waves inexorably crash into the rocky cliffs below. The water seems to dash endlessly against the rocks, trying to break through only to meet unyielding hardness in a seeming fruitless endeavor. The waves smash against the rock and spew skyward, dissipating into a mist that is carried on the air as seagulls float on the rising air and clouds pass over on the breeze. It’s beautiful to behold.   >> [Read the rest of the post]

Several years ago I was at Lake Powell with my family. I was skiing behind our boat just having a wonderful time cutting back and forth across the wake on a slalom ski just like I did when I was a teenager in my athletic prime (at least in my own mind). We were passing through a narrow channel of the lake and I was having such a good time recapturing my lost youth I didn’t notice an oncoming houseboat that would be passing on our left. Just as they were nearing broadside to our boat, I cut hard   >> [Read the rest of the post]

Costume jewelry is created to look like something it’s not. The gems are colored glass. The bands are cheap imitations of gold, silver or platinum, not even close to being the real deal. The jewelry is meant to imitate, to mimic something of infinitely greater value. But it’s not real. It’s only for the sake of appearance. Often people can’t tell the difference between costume and real jewelry. They can be impressed by the size of the stone, the opulence of the setting, the sheen of the color and tone. The   >> [Read the rest of the post]

When I was around 10 years old, my family was on our boat traveling up a narrow channel of Lake Powell. Off in the distance my mom saw some things bobbing around in the water. We slowed and approached carefully and discovered it was a family all in life preservers struggling to swim to shore. The other odd shaped flouncing in the waves was the tip of their swamped boat just barely above the surface of the water. Going up the channel rough water had caused waves to wash over the bow of their small boat,   >> [Read the rest of the post]

I recently received an email from an acquaintance who was in American Samoa when the earthquake and tsunami hit. They told of the swiftness of the destruction; how cars, boats, trees, even houses were destroyed and swept out to sea. They also told of the sadness of families who had lost loved ones and who were now homeless. Everything they had was gone. Still they clung to each other and their neighbors who were all in the same situation. This acquaintance mentioned that their tsunami warning system was a large bell at the chief’s house. If   >> [Read the rest of the post]

Want to be successful? Play the numbers. Let me explain: For a golfer, having a good swing off the tee is critical. The only way to get that good swing is practice. You have to practice that swing 10,000 times before you’ll develop a consistency which will bring you success. You’ll not hit it right every time. But with practice, you’ll hit it well more times than not. It’s the same with any part of the game. It’s the practice – the number of times you do something until you can be successful   >> [Read the rest of the post]

A relative brought me back a large raw topaz from a trip to Brazil. It was large and valuable but it didn’t look like much. It was about the size of a pearl onion, dimpled, plain and course. It looked more like a rounded lump of hard stone than it did a precious gem. It was hard to suppose anything like that could be valuable. Of course I realized the real value to a gemstone comes only after it’s been refined. First, an expert looks at the rough gem and sees a vision of what it has   >> [Read the rest of the post]

A computer is indispensable in my work. When it goes down, I’m stuck. I start to fiddle with it to see if I can’t fix the problem. I know my way around a bit, but if I can’t fix it quickly I’ve come to the end of my expertise. When that happens, I have some choices: I can continue to fiddle and hope that eventually I can find the right spots in the ‘help’ manuals that I can figure out what is wrong and fix it. Or I can contact the ‘help line’ and use their   >> [Read the rest of the post]