I Shook Hands With The Chamber

This past weekend I took out some time to clean out old junk that I had intended to clean, but had neglected to do so. Much to my surprise I came across an old name tag from my time with Duval County Public Schools. It was a Jacksonville Chamber Of Commerce badge for the Downtown Council. One of my responsibilities was to help build relationships with local businesses to develop partnerships with schools. It was fun and frustrating at times to help bridge the gap between a not for profit entity (school district) and for profit entities (businesses).

More importantly, I reflected on a  time when 100% of my energy was devoted to impacted the next generation. More so, I reflected on a different season in my life. Have you had those times of looking back?

If you don’t know where you’ve been, how can you know where you are going?

History is a powerful teacher if we are willing to learn.

Here is what I thought about as I took a few minutes to sit and think:

1. Our past is only a signal for the future

2. Be grateful for the relationships established as you pass through life

3. Soak in all that you can at every stage of life

4. Don’t allow your past to dictate where you are headed

5. It is OK to change courses in life

Did I miss something?

What Length Are You Willing To Go?

I read an article recently from Entrepreneur magazine about the lengths people were willing to take to launch their business.

It sparked a few thoughts about my goals and desires to launch __________. The article was inspirational, in that it provided examples of individuals that did the extra mile work to get where they wanted to be. Yep, from digging ditches to getting an extra job, the examples serve as a reference to the fruit of our efforts to get there.

I am not sure who said it, but it is very true…. “It’s not crowded on the extra mile.”

If we desire to launch/create _________ that serves people we must be willing to do something out of the norm. Creativity should be at the top of the list. More and more I am thinking to myself about this and what am I willing to do get it done. Could it be a marathon?

Could it be a second job?

Could it be crowd sourced project?

Could it be linked to something bigger than project for a worthwhile cause?

Whatever it is let’s focus more on the “doing” vs. is it the perfect idea. I was talking with my wife yesterday about my belief that there is no shortage of good ideas, but there is a shortage of good execution on our ideas. Moving forward there will be an intense effort to build on the execution of the ideas versus is it good enough.

What about you? What creative things have you done to accomplish your goals? What was the outcome?

Keep Making Progress

Yesterday, was my shortest post recently, but it was one my most thoughtful- thanks to Leon Timbo.

As I have mentioned earlier one my goals over the next 85 days is to see (with tangible results) the launch of something that lifts the community. It is my desire to help make my community a better place to live. Not just my community, but as many communities as possible. Most of the work during my latter tenure with Duval County Public Schools was in the community engagement space. There are a number of ideas surfacing that hopefully will be solidified in the upcoming days.

I don’t know why I have such a passion for community “works”, but I do. I eat, sleep, drive, and read about effective engagement in the areas where we reside. You can read my thoughts here about the birth place of passion.

I hope to bring to life something that resembles a model of what good can be done when we look beyond our needs and focus on helping someone other than I.

Thispost is being written after 11:30 pm EST. Not good for quality content. To say the least, my creative writing juices are not at an high. If I plan to develop a community here I must find and develop a more convenient time to draft and publish posts.

John, has encouraged us to begin drafting a series. I am not certain how the series of posts will develop. However, I have a few thoughts surfacing. What I do know is that the song below speaks volumes to what I want to write about.

Leon Timbo, IMO, is one of the baddest-least known artists. The brother can sing and has a powerful message in his music.

“I’m Not Perfect”…..listen and enjoy.

Make it happen today. Remember: "Doing, not learning to do, is the essence of entrepreneurship." - Guy Kawasaki

February 17, 2012 7:09 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@DewittRobinson

Dewitt Robinson

I am enjoying re-reading through “Art Of The Start” by Guy Kawasaki. It has help to affirm the belief of sound principles to achieving your goals. He shares very practical advice to simply get going.

It is not enough to simply walk through life without any evidence of proof of work. What value did we add to the world. What legacy did we leave. What is the fruit from our labor? Blogging (IMO) is only as good as the content- symbolic of the seeds.

We must have an appetite for the work and the joy from the fruit of what we do!

This time around with BlogX I am thinking about an intentional end of journey project. This would be like a capstone project. Simply, its my way of keeping my self  on track for the experience.

There are many ideas that are surfacing…perhaps a blogging symposium, a concert, a webinar, etc. Who knows? Maybe. Maybe not. It may simply be a video blog post. Whatever it is, it will be a testament to what happens when you commit your time, talent, and treasure to a goal.

Yes, “doing” is my mantra for the next 86 days. It has to be. If I am not doing all my TALK has little substance without ACTION.