Five years ago, I put forth a challenge on this blog.

"The next time you see a child entrepreneur (lemonade stand, etc.), pay $5 for the cup of lemonade."

This weekend, I finally completed my own challenge. I was driving in my car when I saw the four 9-year olds and their makeshift box stand. Remembered my challenge. Had my wallet. And pulled over.


They were selling Arizona iced tea for a quarter.

I bought a cup for $5. They were thrilled. I heard one whisper, "...fill up the cup as high as you can. he paid $5 for it!"

As I drove away, I heard another shout out to his mother, "He bought one! And paid $5! For just the one!"

I left happy, believing I had instilled a beautiful belief in entrepreneurship for these 4 young kids.

It was only later that I questioned whether or not I may have instead birthed a forever love of money itself.

People need to stop evangelizing capitalism as if its the end game.

Because it's not. Capitalism merely maximizes the total pie. It's a given.

Now what we choose to do with our greater slices, that's worth evangelizing.

You can't choose your family.

But you can make different Thanksgiving plans.

As long  if you decide to define family as those people you love and enjoy spending time with.

Likewise, you can't choose your co-workers.

But you can change where you work.

As long as you decide to define loyalty as a 2-way street.

I love learning.

I have limited time in the day.

Most of my learning comes from reading.

There are a lot of bad writers out there.

There are a lot of great writers out there who don't write things I'm interested in.

So, this ends up with me reading a lot of different articles each day about politics, technology, education, faith and more. From blogs I subscribe to. Magazines I subscribe to. Twitter links from people I follow. Facebook links from people I follow.

Only approximately 10% of the content I read in a day is really worth reading.

Any tips on how to better filter my information intake?

I went to the dentist.

He told me I'm grinding my teeth so hard at night I'm actually wearing down my fillings.

He told me this is typically a symptom of stress, before recommending I wear a mouth guard at night.

As a health care professional, shouldn't he at least have entertained the possibility of trying to lower my stress, rather than resign to the fact that my molars will perpetually attack each other?

Recently, I was talking to a friend of my mine who works as a professional political blogger - about his ideal long-term career goals.

I was surprised he didn't mention any sort of political office - even as a pie-in-the-sky fantasy job. So, I asked him why?

He replied, "Dude, those jobs are awful. They're no fun at all. The campaign is ok. But the day-to-day...if you want to do it right...reading thousand-page bills, taking angry phone calls... it's the worst job ever."

And it made me wonder if the jobs we all think we want aren't nearly as romantic as we'd hope. The fantasy of the chase might get us through the day. But, good God, if we were to actually catch these new careers?

When it comes down to it, I think I just want to be paid a whole lot more money and worshiped for my current work, without any new real responsibility.

The easiest way to make decisions you'll never regret - is to simply decide not to regret the foolish things you've already done and will continue to do.

Of course, that level of self-deceit can be difficult.

You better decide to not regret that, too.

I recently attended my friend's student design gallery, and was floored by the talent of these 20-year olds.

To the point of fear, in fact. That if this was the future, I'm falling behind.

But, then I started talking to them about their work.

One student had designed a 12x3 flipbook-style calendar. The imagery was amazing.

I opened it up to January, and the calendar snapped back closed because of the size and weight distribution. I asked him how you're supposed to hang it? He said, "Oh, I don't know. I just wanted to do something different."

Another student won an award for her beautifully designed wine bottle, branded "Lonely Housewife".

No one will buy wine that labels them as a stay-at-home boozer. No one will buy a calendar that doesn't work.

These kids are phenomenally talented. I can't do what they can.

But they still need me...for now.

1) Hire less people.
2) Hire only great people.
3) Give the people you hire highly strategic roles.
4) Outsource the busy work.

Way better output. Way less $ to get there.

I recently had a friend visit, and offered him something to drink. He asked for a soda.

Embarrassed, I told him we didn't have any. We don't carry soda in our refrigerator, because we don't drink it.

But, my diabetic grandparents kept Coke in theirs. Why? For me.

I'm still learning.