Embrace Failure

One thing that I’ve been trying to push for is to have more meaningful conversations with the people that I surround myself with. Sure, we can talk about the normal, more light-hearted things in life: movies, Game of Thrones, the dynasty that is Alabama football, but I want to know more about the goals and ambitions that people have, as I’m on this mission to fine tune those things myself.

Along those lines, I had a good conversation the other day and the topic of complacency came up. I’ve always put complacency up there as one of my bigger fears in life. The reason being is that it’s not always obvious: it may try to disguise itself as stability or things being as good as they can be, but it’s neither of these things. It’s not growth, and if you’re not growing, then what are you doing? And it’s even more dangerous because it can seep into any aspect of your life.

As a result of this conversation, I started thinking and I came up with the perfect combatant to complacency: embracing failure. It seems simple enough, and it’s entirely possible that I’m just not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it was a lightbulb moment for me.

To some degree, my personal philosophy has always been to do things and see what happens. When people tell me stories about things they’ve tried I don’t care if they failed, I’m impressed that made an attempt. It’s so easy to talk ourselves out of things and over analyze situations, but everything isn't meant to go under the microscope; we just have to trust our instincts sometimes.

And, because it’s easy enough for me to type this and not follow my own advice, I’m vowing to personally embrace failure in all aspects of my life going forward. I encourage you all to join me on this mission.  I’m sure you've been over your New Year’s resolutions for some time now, so you need something to fill that void anyway. If this doesn't improve your life, then your next drink (of water or something else free) is on me.

Cheers to failure!

-JIP

How to Be a Gentleman

A couple of good pieces of advice on being a gentleman courtesy of Esquire:

"Being a gentleman in the modern age is about protecting the craftsmanship that goes into these beautiful things [clothes, shoes, accessories], and about living in a considered way. It’s about being an interesting human, about being inquisitive, about understanding things and knowing about the things you’re surrounding yourself with in life. And it’s also about allowing yourself to get drunk at lunchtime and have a great afternoon."

"How you go about living your life is what sets you apart as a gentleman, rather than necessarily the things that you wear. I think anyone can wear these clothes."

This is part of a Q&A about men's style with Patrick Grant; here's the link to the full interview

Wait, how did that part about lunchtime drinking get highlighted?  Completely accidental...

A Homeless Veteran's Transformation

If you know me, you know that men’s style is something that I’m passionate about. I’ll spare you the details of why, but the long and short of it is that how you present yourself to the world not only influences how others look at you, but also how you look and feel about yourself. That is why this video is beyond amazing. It might just be a small step in the right direction for this gentleman, but it’s a step nonetheless.

Keep Things in Perspective

A simple truth: life is all about perspective. The easy thing to do in life is to focus only on ourselves and our individual issues. If we broaden our scope, however, we realize that there are oftentimes much more serious issues that exist in the world. It’s not a bad thing to focus on ourselves and improving our respective situations, but we have to also realize that someone else has it worse. Sounds straightforward enough, but life has a way of making sure we truly have our perspectives straight.

Just this past Sunday I found myself complaining about having to go to work on Monday, how the weekend’s too short, and a bunch of other nonsense. Later that night, I found out that a high school classmate of mine lost her long battle with cancer. The next day, I found out that my cousin had a successful kidney transplant and the results are positive to this point, but he’s still suffering a lot of pain. And I’m sitting here complaining about having to go to work?

As cliché as it may be, that doesn’t make it any less true: our job on this earth is to live life to the fullest. We should be doing this for ourselves anyway, but at the very least we should do it for those who haven’t been afforded the same opportunities to do so. Nothing is guaranteed to us, so we shouldn’t squander the time that we have. Again, life is about perspective; go back to the old adage that if we all put our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

So let’s appreciate and enjoy the time we’ve been given, help others, and maybe throw a smile or two in the mix along the way. That sounds like a good life to me.

JIP

Herm Edwards Gets It Right

I promise I'll use this blog for writing again at some point (for better or worse), but for now I'll just leave you to listen to Herm Edwards talk to the Alabama football team.

Don't care for Alabama?  Misguided, but that's okay.  Care about getting a little motivation in your system?  Then this is worth checking out.

Part Uno:                                                                                                                                                    

Part Dos:

Leave a Message

This is dope...congrats to the Heat.

Yes, Practice

Will Smith still wins (kind of)

"...fear is not real.  It's a product of thoughts you create.  Now do not misunderstand me: Danger is very real, but fear is a choice."

At least he snuck a solid quote into an otherwise terrible movie. (According to these guys, not me.  I'm just the messenger.)

Act like you've been there before...

Vince Lombardi said it, this kid did it.

Plies was (kind of) right once

It pains me to say this, but Plies may have made a valid point in one specific instance during the height of his popularity. Everybody remembers Plies, right? If you don’t, don’t worry about it...you probably don’t want to dig any of his stuff up. But Plies had a line in one song saying that he didn’t have enough haters. At the time, I thought it was dumb, mainly because I felt you shouldn’t go out looking for haters. That doesn’t make sense.

Now, however, I examine that line through a different lens. “Haters” are a natural part of life. You’re always going to have detractors. Especially with the social media outlets that exist now, people have countless ways to talk about whatever the hell they want. But let’s think bigger picture here. The folks who have the most haters are the ones who operate on a larger scale. Beyonce lip syncing the National Anthem at the inauguration? That got so much attention. I’m talking about everyone I’ve ever met somehow became a music critic. But the fact remains that she had the credentials to even get the opportunity to perform on that large of a scale. Basically, the more successful you are, the more people are going to disagree with things that you do or don’t do. And that’s fine. We’re not here to please everybody, we’re here to be successful, whatever that means to us as individuals and collectively.

So, Plies was kind of right. Maybe not in the context he mentioned it, but you do need haters in life. That means you’ve done something worthy of people hating. You’ve showed up. Sometimes that’s all it takes. You keep showing up, and who knows what will happen? They might be hating on you for trying to go all Marvin Gaye on the national anthem. I mean, you probably shouldn’t do that, but what do I know? I’m a hater.

Monday Inspiration courtesy of Kid President

Brady Quinn's Got It Right

So Brady Quinn is now one of my favorite NFL players and it has nothing to do with what he did on the field on Sunday.  No, it was after the game ended in the postgame press conference that Quinn impressed yours truly.

In case you haven't heard, Quinn's teammate Javon Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend then himself this past Saturday.  You can read more about it here.  Here's what Quinn had to say concerning the tragedy:

I'm not really sure if it's possible to watch this video and not cheer for this guy.  The realness of his message is inescapable. We can't avoid tragedy all together, but we can make a concerted effort to support the ones that we care about in life and their well-being.  That's the least we can do.

Monday Inspiration: "You Just Have to Do Something"

Happy Monday, good people.

I recently ran across a blog by a designer/entrepreneur named Jonathan Moore.  While I'm a fan of several of the posts, there was one post in particular that was pertinent and seemed to speak to questions that I've been having recently.  Check it out below:

Throughout life we are impacted with moments that are rich with meaning and significance. Regardless of the joy or sorrow that these moments create, it is our job to listen and respond. This summer I was given the gift of one of those profound moments.On a warm August afternoon, my wife and I invited some close friends over for lunch to spend the day swimming in our pool. We were in the water playing with our kids, watching them one-up each other jumping in, and playing all the usual games.
One of the times my daughter climbed out to jump back in, she cried out in pain after stepping on a bee. As soon as I pulled out the stinger left behind in her foot, one by one more bees began to swarm. Thinking that the dead bee was attracting others, I picked it up and went inside to throw it away.
The moment I opened the trash in the kitchen I heard my wife scream outside. It wasn’t an ordinary scream. I look outside right at the moment she was diving into the water. Racing outside I was certain that she was being attacked by the aggressive bees.
I made it to the edge of the water right when she was coming up. My heart sank. In her arms was our little boy, blue and lifeless.
Frantically I took him into my arms as she began to yell for help and call 911. I will never forget what it felt like to hold him in that moment. Laying him on the ground I cried out to God for help. Even though I have never been trained for CPR, instincts on some level kicked in. I started desperately performing a series of chest compressions and breaths. After an eternity of seconds I saw the life and color return to his face. My boy was saved.
The paramedics arrived shortly after, and within minutes we were on our way to the hospital. During the trip one of the paramedics reassured my wife that he was going to be just fine because CPR was performed right away. After all this was his seventh time to be called out for a drowning this summer, and the only one that did not end in tragedy.
The next day in the ICU, we had a great conversation with the pediatrician. I recounted the entire story, chain of events and explained how I had no clue what I was doing with CPR. He compassionately listened, and then replied, “You don’t have to do it right. You just have to do something.” My boy is alive simply because something was done.
When we are presented with moments of crisis, large decisions or new opportunities often we find ourselves crippled by the lack of knowledge. We justify inaction with our insecurities in not knowing the right way to move forward. Or we trap ourselves in an endless search for knowledge to attempt to reassure our actions.
Over the course of my career and journey as an entrepreneur, I have learned that success and fulfillment is found when we push ourselves beyond our comfort zone. There is tremendous value in having knowledge ahead of time—I am now CPR certified—but simply taking action is often what it takes.
You don’t have to do it right. You just have to do something.

I couldn't have said it better myself. 

Cheers,

JIP

Aren't we all?

Source

Keep on Pushing

In case you've been, M.I.A. over the last day or so, here's the new Lebron commercial that debuted last night.  I'm not even a huge Lebron fan, but this is dope.  Proof that hard work pays off.

Monday Inspiration: "Will"

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you "Will" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:


There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it, soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?

Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim. Why, even Death stands still,
And waits an hour sometimes for such a will.

Well, that's good enough for me to start my day.

Cheers,

JIP

Gifted and Cursed: Confidence

Good people, it's been way too long. Check out the piece below that I wrote for The Infamous L a couple of weeks back. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Ah, a gift and a curse. You could probably make an argument that most things in life can be looked at as either, so this was tough to narrow down. But today, I’m going to focus on my gifted curse (see what I did there?) of confidence.

From a young age, I was blessed enough to have people in my life that instilled in me a sense of self-confidence that I have carried with me and continue to develop each day. It’s actually a part of my life’s motto: live confidently, control the things that I can control, and have a good time while I’m here. Possessing self-confidence is certainly a gift. Self-confidence, however, isn’t necessarily as easy to identify as you might believe.

I find that cockiness is often mistaken for confidence, and this mistaken identity is the curse. It’s like mistaking Memphis Bleek for Jay-Z. Yeah, you’ve seen them together a lot, but it’s completely disrespectful to confuse the two. Cockiness is basically me putting myself up on a pedestal and convincing you that I should be there. You could make an argument that some level of cockiness is not a bad thing, but it’s not a substitute for confidence. The main reason is that cockiness lacks a solid foundation.

Cockiness is a “what have you done for me lately?” type of feeling. Oh, you got her number? You start feeling yourself a little bit, BOOM, that cockiness level goes up. Oh, you crushed that interview today? Double BOOM…cockiness level goes even higher. Your swag (yes, swag) is on a whole different level right now. But wait…the number she gave you is disconnected? Oh…that cockiness comes down a little bit. And about that interview, maybe you didn’t crush it like you thought you had. Let’s bring that cockiness down a little bit more.

The point I’m trying to make is that cockiness is fleeting. It starts to come out when random events are going in your favor. But life tells us all that you can’t always win. So what keeps you going during your down times? That’s where your confidence kicks in.

Being confident doesn’t mean you’re invincible. We’re humans, we all lose, we all are vulnerable, but it’s not about any of that. Being confident doesn’t exempt you from human emotions, but being confident in yourself allows you to fight through your down times, knowing that something better is out there. Confidence has the sustainability that cockiness lacks because it’s based on a foundation. Whatever that foundation is: your circle of family and friends, your spirituality, or something completely different, it exists, and it’s your source of strength. That’s why it’s a gift; it keeps you going when that’s all you got.

Be careful out here, good people. Don’t let a pretty curse convince you that it’s a gift.

Cheers,

JIP

Inspiration: Good Ol' Jim Beam

Happy Friday, all.  Hopefully everyone's had a solid week and is looking forward to the good times that the weekend brings.  As we mentally withdraw from work, school, or whatever daily task should technically have our attention now, I want to bring your attention to a tv spot from Jim Beam that I saw a while back which deals with the choices that we make or don't make and the impact that they have on our lives.

Check out the ad below, featuring Willem Dafoe:

Great ending line: "All choices lead you somewhere, bold choices take you where you're supposed to be".    There's a fine line between providing a memorable message and just coming off as trying to hard and Jim Beam nailed it.  Plus, combining whiskey with a positive message (or anything else) is my idea of a winning combination.

Have a great weekend, good people.

Cheers,

JIP

JIP's Ramblings: In Defense of the word "Cool"

Good morning, good people. Let me pose a question: what does being cool mean to you? How is it that when we first meet someone we normally decide after a few words whether or not we consider a person “cool”? Taking it a step further, is this even a fair assessment for us to make?

Personally, I think that being cool has gotten a bad rap due to the surface-level connotation that’s become associated with it, so humor me and allow me to play defense attorney for the word “cool” here.

After discussing this question with some friends (more on them later), we came up with this: cool is the unapologetic approach for being who you are. So, I’m not talking about your exterior presence; that’s not who you actually are. Being cool is not about fitting into some mold of what society has deemed to be popular. That’s a trend. Trends come and go all the time and leave a trail of untagged Facebook pictures that we hope disappear from existence.

When I discuss being cool, I'm talking about what’s inside of you. This does not come and go. The person that you are when you’re all alone and forced to face yourself is the essence of your cool. The person who has a firm understanding of this and lets that individual shine through is the person who is truly cool.

Being cool is being true to who you are at all times, knowing that this might not always be the popular thing to do. You’re not a party person? That’s fine, go find what gets you excited in life. We all have our individual preferences, so never let anyone tell you what yours should be. The bottom-line is that you have to be yourself.

Finding this person is definitely a journey. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I’m the same person that I was when I was 16 (thank God). As you go through life, the goal is to grow and evolve into a better, more complete person. Just to reiterate, though, be careful not to confuse your exterior person as what makes you cool. That person is going to change as the years go by. The person you are on the inside, however, isn’t going anywhere. You’re pretty much stuck with him/her, so you might as well make him/her the best that he/she can be.

Alright, that’s probably enough from me, so I’ll let the defense rest at this point. As I take my seat (and ponder whether or not I should take my awesomeness to law school), let me just add that I would love to hear your individual perspectives on what is cool to you. My ramblings aren’t the end all, be all, so feel free to join the conversation.

I don't say this enough, but thanks for visiting and I hope you come back soon.

Cheers,

JIP

JIP's Ramblings: The Fighters

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”- President Abraham Lincoln

What I’m starting to realize more and more over time is that you have to fight for your happiness in life. For those of us who are fortunate, there is an initial period of happiness that we are granted through the innocence of our adolescence. At some point along the way, however, our innocence is taken away from us. This process can be gradual or it can be a dramatic, life-changing, experience; in either case, at this point we begin to realize the complexities of the world and the people within it and that things aren’t as simple as we once thought. Through these realizations, the world becomes a colder, less familiar place than the one we thought we knew. This is when it is most important for us to realize that we have a fight on our hands.

The reality of it all is that we all will experience moments of sadness and disappointment. Things will not always go our way. That’s why we have to have some fight within us to carry us through these moments of hardship. It’s the rare individual that happiness is handed to without any trials or tribulations. The true question is are we willing to fight for our happiness or do we let life get the best of us? Are we willing to take a couple of bumps and bruises in pursuit of something greater or does fear of more hurt and pain cause us to shy away from our God-given right to be happy?

And when our good times do come, we must not get full of ourselves, especially knowing how quickly things can change and how fragile life is. The humble person appreciates life’s blessings for however long that we have them. We know that we will have our ups and downs. We have to have the fight and the strength within ourselves to make sure that our good times are more frequent visitors to our lives than our bad times are. I hope that we all are ready for a hell of a fight because our happiness is out there.

Cheers,

JIP