When my kids were growing up, I noticed whenever they were doing activities be it sports or otherwise, these coaches were handing out trophies just for showing up and being part of the team. That struck me as a little odd, see, when I go to work and I do what I need to do, I get what’s called a paycheck. There’s no celebration, there’s no trophy; your “reward” is just another deposit in the bank.

“People are Great!” . . . Think about that. Good people don’t sell magazines and papers. All that magazines and newspapers peddle is sadness, tragedy, and negativity.

Some of the greatest ancient poets and philosophers lived and died through balancing their entertainment with their careers. It was a Roman philosophy, espoused by some of the most famous orators of their time who wrote about the health benefits and life experiences that came from knowing when to work hard and when to take some time in the country, away from their worries and troubles. They believed that the key to a long life and happiness came from understanding the balances in the world. Human beings work for a living, but in doing so it’s important not to become someone who lives to work.

Haste makes waste--something you learn quickly in the manufacturing world. If you underperform and overcommit, you’ll find yourself in a costly bind. If you have a poor set of plans or inaccurate details, you may find yourself rushing when you’re days, weeks behind. I have beaten this drum for years. Slow and right is better than fast and wrong.

It was June of 2006, in Mexico and on vacation with some family friends. We got hit with dreaded phone call that someone close to us has cancer. As soon as we got back from the trip, I stopped in to see him. He was someone I spent time with pretty regularly and had frequent contact with. From the day I went to see him in his office to a few months later, now in September, his cancer had become terminal—a 10% chance to survive. We celebrated his 50th birthday, but by January, he was gone.

A cookie cutter world serves no purpose in defining our meaning, which we achieve through self-reflection, adversity, and challenging ourselves to find our passions and talents. You’d walk into a room and say, “Nice shirt,” or “Good work on those spreadsheets, “ and everyone within earshot would say, “thanks,” because absolutely nothing sets you apart. If our differences define us, why wish those away?

You may find yourself in a meeting where someone will be constantly chomping at the bit to share facts and statistics, and with these facts and statistics comes the unfortunate realization that more often than not, these individuals are regurgitating information they’ve pulled from a pamphlet or an article somewhere. The legitimately intelligent people are listening, watching, and observing and making the effort to learn more. These people don’t need to show off or flex their intellect; they’ve been out there in the trenches of their respective fields. Talking to them always yields a great deal more information than the types to stand in a meeting and pontificate the day away with fact after fact.

“Mind your manners” is something most everyone heard from their parents growing up. Yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am, please, and thank you. The staples of human decency started with your ability to be polite to you superiors, your peers, and anyone around you. At the grocery store? You said thank you for your change. You need help from a clerk? You said please and thank you for the help.

Comfort is a sign of stagnation. If you aren’t uncomfortable, odds are you’re at a plateau. When you climb up a hill, you’re pushing yourself; you’re straining to achieve greater heights—heights you can’t achieve if you’re strolling across a plateau. When I went to my first Austin Builders Association meeting, there were about 500 people gathered there and I felt really uncomfortable and out of place.

God won’t ask you for your balance sheet when you get to heaven. Today may be a victory, but tomorrow may be a defeat. Your ego can be your worst enemy. There’s nothing stopping you from eventually becoming the butt of your own joke. Be careful, especially that the praise of those around you doesn’t exceed the worth of what you give to them. Humility is a currency worth far more than any boasting or hot air. So, spare yourself the censure and the ego, don’t read your press releases. Do the best job you can, be grateful for the victories and use the defeats as lessons on how to grow.

Everyone has them, but nobody is there but you. According to the Larry Dix dictionary, a Pity Party, noun, is any period of time in which the individual indulges in a cycle of grief, wallowing and feeling sorry for oneself. While not limited to any duration or extent, pity parties can range anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 years. While they may feel good at first, soothing hurt feelings, broken pride, or reminiscing on failure, pity parties are ultimately a waste of your time. As a human and entrepreneur, your life is bound to be rife with failures, just as much as the next person’s. What can set you apart from the guy next to you who’s too busy crying to himself over a hiccup in business is your ability to see your success in the middle of your blunders or misfortunes and keep going. Whatever reputation precedes you, the last thing you want to be known as is the guy who gets weepy and weak whenever the circumstances get hard.

This story centers particularly on the events surrounding an issue I was having with a job site. One of the gentlemen working for me got on the phone with me and I just tore into him over some of the problems we were having. He was a nice, older man, and usually did a good job. He ended up being a long-term placement of mine, really a great guy, and he just took this abuse. I didn’t cuss at him, but I was entirely condescending. It wasn’t ten minutes later when he knocked at my door and asked if he could speak to me. He wasn’t nasty at all, just as calm and collected as can be. He says, “I don’t have a problem with you yelling at me, but don’t ever yell at me on the phone. If you have a problem with me, we can work it out face to face, but anyone can be a badass on the phone.” That always stuck with me, what a great life lesson that ended up being.

Some may think that having these secrets--this insider information increases their status or worth. No, it’s just dishonest. Anything not belonging to you, any great business idea shared with you is not yours to share. Over the last several decades, I’ve really learned to appreciate people who keep their mouths shut and the lost art of keeping my own mouth shut.

The early bird gets the worm. Punctuality is essential; it establishes a precedent of respect. I respect your time, ergo you should respect my time. With consistent punctuality, you create a routine geared for success. If I’ve gone to the trouble to attend or schedule a meeting and you can’t make it within fifteen minutes, I’m leaving. I don’t owe you any more than that. Most stores don’t open the door until their corporate prescribed time, not a minute before, rarely a minute after. Some businesses break the mold.

What sets apart you from the people who want what you have, is your ability to work hard and work smart. There isn’t a single self-made man out there who hasn’t pulled a series of all-nighters and made countless sacrifices while others slacked off so he could make it to where he is today. Everyone likes hearing these success stories of famous and powerful people, Elon Musk for example, but he didn’t happen overnight.

Hard work pays off, maybe it doesn’t always pay off fast, but in an instant oatmeal society, that hard work is worth more than the microwavable efforts of a rushed and botched job. With everyone going for the gravy but neglecting the biscuits, how you work can make the biggest difference in the world. My family didn’t have everything growing up, but my parents were very hard workers. We started working from a young age; I want to say about 9 years old.

So often we can’t find the effort or humility to look a person in the eye and apologize to them. Whether we wronged them or made a mistake, it takes more humility to than many people have to admit that. If they beat you up for it, so be it, but you did what you needed to do in apologizing to them.

Just because you don’t have everything in the world doesn’t mean you have to dress like you have nothing. There’s little excuse for being disheveled. Taking that extra time to shine your shoes and put on clean clothes can make such a huge difference. You may not feel 100%, but if you put in that extra percent into looking fresh and clean, it’ll lift your spirits and elevate you beyond your internal recessions.

One of the few things in life any human being will ever have control of is their attitude, and patience is a huge part of that. Many a good man has entered a cycle of anxiety that stems from stress and impatience with elements that remain outside of their control. I’m sure many people have also heard the phrase that “haste makes waste.” This phrase becomes a pretty viable mentality to apply to any occupation in life.  If you rush through things, end up doing a sloppy job on it, that’s more time you’ll have to spend going back to fix it or do it right, better to measure twice and cut once than to waste the energy and material.

It seems anywhere you turn these days someone is complaining about “those darn millennials.” I’m getting tired of hearing about it just because regardless of what anyone says, they’re the wave of the future. They’re the largest buying block since the baby boomers (1945-1965). In the span of thirty-five years these kids are seeing so much more and exposed to such a radically different world than the baby-boomers knew. With technology being at the epicenter of their lives, connecting them to anywhere on the globe, comparing the differences in the generation’s childhoods is like comparing apples to oranges.