When it was announced that the 1904 Olympics (the 3rd Olympics ever) would be held in St. Louis, Felix was overjoyed; he knew he could do it so he started training. Nevermind that Felix had never actually run a Marathon (though he was considered a good amateur runner), nevermind that Cuba did not field an Olympic team (most nations at the time did not), and nevermind that he had no money to fund an expensive trip to St. Louis; he was determined to run.

Felix started begging in the streets of Havana, and 6 months before the Olympics he had raised enough money to make it to St. Louis, so he bought passage on a ship bound for New Orleans. Nevermind that Felix did not speak English; he was going to the Olympics by himself.

When he landed in New Orleans he promptly lost all of his money (there are conflicting reports as to how he lost it; one says he was robbed and beaten, another says he lost it all in a Craps game), so, with the clothes on his back, he started walking, running, and hitch hiking the 600 miles from New Orleans to St. Louis.

He arrived in St. Louis the morning of the race the same way he left New Orleans, with the clothes on his back, but he was still determined to race. Nevermind that those clothes on his back were wool trousers, a long sleeve dress shirt, and dress shoes, he was going to do what he came to do; race. As the 2:30 start time quickly approached he allowed some concerned volunteers to cut the legs of his pants off, and he ran this way.

Despite all of these setbacks, he lead the pack for the majority of the race until he saw an apple tree and decided to eat one (it had been 40 hours since his last meal). The apple ended up giving him stomach problems, which for most people means you quit…not for Felix Carvajal. Felix pushed through it and made up most of the ground he had lost.

Felix Carvejal finished 4th in the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon.

Felix didn’t care about setbacks, he cared about achieving his dream, a dream that he had worked so hard for, a dream that he had literally begged people to help him with, a dream that had more real setbacks than most people ever face.

Next time you face a setback, think about Felix and remember that setbacks do not define the outcome; how you handle setbacks defines the outcome.

Note: this story was compiled from a variety of different sources. All of which are listed below, and all of which have some different variation, but the basis of all the versions is the same.

Sources:

1904 St. Louis Olympics

Marathon and Beyond

Encyclopedia Britannica

Radio Clip: 1310 The Ticket

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Complacency happens when you reach “a good place,” that place where everything is nice; when there are no pending deadlines and it feels good to just coast…that is complacency. It will quickly sneak into work life and personal life if we let it, so we must remember that we have to constantly fight it back. We fight back with frequent little things; takeing a different route to work, doing a different workout, ordering a new food, and doing anything possible to shake life up, because complacency strikes fast when we are in ruts.

Complacency kills drive and it kills success. We should always be fighting complacency.

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3. Role Models

Apparently she hadn’t read the article before showing it to people, and shortly after she showed a few people I heard a loud angry/confused yell from her office: “WAIT!? You’re only 23 years old!?”

I slowly walked into her office and told her yes. She then informed me, in a less than pleasant tone, that she had thought I was 28 or 29 and that is why she made me a manager and paid me as she did. I caught her off guard by asking if my work had held up to her expectations, to which she hesitantly answered yes. To me it seemed like the end of the issue, but her learning my real age changed everything and I have pinpointed that moment as the turning point in our relationship. From that point on things were just different.

Since this occurrence I have closely guarded my age and I believe doing so has opened many doors that would have otherwise been closed (title, salary, and responsibility); so in an effort to help my fellow youth in the workforce, the following reasons are why people think I am at least 5 years older than I actually am:

• When someone asks how old are you I dodge the question with responses like “how old are you?” or “I’m ageless” (with a big smile).
• I know the pop culture (and major news stories) for the generations older than me and I reference them around those who will get it. Today I dropped both a Kelly Kapowski reference and a reference to the California real estate bust of the early 90′s.
• I look the part; clean-shaven, nice clothes, etc. You’d be surprised how much your appearance skews what people think of you.
• I keep my mouth shut. If I don’t know what a group is talking about I do everything in my power to blend in. Then, after the meeting, I will discuss what I didn’t understand with coworkers. Then I spend time trying to learn even more about it so I’m never in that situation again.
• I’m married and I have a kid. I am very aware that the fact I got married young and I have a child makes people think I am older than I am.
• I have a receding hairline. Yes, it’s funny to read but I’ve been able to use it as a point of self-deprecating humor around the office.

These things have really helped in providing age ambiguity for me, and maybe you could use them to help you get the most out of your young career; though I wouldn’t go get married or have a kid solely for this reason.

Also, please note the following most important factor; and without it everything else becomes moot: DO GOOD WORK. If you don’t back up all these things with good work, then everyone will see right through you and no image can help you win the benefit of the doubt. Also you need to have knowledge that by enacting these tips you have permanently traded in your “I’m young and inexperienced” card; you can no longer use that as an excuse. That doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help, but it’s all about the way you ask for it.

I understand that many people may read this as if I’m encouraging people to lie; I’m not. I’m encouraging people to know their legal right to not disclose their age. Ageism goes both ways and I’ve seen it in a few different workplaces. People judge how much to pay you based on your age and how much they made at that age, they judge when to promote you based on your age, they judge when to give you an office or a window based on your age, and they judge whether or not to hire you based on your age. Yes, this is probably all illegal age discrimination, but unfortunately it is the reality of the world we live in.

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Packing causes us to lose site of the freedom of a vacation in an attempt to solve any future problem that might arise. What if we go to a nice restaurant and I don’t have the right clothes? How many pair of shoes should I bring? How many days do you think we will workout?

All these questions lead you to question and doubt your vacation before you even leave; they have you envisioning “what if” in a negative light instead of in a positive light, and they yield undue stress (did we pack everything?) and over-packing (how much is that checked bag fee?).

The solution? Pack less.

Packing less not only lightens the load physically, it lightens it mentally too.

Mary and I made an agreement a long time ago; no matter where we go or how long we are going on vacation, we will not check any bags. Carry on or bust.

Since we’ve been married we’ve found ourselves doing laundry in hotel bath tubs, re-wearing clothes, and having to buy things we’ve forgotten, but never have we looked back and wished we would have packed more or spent more time thinking about what we should have packed. In fact the opposite is quite true, I frequently come back home from trips, look at the unused items in my bag and wish I would have packed even less.

Vacations aren’t supposed to be stressful, so don’t waste your time getting stressed out about how you’re going to relax.

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Lately this question has been bugging me because it’s honestly kind of hard to think of some. I understand that no one is perfect, but when I look around I can’t help but skeptically think of what a potential role model’s dirty laundry is and when it will be front page “news.”

Maybe it’s because I always think of Mayberry when I think of my parents growing up, but I imagine that for my parents and grandparents generations it was pretty easy to look around to find a role model. One might think that with technology and our interconnectedness it would be even easier to find a role model today, but sadly it seems to be the opposite.

Scandal spreads faster than good deeds and actions, sports heroes are suspended for steroids and bounty programs, our most viewed TV shows celebrate infidelity, and we make news out of tearing people down. This is the reality of the world we live in.

It’s our turn.

The predicament of not finding suitable role models has led me to a realization; when you look around and don’t see any role models you have an obligation to become one. Whether in work, sports, or everyday life, it should be your goal to become a role model.

Role models don’t have to be famous athletes, entertainers or politicians, they just have to stand for something and be a positive influence on the people around them. So fill the void and become a role model, not just for your kids (or future kids), but for everyone around you; after all, role models aren’t just for kids.

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Last June, after being with Sprint for 8 years, our contract was up, we shopped around, and came to the realization that while we were in our last contract, cell phone plans had gotten REALLY expensive. We felt trapped, but we needed phones (more like we needed wireless communication devices; as they are not used for talking very much), so we went with the cheapest option, which meant staying with Sprint. We got our new smartphones and signed our new contract that was a commitment of $165 per month for 24 months. This included unlimited everything (voice, data, text, and drag on our monthly cash flow).

Fast forward to January, I was reading a financial forum and came across a post stating that Sprint was changing the way that they applied corporate discounts which may constitute a change in their terms and services, which opens up the contracts for a limited window to be able to leave without having to pay the early termination fee. “Great!” I thought, “but I’m already using the cheapest option so I can’t really do anything about my monthly fee.”

I was bummed, but kept thinking about my pure hatred of my $165 a month fee, so I started exploring ALL of my options.

As I soon discovered, there are at least a half dozen other mobile phone providers, and most of the providers outside of the big 4 (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile) don’t require you to sign a contract. As a bonus, all of the providers outside of the big 4, utilize the same mobile networks of the big 4 at substantially discounted rates with few tradeoffs. The two main tradeoffs most of these providers have is that they do not offer roaming (you either have service or you don’t, you will not roam on another providers towers), and you will not get 4g service.

Pretty soon I discovered the perfect alternative service provider for Mary and I; Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile is a non-contract cell phone provider that is a partner of Sprint, so our service would stay the same (except we wouldn’t have roaming or 4g service, two things I could live without in exchange for the large cost savings. Boost Mobile charges $55/month for unlimited text, data, and voice for android phones. Perfect! As I continued to read about how people used Boost Mobile I discovered that my current phone could be hacked to work with Boost, and a quick craigslist search found a local person who would do it for an inexpensive rate.

I e-mailed Sprint stating that their change in discount policy constituted a material change in the contract and I would like to leave without paying the early termination fee. They agreed and told me I would have 30 days to port my number away from Sprint without paying the fee.

I met with the guy from Craigslist at a Starbucks, and he walked me through the entire process. All in all we are now saving $55/month, but if we make on time payments for six consecutive months our bill will drop $5/month per line, so after 18 months we will be saving $95/month, the only tradeoffs being lack of 4g service (which we rarely used due to decreased battery life anyway) and roaming (which we rarely if ever went on). I’ll take a savings of $85/month for that.

For those of you wondering, there are other providers that do similar things, some are admittedly even better that Boost Mobile. If you are interested, I have laid out a list of some of the larger alternative cell phone carriers below, all of these most likely offer substantial savings over what you are paying now.

Straight Talk 

Red Pocket

Cricket

Virgin Mobile

(If I have missed any please let me know and I will add them).

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When you work towards something you shift your energy from worrying to preparing, and in the course of that preparation answers and guidance are found in the strangest places. Lately, in my own preparations, I’ve been finding answers and guidance everywhere I look; from a podcast, to the person next to me on the airplane, to a former boss. Because of this guidance I feel like I’m being pulled in a direction that will ultimately help me conquer what I would otherwise be worrying about.

Preparation can mean anything to anyone but regardless of what it is you do, the “it” is on your mind in a positive way, and when it is on your mind in a positive way your perspective changes. When your perspective changes everything around you changes and how you react to the things around you changes. Improved perspective and the other changes lead to the answers you are looking.

So stop worrying about it and you might just figure it all out.

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I understand that business goes 1,000 miles per hour and we are all constantly connected anyway via Twitter, Facebook, ESPN, and text messages that all stream to our phones (which are faster than our first computers and ironically rarely used for talking). Information is constantly coming at us instantly, and therefore we feel compelled to respond instantly.

With work e-mail on our phones everything has an even extra added sense of urgency because we know that other people know we have access to e-mail on our phone. This causes a need to act swiftly and the need to act swiftly leads us all to confuse two words: Urgent and Important.

Things that are urgent, need to be done to fill a specific need, or to answer a specific question that may have just “come up” in a meeting. The urgent may or may not have any influence on anything. Answering the urgent may mean that an analysis that takes three hours to accomplish gets glanced over. The urgent is filled with uncertainty, and thus (in my experience) generally ends up as unimportant. The important are typically longer term objectives and goals, and thus they are rarely urgent because they cannot be rushed. They have direct input into the core operation of a company and all parties involved know of the necessity of the project and the need to be right. The important have a clear deadline and a meaningful objective. In other words; urgency needs the answer right now and important needs an answer to be right.

The problem is that we create a rush for everything (whether it be intentional or unintentional) for no reason other than because we can. This rush leads us to systematically place the urgent before the important and, by doing so it causes us to lose track of the urgency of the important.

If business is truly going 1,000 miles per hour and constantly changing, then an answer right now may not be right tomorrow; so why does it need to be right now? Why can’t it just be right?

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As we “graduated” from elementary school recess was lost. We moved on to middle school and it was replaced by gym class, then upon graduating high school gym class was replaced by “exercise” (if we are so inclined). All of these are meant to replace recess by filling the need for activity in our daily lives, and if that were all recess provided they would be the perfect replacement. The problem is the replacements don’t even come close to filling the shoes of recess.

What was great about recess was that it was filled with fun, play, and mindless games like wallball, red rover, 5,000, tag, and cops and robbers. Recess provided not only a break, but a haven for us to do what we wanted to do; play. Play is the heart and soul of recess, and can never be replaced by a metric driven gym class or exercise routine. Exercising to achieve a goal is great, but with play there are no goals; wallball, tag, and cops and robbers are all games without a scoreboard…it’s just mindless fun.

It was mindless fun combined with exercise that prepped us to be mentally ready for the rest of the day at school; but fear not, mindless fun is not just for school kids and it is not forever lost. Mindless fun is what happens when you take a break from working and start playing. It’s throwing a baseball back and forth, playing tag or Simon says; it is an excellent way to recharge your mind during the day, and it may just be making its way to your office.

Corporate America as a whole might still scoff at the concept of bringing recess back, but the movement is beginning. Recess at work has been proven to increase employee engagement and production, improve the health and moral of employees, as well as decrease company costs (as a result of improved health). It has been estimated that companies implement and encourage recess at work earn a return of $1.50 to $2 for every dollar the company spends implementing recess at work (source). That’s not to shabby of an ROI for something that costs very little to implement and everyone would enjoy.

Perhaps you could be the one to help start it at your office. Keen Footwear has launched a “Recess is Back” campaign to encourage other companies to get their employees out of the offices for some playtime. On their website they have everything you need (except for the bravery) to approach your company about starting a program. They have a tool kit, calculator for estimating increased savings, ideas for activities, sample letters to executives and it’s all laid out pretty well. So why not give it a shot?

I know I’ve been itching to play catch, maybe I’ll soon squeeze in a few minutes at the office, and maybe soon enough you’ll have a 4square court in your company parking lot.

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And then it occurs to me, why does it matter? The person who cares the most if I write or not is me. For the last three months I’ve written more consistently (and better in my opinion) than I ever have; I’ve created a new habit for writing, not out of obligation to my readers, but out of obligation to myself and I’m scared to let that slip.

Writing is an outlet that I greatly need. There is no question in my mind that I want to help you and challenge you with my writing, but more selfishly I want to help and challenge myself and I don’t want to stop. I’m scared of the slippery slope that missing a post might lead me to. It could lead to another 18 month hiatus from the best outlet I’ve ever had and thwart my mission of continual self and financial improvement, or it could mean nothing. I just don’t want to take that risk. I will not cheat myself.

It’s funny how we keep ourselves honest.

Oh look; I just wrote a post.

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