I am Jamaica's husband, Foursquare's comm director, Personality's founder, and a catalyst for CFCC.
I'm also blogging at:
Personality™
Church Marketing Sucks
July 2008 Archives
July 28, 2008
My Catalyst Debut
Filed under: Abare News
My friends over at Catalyst asked if I'd write a piece for their Catalyst Space. So I took a rough entry I blogged a few months ago and made it into something a little more developed. I think.
Check out my Catalyst debut that went live today.
I'll also be attending the Catalyst Conference in October. I'm looking forward to meeting up with new and old friends, as well as seeing my dad who I will drive back with to Charlotte and fly home from there.
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July 23, 2008
The Secular Saint
Filed under: Inspiration
Time's Richard Stengel wrote a great piece on leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela. It helps that Stengel is Mandela's biographer because lessons like this are not pulled from a few interviews and a Google search.
I was particularly inspired by Stengel's eighth lesson: "Quitting is leading too."
In the history of Africa, there have been only a handful of democratically elected leaders who willingly stood down from office. Mandela was determined to set a precedent for all who followed him — not only in South Africa but across the rest of the continent. He would be the anti-Mugabe, the man who gave birth to his country and refused to hold it hostage.
I am surrounded by so many gifted elder leaders that must get this lesson of passing the baton. If they don't, I'm afraid my generation won't. And we'll continue to be doomed by this hostage mentality.
The article ends with a suggestion for how best to understand Mandela. "Ultimately, the key to understanding Mandela is those 27 years in prison," says Stengel. "The man who walked onto Robben Island in 1964 was emotional, headstrong, easily stung. The man who emerged was balanced and disciplined."
According to Stengel, Mandela "is not and never has been introspective." So when Stengel asked Mandela how he was different today than when he entered prison, Mandela responded in exasperation, "I came out mature."
For what it's worth, I was selfishly encouraged to learn that Nelson Mandela is not a great public speaker and that people often tuned out what he was saying after the first few minutes. There is hope for me!
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July 22, 2008
Taking God Seriously
Filed under: God, Faith & Spirituality
A crowd of people were waiting at the base of a high mountain. Somewhere amidst this sea of people, a desperate man emerges, falls to his knees, and cries out on behalf of his troubled son. "He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures," says the father. "Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river." This desperate dad is obviously burdened by a disparate son.
No one knows exactly what is going on or what the reasons for sickness are. The only thing dad knows to do is seek Jesus. He already tried seeking out a couple disciples, but they couldn't help. Apparently the disciples had no sense of God, no focus, and were quite forgetful as Jesus points out.
After the boy is healed, the disciples get a little miffed because they can't figure out why Jesus could do it and not them. Apparently they weren't listening when he was telling them why a little earlier, so Jesus gets real specific: "Because you're not yet taking God seriously."
Ouch.
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July 18, 2008
Jamaica's 30th Birthday Soiree
Filed under: Abare News
This past Saturday we celebrated Jamaica's 30th birthday with about 50 friends here in Los Angeles. For the handful of you that follow me on Twitter, you know that this soiree has been a long time coming. And thanks to the help of several friends and family, it was a grand celebration. Jamaica was really honored!
This 30th was a far cry from her 16th birthday when apparently Jamaica's best friend threw a surprise party and Jamaica broke out in tears because she wasn't prepared for it. I learned my lesson and chose not to make this a surprise, although there were elements of surprise. A few highlights:
- Five of Jamaica's friends flew/drove in from out-of-state to be here. I worked with Jamaica's sister who lives in LA to put together a little pre-soiree fun for the seven of them. They stayed overnight down by the ocean, shared a gondola ride and hung out at The Getty.
- One of the talented people I work with (Jena) wrote a catchy song chorus and her boyfriend (Dwayne) wrote an original music score. In addition to an opening verse by Jena, it included four different verses that were written and performed by two friends, Jamaica's parents, and yours truly. I'll post the audio another time, but the chorus sings, "Jamaica me crazy / You know she ain't lazy / As cute as a daisy / Jamaica me crazy."
- There were a handful of people who spoke some really kind words to Jamaica in front of the crowd on Saturday night. It was cool to see friends and family share funny stories and encouraging words.
- Several months before the big day, I sent emails to dozens of friends and family around the world who could not make it to the party, asking if they could send a video greeting. About twenty people responded. I posted Part 1 and Part 2 on YouTube.
- Following the cupcake presentation and singing of "happy birthday," we rolled a slide-show video that attempted to build momentum for the dancing (which explains the music selection).
- I rented a small stage and dance floor. It was great to see so many people dancing the night away! Another talented guy I work with (Michael) goes by the name DJ Peach and he brought the beats.
- I was really proud of Jamaica when she made the decision before her birthday to forgo presents. She asked that instead people would re-direct anything they were planning to give in the form of a monetary donation to our friends in Haiti. I was blown away when to see that over $1,000 was given to Haiti. Wow!
What a thrill to throw a party for the woman of my dreams. Love it!
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July 8, 2008
Tribe vs. Cause
Filed under: Life's Journey
Ever since I started working at Foursquare (six years ago) and getting inside the culture and familiarity of all that it means to "be" Foursquare, I've been mildly observant of tribalism. The concept of loyalty and identification with a particular group of people--for the sake first and foremost of those same people--seems to be rare these days. This is especially true in the U.S. where individualism is so prevalent.
My hunch has been that humanity's steady departure from tribalism is being replaced by our fascination with causes. Religion, poverty, the environment, education, health care, deadly diseases, water supply, public transportation, are all becoming rallying points for people to come together. Because we're not already together as a tribe, we're coming together instead around a cause.
A slightly contradicting viewpoint comes from one of my favorite magazines, The Economist. They recently wrote about how Americans are increasingly choosing to live among like-minded neighbors. The article refers several times to a new book out by Bill Bishop called The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart.
Needless to say the book is on order. And my thinking about tribalism continues.
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