“Praying for Fire”- Daniel Jourdan
DJ was recently solving the world’s problems by painting and speckling his 13 year old son’s bedroom. His son was trying to help but making a few mistakes. After receiving some coaching from his Dad, his son pleaded “Dad, just let me fail. It is an easy one and I will learn much more.” DJ recounted his elementary school days at Thomas Alva Edison elementary school and shared the story of a fire destroying Edison’s workshop.
Looking at the fire, Edison remarked, “In all your life you may never see a fire such as this.” He wasn’t worried about what he lost but continued to move forward. This is how we need to fix America. We need to move forward. Think of DJ’s 13 year old son who wasn’t afraid of failing and wanted to move forward rather than sitting and watching.
The $80 Billion I Spent on Barbie – Vikas Singla
Vikas recently bought a nice new, colorful, musical toy for his daughter. When leaving her with the toy, he returned to find her having much more fun with the box. We spend $80 billion on toys worldwide. This is money wasted.
Toys don’t make kids smarter or happier. Unfortunately, parents substitute toys for spending time with the kids. Vikas daughter enjoyed playing in a toy kitchen at school so much that they bought her one for Christmas. By the third day the novelty had worn off. Why? At school she has friends, interaction. Research has shown that catalogs present toys as solutions to parenting. Now Vikas uses opportunities in the real kitchen to spend time with his daughter. Rather than giving her a talking map, she has learned her states by interacting with Dad and using flash cards. So Vikas will continue to push his shopping cart right past the talking car in the toy store and hopes others will too!
Will to Win – Clemmie Scott
Clemmie very powerfully shared several examples of people who were successful due to the will to win. After winning the Superbowl, Vince Lombardi, coach of the Packers, said, “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit.” It is an attitude. How would you like to have a doctor or lawyer who had the “you win some, you lose some” attitude? Attitude is everything. Clemmie shared anecdotes about Steve Jobs changing the way we communicate today, Monica Kaufmann beating out Oprah Winfrey for a job, his son shooting a basket to win a game after the team being behind and feeling dejected and Dr. Ben Carson who traveled to South Africa to successfully perform brain surgery on conjoined children. Clemmie closed by challenging all the Toastmasters to have a will to win!
Georgia Forest Watch – Watches Your Nation Forest – Jim Dawson
Jim presented a slide show of beautiful forests and began by asking how many enjoyed a nice walk in the woods? However, this simple activity may be in peril as our watershed is disappearing. How does greed “louse” up a good value? Think about the water crisis. You may walk along the Chattahoochee but you wouldn’t get in it. When the country was discovered, civilization was surrounded by wilderness.
Now wilderness is surrounded by civilization. Clear cutting persists for generations. Forests help clean air, cultivate land for wildlife, and provide a place for camping with the kids, walking in the woods, keeping in shape and enjoying the scenery. Now forests are in jeopardy. Jim closed by asking all to join, donate and act. It is in our hands.
The Georgia Forrest Watch web site is www.gafw.org
Transitions In Life – Susan McMullen
At the September 7th meeting Susan McMullen took us thru the transitions of life as it relates to the automobile.
When she was young Susan would watch the Indy 500 with her father where she developed a desire to be a race car driver and a love of automobiles.
Growing up you endure the family sedans.
Your college car is not what you had hoped for.
Eventually you obtain your dream car.