It is worth far more than 20 bucks.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Delivering pizzas was not my dream job, but it did help pay the bills when I was younger. I worked my 8-5 M-F and then 3-4 nights a week I would put in a few hours to help supplement my income. Dave Ramsey is right. It is a quick way to make a few extra bucks when you need them.

I was a few years older than most everyone who worked in the store (which shall remain nameless for this post). But, I tried my best to fit in and have conversations in the slower times.

I still remember one conversation between me and another driver as clear as day, and it has been over 6 years ago:

"How was your last run," I asked.

"It was fine. He didn’t tip worth a crap, but that don’t matter." The driver smirked as he said this.

"Why doesn’t it matter?" I didn’t like where this was headed.

"Guy paid me with a twenty. It was fresh and crisp. Dumb (word omitted) didn’t see that there was another one stuck to it. Serves him right for not paying attention." He laughed.

I went on to ask why he didn’t give it back. He told me that the customer (which he called a few more names) wouldn’t miss it. I was disgusted.

Obviously, he had no qualms about skinning the customer. I was not in a position to make the matter right. Had I said anything to management about it, it would have been his word against mine. (Had I been the manager I would have fired him on the spot.) So, I swallowed the issue and did my best to avoid that driver.

Isn’t integrity worth a bit more than 20 bucks? One would hope so. He had the opportunity to do the right thing. He chose not to. He could have made a faithful customer for the store, but he was just a driver and he didn’t care. What did it matter? Strangely enough, he was promoted to store manager a little while later. I had moved on by then. Had I been there, I am not sure I could have worked for him. If he couldn’t make the right decision with 20 bucks, how was he going to keep the store running? He was fired not too long after taking his managerial role.

I thought about all of this a few days ago when I was buying some office supplies at Staples. There was a sale on one item, 10 for 10 bucks. So we got 10 and with our other stuff we checked out and left the store. My wife looked over the receipt and told me she felt like we hadn’t spent enough (I don’t hear that one too often). Then she realized we had only been charged for one of the ten items. So, I took the item and the receipt and went back in and paid for the 9 others. The cashier thanked me with some surprise in her voice. I smiled and told her that I was glad to help.

It would have been easy to shrug my shoulders and drive away. I am glad those choices are easy. I don’t want to turn around one day and realize that I can’t be trusted because at one point I was willing to take 9 bucks from Staples.

It starts somewhere. If you can’t be trusted with a small amount, how can you ever expect to be trusted with a big one?

Watch out! It’s powerful stuff!

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

I have undertaken a near impossible task: cleaning my computer of unnecessary files. In this process I have looked through and rediscovered many things that I have written or done over the last decade. Yes. I have files saved from 2001. Judge if you would like.

One of the things I came across was a 5 year goal plan I wrote when I was 27. So, I gladly flipped it open to see how I had done with everything I had written down. I have achieved everything (there were only five goals.) You would think I would be happy knowing that I had achieved what I set out to do. Um…no. I became painfully aware that I set my sites way too low.

Goals are powerful. There is power in taking time to figure out what you want to do with the time that you have been given and then writing it out and putting a plan of action to it. There have been countless studies that say that people who write their goals down far outperform those who don’ t. I believe it.

The problem we run into is we are so involved in the now that we don’t have the time or energy to put into thinking about what we want then. Does that make sense? Are you busy? Do you feel like you have too much on your plate? Do you plan a day at a time? Week at a time? Month by month? Or year by year? People who live and think day to day never feel like they have the time to have goals. Life is too busy happening to them.

By planning out goals 1, 5, and even 10 or more years into the future you start to look at the big picture. You have the ability to see what you need to be doing to get where you want to go. You have a chance to connect the dots. There is a good chance you will get far with this method. Success doesn’t happen by accident. You have to plan for it.

So, five years later I am happy that I have achieved the goals I set out on. I am frustrated at my lack of vision and creativity, but I am glad to know that I am engaged in the process. Here are a few things I have learned from the exercise:

1. Set bigger goals. Five years is a long time. A lot of good stuff can be done in that time frame.

2. Review them often. I am amazed that I have reached the goals on my list because I didn’t follow this step. I knew what I wanted, but wasn’t keeping it in front of me as I should to keep the fire lit inside.

3. Be excited about the victories, but know that the war is far from over. Once one goal is achieved it makes way to start pursuing others.

Bottom line, I have another 5 year plan to make. I am shooting a lot bigger this time.

By My Side…a song for my wife.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Over the years I have written a handful of songs for Marixa. I wrote a song to sing to her when I proposed. I wrote the song for our wedding. I have written songs for her birthday and other occasions. There are a couple that she has really liked. One I wrote called By My Side is one of her favorites.

This was an attempt at writing a song that was about the one I love, without sounding like I was singing a love ballad. I love how spending time with her, regardless of what we are doing it makes me happy. There are days we could drive for hours and talk and it would be the best day. You know what I mean right? This is a fun up tempo number that I hope you will enjoy. I recorded this one myself, so it isn’t radio quality, but it was a good first take. Check it out and let me know what you think.

By My Side

Are you telling a good story?

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with movies. It doesn’t usually matter what kind as long as there is a good story involved. Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be all that good as long as it is told well. I love stories.

What are your favorite stories? Do you like action? Adventure? Romance? Comedy? Tear jerker’s? What stories do you identify with?

Some of my favorite movies are those of epic proportions. Gladiator. Braveheart. The Matrix. These are the kind of stories where the main character is against great odds, but is able to fight through the opposition and achieve their task. Even if it costs them their life.

I also love stories where you can see characters grow. Finding Forrester. A Christmas Carole. Groundhog Day. The Legend of Bagger Vance. In each of these stories one of the characters is shown who they really are and are given a chance to step into a better future.

Story is very powerful stuff. It has the power to challenge us. Make us think. It shapes our perception about the life that we live. We relate to all of life like it is a story, because it is. You are the main character in your story just as I am the main character in mine.

This may be a new thought to many of you, your life as a story. But, if you think about it, it fits. How do we recount things to each other? In story. How would you feel if you asked someone about their day and they just started listing bullet points of what they had done. You would get the basics of what they had accomplished for the day, but would not know how all of it fit together in their life.

For instance: “John, how was work today?” “It was fine. Did some spreadsheets. Took some calls. Met a new coworker. Came home.” You get the gist of what John did for the day, but it doesn’t make you jump up and down to ask them the same question tomorrow.

Or this: “John, how was your day?” “It was a good day. Took me forever to get through some spreadsheets I was doing because Mark kept popping his head in my office wanting help on a project he is doing. I am a little swamped right now, but Mark is having some trouble at home and I was glad to help him. We also had a new lady start today. I think we really hit it off. She asked me for my number. We will see where it goes…”

The first was a list of facts. The second was the most of the same details put in the framework of story. The second was more interesting wasn’t it? You get details. You get insight on what John is thinking. You get to see his day through his eyes. Story draws us in. It helps us convey meaning to things that have happened.

Have you noticed this in your life? I know I have in mine. I enjoy being around people who tell stories and live exciting things. I want to tell a good story with my life as well. Looking at your life in this way can lead you away from a normal humdrum existence. We all want to be part of a good story. If you are living a story you wouldn’t want to read, then it may be time to start writing something different.

How would thinking of your life in terms of story benefit you?

Sticks? Really? Now that is kinda funny.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

I had one of those oh no moments two days ago. We have been potty training our boy. He did his part and hopped down to go play. I flushed and nothing happened. I plunged and nothing happened. Then, I looked down at my feet and saw it…water running out of the bottom of the toilet. We knew that we were going to have to call the plumber because water was not draining like it was supposed to, but this was just gross.

So, next day, very little water was used before the plumber got there. I made plans to reinstall the commode and got supplies (needed to be done anyway.) The plumber showed up while I was at work. He did his plumber thing on the sewer clean-out in the back yard. Reread the subject line of the post. Yep. Sticks. My bouncing boy had stuffed a bunch of sticks and rocks down the pipe (with his mother and I unaware of the sticks…I caught him stuffing a couple of rocks, but maybe I didn’t catch him as fast as I thought I did). 100 bucks out the door to Mr. Rooter. And guess what? I am not really all that upset.

Ok. I don’t have spare Benjamins laying around. That part hurts a little. But, I do have the thing in perspective. Trey loves being outside. He loves playing with rocks and dirt and sticks. He is naturally curious. He is a young boy. He put two and two together and watched all that stuff disappear and probably had a blast doing it. It isn’t his fault that he clogged up the sewer line. He was just being curious.

Who is to blame? Me. It is my fault, because I knew the cap for the cleanout had a hole in it. I have walked by that thing hundreds of times and thought to myself, whoa, I hope nothing gets in there. Yeah, I know…dumb. I went to Lowes tonight and got a new cap. I could have saved a hundred bucks for a buck seventy six. Dave Ramsey calls that stupid tax. I paid 100 dollars extra for not taking care of the problem when I first saw it.

I can’t think of all of the times that something unfortunate has happened that I have gotten upset about that I could have prevented all together. I have had more of these times than I would like to admit. I have had things broken that I knew needed attention and could have been fixed. Things disappear that I should have put up in the first place. Had I done what I was supposed to the bad thing would have never had the chance to come around.

So, I choose to laugh at this one. My little teacher is hard at work. Trey has taught me and reminded me about a lot of things in life. Things that I need to get right now and teach back to him as he gets older. This lesson? Fix the hole in the pipe when you first see it and it will prevent issues later.