Finland – Page 2 – Disney Brand Loyalty Keynote Speaker

St Thomas Aquinas Said….

“We must love them both – those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it”.

Great quote. Great thought. Great perspective.

To a point, then I must agree to disagree.

Following the status quo, or “That’s the way we’ve always done it”, doesn’t seem to require as much laboring as does challenging the status quo.

Challenging the status quo is a lonely place. A very lonely place.

Take exercise. And to my dismay, we don’t see pictures of or hear stories of Walt Disney making exercise a priority. Sure, he played polo as far as we know.

However, Disney has taught me to eat, drink, sleep and breath excellence. Take Alfred Prokschin. At age 100, he won a Gold medal two weeks ago at the WMA Masters Tarck & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland:

If not you, who? If not today, when? Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

jungle jeff & Corporate Blogs

Last Sunday, on the connecting flight from Paris to Helsinki, I flew Finnair.

Like Delta Airline’s Sky Magazine, Finnair has a similar publication in every seat back pocket.

In usual fashion, my eyes gravitated to what many would overlook.

Here’s the photo – a picture’s worth a 1,000 words:

Happy corporate blogging. Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

PS. For any potential critics out there that might be saying, “So what’s your point jungle jeff? I thought you said August was going to be about how you are applying what Disney has taught you to raising your son”?

And I say, “Exactly. Did I mention my son has started blogging”?

And did I mention, “He’s eight”?

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

It’s What You Learn After You Think You…

“It’s what you learn after you think you know it all that counts”.

That quote belongs to John Wooden, former UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach, and ESPN’s recipient of “Coach of the Century”.

Not the basketball coach of the century. THE Coach of the century, any sport.

Our son is pretty certain I know just about everything. Maybe that will last another year or two. Maybe not.

I can’t wait to tell him stories and show him pictures and videos of all that is the same and all that is different here in Lahti, Finland.

In fact, it seems everything is the same here. And still, everything is different.

Everything Disney does is the same as every other company. And yet, everything Disney does is different.

If there are young children in your life, and this doesn’t mean only parents, have you ever stopped to contemplate your role in their learning about similarities and differences?

Or are you like me – tempted to think I know it all?

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

jungle jeff, Jack & WMA

People who know me, know that when I come to the fork in the road, I take it.

Seriously, of the many labels thrown my way – status quo, normal, conservative – these themes are not.

Like many people, healthy living is important and action is required. After a dreadful cholesterol report a decade ago, an exercise routine began:

One push up per day, for one week
Run one mailbox per day for one week
Second week, add one push up per day
Second week, add another mailbox per day
Third week, well, you get the picture

Now here we are, ten years later, by practicing what I preach, guess where that’s led?

The World Master’s Athletics (WMA) Track & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Seriously.

Reporting live from Lahti, Finland, August 7, 2009. Make it a GREAT day. It’s up to you. If not today, when? Here’s to our health – carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

Live, before you die

Here’s a post written the other day. I was 35,000 feet in the air, traveling, and had just finished watching an inspirational movie, lent to me by a friend. It’s long, so I understand if you’re too busy to read it. Yet I wasn’t going to let that stop me from writing it. Here goes:

02.26.09 35K feet

Are you a chicken?

When was the last time you put yourself on the line?

Seriously!

When?

Bet you’ve thought about it. Everybody does. It’s part of our human DNA. We all dream of doing something great, of putting ourselves on the line.

Here’s the deal.

If you’re like me, you’re insanely busy. You’re also incredibly distracted. And (again), if you’re like me, most likely, a “chicken”.

Please don’t get me wrong. Being afraid is a gift given to humans to help them survive.

It can also, unintentionally, be the very thing that suffocates us.

Suffocates us?

Yes. Suffocates us.

Huh?

We go through life, unaware the clock is ticking. We wake up one day, realizing we haven’t yet lived.

This scares the heck out of me.

Today, tomorrow, next week, all month, all year, next year, until I die – I vow to, “Live, before I die.”

May I be so bold as to challenge you? To Live, before you die!

Find a way to be inspired every single day.

I just watched “Saint Ralph”. A story about a 14-year old boy, attending an all-boys Catholic school in the early 1950’s. His Father was killed in a war. His mother on her death bed, although no one will admit it. It appears she’s battling cancer. She goes into a coma and Ralph, her son, hears a story about miracles.

Ralph becomes convinced that if he can perform a miracle, in this case winning the Boston Marathon, then that miracle will lead to the miracle of his Mother coming out of her coma.

Ralph was never really good at anything. He was always getting in trouble.

He digs down deep, loses Boston by one step, and becomes a hero.

All I can tell you (to wrap this up) is that I believe in business and at home, we get an incredible opportunity to make the world a better place.

Today, once again, I’ll work hard for the courage to “put myself on the line” to do just that.

Carpe diem, jungle jeff