Is there anyone you care about more than yourself?  I think they call that love.  That thing called love sometimes motivates us to do things for another that we would never do for ourselves.


Last week my beautiful girlfriend Farra was expecting her nurse’s uniform to arrive in the mail on a Friday. Five days later, it still hadn’t arrived and she needed it for work the next day.  Since I deal with packages and the postal system every day, I offered to check into the situation.  I called the local post office, and the clerk there said she had no way of knowing where the package was located.  Instead of waiting for a call back, I looked up another number and called the regional hub. After getting no further information there,  I went down to the post office. The lady at the counter told me Farra’s package was not there. I looked her in the eyes and asked if she could please check with anyone else who might know of its whereabouts. She saw my sincerity and went into the back office, returning in five minutes. Although she didn’t find what I was looking for, she promised me everything that could be done was being done. I went  home and called the regional hub again. I spoke to another employee who told me he had know gotten two different calls from his boss about this one package!


We never got the package. However, it wasn’t because of lack of effort and PERSISTENCE on my part. The funny thing is I’m not sure if I would have been this persistent for something that I needed for myself.  I can see there’s a reason the airplane safety instructions say to put on your oxygen mask first.


What if I could have put this persistence into every area of my life?

My new marketing plan has three phases:

1. Find businesses that could use my service
2. Completely redesign and optimize my website
3. Keep in touch better with my current customers

For the next two months I will be focusing on the first phase; finding businesses that could use my service.   With the help of Jill and John we made a letter discussing ways my service could benefit a business either downsizing or one that has extra inventory.  Each week we will send 25 personalized letters to select companies through a distribution service.  It will be my job to call and follow-up with those companies.  I blogged about following up last March and now it’s time to put words into action.  Tomorrow I will make 15 calls and report back the results!

Welcome to my new fitness goal. The Marshman Triathlon will take place September 19th at Marsh Creek State Park in Downingtown, PA. I have never been there and have no idea what the race is like other than the distances:

• 1/4 mile swim
• 12.5 mile bike
• 2 mile run

I don’t consider any of these distances daunting alone but together they will challenge my endurance.  I have less than a month and a half to get ready.  With the help of Joanna and Paul I’m confident I’ll be able to complete the race successfully.   More to come on my diet, training plan and what successfully even means!!

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to restart this blog for the last month.  The events of this week inspired me to do so.  My dad, Scott,  (pictured above at my sister’s comedy show) is one of the nicest and most loyal human beings I know.  He means the world to me and the rest of my family.  He had been having what he called “indigestion problems” recently, but it wasn’t until he worked out with Paul Dziewisz this Monday that he felt some tightness in his chest.  The two cut the workout short, and Paul took the initiative to text me and let me know that my dad wasn’t feeling well.  Because of Paul’s obvious concern, I insisted that my dad call his doctor, who sent him to the emergency room.  After a day of testing it was found that he had blockages in two main  arteries to his heart.  Thankfully we caught it early. There was no damage to his heart and his doctors predict he will make a full speedy recovery without bypass surgery.  I am convinced that hiring Paul almost two years ago to work out with my exercise-resistant dad saved his life.  I will work on a post with Paul to talk more about what happened and the program my dad was doing–and will be doing once he is back to his regular routine.




A lot has happened in the last two months since I posted.  Rather than writing an essay, I’m posting this summary to explain where I stand in the four major categories this blog covers:

• Fitness: Been working out with Paul once a week but haven’t been doing much else
• Nutrition: I could be eating healthier but have been doing an above-average job
• Planning: Reorganized the store but have not been doing my minimum daily behavior or any planning
• Marketing:  Have been working with Jill and her partner John.  Just started a new plan that I will discuss further on “Marketing Monday”

In conclusion, business is good and I’ve been working hard but I have not focused on my long-term goals or been responsible for my lack of progress in this area.  I can see how I have squandered the power I first envisioned in using this blog as an accountability barometer in my life.  Looking back, it is obvious that after I achieved my fitness goal of participating in the Broad Street run, my posts deteriorated into stories that were supposed to inspire you to get into action, but I wasn’t in action myself and had nothing to validate the advice I was meting out.


I am declaring in this public forum that I am committed to a new beginning. I will be sharing about my planning steps and the actions I am taking, which I know will lead to inspiration for me and for you as well.  I will do whatever it takes to reach my goals of increasing sales by 25% and having an extra $10,000 to buy a house in December.  I will discuss my new fitness challenge/goals tomorrow.  Thank you to everyone who has urged me to get back to this!

After their 4th NFC conference game loss in seven years, Philadelphia Eagles president Joe Banner said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result.” He insinuated that the Eagles would be making huge changes in the off-season that year. They didn’t, but for some reason that line stuck in my head. In my last post I preached persistence. I also believe there are times we can confuse persistence with Joe’s definition of insanity.


Let’s pretend you own a pretzel store and want to sell your product to the local school district. You send the district superintendent a packet of information about why your pretzels are better than the ones that they now sell. A week goes by and you don’t hear anything. Since you’re persistent, you call the district to follow up. You find out the name of the person in charge of food services and try to connect. If you can’t get through, you might even go to the district administration building and talk to someone. Let’s say you find out the superintendent’s brother-in-law also makes pretzels and sells them for a price you can’t match. In my opinion, it would be the definition of insanity to keep on sending the same information, week after week, to the same district, and expect a different result. A persistent person might contact another school district right away. And if that didn’t work, try another…or a large office building…or local YMCAs.


What have you been doing over and over that just isn’t working? Think of a different way to approach what you’re doing and if you can’t see one, then maybe it’s time to let it go!

Persistence. We are all born with it. If we weren’t, we would never learn to walk or talk or throw a baseball. But it is not a virtue we encourage in ourselves or others as we get older. For example, if I captioned the above picture “annoying” most people would agree.  When we were children, adults often put us down for being TOO persistent–Why is the sky blue? How do I do that? Let me do it!-And as adults, we’re conditioned to hide our persistence because we are scared people might think of us as being pushy or annoying or a nag.  I used to worry I’d be perceived as this guy:

“There is no substitute for persistence!  It cannot be supplanted by any other quality!” Napoleon Hill exclaims in his depression-era book Think and Grow Rich.


I agree. What I’ve seen from doing this blog and running a business is that persistence IS a virtue. Stop worrying about what other people think and start focusing on being persistent!  It’s a great tool you can use for free right now if you want to!

I have surprising news. The picture above was photo-shopped by my friend Mark Glidden; I was NOT tasered at the Phillies game last week. I also have some other news that may surprise and shock you: I’m not perfect! Have you noticed there were no blog entries last week?  Where was I? After successfully completing the Broad Street run, I took a week off from being responsible and being accountable to the readers of this blog.  I didn’t do what I said I would do (and inspire you to do, as well): I stopped eating healthy foods and exercising; I didn’t work my plan to increase business, or plan my days.  I have to admit I had a blast, and in some ways I think I needed to decompress, but I made a promise and I plan to keep it. Last week is over and done with, and now it’s time to refocus!


Getting back on track can be a challenge but it’s not as hard as we sometimes make it out to be. I believe the best way to get rebooted is to take ten minutes to plan a few easy action steps that will get your momentum rolling again. Writing this post is my first step! Here is my get-back-on-track plan, which took me less than ten minutes to create:

• Blog about getting back on track (DONE!)
• Play basketball while volunteering with teens at a local orphanage tonight (DONE!)
• Tomorrow morning eat eggs, whole wheat toast and a grapefruit for breakfast and make a healthy lunch to bring to the store
• As soon as I get to the store, before I check eBay or look at my messages, make five cold calls to local businesses
• Go to the library at lunch for an hour to plan the rest of my week

I know from experience that these five easy actions will make me feel great about myself and get me back on track. Anyone who has been sliding out of integrity can do the same. After all, NO ONE is perfect (not even Cardboard Timmy).

Just kidding! The 92 degree weather and 30,000 people made the 10 miles even more challenging. However, I rocked it! I never stopped or thought of quitting. Once I get some pictures back of me smiling at the finish line, I will write more about the experience and what it meant to me!

In less than 24 hours I will have completed the Broad Street run.  Ever since I signed up for the run in February,  it has been on my mind every day.  There is part of me that doesn’t want it to be over.  I’ve had fun challenging myself during the training and talking about it with everyone I know.  My mental state going in could not be better.  It’s not going to be an easy run but the hardest part is over. Tomorrow is going to be a blast!  My goal is to finish with a smile on my sweaty face.


Thank you to everyone who has read this blog and inspired me to take on this challenge.  I will let everyone know how I did tomorrow!

It’s not having what you want
It’s wanting what you’ve got


Sheryl Crow has it right in her song “Soak Up The Sun” when she sings the lyrics above.  We get fixated on what we want and forget about all the great things we have.  Tonight, write down 10 things you’re grateful for on an index card.  They don’t have to be the top 10–just write down whatever comes to mind and be specific.  For example, don’t write “my family” but write the name of a family member.  I promise you will immediately feel better after writing them down.  Now carry that card with you in your pocket, wallet, purse or whatever.  Next time you find yourself in a bad mood because you didn’t get something you wanted, look at the card.  If this works for you, why not make 20 cards with 10 things you are grateful for on each and rotate them every day?


Here are the first 10 I thought of:

• My mom
• Annie (sister)
• My dad
• Max and Dayna (brother and sister-in-law)
• Women who like artichokes
• My Blackberry
• My new running shoes
• The Rotary Club of Central Bucks
• The Phillies
• Alaskan Snow Crab Legs

My list took me less than a minute to create.  Now it’s your turn.  Feel free to share some good ones in the comment section!