The Hopes of Spring

Stoic Quote of the Week

The person who has practiced philosophy as a cure for the self becomes great of soul, filled with confidence, invincible, and greater as you draw near.

-Seneca

What I learned this week:

I've been a Texas Ranger baseball fan my entire life. It has been a tough road because they have never been that team that has won the World Series. They've only won 2 pennants and are not much better in the divisional category. This Texas Ranger baseball legacy has taught me a wonderful lesson, each Spring, we can win the World Series. Each Spring, and every season beginning, there is hope, hope that this will be the year. As my favorite American philosopher, Yogi Berra, once said, "Life imitates baseball." Wow! And it does; with every new beginning, there is the hope that all will turn out for the best. There is excitement and joy, and hope. Nothing is better than the hope of starting fresh and having the view to see what success looks like. What we lose if we are unaware of it, just like my Texas Rangers do around the All-Star break in July, is the drive to continue through the hard work, the enduring effort to keep improving, keep tweaking what needs to happen to be able to win it all. 162 games is a long season for any sport, and that is just the regular season. You still must win 13 more games to become World Series champions. That is a true testament to sustaining effort and improvement. No team wins the world series looking and playing like they did on opening day. The team that wins not only works hard but improves each and every day. This is the foundation of success; see what your success looks like, put in the hard work to achieve it, and continue to adjust and improve so you can achieve success. So, forgive my overt Texas Ranger optimism; currently in first place [as of this writing, ??]. Hope is the fuel that drives up to fulfill our purpose and achieve our success. Hope is what we sell as leaders to our tribe. Hope of victory, hope of success, hope of winning the World Series! Enjoy the hope of Spring and let that hope fuel you to your success.  

Planning thought of the week:

I can remember when I received a change to the Ranger Handbook Field Order. I was a cadet at A&M, and the change was something simple yet so important that, in retrospect, I can't believe it wasn't there before. The addition was Commander's Intent. Commander's Intent is a short paragraph that explains why success is important to the outcome of the mission. Commander's Intent is where the commander sells his hope of success to the team. Be sure your team understands your intent for executing the plan.

Business idea I heard about or thought of:

I am always intrigued by new tech. Not the gadgety stuff like smartwatches. I'm talking about world-changing things. I ran across an article about a not so startup startup called Helion. Helion has created a way to generate electricity through fusion. Fusion is the good kind of reaction, compared to fission which is nuclear reactors that create radioactive waste. With fusion, we have nearly unlimited energy to power things in a multitude of environments and ways. This technology is what Back to the Future's DeLorean was powered by a cup of water and maybe some trash. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one because the potential impact for improving our world is so expansive it's hard to even imagine!

Veteran opportunity of the week:

Sea World Parks & Entertainment are giving out free tickets to many of their parks to veterans and their families. What a cool opportunity to take advantage of. This includes SeaWorld, Sesame Place, and Busch Gardens. Here's the link, SeaWorld. Check it out because they state that this is limited.

Someone I met this week:

I want to give a shout-out to my Pocket Litter engineering and materials team. These guys are putting in a huge effort to help me move a concept that I came up with years ago to a functioning tool that will save lives. My engineering team here in the Springs is Ransford Engineering. They are doing the heavy lifting on the hardware design and testing. My materials team is from CiloGear. They are identifying and testing the materials that will be used to make the Pocket Litter a simple, affordable product that will save lives and bridge the gap between injury site and evacuation. Keep up the great work, guys! I'm excited to round out this R&D phase and move into prototype testing.

Link to current The Cam & Otis Show podcast episode Wendy Romeu - CEO/President of Alluvionic Project Management | Cam & Otis Ep. #255. Please note that we updated our show's webpage to https://www.youtube.com/@thecamandotisshow.

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