April 28th....

Happy Birthday Travis....

I hope you are having the grandest of celebrations up there in heaven with lots of cake, a few balloons, and tons of smiles. We are all missing you down here and thinking of you, especially on this day, YOUR day.

I still don't know why you were taken from us so soon in life, I think none of us will really ever understand except to say that God must have needed you, more than we did.

So happy birthday buddy, and while today is your day, can you do me a great big favor and shine down on your beautiful mother & father, and that sweet sister & brother in law of yours. I know they miss your more than ever.

We love you Travis!

xo

T

Control

Life can bring us all kinds of crazy things....

Sometimes they will say things that hurt you, or upset you, make you angry, make you sad.

People will unknowingly (or sadly sometimes, knowingly) step on your toes, push you around, and test your limits.

Life can bring you up or bring you down, it can throw you a curveball, and can give you an unexpected ending or an unforeseen outcome.

All of this is out of our control.

No matter how hard to try you cannot control others actions. You can't make people do things. You cant force people to believe one thing or another. You can't will anything to happen, you have to make it happen. All we have in life is control of ourselves, our feelings, and our emotions.

We can't always change the world around us, but we CAN change, what we CAN control is our reaction to it.

And if you don't like a situation around you that you cant control... get out, before the vultures eat you alive...

~ T

It's always a win-win situation to tell the people you love that you love them on a daily basis. ♥

Happy Birthday Jeaven!

Today is a very special day, the birthday of my good friend Jeaven.

Vice President of the Dream Team.

Member of the Sac WP DC.

Finance Guru.

We have shared many a good meal, glasses of wine, and laughs. There are countless SBX, coffee runs, DOS, and ZIPFIZZZZZZZZZZZZ memories that we have shared. These past 20 months of graduate school without you, would surely not have been the same.

On a slightly more serious note, thanks J. I hope today is special for you, you deserve it. It is rare in life to find people that you can call your friends whom you know will always be there for you. You are a man of good morals, high integrity, and true loyalty... a combination rare and hard to find in todays darkened world. I am so privileged and lucky to have a friend like you that I can ALWAYS count on. So THANK YOU for being you, and for making my life a little bit more joyful every day.

I hope today is a wonderful day for you... and if it is not just think of this:

Bless you child in CHILE CHILE!

T

You are your choices

I like to believe that our lives are our choices, we are our choices. People talk about balance, balance is the result of our choices. You choose to make the sacrifices because they reflect what is ultimately important to you. You choose to structure your life more in alignment with one thing over the other because it is what is important to you. As we progress in life our priorities change and as such, so do our choices.

Not a day goes by that doesn't further define and reflect the person that you are.

You are your choices.

Success

Over the past few weekends I have been fortunate enough to meet with Art Ciocca (The Wine Group), Gary Rodgers (Dreyers) Louis Rosetto (Wired), Brett Galloway (Packeteer, Airspace, and Cisco), Craig Walker (Google Ventures), Judy Swanson (Genentech), and Marc Onetto (Amazon)... if there is one thing I have learned from these great leaders it is that when you are truly passionate about what you do, that is when you are setting yourself up for success (obvi you need the other skills to be truly successful) and your passion/enthusiasm/love for what you do allows it to transcend the common definition of "work."